I watched the movie "Across the Universe" last weekend, and it's weird. Really weird. But it actually doesn't suck, which really surprised me.

I love the Beatles - was raised listening to them (I'm a John Lennon gal). So I was afraid that a music based around their songs would just make me angry. While it wasn't perfect, it was pretty good and an interesting story to boot.

It's set in the Vietnam-era 1960's, and shows how the war changes the lives of a brother and sister and their English friend Jude. There's some bizarre cameos by Eddie Izzard, Bono and Salma Hayek.

The best part is of course the music. Believe it or not, I bought the soundtrack. I've heard the Beatles versions of most of the tunes so many times that it's nice to hear new takes on the music. Nothing can compare to George Harrison's original 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' or 'All You Need is Love' but I really do enjoy these new versions.

Am listening to them while I write this, in fact.

There's like nothing on TV over the summer, so I've been using the past couple months to catch up on some shows I missed when they premiered. I tend to do that every year; last summer was when I started watching 'Battlestar Galactica' and now it's one of my favorite shows.

This summer, I've gotten through the first few seasons of Doctor Who; the first season of Torchwood; and I'm working on Greek. Plan to start Mad Men soon.

Doctor Who is my favorite of the new bunch. It's so completely up my alley I can't believe I wasn't watching it before. I'm such a sci fi geek, and one of my coworkers had been telling me for a while that I should check it out. Glad I finally listened.

Torchwood, a Doctor Who spinoff, is a fun show. It's much more 'adult' than its parent but still fun. What I miss though is the time travel in Doctor Who.

I've only seen the first few episodes of Greek but I really like it. I imagine there's lots of high school students who can't wait to go to college so they can join a fraternity or sorority. I'm glad that even though the show is on ABC Family, the producers realize that college students -- especially the popular, beautiful ones who participate in the Greek system -- drink and have sex.

I'm having a lot of fun watching these shows, but I'm still looking forward to my summer regulars, especially Eureka. And Project Runway starts again next week - yippee!

It's snowing in Georgia today. It next to never snows here, so it's neat to see all the flakes falling, and starting to stick a little. My Irish setter Jake wasn't quite as excited though. I grew up in the mountains, and it snowed regularly there, so it's a nostalgic thing. But when I was a kid, snow meant occasionally staying home from school. Now it just means trying to make my way to work, dodging the drivers who have never been north of Chattanooga and freak out at the sight of a snowflake.

So I watched "The Terminator" for the first time last night. The husband insisted I had to see it before watching "The Sarah Connor Chronicles." I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I was a kid when it first came out, and my parents knew better than to let a 6-year-old watch a movie about a murderous cyborg. And the eye thing would have given me nightmares for sure. But even after 23 years, that movie was pretty darn good. Great story, interesting characters, a little predictable, but still fun. We're planning to watch the second one tonight, which I'm really looking forward to (LOVE Robert Patrick!).

I've been reading a book by Christopher Moore called "Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal." It got me thinking about blasphemy and who decides what's blasphemy and what's not.

There's a very trite way to open an essay, which is by giving the definition of a word. But here I think it may be worthwhile to note that blasphemy is defined thusly: expressing disrespect for God or for something sacred. That's a pretty broad definition. Who's to say what's disrespectful, or even what's sacred?

Two of my all-time favorite things would probably be considered blasphemous by religious types. "Dogma," a great movie by Kevin Smith, takes on the Catholic church but treats God with love. "Good Omens," a book by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, is a humorous look at the apocalypse. Having been raised in a very Christian household, I enjoy reading or watching stories that tweak religion.

"Lamb" is pretty funny so far, and though I'm agnostic, I do know that if there was a Jesus, he didn't spontaneously turn from a 12 year old kid into a 33 year old man. There was a good 20 years in between that is not recorded. "Lamb" imagines what life as the son of God would be like for an adolescent.

My mom thinks the song "What if God Was One of Us" is blasphemy. Seriously. I think it's just a nice little tune about treating others with care and respect.

I guess I don't really have a point other than that I wish people could be allowed to decide for themselves what's sacred. If God exists, I don't think he's such a wuss that he would get his feelings hurt over a book, a movie or a song.

Or, hopefully, a blog entry.