Digital Wilderness

Take a trip down memory lane. TVSquad looks into where the TGIF stars from such shows as Full House, Boy Meets World and Family Matters are now:
TGIF Stars: Where Are They Now

You may have seen, or maybe heard about, the contestant who bid the exact correct value on the Showcase Showdown on The Price is Right. If you haven’t, watch below.

Never in the 38 years of the show had any contestant gotten the price exactly right – until Terry came along. There have been many conspiracy theories about how this happened. Many people think it was fixed due to Drew Carey’s lack of reaction when he announces the actual price of the showcase.

Chris Jones over at Esquire looks into how the perfect bid came to be. It’s a very interesting write up, well worth the read.

The article not only gives a glimpse behind the scenes of the show and explains how Terry studied and prepared for the moment, but also how luck came into play…and the changes that were made to the show so the chances of this happening again are incredibly slim.

The producers no longer rely on Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup; now they have different soups. They have different everything. They’ve built more luck into the games, dumb luck, and they’ve started doing sneaky things like changing the options on the cars — adding floor mats, taking away the stereo system — to mess with the prices. And they’ve started adding more luxury items, like Burberry coats, the sorts of things for which ordinary people who have lived their ordinary lives would never have clipped a coupon.

Some quick thoughts on the first episode of the final season of LOST…

• Great first episode of the final season! Didn’t get many questions answered, and many more were introduced, but still an action-packed and intense episode!
• I really like the dual threads/alternate reality, a.k.a. flash sideways. Brilliant!
• I wonder if, at the end of the show, the two storylines will collide and each person will have to choose which one they want to stay in.
• No Shannon on the plane. Boone says she said stayed behind in Australia. Turns out that in real life, her busy schedule didn’t allow her to film any scenes and they had to re-write the back story. I thought Boone’s was a lame explanation, though, and didn’t fit with everything else that has happened in the LOST universe, such as certain people needing to be on flights to recreate conditions. The writers could simply have said Shannon was sitting elsewhere, in the bathroom or otherwise led us to believe she was on the plane, even if we didn’t see her.
• Where were Michael and Walt?
• There were several other things that were different with the “rebooted” storyline on Oceanic 815, e.g. Hurley being luckiest man alive, Desmond on the plane, Jack and Rose’s exchange. Were these butterfly effects from the explosion? Wonder what significance, if any, these particular differences have…
• I guess Juliet had to die at the Swan site since there are parallel worlds and she would still be alive back at Dharma land? Couldn’t have Juliet A run into Juliet B… And the Others/Dharma folks still on the island?
• Did Jacob’s last gasp of “They’re coming,” to which Fake Locke (a.k.a Flocke a.k.a the Man in Black a.k.a. Jacob’s Nemesis) seemed worried, reference Jacob’s bodyguards – Illana, Bran and crew? I hope not, because
  that wasn’t a challenge for Flocke at all.
• LOST probably has one of the largest casts on TV. We have the group from the fuselage, the tail section, the Dharma folks, the Others, the French, the freighter, the Ajira flight, all the folks from the flashbacks/forwards and now the temple dwellers (and those are just what I can think of off the
  top of my head).
• Seems we now know what kept Richard (and the temple dwellers?) young and what healed young Ben – the spring in the temple.
• Was Jacob the source/influence of the spring’s power, or did he use the spring to keep himself young? Did Flocke kick him into the fire so we couldn’t be brought to the spring to heal?
• Were the risks mentioned by Dagon concerning putting Sayid into the “dirty” spring related to Sayid’s state (almost dead) or the state of the spring (dirty)? If it was the spring, seems that the temple dwellers have experienced this before, or how else would they know the risks?
• Is Jacob now in Sayid’s body?
• Hmm, thinking about Jacob’s conversation with the MiB, and some other factors, there’s a hint of The Matrix in LOST (In The Matrixm, The One keeps appearing over and over until he really is the one and can make changes. In LOST, Jacob keeps bringing people to the island – to make progress – waiting
  for them to succeed.)
• Richard was in chains…on the Black Rock?? Is there a story of redemption here?
• Where exactly is “home” for Flocke/monster and what’s keeping him from going home? (Jacob can get off the island apparently…)
• Very interesting that in the alternate reality – on the plane – Charlie shouts “I was supposed to die!” He said the same thing on the island.
• What’s the deal with the blood on Jack’s neck in the plane bathroom?

Series finale is scheduled for Sunday, May 23rd. Mark your calendars!

My friends Lori, Dan and Kristi went to a taping of The Price is Right – and Lori made it on the show! You can also see Dan (going nuts) and Kristi in some of the audience shots. Watch the episode at the link below. Lori was the first contestant and made it to the showcase showdown! Yay!

The Price is Right – 10Nov2009

One of my all-time favorite clips from a sitcom.

When Theo brings home a poor report card, but claims he doesn’t need good grades to get a job. So Cliff gives him an economics lesson with Monopoly money.

Some of my favorite quotes:
“The government comes for the regular people first.”
“Theo…that’s the dumbest thing I’ve heard in my life! No wonder you get D’s in everything!”
“I am your father. I brought in this world, and I’ll take you out.”

Trying to keep my blogging momentum going… Today’s post is all about randomness.

There’s a fun and travel-intensive weekend ahead of me! Friday, Kristy and I are heading up to Indianapolis for my yearly fix of DCI. This year I’m going all out. Rather than heading to a local show, we’re going to the DCI World Championship semifinals! Let’s go Phantom Regiment! (Unfortunately, after winning it all last year, they find themselvs in 9th place at the end of the “regular season” this year… )

Saturday we’ll be heading to Western KY to spend some time with my family. Every year around this time, before school starts, my father’s side of the family converges on my grandparents’ farm, south of Henderson, KY. This year I’ll be bringing a special guest. Kristy will get to meet the entire paternal side of the family…all at once. She graciously accepted the invitation and seems to be up for the challenge of meeting everyone! Yep, she’s a keeper

There are rumors of a Quantum Leap Revival. Yes! That would totally make my day! Quantum Leap is one of my all time favorite shows.

I’ll follow that with an interesting report on a study that concluded Opposite financial habits attract.

Eli Finkel: We found that when looking at spending patterns, spendthrifts and tightwads tend to pair up.

Tess Vigeland : And though singles say they would rather marry someone with spending habits like their own, they often don’t. Finkel says it has a lot to do with trying to address the pain we each experience. Tightwads actually don’t like spending too little money and spenders don’t really like spending too much.

Finkel: On those rare cases where we have a trait about ourselves that we dislike, those might be the cases where we would seek somebody who’s the opposite of us. So, if I’m somebody who spends a great deal of money and experiences some pain about it, I’ll dislike it enough in myself that I may well seek the opposite in a partner.

Vigeland: Of course, if you disagree on finances, the research also shows you may experience “diminished marital well-being.”

The actual study can be found here: Fatal (Fiscal) Attraction: Spendthrifts and Tightwads in Marriage

Considering that the number one cause of problems in marriage is money, and 50% of marriages end in divorce, I’m not sure if this is a good thing…

Here’s an interesting website to which I wanted to bring attention: givinganon.org.
In a nutshell, the site let’s you give anonymously to others.

Giving Anonymously is a non-profit organization facilitating generosity between people. We are a volunteer organization; each of us donates our time without pay to keep Giving Anonymously running.

We began with a few goals in mind: We wanted to relationally connect people through giving, to make it fun, and in the process protect relationships from feelings of obligation. Giving to others in need can be full of mixed motivations and our hope is to facilitate Pure giving.

Anyone who enjoys putting cash under a friends door or in their mailbox will often times not know if their friend actually got the gift and they cannot hear what it meant to them. So, we came up with an idea to have a messaging line where recipients could call after receiving their gift. When a recipient doesn’t know who gave the gift to them they are even more free to express their gratitude and we capture this through voice files that we email to the donor.

And the last bit of randomness for today – I completely missed my 1 year anniversary at Medpace! I started July 28th, 2008 and the past year has been a good journey. I’m not doing much of what I was originally hired to do, having instead stepped into a more specialized role with a different system. I’m thankful for this opportunity and appreciate the challenge of establishing new processes and reworking old processes to streamline the flow of getting the system up and running. The company itself is great. They definitely have employee morale in mind by providing word day activities such as cornhole and pop-a-shot tournaments, ice cream socials and lunches, as well as outside work events such as the Christmas party, paintball, golf outings and more.
It has been a welcome change from my previous employers!

For all you Losties out there…a little entertainment for this Friday. What if Lost were a sitcom from the nineties? (via tvsquad.com)

All I have to say is someone is trying to pass the time while waiting for the final season…

I’m a little late on this one… A couple days after Paul Harvey passed on, so did Uncle Al. Those of you not in the greater Cincinnati area probably haven’t heard of him, but he was host of The Uncle Al Show, one of the longest running local children’s shows in American TV history (35 years). You can read more about him and his show at the following sites:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Uncle_Al_Show
• http://www.wcpo.com/content/aboutus/uncleal/default.aspx

I don’t remember much about the show, but I was actually on it! Way back in Jun of 1981, when I was a few months shy of being four years old. See if you can spot me:

No other sit-com has tugged on my heart strings more than Mad About You. I still remember the first time I saw The Finale, the three part ending of season 4, when the Buchman’s were going through a really rough time in their marriage and we all wondered if they would stay together. That was a tough stretch to watch, and though they brought it on themselves by making bad decisions, I was still rooting for everything to work out and for them to live happily ever after (I say it like that were real people). There’s also an episode in season one, Met Someone, which was about how Paul and Jamie met. This was another episode that warmed my heart (I’m such a sap). I really can’t wait until I experience these emotions, both the good and bad, in the context of finding, dating and marrying that special person. Over the past year, I’ve gone from wanting that fairy tale, storybook, “perfect” marriage to really looking forward to experience the highs and lows of a “real” marriage, wanting to work and fight together through the difficult times then share in the enjoyment and pure bliss of making up and the moments of triumph each other’s lives. I’ve come to realize there can’t be all good times in a marriage, no matter how hard the couple tries, and the difficult times are like fertilizer that nourish the relationship and make the good times all that much greater. I’m digressing…

Mad About You is one of my favorite sit-coms, joining the likes of The Cosby Show, Seinfeld and The Office (that I can think of off the top of my head). If you haven’t seen it, catch it in syndication on TV Land or watch seasons 1-3 on DVD. Highly recommended!

Saw Prince Caspian this weekend… Overall, pretty good movie, with plenty of action and adventure and good special effects. You may be disappointed if you’ve read and are a fan of the book, though. While it didn’t deviate drastically from the book, there were some liberties taken (such as a bit of a romance) and they choose to leave out quite a bit in order to throw in more battle scenes. What bugged me the most, though, was the wannabe Lord of the Rings aspects of the film – such as the Ent-like trees in the final battle. The big screen adaptation wasn’t close to the “movie” I had formed in my head while reading the book, but it was still an enjoyable movie. I’m really looking forward to the next movie, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Dawn Treader is my favorite book of the seven and could make a really great movie. It’s scheduled to hit the big screen in May 2010.

This is turning into quite a summer for movies. Ironman has been a blockbuster (haven’t seen it yet, but heard nothing but rave reviews about it), Indiana Jones is released this week (heard it’s awful, but I’ll see it anyway) and Get Smart is coming in June (looks hilarious). I was very surprised to see a trailer for Journey to the Center of the Earth, starring Brenden Fraser. This movie is based on the Jules Verne novel of the same name, which is one of my top 10 favorite books. Fantastic read – be sure to check it out! The book has been adapted to the big screen before, almost fifty years ago, but the reason this version surprises is me is that it aired as a made-for-TV movie on SciFi ION earlier this year.

Last bit of entertainment news – Muppet Show Season 3 hits stores tomorrow!

On a side note, I added a few new pics to the gallery.
[Oops, new gallery pics were broken. They're fixed now.]