Well, since I'm up, I might as well do this now. :) It's the start of the January 2006 Superlatives. :D Coincidentally timed with the Olympics. Maybe I'll give medals to the winners... This time, we'll have a nomination round. Please submit a PM to me with five nominees for every category. You can have less than five (if you can't think of more than one or two) but no more than five. I won't count past five (as in real life). Furthermore, you can't vote for yourself. :) Categories: Most Popular This is pretty basic. This is the person who is the most popular user on the site. They are loved, adored, and even relied upon. Funniest The most humorous user on the site. Someone who can take a blog comment and turn it into an episode of Seinfeld. Best Blog The person with the most entertaining, informative, and/or humorous blog on the site. Best Blopper This is for the user who can be relied on to post in most of their friends blogs, and put a lot of effort into doing so, sometimes leaving page long comments. They're the ones that make blopping worth it. Most Influential Remember the Blue Boxies? Those were invented and spread by several influential users. Someone is influential if they come up with something that inspires others to follow them, such as a cult (blue boxies) or a new word (blopping). Best Cult This is the best group, such as the group formerly known as the blue boxies and the Cult of the named butterfly. The cult craze has kind of cooled down a bit, but I think this category is still relevant. Best Poster The person who can contribute most to a forum thread. They answer questions, they provide useful information, they put an end to the flaming, and things like that. Smartest This person can answer the aforementioned questions in a complete and easy to understand manner. They have a vast knowledge and know a little bit about everything, so they can comment on just about anything you want to talk about. Most Polite When you're feeling down they come around to make that frown turn upside down. (Yes, I did just rhyme "down" and "down" and I'm proud of it.) Best Banner Ever stop by a profile and think, "Nothing this person says can possibly top that big, beautiful banner." Well nominate that person here. NEW CATEGORIES Best Ranter The person that articulates all of our concerns about the site in a well written, stinging attack against Howdy Doody and his cohorts. Sometimes they even clue us in on horrible things we didn't know existed, and then tell us why we should be angry. It's about time these people get honored. Person We Miss the Most This goes to the person who has either left the site, or doesn't come around that much, that is greatly missed. There are lots of people eligible for this nowadays. :( Well, that's all. :) Start picking your nominees. This round ends at midnight Thursday, and the final five nominees for each category will be announced on Friday. You are welcome to post your votes in your blog or here if you want to, but it's not neccesary. But, I have to stress, your votes will not be counted if they are not sent to me in a PM. Don't forget, the goal of this is to have fun, and improve morale in these dark ages. Don't take it seriously; It's a farce. :lol:

As some have noticed, I've changed my icon. :) But you might be wondering, "Why Kermit?" Well join the club, because I am too. I was just looking through all the icons, trying to find a new one, and I noticed the "Muppets" section. I'm not a huge fan of the muppets or anything, but I had never seen that set before, so I decided to go have a look. And this weird Kermit icon just jumped out at me. So here it is. :D Last night I took a break from the non-stop Olympics coverage to watch the glorious final hours of Arrested Development. They were the best four episodes that show has ever had... especially the last one: wow. :lol: They wrapped things up well while leaving things open for a future pick-up. It was excellent. And even if that happens to be the end, at least they went out in their prime. Tomorrow is the beginning of the nomination round. I've got 12 categories lined up (two more than last time) and I'm going to ask you guys to nominate five people in each category. Hopefully the nominees will make it easier to vote and people will be able to say "It's a joy just to be nominated." ;) All-in-all, there are going to be 60 nomination spots. :o But it's likely that some people will be nominated in every category, judging by how people voted last time. If you could vary your nominations a bit and not nominate one person in every category, that would be appreciated. Well, I'll save all the details for tomorrow. Today it's the olympics: Hockey, skiing, and speed skating. :) Did anybody see Chad Hedrick yesterday? He won America's first gold medal, and seemingly did it with ease. You can check the medal count here, but beware: they show the results of events that haven't aired in the U.S. yet, so you will get some spoilers. :lol: That's it for today. I'm going to start getting ready for the big day tomorrow. :)

Yesterday, I talked about the final episodes of Arrested Development (which I have yet to see). I talked about how it was over for me, and blah blah blah. And then I said I was going to change my icon to something non-AD today. I spent some time yesterday looking through icons and thinking about which one I was going to choose. It was a tough decision, but I narrowed it down to a few. And then, when I came here this morning, I discovered that my TV.com icon had been replaced by my MP3 icon. Inexplicably. This, of course, is amazing. Are the bugs trying to help me now? Did the bugs say "Well, Midwestrocker needs a new icon; let's give him one that relates to his screen name." Is this the bugs' way of proposing a truce? Is this their way of saying that we can co-exist peacefully? I don't know, but it certainly is bizarre. Maybe the staff did it somehow... I'm not sure what to think. But I guess I'm okay with it. It's not a bad icon... even though it has nothing to do with TV. I think I'm going to keep it. :) (Do I have a choice?) In other news, the Olympics have begun. I never really appreciate how great the Olympics are until they're on. There's just something about them... even if you never watch these sports and sometimes even don't understand them (curling) they are fun to watch for some reason. I will probably be watching them non-stop for the next two weeks. Right now I've got the women's hockey on: There's just something about 10 women throwing each other into walls that I find humorous. Last night's Battlestar Galactica was the most insane, shocking, edge-of-your-seat episode I've seen in a long time. I honestly can't believe it. It was mind blowing. It was... it was... my mind just can't come up with enough good adectives describe such awesomeness. I will miss character x, but man did he/she go out in a good way. People have said before that BSG was the best show on television, but I didn't truly believe it until last night. I have nothing else to do today except watch hockey and blop, so expect to see me around. ;) Midwestrocker out.

First off, I'm at my grandma's house on dial-up, so guess how long it took me to get here? Come on, just guess! Give up? Highlight: 25 Minutes (Don't you hate it when people ask you to "guess" something that you couldn't possibly guess?) Anyway, yesterday I was reading a book I have called "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing a Novel." I have to read this book in order to write my own, "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Recovering from a Failed Novel." Well, while I was reading the first one, I learned about something called "Cultural Literacy." Believe it or not, I had never heard of this before. Your Cultural Literacy is your knowledge of cultural things that you can talk about in conversation or use in a book. For instance, say a group of people are having a conversation about Jimi Hendrix; Could you walk in and tell them where he grew up, where he became popular, and where he died? Well, now we can find out. :) Here are some Cultural Literacy Tests. I was quite surprised by how hard they are. I've only taken a few, American History 1 (I got an 84), American History 2 (87), Civics 1 (87), Geography 1 (100), and World History 1 (72). But I know a lot about those things, I didn't take the tests on things I wasn't prepared for such as: Literature (bleh), Architecture (eek), Math and Economics (uck), and Technology (icky). I hope you guys will take at least a couple of the things and post your results. I can imagine us all being culturally literate in at least one area. Okay, now for some bigger business: I've decided that I'm going to do the Superlatives every four months. :) The first is scheduled to take place in January so that the schedule is easy to remember. Since January has already passed, we'll start Monday and you will pretend it's January. :P I think we could all use the morale boost. We'll start off with a nomination round (details later) and then we'll actually start the voting. And then we'll do one in May, then September, then January again. Three a year seems right, any more often than that and my blog would feel like a never ending award show. Also, tonight is the last episode of Arrested Development. :cry: Of course, some have hope that it will be picked up by another network, but not me. I've lived with that hope before (Enterprise) and I've learned that hope only makes it hurt more. Besides, even if they do put it on another network I probably won't watch. It'll just be canceled there after a season and that will be worse than what's happening here. This is the end of AD, at least for me. So tomorrow, I'm going to pick a new icon. Bye bye, AD. I can honestly say that getting hooked on you, although difficult, was not a huge mistake. :)

Again I have absolutely nothing to talk about, so I'm going to drag out the old blog rerun. ;) I've been thinking about the 2005 superlatives for a while. It was a lot of fun for all of us, I think, and thanks to some intelligent users I have some great ideas for how I'll do it again. But a year is a long time to wait. People change, new people show up, and new categories emerge. I'm wondering whether or not it should be done every 4 months, every 6 months, every year, or maybe even never. You guys tell me what you think. Blog for November 18, 2005: "2005 Superlatives" After a week of voting, we finally have the results. :) I won't keep you in suspense; Here are the winners of the TV.com Class of 2005 Superlatives: Funniest User: Stig14 Most Influential User: HappyYellowBall Smartest User: AngelandSpike Best Blog: Danasdude Best Poster: Studog2961 Most Polite: Angelsxo Best Cult: Cult of the Blue Box Best Banner: Midwestrocker Best Blopper: Sesho2022 Most Popular: HappyYellowBall Congratulations! It was a good turnout. And so many people were voted for that some categories were only won by one vote. I hope you're all happy with the results, and remember that you'll have your "awards" by Monday. Thanks to everyone who voted. TTYL. :) [/rerun] I've got some things to do today, so I won't be around to much. I'll see you around the bend.

Ironically, I now suffer from writer's block. :P My mind is totally blank. I guess I'll just tell an interesting little story. My grandmother tends to make... mistakes with the English language. And sometimes they can be embarassing. So I've gotten to the point where I correct her some of the time. She's gotten used to it, and finds it a bit funny. So the other day I was watching Emeril over at her house and a chef named Paula Deen came on. But I couldn't tell for sure that it was her. While I was thinking about it, Grandma was telling a story: "Ya know, we wouldn't have flowers without bees. They have to pollenate everything." I said, "Uh-huh. I think that's Paula Deen." And she said... "Really? I've always pronounced it pollenate." :lol: And as she said once in an IM to me, "ok the old saying laughingat you are with you JUst so hhey are laughing." (sic)

Today I'm going to discuss some of my favorite podcasts. For those that don't know, Podcasts are like online radio programs that you can listen to whenever you want. I get all of mine off Yahoo! Podcasts and Itunes. Diggnation: A video podcast from the former hosts of the Screen Savers, a little Tech TV show that became "Attack of the Show." It focuses on social stories that the folks on Digg.com are talking about. It's very entertaining, very informative, and I'm glad two of my favorite SS hosts have jobs. Rocketboom: This is a Daily Show-ish video podcast hosted by the beautiful Amanda Congdon. It's humorous, generally dealing with geeky subject matter, which makes sense seeing as I was introduced to it via the aforementioned "Attack of the Show." (sentence structure? what's that?) X-Play: It just dawned on me that all of these are somehow related to G4. Anyway, sometimes I can't see X-Play, or there are certain reviews on X-Play that I want to see again. Well, that's what the podcast is for. It puts quite a few of X-Play's nightly video game reviews online for your viewing pleasure. Even if I have no interest in many of these games, they're worth watching for the laughs. :) The Signal: A Firefly/Serenity focused podcast. The main focus is an effort to get Firefly back on the air in some fashion, or for a trilogy of Firefly based movies. They've even made hilarious little songs and such. I was quite surprised by how much material they could get into the show, considering there's only about 14 hours or so of material in the entire Firefly universe. Speaking of Firefly, do you know who's a big Firefly fan? ANGELANDSPIKE! Woot Woot! :) There, I've fulfilled my duties. Midwestrocker Out.

It's the day after the Super Bowl, television's biggest night, and I'm taking stock. First off, the Steelers won. Woot Woot! :) Congratulations to RJ and Happy and any other Steelers fans out there. It was a good game, even though I found it hard to pay attention to throughout the middle. ;) Now, the commericials. There were a few truly great ones, but the best of the best was the "Magic Fridge" Bud commercial. :lol: Other ones that I really liked included: Brooke Burke in a burger, Monster and Robot give birth to Hummer, Leornard Nimoy is broke and desperate, and the naked lamb. :D And then there was Grey's Anatomy. They didn't hide the fact that they were trying to lure in Super Bowl viewers, did they? The opening scene featured the girls showering together. :) That was loads of fun, so I'm not going to complain about how ridiculous it was. The rest of the episode was very good too. Not as eventful as I had expected (due to cliffhanger!) and Meredith was just as annoying as usual (she might die! Yay!) but all in all it was one of the best eps of this season. However, the shark is swimming near by. If Bailey's husband dies, Bailey's baby dies, man with the bomb in him dies, Chief of Surgery dies (why is it that drama shows kill all the black people first?), and Meredith loses her hand or something the shark will most definitely be jumped. So watch out. That's all for today. I've got nothing else to do, so expect me to be blopping. :) P.S: Don't go to Yahoo! today if you don't have excellent virus protection. Everytime I go to Yahoo! my virus protection says it neutralizes a virus, so I think one is lingering around there. EDIT: I believe Yahoo! is now safe. My virus protection isn't coming up when I go there any more, but maybe that's because it's infected. And Stig said she was on Yahoo! and I haven't seen around much today. Maybe it got her... :roll: Or maybe, just maybe, I'm paranoid. :P

Earlier today, right after I woke up, I found myself watching "The Wedding Planner." After maybe a half an hour of it I asked myself, "Why the (expletive) am I watching this?" And I still don't know. I guess I was drowsy, and put it on without thinking. I hadn't it watched it since I was 12-ish, and I guess back then I didn't realize that it was (a series of expletives and other vulgar opinions). But still, I had to watch it. All of it. And now I have to earn back my masculinity: time for the Super Bowl! I've never been that interested in sports, because my parents never watched them. I didn't even know what football was until I was in fourth grade. Last year I watched the SB just for the commercials, the halftime show, and the Simpsons. But this year, for some reason, I'm actually going to watch the game. I've seen a little more football this year, and I've discovered that it is fun to watch. I don't know any of the players, coaches, or lingo, but it's still fun. Plus, I'm looking forward to the shocking episode of Grey's Anatomy tonight. Post Super Bowl episodes are always the best ones. Alias once came on after the super bowl and (Alias fans who haven't seen that episode should skip this part) SD-6 came down, we found out the Sloane and Sark were working together, Sydney and Vaughn kissed for the first time, Sloane's wife came back from the dead, and Francie was killed and replaced by a clone. I really doubt Grey's will be that exciting, but hopefully at least one extremely shocking thing will happen. Maybe Meredith will die. (smiley so gleeful your screen couldn't possibly display it) Anyone who hasn't seen Grey's Anatomy before should definitely check it out tonight. Okay, time for my three questions: QotD 1: Are you going to watch the Super Bowl? QotD 2: What's your favorite commercial right now? QotD 3: On a scale of 1-10, how offended were you by the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction? One being "Oooooh! Boobies!" and ten being "I'm going on a hunger protest."

I haven't been around in a while, because I've been feeling yucky. And that's as much as I want to say about it. I realize that I have been constantly complaining about various health problems ever since I came to the site, and I don't want to do it anymore. The strange thing is that I never, ever, had this many health problems before I came to this site. Maybe Howdy Doody is trying to kill me... Either way, I feel a lot better when I'm not in my house (It's stuffy and hot in here... we have air problems) so I spend a lot of time outside, wandering about. So that's why I'm not here too much anymore. I miss blogging, blopping, and all my friends. :( But hopefully, I'll find some kind of remedy. In other news, I got my learner's permit! Woot woot! Unfortunately, I'm not insured on any of my family vehicles, nor will I ever be, so it will go virtually unused. Still, it's nice to have it. My last blog entry was one of the funnest (for me) that I've ever done. I think I'm going to regularly do three questions every day from now on. Or, at least everytime I don't have something important to say. We all know that the majority of people who see questions on a blog jump straight to those, answer them, then continue on their way. We don't talk about it much, but it's true. ;) To counter that, I'm going to try to come up with especially difficult questions that will require actual thought. Bwahahaha! :lol: Here they are: QotD: What's your favorite decade (has to be one you lived in) and why? QotD 2: Which current television character has the best life (most comfortable, most full of love, etc.)? QotD 3: What was your favorite subject in school? Least favorite? There you go. :) By the way, you guys are very good at answering questions. Keep up the good work. :D