I noticed that many of my blog posts were a bit cynical, so I decided to change it up a little bit and tell you about some things I love. Please note that I love my wife and family more than all of things, but this post is dedicated to much less important stuff.
WEBSITES
www.popurls.com
I have to warn you: some of the content on popurls is inappropriate, but the vast majority of the links on that site are interesting or funny. The site is a bit overwhelming because of the sheer quantity, but you get used to it pretty fast. Much of the content is user-driven though, so you'll see F-words and some inappropriate stuff once in a while. I think it's super cool because I can get access to legitimate news on the same page as just silly commentary by regular folks.
www.alexa.com/hoturls
This website tracks the most popular sites of the day and ranks them. If you just need a quick summary of all the major events of the day, this site is for you.
www.kayak.com
I don't use this popular travel (airline+hotel ish) website because I don't have any money to spend on it. However, it's fantastic. I'm sure many of you have used it, but for those of you who don't know, it searches all of the popular websites (travelocity, expedia, etc) and finds the best rate. It's especially cool because it also searches individual airline websites, which are often the cheapest. However, be warned, Southwest.com doesn't participate.
www.twitter.com
At first I thought twitter was completely lame. Honestly, who wants to hear random crap from me all day? But the other day I decided to turn it from an outputting website (me talking) to an inputting website (me listening). I started following news and sports stations and some comedians, and now I can go there to here the latest news and some funny jokes. You can also search for whatever word you want, and it will bring up all of the twitter posts that include that word. So I got to watch all the trash talk during the Utah BYU game and it was pretty funny.
TV SHOWS
Glee
There is a lot to hate about this show. I really only watch it for the musical performances, but the rest of it is actually starting to grow on me. Sure, I think it sets a bad example for kids in that it makes it seem okay to be completely amoral. "There's really no such thing as right or wrong as long as you feel good about yourself in the world." They also try to tackle every possible issue they can. Two gay dads, gay glee kid with jock father, hypochondriac, fake pregnancy, teen pregnancy, racism, bullies, popularity, and the list goes on and on.
However, there are several things that really impress me. For instance, the lead guy character, Finn is just naturally a good man. The world brings him down but he just wants to be nice. His previously villianous girlfriend, Quinn, is finally showing that she's human and that she's actually a good person. This villian-hero switcheroo is common on television. (See: Lost and Sawyer) I also like how the show showcases how even though Rachel (fantastic singer) is completely rude and crazy, it still hurts her feelings when people aren't nice to her, and that pointing out the negative truth can do damage.
Castle:
First of all, I love Nathan Fillion. I really liked Serenity (Firefly), and I think he's great in Dr. Horrible's sing-along blog. (Find it on hulu.com, another favorite website)
He stars as "Castle" in this show. He's a mystery novel writer and he tags along with a homicide detective. The dialog is extremely well-written. I especially like the way Castle relates to his daughter and mother who live with him. It's also awesome how he's perceived to be an arrogant and irresponsible playboy but in reality he's a caring single father who lost his wife. Last nights episode was extra clever: murder suspect with amnesia has forgotten all the things that made him a bad husband, and so his ex-wife falls in love with him again... showing that sometimes experiences can overcome good character, and that sometimes you have to forget about what makes you so bitter in life in order to be the good person that's inside you.
Burn Notice
This show is awesome, and it makes me sad that it's only on in the summer. This is another example of a great man who wants to do what's right being forced to use his extraordinary skills to fight evil. He also helps people in need in every episode.
. . . and obviously: 24, The Office, and Lost
I won't get into these, but these shows are my favorite shows on TV. 24 may be losing steam, but it's awesome. The new season of the Office is probably the best yet, although season 3 was extraordinary. And Lost is just a mind bending addictive type of TV-Crack.
FOOD
I don't want to write about much in this section.. but I love McDonald's breakfast. I am truly addicted to all things McMuffin.
GADGETS
Ubuntu
This is a form of linux, which is an operating system. So if you didn't have a mac, and windows didn't work, you could use Ubuntu, which is based on linux programming. It's awesome because it's smooth, stylish, and stable. It's really hard to get working sometimes, because it's made for geeks. But it's free, and you can run it off the CD without doing anything to your computer.
Over The Air HD TV:
We don't have cable, so we bought a great antenna and plugged it in to my tv, which has a built in digital converter (so we don't need one of those boxes like all the old people).
The signal is incredible, and it easily dominates cable. The channels are limited, but we get 7 HD channels and a bunch of PBS stuff. Now I'd just like to get an over-the-air equipped DVR to use. There are a few available, but they are too expensive.
Apple products
So I don't agree with a lot of the companies political philosophies, like how they dropped out of the chamber of commerce because they felt the chamber wasn't doing enough to combat climate change. Why don't you use your chamber relationships to set a good example and encourage other businesses to follow your green example?
Anyway, they make good stuff. All of my Dell computers seem to be breaking left and right, but everyone around me at law school seems to be happy with their Macs. I also love iPods, iPhones, and iMacs. Of course there are disadvantages, but I just wanted to say publicly that I don't think I'll ever buy a PC again, especially a Dell.
