What to do, what to do...

Today during my breakfast (12 a.m.) I finished the last currently available Scrubs episode (S07E06). I managed to watch all the episodes starting from the very beginning since I got back to Vienna after the holidays. That's ~150 episodes in less than 4 weeks, quite impressive, ey?

And now I have no idea which series to move on to. During dinner I watched some Friends, but having seen most of the episodes at least 3 or 4 times it's simply not that entertaining anymore. At the same time it seems useless to wait for the next Scrubs or Aliens in America episodes due to the writer's strike in Hollywood. What to do, what to do?

At the moment I'm thinking about going back to watching "6 Feet Under" which I had previously seen during my first year here in Vienna, though I don't know how many seasons I watched back then.

It's weird, before moving to Vienna I hadn't watched any TV series for quite a long time (with the notable exception of Friends of course). I think the main reason why I started watching more stuff was that I was looking for some kind of routine while eating dinner. At the beginning I caught myself eating while working on the computer a couple of times and apart from the fact that I don't like spaghetti sauce on my keyboard it simply doesn't seem to make any sense. Dinner had been reduced to mere food consumption and I didn't like that. So to turn this into more of a ritual I started watching TV series while I was eating. And I haven't stopped since. I found it to be the perfect time for enjoying 20~40min episodes plus I noticed that it actually helped me to eat slower (which is also supposed to be healthier or so I hear).

Anyway, I guess I'll have to start looking for a new series because those weekly video-podcasts, Scrubs and Aliens in America updates won't keep me entertained for long.

And now I'm off to the Smashing Pumpkins concert! :-)

So Far Away

"It's you that I adore
You'll always be my whore"
(Smashing Pumpkins - Ava Adore)

Those were the lyrics I was listening to while I was riding home from a meeting with a friend on one of those cool (and free!) City Bikes that we have here in Vienna. I'm currently listening to a lot of Smashing Pumpkins in preparation for going to their concert on Thursday evening, incidently also the day of my last exam, so that shall be quite the night.

Anyway, the reason why I'm calling this entry "So Far Away" is that tonight was another one of those moments that made me realize that I'll be spending a lot of time away from my friends (and vice-versa) in the years to come. The occasion today was saying good-bye to a friend who's heading to Santiago de Chile next week for his joint-study-exchange. Another friend will also be heading to Barcelona next week to spend several months working there as part of an EU-sponsored programm. One of my closest friends is currently on Erasmus in Cadiz and will get back in mid-February.

Having many close friends who enjoy travelling and living in other places as much as I do certainly doesn't seem like a disadvantage at first. Especially since every time we meet someone is able to tell one story or another that happened in Granada, Jerusalem, Nizza, Buenos Aires or elsewhere. Combine that with the fact that I tend to spend quite a lot of time outside of Austria myself (8 1/2 weeks in 2007 if I'm not mistaken) and with an outstanding chance for an internship in *cough* *cough* starting in *cough* *cough* (details will be mentioned in due time;-) and it's already starting to be hard to really meet up with people. Hell, in some cases it takes 6 weeks of planning ahead to arrange for something simple (yet delicious) such as going to a cocktail bar with one of my best friends (incidently she's currently spending some time in Israel).

What am I trying to say here? Well, honestly I'm not quite sure. It's hard to be able to complain about knowing awesome people who spend a lot of time making great experiences in places that are 'far away' when you're such a person yourself. However I do have to admit that sometimes I wish people spent more time 'at home' so it would be easier to meet up with them.

Anyway, it's getting late and I shall have to get up in 4 hours...

Aliens in America

While I do take pride in the fact that I haven't really spent (aka wasted) any significant amount of time with regular television these past few years I have a habit of getting hooked on television series. It all started with a long-term addiction to Friends (still the best TV series ever made IMHO), which continued (to a lesser degree) with its spin-off Joey. Once I moved to Vienna I started watching That 70's Show again, I had loved watching it while I lived in Peru from 2000 to 2001. The next thing that hit me was Six Feet Under which I absolutely loved for its weird setting. Afterwards I think I went back to Friends, I've always had a weak spot for them and by now I've probably seen most episodes 3 or 4 times.

Sometime in early 2005 I discovered Scrubs and have been hooked on them ever since. At the moment I'm close to finishing the second run through all the episodes. And of course I'm very happy that the 7th season just started airing 2 weeks ago as that means a fresh episode for me each Friday.

Ah, and I nearly forgot about my secret love for Futurama, easily the best comic series ever produced. Apart from being incredibly funny Futurama brought us some of the best quotes ever:

"Bite my shiny metal ass" (the one and only Bender)

"Good news everyone..." (the professor)

"Tell my wife I said 'hello'" (the leader of the Democratic Order Of Planets)

Anyway, what I really wanted to write about today is that I may have found a new candidate to make it to my list of "must-see TV series":

Aliens in America (official website / Wikipedia entry)

The basic story is that an American family decides to host an exchange student because the mother hopes that this will help her 16-year old son Justin be more popular in high-school. Imagine their surprise when they pick up Raja, a 16-year-old Pakistani Muslim!

I've only seen the pilot so far but I'm really liking it and can't wait to see more episodes (though that probably won't happen before the weekend). The cultural context the whole story is set in is definitely very interesting and it's great to see a TV series that doesn't involve cops, terrorists, the president, politicians, etc. I'd definitely have to say that this is probably one of the more daring TV series and it will be very interesting to see how it all works out. If that sounds appealing then I'd definitely recommend you to give Aliens in America a shot!