The Blarg

Thought it was about time to discuss the shows everyone is watching…or at least what I’m watching. :p

Mondays
Prison Break – A fan since season 1, this season is a step-up from last season in my opinion. While it’s a little cheesy that they’re back in a prison, it’s back to the formula that made the original so great: find a way to escape. I think season 1 will stand as the best, but they give me enough to come back each week.

How I Met Your Mother – This is the show with Doogie Howser. We started watching it last season, and it’s amusing. It’s a good half-hour show to watch when you need something short.

Two and a Half Men – A very raunchy show, but very funny at the same time. Not a big Charlie Sheen fan in real life, but he’s hilarious on the show.

HEROES – The breakout hit of ‘06-’07 is back and better than ever. The formula hasn’t changed, and it’s something I love about the show. The writers are awesome at keeping your interest peaked from episode to episode. I love it.

Tuesdays
Beauty and the Geek – Yes, we like our reality shows, and this is a fun one. It’s fun to see the crazy stuff they do and the big changes that a handful of them go through.

House – Still a great show, and it’s fun seeing where the new hiring process is going. I still don’t know who will join the show permanently and who is temporary, and House is still one of the best characters on TV.

Wednesdays
Kid Nation – It’s all about Jarrod, who hasn’t been in the last couple episodes a ton. What a rip. It’s funny how 6 or 7 episodes in, there are still kids who you have never seen or heard from. The interaction between the all is both annoying and entertaining at times.

Thursdays
Survivor – Still our number one reality show, I don’t think we’ll ever get tired of it. The characters change each season with new people to love and hate, and the strategy of the game is unlike anything else.

My Name is Earl – The jail twist is fun. I don’t know if it will last all season, but they’ve already had one episode that wasn’t almost all a flashback. The creative writing episode was definitely outside the box.

The Office – Season 2 was the greatest, but there have still been some awesome moments in season 4. I haven’t watched episode 5 to see what Denise is talking about, but this is still my favorite comedy.

That’s all the shows we watch each week. Feel free to discuss them or anything else that you like. I’ll also preempt Angelo’s comments that you still don’t watch Heroes, Prison Break isn’t as good, and the Office isn’t as funny. I’ll also predict that Doogie Howser isn’t funny, and reality television is lame.

Chris has finally joined the blogging community, and the last myspace link can be removed from my page!

Also, I’ve started putting recently undead people at the bottom of my friends list, so other than family at the top, eventually the list should be an indicator of who has been alive the longest. Go visit Chris at the Lunaverse!

Something I love about writing is that it requires next to zero resources. Sure a laptop is nice and a word processor helps, but all you really need are words and an imagination, and you can make anything happen. Need a person to undergo a life changing event? Kill someone they care about, and watch them fall into a spiraling depression. Need a fantastic fortress protected by warriors on horseback? Say the word and the walls will rise from the ground, the warriors will be trained, and all you need do is describe their war shouts as the enemy approaches. Here’s a fun example.

The drool running from Chris Loona’s mouth pooled on the desk he had used for a pillow. The saliva was ruining the materials Chris had been studying in his pursuit of becoming a world renowned fashion designer. Since he was a young boy it had always been his dream to weave beautiful gowns from the finest silks and other fancy materials that he had failed to research in becoming a character in this story. Working at the local supermarket paid the bills, but it was the glory of the runway that was his true passion.

He would have slept well into the night, but a sound awoke him. Wiping the drool from his mouth, Chris looked at the grandfather clock next to his bed. It was shortly after 2 a.m. according to the clock, which he had won the week before at a poker match. Once a week Chris played poker in the back office at the supermarket. Old dirty Mitch that worked in the meat department lost the grandfather clock to Chris on a pathetic two pair.

The sound came again, this time clearly from the outside. Adrenaline filled Chris’ veins as his body desperately tried to alert him to the potential danger outside. Immediately Chris reached for the shotgun he kept atop the TV. His hands gripped the weapon not a moment too soon. The bedroom window broke into a thousand tiny pieces as an evil being burst through.

Chris recognized his arch nemesis immediately. It was Paddy the Putrid from the dark realm. Covered in sores and stank, Paddy the Putrid was the most vile killer that Chris Loona had ever fought in his make believe world. In the parking lot of Hi-Ho Market, many a time did Chris find himself face to face with a crowd of violent assassins who had crossed over from the dark realm. Chris didn’t know the exact location of the dark realm, but he had a suspicion it was somewhere near Bell Gardens.

With the reflexes of a cat, or an extremely fast badger, Chris remembered Paddy the Putrids biggest weakness. Grasping the shotgun with all his might Chris shoved the muzzle into the large sore on the side of Paddy’s neck. The impact burst the sore and sent puss all over the room. The puss flew into Chris’ eyes and blinded him. The poison rendered him helpless. Before Chris could see what happened, a blow to the jaw sent Chris to the floor and the gun sliding out of reach.

Chris knew this was the end of the line. Paddy the Putrid would end his life, and he would never achieve his dream of starting his own line of clothing for impoverished children in Africa. As Chris cringed and waited for the final blow, the bedroom door flew open with a loud crash. Standing in the entrance was Chris’ mistress, Amy Merryson. In one quick motion she reached for the shotgun on the floor, and as she did Paddy the Putrid lept.

Lifting the gun from the floor, Amy fired a single shot into the face of Paddy, reducing him to a warm lump of sores, and saving Chris Loona and his dreams. She fell to the floor and cradled Chris in her arms. With the tenderness only a woman possesses, Amy licked the puss from Chris’ eyes and restored his sight.

In the coming months Chris and his mistress would display a new line of leather pants and jackets. Failing to pique the interest of the fashion world, Chris would fall into a very deep depression, eventually losing Amy to old man Mitch at the supermarket in a poker game.

The End

I hope you enjoyed that, because I had fun writing it. All the characters in this story are completely fabricated, and if you happened to associate them with any real persons, I can’t be held responsible for your interpretations of the events therefor told in herefor aformentioned story.

How do you tackle the clutter problem?

I’m talking about the countless number of papers and odds and ends that seem to cover every inch of available desk space. The 15 different chargers to recharge the 15 different electronic devices that all have different connectors. I’ve thrown away everything I can, yet I’ve still got crap on the desk! It’s amazing.

So what’s your system? I’m talking all things clutter…bills, coupons, random junk, you name it. How do you keep things straight?

Nothing too exciting going on here. Stacie’s car has a battery and ECM (Electronic Control Module) problem, so it’s in the shop. Luckily the ECM has a 7 year warranty, and her car is 6.5 years old. SCORE! But that means we’re a one car family for a couple days.

Yesterday I overdosed on caffeine. haha, no, not really, but I was so tired I went to bed at 7:30 pm. I feel like I’ve constantly been tired, so I’m back off the caffeine. We’ll see if it sticks this time, but the caffeine withdrawl headaches I’ve had all day are finally gone.

I built a HTPC, or “Home Theatre PC.” The idea is you hook up a computer to your television and do super cool nifty things with it. I’m still in the process of setting it up, so we’ll see how that goes.

Here’s a really good way to waste your time. Google made a game out of naming images on the internets. Proceed to waste time here.

I’m turning down “extra” jobs at work by giving the excuse that I’m having a baby and writing a book, so I better stop typing on this thing and work on the book.

Today’s message was on encouragement, and I’ve been thinking about what an important thing that is in the lives of those around us.

One of the most interesting aspects of the “college years” is the transition from childhood to adulthood. After 18 years of walking in-step with the system and being taken care of by your parents, almost overnight, it all changes. You begin working towards a career, or some don’t. This seems to be the most important time for many of us when it comes to relationships and deciding who you’ll share the rest of your life with. And unlike the previous 18 years of life, there is no right or wrong answer to where your life goes at this point, but it definitly goes somewhere. No longer is everyone of the same age doing the same thing, but everyone is walking different paths, and at different speeds.

So wherever you are in relation to your friends or family, let’s encourage each other as we all figure out where the heck we’re going in life.

No, this post has nothing to do with Al Gore winning a peace prize for something that has nothing to do with peace. I have two new commercials to complain about.

The first is a Disney commercial. It’s advertising the Halloween decorations, and features a young girl flying around on her broomstick. At one point she flies by a man and steals his candy apple! What the crap? Just because you’re at Disneyland and everything is magical, it’s OK for you to fly by on your broom and steal a man’s dessert? Pathetic.

The second is a Hometown Buffet commercial. Apparently the man has to clean up the leaves on his front lawn before they can go to dinner. To accomplish this task he blows the leaves onto his neighbors lawn. Unethical, but I could live with this. On a second viewing of the same stupid commercial, he blows something through his neighbors window and breaks it! Again, what the crap? Is Hometown Buffet suggesting it’s OK to damage your neighbors property as long as it means you eat at their restaurant?

The ethical state of affairs within the advertising industry is frightening.

I post about blog trends, and then I go into hibernation.

I’d like to point out that Curt and John are back from the dead. Maybe I should start a “Blarg Zombies” section for the people that come back from the dead quite often. Curt has a different link, so update your bookmarks and RSS readers.

Sometimes when I leave for work the local school bus is picking up children, and sometimes they have the red lights flashing and the stop signs extended. Like a good citizen I approach said school bus, and when I near the yellow bus, I apply my brakes and wait. Usually this is uneventful, but today there was an idiot behind me. As I started to slow, the moron behind me started to peek around me to see what I was doing. I figured he would see the school bus, and realize why I was stopping.

Nope.

As I came to a full stop, he proceeded to go around me, and drive right by the big school bus with flashing lights and red stop sign. And on top of that, he looked at me like I was the idiot! Using my powers of generalization, the two men in the extremely beat up and old Nissan looked highly illegal, without a clue how American traffic laws work. Flippin’ idiots.

And I breathe deeply, and feel refreshed. Right now I mean, not then. I carried that around all day anxiously awaiting to dump it on the Blarg. Now I feel better.

I came up with a title for the book after almost 7 months of working on it. I can’t believe it has been that long. It will be called Terra Nova, or some variation of that if there is already a popular book with that title. I didn’t hit my daily word goal the night I came up with the title, but the satisfaction of knowing the title of my book was well worth it. The original project name had been “New Earth,” so Terra Nova is a much cooler translation of the boring English.

And my brain dump is now over.