WTF PEOPLE!?! Reality TV

Now I know what you're thinking before I get to this, two WTF PEOPLE!?!'s in a row?!? That's just crazy... It's only supposed to be an occasional event. But hey, it's my blog, I'll so what whatever I want with it.  But for now, on the with the "What-Tha..."

I am just stupefied on the crap that is on television nowadays. There just seem to be an influx of unscripted fecal matter that is being shoveled out by the metric ton. It's rediculous on what is out there. Now I'll have my piece on each genre one at a time, but for right now reality tv really burns my ass with how craptacular it is. And the damnedest thing is that there's subgenres out there full of it. How can reality have a spawn?!? I originally thought of it being it's either real, fake, or the news (hell I can't even distinguish that anymore now, but that's another post). But I'll try my damnedest to figure this out. Let's just get this over and done with with our sanity in check. 

Honestly, I blame the writers strike of 2007 for this calamity. At least for the majority of what's out being aired right now. But in reality (get it *lame joke*) they've been around for as long as I can remember. Let's start with one of the longest running forms, the documentary-style show. It's designed as quick lfittle run-offs to show the uninterrupted daily life of their subject. An excellent example of that would be COPS and to lesser extents The Real World. It profiled their interaction with either the general public or in their own lives among their peers or other acquaintances. Nowadays we have Jersey Shore where we look at how to be douchebags and stereotypes to everyone (thank you MTV for keep pushing out more self-centered useless crap 24/7). An great concept and in my opinion the closest attempt to bring out the essence of what a reality show should be. Granted The Real World is just about as real as everything curvy on Pamela Anderson, and COPS is a guide for "what not to do to avoid getting caught with meth", but at least they try and originated such for others to break ground and fail like it's going out of style. 

Such atrocities as much as I hate to admit that is a guilty pleasure of mine are the reality-gameshow hybrids. Toying with my love and addiction to game shows (I'm a Jeopardy! and all around quiz/trivia show junkie; but that's another post) it amalgams the two into a match made in WTF-ville. Usually elimination based and designed for a single person or a pair to win an epic grand prize worth at least six-figures. It usually consists of multiple trials of either living or working with and against each other while the periodic secluded rant of the *contestant of the recorded event takes the audience in a third-to-first person view of what happened. Eventually there are departures of weak links and spoils for those who did well during as well as in the end of the season. What do we get out of all of this? Not much more outside of the expectation of a bloopers special before the season finale at best. As a game show aspect it's pretty lame and not much more than that in a reality tv perspective. But like I said, it's a guilty pleasure. 

But for reality shows that really bite the big one, there's the extreme reality. Shows that take a casual nuance of daily life, and find someone or a family that takes it to a gargantuan sized exposition. Extreme hoarding, extreme couponing, extreme green living, extreme bitching about how their life isn't posh enough. To me it's all extreme ass-sucking for the most part. Now that's not to say that all of them blow. I appreciate watching "19 Kids and Counting" (or however many Jim Bob and Michelle will stop at) and occasionally reruns of "Jon and Kate plus Eight" with the wifie to see how not to be a douchebag of a father and husband. But for some of the good ones out there, there's at least a bakers dozen of craptastic ones to air. Really, I don't need to see the most extreme babysitter tell me I'm a bad parent, I already know I am (j/k). Why do we need to have the most extreme or the maximum of anything and everything? What good does it accomplish outside of showing how gluttonous they are and how fascinated we can be to see if we all let out our inner OCD persona for one thing what we can become. Really people, you all need to find a happy medium before you get to extreme defecation throwers or extreme hobos. Actually, extreme hobos would be good; not Bum Fights good, but still good. 

Now to a brain fart of a sub-genre. What I like to call the modern day docuality. To borrow from Linkara; but here what I call the Atop-the-4th-Wall reality shows. It's more or less if big brother took a sedative and not interfered with life, it's captured on film, and we all laugh at the mishaps. A classic example would be America's Funniest Videos or Dick Clark's and Ed McMahon's Bloopers to TruTv's Worlds Dumbest for a more recent take. They're the watchers and poke-funners of the common people. Probably the closest to reality that reality television can be, since its truly unscripted and random stuff. Usually it's pretty stupid but that's what entertain us. Like reality tv isn't stupid enough, right?!?

Well, that's my synopsis on reality television. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that I might've missed something (just now thinking of where does Mythbusters fall into the mix; dammit). But this was general state of calamity this is being shoveled into our screens like manure on a bed of roses. So tune in for more tv related WTF's and watch me tear them a new one if they deserve it. And for the record, most of the stuff on TV does deserve it. 

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Technology Overload

I just have one question before I start here people... Where's the finish line?!? Where is the end of technological advancements? Are we just gonna keep go on surpassing science fictional properties of what was until we make all those thing and finally catch up to The Jetsons?!? Ok, so that was three questions, but it's all relative. There is no stopping this juggernaut. But in doing such are we negating the old school purists as well as assuming that everyone knows and understand enough to adapt, or is technological evolution going to be the de facto of our existence. Here's my beef on the situation. 

In most of my professional work career I've dealt with helping people in a technical level; everything from computers to the Internet to so much other stuff to recall. This isn't a résumé for me bragging, I can do that without a résumé. This is more of a double-edged sword in most cases. It's a gift that I use to understand and help people that don't; but it's also a curse in that when people don't want to learn for themselves or abuse my good nature for their own gain. I feel that as technology evolves, my symbiotic relationship grows more so. And that double-edged sword just keeps impaling me while I slay the obstacle that is in my way. It almost makes me wish for simpler times. Times where there wasn't so much confusion in technology. Just so people could understand shit and not leech on the nerdy on something as simple as finding a button to click on or why it's so hard to type something verbatim in front of them. 

Let's take on something light, like the setup of a new television. Before it used to be as simple as unboxing it plug it in and whether you had cable you screwed on the coaxial cable or if you had an antenna connection adjust the rabbit ears. Maybe you had a Nintendo and would have to connect an AV cable to it and thanked God if the TV had stereo. Fast forward to today's modern technology. You get your TV, you immediately want to hook it up to everything in your county. Set it up to your surround sound, your game consoles, your HD cable or satellite, connect wifi to your Internet, position it for the most optimal viewing point for 3-D viewing, all in the fear that you might run out of HDMI ports to plug shit into. For someone like me that's entertainment euphoria, for others it's a claustrophobic clusterfuck of cables and tweaking of settings for multiple devices. And the difference between old and new, not much. 

Another example, and probably the most appropriate for this post, just about anything that is computer related. Even back in the day when they were the shit to own and even cooler if you knew how to use one, the Apple II and the Commodore 64 were PC titans among all others. (By the way, just to say that the new iMac and the revamp of the Commodore 64 looks pretty sweet, nothing productive to the post but I had to mention it. It's the nerd in me.) Nowadays, they can't even light a candle to a $.99 app on today's phones. Some people just never learned to adapt and overcome from command lines and all of the archaic crap that those things presented then that they've grown, developed, and passed on a fear to all things gigabytes. If it involves a username and password it's total Greek to them, even after ten minutes after they created it. If it involves finding something in a folder that they didn't create a shortcut for it in their desktop, it might as well never existed. And God help the poor computer tech that come to their aide if they think they have a virus or any other malware on their machine. If they don't bash their machines (or their clients) with a sledgehammer in a fit of frustration or rage, they should be nominated for sainthood. But I've dove into these waters with a previous WTF for those whom need a refresher. Although most people whom I helped said that I have the patience of Job; most people either don't know me very well or just said that instead of me having more restraint than Hannibal Lector's muzzle. 

The point to all this is that we as a civilization haven't grown from the era of the flashing 12:00 on our VCR's. It's a pretty damn sad state of affairs. I just have to ask why?!? Why in my 29 years of living haven't we gone past this? Is it laziness or are we to daft to adapt and overcome such adversity of the old saying "teaching a old dog new tricks". Honestly if I think about it more so I'll go mad. It's deafeningly insane that remedial stuff such as the right plug for something, or pushing a button strikes such a high level of danger that a bomb squad is needed to diffuse their worrying. 

The fact of the matter is, no matter how simple something might be in the whole schema of the technological spectrum, there will always be the techno-sensei's that are out there helping no matter how remedial or mundane something might be. And if you could turn a profit out of it, that's aces in my book. Now I'm not gonna say that I know everything, but from what I do know, I can hang pretty damn well. (Okay, that last part was a little résumé-ish, but screw it... it's my blog...)

BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

WTF PEOPLE!?! Superbowl XLV

I know I'm a little late on the whole posting and stuff, lots of personal and professional stuff but that's not the reason for this.  Hell, this posting is a little late on the fact that Superbowl was 3 days ago as well as I'm writing this.  The thing is, this was probably the first Superbowl that I could remember that I wasn't able to watch due to other commitments (in this case, work: but it was well worth it.)  I actually watched it over the past few days little by little to compose what my thoughts of this year's, um... how should I put this, DEBAUCHERY stood as far as my expectations and addressing my concerns with from my Superbowl memories.  Oh, where do I begin,

First let me compare to what I normally analyze during a Superbowl.  It's generally a trifecta of things that have to go right to make a Superbowl a Superbowl.  There's the game itself, the commercials, and the halftime show; and in my opinion Superbowl XLV dropped the bomb for the most part on two if not all three of these factors.  I'll try to analyze them all the best I can being that this is the day after for me watching it all, just be glad that I took some time to let it all simmer otherwise it would've been a no-holdsbarred bitchfest which wouldn't have been productive for anyone.

One of the factors that concerned me was the game itself.  Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE FOOTBALL!!!  It's the pinnacle American sport.  It shows off brute force with smart sly decision making and the occasion slight of hand that makes you go WTF!?!  And for something like a performance of what happened this year just gets to me.  I was pissed to hear that Green Bay won for two reasons.  One of which that they manage to just barely get by my Eagles during the first round of the playoffs (I'm still po'ed about that one), and the second is of course the W over the Steelers (the wifie's team).  I was all set for them to take a 7th title and the I try to support the wifie in her  fanfare towards her team.  There were calls that should've have been made, there were passes that should've have been intercepted, and most of all, the two minute drill that never-friggin-happened!!!  That just urks me, it was supposed to be the turning point in the game to make it exciting to watch and then BAM  stonewalled by an interception and the that's all for the record books.  Another thing is that I personally didn't get a chance to see the game live for like the first time ever.  No biggie but it's kind of a symbolism to be a man, watch the game with beer and chips in hand cussing out the refs on the TV if you couldn't make it to the game; and then those poor bastards that couldn't get into Cowboy Stadium because of the weather.  Sure they're reimbursed 3x face value and have tickets to XLVI, but is it really worth it for them to shell out more money for room and board and travel among all the other crap to make up for what they burned from this years event?!?  Ahh NFL, sometimes I wonder about you.

The other aspect that was a downer for me was the halftime show.  It was just horrible for most people, hell it was for me too...   First I like to say that the Black Eyed Peas are great on the radio, I never seen them live, and after watching the halftime show, I can honest say that I'm blessed that I haven't seen them live prior.  It was bad, really bad.  I mean when the highlight of the show was the extras dancing on the field beats out band themselves and even the most flametastic getup that I've seen Slash had the misfortune of wearing, that says a lot.  It sucked, badly.  Oh, and don't think that I've forgot the shittastic version of the National Anthem.  Seriously, how friggin' dumb do you have to be to screw up the Star-Spangled Banner!?!   So I say Christina Aguilera, how much bleach soaked threw your hair to your brain to possibly F this up so badly?!?  It makes me sick.  It almost makes me wish Roseanne sang it again...  It was God-awful, but at least she didn't make it Sunday Night at the Improv.

But to a lighter note, the commercials were hit, and miss.  The obvious heavy hitters who never let anyone down were GoDaddy.com and Doritos making me wanna go Cool Ranch all over registering a new .co domain.  But some of the commercials were just a straight facepalm of disgrace.  I'm talking about you Kia, WTF were you thinking with that?!?  It was all over the place and just a big bottle of crap in my opinion.  This also apply to the new Transformers movie (Michael Bay, please don't shit on this one like you did to Rise of the Fallen.)  Some commercials were kinda kool, mainly the two spots featuring Eminem (The Sprite commercial left me in tears of hilarity and the Chrysler 200 commercial left me in tears of joy for the love someone could have for a town that have been to hell and back.)  Also some of the movie trailers left me wanting to hit the theaters in 2011 such as Kung Fu Panda 2, Thor, and Captain America.  Those to me so wreaked of awesome.  Let me tell you, I'll be definitely watching them and giving my thoughts later in the year on them.  So I leave you with just as I said, a hit and miss.  Maybe next year.


But all in all, the only thing that I can take from missing this years Superbowl was the first hand experience of such.  It's kinda like second-hand smoke, it kills me more waiting for the wins and the fails than making fun of it the first time around.  Ah, the hell with it, now it's time to focus on the 2011 Draft picks and rooting for my Eagles in Superbowl XLVI.


BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

Tis the Season

Every year for as long as I could remember I would sing to myself one verse to the 12 Days of Christmas per day until it was Christmas Day.  So that meant on December 13th I would start singing the first verse, December 14, the second, and so on and so forth.  So I decided to make a twist on this and post my favorite Christmas themed things, one a day for 12 days.

So I'll be updating this post every day from the 13th until Jolly old St. Nick fills my stocking.  So keep on coming back each day and find what's new each day on this post.  Enjoy!

December 13, The First Day of Christmas :: The music.  I have to admit, I kinda like the jingling and the fa-la-la-la-la's when it plays on the radio.  I do have a special fondness to the Charlie Brown theme playing at least once a day (even though the theme isn't even all that Christmas-sy,) it's the only time of year I get to hear it regularly.  So here's to the artists who try to put a new spin to the same old Jingle Bell Rock, keep rockin' out those sleigh bells until Jack Frost nips you in the butt to stop 2 days into the new year...

December 14, The Second Day of Christmas :: The lights.  Call me a crow, sure I'm attracted to bright shiny objects; and twinkling lights around someone's house is the flame that keeps drawing this moth to it.  From anything simple such as a string of lights across the top of a railing from a patio to Chris F'n Griswold's epic house lighting, Christmas lights are just FRIGGIN' AWESOME!!! 

December 15, The Third Day of Christmas :: The weather.  As a kid, Christmas was a time for a week or two off of school, presents, and the occasional snow storm during break.  That was great having snowball fights with my brothers and kicking their butts stuffing their shirts with the white stuff.  But than again I lived in a place with that kind of weather (feelin' homesick for Philly now.)  Now adays, Christmas is warm, sunny, and full of cacti.  Good thing is that my family eat Christmas dinner on the patio, bad thing is that rocks hurt more when thrown than snowballs.  The weather element is what you can enjoy no matter where you are.

December 16, The Fourth Day of Christmas :: The television programs.  I'm a sucker for A Charlie Brown Christmas or those old school claymation storytellings of Rudolph and Frosty.  It was a special time for me that the TV producers and executives could remind us that "hey, were all kids inside so let all the worries of life go away for a while and marvel at poor animation and special meanings of all the good that is still in this world."

December 17, The Fifth Day of Christmas :: The mall.  Well, not the mall per say, but shopping.  I used to work retail and every year from the week before Black Friday to half way past January, the crowds of people fascinate me.  The lengths they go to complete their commercial need to find the right present or biggest gift.  It's just humorous what they do for that.  Although, the holiday season is not about gifts, it's about family, friends, and remembrance of our Lord.  I know that what I'm gonna do, how about you?!?  (There's your five golden rings for ya...)

December 18, The Sixth Day of Christmas :: The food.  I love the food.  It breaks the monotony of turkey, turkey, and turkey from the last month.  The wifie bakes cookies and other stuff non-stop while I ready myself for ham and football.  Plus, all of the Food Network shows show off their holiday flair.  And if you can't tell by this day, I do think with my stomach.  So here's to all the good food in preparation of family gathering and all that other stuff that it does for us all.


December 19, The Seventh Day of Christmas : The good will towards men.  It's a good warm and fuzzy feeling that can't be explained.  Well wishing towards our fellow man that should happen year round surrounds us all and that in among itself is a Christmas miracle.

December 20, The Eighth Day of Christmas :: The presents.  Yeah, that sounds pretty vain after what I added on for yesterday, but the presents are a good part of Christmas.  And it's not about receiving that big gift that you wanted, it's about seeing the look of someone's face as they open the presents.  As a parent, I finally can say that that joy of giving and seeing my boys faces light up brighter than the wifie's tree warms my heart.  It hurts my wallet, but it warms my heart... :p  It's a season of giving and seeing that you can give that and joy to others is a special part of the holiday.

December 21, The Ninth Day of Christmas :: The gathering.  It's always hard when a loved one or best friend is away.  Whether they're half way across the country or half way across the world.  But when Christmas time comes around, we find ways to connect with each other.  We visit those whom are fond to us, or at the very least call them on the phone if possible.  Heck, even simply emailing them or leaving them a message on your social network of choice just to say I miss ya and happy holidays is of good merit.  Just as long as we have a means of communication, we have means to gather around each other; even if you're not next to them roasting chestnuts in an open fire.

December 22, The Tenth Day of Christmas :: The days of yonder.  Just think back to the Christmases you had in the past.  How pleasant most if not all of them were.  And you sometimes catch yourself trying to relive that today.  Returning to how good that time of year was to you and what it brought to the table.  There is nothing wrong with reliving those good ol' days, and there's no better time than Christmas time to do such.

December 23, The Eleventh Day of Christmas :: The traditions.  Everyone has them, they follow though with it whether it's baking cookies or singing carols or even watching a gauntlet of Christmas themed programing, we all enjoy them and love to carry them out.  The singing the Twelve Days of Christmas one verse per day is one of mine.  The others include watching at least once A Charlie Brown Christmas and some football, I mean, who can't enjoy any of that?!?  I also try to carry out a gift for the kids to open the night before Christmas.  Usually new pajamas and we tell them they were left on our doorstep by the elves to give them a warning if they don't go to bed soon, Santa won't visit them for presents.  Whether they believe the wifie and I, who knows, but it's a tradition that we started with our boys and we'll continue to carry it out.

December 24, The Twelfth Day of Christmas :: The birth of Jesus Christ.  After all that is what the holiday is supposed to be about.  To celebrate the miraculous birth of our Lord and Savior, it is a true testament of what peace on earth, good will towards man, and miracles are all about.  Without the Lord, none of us would be where we are right now, and I am truly thankful for his birth and all that he given to us.  As Tiny Tim would end this in the most appropriate saying "God bless us, everyone"


BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

P.S. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and throw in all those other holidays in December as well, even Festivus... *lol*  Ok, maybe not that...