11.30.2009

And the winners of this week's DVR lineup are...

Sundays are my least busy days of the week. I sleep in, I run a few errands, catch up on the news, and then settle in for a day of catching up on my DVR (thank God for this wonderful, wonderful invention).

Today is Monday, which means I'm getting all of my weekly recordings set, and here is what I'll be watching six days from now:

Monday Night:
-Gossip Girl. Don't judge me, Manhattan's Upper East Side is glamorous and full of drama. I can get some stellar fashion notes for my @STAConsignment tweets and get some fictional gossip, to keep real drama out of my life, all at the same time.
-One Tree Hill. Again, don't judge me! I've been watching since high school. It's the last season. I'm committed. I admit, I have a slight crush on this season's newcomer Clay, played by the gorgeous Robert Buckley (you may know him as Kirby on Lipstick Jungle).
-House. Probably the least embarrassing show on the list. I find myself a little less excited about this current season because vicodin-addict-House was so much more charming. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad he got over his bad habit, but I think his sarcasm has suffered from it.
-How I Met Your Mother. This is my newest obsession. I love Ted Mosby and would like to audition for the part of "the mother." I love that Robin and I are basically the same person. I love that Neil Patrick Harris can play a very, very convincing straight man. I love Lilly's (Alyson Hannigan) inappropriate outbursts. This is one of the better concepts on TV right now AND it's narrated by Bob Saget. You can't go wrong!

Tuesday Night:
-So You Think You Can Dance. THE ideal DVR show. Why? I watch the dancing, fast-forward through the judging, and I do not watch the results show, I just Google it Thursday morning. Mary Murphy and Cat Deely are two of the most annoying women on television, but the dancing on this show is of such high quality, that I continue to watch. Recording it is the perfect solution!

Wednesday Night:
-Glee. I am in love with this show. The drama. The music. The complicated love triangles (yes, plural). After seeing the pilot early last summer, I had my doubts, but I am glad I gave this show another shot. The characters are easy to like, they are stereotypical without being unrealistic, and while they may face a lot of problems, none of them are far out of the realm of what is currently going on in high schools. Most high schools today have kids who are coming out, getting pregnant, trying to fit in etc. and while in real life they may not all also belong to a Glee club, it's still relevant.
-Top Chef: Las Vegas. I have been a Top Chef fan since season 1 and while I think that this year's contestants may be slightly boring when compared to past years, the food is anything but.

Thursday Night:
-Survivor: Samoa. Again, I've been a fan since season 1, though I stopped watching at some point and have only recently become a fan again. Russell is really making this season memorable, lying about basically everything and outsmarting everyone. He has probably screwed over every single person on the island and none of them even know! I appreciate good drama and give props to the producers for finding people still worthy of reality TV... I was beginning to think maybe everyone interesting had already been on a show!
-The Office. With all of the big character developments to the show, it is just as funny as ever. I'm a little iffy about the "recession is hurting the company" storyline, because everyone else is doing it too. Times are tough, I don't need one of my favorite sitcoms to remind me! That being said, my love of Jim Halpert will compel me to continue watching even if the writing gets bad.

Friday Night:
-The Soup. Just in case I forgot to catch anything important during the week, I can rely on Joel McHale to keep me in the loop!

11.29.2009

Getting Ready for the Holidays




It's the Sunday after Thanksgiving, Tuesday marks the start of December, and my DVR is set to record about ten different holiday movies and specials in the coming week. There's no doubt about it, the holidays are here and let me tell you, I am ready.

For the last week or so, my iPod has continuously looped a playlist consisting only of the three Trans-Siberian Orchestra Christmas albums, Josh Groban's holiday CD, and that annoying Mariah Carrey version of "All I Want for Christmas Is You." I was no sooner done eating turkey and apple pie on Thursday when I just had to watch Love Actually on TV and today I went to see my little cousin dance as Fritz in Boston Ballet's The Nutcracker.

Growing up we had the best holiday traditions. We went to my aunt and uncle's house in NH in early December to select the perfect tree from their Christmas tree farm. On Christmas Eve the whole family would gather at my grandparents' house for seven courses of seafood and presents. On Christmas itself, my granny would make a pot roast and spoil us silly with presents.

But with time, traditions have changed. My parents don't go crazy with decorating now that my sister and I have moved out and my roommates think I'm crazy for wanting to buy a real tree (which I expect them to help set up in our third floor walk-up). We still have Christmas Eve dinner with all that fish, but people have moved and there are fewer of us. My grandmother has cut back to a sensible amount of gifts but the pot roast is still amazing.

And despite these changes, I am still looking forward to the holidays as much as ever. My daily gingerbread soy lattes and never-ending lists of people to send cards to really seem to help.

Meanwhile, this year I find myself getting ready for the holidays at work as well. At CSN I am busy making sure that all of the holiday requests are in and that we're finding coverage for them. This coming Monday is the infamous "Cyber Monday," the e-commerce equivalent of Black Friday. At Second Time Around we had a post-Thanksgiving sale all weekend and we're encouraging people to stop in for gifts as well as fabulous outfits for holiday parties.

Oddly enough, I think that Twitter is the source of much of my early holiday cheer, both work-wise and personal-wise. Using Twitter to advertise holiday sales and seeing the holidays under trending topics is helping me realize that I am not the only nutcase out there who starts celebrating over a month early!

11.28.2009

Today I discovered...

Today I discovered Orkut, Google's social networking service. I've been looking through the profile options and setting it up. Honestly, I think that Google is trying to get a little too personal if you ask me. These questions went way beyond Facebook. Yes I have a strategically placed tattoo, but does anyone need to know about it? I'm not so sure.

On the upside, there are some features that I wish the more popular Facebook had. Right off the bat you can tell this is a Google product- intuitive, easy to use, clean layout, and the familiar chat interface. There is also quite a bit more detail on the work and education section. There are more opportunities to showcase oneself in a professional sense which improves the business networking feature. I'm going to keep playing around with this to see what my thoughts are the more I use it.

This week I also got a Google Wave account, still not sure how much I like it. Unlike their other products, I'm not finding it as intuitive... I'm a little confused about where and how to begin. It doesn't help that my friends who are using it right now aren't the people I would generally use this program with- we talk socially, not collaboratively. I'd really like more opportunity to use it in the way it is intended.

In actuality, it's been a very Google-ish week for me between a few friends suddenly discovering how great g-chat is and me being in one of my organizational moods and going a little crazy with the calendar... A few weeks ago, The Metro highlighted the company as they are expanding their facilities in nearby Cambridge. It's the top company to work for according to pretty much everyone, so with graduation soon, it's nice to know that they are now right next door.

Orkut Update:
I'm having trouble figuring out how to tag pictures which is really very frustrating, starting to think it's a bug with Safari perhaps. Otherwise, I'm starting to like it. Yes, some of the questions seem a bit "high school" and very TMI, but for the most part I actually like the interface a lot. Now I guess I'll just have to convince all of my friends to try it out too. From the 94 contacts in my address book using GMail, only one had an Orkut account and it looks like he used it once and then abandoned it. But hey, maybe everyone will catch on.

11.27.2009

Welcome!!

So this is my boring first entry. This week I have launched my website www.amandajeanmeyer.com which I am using as both a personal site and a way to showcase what I have been doing with social media as a companion to my resume.

I'll be posting all of my exciting updates to this blog along with other entries about what has been going on in my life here in Boston.

-Amanda.Jean