Rhymes With Steve

This is in response to my initial reactions to the start of this year’s TV season. Don’t read whichever TV shows’ respective paragraph if you want to avoid spoilers.

Prison Break — Surprisingly, the writer’s salvaged a lot of the third season. It started off terrible, what with that whole Sara and her severed head issue. Even the mobster who (I think) cut off a few of Michael’s toes in the first season got a better goodbye than that! It did, though, help the narrative. It gave Michael his resolve to escape — not for freedom, but to hunt Susan. He went from liberation to retribution. And when he finally had Susan in his sights along with a loaded gun he — he choked. So much for that. Still, I’m willing to give this new darker, grittier Michael a shot and see where it goes. (Skip this next sentence if you want to avoid highly-publicised yet still spoilerly season four spoilers.) There’s also the messed up fact that Sara is supposed to be coming back, which will definitely be interesting to watch for the story but also to see how the writers will fix this missing noggin conundrum.

Heroes – This season was dreadful to watch. I think what really did me in was that whole Claire’s blood = Deus Ex Machina plot device. Now anyone can live and all the suspense has diminished. Oh, and if Hiro goes back to Feudal Japan one more time, I’ll go back there and get him myself!

Bionic Woman — Ahahaha. Okay, I’m sorry. I know I shouldn’t laugh. I think I saw the first three episodes and gave up. And evidently, so did America. There’s still Knight Rider (2008), I guess.

Pushing Daisies – Great show. ‘Nuff said.

Smallville – How could the creators do that to the audience? Seriously, season Six was hands down the show’s best ever. And they follow it up with a subpar mess like this? I really had high hopes for this season. Even though one of the loves of my life, Martha, left, and the Green Arrow wasn’t given a main character slot, it looked good. I thought it was an excellent and natural evolution for the show to introduce Kara. Ever since season 5, the show has actually been going somewhere, and with season 8 being reportedly the last season, they meshed a good base of DC Comics mythology and traces of the last few years before Clark is to don the cape (which I’m hoping happens in the series finale). But season 7 had no direction. Kara was useless even though I think the fellow Canuck could have handled a bigger role. And Lana was back to her sometimes smart, most times ‘meh’ character arc. Still, the Descent of Lex was a joy to watch. I personally think he is the best Lex Luther ever portrayed. And so was Lionel. But now both of them are seemingly gone and I’m yet again lost — and not in the good kind I’ll get to in a sec.

CSI – Better than average, I’d say. It was sad to see Sara go. She was a person saturated in a field that she inherently couldn’t handle. And her departure was fantastically handled. I think killing characters off isn’t the best writing technique since it’s kind of a slap in the face to the audience. Woah, they died — guess their part is done. It just usually doesn’t justify the means or push forward the storyline. Warrick’s, on the other hand, I accepted. It didn’t seem wrong at all. His character spiraled immensely this season, and while he did redeem himself moments before the bang AND cystalize the fact that he was always apart of the good guys, the story demanded it. Now it’s time to see where and how the writers are going to build from it.

Lost — I think I only counted one pointless episode this season. Season three had “Stranger in Strange Land” where we learned the intricate, jaw-dropping details of Jack’s tattoos, and this season’s was “Something Nice Back Home” — and it actually wasn’t all that bad. I mean, the show juggles romance, comedy, action, mystery and etc. We’re dedicated to these two star-crossed lovers, so we have to follow them and see how they evolve. This season had way more flashforwards than I thought it would. I thought we’d only get a few but it’s clearly become à la mode at this point in the mythology. And after four seasons, the show is still wonderfully intact. The way the flashforwards jump completely differently in time sticks with the disorienting formula. And considering Locke is going to die sooner or later (which assumingly means the island wanted him to die considering it can control life/death off the island as we saw in Michael’s flashback), something’s up with the island. And what happens when they do indeed get back? I’m salivating as I type.

(I’m going against my ‘one paragraph per show’ rule but Lost undoubtedly had the best season of the bunch.) I suspect the next season is going to deal with the hostiles (or other others) because:

• Season 1: Survivors Vs. Unknown
• Season 2: Survivors Vs. Machine (the button)
• Season 3: Survivors Vs. Others (Dharma Initiative others/a few hostiles)
• Season 4: Survivors Vs. Freighters
• Season 5: (?)

The show tends to always have some kind of main obstacle the survivors face. And, actually, now that I think about it, I suspect next season to revolve around the outside world. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: the show could survive off story lines dealing with the characters readapting to home life, alone. While I always wanted there to be a kind of epilogue season dealing with just that, it wouldn’t feel right, which is why I’m thinking next season will handle issues back at home — bringing the fourth season’s flashforwards into the present — and will culminate the fifth season with the fourth season’s last few moments (like they did with the third season’s flashback and the fourth season’s opening). The sixth and final season will then head back to the island, in theory, and resolve all loose ends and thus be: Survivors Vs. Island/Hostiles; the original and ultimate challenge. That would be fantastic. And don’t even get me started on the mysterious four-toed statue.

I’m thinking of starting a page dedicated to quotes. I’m typically not one to remember quotes, though I wish I was. Wouldn’t it be so CSI of me to respond to people by saying, “[INSERT REALLY INFLUENTIAL, PROBABLY DECEASED, FIGURE HERE] once said…” followed by the quote, obviously. There’s something just so sly about it.

I guess I can and sort of do do it on occasion, but I usually mix up a few words, which, depending on the audience, might go unnoticed, and thus I need to say, “Mr. X once said… or something along those lines,” to play it safe. Kind of ruins the credibility and impact.

I want to eventually start a quotes collection page because of, well, really cool quotes. Some are profound and make you really think. Others are just funny. Case in point: Airplane (1980). What a quotable movie. There’s this one part where Elaine, the lovely flight attendant/heroine, tells a passenger, “There’s a problem in the cockpit”. The passenger asks, “What is it?”. So Elaine responds, “It’s a tiny room at the front of the plane, but that’s not important now…”. (Or something like that ((I can’t find the exact quote online, sadly)).)

Hi. Larious. They kind of overused that quote by inserting the idea (albeit: with different situations) throughout the movie. That part still cracks me up whenever I watch it.

Most of the snow has melted, finally, and it is basically t-shirt weather now, so I went Plant World today. That’s one of my favourite stores ever. It’s located within Toronto (Etobicoke) on Eglinton just east of Royal York. Though they still disappoint me by not sustaining an organic section (last time I checked), it’s such a lovely place to buy gardening supplies. They apparently have some kind of points card (or something like that) too, which is a total plus. However, that might signal they’ve grown into a franchise which is not cool. I hate Walmart and I’m starting to hate Shoppers. What happened to quaint little shops specializing in one thing?

I was absorbed with gardening last year, specifically growing my own vegetables. It was a tester phase and I’ve clearly grown. I knew my fair share beforehand but was essentially a newbie. I bought a tonne of already germinated plants so it wasn’t too difficult. Tomatoes symbolized the heart of gardening for me (for some reason) so I overloaded on those. And when I say ‘overloaded’, I mean it. I figured I would get bored of gardening and everything would just die. I was terribly wrong.

If you are thinking of having gardening as a hobby this year, it’s not too late and I highly suggest giving it a shot. Realistically speaking, don’t buy too many vegetable-growing plants when you start out. For the average person, 2-4 tomato plants are enough. I must have planted at least 12 and I ended up with so many that I gave most away to neighbours. Some, I got lazy with and just left to compost.

Composting, by-the way, is a must have for any gardener. Toronto provides bins for $15 if you prove you live here (two bins max., I think). But I’m really salivating at the idea using above-ground devices.

So, yes, tomatoes generally grow great in Toronto’s climate provided you take care of them (watering, etc.). Green pepper grew very slowly and didn’t become very large in size (the beauty of things not genetically modified). I wouldn’t recommend growing them. I tried watermelons and while the stems grew very long cum September, nothing procured. Not recommended.

Parsley that I actually grew from seeds and planted as saplings were incinerated by Mother Nature. Maybe it works if you put them in a container, I won’t comment any further. Lettuce was fair. It has a short life so it turned into a weird tree-like thing about halfway through the season. The thing smelled like chocolate, something I found oddly funny. Still, lettuce works while it lasts. Mildly recommended.

Onions didn’t work for me. They just didn’t grow. I’m not 100% sure why they failed on me. I’m sensing it had to do with organization, so keep that in mind if you decide to plant them. I grew two other vegetables but I have forgotten their name. They grew quite well which means nothing to you without a name.

While most grew well, the best plant to grow is cucumbers. Like tomatoes, I grew too many — and I only planted 4! These things will take over a garden. They are as clever as weeds. They have these stringy things that protrude from their stems which hook onto anything possible — plants, sticks, even its own produce — for remarkable stability.

There’s just nothing else to write except that you have to obviously take care of them. They grow astoundingly well. If you wanted to get into gardening or just want to grow something of your own and save on groceries, plant cucumbers. You won’t regret it.

You know, I think I’m going to start a another blog or something for gardening in Toronto. I love it. I love surrounding myself with green. I love tasting the fruit of my labours, as they say. Same thing goes with cooking. I’ve been forcing myself to bake something (usually) new every week and I’m clearly behind.

I’m a flighty person. I don’t like to stick to one topic for too long. But maybe I should because it’s really hard to categorized blog entries, let alone tag. I’m going to have to revisit each blog entry one of these days and tag and categorize correctly. And make sure I haven’t written anything compromising (I just write these things and immediately forget about their existence). I don’t really write anything I would never say in public, but I dunno.

Then there’s that publicity issue. I don’t advertise this site. In fact only a few people I talk to on a regular basis know about this. And just in general, how would I market this? It’s not even finished yet.

I should stop blogging period, actually. This shouldn’t be the source of content for RWS. Yes, Steve, stop writing and focus on more important things at hand. But I love to blog! Like music, it’s more therapeutic than otherwise meaningful.

This year I’m focusing on indoor plants since my room is quite lifeless. I bought several that I have already forgotten the names of but I promise to write about them shortly and document how they survive in my lifeless, one-windowed room.

However, the one plant I definitely won’t forge the name of is… the Venus flytrap! I actually got one and I feel so cool. I saw them at stores for years but never thought they were real/would actually live. So today I just forced myself to purchase one. And it’s friggin’ cool! It’s bittersweet since they sort of do live off death and all (to be fair, I’m sure they can live off other means) but still cool. It’s the circle of life after all, no?

I took a few pictures but they came off really bad. It’s surprising since plant photography is impossible to mess up. Actually one picture came off fairly nicely but it’s rather grisly for poor Mr. Flik to post online. He deserves his privacy at a time like this.

Speaking of Shiwan Ware that mysterious subdomain I linked to a few paragraphs ago, it’s turning out to be insanely funny. I’m not sure I’ll even launch it now since I don’t see how it could get any better. It’s basically a motley of things but originates off something I want to start doing. I don’t want to spoil the surprise so I can’t really paint you a picture of what it’ll be. (Bwahah, I’m so clever.)

It’s not exactly a bad thing to be flighty. That’s what makes this site so quaint, huh?

I wonder if the 2004 tsunami will be factored into season 4 of Lost. It has only been three-four months after all. It’s a thought that has lingered with me for so long now. Wrong ocean.

Backtracking a bit, remember that Airplane (1980) quote I mentioned? It might have actually been spoken by the second flight attendant, rather, but that’s not important now.

I had my first haircut of 2008 the other day. (I actually feel comfortable with the logic of it being 2008 now.) There wasn’t nothing really interesting to report regarding the haircut, but like the many others I have had throughout the years, it reaffirms how little I know of in this world.

For instance, I found out that it has become essentially a commonality for everyone to straighten their hair, which scares me. Please, world, don’t turn this into another requirement for the basic upkeep of hair. Why does everything entail so much maintenance? I just learned last year that I need to use shampoo AND conditioner.

Though that No Country for Old Men hair is clearly in right now, I went for my usual ‘kind of long but not too long’ look. I have been sporting it ever since the start of Grade 10 when I decided I was sick of spiking my hair every single day. It was fine for the x number of years that I did it, but once I learned of this university thing they speak of, it seemed an unnecessary burden to bear each morning.

I admit it looked weird at first going from short hair to a gradual increase of longer hair. No one was really supportive of my decision. In fact, people made it a daily ritual to point out how much they didn’t like it. I remember an old friend screaming at my head a few feet away as if some animal had been shot right in front of her along with a quasi-slo-mo spattering of blood. And this was on the first day of school. Not nice, not nice at all. Granted, she later went on to steal her best friend’s iPod which, though details were scarce to me, was transparently obvious to every student. So I guess her judgment calls aren’t something I should take to heart.

So here I am now. I occasionally think aloud how tempted I am to just shave it off. I thought it would be cool to donate it to charity but then I found out that none of the hair actually goes to anyone. Instead, the money raised goes to making wigs. Bummer. Still, now that I think about it, what if someone commits a crime and one of my hair follicles are left behind. That would be a wonderful CSI episode but not very fun for me.

Anyway, now everyone just loves my hair. And just the mention of pulling a Britney makes them shriek in fear. Like it really concerns them… While I love my hair as well, I don’t find it to be anything alien.

However, more and more I’ve been getting these weird modeling offers from random ‘customers’ at work. From what I hear, it’s not really exotic to get people handing out cards for modeling and acting gigs. You should really only blush the first time.

But it’s still weird. Who knew there was a modeling company in Toronto specializing in hair? In fact, any kind of modeling offer/compliment is awkward. A man with his kids came in once and asked me for help with a photo frame. So I helped him and paid no attention to the fact that he was staring at me more the product I was explaining. And, well, I just can’t get myself to finish the story. Utter creepiness.

Back to my haircut. The hairdresser told me a story about a guy who comes in biweekly to straighten his hair. So she suggested I straighten mine as well. I had it straightened once before and didn’t find the point, but she was very insistent.

Now I remember why I cried throughout all my haircuts as a child! These people are rough. I know it must get monotonous doing the same thing day in, day out — but please watch the ears! Urgh. And then she used this weird comb (that straightens hair?) with these plastic prickles that kept scraping my head. Double urgh! ‘Tis truly an awful feeling when the comb glides through your damp hair and you sense a slight tug on a hair with it quickly getting stronger and stronger. But you can’t do anything about it because, though it feels like it’s happening in half-speed, it’s already too late. Curses!

She even used a steamer sandwich-like thing to further straighten it, and it freaking hurt! All throughout the ordeal I was just like: oh god, please don’t sandwich my ears with that thing! And the outcome: absolutely nothing noticeable or even worth the trouble. She claimed there was a difference between my old, straight hair and my new straighter hair, but I couldn’t see it.

I’m 78% sure she wasn’t the hairdresser I had last time. “Last time” was 7 months ago. I was roughly willing to go any route with my hair, so I asked her, “What would you do if you had my hair?”. Rule one: never asked that question to a hairdresser. She suggested the “short, messy” look as opposed to my “shag” look, which I’m sure is not a hairstyle but a cougar technique moreso (typical…), which I begrudgingly succumbed to, even though I knew it wasn’t what I wanted.

She just kept pushing and pushing me, and kept comparing me to “David Beckham” which didn’t help since I know him as soccer player, not by his apparently multiple hair styles (I could have sworn he was bald, not “short and messy”). So yeah, it turned out looking awful and I just hated myself for a few days until I realized, “hey, it’s only hair!”.

Funny thing, I really couldn’t remember who she was. I had a blurry idea, I mean, but I wasn’t sure if the recent hairdresser was the same one who previously butchered it. It’s because of their line of work, methinks. They can changed their hairstyle in minutes and mine said she did it all the time, so…

Hairstylists are quite interesting to talk to. One of them helped me plan out my proposed “do blonds really have more fun” article which I plan to do in the future. They also told me how if a customer isn’t happy with the their dyed hair, they must redo it for free. Yikes.

We talked about my hair and I told her how my hair is super thick, to the point of me asking her to thin it out. (Seriously, if you find a long, brown rope on the floor, it’s probably just my hair.) And then it hit me: I wasn’t a regular. *tear* Maybe one day I’ll get my own hairdresser, at least for the two haircuts I get per year. Maybe then I’ll remember who cut(s) my hair.

I’m perplexed. ISPs (independent study project) are coming up and the workload isn’t the main factor getting to me, it’s the choosing of the what to actually work on that’s the problem. It’s crummy timing since I used to have a problem with being assigned things to do, whereas now I’m able to choose what exactly my final evaluation will be marked on.

For Drama, I’m assuming I’ll get to pick what I want to do. We’re supposed to be combining our efforts with the Technology class to create a performance for the entire school with music and whatnot. There were talks of a full-fledge play but I doubt something as big as that would ever come into fruition.

I figure my performance has to be GOOD, something to blow everyone away. So here’s what I’m thinking…

Essentially me alone on stage donning the red suit; the Thriller dance.

(I hope I can find a partner for this) The Grease finale, which I can’t believe is still on YouTube.

Feist’s One Evening.
Or the Hairspray finale.
I suggested the idea of doing a school-themed CSI play or mashing up a tonne of musicals (like the beginning of such and such musical, middle of The Rocky Horror Picture Show ((I just really want to do the TimeWarp)), and the ending of Grease) but I doubt they understood my madness.Then there’s Death and Dying. I figure I’m going to go with an investigative piece on where exactly our organs go after they’ve been harvested — donated organs that is. I personally have a problem with the idea because of how unknown its inner workings are to me, not to mention awkward since, really, who in their right minds would mail you your license along with a card urging you to donate your organs if anything terrible were to happen (blunt much?).My major worry is that if my organs are donated, they’d go off to some drunk driver or something. I know every makes mistakes, but not with my liver thank you very much.

And for Sex, Art and America I’m totally stumped. It’s daunting, I guess. But I can do basically ANYTHING I want on the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s eras. Automobiles, Elvis, anything. Why is it so hard then?

I actually have some minuscule amount of time before CSI comes on (Sara!!!) along with a couple blog worthy topics to write. Though, I warn you now they probably won’t aggregate into something coherent.

Firstly, I happened to stumble upon my midterm marks. The damage:

Drama - 80%

Sex, Art and America (English) - 90%

Death and Dying (English) - 82%

Independent credit - 80%

…well, at least I got honours. I mean, it’s not that I’m not happy with my 83%, I just expected higher. I attained the highest mark in my Grade 10 Drama back at my old high school (90%), which doesn’t sound like a lot, but was (all considering). Sex, Art and America surprised me. I did horrible on my many White Noise book tests. But still, the teacher and I have this understanding that I find all tests, quizes, etc. totally futile. Assignments like my American Beauty essay on the significance of the rose, which I’ll try to post whenever I remember, are what really matters.

I’ve always had a problem with teachers on that front. It simply does not flow with me. Why put someone on the spot and make them remember all this crap for one lone period? Tests are but memory games. Essays and projects propel you into the subject to discover their true intricacies.

My Death and Dying mark should change since I’m redoing at least one assignment. It was apparently supposed to be in essay format, contradicting my very subjective analysis on the songs at question. That’s another problem I face. I just love the word: I. Me-me-me-me-meeee!

And, just for the record, my class is not consisted of satanists or particularly emotional individuals (well, most). The class is English based but incorporates death, religious views, euthanasia, etc. into all assignments.

Again, I’m not sulking over my mark yet. I just aim high. If I’m going to do something, I go all out. So hopefully I’ll report back this January/February with strict 90%s.

* * * * *

Today we got put into our drama groups via our supply teacher. We’re doing a short musical called Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread. It’s more of a hybrid musical, the other part consisting of something that escapes my little mind. It’s rather confusing when you don’t have a teacher to translate every little detail.

It’s a hard play to get right since the four characters talk concurrently at many times. Sometimes chanting the same exact thing, or something else. It’s hard to explain, just Yahoo it. I’m sure the script is available (legally) somewhere online.

But the crucial factor to my frustration is my team. And I won’t take the whole ‘you have to learn how to deal with people’ persuasion into thought. I know how to deal with people — regular people. But if there’s nothing for me to work with, there’s nothing for me to work with. Period.

And to top it all off, I’m the director. Actually, I take that back. I love directing things. I have clearcut visions for certain things. I’m a perfectionist. And if there’s time and no one gets particularly affected by it, what’s the big deal?

I am tempted to YouTube it since other groups doing the play did, but that would take away the originality. Directors make things their own by creating their own take on the script. I’d just be too tempted to copy.

This assignment is different. There is too much estrogen in my group. I’m really not being sexist with that comment. Fact, I tend to get along better with women on many things than my own gender. Less ego. But man… If I settle people down, chase them into the room, etc., I’m the bad one. I’ll get ripped apart verbally and get excuses after excuses as to why so and so just had to leave the library (our class room). That leads to more problems since I don’t that kind of stuff from anyone lightly. And If I sit down and shut up, we get no work done.

It’s friggin’ unfair. GAH! I hate groups.