I fell a bit behind this week in my attempt to catch up on all five seasons of Lost before the new season starts, so I marathoned six episodes yesterday. It's been five years since I've seen these episodes, and I have to say, I'm really glad to be finally watching them the way they were meant to be seen (oh, high-definition television, how glorious you are!) instead of on the dinky TV screen I used in college, or even on the ancient laptop I had at the time. But the caveat is that I sometimes have trouble focusing on what's going on because I can't seem to get over how beautiful every single freaking shot is. The clearness of ocean; the soft, hazy glow of the campfires; the lush, verdant plants that just about threaten to overflow from the screen into the living room. And don't even get me started on the people, either!

All of this inherent beauty got me thinking: What if all of my current shows were set on a similar jungle island? Imagine: Community holding its study group around a campfire! The vampires and fangbangers on True Blood convening and partying in the caves! Friday Night Lights holding football games on Hurley's golf course! The Fringe team, in a special J.J. Abrams show crossover, investigating the polar bears and the island monster! I haven't quite figured out how to transport Sons of Anarchy onto the island, though, since I doubt that the motorcycles would run well across sand...

Then again, if any of this were to happen, I'd probably never leave the house, and instead would live on the couch in front of the television.

melloniel! Remember how we drooled over that True Blood GQ photo spread and said we wanted an HQ version of it for our desktops?



Yeah, I found one.

!!!

I'm still in shock over last night's ( Sons of Anarchy. )

Guys, you need to watch this show. It's probably the most enthralling piece of entertainment I've witnessed all year. Seriously, get thee to a place where you can find the episodes, whether it be online or somewhere that carries the season 1 DVDs, and watch them, because they are too good to go unnoticed.

It's been awhile since I've done a meme (Aside: Do you pronounce that like the first syllable in "memory," or like "meem"?), but zombres tagged me for this, so I'm going for it, dammit!

1. If you've been tagged, you must write your answers in your own LJ and replace any question that you dislike with a new, original question.
   
2. Tag eight sexy people. Don't refuse to do that like a pansy. Unless you really don't want to of course. And if you're not tagged and you want to do it, then do! (I tag overthemoo, sullypants, soulquake, echoism, timebomb, thatgirl_soph, hellododger, and underhand_glory.)

( To the meme, Robin! )

So, there hasn't been much going on over here in my neck of the woods, and what has happened has been food-related because, A) last week was Thanksgiving, and B) that's pretty much the story of my life.

I finally went to my first traditional Thanksgiving dinner this year. My family and I don't really celebrate Western holidays, so we never had turkey. For the years where my dad's company gave him a free bird, we always handed it over to my aunt who in turn would make turkey curry, which itself is good, but probably not what what the folks at the first Thanksgiving ate. Anyway, Kimberly's mom, Evan, kindly invited me to her get-together. I made an apple-gruyère pie for my contribution to the dinner, only to find out that I'd be working much more than that for my dinner. Kimberly and I got to Evan's house in the early afternoon, and Evan put me to work almost immediately... while Kimberly played with Bella the cat (who was not named after the Twilight character, I'm glad to say!) because she's not cut out for domestic work of any kind. There was a lot of blending, mixing, and chopping action, not to mention the fact that I got saddled with the task of massaging olive oil all over the bird before it went into the over. I even made the cranberry sauce all by myself even though I hadn't even had it before. Whether it was because Evan was confident in my culinary skills, or she simply had too many other jobs to do, I'll never know. But no worries, the sauce came out the way it was suppose to. Or so Andrew, Evan's fiancé, told me.

A rundown of the final dinner: turkey with cranberry sauce, pork loin, stuffing, mashed potatoes, yams, green beans, butternut squash soup (soooo good), biscuits, pumpkin cheesecake, and of course my apple pie, which I received many compliments about. And how do you top off a very good meal? With some karaoke, of course. I'm normally not one for karaoke, but I sang my ass off to "Hey Jude" and "Every Breath You Take," which prompted my cousin Cung to ask if I was drunk.

I also made white chocolate chip cookies yesterday, and while there's a good chance that they will be what finally makes the diabetes that runs in my family rear its ugly head, I kind of don't care.

( Oh, and have some icons. )

It's quite possible that Bella Swan is the most idiotic character in the history of fiction. ( New Moon )

My dad just restarted his Netflix subscription, and they have the first four seasons of Lost available for steaming right to our DVD player. I'm thinking that maybe I should start watching the show again and try catching up before season 6 starts? I stopped watching midway through season 2 during its original run, but I'm starting from the beginning since it's been so long. I watched the pilot, parts 1 and 2, earlier tonight, so that's 2 episodes down, and only 101 more to go!

In other news, my unwitting affair with black, white, and red books continues:

In honor of Maggie Gyllenhaal's birthday, today I:

1. Baked carrot cake sandwich cookies.
2. Decided to put together a small picspam to commemorate the event.
3. Realized that it has been over three years since my Gyllenhaal picspam of DOOM.
4. Figured that a new epic spam was long overdue.
5. Played around in Photoshop for a long, long time.
6. Took many breaks, including one to watch the trailer for Maggie's new movie, Crazy Heart. (Hah, could the inclusion of "4 Time Academy Award Nominee" before Jeff Bridges' name be any more of a plea for the Academy to finally give him the award?)
7. Finally, with an hour to spare before midnight, came up with the following :

( This is graphic-heavy, to say the least. )