Groovymarlin.com

For a long time, we didn’t have Showtime in our house. We’ve always had HBO – Jesus, HBO should be fucking required with every cable plan, so you don’t ever miss stuff like The Sopranos or Rome or Deadwood or whatever – but not usually Showtime. So now we have it, but I don’t really watch a lot of TV. Mostly just an hour or so as I’m falling asleep late at night, plus my regularly scheduled shows like Mad Men and True Blood.

Anyway, I’ve been reading a lot about how great this show Dexter is. It’s on Showtime. I’d watched bits of past seasons and read about it but not really had a lot of interest in it. As much as I like the star, whose work on Six Feet Under was terrific, I just couldn’t fit Dexter into my viewing schedule, such as it is. Then a lot of people started talking about how amazing this past season (the show’s fourth) was, and how Dexter was getting back to what it had made it so great in the first place.

OK, so, long story even longer, I have been watching Season 4 of Dexter on my On Demand service (and OMG I love FiOS just for this feature alone – ON DEMAND IS A GIFT FROM GOD FOR THOSE OF US WHO ARE TOO CHEAP OR LUDDITE TO BUY A TIVO). And wow…it’s good. I just watched episode six today, so I have six left to go, and I’m really looking forward to them. Quick impressions:

- The opening credits sequence was entertainingly ironic the first time, but now it’s too damn long (or my attention span is too short) and obvious. I have been fast forwarding through it.

- Julie Benz, who plays Dexter’s wife Rita on the show, was probably best known before this for playing Darla on “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” and “Angel.” I’d always read that even though she played a perfectly evil character (for the most part) on those shows, Julie Benz is one of the sweetest, kindest people working in show business. What I like about her work on Dexter is that this side of her really comes out. She IS sweet. Sometimes too sweet, but whatever. Of course in the most recent episodes she’s also a bit of a pain in the ass. However, having read spoilers about how the season ends, I think I know why they’ve started writing her this way at this point in the arc.

- The actress who plays Dexter’s sister is really good, but holy moley she’s so skinny! Chick looks like a spoon. I like her character though; her potty mouth always cracks me up. Why the hell would she ditch her hot new boyfriend to go back to that crinkly old FBI guy though? I didn’t buy that.

- I’m constantly struck, and a little disturbed, by how skillfully this show gets us, the audience, to root for a serial killer. A methodical, cold, calculating killer. OK sure, he only kills bad guys (and girls) – at least most of the time (oops!). But that doesn’t make it any more acceptable. Especially in light of the fact that he works for the police, and could conceivably help bring people to justice without resorting to the freelance death penalty stuff. Creepy.

I’m thinking I should be done with the season by the end of the weekend. So, happy stabby New Year!

Can anyone watch this without crying? Wow.

Groovymarlin (that’s me!) is a Google Reader fanatic! As of right now, I subscribe to about 300 different feeds, and read nearly 500 individual posts per day. I subscribe to a variety of feeds: parenting blogs, humor blogs, daily deals, Jezebel, political stuff, etc.

With that many feeds to look at, not to mention the few more that seem to get added every week, thoughtful maintenance of my subscriptions is a must, otherwise I’d get completely overwhelmed. Here are the main reasons why I unsubscribe from feeds:

1. You post too much quantity with too little quality: your feed has 50+ posts a day, most of which are meaningless or banal. Edit thyself, blogger!

2. You’re full of shit: there was one “mommy blogger” that I completely unsubscribed from recently because I got fed up with how insanely perfect she made her life seem. Listen sister, I’m a mom too, I know that nobody’s life is all perfect and sunshine all the time. You and your perfect wardrobe and your perfect hair and your perfect husband and your perfect kids and your perfect shopping suggestions and your perfect internet-famous friends MAKE ME SICK.

3. You insult your readers: there’s a guy who used to blog quite a bit, and was pretty interesting, but recently he’s eased up on the blogging and done a lot more tweeting instead. Eventually, I unsubscribed from his Twitter feed because it seemed to bring out the mean side in him. What was snarky and amusing on his blogs turned into real vitriol on Twitter. Maybe because of the lack of context? Whatever, he just seemed to hate on everyone and everything, and I couldn’t take it anymore.

4. Your feed is full of garbage: you have nary a thoughtful, original post in a week’s time. Instead, your [insert hobby or interest here] blog merely reproduces every stupid press release and promotional blurb you receive. Or worse, you steal ideas and content from other, more talented writers. For shame, blogger.

5. You decided to be annoying: by only publishing a headline, and forcing me to click through to read EVERY WORD OF ACTUAL CONTENT, in a desperate ploy for blog traffic. Sorry, page hit whore, not gonna happen.

Sounds bitchy? You’ll live.

So I’m guessing that my blogging will be pretty light (ha ha, when isn’t it?) over the next few days as we celebrate Christmas 2009, or what I will always remember as the BARBIE PINK GLAMOUR CAMPER HOLOCAUST OF 2009. However, since the company I work for wisely shuts down completely between Christmas and New Year’s, I will have some down time next week and maybe, just maybe, I’ll write some blog posts! Won’t that be fun? And bitchy as hell, I promise!

I guess this is going around, but I stole it from Swistle. Anyhoo…

Eggnog or hot chocolate? Really depends on my mood. I would say conservatively it’s been probably two years since I actually drank either one! I did buy some Swiss Miss with Mini Marshmallows at Target on Friday though.

Does Santa wrap the presents or leave them open under the tree? I didn’t realize leaving them open was an option. Seriously. I just finished wrapping everything on Thursday night so…dang.

Colored lights on a tree or white? I vacillate on this. Currently, I prefer white, which is what our tree now has. But I’ve had and enjoyed colored lights in the past. (We have a tree that is pre-strung by the way and it RULES. Three pieces. Takes about 5 minutes to put together, and most of that is hunting around for the cords to hook together. Bam! You’re done.)

Do you hang mistletoe? We used to, where I grew up, but I don’t now.

When do you put your decorations up? Ideally I like to start this not the Sunday right after Thanksgiving, but the following one (which is usually the first weekend in December). Sadly, due to illness, we were kind of late this year and didn’t get our tree up until this past week. And we still don’t have any lights outside. At this point I think we may have to skip that for this year.

What is your favorite holiday dish? The amazing array of Christmas cookies and Hungarian pastries that my mom used to make every year. *sigh* I guess if I have to name something that I still get to eat, um…bourbon? Haha! No, seriously.

Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Yeah when I was growing up we did this. I guess when Veronica grows out of Santa, we’ll do it here too.

How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Pre-strung with white lights, then red beads (which look like metallic cranberries) are strung all around. (Covering the whole tree without any major gaps and without running out of beads is an art, and I have mastered it!) Then ornaments, a mix of things that I mostly inherited from my parents. Finally, an abstract thingy on top. Used to do icicles, but not anymore – too messy. I am thinking about switching to garland next year, and possibly buying some new ornaments.

Snow: love it or hate it? I wish I could answer this differently, but I just can’t. I mean, I grew up in Cleveland for God’s sake. I HATE SNOW. There, I said it. Judge me if you must.

Can you ice skate? Oh good lord no. I never could. Although I was a really good roller skater back in the day. Seriously! I rocked the roller skates, but ice skating I just don’t get.

What is your favorite holiday dessert? OMG I love petit fours, nobody ever gets me any, please send some this year!!!

What is your favorite holiday tradition? Picking out and giving my loved ones perfect presents. I am a GREAT gifter.

Candy canes: yum or yuck? Meh?

Favorite Christmas show? I love A Christmas Story, even though I’ve seen it nearly 100 times.

So, ho ho ho and all that. Yeah, we got a serious amount of snow here today, something like 22 inches? Crazy. Luckily we have plenty of staples (like bourbon) and no real need to leave the house until Monday. Hope we’re dug out by then!

I never really get tired of this song, or this video.