Law v. Life

Nearly a celebrity

Today I was interviewed by Fox News.  There is just something inherently wrong with that, but I can't say no to a microphone.  So, although I was already late for a meeting and it was cold and windy, when the guy asked if he could talk to me about my thoughts on the primaries, I couldn't very well say no.  I probably sounded like an idiot, but I don't think I said anything too truly stupid.  I was just glad that I was able to answer his questions rather than being some person who isn't even aware that the primaries are going on.

Basically the concept was that "experts" are saying that Ohio's primary might actually matter - and what did I think of that.  I think it would be cool if our votes matter, and I think it's highly unlikely they will.  I don't think I bought into the premise enough for the news guy, and he seemed very disappointed that I didn't say I was an independent who would figure out who to vote for on election day, but he still asked me lots of questions.

I hope I get on the news and don't sound or look stupid.  Next time I'm walking down 3rd street, I will need to have some prepared talking points.

Who needs real political correspondents?

I hope all of the presidential candidates appear on The Colbert Report, because that is totally how I am going to decide who to vote for.  I just watched an episode with Mike Huckabee and it made me totally adore him.  Obviously, I disagree with Huckabee on virtually every issue and wouldn't really vote for him, but I do like him better than some of the republicans, and the Colbert bump does't hurt.  I do appreciate the irony of him being the one to cross the picket lines by appearing on The Tonight Show...  The strike needs to hurry up and end, so I can see Edwards and Colbert together...  I am so going to marry Stephen Colbert.

Grown up tv watching

Okay, I'm a little behind the times.  I just watched The Colbert Report for the first time, and it is now officially one of my favorite shows.  That man is hilarious.  I don't think I have laughed out loud that much in half an hour from any television show.  And he's kind of hot too.  So is Jon Stewart, now that I think about it.  And John Edwards.  And Mitt Romney is okay for a 60-year-old republican.  Can you tell what kind of middle aged man I find attractive?  Back to the topic...I just watched a couple "best of" videos to make sure that Stephen Colbert is as awesome as I thought and it looks like he is consistently hilarious.  I would so vote for him.

What a cutie

I had watched a few minutes of Beauty and the Geek in the past during commercials of other shows, but as of tonight I think I am a fan.

Luke was a Clipper

I am embarrassed that I just learned today of the remarkable link between two of my very favorite things in the whole world: Gilmore Girls and the Columbus Clippers!  I just discovered that Scott Patterson (Luke) played for the Clippers in the mid-80s.  I love Gilmore Girls even more now.  And the Clippers, too.  Now, if we could have a celebrity game featuring all of the men who have appeared on Gilmore Girls and Grey's Anatomy, I would be ecstatic.

The fall lineup

Just in case the network executive people are reading this blog, I wanted to let them know what my tv viewing choices are for the new fall season.

Monday: This week I had a big dilemma.  I love How I Met Your Mother.  I was also excited about 7th Heaven coming back for an 11th season.  It's sappy, but I'm addicted.  I had already watched the HIMYM season premiere the previous week, so this week I opted for 7th Heaven.  I don't think I'll be doing that again.  Apparently the writers decided to make all of the characters insane this season.  Apparently 16-year-old Ruthie stayed in Scotland after her summer abroad and this is just fine with her parents.  Her parents who have not been fine with any of their other children leaving home are willing to let their youngest daughter just live thousands of miles away.  Not believable.  Lucy had a miscarriage and has become so mean that the twins are afraid of her, her husband has become the weakest man ever portrayed on television, and her parents do whatever she says.  Yes Lucy has always been the "emotional" child, but she has never shown any need to be locked up.  Crying while giving a sermon would be believable, ranting about how angry she is and how the whole congregation wants to sleep with her husband during a sermon is just bad tv.  Besides giving in to all of Lucy's demands, the mother hasn't lost it yet, but the show's website says she is going to turn to psychics and healers this season, which is completely out of character.  Oh, and sweet Martin, who very believably was not able to deal with being a teenage father all of a sudden wants to marry the mother of his child and is mean and aggressive about it.  He seemed to mellow by the end, but just like everyone else his character was inconsistent.  Anyway, the point is, the show has lost any grasp on reality, and maybe I'll watch the beginning from time to time, but at 8:30, I will be watching How I Met Your Mother.  Okay, end of my 7th Heaven rant.  At 10:00, although I would like to check out Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, I won't, because I will be watching CSI: Miami.

Tuesday: GILMORE GIRLS IS BACK!!!  Nothing has a chance against Gilmore Girls.  And there is nothing else on Tuesday night that I'm watching at the moment.  Maybe I'll get back into SVU, but probably not until Mariska Hargitay is back.

Wednesday: America's Next Top Model, nothing else at all...I wish some of the other shows I like were on Wednesdays or that there were new shows I was interested in on Wednesday.  I can never quite figure it out, but sometimes House is on Wednesdays, and that makes me happy.

Thursday: This week I will check out Ugly Betty, then GREY'S ANATOMY, and Shark.  I love CSI, but it can't compete with Grey's Anatomy.  Plus, there are so many CSI reruns that I will get to see it eventually.  When The OC comes back (after baseball playoffs?) it doesn't have a chance if it stays in that time slot.  I was also tempted to check out Six Degrees, but Shark looked more appealing and I liked the first episode, so I'll stick with it for now.  I'm ready for a good new lawyer show.

Friday: Men in Trees.  This is the first Friday night show I think I have ever liked.  I think it is cute and funny and I hope it does really well.  This is my favorite new show this season so far.  I can't believe I like Anne Heche, but I do.  I hope the Friday night spot doesn't doom this show.

Saturday: Saturdays are the true tv wasteland.

Sunday: Probably Desperate Housewives, but if I'm watching it live, I will definitely be flipping back and forth to Cold Case unless it does a serious turnaround.  I love prime time soap type shows, but last season it became ridiculous and unbelievable and didn't even turn that into comedy.  They need to stop with killing people off because it is just stupid.  At 10:00pm, I would love to see what Brothers & Sisters is all about, but I won't because I will be watching Without a Trace.  I love that cast.  Just like all the other crime/law shows, Without a Trace is formulaic, but the cast has made it my very favorite one, so I won't be trying out a new show as long as it is up against Without a Trace.

So, just in case anyone making the tv lineups cares, those are my choices for this season.  I love tv.

A whole lot about the best show ever

I guess if I have nothing else to post about there is always television.  Grey's Anatomy is making me mad.  Mad in a "this show is awesome- why does it have to conflict with other shows I like" kind of way.  Sunday night I was excited to watch it like usual, and then came the scenes from the season finale - to be shown on Monday at the same time as CSI: Miami.  I was so angry.  CSI: Miami has become one of my favorites this season.  I love Horatio; he is strange but sweet.  Unlike Grissom who is strange, and a little creepy.  I may love CSI: Miami, but I love Grey's Anatomy.  So I set my tivo to record the two hour finale after How I Met Your Mother.  I don't know what the problem was, but How I Met Your Mother did not start on time, so I only go the first ten minutes of it before it switched to Grey's.  Of course if I hadn't had to switch channels, everything would have been fine.  So I got the finale recorded; all was good.  And then I read that ABC is moving Grey's Anatomy to Thursdays in the fall.  WHY?!  I understand they want to compete on a supposedly important night, but I want to watch the shows I want to watch.  Unless CBS and Fox make changes, this means Grey's Anatomy, CSI and The OC are all on at 9:00pm on Thursdays.  I already gave up CSI in favor of The OC, and that did not make me happy at all.  Grissom may be creepy but Nick is hot, at least when he doesn't have that horrible mustache.  And of course I will ultimately choose Grey's Anatomy over The OC, which just rewards ABC for screwing everything up.  Why couldn't they have chosen Thursday at 8:00, when there is absolutely nothing on, and it will be even easier to get viewers with Will and Grace off the air?  Why?  It's so not fair.

And then there is the finale itself, which kind of bugged me.  The whole thing with Izzie losing it was just bizarre and unbelievable.  She might like Denny, but she barely knew him, so it made no sense for her to flip out to the point of potentially killing him, jeopardizing her entire career, or agreeing to marry him.  It was also unbelievable that the others didn't turn Izzie in.  George seemed the most inclined to, which made the least sense because he values friendship and solidarity and the "family" so much.  Cristina and Meredith are usually much more self centered and career focused, and didn't seem to comprehend the ramifications of covering up something like that.  Alex's response was the most consistent with his character because he wanted to turn her in because he was mad, but ultimately didn't because he is a good guy somewhere inside, and cares about her.  Usually the emotions on Grey's Anatomy feel very real to me, but watching Izzie go over the edge into near-homicide and complete self destruction seemed contrived and unbelievable.  The whole thing was weird and annoyed me.

Callie annoys me too.  I understand the concept of having someone like George the way he liked Meredith, but Callie isn't doing it.  She seems needy and angry and controlling and like she has no qualities that would make him like her other than her interest in him.  He deserves better.

Cristina annoys me, but in a kind of good way.  She is so freakin' cold and emotionally immature that I want Burke to smack her.  But she manages to convey that she is trying, which makes me like her and root for her in spite of everything.  And the fact that Burke puts up with it but also calls her on it makes me like them together.  I want him to break up with her and then for them to get back together in like four seasons.

I was so happy when Meredith and Derek left the prom.  It was that moment you've been waiting for all season.  I was a little disturbed that they actually had sex because it seemed unnecessary, but I was still cheering out loud.  Addison is cold, and unlike Cristina, her moments of softness never feel sincere to me.  And she looks like a witch.  Or someone who has had too much plastic surgery.  I don't necessarily like Meredith.  She is selfish and really kind of boring, but when two people are drawn to each other like her and Derek, you just have to root for them to be together.  They both convey that intense need in a palpable way, and that is why I love the show.  They make me feel it too.

Shot through the heart!

I just watched this week's How I Met Your Mother, and it was great. Mostly because they played the intro to You Give Love A Bad Name six times, plus the one time the characters sang it. I totally approve of Barney's theory that to get in the mood you need all highs, which equals Bon Jovi. My friends disagree when I play Bon Jovi over and over in my car. But then I guess they just don't want to get in the mood. Whatever I do this New Year's, it is going to involve a whole lot of singing along to You Give Love A Bad Name.

My second career

We recently had an all day mock trial for a case at work, and the mock jurors were recruited my a market research group and paid $175 for an eight hour day.  I thought, I want to do that.  I started asking questions and found out they often pay that much or more for a lot less time and energy.  So the next day I signed up to be part of their pool of people, and signed up for about three other firms as well.  This could be a goldmine.  The people at work were telling me they had been paid a couple hundred dollars to go look at new Lexus models, to watch beer commercials, and all sorts of stuff that is somewhere between mindless and actually fun.  I just signed up a few days ago, and tonight I got to participate for the first time.  Except I don't like this company, and probably won't do anything for them in the future, because rather than actually paying me I will receive some sort of "prize", which may be $100 but is probably way more likely to be something stupid worth like five dollars.  But I still thought it would be kind of cool, so I said yes.

I received a "special" tape in the mail yesterday.  It is special because it erases itself as you watch it.  It also is really poor quality and the top half is all fuzzy and grey.  I don't think that was their intent.  Anyway, first I was supposed to go through this booklet and pick my favorite of a bunch of different brands of products.  Then I was supposed to watch this tv show on the tape.  The instructions said it was a pilot, but I thought it might just be a vehicle to get me to watch commercials.  It had Ross' ex-wife on friends in it, so maybe it was real.  It was called "Dads," and was about three fathers who all have kids in the same class.  The class seemed like preschool, but one of the kids had his sixth birthday, so it couldn't have been.  The parents had to sign their kids in and brought them in late, which was what made it seem like preschool, but who knows.  Actually, the kids seemed to be different ages, ranging from about five to eight, but apparently that wasn't supposed to bother me.  The three fathers are each very stereotypical, as one would expect in a sitcom.  There was the goofy one who was like a 35 year old version of the goofy guy on Boy Meets World.  Goofy in that you wanted to put him out of his misery.  There was the dad who had been a workaholic, thus the divorce, and was trying to be a better dad by moving his office to his home.  That wasn't working out so well, with the kids drawing on his blueprints and dropping sandwiches on them and that sort of thing.  Then there was the slick guy in the suit, who works in "women's fashion."  That means he is married to a super model whom he never sees, gets his daughter to wear the clothes his clients sell and tell all her six year old friends where they can buy them, and arranged for a petting zoo that consisted of minks and other furry animals that would have other purposes after the birthday party.  He was definitely the funniest character.  The woman from friends played a single mom whose child just started at the school.  Of course one of the guys instantly hits on her, but she was sufficiently witty but warm to not just be a throw away character.  The kids were definitely the biggest problem with the show.  Two of them had obnoxious squeaky kid voices, like kids in cereal commercials.  Kind of made me want to strangle them.  The other one was the girl whose father wears a suit.  She was the precocious one who wouldn't kiss her father and acted too good for everything.  She also had moments of totally acting like a kid though.  One of the questions to complete afterwards asked if every show should have a message.  If it did, this would be just Full House where everyone doesn't live together.  Therefore, really stupid.  The show could actually have potential if it focused on the fathers as men, because just in this episode it was funny seeing them deal with kids, relationships, and each other.  But I think it is aiming more for stupid Friday night family show than for funny sitcom.

And if the point of this was the commercials, I don't get it.  I had to fill out another booklet afterwards about my favorite brands, but none of them had been advertised.  They were mostly the same as before, but not entirely, so maybe it was trying to see if I had changed my mind.  I hadn't.  Maybe there had been product placement during the show, which I wasn't able to see because of the bad picture.  Tomorrow I will be getting a follow up call, and maybe then they will ask me about the commercials that were shown.  Maybe it is all very scientific and beyond my understanding.  I totally enjoy doing things like this, even if they are pointless.  I'm just not doing it again without cash.

Crossover makes me mad

I am mad at CBS.  Show the entire episode of CSI:Miami, please.  When the show ends at 11:00pm, I don't want to have to go online to find out important "secrets".  I want to have just finished watching a complete episode.  Is that so much to ask?  I was preparing to rant about it, so I went online after the show anyway, and decided to see what they were trying to lure me into watching.  Well, it would have helped if it was even on the website.  Maybe they were waiting for the show to air on the west coast.  If so, don't say "Go to CBS.com after the show."  Say, "Go there in a few hours, or tomorrow...when you have forgotten all about CSI and don't really care anymore."  So, obviously, I got even madder at CBS.  I checked in the morning, but unfortunately on dial up, I couldn't watch the video in any sort of reasonable manner.  So at work, I checked again, but I don't have speakers on my computer at work, so I tried to read lips but that didn't work so well.  I did get the chance to see the Hummer ad, which only made me madder once again.  Don't try to trick me into watching more advertising.  I wouldn't drive a Hummer if it was free.  And I certainly don't want to pay some exorbitant amount to look like I'm driving around in a tank that I can't park anywhere.  So, yes, CBS got me to visit their website a total of three times.  Mission accomplished.  I also started out mad and only got madder, and never even saw the freakin' video.  It's not like I'm going to stop watching CSI because I'm mad.  But if I ever have some super big company and have to advertise, I might not advertise on CBS.  Yes, over this.  So there.