old skool skillz

I was going through my storage unit and came across a box full of good ol VHS tapes. Among the treasures were a tape full of Series Finales (Full House, Boy Meets World, Dawson's Creek, etc)...episodes of Friends...Mel Gibson's 20/20 interview before Passion of the Christ...the Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn that we went to the taping for where Dave Grohl ran through the audience and touched my hand and you can hear me, Becca Wemple, and Ryan McCray yelling "We love you Dave" and we discovered you could hear us on the version that made its way to Napster (like I said, old skool)...and others.

The gold amongst the treasures? Videos I had edited in college. One, was for Small Group Leadership in which I got Murr-Dogg to do a Pert Plus commercial. I'm still a legend for pulling that one off. The second, my awesome 3 minute video on procrastination set to dc Talk's "time is ticking away" Word. I rewatched. I smiled. If I knew how to put the VHS to this site, I would. But I was only TV Film for 2 years...probably better I made the Comm Studies switch...especially as evidenced by my skillz of editing.

Weekly TV Roundup

I meant to start this last week, but I'm a slacker. Plus, at the end of the week, no whining about spoilers. So here we go...

My Week in TV

MONDAY---The level of excitement for returning shows was quite high, as were expectations. And let me tell you, my shows delivered.

• How I Met Your Mother continues to be one of the greatest shows on television. My friendship with Briana Moore is on hold until she watches the episode "Do I Know You?" and if you are a Star Wars nerd like some people I know, my friendship with you is on hold until you watch it too. Also, it's possible to catch feelings, even if you use protection. That's an important lesson learned thanks to Barney. Watch it people!
• Big Bang Theory...just started watching last season. It's fun...and funny. Not must-see tv but a good time in a land with too few sitcoms. Check it out.
• Let me put it this way, I was still on a Heroes high Tuesday morning. It is defintely on its way back to good. Mohinder has been so hungry for superpowers that I think it could be very interesting to see where it takes him...I hope so anyways because some of it just came out of left field. But future Ando and Hiro!! And future Peter (which I actually called as the shooter). Have these guys never watched Back to the Future?! Or even Bill and Ted's....you just don't mess with the Space Time Continuum (another reference to the HIMYM episode, actually) But overall, really glad to have it back and explore the dark side.
• Not a season premere but One Tree Hill still has become one of the best written shows on tv. It's my guilty pleasure that is now guilt-free. Though I am ready for a little more humor and a little less psycho nanny.

TUESDAY

• Fringe. I am enjoying it so far. I'm not a sci-fi junkie by any means and I never watched X Files or have gotten fully hooked on Lost but it's got enough Alias-J.J. in it that I can appreciate it. Plus, Pacey/Charlie. Enough said. And the dad is hilarious. Let's make some LSD. Seriously? Excited to see where it goes.

WEDNESDAY

• BONES. Oh how I love thee...as a girl who was raised on the sexual tension of Moonlighting and more hour-long crime/medical/mystery shows than you could throw a stick at...it's everything I love in a show. Smart, funny, rewards long-time viewers, true to life and ridiculous at the same time. I have mixed feelings on the Zach situation. Of course he could figure it out and that everyone loves him, but really, taking him out to pie at the diner? I don't know. But, it's been great so far this year and shall get better I am sure (Booth's brother is coming to visit. that shall = awesome, no doubt about it)

THURSDAY---Oh Thursday. It's been my TV night for as long as I can remember, thank you Must See TV. And this season it tis once again.

• Ugly Betty. I was hooked first season. Got over it a bit last season...missed the fun. This season, I don't know. The whole Meade family dinner with Daniel's french son (where did that come from?! I don't think I like it) And Daniel's sweatsuits at his new magazine? I don't know. So far, bleh.
• GREY'S IS BACK! and I don't mean, hey, the new season started, it's back. I mean, the sassy/sad ratio is back to perfection. The good Grey's is back. and it was G-double O-D good. My actual favorite storyline from Friday was McSteamy and Lexie. Loved the wisdom coming from McSteamy of all people(can't refer to him as Sloan...too many Alias memories). And yeah, it was just good.
• So, last season, as much as I love The Office, by the end of all the one-hour episodes I defintely was beginning to think that a half hour was the perfect amount of Office. But the season premiere used every minute for pure comedic gold. Seriously. Nothing could have been cut out. Nor should have been. Holly putting her foot in her mouth about Kevin being mentally slow...Dwight and Angela's love beeper (and what was with the boombox?)...Ryan back...Pam doing the talking head interview on video chat...Michael in the fat suit with his fat pictures actually making Kelly feel good about herself (question. sure, the fat suit was his sumo suit not blown up all the way..but where did he get his actual suit? It was much bigger than his)...and the rest stop in the rain. Oh my...twas fantastic!
• ER has been a part of my life for over half of my life. I've watched since the beginning. I used to do my vocab during the commercials whilst in high school. It always delivers. And this week it did again. I hadn't even watched last season's finale and I was still bawling. ER just knows how to be great. Great characters...you become emotionally attached. When one passes you feel it, and they do a fine job of offering continuity for us long time loyal watchers. Excited and saddened for the final season.

random rambles from the weekend

• PTL-it is fall officially! I love me some autumn time. I used my heater in my car for the first time on Saturday night (my A/C doesn't work but my heater is a stallion!)


• Speaking of my car...Tomas de la Cruz just passed into the 200,000 mile club. Appropriately, it was on a trip to visit a dear friend from the VUSC whom got to participate in the picture taking cermony in Fres-hole.

• Speaking of a dear friend from the VUSC, I got to hang out with Bri this weekend! It wasn't for a huge amount of time, but it was worth the drive for sure :)


• Speaking of a dear friend from the VUSC, I ended up driving up to Sacramento and seeing Gmar & Jamal on the same day I left Oakhurst. We went and saw The Dark Knight on the IMAX and it was absolutely AMAZING!!!! Third time seeing the movie, first IMAX. Seriously, if you can, you should. You really do feel like you are on top of the buildlings with Batman.


• Speaking of Batman (and its utter awesomeness), I figured something out while watching it this time. Remember the Snickers commercial from back in the day...the one where the guy says "I am Batman!" I used to quote it on end...hadn't really put together that it was actually from the comic and thus real. Though I suppose it's also along the "I am Spartacus" line...


• Speaking of "I am Spartacus", the film That Thing You Do! is one of those I could watch over and over.


• Speaking of That Thing You Do! , good to see Tom Hanks last night at the Emmys, bad hair/glasses and all. I still adamantly believe that he should be our next President in a film.


• Speaking of the Emmys, I really enjoyed them this year...besides the painfully real awkwardness of the opening bit. Add that with Oprah and I thought it equal a terrible evening, but it redeemed itself for the most part. If anything, the combination of two paper company regional managers redeemed the whole thing. I literally laughed til I cried with Ricky Gervais and Steve Carrell (who never said a single word and never broke face. Dear Lord, that's talent!)


• Speaking of Steve Carrell, The Office is BACK! along with HIMYM, Heroes, and a little show I like to call Greys. It's a full week, but this whole DVR thing is rockin'

nerdy smirk

So, I am a nerd in many aspects...paricularly when it comes to research. Thus I love to be a part of research surveys. One that I am involved in is the MLB FansAtBat. The surveys have been about all different aspects of baseball, broadcasting, marketing, etc. Today's survey asked just 4 questions:

1. Who do you think will win the ALCS? Angels
2. Who do you think will win the NLCS? Cubs
3. If the Cubs and White Sox were to meet in the World Series, what would you call it? The Midwest Classic (I am not clever when it comes to Chicago)
...and here's where my smirk comes into effect...
4. If the Angels and Dodgers were to meet in the World Series, what would you call it?
THE EPITOME OF EVIL.
Ü smirk Ü

2 Things...

So, I am looking forward to November more than normal this year. I mean, there's the usual joy of fall turning to winter, Thanksgiving, getting to wear sweaters, etc. But this year, I get to add 2 more things to my list....


Thing 1:

Oh, nothing too big, just a little thing I like to call Bond 22!!!! Quantum of Solace, baby!!!! True, the release date got bumped back a week and I had to re-enter it in my calendar but I trust it'll be worth the wait. November 14th, my friends. Mark it down. Until then...

hmmm....let the lust-fest begin....I mean...

Thing 2: There was a certain show that I got hooked on this year for the first time. I may have totally predicted the winner from his audition on. I may miss hearing him sing every week (I definitely don't listen to Mariah Carey's "Always Be My Baby" the same way anymore). But, soon I can listen to him sing every stinkin' day. That's right, David Cook has got himself a release date. The album is gonna drop on November 18 and I'm gonna drop some dinero that day, no doubt about it.

a sad side note: when I updated my iPhone recently I did so on a computer that was not the one I originally had my itunes account on, and I lost my music from my iPhone...including my 3 David Cook songs (yes, I was that person...but at least they were 3 good ones-Always Be My Baby, Where the Streets Have No Name, and Time of My Life)

Come on November! (Though it's already halfway through September...how the crap did that happen?!?!)

typo?

So, "corporate" recently underwent a server change thus changing some things about our website. I went to put up some photos from our big event we had last week and made a little discovery. We had different albums like "Impossible Open" "Ladies Club" "New Year's Eve" etc. and down at the bottom of the page was an album with pictures from Titleist Demo Day last year entitled:

"Titleist Golfers."

Well, in the change, they somehow forgot to include
"-leist" in the album name.

Needless to say after showing it off to the rest of the office I changed it. As my boss put it, it's a good thing the pictures didn't match the title otherwise we'd be looking for new jobs. Or getting a whole different clientele. I don't direct THAT kind of fun.

the office/space

I had a moment today that was straight out of a combination of The Office and Office Space. Actually more than a moment...it was most of my day. We spent like a thousand bucks to get a new fancy color laser printer and no one cared to mention it to us that HP printers will only work "optimally" with certain paper. So I am pretty sure I wasted over half of a reem of cardstock and then chatted with a HP specialist to discover that the paper we were using was twice as heavy as it should be, thus jamming EVERYTIME I attempted to print (after working perfectly for the first week). I truly wanted to take a baseball bat to it. And for the past couple weeks I've been identifying with an unexpected member of The Office staff-Michael Scott. Not in the horribly inappropriate comments-agonizing to watch way, but in the having to deal with corporate way. Who knew being a Director of Fun came with office politics and the desire to destroy company property?

and then....

The Nuts season is over. Though the Nut season is just beginning with harvest. Weird. Even weirder, the fact that I now only have one job. I really don't know what I am going to do with all my time in the evenings. It's always bittersweet for the season to end when you are working. As a fan, I never want it to end. But as an employee, one can only handle so many long extra-inning games, only so many stands packed with teeny bopper cheerleaders and their families running around and yelling "Everywhere we go...people wanna know...", only so many games with horrendous umpiring calls (and also getting teased for a friendship with an ump with an accent), only so many games where it's 100 degrees and I'm stuck wearing a polyester jersey, khaki shorts, with socks and shoes on my feet. But at the same time, I can't imagine spending my summer any other way now. What would my life be like if I didn't get paid to hang out at a ballpark? It's great. And I really do love all the fan interaction. Great stories. Here's one:
The littlest Orr kid was hanging out on the concourse by the Applegate Johnston Guest Service Counter, being his rambuncous-self. He proceeded to steal a pile of baseball cards that were sitting on the counter. Teacher Jen came out and asked him to give them back since they were not his cards. He pouted while he returned them. Then Terry the Beast who was in charge of the Applegate Johnston Guest Service Counter and owner of the baseball cards (courtesty of the Nestle Drumstick Summer Baseball Tour) said he could have them. Teacher Jen again returned to say the Orr kid could have the cards if he promised to no longer beat up/be mean to Nancy THE Promo Girl. The littlest Orr kid agreed and took his treasure of baseball cards back to his seat. I followed shortly to hang out and catch the end of the game with Nancy. As we are standing there watching the end of the game, the littlest Orr kid suddenly appeared, put the pile of baseball cards in front of me and said "I'd rather hit Nancy."
Absolutely classic. There were plenty of gems throughout the season. Many a good play made on the field. Many a bad play made on the field (the Nuts had a knack for getting thrown out at home plate. If memory serves, it happened like 4 times in a row. and again in the playoffs. Though they also couldn't turn a double play in the playoffs but I digress). Many a good time chilling in the press box (and yelling at a production crew member to pull up his pants, no one wants to see his chones). Many a Play Ball kid getting coached by me and J.W. Many a time I wished for another brawl like the extreme one we had with the Ports--during dollar beer inning. Many a microphone drop (actually only 8 on the year...pretty good considering girl pants don't have pockets like boy pants). Many a good time showing up late but making amends with bags of jenny smith cookies (new favorite quote regarding my cookies: "I don't think it's possible to love anything as much as we love your cookies"- the Beast). Many a Nut joke. Many a free snow cone.
And then...one playoff game at JTF, one game up at Stockton as a fan and then my season was done. I didn't get to go the series finale as I was directing the fun at my real job. But that was it. Suddenly, the season was over. And is over. Who knows if they'll ask me back next year and if I would say yes if they did (right now, yes) but it was a blast. Now back to civilian life as a baseball fan (I WILL see Lincecum pitch before this season is over. I WILL!) and Director of Fun. It's a hard life but someone's got to do it.