Category: Television

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Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

I.  It’s approaching 4:30 PM EST on this Tuesday night as I begin compiling these ‘Grab Bag O’ Thoughts’, so that means that in roughly 71 hours my vacation from work begins – and in roughly 92 hours my Carnival cruise vacation begins (the precise moment that I step foot on that gorgeous and spacious luxury cruise ship). Besides sailing away from Port Everglades I’m also looking forward to losing my cell phone signal for more than a week out at sea and out of the country. No cell phones. No telephones at all. No computers. No Internet. No blogging. No radio. Limited television. Now THAT’S what I call paradise !

II.  I’ll also be escaping more chilly El Niño weather aqui a America’s Riviera. Get ready for 2 rather cool days and 2 real cold nights on Wednesday and Thursday with maximum temperatures in the afternoon struggling to reach the mid-60s, and minimum temperatures early in the morning (Thu. and Fri.) dropping all the way down into the lower-40s with wind chills as low as the mid-30s !  Below normal temperatures (day and night) will probably stick around here for at least the next 7 to 10 days. I’ll be venturing out of continental wintertime and straight into the tropical mid-to-upper-80s of Central America next week. DIG !

III.  Super Bowl XLIV is now history (as is the 2009 NFL season), and the New Orleans Saints SHOCKED the Indianapolis Colts in a surprisingly close (and low-scoring) defensive game. There were a lot of offensive yards (as expected), but I was looking for at least 80 points combined. That didn’t happen, but it was still a good game. I think that the NFC has turned the tide and will soon dominate the AFC just like they did during much of the 1980s and 1990s when an NFC team won 15 out of 16 Super Bowls. As for all of the expensive commercials not too many of them stood out as brilliant or even memorable. The most talked-about, most shocking, and certainly most memorable was actually absolutely free. It was the stunning 15-second CBS promo of “The Late Show With David Letterman” featuring Dave, Oprah, and Jay Leno. I couldn’t believe my own four eyes when I saw that one, and I even watched it a few times over and over again via my DVR to see if I could detect any camera trickery involved. It was all for real. That simple 15-second promo made all three talk show titans look great, and it may have just ended a highly-visible and personal 18-year feud.

Be sure to check out my ‘Thursday Night Mini Thoughts’ in less than 48 hours !

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Saturday Night Retro

In 1997 Bill Clinton began his 2ND 4-year term as President Of The United States, the Green Bay Packers beat the New England Patriots 35-21 in Super Bowl XXXI in New Orleans, the Dow Jones Industrials rose above 7,000 and 8,000 for the first time, Tony Blair became the new Prime Minister of The United Kingdom, Hong Kong transferred over from British to Chinese rule, Diana – Princess Of Wales – died, Mother Theresa died, The Florida Marlins won The World Series, and everyone was discovering the World Wide Web on their fast new Pentium II / 266 MHz desktop computer systems running Windows 95.

I turned 30-years-old in 1997, and I mostly hung out at home with my little buddy Boots of the feline species. My Mom, Dad, and Brother lived up near the Intracoastal Waterway on the far-east side of Jacksonville Florida with our aging childhood cats Fluffy and Barney. On selected weekends throughout the year my 22-year-old brother and I would meet halfway in the state – Orlando – for a few days and nights of fun at the amusement parks, nightclubs, and shopping and restaurant meccas. One of the great techno songs that we used to dance to on the nightly countdown to Midnight celebration at Downtown Disney Pleasure Island was this rockin’ jam of the time:

This concludes another fun week of blogging for me from Tuesday night through Saturday night. 6 blog posts. 5 days. All good. I’ll do it all over again next week from Tuesday night through Friday night before I take a 10-day hiatus from the blog. In fact next week’s ‘Saturday Night Retro’ will occur on Friday night, and it’ll be a song straight out of 1985. Have a great weekend my friends, and I’ll catch ya back here on Tuesday night for my ‘Grab Bag O’ Thoughts’.

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Thursday Night Mini Thoughts

– Let’s get spontaneous.
– Can we talk here ?
– For the past week I’ve been riding around in a nice new shiny red Mustang !
– If I had a dream car then that would be it – aside from the color.
– I drove around Homestead in a red car for 8 years from 1989 to 1997.
– It went from shiny red to faded red during those 8 years.
– The Ford Mustang was actually the rental car of my best friend.
– He’s turning it back in tomorrow morning.
– I’ll never see it again.
– I guess that I’ll just have to buy my very own Ford Mustang.
– But it won’t be a shiny red one.
– Maybe a bluish-silver one.
– That seems like it would be a cool color to ride around in.
– I should visit my local Ford dealership one of these days and look around.
– I’m watching Jay Leno on Oprah right now.
– I’m with ‘Team Jay’.
– I’ve been watching him ever since he took over for Johnny Carson in 1992.
– There are a lot of Jay Leno haters lurking all over the Internet.
– I never ‘got’ Conan O’Brien, but I’m not a hater.
– I’ll be returning to “The Tonight Show” to see Jay back where he belongs.
– Yesterday’s edition of ‘My Fantastic Journey’ was quite emotional for me.
– It was inspired by a praise report that I recently received via E-Mail.
– If my blog saves a life and brings someone to God then it’s all worth it.
– I believe that my blog has saved at least 4 lives – probably more.
– The fact that my written words led someone to God brings me tears of joy.
– I’m not a very good speaker, but I’m working on that issue.
– My skill has always been in my writing.
– God wants us to use our skills to change the world and make it better.
– I can only hope that my blogging ministry here impresses God.
– I have come to a decision regarding my future blogging schedule.
– For the first time since 2007 I will no longer do a new blog every day.
– I’m reducing down to a 5-day-a-week schedule effective immediately.
– It’ll be a Tuesday through Saturday blogging schedule.
– I will produce no new blog entries on Sundays and Mondays.
– That will free up some time to concentrate on some other projects.
– All of the popular Tuesday through Saturday blog entries will continue on.
– That means a full slate of ‘Retro’ every Saturday night.
– This Saturday night it’s a moldie-oldie from 1972.
– It’s a song that boldly declares that “It Never Rains In Southern California”.
– But before that get ready to dance to K.C. & The Sunshine Band.
– That’s tomorrow night on my ‘Disco Party’.
– Be sure to be there for the fun that just won’t stop until we reach the top !
– You won’t regret it pal.

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Sports Television Travel Weather

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

I.  So we’ve got the Indianapolis Colts versus the New Orleans Saints in Super Bowl XLIV in just XII days on the VII day of February. Have you ever wondered why the Super Bowl is identified in Roman numerals ?  Has anyone noticed that – new for 2010 – all of the ‘Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts’ are Roman numeral numbered ?  Anyway back to the big game. It’s at Sun Life Stadium up near the Miami-Dade / Broward County line. You may remember Sun Life Stadium from one of these former names since 1987 – Land Shark Stadium, Dolphin Stadium, Dolphins Stadium, Pro Player Stadium, Pro Player Park, and the original name – Joe Robbie Stadium. Oh by the way – Let’s Go Saints !

II.  Crystal clear deep blue skies, cooler temperatures, lower humidity, and a nice subtle breeze out of the north – what more could you possibly ask for on the final week of January here in America’s Riviera ?  I forecasted a minimum early-morning low temperature of 52°F with wind chills in the upper-40s. We actually dropped down to 49°F (officially at the air base) at 7 AM with wind chills in the mid-40s. So I was a little bit off there. It appears as if it could be a couple of degrees colder tomorrow morning, so I’m going with 47°F at 7 AM with wind chills in the mid-40s. Wear layers.

III.  I am now less than 18 days away from embarking on my next big Carnival cruise vacation. It’s an 8-day cruise that I booked last September just a little more than a week following the conclusion of my last big Carnival cruise vacation. I imagine that I’ll probably plan yet another Carnival cruise vacation for later this year once I return back to reality following this upcoming cruise. Nothing beats that overwhelming feeling that I get when I’m out at sea – free from radio, television, computers, the Internet, telephones (especially so), and all of the other daily routines of life. It’s really cool to be able to look in every single direction and see nothing but water all the way to the horizon and know that there are no crimes being committed out there. It’s surely a different world, and I like to visit it a couple of times per year. I couldn’t live out there all year long, as that would get old real fast. It’s just fun to be able to go out and experience it and know that it will always be there – even when I’m not.

Have a great Tuesday night my friends. Make it a memorable one !