Sunday, August 29, 2010

2010 Emmys

Well, on July 8, the day the Emmy award nominations went live, I chose my winners. Of course, like those Americans not watching the Pittsburgh Steelers game, I watched the Emmys. Granted, it was in bits and pieces because of being on call, but alas, I won some and lost some. So these are my picks, the actual winners, and a few rants and raves along the way. Buckle your seatbelts and click your helmets, because here we go.

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series
My Vote: Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory
Winner: Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory
Rant/Rave: I can't complain about this one. I adore Jim Parsons, and he's absolutely fabulous on The Big Bang Theory

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series
My Vote: Toni Collette, United States of Tara
Winner: Edie Falco, Nurse Jackie
Rant/Rave: Granted, I've never seen either of these shows, I'm just a fan of Toni Collette

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series
My Vote: Matthew Fox, Lost
Winner: Ryan Cranston, Breaking Bad
Rant/Rave: My friend Shane put it best, "I was rooting for [Michael] Emerson. His acting is awesome. FUCK BREAKING BAD."

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series
My Vote: Mariska Hargitay, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit
Winner: Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer
Rant/Rave: Uh, WTF. Mariska always wins for this in my book, hands down.

Outstanding Comedy Series
My Vote: Modern Family
Winner: Modern Family
Rant/Rave: Before you ask, I didn't vote for Glee because I don't classify it as a comedy.

Outstanding Drama Series
My Vote: Lost
Winner: Mad Men
Rant/Rave: In June, a friend recommended Lost to me. I'd only seen the first episode until then... Well, suffice to say, I finished fifty-three episodes in a period of a month. However, I'm slipping because I'm only on episode 3.10, because I wanted to rewatch episodes 3.08-3.10 before I continued. (Subsequent blog posts about Lost will occur, I'm sure) ... And, of course, Lost should have won. Grr.

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie: Al Pacino, You Don't Know Jack
- Well, what is there to say? I didn't see this (due to the fact I don't have HBO), though, from the previews, it looks intriguing. I also don't think that Pacino was expecting to win because his speech was sort of shaky.

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie: Claire Danes, Temple Grandin
- I've read some of Dr. Grandin's work, and I find Danes to be a multi-faceted actress, so this role seemed to suit her. Again, it was on HBO, which means I'll have to rent the movie.

Outstanding Made for Television Movie: Temple Grandin
- Wow. TG is cleaning up. And I have no idea who gave the acceptance speech, but it was absolutely fabulous. And, yes, happy birthday, Temple!

Some other side notes...
- Because I was on a round, I didn't see the montage of shows that ended. And from what I've been told, it was a good thing because it reveals 3 essential season 6 plot pillars for Lost.
- Betty White is still the epitome of awesome. She totally deserved the win for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series.
- Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series went to Neil Patrick Harris for Glee. I like NPH, and I'm a casual fan of Glee... But I still don't see how it's a comedy series. It's really a mix of genres.
- Outanding Commercial went to "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like: Old Spice Body Wash." All I'm going to say is that if you've noot seen this commercial, you need to YouTube it right now. (And as always, I'm verbing nouns)
- I guess Lost did win one award. But only one is really depressing.

...And thus concludes my rants and raves. Thoughts?

Comments = always welcome.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

The freshmen are coming! The freshmen are coming!

Well, today was freshmen move-in day. What a day.

I helped people find parking spots, told people they had 15 minutes to unload their vehicles (much to their dismay), and saw hordes of pink, purple, green, blue, orange, and every other color imaginable unloaded. The price of Ramen stock must do really, really well during this time of year.

I saw fridges that were at least 3x time the size of mine, toasters that I told people weren't allowed, and people carrying in more pairs of shoes than I have on campus.

It was an experience to say the very least. I can't imagine what my res hall's trash rooms look like right now, and honestly, I'm a little terrified. Granted, it's insane during move-out as well, but who knows right now. I may venture down a little later.

I also got to experience my first Detex alarm. Of course, being a newbie, I had no idea what to do. So, I called Public Safety. The receptionist there explained to me what to do. (Turn the master key until it goes off). And for those of you who don't know what a Detex alarm is... Well, be glad. It's the alarm that goes off when somebody goes out the door that is clearly marked "Emergency Exit Only." It's a really whiney, annoying alarm. Not fun.

But the receptionist was awesome, and I actually went down afterwards to thank her. (Well, that and she wanted my cell phone number in case something would happen in the future).

Now all that's left is to have a few more people move in sporadically over the weekend, and classes start Monday. I'm having my first floor meeting on Wednesday, and hoping it goes well. I sent all of my residents an e-mail about it, and there will be signage.

Like I've told a few people, if someone had told me 3 years ago that I'd be in this position, I would have honestly scoffed at the thought and laughed in their face. However, now that I've gone through training, had some frank conversations with a friend about the job and his advice for it, I can't imagine not doing this. It's already taught me so much about myself... And I'm so excited to learn more.

A new chapter of my life is being written, and I for one, can't wait to see what happens. It sort of feels like a choose-your-own adventure book, the only difference being I'm both a character and the author in a sense.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

CA Training

Wow. These last (almost) 2 weeks have been incredible. I have learned so much, met some amazing new people, and had so much fun.

Even though it's been ridiculously busy each day, between training, a summer class (which is over now, but even still), homework assignments, working on bulletin boards and door tags, etc.; it's been completely worth it.

If someone had told me three years ago that I would be in this position, I honestly would have laughed in their face and wouldn't have given it a second thought.

However, now my first bulletin board is done and ready to be hung, but I have to present it to a group of my school's university Orientation Leaders before that can occur. In the meanwhile, I have to do all of the following:

- Clean my dorm room
- Do all of my laundry
- Finish cutting out door tags
- Print surveys and some other paperwork
- Organize paperwork
- Do room condition reports
- Hang up informational bulletin boards
- Present bulletin board
- Hang up other bulletin board
- Organize desk
- Post schedule
- Create September calendar of events and print

...Oh, yes, and the essentials: Eat. Sleep. Breathe.

Well, here goes nothing, I guess. Let's see what I can accomplish by this time tomorrow.