How bout them Cowboys!?

I've been a Cowboys fan for longer than I can even remember, so right now I just can't get over attending my first ever LIVE Cowboys game. Even if they did lose. Even if it was only pre-season. My only regret is that I never saw a game in the old Texas Stadium in Irving. :(

I will say this much: the "Party Pass" tickets are NOT worth it. They advertise giving access to one of several "party decks," but in reality, the ticket allows you to stand along a counter one the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th level at the end zones - if there's space. The area are not large at all. There is no seating if you didn't pay for it (read: no restaurant/concession area seating). Basically, you pay $30 to stand behind the regular seating and watch the entire game on one of the big screens. Luckily, after the first quarter the usher in our area let people take seats that weren't already filled.

Now I will pic-spam you.

This is inside the stadium, looking down. You can see the huge big screen TVs hanging over the field. Getting a lot of publicity right now because a kick hit it in the first pre-season game.

Also, notice the Cowboys star isn't at mid-field yet. They're having a ceremony in Game 1 of the regular season where they're going to place it. I wish I could be there for that! (The Ring of Honor, where retired Cowboys are honored, is also not up yet. Not sure when it's going up.)

It's only pre-season, but that didn't stop the fans from coming out. There were 72,171 people in attendence yesterday. It had the same feel as a regular season game.

My family helped build the stadium by purchasing one of their memorial stones. This is places on the walkway around the outside of the stadium. Our stone says "We Live and Die Every Sunday. A XXXXXX Family Tradition." We gave it to our dad for his birthday or Father's Day last year (I can't remember which. I'm a bad daughter.)

Here I am, enjoying the game with my mommy. My sister and I both drew blue stars on our cheek. They looked okay to start with, and by this time it was pretty smudged. lol

Helix Redo

A large group of Twitter peeps are rewatching the first three seasons of Heroes in anticipation of Season 4 (Redemption)'s premiere on September 21. The calendar is here if you'd like to join. I'm told the calendar is more of a guide and not a fixed schedule (<_<) so you can start late and catch up or skip days if it's not perfectly convenient.

Anyhoo, a few things I've noticed while rewatching.

1. The series opens with scrolling text a la Star Wars. I did not remember that.

2. Mohinder's opening and closing monologues are just as powerful as they ever were. The whispered question, "Do they even know?" at the end of Genesis can still bring tears to my eyes if I'm not perpared for it.

3. I cannot believe I wasn't in love with Bennet (HRG for the uninitiated) from the very beginning. He's soo super hot...Yes, I'm fangirling. Deal. I fangirl for one man, and he's it. My only explanation for my delayed idolization: I started loving Bennet when he started killing people.

4. There is a scene I remember between Simone and Isaac where she's calling him crazy for thinking he can paint the future and he says something like "I'm crazy? I painted this this morning!" and holds up a picture of her standing in the doorway with a portfolio. Is this in deleted scenes? I swear, it wasn't in Genesis when I rewatched. Am I going crazy? Did I imagine it?

5. Episode 1.4, Collision, is the very first time we actually see Isaac with the white eyes. It was more shocking to me rewatching it today than the first time I saw it. Isaac was never a favorite of mine, so I guess I just didn't pay him much attention before. Today rewatching, I realized what a big deal seeing him like that must have been for viewers when it was aired live.

6. I still hate Micah.

7. I'm totally meh on Claire. I actually think she got progressively more annoying as the show continued. Maybe I'm just angry that she tries to upstage Bennet in all their shared scenes. ;)

8. I'm honestly considering writing a Heroes fanfic (about Bennet, duh. lol). I don't know if I want to tackle that. It'll be my first ever Heroes fanfic and I've never been much for writing fiction. But dammit Bennet is just so inspiring.

So, if you're rewatching or want to or just enjoy Heroes, find me on Twitter and let me know. Be sure to hashtag rewatch tweets with #helixredo.

Supernatural, season 1

Everyone I know loves this show, so I'm trying to catch up. I just finished season 1 last night and decided to write about my opinion so far. This isn't going to be a regular review. I don't do that. It's basically going to be things I like and dislike about the show.

My favorite episodes were Bloody Mary and Home. I can't include the last 3 of the season (Dead Man's Blood, Salvation, Devil's Trap) because they were all three just awesome and made for an incredible combined finale.

My least favorites were Provenance (because it was really dumb) and Wendigo (because the end was lame). Although, I loved the format in Wendigo and wish they had stuck to it. Step 1: categorize what you're dealing with. Find out what it wants. Step 2. find it. Step 3: use its weaknesses against it. It reminds me a lot of Criminal Minds where they profile the killers based on his/her victims and methodology. Once they know his/her needs, they can stop it. Unfortunately, Supernatural pretty much threw that format out the window and the boys just blunder through their hunts. Whatevs.

Between Sam and Dean, I think Dean is wonderful. I'm finding Sam hard to stomach. No one is that whiney and selfish, right? He reminds me so much of Peter from Heroes, and I recently learned I'm not the first to draw that comparison. Sam wastes way too much of my precious time crying and whining about Daddy (and Mommy, and Jess...do I sound cold?). Supposedly, he used to hunt these things with Dean and Dad before. Did he forget everything he learned? Did he ever learn anything?

Now Dean on the other hand, in addition to being hot, is a helluva lot smarter than Sam. Despite the fact that Sam went to Stanford.* Sam is "book smart" and Dean is practical. And when you're fighting demons, practical wins. Unfortunately, the show likes to do this thing where they try to pretend Sam is useful, and they'll make Dean do out-of-character dumb stuff so that Sam can seem smart (ex. Dean brings the magical Colt to the fight with the Demons when they rescue Dad. Dean would never do that. That's something Sam would do. Idiot).

Miscellaneous things: I want Meg back. She was awesome. Also, the music on this show kills. Except for the fact that they have an unhealthy affinity for Rush (there was one more Rush song that I was not forewarned about, flyboy), the soundtrack on this show has been perfect. It's ALL classic rock, except for the scores. And the scores are great too. I'm not even into scores usually.

Overall, I like the show. And I'll continue to watch it. I have to admit, if I just happened upon this show on my own, channel surfing, I wouldn't make a point of watching it regularly. Despite the fact that I do enjoy sci-fi and good drama, I'm not really into demons and witches and things that go bump in the night. The saving grace on this show is the relationship between Sam and Dean, including all their snarky comments to each other. If that relationship wasn't there, I would probably not finish the series. (Sorry Maxii and other friends who love the show).
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* Why does everyone in Hollywood think Stanford is such a good school? It's not really that great. As evidenced by all the idiotic TV characters that got their education there. Sam would never make it in law school.

Comments for Others' Blogs

I'm having issues. What else is new, you ask? Har. Har.

But seriously, I've tried to comment on several other peoples' blogs with absolutely no result. It tells me comment posted, but then there's nothing on the page. This happened on a different website, so I kept trying, and then later when I checked my comments were there like 8 times. This time, I decide to post on everyone's blogs just once each and wait, but there's still nothing. I'm going to post them here instead, so you don't think I'm just being plain anti-social.

Justin: I've had to factory reset my computer. It's suck major ass. I'm sorry buddy, but I hope it works. And I'm excited about the new laptop you'll get (one of these days). I would also LOVE a number pad.

Nate: You're in America!!!!!! It's exciting to me, even though I won't get to see you. I hope you enjoy it and a few dumbasses don't ruin your entire view of our country.

Maxii: I need no more info to stalk you with. I think I got all I need, but thanks for the entertainment anyway. ;)

Bryan: Congrats on the new job! I know I've told you elsewhere, but I wanted to tell you here too. And re: your blog about what you want for the future - it sounds nice. And knowing what you want means you're more than halfway there already.

Okey dokey then. I hope it's not rude to talk to other people in my own blog, but I was seriously having some problems. I will keep trying to post in your blogs I promise!!

Book Review

I love books, but my style of choosing reading material leaves a lot to be desired. Usually, I'll find an author I like (based on referrals or something I see/read somewhere else), then read everything I can by this author. Sometimes, even if I don't like the first work I sample, I'll still read a 2nd or even a 3rd book just to make sure. That's not true, I'll read that 2nd-3rd book because I don't know how to pick something better to read.

Lately, I've been getting some real crap from the library. First, it was this John Connolly stuff. He's not bad, just not good. He tries to write the traditional murder mystery/intrigue stuff, then he starts throwing in ghosts, precognitive dreams, and other things along those lines. I wouldn't be too put off, but it's not well done.

Then, I read The Devil Knows You're Dead, by someone who's name I can't remember right at the moment. It was another murder mystery, written from the perspective of a private investigator. No supernatural stuffs, this one just sucked. Bad writing.

Finally, just today I finished The Inheritor by Marion Zimmer Bradley. I knew what I was getting into with this one, but it still wasn't good. MZB wrote The Mists of Avalon, which was made into a TV movie with Anjelica Houston and was critically acclaimed. I haven't watched/read that one, but it's supposedly very good. MoA is the story of King Arthur's tales, told from the perspective of the women in the story (I think). I did read Kassandra by MZB, about Cassandra, the prophetess of Troy. It's told from Cassandra's perspective and is excellent.

But on to The Inheritor. I read the book jacket, so I have no one to blame but myself. I really don't mind fantasy literature so long as it's not chalk-full of wizards and elves and sorcery. The Inheritor, on the other hand, is set in modern times and the protagonist is a woman who tries to deal with fantastical elements that are intruding onto her daily life. Right up my alley, in a way.

This story is set in 1983 (and was written in that year) and centers around a therapist who has "psychic flashes." She's reluctantly helped the police find missing persons in the past, but mostly she just wants to live her life. Then she moves into a haunted house and all this insane paranormal stuff starts happening. She also falls in love with a new man, and it turns out he's way into black magic.

After that little description, do I still need to discuss why it sucked? *sigh* ok. First, the writing that I came to love in Kassandra was NOT there. Kassandra's plot was easy to follow (even though a little long-winded at times). I cared about Kassandra, pitied her and got angry for her when people didn't believe her premonitions. As I read The Inheritor, it was difficult sometimes to even tell if I was reading about events as they happened, or if a character was remembering something from his/her past. The characters seemed to make ridiculous choices sometimes, so either they were unrealistically written, or MZB just failed to provide the insight into the characters' personalities and motivations for making the decision. For example, the main character learns that her dark wizard boyfriend once made a human sacrifice. She is immediately appalled, but comes to terms with it in about 10 seconds flat and responds with, "I don't care what you have done. I love you, I love you, I love you."

With 38 pages left in the book, I almost put it down. The line was: "Only later, when the hand of tragedy had fallen, did she realize why Simon had been begging her to take him away." At this point in the book, it was just way too dramatic and cheesy. And I guess I cared so little about what happened to anyone that this last attempt to push me to the edge of my seat just made me gag.

Luckily, I expected not to like the book that much, so I read it first out of the two I grabbed at the library. I've got James Rollins' Map of Bones still waiting for me. James Rollins is an author who is consistently good. He also writes modern novels with a touch of the fantastic (and some fairly heavy sci-fi elements), but he actually does them well. I highly recommend The Black Order, and only a little less-highly recommend The Judas Strain. He also wrote the novelization of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, but that was after the movie was made. You can't hold him responsible for that travesty.

"Hated it"

Welcome!

(<-- Pictured: Me, the day I was sworn into the Wisconsin Bar)

My precious--that is, Maxii--insisted I start a blog. Apparently, it's too difficult to comment on my random nuggets of wisdom at twitter. (ahem, that's www.twitter.com/realfasttlkr). You can join Maxii's insanity here.

So first, let me introduce myself. I am Erica. I am a licensed attorney in Wisconsin, soon-to-be-licensed in Texas. I am applying for every job I am even vaguely qualified for from here to Washington, D.C.

As far as interests go, I watch 4 shows: Heroes, Lost, 24, and Criminal Mind. I'm a member of messages boards for Heroes and CM. I love books too, and am currently reading The Inheritor by Marion Zimmer Bradley. Maybe my 2nd blog post will be a review.