Conversations with students

I went to a High School today to talk with students and this is the conversation that I had with one :

Me -"Hey what's up."

Student - "Yeah, I am here to see what majors you have."

Me - "We have many."

Student - "Yeah, but you don't have one for pimps and ho's."

Me - (blank stare)

Campaign 2008

So yesterday I got to experience 2 rally's for the presidential nomination. It started off with Chelsea Clinton when she came to speak on her mother's behalf on campus in the Union and ended with going to Plano to hear Mike Huckabee speak. It was awesome! It was the first time that I ever participated in anything like this before.

It was really cool to see Chelsea because I remember seeing her as a child when I was younger and wondering what it would be like to be in her shoes in the White House. She was set up on the first floor of the Union where many faculty, staff and students gathered to ask questions and to hear her response. It was basically all of the things that her mother already said and nothing new was really pointed out. It was just a cool event to go to. We also saw her Secret Service detail.

Mike Huckabee spoke at Collin College-Spring Creek Campus and he filled up the entire room. They initially had a small room for him and they ended up pulling out the walls so it could expand into the other adjoining rooms (it has the collapsible walls). This was also another great event. He is a great speaker and really went out of his way to connect with Texas voters by sharing his stories of the times that he lived in Texas and also his close proximity when he lived in Texarkana, AR. You could hear the classic call-and-response form which is essential to the Southern Charm.

AND to top off the night, I caught the end of the lunar eclipse too! All in all, I think that it was a very productive night.

Don't forget that Early Voting goes through Monday night and Election night is Tuesday, Mar 4th!

New/Old show : 10 Items or less

In the subsequent months of the Writers Strike, American's have had to resort to watching re-runs or to actually try to find new shows. In an effort to broaden my scope, I have found a new show. It has been around for a few years (since 2006) and may make a come back due to the strike.

It is TBS's 10 Items or Less.

It is very similar to NBC's The Office, with similar type characters, but in other ways, is not like The Office. It takes place in a grocery store and revolves around the manager (John Lehr) and his employees. The situations and how Leslie (the manager/Lehr) acts is very similar to Michael Scott and some of the antics that he would encounter in Scranton. Despite being in a grocery store, they come up with some good story lines and situations : a water-mark that looks like Jesus and helps boost sales during a lackluster time, start feuds with the competing grocery chain manager, etc.

I really like the show. It is really funny. The characters are great and they have a great group of actors. They are not really know, nobody big is on the show, but it is still very well done. John Lehr helped create the show and also does some writing for the episodes, so I think that makes the show more genuine. (It seems that there are a lot of comedies that are going in that direction, using the writers/creators as actors in the show. It makes since as nobody knows the character better than the writer.)

There are new episodes that are being shown along with older episodes, so hopefully TBS can keep at it for a while with new episodes. If you have not seen it, I would definitely check it out! As TBS claims, "Very Funny."

The wind is blowing

And blowing it is. Wind gusts have been up to 50 miles an hour. I went out to visit a school today in Denton and was blown all over the road. I approached the corner of Carroll Boulevard and Eagle and found the the traffic lights were out along with the electricity at QuikTrip. Before I left the office, our power in the building flickered several times.

When I returned to the office, I encountered a lot of smoke. Come to find out that there was a fire north of Denton up near 380. It jumped the freeway and closed down 35 in both directions. I looked out the window and the trees were still blowing in the wind. Needless to say all of the dirt that has settled due to the low amounts of rain combined with the leaves and made some nice dust storms. Oh how I love the taste of leaves in the Spring :)

The winds should die down later tonight around sundown. But be prepared, this weather will be consistent for the next few days and the winds will return in 48 hours...

Politics

Tonight, the President will be giving his annual "State of the Union" speech. It will be interesting to see what he says due to the fact that this is his last year in office and there is much strife in the good 'ole USA these days. We have economic troubles, of which, Mr. Bush is trying to take care of by giving Americans money to spend (which most will go to foreign made goods or saved due to the instability, thus not really helping the problem) which is suggested that it will be a day late and a dollar short because it will be June before the rebates come due to the Tax season. It has been suggested that the economy will already be returning to normal by that point.

Also in the news, Barack Obama has won the Democratic Primary in South Carolina, which was a shock to the Clinton camp as they thought that they would fare well. Even John Edwards, a South Carolinian, came in 3rd place. Today, Obama has also secured a nod from Edward Kennedy, one of the long standing Democrats to this day. As Super Tuesday looms in the fore ground, it will be exciting to see who is in the lead by the end of Super Tuesday. It may be the foreshadow of the nod of the Democratic Convention. Will Edwards give up before then or will he stick it out to the end? Only time will tell...

Photo Credit : http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/World/2008/01/28/4798531.html

All eyes on the Granite State

Today is Primary Day in New Hampshire. All eyes will be here again tonight to see what happens and who is selected by delegates of NH. Mike Huckabee and Barack Obama were the winners in the Iowa Caucus. The polls are indicating that John McCain will win the Republican vote and there is a tie between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. It will be interesting to see what happens between the 2 Democrats vying for the vote. Yesterday, Hillary Clinton got emotional when responding to a question from a resident regarding campaigning. She choked up and her voice wavered as she said that it was hard and that she cared for this country so much.

I am curious if this show of emotion hurt her or not. It is definitely nice to see that she can show emotion and to know that she truly cares and wants to better this country. However, with all of the debate about a woman candidate, some may see that and apply it to other situations and make it negative.

An interesting tidbit about New Hampshire... They only have 2 network affiliates that are based in NH: PBS (operated by the University of New Hampshire) and ABC (via WMUR). NBC coverage comes from either Boston (WHDH) or Portland, Maine for Northern NH via WCSH. CBS coverage comes from Boston via WBZ. Being that the state is so small, coverage comes from the larger markets surrounding the state. I think that it would be really weird to get local news from a TV station outside of the state..

Walmart takes over!... in Houston that is..

Walmart now has the majority market share in the greater Houston area. They have had the majority market share in the Dallas-Fort Worth for at least the last 2 years. It is not a great majority, but good enough to do the job. This year, Walmart, with its 50 stores in the Houston area, had 28.5% of the market share. Second is Kroger with 101 stores, had 25.6% of the market share. Third was HEB, 45 stores with 14.7% of the market share.

This time last year, Kroger was in the lead and Walmart was a close second.

This year in the Metroplex, Walmart's market share was 32.3% with Kroger at a distant second at 15.3%. That is a HUGE difference!

In both markets, the grocery industry is really competitive, especially in the Dallas-Fort Worth where the market is extremely saturated with many different grocery retailers.

I guess with the gas prices and the current perceived instability in the economy, it has driven people to Walmart where they can find low prices on food stuffs. In addition to the economy, recent weather patterns have not helped some crops forcing those prices to rise. I know that I have shopped more frequently at Walmart than in the past, but that is because I recently moved close to one. It is just an necessary evil. For frequent grocery shopping, I do take my business to Kroger or another major grocery retailer where I know where I will get quality food. Personally, I do not like to buy meat from Walmart because I can tell a difference between what I get at Walmart and what I can get at Kroger.

No matter where you go, it is not going to matter. It will take a great majority to bump these numbers. However, remember where your dollars go and the quality of goods that you receive before you spend your all important dollars on grocery needs.

Caucusing

You know, I think that this is the first time that I have ever heard the word "Caucus" used as a verb. "Caucusing" is the act of choosing a candidate for a "caucus". This is Iowa's version of a primary. Basically, this vote is supposed to indicate who will be chosen by the different parties (mainly Democrats and Republicans) to lead their party in the Presidential race.

This is one of the most heated races in a long time. According to WCBS 880 AM, the news media has focused on this primary longer than any other caucus/primary season in the last 10-15 years. I think that this is due to the increased reliance on the television news media for news as opposed to the use of newspapers to receive news. In addition, there has been a great movement for change in political policies, so I am sure that has caused this presidential season to be more heated than the ones in the past.

Iowans may set the trend for who may possibly be up to lead our country. It will be very interesting to see what Iowans think of the candidates. The whole country will be tuning in to watch the "caucusing" in action. Will you?

Late Night is back

Well the late night talk shows are back. I watched Jay Leno and it actually was the same as if he had writers who were not striking. He started out with the monologue (of which he blamed the success/failure on his wife, who moderated it for him) and then moved on to the interviews just as usual. From what I have read this morning, that is what happened on the other shows. David Letterman and Conan O'Brien both came out with facial hair instead of their usual clean cut look. I guess that is a way for them to show support for their writers. We will have to see if they will still have this look tonight.

There was a lot of speculation about what would be talked about on the shows; what would be said about the strike. Jay Leno made light of it, claiming that he was not as funny without them and blaming his wife if he was not funny. He did say that he supports the writers, but beyond that, he did not say much else about the strike. There was some talk in the blogs yesterday as to whether the networks would allow them to say anything in support or against the strikers. I guess that at least NBC did not restrict Leno from saying anything about it. I will have to see tonight about the others..

What do you think about this strike?

Oh Brian Williams...

Did you see him on SNL back in November? I did. I loved every single minute of it. It is the first SNL episode that I have saved on the TiVo and have watched repeatedly. It is just awesome that a major news anchor did something like this. You would never see Peter Jennings (although legend goes he was quite a funny man), Tom Brokaw, Ed Bradley, Edward R Murrow or any other newsman on a comedy show like this. They all seem to stiff and proper to do such a show. Also, it is just not what they do. Newsmen do not show their real personality. They are to just read the news and go on with it. However, maybe things are changing. As the Baby Boomers, Generation X'ers and Millenials get older, the news industry has to adjust to these populations. As a Millenial myself, personally, I like to see the personality of the people that are telling me the news. It is nice to get the impression that the person you see on TV in the suit and tie is a real person and not just some robot who is paid some large sum to read news from a TV screen. I want some personality. I think that all 3 of the major network anchors, Williams, Katie Couric, and Charles Gibson, have the personality and we all have seen it in action.

Couric and Gibson are products of network morning shows. Couric from NBC's Today Show and Gibson from ABC's Good Morning America. With these types of shows, you have to have a personality and also be really good at what you do. You have to be able to go from extremely serious by interviewing the President of the Free World and in the next minute, go to light hearted when you interview some kid who won a worm eating contest. There are also segments that involve cooking and sometimes during the holidays, you will have to participate in some kind of activity. On NBC's Today Show, the main personalities would participate in a costume contest each year on Halloween in which one year Katie Couric dressed up as Donald Trump.

While Williams does not have the experience with the morning format, his appearance on SNL was a good opportunity for him to show his personality. He even made fun of himself several times. My favorite skit is the Digital Short that he did which showed a "behind the scenes view of NBC Nightly News". It is hilarious! He also shows a little bit of himself in his newscasts when he reads letters from the public and issues a response.

Others are starting to like him more too. And it may be in connection with his appearance on SNL. According to the Quick and Entertainment Weekly, Williams' NBC Nightly News won the November ratings sweeps. His viewership was an average 9.3 million viewers, 438,000 more than Charles Gibson's World News Tonight on ABC. Was it his stint on SNL that helped him or are viewers geniunely turning the dial just because they prefer his style of reporting? We may never know, but I like to think that it is due to his stint on SNL.

P.S. Williams' hosting gig was not his first appearance on SNL. He made an appearance on Weekend Update when he first got the gig at NBC Nightly News. I cannot find a clip, but here is a story about it.. http://www.indy.com/posts/1114

Attention DFW Rock Fans!

The Eagle is back! 97.1FM KEGL is now a hard rock station again. I say again because in 2004, Clear Channel in its infinite wisdom chose to change the format from Rock to ACH (Adult Contemporary Hits) called Sunny 97.1. I welcomed this as I really enjoy the Sunny station in Houston (Sunny 99.1/KODA-FM), however, the year range spanned from 1960-1980 and they played a lot of stuff that I did not know and it was really different from Sunny 99.1 in Houston. In the Dallas-Fort Worth area, there is a really strong hold on the Adult Contemporary Hits format via 103.7 KVIL and 98.7 KLUV. With these 2 CBS O&O stations, the format is extremely competitive and there was no room for another station.

After the trial with the Sunny format, Clear Channel execs moved to an All-Spanish format, similar to what happened in Houston to 101.1 KLOL (a Rock station that converted to All-Spanish format that resulted in rage from listeners). Obviously that did not work out because now they have converted back to the old format of Rock music.

I know that there are a lot of people who are excited that the Eagle is back. I have listened to it for a little bit and it is not necessarily my cup of tea, but I am glad that I have another choice available if I am in a Rock mood. Currently, they are running a DJ-less, commercial-less operation, so if you are in a continuous Rock mood, definitely check out the Eagle.

Listen Online : http://www.kegl.com/pages/kegl.html

or

On-Air : 97.1 FM

CAW!

Cali Day 2 and wrapup

Day 2 consisted of going to Disneyland. And that was a day onto itself. You really need the whole day to see everything. We went to all of the major parks within the park and went to almost all of the rides that you could possibly ride. And I actually rode some rides. I rode the Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, the Train ride, and a car ride. On the car ride, it was pretty sad. It was not scary, but it did a bunch of stopping and going and it did get petty high. There was a small drop and I screamed. I think that I was the only one who screamed on that ride. Even the little kids in front of me didn't scream. I felt like a looser afterwards, but it was still fun. The Train ride went pretty high and it did go fairly fast, but it did not have any big drops, so I really liked it.

We ate at some good places while at Disney. One was an Italian place inside the park dedicated to the future. I had some pasta with sausage tomato sauce and it was great. It was a big plate but it was $8.99. I thought that was a little much, but it is an amusement park. For dinner, we went to an American themed food venue and it was great as well. I had Pot Roast and it was delectable. A big slab of meat and some potatoes and wax green beans. Needless to say, I left that place full, and again, $15 dollars lighter.

The day was pretty nice, but as the sun went down, around 4:30pm, it started to get cold. It was manageable though and not windy, so that helped. The rides and the buildings helped too.

We returned to our hotel at 12:30 am, so needless to say, I was dead by the end of the night. I passed out right as we walked into the door.

The next day, we had to get ready early, so I had to get up at 8 am to pack and whatnot. Amazingly, I woke up and was not tired. We took the rental car back to Advantage and rode to LAX. I don't know why, but LAX made me really anxious and I was kinda nervous while going through security. There was no need for me to be nervous, but there was a really long line, and it was a new airport, so I don't know what happened. Once I got through, I was ok. It was just going through the process that was a little nerve wracking.

The flight was a little bumpy as we were crossing over weather as we came back, but not a bad flight over all. This was my first time to take a Southwest flight outside of the state of Texas, so that was pretty cool. On the way, we stopped at Albuquerque, NM, and it was really dusty. The airport was pink! I hear that it takes the southwestern theme to the extreme. It would be nice to go back and actually see the city, although, from the sky, it didn't look like there was much to see.

All in all, it was a good trip. I can now cross Los Angeles and #2 DMA off of my "Must go to" list. Next is Chicago....

A Fresh and Easy Trip

So yesterday while I was in California, I put on my "tourist to-do list" a visit at a Fresh and Easy store. This is the US version of the UK's Tesco store. I shopped at Tesco's while I was on my Field School and I was really excited to hear that Tesco was going to enter the US market. As we started to drive up, I was really excited. I started taking pictures, and people were probably thinking that I was crazy. I just wanted to have photographic proof that I was there.

We walked in and immediately I was reminded of the Tesco. They had all of these cold cases up at the front and it was laid out similarly to a Tesco. One thing that I did notice that was different was that they did not have any cashiers. They just had the U-Scan machines, which was ok because it is not that big of a store, and the average consumer of Fresh and Easy will only be picking up a few things, not usually doing their whole weeks worth of shopping.

They had many of the national brands that we are all familiar with, so that was great, but they also had many Fresh and Easy labeled items. Most of these items were organic or had attributes about them that were either guaranteed to be fresh or from products that had no extra fillers or crap in it. This is something that is carried down from mother Tesco because Tesco has a policy about providing the most natural foods possible.

The prices were amazing! Boxes of tea were $2.00, a small bottle of Fiji water was only $0.99. Many of the food stuffs had great prices. Fresh catfish was $2.99 a pound and ground beef was about $1.99 a pound. Fresh and Easy would definitely be a store that I would shop frequently.

I was hoping to see some Tesco branded items or other items that they could import from the UK, but unfortunately they did not have any. It totally makes since because it would just confuse the consumer and it would also increase the prices of the goods and would be an additional cost to the company.

One great thing about Tesco and Fresh and Easy is that they are extremely environmentally friendly. One thing that I noticed about this store is that everything was spaced out appropriately and there was no space that was not unused. This is good because it reduces energy consumption. In addition, I did not see any product on their shelves that had was over packaged, thus reducing waste.

I had a great experience at Fresh and Easy and I hope their ventures in the American Southwest are successful so they can explore outside of this region and make their way to Texas. It would be AWESOME!

You can find out more about Fresh and Easy on their website at www.freshandeasy.com. They also have a great blog from one of the Execs at www.freshandeasy.com/blog

California Day 1

Last night, I flew from Austin to meet up with some friends in Los Angeles, CA. It was a very long day to begin with because it started out by waking up at 4:30 in the morning to fly from Houston to Austin to meet up with some co-workers for a meeting. After the meeting was over, they took me back to the airport where I sat around for a few hours as I waited for my plane to take me to San Jose, CA where I would catch another plane (much smaller) to Los Angeles's LAX.

When I got into San Jose, I was not really impressed with the airport. It was older and it had a small area for the gate that I was at, which I thought was weird as most gates are pretty big. There also was not much in the way of shops that were open either for me to get something to drink as I waited an hour for my next flight.

When I got to LAX, it was an interesting experience. First off, I had to take an American Eagle jet from San Jose to Los Angeles due to the rather short distance between the 2 cities and how American Airlines does thing. I sat in a seat that was next to the window and I was all by my self because the whole plane was only 3 seats wide. Then when we got in, we exited the plane in a small building that was disconnected from a terminal and was actually on the tarmac. We had to load onto a bus that then took us over to the AA terminal. On this bus, we actually drove on the runway and had to dodge some airplanes here and there. Then I had to make my way to the hotel shuttles.

When I got to the appropriate island for the shuttle buses to take me to my hotel, I had to wait for about 15 minutes. While I waited there, I got to look all around me and watch the traffic as it went by. It was a partial culture shock to see the way that some of these bus drivers were driving. There was a lot of honking of horns, fast paced driving and stopping, congestion, and overall chaos. It was crazy. It was just really weird for me to see these drivers acting this way.

When we got up this morning to start sightseeing, we encountered the same type of attitudes towards driving, but it was not just from professional motorists, it came from the average motorist too. The second that the light turned green, people behind us started honking and we hadn't even had the chance to go before we were "reminded" to go. It was just obscene.

I guess that a part of the chaos comes from the crazy roadway situation out in these parts. There are on ramps from other freeways that run into the existing freeways which makes driving almost impossible. There are a lot of cars on the road too, so that is hard to deal with also.

One thing that was really annoying was that there were no left turn green light to help make turns in the intersections. After watching others do this for a bit, we learned that it was required to sit in the middle of the intersection and wait for the light to turn red in order to make the left hand turn. We all were in agreement that Californians have the wrong idea about this and should consider the Texan way about left turns.

When we got to Hollywood, it was a lot smaller than I imagined. The area with all of the movie star's hand-prints and the Hollywood Walk of Fame was in a small area. The Walk of Fame extended all the way down Hollywood Boulevard, but who wants to walk all the way down just to see a name in the cement that the movie star had to pay for just to have that star.

It was also interesting to find out that the Kodak Theater, where they usually host the Oscars, is inside of a mall type building. The Chinese Theater was attached to that same building down from the Kodak Theater.

We also saw USC today, which was a beautiful campus. I had to go to the bookstore to get a t-shirt. In addition, we went to Fresh and Easy (more about that later), Santa Monica Pier, and Century City (where all of the TV/movie studios area). The Santa Monica Pier was beautiful. It reminded me of Kemah. The beach was also beautiful. Unfortunately it was pretty cold and there was a strong gust of wind coming off of the Pacific Ocean (yeah, that's right, I saw the Pacific) so we did not stay out long, just long enough to take pictures and leave. The sand was beautiful and I am sure if we were there earlier in the day, I would probably have seen blue water. I will definitely have come back again to see it in the full daylight (and also a warmer time to be able to stay out longer) to see it in its full beauty.

Over all this was a good first day in Los Angeles. I managed to take about 130 pictures, and with Anaheim and Disneyland on the itinerary tomorrow, I think that I may be able to double that number.

Sittin at the airport

While I am sitting at the airport, waiting on a flight, I figured that I would write a little on the blog since it has been a while since I last posted. This past week, I have been in Houston working on the "Gulf Coast" week TACRAO schedule of College Night programs at local high schools. This week, I visited Deer Park, Victoria, Dickinson, Texas City, Alvin and my home district of Clear Creek ISD. The programs for this week were pretty slow, in that I didn't have nearly the amount of students to speak to that my team had last year.

It was fun to come back though because I know this area quite well, so I did not have to rely on maps a great deal. It was quite nice. What was not quite nice was the smelly Ford Taurus that I had to drive this week. It smelled like somebody smoked in it and then Enterprise tried to cover up the scent with a heavy perfume that over powered the car. It took a while for the 'ole nose to get used to that fragrance.. Now that I think about it, it may have been part of the reason why I had a headache for most of the week.

It was a group travel week because a few co-workers and I were giving presentations to the local area high school counselors updating them on the new things that are going on at UNT. We basically wine-d and dine-d them (except for the whole wine thing) and gave them a presentation while they ate. It was pretty fun. I did my first counselor update presentation in Austin today (where I sit now as I am waiting on my friends at AA to come pick me up) and it was a success. I basically did the presentation and added a little bit of personal experience in it and most of the counselors enjoyed it. We got lots of complements. It was nice.

The recruiting season is now over. That does not mean that the job is done with by any means. Next semester, I will be concentrating on my assigned high schools in the DFW area, giving presentations to them and going to visit during lunch. Also I will have a new responsibility of reviewing files and making the decision of whether a student can join us at UNT or if they will have to be deferred for a period of time.

I just know that I cannot wait until the Christmas holiday break so I can take some extra time sleeping.. For some reason, it is a favorite past-time of mine... :)

A test of the FCC

In the days where the FCC is only known for enforcing rules against obscenities on network TV, they are facing an issue which is not commonly heard from the average viewer. Residents in New Jersey are complaining that one of the local affiliates, WWOR-TV, the My Network affiliate from Secaucus, NJ, does not include New Jersey issues in the local newscasts. WWOR is in the New York City DMA, which includes portions of Southern New York State, the Northern Half of New Jersey and Fairfield County, Connecticut and only focuses on news about New York. (For a map, see here.) However, in it's city of license, essentially the place where the station originates from, is in Secaucus, New Jersey.

WWOR is in Secaucus because of some financial difficulties that one of the owners had and to over come the problem, they moved the city of license from New York City to Secaucus. The FCC allowed this, but they added an amendment to the approval stating that by WWOR moving to New Jersey, it was required to focus on New Jersey issues and not just issues in NYC or New York state. This is important because besides WWOR, New Jersey does not have any other local affiliates from the other major networks. The southern part of New Jersey is covered by the Philadelphia media market. So you can see why this would be important to the residents of New Jersey.

On Wednesday, the FCC held a hearing to discuss the issues with WWOR. The session hosted 100 people and the concerns were heard.

From the New York Times :

“I’ve been watching Channel 9 for years, and I was surprised to know that WWOR wasn’t a New York City station,” said Patrick V. Adams, a 19-year-old Rutgers student.

WWOR responded to the critics by showing a video of news stories about New Jersey. However, they were still flawed because their slogan is "My9NY" standing for : My 9 New York. While they were at the meeting, their cameraman had put masking take over the NY on the logo sticker on his camera. The NY Times also reports that they changed the picture on their homepage (http://www.my9ny.com/) from the New York Skyline to the George Washington Bridge which connects New York with New Jersey.

If WWOR does not fix the problem of focusing on New Jersey, then they may loose their license to broadcast from the FCC. If this happens, (the likeliness of this happening is slim) it would be definitely unique and also a first in a long time for a station to loose their broadcasting license. Not many stations these days have problems renewing their license, and if WWOR cannot renew theirs, it would be a wake up call to stations who have such agreements and also would show that the FCC actually does more than just fine stations for obscenities.

I know that this may be boring, but it is not everyday that a TV station is faced with possibly loosing their broadcasting license...

Romo vs. Favre

They aren't on the field at the same time! That is all that I heard yesterday and today vis-a-vi Jerry Jones and his NFL Network on the radio : "Don't forget to watch Romo face Favre on the field on Thursday night when the Cowboys face the Packers at Texas Stadium." It is so retarded.. It is Romo vs. the Packer Defense and vice-versa. The person who put together that ad must be shot.

The half just ended and the Cowboys are up 10 points over the Packers. Mr. Favre has been hurt, something about his elbow.

I know that the management at KDFI-TV, CH. 27 is loving this. They are the only local station that is carrying the game. Besides 27, it is being shown on the NFL Network and only a select few have that channel due to the fact that only satellite companies carry the station over cable systems. This will probably give them (Ch 27) the biggest ratings that their station has ever had. Nobody ever watches My 27 except for the random episodes of Scrubs that they play every so often. It is not like they are a real network. I mean, UPN, its predecessor was not a real network either and had very little to offer in the way of network programming.

In any event, this is the ultimate game of the season because both of these teams are 10 and 1 for their season and supposedly 2 teams with this record have not played each other since the early 1990's. It is a fight to the death at Texas Stadium tonight. We shall see who can pull it off.

Is Thanksgiving near?

It is really hard to tell as it is only a grand total of 80 degrees outside. Normally this time of year, it is only 64 degrees. I am not sure what is happening this year, I guess it may be some effect of El Nino or La Nina, but who knows. I am sure the media is attributing it to Global Warming, which has not been entirely proven yet. It is a big controversial topic. However, we will get some cooler temperatures. Thursday, a Blue Norther is supposed to come through and bring down the temperatures on Thursday about 20 degrees to a nice, crisp 48 degrees.

It is a little easier to see that Thanksgiving is near because of the amount of traffic and phone calls the we are receiving in the office. It is crazy! Some of the tours that have this morning had about 30 people in them.

I am excited for tonight because on TV this evening, we will have a little we will have some pre- Thanksgiving fun with How I Met Your Mother's "Slapsgiving" in which we get to enjoy a continuing story line from "Slapbet" in which Barney is dreading his slaps from Marshall. We have to savor it now, because it will probably be one of the last new episodes for a while.

Shame 106.1 Kiss-FM, shame....

Did anybody else see the billboards around town says "106.1 Kiss FM will be Flipping on Nov. 15th"? I did. I saw it on IH-635 in Dallas on the way home from a program Monday night. When I saw this, I thought that the radio station was switching formats. Whenever I got home, I immediately went to the Internet to try to see if anybody knew what was going on and which format they would be switching to, but my search came up with no leads.

I got to work yesterday, and went to 106.1's webpage to see what happened because that was supposed to be the big day, and it turns out that it was just a promotion that the were running to give away money. And I don't even understand where the "flipping" part comes into play. It doesn't matter though. It's not that important. I do not even listen to 106.1 much anyways, just only when there is nothing else on. It is hard for me to listen to a station that employs Atom Smasher.

Stupid Clear Channel...

A Beautiful Disaster

Oh thank you to all of those at iTunes who pick the free songs of the week. I happened to download one, and I love it. Every time that I listen to it, I have to listen to it a minimum of twice. It has a nice tune and great lyrics. I haven't quite figured out why I like it, beyond the fact that it is a good song. And it is not even played on the radio yet (to my knowledge)!

The song is "Beautiful Disaster" by Jon Mclaughlin. It is a song about a girl who is sensitive and who is willing to do anything to find a guy who wants her. "She just needs someone to take her home." Check out the music video here on youtube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww0kqkX4vXQ

It is an awesome song. I have not downloaded anything else by Mclaughlin, but I am really tempted due to this song.

Mclaughlin only has one CD, "Indiana" which contains the song, "Beautiful Disaster".