Everything I watch has either been renewed or cancelled for sure at this point. Overall, this was a much better season for TV (as far as new shows go) than last year.

( Cancelled )

( Renewed )

There's some shows that I liked a lot, (American Horror Story, Revenge, Person of Interest) but nothing I can say that I totally love as much as, say, Justified.

Anything good coming up in the summer? :D

JMFJ was named captain of Team USA for the World Championships LOL. And his teammates are like, ooh, he's so experienced and we all look up to him and we can learn from him and he's like, 25.

The US is playing Canada now but it's tape-delayed for me so instead I will spam/archive some articles.

( Jack Johnson Named U.S. Captain )

( Jackets’ Johnson: captain America )

Ahh, did anyone watch House this week? The patient was a hockey player called... Hatcher! Muahaha. He was an enforcer and they showed some game footage between two fictional teams, except that one team was the Canucks with different logos and the other was the... Caps? Sens? They were in their whites so it was hard to tell. They filmed it at the Ducks rink but they only got enough extras for half of the lower bowl LOL. There were so many shots where you could see the upper bowl was completely empty.

I've seen some hockey stuff on that show but I don't know who's responsible for it. Odette Annable is married to David Annable, who's a goalie and a Devils fan, but it probably isn't her/him...

There was also an extended hockey reference on The Secret Circle involving the Canucks; a detailed description of a play involving Kesler, hehe. Probably because they film in Vancouver.

Well, I had decided a couple of weeks ago to assume that the Sharks weren't going to make the playoffs and to treat the last four games of the season as the playoffs. That went pretty well as they won all the games and... made the playoffs, haha.

I was hoping for a Canucks win and a Sharks loss last night so that the Sharks wouldn't have to face the Blues (who swept the Sharks this season, eek) and it seemed like things were going "well" going into the third period, but then the Kings did that thing they do around the Sharks and lost the game in OT.

Either way, Canucks or Blues, I'm anticipating a first round exit, but I just wanted more interesting games. Not that I think there's something wrong with the Blues, but the way the Sharks play against them is kind of tiresome. :P

( Playoff picks )

Thanks to everyone who answered my poll! I've been to NYC and was... underwhelmed, haha. DC and the Northwest sound the most interesting to me because there's stuff to do and good public transportation. From what I've heard I'd need a car to get around Phoenix and I don't drive. :P I do totally want to go to the Harry Potter theme park at some point but only with other people (same with Hawaii).

So... DC or the Northwest. Hmm!

I keep watching Once Upon a Time even though it's horrible ( Read more... )

SPOILER ALERT! So it's finally revealed why Regina hates Snow White so much, why she decided to curse THE ENTIRE WORLD and why she's framing Snow White for murder and repeatedly breaking up her relationship with Charming etc. etc.

When Snow White was TEN YEARS OLD, she was manipulated by Regina's mommy into revealing that Regina was in love with the stable boy.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

So... Regina amasses all this power, kills her own father, performs other heinous acts, etc. because she wants to take vengeance against something Snow White did when she was TEN YEARS OLD. And it's not even like it was a malicious thing. Regina's mommy played into Snow White's angst over losing her own mommy and implies that she'll do anything for Regina's happiness and makes Snow White think that she'll totally support Regina marrying the stable boy and they won't have to live life on the run so Snow White tells her.

But apparently this is such an UNFORGIVABLE thing for a TEN YEAR OLD to do that Regina has to spend her entire life plotting her revenge against Snow White.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I mean, yes the mommy then went and killed the stable boy. But this is kind of like plotting revenge against someone because they told your friend there was a sale at Old Navy and they got hit by a car while they were on their way there.

I watch and like a lot of dumb TV (like 90210 and Frankenfish and Harper's Island) and this is the dumbest reveal I have ever seen. This show could be even dumber than Supernatural (which isn't actually that dumb, just not as smart as it pretends to be)!

Which arena is the hardest to play in and does it affect your play?
Torrey Mitchell: Chicago and Vancouver are probably the toughest for me to play in.

Which city is your favorite to travel to on a road trip?
Torrey Mitchell: Can I pick two? In that case, my favorite city to travel to would either be Vancouver or Chicago.

Oh, Torrey.

After all the shitty seasons with Alex Smith as QB and everyone wanting to get rid of him, finally he has a great season and this might be the year he actually leaves (to go to the Dolphins). :( Peyton Manning signed with the Broncos (that could be a shit show, but that's another story) but he was also working out with the 49ers which would have meant that Alex would be out. I guess there's a chance now he'll come back, but he might just be like, fuck you all and go off to Miami. (Please come back? Please?)

Hmm, I left this unposted from yesterday and apparently the Dolphins have signed Garrard. I hope he comes back. *puppy dog eyes*

First he spent all day in bed with Devin, then he went to the aquarium with McGinn on Valentine's Day and now he's spending Brent Burns' birthday with him eating popcorn at the movies.

At least he doesn't have sleepovers with Donuts anymore. I think.

Well, I figured that JMFJ would be good for the Blue Jackets just by virtue of him always being positive and not taking it hard when things go badly (which they do a lot in Columbus) and not just accepting it. It kind of surprises me how much his teammates are responding to it, though. You could see that they wanted to win that game for him. I mean, you could also see that the Kings played unenthusiastically - almost as if they were playing the worst team in the league! oh wait, they were - but there was a definite determination to the way the Blue Jackets played, and they kept it up even after Steve Mason got his hand cut by a skate (SQUICK!) and replaced by Sanford.

JMFJ himself played a good game, but he always gives good effort every game so it wasn't even as good as some games I've watched him play with the Kings. There are complaints about him no hitting the net but I used to watch him hit the net all the time and then what happened? No screen so goalie makes the save, no rebound. Or goalie gives up a rebound and the forwards fail to convert. So what happens? He tries to pick corners and misses the net. Also, his past couple of goals have been from around the hash marks and not the blue line, and it's (presumably) easier to hit the net when you're nearer.

I'm unsurprised by the Kings playing better after the trade. Whenever you have a team that's struggling a bit and you know that the GM is going to make some fairly major trade, they're going to struggle more and it's going to be tense and once that trade is done everyone exhales and relaxes a bit and there will be an initial boost after the trade from that tension being gone.

There was a promotion last night where people could bring their Carter jersey in and have the name replaced with J. Johnson (#3 is taken so JMFJ took #7, which was Carter's number in Columbus). Apparently 43 people took advantage of this offer! I'm surprised that 43 people had Carter Blue Jackets jerseys!

... I'm surprised there are 43 Blue Jackets fans (har har har).

( Blue Jackets notebook: Ex-King is content with Jackets )

When you talk about how Columbus fans think you never really wanted to play there and your answer is "I don't know if that's completely true", that's like being asked if you're sexually attracted to boys and you take 30 seconds to answer the question.

( This Jack-et Fits )

I'm really unimpressed by him bonding with Wisniewski.

I do fully expect the Blue Jackets to get swept by the Kings next season now, though. :P Also, he didn't hang out with any of the Kings the night before the game because he was moving into his new apartment and didn't answer his phone.

[ Edit: One more article:

( Johnson erases Carter's name in Columbus )

Well he probably doesn't like that Wisniewski ratted him out with the whole PLEASE WIN FOR MEEEEEEEE thing. Frankly, I don't like the whole "must beat the team that traded you" mentality. I suppose it's a natural thing, but I didn't grow up with sports and I just don't get it on an emotional level, just like I don't really get rivalries. I enjoy watching other fans' rivalries but I'm just not into it myself. ]

According to Once Upon a Time, beautiful women always fall in love with hideous men, even if they kidnap them and lock them up in dungeons! Does that come across as true love and not Stockholm Syndrome to anyone? ;) The other thing you can do is tell incompetent klutzes that they're awesome and they'll fall in love with you, regardless of how ugly you are. Hey, does that work with hot guys and ugly women? *crickets* *tumbleweed*

At the beginning, Grimm was kind of okay to me with a promising mythology but a boring hero and just a vague link to fairy tales, while Once Upon a Time already had its end game problems (as in it doesn't look like the series is headed anywhere interesting) but a great cast and fun settings and costumes. Since then, Grimm has gotten and better and better while OUaT has gotten shittier and shittier. It also sounds like it's degenerating into "let's cram as many Disney properties as we can into this series!"

I think I've adjusted to what Grimm is instead of wanting it to be something else. Nick is boring (but so was Buffy and the supporting cast made up for that) but Munroe is great. But I still want something that would include stuff about the original, dark versions of fairy tales, or something like Fables that does a good job of showing fairy tale characters in the real world.

If there's one great thing about Petr with the Devils, it's that he has to be clean-shaven.

( Reaching 1,000 games will be special for Petr Sykora after taking another shot at NHL with Devils )

Of course the Devils then proceeded to be shut out 1-0 by the Islanders LOL. It's so cool he got to play his 1000th game as a Devil, though. I enjoyed him as a Duck and watched him play much longer there than as a Devil but it seems right that he's there and reunited with Elias. Too bad Arnott didn't stick around. :P It's also cool that his wife bugged him to come back because she's Czech and she would probably rather stay in the Czech Republic than go to... New Jersey.

I watched the pilot episode of Awake. I don't like the premise of the show but I like the actors on the show, especially the kid from Saving Grace (who was also Jack Shephard's fake son on Lost) and B.D. Wong (the psychiatrist from SVU who is now playing... a psychiatrist) so I gave it a chance. There were also other people I like in it but didn't know before watching the pilot like Lily from The 4400 and Michaela McManus, who was an ADA in SVU and a werewolf in The Vampire Diaries.

The premise of the show is that the main character (Lucius Malfoy! Who I can't recognize without his long blonde wig) gets into a car accident with his family and starts living two lives; when he goes to sleep in one "life", he wakes up in the other one (which sounds incredibly tiring). In one life his wife died but his son survived, and in the other one his son died and his wife survived. Both lives seem real to him. The concept turned me off because it sounds so depressing LOL. I think it can get emotionally draining to watch something with the shadow of grief always there, I guess.

Watching the pilot definitely had some of those elements, not to mention the hint that if he continues to live two lives, his brain will get no rest while he's asleep and he'll go crazy. I mean, I don't mind depressing stuff. If you think about it, The Walking Dead is pretty depressing. :P It's just a matter of whether they can do it in such a way that it's not just depressing for the sake of being depressing.

It took a bit of effort/concentration to keep the two realities straight in the pilot. I know they put things in like him wearing different coloured wristbands and having different partners to help distinguish the realities but it's not easy enough to immediately tell which reality you're in. (Fringe does this really well, but the two universes themselves are quite distinctive so I guess it's not a fair comparison.) I would like something even more obvious and in your face like using different coloured filters for each reality.

I'll keep watching to see what direction they take the show in, although I don't feel like this is going to catch on and will be cancelled. :P

Pretty much all of the new mid-season replacements I'm watching are going to be cancelled. :P I'm sad about Alcatraz, resigned about The Finder and I think The River could work on the SyFy channel, although each episode probably costs more than one of their SyFy Original movies. :P

You know, even when JMFJ is not doing anything actively terrible, I think he scares his own goalies so much that they fail to make saves that they normally could. He has the worst +/- in the entire league since he entered the NHL. That is like, impressively awful.

But he's probably good for Columbus because he's going to be loyal and hardworking and positive and not pout or demand a trade so he will no doubt be beloved by default. ;)

( Johnson encouraged by Blue Jackets' debut )

JMFJ is one of the bright spots of the Blue Jackets ahahaha.

Winnik and Galiardi being a couple was a factor in my GM trading for both of them!

Thornton on Winnik and Galiardi: "I think they were holding hands when they came in this morning" #SJSharks

— Brodie Brazil (@brodiebrazilCSN) February 28, 2012

Joe is already slashing them.

Galiardi said Winnik found out first about trade, and Galiardi told him "take me with you." Minutes later, he found out too.

— Kevin Kurz (@KKurzCSN) February 28, 2012

Unknown whether this was about wanting to follow Winnik or wanting to get the fuck out of Colorado. :P

And of course their lockers are next to each other.

Mayors Manor had a couple of articles on reaction to JMFJ's trade:

( Matt Greene on his call with Jack Johnson last night )

( Doughty on the Kings trading Jack Johnson to Columbus )

Sweet of Donuts to say he's a good friend and that they both thought they'd be playing together for a long time (implying they'd actually talked to each other about it).

JMFJ updated his blog and it includes this: Hope to see a lot of Johnson Blue Jacket jerseys in the crowd all around the league!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

I'm watching his debut game right now and he's in the Blue Jackets third jersey so he doesn't look too weird in it, but he's still using his lavender hockey tape on his knob hehe. They are praising him for his defensive play on the Blue Jackets feed LOL.

I have some video and radio interviews:

( Read more... )

LOL JMFJ is zoning out on the bench as usual and the Blue Jackets announcers are like LOOK AT THE CONCENTRATION AND FOCUS ahahahahaha.

( Johnson  )

I love how the headline has two meanings. They're quoting him as being thrilled, but that could also imply sarcasm, heh. He's such a lost, poor soul outside the Midwest. *sigh* He actually is a good fit for the Blue Jackets. :( No matter how shitty the team is or how bad things get he will still remain positive and work hard and I guess they need people like that.

Thanks to frala for the list of Blue Jackets (hahaha) people to follow on Twitter!

There are some quick changes to JMFJ's website to de-King it (although the website icon is still of the Kings and the page title still says Los Angeles Kings) including the banner:



I seriously am convinced that his 13-year-old brother maintains his website and was working late into the night to create this banner.

Obligatory article about the JMFJ trade in the Columbus Dispatch (hahaha) where they tactfully left out the article about him saying that if the Kings don't want him, he doesn't want them either! (I imagine him crossing his arms and pouting at the end of this statement)

( Carter trade nets Blue Jackets young defenseman )

The thing about being a Midwestern boy at heart makes me think that he didn't really like living in LA. And he must be really happy to be close to his family and friends in Michigan.

He will probably make his debut in Pittsburgh of all places. No doubt he will spend lots of time with BFF Sidney Crosby and might hang out with him subsequently because they're so near to each other now.

I think Jeff Carter will play well, at least initially. There's always a boost you get right after a big trade. But I feel as if the Kings' problems this season have been locker room issues that were masked by Quick's excellent play. I dunno. Maybe trading Dustin Brown will fix things.

I am actually disappointed that there's no new episode of Revenge tonight. I'm always so backlogged on TV that I can't even remember the last time I was disappointed when a TV show skipped a week. And... I wouldn't even say it's necessarily a great show either, it's just really fun to watch.

I'm liking all of the mid-season replacements that I started watching: Alcatraz, The River and The Finder. They all have bad ratings and are likely to be cancelled LOL. Alcatraz has an interesting mythology and neat Lost-style twists, The River is kind of a fun guilty pleasure thing and The Finder is quirky, kind of like The Unusuals.

I realized that I'm especially harsh on Grimm and Once Upon a Time because I've read really good treatments of fairy tales in comics and they don't even come close. I probably would have thought OUaT sucks anyway even without the comparison, but that just makes it worse. I guess it's that thing where you really like a book and you're disappointed by the movie version, hehe. (No, OUaT is terrible just on its own.)

Stop What You're Doing, And Go See What Google Thinks It Knows About You

Google thinks I'm a 25-34 year old male with an interest an "Beauty & Fitness - Body Art". The rest mostly make sense, although "Science - Mathematics" seems a little too specific.

Poor Kyle Williams. :(

Well, all I wanted for this game was for it to at least be close and for the 49ers to have a good showing, and they did that. There's no way at the beginning of this season I would have thought that my boys would be playing in the NFC championship game!

I think if they'd gone to the Superbowl they probably would have lost and... this is preferable to me, even though it doesn't quite make sense.

This was a good game and a battle to the end, and even though they aren't the last team standing, I'm always going to look back on this season with a smile; the first time I've watched them have a winning season, and the first time I've seen them in the playoffs. :)

Pavelski fought Ballard last night. It was like watching angry dwarfs going at it.

I caught a special on the Harbaugh coaching family (literal family) that was made when Jim was still coach of Stanford. Jack, John (Ravens coach) and the son-in-law who coaches college basketball, were sitting around a table sharing stories. That is one crazy ass family and I would hate to be in it. :P Anyway, near the end Jim says to Jack, "Who's got it better than us?" and Jack replies "NO-BODY!" and I kind of flipped out a little bit. :)

Someone actually wrote an entire article about the kickoff team dancing!

( NFL-best kickoff team pumping up the volume )