Fringe

Let's just get one thing straight: Abrams knows how to get the right lead female on his shows. If Fringe isn't the next Lost, then at least it has Olivia Dunham, played by the Brit Anna Torv. (She's British-- her name isn't Brit.) There's this one scene in the pilot that Torv has to get a little nakey-nakey and she looks sexy-sexy. Whaddaya know, she's also a blonde. On a side note, I think we can officially stop calling my infatuations with blondes just a fad, and instead realize that I find blondes attractive.

Yeah, so Anna Torv is cute. She's not dream-about-her-every-night material yet. For one thing, she's a human being so eff me for objectifying blah blah blah. Just Watch Fringe for her if you don't like Sci-Fi.


Meat And Potatoes of Fringe

Now on to my impression of the the "leaked" pilot of the new science fiction show Fringe. It's produced by J.J. "Lost" Abrams. Fringe's pilot is not of the same caliber as Lost's phenomenol first episode. While Lost keeps you on the edge and wanting more straight through its two hour premiere, Fringe starts off with a similar bang (plane fetish?), but due to the incredulity of some of the "science" in the episode, Fringe starts to taper off in the middle acts.

Also, maybe there's not enough characters yet, like in Lost, but the few faces of Fringe lack chemistry. I think Joshua Jackson's character was supposed to be witty, but he came across as annoying. When everyone else was having their own serious conversation, in this pilot, Jackson would interrupt with a "witty" remark that everyone would ignore. I think the writers were trying to make it funny. I'm hoping that he isn't just relegated to comic relief.

But just think of how beautiful Anna Torv is and you'll be fine.

There's definitely potential for the future of Fringe if it doesn't get cancelled. They strictly deal with an unknown source doing fringe science experiments on the world itself which call the phenomenon "the pattern". Sounds freaky, so me likey. It's Dunham's job to find out who is doing this and how they're all connected. There's mythology that can be explored in this series. I hope there's alot more twists and turns and mystery, though. If they can introduce better dialogue that would be a plus.



Not Like Any Pie I Know

This time last year I was super-hyped for Pushing Daisies after seeing its pilot, though I'm not raving about Fringe after seeing its pilot, I'd say it's at least better than anything that's new on TV this Fall. But that's just saying how crappy all the other new shows are. I hate my grammar.

Where Have All The Asian Girls Gone? (Borderline Racist)

Let me preface this post with a little disclaimer. Yes, I will admit that my confidence and self-esteem fluctuate a lot, but I have to ask the world,

"What is up with all these Asian girls NOT dating Asian dudes?"

More specifically, it's always a the white guy who ends up with the Asian girl. Maybe this perceived problem is similar to how some black men wonder why all the black women don't date them.

Or maybe, I just answered my own question in the first line of this post? (Typical over-achieving Asian male, answering his own questions in a single karate chop.)

I know the typical answer would be that Asian guys tend to not be assertive enough. That they are too shy and do not make any moves, thus leaving the girl to any other guy. Yeah, I can see this. It's true in many cases and for any ethnicity. But come on, you're telling me that there are no Asian guys who are slightly assertive enough to get with their female counterparts? Really?

You know what, maybe we should just go for white girls. White girls have yellow fever too, don't they? Don't they?

Meh.

Obama Nomination

How do I know I'm American? Whenever I hear the "I Have a Dream" speech, whenever it's played and I hear the sincerity and hope in Dr. King's voice, I always almost cry.

I think it's hard for some people to understand this. Some people think that you have to be black in America to feel the power of the words and believe in it's meaning. Well, I'm not black. I'm just American. Actually, I think anyone in the world can connect with the message that we are all brothers and sisters regardless of our many differences. Yes, we do have differences and it's a mistake to pretend like they do not exist. Color exists but that does not make us human. Gender and sexuality exist but that does not make us human.

It's probably easier for me since wherever I go, I see all types of people who are not afraid to walk on the same sidewalk with each other. We are all different, but there is something about living in America that brings out our shared experiences and our similarities.

This country is far, far, far from perfect, but if we can elect a black man to be our most highest servant, then humanity is one step closer to getting closer. Think of it as globalization but more brotherly and more celebratory of our unique qualities, minus all the forced conformity to a single ideal.

I hope I make sense.

Life, Prince, Nina Meyers

You Have Video Games In My TV Soup

I think there's a word for when two things you like to do that are usually separate meet with interesting results. The summer is basically done and it's time for classes to begin once again (When will this school thing end? When I say it does.), so I have spent my time just going online and watching the tv show Life on Hulu. I'm up to the seventh episode and there's a part where the detectives have to play video games for something. Lo' and behold, they end up playing Prince of Persia, and guess what I'm using to currently feed my addiction? Prince of Persia!

Pretty neat, huh? My life is so awesome.

The interesting thing is how they totally butcher or alter the game. Prince of Persia does not have levels per se, yet in the plot of the episode, the police have to get to level ten to unlock something. Also, just throw in the usual Hollywood tactic where whenever there's video games, some plays it like they're having a manual seizure. Nobody moves there body like that. This isn't Wii Sports.



Hotties

Life is a decent show, so I might have to tune in this season. But people should definitely watch out for Fringe. It's pretty high on the buzz meter, and though I have downloaded the pilot, I have yet to find the right time to settle down and enjoy the show properly. I just may have to watch on premiere night 9-09-08.

The episode of Life I was talking about had particularly good looking women. So get ready to add more girls to the Asukal files. No, none of them blonde, but there is a red-head. There's this one chick, Sarah Shahi, who I suspect is of Persian descent. She's petite so that's definitely a plus, but she gives of a strong but sexy vibe. Yes, very sexist of me, but I'm just saying. Shahi is cute. She reminds me of Vanessa Marcil of Las Vegas fame, also from NBC. It's good that brunettes are being represented now in this Asukal post. It's a good change from the usual oh-my-god-I-think-I-have-a-blonde-proclivity posts.

Though I am still a huge, huge, Chelsie Hightower obsessed fan.

Oh, Chelsie. :)

I almost forgot! Sarah Clarke, yes Nina from 24, was in this episode. She's still hot. And interestingly enough, two things I like have intersected again: Sarah Clarke is sporting a blonde do. I don't know if she's really a blonde (I know she's hot), but does this count as another one in the I'm-a-blonde-guy-now-for-real column?

Still Waiting

It's weird that the summer is coming to an end. It's even weirder that I'm still in school. This coming Fall will hopefully be my final semester in the masters in education program. But, I am actually hoping to start a second masters in biochemistry come next Spring. I figure, I might as well stack up in degrees, but I'm getting ahead of myself. The school's decision should arrive late September or October. So we'll see.

Right now though, my youngest brother just left for college the other day. I feel so old now! I'm a thousand percent positive that he'll fit in well and have the best years of his life in Binghamton. As for me, I am, of course, just a commuting grad student.

My Lolo is in the hospital, though. He's always had trouble breathing, but it's gotten bad since he recently returned from the Philippines. So when he finally got checked by the doctors after months of trying to tolerate his condition, the doctor decided that he should be left in the hospital for a while for some observations. I hope he does well and gets better because I'm sure it's hurting my Lola so bad right now. I'm not too down though. It's not like this just happened out of thin air, and I'm hopeful anyway.

So that's my life right now. A sort of purgatory in that I am technically out of college, but I'm still in school. Anyway, good luck to my bro and get better, Lolo.

Oh, Chelsie

Check out my new celebrity (?) crush: Chelsie Hightower. The judges on So You Think You Can Dance call her a firecracker on stage, and who would disagree? Chelsie really destroys the competition with her Latin ballroom skills. I can't stop watching her dances on youtube. Her partner Mark definitely deserves props, even though I'm jealous that he got to dance with her. So it's no surprise I was a little bummed she didn't make it one more week for the finale.

From a purely dancing point of view, I really enjoy her dancing. All the Latin stuff is great. Part of it might have something to do with her beautiful legs (I'm not even a leg guy!). The best thing outside of the way she shakes those hips of hers (oh em gee), is her playfulness off of the dancefloor. The clips of her rehearsals really make her seem like just a chill person. I'm actually surprised that I find her so attractive since she has this tomboyish nature to her. In fact, that's what probably adds to her fireyness.

There are fans of the show who may believe that Courtney deservedly advanced to the finals over Chelsie, but Chelsie had the edge in my book. Some may say Courtney got in because she's sexier, but at least to me, Chelsie is sexy. She just exudes sexiness on the dancefloor, and more importantly, she can switch it up when she gets off the stage. That's definitely very appealing because of the great contrast. It feels like you could just hang out with her, but then she could still do the whole girly thing (but not too girly).

Marry me, Chelsie!






Wow, another blonde? I might have to do away with the whole "I'm not attracted to blondes" thing. In the mean time, I'm going to learn the Argentine tango.

Dollars and No Sense

If you are interested in buying this "app" for your iPhone, but are not able to, I suggest a similar alternative which is to have the words "I am a douche" tatooed on your forehead. Best of all, it's cheaper. If you don't like cheap, then pay a homeless guy $999.99 to punch you in the face. The homeless dude can use that money to buy brass knuckles that can leave a similar imprint on your smugly mug as said phrase.

Thank you.

Family Vacation

I just returned from my Myrtle Beach vacation--well, actually, my family and I came back two days ago, but who's keeping track?

I should have blogged during my time off to save my memories in the internet bottle, but I did not have adequate internet access. That, and I was lazy.

We stayed in the awesome beach house of my aunt and my first thought is how I wish I would be rich one day. Besides the warm sun that reminded me how great it was to be a teacher during the summer (too bad I'm not working anymore), the best thing about the vacation was spending time with extended family. My brothers and I were once pretty close to our cousins from West Virginia when we were younger, but after they went to boarding school and we all went through our awkward phases, we did not visit each other as much. It's not perfect now and I will always say that nothing ever is, but at least now, I have a better appreciation for family and friends. In fact, I would go so far as to say that we might be getting closer.

The way I see it, family and friends have things in common. Friends are people you can confide in and be yourself with no reservations. Finding these people is difficult and even harder to maintain relations with them. But for some reason, family is always there. The best thing though is family who can be friends. I'm hoping that this is the case not just for those cousins I was once close to, but for my cousins half way across the world, cousins just barely teens and cousins who have their own families now.

The more the merrier.

I know I haven't told any family about my little asukal blog here, but I would like to just say to them: Until the next time we share the sun together, I have your backs and you have mine and it's good to know that.

Ciao.