Socially Obsessed!

Completely Obsessed has become socially obsessed!

I interrupt your normal viewing of this blog (you are normally viewing it, right?) to announce that we've gone social!  In an effort to connect with more people, generate more interest, and share more of my obsessions and more of yours, I've now created two new ways for you to connect and enjoy even more obsessions than you'll find here!  

First off, there's Facebook.  The blog now has a fan page and I'll be updating it frequently with videos, photos, and posts.  I'd love for you to hop on over and join in the fun!  I'm looking forward to hearing about your obsessions too!  

To find me on Facebook you can swing by here: https://www.facebook.com/CompletelyObsessed

Please find me, and you know the drill...click on that lovely little blue button (featured below for those who need identification assistance).  

I hope you'll like me and join in the fun.  Comment on my obsessions posted there and share some of yours!  Upload videos, photos, and share your opinions!  I'm really excited about hearing from you!

Also, if you're more of the quick update kind of person, there's now a profile dedicated to the blog on everyone's favorite super-quick social connection: Twitter.

You'll find me on Twitter at @CompletelyObses  I'll share updates there from time to time and try to link you to some of the things that I'm completely obsessed with!  

@CompletelyObses

Follow me on Twitter and I'll follow you back!  I look forward to meeting everyone somewhere out there in the social realm to share more obsessions.  

Even if you're not into social media, though, don't forget to check back here for more obsessions, add my silly little Blog to your following list (and I'll follow you back) and feel free to post your opinions on anything you see here!  

Song Pop

Song Pop

Obsession Level: Why Won't You Play Me Back NOW?!?

I'm pretty sure that just about anyone who has found the internet has also found Facebook and knows that it offers a wide variety of games for anyone looking to blow a couple of minutes/hours/days of their life.  I also know that many people won't admit to playing these games, insisting that they never play (and would never waste their precious time that way, being the EXTREMELY productive citizens that they are).  I call bull on that one, especially since many of them don't even realize that you can see in a variety of ways what games your friends are playing.  

Now I have admittedly sampled a wide variety of Facebook games in the past few days.  I've been on a sort of semi-vacation and have been giving my brain a well deserved rest from the taxing work that I normally do.  This means that I have attempted to entertain myself with the most mindless things possible...imagine solitaire marathons and you'll understand what I'm saying.  I could write reviews of many of the games on Facebook at this point, but that may come later.  Today we're just going to talk about one: Song Pop.

I love music.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE music.  I like many different kinds of music, some more than others.  My tastes typically go for older rock music (50's, 60's, 70's, 80's rock), country music (let's say from the 90's back), love songs (from already mentioned eras), and especially it focuses on artists that I am a fan of.  My lack of contemporary music knowledge does not come from a distaste for the music, rather it comes from seriously not having had the time in the past three years to listen to the radio.  It also comes, I admit, from stockpiling music I do like on my IPOD (named Elton) and then just plugging that in while I'm in the car.  I do that because I know I'll like most of what is on there (yes there are things on there that I'm like "What in the world is this?!) and because I can change songs quickly.  I'm an impatient person and I hardly ever make it through an entire song.  

All that being said, I think this game is so much fun.  It's positively addicting.  I like the challenge of seeing how well I know music.  I also like getting to hear snippets from songs that I have never heard before because they come from categories that I have little to no knowledge of (think Contemporary Rap).  There are, however, some tweaks that I would make if they let me change the app a little (and we all know that things would run much better in this world if everyone got my opinion on how to do things).

1.  I hate that you only get to choose between three categories to challenge someone.  If I have a bunch of different lists, then I'd like to be able to choose between all of the ones I own.

2.  I hate that each challenge is only 5 songs.  It's too much fun to limit you to 5 songs.  I think 10 would be way better.  

3.  The waiting for your friends to play back is excruciating.  It makes you kind of like a crazy person because you're sitting there, staring at this stupid game and wondering what in the world your friends are doing that they're not playing back.  You lose all sense of the fact that people have a life.  It's really bad.

4.  I think that they should have a "play alone" option.  This option would let people like me just sit there and play themselves.  It wouldn't be like winning challenges, rather it would be a separate option that would allow you to "beat your own high score".  It would also allow for endless play for someone who has decided to spend their entire day doing completely useless activities instead of making them go in search of other games or explore other obsessions.  I think it would be a nice little addition.

So there you have it, my first game review.  I recommend Song Pop to anyone who likes music, but I warn you that you may turn into a totally obsessed person and you may start to become annoyed at your friends for taking too long to feed your obsession.  If you'll excuse me, now I have a challenge to go take care of!  LOL

Ellen Degeneres

Ellen Degeneres

Obsession Level: Keeps Me in Stitches!

I've been on a blogging hiatus for a few days now.  My work has been keeping me busy and I haven't really revisited any obsessions that I haven't posted about so far.  Then, today, while eating my late lunch, I stumbled on Facebook and read through some of the things that my friends had posted.  One of their links lead me to the Ellen Degeneres Show page, which of course meant that I had to stop and go through some of the stuff there since I love Ellen!


I have loved Ellen since she had her sitcom.  It was a great sitcom, and I really wish that they showed reruns of it somewhere.  Her stand up is hilarious too, and I like to watch it on YouTube anytime I need a quick laugh.  


I admit that I don't watch the Ellen Degeneres Show very often because it seems like I always miss it because of work.  I do catch it every now and again, and when I see it on the channel guide I will always flip over there.  


Some of my favorite things about the Ellen Degeneres Show:


Dance Dares (which I've been watching this afternoon) - These are hilarious!  Ellen gets people to sneak up behind people in random places and dance behind them, attempting not to get caught.  She's done a few herself.  Every now and again she shows some of the best ones she receives, and she posts them on FB as well, so that's where I get to see them.  It looks like so much fun that I can't believe I have never done it before.  


Gladys:  Gladys is an old woman that called in to the Ellen show once to tell her to move a plant because it made it look like Ellen had spikes coming out of her head.  Ellen called her back and she was hilarious!  One of her best lines is "I love Jesus, but I drink a little."  Since then, Ellen has called her several times and every conversation is hilarious!


Ellen seems like an amazing person.  She's funny and very generous.  She's been an amazing role model the the LGBTQI (did I leave anyone out) community.  I just hope she keeps doing what she's doing because she's doing a fantastic job!

Lonesome Dove (movie and book)

Lonesome Dove

Obsession Level: Epic

I didn't update yesterday.  It had been a very long week and I wasn't feeling particularly inspired by anything.  I didn't want to do anything that was going to force me to use my exhausted brain at all.  That being said, I spent the entire night on Facebook.  I did nothing all night but look at people's pictures, look at my own pictures, and just stare, waiting for status updates where my Facebook friends would tell me how exciting their lives are while I stared, blurry eyed at my computer screen.  Pathetic, I know.  


Today, however, I've decide to talk about one of my obsessions.  Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry.  The obsession doesn't stop just at this book, it expands throughout the entire series.  This saga that he writes is probably the best saga of all times.  McMurtry has an amazing writing style and I've never disliked anything that I've read by him.  I will get around to discussing the other books in the future, but for the time being I'm going to just focus on this one.  


If you've never read it, this is a book that you simply cannot miss.  The story is beautiful and engaging and the characters are some of the most memorable characters available in literature.  McMurtry writes with a simple style that makes his books easy to read and get really involved in without having to get too wrapped up in overly flowery language.  I promise that once you read this book you'll be so intimately acquainted with the characters that you will want to read the rest of the series just to spend more time with them.  Whenever I read this book, or watch the movie adaptation of it, I feel like I'm spending time with old friends.  My three favorite friends in the book are Gus, Call, and Clara.


Gus is the charming, witty cowboy who doesn't take life too seriously.  He's always up for a poke and a drink and realizes that life is too short to not take advantage of fun when it's available.  His lifelong friend and working partner couldn't be more the opposite of him.  Woodrow Call is far more serious and his mind is on getting things done.  He's not the dreamer or the lover like Gus is, rather he is a doer that typically runs away from love and relationships.  He never really seems to let anyone get too close, except Gus.  Though he did have one love in his life, he never really treated her right, so you can suspect that he has a little guilt and regret built up that causes him to be the stand offish person that he is.  Clara was the love of Gus' life, and he was the love of hers.  Their brief time together in their youth is something both of them treasure, and even though they never end up happily ever after with each other, it's a beautiful love story.  

The movie adaptation of the book is actually very good.  Many of the movies made after McMurtry's books do a fabulous job of telling the story as it is in the book.  Many of his novels are long, so the movies are too, but it's worth it not to leave out any of the really important details that come up in his complex stories.  Lonesome Dove is a 6 hour movie (it was actually a miniseries like many of the films about McMurtry's books) with an awesome cast.   Robert Duvall's performance as Gus is wonderful.  He brings the character of Gus to life in a way that's even better than the Gus that I had pictured in my head while reading the book.  He won me over so much that I was persuaded to name my cat Gus as a tribute to the character that I loved so much.  Tommy Lee Jones plays the serious and practical Woodrow Call, and even though Call was never my favorite character in the book, there's something that draws you to him when you see him played by Jones.  

I of course was thrilled to discover that the strong, independent, and sometimes coy and difficult, Clara was played by Anjelica Huston.  I don't know who they could have gotten to play the part that would have been better for it.  Huston, as always, gives a stellar performance.  


If you haven't read the book or seen the movie, you need to do both.  The movie is great, and it's mostly accurate to the book, but I think that no matter how good the movie adaptations of McMurtry's books are, you are still missing out if you don't read them as well.