Honeymooned

So a lot of crazy shiz has happened to me of late: First-- married! WTF! It was totally and completely awesome. The whole day was friggin' great, from the ceremony to the Hard Rock Cafe luncheon to the reception. And I was unbelievably happy that our reception turned out so well. It was mindfudge-style awesome, what with all the ice cream and Batman groom's cake and robot cake topper and Mexican Coke and vintage soda-pop bottle centerpieces and our sweet playlist and all our family and friends and all. I pretty much loved it. Thanks to all y'all who came and shared the luv.

Anywho, so then Alex and I embarked on our honeymoon to San Diego to experience the insanity that was... Comic-Con 2008! Let me start by saying that Comic-Con exceeded all my high expectations. It was so effing awesome that I'm already kind of stoked to go next year. The Exhibit Hall was crazy-cool (and sort of intimidatingly huge and busy) and the panels are super awesome. One thing that sort of sucks: the food. We ate pretzels and Mrs. Fields cookies mainly. But that is a small complaint compared to the greatness of everything else. I wish we had a working digital camera so I could supply sweet pictures, but alas. I just had disposables. I'll blog more extensively about all this later (we're in the airport waiting to fly back to reality). Till then, satiate your Comic-Con curiosity here.

100 things that are pretty much awesome.

In honor of my 100th blog post, I decided I needed to do something celebratory. Something involving 100 things. So, without further ado, here are 100 things that I think are pretty much awesome. I've made my picks from food, movies, books, television, and just randomly awesome stuff that I'm quite fond of. And away we go!

1. Alex
2. Blogging (Hence, 100 posts..)
3. Teaching
4. Jolt Cola
5. Carne Asada Fries
6. Comic Con
7. BSG. If anyone says otherwise, do not listen. It's a cylon trick.
8. My total domination at Othello
9. Pirate O's
10. Memory Foam seats at the Megaplex 20
11. Batman
12. 80's teen comedies, i.e. Can't Buy Me Love (Favorite line?: "You s**t on my house!" Priceless.)
13. Sneakers
14. Singing like Bon Jovi AND Karen O on Rock Band
15. Food Network
16. Axl Rose
17. Leatherby's (who'll be catering our reception)
18. Our new kitten, who is attacking my fingers as I type this.
19. The place we'll be having our reception.
20. Hanging out with only dudes.
21. Lord of the Rings
22. Bill Haverchuck from Freaks and Geeks
23. Nathan Fillion
24. The Sun Also Rises
25. Brownies. The fudge kind, not the cake kind.
26. Harry Potter
27. My robot cake topper
28. T-Shirts
29. Movies made to appeal to guys that are closeted chick flicks (read: Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Shawn of the Dead, the rom-zom-com, etc.)
30. Sewing
31. My ma.
32. Patrick Swayze in his glory days: Roadhouse and Point Break
33. Lost theories
34. Crashes at the Roller Derby
35. Comfortable couches
36. Paste magazine
37. Pajiba.com
38. Entire albums that are good (without a mediocre song in the bunch)
39. The Scissor Sisters
40. James Gunn, mastermind behind Slither
41. Before Sunrise
42. Etsy.com
43. Goldeneye on the N64
44. Apple Beer and pizza
45. Acme Burger Co.
46. University of Utah
47. Ellen Ripley
48. High fives
49. This website, on which you can listen to kids from around the world making animal noises! Huzzah!
50. No Country for Old Men
51. "Push It"
52. Mitchell Hurwitz was involved in both The Golden Girls and Arrested Development
53. In a week, I will never have to think about wedding planning again. Ever!
54. Pad Thai
55. The White Stripes
56. Your mom
57. Moriarty's Antique shop
58. Firefly
59. Homemade cheesecake (If you've never tried my cheesecake, you're missing out!)
60. The Belgian Waffle's garbage hash
61. Playing nerdy games (Read: D&D, Heroscape...)
62. Special Topics in Calamity Physics
63. Paul Rudd
64. Special Agent Dale Cooper
65. The Office
66. The Detroit Cobras
67. Vince Vaughn in Swingers
68. Project Runway
69. Bowling
70. Six Flags Magic Mountain
71. Halloween (P.S.: Watch for my Axl costume this Halloween...)
72. Peanut Butter M&Ms
73. Punching stuff
74. Everything is Illuminated
75. The Coen Brothers
76. "Xanadu" from the motion picture... Xanadu (Click the link. You know you wanna listen. And yeah, I can sing the whole song.)
77. Heists
78. Mountain Dew
79. Fight Club
80. Disneyland
81. Amy Winehouse's version of "Cupid"
82. Finding money in your back pocket
83. The "Sabatoge" music video
84. Guillermo del Toro's monsters
85. Chili-cheese omelettes at Johanna's Kitchen
86. Super Troopers
87. Decades Vintage Clothing
88. Eating breakfast foods in the middle of the night
89. Movie marathons
90. 30 Rock
91. Short hair
92. Texano burritos
93. Bret and Jemaine from Flight of the Conchords. They know how to rock the party
94. Kill Bill Vol. 2
95. Count Chocula
96. The Electric Six
97. Tim Burton
98. Pie
99. The Dark Knight, opening on our wedding day...
100.The fact that I finally finished and published this post!

Just the facts, ma'am

1. I ate pert-near an entire side order of hot fudge at Leatherby's yesterday. No, I didn't put it on anything. I ate it by the spoonful and loved every minute of it. Thank you, Wong!

2. Jason Castro looks exactly like Jo from The Facts of Life. I had this epiphany while watching the episode when Jo, Blair, and Natalie get Tootie drunk. Good times.

3. I have grown to love the Roller Derby. Thanks to Danny for introducing us to such an awesome sport.

4. Battlestar Galactica is the best frakking show... The season finale was an awesome mindfudge.

5. The Incredible Hulk was just okay. Good, but not great.

6. The Old 97's rawk. They put on a great show.

Ben's Taggery

A- Attached or single: Attached
B- Best Friend: Alex, my gentleman lover
C-Cake or Pie: Oh man, I looove pie.
D-Day: What the hell?
E- Essential Item: I dunno. My phone? No one ever calls me, so I surf the internet and play Bubble Breaker. Also, I have a sweet ringtone
F- Favorite Color: Blue. Lately, orange.
G-Gummy Bears or Worms: Bears. I love those big Costco-sized bags of gummy bears.
H-Home town: Dallas, Texas, bee-yotch!
I- Indulgences: Too many to count. Food's a big one. In no way am I a healthy eater.
J- January or July?: July! Mark your calenders now, because July 18th will be so crazy, heads might explode.
K-Kids: Are small versions of adults. Next.
L-Life is incomplete without: My favorite thing is to go to the movies with Alex.
M- Marriage Date: July 18. So soon! At some point I'm going to start hyperventilating and I won't stop until I either die or get married...
N- Number of Siblings: Two. One older and one younger. And let me just say, there was no way I was that goofy when I was a teenager.
O- Oranges or Apples: Apples. Covered in caramel.
P- Phobias or Fears: A cage. To stay behind bars until use and old age accept them and all chance of valor has gone beyond recall or desire. Also, being buried alive after being shot with rock salt.
Q- Quote: "I have no idea where this will lead us, but I have a definite feeling it will be a place both wonderful and strange." It's from Twin Peaks. It's on my blog.
R- Reason To Smile: Not dead yet, am I?
S- Season: Anything but winter. I hate the winter.
T- Tag Three: Alex (since he hasn't done this yet), Neal, and Danny (if he's still around reading)
U- Unknown fact about me: I am afraid of movie theater bathrooms. It is strange, I know, but ever since I watched Scream 2, I've had this unnatural fear of big, quiet, empty movie theater bathrooms.
V- Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animal: Oppressor, bee-yotch!
W- Worst Habit: Um, I have so many... I'm super messy, I have a horrible diet, I put the parking break on automatically (from so many years with a car with a clutch), whenever I watch fights on TV or movies, it makes me punch things, I drink soda compulsively...
X-Rays or Ultrasounds: The last time I was X-Rayed, it was to make sure I didn't ruin my body by falling asleep on the freeway and rolling my truck. Fun times...
Y-Your favorite food: Generally, Cheesecake and pasta. My favorite fast food meal is a Texano burrito and a Mountain Dew. My favorite sit-down meal is an Acme burger and bread pudding. I tell ya, it is a small miracle that I am not roughly the size of a walrus.
Z- Zodiac Sign: Pisces

Psst... Also, I'm coming up on my 100th blog post, so expect to see a 100th post-stravaganza soon.

Wrapped up in Books

So I just finished reading Stephenie Meyer's new book, The Host. No, it isn't the novelization of the crazy-awesome Korean horror movie. For those of you who are unindoctrinated, she's the one who wrote the Twilight, vampire-in-love series. Which I like, but do not love. (Sidenote: I loved Twilight, I sorta liked New Moon, I didn't like Eclipse. Also, I hate Jacob in the books. Haaate. I'm also starting to hate Bella. This is a bad thing, since she's the main character...)

However, I really enjoyed The Host. It had a lot of the same literary tics that Twilight has, so if you don't like her writing style, steer clear. Also, it was way too long; an editor should have cut out about... 100 pages or so. That being said, I was pleasantly surprised by the book. After Eclipse, I didn't expect to like it. But it was great! The sci-fi stuff worked well, the characters were engaging, the story was interesting. (Another sidenote: I thought many of the characters in The Host were just the same characters from the Twilight series.)

It's been a while since I finished a book, which is strange for me, since I usually read voraciously. The past couple I've tried to read I haven't finished (Everything is Illuminated, Watchmen). I think I'll try and finish Watchmen, since it's supposed to be this graphic novel masterpiece and all. I feel sort of like an idiot to say this... but so far, I'm not loving it. I pretty much hate all the characters (and not in a love-to-hate them sort of way, in a could-care-less way). Alex says it picks up a lot if you can just plow through the beginning.

Oh, also, I just read a review on Pajiba of a book I'm really interested in reading. Here's an excerpt of the review and you'll see why: "But I swear to those among you who still have an inkling of romantic yearning within your cold, black, jaded coal-sized hearts: Beginner’s Greek is about true love: Jim and Pam, Wesley and Buttercup, Desmond and Penelope love. It’s not Neil Gaimann[sic], it’s not Nick Hornby, nor is it a cool novel full of Klostermanesque cultural allusions, but — if you’re willing to suspend disbelief — it is a charming page turner that will fill you with lovesick ache and leave you with a heart full of euphoria." Sounds good, no? Even though I am quite a fan of Klostermanesque allusions....

Escapades

Check this shiz out:

1. So I'm loving the Beck/Danger Mouse combo song "Chemtrails," which is playing on Beck's website.

2. Go take a gander at the 50 worst album covers ever. Hi-larious.

3. If you haven't watched the Lost finale, go do it! There's a great breakdown of awesome Lost moments on Alex's blog. Let me just add that season four was the best Lost ever and the finale did NOT disappoint.

4. Is it just me, or did last night's episode of Battlestar Galactica dissapoint? (I know I already ranted about this.) I sorta liked the Adama parts, because I really like Adama and Roslin. However, all the "Who's gonna be president?" stuff really rubbed me the wrong way. It all felt disjointed. Also, why bring back Romo (or his weird dead cat thing)? Didn't like it. Something I am looking forward to: an explanation on how Caprica Six is preggers. It only makes sense to me if Baltar is the father. Also... who is the final Cylon?! Whooooo?

5. I'm going to a baby shower today... Everyone cross your fingers that I make it through without

a. making fun of someone/something and offending everyone
b. scowling the entire time
c. having a mental freakout because my friend is preggo
d. puking (I feel kinda weird today)

Ug.

So yesterday, Alex and I went and got engagement pictures taken. And let me tell you, it was awful for me. I really really hate getting my picture taken. A LOT. It wasn't the photographer's fault, I just really dislike the whole thing. I have a very bad attitude about stuff like this. I feel like planning a wedding is what hell will be like, only with less tulle. The whole thing really stresses me out... way more than it should. Also, I caught a cold, so now my head feels like it's gonna a'splode.

Moving on to greener pastures, I am very excited for the Lost finale today. I can hardly wait. The only thing that sucks is that you know its going to be a huge cliffhanger for next season. We'll find out soon enough...