Gossip Girl

Gossip Girl is like watching a modern younger version of Friends only the characters drink illegally, participate in drug deals and commit adultery. This series is based in New York. Most of the characters attend NYU. This is one of those soap opera-esk shows.

A little background information: Dan and Jenny live Brooklyn, there Dad is a washed up band member of Ethan Hawk. Dan and Jenny attend a private school in the upper east side of Manhattan. Dan falls in love with Serena Vander Woodson who is best friends’ with Blair Waldorf both of which are socialites. Blair dated Nate Archibald member of one of the wealthiest families in Manhattan. Blair later comes to the conclusion that her deceitful and manipulative way is better suited for Chuck Bass and equally manipulative and powerful entrepreneur whose father is killed, but not before marrying Lilly Vander Woodson Serena’s mother who eventually remarries again, but this time to childhood sweetheart Rufus, Dan and Jenny’s father.

Sound confusing? Well it is. To the average viewer just looking for a good show to watch periodically this is not it. Gossip Girl is the type where you miss an episode you are completely lost. Only the more dedicated viewer who plans to watch the show religiously should attempt this series, and after a couple episodes this won’t be a task too difficult.

The most recent episode was rather controversial with its college age characters having a three-some. This episode did however have a moral hidden beneath the subtext, but in this case it wasn’t be careful about who your friends are or don’t drink and drive as you’d expect from a teenage sitcom, the lesson seemed to be when you have a three-some, given that all college students apparently have three-somes, the third person is always someone that you don’t know. In this one episode other than the promiscuity, the viewer also witnessed the downfall of a high school student into the drug world and marital lines being crossed with a politician just elected to office.

Another helpful lesson learned in this episode was you can manipulate people and get what you want. If you persevere and use blackmail, lie and pull some strings you’ll win. What are we teaching our kids?!

This episode was almost pulled before it was aired because of the bad message it might be sending to its young viewers, but why this sudden moral boundary, that line was crossed a long time ago.
The acting in the series is great. None of the actors had major roles before this series but some have started to branch off because of it. Many guest stars appear fairly often. Hilary Duff guest starred for a few episodes and last episode Lady Ga Ga performed.

This show is a great way to get to know New York on a personal level. The scenes take place all around the city really depicting its true beauty.

This show is an inside look at Manhattan’s elite, and it really makes you wonder, do people really act like this?

This was an entertaining show, but I would defiantly say is at least PG-13, there was no message at the beginning of the show warning about adult content. Maybe that’s because it airs at 9pm? Do kids really go to bed that early? Parents, Beware!

I Love the Smell of Coffee

I love the smell of coffee, but at 3 am? Staying up until 3 in the morning to finish that paper that has been on the syllabus since the beginning of the semester, or studying for that really difficult test that requires an A in order to make up for some of the slack you let loose in the beginning of the semester can only mean one thing, the semester is ending and you are in frantic mode.

Every semester is the same story. In the beginning you get the syllabus telling you what assignments, deadlines and tests you have. If projects are not on the syllabus your professor gives you a lot of time in advance to prepare. So why is everyone always struggling with school work? Well I think we call it “Life”.

Unlike High School, college students don’t just have school work. Unlike professionals, they don’t just have to wake up, grab a newspaper, fill your to go coffee mug and head to work every morning. In today’s economical crises, most students get the pleasure of multi-tasking. In 2003 the number of working students reached 78 percent. And I am not just talking two hours a day or 20 hours a week. Many of them work and go to school full time.

When I was at my freshman orientation at Sac State a professor talked to the group of incoming freshman. This whole experience was more traumatizing then helpful. I barely remember anything of this seminar as important. What I do remember is how difficult my next four years were going to be. She told us studying, reading and working on assignments is the same as having a full time job. In order for us to be successful we were told we would have to work 10 hours a day, 2 hours for each class we took. As I enter into my senior year, I know understand the validity of what was being said four years ago.

Not only does work get in the way of school, but student procrastination is one of the biggest obstacles to overcome to reach a stress-free environment.

November seems to make life even worse. Students always have a lot more work to do at the end of the semester and these long hours cause students to become stressed, overworked and eventually sick. Lack of sleep can cause your body to become weak and more susceptible to illness. Swine flu is such a big concern especially for students as they are more likely to get infected because of their age. The doctor recommendation is for students to be take it easy. Yeah right. Not in this lifetime.

I haven’t gotten sick yet this semester, but all my work is mounting. I have a 10 page research paper due in a little over a week and a debate after Thanksgiving both on the same subject: raising income taxes on the wealthy. Boring! I have another presentation plus 3 more big tests before the semester is over. All of these things have been in the back of my mind since the beginning of the semester, but they were still in the future. Now the future is about to arrive. Yikes!

I have also been working more this semester as a nanny which has forced me to manage my time better. I fortunately do not have to work full time. Looking at how much time school work demands, I have developed respect for people who have to work to put themselves through college and take a full class load.

Even though this part of the semester is extremely stressful and causes many students to lose sleep and get sick, I know there is an upside to all this character building work. I will graduate, taking all my skills of staying up late, meeting deadlines and cramming for tests into the world of another unknown.

Just a Couple of Misfits

Sometimes it's hard to sleep through the night because of Taz. When he can't sleep neither can I. When Taz wakes up he lets me know it's time for me to get up too. Sometimes he lets me sleep, but even if he sees me open an eyelid that's his que to start jumping all over me. He lets me know when he is hungry, which is always and he has to go to the bathroom at least every hour. He has so much energy and is always moving. He gets mad at me when I'm not playing with him and his main goal in life, besides seeing how much he can cost me in food each month is to keep me from graduating and getting a real job. That's the only explanation I can come up with for him walking all over my notes, covering my face when I try to type on the computer (yes he is doing it right now) and barking at me non-stop when I try to read a book.

Yes, Taz is my dog. My 18 month old, inquisitive (this is just a nice way for dog owners to say there dog barks at everything), 13 pound, overweight Min Pin.

Meeting him for the first time people usually get a little freaked out. Even though he is rather small he can jump pretty high. He has decided this is the best way to greet people he is excited about. Usually after the first 10 jumps people come to the conclusion he is a bad dog. If you are meeting him for the first time, unless he is completely exhausted, he will bark at you. I tell people not to take it personally, but I think people get the wrong impression about him.

Taz is actually the best dog in the whole world and I'm not biased at all. I think he does this all on purpose. He is seemingly annoying and disobedient so know one else will want him but me. This is probably my fault, I told him a story about how my aunt's min pin, that was totally adorable, was kidnapped and held for ransom. Now he saves his adorable moments for non threatening family members only. Oddly enough since then he has seemed to calm down around people who have nice houses and lots of treats.

He is the best cuddler, When he gets scared at the dog park he jumps in my lap, he likes to be held when he gets tired and when he gets wet he dries himself off by rubbing his body all over the carpet. When he gets tired he will try to stay awake, but if he's not careful he will fall asleep standing up because when he is having fun he doesn't want to nap and miss something.

One of the great things about Taz is that his best friend is a pit bull. My sister’s boyfriend has a pit bull. This dog is the exact opposite of Taz. His name is Jack and he is big. He is about 5 times bigger than Taz, and yet he is 5 times sweeter. Jack never barks, he never gets angry, and he has never snapped at Taz despite Taz’s many attempts to draw blood.

Jack’s favorite thing to do is sleep and given the chance he would sleep 24 hours a day. He is always hungry, but never begs and is happy with what he is given.

He is definitely the nicer of the two dogs and without a doubt less aggressive.

Any big dog that I feel safe enough to let my dog play with, full force is a good dog to me. Taz will play as rough as he can and Jack knows just how much force he should use to play back, but he wouldn’t ever hurt Taz. In fact he gets protective when Taz is around other dogs.

They are both just a couple of misfits, the sweet pitbul and the unstable but adorable, King of the Toys, Min Pin.

A Remodeled Man

Humor is something that is hard to create in writing. It has to be clever without trying too hard. This is how Bruce Cameron a syndicated columnist writes. He is a hilarious writer who makes fun of himself and his own life.

Cameron dreamt of being a writer while growing up in Michigan. At 16 years old he even sold his first short story, which was the first short story he had ever written. He says this is the worst thing that could have happened to him because it tricked him into thinking writing for money was going to be easy. Eight novels later he decided he was never going to be published.

He went to Westminster College and claimed to have majored in beer. After college he became a freelance writer, but needed to get a day job to support his writing. He has had many jobs ranging from selling insurance to driving an ambulance. He found himself waking up at 4:30am every morning to write before he would head off to work.

After deciding he was never going to be published he decided to write his 9th novel, but for himself. He realized if he stopped writing to sell and started writing in his own voice he was funny. He decided to start his own online column which originally only had about 6 subscribers, most of which were family. This number soon grew to 40,000 subscribers in 52 countries.

In 1998 he showed his column to the Rocky Mountain News in Colorado and they began featuring his column weekly in the paper.

He turned one of his columns “8 Simple rules for Dating my Teenage Daughter” into a book that was number 14 on the New York Times best seller list. Disney then picked it up as a T.V show. A good example of how he writes is rule number seven of his column:

"As you stand in my front hallway, waiting for my daughter to appear, and more than an hour goes by, do not sigh and fidget. If you want to be on time for the movie, you should not be dating. My daughter is putting on her makeup, a process which can take longer than painting the Golden Gate Bridge. Instead of just standing there, why don't you do something useful, like changing the oil in my car?"

He then wrote another book called 8 Simple Rules for Marrying my Daughter.

In 2001 he was introduced to Creators Syndicate and he became a syndicated
columnist. The Rocky Mountain News is a folding newspaper, but you can read some of his columns on his website. He still writes a weekly online column for Creator’s Syndicate.

His newest book is called A Remodeled Man which is currently under production to become a movie.

He writes mostly about his daily life. His last two columns have dealt with his recent colonoscopy. One of his more popular columns is called “Chili Judge”. This is a hilarious column that after just recently reading I realized I had read it before. It was something I read many years ago, either from a mass email or from a family member.

In 2006 he was selected by the Society of Newspaper Columnists as the number one humor columnists in newspapers with a large circulation. Bruce Cameron has an interesting perspective and has a way a describing exactly what everyone is thinking, but in a funnier way.