reality television fraud

Not that I should have had any faith in (or even be WATCHING) all this crap reality television that is saturating televisions across America these days, but once again, I have watched each week of this season's The Bachelorette (the spinoff from The Bachelor). For the most part, I have been watched because my lovely girlfriend has always been very into the show, but I would be less than honest if I said I wasn't at least a bit curious as to what was going to happen each week. If for no other reason that to mock the actors (reality TV contestants) and the crappy host Chris Harrison (who says the SAME FREAKING THING EACH WEEK!!!!). So the final episode has been on in a 3-hour marathon tonight on ABC....the first hour being the final dates and Jerry and John Paul's final pleas for love....the second hour leading up to the two proposals and the Bachelorette's choice of men....the THIRD hour (which just ended) was AFFTER THE FINAL ROSE, in which the Bachelorette, Jen Schefft was going to give the "chosen" Bachelor her answer to his proposal.....

So this show (5 or 6 seasons worth) has always ended in some sort of proposal or promise of an attempt at a relationship. Imagine the audience's reaction tonight when on the LIVE show, Jen tells the man she had chosen on the final night of the show, that she CANNOT accept his proposal and they are better off as friends. So a couple months ago, when the show finished taping, Jen made her decision. She chose heartthrob Jerry over stable John Paul. She REJECTED John Paul's proposal on the spot (and he was pissed) and gave Jerry a lukewarm, "I am committed to making this work" as she interrupted HIS proposal. He was a bit flustered, and rightly so, as it was sort of rude in a way. But of course we figure this is all part of the show and of course she is going to accept the proposal on the live show this evening during the final hour. After giving John Paul closure and answering some of his questions, it was Jerry's turn. Jen and Jerry reunite on the show and he pulls out the ring and weirdly asks, "What am I supposed to do with this thing?" Jen proceeds to tell him that she things that they are probably better off as friends. Jerry seems flustered (again) though doesn't really seem TOO surprised or TOO upset. Not sure that is a NORMAL reaction....Jen proceeds to explain that since the final rose ceremony where her and Jerry choose each other, that they have tried to make it work, but she doesn't see it working. Granted, since the show has been over for months, their "meetings" together have been few and far between, leading up until tonight, so who knows what all transpired over those meetings and the last couple months (mostly being apart) and all the phone calls. One would think that since they haven't been able to spend much time together in order to keep the decision a secret, that they were sort of putting this all on hold until they started their relationship OFF the camera. WRONG! Jen had made the decision already before arriving tonight, and her answers as to why felt less than honest or complete. How she came to this decision already I think the audience, the host, and msot of all JERRY is still reeling over.

Why am I writing all this? Because SHE PISSES ME OFF. We the audience have devoted not one, but TWO seasons of this show too Jen. The first was when she was a contestant on The Bachelor and was chosen in the end by Andrew Firestone, and in which he proposed and she accepted. Months down the road, they announced (or US magazine announced) that the relationship had ended. The reasons why? Sort of blurred still to this day. So ABC gives Jen a NEW chance to be on TV again and gain her exposure being the new Bachelorette and allowing HER to make the decisions. It seemed a bit contrived and forced, but what the heck, let's give the girl another chance. She gets to work her way through 25 new guys in order to pick the right one for her, and we get to sort of cheer her on. After 6 or 7 weeks of this season's show, and the audience (including myself) being invested in the show, the LEAST she could have done was act like things were okay and TRY to work on the relationship with the person she chose for a month, a week, heck, even give us a DAY of smiles and THEN decided to call it off due to differences. But don't come out and tell us that you have worked on the relationship and decided that it's not going to work before it's actually even started!!!! Go off the cameras for a bit and attempt to work on a relationship before giving it up! Lordy....I'm not saying that she HAD to find love on the show or that the show can't have a twist like this, but at least attempt to make a relationship work out of this. Granted, this is not a normal "relationship" situation and it is only dating for 6 weeks, but hey, date for another couple weeks OFF the camera and then make a decision. I don't think we even would have minded if Jen had rejected BOTH proposals right at the last taping of the show and made her decision right there. But leading us (and Jerry) on by saying that she is COMMITTED (committed?!) to making this work and then saying it's not going to work after not honestly trying to make it work is wrong. The point is, America gave Jen a second chance (as it seems that SHE is the one that ended the relationship with Firestone) and she led us on for weeks making us think that she was in love with one, if not TWO guys throughout the show. And then she comes out and says, haha, I lied. I'm not picking either. Leaving one guy heartbroken, and another shocked and heartbroken.

Jerry's response (or lack therof) was a bit surprising as he didn't seem to have too many questions for her. He seemed to jsut go with the flow and thank her for opening up his heart to love again. We can probably contribute this response to him being shocked, flusted and hurt by what is going on, but hee didn't seem to defend himself at all.

So after alll this, what? I give up on reality TV. Maybe not ALL of it, but at the very least, I am done with the Bachelor/Bachelorette series on ABC. I am sure as hell not going to invest my time in the NEW season of The Bachelor which starts on March 28, in which the previews tonight look like a VERY bad episode of Elimidate....New Bachelor, Charlie O'Connell (brother of Jerry O'Connell?) Wait, don't answer that. I don't care. I'm not watching. (Ok, I might) Ok, no really, I'm not going to. Not going to be deceived again by this fake reality television. After so many seasons of a reality television show, the contestants on the show all have seen the process before and know they are in a game. They also know that they PROBABLY won't get picked, but by all means want to get their 15 minutes of fame. Who wouldn't right? People like Jen Schefft using this show and the audience to gain exposure for herself. Now she can go write a book, release a music CD, go on the cover of US magazine, release a cookbook, release her memoirs and make a ton of money off people that buy this pap. Because that's why she REALLLY went on the show, right? She should go back to her soft porn bondage films....This is no longer reality television. This is fraud.

Out....

garage sale saturday

still here....more in mind than in body, but still here :) been too busy (and lazy) to write much lately....

too TIRED to write much tonight....

anyone needs any junk/stuff/goodies? check out the garage sale!



on my way home from setting up the garage sale (until 1am) T.A.T.U started playing on my iPod (not the soccer player)....whatever happend to them?

Natalie Portman didn't "follow the code" in the land of the Jews....

2 year old to marry a 42 year old man? That can't be right....

Queenie, don't feel bad....I'm not attending the wedding either!

<3 Be Mine Valentine <3

[Listening to: Ever So Sweet - The Early November - The Room's Too Cold]

Concentrating on 500NL, so forgive me if I am a bit.....distracted at the moment....

Lot's of (odd) Valentine's Day articles out today!

Am I putting too much tongue? Is there too much nibbling?

Nothin' like a little monkey love....

Thanks to this article for convincing me to stay in and cook dinner tonight instead of being raked over the coals by the restaurants that like to offer limited menu's at extravagant prices....Every February 14th, upscale restaurants rake in the dough by offering special Valentine menus that give patrons fewer food choices and charge them more money than almost any other day of the year. And may I just say, the menu turned out quite nice....Brie, Cranberry and Chicken Pizza, with a very lovely caesar salad from Central Market. The dinner was paired with a very lovely glass of Pink POP Champagne (one glass a bottle!)....and dessert was a very deliciously made from scratch batch of Grand Marnier Brownies. And my lovely Valentine Tara and I had front row seats for the newest (and most SHOCKING!) episode of the Bachelorette....



I wonder if the Hindu's were just pissed about the crappy messages inside the cards?

50% of couples break up on VDay....the other 50% just bitch and moan....

And to think I cancelled my VDay trip to Venice due to the strike....who knew?!



Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day! I had a great day with my love (see above).....had an awesome lunch from La Madeleine as her co-workers enjoyed their Long John Silver's feast! hehe....Here's to a Valentine's Day at Bouzy Rouge next year! :)

mavs win, kings whine

Mavs 115 Kings 113 - Boxscore

Kings can whine all they want about the goaltending non-call towards the end of the game. Doesn't change the fact that Webber missed 2 free throws in the final minute! Cry me a river somewhere else.....MORE COWBELL!

Just signed up for Audioscrobbler tonight. Keeps track of what is being played in my iTunes, which is currently my media player of choice....and charts them out and stats all the users. Might be a good way to find some new music to download as well :)

Sold my Treo 600 today through posting on TreoCentral.com for $345....now I'm going to apply that (plus some poker winnings) to purchasing the Treo 650 which is going to be overnighted to me on Tuesday! Got a great deal on it too! Mucho excited....I love electronics....

Besides the Mavs win, twas a pretty uneventful evening. Picked up dinner from Panda Express (how exciting!) and watched the game and played some poker....hopefully the rest of the weekend will be more exciting....garage sale planning here I come!

Did everyone get their free get their free Dove body wash sample? The Apprentice commercials that were done for this product were pretty appalling (though the veggie porn was humorous)....

Attention bloggers, beware what you write!

diels and alder were bored

I think Diels and Alder had too much time on their hands....and as a result, we have to put up with obnoxious reactions like the Nobel Prize winning Diels-Alder reaction!


This is going to be a short one tonight....I just wanted to have on record, GOODBYE MAPQUEST.....HELLOGOOGLE MAPS! Getting directions is a BIT cumbersome, but since this is beta, I expect it will improve. But the navigating of the map is just superb! The detail is amazing, all the way down to the street level and it is so easy to click and drag! Maybe I am just easily impressed, but I think this is quite an achievement in online mapping....nice work Google! I knew I should have gotten in on that IPO! Though they may be massacred on Valentine's Day....all eyes are on Google....

In case you weren't clear about our president's new social security plan, here are his own words on it....

THE PRESIDENT: Because the -- all which is on the table begins to address the big cost drivers. For example, how benefits are calculate, for example, is on the table; whether or not benefits rise based upon wage increases or price increases. There's a series of parts of the formula that are being considered. And when you couple that, those different cost drivers, affecting those -- changing those with personal accounts, the idea is to get what has been promised more likely to be -- or closer delivered to what has been promised.

Does that make any sense to you? It's kind of muddled. Look, there's a series of things that cause the -- like, for example, benefits are calculated based upon the increase of wages, as opposed to the increase of prices. Some have suggested that we calculate -- the benefits will rise based upon inflation, as opposed to wage increases. There is a reform that would help solve the red if that were put into effect. In other words, how fast benefits grow, how fast the promised benefits grow, if those -- if that growth is affected, it will help on the red.

Okay, better? I'll keep working on it. (Laughter.)

My god that man scares me....again I ask.....HOW DID HE GET ELECTED?!?!?!?!?! It's just insane that we fell for it! TWICE!

The GoDaddy.com commercial during the SuperBowl was so controversial that Fox pulled it from being run a second time! Seriously, they should have run that ad for 10 straight minutes during half time rather than listen to Paul McCartney lip sync in the most boring half-time show to date! GoDaddy.com founder Bob Parsons explains in his blog what is going on! The FCC needs a beating....

My personal favorite commercial during the game was the Ameriquest "Cat Killer" commercial....though Ameriquest may not be getting any business from Dave anytime soon....

I wasn't going to post any other news stories today, until I read this....forget being Martha Stewart's Apprentice! The next Apprentice can have paraplegic's vs quadraplegic's vs shark attack victims, how about that? Come on Trump! The ratings would be HUGE!....

....and don't forget, AUSTISTIC KIDS ROCK!

Super Bowl Dilemma

[Listening to: Fall - Something Corporate - Leaving Through the Window]

So it's officially Super Bowl Sunday and I am torn....I don't really want to cheer for the Patriots because they are a) the favorites, b) defending champs and c) not a team I would ever cheer for. No reason really, just not a team I ever pay attention to. And then I find it very hard to cheer for the Eagles, as they are a huge Dallas Cowboys NFC rival, and it just would seem wrong! Plus, those Cambell's Soup commercials with Ms. McNabb are getting old....I will probably end up cheering for whoever is losing in hopes of a comeback....final score prediction? If I were a betting man (which I am) I would say Eagles 31 Patriots 24....though as usual, I suspect that the Super Bowl ads are going to be the highlight of the game....more people are going to be getting up to get another beer during the game than during the commercials....

Still no plans as of yet for the game tomorrow....but we better figure it out soon! Kickoff is in 16 hours and 35 minutes! Odds are whatever we do will not be as fun as the party we went to last year at our old apartment....free food, free alcohol, game in a big theater on a big screen....seriously, why did we move again? I miss it out there....a lot....

I would rant about the basketball games that I coached today....but I don't have the patience to even write about it. We won won and were massacred in the second, but I felt like we lost both of them. I know the kids are only in 5th grade, but I feel like only one or two of them actually WANT to play basketball....the others are just there goofing off. And then we play a team full of people that WANT to play basketball and things get ugly....anyways....in the words of Forest Gump, "That's all I've got to say 'bout that."

I seriously need to get my photo gallery up and running....I guess I've been waiting to progress on that front when I get my computer fixed. Which is why I am currently grinding out the cash on TruePoker....cashed out almost $500 in the past few days. Just flopped some Quad 8s....that's always a nice help :) Once I get my computer back up and running I need to get back to the re-design (much delayed) of K*Shots and the message boards...

Price of the Treo 650 GSM Unlocked version went up by $100 only two days after it's release from PalmOne. A pretty shady move all around by a company that has already angered it fanatical userbase (including me). There is a bounty up for grabs on TreoCentral for the first person that figures out how to unlock the locked GSM version from Cingular....right back at ya PalmOne ;) I am going to be sending my Treo 600 in for a new one as an exchange due to the mic dying on it last week. Will be good though, because I will sell the brand new phone and apply that to the cost of the 650....and all will be well :)

POCKET QUEENS! Time to grab some more cash and get to bed....GEEZ! Lucky day! Just took in a $150 pot with Pocket Jacks (trips on the flop)!

In the News

I wonder if they saw Cast Away with Tom Hanks?

Doll from da' hood anger hispanics....though they take no offense to J Lo?

Valentine's Bear pulled due to insensitivity. eBay price gouging begins! - **eBay auction!**

Prisoner in the car, I hereby sentence you ...

it's groundhog day....again

[Listening to: I'm Not Okay (I Promise) - My Chemical Romance - Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge]

Where do I start? So much to write about, so little....ok, well, PLENTY of time, but too lazy to write it all. Need to win some more money from the fish over on True Poker and finish up my OChem II Quiz....and then take my meds and hit the sack!

First and foremost, HAPPY GROUNDHOG DAY!!!! Everyone should go out and rent the movie today (no more late fees!) if you haven't yet seen the movie! On one hand, I want the little marmot to see his shadow this morning, because the cold weather winter makes me think of Scotland....but then again, this ISN'T Scotland, and the weather here in SA can be just miserable! Odds are 10-1 that he sees his shadow....no idea WHY I know those odds ;)

The Treo 650 GSM Unlocked version was released tonight as of 12:00am on PalmOne's site! This mean's that Cingular Wireless will be "officially" releasing it in the next day or so as well....Need to sell my Treo 600 first, so I can AFFORD the 650! I want it so bad though! Might have to give in early....let's hope the fish dump a couple hundred $$$ more to me tonight :) TreoCentral is buzzing tonight with the news!

On a sad note, BBC journalist Ivan Noble has passed away at the age of 37....this journalist was diagnosed with cancer of the brain two years ago, and he began a diary through the BBC website which reached millions of people around the world....he wrote about his struggle with the illness and his ups and downs. His words truly affected many people's lives....his final journal entry was posted a few days ago (though he wrote it in advance) when his condition began to deteriorate. I only found out about this story about a week ago, and was very sad to see him go so soon after I began learning of his story.

Tomorrow I should learn whether I will be playing in the Men's Basketball League at the Downtown YMCA or not....it may be too late to sign up for a team, but I figured it was worth a shot. I miss playing! If I get in, it's gonna be busy busy around here....coaching 2 basketball teams right now (2 practices a week), plus OChem Tuesdays and Thursdays, plus running (when I have a chance!), plus yoga, plus One Tree Hill on Tuesdays!

Can I just say, that I officially endorse the Burrito Bol from Chipotle? So tasty....Ok, just rambling now....time to finish the quiz and go to sleep...there's an idea! Hopefully it will just be Groundhog Day ONCE....


In the News

Suicidal man may get the death penalty....how's that for irony?

When I was in school, we just got used the "Sticks and Stones" mantra....

Anyone missing a right leg?!

Why hast thou forsaken me?

Conservative Christian Groups....please remove head from ass....thank you....