Monthly Archives: March 2011

Why I Don’t Watch Game Shows and Reality TV

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A couple of weeks ago one of my best friends from school and her husband went on a game show which just aired in Australia.  When she first told me she was going to be on this show, I was excited for her because it was exactly the kind of thing she loved doing – the fun, excitement, challenge, being in the spotlight and of course, the chance to win some cold, hard, cash.  At the time, I told her I didn’t want to know the results – whether they won or lost.  I said I wanted to be surprised like everyone else when I watched it.  Then as the air date got closer and I started seeing the promotional ads appear on my TV, I started getting anxious.  I sent her a text message in the morning that said:  “If there’s even a remote possibility I might have a heart attack while watching you on TV tonight I need to know the ending NOW!!!”, to which she replied, “You need to watch.  Heart attack guaranteed!”

Then it was showtime! I turned the TV on, sat and waited patiently as the host (not my favourite person on Australian TV) talked through the introductions and explained how the game worked.  Then came the categories for the questions.  They could have lost the lot in Round 1 which would have made for a very short show indeed but thankfully they didn’t.  There were 8 rounds in total and I got increasingly nervous with each round.  I was playing along.  The worst part about these game shows is the long dramatic pauses.  They always annoyed me – the long pause as they made you wait for the big reveal, and then just as you thought they would show you the answer, the host would say dramatically: “we’ll show you the answer when we come back after this break!”  I can tell you exactly what I wanted to break at that moment!  To cut a long story short, the show did not end in my friends’ favour and I nearly had a coronary from the anxiety (for the record, I would have lost the lot, too).  Indeed, I should have taken heed of my friend’s warning: “Heart attack guaranteed!”

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Happy Twitterversary

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It was exactly two years ago, on March 18, 2009, that I joined the Twitterverse. I know exactly why I joined and what I was doing when I signed up. I was watching the Ellen DeGeneres Show. She had been talking about Twitter a few times and I finally got curious about it. Other people had mentioned it before as well. I already had a Facebook account but at the time was barely using it. But I decided to try Twitter anyway. I signed up but I had no followers (sounds a little cult-ish, doesn’t it?) and I didn’t know what to do. I assume everyone started out searching for celebrities to follow. I know I did. Then somehow I learnt a few other things like using hashtags (#), how to send public messages to people (@) and private/direct messages (D). In the beginning, I didn’t tweet much. I hardly even logged in.

My Tweet Stats

So what changed in February 2010 to cause me to start tweeting madly (well, to me, at that time it seemed like I was tweeting madly at 154 tweets for the month!)?  The answer is quite simple: I discovered White Collar.  To my now-dedicated and loyal group of friends/followers, you will understand exactly what this means.  To those who aren’t, I won’t judge you but you are missing out! 😀  Now, you may say “but the show started in October 2009! What were you doing all this time?”  Well, it didn’t air in Australia till a couple of months after the US so I did catch on a little later but once I caught the bug, I caught it BIG…viral proportions!  As they say, better late than never! Continue reading →

Giving Is As Important As Giving Up

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For those of us who are Catholics, today is Ash Wednesday, which marks the start of the Catholic Lenten season that ends with Easter.  Most people associate Lent with the idea of giving up something, or making some sacrifice.  Typical “sacrifices” include giving up chocolates, ice-cream, new shoes, or some other self-indulgent thing.  But few of us remember that there are two sides to this coin, and that is to GIVE.  As part of the Lenten Program, Caritas (a Catholic charitable organisation active around the world) asks us to give through its Project Compassion program.  The season lasts six weeks and each week we are told a story of someone from a different part of the world: Nepal, Democratic Replublic of Congo, Bolivia, Samoa, Vietnam (a beautiful country which I visited only last November), and closer to home, Western Sydney.

I must admit, every year, as I have got older, I blindly put my money into either the Project Compassion collection box or in the weekly envelopes without giving too much thought to what I was doing.  But today, the homily our priest gave was all about giving and sharing.  He told a story of a little boy he met recently in South Africa who was looking through the garbage for food.  So he bought the boy some bread and the boy immediately looked for his friend to share his food with.  What would you have done if you had been that hungry little boy?  What would I have done?  Probably devoured it all in one mouthful?  Would you have shared?  What would you have done if you had been the passer-by seeing the little boy digging through trash for food?

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Kind Words Are The Mightiest Sword

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In a society currently bringing the subject of bullying front and centre of our consciousness, it seems to me a timely reminder that it is easier to be kind than to be cruel.  The old saying “sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me” is certainly not true, especially in cyber-age when unkind words are all that may be required to push a person over the edge and cause irreparable damage.  As of the time of writing, there is a “train wreck” fascination with the ranting and raving of actor Charlie Sheen, who apparently never learnt the adage about not biting the hand that feeds you.  Amongst the recipients of his wordy attacks is the creator of the TV show, of which he is paid millions per episode to star in.  Thankfully, creator Chuck Lorre, is taking the high road and opted to use his vanity cards to let his thoughts be heard.  You can read Mr Lorre’s replies on his site, Chuck Lorre Productions – the Official Vanity Card Archives (and in case you missed my earlier post to explain the name of my blog, yes, I named it after his) – of note are Card#329 and most recently, Card #334.  I’m sure you’ll enjoy following these as they unfold as much as I do.

But I don’t want to dwell on the negativity of using words.

I woke up a little grumpy this morning, after only getting about 4 or 5 hours sleep.  Yes, it was self-inflicted pain as I stayed up later than I should talking to friends on Twitter – what am I supposed to do when we live in different timezones?  Chatting with my gal Lena Lamoray about her photography work and interviewing the latest crop of hot actors in the US (and darl, if you ever send me with a press pass to Comic Con on Matt Bomer/Tim DeKay stalking duties I would go at the drop of a hat and be forever in your debt!), reading the latest blog post by Claire, my fellow White Collar fangirl from Perth and who also has been editor/proof-reader of my stories, and generally trying to work on my next blog are all time-consuming and result in sleep deprivation. Sleep be damned when their long-distance friendship and encouraging words have inspired me to do things that may ultimately, hopefully, be a positive change to my future.

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