If you get bored easily, do this instead. If you are looking for a less entertaining way to burn through this Friday afternoon, read on. It seems like not matter what I do, I can’t get away from Ryan freaking Seacrest. It all started when he was on the cover of one of my magazines, recently. I mean, the guy has always been around. How long has American Idol been on, now? But Lately, it seems like Seacrest over-saturation/inundation, has been taken to new heights, at least as far as the media that I subject myself to, is concerned.

It used to be that I would only have to put up with the guy during American Idol (by default) because Reagan is a pretty regular watcher. Even if I’m not in the same room, I have to hear his mindless banter with the contestants, and attempts to land a verbal zinger on Simon. This was more than enough for me. In fact that only thing that made it bearable was watching Joel McHale make fun of the exact same Seacrest garbage that was making me crazy. If you ever watch the Soup, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

Ok, so there was that. Then suddenly, Seacrest starts hosting the Times Square New Year show with Dick Clark. Holy crap. Is Seacrest the new Dick Clark?

Not that I really have anything against Seacrest. I don’t. It just seems like his face and name are everywhere lately (possibly seems like this since American Idol is underway, again). But today was the kicker.

As I mentioned previously, I have a pretty hefty stack of books on the reading list for this year, already. So I have been trying to push through and finish one of the books that I got for Christmas. It is TSAR, by Ted Bell. The book is like a modern James Bondish, spy novel. The main character, Alex Hawke, is even British. The author does a pretty good job of dropping all sorts of Pop-culture knick knacks into the plot, making it relatable. So there I am, reading a long, as I ride the train into work this morning and whose name pops up in the book? The little sport coat wearing guy himself, R. Seacrest.

It is comforting to know that Seacrest will still be getting gigs in the future even if it is  hosting a media junket to showcase the launch of a modern Russian airship, styled after the old Zeppelins.

Yesterday afternoon, I was in a conference room before a meeting and there was this huge plume of smoke out in NJ. I took this crappy picture of it with my phone. I read today that it was an overturned tanker. It was pretty crazy how much smoke was coming out of that thing. I was pretty amazed to see that the driver survived, albeit barely. I guess he is still in critical condition.

On a much, much lighter note: I watched that Sunrise show that I wrote about. It was pretty awesome. I’m not going to lie and say it was action packed or anything. In fact, it was super slow moving, just like an actual sunrise, hahahaha. I didn’t have a whole hour of time to dedicate last night. So I admit that I just FF>>ed to the good parts. I also discovered that it is on at 7 A.M. and 10 A.M. So maybe I can trick Reagan into having it on in the morning instead of the usual line up of DVR giddy girlie shows. Just a thought, hahaha.

I often complain to Reagan about having to listen to teeny bopper shows in the morning. She watches them while she works out, while I’m getting ready for work. It is generally either 90210, The Hills, Gossip Girl, or some new show that I already forgot the name of. Good for her that she has the motivation to work out in the morning. But, those shows? Anyway, sometimes just hearing the mindless dialogue and constant Natasha Beddingfieldesque music after every scene is enough to make me crazy.

This morning on the train, I read about a show that I feel like I could get into even in the morning (hint hint, Reagan) Hahaha. It is a show on Discovery Channel’s HD Theater (that’s channel 767 for Time Warner Manhattan customers) every morning at 10 A.M. called Sunrise Earth International. Apparently the show is just fantastic shots of the sun coming up in all regions of the world. I’m going to set the DVR tonight. Does all of this make me sound really old?

Speaking of TV, Tadd T. is going to be on Time Warp tonight. Woo hoo! You are famous, man.

I haven’t really laughed at South Park for a while. I feel like it took a turn toward over the top offensive about 2 seasons ago, so I have only really watched is sporadically since. I have to admit though, the election episode was so on money, I almost spit out my DC from laughing so hard. Here are clips of my two favorite parts. The first clip is the Obama victory speech and the reaction of the Obama supporters:

Next, is the McCain Concession speech and the reaction of the McCain supporters:

The rest of the episode is a bit cheesy. They do a Ocean’s 11 spoof, which McCain and Obama are part of the team, and the whole election was planned out to put the country in shock for 8 hours, so they could steal the Hope Diamond. It is worth checking out, if you have the free time. To me though, the funniest parts are in these 2 clips.

When I say hate, I mean loathe, in the strongest sense. I firmly believe that the irresponsible sensationalist TV journalists talking heads, are directly responsible for a lot of the economic problems that we are currently experiencing. I was in the firm dining room today, when I happened to catch a snippet of a promotional spot for a special news report called “America’s broke.” I can’t even tell you how angry it made me. Yes, it is annoying that political leaders are trying to downplay the direness of the situation. But, making the statement “America’s broke?” What is wrong with these people? To dumb down the current economic atmosphere into the phrase “America’s broke,” is a misleading oversimplification, at best. Is the television news media attempting to incite pandemonium? Irresponsible garbage like saying “America’s broke,” is precisely the reason that JPMorgan’s stock dropped today, despite the fact that it announced is earnings early, to dispel rumors that it wasn’t doing so well. I don’t intend to libel Tom Brokaw, his picture was just an easy one to grab and post. But honestly, the American television news is sinking to new depths with their current campaign. I can just see all of the less sophisticated Americans, who rely on this bottom-feeding medium for information hearing the phrase “America’s broke,” and making a run on the bank. With the economy being so fragile and susceptible to perception right now, it is mind blowing to me that television news is shamelessly trying to put the nail in the coffin. Everyone is so up in arms, trying to hold “irresponsible” fund managers liable for losses. The most responsible fund manager in the world cannot do anything about a run on the bank and serial short-selling, both of which are motivated primarily by perception. So why don’t we instead, hold accountable, the sensationalist douchebag who came up with the tag line “America’s broke?” [descending from soapbox].