I am pursuing an advanced degree in media, so I like to know what's happening on television. At least that's my excuse — honestly, I have always been somewhat obsessed with television. For a while I wasn't really keeping up because I was, you know, doing things. . . but ever since I started graduate school I have watched more TV than ever (always for legitimate studying purposes and never for procrastination, of course). Last season I fell into a comfortable routine of watching specific shows at specific times, whether they were particularly good shows or not. This season, I'll still watch — as my favorite honest hip shaker likes to sing — whatever, whenever, but I will not be following any show, except, I think, Lost. I think Lost is pretty freaking overrated, and things drag on and on sometimes, but I like the way each episode is filmed like a movie, and I have classes on Wednesday nights, so it's nice to come home and collapse and watch it, and then find out the next day that I missed all the subtext and symbolism because I was too tired and I don't really care that much anyway. Yet, I'm hooked, because I care just enough, and when I miss an episode I don't understand what the hell is going on.

Another show I really like is The Office. It's very, very funny and not the cheap knockoff I originally thought it was. Steve Carrell's character can seem too exaggerated, but I've worked with enough freaks and weirdos to know that unfortunately he is not too exaggerated. This is a good show to catch when you can. I also think Everybody Hates Chris is pretty funny and clever, and that kid who plays the young Chris Rock is adorable.

My guilty pleasure of the season (okay, one of them) remains America's Next Top Model. No, I can't defend this, I won't even try. I also will be catching, whenever I can, those cheaply produced documentaries on TLC and Discovery — you know, the family with 110 kids; the tumor that ate Tokyo; etc. etc. I eat that stuff up with a spoon. I like those Wife Swap-y, Nanny-type shows, too, except I wish they weren't so contrived. And the shows where people get tattoos. Okay, I'll watch anything. . .

There are a lot of interesting-looking shows premiering this season. I caught the first episode and some of the second of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, and it seems like a very smart show. But it conflicts with football and we're currently a one TV household. [I don't put up much of a fuss about football, since I monopolize the TV most of the time.] I wish I had the time and the energy to explore some more new shows, but I don't have any time right now, and by the laws of television, anything good will be cancelled right away anyway.

One show that I am finally ready to pull the plug on (pun totally intended) is E.R. I used to really like E.R., when it first came on. Then they started killing off characters right and left and things got a little too unbelievable. I mean, come on, since when is E.R. a major motion picture? What's with the wide screen and the shoot-outs, car chases, helicopter crashes, Smallpox, stabbings and fires and stuff? And can't anyone have a baby in this hospital without a thousand complications? I started watching E.R. again a couple of seasons ago, when they brought all the big names in and I thought, maybe if I can ignore all the in between stuff, this show is ready for a comeback. I even liked the Africa episodes that were derided by many as preachy and sanctimonious. And I love Parminder Nagra. In fact, most of the actors are awesome. It's just the storylines that are so freaking stupid. I hate to say it, but E.R. needs to bring back Benton. Benton was like the most boring doctor ever, and he was kind of a jerk, too. But in real life, there are a lot of boring, jerky doctors. There are not a lot of model gorgeous doctors who have survived dozens of near-death experiences. And speaking of death, it is unfortunately too late for E.R. to die with dignity. But I can restore some of my own dignity by not watching anymore. Even though I've already established I have no standards.

Update: I totally forgot to mention that I watch The Daily Show and The Colbert Report pretty consistently. Sometimes Countdown with Keith Olbermann, too. I really like that guy.

Wow, this movie was really interesting. I never gave a whole lot of thought to the MPAA, the clandestine organization that is solely responsible for rating films in the U.S. This movie rips away some of the veil of secrecy and exposes just how arbitrary the ratings process is. Ever wonder why some movies are rated R while others, with seemingly more controversial content, are P-13? Well, the answer is that the ratings are decided by a small group of people, including two clergy members, with no clear-cut system for determining ratings. About the only thing you can count on is that sex is earns a more restrictive rating than violence.

What I found to be the most provocative part of the film is the discussion of actual terrible events that go on in the world. How do you "rate" reality? Are Iraq War photos an R image? An NC-17 image? PG? What? It's really going on — whose to say who is allowed to see it?

Here's what one reader over at the New York Times had to say about it:

When I was a teenager, the Catholic Church's Legion of Decency published a classification that determined whether or not a "true Catholic" could watch a particular movie. No one knew who rated these movies. No one knew what standards were used. All anyone really knew was that the Legion's decisions were final and mortal sins would be levied on those foolish enough to attend condemned films. Guess what? The Legion of Decency–isn't that a marvelous name for censorship?–has gone. But fear not. The Motion Pictures Association of Arts & Sciences–or some such name–has boldly held the Legion's banner high and it has supplanted the Catholic hierarchy as our current, secretive and punitive censors of current cinema. They decide for you and me whether a film rates an NC-17–which basically condemns it to never be released. Who are those that rate the worthiness of movies to be seen by today's public? No one knows. What standards are used? Diddo [sic]. How can films that have been given a failing grade–NC-17–correct their works? Not a chance. Go see "This Film is Not Yet Rated"…while you have the opportunity of doing so. We owe a debt of gratitude to those brave souls who produced it. And you owe it to yourself to see how the major studios are manipulating your movie viewing.

Really, go see it.

I love Philly, and I also kind of love the fact that so many people other people hate it. I can totally understand why other people don't like it here, in a lot of ways, this city doesn't even try. If you are open to liking Philly, there's a lot you have to discover for yourself. It's not a destination city like New York or San Francisco. But I don't want to live in New York or San Francisco, because both of them are too expensive, New York is too overwhelming and San Francisco is too far away. I have been to most of the states in this country, and this is the place where I feel most comfortable. Yes, it's a dirty city with a corrupt government, high crime, and rude people. But it's also a city full of greenspaces and history and some of the most awesome people I have ever met. And I feel like I'm part of a secret club of other people who see Philly in this light.

I never thought I would live in a city other than New York. In fact, when I first moved here, I was full of complaints about how small everything is and how early everything closes. At my first job in Philly, I satrted a lot of sentences with, "Well, in New York. . ." and was greeted with faces that pretty much said, "Bitch, if New York is so great, why don't you go back there?" I figured every young person who lives here would rather be in New York, if it wasn't so expensive. Imagine my surprise when I found that lots of people here actually don't like New York at all. I still think New York's an awesome city, but the longer I stay in Philly, the more I know that New York is not my city. It's really hard to make New York your own city, because so many people want a piece of that city. It's a lot easier to make an imprint here, as Center City Philly is really just a big small town.

Sometimes I feel like the only person in America without a raging hard-on for the West Coast. I definitely appreciate the beauty I have seen out there, but whenever I'm there I feel a certain kind of rootlessness that lets me know it's not my home. People are always shocked to hear that I'm not interested in the West Coast. It seems like when you live in Philly, you're supposed to acknowlege that you want to be somewhere else; you're supposed defer to the "great" cities and yearn for nicer weather or whatever. But guess what, I don't. West Coast, I'm just not that into you.

I know I can't convince most people that Philly is a great place to be, and like my city, I'm not sure I really want to try. Philly turned out to be the perfect fit for me: I love history. I love tiny cobblestone streets and three hundred year old rowhomes and Ben Franklin memorobilia. I also love distinct seasons, especially crunching pretty colored leaves in the fall. I love being home drinking hot chocolate while it snows outside. I love the first days of spring when the city comes alive. I love winter fashion. I love that even though a lot of people think I'm out of my mind, there are others here who understand.

It's my third semester of graduate school and I'm still not sure how to feel about it. I just realized I have a huge anti-authoritarian streak that has never really shown itself during my largely goody-two-shoes life.

Here's my evaluation of school: I really like doing the readings. I also kind of like writing research papers, when I am excited about the topic. What I don't like is doing smaller assignments that "prove" I read the readings. I want the professors to just trust I read the readings, because I always do. I hate dumbass little mini-papers and I put them off until the last possible minute. I also don't like having to attend class. I like going to some of my classes, I don't like that I have to go. I also don't like how much this whole endeavor is costing me. I will be paying out my nose for years to come. The more I look at what I'm typing, the more it seems like I should have just audited classes for my own personal edification. But I'm three semesters in, so I might as well get some letters after my name.

Another reason why I wouldn't quit school is that it would leave me with just my job, which is, on its own, unsatisfying. I don't mind my job, it's not hard at all and I work with some interesting people whom I otherwise would never know. The thing I like about my job is making money. I don't make a whole lot of it, but I don't do a whole lot, either. I have zero job-related stress. The annoying thing about my job is having to be there, although it's a lot easier to miss than school. Sometimes there are large chunks of the day where I have nothing to do, and it makes no sense for me to be there. Another thing about my job is that it does not align well with all of my values. I mean, I am not building bombs or anything, I am answering phones for a real estate broker, but if working was all I did, I would want to find a job that was focused on helping people (not helping rich people stay rich). Of course, I do know a lot of people who work corporate jobs to support themselves and their families and then do amazing things with their money and their spare time, so . . . I don't know. It seems like every day I am learning more and more about what I like and don't like, want and don't want, etc. Things are still murky, but they're a lot clearer than they were two years ago when I not only didn't know what I wanted to do, I didn't know who I wanted to be. I know who I am now, and I am more than what I do for school or work.

I would like to alert everyone's attention to Greater Philadelphia Cares. It's a really great organization for busy people like myself who feel guilty about not being able to commit to volunteering. The only commitment involved is attending a short orientation (ours took about 20 minutes). After that, you receive a monthly calendar of volunteer opportunities, and you can sign up for whatever suits your schedule. I'm excited!

I have been waiting to write about Spike Lee's documentary about Hurricane Katrina because I thought I would have something prolific to say about it. I don't. The documentary says it all. It's four hours long, but after sitting through the four hours, I felt like there were still so many other stories to hear. What stuck with me the most about the film was when someone — I forget who — is talking about the lack of governmental response and all the red tape that prevented people from getting help, etc. He says something like, "When the government wants to do something, we find a way to pay for it. We want to put a man on the moon, we find the money. We want to start a war in Iraq, we find the money." So true. I think this is true on an individual level as well. I never really have any extra money. I would never, for example, make plans to visit my best friend or my sister in San Francisco, because I can't afford it. But if either of them got in an accident or really needed me in some way, I would put the flight on a credit card and figure out how to pay for it later. Because people that I love are that important. The people that I don't know are important, too, and I have not prioritized them very highly. Like many people, I give small charitible donations every month (I sponsor a child in Chile), and I make sure to kick in larger donations after a major disaster. Then, I keep living my life. This month, I took a bunch of cash that I would normally spend on things that are not necessities and donating it to causes that benefit residents of the Gulf Coast. It still seems rather trivial, but it is a start.

The first thing I did was throw in a couple of extra books for The Dewey Donation System while I was buying my school books. This is an absolutely great way to help Gulf Coast libraries rebuild their collections. Just browse their Amazon wishlists and send a few books their way. For every book that's ordered this way, a small donation is sent to the Dewey Donation System. It's a cool way to know exactly what you're sending.

Say what you will about Oprah (and I have a lot to say about her) she really put her money where her mouth is this time. Her online registry has lots of fun choices for the houses her Angel Network is building.

I never heard of global green.org until I saw Brad Pitt talking about it on TV the other night, so I guess there is something to say about star power. I thought it was worth $50 to join and try to bring sustainable development to the Gulf Coast.

I didn't give to Habitat for Humanity this time, but I would strongly recommend other people to do so. I worked with Habitat in the past building houses in Hartford, CT, and the experience really taught me that everyone can do something. I have no carpentry experience (and questionable motor skills in every sense) yet I was able to help with all kinds of tasks, like sanding, dusting, and serving food to other volunteers. I know faith-based charities turn a lot of people off, but I have had first hand experience with Habitat as a non-organized religion person and it's an organization that I recommend supporting.

Roger and Me is one of those movies that I had seen bits and pieces of, but never the whole thing all the way through. In fact, it's one of those movies that I always think I've seen all the way through, because I can certainly carry on a conversation about it, but like Scent of a Woman and Rain Man, I could quote scenes but not tell you exactly how the thing ends.

So I finally saw it the other night, and I didn't think it was especially great. I agree with much of Michael Moore's politics, but I find his techniques pretty obnoxious and his documentaries to be somewhat meandering. I really liked the Awful Truth TV show, because I can take him much better in small doses and I have to admit, he is quite creative. As annoying as I find him, I still have to respect his persistance. I am always so afraid of bothering people, he has pretty much made a career out of badgering people. So good for him, there's a place for that. Anyway, I think my new project is going to be watching all of the movies that I think I've seen, but I really haven't. I have seen the first two thirds of Rain Man about 57 times, but I've never seen the end. I would never think to rent it, because it's always on TV. And whenever it's on TV, stretched out to 38 hours with commercial breaks, I stop watching at some point because I have other things to do.

So I had to buy two suits for work because I have two suit-wearing functions, with the same people, two days in a row. I have never really owned a suit before. I have one really cheap "suit" from H&M which is the wrong size. It consists of super low rise pants that are too big for me and constantly slide off my ass and an ill fitting jacket that just looks. . .off. I knew that Macy's offered a free personal shopping service and had been patiently waiting for the Center City store to open so I could take advantage of it.

I find clothes shopping to be a near traumatic experience. I consistently buy clothes in the wrong size. When I was growing up, I wore crazy outfits in all the wrong sizes, compiled from homemade and second-hand sources and sometimes the J.C. Penney catalog. In college, I had a uniform — spring: jeans, dark t-shirt; summer: cargo shorts, dark t-shirt; fall: jeans, dark t-shirt, hoodie; winter: jeans, dark turtleneck. I actually came really close to getting on What Not to Wear, thanks to the tenacious efforts of my best friend. For the past few years, primarily shopping at outlet stores, I have managed to get by with a semi-appropriate work wardrobe, although I usually have to repeat outfits a couple times in a week. I have actually gotten a lot better at dressing myself. People who knew me a few years ago always remark that I have lost so much weight, but I haven't — I just no longer wear ribbed cotton turtlenecks and two-sizes-too-big jeans that make me look like a total blobosaurous. However, I have not gotten any better at shopping and I still find it to be an terrible experience that ends in either tears, returns, or something sitting in my closet, never to be worn again.

Enter Laurie at Macy's by Appointment. I call her up, tell her my story and she arranges to meet with me the next day. When I arrive, there is a private dressing room, which is like three times the size of a normal dressing room, with two suits, a bunch of shirts and a skirt hanging. One of the suits is on a super sale and Laurie explains to me that she thinks I can get away with buying the cheaper suit and pairing it with a skirt to make it look like two different suits. This turns out to be so much less expensive than I had thought so I am able to buy other shirts to pair with the suit. I'm not sure about the suit, because I think suits are stupid but Laurie explains how everything is supposed to fit. The suit is a little too long in both the arms and the legs so Laurie gets the alterations person to come down to fix things. My second pair of pants is too big in the waist, but fits perfectly through the thigh, because like most women I am about 50 different sizes. I pretty much have size 12 boobs, a size 6 waist, a size 8 ass and size 10 thighs, combined with a long torso and legs that are about a half inch too long to be petite. These dress pants are size 10, and both Laurie and the alterations woman think that the size 8 version is too tight in the thigh. So I get the waist of the 10's taken in and the length shortened and voila! I am the proud owner of perfectly tailored pants. These are the kind of things I can't figure out for myself. Skirts are the only item I end up buying too small, because I want them to fit my waist, which makes them too tight on my thighs. Now I know. Throughout the whole process, which took about an hour, Laurie kept running out to the floor to bring back different sizes and styles of things. I didn't even have to look at all the stuff on the floor, which I find overwhelming.

The best part was that Laurie wrote down the items that I wanted but couldn't get and said she will call me if they go on sale. She was very conscious of the fact that I needed the cheaper versions of things and never pressured me to buy anything. I don't know what the proper etiquette is to thank free personal shoppers who work for big corporations except to reccommend Laurie and this service to everyone in Philadelphia. This was, by far, the best shopping experience I have had in my life. Thanks, Laurie. Thanks, Macy's.

Oh my gosh, I totally forgot how annoying school can be. I am taking the hardest class (in terms of workload, not difficulty) that I have ever taken. I might be getting what I deserve because I totally picked it because it sounded easy. But holy camole, this is hard. Sometimes I wonder why I did this to myself, and then I remember it's about the balance. I sometimes really don't like work, because it does nothing to enrich me, but it gives me money. Then I take that money and put it towards school, which is somewhat enriching, but annoying in a totally different way. I forgot what these weekends are like, when I have stacks of books in front of me and I am just dying to clean toilets or do anything else besides read them. Last weekend, I was so excited to be back in school because I felt like an uninspired lazybones. This weekend, I'm wishing it was still last weekend. Someday I will get the balance down right.