Sometime on Friday afternoon it dawned on me that I’d have today off from work. I’ve enjoyed my day off. But I haven’t made much use of it. Had lunch with some friends at Chili’s. Chili’s cheesesticks are excellent, but a tad expensive. I am still searching for the perfect, less expensive cheesestick. Burger King and Sonic’s cheesesticks aren’t worth buying. Arby’s cheesesticks are expensive but good. I’ve had Longhorn’s cheesesticks before. They are good, but tend to fall apart in the plate.
So I bought another annual coupon book for 20 bucks from a kid at church. It’s got a ton of coupons…hence the name “coupon book.” I always say that I’ll get my 20 dollars back, but sometimes I don’t feel as though I use enough of the coupons. Last year’s coupon book expires November 1st. I haven’t even used 95% of the coupons in there. So I am struggling trying to use coupons before they expire. In any case I think this is a better fundraising idea than selling overpriced candy bars and cheese and sausages. The things they used to make us sell in school….
Totally missed Jerry Lewis’ Labor Day Telethon. Not that I am a big fan of it anyways. In the era before cable…when there were only 5 channels on the dial, I’d get upset at Jerry for interupting the “Dukes of Hazzard” on Labor Day weekend. Since we have about 50 channels now plus Tivo, it is easy to miss alot of stuff on TV. Tivo is such a cool invention. Zapping through the commericals…no wonder advertisers hate it.
What is Tivo recording for me? Diff’rent Strokes, King of the Hill, Letterman, Big Brother, Behind the Music, and a bunch of History Channel documentaries.

The Game Show Network suddenly appeared on my cable lineup. After two weeks of watching it occassionally, I can give you some insight on the shows. I was expecting to see some ancient Price Is Right episodes. Maybe even some old Nickelodeon gameshows. Not so. The Gameshow Network seems to have 5 shows which they broadcast ’round the clock. These shows include:

• Win Loose or Draw….it was that annoying party game similar to charades….except that you draw instead of acting them out. You might have heard of its cousin, “Pictionary.” The game wasn’t any fun to play in real life. Why would it be any fun to watch? In retrospect it is somewhat amusing to watch Burt Reynolds and Loni Anderson together before their ultimate divorce. Perhaps it was the game that kept them together.
• The $25,000 Pyramid The first part of this show was boring to watch. The big money round was exciting to watch, but way too difficult. Nobody could get all those clues within 60 seconds.
• Family Fued At least this one was halfway interesting. Usually one family would dominate the game and there would be no question who would get to the big money round. It is sorta strange watching the late Ray Combs in such a happy mood on those episodes.
• Hollywood Squares I didn’t like this show when they resurrected it in the mid 80s and again in the late 90s. Why would I like the original 70s version full of celebrities I’ve never heard of? Seemed like one big gabfest amoung celebrities. Absolutely no strategy was involved in playing the game. Contestants only needed to answer “I agree” or “I disagree.” Kinda like the anti-Tic Tac Dough.
• The Newlywed Game This was actually kinda funny at times. Although the whole show centered around embarrassing the couples and making them argue. Couldn’t have been good for marriages. I know that it would have been pretty easy for couples to cheat on this show. Makes you wonder if any of them tried it.

I don’t think I’d watch the Game Show Network unless there was absolutely NOTHING else on. No need to tell Tivo a thumbs up on this. I would never want this type of stuff recorded. It is sad that they have enough of this type of stuff to have a whole network on it.
Finally had time to put up some pictures from Taylor Christian Camp this summer.

Why does the Today Show still have Willard Scott on occassionally to wish happy birthday to those centaurians? Willard obviously knows nothing about the weather….never went to meterological school….. As I understand it, Willard started off playing Ronald McDonald. Al Roker doesn’t even have a degree in meterology….instead he got his degree in communications. For once I’d like to see a morning show with a weatherman who actually knows what he is talking about.
What started as a nice wish to one 100 year old lady grew into a lame worn out cliche. It means nothing anymore. EVERYBODY gets their grandparents on the Today show if and when they turn 100. Everyone except my family. We tried to get my great grandmother’s picture into Willard’s grubby little hands when she hit the 3 digits – 100 – way back in 1991. But Willard already receives hundreds of submissions (imagine that, there are 100 people around the USA who turn 100 each day?). So instead we got a nice form letter back from NBC.
New (and old) songs I’ve recently discovered:
Neil Young – “Heart of Gold” – I love this song. The harmonica in it is great. They were playing it on the local classic rock station.
Dropline – “Fly Away from Here (Graduation Day)”
Moby – “Extreme Ways”

All those die hard Star Wars fans are going to see Episode II tonight at midnight. I am not loosing any sleep about it. I only saw Episode I once and honestly I don’t even remember much of it. It wasn’t any type of blockbuster movie for me. Nice eye candy and special effects, but really nothing of substance. All these silly fans are trying to relive a forgotten childhood dream, when movies actually meant something. When it wasn’t all about marketing and making the most money.
Oh yeah. I do believe that hairpiece George Lucas has is indeed a hairpiece…..the son of Chewbacca. There’s no way that hair could be real. That’s as fake as some of those broomsticks they used for light sabers in Star Wars.

I think I ate too much pizza last night while watching The Godfather. Again, yet another movie which gained critical acclaim, but failed to make me enjoy it. I can see why some people might be fascinated with this movie � with this intrigue of Gangster life, yet the movie itself was boring. Definitely not in the top 50 in my book. Question: Does Marlon Brando actually speak like that in everyday conversation? If so, he needs some speech lessons.
During this April heat wave, we�ve taken to keeping the windows open in order to conserve energy. Last night the temperature inside read 81 degrees. I�m not so sure this strategy is working�..
In other news�.
From the department of ignorance: Student gives birth in dorm room, completely unaware she was pregnant.. How exactly can you be pregnant and not know it? The sad thing is that this girl may not even know who the father is. Time to call Montel for paternity tests!!!!
After 15 years of absence Press Your Luck is back�.long live the Whammy. Too bad I don�t get the Game Show Network, so none of this means anything to me.
Before the Game Show Network was around, I can remember those long summer afternoons watching the USA Network. There were hours filled back to back with game shows like �Let�s Make a Deal,� �Bumper Stumpers,� �The $25,000 Pyramid,� and �Password,� among many others. I guess USA had lots of time to fill and plenty of game shows in their vaults.
Here’s a shocker: Preachers tend to “borrow” from other preachers’ sermons.

I saw Starship Troopers tonight. Blah. Not much to the movie. I had heard that it was one of those check-your-brain-in-at-the-door type movies, so my suspicion was confirmed. Was it based on some type of comic book or something?
On a related note, I was never into comic books. Comic books are neither comical nor books. When was the last time you heard a kid ask for a comic book at your local bookstore? They’re mostly around for the nostalgic collectors trying to relive a long dead childhood past.

I saw Citizen Kane tonight. The American Film institute voted it the #1 film of all time. Was it the best in my mind? Not likely. It had its moments. But like most old films, it was slow and boring at times. Audiences years ago must have been more easily amused. Now we need action in order not to fall asleep in the movie.
Anyways, back to Citizen Kane. The whole premise of the movie was about a man who gains everything, yet in reality has nothing. His childhood was taken away (literally sold) from him at an early age. It’s a simple concept which many movies have imitated.

Something tells me CBS’s new sitcom, Baby Bob won’t last long. Ok, we get it. The baby talks. It’s a one joke show, kinda like Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. The entire storyline of each episode was Gomer does something stupid and gets the sergeant mad at him. Besides, if the Baby Bob show is actually renewed for a 2nd season, they will have to get another baby.
Actually I’m surprised “ALF” lasted as long as it did. It too, was a one joke show. I was drawn to it during my 7th grade year simply because of the muppet phenomenon.

I hate it when CBS news shows interview Survivor losers and call it news. For a while there during the 1st and 2nd seasons of Survivor, it was the lead story of the night on our local CBS affliate. Folks, this isn’t news. It’s entertainment. The show was taped months ago. Don’t call it news. If you must cover Survivor, place it at the very end of the news.
Personally I think we have been overwhelmed by these Survivor reality shows. Pretty soon everyone is going to get sick of it and stop watching – which is a real shame. I’ll be first to admit that these type of reality based shows are my guilty pleasure. I hate today’s sitcoms. Survivor and company provide some interesting drama to the whole bland Friends type sitcom look-a-likes.

I saw “Varsity Blues” yesterday on TV. It’s one of the first movies made by MTV’s movie production company. In the movie it attempted to show a real picture of high school football in a small Texas town. The story was predictable at times. I’m not sure if the movie makers were trying to be Hoosiers of football. In the movie adults were shown stereotypically as bumbling idiots, or as a corrupt football coach. The only supposedly “cool” adult in the movie was a female teacher who was a part time dancer at an adult club.
What was slightly disturbing about the movie was that it showed several scenes of underage drinking in it. MTV will argue that it was portraying real life. I would argue that MTV has a lot of influence on America’s youth and to show underage drinking somehow in some cases could promote it among youth. Sure, there have been plenty of movies that show teens doing illegal acts. The movies that come to mind are “Stand By Me” (smoking by 12 year olds); “The Breakfast Club” (illegal drug use); and “Teen Wolf” (underage drinking). However I would say that it is pretty hypocritical of MTV to try to appear saintly by not showing beer commercials on their station, yet at the same time financing a movie that shows underage drinking. Since this movie was a MTV production, it was promoted heavily on MTV at the time it came out.
Just out of curiosity I did a search for various words having to do with drinking at mtv.com. MTV is usually good about archiving its news items and MTV new specials on the web. The results of this unscientific study are as follows. Matches for “DUI” only popped up for handful of items (41). “Alcohol” showed a bit more matches (201), some having to with songs that had alcohol in the title. Many were about celebrities and musicians going to alcohol rehab. A search for “Underage Drinking” showed no matches. MTV did attempt to address the issue of alcohol abuse during the Hawaii season of Real World. During this season a roommate is sent to a rehab program after her drinking got out of hand.
On the other hand searching for AIDS at mtv.com showed 554 matches.
The bottom line is that while MTV is in the habit of promoting “cool” causes like AIDS, they have notoriously overlooked the problem of underage drinking, and in some cases promoted it.