Tag Archive for: TV

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Replacing Politics with TV

Two of the biggest things I blog about are politics and TV. I blog about those subjects so much I started sites on the topics (the long abandoned Political Jackass, Grand Old Parody, and Let’s Talk About TV. For those who know me, I’m very passionate (and opinionated) about politics. So passionate, that I would let politics affect me in ways that, in my opinion, shouldn’t. I would read political articles and news and could feel my blood pressure rise at the content. I would have endless debates with friends and family, and that is rarely a good thing. I never understood how people could be so apathetic to politics. How can you not care about the country and the people that run it. I maybe cared a bit too much and that wasn’t healthy, so I decided to start a new hobby. That’s when I started Let’s Talk About TV.

A lot of my previous posts here have been about TV, but this wasn’t really a TV blog. In fact, there were a lot more posts I wanted to write but didn’t because it would be a non-stop TV stream. That’s why I decided to start a dedicated blog for TV-related posts. A few days after deciding on the domain name I had the site up and running. It has gone through a design change already, but I’m proud of how it turned out. Best of all, it has replaced the timesuck that politics used to take up. TV blogging has become my new hobby. Instead of reading political article after political article and posting them on my political sites, I now look for TV news. This has definitely been a good thing for my blood pressure. Don’t get me wrong though, I’m still heavily opinionated, I still make an occasional post, and I still read political news everyday, but it is not as important to me as it used to me. It is no longer a hobby of mine.  Let’s Talk About TV is.

Let’s Talk About TV has been a fun project for me. I don’t really care if it ever gets big because it’s just a hobby. I get a respectable amount of traffic for a site that’s only a few months old, and RSS subscriptions seem to increase by a few each week. There are some things I would really like to do with it, it’s just a matter of getting access to the people I need. I also hope to do some more reviews when I have more time. The problem is, I hate doing individual TV show reviews. Who really cares about a review for a single episode? I plan on doing reviews for TV show premieres, TV technology, and perhaps even DVD boxed set releases. I would also like to do a monthly contest for my readers. We shall see how this all plays out, but the site has definitely become something I’m glad I did. If you haven’t checked out Let’s Talk About TV, please do.

11 People You Might Not Know Were on Saved by the Bell

Most of these I knew, but there were a few surprises, such as Scott Wolf.

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Let’s Talk About TV

You all know that I love TV. In fact, I love it so much I created a new site dedicated to all things TV. I present to you Let’s Talk About TV. There are still things I am tweaking, but I decided to make it public yesterday. Many of the posts were imported from here but expect a lot more frequent posting. I have a few good ideas on what I want to do with the site, I just hope I can pull it off. I’m hoping if I’m able to do a few of them out of the gates I will have a bit of momentum and the rest will come a bit easier (being vague on purpose).

So, why am I starting this site? Well, as I said, I love TV. I’m tired of posting about TV here and there always seems to be a lot more about TV that I want to post. Also, I need to take my mind of politics. You might know I run Grand Old Parody and I need to have something else to occupy my time. Politics is too stressful. I need something fun!

Anyway, go visit the site, look around, and if you’d like, subscribe. I hope you enjoy it!

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How I use Twitter

After reading Owen’s post about Twitter Influence there was a brief discussion in the Habari IRC channel about who people follow and why. One part of the conversation was about celebrities. One person in the convo didn’t follow any celebrities. Owen follows just one. I, however, follow 50+. That got me thinking about why I follow these people and how I’m actually using Twitter.

First off, I want to point out that I am not a TMZ, Perez Hilton, US Weekly, People celebrity stalker. In fact, if you look at the celebrities I follow you would find a bunch of names that rarely, if ever, appear in that type of celebrity drivel. The celebrities I follow are people from TV show, music, and movies that I really enjoy. Their updates are usually really good and provide me with entertainment. Denis Leary always has great one-liners. Rob Lowe embraces his fans and frequently talks about his role on The West Wing. Nathan Fillion and Colin Ferguson are just regular guys that tweet just like anyone else. Roger Ebert provides thoughtful political and film essays. Louis CK posts clips from his very funny show and tour dates for his stand up.

The thing is, I get quality tweets from most of these people. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t follow them. Sure there might be a few on there that don’t update, but for the most part they all do and I enjoy most of their tweets. It’s gotten to a point where I enjoy their tweets more than most of the other non St. Louis people I follow. Twitter has evolved from a place where I can see what other people are currently doing to a place where I can get info on my favorite TV shows, movies, musicians, and actors. I still enjoy seeing what my fellow St. Louisans are doing, but that’s about it. I used to enjoy reading what other people were up to or things they found interesting, but that has definitely changed, and I can probably pinpoint two reasons why that has changed.

The first reason is I started following too many people. I follow a lot of people but the people I follow, I follow for a reason. This has disadvantages though. The people I tend to follow update more frequently. Follow a lot of heavy users and statuses begin to fly by one right after another. Even though I find what they have to say interesting, I can only read so many tweets before they are lost forever in a never-ending stream of unreadable text. After a while of not being able to catch up, these updates become noise and provide nothing meaningful. The second thing is what I’m going to refer to as static. These are tweets that interfere with an otherwise good signal and will often contribute to the first issue. These tweets can be anything from a Four Square check in or a re-tweet to get into a contest for an Apple product (which I swear no one ever wins). Then you have paid tweets. That one bugs me the most. With celebrities and other high profile users, it’s easier to get high quality content without a lot of noise. You know if there is an update it’s not going to be a Four Square check in, a RT for a contest, or what song they are currently listening to. It’s going to be something that I find meaningful.

So, have you changed the way you use Twitter over the years? Do you still find it as valuable as before? Do you use it to make personal connections or more broad connections for your interests?

Why Louis CK Matters

Really great article about Louis CK and his hilarious new show Louie and how he’s not afraid to tackle issues that people who look like him have traditionally shied away from.