Shows of the Season

I am definitely a television addict. It isn't just watching tv for tv's sake either, it is necessary for me to have a favorite show on in order to perform certain activities. Laundry needs folding? Not unless there is a new Office this week. Need to read some chapters for a test tomorrow? I hope I stocked up on some Breaking Bad for that all-nighter.

Anyway, I often take a look at new and returning shows when fall rolls around, and see what people are saying about them. I figured I might as well put up the list of shows I like (maybe a post later on ones I do NOT like). Keeps me in the theme of trying to write more instead of reading all the time.

Without further ado, the shows I am watching this fall!

The Office

Duh, who doesn't like the office? Granted, there is the occasional person who claims it is too awkward, but once they are forced to watch it (in order and by whatever means necessary), they become believers.

I was nervous about this season of the Office. All the rumors surrounding who would play the new boss, in addition to the loss of Steve Carrel, had me worried the show would try to be what it couldn't be anymore, destroying the effortlessness that makes it so great. Fortunately, I had nothing to worry about.

Promoting Andy Bernard (played by Ed Helms) to regional manager was a brilliant move. There isn't a brand new personality being introduced as "the boss." This solves the both the problem of the actor trying to be "Michael Scott", as well as the problem of the viewer expecting him to be (and disliking anything else). It still makes the show somewhat "fresh" as well, as the dynamics in the office are now slightly different.

Plus, I always liked the character of Andy Bernard and how he grew on the viewer as he became less and less one dimensional. This move really shows how many sides the character has, and how well Ed Helms can play them all.

Modern Family

Another returning show, Modern Family is still really funny. This show is similar to the past seasons and not too much has changed. I do think that the children are becoming better actors and enjoy the increased interaction between Phil and Luke (the previous seasons always highlighted their similarities, and I think it was a good move to have them performing more activities together - almost like "partners in crime.") If you enjoyed the first two seasons, this one will not disappoint. If you haven't watched it yet, I highly suggest you do. It is clever, light hearted, and I doubt there are many people who would not find at least one of the characters hilarious.

Breaking Bad

The finale already aired, but this show is probably my favorite show of the recent past. I don't think I can even write much about this show without giving anything away. So, this this will be brief, do yourself a favor and just watch the show if you haven't already.

Walter White (played by Bryan Cranston) is a high school chemistry teacher diagnosed with cancer. In an effort to provide money for his family he turns to his knowledge of Chemistry. As we all know, the best way to make money with chemistry is by cooking Meth. So begins the story of Walter White.

It is a good premise, I wouldn't say it is the most unique, but it really isn't about the meth or the cancer or any of that. It is about Walter White, and it is about the speed and ease with which we can change our course in life. Walter is a polite, calm, intelligent family man at the beginning of the series. He cares deeply for his family and has obvious conviction in his morals. He makes decisions that we could easily see ourselves make. They completely make sense, even for a character like his. We follow along his stepping stones, and it never feels like he is a changed man until it is too late. It is never unbelievable that he got there or how he got there when the realization sets in.

I love this show because of that. The show has great drama, great supporting characters (and development), and awesome writing all around. The story of Walter White's internal struggle, though, is what makes this show unlike any others. Extremes are present in Breaking Bad (i.e. cancer, meth) but they are in place to illustrate how Walter is able to resist giving in, even when faced with these extremes, instead of being a way to force him down that path. This makes it much more believable and relateable. You watch him subtly go down that path and realize that he never actually did succeed at resisting. The contrast with the extremes is important because it allows the viewer to nearly always sympathize with him. The truth is, it takes much less than cancer for a person to rationalize immoral actions. The show brings the realization that Walter White gave into certain situations due to extreme problems regarding his health and financials, how bad would the our, the viewers', situation have to be to follow the same path?

Parks and Recreation

I don't have much to say about this show as it is still pretty consistent with the previous seasons. It is still funny, the characters are still great, and I still find it funny that Amy Poehler, as eccentric as her character is, is really the "straight man" to everyone else. Most importantly, I want to be Ron Swanson when I grow up.

Chuck

It isn't back on yet, but every Geek Squad agent should watch this show. I am not as excited every week as I was in the initial seasons, but still an all around good show. Hopefully this season will finish the series off in a great way.

The New Girl

The New Girl features Zooey Deschanel as an awkward school teacher who, after a recent breakup, moves in with three guys.

Despite some features that make me feel like I should dislike this show (Jess's awkwardness is obviously more cool/fun than awkward, the roommates are pretty typical and generic) I really really like it. The writing is good, and the jokes make me laugh out loud.

However, while I hope this show continues being funny and enjoyable, I am worried that without the awesome writing it will suffer. The actors all perform very well, but I do have trouble seeing how the characters will develop. I am not sure why, but I am drawn to the show, and maybe there is something it has that I am just not seeing. From the initial few episodes though, it seems like a generic premise that makes up for it with good actors and exceptional writing. Hopefully, those writers are also good at making the show a lasting, in depth experience. There is certainly quite a bit of dynamic character interaction that is possible.

Up All Night

Another new show this fall stars Christina Applegate (Reagan) and Will Arnett (Chris). I cannot dislike anything with Will Arnett in it, not even running Wilde, because it is Will Arnett! So, my obvious bias in mind, I really like this show.

Reagan and Chris are a successful married couple (Reagan being a television producer and Chris being a lawyer) who have their first baby. Chris leaves his job to be a stay at home dad, and Reagan goes back to work. The show basically follows the couple as they discover the ins and outs of being new parents.

The jokes are more subtle (though there are some obvious bathroom type ones as well) and the interaction between Applegate and Arnett is better than I would have thought before seeing it. I am not too found of Maya Rudolph's character (Ava, the star of Reagan's television show) but maybe that will change.

Definitely worth checking out if you are looking for new shows. Plus, Will Arnett is in it!

An American Horror Story

I am not a huge horror movie fan to begin with, but this is certainly an interesting concept. The show is exactly what you would except from a horror movie (seems similar to The Amityville Horror so far) except it is a tv series. One thing I often see horror movies criticized for is the lack of character development, as the characters are not really the point - the "scare" is. But, how much better would that scare or horror be if you really felt for and related to the characters? This is something I believe this show could accomplish.

I have only seen the first episode, so take this with a grain of salt. From that episode, the show does seem to put a lot more emphasis on scariness than it does on storyline. For example, a lot of time is spent showing the opening (scary scene from the past) of the first episode, the back story of the main couple (husband was having an affair and his wife had a miscarriage previously) has maybe a tenth of the time devoted to that explanation. Same with many other of the horror scenes. The daughter (violet) and her friend seem to become friends instantly, though the horror scene in the basement lasts quite a bit longer on screen than their developing friendship.

To be fair, this is a show based on horror, and it would be silly for it not to be at least somewhat "over the top." That is just part of the genre. Also, the storyline "leaks" out as the show goes on, and I think this may be a stylistic choice, not an attempt to fit in as many scares as possible, while sacrificing character and story development.

I suppose we will see as the series progresses.

I may have forgot one or two, but I think I hit them all. If you are looking for a new show to start watching this fall, or a show that you can spend fun filled hours catching up on, hopefully the list above will give you some ideas!

Gmail Filters (Followed by a How To Guide)

I actually took my last test for the week today, so now I am procrastinating on writing a paper. This seems slightly ironic... (side note: I am always scared to use the words ironic or irony. I am pretty sure I know what they mean, but so are lots of other people... Except, that they don't...) On to the filters!

I know this is probably old news for lots of people, but there really isn't too much mention of this feature. With how easy it is to combine all your emails under one gmail account, this can be a very useful tool to utilize.

I figure I will first explain what Gmail filters are, and then I will provide some step by step instructions for setting them up if you need help (it is really, really easy). I will also continue to shamelessly copy cracked.com's picture humor in hopes that, instead of being mad, they offer me a job.

Plus, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

Gmail filters have the standard ability to set up spam filters plus you can filter any incoming emails to a specified folder. Those emails can also be set as either read or unread. To determine which emails go where, several methods are provided. You can go by the sender's email address, who the email is addressed to, what terms are in a given email, and what terms are not in a given email.

For example, in my account I have folders like "Bills" and "Newsletters." Tired of the tedious process of clicking move and then clicking my bills folder (exhausted from even writing about it), I made a filter to send any emails from companies that bill me (electric, water, etc.) to the "Bills" folder. If a message arrives in that folder, there is a bold number next to the folder indicating how many unread emails are in there. This is also the way I manage my Newsletters and Receipts.

While this is cool (or maybe I am just lame) the above is not really super useful beyond making your email cleaner and more organized (which is still nice). Where this feature really shines is in the automatic organization of multiple accounts.

I have a lot of useless email accounts, I never seem to get around to deleting them. However, unlike me, many people legitimately have multiple accounts and they use them all. To illustrate how filters can help someone like this, I will pretend I use several of my accounts.

I have my original account, my IPFW email account, my short-lived band's email account (ctrl alt delete will never die!), one for The Petersen Political Party, and I have an account to use for "professional" situations (because something like "xxxdevourerofworldsxxx@gmail.com" is not the best contact email to give to a prospective employer or university).

Above: Exception to that rule

That is a lot of information coming in, and even similar emails (i.e. receipts), can be coming in for different purposes. One plane ticket receipt sent to you is for a personal flight and you want to archive it, another is a plane ticket for a business flight and you need to print it out and reimburse it. When you add a huge amount of email coming into your account, this can be overwhelming.

Without filters the setup is such that you log into one account, you can choose which address to email from, and any emails from any of the associated addresses arrive in the same inbox.

Using filters, you can set this up however you like. So, using the above examples and pretending that I actually get emails at all of the accounts, I can use filters to customize the organization for my own personal needs.

I go ahead and setup my filters so that both address and content are taken into account when sorting.

First, Gmail checks who the email is addressed to (main account, professional, band, political party, school). Then, it checks what folder it needs to go into. One day I get my personal water bill and also get a bill for one of my Petersen Party billboards on I69. Gmail sees that the personal email is addressed to my main account and that it is a bill. It is then filtered into my folder called "Personal Bills" and a bold number 1 appears next to the folder. Sweet! Bills! Once I recover from this excitement, I will notice that Gmail took the other email (addressed to The Petersen Party), saw it was a bill, and put it in the Petersen Party Bills folder, and a little bold number 1 appears next to that folder as well. Receipts for drugs and rock 'n roll materials automatically go into my Band Receipts folder and so on.

Even with my limited amount of emails, I still find it convenient to have all of my newsletters, etc. skip the inbox and go to the correct folder. I was also at the point where I realized that my phone notifying me that I had new email was pointless, as it happened every 20 minutes and was usually nothing. Some of that is spam needing cleaned up, but a lot of that is also things like groupons and other deals (I have a deals folder) or emails from various electronics vendors with information that is relevant to me. I don't like getting them every day, but I might be hungry one day, check out my current deals emails, and save some money since I didn't just unsubscribe.

The main reason I like Gmail filters is because I think they are cool. I don't know why. I just do. While the above explanations are looking at somewhat extreme cases (and those people are probably either already using some sort of system, or have gone insane) I would imagine that, for many people, this organization is still highly practical from both a time saving perspective as well as just making things simpler.

How to Use Filters

Making Folders (Gmail refers to them as labels, I use both terms here. They are the same).

Step 1: Login to your main Gmail account

Step 2: Open Mail Settings (Click on the "gear" icon in the upper right and from the drop down menu select mail settings)

Step 3: Under settings there are several tabs along the top, you should be on the "General" one. Click on the "Labels" tab

Step 4: The top section are the default, Google provided folders, at the top of the bottom section there is a button to "Create new label" click it

Step 5: A box pops up for to you name your new folder. Make as many folders as you need for your specific organization.

Note: You can also nest the labels in each other. I.E. Have a folder that is Work Email, within that folder you can make a Bills folder. Then another folder is Home Email, and you have a Bills folder within that one as well. Or a Bills folder, and Work Email and Home Email are folders in there. Whatever you want.

Now that you have places for email to go, you can tell Gmail what goes where.

Making Filters

Step 1: Click on the "Filters" tab and then on "Create a new filter" (alternatively, you there is a create filter link to the right of the search bar at the top of the page)

Step 2: You will enter the criteria into the box that appears at the top of the page. They are pretty self explanatory but I am not known for being concise, so here is an explanation if you desire.

From: Any email coming from addresses listed here will be sent to the specified folder

To: Any email who has an addre

ss listed as a recipient that is in this box will be sent to the specified folder

Subject: Any email containing the word or words listed here in the subject line will be sent to the specified folder (you can specify if it needs to be an exact phrase, just one word, etc. - more on that later).

Has the words: Same as subject, but if the words are contained in the body

Doesn't have: Same as subject, except if these words are NOT in the body, it will go to the specified folder

Finally, there is a check box to specify whether the email having an attachment is a required criteria for it to go to a certain folder

Step 3: You can hit test search and Gmail will identify emails (already in your inbox) that would have been filtered to the specified folder if a filter was in place. This is a good way to make sure you are getting the desired results

Step 4: Hit next, and yo

u will see a list of options with check boxes. Check the "Apply the label" one and select which folder you want the email to go.

I already think explaining the different fields was a mistake, so I am not going to explain these too. I think these are actually more straightforward anyway.

Step 5: All that you have to do know if hit create filter and you are done. You can also put a check in the box next to this button, which will move all those emails you saw during the "test search" step to the specified folder.

Post step (is that a thing?)

You can go back to filters and edi

t them if you want to add addresses, etc. By going to mail settings - filters - and then clicking edit next to the one you want to change

Things you need to know

The filter system works by the same rules that Google's search engine does. So here are a few tips if you are not already familiar with these tools.

Want multiple, different addresses to all go to the same filter? I.E. Emails from billing@comcast.net and billing@verizon.net both go to Bills folder

You need to use OR between the addresses (caps matter!)

From: billing@comcast.net OR billing@verizon.net

Also could be used like this:

Subject: Verizon OR Comcast

Use AND if you want an email to require both addresses to qualify for automatic sorting

To: husbandsmith@hotmail.com AND wifesmith@hotmail.com will only put emails with both of their emails (and yours of course, in order for you to have received it) into a folder

Quotation Marks for specific phrases

Subject: "Verizon Bill" OR "Comcast Bill"

That should be enough for most people.

Just so you are aware, if you have multiple fields filled out, it functions using AND. So if you have billing@comcast.com in the From: field, and Comcast in the subject field, a message from billing@comcast.com

with a subject line "It's money time" will not get sorted into the Bills folder. If you want to use the filter as though there was an "OR" between From: and Subject, you would have to make another filter (there is no other way that I am aware of). So Filter A would have a From: billing@comcast.com and Filter B would have a Subject: Comcast

It probably took me half an hour to write those instructions, and even if you have no idea what you are doing, you would probably have your entire operation set up in less than five. Craziness....

There has been quite a bit of space since the last picture, and I need pictures to detract from my sub-par writing, so I am going to go ahead and throw in one last picture.

This is one of my favorite meme images of all time. Probably because I didn't realize this until I saw it, but it is so true

The Patriotic Finger

OK, so the title of my blog may be slightly inappropriate. I couldn't resist though, since I was surprised no one has used it yet. That was a good enough reason for me. Plus, it really is more patriotic than inappropriate anyway.

For those of you unfamiliar with the story behind this saying, here is a brief summary of the story.

Some decades ago (in 1968), back when bands of gypsies (aka "hippies" - ancestors of the modern day "hipsters" as can be seen by both groups' love of unique mustaches) roamed our land there was a ship by the name of the USS Pueblo. The Pueblo and her crew were just floating around, minding their own business, and collecting intelligence on the Soviets and North Koreans. Everything was business as normal. However, the good times were about to end. Unbeknownst to the crew of the Pueblo, North Korea attempted to assassinate the president of South Korea. The North Koreans were pretty annoyed with their failed attempt and must have been desperate for some sort of combat victory. So the next day, when some Korean ships spotted the Pueblo (who's crew was unaware of the events that had occurred the previous day) they decided to be jerks and demanded to board the ship. The captain of the Pueblo, confident in his crew's abilities, used Morse code to send back the same iconic three letters everyone still recognizes today - "LOL." Anyway, a high speed chase ensued for a few hours as the Pueblo cleverly out maneuvered the Korean ship. Eventually, the Koreans got fed up with this game and opened fire on the Pueblo (who's own machine guns were unmanned). The Pueblo and her crew were then captured.

What does this have to do with "flipping the bird" you ask? (Note to self: a video of a bird literally doing flips would be awesome. Check YouTube later)

The North Koreans, known for their openness and honesty, took a surprising turn and forced the captured crew to make statements about how awesome North Korea is and to participate in propaganda films and videos. If the crew refused, they were tortured and beaten. They didn't want anyone in the US to think they actually thought what they were saying, so they decided to flip off their captors whenever they were on film. This way, people back in America were aware of what the crew was actually doing while the Koreans were not (apparently, the Koreans were never conquered by Rome, so this mocking gesture never made it into their culture). So while the captain or crew was being forced to make a speech about how much better North Korea was than American, they gave the finger to their captors the whole time. It's like sarcasm using your hands.

"Learning about North Korea's mighty army is super interesting!"

They were a bit worried the Koreans would catch on, so they decided if anyone was asked what they were doing to say that it was "the Hawaiian good luck sign", a variation of the "Hawaiian hang loose sign." The North Koreans, convinced that the crew must truly have learned to love their new home, did not catch on for quite a while. Eventually they found out. While most people would laugh and say "you got me good!" their captors did not have much of a sense of humor, and the crew was brutally punished. Fortunately, they were released a couple of weeks later.

New Blog

As I sat in class today, drawing 3d boxes and swords next to my notes, I got to thinking about my procrastination habit.







Also know as "Art"


You see, when I have work to do (like studying or writing a personal statement for my grad school applications) I usually spend most of the allotted work time hitting the random button on Wikipedia or typing random questions in Google. Unfortunately, I always feel guilty later because I wasted so much time not really doing anything.

Like any rational person, I decided I needed a better way to procrastinate, so I could imagine I was productive and would feel better about it. I heard once that writing is an important skill in "real life." So, I decided I will begin writing about all these things I have learned from the internet and maybe even some things I accidentally learned in school. I will probably even write about things that I think I learned, but are in fact dreams or my imagination. Anyway, that isn't the point. The point is that I will improve this important skill of writing. Not only that, but by writing in a blog instead of just in a word processor I gain an important benefit.

Something I have learned (mainly from facebook) is that the internet is full of people who are willing to proof read - for free. Not only are they willing, but I have suspicions that some people scour through text for the sole purpose of proof reading - for free.

So not only do I get practice, but I can count on the kindness of people to correct my errors and point me in the correct direction. By my counts, if four people read my entries, at least one should be one of these selfless proof readers.

Thank you internet. You are making me a better person. Or, at least, not as bad of a procrastinator as I was previously.