Sorry - haven't blogged in a while - a mixture of being mega busy and mega uninspired! The new site layout disorientated me slightly and caused me to shy away from the site a little more. I won't rant about the likes and dislikes I have, I just hope the bugs are sorted if nothing else..

Anyway, a new challenge is here (yey!)

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Challenge 10 - Guilty Pleasures - We all have music, films or hobbies we're embarrassed about but love secretly! Now's the time to name and shame....split into five categories; TV, Music, Film, actors and misc (hobbies, etc)

Disclaimer: The below embarrassing items of media wonder are clas*fied as such by the author (me!) and by definition are not intended to harm or criticise anyone else who may enjoy these products or those who consider them 'cool'.

(In otherwords, all the things I've mentioned in my blog are embarrassing for me to like, but please don't get offended! It's all subjective and a little bit of fun!)

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Television

I'm not embarrassed of too many TV shows I watch, I'm into some superhero cartoons like Justice League, X-Men and Batman which is not something I'd admit to many people I've just met; I am a 'superhero fangirl' so although embarrassing, its more of an embarrassing extreme to my personality! One that's terribly embarrassing considering my personality is Laguna Beach - I really enjoyed it. I have no idea why because the people on the show epitomise everything I hate about young people these days but god I love it! Don't hate me, anyone who loves Laguna Beach or The Hills - it's just very not 'me' and therefore incredibly embarrassing! I also adore Pocoyo, a kiddie show narrated by Stephen Fry; I dated an animation student at university so I blame that! Really it's just too cute to be embarrassing...no really it is I swear!!

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Music

My music taste has always been a little random, I like a bit of No Doubt, Daft Punk I'm even partial to a bit of Marilyn Manson but also - and here's my guilty pleasure - Britney Spears. Let me first say, I was 12 years old when she first 'burst onto the scene' so I was the niche market she appealed to (along with pervy old men!). She was the first popstar I was obsessed with so I've defended her to the hills through all her recent years of troubles (despite the fact that the girl clearly went ga-ga for a few years!). I love listening her music when I'm doing housework; I'm a proper old-school Britney fan and, yep, I'm damn proud of it (but also, yes deeply ashamed!) Most pop divas don't have the luxury of my pride, most I say are awful but secretly love; I have a bit of Shania Twain on my ipod (my mum's fault!) and of course Mariah Carey! I also like Girl Aloud who are just pure poppy trash (for my American friends, Girls Aloud won an 'American Idol' type competition in the UK; in otherwords they are entirely manufactured).

(A more innocent time )

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Film

I own the whole Fast and Furious collection and I'm currently in a brief over the top obsession stage with them. I'm also dead excited for the fourth instalment which I will be forcing my friends to go and see - secretly of course, outwardly I will seem as uninterested as possible! I know nothing about cars really and I'm not a 14 year old boy so this guilty pleasure is yet another baffling one! Even worse is that my favourite instalment so far is probably Tokyo Drift which is easily also the worst and cheesiest. On to another set of films, Scooby Doo I've watched too many times (the shameful reason is given below) even though it is awful beyond words... Princess Diaries also make me feel warm and fuzzy when I watch them (that's Disney for ya!) and I admit that I watch them for a much needed bit of innocence in my life. Sometimes as well, my friend Katherine (yes I'm bringing you into this one!) and I fast-forward through Bring In On just to watch the last 10 minutes and then moan about how the Toros SO had the better routine!

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Actors/Character

I have a crush on Velma from the Scooby Doo it's a geek thing. Or an intelligence thing.. Or maybe it's an orange jumper thing? Who knows but either way it's a little weird. Linda Cardellini made her almost geeky-sexy in the live action films which is where the shameful crush manifests from but I think its harboured from an earlier affection to the cartoon version. Whatever the reason, it is without a doubt a baffling crush! Another more normal crush, but one I've been too embarrassed to admit is Michael Cera (he was in Juno by the way - I loved him in those little yellow shorts), he has a real geeky charm I find so crushsome!

(*sigh* )

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Miscellaneous

I'm not OCD at all but I recently listed all my DVDs and games I own on a Microsoft Access spreadsheet; each have a picture of the DVD cover attached....oh the shame... I'm also absolutely obsessed with making sure my ipod playlist is impeccably neat (i.e. no duplicate songs, all band name correctly written, all songs in order) which again suggests I'm a little obsessive-compulsive but I'm honestly not....I just take pride in my gadgets It's also been explained to me by certain members of my family that naming my computer is incredibly odd - which I agree with, but this hasn't stopped me naming my new computer! Derek!

Well I've named and shamed most of my more awful embarrassments. Anyone have any they wish to share? Promise I won't laugh!!

Since it's the last day of August I guess it's the end of summer (well I think summer finished sometime in July over here...damn weather) so therefore the end of my summer mission. Badgersmuffin has already put me to shame by the amount of shows she's watched over the summer but here's my original list of possible shows to watch;

CSI (Season 8 ), Dexter (Season 1), Pushing Daisies (Season 1), Heroes (Season 2), Smallville (Season 5 +), House (Season 3+), Alias (Season 5), Reaper (Season 1)

So here's what I managed to watch;

CSI (Season 8 ) - I love this show but I didn't take to early season 8 quite as much as I have other seasons so I stopped watching it before the writers' strike. The rest of season 8 has actually been pretty watchable, there have been some real bad episode (Two and a Half Deaths) but also some really excellent ones (You Kill Me; For Gedda). There were some really good standalone episodes in there too, which are usually my favourite! I'll definitely try and keep up with the show in season 9

Dexter (Season 1) - Took me a while to get through it and admittedly I wasn't as hooked as I thought I'd be but I'm glad I've seen it now. Michael C. Hall is fantastic as Dexter, and his voiceovers add a great likability to the character. Rita is also a great character, her scenes with Dexter are tragicly sweet. I'm looking forward to season 2 of the show but I will probably give myself a break before I get into it!

Friends (Seasons 1-6) - Not on my original list but I've always wanted to go back and watch the whole show in order. I much prefer the earlier seasons when the characters are less ironed out, towards the latter seasons they become more caricatures of themselves. The show is still making me laugh out loud quite often so you can't really fault it as a comedy show. I'll continue to watch it to the end of season 10, but I'll stick to a slower paced viewing as the characters are starting to annoy me a little!

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I don't think I'll set anymore TV missions for the moment since its kind of TV'd me out temporarily! But I'm glad I've picked up two new shows in Dexter and Pushing Daisies which was pretty much the aim of the summer - yey mission accomplished! Anyway, looking forward to Bones starting next week!

Finally we come to part four - the finale - of our Emmy Inspired 'Best-ever' awards. The awards this time are the most prestigious; outstanding episode and series for both comedy and drama....

THE FIRST AND ONLY BEST EVER EMMYS (PART FOUR)

PART FOUR - OUTSTANDING EPISODE, OUTSTANDING SERIES

And the awards go to....

Outstanding Episode - Comedy "Fat Butt and Pancake Head" South Park/"The One Where Everybody Finds Out" Friends

I love both these episodes for different reasons obviously, being that they are entirely different shows! I couldn't decide between the two so I'm cheating a little here - both episodes win! Fat Butt and Pancake Head is the funniest episode of South Park ever! (See clip: Taco Flavoured Kisses) Its South Park at its most stupidest which is why I love it so much. Pretty much the entire reason I love this episode so much is because of Cartman's Jennifer Lopez impressions which always make me giggle. Awesome episode! The One Where Everybody Finds Out has always been my favourite Friends episode since I first saw it, and going back and watching the whole lot again hasn't changed my opinion. Every character has a great moment or two in this episode (except maybe Ross...) and it's got lots of Phoebe and Chandler in it - so you can't go wrong. Plus, this is the episode where Chandler admits he's in love with Monica which is such a cute and mushy moment.

Outstanding Episode - Drama "Grave Danger" (Parts 1 & 2) CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

First of all, its Quentin Tarantino. Second of all, its Quentin Tarantino...and thirdly...ok you get the picture! Grave Danger was the first episode of CSI where I went from thinking it was a cool show to thinking it was an awesome show. This episode has me completely on edge every time I watch it, which is sad because I know the ending now but I still somehow always think they won't get to Nick until it's too late. I love CSI as a show because I can watch three or four episodes to fill an evening and I don't have to get too emotionally involved in it; so it's odd that my favourite episode would be one where I do the opposite. I guess the episode is so smartly written and directed that I can't help but love it - when CSI throws in those moments which require the audience to get involved, they do a pretty good job of it.

Outstanding Comedy Series The Vicar of Dibley

I'm going for a British show here because, being British, nothing is funnier (surprisingly..). I grew up watching Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders make fools of themselves, back when everything they touched turned to comedy gold. They've both had great success in their individual side projects; Absolutely Fabulous (Jennifer Saunders) and The Vicar of Dibley (Dawn French). Out of the two shows, which I both love, I prefer Dibley because I love the whole sane main character surrounded by a bunch of loonys thing; whereas Ab Fab they are all pretty crazy. As British comedies go I think its easily one of the best, I'm not a fan of the new breed (Little Britain, Catherine Tate Show) so I'll stick to the old stuff

Outstanding Drama Series Veronica Mars

Its difficult to choose the best drama in my opinion, pretty much because all I watch is drama shows but I've made the very tough decision and chosen Veronica Mars. For a long time I would have said Buffy, but despite how special that show is to me - being the first show I ever got into in my teens; I sometimes find it difficult to watch. I guess that comes with the territory with having seven season, there are always going to be bits that you wont like. But the fact is, without even realising it I completely fell in love with Veronica Mars when I first watched it. Its smart, its funny, its entertaining and its cool; but what makes it so special is that I could easily watch a season of the show in one sitting - which for me is a big thing. I like that there's very little that ruins it for me, and maybe that's because its only three season long? But really, I think it's because it's such a smart and funny show.

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There you go! I hope you've enjoyed reading! Let me know what your choices would be!