Bob Sassone

Waiting For The Snow

We're supposed to get 8 or 9 inches. I'm amused that the meteorologists on TV keep saying that the timing of this snowstorm is "perfect." More than one person has said "at least it's happening on the weekend and not during the week!" Yeah, it would be terrible if it happened during the week and you got a day off from work or school, and since it's the last weekend before Christmas and everyone wants to get their shopping done, it's just perfect timing. But I'm all set. When you work from home, whether it's a weekday or the weekend, the only things you need are a computer, DVDs, lots of hot chocolate, and about 35 pounds of rock salt. Actually, that's all you need even if you don't work from home. 

You know it's an important storm when the news people who usually work during the week have come in to cover the story on the weekend. AND THEY'RE WEARING SWEATERS!

Yes, to answer your question, that is indeed a "tip jar" in the left hand column. If you've liked the site over the past 13+ years and liked what you see, maybe you could drop some change into the pot? You can put as little as two bucks, though if you for some reason wanted to put in $17,000, it's not like I'd send you an e-mail telling you not to do it. It's your money! (But really, a buck or two is fine, just something to pay for the monthly site costs.) I had a tip jar on my site for a short time during the Mesozoic period (about 8-10 years ago), but I took it off because it felt too much like begging. Well, I've gotten over that, as have many others. I'm in good company.

It's either donations or I cover the site with ads, which I'm against right now. Not because I'm pure and innocent and don't want "the man" infiltrating my site. It's because I'm not sure how my site will look with ads on it. 

There's lots of stuff coming to this site, if you're wondering: a podcast every two weeks, more fiction, more essays, more updates, maybe even some video once I learn how to use my new iPod Nano. I'm also going to have some merchandise for sale, once I figure out what type of merchandise I'll have for sale. I doubt anyone wants a sweatshirt or a mug with just my name on it, so I'll have to put my thinking cap on (maybe I'll even sell thinking caps!).

Have a great weekend.

TV Talk Tonight

I'll be on TV Talk around 6:30pm ET.

A Note To All Of My Facebook Friends

Yes, it's true, I have deleted my Facebook account. Again.

This is the second time I've done this. I did it back in early 2008, when after two weeks I realized that I didn't want to have to maintain yet another web site when I was already maintaining or contributing to four or five others (I even did a post with the same title as this one explaining why). But then earlier this year, when I saw that a lot of my friends and family members were on it and I wanted to have a way to interact with readers in a way beyond this web site here, I decided to sign up again. This time I actually lasted several months.

I think I'm done there for good though (and it really has nothing to do with the recent privacy controversy). It is such a massive time suck, and I'm already the type of person who compulsively checks their e-mail every four minutes, update my Twitter several times a day (also updated here in the left hand column), and read approximately 100 different web sites before 5pm. And I have to admit that while Facebook is probably great if you don't already have a site (Facebook has everything you need in one place), it got to be overwhelming. I had people sending me drink "gifts" and invitations to events that were taking place 2000 miles away. I had ads on my page that were often geared towards something I had posted about, which I'm used to on the web, but there was something rather strange about it. I once did a post about a skunk and a few minutes later there was an ad for Heinken on my page. That's really funny but it seemed like Facebook was alive. People insisted that I take quizzes that would tell me which TV character I most resemble or which state I should live in. And I'm still not sure what the hell it meant when someone I friended would suddenly discover a cow on their "farm." I had no idea so many of my friends were into outdoors, manual labor.

When someone would delete something from their list of interests, I would sit there and wonder why. Hey, Titanic isn't one of your favorite movies anymore? You don't like wearing cashmere sweaters now? You quit the Girls Who Play Checkers Group? What happened? And the apps. I have to give all of my info just to read something someone sent me? And there are two news feeds to follow? Gah!

That's not to say that I'm against social networking. As I said, I'm on Twitter, but that's a whole different thing (and it's nothing I can explain you just have to do it to get it). I post there all day long and if you're on Twitter you can follow me there. But this site right here is my web "headquarters." I've had this site since 1996. If you kept track of what I was doing on Facebook, I would love it if, instead of checking me out there you checked this site. I update it several times a week, I link to stuff I have at TV Squad, and I've even run a pop culture blog/magazine called Professor Barnhardt's Journal since 2002. I have a ton of content here and there and I'm sure there will be something you'll be interested in.

If you've left a comment on my Facebook wall you can do that here too, by either saying something in the comments of a post or by sending me an e-mail. It would be great if I could build a community here like the one I had at Facebook. Bookmark this page and come back and see what I have every day. It's the same number of clicks!

Thanks for following me on Facebook and thanks for visiting this site. If I had a "Like" button here I would click it for every single one of you.

Singing And Dancing At The Supermarket

Years ago I thought that it would be great if someone made a music video set in a supermarket, where the hero would meet the girl of his dreams and everyone in the store danced and all that. Someone finally made that video, and it's quite excellent (and so is the song).

Friday, December 11

It's a good thing I set the DVR.

The gas man came right around 9:30 and I had to go outside and tell him where I smelled the gas. This is the second time it has happened in the last few months or so. This summer I smelled gas in the same area when no one else did (one of the super powers I acquired after getting hit by lightning many years ago), and though there was no gas smell when the gas guy came, he used all of his special tools to sniff around and found that, yes, there was a slow gas leak after all. So they tore up the sidewalk and replaced...well, whatever it is that gas guys replace when they replace things. This gas smell was fleeting and I didn't smell it again (it didn't help that the entire neighborhood last night smelled like someone was burning wood or leaves so I couldn't smell anything but that), but the gas smell was fleeting a few months ago too and I didn't want to chance it.

By the way, did I tell you a house blew up a few blocks down the street earlier this year? 

Anyway, the gas guy came, used those same tools to check things out and even removed the manhole cover in the front of the house and declared everything okey-dokey.

In other news...it's Christmas! This is the week I get together all of the Christmas-oriented music that I'm going to dive into this month. Keep your Bruce Springsteens and your Beach Boys and every other rock Christmas song (OK, I'll take "Christmas Wrapping" by The Waitresses and "Jingle Bell Rock" but that's about it), I'm a traditionalist: Dean Martin, Rosemary Clooney, Perry Como, Frank Sinatra. Christmas starts for me when I listen to Martin singing "A Winter Romance." Oh, and when I start eating Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark, a special "limited edition" candy only available in the winter, by the bag. As for Christmas shopping, I haven't even started my shopping yet except for one DVD I bought, and that was online.

A Winter Romance - Dean Martin

A few links. Over at the TV Squad Podcast, we interviewed Rich Sommer of Mad Men (he plays Harry Crane). Really great guy. We also talked about shows going on hiatus and the midseason shows coming up. I have a really short thing in the new issue of Esquire (the one with the Kennedys on the cover). It's the annual "Wisdom & Damn Good Advice" issue, and my contribution is on page 98. No, I'm not Sting. Look at the bottom of the page in the cable news channel-like crawl for my words of wisdom. And, as usual, I update throughout the day on Twitter.

Have a great weekend. See you Monday.

Waiting

I'm waiting for the gas man to come (another possible leak) so I thought I'd do a quick update to the site. I'm also waiting for 30 Rock to start so I can review that. How much you want to bet that the gas man comes just when 30 Rock is starting? I'm not a gambling man so the DVR is set.

A Charlie Brown Christmas

It was on TV tonight and you probably own the DVD, but there's no reason you can't watch it again here!