Yeah, so the waiting game sucks.
I hate waiting for things - I wait every day for the bus... I'm waiting every day for the baby to come (who is now a day late)... I'm waiting for GH to show up in the mail...
Some people are blessed with patience and the skill to see the value in delayed gratification. Not me!
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
A Harpo Production
So, we've been watching Oprah's Big Give - and I don't really know what to make of the show. For those who haven't heard of it, Oprah picked a dozen or so A-types and challenges them each week with tasks to give away money to those in need. The motto for the show is "Give big, or go home".
I'm not sure if this show is meant to be an inspiration for all of us to find the "big giver" inside of us, and to emulate what we see in our own lives, or if it's just a slightly different take on the standard reality show genre.
Take this week's show, for example. One of the teams managed to raise a ludicrous amount of money, and had a playground built for a school in four days - two of which were a weekend. Emily's school is trying to raise somewhere between ten and twenty thousand for a playground. Once the money's raised, I'm sure that the contractors will have no problem working over the weekend to have the thing built in a day.
What the editing of the show doesn't let on is the amount of times Oprah's name must get dropped while they solicit donations. I'm sure that it's really easy to get toys donated to homeless kids when you tell the company that they'll be on an Oprah show.
The show's promotion indicated that the competitive format (i.e., reality show) was chosen because it will inspire the participants to really work hard to beat the other people. I'm not too sure what this says about human nature - that we can only be inspired to be charitable when we can stick it to another person?
In any event, the newness of the challenge has worn off for the competitors, and the inevitable politics and cattiness has set in (and they don't even have to blame a meal of soggy rice and sleeping in the rain for it!) The show focused a lot on the conflicts within the team this week - and I suspect that things will just go downhill over the next few weeks. Because really, people don't watch shows like this for the uplifting inspiration of giving - it's more about which contestant will be the Omarosa, and how much can we hate him/her before they get voted off the island (so to speak).
What I do enjoy about this show is that, despite her image makeover, Oprah is really getting back to her roots in daytime television by pandering to the basic audience that loves to see other people fight. We love to rubberneck at the train wrecks these people's lives turn into. Since her own talk show is devoted now to Dr. Oz, or how Oprah feels about a celebrity's latest movie / tv show / book (let's face it - how much do Oprah's guests talk anymore - it seems to be all about Oprah), she must really be feeling a void deep down that can only be filled by the kind of TV content that she started, and Jerry Springer perfected.
I will continue to watch, however, because I'm so easily addicted to new shows!
I'm not sure if this show is meant to be an inspiration for all of us to find the "big giver" inside of us, and to emulate what we see in our own lives, or if it's just a slightly different take on the standard reality show genre.
Take this week's show, for example. One of the teams managed to raise a ludicrous amount of money, and had a playground built for a school in four days - two of which were a weekend. Emily's school is trying to raise somewhere between ten and twenty thousand for a playground. Once the money's raised, I'm sure that the contractors will have no problem working over the weekend to have the thing built in a day.
What the editing of the show doesn't let on is the amount of times Oprah's name must get dropped while they solicit donations. I'm sure that it's really easy to get toys donated to homeless kids when you tell the company that they'll be on an Oprah show.
The show's promotion indicated that the competitive format (i.e., reality show) was chosen because it will inspire the participants to really work hard to beat the other people. I'm not too sure what this says about human nature - that we can only be inspired to be charitable when we can stick it to another person?
In any event, the newness of the challenge has worn off for the competitors, and the inevitable politics and cattiness has set in (and they don't even have to blame a meal of soggy rice and sleeping in the rain for it!) The show focused a lot on the conflicts within the team this week - and I suspect that things will just go downhill over the next few weeks. Because really, people don't watch shows like this for the uplifting inspiration of giving - it's more about which contestant will be the Omarosa, and how much can we hate him/her before they get voted off the island (so to speak).
What I do enjoy about this show is that, despite her image makeover, Oprah is really getting back to her roots in daytime television by pandering to the basic audience that loves to see other people fight. We love to rubberneck at the train wrecks these people's lives turn into. Since her own talk show is devoted now to Dr. Oz, or how Oprah feels about a celebrity's latest movie / tv show / book (let's face it - how much do Oprah's guests talk anymore - it seems to be all about Oprah), she must really be feeling a void deep down that can only be filled by the kind of TV content that she started, and Jerry Springer perfected.
I will continue to watch, however, because I'm so easily addicted to new shows!
Monday, March 17, 2008
Sibling rivalry
So, welcome to my very own blog. (woops, typed that as blob the first time).
I was reading my sister's blog, and decided that I needed to create one of my own. This decision is based 100% on the fact that I need to be better / funnier than my sister. Don't get me wrong - we get along really well now that we're all grown up - but I still can't get over 20+ years of fighting with her constantly.
I'm not sure why we fought so much growing up - I think it's probably because we were constantly struggling for the second place finish in the land of our mom's favour. We both knew that Colleen was the favourite, so any points earned towards that second-place status were highly cherished!
And it seems that the latest battlefield is going to be Guitar Hero III. Janine jumped the gun by ordering it before I could get my hands on it. She's got a week's lead on me - but I have a misspent youth of video game skillz that will definitely be a bonus. So Janine - GAME ON! (of course, I'm still waiting for mine to come in the mail).... hopefully I can be a real guitar hero before Easter.
One more thing Janine - do they have that great (read stupid) song that you used to play on your classical guitar? (Duh duh..... dinh, duh duh duh)
P.S. In case you're curious, Diids is my ace Mii at Wii sports.
I was reading my sister's blog, and decided that I needed to create one of my own. This decision is based 100% on the fact that I need to be better / funnier than my sister. Don't get me wrong - we get along really well now that we're all grown up - but I still can't get over 20+ years of fighting with her constantly.
I'm not sure why we fought so much growing up - I think it's probably because we were constantly struggling for the second place finish in the land of our mom's favour. We both knew that Colleen was the favourite, so any points earned towards that second-place status were highly cherished!
And it seems that the latest battlefield is going to be Guitar Hero III. Janine jumped the gun by ordering it before I could get my hands on it. She's got a week's lead on me - but I have a misspent youth of video game skillz that will definitely be a bonus. So Janine - GAME ON! (of course, I'm still waiting for mine to come in the mail).... hopefully I can be a real guitar hero before Easter.
One more thing Janine - do they have that great (read stupid) song that you used to play on your classical guitar? (Duh duh..... dinh, duh duh duh)
P.S. In case you're curious, Diids is my ace Mii at Wii sports.
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