Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Ratings, Races...and Races (you'll see)

So now that the new tv season has started, I'm struggling to maintain 2 existences...the previous life where I Tivo'd everything on the planet and spent every day doing nothing but watching tv with Emily...and my new and improved life, where I actually get off my ass and do fun things all the time. In fact, I've recently promised myself I would give myself some more "down time", just relaxing and doing various Zen-like activities. But alas, there are so many good tv shows! Shit, what do I do. I've made a decision. I will watch only really important shows, like Amazing race and Alias. Now before I get started in the unfortunate irony and hilarity in last night's premiere of Amazing Race, I must say...I realize there is still a ratings competition among networks even during a disaster like the recent hurricanes, but I feel that it's getting a bit out of control. Media is playing the American public like a harp with this disaster stuff, doing whatever they can to get better ratings. I'm just waiting for ABC to begin their coverage each day with Hank Williams, Jr. singing "Are you ready for some FEMA!" And if I see G.W. or Dick Cheney "surveying the damage" one more time I'm gonna throw up. Like he gives a rats ballsack. Dick Cheney is the last person they need in a disaster area. Medics are so busy with him they hardly have time for the victims.
I digress.
So back to Amazing Race. For those of you that saw this latest season opener, the "Family Edition", where teams of four are continuously screaming and yelling at each other, then I'm sure you noticed the most obvious piece of entertainment in the whole show.....that's right, the one and only one black family on the show. And I'm not saying they were funny because they were black, I'm saying they were funny because their last name BLACK. Now this would be mildly comical on its own (albeit somewhat racist), however the issue that arose was that CBS needs a way to show you which family is which as the race goes along. They do this by constantly putting a caption up when they show that particular family. The caption gives the name of the family, along with the makup of the team (e.g. The Aiello Family- Father, Mother, son and daughter). Well you see where I'm going with this. Throughout the show, you would see at the bottom of the screen, "The Black Family". Well we just thought this was the funniest thing since MC Hammer pants. But if you think about it, there's really no better way to identify the family. I thought about changing the phrasing to "The Aiellos" and "The Paolos", but then they would just be "The Blacks", and thats even worse. So there they were the whole show with that caption under them. Then at the end when (WARNING: SPOILER COMING UP) they came in last place and were eliminated, the host (Phil for those of you in the know) had to address them and tell them in a very somber tone that they had lost...."Black family...I'm sorry to tell you that you've been eliminated". How do you do that with a straight face!? I give him tons of credit just for that. Ok I'm off to try and reinstall everything on my laptop, as the system restore CD's finally came in the mail from shitty-ass horrible ball-sucking IBM customer service. Wish me luck.

Thursday, September 22, 2005

Am I going to hell?

So before I invite your opinions as to if what I did was wrong, I'll update you on my lack of computer situation. Basically, the IBM people are idiots, and my hard drive came in the mail, only to be unaccompanied by the CD's that I need to get the drive up and running. I had to call IBM, wait on hold for 40 minutes, yell at them, then have them send me out the CD's by mail. I'm still waiting for them, at which point I will likely install the software, reinstall the OS, and then sell that titanium bastard. Two times it's crashed on me, and it's not even a Compaq! So I'll be borrowing friend's computers to update pics in the near future.
In the meantime, I'll tell you that I went this past Sunday to the bar around the corner from my house (Bourbon St.) to see my favorite local singer, Ashley Matte. She was sick and was not there, so to placate the angry fans that had showed up to see her, the managers announced that they would be having an Emmy's contest. They handed out forms at the bars to everyone, where we were supposed to fill out our Emmy picks before they started airing on tv at 8pm. It was about 7:30pm at the time, so we had about a half hour to fill out all of our picks (best actress/actor, drama, comedy, director, etc.). But then I thought, wait a minute....they don't air until 8pm, but technically they're well under way because it was 10:30pm on the east coast. So after a brief deliberation as to whether or not my karma would be negatively affected, I decided to call Stefan in NY to get all the answers. The Emmy's were almost over on tv in NY, so just about every category except best drama and best comedy had been announced. So I had to guess on these 2. I wound up getting one of those wrong (I guess Arrested Development for best comedy, but alas it didn't win) so overall only got one incorrect. Needless to say, I won 1st prize, a $50 bar tab. Thanks Stef, I owe you a drink. Now some people have made various comments about how this may not have been the right thing to do, but here's my rationale behind it all: Yes, I'm going to hell, for many reasons other than cheating at a bar contest. And perhaps it was mildly bad Karma to do what I did. But listen, I didn't cheat some 9 year old starving Katrina victim out of money or food. I cheated some drunk out of 8 martinis. See, doesn't that make you feel better? Well it works for me. I'm off to have a drink.

Monday, September 12, 2005

It's on the way

My new hard drive for my laptop is on the way, so I should be back up and running within a couple days. I have so many pics to get up, dammit! Although I lost a ton from the computer crashing, so not as many pics anymore, but still enough for your enjoyment.
On another note, someone asked me if I wanted to go deep sea fishing today. Now let me just tell you that the only experience I have had doing such fishing was when I was in Aruba, and it was probably one of the worst experiences I've been through (not counting my kidney stones, wisdom teeth extraction...see earlier blog entries for that one, or sitting through Gigli). I got so seasick I couldnt even function or raise my head, or talk, or breath. The 6 foot waves didn't help much. So I asked the guy what his rationale was for fishing, and he said it was because the fish were really "tasty". Well, basically my feeling on it at this point is this: You can buy fish. If you're doing it for the food and not for the sport of it all, then what the hell do I want to do on a boat at 4:30 in the morning? If I want hamburger, I don't track the cattle down. I politely decliced and referred him to a couple very good seafood restaurants.

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

The pooter is dead

So my computer started having some issues, and I took it into an IBM repair center to see what was up. Turns out the hard drive is completely destroyed (through no doing on my part...it just decided to go to hell). So now I need to order another hard drive through IBM and go through that whole process, so who knows how long that will take. So unless I use another computer in the meantime, I may not be able to get any pics up here in the near future. Not to mention that the stuff I was supposed to post in the last couple weeks is now gone forever because it's all on the hard drive that's dead. But all my pics from my trip back to NY for Labor Day weekend will be up eventually. Until recently, I was a big fan of the IBM Think Pad...never had any problems with them. But now I'd have to say that the $2500 chunk of useless titatium sitting on my floor at home has made me have a change of heart. I'll be back soon with updates.