Keeping entertained

Health

The good news is I'm not sick enough for medication. The bad news is I'm not sick enough for medication. I don't have very good lungs, so if a cold has progressed to my chest, which it has, I should probably get on some meds, but aparently I need to be way sicker to get a prescription. But if I get too sick, how am I supposed to walk to the clinic? I wonder sometimes.

Watching TV

My head was too stuffy to concentrate on things for the last couple days, so I've been watching TV on my iPod and lap top, taking naps between episodes. Reviews below.

20 Questions

Something you also don't need to concentrate too hard to do is an artificial intelligence 20 Questions game: http://www.20q.net/ . A little addicting, true, but what else am I supposed to do cooped up inside? It's a little eerie how often it's right. You can easily trick it by picking something obscure, but I'm having a lot of trouble beating the Doctor Who version of the game. I picked some really random things that I thought would never be in the system (including celery and Converse shoes), but it still guessed it in under 20 questions! See below:

Reviews

Ashes to Ashes

(Ashes to Ashes is the spin-off of Life on Mars. In 2008, Alex is shot and wakes up in 1982. She's a Detective Inspector at the police department and solves crimes while trying to figure out how to wake up and get home to her daughter.)

The first season story arch was all about Alex trying to save her parents from dying so she could get home. This season was less about Alex and more about police corruption. I don't think this season was as good as the first season--the episodes didn't stand on their own as much. But they did move some things along like Chris and Shaz's relationship, which I thought was important. Also, we got deeper into Ray's and Chris's characters (especially Chris). The last two episodes were the best. What a twist in episode 7!

The ending of the season? I think I like it. It's like Life on Mars but with a big twist. Leaves it open for season 3, which is good...I think? Can they survive another season without getting too cookie cutter? We shall see.

Lots more mention of Sam Tyler in this season. And then they had this thing called Operation Rose, and I can't help but remember that Sam Tyler was named after Rose Tyler in Doctor Who (In fact, in the American version of Life on Mars, Sam's mother is named Rose).

And can I just say Shaz shooting someone in her wedding dress was amazing.

Extras

(Extras is a British TV show made by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant--the guys that invented The Office--about what it's like for two characters to be extras in tv shows and movies. There are really famous people in every episode playing ridiculous versions of themselves.)

The first two seasons were okay. I think the problem was that even though it's a sitcom, it has too much substance to fit into half an hour. I always felt like there was a shoe that didn't drop. That said, the Christmas special was great, probably because they had an hour and a half to develop a full story.

My favorite parts were probably David Bowie singing about Andy's failed career in a room full of people and Ian McKellen teaching Andy how to act. I think my favorite character was Stephen Merchant's character because you want to hate him but you just can't.