"New" Car!!

I'm proud to announce that we're now the owners of a fantastic 2003 Dodge Neon SXT with ~94,000 miles on it. Sure sure... we've had the car for the last 5 1/2 years, but now we own it. That means something, right?

If you want it, KBB tells me it'll cost you $4270. I'll listen to offers. I have to warn you though, it may have a tendency to spontaneously combust at some point in the future. I use MyCarStats to read up on recall and complaint notices pertaining to my cars, and there are no less than 40 complaints that read something like these:

"WHEN I USE MY HEADLIGHTS FOR 15-20 MINUTES, I BEGIN TO SMELL A BURNT PLASTIC SMELL AND NOTICE THE LEFT SIDE OF THE STEERING WHEEL GETS VERY WARM. AFTER 20-30 MINUTES OF HEADLIGHT USE THE LOW BEAMS JUST GO DEAD, IT "AUTOMATICALLY" SWITCHES TO HIGH BEAMS IMMEDIATELY. IF I TRY TO TURN IT BACK DOWN TO LOW BEAMS, EVERYTHING GOES DARK (*VERY* DANGEROUS AT NIGHT!). THEN I AM FORCED TO USE HIGH BEAMS AND BLIND EVERYONE ELSE FOR THE REST OF MY TRIP, OR I HAVE TO PULL OVER AND LET THE APPARENT CAUSE (THE MULTIFUNCTION SWITCH) COOL OFF FOR AN ETERNITY BEFORE RESUMING MY TRIP. I'M HIGHLY UNCOMFORTABLE KNOWING THAT MY CAR HAS PLASTIC BEHIND THE STEERING WHEEL ON THE VERGE OF ERUPTING INTO FLAMES WHEN I USE MY HEADLIGHTS. I ALSO CONSIDER IT EXTREMELY HAZARDOUS, NOT ONLY FOR THE FIRE RISK, BUT ALSO THE LOW BEAMS DYING SUDDENLY."

"I HAVE A 2003 DODGE NEON AND THE MULTIFUNCTION SWITCH FOR MY HEAD LIGHTS HAS FAILED TWICE. IN BOTH CASES I NOTICED A PLUME OF SMOKE COME OUT OF MY STEERING COLUMN AND WITH IN TWO WEEKS I LOST MY LOW BEAMS AND THEN MY HIGH BEAMS FAILED A WEEK OR SO LATER."

"WIRE HARNESS FROM UNDER STEERING COLUMN CAUGHT FIRE FOR NO REASON WHAT SO EVER. CAR HAS 77000 MILES ON IT. NO COVERED UNDER WARRANTY. THIS HAS HAPPENED TO MULTIPLE CARS AND DODGE IS NOT COVERING REPAIR ON THIS ITEM."

I'm no car expert, but I think that anything involving burning smells, smoke, and/or flame is probably a bad thing. If anyone happens to have some pull with the recall department of Chrysler you might want them to look at this issue. Ours hasn't flamed out yet, but I have noticed lately that the fog lights come on for no apparent reason from time to time. I'll have the shop look at it next time I take her in.

Deep in the Hearta

Last week, Meaghan and I went down to Texas to celebrate Thanksmas with her family (sans her sister). If you know her, you'll know that just about every time Meaghan sees her family she comes back with crazy stories about their zany antics. This time? Not so much.

Sure, people got cranky from time to time, but it was pretty much a big lazy get together featuring two holidays, food, shopping, TV, and games. For starters, I was introduced to a couple long-running TV shows that I'd never seen before, Ninja Warrior and Doctor Who.

Ninja Warrior is more or less a serious version of the Japanese show lampooned in MXC. In each competition (there have been 22 so far), 100 athletes and/or celebrities attempt to make it through a series of physical challenges in a quest for honor and glory. We watched competition 20, in which American free runner Levi Meeuwenberg makes it the farthest, but fails in stage 3 of 4. I don't think I get G4 under our current cable plan, but if I did this might prove a pleasant distraction from time to time.


The Doctor Who episode I saw was from the season with Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor. Despite this show being such a big deal with so many people, I had no idea it would be so funny. In the one I saw, our three main characters are teleported to the far future where they're forced to participate in sadistic versions of popular TV shows like Big Brother and The Weakest Link. Who's behind it all? The Daleks, of course. I don't intend to go too crazy with this, but it seems like something I can safely add to my Netflix queue and get to at some point.

On the games front, specialty card games were the games of choice. I finally got people to play Bohnanza with the dreaded Auftrag (Job) cards. It turned out to be much ado about little as they didn't change the game as much as some (cough, Meaghan) had feared. So it looks like we'll be using them more in the future. The big winner, though, was Killer Bunnies.

Meaghan and I have been playing this more and more lately as it's one of the few "strategy" games we own that works decently with only two players. She tends to prefer lighter fare, so it cuts out a lot of the more hardcore options that are out there. The big surprise was how much Meaghan's family enjoyed it. Her brother, Jimmy, liked it enough to give us the first two expansion sets (red & violet) for Christmas. I can't really imagine playing a game involving over 500 cards (all the expansions), but I'm sure it'll happen at some point. I'm happy with what we have for now.

On a personal note, it's with regret that I announce the conclusion of No-Shave November. It was all over 15 minutes after settling in front of the mirror Monday morning. Some pictures were taken down in Texas. I'll see if I can track some of those down if anyone is interested in seeing me at the zenith of the growing season.

zzz... Wha? Huh?

Hi, my name is Brian and I'm a low-down dirty no-good blogger. I'll continue to try better in the future. Honest. I just need to figure out how to make this part of the routine. Wish me luck.

So a whole lot of time has gone by, and there's been loads to talk about that I just haven't gotten to. So at the risk of taking the easy way out, let me give you some of the highlights.

- Meaghan & I celebrated our 3rd anniversary back in September. The traditional/modern gifts for that are leather & crystal. Ugh, it's becoming more of a challenge to find something useful for each other every year as the gift types become less practical. I opted for a nice pair of leather gloves (with slippers soon to follow -- shhh... don't tell Meaghan, she doesn't read this.) while she got us a new set of luggage giving us more than 2 pieces that look the same for the first time in our adult lives.

We also went on a secretly planned camping trip to the North Shore, specifically to Cascade River State Park. Meaghan had gotten us a hike-in campsite, so we were nice and secluded out in the woods. They gave us a bear box to keep our food safe and everything. We enjoyed the waterfalls and some hiking then went to dinner at Chez Jude in Grand Marais. If you're ever looking for a reasonably priced fine dining experience up that way, I'd recommend it.

- This experience reminded us that we have State Park passes on our cars (thanks MPR), so we've started going to Fort Snelling State Park right here in the Big City on a semi-regular basis. The trails there are even dog-friendly, so Zelda gets a nice "wilderness walk" from time to time. Now that it's cold out, we're eagerly awaiting the snow. The plan is to actually try XC skiing and snowshoeing this year.

- For my birthday, we went to a fabulous little restaurant a few blocks away from where we live called Cafe Levain. They have a prix fixe menu on Sunday nights where you get a 3-course meal for $25. I added the wine pairing (it turns out I do like wine as long as I don't have to decide what to get) for only $12 or $14 more. I highly recommend it if you're looking for great food away from the hustle and bustle of downtown. The next time we have money set aside for a nice night out, I'm going to try to get us to go there again.

- My parents were also gracious enough to use my birthday as an occasion to help fund a couple larger expenses that we'd been saving toward. As a result, I'm currently sitting in the comfort of a nice leather office chair while listening to The Beatles on our brand-new turntable. I can finally work in comfort. Ahhh... Thanks Ma & Pa!

- Our tour of the nation to visit people we know continues. Back in September (it was apparently a busy month), we went to Connecticut for Meaghan's cousin's wedding and then to Omaha for a college friend's wedding. It's always good to see people that you haven't seen for awhile, especially when talking to them is like you just had lunch together yesterday as opposed to, say, 8 years ago. The journey continues next week when we go to Texas for Thanksmas (seemed less offensive than Christgiving) with Meaghan's parents and brother. Trips like this wouldn't be possible if we didn't have awesome friends like the ones at HarrisWorld and the House of Huebert to watch after our pup. Thanks everyone!

- Speaking of the fine folks at HarrisWorld, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that Meaghan & I were named godparents of this little guy back in October. Thanks for the honor, Mike & Kim. We'll do our best not to lead Nathan too far astray. I think that officially means I get to talk in a funny voice, make people kiss my ring, and whack guys I don't like for the rest of my life, but I confess to not having read the handbook yet.

- I'd be even more remiss if I didn't give an update on our nephew Soren. We haven't seen him since his christening (yes, they actually broke a bottle over his head -- truly frightening) back in the Spring, but he's beginning to turn into quite the fun little guy. We're looking forward to seeing him again at Christmas and doing our duty by lavishing him with gifts.


- In case anyone is interested, I have actually been keeping fairly up to date on my effort to watch at least an episode of new TV shows. I just haven't been blogging about them. I've even cast my net wider than my last update to include fantastic shows like NickToons new Making Fiends, based on a web series of the same name. I'll get back to that in future posts, regardless of whether my statements are culturally relevant.

- Hey, which reminds me... we have a new President-Elect, but not a new Senator (yet). I don't really intend to get into politics here, but I thought this was worth mentioning since we seem to be on the dawn of the most web-centric incarnation of our government yet. If you haven't checked it out yet, Change.gov is a harbinger of things to come with its daily blasts from the Office of the President. It'll be interesting to see how transparent things become.

I think that's all I have for now. I hope there's more to come in the not too distant future.

Go Ahead, Try to Make Me Laugh - Part 1

A bit of housekeeping first. Despite my lack of posts, I have actually been keeping up with the viewing portion of the TV gig. I've watched at least one episode of everything new except for Sons of Anarchy which I'm still planning on doing once Meaghan has some time for it. If there are shows that you're still watching, feel free to drop comments in that show's post. I'll do the same and we can keep up a running conversation of sorts about them. For instance, my spies have informed me that Kelly's kid on "90210" belongs to Dylan. What a shocking development!

I've also updated my initial post with links to all of the shows' websites as requested, and have also added a few shows that escaped my grasp the first time around. Have fun checking those out if you want to know more about any of them in particular. Back to your regularly scheduled programming...

After stumbling through a whole lot of writer's block regarding how to deal with 30-minute comedy shows (do people still watch these?), I think I've come up with something that'll work for me.

Z Rock: Sundays on iFC, 11:30/10:30 Central

How does one even get the iFC (Independent Film Channel), and who knew that they even had original programming? Whatever the case, they should probably look into getting some more if this is an example of the quality they can produce. "Z Rock" is a hilarious semi-scripted comedy about a Brooklyn-based rock band ZO2 that moonlights as children's entertainment group the Z Brothers to make money. The band and its side project are real, but the situations depicted in the show are not.

This is beyond cable TV so the level of nudity and language is easily at HBO levels here, but it's the land of sex, (no) drugs, and rock & roll so you can't expect less. The humor of the show is a bit hard to explain, but most of it borders on the absurd with a bit of raunchiness thrown in for good measure. I'll let this clip do the talking for me. Make sure you listen to the song's lyrics.

ZO2's straight forward rock music doesn't really do it for me, but the show itself is a winner. I've watched all six episodes that have aired to date, and there are only four to go.

The CW's Real Guilty Pleasure

Privileged: Tuesdays on CW, 9:00/8:00 Central

It turns out that the CW did come through with its requisite guilty pleasure show this year after all. Whereas the much-hyped 90210 reboot is just plain guilty, their other Tuesday night drama "Privileged" is the pleasure. Megan Smith is a recent Yale grad trying to make it in the world with her writing degree. Unfortunately, instead of writing the next great biography she's stuck working for an NYC tabloid. When her apartment building goes up in flames and she loses her job in the same day, a door unexpectedly opens bringing her back to the ultra-rich society in Palm Springs where she grew up. Her task? Tutor spoiled teenage twin granddaughters of the rich and the famous so they can go to Duke.


Another show about rich people (see "The OC", "Gossip Girl", "90210"), you ask? Sort of. The focus this time is on our outsider, Megan, so a lot of time is spent poking fun at the lifestyle instead of seeing how cool and glamorous it is to be stinking rich. Another plus is that she's an adult, so we hopefully won't get bogged down in the minutiae of high school life once class is in session in future episodes. Joanna Garcia ("Reba", "Welcome to the Captain") brings a high level of energy to the spunky and sarcastic lead role. I'd seen her before on last year's short-lived "Captain" comedy, but here she's a revelation bringing just the kind of humor shows like this need.

Although it fills the role of a one-hour drama in the network's schedule, this feels more like a comedy to me. It fills a niche that shows like (dare I say) "Gilmore Girls" used to occupy. Sure the plot may be a little obvious so far: one twin is nice, the other bitchy; there's an obligatory love triangle; and an estranged family, but "Privileged" is genuinely entertaining. I can't say that about a lot of shows on the boob tube these days.

If you're currently giving attention to "90210" or other such drek, I strongly urge you to check this out instead. It's unfortunate when worthy shows are overlooked because the hype machine hasn't been employed in their favor, and that seems to be the case here. No matter if you believe in them or not, the pilot last week did horribly in the Nielsen ratings so it's probably going to need some help if its planning on sticking around. It's on at the same time as Fox's "Fringe" (coming to a post near you), so I won't be able to watch it live but I'm definitely going to keep up with it online. Thanks to the CW streaming full episodes on their website, you should too.

This Blood's For You

True Blood: Sundays on HBO, 9:00/8:00 Central

Alan Ball ("Six Feet Under", "American Beauty") is back with a new HBO original series. If you were expecting something with the sophistication or gravitas of either of those previous works, you're probably going to be sorely disappointed. Instead, "True Blood" is a pulp-tastic vampire story set in small town Louisiana. Based on the Southern Vampire series of novels by Charlaine Harris, the story centers around a young barmaid Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin - "The Piano", "X-Men") who just happens to be able to read people's thoughts. Everyone's except for the new vampire in town, that is.


The real star of the show is its backdrop and setting. Being the pilot episode there wasn't a whole lot going on here plotwise, but you can see how many story possibilities there are for the future. The difference between this and other vampire stories is that here the vampires are a known entity. They've recently revealed themselves to the world in a move known as the "Great Revelation", trying to become a viable part of society. This is made possible by the invention of a synthetic blood beverage called Tru Blood. Having vampires out in the open creates the possibility for stories centering around race relations and oppression with vampires playing the role of minority, as well as the standard vampiric "seduction of the innocent" tales.

The show is easy to follow, but the backstory isn't fully fleshed out within it. For that, there are a number of cool websites that detail the world of "True Blood". Since the Great Revelation, organizations have sprung up both for and against the integration of vampires into society. There's even a proposed Constitutional amendment that would grant vampires equal rights, complete with commercials for and against its passage. If you're interested, you can get a good summary of the buildup to the events of the show from HBO's YouTube channel. Good stuff for the most part.

As for the show itself, there are a number of things you're probably going to need to get over in order to enjoy it at all. First, the accents. The show is set in small town Louisiana so everybody has one form or another of the classic over the top Hollywood Southern accent. If this is going to bother you, you might be in trouble. I managed to get over it after about 30 mins. Second, being an HBO show the first 20 mins are chock full of graphic sex, and not very attractive sex at that. This goes hand in hand with the third issue. This show is not played for laughs... at all. Despite the otherworldly premise, everything is absolutely serious. If you're looking for the next "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", look elsewhere.

At the end of the day, I'm intrigued. Given the pedigree and thoughtful world-building there's the potential for this to become a great show. I'm far from the target demographic (although I have no idea who that might be) and it's far from great now, but I'm willing to give it some time to get there.

OMG!

90210: Tuesdays on CW, 8:00/7:00 Central

After somehow surviving the last 8 TV seasons without a show containing the numbers 90210 in the title, Americans can breathe easy again. In a make or break move that may determine the future of the network, the CW has decided to create yet another teen drama. In hopes of hooking multiple generations of viewers, this one's even tied into the continuity of the original Beverly Hills 90210 going so far as to bring back Jennie Garth and Shannen Doherty.


As someone who's only seen a few episodes of the original show, I can't really do much to directly compare the two. That's probably for the best. To my knowledge, the original 90210 (debuting in 1990) was the first primetime show to prominently feature teens. As such, it was able to break a lot of ground and explore topics that were previously taboo. This new show has entered a brave new world where the trail has been continually blazed over the years by shows like My So-Called Life, The OC, and Gossip Girl. Given this environment, what is 90210 adding to the mix?

To be honest, not a whole lot. It feels a bit like the perfect frankenteen drama: a bit of The OC here (it's a teen show, but we have storylines about adults, too), Gossip Girl there (more rich high schoolers, and one of them has a popular dirt-dealing blog), even some Saved By the Bell (the main adult character is the principal). With a pedigree like this, it should be good, if you're into the whole teen drama thing, but it just leaves me flat. The acting by the kids is pretty poor, particularly Shenae Grimes (Degrassi: The Next Generation) as the lead girl, Annie Wilson. There was an especially painful scene in which she won a spot in the chorus for the school musical. I wish I had a screenshot or video I could show you, but the amount of anguished faces and bad dancing she did while singing was enough to make you want to watch a Hilary Duff music video instead. Not incidentally, that's probably where Shenae got most of her pointers.

There are some aspects of the two premiere episodes that I did like. Jessica Walter (Arrested Development) is pretty funny as the Wilson family's alcoholic grandmother. I actually enjoyed most of the adult storylines - Rob Estes (Melrose Place) as the new principal at West Beverly Hills High is particularly good. Although no one else seems to appreciate it, I liked that this series starts off with the exact same premise as the original one: a family with a high school-aged son and daughter moves to Beverly Hills from the middle of nowhere. Last but not least, in a scene early in the first episode you get to watch the most realistic portrayal of lacrosse I've ever seen in a movie or TV. In the end, though, it ends up not really serving anybody what they want.

Fans of the old show tuning in are going to be disappointed because even though some characters have come back, they can't possibly spend a lot of time on them without confusing and alienating their new audience. So although you may find out if Kelly's son belongs to Brandon or Dylan if you watch enough episodes, you'll probably be left wanting more. Fans of modern teen dramas will probably just go somewhere else for their fix once they realize that it doesn't measure up to current or recent shows of the same type that are just flat out better. There just aren't enough sympathetic characters and not enough humor. Sadly, I don't think I'll be coming back to it.

P.S. Apparently, I'm not doing this right. As I learned from watching this show, "Blogs are supposed to cause problems."