Californication Season One

• Plenty of sex, which isn't a bad thing.
  

  
  
  




• Duchovny, for the most part, does a great job. You can (almost) believe that so many women would throw themselves at him, while also believing how self-destructive he can be.
  

  
  
  




• However I don't buy all the physical fighting. Is there anyone who really tries to get in so many fights? Especially when they're normally not that hot-tempered (would never hit people he cared about).
  
  

  
  
  




• It can be difficult to see Evan Handler do "wrong" things after knowing him on Sex and The City. However for the characters on this show, he's still a pretty decent guy.
  

  
  
  




• Marcy (Charlie's wife) and Becca are definitely my favorite characters.
  

  
  
  




• The whole stealing of Hank's work really really bothered me. I think it bothered me so much simply because it was his livelihood.
  
  

  
  
  




• While we're at it, Mia stealing Hank's work was far too predictable. Its a pathetic thing to do and in reality won't get her anywhere once she realizes she has to keep writing.
  

  
  
  




• Its going to be interesting to see how the show handles Hank not being single anymore. No more random hookups means the show loses half of its content...
  

  
  
  

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Sun, Food and Surf

Oh my goodness, its been almost a week since I've posted.

So I spent the weekend out east for my grandparent's 50th anniversary. I finally got some sun, which was long overdue. I also attended a fundraiser for at The Surf Lodge, which is Sam from season two of Top Chef's restaurant.

The restaurant had an absolutely gorgeous view of the water and a very active outdoor bar. For hors d'oeuvres, there were spoonfuls of civiche (complete with popcorn, which I recognized from him preparing it on Top Chef), spoonfuls of spicy chopped vegetables, and skewers of beef. Eventually we were served a very casual dinner of watermelon salad with feta, potato salad, clams, and fried chicken. I have to say I was rather surprised with the style of food served for dinner, since I had heard the food was fantastic. However the watermelon salad and clams were impressive (and I usually hate clams).

After dinner was served we ran into Sam who had come out from the kitchen for a couple of seconds and complimented him on the party. Overall it was a lovely laid-back time, and I'm looking forward to going back to try the usual menu.

flufffoodtv

Psych Season Two DVD

Gus dancing with an old lady in The Old and the Restless.

For the record I absolutely love the show Psych. I love it so much that I didn't watch season two at all and saved it for the DVD because I'm weird and I was afraid I would run out of episodes to watch.

• American Duos is still my favorite episode of the season. Hello. It was fantastic. Honestly I could just watch Shawn & Gus impersonate 80's music acts all day long.
  

  
  
  




• Although a couple of others came close, including The Old and the Restless and Lights, Camera.... Homicido.
  
  

  
  
  

• My favorite line of the season is courtesy of the old lady dancing with Gus in The Old and the Restless...
  

  
  
  

  Old Lady: Now, spin me...
  Gus stands still with a strange look on his face.
  Old Lady: Marvelous!
  

  
  
  




• There has never been a show that has made me so happy. Ever. Its a little weird.
  
  
  

  
  
  




• Shawn mentions to the detectives he got a 100 on the detective's exam when he was 15 years old. That should really be a huge clue that he is not a psychic, but actually just an extremely good detective.
  

  
  
  




• Has anyone else noticed that Shawn and Gus on the front cover of the DVD are so photoshopped that they're barely recognizable (especially Shawn)? However they're not photoshopped on the back cover or on the DVD menus. Odd.
  
  

  
  
  




• The audio commentaries on the DVD are actually pretty entertaining.
  

  
  
  




• The deleted scenes, however, are pretty disappointing. In the commentaries they mention how much great extra footage they had gotten for a couple of episodes, and those episodes had hardly any deleted scenes.
  

  
  
  




• A highly enjoyable DVD set.
  
  

  
  
  

dvdpsychtv

Mad Men Season One

I kept putting it off, but I finally started watching Mad Men to see what all the fuss was about...

• Its completely engrossing. I watched the entire season far too quickly.
  

  
  
  




• Extremely well written. At times it really really bothers me, but doesn't depress me. Its hard to explain.
  
  

  
  
  




• Compared to my other beloved show-set-in-the-past, Deadwood, there is no sense of urgency. Its different, but still great.
  

  
  
  




• My favorite characters are Betty, Joan, Peggy, and of course Don Draper.
  
  

  
  
  




• I identified with Betty more than I ever expected to.
  

  
  
  




• The men, on a whole, mostly disgust me.
  

  
  
  




• Especially Pete Campbell. I keep hoping an will anvil drop on his head. Just looking at him creeps me out.
  
  

  
  
  




• The finale was easily one of the mot well-written shows I've ever seen. It really encapsulated the entire season and was just so thought out. Betty's scene at the therapist blew me away. So did Don's presentation. Just plain fantastic.
  

  
  
  




• Clearly, I loved it. Not what I expected at all.
  

  
  
  

tv

*Cinema -- Pineapple Express

Pineapple Express (2008)

• Danny McBride was just plain fantastic. "Thug life." He made the movie.
  
  

  
  
  




• Rosie Perez was great. She's getting older, which weirds me out.
  

  
  
  




• Seth Rogan and James Franco were both good.
  

  
  
  




• Very very funny.
  
  

  
  
  




• Yet I did feel like it was a bit too much of a "stoner comedy" for me in general.
  

  
  
  




• Appreciated Kevin Corrigan & Craig Robinson as hit men.
  
  

  
  
  




• The car chase was easily one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Ever.
  

  
  
  

I Wear My Glasses Far Too Often

• Ever since I got my new glasses, I am wearing them far too often. Pretty soon the world without them will be completely fuzzy.
  

  
  
  




• Love, love, love the Delicious redesign. I was part of the beta, but I didn't really use it. Definitely seems speedier, which was my only complaint. I am such a delicious addict.
  
  

  
  
  




• Speaking of addictions, if Apple ever gets totally rid of Input Mangers, I'm screwed. Edit-in-TextMate is just indispensable.
  

  
  
  




• Not surprised that TiVo has let the Series 3 go.
  
  

  
  
  




• Loved the SYTYCD season finale. I voted for Katee, but I knew that Joshua would win. I'm very happy that she was the top girl, though. I would also like to point out that Katee was in four of the 'favorite' dances while the rest of the four finalists were only in two (or three, in Twitch's case) dances each.
  

  
  
  




• I'm liking Shear Genius much more than Project Runway. I didn't expect that at all.
  

  
  
  




• Cablevision added a whole mess of HD channels last week. Including Discovery HD, FX HD, AMC HD and Spike HD. All this really means are HD versions of MythBusters, Deadliest Catch, Rescue Me and repeats of CSI. Pretty awesome though.
  
  

  
  
  




• Incase you couldn't tell, I've really been missing lists.
  

  
  
  

fluffglassesmactextmatetivotv

The Thing About American Idol

Apparently executive producer Nigel Lythgoe is leaving American Idol.

I personally didn't watch American Idol this year... I wanted to, but it just didn't interest me. I think that this mostly has to do with the contestants that are being chosen for the show. They're selecting people who aren't always very appealing or at least very talented.

Regardless, the people they should pick should be people who just have not been discovered yet, instead of people who would never be discovered.

SYTYCD, however, picks more appealing/talented contestants, and the ones who aren't appealing are off the show fairly quickly. I don't know if this is because of the pairs, the fact that two people are kicked off each week, or the fact that the judges pick the first few people who are kicked off. For whatever reason, the contestants are more compelling and that is why I watch.

flufftv

Running Django on (mt)

So, I've been running on the (mt) Django beta container for a couple of weeks now. So far its been great. I've received some questions about it so I figured I'd write up a few notes on the Django container...

• You get total control over your app without having to manage an entire server.
  
  

  
  
  




• The level of control vs. stability is perfect. This is my most favorite thing ever.
  

  
  
  




• You set up and control your Django project/app with a set of terminal commands that all begin with mtd.
  
  

  
  
  




• Overall, it's been extremely stable. I'd venture to say it seems more stable than the Rails container I used to use... my app has not crashed once yet.
  

  
  
  




• You can run on either the last released version of Django or the latest SVN of Django, and switch back and forth with a couple of mtd commands. You can also just download the SVN yourself if you want to be on a specific revision.
  
  

  
  
  




• Note: if you're running the container on a current SVN of Django (rev. 8015 or above) you will need to add this line to your settings.py for it to run properly:
  

  
  
  

  FORCE_SCRIPT_NAME = ''

  
  
  
  
  

I have to say that (mt) has blown my expectations away as far as hosting is concerned, and the Django container is just a part of that. I'd highly recommend them.

djangomtsite

We Are Scientists at Bowery

So last night we went to see We Are Scientists at Bowery Ballroom. It was fantastic. They sounded great and as you can see above, they played a great set of songs. It was a nice combination of the new and the old album.

We arrived about an hour late, and we still waited for like twenty minutes until the opening act came on. Which means that some people just stood around drinking for over an hour. The opening act wasn't too bad.

They're one of my absolute favorite bands, and one of maybe three bands that I haven't gotten to see live yet that I really really want to see. Loved every minute.

Almost the entire time there was hardly any light on the band at all. There was only a dark red light, and even with flash it was impossible to get good shots of the band. However, we did manage to get one when the lights came up in between two songs...

bandmusicnycshow