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Zombie Television

Okay, so I guess since they usually don't come back looking to steal our brains, the better term for TV shows being brought back from the dead might be Phoenix Television or something. But zombies is way more fun to say.

First, there was the much-heralded resurrection of "Family Guy" following strong DVD sales and cable ratings. Ever since, the die-hard fans of nearly every canceled TV show tried to make their case to bring their favorite back from the dead. It didn't work for "Everwood," it didn't work for "Arrested Development," and so far it's not working for "Veronica Mars." But somehow persistent, periodic mass harassment to network execs worked for "Jericho."

Maybe the networks are finally learning that Nielsen ratings need to be taken with the world's largest grain of salt. Maybe it's all a publicity stunt to get more attention on CBS's new fall lineup (though Kid Nation seems poised to provide controversy enough for the whole lot of them at this point). Or maybe CBS is finally caving to that democratized, Web 2.0, user-fueled media that's all the rage these days.

But really, by letting the viewers decide what's good TV and what's not without a company like Nielsen acting setting standards and acting as the middleman, what will the world come to? Execs giving second chances to rejected pilots simply because of their popularity as determined by YouTube viewers? Oh, somebody tried that and it didn't exactly work? Well then, maybe programmers will just skip the decision-making process altogether and let the masses decide which pitches or scripts get to be made into pilots in the first place. Oh, wait. That's already been done, too? Too bad this and this are about all the evidence that's left of such an endeavor.

Return from Hiatus...

I'm alive! And again, so too is this blog. To get things rolling again, here are some delightful random videos:

Firstly, I've gotten beer thrown at my head at sporting events on two separate occasions. But I never handled it as well as this guy:



The ending to this is pretty hilarious. But perhaps it's promoting unprotected sex? Still funny.

'Go Meat' is just an anagram of 'Go Team'

Firstly let me apologize to all my loyal readers (or just...Mom) for not blogging lately, as I've been in the process of moving. Though I'm still in the process of moving, I thought I'd make time to let the world know I (technically...sort of) got linked to from BoingBoing! I should whine about things more often, huh?

Also, they haven't made me want to buy any more Hillshire Farms products (my current rate is one smoked sausage a month), but boy do these commercials get me excited for college football season, which is only...about 100 days away.

Wow. Just, wow.

Best invention...ever? Seriously, even better than I could've ever imagined, and I think I want one, now. Just because.

Best blog post I've read all day

Just wanted to give a link to this post that lists all the different things anyone has blamed so far for the VA Tech shootings earlier this week.

Steve Capus doesn't just make the news, he IS the news

I met NBC News President Steve Capus once, while I was an intern at the LA Bureau for NBC News. He's got a surprisingly quiet and modest demeanor for someone who so capably manages such a large number of powerful people, heading up NBC Network News as well as overseeing MSNBC (directly led by Dan Abrams). Despite being the highest-ranking executive in the room, he was definitely the easiest to talk to and the one I was least afraid to introduce myself to.

On to relevant information. I first noticed Steve Capus showing up in the news last week following the Imus scandal, after he fired the morning cable news personality. Today, Capus is again the subject of headlines, after NBC News received correspondence from the shooter at VA Tech, sent just prior to his violent rampage. NBC News is now a part of the investigation, not just doing the investigating.

News about the news and journalists happens all the time (Katie Couric's move to CBS, Bob Woodruff's injury in Iraq, plus all the media analysis seen daily on The Daily Show and Countdown with Keith Olbermann). But it's interesting that NBC News and its leader are in the spotlight for a full two weeks in a row, and both times for something basically out of Capus' control. It'll be interesting to see what befalls NBC News next week.

Somebody give this guy some love!

This is Ernst, the Sun Bear cub who lives next door to Knut, who's apparently quite the attention hog, so few people ever go to see also-adorable Ernst. I do plan on visiting Germany sometime in the next year, and giving Ernst some love and attention is now at the top of my to-do list.

Strike Two for Fox News?

One of the most unfortunate media debacles over the VA Tech shootings today was the multiple false accusations levied against Wayne Chiang, an Asian-American student at VA Tech who happens to collect guns and lives in the dorm where the first shootings occurred.

I first heard of him perusing Digg this afternoon and one of the newer stories was a link to his Facebook Photo Albums, a few showcasing his gun collection. The Digg entry (likely based off of info on this Digg entry) labeled him as "kinda nuts... is this the Virginia shooter?" I still have yet to find any good video of it, but according to his livejournal (which he's been updating all day, long after the real shooter died), Fox News was putting his pictures and his face all over the airwaves, possibly also accusing him of being responsible for the deaths of 32 people.

I promptly "buried" the Digg story, hoping to push it down in the rankings, labeling it as outright inaccurate. I instinctively knew it couldn't possibly be based on any sound journalism and was most likely nothing more than jumping to conclusions based on stereotypes. Yes, it may be the dream of every citizen journalist (or wannabe citizen journalist) to unearth something shocking and important on the internet like finding the identity of a mass murderer on Facebook (somehow before Facebook rapidly takes down their profile, a la Holly Ashcraft). But that's a hard dream to realize if you're just the average Digg user, especially since most Digg users just keep passing on pages and pages of information without verifying where any of it came from. Because of this, Digg is great for gauging what's being read and what's making its way around the blogosphere, but it is by no means a reliable source of information.

Knowing this, I didn't make too much of a fuss, chalking it up to overreactive Digg users passing along the information as quickly as possible, hoping they'd struck gold and could maybe take some credit for it. That is, until Geraldo Rivera allegedly got into the mix. If I find I've misunderstood the Fox News broadcast about Chiang, I'll recant everything I'm about to say, but for the second time today, I find myself criticizing Fox News' journalistic ethics. First it was the inclusion of Jack Thompson, clearly trying to inject unnecessary controversy into a very sensitive and still raw subject. Now, Rivera, jumping to the same unfounded, stereotype- and rumor-based conclusions as Facebook users with overactive imaginations. Simply put, Fox News has done nothing but degrade its own credibility as a source for actual news as opposed to a national television outlet for rumors, hype and unfounded accusations of a wide variety.

Update: Just a rant: Seriously, people, this is not the guy. Asian+guns does NOT equal murderer. So stop Digging his livejournal and calling him a mass murderer, quit calling into news organizations with tips about this "suspicious" livejournal or xanga blog. It's really starting to annoy me.

VA Tech Student Alert E-mails

Washington Post has the e-mails sent to students this morning announcing security measures to be taken after the first shooting at the residence hall on campus.

9:50 a.m.

Subject: Please stay put

A gunman is loose on campus. Stay in buildings until further notice. Stay away from all windows.

We've gotten these security e-mails at USC but never for an immediate security risk such as this, they've always been more along the lines of incident reports about muggings etc. that had taken place in the neighborhood, always along with tips for keeping yourself safe late at night in the city.

What's perhaps most interesting is that this initial e-mail informed students of two shooters, one of whom was taken into custody, as opposed to the single shooter reported in most media who took his own life.

10:52 a.m.

Subject: Second Shooting Reported; Police have one gunman in custody

In addition to an earlier shooting today in West Ambler Johnston, there has been a multiple shooting with multiple victims in Norris Hall.

Police and EMS are on the scene.

Police have one shooter in custody and as part of routine police procedure, they continue to search for a second shooter.

The next 24 hours should be interesting as this all unfolds...

VA Tech Student News Updates

The Virginia Tech student newspaper, The Collegiate Times (currently being redirected to collegemedia.com due to a server breakdown) is still being updated quite frequently. A great source for eye-witness accounts from inside the campus. Of course many are unconfirmed but they've got more details on there than I've seen anywhere else yet.

"It seemed so strange," Sheehan said. "Because he peaked in twice, earlier in the lesson, like he was looking for someone, somebody, before he started shooting. But then we all heard something like drilling in the walls, and someone thought they sounded like bullets. That's when we blockaded the door to stop anyone from coming in."

"He was just a normal looking kid, Asian, but he had on a Boy Scout type outfit. He wore a tan button up vest, and this black vest, maybe it was for ammo or something.

Taking lazy journalism too far

The gaming bloggers are angry, and for good reason. Cable news pundit Jack Thompson reportedly appeared on Fox News today, blaming the deadly shooting at Virginia Tech University on violent video games.

Even as I post this, no one publicly knows who did it, why he did it, or if the guy's even actually a student there. But certainly such premature finger-pointing has to be motivated by one of two things (if not both): a) Thompson's will to exploit a tragedy essentially still unfolding for a personal vendetta against violent games, or b) Fox News Channel's decision to try and pick fights and create controversy rather than just report the facts of the matter.

Aside from the inevitable comparisons to other shooting rampages, such as the 1966 incident at the University of Texas at Austin, or the Columbine school shooting, the news media has nothing more to work with than the occasional first-hand account of students and the facts being presented by school and police authorities. The ongoing news media today has been dominated by local news affiliate video updates, press conferences and speeches by the president and various senators and house members, and updates as the death toll increases throughout the day and new details of the case are revealed.

Clearly Fox was either really stretching for content, or intentionally trying to inject some controversy into the story. Probably the latter. There's no way they'd book Thompson, an outspoken activist against violent games, without knowing exactly what he'd say.

We're used to seeing this Nancy Grace-style fishing for controversy (not to say she's the only one - this could provide a good respite from the depressing news of the day) in the days, weeks and even months following any high-profile incident, and maybe the ratings such fights provide are why cable networks perpetuate the habit and the journalists who work there put up with it. But hours after it happens, surely before many parents even know their child has injured or killed? That's crossing a line.

More stuff that makes me sad that football season is so far away

Tiki Barber just started at the Today Show (which I read on Wikipedia was like, his childhood dream, or something), but even better, Keith Olbermann is going to be an analyst for NBC's "Football Night in America." One word: AWESOME! (I'm excited for Sept. 6: New Orleans vs. Indianapolis. Sadly, no Vikings games scheduled for NBC, to no one's surprise)

111 days until NFL pre-season games begin, 137 days until NFL Regular season play begins, and (I think) 129 days until College football season begins.

Pete wins!

...but Will Ferrell put up a surprisingly good fight until the very end. Here's some fan video of Will Ferrell (movie star & USC Alum) vs. Pete Carroll (super-awesome football coach and one of half a dozen namesakes for Pete) in a swimming competition at Swim with Mike, the annual fundraiser for students with disabilities at USC, hosted at the campus' swimming facilities. Will is the one in the speedo (of course).



Plus, here are some pics from the event, from BeatSc.com, viBlogger: Pete's Bananas - Edit Post "Pete wins!"a Deadspin. (warning: more Will Ferrell in a speedo close-ups. Also the pics are quite large and may take awhile to load.)

Update: More video! Not the whole race, but definitely prettier. (Through The Wizard of Odds)

Personal Memories of a Natural Disaster

So it's been ten long years since that memorable event...my brother's tenth birthday party. No really, the last normal thing I remember doing before the Grand Forks flood of 1997 hit all of a sudden was going to Players (who else misses that place?) for dinner with my family for my brother Jared's birthday. He got new N64 controllers from my Grandma.

Fortunately my parents planned ahead so I missed out on all the craziness that marked the week of April 16, 1997 for everybody else my age. We didn't even go to school the day the sirens started going off, we were holed up at my Grandma's place already, so we weren't rushed out of school when the water started coming over/through the dikes. Most of our family's belongings were already stashed in my Grandma's garage and anywhere else we could find to fit stuff in her building.

My brother and I were sheltered from a lot of the chaos that ensued in the following days, not having to feel the panic of our neighborhood being evacuated. Others weren't so lucky, being rushed out of their homes and neighborhoods on little to no notice, suffering thousands and thousands of dollars in flood damage to their houses and losing nearly everything they had. Our family lucked into a hotel room in Mayville when we decided even Grandma's place might be in danger and the whole town was emptying out, again distancing ourselves from the citywide damage and fires that would soon crop up.

But every family's experience was different and is filled with different memories. Everybody suffered and recovered in different ways, just trying to live life as normally as they could given the situation, and the experience no doubt affected how all of us would grow up. I think this anniversary is sad, looking back on the buildings, neighborhoods and communities that were destroyed and the lives that it changed, but it's also a happy anniversary, seeing what Grand Forks has become in spite of all its hardships, and the ways that we as individuals grew after the flood.

To commemorate the big flood ten years ago, here are a few of my personal memories and the way they affected me (any fellow flood victims reading, feel free to share your own memories in the comments below if you'd like):

• I remember walking from our hotel to a store in Mayville where I bought my first Star Wars novel. That started a long, slightly embarrassing phase, but I do not regret it.
• I remember thinking the flood could be a good thing - I could go to a new school and start a new life, this time as a 'cool kid,' only to realize that no matter how hard I tried I would just be a weirdo nerd forever (um, hello, Star Wars books?).
• I remember being a total jerk to Bernie when were in Mayville together. And don't worry, I apologized to him, like six years later.
• I remember eating at the campus cafeteria at Mayville State University and getting excited to someday go to college myself and enjoy such a wonderful salad bar. (EVK on my campus does not compare, sadly)
  
• I remember going back to our neighborhood once the waters had receded and seeing the Vidden's shed across the street from where it once was, and a picnic table stuck in a tree or on a powerline (something high up) by the Higganbotham's house.
• I remember the Lincoln Dr. basin being virtually abandoned a month after the flood, enough so that no one cared when Jamie Fiala and I threw damaged junk out of his attic window onto the sidewalk below for absolutely no reason.
• I remember meeting a network news crew (Dateline NBC) for the very first time in Mayville (Isn't it true that it's easier for things to get, like, implanted in your head during traumatizing events as a child? Maybe that experience, plus all the crazy awesome local journalism going on at the time, imprinted some future career goals in my head). Anyhow, I was quite upset when they didn't use anything about my family at all in the final package (in long retrospect I was an awful interview, all I wanted to talk about was how my cat ran away for hours the night we were trying to pack stuff).
• I remember WDAZ showing video of the water coming over Washington from their little camera on the roof of their studio, and Pat Sweeney doing live reporting, not sports, and being awesome at it. I also remember WDAZ taking and sending messages all over the region so people would know their family members and friends were Ok, etc. One in particular I remember was the Askjem kids letting the Gilbertson girls know they were OK (or was it the other way around? Either way they were like 6 years old and it was adorable).
• I remember not being big enough to help pile up sandbags, but being able to watch them pile up behind my house (sadly, to no avail).
• (Not really the flood but just about) I remember my dad stealing our next-door-neighbor's space heater and grill and making us mac-n-cheese and coffee on the grill in the garage during Blizzard Hannah when there was no electricity.
• I remember about a week before when my mom had my brother and I make lists of stuff we would want to save in case of emergency, in order of importance. Our crappy black-and-white Apple II was at the top of my list.
• I remember a picture of rooftops poking out from the water that my neighborhood was submerged in and being able to pick out my house cause I could see the (fake) wishing well in our front yard.
• I remember being able to find the spot where my house once was in what is now a city park judging by what remained of the curb and the tree that used to be in my backyard.
• I remember coincidentally being at a football game at Notre Dame University the week one of its well-known benefactors, Joan Kroc, died. They held a moment of silence and I participated, remembering her for my own reasons.

Most communities have had their own tragedies, natural disasters and hardships, some not as bad as ours, many much worse. But what these experiences usually are able to do is remind us of the bonds of community. Even as Grand Forks and East Grand Forks emptied out and residents spread all across the region, the Grand Forks Herald still published every day, and other towns all up and down the Red River Valley were eager to help and shelter flood victims. And even though many families moved on to other places and new chapters in their lives, we're still a part of the community that shared this experience, together. This week we can look back on that landmark even of many of our childhoods, that shared experience, in fond remembrance of our community that once was, and appreciate the communities we've since joined and formed and how our town and our lives were undoubtedly changed.

Update: This is kind of awesome and I plan to be watching it as it updates throughout the week.

Overwhelming Cuteness

Who knew Knut, the world's most adorable polar bear, had his own blog? It's got lots of cool videos and the roughly translated German is still adorable in that clearly written by a grown-up human in the first person voice of a cute animal kind of way (German untranslated version here). I learned from this blog that Knut got to meet Leonardo DiCaprio and was photographed by Annie Leibovitz for this month's Vanity Fair (final product photoshopped together, sadly). Ridiculous.

Geeks are weird

I haven't decided if it's gross or awesome or genius, but it's above all one of the weirdest things I've seen in a while - The Compubeaver (found via BoingBoing). Be sure to click 'Process' for great photos.

If only I had the free time to make videos so geeky...

I like health food. I love Star Wars. I also love puppets, especially when they're made of vegetables.

More Shout Outs

Please direct yourself over to this blog hosted by Elizabeth, where she can discuss things like politics ten times better than I ever will!

Cute Pete Videos!

Pete makes his web video debut in these videos where he chases the noisy plastic ball around.

Video 1:



Video 2: