It's my Blog's Birthday!

I can't believe I've been blogging for 3 years, sometimes it feels like forever and others like I'm just starting. 

I've learned so much, met so many amazing people and read some seriously awesome books, the blog has gone through so many changes! And I'm just so happy that some night back in 2008 I took the plunge and I stuck to it - like I rarely stick to thinks in my life - and now I'm here. 

Thanks to everyone who has helped me and answered my questions, to the wonderful bloggers that are always inspiring me and tempting me to give it a try to the awesome books they read too, and to everyone who has ever visited the blog and stuck to it and me. 

Thanks!

Now, lets eat some Blogversary cupcakes! :)

As Seen on TV: Eagerly Awaiting for Fall!

Summer is nearly over - though it has been a very damp and cold summer this year here in my corner of the woods - and the hype for the Fall Season is getting to me. So here are the shows I'm eagerly awaiting for, this Fall.

Supernatural
As I've said before, Supernatural used this awesome show that I always forgot to watch. During the first three seasons I liked it if I remembered to watch it but I wasn't obsessed. Then, one night last year I couldn't sleep and I watched "Lazarus Rising", the first episode of season four. I was in love.

Season Five just took everything into the next level and was surprisingly funny. The struggle that Sam and Dean went through to re-build their friendship and brotherhood was awesome. The end of Season five was so satisfying... so much that I sort of can't imagine where they are taking this series next and I can't wait to see it all unfold before my eyes.


The Big Bang Theory
I'm a geeky girl at heart - I even got my biology degree to prove it! - and when I saw The Big Bang Theory it was like a match made in heaven. I love Penny and Sheldon (featured them in my favorite TV couples list, actually lots of these shows were in the list! *giggle*) and the effect they have with each other, for me they are the best of the show.

Last season was awesomely fun, and I can't wait to see Season 4, and Sheldon actually having a relationship! With a woman! (aside from Penny who's really more like his Mom).


How I Met Your Mother
This Series stole my heart when I caught a marathon in TV a few years ago. Since then I've followed Ted in his quest to find "The Mother" and just in generally living an awesome life.

I love the Robin Sparkles' episodes and whenever Barney comes into the scene. Marshall and Lily continue to entrain me and well, I do like Ted and his idealism, her quest to find love and everything he dreamed of.


Bones
Booth and Brennan and all the mysteries they try to solve - which are cool and all but, you know, not the point of the series - I love, love, love them. Can't wait for the day when they finally get together. Meanwhile I just like seeing Brennan being her emotionally constipated self and how Booth makes her confront those feelings she doesn't want o feel.

Plus, by now I have a real emotional investment with everyone else in the show, like Cam, Angela, Hodgins and Sweets, and the rotation of squints. From what I hear, there will be some shake ups coming to the Jeffersonian in the next season, and I'll be glued to the TV watching!


Modern Family
A mockumentary of what it means to be a family in the 21st Century. I admit I waited until mid-season to catch up with the first half of this series, I kept hearing it was great but I wasn't sure until I took the plunge. It took abo
ut 3 minutes before I was laughing and there has not been one episode where I haven't laughed like a maniac. Recently I showed the episodes to my sister and she loves it.

Three very different approaches to life and parenting, but they all got one thing in common: love.


Glee
Glee is my Love-Hate show, sometimes I love it sometimes I just want the episode to be over *cough*Madonna*cough*. But I watch it anyway because I love music and I love the way they sing - songs like Bad Romance or The Boys Is Mine, I only like when I hear them sung by the Glee Cast - and I love Sue Sylvester.

Plus this is one of the few shows my sister and I agree to watch together, and last Christmas I spent four days in Texas watching the series with my dear cousin Anabel and we all really bonded over it. This season I'm really looking forward to Kurt getting some loving and more from Santana and Britney, and to hear Puck sing more because I <3 his singing voice. Okay, so that's what I can't wait for this new season! What about you guys?

Anime Addiction: UltraManiac

Since I am AnimeGirl and all, I decided to finally talk a bit about Anime. So here is to the launch of ANIME ADDICTION!!!

First off, one of my favorite series: Ultra Maniac.

I reviewed the manga last year, and now it's time for the anime.

Ayu Tateshi isn't interested in magic or fantasy or anything of the like. A very pragmatic and mature 14 year old, she worries mostly about school, tennis and her long time crush Tetushi Kaji, and she never really believed in magic and fantasy. But its hard to deny magic when your new best friend is a bumbling witch.

While I can't tell you how Ayu and Nina met (because that chapter is shown mid-way through the series), lets just say that Ayu was left with no option but to help Nina in her quest to gather the Holy Stones, which will help her improve her magic level and bring honor to Nina's family - particularly to her grandfather - back in the Magic Kingdom. In return, Nina wants nothing more than to help Ayu to finally confess her feelings to Tetushi, but Nina's magic frequently lands them both in trouble and they often have to act silly in front of Tetushi and his best friend Hiroki.

There is a more defined narrative arc in the anime than in the manga, we know from the start that when Nina gets all the stones, she'll have to go home - and possibly marry a prince - but just as with the manga there are tons of charm in this story, cute outfits and the portrayal of a strong friendship between two young girls who are very different but love each other very much. And there is romance, of course!

Ultra Maniac is one of my favorite anime series, I go back to it again and again because it just gives me such warm fuzzies and it's so, so funny (there is a truly hilarious episode when Nina turns Ayu and Hiroki's pets into people! Not to be missed, trust me!).

Alex's Personal Favorite

Ps - if You look closely, you'll realize that Ayu is actually the anime girl from my avatar *grins*

As Seen on TV: Drop Dead Diva

When aspiring model/actress Deb died in a car-crash she decided she was not ready to let go of life yet. Not used to not getting what she wants, Deb caused a bit of a stir up in heaven and ended up being sent back to earth, and to the body of Jane Bingum, an overachiever lawyer who also happens to be a physical opposite of Deb's former appearance.

Jane is plus-sized, dark haired and a few years older than Deb was, Deb - formerly blond, thin and gorgeous - is not too happy about that but since the choice is Jane's life or no life, Deb settles into her new identity, reluctantly at first but eventually growing to like herself with the help of the only two people who know what's really going on; her guardian angel Fred and her best friend Stacy.

There is also another perk to being Jane (aside from her money and awesome car) as it turns out Deb's fiance now works at the same law firm Jane does. And if Deb was not ready to let go of life, she's way more unprepared to let go of Grayson.

When during the summer of 2009 I happened to watch the first episode of Drop Dead Diva I experienced a case of love at first sight. From the start this series was funny and had lots of heart. Deb's struggle to settle into a life completely different than her own, the way she found herself caring for other people - while before she had been a little shallow - and how she tries to make peace with a body image that her former-self would have found unacceptable is awesome to watch.

This summer, with the second season, I loved to see Jane grow, she doesn't think herself as Deb so much anymore even though she still loves Grayson, and I loved this episode where Deb thanks Jane for all the things she gave her unknowingly, like an awesome singing voice; dark shinny hair and a brain that has never let her down (I admit I cried at that a bit), because it's not that Deb was dumb but she relied on her looks to get her by.

The second season ended in a huge cliffhanger, true, and I'm already counting the days till it's summer again and I can continue enjoying her adventures.

And I couldn't let summer end without mentioning Drop Dead Diva, 'cause it did liven many a weekend these last few months.

Take your time to catch up and don't miss it next year!

Personal Favorite

List Maniac # 5 - Favorite TV couples

So, I realized that I've been neglecting ListManiac as of late, so I decided to do a series of Top Fives. And, since is season finale time on TV, I decided to kick it off with my TOP 5 FAVORITE TV COUPLES!!

5. Fox Mulder and Dana Scully (The X-Files)
I didn't know what sexual tension was until I saw the X files, granted I had no business knowing what sexual tension was since I was, like, thirteen but even back then I knew that there was something between Mulder and Scully and that kept me glued to the TV for quite a few years watching them go all over the U.S. trying to find aliens and the like. And, trust me, it wasn't the aliens.

4. Robin and Barney (How I Met Your Mother)

Their romance didn't last long but it was good while it did. And even before and after they dated, they were awesome as friends and still are. One of my favorite episodes of HIMYM was when Robin was Barney's wind men and she did 'suit up' and everything. I think that's when he began to fall in love with her. I still hold hope in my TV-loving heart that they will get back together some day.

3. Penny and Sheldon (The Big Bang Theory).

Okay, these aren't a 'couple' couple, but they are a couple of people whose chemistry sizzles. Together they make for some of the funniest TV I've seen in recent years - I'm a geek at heart, I even got a degree on Biology with focus on water, so I love all the science jokes - and I truly believe they are the heart of The Big Bang Theory. Penny has common sense and street smarts which Sheldon completely lacks; and I think being around her has made Sheldon a little more human and a bit less cyborg. Love whenever they have scenes together and when the song "Soft Kitty" comes up.

2. Booth and Brennan (Bones)

In every episode, Agent Booth and Dr. Brennan work together to solve all type of crimes involving human remains, but that's only half the show, the other half is definitely the relationship between these two. The times I have liked Dr. Brennan the most have been when she lets her guard down and shows how much she cares for Booth. And Booth, well, he's awesome.

1. Buffy and Spike (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

Okay, sure, I liked Angel was much as the next person and I do think that the "Passion" episode (when Angel goes all evil and kills Giles' girlfriend) is one of the best of the series as a whole but Buffy and Spike thing was way more awesome. I guess that, as a teenager I would have found Angel more appealing, but as a twenty-something girl, Spike is the one that makes my heart beat faster. Spike is sarcastic and sexy and should be bad, but he's actually quite honest and was there when Buffy needed him. So, go Spike! And yeah, I really like Buffy when she's with Spike, she has never been a damsel in distress but the kick-butt factor goes up a notch when she's with Spike.

Special Mentions go to: Daniel Mead and Betty Suarez // Amanda Tanen-Sommers and Mark St. James (Ugly Betty). Why? Because these two couples show that friendship is love too, and that it takes just as much work as any other relationship to make it last. Love Amanda and Mark, who are best friends, know everything good and bad about each other and love one another to death. And Daniel and Betty, well, let me just say that in my mind they did ride into the (London) sunset together.

See ya soon, for more lists!
Love,

Attention Please: YA & Bad Romance

I was just reading Meg's post@In Which a Girl Reads regarding bad romance and YA's and it got me thinking real bad.

Go read the post, she's very eloquent about the whole thing and her basic premise is that there are some books (she names the likes of Twilight, Hush Hush, Fallen, etc.) in current YA Fiction that encourage Bad Romance, romance where the 'hero' is basically a domineering male that stalks, harasses, treats the heroine like dirt but is so hot that the heroine is eventually convinced that he is her true love.

She explains a lot more and links to other awesome posts.

Go Check it out!

Story of My Life #4 -I Freely Admit...

... (Or Endings I Didn't Care For)

I freely admit I'm one of those people who tend to compare 'Real Life' to whatever fictional world I happen to be obsessed with at a time - this time frame can go for a few hours spent watching a movie to years of wishing there was a real Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and the fictional worlds include movies, TV, books (of course!) and even anime (surreal hair and all!).

I also freely admit that I get seriously pissed off when I don't get the ending I hoped for. Like today, for example, I was busy, had chores to do and errands to run temptation won and I decided to channel surf for a bit before getting a move on (because, as I've said many times before, I'm lazy), and I stumbled across an Audrey Hepburn movie (another free admission: I love Audrey's movies) and I had to watch.

The movie was called The Nun's Story, and it's about a young Belgian woman who enters a convent to both become and nun and a nurse (and work in Congo) and eventually has to decide it she's really meant to be a nun or not. Well, let me tell you something: it took me about twenty minutes to figure out she was not cut to be a nun, it took her two and a half hours (and about, I guess, some 10 years of her life as portrayed in the film) to realize she wanted to be a nurse more than she wanted to be a nun.

There is a flirtation with a doctor - if it looks like a flirtation and it quacks like a flirtation, I'm calling it a flirtation, even though she's still a nun at this point - once she FINALLY gets to Congo, but then nothing happens, she's sent back to Europe, and we never hear from Congo ever again, thank you very much! Half an hour later the movie is over, *SPOILER ALERT* she quits being a nun, and that's it.

I mean it: That's It! I felt completely cheated out of my time. I don't know if I expected some big romantic ending (maybe, I do hope for and expect a little bit of romance in everything because it's my favorite genre in the world), but I hoped for something. I hoped to learn that, after everything, she would be happy.

I hoped and that's a big thing for me.

I can deal with endings that are less-than perfectly wrapped in a bow (like in Nick and Nora's Infinite Play List or even in Buffy, The Vampire Slayer) but I need hope. I need to have the feeling in my gut that these characters - these people - I just shared part of my heart with have some sort of Happy in their future.

Because, without hope, what's really the point of it all?

Just My Favorite Kind

I don't know about you but I'm the type of girl who loves the Olympic Games, I cry during the opening ceremonies, I wake up at all hours to see events - during Beijing 2008 I was having a really hard time because it so happens that my heart problems were at their worst and I felt super ill every time I got excited about something, not the best frame of mind to watch sporting events, let me tell you - I go for two weeks with little sleep and I love every minute of it.

The first games I remember of my own volition are Barcelona 92, I was eight and what I remember the most was watching lots of gymnastics with my grandma and also the amazing venue where they held the diving competitions. 

However, and much as I love the Summer Games, my heart truly belongs to the Winter Olympics. The first ones I truly remember were the ones of Lillehammer, Norway, when that whole thing between Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan went down, I was still pretty young, but I remember all the drama.

I guess that's when I fell in love with figure skating, it was very different sport back then - kind of like gymnastics, actually - but it was still beautiful. Now I'm a faithful follower of skating, dancing mostly, I love watching the couples dancing on the ice, which is funny because when I was little no one cared about ice dancing. 

Like I said, times change, but my love remains the same. Here is to the Winter Games, my favorite kind of Olympics.

Vancouver, don't disappoint me!