Summer Television

Summer time also means new TV shows. My favorite television season has always been that winter into spring season because all my favorite shows air at that time: How I Met Your Mother, Community, Dance Moms, The Office (RIP :'[ ), The Big Bang Theory, Grey’s Anatomy, Castle…I think you get the picture, I’m a bit of a television addict. This has always proved somewhat problematic because of the whole school thing. Spring television means that the season finales were always around finals time, which proved detrimental to my studying at a critical time.

My school also had something called “Dead Week” which was a week before finals where classes were cancelled and it was, in theory, a week for students to take the vast amounts of time they were given to study. But in reality, we all used that time to catch up on some social activities (that may or may not have included various forms of a liquid diet) or in my case, start new series of TV shows.

My summer viewing schedule has yet to be planned but I’m looking forward to the finale season of Breaking Bad. I don’t watch much drama but last summer before school started, I gave in and started the season, curious to see a television show where the main characters moral compass actually declined.

Look at those collage skills. I'm really getting the hang of the crop and magic eraser tools.

Another show that’s riding on my radar is “The Goodwin Games.” Its main selling point for me is that it’s created by the same guys who made “How I Met Your Mother.” The premise is that three estranged siblings are brought back together by their father’s death and in line for a humongous fortune. The catch is that because they’ve fallen apart as a family, their father has arranged from them to inherit the fortune in a non-conventional way – by playing a game. It’s very “The Westing Game” (remember when we had to read that in the 5^th grade?) meets the three kids in Modern Family. I can see the series being a bit dragged out – I guess Bays and Thomas are good at taking a could-be simple plot and prolonging it, as evident in HIMYM. The pilot has been intriguing enough so I’ll at least give the season a try.

What summer shows are on your viewing list? I’m open to suggestions and recommendations!

I am the Lord of Catan!

There’s no denying it, I’m an extremely competitive person. Ever since I was younger, I’ve always loved friendly (or sometimes not so friendly) competition. Though I’ve gotten better about not being a sore loser (when I was younger, I would actually stomp off in the middle of games if I was pretty sure I wouldn’t win), I still get a great deal of satisfaction from winning, usually board games.

Being competitive runs in my family, I guess. With three kids in the household, we often get compared to each other despite the fact that the three of us are all extremely different. In a way, it’s pushed us to all to “specialize” in our own comfort zones but it’s also led me to shy away from things I have anxiety that I might not do well in.

The pressure of competitiveness is a double edged sword – while on the one hand, it can drive and motivate you to excel and be better, it can also leave you with a bitter taste in your mouth when you constantly need to be number one and can’t settle for anything less.

Recently, my competitive attitude has really come out while playing a game called “Settlers of Catan.” I’ve never played this game before college and while I was an undergrad, there wasn’t much time to play board games so when we played during Game Night, I was hooked. It’s a combination of luck, probability, strategy, and a good poker face. It’s a bit of a steep learning curve and there are a lot of pieces that go on the board, but once you get the hang of it, it’s a pretty addicting game. The total game time can total more than an hour, so it’s a time investment but in my opinion, it’s totally worth it. Also, if you win, you can rejoice in my victory cry: “I AM THE LORD OF CATAN!”

I’ve played both the original version of Settlers as well as the Star Trek version. Yes, call me a nerd but when I saw the game at Target, I couldn’t resist. Another one of my favorite games is Set. That one is more a game of reaction and spatial thinking.

I hope there are more Game Nights in my future. What are some of your favorite games to play? (I sincerely hope someone says Cards Against Humanity because that game is the shi* in a kind of convoluted kind of way.)

Summer Flicks

Summer time means summer blockbusters! Have you ever wondered why they’re called blockbusters? Well thanks to some help from wiki:

“The term began to appear in the American press in the early 1940s, describing the largest of aerial bombs: single bombs capable of destroying a city block, also known as "cookies" during the firebombing of Hamburg. Later figurative use referred to anything making a public impact: "Broadway reacted to the request of War Mobilization Director Byrnes to close all places of entertainment by midnight Feb. 26 as if a blockbuster had landed on Manhattan" (Chicago Tribune, February 2, 1945). Some entertainment histories cite it as originally referring to a play that is so successful that competing theaters on the block are "busted" and driven out of business.”

I’ve borrowed a list from Pop Culture Brain for movies to watch out for this summer and I’m happy to say I’m well on my way to watching a majority of these.

‘Iron Man 3’ - May 3

‘The Great Gatsby’ - May 10

‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ - May 17

‘The Hangover Part III’ - May 24

‘After Earth’ - May 31

‘The Kings of Summer’ - May 31

‘The Internship’ - June 7

‘Much Ado About Nothing’ - June 7

‘Man of Steel’ - June 14

‘This Is The End’ - June 14

‘The Bling Ring’ - June 14

‘Monsters University’ - June 21

‘World War Z’ - June 21

‘The Heat’ - June 28

‘The Way Way Back’ - July 5

‘Pacific Rim’ - July 12

‘RIPD’ - July 19

‘The Wolverine’ - July 26

‘Blue Jasmine’ - July 26

‘Elysium’ - Aug 9

‘Kick-Ass 2’ - Aug 16

‘The To-Do List’ - Aug 16

‘The World’s End’ - Aug 23

So far, my favorite has been Monsters University. How did I already watch this movie, you may ask? As part of our senior week at Cal, our senior class council was able to pull some strings and get in contact with Pixar to come show the movie early. It was amazing seeing our campus translated into the Monsters University film and it made the movie all that more special to watch. I don’t want to give away any spoilers since it’s a Pixar movie and all of their movies are amazing. I’m probably going to watch it again when it comes out in theaters for the short in the beginning and the little extras that are going to be added in the public release version.

Should I write some reviews of the movies I’ve seen or should I stick to the musings of my post grad life? Leave me a comment and let me know what you want to read more of!