Correct me if I’m wrong folks, but when a network decides to air a 24 hour marathon of a particular tv show of which there are 171 episodes to choose from, you would think that the network would air 24 *different* episodes during the course of the day, right? Doesn’t that seem like a reasonable thing to expect? Well, apparently it’s not. My efforts to watch the entire 24 hours of SVU have at last ended because even though the marathon purported to go from 6am to 6am, the episodes aired after midnight were actually repeats of episodes shown earlier. And I’m not talking about the episodes aired early this morning, but repeats of the last five episodes shown. And as dedicated as I was to a full 24 hours of gratuitous tv watching to ring in the new year, I really couldn’t bring myself to watch shows that I’d seen only hours earlier, especially since they were episodes from later seasons and therefore significantly less entertaining (did anyone really like Dani Beck? I think not). So after about 19 hours of SVU goodness, I’m calling it quits. Goodnight folks and happy new year!

When I heard about this from Sam the other day, my initial impulse was to joke and say that the mothership must be trying to take me home. I then laughed to myself and thought, “well if they’re looking for me at O’Hare, they’re definitely looking in the wrong place!” Or were they? Turns out that while the media coverage is recent, the reported sighting was not. In fact, the sighting happened at around 4:30pm on November 7th around a United gate. Well guess who was at O’Hare on November 7th, just coming back from Vancouver on a United flight that landed around 4:30? Why yes, that would be me! Maybe those aliens know me better than I know myself. Excuse me while I go put my protective foil helmet on now…

Protecting the world from I-Jin… and space aliens?

When I fail my history comps next month, you all will know why…

I am not a huge impulse buyer, but I do occasionally make somewhat extravagant purchases. Usually I manage to restrict my impulse buys to small things: movies, music, or books that I don’t really need. In general, I think that I have tended to spend more on toys for my rats rather than toys for myself. But this year… this year I lost all self-control.

Meet the PK20

This little guy (and he is little–think about the size of a small jewelry box or fat paperback novel) is a pretty kick-ass LED projector that I got brand new for supercheap on amazon. And by supercheap I mean $300 less than it’s going for now and about $500 less than the suggested retail price. Talk about being in the right place at the right time! Anyway, it’s the perfect device for home theater on a budget. Watch out–you throw one little V watching party with this thing and your friends will start demanding you install stadium seating in your apartment!

	The LEDs aren’t super bright, but it still gives a good 60″ picture even with some lights on. I think this is actually more than 60″ here. Either way, you can see that it dwarfs the size of the tv, and our tv isn’t especially small.
	With the lights out, it’s almost like being in the theater, although that means it’s hard to really capture in a photo. The graininess here is from the camera, not the projector. The projector in fact has pretty good resolution, and the image looks more crisp the smaller you make it. I just decided to go for the biggest possible picture here.

Unfortunately, the set-up of the new home theater still has some kinks that need ironing out. For example right now the dvd player has to sit in the middle of the living room floor when I use the projector because I still don’t have long enough cables. And the audio system (my 15 year old stereo) is indelicately placed on the floor in front of the tv. But these are minor issues that I will likely wait to sort out so that I am not constantly tempted to watch movies instead of doing my reading.

The mischeif caused by the pre-birthday wii however, is another story entirely…

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But I’m studying. Really!

So the comments have been few and far between these days… I know and I apologize. But I really have been studying fairly diligently for my comps. And studying, as you may have guessed, does not make for good blogging material. However, to reward ye faithful readers for your patience in this blogging drought, I’ll make you a deal: I’ve decided that if/when I pass my comps, I’m going to dye my hair some crazy color. I’ve threatened to do this for years, but fear of bleaching my hair combined with a more general fear of putitng my weirdness out there for all the world to see has stopped me. No more! If I pass my comps, I will know that I am invicicible and therefore totally able to sport a funky hair color, at least for a month or two. Although passing my comps would be a hell of a lot easier if I could get *someone* to agree to a date! Sorry, that’s another story altogether.

Okay, so I can hear you dear readers asking, “so what Batty? You’re going to dye your hair like a freak–what’s in it for us?” Well, relax oh impatient ones. There *is* something in it for you.

You’re going to pick the color :-)

Mind you, I’m going to give you some choices, but you guys make the final call. Most votes wins. You’ve got about a month to cast your ballots via the comments. If you don’t see your comment post right away, relax. I’ve had to do some pretty stringent policingto keep out the comment spam, but I’ll make sure all legitimate votes get approved.

Your choices are:

AfterMidnight Blue/Shocking Blue

Electric Lizard

Personally, I favor the blue, you know, in case you want to base your vote on what I like rather than trying to decide which one would make me look freakiest. Although I can’t imagine why you’d want to do that ;-)

Mind you, it is not official, but it has been tentatively approved by all parties involved. And because I have wanted to set a date for these things for so very long, I’m going to act as though it is official for my own personal health and sanity. So here it is:

Thursday March 8, 10-12.

That’s my exam date. God willing. This means that I have another whole month to study and drive myself crazy. IT also means that all you lurkers out there have less than 20 days to cast your hair coloring vote!!!! (Come on, mom, I know you’re reading this!) The polls will close on Sunday February 25th so that I can acquire the goods in time to begin wrecking havoc on myself immediately if all goes well on Thursday.

And by special request…

Here’s another example of the purple because jason thought the last guy looked like a tool:

Thanks to you, dear readers, my humble little site is the 11th google hit for the search term “undeadening.” >:-) Perhaps this is because the film’s makers seem to be doing little to promote it in the internet world (which I think is a bad thing overall, since I’m not anticipating any major theatrical releases for this one). Regardless, I feel I should do all that is in my power to shamelessly plug my one zombie claim to fame. So here are more Undeadening tidbits retrieved from YouTube. Maybe this is a sign that the movie will actually be completed soon. I wish my scene would get posted so that I could at least know that I’d made the final cut!

Things I got for my birthday:
Several anime series that I cannot yet watch until after I take my comps.
A video game that I cannot play until after I take my comps.
A hot chocolate pot, which makes some tasty hot chocolate that I can drink while studying for my comps.
Lovingly sneezed on by my rat, who thinks I ought to be giving him treats instead of studying for comps.
Many phone calls, emails, and other well-wishes from friends that distracted me from my comps.

Oh yeah, and my friend had her baby…

Congratulations!

“To measure up to all that is demanded of him, a man must oversetimate his capacities.”

I think this fortune would be encouraging given all the comps crap I’m going through right now, if only I knew how to oversetimate myself.

Despite a miserable week of panic and uncertainty over my comps, which involved me putting together a 20 page bibliography and a 7 page reading list for one of my exams a mere three weeks before the exam date, things are still on track for March 8th. Incredible, I know. I’m not quite sure how I’m going to get through it all just yet. I guess I’ll know better just how much trouble I’m in after my practice exam a week from Thursday. But for now the plan is to just keep plowing ahead and pretend like I don’t know how little time I have left.

So for you readers, this means last chance to place your hair color votes! Purple is in the lead (which is just fine by me), but you’ve still got until Sunday to voice your choice.

Also, you readers can help me settle a little dispute. There’s this British sitcom called Coupling. It used to come on PBS a few years back–I don’t know if it still does really. It was a pretty funny show, at least until they brought in that loser Oliver in the 4th season… anyway, that is all merely background. My fellow Coupling-watching friend and I are at odds over which episode is the funniest. Now, I won’t tell you which one of us is in support of which episode, I will only tell you that right now, my episode is losing 2 to 1 (which is why I’ve decided I clearly need to sample a bigger audience!). So, next time you’ve got 20 minutes to kill, maybe watch an episode and write back here about which you find funnier overall or if you’re already a Coupling afficionado and you think we’re both wrong, you can say that too!

The Man With Two Legs
Part I: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ubt4LyYb9Hk
Part II: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYN_fhM2RY4
Part III: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTxp8M7WFwM

Inferno
Part I: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF11b3jgUS8
Part II: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rzgOL3pzbs
Part III: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHPxc8qunRA