Day 8: 30 Days of TV - Best Twist in a Series

Day 8: Best twist in a series

I have been stuck on this post for over a week. In fact, I had a conversation with my friend Kamiah about it.

Me:  I'm stuck on the TV blog. It's Best Twist. I think I'm overwhelmed, because I watch so much twisty TV.

Kamiah:  What are you thoughts?

  

Me:  Most of them revolve around death, because that's always a good shocking thing. But I think it should be something that you go, "Oooooooooh" everytime you see it.

Kamiah:  End of The Newhart Show. Does that count?

Me:  That was LAME So angry.

Kamiah:  Not LAME

Me:  LAME

Kamiah:  COOL

Me:  BOOO

Kamiah:  YOU'RE COOL

Me:  You're Boo!

Kamiah:  Mine's better

Me:  Well you're nicer than me. And btw, I'm blogging this. It's going to be the intro to the post.

Death as an abrupt end is always a twist that cuts to the core when done right. Showing the audience that they cannot find anything to be a constant makes the choices and consequences feel like they have more weight. I would say this is the main faltering point of Heroes and Lost. The dead do not stay dead, or perhaps I just never said that I had a favorite character on that show. 

So yes, the shows that I watch are all pretty twisty and the thing that continues to shock me (although it shouldn't anymore) is the curse that I have somehow looming over me. When I state out loud, "This person is my favorite character." I have doomed them for death. I'm a Joss Whedon girl. I know that you have to earn the death to make it meaningful and the first one to make me feel the twist, was of course on Buffy.

If you have not watched Buffy, Angel, or Six Feet Under do not read below unless you want a large spoiler. Beth you can read to the cut.


SPOILERAGE SPACE




"I think Jenny is my favorite character." 

SNAP! CRACKLE! Awwwww. It caused me to stop watching because I was so upset. I nearly did not pick the series back up, but I did.

"You know, Anya is so my favorite."

It slices! It dices! It also makes juilenne fries!

You'd think I'd learn.

"God I love Doyle, he just brings the whole show together. He's like the Willow."

I miss Glenn too. Sigh.

"I don't know what it is about Angel, but Lilah is the best character on this show."

That one I really didn't see coming, at least how it happened.

Beth told me I really should at this point just no longer talk about who my favorite character is ever. I still didn't learn.

"I love Conner."

"Man, I miss Cordelia so much, she was the best part of this show."

"You know Fred is the heart now that Cordy's gone."

"Hey Beth, Rach and I are members of the club 'What Wes Wants Wes Gets'"

Slice! Poof! Faghenbottom! Denied!

And even though every single one of them hurt and shocked me to some extent. (They had to tell me for an entire episode that Fred was dead. I didn't believe them. Until the very last shot and then I finally started bawling. Ask Beth. It was as snot-a-riffic as every viewing I do of that cheese-tastic Jodie Foster movie Sommersby. She has great stories about me and Sommersby.)

Nothing made me drop my jaw like a character death on Six Feet Under. A show that always has a character die in every episode, perhaps two. But this one. Is when I thought the show might be stupid and brilliant all at the same time.

BETH STOP READING RIGHT NOW DO NOT CLICK ON THE BELOW BREAK LINK AND FINISH SIX FEET UNDER ALREADY YOU'VE HAD IT FOR YEARS!

I can hear her going "Ooops" followed by a giggle right now or a cackle, depends on how happy she is...

I Feel Like This is Progress

Tonight I got swept in tons of conflicting emotions that I'm not going to go into here because they're stemming from so many facets of my life that I still don't understand what is going on in my brain wrinkles...

But, the point is instead of wallowing in food and sitting on my ass.

I got up and ran.

Yes, Kamiah... you read that right. I ran, granted it was on my treadmills programmed burst program - where you put in your weight, calories want to burn, and time in doing it... and it modulates walking, jogging, running for bursts of time.

But after nearly 1.75 miles I was above the mark on calories and I felt better.

Thank you endorphins.

Also, I've decided if I was too lazy to blog about the workout, it didn't happen, therefore I don't get to count it towards EXP achievements. Suck it self. Be more disciplined with writing.

Forgive the more than usual stream of consciousness herein.

Miles Walked: 12.045
Circuit Training
Beginner: 1 set - 3
Beginner: 2 sets - 2

I Am Not a Morning Person

I have very strange sleep patterns. It's something that's always been true in my life and I only remember two nights that I ever slept through the entire night. One I was in Germany and I had been awake for 36 hours because I cannot sleep in planes, trains, or automobiles. The other I was sick, sick, sick.

As you may have noticed I haven't blogged in a weeks.

It's because I have realized I have zero intrinsic motivation. It's always extrinsic, being why the guilt works fabulous for me if I feel I'm letting someone down then I'm more likely to do something.

That something, is of course exercise and I've asked Kamiah to call me when she gets up in the morning. She politely reminded me that she gets up at 5:20 am. I reminded her that I was serious.

I can wake up very easy and sound very awake, but I can also fall back asleep pretty easily as Mia found out yesterday as she called me we chatted and when I hung up I went back to sleep.

Today she didn't fall for my cheery and chipper voice and actually made me say that I would "get up and get moving" which I'm pretty sure is a slogan of something somewhere.

So I did.

And 2.01 miles later I'm sitting around not sure what to do with my hour I have before work, but perhaps I'll watch some of The Today Show, which I've missed.

I generally will roll out of bed at 7:30 am it's the nice part of living so close to work.

Miles Walked: 10.415
Circuit Training
Beginner: 1 set - 3
Beginner: 2 sets - 2

Let's Walk... Outside

I put off walking tonight for a good long while.

This being after I didn't do cardio on Wednesday because I was meeting Beth and Daniel at the Royals game for some shenanigans. I ended up actually seeing a baseball in the fountain and was so upset that I didn't think ahead like Zack Hample and bring my own water retrieval device. (And if you don't know Zack or haven't heard of him check out both the blog and his website. He's a stand-up guy who catches baseballs for charity.)

So instead I just emo tweeted about it and took a picture.



And then Beth took some other ones with her camera that apparently have me reaching desperately for the ball. I told her that I would get the ball when I go back tomorrow. I am fully determined to copy Zack's device and will fully credit him as well as re-read Watching Baseball Smarter, which he signed, great baseball book.

Hm, after re-reading Zack's entry on the colander I'm not sure that I'll be able to get the ball off the bottom of the fountain. We'll see.

That leads us to Thursday and the nap of death, followed by Grey's (Yay! Arizona!), and then my subsequent dead zone of sleep.

After chatting with Kamiah we talked about the exercise plan for tonight and Saturday and I'm pretty sure I can stick to it.

Tonight I decided to do the cardio and then I came home and sat down and watched my taped Project Runways and sighed about getting on the treadmill. So I decided to walk outside and after I had left my house I remembered a few vital things.

1. At 8:19 at night the sun is down.
2. I live in the ghetto part of the Burg where we don't believe in street lights.
3. While I was wearing a bright orange/white/green baseball cap I stupidly had a black t-shirt on.

I walked around my neighborhood and got out to the highway and looped back around enjoying the inclines on the road and not seeing numbers tick away in front of me.

Then a red Monte Carlo passed by me going very slowly. I had my music up loud, but they had the window rolled down and I thought I heard a squeaking sound. I kept walking. About eight minutes later the Monte Carlo came by again this time behind me and passed by... and I realized that I was in the middle of the Pet Smart commercial where they try to find the dog by squeaking a toy out the window.

I nearly asked them the third time what type of dog and what the dog's name was since I still had some time left before I hit thirty minutes, but I didn't.

Two minutes before I was done a black lab trotted up alongside me and I wondered if he was the dog they were looking for, but he wouldn't let me touch his collar to see if he had tags on.

Miles Walked: I'm not sure I'll check in the morning
Circuit: Beginner - 3

Ceasing Ramble.

Deceiving Circuit Workout

Each day another little change.

Today I tried to get up when my alarm first turned off, but failed. So I knew that my circuit workout would be destined for evening instead of morning.

I'm honestly glad I forgot how deceiving the circuit workout is. Tiny little exercises built on top of each other to work different muscle groups and leave you thoroughly worked out.

After a brief check-in with Kamiah this morning I told her about easing into exercise and decided to do the lesser of the circuit workout that I used to do, which is just doing one set instead of two.

Thank heavens I did that for myself.

Below is the Circuit Workout that I Use:

Warm-up:
Step Touches
Arm Raises
Simulated Jump Rope
Shoulder Rolls
Neck Rolls
Marching in Place

Upper Body:
Bicep Curls
Tricep Kickbacks
Dead Lifts
Chest Flies
Shoulder Presses
Overhead Pullovers

Core:
Crunches
Oblique Crunches
Captain's Chair
Plank (I hate this so much, but keep it in there)
Back Extensions

Lower Body:
Lunges
Plie Squats
Step-ups
Reverse Lunges with Leg Lifts (wherein I start sucking wind)
Calf Raises (wherein I hate all movement)

The Cooldown:
Calf Stretch
Hamstring Stretch
One-Arm Reach
Hip Flexor Stretch
Tricep Stretch
Quad Stretch
Child's Pose (wherein I think Yoga might be awesome)
Low Back and Glute Stretch

A set is usually 10 to 12, but I make a set 12 to 15.
Some exercises are time based, such as step-ups, the plank of evil incarnate, marching in place.

Generally it kicks my ass, and when it stops kicking your ass you add another set by first finishing through all the exercises in the area and then going through again. Circuit workouts are awesome. And painful. And awesome. And sweat inducing. And Awesome.

Another tidbit that Mia and I talked about was a thought I had while walking yesterday. I am addicted to achievements on Xbox as are many individuals that I know. So why not make Exercise Achievements to give me something to strive towards...

The first couple that I could come up with were:

Walk Five Hundred Miles - 20 EXP
Walk Five Hundred More - 40 EXP

I'm sure that there are things that I should really look into that are difficult, but also easy to achieve so I have little successes. I'm not sure what all of them will be, but I'll post the achievement when I get it on my blog. Much like the image below:



If you have suggestions please let me know. I know that one should be holding the Plank position for the actual amount of time instead of always wussing out. I hate the Plank. Maybe something like "ARRRRRRRRRRRR - 10 EXP"

Be creative I'd love to have goals set by others to strive for as well.

Start Weight: 208.6 lbs.
Miles Walked: 1.5 miles
Circuit Workouts: Beginner - 1

Not Quite Sucking Wind

The re-dedication to exercise started off better than I thought it would. I didn't want to push myself back into what I used to be able to do in my height of fitness.

Because that inevitably leads to hurting the next day and putting off the exercise (I should know I've fallen into that before).

You will notice that I do not have my initial weigh-in, because perhaps I stayed up late last night playing Deathspank on Xbox and perhaps... I got up at noon. I'll put that in tomorrow.

I'd like to do measurements too, but I'll need someone to help me with that later.

Before doing my 30 minutes of cardio on the treadmill tonight I checked in with my friend Kamiah to see if she would be interested in helping me stay true to the promise I made to myself.

To exercise daily.

I told her that I would like her to guilt me everyday and she asked if she could instead be very peppy.

We also talked about what motivates us, what we do during exercise and writing.

I'm glad to have her on this ride with me, because I do admire Kamiah's commitment to many things. I'm happy to have her remind me have to be committed to myself.

The actual workout had a simple goal: 30 minutes on the treadmill or 1 1/2 miles whichever took longer. It turned out to be the 30 minutes took longer, which made me happy with the first dip back into exercise waters in a while.

A Mr. Bandito note: He was fascinated with the treadmill the entire time.

Ceasing Ramble.