eric135

Ugly Betty

We've been watching the first season episodes of Ugly Betty. My room mate loves the show and has wanted me to watch it. But the title of the show turned me off, and I assumed the primary comedic device would be the humiliation and degradation of someone who does not fit the classic definition of "pretty", at the hands of those who exemplify the definition.

I was wrong about the show. Each of the characters has something wonderful to bring to the screen.

First, of course, is the main character, Betty Suarez. She's "Ugly" (in TV Land, that means the make up makes her ugly, but she's really quite beautiful), but beautiful on the inside. But while most shows would paint the Ugly as weak, desperate, lonely and the butt of bad jokes, Betty is the one with the strongest character, with a loving and accepting family. Yes, people play cruel jokes on her, but they soon find that she can swim with the sharks just fine.

I love Vanessa William's character. Essentially re-creating Glenn Close's bitch role from The Devil Wears Prada," Vanessa plays her character with a real emotional center. She can be the bitch one minute, and struggling over Thanksgiving Dinner with her estranged daughter the next. In many of her scenes, she is not glamorously made up, and has several scenes that look like she drove through a car wash with the windows open.

Everyone on the show is a strong character. Even the sycophantic assistants are executed with tantalizing glimpses of a (deeply buried) moral compass. Even while drawing caricature cartoons of Betty, they respect her and even the bitchiest characters have something real and meaningful to tell.

Yes it's a bit of a shock, that one of my favorite shows has no phasers, transporters, shuttlecraft or red-shirted guys from engineering.

I finally finished all of those evals; Heroes

I've finished those damn evals. Thirty seven employees. Thirty seven evals. One hundred and eighty five comments (five open blocks per eval). Eighty percent received scores which will lead to a 3% raise. Twenty percent will get 4% raise. I figure it could make about $100/mo difference, before taxes.

One I turfed back to my clinical director, because I could not, for the life of me, come up with even one positive comment.

Yep. Sick and tired of evals, for another year.

Heroes

I've been watching Heroes on TiVo. I watched a few episodes when it first premiered, but lost interest because the story line seemed silly. But my room mate loves it and when SciFi channel aired all of the episodes over a 24-hour period, I decided to give it a try. So now I'm hooked. I'm about 12 episodes away from the season finale that just aired last week. I could SO TOTALLY play the part of Hiro Nakamura.

I'm working the Memorial Day weekend.

Galapagos Island vs. Wall Street, Prostates, The Code, A Silly Judge, I Ain't Got No TV These Days, Cloaking Technology (thank you Star Trek)

I was watching an episode on The Science Channel called Galapagos - Beyond Darwin, describing new explorations of the Galapagos archipelago. On this trip, they bring a variety of marine scientists, a new submersible that specializes in "sucking up" the delicate lifeforms (rather than pulling them up in nets), and the use of SCUBA for shallow water. It was a fascinating trip to a land where life evolved in unique ways (as many islands do), but these islands were too far away for land animals to get to, so instead of Bison or Cows, the Galapagos have huge turtles that do the herbivorous grazing. Reptiles and birds filled niches usually reserved for mammals. Fascinating.... so beautiful.... so natural....

WHAT? MICROSOFT IS MAKING A BID TO TAKE OVER YAHOO? Time to crank up the quote streamer.

• And now that they have trans-vaginal surgery down, you can get your prostate removed through your mouth. YAY!
• In another case of Them, not You, I dutifully cut-and-pasted "the code" into my PDA, before I realized I had no idea what to do with this inexplicable string of hex code. It does make a pretty little tune though. My favorite quote so far: One Digg member, Grant Robertson, said the incident reminded him of a quote from "NewsRadio," the 1990s TV show: "You can't take something off the Internet. That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool" (via latimes.com).
• The ridiculous story of Judge Ron Pearson (Administrative Law Judge, Washington DC) and his suit against a mom-and-pop dry cleaning business over a pair of pants. The suit includes $15000 so he can rent a car on weekends to use another dry cleaner. Here's a letter asking that he lose his job.
• Another one of our favorite shows, Gilmore Girls, will be ending this month. A show that had to grow on me at first, I didn't like the quick-paced dialogue that actually is a hallmark for the show. The CW network is also killing off Veronica Mars. I guess I'll be reading more.
• Scientists predict that invisibility will be possible for objects of any shape and size within the next decade.

LInks

• An incredibly cool video, The Inner Life of a Cell. This is the short version (with a really cool soundtrack... anybody know what it is?). Here's the longer instructional version (still really really cool). My favorite part is the transport protein that pulls the vacuole through the cell. They look like they're wearing big brown slippers. Originally from Science Blog.
• Conan O'Brien's commencement speech to the Harvard Class of 2000. Funny.
• Children of Men. Totally not funny. Most of the movie felt like the first 30 minutes of Saving Private Ryan.
• If you are NOT a Nancy Grace fan (and I most certainly am not), you will find this clip from Jon Stewart very funny.
• I finished my taxes. I guess I had better re-check the numbers to make sure I don't get audited.
• An article from the BBC that says we don't necessarily need 8 hours of sleep. I need at least that, or I tend to drop off in the middle of a

Veronica Mars, Lost

I have become a fan of Veronica Mars. At first, I dismissed the show as another Dawson's Creek or The O.C. type show, but the acting is great, and the stories are exciting. I've been watching the current season, and now I'm watching the first season on DVD. One thing that I have noticed is that the show had well developed characters and relationships right from the first episode. Unlike most shows, which need a few years for the characters to settle in, the first season has the same feel as the last. And my goodness how techie. Cell phones, lap tops, GPS trackers, digital SLR cameras, just the whole bit.

One of those shows I love to hate, and hate that I love. A lot of fans have given up on the show because they are always promising to answer a lot of questions, but they don't seem to be answering the questions I am asking. But the stories are riveting. I am glued to the screen, soaking up every detail. But when the episode ends, I end up screaming at the television. What's up with the polar bears? What's up with the smoke? Where did Michael and Walt go? Does Walt have some sort of super power? In the series finale, will they all find out that they are the ones that are dead? What's up with this show?

Boston Legal = Star Trek Reunion

I love Boston Legal. No, I don't like it more than I like, say, Battlestar Galactica, or any of the versions of Star Trek. But I love the show nonetheless.

I really like the way the friendship between Denny Crane (played by William Shatner) and Allan Shore (played by James Spader) has developed. There aren't many shows that are willing to explore the intimate and yet non-sexual friendship that can occur between two men. I like the way they can openly communicate about how much they care for one another. Including all of the Treks and Battlestars, the last five minutes of Boston Legal, when Crane and Shore share a few minutes on the balcony, are easily the best minutes on television.

I also find it very interesting how mature the actors are. All of the real acting is done by seasoned actors that have been in the business for decades, and their experience and expertise far outshines their age. There are a few of the ubiquitously required Beautiful Bodies, but they are so obviously spliced into the show strictly for the blatant sex scenes. At times, you can tell that the directors rang a bell in the studio, and a voice would come over the loudspeaker, "we must now insert 5 minutes of meaningless sex into the show, all Beautiful Bodies please report to the sound stage for your ubiquitously required sex scene."

But... getting back to Star Trek... (ahem...)

I find it interesting that there are a lot of Trek characters that have found a home on this show:

Of course, the Big Daddy of them all, Captain Kirk plays Denny Crane.

Rene Auberjonois, "Odo" from Deep Space Nine, is excellent as Paul Lewiston on Boston Legal.

Armin Shimmerman, "Quark" from Deep Space Nine, has  a recurring role as a judge.

Ethan Phillips, "Neelix" from Star Trek: Voyager, played a disgruntled husband and father on a recent Boston Legal storyline.

Michelle Forbes, "Ensign Ro" from Star Trek: The Next Generation, played a lawyer in recent Boston Legal episodes.

I'm not sure how true it is, but there are rumours that Nichelle Nichols ("Uhura") will be joining the cast.

Of course, the ultimate would be Leonard Nimoy making an appearance (I'm hoping he's a judge).

Gay Straight or Taken

Over the past several months, I've been avoiding blogging about work. I go through periods where I just don't like what I do (or rather, what stupid stuff I must put up with to do what I like to do), and these are some of those times.

So what's left for me to blog about... well why not television?

I was watching TV with my room mate yesterday and we watched this show called Gay Straight or Taken. It's a reality show where a woman must choose among three men to take on a romantic date. But of the three men, only one is straight and available. One of the guys is gay and has a boyfriend. The other is straight and has a girlfriend.

Although I truly hate reality television, I did sit through one show (not really as a fan, more with the attitude that you might have to slow down while passing a horrific accident on your way to work). The premise was silly because the woman was, of course, stunningly beautiful, and all of the men were young attractive and built like Superman. During the show, we would witness the most moronic activities (giving the girl a massage, swimming while singing opera, salsa dancing, etc.) and the woman would then give us an update on why she thought one was gay versus straight versus taken.

It seemed so implausable. How can this be reality television? Do people really face this sort of problem where they have three guys at their beck and call and they have to make them run some strange Epigamic Olympiad to figure out who you're going to go on a cruise with for your second date?

So then, today, to celebrate my room mate's birthday, we went to the Olive Garden. We were seated across the aisle from two very attractive young females. One came to lunch wearing her running attire. I notice my room mate is laughing hysterically, and indicates with his eyes that I should eavesdrop on the conversation at the next table. And lo and behold, what are they talking about? The episode of Gay Straight or Taken, and how pertinent the runner considered the show based on recent dates she herself has had, and where she could not tell what the guy was all about.

My reactions:

• If all the people on this show are this attractive, and still have this problem getting laid, they should just blow their genitals clean off.
• If you are a gay guy giving unclear signals to a woman who wants to date you, you should have your genitals blown clean off.
• If you are a straight guy giving signals to a woman who is not your wife/girlfriend, you should have your genitals blown clean off.

I hope I've been clear.

Star Trek Enhanced

The original episodes of Star Trek will soon be released with enhanced CGI. Here in Phoenix, I get lots of Original Trek on G4/TechTV. Deep Space 9 and Next Generation are played daily on Spike TV. Voyager and Enterprise are on UPN. But I'm still looking forward to the enhanced episodes. I still like the original episodes, but I don't mind the fact that they're updating the special effects.

This is a concept clip from Daren R. Dochterman that was uploaded to YouTube. It was presented to Paramount three years ago to show them what he had in mind. Hopefully, the new episodes will have the same impressive look, and will work as seemlessly:

Evaluations, Silent Hill, Flight 93, Mission Impossible 3, The Da Vinci Code, Mrs. Brady

I've been so busy with work stuff, but I'm finally done with the annual evaluations. I competed 46 evals, and on a 1-4 point scale, the average was just a tad above 3, which is what I like. I think most will be happy with their evals. The ones that won't be happy will probably never be happy, that's how such things go. You just can't satisfy everybody, and the trick to staying in this business (nursing management, and maybe nursing and healthcare in general) is to realize you will not make everyone happy.

We went to see Silent Hill a while back. Yes, I know, what the hell am I doing going to a zombie flick, but roomie was just aching to go because it was based on a computer game that he played. And it was actually pretty good. Scarey but not in the usual zombie way. More disturbing really.

I've been thinking of going to Flight 93, but I haven't decided yet. It's been out for a short while and is doing well in the theaters. It's been more than four years and I still don't like going to crowded places, and I still type pages-long instructions to my room mate on what to do if I die in an airplane accident every time I get on a flight. So that movie might have to wait a few. Years.

We decided not to go to Mission Impossible 3. I don't know why but sometimes looking at Tom Cruise just makes me angry. I don't have a problem with Scientology, but he has been so hateful about it. And hate is so easy. Love is hard. Apparently, Mission Impossible.

The Da Vinci Code looks interesting. I read the book, and wonder how much I'll enjoy it knowing the ending. And not just knowing the bit about Jesus and Mary Magdalene. I mean because the director has stayed true to the book's plot development as well as the ending, will I be surprised enough?

I watched a few minutes of reality TV with roomie. I got to watch some really horrible bit involving Florence Henderson getting treated really rudely by a contestant on a reality show (the name of which was so immediately, and thankfully, forgotten). Negative reality shows are disturbing enough, but I hate it when the money draws in stars from the past that I held some weird place for in my heart. I know they have to make money, but really...

A load of bull

I finally got around to doing my taxes overnight, and they are now in the hands of the US Postal Service. And I won't have to prostitute myself to pay off my taxes (all should breathe a deep sigh of relief, as I shall do now.... B.. R.. E.. A.. T.. H.. E.. )  Actually, my income was up quite a bit this year (because I am surely working myself to death or mental collapse) and yet my federal tax is pretty much the same as last year, and I am getting about four times the amount back from the state of Arizona. Pretty sweet. And I didn't have to do anything illegal (like claim our kitties as children) to get it.

Check out atariboy, who got served with a notice from Redstation (ISP) for a blog entry they want retracted/deleted/obliterated. I found him on Digg, and I've been salivating over his two-monitor setup for the past several weeks. Anyway, I am pretty sure I will someday find some nasty notice from Pr e ss  G  a n e y  because of all the shit I've written here about their patient satisfaction survey (Insert Soapbox Text Here: It isn't patient satisfaction that you have to worry about, it's nursing recruitment, nursing education, and nursing RETENTION that will decide how your last 30 days of life will go... I'll bet ya, I'll just bet ya...)  I just have to wonder about who is running their PR department, and why they are still working for Redstation after all of these inbound links about them.

I am in the thick of our annual performance evaluations. I have about 40 to complete. It's my least favorite part of the year, seconded only by sorting out the holiday schedule. I'd rather put down 40 nasogastric tubes, or 40 foleys (on folks with prostates the size of lemons). I just am totally dreading it, although I have never had anyone freak out over my evals. The point is this: everyone brings something positive to the table, my job is to find it, even if I have to mention half a dozen bad things they bring to the table.

So did anyone else catch that HNN story about that little boy that's a bull fighter? They were playing clips of him messing around with a little bull (not sure if it was a young bull, or if it was some smaller breed). When I watch adult bull fighters, I always shamelessly root for the bull. I just love it when those guys get gored, and then sent flying over the barriers. And when they have the running of the bulls, I am on my feet, yelling "Go Bulls, Gore Them Sons of Bitches!!" at the top of my lungs. But it was a tough call trying to figure out if I was rooting for the little bull, or the little boy. Then they got to the part where the kid was stabbing the bull with those sticks, and I found myself once again on my feet, hoping that bull would gore that little kid's parents. The fact that HNN was playing it up as a "cute factor" just sickens me.

OK, back to work tonight... looking for 40 NG's or 40 foleys...