A Shot at Celebrity

So as hard as this is to admit and still maintain my dignity, I've been watching, nay, HOOKED on "A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila".

For those of you over the age of 25, or those of you who have been living under a rock, Tila Tequila is "famous" for her presence on Myspace. She has like a million friends and a couple horrible songs and now this reality show.

In the first episode we find out that Tila is bisexual. She had 16 guys and 16 girls to pick from in the very beginning and narrowed it down to only two- Dani and Bobby. (Dani's the girl...on the left.) There were all sorts of characters on the show, all sorts of crazy drama and fighting and drunkenness and stripper poles and what have you... but as silly and smutty as it sounds, it was addicting.

Who would she pick? A guy? A girl? The drama kept me tunning in every week, and honestly I found myself routing for the girls. For a female to come out on national television and say "Yes, I'm a lesbian" is very courageous. The girls seemed the most genuine and caring, whereas the guys reminded me of every other jerk every other girl has ever dated.

Fast-forward through the cross-dressing, animal parts eating and chocolate pudding to tonight's finale- Who will Tila pick... Bobby or Dani?

After some smoochy scenes, "I love you"s and a few flashbacks, it's the moment of truth.

My jaw is literally dropped open as Tila takes her dear sweet time to completely crush my hopes by picking Bobby. Ugh.

I'm not doubting her "bisexuality" or who she's in love with, and I promise I won't ramble on about "reinforcing the patriarchal ideal"...it's just...come on! Dani was so real, so nice, and so loving! She knows who she is and what she wants! Luckily there wasn't anything heavy within my reach at the end of the episode.

But wait...why should I care?
What is with this trend in Reality TV voyeurism? First it was Survivor, Amazing Race, and Fear Factor, those shows I can handle. The competition is real.

But now we've made a competition out of love. I was hooked on the drama of someone else's supposed love life? I'm starting to feel a little icky for watching.

Hopefully this trend will be over sooner rather than later.
Hopefully we'll stop giving celebrity status to people just for being "Myspace whores".

Hah. Yeah. :-\

Half-way to 40!

I'd like to take a minute to say a big

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

to John Mark Thomas...aka Marko Polo!

In honor of Mark's birthday, I'd like to share a few important things that happened on this day in history-

- Emperor Nero was born
- The first street cleaning machine was used in Philadelphia in 1854
- World premiere of "Gone With The Wind in 1939
- Pirates of Caribbean ride opens at Disneyland in 1973
- Playboy goes back on sale after 36 year ban in Ireland in 1995
- And hey it's Bill of Rights Day!

Happy Birthday Mark! Enjoy 20...once you turn 21 it's all down hill from there. ;-)

Oh the Weather Outside is Frightful?

I'm starting to think that the Weather Channel is just as inflammatory in their stories as certain so called "news" channels. While I understand Tulsa and other areas in Oklahoma, Missouri and parts of Kansas do not have power, and tragically people have died in auto accidents related to the weather, the worst thing I encountered on my way home from Springfield today was me driving a little too fast thanks to the buzz from the crazy combination of Monster energy drink and coffee.

I wanted my final to be canceled tomorrow. Thanks for nothing Weather Channel.

In other news, I turned in my first official "big" grad. school paper. When I say big I actually mean that it was supposed to be 15 pages but mine is only 14.5 because I just couldn't B.S. any more. Long story short I think I managed to prove using Eliade and Durkheim that religion and the sacred can exist in both religion online (real world religions with a web presence) and online religion (religions based exclusively in the cyber world)...more specifically in Second Life. Woohoo.
I'm ready for winter break.

I'm starting to think my thesis work will be over religion and popular culture to some extent, I just don't know what yet.

Tomorrow is my only final exam and once that's done I'm taking myself to the public library to get some books that I want to read... I couldn't be more excited!

Good-bye Second Life...it was fun while it lasted.

Star of Wonder...

(The picture is the view from my apartment's back door.)

I love the light pollution winter brings.

The remaining snow on the ground reflects the light from the street lights, the stadium and parking lots and it is gorgeous.

It reminds me of those longs summer nights at camp, but instead of a campfire I'll take a fire in the fireplace and the ice cold beer has been replaced by peppermint schnapps in hot chocolate.

It is beautiful crisp evenings like this that I walk a little slower to my apartment door and take another cold deep breath.

Life is beautiful.

I'm off to Springfield for a few days to celebrate birthdays, finish my Second Life paper and possibly get snowed in. :-)