I got the second in what I'm sure will be a series of patronizing emails today from Yahoo's "customer care." Long story short, they assume that I did something to delete some aspect of my account and they're treating me like a moron. So the switch to Gmail is now fully complete. I will likely still keep the Yahoo to use messenger and sign up for junk mail.
I have to say, for all my ranting, I'm actually oddly sad about having to abandon my yahoo account. This was pretty much the first email I ever had, outside of college.
ETA: For some reason I just saw this in my 'drafts' folder but it was never posted. Hmmm.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
screw you maytag!
OK, I will admit, this rant is technically about a year too late. But lately, I've been seeing this new series of Maytag commercials, you know, the ones with the younger, better-looking version of the Maytag repairman who still doesn't have anything to fix because Maytags are so reliable? Every time I see one of these commercials, I cannot refrain from screaming "F*#K YOU MAYTAG!" at the television. I think my neighbors think I have Tourettes. I can't help it though, those commercials infuriate me. I hate them with the intensity of a thousand burning suns. This is waaayyyy beyond the Bank One nonsense of several years ago. Maytags are complete garbage. Tell your friends. Spread the word.
So here's the story. Three years ago, when Troy first moved to Dallas, he rented a house which did not come with a refrigerator (apparently, this is common down here). I flew down to check out the place and help him get settled (I was still living in Chicago), and we went to buy a fridge from Home Depot. We bought what we thought was a nice, reasonably-priced side-by-side fridge, took it home that day and hooked it up ourselves. Troy loved this fridge. He loved the filtered water, he loved the icemaker, he loved it with an intensity that I didn't think was possible for him to feel towards a household appliance.
Flash-forward to two years later, we are now living in our own home, and I am about 5 months pregnant. I'd been hearing the fridge make this kind of weird buzzing noise, on and off. I mentioned it to Troy and suggested maybe getting someone to come out and take a look at it. He said that he thought it was just a minor thing and he'd take a look at it when he got a chance. Well, he finally got around to looking at it and realized that it was NOT minor, in fact, he thought it was probably something wrong with the compressor, which was running super hot. We resolved to call someone in to look at it first thing in the morning.
When I got up the next morning, the freezer was dead. When I opened the door, water from the ice bin poured out onto the floor. I started freaking out. I found a local service who sent someone to come take a look at it within the hour and he confirmed that the compressor was totally shot. OK, side note for those of you that don't know anything about refrigerators (and this used to include me), the compressor is like the main component of the fridge. It is what makes your fridge (and freezer) cold. Without it, you just have a big box with some fans and doors. Now, hello, this fridge was only two years old! What the hell kind of fridge breaks in two years?
The service guy was super nice and told me that the compressor should still be under warranty, and that if I called Maytag, they should come fix it for free. Just for kicks, I innocently ask him how much it would cost for him to fix the compressor. I figured if it wasn't too bad, maybe it'd be worth it to have it done on the spot. Well, you know how much it costs to have your compressor replaced? $500. I should add at this point that, brand new, the fridge only cost about $700.
I try to stay optimistic. I call Maytag, tell them my compressor is broken. First, they start by telling me that they cannot accept an outside diagnosis and need to have their own guy come and check it. Fine. I start calling the list of Authorized Maytag Repair places that they give me. Guess what? Most of them no longer service Maytags, and of those that do, NOT A SINGLE ONE SERVICES COMPRESSORS. This is a bad bad sign. This means that A) their refrigerators and compressors are such garbage that no one wants to waste their time on them and/or B) Maytag likely does not take very good care of their service contractors and no one wants to deal with them anymore, probably because they are not getting paid. I call Maytag back. They give me more names. The rep I talk to says that if none of those will come, then they will make an allowance for me to have my own person come out. I call the second list. None of those places service Maytag anymore either. I call Maytag AGAIN and ask about using a non-authorized repairman, like the previous person suggested. This rep basically accuses me of lying, saying that they would never authorize that under any circumstance and they can't believe that anyone would tell me that. I think I hung up on this person.
At this point, I am seriously freaking out. I have food melting and spoiling. Troy has come home from work with bags of ice and we're furiously trying to pack things into coolers. We cook and eat an absurd amount of random frozen food for lunch. There's talk of maybe just going out and buy a brand-new fridge, even though we can't really afford it. Pregnancy hormones are not helping my situation. Troy starts trolling Craigslist for used fridges.
Oh, but it gets worse. I call Maytag back for, I don't know, the fourth or fifth time and tell them that none of the places they gave me will service my fridge and what the hell am I supposed to do now? I don't say this to the rep on the phone, but frankly, I can't understand how their database can be so hopelessly out of date. Half the places I call say they quit Maytag over a year ago. The rep starts naming all these random town, asking me how far they are. Most of them are at least an hour away, which means that even if they do service Maytags, chances are I will never convince them to come all the way out here. This is getting totally ridiculous. So my last option is to have their own certified repairman come out. Supposedly, this is different because this is an independent guy who works directly for Maytag. The only hitch with this is that the first slot they have is in two weeks. Are they f*king serious? At this point, I'm about ready to burst into tears. They tell me that I can have a "rush" appointment for an extra $50. Fine. Whatever. Just send someone. I'll pay. I don't care anymore, I just want it fixed. The first 'rush' slot is in four days. What else can I do at this point? It gets better still. The phone rep tells me that this appointment is only for a diagnosis and he won't have any parts or be able to fix anything. "If the compressor is indeed broken, then he will order the part and make another appointment to return and complete the repair." And how long will that be? "Well, if the part is backordered, it may take up two weeks." I am both fumingly pissed off and openly weeping. I ask them, but what am I supposed to do? I aim for some sympathy. What would you do if you were in this situation? How do you expect anyone to live without a fridge for two weeks? I get nothing. Fine, so I kick into angry mode and I pretty much accuse them of stealing food from the mouth of my unborn child. But those m*therf**king bastards have me. There is absolutely nothing else I can do but accept my fate. For days, I can barely even tell anyone the story without almost crying.
Whew, I'm exhausted just thinking about this again. Long story short? We went without a fridge for almost two weeks. As much as I wanted to rip the repairman a new asshole when he finally showed up, I realized that he was not the one at fault. In fact, he was super nice and very apologetic about the whole situation. We did end up buying a small chest freezer from Home Depot and a used mini-fridge from a friend, in addition to borrowing a gigantic cooler from another friend. I still sort of think that we should have bought a new fridge, gotten the old one fixed by Maytag and then sold it, but Troy thought it would be bad for our karma to pass off the shitty fridge to someone else. My philosophy was that hey, it's got a brand new compressor, so it's almost like a new fridge, right? *sigh* Yes, I know, not really. Now every single little pop and buzz I hear makes me nervous that it's going to crap out again any day now. Stupid Maytag.
I should also mention that Troy also curses Maytag at every opportunity. In fact, if anything, he hates them even more than I do. He not only cusses out the commercials, but also anytime we pass a store (there's several in the Dallas area). There's even been talk of throwing a brick through the store window. I think he feels betrayed by the fridge. He loved that fridge and it let him down in the worst way possible.
So here's the story. Three years ago, when Troy first moved to Dallas, he rented a house which did not come with a refrigerator (apparently, this is common down here). I flew down to check out the place and help him get settled (I was still living in Chicago), and we went to buy a fridge from Home Depot. We bought what we thought was a nice, reasonably-priced side-by-side fridge, took it home that day and hooked it up ourselves. Troy loved this fridge. He loved the filtered water, he loved the icemaker, he loved it with an intensity that I didn't think was possible for him to feel towards a household appliance.
Flash-forward to two years later, we are now living in our own home, and I am about 5 months pregnant. I'd been hearing the fridge make this kind of weird buzzing noise, on and off. I mentioned it to Troy and suggested maybe getting someone to come out and take a look at it. He said that he thought it was just a minor thing and he'd take a look at it when he got a chance. Well, he finally got around to looking at it and realized that it was NOT minor, in fact, he thought it was probably something wrong with the compressor, which was running super hot. We resolved to call someone in to look at it first thing in the morning.
When I got up the next morning, the freezer was dead. When I opened the door, water from the ice bin poured out onto the floor. I started freaking out. I found a local service who sent someone to come take a look at it within the hour and he confirmed that the compressor was totally shot. OK, side note for those of you that don't know anything about refrigerators (and this used to include me), the compressor is like the main component of the fridge. It is what makes your fridge (and freezer) cold. Without it, you just have a big box with some fans and doors. Now, hello, this fridge was only two years old! What the hell kind of fridge breaks in two years?
The service guy was super nice and told me that the compressor should still be under warranty, and that if I called Maytag, they should come fix it for free. Just for kicks, I innocently ask him how much it would cost for him to fix the compressor. I figured if it wasn't too bad, maybe it'd be worth it to have it done on the spot. Well, you know how much it costs to have your compressor replaced? $500. I should add at this point that, brand new, the fridge only cost about $700.
I try to stay optimistic. I call Maytag, tell them my compressor is broken. First, they start by telling me that they cannot accept an outside diagnosis and need to have their own guy come and check it. Fine. I start calling the list of Authorized Maytag Repair places that they give me. Guess what? Most of them no longer service Maytags, and of those that do, NOT A SINGLE ONE SERVICES COMPRESSORS. This is a bad bad sign. This means that A) their refrigerators and compressors are such garbage that no one wants to waste their time on them and/or B) Maytag likely does not take very good care of their service contractors and no one wants to deal with them anymore, probably because they are not getting paid. I call Maytag back. They give me more names. The rep I talk to says that if none of those will come, then they will make an allowance for me to have my own person come out. I call the second list. None of those places service Maytag anymore either. I call Maytag AGAIN and ask about using a non-authorized repairman, like the previous person suggested. This rep basically accuses me of lying, saying that they would never authorize that under any circumstance and they can't believe that anyone would tell me that. I think I hung up on this person.
At this point, I am seriously freaking out. I have food melting and spoiling. Troy has come home from work with bags of ice and we're furiously trying to pack things into coolers. We cook and eat an absurd amount of random frozen food for lunch. There's talk of maybe just going out and buy a brand-new fridge, even though we can't really afford it. Pregnancy hormones are not helping my situation. Troy starts trolling Craigslist for used fridges.
Oh, but it gets worse. I call Maytag back for, I don't know, the fourth or fifth time and tell them that none of the places they gave me will service my fridge and what the hell am I supposed to do now? I don't say this to the rep on the phone, but frankly, I can't understand how their database can be so hopelessly out of date. Half the places I call say they quit Maytag over a year ago. The rep starts naming all these random town, asking me how far they are. Most of them are at least an hour away, which means that even if they do service Maytags, chances are I will never convince them to come all the way out here. This is getting totally ridiculous. So my last option is to have their own certified repairman come out. Supposedly, this is different because this is an independent guy who works directly for Maytag. The only hitch with this is that the first slot they have is in two weeks. Are they f*king serious? At this point, I'm about ready to burst into tears. They tell me that I can have a "rush" appointment for an extra $50. Fine. Whatever. Just send someone. I'll pay. I don't care anymore, I just want it fixed. The first 'rush' slot is in four days. What else can I do at this point? It gets better still. The phone rep tells me that this appointment is only for a diagnosis and he won't have any parts or be able to fix anything. "If the compressor is indeed broken, then he will order the part and make another appointment to return and complete the repair." And how long will that be? "Well, if the part is backordered, it may take up two weeks." I am both fumingly pissed off and openly weeping. I ask them, but what am I supposed to do? I aim for some sympathy. What would you do if you were in this situation? How do you expect anyone to live without a fridge for two weeks? I get nothing. Fine, so I kick into angry mode and I pretty much accuse them of stealing food from the mouth of my unborn child. But those m*therf**king bastards have me. There is absolutely nothing else I can do but accept my fate. For days, I can barely even tell anyone the story without almost crying.
Whew, I'm exhausted just thinking about this again. Long story short? We went without a fridge for almost two weeks. As much as I wanted to rip the repairman a new asshole when he finally showed up, I realized that he was not the one at fault. In fact, he was super nice and very apologetic about the whole situation. We did end up buying a small chest freezer from Home Depot and a used mini-fridge from a friend, in addition to borrowing a gigantic cooler from another friend. I still sort of think that we should have bought a new fridge, gotten the old one fixed by Maytag and then sold it, but Troy thought it would be bad for our karma to pass off the shitty fridge to someone else. My philosophy was that hey, it's got a brand new compressor, so it's almost like a new fridge, right? *sigh* Yes, I know, not really. Now every single little pop and buzz I hear makes me nervous that it's going to crap out again any day now. Stupid Maytag.
I should also mention that Troy also curses Maytag at every opportunity. In fact, if anything, he hates them even more than I do. He not only cusses out the commercials, but also anytime we pass a store (there's several in the Dallas area). There's even been talk of throwing a brick through the store window. I think he feels betrayed by the fridge. He loved that fridge and it let him down in the worst way possible.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
stupid yahoo
I've been using Yahoo mail for almost 10 years now. For some reason, when I first signed up for an account, I had an email address that was different from my actual login name. It's been long enough now that I can't quite remember the reason why. It was either because there was some sort of glitch that prevented me from using the same for both, or maybe after signing up for a login, I changed my mind about my email. I don't know. It's not that important. The point is, I've been using Yahoo mail for a long time. It is my primary email account and I rely on it for many things.
Anyways, for the past couple years (give or take a few months), we've had DSL service through AT&T, which is partnered with Yahoo. This allowed me to 'merge' my Yahoo with the AT&T service and gave me access to some of their premium services. I thought nothing of doing this when it was offered, and in fact, had done the same thing when we had DSL in Austin. Well, we recently switched to Verizon's new FIOS service (which, by the way, is super sweet) and cancelled the DSL. That was over a month ago now. The other day, I got a warning that I was no longer subscribed to AT&T and would have to unmerge my account. No biggie, right? Well, yesterday, Troy points out to me that my emails are coming from a different address now, my login name @yahoo. I think, hmm, that's odd, poke around my yahoo settings, and think well, no big deal. Then today, I discover that my original email address has been completely disabled and all emails sent to it are bouncing. What the hell?! I'm guessing that this stems from the 'unmerging' although I really can't figure out why they would do that. I'm still waiting for a response from yahoo's tech support.
In the meantime, my options were to use the login name email (which I hate because it's a random combination of numbers and letters that most would probably interpret as fake/spam), or to just change to something else entirely. Being the bitter and vindictive type that I am, willing to cut off my own nose to spite my face, I opted for the latter. So I got to spend the better part of my afternoon migrating to my shiny new Gmail account, entering contacts, emailing people to let them know I'd switched, and then changing everything else I've ever registered for as well. Ugh. What a pain in the ass!
And can I just say? Gmail is weird. I'm so used to the Yahoo mail format that I think it's really going to take me a while to get used to another format. I'm also annoyed because my name is common enough that I don't think I will ever be able to have an address of myname @whatever without having a long series of numbers after it. I guess I should be glad I married someone with an uncommon and unwieldy name.
On the plus side, I suppose I should mention that sending out a mass email to update contact info is always a nice excuse to get back in touch with people. I heard back from people that I hadn't talked to in a while, and it was really nice to reconnect.
Anyways, for the past couple years (give or take a few months), we've had DSL service through AT&T, which is partnered with Yahoo. This allowed me to 'merge' my Yahoo with the AT&T service and gave me access to some of their premium services. I thought nothing of doing this when it was offered, and in fact, had done the same thing when we had DSL in Austin. Well, we recently switched to Verizon's new FIOS service (which, by the way, is super sweet) and cancelled the DSL. That was over a month ago now. The other day, I got a warning that I was no longer subscribed to AT&T and would have to unmerge my account. No biggie, right? Well, yesterday, Troy points out to me that my emails are coming from a different address now, my login name @yahoo. I think, hmm, that's odd, poke around my yahoo settings, and think well, no big deal. Then today, I discover that my original email address has been completely disabled and all emails sent to it are bouncing. What the hell?! I'm guessing that this stems from the 'unmerging' although I really can't figure out why they would do that. I'm still waiting for a response from yahoo's tech support.
In the meantime, my options were to use the login name email (which I hate because it's a random combination of numbers and letters that most would probably interpret as fake/spam), or to just change to something else entirely. Being the bitter and vindictive type that I am, willing to cut off my own nose to spite my face, I opted for the latter. So I got to spend the better part of my afternoon migrating to my shiny new Gmail account, entering contacts, emailing people to let them know I'd switched, and then changing everything else I've ever registered for as well. Ugh. What a pain in the ass!
And can I just say? Gmail is weird. I'm so used to the Yahoo mail format that I think it's really going to take me a while to get used to another format. I'm also annoyed because my name is common enough that I don't think I will ever be able to have an address of myname @whatever without having a long series of numbers after it. I guess I should be glad I married someone with an uncommon and unwieldy name.
On the plus side, I suppose I should mention that sending out a mass email to update contact info is always a nice excuse to get back in touch with people. I heard back from people that I hadn't talked to in a while, and it was really nice to reconnect.
summer reading
Despite all my complaining about how I don't have any time because of the baby, blah, blah, blah, I've actually managed to read a few books (besides Harry Potter) this summer. Even before going to cooking school, I've always been obsessed by food, and I somewhat secretly would love to be a food writer myself (if not a food photographer or stylist). So I recently finished Heat by Bill Buford, and I'm also wrapping up The Man Who Ate Everything by Jeffrey Steingarten and The Nasty Bits by Anthony Bourdain. I know, it seems crazy that I've been alternating between reading three different books at once, but they are all non-fiction, and both Steingarten's and Bourdain's books are collections of shorter pieces that don't need to be read in any particular order.
You probably best know Jeffrey Steingarten as the occasional judge on Iron Chef America. He's the cranky old white guy who uses a lot of big words. He's otherwise known for being the food critic for Vogue. Anyways, Steingarten's book is actually 10 years old, but considered a "classic" in food writing. I happened to come across it at Half Price Books and thought, I'd give it a whirl. I'm actually not quite done with it yet, but so far, it's pretty good. I think he won me over in the first chapter, which was about how he became obsessed with baking the perfect loaf of bread, going so far as to order 50 lb. sacks of a certain kind of flour, freshly ground and directly from the mill. Sounds like something I would do, if I didn't know that Troy would freak out. The book has chapters covering all sorts of things that I'm sure were new and innovative at the time, but are kind of commonplace now. But I think that's what makes it kind of interesting since it really shows how far attitudes toward food (and particularly, dieting) have come in the last ten years. I think people nowadays are much more open-minded and interested in trying new and/or authentic things, even if they do seem weird or scary.
I have to confess, I am a huge fan of Anthony Bourdain. Kitchen Confidential is one of my all-time favorite books, and I re-read it at least once a year. The Nasty Bits is pretty much what the name implies: it's a collection of random odds and ends that he's written over the years for various magazines. Some of it is definitely repetitive, especially if you're already familiar with his general attitudes toward cooking and the restaurant business. Others are obviously newer and written during the time since he started doing his Travel Channel show, and I think those are the best pieces. I have to say, for an ex-junkie who was really only moderately successful as a chef, he's really hit the jackpot with his travel show. I wish I could convince someone to pay me to travel all over the world and eat. But I digress. Overall, I enjoyed the book, but again, that's because I thoroughly enjoy his aggressively overblown and self-important style. Oddly though, it ended with a short piece of fiction about a talented chef desperate for celebrity status to the detriment of all else. After reading Bourdain's hilarious Top Chef blog, I can't help but wonder if this character is modeled after Rocco DiSpirito.
Last, but not least, Heat, which is subtitled "An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany," was far and away one of the most enjoyable food-related books that I've read in a long time. I read it almost straight through (a rarity for me), and I was almost disappointed when it ended and I had to return it to the library. Heat is kind of starts out as kind of a cross between a biography of Mario Batali and an exploration of what drives people to become so passionate about food that they must share it with the public. But about halfway through, it turns more into a chronicle of the author's own transformation into one of those guys. I pretty much loved every aspect of this book, which is not surprising because again, the author had a certain obsessive quality that I can totally appreciate. For example, at one point, he became obsessed with finding the point in Italian history where people started making pasta with eggs instead of just flour and water. Not only did he scour through numerous medieval era cookbooks (in their original Italian, no less), but he even went so far as to contact Italian scholars and the head of the Pasta Museum (who knew there was such a thing?) trying to find the answer.
I also really liked getting to see another side of Batali other than the jovial, sanitized-for-television version that's on Food Network. Although, from what I could tell, that tv persona really isn't that different from his real life one except for maybe a little more exaggerated and a little less foul-mouthed. I'd say this book is definitely up there with Kitchen Confidential and Soul of a Chef by Michael Ruhlman. I'm going to be keeping my eye out for a used copy (or the paperback) and re-reading it soon.
You probably best know Jeffrey Steingarten as the occasional judge on Iron Chef America. He's the cranky old white guy who uses a lot of big words. He's otherwise known for being the food critic for Vogue. Anyways, Steingarten's book is actually 10 years old, but considered a "classic" in food writing. I happened to come across it at Half Price Books and thought, I'd give it a whirl. I'm actually not quite done with it yet, but so far, it's pretty good. I think he won me over in the first chapter, which was about how he became obsessed with baking the perfect loaf of bread, going so far as to order 50 lb. sacks of a certain kind of flour, freshly ground and directly from the mill. Sounds like something I would do, if I didn't know that Troy would freak out. The book has chapters covering all sorts of things that I'm sure were new and innovative at the time, but are kind of commonplace now. But I think that's what makes it kind of interesting since it really shows how far attitudes toward food (and particularly, dieting) have come in the last ten years. I think people nowadays are much more open-minded and interested in trying new and/or authentic things, even if they do seem weird or scary.
I have to confess, I am a huge fan of Anthony Bourdain. Kitchen Confidential is one of my all-time favorite books, and I re-read it at least once a year. The Nasty Bits is pretty much what the name implies: it's a collection of random odds and ends that he's written over the years for various magazines. Some of it is definitely repetitive, especially if you're already familiar with his general attitudes toward cooking and the restaurant business. Others are obviously newer and written during the time since he started doing his Travel Channel show, and I think those are the best pieces. I have to say, for an ex-junkie who was really only moderately successful as a chef, he's really hit the jackpot with his travel show. I wish I could convince someone to pay me to travel all over the world and eat. But I digress. Overall, I enjoyed the book, but again, that's because I thoroughly enjoy his aggressively overblown and self-important style. Oddly though, it ended with a short piece of fiction about a talented chef desperate for celebrity status to the detriment of all else. After reading Bourdain's hilarious Top Chef blog, I can't help but wonder if this character is modeled after Rocco DiSpirito.
Last, but not least, Heat, which is subtitled "An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany," was far and away one of the most enjoyable food-related books that I've read in a long time. I read it almost straight through (a rarity for me), and I was almost disappointed when it ended and I had to return it to the library. Heat is kind of starts out as kind of a cross between a biography of Mario Batali and an exploration of what drives people to become so passionate about food that they must share it with the public. But about halfway through, it turns more into a chronicle of the author's own transformation into one of those guys. I pretty much loved every aspect of this book, which is not surprising because again, the author had a certain obsessive quality that I can totally appreciate. For example, at one point, he became obsessed with finding the point in Italian history where people started making pasta with eggs instead of just flour and water. Not only did he scour through numerous medieval era cookbooks (in their original Italian, no less), but he even went so far as to contact Italian scholars and the head of the Pasta Museum (who knew there was such a thing?) trying to find the answer.
I also really liked getting to see another side of Batali other than the jovial, sanitized-for-television version that's on Food Network. Although, from what I could tell, that tv persona really isn't that different from his real life one except for maybe a little more exaggerated and a little less foul-mouthed. I'd say this book is definitely up there with Kitchen Confidential and Soul of a Chef by Michael Ruhlman. I'm going to be keeping my eye out for a used copy (or the paperback) and re-reading it soon.
Monday, August 20, 2007
yet another blog
I went ahead and started a separate blog for all my crafty stuff: http://craftyasiangirl.blogspot.com/. I'm going to go ahead and move previous craft-related posts there and will probably just delete them from here eventually.
Wooooowww....
I just saw that there's going to be a Flavor of Love 3. Now, don't get me wrong, because I love me some Flav, but even I think this may be taking it a bit far. I became totally obsessed with the first season of Flavor of Love, unable to look away like a bad trainwreck gaper. I even managed to drag Troy down with me into the morass. I mean, the sheer ridiculousness of watching women fight over a man wearing a viking helmet...awesome.
Second season: also highly entertaining, even though a lot of the girls seemed to much more conscious of their on-camera personae. I Love New York? Eh. Not so much. Granted, "New York" was easily the crazier than all the other b*tches on both seasons of FoL combined, and she made for some excellent drama, but I hated her. In fact, I hated her enough that I couldn't have cared less if she found true love or not. I still sort of watched her show, but somehow watching big burly grown-ass men cry like little girls was more than I could really handle. Where did they find these guys? I did take kind of a perverse glee in the fact that she got dumped at the end in the most humiliating and public manner possible. Heehee. I know, I'm going to hell. I also saw (during the commercials for the FoL3 casting special, of course) a commercial for I Love NY2, coming this October. I don't think I'm going to waste my time on this at all.
Oh, and I almost forgot about Charm School. *Sigh* Against my better judgment, I watched that one too. It was somewhat admirable in its premise of self-improvement. But really, c'mon. The only reason anyone was watching was to see more catfights. And since when is Mo'Nique, star of such hits as Phat Girlz, considered the arbiter of taste and class? But hey, kudos to VH1 for strip-mining the Flavor Flav franchise and extracting every single penny possible. On a side note, Comedy Central had a Roast of Flavor Flav last week that was actually pretty funny, if only for its relentless bashing of Carrot Top, who I didn't even realize was even still alive (wow, what happened to his face?).
So all of this got me thinking about just how much reality garbage is out there right now, especially on basic cable. I've realized that most of the shows come in one of two varieties: celebrity or competition. And I'm assuming that they're all rip-offs or iterations of some of the most successful versions, Project Runway and hmmm, I guess The Osbournes?
So now we have producers scrambling to dig up every half-ass quasi-celebrity has-been (preferably with a history of "outrageous" or "controversial" behavior, give them their own show, throw in as many obstacles as they can engineer, and then let the trainwreck unfold in front of the cameras. OR, they have some sort of competition to become the next "star" of the station's chosen genre, i.e Next Food Network Star or Design Star on HGTV. Just today, I stumbled across "Skating's Next Star" on WE. I kid you not. It's hosted by Kristi Yamaguchi (who I instantly lost almost all respect for) and predictably, features a gaggle of figure skating washouts who compete before a panel of skating celebrity judges (all Olympic medalists, no less). The prize is a moderate wad of cash, a feature article in some ice skating magazine, and management. I'll confess, being the junkie that I am, I watched a couple episodes. It was bad. Almost unwatchable, even for me.
Some of the other reality nonsense that is currently on (most of which I have only seen commercials for):
American Princess - a bunch of American women go to England and compete to earn some sort of princess-y title. I'm assuming that a lot of it involves etiquette and decorum. No, I'm not making this up.
The Two Coreys - Yes, that's right. Corey Haim living with Corey Feldman (and his new wife), trying to recapture their glory days.
Scott Baio is 45 and Single - fairly self-explanatory; Chachi trying to figure out out why he has commitment issues.
Mission: Man Band - A bunch of washed up dudes from 90s boy bands forms their own new 'supergroup,' again, trying to regain former glory. I watched one episode and one of the dudes is the guy from Color Me Badd who kind of looked like George Michael, except that he's gained like, 100 lbs. since then. I actually didn't recognize him and spent most of the episode trying to figure out who the hell he was.
The Pick-Up Artist - OK, this one, I watch and kind of enjoy. Granted, the main guy's name is "Mystery," (ridiculous) and he's usually wearing a giant fuzzy hat and/or goggles on his head (even more ridiculous), but the goal of helping a bunch of geeky guys build their confidence with women is actually kind of admirable. I was initially worried that they would basically be encouraging the geeks to be as amoral as possible, and crushing the ones that fail, but it actually seems to fairly positive so far.
I'm sure there are more. But my IQ has dropped enough points already this summer.
Friday, August 17, 2007
dance fever...actually, more like the dance sniffles
The final ultimate farewell finale of So You Think You Can Dance was on last night and again, I can't say it was all that spectacular or exciting. In fact, this season as a whole was really kind of lackluster. Yes, yes, there were lots of this season's "favorite" numbers (more on that later). But there was also soooooo much ridiculous filler. I audibly groaned when I first turned the show on and realized that it another TWO HOUR droolfest.
So, first things first. Despite my prediction from the other night, Sabra came away the big winner. I was pretty surprised since she kinda had a weak showing on Wednesday, although again, I think it was not so much that she performed poorly and more that she fell victim to bad luck and bad choreography. More surprising to me though was that Lacey was the first one out. I really thought that she would be in the final two, along with either Sabra or Danny. Neil didn't really have a chance, in my opinion. He's got 12-year-old girl appeal, but that's about it. He oddly reminds me of Travis from last year, if only for the fact that he's short and got kind of spikey blond hair.
Last night's perfomances fell into three categories. Off the top of my head, in the "Oooohhh" category: Lacey & Danny's samba, Jesus & Sara's weird bag-lady routine, and Neil & Sabra's 'table' dance. In the "Meh" category: Pasha & Lauren's Skeleton dance (OK, so the entrance is cool, but it is otherwise only an okay routine), Jamie and Hok's bird thingy (what is it with Wade and his routines involving animals?), Neil and Lacey's Mia routine with the flowers (the one that made everyone all weepy), Sabra & Dominic's slow hip hop routine (where Shane ripped off his own routine from last year), Pasha & Sara's west coast swing, the Matrix-y group number (which I probably would've liked better if it didn't feature Lauren). And last, but not least the "Bah" category: the Lion King group routine, Neil & Sara's disco, Danny & Anya's fox trot (Anya kind of irks me).
I'm realizing as I write this that a lot of the dances fell into the Meh category. I don't know if that's just because they really were unspectacular, or if it has more to do with my overall lukewarm feelings toward the show this year. Last year's show just seemed to have more really memorable, show-stopping numbers that I was excited to see again. This year....not so much.
Other random thoughts: Cat's dress was especially heinous last night. Just because you're 8-feet tall does not mean you can wear all sorts of ruffly nonsense and pass it off as fashion. I did think it was cool that they brought back that awesome clogger guy and gave him a chance to perform on his own, as well as that little guy in the hat who popped. Also, the whole "Cat and Nigel dancing" joke was really really dumb. Not that I was dying to see it, but it was dumb to build it up and then have the payoff be a silly little web cartoon. Bah.
That about wraps it up. One last complaint. They announced the winner about 5 seconds before the show ended and then rolled credits. It would have been nice if they could've showed a little more of the happy celebration. I mean, I think they could've sacrificed 10 seconds out of the endless montages (or maybe even the whole Ryan Cabrera "I Will Remember" performance...yeesh).
So, first things first. Despite my prediction from the other night, Sabra came away the big winner. I was pretty surprised since she kinda had a weak showing on Wednesday, although again, I think it was not so much that she performed poorly and more that she fell victim to bad luck and bad choreography. More surprising to me though was that Lacey was the first one out. I really thought that she would be in the final two, along with either Sabra or Danny. Neil didn't really have a chance, in my opinion. He's got 12-year-old girl appeal, but that's about it. He oddly reminds me of Travis from last year, if only for the fact that he's short and got kind of spikey blond hair.Last night's perfomances fell into three categories. Off the top of my head, in the "Oooohhh" category: Lacey & Danny's samba, Jesus & Sara's weird bag-lady routine, and Neil & Sabra's 'table' dance. In the "Meh" category: Pasha & Lauren's Skeleton dance (OK, so the entrance is cool, but it is otherwise only an okay routine), Jamie and Hok's bird thingy (what is it with Wade and his routines involving animals?), Neil and Lacey's Mia routine with the flowers (the one that made everyone all weepy), Sabra & Dominic's slow hip hop routine (where Shane ripped off his own routine from last year), Pasha & Sara's west coast swing, the Matrix-y group number (which I probably would've liked better if it didn't feature Lauren). And last, but not least the "Bah" category: the Lion King group routine, Neil & Sara's disco, Danny & Anya's fox trot (Anya kind of irks me).
I'm realizing as I write this that a lot of the dances fell into the Meh category. I don't know if that's just because they really were unspectacular, or if it has more to do with my overall lukewarm feelings toward the show this year. Last year's show just seemed to have more really memorable, show-stopping numbers that I was excited to see again. This year....not so much.
Other random thoughts: Cat's dress was especially heinous last night. Just because you're 8-feet tall does not mean you can wear all sorts of ruffly nonsense and pass it off as fashion. I did think it was cool that they brought back that awesome clogger guy and gave him a chance to perform on his own, as well as that little guy in the hat who popped. Also, the whole "Cat and Nigel dancing" joke was really really dumb. Not that I was dying to see it, but it was dumb to build it up and then have the payoff be a silly little web cartoon. Bah.
That about wraps it up. One last complaint. They announced the winner about 5 seconds before the show ended and then rolled credits. It would have been nice if they could've showed a little more of the happy celebration. I mean, I think they could've sacrificed 10 seconds out of the endless montages (or maybe even the whole Ryan Cabrera "I Will Remember" performance...yeesh).
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
reality roundup
Let me just preface this whole thing by saying, yes, all these reality shows are crap and I don't care. I don't get out much and there's not much else to watch these days (especially in the summer). I'm a reality junkie. I admit it.
So Hell's Kitchen finally ended this week, and all I can really say is....meh. I think I stopped paying full attention to this show at least 4-5 weeks ago (probably when Top Chef started), and I'll confess that I only half-watched Monday's finale while I did about three other things. All the chef-testants this year were pretty weak (don't even get me started on Aaron), and I think T was the one who declared somewhere around Week 3 that, clearly Rock was the only one worth a damn and if he didn't win, then the whole show is fixed.
I do think it was kind of crap that Bonnie made it to the final two. If I had to watch that chick whine and cry one more time....ugh. This may sound mean, but the first time they mentioned that she was a "nanny/personal chef," I thought to myself, oh, so she's a babysitter who occasionally heats up some Chef Boyardee. How the heck did she get on this show?! I'm beginning to think that Gordon Ramsay has a soft spot for cute girls, especially if they've got a nice rack (*ahem* Virginia). But really, could that ending have been more anti-climactic? They did their best to play up the drama, like oooh, Rock's service was such a disaster, but I think it was fairly obvious from the start that Bonnie had no chance.
Preceding the HK finale, was the annoyingly long and drawn out results show for So You Think You Can Dance. Do results shows really need to be an hour long? Really? I understand the show makes money and there's a certain need for filler, but I'm getting really fed up with all the manufactured drama. I'm not going to say too much else about this show, since, obviously, it's been several days now and I'd rather talk about the finale. But I will say that it's about freaking time they got rid of Lauren. She waaaayyyy overstayed her welcome. And she didn't seem to be a very gracious loser either. I was sad to see Pasha go since he had some great performances last week, although really, I think that Neil and Danny were more deserving of being in the final four.
The finale for SYTYCD was on tonight, and again, I was kind of underwhelmed. It always baffles me when the dancers get criticized for how blah the routine was when the problem is obviously the lame choreography, in which they have no say. It's the same with criticizing their outfits. They're not the costume designers, leave them alone!
I was really expecting a lot more from the finale and instead, got a lame hip hop routine and an inexplicable dance about baby foxes? I didn't get that one at all. As soon as they showed the choreographer creeping around his studio with a scarf in his mouth, I knew we were in trouble. Also, I know the judges raved over it, but I was really disappointed by the Lindy routine. I love the Lindy Hop, and was expecting something much more spectacular. It seemed really stiff and choppy to me, especially all the lifts and twirls. Lacey looked like she tensed up going into each flip. And I really wish they would just retire the Broadway category. I don't understand why they're going to the trouble to come up with new routines for songs from from popular Broadway musicals that are famous for having their own style of choreography. It just sets them up for a bad comparison. I did kind of enjoy the boys' dance though. It was different, and not just in a weird for weird's sake way. Lacey and Danny's waltz was also very lovely.
In any case, going into tonight's show, I was fairly convinced that either Sabra or Lacey was going to take the crown, but after the way the came down on Sabra, I'm not so sure. Danny came on pretty strong, and his solo was amazing just in terms of sheer athletic ability. According to my sister-in-law, who is a hard-core fan, Danny was really unpopular with the fans early on, so I was a little surprised to see him in the final four, but now I think he might have a shot at taking it. Otherwise, I think it's going to be Lacey. I'm sure there'll be plenty more lame, weird and annoying dances in tomorrow's results finale. I am sincerely hoping that Cat Deely was joking about dancing with Nigel. Was there really some sort of groundswell demand for that? Bleh.
So Hell's Kitchen finally ended this week, and all I can really say is....meh. I think I stopped paying full attention to this show at least 4-5 weeks ago (probably when Top Chef started), and I'll confess that I only half-watched Monday's finale while I did about three other things. All the chef-testants this year were pretty weak (don't even get me started on Aaron), and I think T was the one who declared somewhere around Week 3 that, clearly Rock was the only one worth a damn and if he didn't win, then the whole show is fixed.I do think it was kind of crap that Bonnie made it to the final two. If I had to watch that chick whine and cry one more time....ugh. This may sound mean, but the first time they mentioned that she was a "nanny/personal chef," I thought to myself, oh, so she's a babysitter who occasionally heats up some Chef Boyardee. How the heck did she get on this show?! I'm beginning to think that Gordon Ramsay has a soft spot for cute girls, especially if they've got a nice rack (*ahem* Virginia). But really, could that ending have been more anti-climactic? They did their best to play up the drama, like oooh, Rock's service was such a disaster, but I think it was fairly obvious from the start that Bonnie had no chance.
Preceding the HK finale, was the annoyingly long and drawn out results show for So You Think You Can Dance. Do results shows really need to be an hour long? Really? I understand the show makes money and there's a certain need for filler, but I'm getting really fed up with all the manufactured drama. I'm not going to say too much else about this show, since, obviously, it's been several days now and I'd rather talk about the finale. But I will say that it's about freaking time they got rid of Lauren. She waaaayyyy overstayed her welcome. And she didn't seem to be a very gracious loser either. I was sad to see Pasha go since he had some great performances last week, although really, I think that Neil and Danny were more deserving of being in the final four.
The finale for SYTYCD was on tonight, and again, I was kind of underwhelmed. It always baffles me when the dancers get criticized for how blah the routine was when the problem is obviously the lame choreography, in which they have no say. It's the same with criticizing their outfits. They're not the costume designers, leave them alone!I was really expecting a lot more from the finale and instead, got a lame hip hop routine and an inexplicable dance about baby foxes? I didn't get that one at all. As soon as they showed the choreographer creeping around his studio with a scarf in his mouth, I knew we were in trouble. Also, I know the judges raved over it, but I was really disappointed by the Lindy routine. I love the Lindy Hop, and was expecting something much more spectacular. It seemed really stiff and choppy to me, especially all the lifts and twirls. Lacey looked like she tensed up going into each flip. And I really wish they would just retire the Broadway category. I don't understand why they're going to the trouble to come up with new routines for songs from from popular Broadway musicals that are famous for having their own style of choreography. It just sets them up for a bad comparison. I did kind of enjoy the boys' dance though. It was different, and not just in a weird for weird's sake way. Lacey and Danny's waltz was also very lovely.
In any case, going into tonight's show, I was fairly convinced that either Sabra or Lacey was going to take the crown, but after the way the came down on Sabra, I'm not so sure. Danny came on pretty strong, and his solo was amazing just in terms of sheer athletic ability. According to my sister-in-law, who is a hard-core fan, Danny was really unpopular with the fans early on, so I was a little surprised to see him in the final four, but now I think he might have a shot at taking it. Otherwise, I think it's going to be Lacey. I'm sure there'll be plenty more lame, weird and annoying dances in tomorrow's results finale. I am sincerely hoping that Cat Deely was joking about dancing with Nigel. Was there really some sort of groundswell demand for that? Bleh.
Monday, August 13, 2007
the lazy way out
This is what it's come to, using pre-made templates. Yes, I know. I suck. But I'm going to go ahead and hide behind the excuse that I just had a baby and don't have time to do things from scratch anymore. Despite the fact that I finally took down the woefully outdated BitchyAsianGirl site (which I'm hoping to get back up one of these days), and most of my free time goes into updating Evelyn's site, I still have a lot of random thoughts rattling around in my head, so what better way to purge them than to post them here, for the world to see (or ignore)?
So what kind of self-important word vomit do I have to offer? Well, there's the obvious baby-related topics, although I'll save most of the bragging for the blog on Evelyn's site. But more likely, it'll be about whatever crafty nonsense I'm working on, my latest random obsession, bad reality television, what's for dinner....I don't know, whatever is keeping me up at night. I welcome any and all comments, positive and negative, as, at the very least, it lets me know that someone's actually reading this.
So what kind of self-important word vomit do I have to offer? Well, there's the obvious baby-related topics, although I'll save most of the bragging for the blog on Evelyn's site. But more likely, it'll be about whatever crafty nonsense I'm working on, my latest random obsession, bad reality television, what's for dinner....I don't know, whatever is keeping me up at night. I welcome any and all comments, positive and negative, as, at the very least, it lets me know that someone's actually reading this.
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