I rearranged my bedroom last night. It was around 8:45 and I hadn’t been doing much when I made the spontaneous decision to change the room up.

Actually I had thought about it this weekend but I sort of half talked my way out of it. Didn’t want to mess with finding places to plug in things was the big reason against. So the idea had been percolating in the brain for a few days anyway. Last night I just decided to do it. I’m weird like that.

Actually, my room’s so small that there aren’t a lot of layout options for it so it didn’t take long, and I pretty much ended up going back to the way I had it when I first moved in. Bed shoved in the corner, half under my window, free-standing mirror in the corner and night stand with the requisite electronic gear moved under the window.

I’ve got more room for, well, let’s see I could DDR now in my room or I could *really* get into my air guitaring. I could perform one-acts or maybe even turn the larger area into a mini dance floor complete with disco ball and floor lights.

I woke up this morning completely disoriented. Spooky’s all kinds of confused. But at least I don’t hear the muffled sounds of sex and snoring next door much now that my head’s not right up against the shared wall.

It’s Emmy night. Really the only award I care about is whether Kiefer Sutherland will beat Gandolfini for Best Actor. I don’t think he will but we’ll see.

The awards seem to be going ok so far, even with Seacrest hosting. Stewie and Brian opened with a song and dance peppered with digs at the other networks (except FOX, hehe) and Seacrest was mildly funny (and blessedly brief.)

Was glad to see Terry O’Quinn win. I lurve him. They’re doing the show ‘in the round’ which is a little strange and offputting. The actors look a little lost when they finish their speeches. They don’t know which way to go to get offstage.

I’ve somehow hit some button on my remote console that has turned on close captioning. I do not know which button out of the myriad of buttons on this damn thing turns it off.
Whahey, Thomas Hayden Church won for something… cool!! I loved him on Wings.

You know I don’t like the music that they jack up to get the actors offstage. I know they have time issues, but you know, it’s a big moment for some of these actors. They should get enough time to gush and cry and thank God, their drama teachers from high school, their gardeners.. I’d watch it all.

Aww Jon Cryer… He will forever and always be… the Duckman. Best writing in a comedy series. The nominee short films were freakin’ hilarious. Conan’s writing team won. Good for them 🙂

Close captioning still bugging me. Which bloody button shuts it off???!!! Argh.

Hmmm Tony Bennett and Aguilera… Not bad. I especially like the dancers in undone tuxes. Yum. Ok I know Christina can sing and all. Good set of pipes and all that but I’m just not a fan of the runs she does. Let’s hit every note on the scales while singing one word. Yawn.

Oh man Kiefer looks damn good presenting. ‘Scuse me while I go have a cold shower. Holy cow how cool, Robert Duvall won the award he was presenting and Duvall made a point of telling everyone what a good horseman Kiefer is. Cool 🙂 Oh turn off the music already, it’s Robert freaking Duvall. Let the man tell his story.

Standing O for Roots. Teh awesome. Took me a long time to get used to seeing Levar Burton as Jordy on TNG. I remember seeing Roots back in the day so he was always Kunta to me.

Yeah I think it’s gonna be a Soprano’s kind of night. Despite Imperioli not winning Best Supporting, it just won for Best Director. Aaaand it just won for Best Writing.

The Daily Show wins. Again. Which is great 🙂 It’s a good show.

Ahhh found the blasted button. Closed captioning is now gone and I can get on with my life.

Yeah ok I’ve skipped a bit. The Jersey Boys just did a nice little tribute then they trotted out the cast of the show for a final bow which was nice. I don’t remember the Emmy’s doing so much for a specific show before. Have they? I could be wrong.

It’s 8:47pm CT so the show is about 1/4 of the way over….

Jaysis they’re STILL doing awards for miniseries stuff. Oh but that’s cool, Helen Mirren just won. I’ve met her you know. She rocks. She looks awesome.

Wow. Al Gore just won an Emmy. Interactive TV something or other. Word.

I’m starting to get sleepy. Nearly 9:30 now and we’re only at Best ___ for a Reality Competition.

For the record, I’m going to bed once Kiefer loses to Gandolfini crushes the competition. I’ll find out who won the rest in the morning 🙂 If OJ Simpson doesn’t dominate the news.

Ah ok on to Best Actor/Actresses in Comedy. Surely that means its nearing the end… Sally Fields is stuttering on stage and I believe she was just censored. How funny. “If the mothers ruled the world, there would be no God-” dead air.

And now the In Memoriam but. Sniffle. Steve Irwin… Joel Siegel… Peter Boyle… Jack Palance…Jane Wyman… Tom Poston… Ed Bradley… Pavarotti… Merv..

Hey cool Ugly Betty won. Right on. Very nice speech.

Kiefer time…. Fingers crossed… Aaaaaand…. Fuck. James Spader. I was so wrong. Well that’s not unusual. Man, He doesn’t look like Stef from Pretty in Pink anymore 🙂

This livebloggin thing is fun by the way… This way, tomorrow when the coworkers are yakking about the awards around the watercooler, I can just say, “Just read the blog. I said it all there.” I can’t wait.

30 Rock wins Best Comedy series. I didn’t know it was still on the air. But good on Tina Fey, I like her.

Helen Mirren is up now presenting the final award of the night, Best Drama. Winner is, Soprano’s. That’s great 🙂 I’m happy for them. Damn the cast takes up the whole stage.

So that’s the end. 3 hours and fifteen minutes. Not bad really. Was an OK show, nothing spectacular. The thing I think they’ll be talking about the most on Defamer is the mispronunciation of Katherine Heigl’s name by an announcer and her correcting them when she got to the microphone 🙂 Everyone else will be gushing about Jon Stewart, Colbert and Carrell’s group hug 🙂

Whahey, a new look. I decided one can only deal with so much orange and so I decided to go back to a simpler, basic look. Makes it easier to read.

Anyway look at my shiny new header! That was fun to make and I can switch out the pics periodically for shits and giggles.

I don’t have much to write about atm, but I figured I should say something to go along with the shiny new look. Still got a cough but I feel mucho better. Wil Wheaton talked to me… sorta… in his blog comments and I sound like a douche but still! I had a nerdgasm.

There are some new shows I’ll be checking out this fall and I may be able to write a column on them for the paper again. I’m going to check out a new one on NBC called ‘Life,’ which is shaping up to be a cop show with a bit of a twist. ‘Moonlight’ on CBS- I’ll give it a chance anyway. A vampire detective show.. Hmmm.. I think I may end up preferring it when they called it ‘Angel’ but we’ll see. I’m going to pop into ‘Without a Trace’ for five episodes at least since that’s how many James Marsters is guest starring in 🙂 I am fully aware of how lusty silly I get over some TV/Film stars but it’s my fantasy life, I’ll live it however I want 🙂

Then of course there are the usual suspects – Survivor, Bones and ummm… well that’s it until 24 comes back. I don’t have a lot of regulars anymore. Oh Torchwood on the Beeb of course.

Well ok, I guess I had a little bit to write about 🙂

Remember back in April when I talked about my quest to find a beautiful painting I saw on “Angel”? This one behind the stunning David Boreanaz to be exact:

Well as of today, the quest is over. Thanks to the help of my favourite set decorator, I learned the name of the picture, the actual artist and that is was painted in 1983. It is, unfortunately, unavailable in print. There were limited editions but they’ve sold out. Just my luck eh? I will be able to get a 3X5 print though so that’s just what I’m going to do.

This has been fun trying to track something sort of obscure down. I wanted to say thanks to everyone who gave me suggestions and helped me on this odd little journey. Special, big shout out thank you goes to the coolest set decorator ever. Thanks for staying in touch and for letting me get little glimpses into your world. It’s been beyond awesome.

Have I mentioned lately how much I love the Intertubes?

It’s a gorgeous day out today. Overcast and CHILLY! MMmmmm I can’t wait for Fall and today feels like a taste of it.

It’s been a great day so far. I’ve got the last two eps of Torchwood to watch this evening, got some awesome emails from a friend, a pan full of lasagna to give to the G’s later on, and I’m feeling somewhat better cold-wise. Just have to shake the cough, keep up the meds and I should be kicking it before it gets worse.

I think I’ll do a meme since I don’t really have much else to say.

This one is weather-related:

1. Where you live, what kind of weather (or weather-related tragedy) do you fear the most?
Well here in the middle of Tornado Alley I’d better say Tornadoes eh? Here in my city, back in 1980 there were seven big tornadoes that touched down and demolished half the town. There was a book and a film made of it (Night of the Twisters.) I lived in Cali at the time so didn’t go through it, but I had family here that was affected. We came a couple weeks afterwards and saw all the damage.

2. What kind of weather do you MOST enjoy?
Thunderstormy weather. Barring that I tend to prefer cloudy, overcast days more than I do sunny days. I prefer a chill in the air and low low humidity.

3. What kind of weather do you LEAST like to drive in?
I hate driving in snow. I also hate driving in blistering heat, but at least there’s less chance of spinning out on the interstate in the heat.

4. What is the scariest weather-related experience you’ve had in your lifetime?
I’ve never really been through truly scary weather-related stuff. Had to go to the basement a few times during tornado warnings but nothing ever came of them. The scariest thing I’ve been through though was the 1989 7.2 earthquake in Central Cali. I was working in a video shop when everything start rumbling. The closes sound I can think of to emulate it is, if you’ve ever dragged a heavy chair across a cement floor and you get that sort of stuttering grumbling noise.. That’s what it sounded like. The glass was shattering, the TVs were falling our of the shelves, video boxes everywhere… And like idiots we ran outside -right underneath a cement overhang. I remember feeling like I was standing on a waterbed that someone had just bellyflopped onto. I watched my car rock and sway.

My parents were in San Fran at Candlestick watching the world series. My little sis was with our neighbours. So I made it home, found Kelly, and we spent our time trying to get through to family here in Nebby and panicking when we heard the Bay Bridge collapsed in SF. Marina, where we lived, is about a 2, 2 1/2 hour drive from the City. It took my parents close to 12 hours to make it home to us. It was freaky.

5. Share a “weather picture” with us!
Here’s the gallery I put together for the paper’s site on the 1980 tornadoes. The entire site is worth a visit too: www.gitwisters.com.

Oh god today was torture. I got up this morning after a fitful night of flipping from one side to the other because the snot buildup on one side made that side feel like half my face was going to pop like a water balloon. So you flip, everything shifts to the other side but for a few blissful moments you can breathe through your nose and it’s heavenly.

After a shower and some meds I was actually feeling a bit better. Got to work, went to the dungeon to produce the morning Newslink, and by the time I came back upstairs the meds were wearing off. But I couldn’t take more until 1-ish. And I was stuck at work, having given the car to Shannon for the day. So lunch was miserable and the afternoon proceeded to drag by very. slowly. My head was pounding, I was sneezing a lot, filling up the wastebasket with kleenex, coughing, muscles hurting… I seriously thought I was going to cry at some point. I just wanted to go home.

So basically, I’m still sick 🙂 Don’t you just love the graphic descriptions of the common cold? Hehe. Share the pain is what I always say. Judging by the cough that has developed I may be in for a round of bronchitis which, well, fucking sucks if you don’t mind me saying so. Don’t want to go to the doc.

I have to make lasagna again on Sunday. Was supposed to make it and take it to the G’s last weekend but the kid got sick. I made it anyway because it sounded so good. So we’ve been eating on it all week. Now I have to make it again and the G’s want us to eat it with them. I don’t wanna. I just wanted to make it for them to say thanks for helping me with the car thing. My thought was they could freeze it or eat on it for a while or whatever. But they want to share, so it will probably be another year or two before I make this stuff again. I’m lasagna’d out.

Anyway, I’m going to go take more meds and try to sleep. Mmmm meds.

It’s an interesting process, the catching of a cold. When you sit at a desk working away and your face begin to heat up a little. You might sneeze a couple of times but you won’t think anything of it. (side note – god I love to sneeze.) But an hour passes by and you feel a slightly annoying tickle at the back of your throat. You clear the throat a couple of times but by then you can feel your sinus passages filling up with fluids that will either run down your throat and aggravate that tickle, or come out your nose, most likely when you’re chatting to someone.

Your head starts to pound a little, the fluids building up make it feel like an anvil and it’s not long now before your skin is sore to the touch, your throat begins hurting with every swallow and not even ice cream can soothe it.

All of this happens within the space of an afternoon. By the time you leave for the day, your feet are dragging as you walk out to the car, all your joints hurt when you move, and all you can focus on is coming home, crawling in bed and hope this thing passes quickly.

That was me yesterday, and today was worse. Couldn’t even stay at the office the whole day. I don’t want to infect anyone and frankly, sitting and staring at my screen was torture. Eyes watering, snot running, voice getting that sexy, deep gravelly sound – well, that part I kind of dig, but it never lasts.

I slept this afternoon but I despise taking naps. I always feel like utter shite when I wake up from one. I finished snagging a couple more episodes of Torchwood while I dozed so I just got done watching those. I’m doped on decongestants that do nothing but make my mouth dry and vitamins. I’m afraid to take echinacea because my skin reacts to it so I’m afraid I won’t get over this as quickly as the kid did. She got sick Sunday afternoon and today she’s all better.

Anyway, enough whinging. I’d rather go on and on about what a bloody brilliant show Torchwood is. I might even like it better than Dr. Who. At first I was shocked by how, erm, graphic the show is, and the fact they can say ‘shit’ and ‘fuck’ on BBC3 after 9pm apparently. American television is so uptight. Stupid censors.

When I say shocked, I mean that in a good way. It’s refreshing to me since I don’t really watch much of the stuff on the movie channels (Soprano’s and that’s about it) but you wouldn’t catch the unedited Soprano’s on CBS or something. I think unedited Torchwood would probably have to be shown on HBO or Showtime. It’s premiering on BBCAmerica this Saturday, but I bet the edit the crap out of it 🙁

If you dunno what Torchwood is, it’s basically a spinoff of Dr. Who. Torchwood is meant to be a secret agency dealing with aliens and their technology, and they bastardize that stuff in order to arm the human race in case of invasion. They’re a team of five atm led by Captain Jack Harkness who was featured in a few eps of Who. Jack is an immortal Time Agent but his TW team does not know this.

When I say the show is graphic, I mean that in a way I’m not used to. I’m a yank after all I was shocked recently watching something on FX and they said ‘Shit.’ Blew me away. I grew up with censors an I remember what a fight it was to get them to allow the word ‘bitch’ on primetime. Anyway, Best example of what they get away with on TW is the second episode.

An meteor crashes to earth and the entity inside escapes and inhabits the body of a young woman. She’s a club kid type. The entity basically needs to powerful energy created by orgasms to survive. Weird eh? So this chick is shagging like crazy (and wow do they show more than the love scenes on Yank tv shows. No artfully placed sheets here.) I’m talking up against the wall stuff. Ok, bit of an eye-opener for me, but it was the next scene where the security guy has to explain to Jack and the team how the bloke she was shagging died (oh yeah, once she gets off, whomever she’s doing explodes and dusts like a vamp.) He was watching them on cctv cam and having a wank. And THAT would never be shown here.

It wasn’t shown in detail on TW either. Was just a facial (ha!) shot but you knew what he was up to. I know I keep going on about me being taken aback but it was only because I’m jealous of how much freer the UK, hell Europe in general is about stuff like that. You don’t think about it really, living here in the states , but when you see stuff like this that you know is on a normal channel across the pond, it makes you a little pissed at conservatives who are forever ‘guarding the nation’s morals’ by threatening to boycott blah blah blah if the networks don’t conform to their narrow views. Turn the feckin’ tv off if you don’t like what you see. Change the channel. Guard your own damn morals and let me mind mine.

Well.. bit of a tangent there. Blame my meds.

Anyway Torchwood good. Fluid in sinuses bad and my morals are just fine thank you very much.