stuff is cool

I don’t watch much TV. In fact, I watch essentially no TV at all, save two shows, 24 and Lost. In fact, I have to go elsewhere to watch them because I don’t have a cable connection and my reception to the local channels really blows. So, Meg and I have standing weekly appointments for watching these — Monday nights for 24 at my parents’ house, and Wednesday nights at her place for Lost. However, this past Wednesday I had to work late and couldn’t make it in time to watch Lost, so I had to do something to be able to watch it later. As it turns out, I don’t have to resort to the *cough* questionable *cough* methods of getting that episode that I did, because ABC has decided to try out this new concept: distributing their shows online.

Thursday morning, the show went online at ABC’s free full-episode streaming portal. Currently they have four shows on there: Lost, Alias, Commander in Chief, and Desperate Housewives. Basically you just watch them in your browser and have to sit through a handful of commercial sections. It’s not all that different from watching TV normally, except that you don’t need a DVR to pause or rewind it. You can even skip to a specific point in the show if you want if for some reason you missed just a small bit and wanted to catch up. It’s pretty cool. And one added bonus for them is now that I’ve watched Lost on there, I may check out one of their other shows as well, since I can view it whenever I want to. Everybody wins!

As for actually what happened this week on Lost, well, that’s another blog post entirely. Crazy crazy stuff, and I’m glad there are no more breaks between new episodes. Hooray for May sweeps!

Edit: I just noticed the date range up at the top, apparently this is only through May and June. Good thing Lost is over by then! Though seriously I hope this catches on and is kept up on a more permanent basis.

In a world that seems to take itself too seriously (a trend that is on the rise, sadly), I’m really glad that The Onion is still around, cranking out quality stories such as this one. It’s got to be difficult to continually put out the well-above-average quality fake news that they do, especially when they “give it away” for free. I’m just glad that whoever’s in charge over there has figured out ways of getting revenue (ads, personals, sponsors, etc.).

Also, if you’re an Onion fan and haven’t read this book, I highly recommend picking it up. I own it, so if I know in real life you I can let you borrow it.

Danny and I are both accomplished dogsitters. This weekend, Danny takes on his toughest customers yet when he spends Saturday night with my family’s two dogs, 12 year old Murphy (german shepherd-chow chow mix though he looks like neither) and 3 year old GiGi (papillon and terrier mix). Rather than email him the laid-back instructions, I thought I’d post them here for all to see.

A Day in the Life of My Dogs

Food

The dogs are fed randomly. Just make sure there is always food in their bowl, because they tend to eat whenever they feel like it, and honestly I never see GiGi eat at all.

Nummers and cookies are by the back door.

Use the blue pitcher by their bowls to fill them, and fill them as often as they need to be filled. Murphy drinks like a sailor. And pees like a racehorse.

Wee-wees

They go out at 10 o’clock before bed, then around 7 a.m. the next morning. Then just let them out occasionally whenever the spirit moves you.

You can just leave any poopies if you don’t want to deal with them. If you must, use a napkin or tissue and flush it. It stinks.

Murphy will ask to go out by standing by the back door with his face right against the door. If you hear his feet click-clicking down the hallway towards your room at night, it means he needs to go out. His toenails are loud.

Gigi doesn’t ask to go out, and if you want her to go, it’s really best to go out with her and gesture at the grass and force her to go. She should. Pick her up and put her on the grass if she doesn’t get the message.

Sleep

When you go to bed, leave the small lamp on in the kitchen. Make sure the front door is locked.

Murphy sleeps out in the living room.

Gigi sleeps on the pink chair or you can lift her up in bed with you. If she’s busy, she sleeps in her office (under the bed).

Oh, there’s all sorts of emergency contact info on the Mary Engelbreit board on the wall above the desk.

Love, Meg

Normally the White House Correspondents Dinner isn’t really big news. Members of the White House Correspondents’ Association and some celebs get together for a lavish dinner. In more recent years, it has taken on a comedy flavor with comedians like Jay Leno and Al Franken performing. To wit, in Clinton’s last year as president he made a little video called President Clinton: Final Days which highlighted how lonely he was while winding down in his final term (very funny, definitely check this out - tons of great cameos).

Well, this year the WHCA invited Stephen Colbert to speak and he definitely took full advantage of the opportunity to not only show off his comedy chops to an audience that had perhaps only peripherally known of him before, but to also take shots at President Bush as he sat just a few seats away from the podium. While obviously he couldn’t be entirely confrontational about it, Colbert seemed to have struck a nerve with the President a few times (who smiles seemingly good-naturedly throughout the roasting, but never seems to genuinely laugh) and even perhaps shocked the crowd a bit. Colbert’s speech largely takes the form of him satirizing political pundits, admiring how Bush thinks “with his gut, not with his head,” and how he “believes that the government that governs best is the government that governs least” (an actual Thoreau quote) and that “by these standards, we have set up a fabulous government in Iraq.”

Below are links to the three-part video on YouTube as well as a link to the transcript of the whole thing. Unfortunately the final 8 or 9 minutes is taken up by a forgettable faux “audition tape” that Stephen Colbert put together to audition for the position of White House Press Secretary which was recently awarded to Tony Snow, whom Colbert would like to believe is code-named “Snow Job” by the Secret Service. But the speech itself, which takes a little over 15 minutes, is definitely worth watching, check it out.

The videos:

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3

The transcript