Early Christmas
In the past, I think I've commented on how Christmas season seems to start earlier every year. It's gotten pretty ridiculous in the last couple years, as we're seeing Christmas stuff show up in stores before Halloween is even over.
At first, I think the phenomenon annoyed me, because I saw it as another representation of corporate greed imposing their will on the public. Kind of like Hallmark making up holidays, we see these retailers depending so heavily on the holiday shoppers that they try to stretch the season out as much as possible. (As if Christmas wasn't overly commercialized already).
But this year, I'm starting to see the whole thing a little differently. Not that I like the commercialization, but now I'm kind of glad that Christmas season is starting early. I mean, I love Christmas season - the movies, the songs, the overall "holiday spirit". If people want to make it last longer, I should be all for it, right?
In a way, I think I've started to depend a lot more on Christmas season to get me through the winter. Especially in the last few years, when it seems like the cold weather and shorter daylight of winter has hit me harder than it used to, when I was a kid.
Like right now, I'm already dreading the next few months of snow, blistering winds, walking out of work to gloomy gray skies. When it snowed that one day a couple weeks ago, I refused to bring out my heavier coat in one last act of denial, preferring to brave the cold temperatures in my thin windbreaker (it did not do the job). I find myself thinking more about when I could take a vacation to somewhere warm, to escape the Chicago winter for a while. And I'm already looking forward to next summer, even as summer 2006 barely ended a few weeks ago.
As I said before, I didn't always feel this way. I don't remember hating the winter that much when I was little. I remember it being cold, but it's not like I would ever dread an entire season. But yeah, now when I know winter is coming up, all I can think about is how much it sucks to leave work when it's dark already, the hassles of driving in snowy weather, having to bundle up in a million layers when I go outside just so I don't freeze to death, how the wool in my sweaters makes my neck itch, or the way my normally moist lips start to become dry and crack (yes, I still refuse to use chapstick). I just want it to be July again so I can wash my car, go to baseball games, and grill food on my deck.
Anyways, I guess what I'm getting at is, with all the depressing thoughts about winter, I especially need the happy thoughts about Christmas season to counteract all of that. Winter may suck otherwise, but what could be better to cheer everyone up with than getting multiple days off from work, exchanging presents, seeing the houses on your block decorated with lights, listening to Christmas music, spending time with family, or watching Home Alone and Home Alone 2?
Personally, it scares me to imagine what winter would be like without Christmas season. I seriously think a lot of people would crack during the long winter, if there wasn't anything to look forward to. So if the department stores want to bring out the holiday stuff a little earlier than expected, I will no longer complain.
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Weak Stream
Haha.... Bill Simmons's take on the ads for BPH, which some of you might recall I wrote about a while back:
Common side effects from Flomax are "runny nose, dizziness and a decrease in semen; upon standing, a sudden decrease of blood pressure may occur, rarely resulting in fainting." Call me crazy, but wouldn't you rather have a weak stream of pee over any of those other symptoms? We should vote on this on ESPN.com's main page.
*****
I think I've had the following conversation about 5 times during the last couple weeks (with a different friend each time):
(The song by Brooke Hogan with Paul Wall comes on the radio)
Friend: This song is pretty catchy, I kinda like it.
Me: You know who sings it right?
Friend: No, who?
Me: Hulk Hogan's daughter.
Friend: What??! No way, are you serious?
Me: Yep.
(awkward silence ensues)
Friend: Wow. I did not know that.
Seriously, same exact conversation, just different friend. I understand though, that knowledge can be a pretty powerful revelation when you find out. I know because I experienced the feeling myself about a month ago. I, too, thought the song was catchy, until I realized who was singing it.
It doesn't help that the video is retarded and features our heroine Brooke "battling" (if you can call it that) some other skanky girl on the dance floor. Now whenever I hear the song and/or see the video, I can actually feel myself becoming less of a person. To share this feeling with all my many readers, enjoy below. Prepare to get served:
Yep. I think I finally reached my limit. The guy who obsessed about Britney Spears for years, liked O-Town and Eden's Crush when they were hot, draws the line at Hulk Hogan's daughter singing with Paul Wall rapping. Actually, I think Danity Kane has also crossed that line too, so yeah, they didn't make the cut either. Sorry girls. Don't worry though, I still bump that Ciara song (with Charmillionaire) in my car every morning on the way to work. Now that is a catchy song.
*****
I know I told myself (and everyone on this blog) that I was done with watching Laguna Beach, but what do you know, I got sucked into another season. At first it was easy to not care about the show, because none of the people in this season were that interesting or attractive, but MTV just plays that show so freaking much, and there's nothing else to watch sometimes. After catching a mini-marathon of LB this weekend, that Tessa girl kind of grew on me. She's not at the level of Kristin, but still something about her has that certain charm.
Maybe it helps that she's half-Asian, and I feel bad for her that all the other girls seem to hate on her for no reason, except jealousy. You can almost hear them saying to each other, "How dare she steal 'our' boys attention away from us? She doesn't even have blonde hair and blue eyes!" (or in the case of Cami, "disgusting rolls of body fat and the worst personality ever"). So yeah... even if Tessa's "character" does nothing for my race except continue to portray the "exotic looking Asian girl" stereotype, I'm still pulling for her out of sympathy.
Another thing drawing me into the show is the love triangle centering around Cameron. It is so inexplicable and ridiculous that I just have to see how this thing turns out. Actually, I guess since it involves 4 people (Cameron, Jessica, Tessa, and Kyndra), it's not technically a love "triangle". "Love quadrilateral" doesn't quite have the same ring though.
Of course, one of the reasons I decided to stop watching LB in the first place is because the show was definitely starting to feel too staged. I know the producers have to stir up stuff to keep things interesting and boost ratings, but I wish they wouldn't insult my intelligence too much. For example, the "scene" where Tessa supposedly sees Cameron cuddling with Jessica at his birthday party and storms out, is pretty blatantly obvious that it's spliced and edited to look that way. I really doubt that scene ever happened.
I guess by being 26 and watching a show about spoiled teenagers, I'm basically asking for my intelligence to be insulted, but still. I notice stuff like this as I'm watching.
Mock me if you will, but I bet you're still humming that Brooke Hogan song right now.
Haha.... Bill Simmons's take on the ads for BPH, which some of you might recall I wrote about a while back:
Common side effects from Flomax are "runny nose, dizziness and a decrease in semen; upon standing, a sudden decrease of blood pressure may occur, rarely resulting in fainting." Call me crazy, but wouldn't you rather have a weak stream of pee over any of those other symptoms? We should vote on this on ESPN.com's main page.
*****
I think I've had the following conversation about 5 times during the last couple weeks (with a different friend each time):
(The song by Brooke Hogan with Paul Wall comes on the radio)
Friend: This song is pretty catchy, I kinda like it.
Me: You know who sings it right?
Friend: No, who?
Me: Hulk Hogan's daughter.
Friend: What??! No way, are you serious?
Me: Yep.
(awkward silence ensues)
Friend: Wow. I did not know that.
Seriously, same exact conversation, just different friend. I understand though, that knowledge can be a pretty powerful revelation when you find out. I know because I experienced the feeling myself about a month ago. I, too, thought the song was catchy, until I realized who was singing it.
It doesn't help that the video is retarded and features our heroine Brooke "battling" (if you can call it that) some other skanky girl on the dance floor. Now whenever I hear the song and/or see the video, I can actually feel myself becoming less of a person. To share this feeling with all my many readers, enjoy below. Prepare to get served:
Yep. I think I finally reached my limit. The guy who obsessed about Britney Spears for years, liked O-Town and Eden's Crush when they were hot, draws the line at Hulk Hogan's daughter singing with Paul Wall rapping. Actually, I think Danity Kane has also crossed that line too, so yeah, they didn't make the cut either. Sorry girls. Don't worry though, I still bump that Ciara song (with Charmillionaire) in my car every morning on the way to work. Now that is a catchy song.
*****
I know I told myself (and everyone on this blog) that I was done with watching Laguna Beach, but what do you know, I got sucked into another season. At first it was easy to not care about the show, because none of the people in this season were that interesting or attractive, but MTV just plays that show so freaking much, and there's nothing else to watch sometimes. After catching a mini-marathon of LB this weekend, that Tessa girl kind of grew on me. She's not at the level of Kristin, but still something about her has that certain charm.
Maybe it helps that she's half-Asian, and I feel bad for her that all the other girls seem to hate on her for no reason, except jealousy. You can almost hear them saying to each other, "How dare she steal 'our' boys attention away from us? She doesn't even have blonde hair and blue eyes!" (or in the case of Cami, "disgusting rolls of body fat and the worst personality ever"). So yeah... even if Tessa's "character" does nothing for my race except continue to portray the "exotic looking Asian girl" stereotype, I'm still pulling for her out of sympathy.
Another thing drawing me into the show is the love triangle centering around Cameron. It is so inexplicable and ridiculous that I just have to see how this thing turns out. Actually, I guess since it involves 4 people (Cameron, Jessica, Tessa, and Kyndra), it's not technically a love "triangle". "Love quadrilateral" doesn't quite have the same ring though.
Of course, one of the reasons I decided to stop watching LB in the first place is because the show was definitely starting to feel too staged. I know the producers have to stir up stuff to keep things interesting and boost ratings, but I wish they wouldn't insult my intelligence too much. For example, the "scene" where Tessa supposedly sees Cameron cuddling with Jessica at his birthday party and storms out, is pretty blatantly obvious that it's spliced and edited to look that way. I really doubt that scene ever happened.
I guess by being 26 and watching a show about spoiled teenagers, I'm basically asking for my intelligence to be insulted, but still. I notice stuff like this as I'm watching.
Mock me if you will, but I bet you're still humming that Brooke Hogan song right now.
Monday, October 02, 2006
Severe Annoyance Alert
Whose bright idea was it to blare loud noises along with the severe weather alerts on TV? Those stupid alerts have been driving me insane all night. Do they really need to block out the regular audio of my shows with these obnoxious sounds to inform me of the storms that I can already hear outside my window anyways?
It's not even that the sounds themselves annoy me. What bugs me more is the idea that someone actually thought it was a good idea to make these weather alerts so annoying and intrusive. It's a freaking weather report! If I cared that much about weather, I would already be on the Weather Channel instead of watching South Park.
What makes it worse is that they override the sound on every single channel. I hate when people think something is so important that they expect everyone else to care as much about it as they do. For example, people who use the "High Importance" label in Outlook for every single email they send out, even when they're just forwarding you pictures of puppies.
Or, when someone sends out a mass invite to 200 people with instructions to RSVP. When that happens, it makes me wonder if they even know what RSVP means, that you are expected to respond whether you can make it or not. It's one thing if you mail out personal wedding invitations with stamped reply cards. In that case, I think it's okay to expect a reply. But if you're throwing a random get together on a Thursday night by putting the email address of every single person you've ever met, and their friends, and their friends' friends on a Evite list, please don't say RSVP. Just ask people to respond if they plan on making it.
Whose bright idea was it to blare loud noises along with the severe weather alerts on TV? Those stupid alerts have been driving me insane all night. Do they really need to block out the regular audio of my shows with these obnoxious sounds to inform me of the storms that I can already hear outside my window anyways?
It's not even that the sounds themselves annoy me. What bugs me more is the idea that someone actually thought it was a good idea to make these weather alerts so annoying and intrusive. It's a freaking weather report! If I cared that much about weather, I would already be on the Weather Channel instead of watching South Park.
What makes it worse is that they override the sound on every single channel. I hate when people think something is so important that they expect everyone else to care as much about it as they do. For example, people who use the "High Importance" label in Outlook for every single email they send out, even when they're just forwarding you pictures of puppies.
Or, when someone sends out a mass invite to 200 people with instructions to RSVP. When that happens, it makes me wonder if they even know what RSVP means, that you are expected to respond whether you can make it or not. It's one thing if you mail out personal wedding invitations with stamped reply cards. In that case, I think it's okay to expect a reply. But if you're throwing a random get together on a Thursday night by putting the email address of every single person you've ever met, and their friends, and their friends' friends on a Evite list, please don't say RSVP. Just ask people to respond if they plan on making it.
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