Top 11 Kick-Ass Girls (Part 2 of 2... maybe 3)

Previously on the Top 11 Kick-Ass Girls (Part 1 of 2):

- Number 11: Regina George (Mean Girls)
- Number 10: Niki/Jessica (Heroes)
- Number 9: Irina Derevko (ALIAS)
- Number 8: The LOST girls - Kate and Ana-Lucia (LOST)


Let's proceed then...

Number 7: Sydney Prescott (Scream Trilogy)


Oh Sydney, Sydney... Life wasn't kind to you, now was it? Your mum was killed and raped, most of your closest friends were brutally murdered (and dare I say because of you...) and your boyfriends? Well, one was a lunatic killer who gets killed (by you nonetheless) and the other, well the other also gets killed (at least not by you... but because of you, ouch!). Sydney starts out kind of weepy and emo ("why are all my friends dying, wahhhhh..."), but then she gets into full-on tough chick mode.

Her special abilities include turning normal everyday objects into deadly weapons, running up and down the stairs and she also has excellent telephone manners! Relax Syd, you may have had it rough, but you've rightfully earned the number 7 spot on this countdown! You see, every cloud has a silver lining ;)


Number 6: X-Men villains - Phoenix, Deathstryke, Mystique (X-MEN Trilogy):

I know, there's three of them here. But it kinda makes sense to group them all in one position. And it's my Top 11, so I'll do what I want :) I should also mention that these are the movie version of these characters, not the comic book one (otherwise 'mah girl' Rogue would be on this list). Besides being really strong and powerful women, they also fall in the category of being a great examples of X-Universe villains. Yes, they will probably kill, lie, steal and deceive, but you can't help to sympathize with their motives and almost understand why they are doing it. Phoenix was a tormented soul, Deathstryke was being manipulated and Mystique, well, ok maybe Mystique was just evil... Most importantly, and for the purposes of this Top 11, they all kicked some serious ass!!

Favourite line: Jean Grey: [turning into Dark Phoenix] GET OUT OF MY HEAD! (Kaboom!!)

Favourite line: Deathstryke: What are you doing here? - (It's the only line of dialogue the poor woman has in the film....)

Favourite line: Nightcrawler: Excuse me? They say you can imitate anybody, even their voice. Then why not stay in disguise all the time? You know, look like everyone else.
Mystique: Because we shouldn't have to.


Number 5 - Sarah Connor (Terminator 1 and 2)


Sarah Connor was always one of my choices for this countdown, but it was really difficult to place her. So, I guess number 5 is just about right. She may not have the immediate appeal of a Niki or a Buffy, but for sheer determination, she's up there with the best. And she's an icon, a reference for all the strong female characters in TV and movies that followed. Sarah evolves from the innocent, young waitress of the first film to the hardened, cynical woman warrior of the second. Determined, adaptable, and mostly capable, she will stop at nothing to protect her son John from the Terminator. Who here doesn't remember that bit on T2 where she's facing the T-1000, shooting and reloading that shotgun with just one arm? Or her escape from the mental facility? Classic!

Favourite line: Sarah Connor: The unknown future rolls toward us. I face it, for the first time, with a sense of hope. Because if a machine, a Terminator, can learn the value of human life, maybe we can too.


Number 4 - Veronica Mars (Veronica Mars)

Veronica Mars is no superhero. But what Veronica lacks in physical strength, she more than makes up for it with her intelligence and determination. Veronica is cunning, resourceful, witty and quite cynical, charming and convincing. Veronica isn't perfect, she makes mistakes, she feels pain, betrayal, and even jealously. She doesn't let things go easily, and when her best friend was brutally murdered, she wouldn't stop at anything to find the real killer.

If I wasn't so behind on Veronica Mars (the show) and seen more of Veronica (and I don't mean her naked) maybe she would be higher up on this list. Oh and a small confession, whenever I go through a situation when I need to be more confident, like confronting someone or or an embarrassing moment, I say to myself "Veronica Mars, Veronica Mars"... Silly, but it helps!

On a side note, I already know that Kirsten Bell (Veronica ) is now on Heroes and that she has some kind of lightning power (thanks Gabi for the 'heads up'... Grrr), but that's all I know, so please no more spoilers!!

Favourite Line: Oh so many brilliant lines to choose from... Seriously, this show has some of the sharpest, wittiest writing ever, maybe second only to Buffy. So, I'm gonna make an exception and give Veronica the privilege of having 4 favourite quotes:

Logan: [standing in front of Veronica's car] Do you have any idea what your little joke cost me?
Veronica: Well, I'm pretty sure you won't be getting your bong back.
Logan: [smashes Veronica's headlights with a crowbar] Wrong answer. Would you care to guess again?
Veronica: Clearly your sense of humor...

[Veronica is trying to change a flat tire] Troy: Flat?
Veronica: Just as God made me.

Logan: There's a witness who said they saw my mom get in a white van.
Veronica: There's also a jungle tribe that worships Donald Trump's hair. It's a tabloid.

Veronica: If I ever die, do me a favor. Go on Oprah and tell the world that I loved kittens.

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And that's a wrap for today. Who will be the top 3? Any surprises left? Will your favourites make the cut? This and much more tomorrow, only on this blog!

Time does fly!

Just a quick note before moving on to Part 2 of the Top 11. I just noticed that yesterday was the 13th of January. What's so special about that? Well, 2 years ago, on Friday 13th of January, a little boy embarked on an adventure. He arrived in the UK full of hopes and dreams... only to have them crushed when he arrived in Basingstoke! That boy was me...

I don't feel like saying a lot on this. I could be here listing what went wrong and what went right, I could even to a Top 11 :) But I don't feel like it... I'm still here (was only supposed to stay for 6 months), so I guess it's working out for me. One thing I'll say, I certainly don't regret leaving Portugal and coming here. I've grown a lot (unfortunately not in height...) over these past 2 years and was forced to deal with some not-so-nice situations all on my own, but what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger, right?

A big thanks to everyone who in any way helped and supported me during these 2 years, particularly those of you in Portugal who, especially during the the first few months, made me feel that even though I was miles away, I was not alone. You know who you are ;)

P.S.- And Basingstoke is bad, but not that bad... it's close to London!

Top 11 Kick-Ass Girls (Part 1 of 2)

I must admit, I'm a sucker for countdown lists and Top 10s (and 5s, and 20s and 100s). It might be the Top 100 for games, songs, films or toilet paper, I'm love'em all. And obviously I'll look for my favourites on that list and then be happy or mad at the position they earned. It might just be curiosity or might also be some kind of search for validation, that someone else agrees with me. Anyway, I decided to do my own Top 11. Why 11? Don't know, but why is it always 10 anyway?

My first (and maybe only...) Top 11 will be dedicated to strong and powerful women that have graced theater and TV screens over the last few years. You know the type: They're resourceful, witty if not always graceful under pressure, and refuse to back down. And they could probably kill you before you could say "Nice shoes". These are my Top 11 Kick-Ass Girls...

Tough chicks but not quite tough enough to make it to the Top 11: Eowyn (The Lord of the Rings); Alice (Resident Evil); The girls from Charlie's Angels; The Bride (Kill Bill); Trinity (Matrix Trilogy); Xena (Xena: Warrior Princess)

Number 11: Regina George (Mean Girls)

Ok, so this is the joker of this Top 11. Regina is the Queen Bee and the leader of the Plastics. She is both feared and desperately admired by the other female students, who gossip about her supposedly fabulous life and are pleased to be physically assaulted by her. She also has a tendency to compliment others and then insult them behind their backs. That's why she is my number 11. Oh, and she's always in desperate need to lose 3 lbs.

Favourite line: Regina: But you're, like, really pretty. Cady: Thank you. Regina: So you agree? Cady: What? Regina: You think you're really pretty? Cady: Oh... I don't know.

Number 10: Niki/Jessica (Heroes)

A tough choice this one. Niki is/was an Internet stripper who exhibits superhuman strength and has multiple personalities, namely her sister's Jessica. I can't really put my finger on what makes me like her, but 99% of the time she's my favourite character in Heroes. I do think she's been getting a bit (too) soft lately, so Niki get your act together and start ripping people in half like in the good old days!


Favourite line: [as Jessica] Niki's not here right now.


Number 9: Irina Derevko (ALIAS)

This woman is the personification of class, style and deceit. You can never tell if she's being honest or simply just manipulating you so that you do exactly what she wants you to do. I won't go into many details/spoilers for some of you readers/friends who for inexplicable reasons still haven't watched Alias (bornsleepy, andre and nokey: I'm looking at you!! ) but even in her darkest moments it's impossible not to admire her.





Favourite line: And at that moment I was sure of one thing: I couldn't be an agent and a mother. I'd either fail at one or both. And I chose to fail at being a mother.

Number 8: The LOST girls - Kate and Ana-Lucia

I'm still only halfway through season 3 on Lost (yes, I'm also extremely behind on Lost), but I still don't know if I totally trust Kate... But kick ass? Yes! This girl has outsmarted the U.S. marshals, been an international fugitive and gets to snuggle with Jack and Sawyer. She does have the annoying habit of doing something stupid and getting kidnapped though... So Kate, you're stuck at number 8! And Ana Lucia? Well she's played by Michelle Rodriguez who just looks completely bad ass! She always has this look on her face as she's about to snap and kick you in the face at any moment! She could be on The Little House on the Prairie and still look hard as nails! Permanently pissed off! But our dear Michelle can't resist the booze.... Nothing wrong with that, except when you drink and drive AND get caught! That's bad Michelle, and then the Mr. Writers have to let you go off the show and kill your character...

Favourite line: Kate: No girl's just like me.

Favourite line: Jason - Shooter: Do I know you? Ana-Lucia: [coldly] I was pregnant. [shoots Jason several times with her service weapon]

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That's all for today! Will number 7 be Dorothy from the Golden Girls? Maybe Jessica Fletcher from Murder, She Wrote? Just kidding! (or am I??) You'll have to check back tomorrow for Volume 2 of my Top 11 Kick-Ass Girls. As usual feel free to agree, disagree, insult me, etc using the comments. Can be in any language (although I can only reply to those in English/Portuguese...)

A bad hair day...

Picture it: you finally decide buy a nice HD LCD TV/monitor to replace your old, tiny CRT tv. You connect it to your laptop, and wow, great picture!! So far so good... What do you do next? Let's insert a really cool DVD, with great image and colours, like, let's say... ALIAS and finally see Sydney's iconic red wig on your new LCD. What do you get?

This... and this....

Sorry Syd, but you're a blurry mess! Hey Mr. (or Mrs.) SAMSUNG, you make us shell out our hard-earned money and you couldn't even include a bloody component cable so that we could fully enjoy your fine product?? Is it too much to ask?

For those of you who have no idea what component cables are, let's check what this website says:

"Component cables deliver the Hi-Definition signal required for HDTV ensuring all the clarity and depth of the signal is not lost. Component cables are also use for standard definition signals and show huge improvements over scart and composite." And apparently your connection will look something like this (once you buy them, obviously...):

Well, from what I know the improvement really is noticeable, and worth the investment. So, don't worry Syd, your red hair will look great... tomorrow.

Oh, and for those of you thinking "Why doesn't he uses his laptop DVD reader?", it's broken and only reads CDs. And guess what? It's a SAMSUNG!

The Hard Part

So yesterday I was sick, so spent all day at home, with the heating on and with a nice cup of tea always by my side. But even with all this free time, I only watched one episode of Heroes, so still 2 more until the end of season 1. I realise I must be one of very few people on the face of the earth that is so behind on Heroes, but even so I'll only post my impressions below, after an impossible-to-miss spoilers alert.

But first let me go off-topic for a second and introduce you to this website, called "Reviews by Billie Doux" (you can also find the link on the right side of this blog). As you could probably guess, it's a website with reviews by a girl called Billie Doux :) I came across this website around 2005 while looking for reviews for some ALIAS episodes. I suppose I wanted to make sure that I wasn't crazy in thinking that ALIAS had some of the best TV moments I'd ever seen. Turns out I wasn't crazy, there was someone else like me out there who shared the same enthusiasm!

Anyway, the website became a lot bigger with time, and she now reviews a lot more shows including Lost, Heroes, Veronica Mars, Six Feet Under, ALIAS (obviously), Dexter and Buffy.
Here's a link to the review of Heroes 1x21 - The Hard Part. She does a very cool thing of taking note on some best quotes of an episode and she is also great at identifying symbolism, which are particularly evident in Lost and Heroes. Want an example (for this episode of Heroes)?

"This week's Most Obvious Symbolism was the art piece that looked like a twisted red staircase in front of the Kirby building. Climbing a staircase of blood to ascend to something better. Except the stairs didn't go anywhere. They were also part of a double helix."

Clever stuff huh? Oh, and I'm not in any way affiliated with this website. It's just that I really like her reviews and her opinions. It's funny because now whenever watching an episode of any of these shows, I find myself thinking "Oh, I'm sure that Billie will notice that" and really looking forward to reading her review after the episode has ended. So I hope you enjoy it!

And I was going to post my impressions of Heroes 1x21, wasn't I? I won't now, as this is already a long post. It was a standard good episode of Heroes, solid stuff, although I was expecting a bit more now that there are only 2 more eps. until the end of season 1. Just one comment to add (SPOILERS ALERT!!):

How cool was the sequence of of Sylar and his mother? It was so dark and surreal, really good stuff! And am I the only one who thinks it's bit strange that Hiro just walks around in NY with a ninja sword on his back and no one says anything??

Atchoo!

I rarely get sick, very rarely in fact.... sick as in with a cold or a flu, and staying in bed all day. But when I do, then boy, I really do. So, after at least a good 4 years of being in good health, I am very sick... My head hurts, my whole body aches, terrible cough, you get the picture! I even think it's the first time I had to call in sick at work :)


Already tried my usually very effective sleeping pill+nimed combo, but it didn't do much... Any other suggestions? At least it'll give some time to catch up on a couple of TV shows, I'm always waaaay behind everyone else and getting spoilers from everyone! I think I'm in the mood for some Veronica Mars and maybe finally watch the end of season 1 of Heroes... oh well, here's to a quick recovery!

A Royal Wii

According to UK online gossip rag The People, Prince William was given a Wii for Christmas by his girlfriend. Once it was all set up and playable, the Queen decided she wanted to have a go at bowling and apparently quite enjoyed it. If The People is to be believed the Queen is quite a gadgeteer owning a cell phone, Blackberry and even an iPod that holds 100,000 songs. And she even has an email account! Always one step ahead, aren't you Betty? Helen Mirren better start practicing on her Wii if she wants another Oscar for The Queen 2: Total Wiicall...

MAKE WAY FOR THE Q Wii N [The People]

Fall(s) from grace

Those who known me over the years know that there's something that can always put a smile on my face, no matter what, and that is seeing someone fall. I'm not talking about dangerous falls, with blood and gory stuff, those I take seriously (and I'd probably faint seeing all the blood). No, I'm talking about those falls where the thing that can get really hurt is your ego. I've been known to flee from a "crime scene", laughing uncontrollably, while poor person lies on the floor, helpless. Oops! I just cant help it...

Anyway, came across this video the other day and it's one the best I've seen, a certified LOL, I assure you! I guess they don't call it 'Fall fashion' for nothing huh? Even the news readers are funny, and I love the way that the poor girl tries to do a little pose after the 'incident'(s). You go girl!




For a very funny remixed version of this video, click here.

A way out...

Today I had to do a presentation at work for a bunch of guests on a subject that I'm not really an expert. And to make matters worse it was at 9.30am (I'm on 'zombie mode' until 10.00 at least) and I have a terrible cold. Oh, and it was pouring rain in the morning, so got to work soaking wet... All the ingredients for a successful morning, right? Well surprise! The presentation in itself went very well and all the comments were very positive, so I'm not complaining! But the purpose of this post is not to boast or brag, but to share with all a pearl of wisdom! OK, so learn to use these 2 sentences well: "I'm sure we'll find out soon enough" and "Only time will tell". Got it? These 2 sentences saved me from a few tight spots today, when I had no clue about what to answer on some question! I know, they don't work for ALL the questions, but try this: When answering, just kinda repeat the question but in other words, don't stutter or hesitate and this finish with "only time will tell..."
I must confess that I can't take credit for this... I came across this strategy when listening to this guy in a podcast i listen. I swear, he always seemed to have all the answers, when I noticed that he kept doing what I just described above instead of really addressing the question. So there you go, a useful tip and for free!

Disclaimer: I will not be held responsible for any bad results that migt incur from using these sentences...

Happy New Year

I've finally gotten myself around to start posting on my blog, so I guess this is the official launch! I still don't know exactly what's going to become of this blog, but we'll see as we go along! Think of this as a pilot for a new TV show, where all the characters are introduced and only really begin to take shape in the next few episodes. Just a small note on that, I always find it funny when re watching the first episodes of a tv show how the characters behave and start out so different than what they become with time.

Anyway, here's to a nice, fun and relaxed blog that hopefully will keep you coming back for more!