TV Guide

I've been slackin', but I haven't had much to write about. Lately, I'm just exploring network television. I've picked out a couple of shows that I plan to make part of my regular viewing. I am still a fan of Medium and now that I only work 2 hours per night 3 nights a week at the office, I get home in time on Mondays to watch it. The show isn't as strong as it was in Seasons 1 & 3 (the best to me so far), but it is still engaging. Plus I can admit to having a crush on Patricia Arquette since she was in Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors. She's quirky (she married Nicholas Cage), but also awesome.

Tuesday are a night off, so I've been watching Reaper. It's okay, but isn't one of my favorites. Next, I flip to CBS for The Mentalist which I follow with Without a Trace. (Aside: CBS really has a thing for actors from Down Under. Simon Baker is The Mentalist, Poppy Montgomery and Anthony Lapaglia are both on Without a Trace, and Anthony's brother Jonathan is now a semi-regular on Cold Case.)

I work Wednesday and will usually half-watch Law & Order when I gt home, but I'm not a huge fan of the show anymore. I don't like the new executive ADA nor do I care for Kevin Anderson's character. I think he took a bit too much from his time on The Shield.

Thursdays are also a work night, but I have had quite a few off of late so I got to watch Supernatural. Another not great show, but both Jensen Ackles (who was in MBV 3-D and Jared Padelecki (the feathery-haired brother in the new F13) are hot. Sometimes I'll watch Eleventh Hour, but I'm not invested in it or anything.

Fridays just suck so I try to sneak in a movie or something on Hulu (watch a couple episodes of the old Perry Mason last week) that night if I'm not out with the Chicks.

Saturdays are a crapshoot, but I try not to even go out before watching 48 Hours (aka 48 Hours Mysteries). I remember when that show was all about Dan Rather screaming about the perils of crack and how the world would be full of crackbabies in a decade. I will also try to sneak in a movie on this night as well.

I was all happy to have football season over and done with pre-empting my Sunday shows and then March Madness came along. Boo. The Amazing Race is the only reality show I will watch now (and I am happy to report this season does not include ANY hateful teams...I mean, NONE...I can't decide who to root for), then I follow that up with Cold Case and I've even watch The Unit the last couple of weeks (it's actually not bad).

Oh, look my lunch 1/2 hour is over. Gotta go.

Let's Get Mentally Challenged In Here!!!

You know the worst part of Obama's "Special Olympics" comment? Well, besides the fact that it opens the door for a shit-ton of conservative assholes to pout about how they can't use sexist/racist/insensitive terms without being called out on it, but certain people (women, blacks, liberals, Obama) can, even as Obama is indeed being called out on his comment. The thing that is worse is that people are acting like he's the only one who says stupid shit like this. People, we live in a society where only a few years ago, a very popular musical group put out a damn song called, "Let's Get Retarded" and some people thought it was dumb and unnecessary for them to re-edit the song as "Let's Get It Started". Even some of the most politically aware people I know have said they "felt like a retard" after doing something dumb or called someone "retarded" because that person did something stupid. Not saying it makes it right, not saying I'm not guilty of it myself, nor am I saying President Obama shouldn't be called out on it the same way we would have called out Dubya for it. Just saying that I hope all this furor goes to actually eliminating the attitude that makes anyone think it's okay to talk like this.

And while we're at it, can we also work on dismissing the word "gay" as some kind of negative descriptor as well? Am I asking too much, y'all?

I actually didn't even watch the Leno thing. I forgot all about it. Now that I don't have TruTV crime shows to fall asleep to, I've taken to watching the CW's late night airings of Sex & the City. I find these women almost completely insufferable. Carrie is such a self-centered flighty twit, Samantha's sex kitten tries to hard, and Charlotte...well, I actually like Charlotte. I think I still love Kristin Davis for her days on Melrose Place. (Remember, she's the only one that dies when Kimberly blew up the apartment complex.) Miranda is a big-mouth, obnoxious bitch. I'm at season where she dumped Blair Underwood for her babydaddy Steve (yeah, that would happen...NOT) and they've bought a house in Brooklyn. Well, they bought the house in Brooklyn after she whined about giving up her Manhattan lifestyle for 30 years. Also, Samantha survived cancer or "The Big C" which they seem to have to point out every 5 minutes. Meanwhile, she's "cougaring" with some young male model dude. Carrie is dating The Russian which is exactly how she refers to him with her friends. He even comes up as "Russian" on her bejeweled cellphone's caller ID. Do all her boyfriends end up with code names like "Big" and "The Russian"?

All that complaining and I know all that because I have watched it every night this week. Hell, sometimes I stay up and watch the second episode (which oddly is on a different season). I even occasionally flip between the CW episodes and the TBS episodes if they're on at the same time. What can I say? I have to watch something before I can float off to LaLaLand and QVC doesn't always cut it.

I suppose I should, like, work or something.

I'd rather have potholes

It's crazy what happens when you don't leave the house for two days. I have been ailing the last couple of days, so I stayed away from work. Until this morning, I hadn't left the house since about 10:30ish on Tuesday morning. I was way low on my FakeQuil, so I headed down to Target Downtown to stock up on that and orange juice and soup and other stuff-one-needs-when-she's-sick. Apparently, I completely missed any of the gas stations signs informing me that my precious Marlboro cigarettes are now a whopping $5.10 per pack (at SA). Actually, now that I think about it, there are not gas stations that would advertise that between my house and the downtown Target. But whatever! The point is that practically over-freakin'-night my cigarettes have gone up $.70 per pack. GodDAMN! That's so not cool. Fortunately, I have been cutting back on my nicotine intake. My doctor informed me that that is one of the 'side effects' of Wellbutrin and I gots no problem with that. Except the weight gain. I'm not one of those chicks who is all worried about being pencil-thin, but I am too poor to shop for new clothes, so I'll have to try to at least maintain my current weight if I'm going to actively quit this nasty habit. Which I would love to do and this is the perfect motivation because I'm broke and cheap and not interested in switching brands. So I hereby selecting a quit date of April 19. I will now consciously begin cutting back on my smoking, track my daily cigarette intake, stockpile my cigarette butts, and constantly hound myself about quitting. Hopefully, this time I can be done with the dastardly things for good and riddance.

I spent most of my sick time laid up on my couch watching court shows (of course). Did you know that former lawyer-to-the-Mob Bruce Cutler is now the "judge" on his own show? It's a hot mess called "Celebrity Jury" or "Celebrity Jury Duty" or maybe it's just "Jury Duty" but they have zzz-list celebrities on to judge the cases. The episode I saw featured some chick I've never seen before, one of the guys from Boyz to Men (I think it was the one with the deep voice), and walking plastic surgery nightmare Bruce Jenner. I have no idea what the case was about, and I didn't stick around too long to delve any further into it. I also got to see some woman pass out on The People's Court and listen to Judge Karen use my new favorite phrase "Stay in your lane; I know how to drive" which can't replace my "Mind your knitting" because technically, I really don't know how to drive. I still think it's sassy. Maybe I'll just use the first part.

I did watch other stuff (yay! Universal Monsters!), but now I'm back and work and need to get back to work. More later perhaps.

Did you know there are people who are NOT just like you?

I spent two and a half hours in a cross-cultural awareness class this morning. Those are always such eye-opening experiences really. People who seem at least fairly smart become total ignoramuses in those sorts of classes. All under the guise of showing how open-minded they are.

For example, the instructor asked volunteers to talk about what the community they grew up in was like. One woman told how she grew up in a small, all-white town and now lives in St. Paul where one of her neighbors is Hmong. Wow! Diversity! But the real kicker was the woman who talked about growing up in White Bear Lake in the 1950s. She said there was this one black family that lived in the neighborhood and the two boys of the family went to her school and rode the same bus as she. She made a point during her story to say how "nice" those boys were 3 times and then related a story about how one time one of the boys offered her his seat on the bus. She just thought that as so NICE of him, especially during the 50s. The fact that she proclaimed their "niceness" like it was some sort of anomaly just amazed me.

Another exercise involved the instructor showing us a video which showed all sorts of cultural breakdowns if the world were to be reduced to just 100 people. So, like, 57 of those people would be Asian, 70 of them would be non-Christian, and 11 of them would be gay. This last was a bone of contention for a couple of my classmates. One gentleman didn't believe that many people would admit. "Why would they?" he exclaimed. When I mentioned that some people are actually open and unafraid and completely proud of their sexuality because there's nothing wrong with being gay, he actually scoff and giggled with the person next to him. Another woman pointed out that being openly gay is not as acceptable to other cultures, so she was suspicious of that 11 number as well. To which I replied, "Any suspicious might be with how LOW that number is since you don't believe others would actually admit to homosexuality." That kind of shut them up, but I earned no cool points from them. Not that I want the kind of cool points handed out by homophobes.

I also stepped onto my little high horse about the phrase "melting pot". I absolutely abhor that phrase. No matter what Schoolhouse Rock proclaims, this nation will NEVER be a melting pot. Anyone who expects everyone in the US to take on one face is just delusional. While we might share some general cultural norms that others associate with being American, there are a number of unique differences between groups of people in this country that those who live here should recognize. Those differences may take some influence from the culture at large, but ultimately, the group dynamic remains. Much like in a stew, carrots don't become onions just because they're cooked in the same broth. The carrots might take on some of the onion's flavor and vice versa, but it's still a carrot. Meanwhile the broth itself takes on flavor from every meat, vegetable, herb, and spice that gets tossed in. And it's delicious because of it! Likewise, America is awesome BECAUSE it's so diverse, not in spite of it as your Rush Limbaughs of the world might like to think.

Anyway, that damn class gave me a pounding headache right above my left eye, at the bridge of my nose, and behind my right eye. I wish I could leave now.

Lost at sea

Do you know why I find the story of the football players lost at sea so terrifying and sad? Not because of some of the comments made by StarTribune online readers. Firstly, because I saw Open Water. I know a lot of people thought that movie was boring and over-rated, but I disagree. For me it was tense and suspenseful and pretty scary. Secondly, because I have an intense fear of being stranded in the middle of a large body of water. I can't swim, see? I don't dig on being even in a POOL where I can't stand on both feet with my nose above the water. I really just don't like water on my nose. I get a little freaked out when I'm rinsing my face or hair in the shower and a little water gets up my nose.

So yeah, I feel absolutely terrible for these guys and their families.

Also, Michelle Bachmann is an idiot. This is no longer news.