I also redid my banner - decided a bit more colour would be nice :) It's based on the banner I use for my shadowed souls and different strings sites.. I figure it's kind of an "emblem" for me, so why not carry it through, eh?

Yeah! I'm a Soup Nazi now! :) Ok, so I just got done watching the Tuesday night performance edition of Rockstar:INXS. Amazingly, no one totally butchered their songs tonight. Ty came close with "Everlong", but got the hang of it about half-way through and came out ok. Sadly, JD did ok with "The Letter". I know they'll probably keep him around for a while as there's more buzz about his strategery (I love that word) than much of anything else on the show and Gods know they need the ratings, but I still don't like him. Brandon was quite the surprise - he did a great job with "If You Could Only See". I've always liked the song, so that probably helped, but for once, he actually sang pretty well. He really needs to get his hair fixed, though - it just looks bad. MiG, now, MiG ROCKED! The energy he had during that performance was FANTASTIC, and its not an easy song to do - most of it is nearly acapella, but you have to be in the right place when the band comes in for their part, which can be tricky. Him, I could watch for 2 hours. Marty, as usual, looked demonic. I swear, he tightenes up his face and neck so much when he sings that he looks like he might explode. I keep expecting a Spinal Tap Drummer moment! Oi! And the "Scary Conductor" thing, as Dave called it, blech. I don't like it fast and I REALLY don't like it slow. Jordis, though... what can you say but WOW. I was so choked up during her performance. It's a beautiful song to begin with and she really brought that feeling home. I seriously hope she wins this thing, but if she doesn't, I want to know when her solo album comes out - I'll want to get it! Deanna's bit with "I'm the only one" was really funny - and a beautiful use of the line. I'm sure Andrew didn't mind his view, either :) The rest were ok, but nothing stands out enough to comment on. I'd love to know, though, what was with the ads being run talking about one of the rockers "breaking down". I didn't see that. Jordis was emotional, but she channeled it all into the song and it just gave it that much more power! I know they're trying to get people to watch, but they should at least try to promote something that's actually, you know, noticable... Ah well. Promotions wouldn't be promotions without more than a bit of puffery, no?

Can anyone explain the rank system to me? Do we get access to more stuff as we get a higher rank, or what?

That was cool that Marty got to see his sister on Rockstar:INXS - though in some ways is was also a bit of a bummer... I don't like him real well as a singer for the band, but it seems the guys in the band do (at least at the moment). But it was cool for him, and he does seem to be a nice kinda fella. I saw the preview for tomorrow night's show and it looks like Jordis' song gets to her a bit much. I hope it won't hurt her chances because she just really has it going on, you know? The Closer keeps getting better. I've enjoyed getting to see Brenda EARN her squad's respect, but I was worried they were going to drag it on too long, so it was nice to see that more of them are coming around and realizing she's actually got the skills to do the job and maybe isn't such a heinous person, either. The only downside to tonight's episode is that it was pretty obvious as soon as they arrested the burglar that he wasn't going to be the killer (it was far too early in the show for them to actually get the right guy), so I was able to figure out really early on who'd done the deed. Oh well. I probably just watch too many crime dramas - have all the plots memorized or something stupid like that, eh? Outside the world of TV (gasp!) I've been having a lot of problem with my legs hurting lately - something wrong with the skin (doc hasn't been able to come out yet, so who knows what it is), and it's really been getting to me. If I didn't have stuff to distract me from the pain (like gaming, TV shows and music), I'd be going completely nuts. I'm close enough at times as it is. It's kind of nice to have a place where I can just dump about crap - the other blog I run (different strings) is mainly a political site, so I don't like to get into my personal life much there. But I figure here, I'll just write about whatever's on my mind at the moment. :) Hopefully, I'll feel more up to playing Warcraft again soon, and I can post updates on how my many characters are doing (thrilling, I know, but hey...) I'm still SHOCKED that I've gotten a character up to level 50. This is the 4th MMORPG I've played (Dark Age of Camelot, EverQuest and City of Heroes being the others) and the FIRST time I've gotten a character past 45. If any of y'all play, I'm on the Uldam server, Alliance side, and my character's name is Kalisti (my main, anyway). She's a level 50 Hunter. I also have a level 22 Mage named Rocinante, a level 10 Druid named Lamneth and a level 7 Priest named Zentera. Feel free to look me up :D Ok, so I'll stop rambling now before I start scaring people or anything. Have a good one!

Haven't used the blog here yet, so I figured what the heck :) During the season, our local NBC affiliate had pre-empted one of the L&O:CI episodes, so I finally got to see it tonight - "Shibboleth". It was a VERY interesting episode - looking at how even a single incident in a child's life can leave a lasting imprint that follows them into adulthood. Of course, it doesn't start out anywhere NEAR that, but it wouldn't be L&O if it did, eh? I also decided to check out the premier of "Wanted". Here's the commentary I posted over at the forum for that show: "I'm having real mixed feelings about it so far. There are just some things - like the discussion with the son about pubic hair - that seems to be there just to say "Ooh! Aren't I daring! Did you just hear me get vulgar?!" Sure, it's the kind of discussion fathers and sons might have, but it did NOTHING to advance the relationship between this father and son OR to advance the story - it just sort of stood out like a sore thumb. Now, don't get me wrong - I'm not opposed to ALL vulgarity. If it serves the story in some way - helps define a character, moves the plot along, makes a point or something like that, fine. For example, when the lead guys says "s***" after one of the cops dies, that works. It wouldn't make sense for the charater to just say "oh shucky darns" or something like that, you know? I just find it distracting when a show gets vulgar just for the sake of being vulgar, when there's no real purpose for it. My other concern is that some of the characters seem to be a bit too one-dimensional, though that's not unusual for a pilot episode. There's so much to compress into a single episode - introducing the show concept, setting the tone and introducting the charaters, that often the most it can do is give us the bare bones outline of the characters - so I'll give it some time on that point. Right now, though, I'm not as impressed as I would have liked to have been. It's got some promise, if it can flesh out the characters more and make more purposeful use of it's vulgarity, it might be ok." That's about it for now... summer sucks because so much of what's on are repeats. At least we get Rockstar: INXS the next three nights! That's a fun one :)