I watch entirely too much tv. Right now I am finally settling in to watch Lost...the show I have been assured is right up my alley. So far I have watched the first season and about 8 episodes of season 2. I still don't really care about the Others, but I have to admit the show does a good job of getting you involved in the backstories of the characters as well as watching how they develop relationships while marooned. However, when my biggest question is how does Kate end up choosing Sawyer (or so I hear), I guess I really could take or leave the show.

However, I am anxiously awaiting word on whether or not Eli Stone gets renewed. I started watching out boredom. I will admit it. However, it has morphed into the show I can't wait to watch. There is just something to earnest about Eli and his potential prophet status. I find some of the characters annoying, but the writers have even managed to humanize them as well. I had no idea they could soften the edges of the "Dowd" or turn Maggie into a character that didn't make me cringe every time she showed up on screen. And the cast is fantastic. I love Jonny Lee Miller. I don't know that I have ever seen him in anything other than Eli Stone or Hackers, but whatever he was doing in between was well worth it. He is fantastic. And Victor Garber can do no wrong. I really hope that this show gets a chance to show us the rest of Eli's journey. They have given us enough clues about the future that if it doesn't return, I won't be bitter...Just grateful that I got to see the few episodes that exist. I am not a terribly religious person, but I don't feel I am being beaten over the head with a Bible. I just feel like I am being challenged to consider things from another perspective...and that is what good television does...actually make you think instead of just absorb...

Spent Thursday through Monday in Dublin...My second trip to Ireland this year, my third total...I have to say I love the Emerald Isle...I can't quite put my finger on what makes it different from other places that I have traveled, but I love going there...There is just something about it...I like the pace and the atmosphere...and the people are great...We did a musical pub crawl, which I did not expect to enjoy at all, but was a ton of fun...We didn't really do all that much while there since most of us had been there before...but we did do some shopping and we met the most random people...We did do an organized tour down to Wicklow...which was eh...the people on the tour were nice and it was an eclectic mix, but I am not much for scenery and our tour guide talked the whole time...I appreciate that is his job, but seriously...it is amazing he has any voice left...And I am all for random stories...especially those told in an Irish brogue...Anyhow, ended up getting a permanent souvenir...a little shamrock tattoo...a friend of mine got one too...we had wanted to get them when we went to Dublin for St. Patrick's but couldn't find an open shop...so we got them this time...not sure how I feel about it....but randomly, the tattoo artist liked it so much he decided to give himself one too...

Random Thought of the Day: Spent most of April and May basking in the sunshine...it is now almost July and it is in the low 60s...Sometimes I hate the weather here....

So this week I saw the big 3-quels...Pirates, Shrek, and Spiderman...I have to say I was underwhelmed by almost all of them...or rather by most parts...The sums are not better than the whole...I think the Pirates franchise should have stopped after the first one...Seriously...I expected to hate the first one but really enjoyed it...I hated the second...Could they have fought longer on that stupid water wheel? I got a refill, came back, when to the bathroom, came back, and then got a refill for someone else, and came back and they were still on the thing...I actually fell asleep during part of  the last fight scene in the third one...I couldn't figure out how Jack ended up with the box...Although I have to give them props for not taking the easy way out...I did enjoy the third one more than the second one, but that is not saying much...As far as Shrek goes, could there have been a thinner plot? Although casting Justin Timberlake as a spoiled heir...well that was kind of funny...I don't really feel strongly about the third movie at all...The Princess Posse was kind of funny, but eh...I remember being so amused by the clever play on all things fairy tale in the first movie...and thought they tried to hard to recreate it in the second...but the third leaves me going...eh...Now for Spidey 3...I have to say I was not overly impressed with the first movie, but loved the second, although to be fair, I can't quite explain it...Good lessons and Doc Oc was a very cool villian...The third started slow...and when Spidey went all crazy with the black venom and danced his way through NYC with eyeliner...well...I have to say...I will take Smallville's Clark Kent on Red Kryptonite any day of the week over Peter Parker...but I have to say I am almost willing to tolerate that and commit to buying the third for the teamwork that occurs in the last fifteen minute...It made the other 2.5 hours almost worthwhile...I was very much looking forward to the month of May and its Big Three...but have to admit to being somewhat disappointed...I can't really remember the last good movie I saw...unless of course I am allowed to count sport movies...but those shouldn't count, because I am predisposed to like them even if they use every trick in the book to get a reaction...Anyhow...

Random Sidenote of the Day: I just saw The Office today for the first time...I had seen clips and wondered what the fuss was all about...I saw the diversity training episode and now I get it...It helps that my MBA class right now just focused on the impact of diversity...so it was nice to see such a great spoof...And can I say after just one episode...I love Jim...