#288 - just how fricken' awesome is dollhouse?

question: how awesome is dollhouse?

answer: totally fricken' awesome

one season gone, one episode into season 2 and already dollhouse is placing itself in my very exclusive list of best tv shows ever. it has already passed firefly (unfortunately for firefly, it was an easy decision because firefly only had one season... but it did have movie, a pretty good one at that in "serenity"), and steadily working it's way up over angel (buffy, of course, is at the top). there aren't a lot of tv shows that i'd watch over and over again (especially hour long shows, i can always take a 30-minute roseanne or that 70's show, but to devote an entire hour of my precious and valuable time to something i've already seen means it's gotta be quality), and there are even less tv shows that i'll actually by the dvd for (in fact, right now i've only got five series, the four mentioned above plus terminator), but i'd watch this show everyday if i could. i'd live in the dollhouse if i could, but perhaps that's just because of the cool furniture and ultra-sexy lighting, haha.

anyway, so my comments on the new season? allow me to indulge in my seldom-used tv/actor/actress/name-dropping dorky side for a bit and let's start off with how quality are joss whedon actors? seriously, i don't know why they don't get their due with the media or awards or whatever (wait, actually, that's probably a good thing that they don't get that kind of hollywood "recognition"), but actors in joss whedon shows are spectacular. let's start off with amy acker up there in the clip. in angel she was just cute and funny at first, i'm not sure if the people at angel even knew what kind of talent they had in her at first, but her character grew so completely that they had to invent storylines to fully utilize her skills. and even in that the show was cancelled before they could put all their plans to use (if you've watched angel, after she gets killed in the last season and comes back as a demon, if the show wasn't gonna be cancelled, they were saying that she would've come back again in the next season playing both herself and the demon that killed her). and now in dollhouse... oh man is she creepily hot right? i absolutely love the direction her "whiskey" storyline took at the end of last season and it looks like it'll be developed even more this season, it's absolutely captivating when she plays those tortured characters, i can't wait. and how about alexis denisof with the guest appearance huh? sans british accent? haha, weird. plus, summer glau (from firefly and terminator) is gonna be on sometime this season too, woo hoo! and hopefully "alpha" will be back again sometime this season, they gotta keep alan tudyk around...

okay, but besides the past whedon actors, i'm really liking the newbies on this show too. i've already posted about that tibetian-australian girl and i'm hoping that "november" comes back too, there aren't any characters that i wouldn't want sticking around on this show (but, as joss whedon knows, the best thing you can do with great characters is to get rid of them right?).

but seriously now, three points of criticism...

1. what happened to the opening credits? c'mon, the imagery with eliza dushku and that haunting theme song last year was mesmerizing, i never fast-forwarded through it. this year the song is the same (good), but the spliced scenes seem so ingenuine... bring back last year's credits

2. what happened to dewitt's hair? she looks awful with the short hair. she had really nice older lady hair too, shame

3. now that the show is getting all these excellent actors, it's time for eliza dushku to step it up a little bit. i mean, she really doesn't have to act, she does one character to perfection (herself, i guess), and really she just needs to be someone on camera and everything'll be all good, but these other actors are way overshadowing her in the acting department... oh well, for her it doesn't need to matter does it!

can't wait 'till next friday

#287 - killer stress

i was watching a national geographic show on pbs called stress: portrait of a killer. it was pretty interesting, i'm a total sucker for biological research, especially neurophysiology, and this one was all about how stress takes more than just a psychological toll on the body, but a physical one as well. one of the experiments that they showcased was some weird hippie guy (at least, he looked like a hippie, all long hair and bearded, traveling to africa to tranquilize baboons with blowdarts and all) who studied the bloodwork and tissues of some baboons who lived in a high-stress society. not natural stress, like running from lions or whatever, but societal stress... these monkeys lived in a protected environment and had ample food, so therefore did not need to spend a lot of time finding food or hiding. so, they had TONS of time to torment each other for pleasure and did so with abandon. anyway, he found that the most stressed baboons (the ones on the bottom of the societal totem pole, the subordinates) indeed had more stress and resulting higher blood pressure, more arthrosclerosis, more fat centered around the abdomen, generally unhealthier. makes sense right? just like people, more stress = worse health.

but we could have guessed that right? what was more impressive is that in one baboon colony, some accident happened so that all the alpha males died, and the troop was left with the more docile males and a majority of females. what ended up happening is that the troop was less aggressive in general, more passive, more socially linked, spent more time grooming each other rather than causing trouble to each other. when other baboons would come in, they would try to act cocky and make trouble, but they would soon learn that this society was not like that and they eventually assimilated into the gentler society. the interesting thing is that in this society all those markers of bad health were absent. without that stress of the baboon's aggressive behaviors to themselves, the baboons were healthier. additionally, they found that dopamine receptors were more active, suggesting that sensations were felt more vividly (they propose that quality of life is higher, "the sun is sunnier," etc.).

monkeys are super gross through. barf.

anyway... in an experiment i was most interested in because it involved neuro-imaging... rats with the most stress showed reduced dentridic formation in the brain, more specifically in the hippocampus. meaning that stress affects memory and learning, the more stress you get, the less you are able to remember things and function effeciently.

but it's cool to see it in nature as well as in our society (i say "our society" because for some reason we don't often view ourselves as part of nature, even though how can we not be? we're not above nature, we're still part of the eco-system and still creatures of the earth).

meanwhile, i've been having stress of my own. parents are mean. we all know that. they think that when it comes to THEIR child, they are totally justified in doing whatever the hell they please because it's for the good of THEIR child. bullshit. there's no excuse for being mean and treating people like crap. perhaps you have a logical reason for doing it, but that does not vidicate you from your rude/bad/bitchy/manelovent behavior.

luckily, i'm a damn smart guy, good at my job, and a very professional person (and humble too, haha) to boot so i got through it with help from some co-workers and now that the situation is over and dealt with i can move on. yup, so after watching this show i'm taking a day-off today. i need to get more sleep. it all starts there. gotta give the body time to recover, so i will watch volleyball tonight, have a great dinner, and get to bed early, ready to rise early and raring to go tomorrow... perhaps.

PS - did anyone watch man vs. wild this week? geez, here i thought bear grylls was the crazy one, but man his camera crew is plain NUTS! they follow him all over the place with all their equipment... but at least they think he's insane for all the stuff that he eats!

#286 - back to basics

whew, it's been a busy month and a half about, lots of things going on at work and at home, but this weekend i had a little bit of time off from tennis and special events and what-not so i finally got to go surfing again for the first time in like two months probably! geez, that's a long time, and it's been so freakin' hot that it took me two months to get my ass out to the beach? sad.

but it was great out there. for some reason, ali'i was way empty, and i went on saturday. don't know why there wasn't anyone out there, i mean, the waves were small sure, but the surf report said it'd be on the rise and sure enough, waited around a bit and caught some sweet clean sets. super fun for sure, plus, kua'aina avocado burger after that = yummy!

so it was a refreshing little weekend, got some cleaning in, some tennis, surf, church, piano, reading... and now it's time to go back to work. well, i'm not hsta, but if they approve those furlough days and kids get 17 three-day weekends this year? whoa, that's 1) a lot of missed time for them, 2) a lot of time-off (or psuedo-time off since i'll probably still be at work, but with an enticingly-quiet campus) for me, and 3) probably gonna push my union negotiations to furloughs as well. which i'm not SO against, merely because if you don't work, you don't get paid right? what's the big deal about that? sure, you're annual income is gonna dip because that's like so many days without working, but doesn't that beat taking a regular pay cut and working the same amount for less money? blah, politics. after reading "the godfather" i see the skepticism in mainstream society and politics. people wanna believe that society is so unbiased but that really ain't the case at all is it? haha, it was a good book.

anyway, time also to start getting excited about tv again... namely: DOLLHOUSE!

i mean, c'mon, everything about this show is just sexy. including everything from the lighting to the architecture dude. i know last year i was super bummed about those idiots at fox cancelling "terminator: the sarah conner chronicles," but i just read that summer glau (y'know, cameron, the terminator) is gonna have a recurring role on dollhouse! plus, alexis denisof (wesley from buffy/angel) is gonna have a guest role too. and amy acker is back as dr. saunders/whiskey so we'll have a whole angel reunion with the three of them. plus, if they bring back wash (from "firefly") as alpha then we'll have even more joss whedon tie-ins, which i love, since he's the only writer/creator who's name i actually even care to know. plus, i just bought the season 1 dvd so i'll be catching up on last season's episodes while the new season starts on friday, woo hoo!

okay, i'm over my daily dorkiness... time for a big sleep.

#285 - lay off the snooze

6:15 am - my dino buddy wakes up (remember him? i bought him an electrical timer so his light turns on and off automatically to give me some wake-up-with-the-sunrise-i-ness in the mornings)... i stay in bed

6:30 am - radio turns on... i stay in bed

6:40 am - cell phone alarm goes off... i stumble to the living room, turn off the phone, turn on the ipod, collapse again on the couch

6:45 am - more annoying cell phone alarm goes off... i get off the couch and turn off the phone... from here my morning diverges into one of two possible paths:

#1 - i force myself into the shower, actually wake up, clean up, make/eat breakfast, get dressed and get out the door early enough to beat the retarded mauka traffic and make it to work in time

or

#2 - i crumple up on the carpet beside my phone and snooze. when i wake up i berate myself for falling asleep again and rush through the rest of the morning routine, get stuck in traffic, not find parking at work, and go through the rest of the day grumpy

i gotta lay off the snooze. this saturday i had a tennis match at 10:30 am. okay, so i thought, no problem right? who needs to set an alarm? of course i'll get up by 10:00 at least. well, i did get up at 8:00 am... then i looked around, said to myself, "self, what are we gonna do until 10:00?" then decided the best course of action was to go back to sleep. i only woke up at 10:45 am because my team captain called, asking if i was planning to make it to the match. how embarrassing. i actually got ready and made it down there by 11:00 am, but it was way too late and i had to default (and it's only a 2 out of 3 matches kinda thing so i probably ruined it for my team, grr). so embarrassing! plus i was really excited to play that day too, ugh, i'm such an idiot!

anyway, let's learn from our mistakes (just like serena at the us open huh? haha, man, she's scary, i might've gone running to the chair umpire too if serena was yelling at me like that, haha)... so no more missing those tennis matches, and no more being late in the morning and getting stuck in traffic and getting caught without parking. no, from here on out it's time to...

SAY NO TO SNOOZE!

#284 - weekly updates

thanks to my new and pretty awesome "having of a life" situation right now, i haven't had a lot of time to update the blog, which is pretty sweet because that means i'm out actually doing some cool stuff. like going hiking! these pics were not taken by me, but by a pretty awesome new photographer that i met, she's got a great eye for the pics right? and a pretty sweet camera as well, i gotta get myself a new camera so i can get back to taking some of my own pictures, everything i take with my current camera comes out blurry, grr..
anyway, these pics are from the judd/nu'uanu trail. i like that one, it's not too long, but still tough enough for a good workout. plus lots of variety, you go from bamboo forest to tall pine (or something) trees to the ridge up on top adn there's lots to see along the way. although i think the thing i like best about hiking is the workout part of it, i mean, i love the scenery and all, but i like that you can combine the scenery with the "getting a workout" part. mostly because i get so bored going running or working out on a treadmill or something. i can't do it. i get ultra bored. so if i can go on a hike and see all that and get a good hiking workout out of that, that's perfect!
anyway, in other updates this weekend:

- up open! whoa, what a year for the us open, upsets abound on the women's side, which makes for some pretty un-appealing match-ups in the second week of the tournament, but there are still some fun players around. maria's out, but she was taken out my melanie oudin, complete cinderella story for sure, she's pretty fun to watch though, so i'm gonna root for her to actually get to the final, she's only got one more seed to get through (she already took out three others). serena's still in of course, and she plays kim clijsters! yep, that's right, kim clijsters who is (thankfully) out of retirement and playing awesomely (she already took out venus). but that's a semifinal match so we can still hope that oudin gets to the final against either clijsters or serena and that'd be pretty awesome. on the men's side it's a little more straight-forward. unfortunately, roddick is out, but that just means that federer has a little nicer path to the finals (he's still got novak in the way... i hate it when those two guys are in the same half because i always want both of them to get to the final). i'm actually not that hating on nadal this year, and i'm pretty sure it's because he got rid of those damn sleeveless shirts (but not the pre-serve wedgie pull, which is still annoying). but andy murray's out so i'm gonna have to pull for to get to the finals in the bottom half of the draw

- wahine volleyball! DOH! two loses this week, one was okay, texas (and their 6'4" setter) is national championship material (along with penn state), but the loss to california was awful! oh man, so depressing! hopefully they can pull it back together after such a great (4-0) start to the year to win the next two matches against a couple of weaker opponents and get ready for no. 10 stanford next weekend

- good food. oh man, i ate so good this week. dim sum. korean country bbq. sushi. so yummy. on top of that i skipped my weekend workouts 'cause i was out so much so i'm gonna have to get back to it, start up those workouts again.

- tennis. hey, that's a great way to get my workouts in. this ekolu league that just started last week is pretty fun, i mean, my teammates are fun of course (and going drinking after matches is always fun of course), but beyond that the actual playing of tennis is pretty fun too. one, because so far no one we've played have been complete jerks (which is actually a rarity i've noticed from playing league tennis for the past year or two), and two, because perhaps i'm actually playing well amazing! that is, well enough to not make a ga-zillion errors and more often make pretty solid contact on my strokes, so that's pretty cool.

- beach! man, i haven't been to the beach or surfing in about a month, yikes! i gotta get back out there, i've been waiting for better weather or some surf, but man my weekends have been packed (which is great! so NOT complaining about that), so i gotta find some time to get out there for sure.
that's about it for now, cool picture huh? hopefully much more to come...

#283 - 100,000 miles

well it finally happened, good ole JYM at last reached 100,000 miles. that's a pretty damn remarkable car. it's a 1990 honda accord and my grandfather bought it new (those are his initials, not my nick-name or my car's name, as many people thing... in fact, we never even call it "jym" like "jim," we always spell it out "J-Y-M"). it was living on maui for about 12 years in hot & dry kahului, but my uncle kept it spotless and kept the inside uphosltery oiled and everything, so when i got the car in like 2001 or 2002 in college, it was immaculate!
over the past eight years i've tried to keep it just as clean... of course i do take it to the beach a lot so that's kind of difficult, but man, once you have a clean car, it's so motivating to try and keep it clean. so man i'm washing, waxing, rain-x-ing, and armor-all-ing that car all the damn time. i'm completely in love with waxing that car though, man when you see the rain beading off that windshield so that you don't even have to put on the wipers, that's an awesome thing.
this car has been through an awful lot over these years. it wasn't driven very much in the beginning (my grandma pretty much only went from home to church to ah fook's supermarket so when i got it, it only had like 31,000 miles), but i put on a whole crap-load of miles when i was commuting everyday to UH during grad school. still, it took awhile to get to 100,000 miles. of course, now it's got a new battery and new transmission and all new tires and a whole bunch of other work done on it so it was an investment definately, but one that i don't want to give up anytime soon. as much as new cars are pretty great, this old car is awesome! i hope it holds up just as long as it can, and i will stick by until the bitter end!