Mission Accomplished

Well...

I actually did more than 30 posts, which is kind of crazy. But I did it!

It was fun most of the time; sometimes I felt like I was writing nothing, but hey--nobody's reading so who cares? It's good to be writing anything again.

Tomorrow begins "25 days of Christmas Movies"... Get your Santa hat on and your jingle bells ready!

Go Elf Yourself

Check out me, David, Chad and Tony spreading holiday joy through dance here.

If you want to get your elf on, go to www.elfyourself.com--it only takes a few seconds and the result is unlimited hilarity.

GOP Run-Around

I could barely stand to watch the Republican YouTube Debate on CNN tonight. It's just amazing to me how candidates can get asked a question and then talk all around it without ever addressing it.

Worse, with this question

they answered it with total BS. Mitt Romney was challenged for the mortal political sin of flip-flopping on his stance, but he just stumbled all over his words and didn't really answer.

I have one question: who made such a great piece of footwear a crime?

No, I'm not an idiot. But that was about as smart as most of the candidates' responses tonight.

My Daemon

Chad and Tony are pretty pumped about premiere of The Golden Compass next Friday, especially Chad. They went to the movie website and figured out what their daemons (animal spirits) are--and, naturally, then David and I wanted to figure out what our daemons are, too.

When I took the test and answered the questions for what I thought of myself, I was some kind of dumb bird with a sort of unique name.

When Chad and Tony took the test and answered the questions for what they thought of me, this was the result:

Hel-lo! A snow leopard named Zyrxy? A name too awesome for even vowels to taint it? Yes, please!

Good work, boys. I don't know what answers you gave but I love 'em.

If you want to find your daemon, go here, click the daemons tab and then click "meet your daemon." Good luck getting a daemon as super cool as mine!

Quality Check

Okay so I feel like lately my posts have been going downhill. When I started this blog, it seemed to be more clever and more focused on media stuff rather than my random thoughts and a "to do" list. However, it has also been tough to blog every day when honestly? I don't always have something profound or humorous to say.

Naturally, I blame NaBloPoMo for the quality decline.

When November is over, I was thinking that maybe I will spread out my posts and think them through a bit more.

But THEN I was thinking that in December I will instead do 25 days of Awesome Christmas Movies and review one of my favorite holiday films each day of the month.

And that sounded pretty fun, so I think that I will do that.

Get excited! The holiday cheer begins in a few short days...

Random Thoughts

I am suffering from lack of sleep, so before I say hello to the sandman, I thought I'd offer up a few pieces of totally random commentary:

1. Supposedly the Jackson 5 is planning a reunion tour--WITH Michael. Here's what they looked like before:

That's all fine and dandy, I'm all for ABC 123 Baby You and Me time, but that may not be quite as cute now that Michael looks like THIS:


2. Another supposedly--this time it's about Britney. I know, I said I would never talk about Britney but MY GOD this is crazy. I saw an article that said she was trying to adopt twins from China. Did this woman not just get her own children taken away from her? And what have the kind people in China ever done to deserve Britney Spears' interest in their children?

3. Hell must be suddenly chilly cause I just went to the Drake movie channel and they-gasp!-are actually playing a movie! Something must be wrong, I will call them tomorrow to check and see.

4. I watched High School Musical 2 again over the weekend at home and now can't get this song out of my head. TGFYT (Thank goodness for YouTube)...

High Aspirations: The Results

Okay here's what I accomplished over break. More than I thought I might but, as I predicted, not the important stuff that needed to be done. Go figure.

Use Tuesday's post to cross-reference:

Watched:

• All of last week's TV that I missed (everything except Ugly Betty--some I watched twice... don't ask)
• All of this week's TV shows (everything except Ugly Betty)
• Netflix: West Wing Season 7 discs 1 and 2
• Hairspray on DVD
• A whole bunch of other randomness
  

Saw:

• KU play Northern Arizona at Allen Fieldhouse
• Enchanted on Thanksgiving night

Read:

• The rest of Lost and Found
• Part of Crank
  
• Tons of blogs online
  

Did:

• Some baking--muffins this morning
  
• A lot of shopping--A LOT
  
• Got tons of sleep... and somehow I'm still tired
• A little bit of homework. :(

Leaving me tonight with an entire paper to write. Great. At least I can say I accomplished most of my goals...

Except I'm not sure my linguistics professor will be impressed with my television viewing. If only it was 10-15 pages on primetime TV!

Throw the Turkey From the Train

I came across this article on Slate a minute ago and it made me both laugh out loud and throw up a little bit in my mouth:

Let Leftovers Be Leftovers
That Turkey samosa won't bring your Thanksgiving dinner back to life.
By Jill Hunter Pellettieri

I may have to disagree with Jill when she says: "I'm not saying to abandon leftovers entirely. On the contrary: Embrace them. Just don't turn them into some bastardized concoction. Enjoy them for what they are." Though the mere thought of a bastardized turkey makes me chuckle, I am fully against leftovers in all their painful glory.

I have never been a big Thanksgiving food fan (my grandma once told me I am un-American for it) so why do I have to relive the turkey, stuffing, potatoes, yams (shudder) and everything else each day FOLLOWING Thanksgiving?

One day, I can do.

But please, if I see a turkey quesadilla suiza heading toward my table, I'm heading straight for the hills.

Or maybe Jimmy John's, whatever is closer.

Take a Look, It's in a Book

The New York Times released this list recently:
100 Notable Books of the Year

I was checking it out and several of the books on the list are on my "to read" list, namely The Abstinence Teacher, In The Country Of Men, Like You'd Understand Anyway, The Nine, Long Way Gone, and How to Talk About Books You've Never Read.

I'd be interested to see what their criteria or deciding point are for these choices, as I think that several fantastic books are missing--especially A Thousand Splendid Suns, possibly one of the best books I've ever read, let alone in the past year. If you haven't read it yet, run to Borders, buy it (30% off this weekend), sit down and don't stand up until you've finished it. It won't be hard.

Other great books of the year:
Impulse by Ellen Hopkins
Bright Lights, Big Ass by Jen Lancaster
Forever Lily by Beth Nonte Russell
How to Be Cool by Joanna Edwards
Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am thankful for:

1. My family and friends, of course
2. My puppies! And Baxter, too.
   
3. Black Friday--yay shopping
4. My magical Time Warner built-in DVR at home. Not so thankful I don't have one in my apartment.
5. Christmas music on not one but TWO stations in Kansas City--now through Christmas Day!
   
6. A new season of Project Runway
7. My lovely MacBook
   
8. The return of Disney musicals in theaters--go see Enchanted
9. NaBloPoMo; how much fun has this month been?
   
10. Health, happiness, blah blah blah...

My Favorite Darling

Not much time to post tonight and my wireless at home is acting up, but I gotta honor my NaBloPoMo pledge and get something in so here it is.

Great preface huh? Definitely sets you up to be really excited about what I have to say.

Right.

Anyway, I'm a huge fan of the new ABC show Dirty Sexy Money. I just today watched last week's episode--I know, I know... huge fans wouldn't wait a week to see an episode but for real I have been busy. Seriously I love this show.

Basically it's the story of a lovely lady who's busy with three girls of her own... haha no, wrong show. But it is about a hot lawyer (hello Nate from Six Feet Under!) who works for a crazy rich family. They are both crazy and crazy rich, so that description is pretty fitting. There are like 5 or 6 kids in this family, and by kids I mean grown-up crazy rich kids.

It's hard to pick a favorite between the family but as I watched today's episode--and by today's I mean last week's--I decided that I just love me some Brian Darling. He is the cranky adulterous priest with an illegitimate kid... how could you not love that?

In last week's episode, the mom of Brian Jr. (Brian's illegitimate son who Brian originally had tell his wife that he only spoke Swedish) returns to take him back and you see how this little kid had already changed Brian in 8 short episodes.

It's like Tripp Darling (the crazy rich dad) said at Karen's wedding/annulment party, "Brian, I can now tell there is a kind person somewhere deep inside of you. Deep, deep, deep down inside."

Maybe I'll get a chance to watch tonight's episode earlier than next week. My status as a "huge fan" may depend on it!

High Aspirations

I have set super high goals for this Thanksgiving Break. I will most likely not accomplish the ones that really matter and will undoubtedly do the things I could live without doing, but eh, such is life. Here goes...

Watch:

• All of last week's TV that I missed (Pushing Daisies, Private Practice, Dirty Sexy Money, Grey's, Ugly Betty, etc.)
• All of this week's TV shows (most of what was mentioned above--already watched Nip/Tuck tonight)
• What I currently have from Netflix, namely West Wing Season 7 discs 1 and 2 and Amazing Grace
• The Plaza Lights lighting--that is, if we aren't actually there in person
• MAYBE catch up on missed episodes of Heroes on NBC.com if it cooperates
• Hairspray on DVD! I just got it today at Target before it sells out.
  

See:

• KU play Northern Arizona at Allen Fieldhouse
• Enchanted or August Rush... or both

Read:

• The rest of Lost and Found so I can move on to another book. It's good but I'm ready for something new
• Crank for my paper that is due Monday. Oh yeah I guess I need to write that, too. Gah.

Do:

• Some baking perhaps?
• A lot of shopping
• Get some sleep
• My stupid homework.

Thus ends my delusions about all I will accomplish over break.

Backstreet's Back! Alright!

I'm sitting here watching Ellen, minding my own business, when all of a sudden who should pop up on my screen and start harmonizing away but the Backstreet Boys!

Naturally, I figured it was a really, really old repeat. But then I remembered that Ellen was talking about very current things only moments before. Could it be true? Could the Backstreet Boys, in fact, be back?

Turns out the answer is yeahhhhhhhhhhhhh (think AJ screaming that)

Kevin may be missing but they are the same old (old being the operative word, I suppose) Backstreet Boys.

I looked them up on YouTube and found this new video:
Inconsolable YouTube video

Following in what seems to be a theme of nostalgia this week, I watched the video and reflected on the days of Backstreet Boys calendars, paying huge $$$ for nosebleed seats at their Millennium concert and, one crazy night, dressing up with Kelly and her friends as the Backstreet Boys and making a completely embarrassing video.

I may or may not have drawn an oddly-shaped mustache and goatee on my face with eyeliner that night.

I also may or may not have been in the second row to see Nick Carter during his solo endeavor at the Beaumont Club freshman year before Christmas.

Oops!

Tell anyone and I'll deny it. My favorite was always Brian, anyway.

BSC Forever!

Okay, so in my random blog reading I came across this one:

BSC Headquarters

It is awesome! This girl is blogging her way through the entire Babysitters' Club book series. Let's just say it's not as cool the second time around (at least when the second time around involves a 20-something reading about teenagers). She has a ton of snarky comments about each book, too, which definitely expose the ridiculousness that was the entire series.


BUT it does bring me back to my days of Babysitters' Club glory. I tore through those books, and then when I was done with one I'd bring it up to Last Chapter bookstore and exchange it for a new one! Like Barnes and Noble would ever let a thirteen-year-old bring in Jessi's Gold Medal and leave with Kristy and the Vampires.

The site also made me think about The Babysitters' Club Movie, one of the worst pieces of cinematic cliche ever created. Terribly cast, super cheesy, and a terrible use of the amazing actress Ellyn Burstyn.

However, it did make me want to run my own summer camp and, thanks to that movie, I will never forget how the nervous system works.

"The brain, the brain, the center of the chain..."

Just Keep Surfing

Why, oh why is there a J.Lo movie on not one, not two but three different stations tonight?

I have my pick of J.Lo as a forlorn wedding planner, a beat up wife who's had enough or a maid in manhattan with no chemistry.

I'll settle for infomercials.

There's Life Outside Your Apartment

Thank God the stagehands strike in NYC didn't extend to all stage productions across the United States, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to enjoy the pure hilarity that is Avenue Q.

I saw the show for the first time on my Spring Break trip to Vegas with Michelle and Val but had forgotten so many great parts that aren't included on the soundtrack (one of many I belt out on my 3 hour drive to or from KC), namely the Bad Idea Bears and the use of the television screens... One Night Stand!

I need to start planning what shows I want to see if I go to Chicago over break. I'm thinking Jersey Boys?

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Songs that were pretty successful for karaoke-ing tonight:

• Hit Me Baby One More Time (Britney can't sing so it helps make us sound pretty okay)
• Wannabe (We knew the song, did the Spice Girls justice)

Song that made the audience cringe a little in their seats:

• Goodbye Earl (fun for us, not for them--don't put us in the trunk, Dixie Chicks, we're sorry

Songs that were pretty much butchered:

• Angel (not our fault--those lyrics make no sense, thanks Shaggy)
• Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy (not even the "Little and Poor" group name could save it... besides the chorus of course)

Best accessory of the night: the giant Viking in the Holiday Inn lobby. Niiiiiice.

Polygamy a la Mode

So is it just me or is Polygamy the new black?

Multiple marriages are SO in.

At least according to the media. They cannot get enough of those LDS folks.

Case in point: last night's Pushing Daisies, featuring a deceased polygamist dog breeder. Now maybe that's just funny but it's only the latest in the media frenzy surrounding polygamy. Ever since Big Love debuted on HBO, it's been the hot topic for everyone--and by everyone, I mean even Oprah.

Oprah had several women on her show that "escaped" their lives of polygamy. She also sent Lisa Ling into a millionaire polygamist compound in Arizona and it was scary, friends. She got HONKED AT by a car that drove by.

There's also the woman who just published a book about her life of child abuse and forced marriage living a polygamist compound.

I don't know about you, but that doesn't make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Why the sudden obsession with it? I'm pretty sure polygamy has been around for, like, hundreds of years. Did we really need an HBO series to figure out that it existed or to make talking about it--not actually doing it! My God, no!--so fashionable?

Musical Interlude

As I drove up to Rochester last night for my conference, I was listening to NPR. I have started to listen to it more often and though I really appreciate all the great information and excellent coverage of a variety of issues, one thing about it drives me crazy:

The Musical Interludes.

You cannot expect me to believe that while a crab boat captain in San Francisco bay answer questions about the economical effects of the oil spill, people are actually sitting there wishing for just a dash of polka music.

Not too much, only a few seconds of jazzy, grainy tunes.

Unfortunately, it's enough to make me want to drive my CR-V into the ditch just to make it stop.

"Reporting from Baghdad, this is Iowa Public Radio."
"Doo-doo la la la laaaaaaa doo doo doo."

Totally unnecessary.

"Jessica"

Watching Sex and the City on TBS tonight, I heard one of my favorite quotes from the show...



Miranda: No, Steve's bringing his new girlfriend, Jessica.

Carrie: I love how you say that like allegedly that's her name.


Who's pumped for SATC the movie? I am! I am!

Obsess-much?

Ever since I started this blog on November 1, I have officially been obsessed with blogs.

We're talking OB-sesssssed.

I made an account on Bloglines to track all the blogs I read now and am constantly looking at the NaBloPoMo blogroll to find another fun new blog to read. I used to mock blogs and now I can't get enough. I couldn't just start my own blog and leave the rest of the blogosphere to everyone else, could I? No. I had to take a flying leap into the deep end.

I guess it's like in A League of Their Own when Jimmy Dugan responds to being asked about scratching his balls for an hour during the 7th inning: "Well, anything worth doing is worth doing right." (spit)

On a side note, I just saw a commercial reminding me of that one glimmer of light in my life right now: only a week until Hairspray comes out on DVD! I will be rushing to Target to pick up my copy and watch it every day.

Apparently I plan on replacing one obsession with another one. At least with Hairspray, I can shake it on a Saturday night...

You're Sick? That's Hilarious!

I started this last night but had to finish this morning because of a sudden HORRIBLE migraine. I hadn't had one for months but bam! There it was. Perfect timing to try to ruin my NaBloPoMo efforts. Fortunately I was able to gather my energy and post the quotes at least until now, when I can finish my thoughts.

So I'll do just that.

I watched SiCKO, Michael Moore's newest documentary about the healthcare industry this weekend. I had already seen it once--I went to Fleur Cinema this summer and sat in a sea of white-haired folks who I'm pretty sure didn't get it. Or maybe they did but they were already asleep at 7:40pm. Anyway I put it on my Netflix queue and decided to rewatch it to see what I might have missed before.

Specifically, I wanted to see what was so darn funny about this movie.

I kept seeing the promo for it on TV, which includes the quote "It's Michael Moore's funniest movie yet," from some important reviewer somewhere. I looked it up on RottenTomatoes.com and found more of the same:

"Moore delivers a movie of robust mind and heart. You’ll laugh till it hurts."
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone review

"This is essential viewing -- informative, corrosive, and even sometimes hilarious."
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader review

"A dangerously good comedy about a looming American tragedy..."
Ella Taylor, LA Weekly review

I guess... I'm confused.

Watching it again, I still didn't find the humor in the problems with our health care system. Was it the guy whose died because his HMO refused an "experimental" bone marrow transplant that was such a knee-slapper? Or was it the couple who had to move into their daughter's storage room because they used up their retirement and life savings on cancer treatments that left the reviewers rolling in the aisle?

Maybe the last scene, where Michael Moore is walking with his laundry is funny because... celebrities don't do their own laundry anyway? A shot in the dark.

Anyway I think this movie was really well done and though it definitely had an agenda (what film doesn't?) it brought up some great points about the way we do things here in America. I remember leaving the theater the first time with some things to think about... but they did not include trying to remember all the times I laughed so hard I cried.

Since when are documentaries supposed to be funny, anyway?

Cross your fingers, Michael Moore. With these reviews, you just might be up for best Comedy/Musical at this year's Golden Globes.

To Leopard or Not to Leopard?

That is the question of the day.

As of now the answer is "probably, but not quite yet."

Leopard is the new OS X 10.5 operating system from Apple. It's got like 14 1/2 million new features and streamlines all the old features while it's at it.

Sounds great, right?

The problem is that people have reported installation issues, problems with their computer running slower, incompatibility with fonts, etc.

Suddenly not so great.

David and I set out to buy Leopard to upgrade our MacBooks today, but got discouraged by some online reviews here on the Apple Store website so decided to look into it a little more.

We went to CompUSA to get something else and asked a salesperson there for her opinion, hoping since she didn't work for Apple directly that she'd be real with us. She was helpful and said she personally planned to wait 6 months for Apple to work out the bugs before buying it. Then we actually went to the Apple Store where, surprise surprise, they had nothing but great things to say about it.

So, with those mixed reviews (and our other somewhat-pricey clothing purchases of the day as an additional factor) we decided to wait.

At least until next week when we'll most likely change our minds and go running to the Apple store cause we just gotta have those new features!

Thursday Night TV... a little late

I was doing homework at Mars last night so couldn't watch most of last night's shows until today, making me wish I was at home with my Time Warner cable built-in DVR; at least I still have my old clunker VCR. I'm not usually thankful for out-of-date technology, but whatever works... I guess. Here's my rundown:

Ugly Betty
At least in this episode Betty and Henry didn't "accidentally" end up on stage of one of my favorite Broadway musicals, interfering with the defying of gravity. 10 points by default for that. However, I take them all back and then some for the lame Posh cameo. Thank GOD for the resurrection of the Marc-Cliff romance! I. Love. Them. As for the rest of the episode, all I can say is poor guy-who-plays-Bradford-Meade-and-also-played-Caleb-on-the-OC... the guy is always having heart attacks and dying! Last but not least: he may be super cute but I'm counting down the days til Henry leaves for Phoenix.

Grey's Anatomy
Not even worth a nice paragraph, just some basic grades:
Izzy and George sex-capades D- (yawn)
Christina and Dr. Hahn's feud F (double yawn)
Meredith and Lexi's... nonsense F- (boo hiss)
McDreamy and the Chief's "dates" C (I chuckled once)
Dr. Bailey finally getting Chief Resident A (hallelujah)
This show better hope its writers brainstorm some flippin fanTASTIC ideas while they're on strike cause they have some major work to do. Yikes.

The Office
I could hardly concentrate when watching last night's episode knowing that next week is the last new episode... potentially for a long while. It didn't make me laugh out loud like last week's "Finer Things Club" story line did, but you gotta appreciate Michael's battle with the rabid Pennsylvania wilderness. Call Discovery Channel, we've found their new Man vs. Wild star!

Big Shots
Not really fair to review this one since I watched it while I was cleaning my apartment, but I'm kinda thinking the show had something to do with it. I love all the men on this show, but it's hard to like 'em so much when I keep getting distracted by how entirely ridiculous every woman on this show is. Will-from-West-Wing's wife is just demeaning to women in general. At least that whole "will the tranny's black book really ever surface?" storyline is over with.

Damn CMAs airing instead of Wednesday night shows--maybe Kellie Pickler's tears were actually her mourning the loss of any quality TV this week!

Ways I Will Survive the Writer's Strike

It may just last a few days or it could be months. I saw this on TVSquad.com and figured I'd make my own list of ways to entertain myself while the writers walk around with super clever signs like "Marcia don't Cross that line"--yikes.

Here's my top 10 plans to avoid death by boredom:

1 . PROJECT RUNWAY! No writers necessary, just fabric, scissors, one perky host, a bunch of crazy designers and a "Make It Work!" man and you have the best show ever! It starts November 14 and that means several months of quality programming, strike or not.

2. Finally finish West Wing. I watched 6 of the 7 seasons last spring/summer but abandoned Jed Bartlett and clan for new season releases in September. I'm looking forward to more of Kristin Chenoweth walking briskly down the hall with Allison Janney towering above her. Plus I just GOTTA know how they handle the death of the real Leo. 7 discs of entertainment await!

3. Watch seasons 1 and 2 of Big Love. I've heard nothing but good reviews about the polygamy party that is this HBO Series. I've got season 1 all queued up on Netflix, and season 2 releases in December.

4. Dig into my giant stack of unread books. I love TV but it definitely takes away from my other favorite form of winter (and summer!) entertainment: reading. My tower of texts include everything from Jeffrey Eugenide's Middlesex to God is Not Great, a book about how Christianity is "destroying" America, with plenty more in between. Endless hours of entertainment there.

5. Three words: NBC. Dot. Com. I need to catch up on Heroes (how can I be three episodes behind? Stupid Monday night class. Plus I have heard great things about 30 Rock and would definitely be up for watching any and all of that series. Oh and Chuck is supposed to be good, too! Even if there's only a half of a season of each, that's plenty of quality viewing time.

6. Three more words: ABC. Dot. Com. There's never enough time in my day for all the ABC shows I want to watch, so I'll start watching Samantha Who? and maybe, if I get desperate (ha) I'll even watch Desperate Housewives.

7. Whittle down my Netflix queue by actually watching all those movies I added but never had time to actually watch--the mid-queue floaters just aching to be viewed. Let's give 'em a chance shall we?

8. Increase my blog reading and waste even more time online watching YouTube videos, checking Facebook, reading blogs, keeping up-to-date on NYTimes.com and, of course, posting here.

9. Catch up on all my other favorite reality shows: House Hunters, Flip That House, Ace of Cakes, SuperNanny, Real Housewives of the OC, etc. etc. I gotta get pretty bored to result to these (apart from House Hunters, a daily staple), but they'll suffice as a "break this glass in case of emergency" option.

10. Actually get some sleep instead of staying up all night watching TV!

Vic-tory!

Let's just say I am getting GOOD at Mariokart. I may not look at the other players' screens or really have a strategy other than hitting people when I have a star, I may be better at Super Nintendo than GameCube, I may not take the turns too well on the Wario course and I occasionally get stuck on the wall...

but
tonight
I
won.

TWICE.

----------------------------------

Dear Nintendo,
Please release MarioKart for Wii immediately. I can't wait to literally fling myself into the walls of Tony's apartment when trying to make turns. I may not be the best player but I know my life will not be complete until my request is fulfilled.
Your faithful golden mushroom-blaster,
Megan
P.S. Would it help speed up the process if I mentioned that I won tonight?

KFed in Poverty

Okay so I don't really like to talk about Britney Spears cause, let's face it: everyone talks about Britney all the time.

So let's instead talk about her "better half." This guy is amazing--he goes from crazy partying gold-digger with a fake rap career to father of the year in a few short months. Kudos to you KFed.



Unfortunately that father of the year trophy can't be hocked for rent.

According to this article on people.com:
"Last week it was revealed that Federline grossed $7,436 in 2006 after business expenses. Spears, however, earns approximately $737,000 per month."

$7436?!? Per year?!?

KFed makes me look like a millionaire with my tiny hall director salary. We may both be technically living under the poverty line, but at least I'm doing it without paparazzi snapping pictures of me buying off-brand toilet paper at Walgreen's.

Taking Over the World, One Reality at a Time

First of all, let me say that after checking my Facebook 8 times before lunch, I gave up on my count.

My name is Megan and I'm a Facebook addict.

Hi, Megan.

The first step in recovery is admitting you have a problem.

Heading in a whole new direction...

I was reading for leisure today (yes I read for leisure. all the time) and realized that not only has reality television taken over television, but it is also now all over books. I'm reading Lost and Found by Carolyn Parkhurst, a book about a group of people on an Amazing Race-type show. It's written from multiple perspectives (love that) and is a novel. That means it's fiction. Fiction about a reality TV show. Kinda sounds like an oxymoron: fictional reality.

Yeah, yeah I know that reality TV isn't even usually much of a reality thanks to skilled editing and strategic placement of alcohol (hello Real World), but we're talking fiction authors writing novels about fake reality TV shows.

And. I. Love. Them.

Your Big Break was another great novel about a reality TV show. I practically devoured that one, reading it in just a few hours, and I couldn't get enough. It's like they took some of the crack that gets broadcast through the airwaves with American Idol and wove it into the paper used for these books. Reality TV is everywhere: every network has some kind of reality show, movies are made about fake (and real) reality shows, and now even people trying to escape TV by reading for pleasure are bombarded by reality TV.

Now, with this writer's strike, things don't seem like they'll be getting any better (or worse?) anytime soon. Get ready for America's Next Top Secretary... and then, a few months later, the same idea in novel form: You're Not My Type.

Fall Back

There are two sides to this daylight saving issue:

1. A much-needed extra hour of sleep last night? Count me in.

2. Walking across the parking lot at 3pm and noticing the sun is already going down? Try again.

More Addictive Than Crack, More Entertaining Than Porn

After four hours of catching up on back issues of Time and Newsweek that have been doing a better job of collecting dust than keeping me up-to-date on world issues, you would think I might have had enough for one day.

Wrong.

Tonight I find myself surfing Newsweek.com and Time.com to see what else is new in the last, say, 6 hours and 43 minutes. After previewing next week's cover story on Michael "billionaire" Bloomberg, I came across a story about Facebook. It was mildly informative but nothing new. Fortunately, as all good news stories are, it was followed by a number of "related stories" links. Which led me to another sort-of boring story about Facebook.

I thought I might give up, but honestly? Reading about Facebook is almost as addictive as actually using it. It fascinates me that adults are fascinated by things like DogBook or how people select photos for their albums. Is it really so important that it needs to be analyzed to death?

I found the answer to my question as I read this article:
"Facebook: More Popular Than Porn" by Bill Hanser
Apparently young adults in the college-aged category look at Facebook more than they look at porn. That means the answer is yes: anything drawing more of a college-aged audience than porn deserves great analysis by middle-aged men because, seriously, what else are middle-aged men looking at online? They can't imagine anyone (or at least any guy in his prime) wasting time on anything else.

As for me personally, I breathed a sigh of relief. Obviously I am not the only one who checks Facebook incessantly. Even right now, as I write this post, I am intermittently checking Facebook.

But why? What could possibly have happened in the last 30 seconds that needs to be seen immediately lest the Earth implode? Joe Schmoe joined a group? 7 of my friends are attending some event somewhere sometime? Suzy Lou changed her status?!?!

So I decided that tomorrow I am going to count to see how many times in one day I check Facebook. And if it's more than 20, I might slash my...Ethernet cord. I'm sure Facebook would survive without me.

Gangsters, Corruption and Drugs: Oh my!

For the entire duration of American Gangster, I sat in my overstuffed chair sipping my blue Icee wondering one thing: does this kind of thing really happen? Really?

Okay, okay I know based on a true story is just that, but the corruption within the police department was absolutely fact. People didn't know that was happening then; could it still be happening now? Is there still corruption in the military like there was then? I mean actual men in green army uniforms chopping open coffins and loading little packages of heroin into a laundry truck? I feel like Uncle Sam definitely would not approve.

• MTV
• Music Videos
• MTV Shows
• Entertainment News

This movie definitely kept my attention the entire time, and Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington were great, but the historical context and sheer outrageousness (as factual as it was) seemed to overpower any single performance. It was definitely one of those "shock me, shock me, shock me" kind of films (think Renee Zellweger's little speech in Empire Records, except really not at all related) that made ya think.

And, by making ya think, I mean SERIOUSLY?

Hop, Nip and a Tuck

I just finished watching the season premiere of Nip/Tuck (Three days late, I know. Cut me some slack) and it seems that the relocation of McNamara Troy to LA is a major one. Apparently on the flight (I can only assume somewhere over Arkansas with its ability to suck the life out of people), Christian lost his mojo... and Sean found it under his first-class sleeper seat.


From the looks of the preview, this 5th blessed season of doctors perhaps more deserving of dreamy/steamy nicknames will try to incorporate a lot of the humor from the show's first season. Will the pod people return to earth and switch back the personalities of Christian and Sean? It remains to be seen. At least there will be a few laughs, a serial appearance by Will from Alias, a reality TV show exploiting plastic surgeons (Dr. 90210 plus our favorite Miami surgeons minus Dr. Rey and his annoying anorexic wife? Yes please!) and lots of hot (shot) doctors along the way.

If all else fails, I have one suggestion: bring back The Carver!

NaBloPoMo

I've decided to feed my need for procrastination and expose my online time-wasting talent by creating this new blog solely focused on my serious (deadly? it remains to be seen) media addiction. This blog will be dedicated to my rants and raves about various TV shows, books, newspaper articles, Internet sites, movies, and everything else that falls in the crazy mediasphere that at times consumes my life.

First stop? NaBloPoMo.

I read Jennsylvania.com (go. read. now. and while you're doing that read her books.), where Jen mentioned that she is taking part in NaBloPoMo i.e. National Blog Posting Month. I'm sure it's a big plot by someone in a giant corportation who has a bet with someone else in a giant corportation to see how many blogs can be formed to up their ads sales revenue and drive their eventual world takeover... or maybe it's some bored guy in his parent's basement plotting to destroy the world by getting everyone to waste their whole day posting words that nobody will ever read. Whatever it is, I'm in, so here I am. I've done blogs before for a few days and they disappear into the electronic abyss, but let's hope I can keep up with this one every day like the NaBloPoMo people tell me I have to do.

More importantly, let's see if I get anything else accomplished this month.