My TV and the life that revolves around it

It’s been a while since I’ve written on my blog. I suppose this is because things have been kind of busy… And the thing is, it’s mostly TV and reading that have been keeping me busy. For a while there after I first moved out on my own, I debated what I wanted to fill my life doing. And now that I’ve completely fallen in love with TV, I’ve actually got a schedule going every week. Here is my TV viewing schedule for the fall, or as of this week anyway:

Mondays

• 12:15 a.m. – Tim and Eric. OK so I have to admit I am DVRing this for the boy, but occasionally I will an episode or two.
• 8 p.m. – Gossip Girl, Dancing with the Stars. So far, not impressed with Gossip Girl, and it’s actually kind of getting on my nerves. I’ll probably continue to watch this season but after the kids go to college, it always gets bad. Dancing with the Stars is unfortunately the show I put on the back burner to watch later. I can usually watch the 2-hour shows in an hour or less. That’s not saying a whole lot about the show itself.
• 9 p.m. – Heroes – yes, I’m actually trying to give it a shot even though last season was such a disaster.
• 11 p.m. – Daily Show
• 11:30 p.m. – Colbert Report

Tuesday

• 8 p.m. – 90210. Don’t ask why I am continuing to watch this show. It’s not very good.
• 9 p.m. – Dancing with the Stars, Privileged. Again, Dancing is on the backburner because I absolutely LOVE Priviliged. It’s a fun, smart and cute show, and I absolutely love Joanna Garcia!
• 10 p.m. – The Rachel Zoe Project. Why do I continue to care and watch this show about Rachel Zoe. I gotta be honest, I’ve heard her name but didn’t really know who she was until I started to watch this show. I hate her assistant, the blonde one, the one everyone will hate after watching the show.
• 11 p.m. – Daily Show
• 11:30 p.m. – Colbert Report
• 11:40 p.m. – Gavin and Stacey. I absolutely love this show and love that the BBC repeats it at a later time because it’d be hard to catch otherwise!

Wednesday

• 8 p.m. – America’s Next Top Model, Pushing Daisies. ANTM is sooo cheesy. While the show is an hour long, I wait until 9 p.m. to watch it because it will take me about 25 minutes to watch the whole show. I’ve never seen Pushing Daisies, but I’m DVRing until I can catch up on Season 1 on DVD, which I’m getting on my Netflix next!
• 9 p.m. – Project Runway. I love love love Project Runway and hate that it’s taken me so long to get into the show.
• 10 p.m. – Top Design. I’m learning to like this show but there are a lot of people on the show that honestly don’t deserve to be on it. If I had a budget like that, I could probably do just as well on some of those designs as others on the show.
• 11 p.m. – Daily Show
• 11:30 p.m. – Colbert Report

Thursday

• 8 p.m – My Name Is Earl. So far, so good – off to a good season!
• 9 p.m. – The Office, Kitchen Nightmares, but this week, it will be the VP debate. Last week’s office was so great, so I am sad it won’t be on this week. But I guess the VP debate will suffice. I am also looking forward to the return of 30 Rock, easily one of my all-time favorite shows on TV.
• 11 p.m. – Daily Show
• 11:30 p.m. – Colbert Report
• Friday
• 10 p.m. – The Soup, and Best Week Ever when it’s on. I don’t understand the schedule behind Best Week Ever. It’s on one week and off the next. What gives? I used to prefer Best Week Ever over the Soup, but now I’m definitely leaning toward The Soup more.
• 11 p.m. – Daily Show
• 11:30 p.m. – Colbert Report

Saturday

• 9 p.m. – Chuck. I’m bummed that I have to DVR Chuck on a Saturday because it comes on the same time as Dancing with the Stars and Gossip Girl. Why can’t they just move Dancing with the Stars to a 9 p.m. time slot on Mondays? I hope that Gossip Girl starts airing on Sundays again soon though so I can record Chuck on Mondays. I think I’d rather watch Chuck than Gossip Girl. This week just didn’t have a repeat for Gossip Girl.
• 11:30 p.m. – SNL. OK, I’ve DVRed this two weeks in a roll now and not watched it yet. Maybe I should stop DVRing in hopes that I will eventually watch it. Probably is not going to happen.

Sunday

• 8 p.m. – The Simpsons
• 8:30 p.m. – King of the Hill
• 9 p.m. – Family Guy, I Love Money. Yes, it’s the finale to I Love Money. And yes, I know it’s an absolutely awful show full of scheming, manipulative losers… But it’s fun to watch when ironing and doing other household chores.
• 9:30 p.m. – American Dad
• 10 p.m. – Skins, Mad Men. These two have to be two of my favorite shows of the summer and fall. I can’t wait to see how both unfold.

Now that I’m looking back at it, I can’t believe I watch SO much TV! I honestly don't want to think about it! Yikes! Well, don’t worry. I mean I’m not only TV’d up. I’ve actually been getting a few books in. In fact, I just finished 3 books from the Philip Pullman “Golden Compass” series and I’m currently reading the third part to the “Twilight Saga.” And movies, the most recent one I saw was “Choke,” so I’m still getting those in too. Arg, can you believe this is my life? Good times!

Football to come to UNC Charlotte?

Dubois: Add football in 2013 – if boosters will pay
UNC Charlotte Chancellor suggests 6-month campaign to raise $5 million with $1,000 seat licences
By David Perlmuttdperlmutt@charlotteobserver.com
Posted: Thursday, Sep. 18, 2008

UNC Charlotte Chancellor Phil Dubois recommended to university trustees this morning that UNCC suit up a football team by 2013, but punted to boosters and other football supporters to raise $5 million in six months to help pay for a $45.3 million stadium complex.

As expected, the trustees took no action, but will vote on Dubois' recommendation – including the lofty benchmarks to gauge public support -- at their Nov. 13 meeting.

Dubois made his recommendation during a trustees meeting, telling the crowd, "I believe this is the time when there's white smoke coming from the chimney," referring to the signal given by Roman Catholic cardinals when they select a Pope.

Dubois' announcement then received extended applause, some of it apparently coming from trustees.

A huge hurdle would be raising the $5 million through non-transferable seat licenses -- he calls them Forty-Niner Seat Licenses -- at a time when the economy continues to sour. Dubois proposed selling 5,000 licenses for $1,000 just for the right to buy season tickets.

He said trustees could extend his six-month deadline to nine months, or a year.

"The people who say they want football, now have to help pay for it," Dubois said in an interview with Observer reporters. "The surest way to demonstrate you're willing to pay is to put out a tangible amount of money that shows that support.

"Let's not wait for some long period of agony to decide if the support's going to be there. Let's decide now. And if it is, then we'll go forward."

If not? "Then it goes away."

He said UNC Charlotte athletics director Judy Rose is confident the money can be raised.
To pay for football, Dubois put less of a burden on students than what was proposed by a football feasibility committee.

That committee recommended student fees increase by $300 per year, or $150 each semester, phased in over the next four years.

Under Dubois' plan students would pay $25 each semester in 2010, $50 a semester in 2011 and 2012, and $100 each semester in 2013, when the team would start playing.

The $200, or a 1.4 percent increase in student fees, is "consistent with the amount that the vast majority of students ... indicated that they would be comfortable paying for a football program," he told trustees.

Dubois said he's heard concerns about raising fees from adult night students and graduate students.

"We have an obligation to consider that education is expensive, and we have an obligation to help them get their college degrees," he said.

Dubois proposed that a team start playing in a Division 1-AA conference "for the foreseeable future," and not set a timetable to elevate the program to Division 1-A by 2016, as recommended by the feasibility committee.

"You have to build a solid program with a solid fan base," he told the Observer. "If you want to move to Division 1-A by Day X, you'd never be admitted to a Division 1-AA conference because no one would want you."

To satisfy federal Title IX regulations, UNC Charlotte would introduce three women's sports: Lacrosse in 2016; field hockey in 2019 and swimming or another third sport in 2023.

Dubois said he'd prefer an on-campus expandable stadium, starting with 12,000 seats, near the light rail that is scheduled to be extended to UNCC by 2015. The $45.3 million complex would include a sports building with offices for coaches, locker rooms and practice fields.

Football, he said, is part of the university's long-term strategy for growth. The Charlotte campus is expected to enroll 35,000 students by 2020.

Other research universities that size play football, he said.

Yet in making his recommendation, Dubois said he doubts a football team would bring significant private donations, or draw higher quality students, or that a team would open a floodgate of private donations.

"There is nothing in our institutional history or in our alumni profile that suggests that our coffers will be filled by gridiron gold," Dubois told trustees.

Football, he said, would "enrich the student experience," boost school spirit and create a stronger bond between students and school -- a key ingredient "in helping a student persist to achieve his or her academic degree."

It would also give the Charlotte region "ownership" in UNCC.

"Like it or not, athletics have a lot to do with capturing the public's imagination about public institutions," he told the Observer. "I would like to think that the public is fascinated with our research and public service. Sometimes it is. But athletics opens doors for research partnerships -- for student internships. It gets the public to pay attention to ... your academic enterprise.

"Getting Charlotte and the Charlotte region to own this institution, I believe, will be enhanced by football."

Dubois said he's a football fan, but likes basketball more. Yet football, he said, has consumed 80 percent of his work at UNCC the past six months.

If his recommendation is approved, it will be up to Rose and her department to raise money and field a team.

"I've done my part," he said. "I have other responsibilities and I intend to get back to them."

Read the article here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/104/story/199771.html

Advertising on School Buses

Wow, looks like you can REALLY advertise on anything! Read this article from Advertising Age.

Strapped for Cash, Schools Eye Bus Ads
Several Michigan Districts in Talks to Accept Ads on Kids' Transportation
By Emily Bryson York

CHICAGO (AdAge.com) -- In addition to the usual yakking, fighting, kvetching and comparing of lunches, kids on Michigan school buses may soon be gawking at ads. A number of the state's cash-strapped school districts are in talks with marketing groups to broker deals to sell ads on buses.

"Times are hard," said Mike Gwizdala, director-transportation at Bay City public schools.
"The fuel prices are definitely affecting all transportation, whether it's a school bus or a metro bus. It's definitely having an effect on a lot of people, and school districts are in that boat."

Terry Prewitt, executive director-financial services at Saginaw public schools, said he's reviewing several vendor proposals. He added that any ads would have to be "age-appropriate" and "subject-appropriate." Saginaw transports nearly 1,000 children every week. The vast majority of them are under age 12.

It is illegal to advertise on the outside of school buses in Michigan. Any ads must be placed inside.

Mike Eichhorn, president of Crossroads Marketing & Consulting in Davison, Mich., is one of the vendors competing for the Saginaw contract. He hopes to score business with major national advertisers by creating a cooperative of Michigan school districts. He also has had discussions with representatives of Bay City and Goodrich public schools and is meeting with Detroit public school representatives this week.

Precedents
As a father of three, Mr. Eichhorn added that he is sensitive to parents' concerns about advertising to kids. He said he was surprised to see an ad for Tyson chicken and a Pepsi machine in the lunchroom when he recently dropped off his 6-year-old.

Michigan school districts have tried school-bus ads in the past, but the returns were disappointing. A spokeswoman for Michigan's Ypsilanti public schools said the district discontinued its advertising program because "it was not as successful as we had hoped." The district partnered with a credit union, a health center and a cellphone provider.

School-bus advertising has sprung up in other areas as well. Cherry Creek public schools in Colorado brought in $54,000 in bus-ad revenue last year. That was a little short of projections, said district spokeswoman Tustin Amole. The money was used to purchase GPS's and cameras for the buses.

Cherry Creek's major advertisers include local TV stations, recreational centers and even the U.S. Army. Ms. Amole said the school district avoids "junk food and other kinds of advertising," and that there have been no parental complaints since the program started in 2006. The ads, however, are on the outside of buses, not the inside.

Advertising to children, particularly in a captive environment, remains a thorny issue, especially considering pledges among food marketers blamed for America's obesity epidemic to limit marketing unhealthful food to children. The South Carolina School Board banned school-bus ads last week, and any measure undertaken in Michigan is likely to be controversial.

"Advertising on school buses exploits a powerful symbol of education and subverts parental authority by making exposure to brands compulsory," Josh Golin, associate director of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, wrote in an e-mail.

Read the article here at Advertising Age, too.

Not-quite-so-thin is in for models at Fashion Week

This headline caught me off guard and kind of excited me about the changing face of the modeling industry... And then I read the article.

Not-quite-so-thin is in for models at Fashion Week
By MEGAN K. SCOTT, Associated Press Writer

If model thin is always in, at least there were fewer protruding collar bones and ribs to be counted at New York Fashion Week.

Models were up to sizes 2 and 4 — not 0, according to Nian Fish, chair of a fashion designers health initiative. Designers rejected prepubescent 13-year-olds. And at least one super-thin model who had the audience talking a few seasons ago was noticeably absent.

"I think a lot of the direction from the designers has been a much healthier approach," said James Aguiar, co-host of Ultra HD's "Full Frontal Fashion," who noticed more curves and smiles on the runway.

Avril Graham, executive fashion and beauty editor at Harper's Bazaar, also saw a healthier look and more diversity: "We're obviously going through a season of a less cookie cutter look."

That is a small relief to those who have brought attention to the cause of eating disorders in the fashion world, though many say there's a long way to go.

"I saw a few that looked better," said Finola Hughes, host of "How Do I Look?" on the Style Network. "I actually saw some breasts, which was great. But there was one show I went to and everyone looked really skinny."

The question of how thin is too thin has been tossed around since Kate Moss made her modeling debut 20 years ago, ushering in an era of "heroin chic." In 2006, at least two models died from complications linked to eating disorders, which prompted some in Europe to try to ban skinny models from the runway.

Efforts were more modest in the United States. The Council of Fashion Designers of America held workshops on eating disorders and recommended that designers keep models under 16 off the runway, offer healthier snacks backstage and require those identified as having an eating disorder to seek professional help if they want to continue modeling.

"I think there's progress," said Fish, creative consultant for KCD Worldwide, which produces fashion shows and events. "The girls are still slim. We didn't want them not to be slim. We wanted a projection of health."

Some critics consider the industry's efforts lacking because they still let skinny winnies rule the runways — while the models suffer to become walking hangers.

As a new model at 15, Coco Rocha said she went to Singapore and lost 10 pounds in six weeks. When she returned to the U.S. she was so obsessed with food, she beat herself up over eating an apple.

"I'll never forget the piece of advice I got from people in the industry when they saw my new body," she wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "They said, 'You need to lose more weight. The look this year is anorexia. We don't want you to be anorexic but that's what we want you to look like.'"

Rocha is one of the few models to speak out about the issue, even as ultra-thin models find their way into pro-anorexia "Thinspiration" videos. The question isn't just about model health; it's about who will win the hearts and minds of the teenagers and young girls who look up to them.
Young girls can now see more realistic shapes on television, from the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty to the plus-size winner on "America's Next Top Model." And models have largely disappeared from the covers of magazines, replaced by celebrities who generate their own is-she-too-thin headlines.

But that doesn't mean models aren't influencing girls and women.

Carol Weston, advice columnist for Girls' Life Magazine, said she gets letters from tween girls who want to models or are looking for weight-loss advice. Modeling "seems so glamorous," she said. She said many teenagers confess that they starve themselves, purge or use diet pills.
Eating disorders groups have recommended requiring adult models to have a body mass index of at least 18.5 — the lower limits of a normal weight — and an independent medical certification affirming that they do not suffer from an eating disorder.

"They do drug testing for sports. Why? To keep competition clean but hopefully also to save lives. That's what we want, too," said Lynn Grefe, CEO of the National Eating Disorders Association.

But such measures are called Draconian by Dr. Susan Ice, a medical director for an eating disorders treatment center and member of the Council of Fashion Designers of America health initiative.

For now, the goal is simply to raise awareness, said CFDA president Diane von Furstenberg.
"I think that it's a good thing to do it the way we're doing it as opposed to throwing those poor girls on a scale and terrifying them even more," she said.

Because of the initiative, some models were identified as having an eating disorder, referred for treatment and are back on the runways, Fish said. Some who didn't look healthy weren't used.
There has been some pressure for designers to increase their model size to a 6, but the designers prefer models whose modest curves don't compete with the clothes, Fish said. London recently dropped its plan to require medical exams for models because of a lack of international support.
"Thin is going to be the ruling look — until someone says, 'I want voluptuous,'" said Fish. "I don't know if that ever is going to come back."
__
AP Fashion Writer Samantha Critchell contributed to this report.

Come on! A size 2 or 4?

On another note, today the AP reported that Nicole Kidman was the most overpaid celebrity. Really? What has she been in lately? But I am excited for her reunion with Baz Luhrman for this fall's "Australia."

Sebastian

Dog who doesn't like to use the bathroom outside when it's raining gets raincoat.

The Bridge to Nowhere

I completely agree with this article from NPR's David Folkenflik. Oh, listen to the "liberal media."

Truth Squad: Palin On 'Bridge To Nowhere'
by David Folkenflik

Morning Edition, September 11, 2008 · Pretty much wherever she goes on the stump, Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin tells voters she killed Alaska's now-infamous "bridge to nowhere" in portraying herself as an anti-pork-barrel reformer.

And yet, pretty much every time journalists have compared Palin's record to her rhetoric on that proposed bridge, they've called a foul. The results — whether from CBS News, USA Today, the Anchorage Daily News, NPR or some other outlet — have been remarkably consistent. The surprising thing is how little effect that journalistic fact-checking has had on the campaign trail.
"It is pretty striking that so many news organizations have looked into this independently and come to the same conclusion — that she didn't play that much of a role in ending the bridge," says Bill Adair of the St. Petersburg Times and the Web site PolitiFact.com. "And yet they continue to say it — day in and day out.

"I just hope the voters will stop to take the time to learn what's true and what's not — from us or from some other source — and then make their own judgment," Adair says.

'Thanks, But No Thanks'
Palin, the first-term governor of Alaska, usually offers up a formulation like the one she offered at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn.

"I told Congress, 'Thanks, but no thanks, on that bridge to nowhere,' " she told cheering delegates. "If our state wanted to build a bridge, we were going to build it ourselves."

She has repeated it at campaign stops since, as recently as Wednesday, and the anecdote has become a key element of her political biography as the campaign of her running mate, Sen. John McCain, casts her as a reformer in his own image. McCain has consistently opposed projects that are funded through specific earmarks tucked into larger legislation.

"Whether it's killing the bridge to nowhere … or vetoing $500 million in government spending in Alaska over the last two years, she has earned and deserves the title of reformer of her state," says Ben Porritt, a spokesman for the McCain-Palin campaign.

A Complicated Record
Palin's record, however, is more complicated. The bridge involved would have connected the small town of Ketchikan with a sparsely populated island that has an airport. The bridge would have also cost several hundred million dollars. It is true that as governor, in 2007, she announced the project was dead.

But, as McClatchy Newspapers political reporter Margaret Talev says, "She was for it before she was against it — and actively for it before she became actively against it." McClatchy owns the Anchorage Daily News, which has covered Palin's quick ascent in state politics thoroughly.
While running for governor in 2006, Palin said she supported federal funding for the bridge, and she praised the state's two senior lawmakers, Sen. Ted Stevens and Rep. Don Young, who were promoting the project.

But it came under national fire, and as Stevens and Young became tainted, political support for the project ebbed. (Stevens is now facing federal charges in a political corruption trial. Both Stevens and Young are battling for re-election.)

Congress dropped the specific designation of the more than $200 million in federal funds for the bridge, instead releasing it for use for any Alaska projects. Palin wanted to direct the money to other projects that would prove less embarrassing. So, according to major news organizations that examined Palin's record, there was no "thanks, but no thanks" moment.

Last Rites For The Bridge
"Even in Alaska, there were a lot of people who were opposed to it. So it's not like she boldly stood up against it," says Adair of the St. Petersburg Times. "What she did was, seeing the political reality, she ended it."

"It's not that she really killed it — but she did perform the last rites," Adair says.

As for the larger issue, as a small-town mayor, Palin hired lobbyists, and as a mayor and governor, she sought such targeted earmarked funds herself. The Associated Press reports that Palin is seeking another $200 million in such projects for Alaska next year.

Adair calls Palin's account of her role in the bridge's demise a "half-truth."

Jack Nelson, the retired Washington bureau chief of the Los Angeles Times, has a tarter term for it: "It is a lie," he says.

That's not a word most journalists use, because it is so charged. Nelson says he can use it because he is retired.

"Most of the time in past campaigns, when major news organizations have come out and said that something is totally false, the candidate will drop it," says Nelson, who was a reporter for more than five decades. "In this case, they are repeating it over and over and over."

But with so many other sources of information and opinion online, revelations in mainstream news organizations don't pack the same punch that they once did.

Campaign Defends Palin's Record
And Porritt, the McCain-Palin spokesman, says there is no reason to back down.

"There have been a number of distortions about Sarah Palin's record as a reformer," Porritt says. "But this isn't about claiming the title. This is about having a record to back that up."
Porritt points to journalistic site FactCheck.org to prove Palin is telling the truth. But FactCheck.org wrote last week that Palin's line about the bridge is "inaccurate."

In fact, FactCheck.org cited the "bridge to nowhere" first in its list of reasons why it concluded Palin was "short on facts" during her speech at the Republican convention.

Listen to NPR's coverage on which candidate is actually a candidate for change: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94499918&ft=1&f=1102.

VMA recap

I can't believe I'm even doing a recap. But I have to admit, it was a LOT better than last year's show. Well here are my notes from tonight's festivities.

1. That was not an "opening" to top last year's performance Brit-Brit.

2. Rihanna sounded awful. It's easy to tell how bad she sounds because she struggles from her "regular" singing voice to falsetto. Very rough indeed.

3. The VMAs set looks like a larger set of TRL.

4. I laughed at Russell Brand because I don't think anyone else laughed at him. I thought he was pretty fun, energetic and exciting... But maybe not for this crowd. I love his jokes about the Republican party unfortunately.

5. The youngest Jonas brother doesn't open his mouth when he sings. Instead, he looks like he's grinding his lips and teeth to make noises, I mean, to sing. When I first heard them, I thought it was Nick or Aaron Carter making a comeback. I do have to say, their VMA performance was cute.

6. WTF is up with Michael Phelps' headgear?

7. I can't believe Leona Lewis, who I lovvvvve, would stoop so low as to do a single with Lil' Wayne. WTF was up with Lil' Wayne's pants during the performance. That was just inappropriate.

8. I'm bummed that MTV is taking advantage of the Twilight series and that the Twilight series sold it's soul to MTV.

9. While she doesn't sound that great, I love that girl from Paramore. She's such a cute, petite, little thing!

10. I love Christina Aguilera (always have) but she was TOTALLY lip singing (lip-syncing?) tonight. Ugh, that was disappointing to see.

11. Who's Tokio Hotel? And is the lead singer actually a girl?

12. I think Kid Rock wears sunglasses because he doesn't want people to see and realize how old he actually is.

13. Who is Brit-Brit's stand-in boy toy? I'm so behind on celebrity news!

14. I'm incredibly bummed that my DVR canceled my recording of "Skins" because of the VMAs and a show I've yet to watch, "Mad Men." Now recording the 2 a.m. re-run of "Skins" and hoping to watch tomorrow. Last week's episode took me completely off-guard because it was about topics I'd never thought would be discussed. So crazy, but enjoyable. I heart Chris.

Quick list

1. Thanks to today's pop culture, I think that a new stereotype for Asians has evolved - they can dance. Just look at America's Best Dance Crew, Dancing with the Stars, and So You Think You Can Dance.

2. I can watch a lot of bad TV and even I can't tolerate the MTV Music Awards pre-show. The VMAs were bad last year; will they be bad again this year?

3. I don't want to say that the VMA's are a reflection of today's youth, but I do think they are a reflection of what today's youth aspires to be. Arg.

4. I discovered that I had on-demand service this weekend... But I still don't think I'm missing out.

5. I think Netflix has steered me wrong in my recommendations. I love a good foreign film (and I believe I indicate that in my ratings), but I just endured 3 pretty painful French films. Maybe it's where I'm at in my life right now; I just don't understand or appreciate them. I can see why they were acclaimed - the music, the scenery, the simple nature of the films, etc., etc., but so far, not my type.

Write more later tonight or perhaps later! For now, I'm dipping into the red wine I've been eyeing on my wine rack for the last couple of days. Now that's restraint!