Project Runway Tonight On Bravo

Awhile back I realized my favorite TV shows are all on Bravo. Top Chef and Flipping Out and Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List are my favorites. Top Chef is about cooking. Flipping Out is about an over the top guy with a severe case of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, flipping expensive houses in Southern California. Kathy Griffin's show is about, well, Kathy Griffin. She's a funny vulgarian with a hilarious elderly mother.

Tonight is the first episode of Bravo's Project Runway's 5th season. I did not know til reading it this morning, in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, that Project Runway was the first of what has become a Bravo TV staple, that being several shows using the same formula, those being the aforementioned Project Runway and Top Chef, and also Sheer Genius.

Each of these shows starts with a short competition, the person who wins that usually wins immunity from being kicked off the show or some other advantage. After that the chefs, haircutters or clothesmakers get their big task for that week's episode. That's the interesting part, watching all the drama and comedy as they rush to get their tasks done. Then, usually, a bottom 3 is singled out, along with a top 3. One gets the boot, one gets the win.

I think there is a 4th Bravo show that follows this formula, but I can't remember what it is.

I've not watched Project Runway before, except for short bits during lunch. Watching weird people with serious personality disorders make clothes didn't seem very interesting to me, but that's what I thought about the haircutting Sheer Genius show and it turned out to be very funny. Tacoma Dumpster Diva, Lulu, claims Project Runway is one of her won't miss it shows. Lulu usually has good taste, though that has come into question of late, what with her declaration that the Golden Corral is her all time favorite buffet.

So, maybe I'll watch Project Runway tonight.

Heidi Klum is the host. She's a model. She is watchable, but she is paired with a co-host named Tim Gunn. He seems to be a bit of an odd duck with an unnatural interest in clothes. It'd be interesting to see Tim Gunn paired up with Flipping Out's Jeff Lewis.

All these type Bravo shows have guest judges. Project Runway has some sorta odd ones. Like Apolo Ohno and RuPaul and Sandra Bernhard. Brooke Shields I get, but an ice skater, a drag queen and Sandra Bernhard? I don't mean to be rude, she may be funny, but she is sort of hard on the eyes. Is she known for dressing well?

But, aside from any other reason I may have to watch Project Runway, the primary reason was provided by this morning's Star-Telegram, with its latest Texas connection to a tv show.

Here's the quote---

"There's only one Texan in it to win it. He's 28 year old Jerell of Houston, though he now lives in L.A., according to the network. Remember, it was Houstonian Chloe Dao who won PR's big prize on season two. Texas represent!"

Geez, that is so pathetic. Why do I keep reading this idiotic paper? Let alone pay for the privilege.

The Seven Regions Of Texas

This Blogspot Blogger thing has a serious malfunction this morning, in that it goofs up when I try to upload an image.

Well. The image that I can not upload is a map of Texas divided into 7 regions. Why would I want to show such a thing?

Well. Yesterday I finished the first stage in a huge expansion of my Eyes on Texas website. I've been sort of stuck with my Eyes, for the most part, only looking at the zone of Texas I primarily roam in, with short forays to Houston and Galveston and Amarillo and a few other places.

Some of the Regions of Texas are obvious, like the Gulf Coast Region. Others not so easy to see why its a special region.

The aforementioned Amarillo is in the Panhandle Plains Region. It's called that, I guess, because that rectangular shaped part of Texas that sticks up into Oklahoma and New Mexico sort of looks like the handle of pan.

Some of the Regions of Texas are less obvious, like where I live, in the D/FW Metroplex, this region is called Prairie & Lakes. Texas has only one natural lake, that being Caddo Lake. But Caddo Lake is not in the Prairie & Lakes Region.

To the east of my location there are a lot of pine trees, so it is called the Piney Woods Region. Sometimes this is called East Texas. The aforementioned only natural lake in Texas, Caddo Lake, is in the Piney Woods Region, not the Lakes Region.

The center of Texas, where Austin is, is called Hill Country, for obvious reasons, because, well, it is hilly down there.

Big Bend Country is sometimes called West Texas. It's called Big Bend Country because this is where Big Bend National Park is located. El Paso is also in Big Bend Country.

The South Texas Plains Region is where San Antonio is, and Laredo, on the Mexican border.

Texas is divided up into regions like this, I think, to make it easier to describe the state for tourism purposes. Looking at the map I realize I've actually been to every region of Texas, but just barely into the South Texas Plains Region, that being a visit to San Antonio at the north end of that region.

I need to explore Texas in more detail.

North Cascades Highway With The New York Times

A fellow Washington Exile living in Texas is always sending me things he thinks I'll find interesting that he finds in the New York Times. Usually I don't find these things at all interesting. This afternoon was an exception to the rule.

A New York Times correspondent, William Yardley, took a photographer, named Stuart Iselt, with him and traveled the North Cascades Highway, in Washington, from Sedro Woolley on the west side, to Twisp on the east. That is a screen shot, above, of the article in today's NY Times.

The North Cascades Highway opened in 1972. A northern pass across the Cascades had been in the planning for years. It was a major engineering feat. It connected the west side with an isolated part of Eastern Washington. This changed both sides. My side of the mountains, the west side, in the Skagit Valley, sort of boomed in the following years. My old hometown of Burlington got a huge regional mall, called, appropriately, The Cascade Mall, the design sort of replicating Cascade Mountain peaks, in sort of the same way Denver's new airport's look is inspired by the Rockies.

The New York Time's article consists of a very well done interactive map. Go here and start the tour. Click next to go to the next stop. At each stop there is a video that gives you a good idea of what that stop is like. The first stop on the tour is Sedro Woolley. Sedro Woolley is where my longtime fun friend, Tacomaite, Lulu's first husband grew up. I'll see Lulu in a few days. If I'm lucky my contact with her first husband will be limited. Like we who lived in the Skagit Valley often said, those Sedro sorts are difficult. Sedro Woolley is known for its Tarheels. I think that means hillbillies from North Carolina, but I'm not sure.

I remember going over North Cascades Pass the September before I moved to Texas. I doubt I will get that far north when I'm up in Tacoma for a month in about 5 days. But you never know.

Big Brother 10 on CBS

I did not realize Big Brother was back on. I did not watch a single second of last winter's Big Brother 9, that CBS quickly threw on the air during the TV writer's strike.

But, I will, with some sense of slight embarrassment, admit I have gotten hooked on 4, or is it 5, of the 10 seasons of Big Brother.

I am fairly certain I will not get hooked on the current version, that being Big Brother 10. One thing is it can be too addictive. It's on 3 nights a week. That's 3 hours a week.

And then there is the live feed. I watched the Big Brother 2 live feed, because it was free. And I watched a lot of the Big Brother 6 live feed, because that was a summer I was in Tacoma and Lulu paid to watch the live feed.

I remember when I first saw Lulu watching the live feed she was viewing it in this little postage stamp size window and holding a speaker to her ear. I did a one button click and the live feed became full screen, to Lulu's amazement. She'd pretty much strained her eyes to borderline blindness watching that little picture. Then I fixed her speakers so Lulu could listen without holding the speaker to her ear.

On the live feed you see stuff you'd never see on network TV. Most of the good stuff ends up on YouTube. Like on Big Brother 4: The X Factor, everyone was in the house with someone they had a prior relationship with. It was on Big Brother 4 that Big Brother history was made, as in the first time the Big Brother cameras filmed a couple doing that thing that in olden days you were supposed to wait to do til you were married. And then the next day the guy in that coupling voted to evict the girl he'd been coupling with. Appalling.

That was Big Brother 6 that Lulu had the live feed for. That was probably the best Big Brother ever. The house split between the Good People and the Nerd Herd. The Nerd Herd were deluded, they thought they were the good people, but they were despicable and really easy to hate. The Nerd Herd was led by the worst case of Little Man Syndrome I've ever seen. The Good People were led by a Marilyn Monroeesque beauty named Janelle.

Big Brother 2 was also very entertaining. Big Brother 2 produced the guy who many consider to be the #1 Reality TV star of all time. Dr. Will Kirby. You started off thinking he was totally nuts. And evil. And then it became obvious he was very conniving and clever. And then he became one of the funniest characters ever on TV.

Dr. Will and the aforementioned beauty, Janelle, were on Big Brother 7: All Stars. That was an unfortunate season of Big Brother. It could not be Big Brother without Will Kirby. But he insisted the disgusting person known as Mike Boogie, a creature who for reasons no viewer could understand, became Will Kirby's best friend. Boogie was hated by the viewers on BB2. No viewer considered him an All-Star. And then he won the thing and the half million bucks that go with it. Beating everyone's favorite, the beauty Janelle. It was appalling. Afterwards Boogie was harassed in public, and by Rosie O'Donnell on The View. Boogie being on BB All-Stars and winning tainted the whole thing.

I swore I'd never watch again after the All-Stars debacle.

And then Big Brother 8 came along. And I got hooked again.

And now Big Brother 10 is under way. I don't know if Lulu is watching it. I am going to resist her attempts to get me to watch, if she is hooked again. When I was up in Tacoma in July of 2004 Lulu was already hooked on Big Brother 5. She talked me into watching an episode. By the first commercial break I was hooked and asking all sorts of questions so I could understand what was going on.

Internet Addiction Woes

I got up early today. I finished reading the paper, that being the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, in about 5 minutes. It does not take long to read the Tuesday edition of this ever shrinking newspaper.

Today's TV section had fresh goofy Texas connections to people on TV. Apparently some comic named Bill Engvall is on something called Celebrity Family Feud, against somebody called Larry the Cable Guy. We Texans are told we need to root for Engvall because he did his comic act at some point in time in North Texas.

No, I do not make this stuff up.

We are also told there are some Texans on tonight's Big Brother on CBS. I won't further bore you with the towns in Texas the Texans are from or have visited or have a relative living in or would like to visit, because I've not heard of these towns, so I'm sure it'd mean nothing to you either.

Now, when I finished reading the paper, if I'd had an inclination to make fun of this paper, that I continue to buy and complain about, in a similar manner to complaining about Wal-Mart, while I continue to shop there, well, I could not have blogged about it.

Because, apparently my Internet connection stopped working about 10pm last night. Well, actually it was my network router that went into malfunction mode.

When this type thing happens, with either an equipment malfunction or the cable being down, it is quickly appalling to me how dependent and virtually addicted I am to the Internet. My first reaction was to Google for router woe info. Ooops, can't do that, can't connect.

Then I thought, well, til I get to Fry's to buy a new router, I'll just work on a website project I'm in the middle of. Ooops. Can't do that, because I need to access info via the Internet.

Then I thought, maybe I can find a wireless connection. I turned on the wireless connector. There were 3 connections available. All requiring a key. Why are people here so stingy and paranoid? Up in Washington, at my sister's last time I was up north, there were several neighbors I could connect to. Ironically I could not connect to my sister's wireless connection because she did not know the key. Some State of Washington tech guy had set her computer up. My sister assured me she now knows the key, so I won't have to be stealing neighbor's bandwidth.

So, I called my local Miss Puerto Rico to ask her if I could come blog on her computer and get info off the Internet. She said yes, like she always does.

Then, slow-witted dimwit that I am, it dawned on me that I could just plug the router cable that runs to my computer directly into the cable modem.

And that worked. So, I'm not in a rush to get to Fry's now. And my panic attack symptoms have subsided. For now.

Chesapeake Energy Protest Meeting In Fort Worth Tonight

A large crowd is expected to be present and protesting at a meeting tonight in Fort Worth. The protestors are trying to stop Chesapeake Energy gas lines from running under their homes.

Which reminds me of something.

First they drilled near a home out in the country, but I didn't speak up, because it was far from me. Then they drilled in my city, but I didn't speak up, because it wasn't in my neighborhood. Then they drilled in a park, but I didn't speak up, because I didn't use that park. And then they drilled by me and I'm speaking up before they run a pipeline under my house. Speak up before they are under you.

Fresh incoming, below,
from Fort Worth's #1 Rabble Rouser,
Don Young.

---

THIS IS IN OUR NEIGHBORHOOD TODAY,
IT WILL BE IN YOURS SOON!!!
CHESAPEAKE
"STOP"
THE CARTER AVE. PIPELINE
AND THE SCOTT AVE.
"HIGH IMPACT GAS WELL"
***************************************
Please attend in Protest!!
Kathleen Hicks will be in attendance. She needs to see signs of community involvement and support.

COMMUNITY MEETING
***********************
Carter Avenue Gas Pipeline

It is VERY important that you attend this meeting!!!
If you have any questions and/or concerns regarding Chesapeake's plan to place "GAS PIPELINES" under our lawns and neighborhood streets.
JUST SAY NO!!! This is the time to address your concerns.

Meeting will be held at the:
Sycamore Community Center
2522 East Rosedale Street
Fort Worth, TX 76102
Monday July 14th, 2008 @ 6:30 PM

STOP
THE SCOTT AVE.
"HIGH IMPACT GAS WELL"

Wal-Mart Sucking Again

My little sister informed me last week that a week from now, when I'm in Tacoma, I am banned from shopping at Wal-Mart. This should not be difficult because there is no Wal-Mart in Tacoma.

This morning I went to my neighborhood Super Wal-Mart. I needed paper towels and a few other things. Like lime juice. Wal-Mart did not have any lime juice in stock.

The paper towels had one of those "Price Rollback" signs blaring that the pack of paper towels now cost $5.00. A price rollback of 63 cents. However, between when I put the paper towels in my cart and checked out the price must have rolled back up, because the paper towels rang up at $5.63.

I told the checkout girl that this was not the correct price. She told me I had to go to Customer Service to get it corrected. Even though it was early morning and Wal-Mart had few customers, there was a long long line at Customer Service. I believe Customer Service at Wal-Mart is what is known as an oxymoron.

Now, unlike Krogers or Albertsons, where I don't ever recollect the price mistake being in my favor, more often than not the price mistake at Wal-Mart gives me a bargain. So, I really didn't mind the 63 cent unexpected surcharge.

When I Googled "Wal-Mart Sucks", looking for an appropriate image, I found that there are websites devoted to Wal-Mart Sucking and Blowing. I also found some YouTube videos devoted to Wal-Mart and its tendency to suck in various ways.

Here's WALMART*SUCKS.ORG.

Here's Wal*Mart-Blows.com.

Here's Disgruntled Human complaining about Wal-Mart Sucking.

Here's Wal-Mart Really Sucks.

Okay, that's enough with the Wal-Mart Sucks websites. Now for some Wal-Mart Sucks video.

In the first video two guys whine about Wal-Mart, as they drive along. The best part of this one is at one point, like me, they lament that they continue to shop at the very place they are complaining about.



The second video is about a Wal-Mart employee and the shenanigans that go on during the late night shift.

The Closer To Texas

Yes, I know I said I was going to stop making fun of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's goofy practice of mentioning any connection between someone in the news or on TV to Fort Worth or Texas, no matter how remote or pointless.

The worst practitioner of this eccentricity is this incredibly shrinking paper's TV writer, Robert Philpot.

This morning, Philpot wrote about the season premiere, tonight, on TNT of a show called The Closer, starring Kyra Sedgwick, produced by someone named James Duff.

Here's the goofy verbiage----

"Although its lead character is an Atlanta woman transplanted to Los Angeles, TNT's crime drama The Closer has a heavy Texas connection.

Series creator and executive producer James Duff grew up in a variety of Texas cities, thanks to his father's job with Sears, Roebucks & Co., and Duff's parents live in Arlington (Duff visited recently when his mother had neck surgery). Duff attended Texas Tech, where one of his teachers was G.W. Bailey, who plays the curmudgeonly Detective Lt. Provenza on the show. Among Bailey's best friends is Tarrant resident Barry Corbin...."

Eventually Philpot gets past the fascinating, totally important Texas connections to share some actual information about The Closer.

Miss Venezuela Wins, Miss USA Falls, Miss Puerto Rico Missing

My local Miss Puerto Rico must be devastated. Near as I can tell, looking at the news in the wee wee hours of the morning, Miss Puerto Rico didn't even come close to the coveted title of the Miss of the Entire Universe.

Kidnap victim, Venezuelan Dayana Mendoza, proved the Vegas bookies have a keen eye for beauty, with the odds on Vegas favorite beating 3 other Latin American Misses for the most prestigious title in the known Universe. The runner-up was Miss Columbia Tailana Vargas, Miss Domincan Republic Marianne Cruz Gonzalez was 3rd, Miss Mexico Elisa Najera came in 4th, with Miss Former Soviet Union Vera Krasova rounding out the top 5.

Miss USA was Miss Texas, Crystle Steward. Crystle was in the Top 10, but unfortunately she had a serious wardrobe malfunction when she tripped on her jewel encrusted gown and fell down. This is the second Miss Universe show in a row where the Miss USA girl takes a tumble. Last year Miss USA Rachel Smith also took a fall and bounced right back up, just like Miss USA did this year, as you can see for yourself in the video below. That is Miss USA on the ground in the photo on the right.

Miss Puerto Rico did not make the Top 10. In addition to the previously mentioned, Miss Kosovo, Miss Australia, Miss Spain and Miss Italy were the other Misses in the Top Ten.

I was over at my local Miss Puerto Rico's last night before the most important event on the planet was beamed live from Viet Nam's resort city of Nha Trang to the rest of the Universe. By the time I got back here I forgot, like millions upon millions of other Americans, that Miss Universe was about to be crowned. I made popcorn and watched The Simpsons instead. And King of the Hill. Neither Homer or Hank Hill watched the Miss Universe thing either.

Lake Grapevine Rockledge Park Video

Like I said I was going to do, in a blogging earlier today, I went to Lake Grapevine to hike, swim and picnic. I'm back from that ordeal and have already YouTubed a primitive video.

The hiking was hot. I hiked in my swimming suit which made swimming an easy transition. I was sweating like a fat pig. Was so looking forward to the water. I'd not been in Lake Grapevine since I was attacked by a maniac turtle way back in July of 2002. I'd sworn off getting into murky Texas Lakes. But Lake Grapevine was somewhat clear today. And warm. Way warmer than the swimming pool water. The air temp was near 100. I don't think the lake water was far behind. The only time a lake has felt warmer was way back in 1999 at Lake Mead in August with my nephews.

We had some difficulty finding a picnic table, but eventually found a huge pavilion that was supposed to be used by reservation only. And I assume a fee. But, we weren't the only scofflaws. Soon after our picnic began, a huge family showed up with quite an elaborate set up, including a hammock.

Anyway, here's a very short video giving you a very short idea of what Rockledge Park on Lake Grapevine is like on a HOT July Sunday in Texas.