Change is good

Yes, change is good. I thoroughly enjoy it, when it comes to television. First of all, I love Addison’s new show. Tim Daly is so adorable, and Addison totally moved down there because he kissed her. Oh, not to mention the other McHott fella, Taye Diggs! Private Practice is full of eye candy, and there’s still Christopher Lowell, who we best know from Veronica Mars. The only real criticism that I can think of is the fact that these women seem about as whiny as Meredith, and we don’t really need a show full of Merediths. One is enough. Sometimes more than enough.

Yes, back to my show. Seriously, I was sitting in my dorm room counting down the minutes during Ugly Betty, because as soon as it was over, and ran downstairs to the great room. Our friends were watching Smallville, and I gotta tell ya, that show’s freaking boring. But up the last minute, girls were trailing in, “what are you guys watching,” “we’re turning on Grey’s Anatomy in a minute,” and we heard them squeal. Funny stuff.

So it starts off with everything new, fresh, changed. The interns are residents (sans George) and Callie is Chief Resident. I thought that even though it was retarded that Callie got chief over Bailey, it showed how freaked out she gets under pressure, and the problem that everyone has with her. No matter what position Bailey’s in, she’ll still be their teacher no matter what. I loved that about it. And I think what showed it the most was that fact that all four of them took Bailey’s exact five rules and used them as their own. Alex was badass though. Cristina was badass, Meredith was …eh, and Izzie. I love Izzie, and I think that even though she got the “lame” case, it showcased what kind of person she is. I, for one, think that the kid’s dad was an asshole. He disgusted me.

I think my favorite part was though when Mark confronted Derek. “I didn’t come here for Chief, I didn’t come here for Addison, I came here to get you back.” It’s so gay, but so funny. Derek needs to mend the bridge though. He doesn’t have Addison to talk to, Burke, or Meredith really, so he needs a friend. Mark can be his friend, and I really believe that it could add an interesting dynamic to the show, a more lighthearted tone, and that’s what Shonda said that she was going for this season. She said she was going back to what made Grey’s so popular in the first place. She’s making all us followers happy. We’ve stuck with these characters through thick and thin, and we need some kind of a payoff.

So, yeah…what else?

Oh, right…GIZZIE!

But first, how much do I love Lexie…she’s kind of…awesome. She’s George’s new best intern friend. So he’ll be with Izzie and be friends with Lexie. I love it, but Mer was a bitch. She just walked away from her at the end. She’s your half sister, talk to her to whiny mopey beeyotch.

But, as I was saying.

My roommate and I just sat there when they cut to the final scene, Izzie in the house, and the doorbell rang. We both grabbed onto her blanket and clutched it so tightly until she opened the door. I swear, I could feel my eyes watering. They welled up with joy. I get that way when I get attached to characters. I really get attached to characters, which is why George could not leave last year. I wasn’t all that attached to Burke, so it was fine when he left for me. But when George said it to Izzie, “I love you too,” I think my heart might have skipped a beat. And I really don’t think that I’m exaggerating. I guess it just put it in my head that maybe I could have a love like that one day. Not an adulterous one, but a real one that came from such an organic place, that it couldn’t be fake. Wow, that was deep. I’m getting ahead of myself.

I can’t wait until next week.

Seriously.

❤ Abby

Recess is in session

Actually, it’s not. I wish.

Nothing worked out today, seriously. I went to go meet Linda this morning about the newspaper at 11 in the TUB, but guess what? She didn’t show up. I waited their for a half an hour, watching Kenny unload the commuter lunch, which was fried chicken and potato salad. It smelled delicious. But I sat there, waiting and waiting, wondering if she forgot or if she got held up somewhere. Then Kenny asked me who I was waiting for. I told him Linda, and that we were meeting about the newspaper. “Good luck with that,” he said. I’m not sure if he was kidding, but he sounded sincere. It just kind of disappointed me.

On the other hand, I finally found out who my conversation partner is. Her name is Yoshiko Watanabe; the email said Watanbe, but think they meant Watanabe. Oh well. It also said she likes sports, health and reading. At least I think it’s a girl. I don’t see why they would put me with a guy. But we had the tea party after japanese class today, but I drank cocoa. There was a guest speaker, who is self-published. Her name was Bobbi, and she read some selections from her book of short vignettes. That’s kind of what I want to write. I seriously want to write a book. But more of that later. I was so excited to meet Yoshiko, but she wasn’t there. Apparently, the kid in the office only sent the email out to some of the people, so I left after the speaker. I guess I’ll just have to email her for now.

Back to my book. I wasn’t kidding. I think I actually might call it “All That Jazz Woohoobidy…and other misprints.” That’s clever right? You can guess what it will be about…hmmm, I wonder. My journalism experience, starting with Outlook, and then maybe on to the Belltower. Who knows? But the title I thought was catchy. The misprints could be referring to the mistakes we made, or to ourselves. We’re the misprints. Hehe. I like it when books use interesting of important parts of the book as the title. I’m not much for overly creative titles or one-word titles that really don’t mean anything. I like really random titles. Hotel California would be a good title too, I guess. It wouldn’t make as much sense though, and it wouldn’t be as catchy, plus, I think that there would be copyright problems, seeing that it’s the title of an Eagles song as well. Oh well, I have plenty of time to think about that. But I really want to write a book, because it could make me some moola if it sold good. And I know marketing.

Gotta go to dinner.

❤ Abby

Lambda Delta chi omega…whatever, who really gives a fuck?

Apparently a lot of girls at my school do. I don’t know if it’s just me, but does the whole concept of a sorority completely cancel out everything Catholic? I guess that’s why they kicked out the two sororities at school, Lambda Chi Omega and Delta something. They just call it Delta, because that’s probably all that they can remember when they’re wasted–which is basically what they do. Lambda is the one that supposedly does all the community service, but they are the ones breaking girls down from pledge week. Girls have cracked, crying in the halls, not getting enough sleep, it’s ridiculous. Lambda has to wear blue all week and these heart necklaces with humiliating nicknames, and Delta has to where red all week and carry around water bottles covered in red and black duct tape.

Most girls say that it’s because of sisterhood and they want to feel like they fit in. I personally wouldn’t want to be friends with anyone that made me do thirty push-ups because I was late or makes me call them “co-pledgemaster.” One of them was like, “good afternoon co-pledgemaster.” And then she said “girls, say hello to your brother.” And they were all “hello brother Court.” Cult, much? And I thought that Outlook was a cult, but JESUS! And this is Catholic school. But the reason they got kicked out, it’s great, the school got sued because people got hurt and they’re grades dropped during pledge week. Some people in my classes are losing their voices because they aren’t getting enough sleep. And it’s not just the girls. They guys are in on it too, but they have their fraternities–Omega and Alpha something. Half of them are wearing shirts and ties, the other half dyed their hands red, and started letting off cherry bombs, no wonder they aren’t affiliated with the school anymore.

I’m just glad that Shelly and I decided not to even go to the open house. The girls from Lambda came and visited our room and told us about the community service and stuff, and we considered it. We were like, this is Catholic school, how bad could they be? But once we heard that they aren’t actually affiliated with the school anymore, we were like “no.”

Thank God, literally.

❤ Abby

MTV actually amazed me

Not because of the sheer amazingness of the VMAs, but because of the sheer amazement I had when I saw Britney Spears walk on stage to perform her new single, “Gimme More.” More what? More clothes? More bad hair extensions? More stupid career moves? I think you’ve had enough of that Britney. But SERIOUSLY people, she must have been drunk or something, because I’m not even sure she knew where she was. The Britney I remember had some kicking dance moves, or at least energy on stage. I could have evoked more energy, and I bet I weigh about 50 pounds more than her. She has put on some weight, and she looks somewhat normal, but she’s Britney Spears, she’s not supposed to be normal. So basically, Britney, you suck.

So Britney wasn’t the only thing bad about the VMAs. But I didn’t realize how much I didn’t listen to mainstream music anymore. I hadn’t heard of half of the songs that were up for awards tonight. I’d never heard the supposedly amazing Shakira and Beyonce collaboration. The only person I really respected winning was Justin Timberlake, because he’s an actual musician. But it drives me crazy having Timbaland following him around all the time. I mean, come on Justin, you have enough fame for yourself. And you’re way sexier. I’d like to “go home with him” tonight. Whoa. Anyway. Rihanna has surpised me at well. For how young she is, and how dirty the metaphors in her songs are, they are pretty catchy, and it takes a lot for me to listen to some 20 year old R&B singer from Barbados. I’m a music snob, I’ll admit it.

Technical difficulties and slipped-up words pervarded the whole night, starting with Pete Wentz announcement for the deaf. Alicia Keys at least saved it with her articulate hosting. Speaking of Alicia Keys…PRAISE ALICIA! She had by far the best performance of the night, which I expected, because she never disappoints. It was a little predictable, but a predictable performance from a great musician is better than a surprising one from a former star… coughBRITNEYcough.

Back to the mediocre-ness. I think it was Miss Teen USA, but she should never be allowed to speak in public again. She sounded so absolutely rehearsed and retarded reading off the teleprompter. But Sara Silverman should host everything from now on. Come on, you knew she you were thinking everything she said. I’d seen her host the Independent Music Awards before, and she was pretty damn amazing. “Her babies are as cute as the hairless vagina that they came out of.” Who else would have the balls to say that? And Sarah doesn’t even have balls.

But probably the most surprising part of the night was that I actually enjoyed Chris Brown’s performance. Normally, I would have switched the radio from one of this numerous singles with absolutely no actual meaning behind them, seeing that he is only 18, but his Michael-esque dance moves were pretty nifty. I liked how he started off as a dancing puppet, it was an interesting way to get the audience interested. He couldn’t lip sync to save his life, but his pelvic thrusts could get him out of the some pretty sticky situations (and into some if you’re into that).

Okay, so there were some good things about the show, including the fact that Mark Ronson (<3!) was the house band. I always wondered why the better artists got the job of house band, like last year, it was the Racontuers, which includes one of the most visionary guitarists of our generation. But even with the adorable DJ providing the soundtrack to the night, the biggest mishap that MTV made was not holding the show at Radio City Music Hall in NYC. I mean, the Palms? Miami was just as bad 2 years ago, but this year’s show included random house parties on different floors, with interfering performances from the Foo Fighters, Fall Out Boy, Justin Timberlake and Kanye West. I, personally, was very angry with Dave Grohl for agreeing to play this year. Dave, you are one of the greatest drummers of our time, and you’re playing a random suite party for the network that “killed the radio star.” Shame on you.

So, this year’s Video Music Awards pretty much sucked. Hands down. Rihanna won video of the year, hooray for her. If y’all can remember, Panic! At the Disco won last year. What happened to variety? The most alternative nominee I saw was Pete, Bjorn and John for best new artist. They should have won. Gym Class Heroes are pretty good too, but still. This year’s VMAs made me miss the days of three pop queens writhig around in wedding dresses on stage tongue-kissing. Seriously. Seriously? Seriously.

The iPhone: can you say iRebate?

Following a two-month sales high, Steve Jobs announced that Apple Computers Inc. would be lowering the price of the iPhone, their newest product, from $599 to $399 for the 8 GB model in time for the holiday season.

Jobs broke the news to the public at an Apple Event in San Francisco on Thursday, where he previewed the new versions of the iPod Nano and the iPod Touch, another brand-new product that Apple is releasing for the holiday season.

“It’s pretty amazing, and this is what we’re going into the holiday season with,” Jobs said in reference to Apple’s lineup of products, “but we want to get more aggressive.”

Apple has been known for its quick innovations, and upgrades one right after another, but this plan came from the biggest hype that Apple has ever seen. In just the first day on June 29 of this year, Apple dished out 270,000 iPhones. The following weeks of sales did not go as high as Jobs had hoped, which in turn, led to his decision to lower the price.

“The surveys are in, and the numbers on the customer satisfaction for the iPhone are off the charts,” Job said, “the customer [satisfaction] numbers are higher for the iPhone than any other Apple product ever.”

The iPhone faced much scrutiny before it was released in June, following speculation that the touch screen was a malfunction waiting to happen and that all the things it was capable of would get too confusing for luddites used to simple keypads and camera phones. But the iPhone exceeded expectations, turning itself into the top item on most of America’s holiday wish lists.

“We’re on track, to ship our millionth iPhone at the end of this month, and to get ready for the holiday season, here’s what we’re going to do…the 8 GB model is not going to sell for $599 anymore. Starting today effective immediately going into this holiday season, we are going to price the 8 GB model of the iPhone at just $399.”

The audience applauded Jobs on his proclamation, as well as the rest of America. Jobs even thought about all those iPhone users who bought their model for the full $599 in the last two months. Apple will be sending a $100 credit for any Apple store to all the people who already use the iPhone. It’s not quite a rebate, but it is following in Apple’s user-friendly policy.

As the applause died down, Jobs ended the conference, “we want to put iPhones in a lot of stockings this holiday season.”