Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Panic Attack

So I had quite possibly the biggest panic attack of my life today. I went to the testing center to take a final. I waited in line until my turn and had my blue(green) book and ID ready. The girl swiped my ID and asked me what class the test was for.

"Comm 3010. History of Mass Media," I said as I put my ID back in my wallet.

"Teacher?" she asked, puzzled.

I told her the teacher's name and the section number. She went over to the shelf where the tests are and came back with a giant list. She flipped through it and then asked me for my UVID number again.

"That test closed on the 28th - yesterday."

What?!?! "What do you mean closed? Like I can't take it? Because my teacher told us we had until Wednesday."

"Most teachers don't really know our policy. Finals are only in the testing center for 2 days," she sniped.

"Well what do I do?" I managed to squeeze out of my throat trying to keep tears from welling up in my eyes.

She told me that there was nothing that she could do for me and that I had to email my teacher and try to work something out. At this point I was so overcome that I could barely stand. My knees were buckling and all I could think was I'm going to fail!

The stupid girl made me sign 'the book' like I am in kindergarten or something to show that I was denied testing. I was so embarrassed that I ran to my car as fast as I could. I started to call everyone I could. I called Randi and got no answer. Crap! She's in meetings all day. I called my mom. Voicemail. Crap! Crap! Pick up someone! I tried my mom again and she answered.

"I need your help! I need a phone number and I'm not near a computer." I was talking as I drove to my teacher's office on the snowball's chance that she would be there.

I gave my mom my Blackboard information while she fought with her computer for about 10 minutes. I went to the office and saw no one. No one answered the door. I finally got the number and called my teacher.

"I'm Panicking! The testing center won't let me take my test!"

After she laughed at me and got me calmed down I learned that the testing center didn't tell her that she could only have a final in there for 2 days until it was too late to tell us. They also completely botched her final for another class.

So I get to take my final tomorrow before my Mediation Final. Crisis Averted.

I went home and took a nap. It's just too much stress for Finals week.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

I'll get you a nice salad and a bit o' chicken

So I'm obsessed with Britain's Got Talent, because the Brits in fact have talent whereas the American version of this show is pretty lame. There are just so many great acts and there have only been 3 episodes.

Enter DJ Talent. He's no Susan Boyle, Shaheen Jafargholi, or Hollie Steel. However, he cracks me up. You just have to watch. The end is the best when he asks Kelly, one of the judges, on a date. Sadly, he even gets 4 yeses. Check it out here.

There's also a great Dance Troupe- Crew as we Yanks would call them- called Diversity. They really make dance fun and humorous. It reminds me of dances on So You Think You Can Dance. IMHO they are much better than the other similar group called Flawless. Check out Diversity though, you won't regret it.

And for the biggest laugh of your life YOU MUST WATCH Stavros Flatly.

If you're really, really, really brave you can watch Fabia Cerra. WARNING: THIS IS NOT SOMETHING YOU'LL WANT TO WATCH IN PUBLIC.

(Sorry that I've edited this three times. But BGT just is a never ending supply of great videos.)

Monday, April 27, 2009

Summer TV

All the classic shows will be having their finales soon and will give way to summer shows. These summer shows never get any credit, but some of them are way better than the regular September to May shows. Here are a few of my faves and their premieres.

1. So You Think You Can Dance - Premieres Thursday, May 21 8/7c

This show has way more talent than every season of American Idol, America's Got Talent, and every other talent show combined. These dancers have to learn to dance new styles of dance every week from Argentine Tango and Broadway to Contemporary and Waltz. The judges are much more animated than AI. Mary screams about her "Hot Tamale Train" and Nigel never ceases to crack us up. The choreographers are experienced and make the dancers work. There aren't any crappy dance numbers like AI.

The dancers go through all sorts of Drama. From having to dance for their lives if they are in the bottom three to having to change partners. And they're way more interesting. Benji and Lacey and Twitch and Katy. These are people that I remember and want to watch their dances over and over again. And these are HARDCORE dances, not like walking around a dance floor with a celebrity.

This show gets priority on my TiVo during the summer.

2. Next Food Network Star - Premieres Sunday, June 7 10/9c

Okay, so I stumbled upon this show last season when the marathon was on prior to the finale. Randi and I TiVoed every episode and spent a good chunk of Saturday and Sunday watching this fantastic show.

Unlike other kitchen shows where the set is a living hell. This show actually tests cooking prowess along with star personality. There's always some drama thrown in for good measure, but I love just watching to see who can do the best job in a sticky situation.

Having to cook on a moving train and only getting 30 minutes to prepare and plate a meal? Cooking a meal for hundreds of seamen on a Navy ship while having to use chocolate and fish as your ingredients?

Every episode is a surprise and you get your favorites just like every other reality show. Plus they always throw in Food Network Celebs like Paula Deen, The Neeleys, and the Barefoot Contessa.

3. Wipeout - Premieres May 27

Okay. If you've never seen this show you probably won't understand. It's basically three obstacle courses. Three amazingly complex and awesome obstacle courses. I don't really care who wins, I just love watching people, especially those 'larger' than life wipeout on anything and everything.

My favorite obstacle- The BIG BALLS. They supply an unending supply of laughs.

The hosts are two corny guys who mostly have poorly written zingers, but every now and then they hit a home run. The winner gets like $25,000 or something, but it's all about the wipeout.

4. Project Runway - Premieres August?

When Bravo/NBC and Lifetime got in a legal battle I thought Runway was going to be in legal limbo. Thankfully they have settled and Season 6 can finally air and this time I will get to watch it because it will be on Lifetime!

Tim Gunn is hilarious and his low nasally voice is perfection. His trademark phrases are "That's alotta Look," "Carry On" and of course "Make it Work."

The judges are Heidi Klum, who plays host as well, Michael Kors, and the 'evil' Nina Garcia. The contests are brilliant and watching these designers work is a treat. It takes an amazing person to make a fashion-forward dress out of corn stalks. This show is definitely In.
Then there's always those new shows that try to make it big during the summer. Which ones will I be watching?

Make It or Break It - Premieres Monday, June 22 9/8c

I love gymnastics. And this show will probably be one of the absolute worst teen dramedys on television, but if it's clever and well written I may be in heaven. Hell, if it's awesomely bad I'll probably still watch.

Jingles - Premieres?

Ok I have no doubt this show will be a train wreck, but I'm sure it will have quite a few laughs. I just don't see people writing jingles as a winning reality TV show.

Merlin- Premieres?

While this is a 13 part mini-series I love anything Arthurian. From Monty Python's Quest for the Holy Grail to T.H. White's The Once and Future King.

Hopefully this is a good series.

Economics

To minor or not to minor? That is the question.

Cons:

Five extra classes.

Delaying, but not really delaying graduation 'til April. (I'll be here anyways)

The classes aren't offered that frequently.

Pros:

I would have a minor.

It would help me in grad school.

It could help me get in to grad school.

Why can't I make decisions like this when I would have years to complete it?

Longest Week of My Life

I haven't written on my blog in a long time. Thankfully, this semester is almost over. I just have a project and two more finals. Then it starts all over again.

This past week has been one of the longest weeks ever.

It was my last week of class and I had a gazillion assignments due, including a 3000 word magazine article. Then my in-laws started trickling in on Tuesday.

Wednesday I went shopping with my mother-in-law who I had to teach how to wear color. Almost everything that she buys for herself is black, white, or gray so when she comes out here she makes me pick out her clothes. Then while everyone else went to Tucano's, I started writing my magazine article. I got about a third of the way done before I had to change and pick up Randi at work to go to her cousin's wedding at the Mt. Timp Temple. Then I raced back and borrowed my sister-in-law's car to go to the PR Firm's BBQ. It was pretty lame, so I left right after they annouced the winners and came home.

I stayed up Wednesday night until about 2am finishing my article. Had a few people read over it in the morning and then started the day. Our printer doesn't work with our Macs so we have my old Dell Laptop that we print from. I went to turn it on and - nothing. No power. It was dead. I tried pluging it in and.... nada. It went to Dell Hell.

So I had to race to campus and print at a lab before class started. I got to a lab and of course there were no open computers! Thankfully I spotted a friend who was willing to let me print. I dropped off my paper and skipped my next class so that I could make it to Randi's graduation. The doors opened at 2. Since it was in the Marriott Center and the seats are extermely uncomfortable (that's why you stand at sporting events) we didn't want to go too early. Half our entourage walked with Randi and the other half took the bus a little later with me. Our seats were waaaaaaayyyy up at the top where we could barely see anything except the Jumbotron.

The graduation processional and recessional were painfully long, but the speakers were short and sweet. I love President Uctdorf's talks and his voice is soothing. So soothing that some people were dozing off. We took some pictures after sorting through 6,192 graduates to find Randi.

We went to the Brick Oven afterwards and met up with Randi's paternal grandpa and his lover. I really don't know what to call her since they aren't married. He picked up the tab for ten people though. Apparantly he feels the need to impress people. Then we played a giant game of catchphrase and had an impromptu variety show. I stayed up late learning a new song for my callback. It wasn't that great.

Friday morning we had to getup early for Randi's Convocation that was at 8. It was over by 9:20 and we took some more pictures. We raced home and I went to my callback. The guy before me sucked, then I sucked, then a girl was amazing and then another guy sucked. We went to Wal-mart after the audition to get a wedding present for Randi's cousin.

Randi really wanted to have a BBQ so she could have her Dad's burgers and her Mom's pasta salad. We spent a few hours preparing for the BBQ and I studied for a WWII Final. There was a domestic spat between parents before we traipsed up the canyon to Nunn's park and it just kept getting colder and more windy. The grills were disgusting so we covered them in Tin Foil.

Racing back down the canyon I changed and got dropped off at campus in time for my Final, while everyone else went to the wedding reception. After doing worse than I wanted on my Final I took the bus home and cleaned up the pigsty that has become my apartnent from ten people living in it. I had a Sonic Blast and then we all went to Comedy Sportz.

How did we manage to fit two days worth of stuff into Friday? I will never know.

Saturday was left eventful with lunch at Tucano's, a screening of State of Play, and dinner at the Chinese Buffett.

Sunday I woke up at 4 to take Randi's Mom to the airport and then I had to go back to the airport to take her Brother at noon.

I seriously am exhausted and my apartment still isn't clean.