How do I define history? Well it's just one thing after another.

Captain Malcolm Reynolds has returned to television! On Castle.

Seriously, the first five minutes of Castle on Monday were awesome! "Don't you think you should move on?" "I like it!" And than he continues to were the Captain Tightpants outfit to a graveyard to look at a dead body. How is this show so awesome?

Since I've gone through all the DVDs of Criminal Minds, I'm moving onto CSI. They were all so young when the show first started and looked it too.

Last weekend was horrible for the store I work for. An electrical transformer blew near the store and we had minimal power on Friday and closed at 6pm and than NO power at all until 1:30pm-ish and we didn't open until 2pm on Saturday. The loss of sales alone is just too horrible to think about.

I've been reading John E. Douglas books. The man is the inspiration for Jack Crawford in Silence of the Lambs and Dave Rossi on Criminal Minds. I read "Anatomy of Motive" first which essentially described the ways and some of the reasons why killers do the things they do. Currently, I'm reading "Mindhunter" which is a kind of biography. Reading about Douglas' early years at the FBI makes me cringe. It was such a man's world and political to the extreme.

I have both today and tomorrow off so am enjoying my free time by watching TV. Specifically, Cambridge Spies, a BBC mini-series about four English men working for the USSR from the 1930s for about twenty years. Really awesome actors.

Quick update in Maryland-Land: Am still working at the Barnes & Noble and its going good if incredibly busy. Haven't had much headway into the whole finding a new job thing but when I do get motivated I have a lot of options out there. I found a new two bedroom apartment for mom and me with about the same rent as the one bedroom we're in at the moment. I get the master bedroom, yay! Since the lowest quote I found on shipping all my furniture from the west coast to the east coast was nearly two grand, I've decided that I will most likely fly home sometime in the late spring, early summer and drive a truck back. I mean I already did the whole driving across the country thing once before, I can do it again.

The Howard County Library system is a wonderful thing to behold and I am taking advantage of its services ie. the DVD collection. I got the whole entire third season of Criminal Minds and most of the fourth, I'm just waiting for one more disc. I have decided that the couple I am most in favor of is Hotch/Prentiss. And tonight's episode did not help my delusion any. She stuck with him for the entire episode it seemed like. I really hope the writers aren't going to pull the same thing that they did with Grissom and Sara and not actually show proof that they're together until just before one of them leaves the show. That would be downright cruel. This just means that there will be watching of serial killers on television in my future.

Firstly: There is something oddly appropriate about listening to Franz Ferdinand and reading Merlin fanfic. Maybe its just me.

Have been in Maryland for two and a half weeks. Almost got a speeding ticket the other day. It was SUNDAY and there was no one on the road and there is no way in California that I would have gotten a ticket but whatever. There were two officers in the car, one trainer and one trainee. I started bawling my eyes out as soon as I saw the flashing lights so the trainee had pity on the poor pitiful California transplant and gave me a warning. On the other hand, the trainer would have given me a ticket if it was up to him. I do not understand the Maryland driving laws.

Bookstores, specifically Barnes & Nobles, are the same countrywide, its the people that are different. I'm learning and dealing and adapting. Just give me time. And wish me patience.

In other news, there are no Wells Fargos on the east coast so decided to get a credit union account. After watching Rachel Maddow tonight, I'm going to take all my money out of Wells Fargo ASAP.

TV Rec: Inspector Lewis. Lewis was Inspector Morse's partner and got his own show. Yay! Also the guy that plays Lewis' partner, Hathaway, is married to Billie Piper. It really is a small island and all that.

I have been in Maryland for almost a week. It took four days to drive across the country, which I do not suggest in any way shape or form, but I have a car and I started work two days ago so things are not that bad.

One of the biggest differences between Maryland and California, and this is from a retail employee point of view, is the labor laws. In California you are required, as in they indicate it of the daily schedule, to have two fifteen minute breaks and a half an hour lunch. Maryland is not so strict. And it does not help that the store that I work is so busy that I feel bad just requesting five minutes to go to the bathroom.

I did take a pay cut but hopefully I will be finding an office job soon so that the pay difference will not matter so much. First things first is finding a two bedroom apartment.

Summertime is always the worst for me. I get bored extraordinarily easily and when I'm not in school, I get bored really quick. However, my issue at the moment is not boredom or depression (though this is a symptom). It's the lack of drive or ambition or motivation. I can feel myself giving up because I'm not happy and I'm not where I'm supposed to be.

Today the Trustees of the California State University system had a meeting where they decided in all their very-much-lacking wisdom to increase the fees for the system by 20 percent. And that ladies and gentlemen was my motivation. I called up my mother and told her the truth, I did not want to be in Sacramento anymore, what about moving to Maryland? She was incredibly supportive.

There are a couple of issues with this, specifically housing. However, I talked to the manager and since he thinks that the student housing complex I live in will be at 100% capacity come fall, they may be able to find a replacement for me, without me having to sublet. This is not set in stone yet so I continue to worry but I have hope.

Furthermore since I am me, I make a random phone call to the local Barnes & Noble closest to my mother in Maryland. Turns out they're looking for a Head Cashier. Seriously?!?

I haven't talked to my bosses and honestly, I don't know whats going to happen. But I have not felt this excited and happy in months.

Working in a bookstore is an exercise in restraint. Specifically an effort to avoid the books, movies etc. that feed my obsessions before they can be stopped.

For example...Having bought the first season of True Blood on DVD I started to Google the actors such as the gorgeous Alexander Skarsgard. That is when I realized the the six foot four Swedish son of Stellan Skarsgard was on the mini-series "Generation Kill." Now is the the time to admit that I never actually saw the mini-series but I am becoming awfully convinced I need to buy it.

However I decided that I am not making the same mistake as with Band of Brothers by watching the mini-series before reading the book. That's when working in a bookstore comes in handy. I picked up Generation Kill on Saturday and am more than half way through it. Than I ordered One Bullet Away which is written by Nathaniel Fick, a former officer with the Marines and featured in Generation Kill.

Both my parents were in the military and my father was stationed for training at Leavenworth (yes, that Fort Leavenworth) when I was born. But most of what I have read about the military has been historical, from the World War Two generation or Vietnam. But this is so recent and the guys involved are just like the guys I went to high school and college with. Not to get too introspective, but my brother is 16 and wants to go into the military after high school and he could be like these guys.

I know the difference between the actors on television for the mini-series and the real people featured in the book. But I'm glad that the war was shown both realistically and dramatically even if it was by actors who probably (except for military-trained Alexander Skarsgard) wouldn't last one day in a war zone.

In other news: No boyfriend anymore, my future goals do not involve being a housewife in Livermore thank you f-ing very much.

I have been very very very busy. What with work and school and boyfriend and...did I say boyfriend? Yes I did.

Anyways. I have officially moved away from the Stargate Atlantis fandom. I know that this is fairly normal since they canceled the show but I have actually become more interested in the Stargate SG-1 fandom. This might be because of attending Gatecon this summer in Vancouver or maybe because the producers of SG-1 did not cancel this show to just replace it with some "hot, young thing." It has been universally agreed upon in Atlantis fandom that no, we will NOT be watching Stargate Voyager 90210 or whatever they are calling the new show.

Good news is I have found a new fandom with what very small time I have left in my life. I'm not sure what the official name is but I just call it the Pundit fandom. And what makes this even better is that there is always politics going on in the country so MSNBC is very unlikely to cancel Countdown with Keith Olbermann or The Rachel Maddow Show because of lack of viewership.

Right now I am searching for online episodes of Law & Order: London so if you have access to these, please let me know.

Those of you who know who Rahm Emanuel, Paul Begala, George Stephanopoulos or James Carville is than you must read this article. I am half freaked out and half laughed. Seriously, should it scare me that these four men who have significant political and media influence act like teenage girls? Than I hope that Aaron Sorkin writes a television show about it.

According to the interview on CSPAN he did last week, Aaron Sorkin wanted to watch Keith Olbermann's show live at the studio. His response was to ask if Aaron was writing a movie or a television show about him. And he has reason to ask. Sports Night, which I did not realize when I first watched the show, was about Keith and Dan Patrick's time on SportsCenter on ESPN. I'm reading The Big Show: A Tribute to ESPN's SportsCenter which is really a 200 page book of Dan and Keith making fun of each other. Another thing Keith mentioned at the CSPAN interview was that really what his time at SportsCenter was about was trying to make each other laugh out loud on television. This explains so much about Keith's relationship to Rachel Maddow.

I know, hold on a second...what does Dan Patrick and Rachel Maddow have in common? Besides Keith. After most Countdown's Keith "tosses" the show to Rachel and literally the main point of this is to make her laugh. At first I thought it was just ego. But now I realize it's that he thinks of her as a friend and making her laugh is just fun.

My recent facepalm moment came when I finally asked if I could add MSNBC to my cable package. After the election and the inauguration in which I had to watch CNN coverage on TV and MSNBC on my incredibly decrepit computer, I finally asked the management for the Comcast phone number. And Comcast tells me that "sure thing, no problem, it's just a $1 a month and you have to come by and pick up the cable box." A DOLLAR! I just can't believe it. I could have been watching Rachel Maddow since her first show on TV in September if I had just asked than.

Sigh.

In better news, I was able to get into the International Affairs class I was worried about. The professor is young-ish but hopefully knows what he's talking about. There is such a major difference from the Public Policy classes and the Government International Affairs classes. The students are different too. Actually they are more relaxed. Of course that may just be me because I'm not taking FOUR graduate classes this semester. Kids, don't ever try that while also working. Bad, bad idea.

My new obsession is Richard Engel caused by viewing his War Zone Diary. This man is just incredible. He has given up so much to cover the Iraq war and Middle East conflict and just goes back for more. After watching him, you can't tell me that you don't find him a little adorable too.

EDIT: You must all read this article about Rachel Maddow. On page 6, she talks about her high school boyfriend. Um, what?!?!

Right now I'm in Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco and whaddaya know there's free wi-fi. Awesome.

It was really easy getting down here just took the BART and a cable car than walked for several blocks. But hey, totally worth it.

In other news, I've begged my mom to record on a DVD the five minutes between Countdown and Rachel's show which is not shown on the podcast. Of course she is just feeding the obsession but I'm okay with that.

Now back to more walking. Seriously I love this town.

So I had to work last Friday and therefore missed Sanctuary.

However, I did stay up to watch the Stargate Atlantis episode Vegas. A little on the cliche side but anything that puts David Hewlett in a suit and tie is something to watch. They made John Sheppard a desperate man which was different for the asinine writers of our beloved show. Also, I have heard through the grapevine that the same writers/producers which canceled Atlantis in it's "best season ever" expect it's viewers to enjoy the brand new Stargate show. This is not going to happen. Due to the fact that this new show is already known in many circles as Stargate "Voyager 90210" Universe, I'm not really feeling to the sense of anticipation.

You can tell my feelings on this, can't you?

As for the reason I am writing a bit different than usually, I have only two people to blame.

Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow.

These two absolutely wonderful people have invaded my life and I cannot stop the obsession. I have even gone to the lengths to buy Keith's book The Worst Person in the World and 202 Strong Contenders and Air America: The Playbook because Rachel has a column in it.

Seriously, I might be in need of some medical attention or something. But than again these two people are the coolest ever. Ever.

Now I must go watch every single video on YouTube - kickittorachel's Channel starring, you guessed it! Keith and Rachel.

Sigh.

I actually cooked this evening. I made these chicken quesadillas and they weren't horrible but I think I'm going to try baking next time. I really really cannot cook.

Also, I just got done watching Nim's Island which I've wanted to watch for awhile and really enjoyed. Now I want to know what happens to Alexandra and Jack. Very cute. Also, Nim and Edmund.

I watched The Other Boleyn Girl earlier today too. It made me sad mostly because of how realistic it seemed. The advisors kept on saying in the behind the scenes stuff that women were basically treated like crap in that day and age. And if you were really lucky your husband died young and left you money. Really, I don't that it's true that Mary Boleyn had Henry VIII's son because we would have heard about it waaay before now. But still, it makes a good story.

Kristen Scott Thomas is awesome anyways.

Is it just me or does Helen and Will have WAY more chemistry than Will and Ashley? Maybe its the awesomeness of Amanda Tapping who seems to have chemistry with pretty much everyone. But tonight's episode where its just the two of them in a sub and the episode a couple weeks ago with the Nubbins, they both were really amazing. Sexy amazing.

Its ironic that while Amanda was on Stargate her best chemistry was with the guy who played her boss and on Sanctuary, she and the guy who plays her protege have the best chemistry.

Also, just saw the preview for next weeks episode and it looks like JOE (from Highlander) is on next week's episode. AWESOME!

A couple of years ago, VH1 tried to get New Kid on the Block back together for a reunion show. It didn't work. And I knew it wouldn't because Donnie Wahlberg had gotten famous at being an actor and not a pop star.

Last year, I kept on hearing rumors that the New Kids of the Block were reuniting. I thought, I'll believe it when I see it. Well, I have to believe it now because...

I went to the NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK CONCERT in Sacramento tonight! And I am so very glad that I did.

I made a promise when I was seven, you know the little girl promises you make like I'm going to grow up to be a princess, well I made a promise that I would go to a New Kids on the Block concert if I could. And I knew it wouldn't come true because the New Kids broke up. Well I guess that I was wrong.

Seriously, it was an awesome show and they played a lot of their old stuff mixed in with new stuff from their new album. I have practically lost my voice because of screaming so much.

So judge me if you want but I am very happy tonight because I saw the NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK in concert!

Seriously, Vancouver must be the smallest BIG city in the world.

I can't tell you why I just wrote that but just believe me. Very very small, as in EVERYONE knows one another.

Okay, that's enough.

So I'm in my second month of graduate school and am starting to have second thoughts. More like 3rd and 4th thoughts actually.

I went to graduate school because that was always the goal. Well sometimes after I get something I don't want it anymore. There's a song about that right?

Now, its great and all and I've met a lot of cool people and gotten a job and will most likely survive, at least for this year.

What worries me is my ability to keep it up for the next couple of years. What if I give up? It might seem easier to just work and not have to worry about homework and papers.

I keep telling myself the money shouldn't be the cause of me quitting. And I know that if I quit school it won't be because of the money. It will because I don't want to do it anymore.

I'm going to the New Kids on the Block concert in Sacramento. Yes you heard that right, NEW KIDS!

I was a fan waaaaaay back, like when I was seven or something. I thought, hey, you only live once right? And bought the tickets before I had a chance to change my mind.

So politically speaking, this election is much more exciting than previous ones. Maybe because people decided that it would be interesting to throw a "completely unprepared but giving it the best try anyways" person into the mix. I have to admit that it makes things a lot more interesting.

By the way, last night's VP debate was the highest rated VP debate since 1960.

Hmmm. This makes me wonder about the American public. I think it's kind of like watching reality television or NASCAR racing. Everyone is waiting to someone to crash and burn.

On the plus side, Joe Biden is getting more exposure. He is current the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee AND has been ranked one of the least wealthy people in the Senate. This guy is interesting to me. Go read about him instead.

So yes, I did finally get into Grad School and moved to Sacramento. It's been INSANE lately but totally worth it. Within the first 2 weeks, I spent a full weekend in class plus got a part-time job at Barnes & Noble.

I also found an Obama For America office and I volunteer 2 mornings a week. It's usually pretty easy, phone-banking and stuff. I'm happy that I know that I am contributing.

I should go and do my homework. But what would be the fun in that?

So I'm in Vancouver, Canada right now attending Gatecon. It has been one of the most fabulous experiences so far although I'm actually trying to stick to my budget. However, when you (that would be me) have a chance to hang with some of the coolest actors that are on TV today, you don't just turn it down. Right now, I'm back in my hotel room but a couple of hours ago, I was in a room with RDA and Corin Nemec and several other awesome Stargate actors. I will try and post some pictures when I get back to the States.

I do want to say that one of the best things about this convention has been the people. It is a fan-run convention which means that nearly everything is done by volunteers. This is so amazing when you think about how much effort and time they put into everything.

I'm just helping a couple of hours a day and my feet are killing me by the end of the day. Seriously, these guys deserve all the props in the world. I will write more later when I'm not on my iPod cramping up my fingers. I do want to say one thing, Dan Payne, Cliff Simon and Steve Bacic are incredibly gorgeous men and are all fairly sweet as well. More later, promise!

I would give anything to be in the England right now watching the Season Finale of Doctor Who. ANYTHING!

To save my gentle reader's delicate balance, I used a cut. Please see: ( Patriotic. Or Not. )

Happy Fourth of July everyone! See you on the July the Fourth 2009.