Reason #832473804738 Why I'm Still A Linkin Park Fan...

Mike Shinoda "Baracks" my socks...that and I'm pretty much a sucker for anything with puppets.

Guilty Pleasures (Music edition)

I love Robyn. Ever since "Show Me Love" back in like '98 or whatever...I can't explain it. She's just fantastic. She has that tinny, pop-y voice, but wonderfully enough, neither her singing nor her songs annoy me, or do my head in, so to speak (I love the way people talk overseas!). She fell off fast in the fickle US market, but Europe knows her...mostly...I think. I love that she writes and produces too. She strikes me as really quirky and kind of strange, but that only makes me like her more. Take a look @ my blogroll..."Konichiwa Bitches" (I thought "beeches" would be much less offensive, haha) is my number 2 favorite song of hers. This is my number one.




"Who's That Girl" has great and simple lyrics, and...at the risk of sounding like a pothead...it speaks to me, man. Everything she says in the song is how I feel, but I guess music's supposed to do that. Plus I love the music. Electro-pop has always been a guilty pleasure of mine - but just like chopped and screwed music - it has to be "done right" and Robyn does it right.

Guilty Pleasures (TV edition)

For the past year or so, I have been stuck on this show called Greek on ABC Family. I hate ABC Family (like many other things, hahaha...notice a pattern?). I think it stems from their destruction of pretty decent movies with terrible sequels, or ABC Family originals, like Au Pair II (why?), The Cutting Edge 2 and 3, and my (least) favorite, Bring it On...Again...One More Time...For the Cheap Seats in the Back...WE LOVE TO CHEER!...Have We Beaten You Over the Head with This Concept Yet?...No?...Ok, One More Sequel...Again. It's like American Pie with pom poms - it just. Won't. Die. But, I digress.

Greek is a pretty solid show. Trust me, it brings the cheese, but in the best way possible. I didn't go to a state school, or any place that wasn't predominantly black, so I can't vouch for the realism in the show. Personally, I don't think college was/is like this show for most people, but who the hell cares? If anything, I could do with less reality TV! I was sold on it right away when they posted the first episode free on iTunes...I pretty much comb iTunes for free items I would never know about otherwise (since they tricked me out of my music! I'm sure I will rant on it at some time, knowing me).

If you find you care (even just a little) or are just totally looking for something to do, check out the full online episodes. It's got love triangles, siblings, fights, frat parties, hangout spots, pranks, even a scripture-spouting roommate, and a little drama thrown in for good measure: basically everything my college experience was LACKING (minus the scripture-spouting roommate, haha). So I am definitely glad to get it smeared on extra thick in a weekly TV show. Hey, these are supposed to be the best years of my life, after all!



Oh, and I must say, I am quite surprised how many people really like that scarf look I hate. I think it is just a factor of where I live. Here in DC at Howard U, also known as *insert eye roll/groan here* the "HBCU fashion mecca", they are as frequently displayed as...oh, I don't know...Uggs w/ tucked jeans or mini-skirts in SoCal? Or, Lindsay Lohan in leggings? Are those examples that make you cringe, at all? These particular scarves have replaced the rockstar denim chain on campus as the new irritating must-have accessory of choice, and I guess I am just tired of having my eyes assaulted by this look. Ugh. Ok, rant over. It looks great on some people (certainly the people commenting whose blogs I have visited and am super-envious of their superior fashion sense), but it's just so...overdone in DC. At Howard U. To me. Ok, really - rant over.

Original Prankster

Happy April Fools' Day! I gave up on the 4/1 jokes after high school, but I remember my favorites. In my finale joke, my pièce de résistance, I woke up extra early (which I never do) and hid under my parents' bed while cooling my hand in ice. When my parents' alarm went off and my mom put her legs down on the floor, I grabbed one of her ankles with my cold hand. She didn't take it well, suffice to say. She was a great sport after the fact and even got me back too (it's embarrassing, don't know if I will divulge it), but I could have given her a heart attack, or something.

I once put a real-looking lizard (that I bought in the Bahamas) in my Open Doors teacher's chair in 8th grade, or 7th. She screamed, hopped around and kicked it to the floor. Surprisingly, no one ratted me out.

I drew male genitalia on my older brother's face while he slept, and another year (I was in 3rd grade, I think), I put hot sauce on his fingers and tickled his nose with a pipe cleaner so he would dig in it. That produced funny yet possibly blinding results because he didn't feel it burning right away...and he rubbed the sleep from his eyes when he started awake.

That same year as the hot sauce thing (that happened during the day, this next one happened that morning) I put one of my brother's dirty socks in my cousin's mouth while she slept (hey, they read my diary together, so it's not like they didn't have it coming!). When she awakened (she did notice she was breathing funny, after all), she pulled it out, let out a howl, and put about half a tube of toothpaste in her mouth.

And, yes I have done the saran wrap on the toilet bowl, swapping sugar for salt, loose cap on the ketchup, hand in warm water, short-sheeting the bed...all the "classics", really, but my original jokes are always mean like that, because I have this strange liking for physical comedy. I decided not to do anymore though. I swear am not really a mean person, but for some reason, jokes like those make me laugh. I choose to sacrifice my amusement at physical comedy (most of the time) to maintaining good relationships with family members and friends. So now I just live vicariously through the April Fools' Day jokes and random pranks of others.

Got any?

Guilty Pleasures (TV edition)

I watch a lot of TV, and lately, as much Cold Case as I can lay my eyes on. In fact, just before writing this I was perusing the web for online episodes since CBS doesn't keep any on Innertube. I love, love, love this show and don't care that I hopped on the bandwagon about 5 seasons in...I am hooked. Despite her never-changing hairstyle (though it's looking better this season...it's still "with hair clip"/"without hair clip"), I love Kathryn Morris as damaged Detective Lilly Rush (and as damaged wife of Tom Cruise in Minority Report).

And boy-oh-boy was I thrilled to see fellow Howard-ite, the beautiful Tracie Thoms as Detective Kat Miller (veteran of Rent, The Devil Wears Prada, and Grindhouse...shazzam!) doing it up on network TV!

But, the lustful, boy-crazy teenybopper in me must confess my infatuation with Danny Pino also known as the smokin' hot Detective Scotty Valens (sigh). I mean, he is just one delicious man. I can be really ridiculous, screaming at the TV for Lilly and Scotty to just get it on already. It's so there - the sexual tension, I mean. Wow. I have to admit seeing it in print is kinda sad, but true. The other actors are wonderful too, but these are my faves. Oh, and the photos are from the CBS Cold Case website.