Inside the Head of a TV Junkie

The image above shows the distance from my work to where Mike’s mom works.  Today we leave for Las Vegas and we have a situation.  The truck that Mike usually uses to get to my house is needed this weekend so he is unable to drive it over today.  A solution was figured out and it requires me to pick him up at his mom’s work before we head out of town.  Not a big deal at all, but I think it’s amusing how far away it looks in Google Maps.  I guess it looks far because it is door-to-door, it’s 30 miles.  :)

WARNING - THIS IS A LONG POST

I love Big Brother.  I’ve seen every season.  I’ve been holding off on watching episodes without Mike because I’ve kind of gotten him addicted to the show as well.  Besides, it’s more fun to watch it with someone than alone because you can talk about what crazy stuff is going on during the episode.

Anyway, there were three episodes on my TiVo that needed to be viewed on Wednesday night.  Two were from earlier in the week and the eviction episode from that night.  Let me just say, the contestants for this year look like they are going to make some good episodes in the future.  There seems to be enough low level animosity between a few players that will make eventual blow-ups inevitable.  That’s good TV.  A quick rundown of the first week of BB10 is below.

This season started with the contestants having to select the first HOH before entering the house and getting to know one another.  This, I thought, was an interesting twist.  They had no idea if they were going to accidentally choose the craziest person in the house or not.  In fact, the craziest person in the house was almost chosen (Renny) simply because other contestants felt she looked like the “motherly” type.  Yikes!  I don’t think we’ve seen her real hair yet this season.  She wears these funky wigs with scarf headbands… kooky.  She’s also very loud and has an in your face personality.  That being said, I told Mike that if I was on the show, I would probably end up being her friend.  HA!

Later in the first episode, the houseguests had their first competition.  They were required to break into two teams and then proceed to climb into upside down VW Beetles.  The whole team was to work together to move down the track to one end, pick up a gas can, move back to the other side and have one player jump out with the gas can.  The catch to this game was that the last person in the car for the winning team would win a classic car.  Also, the winning team would win food for the week while the losing team would be on slop.  Most of the players decided not being on slop was a bigger incentive than the car so jumping out of the cars was not as big of a problem as it could have been.  Memphis ended up winning the car, which could become a sore spot for other contestants down the road.  Also, in this episode, there was a small argument between Jesse and Renny.  As I mentioned before, she’s a bit loud and Jesse was trying to sleep in the other room while Renny was carrying on about the door being “locked” when it wasn’t, etc.  This is the first night in the house and Jesse, for some odd reason, thinks that he’s entitled to a quite night sleep.  Ummm, hello, didn’t you sign up for Big Brother?  Didn’t you realize you’d be in a house with 12 other roommates?  Why would he think it would be quiet?  Did he think he had checked himself into a nice hotel or something?  Yeah, Renny was a bit noisy, but nothing more than most of us have experienced at some point in our lives.  It was night #1 and he was already crying about how loud it was and how she was being disrespectful.  In addition to his gross muscles, his attitude is very unattractive.  He may be 22 but please grow up and stop whining like a baby.  Renny apologized for being too loud and yet he kept carrying on about it.  Anyway, as you can tell, he really annoys me.

In the first episode, we also got the nominations for eviction.  The two people put up were Renny and Jesse.  Jerry (the HOH) said they were nominated because he wanted the house to decide who should leave and who was responsible for all the drama that occurred because of their little fight the night before.  In reality, Jerry was being manipulated by Brian.  Brian, as we find out in the next few episodes, is too smart for his own good.

The veto competition was a good one this week.  The players were required to make their way under a “bridge” through a pool of honey-like substance and dig through a bed full of pillows for bears that were the color of their sleepwear.  The pillows, of course, were full of feathers so the contestants were soon covered in feathers from head to toe.  I was rooting for anyone but Jesse to get the power of veto this week. I was hoping to see him go out of the house.  He’s really very annoying.  Anyway, my wishes were not granted and he ended up winning the power of veto.  Brian immediately launched a new plan and convinced Jerry to put up Memphis when Jesse took himself off the block.  It’s worth mentioning that originally, there was an alliance between Brian, Dan and Ollie.  Well, two of the girls, Libra and April, press Ollie to give up the fact that he’s working with Brian.  To save his own butt, Ollie sells out Brian and Dan and helps the two girls convince the whole rest of the house to have a meeting with Jerry up in the HOH room.  The whole house gives Jerry and ultimatum, either put up Brian in place of Jesse or we’ll boot you out next week.  What is Jerry to do?  He agrees.  The veto meeting happens and Brian is put up in place of Jesse, to the shock of Dan.  I’m kind of glad Brian is put up on the block.  I don’t necessarily dislike him but I figure it’s probably the best for the house.  The voting goes down and Brian is evicted with only one vote to keep him in the house (Dan).  I think he was a bit surprised by that but it appeared that he knew he was leaving the house.

The first HOH competition of the season was one of the “majority rules” games that they play quite a bit in BB.  They usually do one of these early on to see how much each of the contestants knows their fellow housemates.  I was really hoping that Steven would win.  We’re not seeing much of him on TV at the moment.  Is it because he’s very mellow and flying under the radar?  Possibly.  It doesn’t appear that he has much drama (at least drama CBS is willing to televise) in the house.  We need a powerful gay contestant this year!  Unfortunately, my “favorite” player won HOH this week.  I have no idea what Jesse is going to do this week.  He’s a real crap shoot.  I’m sure he’ll put up Renny since he hates her so much.  We’ll find out more on Sunday night!

Question for those of you who are watching the show, do you think they know Steven is gay yet?

Mike and I will be heading to Las Vegas for a fun time this weekend.  I’ve always wanted to see KA and they have some attractive summer prices at the moment.  The plan is to hit the road on Friday at about 1pm so that we get to Vegas in plenty of time before the show.  I do enjoy going to Las Vegas.  I’m not really a gambler but I love people watching and the alcohol that is readily available around every corner.  Not sure exactly what else we’ll be doing while there.  I’ve been to Las Vegas so many times that it’s hard to think of new things to do.  It’s been over a year since I went last and things are always changing in Vegas.  I’m sure we’ll find something new to see!

Oh, for any of you who watch “Last Comic Standing” on NBC, you’ll recognize this phrase from a T-Shirt worn by one of the contestants. “What happens in Vegas… stays burned into God’s memory for all eternity.”

This song is great.  I love it.  Share it with that someone special in your life.

Jason Mraz - “I’m Yours”

I decided to update to the newest version of WordPress.  I followed all the directions.  After updating the database, I was asked to log in again.  Not a problem, that’s something that normally happens.  What happened next almost put me in the hospital!  I typed in my username and password and pressed login.  What happens?  The page refreshes and says “Please Login Again.”  So, I do and get the same message.  I start panicking.  What am I going to do if I’ve locked myself out of my blog forever!  This is terrible!  Luckily, Google was there to save the day.  It turns out, all I needed to do was delete the cookies for my site and all would be fixed.  I did so and viola voila!  Happy days are here again.  If any of you are planning on upgrading in the next few days, keep that in mind if you get a kooky message like I did.

I’ve spent a good amount of time these past two days updating my album art in iTunes.  Like most people, I enjoy the coverflow feature in iTunes but I’ve recently become fed up with the missing artwork or the lesser quality images that some of my tracks have associated with them.  That’s is why I decided to take on this endeavor.  Lucky for me, I have a lot of images already in my library and the updating isn’t too massive.  It’s still taking a lot of time though.  Currently, I am on the R’s in my library.  Just a few more to go, I hope.  Going forward it will be easier to keep my new tracks up to date.  I get these weird obsessions every once in a while, but is that such a bad thing?

It’s officially started!!  Monsoon Season is here for the next few weeks and it has started with a bang.  Yesterday we had a crap load of rain fall over an hours time.  Some areas of Phoenix received over an inch and a half of rain.  That may not sound like much to some of you but you must remember we live in a desert.  Below is a photo I took outside of my window.  Normally you can see houses across the way, not today!  Also, the YouTube video below is the sound of the rain on my window.  We never have a monsoon rain without wind.  Good times!

What is 12 of 12?

Enjoy the photos below and be sure to click the link above if you are wondering what “12 of 12″ is all about.  This month, I spent the 12th in Flagstaff, AZ with Mike working at my dad’s house.  It was a very productive weekend.

The first photo of the day!

Cute!  A small pineapple!

Some interesting bottles of wine my dad had stored in his kitchen.  (old vintage)

Blackberries are blooming!

Classic thermos - I’m keeping this!

Outside the College of Communication at Northern Arizona University.

A visit to my dad.

Weatherford Hotel

Coconino County Courthouse

Some Swinging

Ride that dinosaur!

Finish the day with some PBR.

Okay, I realize that this post is a bit behind schedule.  I’ve been very busy with work and Mike.  :)  Anyway, the 4th of July this year was full of good times.  My friend Erin had come up from Sierra Vista for a weekend of Diamondbacks baseball and invited me to go to the game on the 4th.  There were going to be fireworks after the game and I figured, why not!?  Last year I spent the 4th sitting out at Tempe Town Lake from 7pm in 100 degree heat*, let’s just say that this was much better.  For my $10, I got to see a baseball game (we lost) and fireworks in an air conditioned ballpark?  What could be better?!  The photo above is one I took of the fireworks after the game.

I also attended another game with Erin on Saturday.  Again, the D-Backs lost.  Oh well, it was still fun!  I’ve been to more baseball games this year than I have in the past two years.  I think the thing I like most about going to baseball games is that you don’t really have to watch the game.  Don’t get me wrong, I watch the game but I also spend a fair amount of time socializing.

*For those of you not familiar on how things work in Phoenix, Arizona, it can easily be over 100 degrees for hours after the sun has gone down.

On Wednesday I went to the post office to mail an item through priority mail.  I dread going to the post office for fear of the lines that await me.  I fear those lines less than I fear the mail room at my office though and so we have this story.

I decide to drive to the Tolleson post office because I figure the lines there will be much smaller than at a larger post office in Phoenix.  Besides, the Tolleson post office is closer to my office than any other so I save on gas.  When I arrive at the post office, the lines are okay, not too long and it seems like everyone has their shit together.  I get in line behind this lady who feels that letting her child run around the place is a good idea and wait.  At the front of the line, there is this older gentleman who gets called to the counter next.  There are three USPS employees working the counter.  What happens next is just classic.  I have never heard someone complain so much to a postal worker about how much the US Postal Service sucks.  Here’s how the conversation went down:

Older Man: “I just moved into a new home in the area and they said I had to come down here to get my mailbox keys.  Why do I need mailbox keys?  Are these keys going to be for that large collection of mailboxes?”

Postal Worker: “You are correct.  You will need to collect your mail from that central mailbox location.  The keys will unlock your box.  What is your address so I can get you your keys?”

Older Man: “That is ridiculous!  Back in the day, you would get your mail delivered to your house!  I am an old man and I cannot be walking to the mailbox every day to pick up my mail!  Why are we paying $0.42 to send a letter and not even getting our mail delivered to our door?”

Postal Worker: “I’m sorry you feel that way sir, but this is how the USPS requires new home developments to be setup.  We no longer deliver to people’s front doors…”

Older Man (interrupting): “Yes you do!  You deliver letters to my sisters front door and put them in her mailbox!”

Postal Worker: “Does your sister live in an older home?  We still deliver to doors/mailboxes in older communities.  The central mailboxes are only for newer communities.”

Older Man: “Do you know how hot it is outside?  You expect me to walk and pick up my mail every day?”

Postal Worker: “I do know how hot it can get here, sir.  May I suggest that you drive to the mailboxes to pick up your mail?”

Older Man: “What?  Do you know much gas costs?  You think I have that kind of disposable income to use gas to drive over to the mailboxes to pick up my mail?  That is ridiculous!”

Postal Worker: “I’m sorry that you feel it is an inconvenience but I have no control over your mail delivery.  If you’d like, you can write a letter to the Postmaster General.  Did you need to mail an item sir?”

Older Man: “Yes, I need to mail this letter.”

Postal Worker: “Okay, is there anything else I can help you with today?”

Older Man: “You’d better give me some stamps as well.  I need a sheet of $0.01 and a roll of the regulars.”

Postal Worker: “The roll of stamps will be $42…"

Older Man (interrupting): "What?! I’m on a fixed income!  I can’t afford that! Just give me three stamps, that’ll hold me over until next week."

Okay, so they may not be direct quotes above, but it is pretty close.  Anyway, the old man proceeds to leave the post office.  If any of you have been to a post office recently, you know how they sell supplies in the lobby?  Padded envelopes, boxes, etc.  Well, this old man is leaving the post office, walks over to the stand and says to himself, "Huh, I need some of these (padded envelopes) for those tapes I am going to mail."  He takes four or five from the rack and walks out.  Seriously, out of control.

The only other funny event that happened that day was a bride and groom mailing out their invitations.  The groom must not have mailed something in about 5 years as he was shocked at how much a stamp cost and accused the man behind the counter of wanting to charge more for a wedding designed stamp.  Crazy!!!