Sunday, September 30, 2007
Friday, September 28, 2007
The Office - Season 4 - Episode 1 - Fun Run
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I can't believe this show is back!! It has only been a few months but I really missed The Office. And I was just DYING to know what was going to happen with Jim and Pam. And we will get to that shortly...
But First, let's get an update from the other employees of Dunder Mifflin.
What's going on with Michael? Seems like he is up to his same old hijinx.
Michael: I did not get the job in New York. But I got the real prize — domestic bliss.
Him and Jan have moved in together. And she isn't looking too good...
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Michael hits Meredith in the parking lot of the office, and when he gets into the office he breaks the news to the other workers.
Michael: The doctors tried to save her life. They did the best that they could. And she is going to be okay.
He tries to play it off like he had nothing to do with it but the truth must come out.
Michael: I was able to be on the scene so quickly because I was in the car that hit her.
The entire office turns against Michael (except Dwight, of course) and they start planning a visit to see Meredith.
Meanwhile, Kevin and Oscar are like two gossiping girls, speculating about Jim and Pam. They are starting to sound like the viewers!
Kevin: Are you kidding me? Pam and Jim are totally hooking up. All they do is smile.
Oscar: There is no evidence of intimacy.
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And what happened to Karen? Jim broke up with her after the interview in NYC. She came back to the office the next day and told him that she wouldn't give up everything because of this (I guess that meant her job in Scranton), but then the next day her desk was cleared. And at this point of the episode Jim is playing it like he is single and looking and Pam says she just talked him through his break up.
What is Angela and Dwight's take on the Meredith incident? (Quote from a later part of the episode)
Angela: I have to visit the alkie.
Dwight: Check to see if she’s faking. If a car hit me, it wouldn’t crack my pelvis. You know what. I bet she cracked it at home. Jumped in front of the car to get some worker’s comp.
Angela: I wouldn’t put it past her.
All the insanity over in the office makes Michael want to do something for the staff to make them think he isn't all that bad. He calls corporate (Jan's old position), who is now Ryan (the former temp/Kelly's ex) to see what corporate can do for him.
Ryan: Did it happen on company property?
Michael: Yes. It was on company property, with company property. So, double jeopardy. We are fine.
Ryan: I don’t think you understand how jeopardy works.
Michael: Oh, right. I’m sorry….What is “we are fine”?
Ryan seems like his head has gotten a little inflated over at corporate.
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So they all get to the hospital and it seems like Michael had a reason to get everyone there at the same time.
Michael: You know what I was thinking might be sort of fun? Is if you forgave me in front of everybody.
Michael: You know what they say in the bible about forgiveness? Forgiveness … is next to godliness.
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When they return from the hospital Dwight informs Angela of some bad news.
Angela: Any problems?
Dwight: Well you left the TV on. And your cat is dead.
He put her in the freezer to stop the odor.
Michael now thinks the office is cursed because of all the bad things that happened that day.
Michael: It is up to me to get rid of the curse that hit Meredith with my car. I’m not superstitious, but, I’m a little stitious.
He gathers the staff so they can talk about religion to see if anyone brought this curse upon them. And this meeting introduces us to the new IT Tech Guy. He remains nameless in this episode but he was seen already earlier getting celebrity porn off Pam's computer. So far in the episode he had more lines than Andy (who up to this point was visible but completely silent in every scene). But as a little trivia, he was in an episode early on from Season 2, and his name is Sadiq.
IT Tech Guy: If you’re going to reduce my identity to my religion, then I’m Sikh. But I also like hip-hop and NPR, and I’m restoring a 1967 Corvette in my spare time.
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Michael: Maybe there’s some sort of animal that we could make a sacrifice to. Like … a giant buffalo. Or some sort of monster, like something with the body of a walrus with the head of a sea lion. Something with a body of an egret, with the head of a meerkat. Or just the head of a monkey, with the antlers of a reindeer. With the body of a … porcupine.
Can you imagine what that would look like?
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After the meeting Michael sends Dwight off to go visit Meredith in the hospital. At the hospital Dwight learns that Meredith actually needs a rabies shot because she was bitten by a bat (because of Dwight last season) a raccoon and a rat.
Michael takes this as a good sign and finds a reason why Meredith needed to be hit by a car.
Meanwhile, Kevin can't stop talking about Pam and Jim.
Kevin: Oh well. If they aren’t together now, then they probably never will be. I thought they’d be good together. Like PB & J. Pam Beesly and Jim. What a waste. What. A. Waste.
And this brings us to the most important scene of this episode. The camera follows Pam leaving the office in her car. She drives about a half a block, pulls over, and picks up Jim. He gets in and then we see the moment we have all been waiting for!!!!
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Michael then decides to organize a run to raise money for a cure for rabies. (Something that already has a cure) He calls it Michael Scott's Dunder Mifflin Scranton Meredith Palmer Memorial Celebrity Rabies Awareness Pro-Am Fun Run For The Cure. You can start buying merchandise for MSDMSMPMCRAPFRFTC (the fun run) at NBC.com.
Michael has the entire office working on getting pledges and making quilts.
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Andy: I’m petrified of nipple chafing. Once it starts, it is a vicious circle.
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Angela: When I got home, Sprinkles’ body was in the freezer, where Dwight said he left her, but all my bags of frozen french fries had been clawed to shreds!
And in a very meta moment, Jim and Pam are talking about their strategies for the race and the camera comes up very close to them. The camera seems to be suspicious of their relationship. Then they cut to the conference room and they are watching a video of themselves from the earlier scene when Pam picks up Jim a block away from the office in her car and they kiss. And Pam spills the beans and admits they are dating.
Pam: Yeah, I gave him a ride home because … we’re dating.
Jim: Wow. There it is.
Pam: Yeah. We haven’t told anybody, but it’s going really great. Right?
Jim: It is going really great.
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After another confrontation about the cat between Angela and Dwight, a conference is called between Michael, Pam, Jim and Dwight to talk about the charity money and the 5k run.
Michael: I always imagined it with a giant check.
Jim: Yeah, I mean personally, I am definitely on board with the giant check.
Pam: Giant check it is.
Dwight: I don’t know. On the other hand, it does leave less money for bat birth control.
Michael really wants to hand off a giant check to a rabies doctor. Two problems - 1) They only raised about $500 (which is almost entirely Michael's money) and a giant check costs $200 and 2) there are no rabies doctors. Jim suggests a nurse by the hour.
Before the race, Pam is working on the last minute details and she sees a problem with the 5K sign (it is 5 kilometers, not 5,000 miles). She knocks on Michael's door to ask him a question and she thought she heard "come in" so she opens the door and gets an unexpected surprise.
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Jim: Baguette.
Pam: … dangling participle …
Jim: Ooh.
Pam: … still burned in my eyes.
Michael tries to play it off but the truth is Michael was naked in his office. Jim makes fun of Michael by taking off his shirt during a side interview.
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Michael: Myth: Three Americans every year die from rabies. Fact: Four Americans every year die from rabies.
Michael: It is truly the silent killer. No, it is the foaming barking killer.
They ended up hiring the stripper Elizabeth (from the Benjamin Franklin episode) to dress like a nurse and accept a giant check for $340. The check was made out to "science."
The race begins and Stanley, Oscar and Creed jump in a cab, get a drink and are driven to the finish line. Andy's nipples bleed the entire time. Michael gets terrible cramps because of the fettuccine alfredo, Kevin runs in a suit, Phylis ran with her husband, Bob Vance, and Jim and Pam went shopping at a garage sale and got a great lamp!
Dwight and Angela again talk about Sprinkles and Dwight admits he killed the cat. Dwight did it because he saw an animal in pain and that is what he does as a farmer to animals who are suffering.
Oh, and Toby won!
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Toby: And the winner is Toby Flenderson!
Kelly: Have a seat. I’ll write it down.
Toby: Where are we?
Kelly: I don’t know. Like five kilometers from the office.
Toby: He couldn’t have made it a circle?
In last place, Jim and Pam stroll hand in hand and see Michael sitting down. The food really got to him.
Michael: I ate more fettuccini alfredo and drank less water than I have in my entire life.
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Michael: While I eventually puked my guts out, I never puked my heart out. And I’m very, very proud of that.
***
So what are your thoughts on Jim and Pam??? I am so happy they are together and I hope this season doesn't end up splitting them up for a stupid reason. It should be interested to see their relationship actually flourish. And what about Dwight and Angela? Looks like Angela needs some kitty counseling. Will she be able to forgive him?
(Pictures from Office-Caps, Quotes from The Office Tally)
Labels: Recap, The Office
Thursday, September 27, 2007
What If You Spent Every Day of the Last Year Following Every Rule of the Bible?
For a year A. J. Jacobs lived his life by every rule set out in the Bible. That includes the prohibition of certain hair cutting, as seen in the picture above. But what wasn't he able to cut out? Coveting.
But he did manage to stone an adulterer!
From a Newsweek interview:
What rule was the hardest to follow?
Two kinds of rules were hard. Avoiding sins we commit every day like lying, gossiping and coveting was hard, and then there were the rules that were hard to do in modern life, like stoning adulterers. But I did manage to fulfill that one. What happened was, I was in the park, dressed in my white garb, and this man in his 70s came over and asked what I was doing. I explained I was trying to follow every rule in the Bible as literally as possible, including growing my beard, not mixing fibers, stoning adulterers, and he said, “I’m an adulterer, are you going to stone me?” I said, “Yeah that would be great.” The Bible doesn’t say what size the stones have to be, so I had been carrying around these pebbles in my pocket for just such an occasion. I took the pebbles out of my pocket, and he instantly picked one up and threw it at me, so I decided, an eye for an eye, and I tossed one at him. It did provide an entry for talking to people about capital punishment and the Bible. How could they stone adulterers, what was life like back then, does it apply today. I tried to say to the guy, you shouldn’t sleep with other women, but I don’t know if it sunk in.
I like how now his perception has shifted and he appreciates good things that happen and how he sees his life as one of responsibility rather than rights and entitlements. I guess that's the real point of religion? To give your life some meaning and to help you get through the days when they are hard.
Learn more about A. J. Jacobs and his new book, The Year of Living Biblically, at Newsweek.
(via Boing Boing)
Labels: Interesting, Links, Religion
What Happened?
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Geez what happened to Carrot Top? Steroids much? One arm is bigger than his hair!
Labels: Celebrities, Pictures
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Reminder
Labels: Television, The Office
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The news never stops about Barry Bonds' record-setting homerun.
Last week, fashion designer Marc Ecko bought the ball for a ridiculous sum and then started a website for fans to decide what happens to the famous ball. The choices were, donate the ball to the Baseball Hall of Fame, brand the ball with a asterik and then donate the ball to the Hall of Fame, or shoot it off to space.
What won? Big shock: The asterisk.
Quote
- Thomas A. Edison
Labels: Quote
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Heroes - Season 2, Episode 1 - Four Months Later...
We open with Mohinder Suresh's voice over the various flashback and flash-forwards of the many heroes. Then we see he is giving a lecture in Cairo to raise money for his research. A crazed man comes up to him asking for his autograph. Suresh recognizes the man because he had been at 4 lectures already. The man asks Suresh to meet with him for a drink because there is a job for Suresh. Suresh says he has been down that road before but decides to go anyway.
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Back in NY, we see Matt Parker in a bullet proof vest shooting people. Turns out he is in a test to become a NYPD Police Officer. He uses his powers to read the mind of the people who he is about to kill and passes the test with flying colors. They award him a badge.
Claire is in school checking out her cheerleading classmates. The boy who almost ran her over in the parking lot sits next to her. They flirt! He asks if she is a "robot or an alien"? Claire doesn't know the answer but is just trying to keep to herself. The teacher asks about a quote regarding evolution and nobody in the class knows the name of the person who said it. Claire writes down "Charles Darwin" on a paper and the teacher, disappointed in the class for being so dumb, tells the answer. The new boy-toy, named West, sees this and assumes Claire is a "robot" because she doesn't want the class to know she is smart. He just has her all figured out!
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So it looks like Matt has taken Molly under his wing. He is now divorced and recovering from some serious bullet wounds. Molly is in school and Matt comes to pick her up. Her teacher pulls him over and expresses concern for Molly because she has fallen asleep in class (who hasn't?). She shows him pictures that she draws of scary eyes and that weird squigle symbol. Matt says he knows she has nightmares but she is an imaginative child and he can't stop that. The teacher worries that Matt isn't the right parental figure for Molly. He insists they are fine.
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Suresh meets with "Bob" and Bob reveals he has the midas touch (he can turn anything to GOOOOLLLLDDD). He can give Suresh as much money as he needs to do his research as long as Suresh does the job they need. Suresh agrees and later calls Noah and says their plan is working. Suresh is trying to get into this company so they can bring it down.
Matt and Molly eat pizza for dinner and Matt confronts her about the pictures she is drawing. She gets angry at him and refuses to discuss it. He lets it go and she leaves the room. Later he finds Molly having those crazy nightmares. He tries to read her mind and she is very frightened. There is a voice telling Molly he can see her. Matt wakes up Molly and she cries in his arms.
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A lonely Claire calls Nathan and he doesn't want to speak to her. He is drunk at a bar and she is just reaching out for some type of connection to someone like her. He hangs up on her and looks into a mirror and sees himself with a burned version of Peter's face. After a double take the burned face is gone.
Then outside of Claire's window we see a stalker-ish West. But then it is revealed - he can fly!
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In the final scene, three thieving men are in an Irish shipping yard looking for a certain crate. When they open up the crate they find a man in the corner with no shirt on and handcuffed to the side of the crate. It is Peter! The men threaten him and Peter protects himself with his powers. He doesn't remember who he is or where the contents of the container went. He is wearing the helix symbol around his neck.
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***
So what did you think of the episode? How are Peter and Nathan alive??? Who is in Molly's dream? Who killed Kaito? Is Angela next? Will Hiro convince TK to change his ways? What is up with the 2 new characters? Will Jessica/Nikki be back?
Until next week!!!
Quote
"It's a dangerous business going out your front door."
- J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
Labels: Quote
Monday, September 24, 2007
Redefining Reality TV
This past weekend, Current re-aired a lot of their coverage of the Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert. While I still barely understand what Burning Man really is, Current did its best to show off the wild weirdness of that cooky sudden city in the middle of the desert. All of the pods were brilliant, especially any pod showing off the pre-festival creation of some of the elobrate art work or those following the "virgins", the first-timers.
While some competing networks (Ii'm looking at you, VH1) poke fun at Current for some of its off-the-wall content (*cough, Supernews), those who watch it know that it is the perfect mix of comedy and serious business. It's practically the only place on television to get honest, unbiased news about the global war on terror and all the fronts not covered by the mainstream media like Somalia, Colombia, and Syria.
If you still haven't taken the chance and watched some Current, it's never too late. The content is at its height, highlighting the best in culture, music, art, and news. Check your local listings. Prepare to fall in love.
Labels: Current
Look Familiar?
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Check out more pictures at Daily Mail.
*By the way, what is Kim Cattrall wearing? Are we filming another Mannequin sequel?
Update - add to the confusion - below is a picture of the younger sex and the city girls with Carrie walking by them. Hmmmmmm....
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ANTM
This guy has the best reviews of every single reality cheese-fest out there. So if you haven't jumped on the train already - be sure to check out Four Four's review of the first episode of the new season (Cycle 9) of America's Next Top Model.
Labels: Links, Reality TV
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Postsecret
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Check out more cards this week at Postsecret.
Labels: Jewish, postsecret
Friday, September 21, 2007
It's Fasting...It's Fasting Time!
So to start off the holiday here are a few funny Jewish t-shirt images to celebrate one's inner jew-ness:
From MazelTough.com:
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