Loosing vs. Losing

Internet stupidity is spilling on to the TV. The Sunday August 15, 2013 night edition of the local ABC news had this grammatical error on display. I think what ever college intern who does the on air graphics did not even know they made a mistake.

In the last few months I have encountered over 100 people using loosing when they clearly meant to use losing. Here is the only proper use:

-To cast loose; detach: hikers loosing their packs at camp. 

The Jets coach should be LOSING HIS COOL not LOOSING HIS COOL.  He is not letting is cool detach he is actually having control issue with his cool. Given that Sanchez is his only QB hope I do not blame him.

For the sake of grammar and the future of the 

American-English language please always correct the kids when the spell losing wrong.

Breaking News: Cablevision Ads (Update)

For the last three Breaking News / Special Report interruptions Cablevision / Optimum has played a commercial after 30 seconds.

It must be something with transferring the signals but if there were some kind catastrophic event it would be nice to be informed. I just want to put it out there that Cablevison / Optimum has yet to fix or even notice the problem.

Update: There has been 5 more unnecessary breaking news stories and luckily none were interrupted by the Optimum ads so thanks for listening Cablevison.

Jodi Guilty...of What?

Again another alleged high profile trial interrupting regularly scheduled TV. Just like the others they are West Coast based and not much talk over in the East especially NYC. Apparently the woman, Jodi Arias, on trial is camera friendly so they made a national case out of this non-story. The only people who should have cared was the victim's family.

As with car chases, celebrity troubles, and hot chick murder trials the west coast has been exporting nothing but time wasters. Since cameras are allowed in courts they change the course of the trial from evidentiary to overly dramatic. NYC has generally barred cameras so we have never been fascinated with the trial just the verdict.

I did not even know about this until a month ago when Dr. Drew kept mentioning it on Loveline. He said people out there were on the edge of their seats about Jodi Arias mostly because there were sexy photos involved. Of course I and most East Coaster could care less since we having constant threats of bombings, Hurricane Sandy, and the Sandy Hook massacre. Things like a domestic murder was low on the list of things to pay attention to at the moment. I watch news every day and it was mentioned maybe a few times over the last couple months and always as the 10th or later story.

So she was found guilty and that changes my life how? The large soda ban will affect me more than any west coast trial.

Real News via TV: March 1, 2012

Sick and tired of so much non-relevant news I hope to write about what is really important.

Top Local Story:

1. President Obama is in NYC fundraising and generally causing traffic issues for some.

Top Nationwide Stories:

1.  Way too much coverage of the Republican race where a bunch of ignorant, superstitious, and prejudice people who are running on unrealistic and vague promises.

2. People living in the path of tornadoes are shocked when one hits. After destroying the natural landscape to build a home then choosing to make there homes out of wood they are shocked by the destruction.

3. Andrew Breitbart the yellow journalist who entrapped and twisted videos on his blog died of unknown causes. As he was 43 any natural causes would be known within hours but drug use would not. 

Disorderly Emergency

There was recently a first run national Emergency Alert on the television and it left a lot of room for improvement. This is a legally mandated warning system enacted by President Bush  in 2006. Of course it was done in case of a national emergency.

While 99% of the test went on normally some stations did not press the play button on time, others did not turn it off on time, and others accidentally hit their iTunes playlist instead. The 30 second time limit also was not strictly adhered.

My problem was that this national test was not standard. Each station did it their way which was awkward and did not inspire confidence.

CBS did  a great job lasting exactly 30 seconds and bold with a simple crawl.

NBC was bland there was nothing bold or hinting at an emergency.

Fox decide advertising was more important then the actual emergency and took up one-third of the screen with their logo. Also they went way over he 30 seconds limit.

CBS set the standard and I suggest all other stations put their egos aside and just copy the CBS template.

First @ 4:00PM

This is the local ABC news that has replaced Oprah. In NYC Oprah was on at 4:00PM for years. Instead of replacing it with some talk or reality show they added another hour of news.

First @ 4:00PM is nothing special and just gives straight news without the awful gimmicks that other channels have embraced. It is great to have another news source that has not gone wild.

Top Story
The image above is of NYC's top story which is that two officers were acquitted of sexual assault and burglary after they brought a drunk woman home and one of them assaulted her. Granted he said he just cuddled with her while she lay in her own vomit but that's not creepy. Of course these bad cops are good enough to leave no evidence but then again it is never that simple.

TV Japan

TV Japan, Channel #265

In response to the earthquake and following tsunami and nuclear problems Cablevision has decided to allow TV Japan to broadcast free of charge, temporarily.

Usually this channel is one of many channel that are in the 200 channel range that must be special ordered in order to view. These 200-299 stations are generally foreign language stations. For $24.95 you get a small selection of non-English stations of your choice, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Russian, etc.

Surprisingly in NYC these channels are popular even with the add cost.

TV Japan's  normal programing  has been stopped for the immediate future to run 24 news coverage of the disaster. Cablevision said they will let the channel broadcast for free until March 17.

Watching a bit of the coverage it is much like a U.S. disaster coverage with the exception of the eyewitness show. If this was an American disaster you would have reporters hunting for victims to exploit or grandstanding eyewitnesses telling the horrible papercut stories. There use of paper pictures to describe the nuclear plants were easy to follow then the stuff on regular channel. And that is in Japanese without subtitles.

No need to explain there is a large Japanese community in NYC, as well as a large every other ethnic group or country in NY. So a little applause to Cablevision for being nice.

News Fail

I used to love local news especially WPIX where Kaity Tong has anchored for decades. The news was simple straight forward and light with fluff and teasers.

Then suddenly they started bringing in pundits and commentators who resemble rejects from FOX or Comedy Central. Then they changed the format to a standing woman in front of a green screen doing a top 11 news run down. It's like a Youtube version of the news. Unfortunately the ratings reflect that it is working. For me this news is now unwatchable.

Oh and they have the original anchors pushed to the side and weekends doing on the scene stuff.

Moving onto NY1 the only good news channel left suddenly changed from channel 1 to 8.

Worst part was that TiVo changed it 2 weeks ago but Cablevision did not move the channel until Monday. When TiVo deletes a channel you can no longer record or even watch the programs.I don't know why the move but I fear what shenanigans will happen soon.

She Learnt Something

Via Gothamist by way of The NYPost article by Jen Chung on August 25, 2009 3:09 PM

It's a story that Dick Wolf would approve of: A receptionist helped the cops catch a career criminal by setting aside a paper cup he used—all thanks to the armchair detective knowledge she acquired from watching crime dramas like Law & Order: SVU! Of course, the cops initially declined to take evidence—Detective Eliot Stabler would totally rage out about that.

According to the NY Post, Justine Faeth, 24, "was in the company's lobby at 6 E. 39th St. on June 15 when smooth-talking ex-con Kevin Moore, 50, walked in at around 1:30 p.m." He then "distracted Faeth by asking for a glass of water, and after drinking half of it, blew his nose in a tissue, put the rag in the paper cup and left it on the front desk, she said." The old "can I have some water and blow my nose out" scam! Before she knew it, Moore had left with an iPod, cellphone and wallet! But that's when life-imitates-art inspiration struck:

"When they are trying to get DNA from a suspect on 'SVU' and that person is unwilling to give them a sample, they trick them into drinking water and then use that as evidence," Faeth told The Post yesterday.

"I knew to save the cup at least for fingerprints -- the show taught me that," she said. "It's amazing what you can learn on a TV show."

So the worker said she made sure the cup remained set aside until the cops came.

The only thing is that the cops said the DNA evidence wasn't necessary, because it wasn't a rape or murder—so she threw away the evidence... only for detectives to come back and ask for it! Luckily, the garbage crew hadn't taken her trash and the police traced the DNA to Moore, who is believed to be behind at least similar robberies (including ones where he pretended to ask about lessons at Alvin Ailey Dance Studios and took a tour of a gym, where he robbed a back office).

As for the initial cop's claim that they didn't need the cup, police spokesman Paul Browne said, "We do not know that the officer said that."

I'm 50/50 on this. Yeah! for her quick thinking but it was after the fact so she should've known the scam.

Full Service Funeral

Big TV event that I couldn't stomach to watch live so I just recorded it from different channels.

1:00pm -2:00pm
ABC coverage Martin 'Two-faced" Bashir and Chalres Gibson spoke over the beginning of Micheal Jackson memorial service. Smokey Robinson read some letters about 30 minutes before the choir started.

After more annoyances from Gibson, Mariah Carey and some guy sang, she use to be such a good singer. The song was not even over and Gibson chimed in with more unnecessary facts.

Queen Latifah spoke and read a Maya Angelou poem.

Lionel Richie was good, sang about Jesus. Berry Gordy spoke...

2:00pm -3:00pm
CBS coverage
and Gordy is still speaking dubbing Jackson the greatest performer who ever lived. The Katie Couric interrupts. Gordy ends his speech and clips are being show of his works.

Stevie Wonder spoke and sang.

Magic Johnson and Kobe "Disgusting no-means-yes" Bryant spoke.
Johnson spoke of bonding over fried chicken, oh boy if I were a conservitaive Republican I'd have a field day with that story.

Jennifer Hudson sang, good voice. She looks pregnant but it could of just been a bad dress.

Rev. Al Sharpton, ha know our NY loud-mouth is yours. I did enjoy his preach.

John Mayer played a guitar.

Brooke Shields reminisced and was on the verge of crumbling.

Jermaine Jackson sang.

Martin & Bernice King preached not as well as the Rev.

Rep. Sheila Jackson, no relation.

3:00pm-4:00pm
Back to ABC I thought I put NBC, whoops.

Let's hope this resolution 600 does not get passed.

Usher sang but was interrupted by a special weather advisory in NYC. He is such a good actor.

Smokey Robinson spoke.
Shaheen Jafargholi sang?
Kenny Ortega choreographer spoke.
Various singer I did not recognize sang with family and friends.
Jermaine, Marlon, and Paris Jackson prompted by Janet spoke.

Gibson is an idiot.

Pastor Lucious Smith said goodbye.

Final notes:
Jerry Lee Lewis still has great music despite actual facts known to the world.

Jackson was never charged with any crime and no evidence have ever surfaced. It would not surprise me if the now adult accuser gives an interview telling the world his father made up the story for $22 million.
Equally if the stories are confirmed it will not surprise.

A ten year old Micheal Jackson did nothing wrong and at what point he may have started doing wrong may never be known so it should all be kept in perspective.

70s and 80s Beginning To Fade

Alleged reports of some deaths.

Farrah Fawcett was an actress I never got into. She was a staple of many 80s teen wish list. The Burning Bed was the movie I remember the most mostly because it was the first female killer turned hero by television writers. She became a serious actor with this role, something beyond the blond stereotype of her earlier work.
Fawcett died of anal cancer which was said to be brought about by the HPV(warts) virus that today there is a vaccine to prevent. Her alternative treatment was not good to say the least so by the time western medicine got to her it was too late.

Michael Jackson was an incredible musician. Just talking about his music would take several blogs. I remember The Jackson 5 the most as a kid watching another kid being such an incredible thing.
Jackson was said to died of cardiac arrest. He suffered from lupus and vitiligo which has been known to affect the heart. Constant wearing of mask suggest some sort of hypochondria.

In both cases once slightly normal people went, in my opinion, a bit nuts. Denying conventional medicine and science. They went alternative and then fell into faith, the crazy kind not the real kind.

Still whatever happens now they were great once in their field and taking time into account they are worth mourning and maybe a final prayer. (oooh I got all spiritual)

Ed McMahon recently passed. The man was more than a sidekick he was a star. I remember him most for Star Search where he hosted and made the current talent show host look completely classless.
He died of various diseases mainly bone cancer. His later years were a bit of a struggle but he kept family close and was still trying to stay in the business.


By the way I don't believe in the whole 3 at a time thing.

CNN

Channel #25
The famed 24 hour news channel CNN is number one for most of America but not so much in NYC. The quality of local news is so good that most New Yorkers won't bother tuning in to CNN when news breaks.

I've tried a few times to watch CNN for more than 1 hour but with all the scrolling graphics and sad attempts to use the internet live on air it gets dizzying.

CNBC

Channel #24,
Is CNBC a clone of MSNBC or vice versa? I think CNBC is older and does more stock talk. Lots of speculating goes on with Jim Cramer and others. Maria Bartiromo does the closing bell talk and translates for the common person. Still half the schedule is paid programming, some are financial but most are for ab-crunchers or instant face lifts.

Image via Wikipedia

All that aside the station should be called Suze Orman's NBC because she is what all the other shows are scheduled around. The Suze Orman Show is a call in show where people get advice with their financial situations. Most of it is very specific and during better financial times it was mostly about moving your fortunes around to increase your wealth. Lately it is all about how not to eat cat food when you retire.
Her best segment is "Can You Afford It?" where with little judgment you tell her what you want to buy and she looks at your income and savings and yells a response.

When nothing else is on and I'm home on the weekend this is a great show to watch.

MSNBC

At this point we depart the broadcast channels, forever as they really no longer exist as of June 13, 2009.

Family cable starts here and continues for another sixty nine channels. When I restarted my cable viewing in 1996/1997 it was a wonderful world of independent movies, rare documentaries, and premium movies. All the stations were striving for excellence in their given genre.

That has drastically changed for the reality TV and pundit political worse.

Channel #23
MSNBC was never that watchable but at least it was respectful. It once showed stock prices and everything related to wall street until low ratings forced them to hire anchors with opinions.

Watching last night's Rachel Maddow Show was frightening as I thought the lady had gone crazy on air. She does the whole FOX repetitive talk, a technique to reinforce a point that may or may not be valid by saying it repeatedly making it seem valid, and then showed clips out of context.

I enjoy their criminal and prison profiles like Lockup. The general consensus for prison is that the place is not at all enjoyable.

Signal of the Times

Well finally the switch to digital signal is here and a quick rescan of the digital converter box shows that the lowest signal in NYC is 7 then 11 then 13. That means 2, 4, 5, and 9 have all moved on up to the 30s and 40s.

What does it really mean not much since those empty channel have not been put to use. There is no super-wi-fi or amazing cell phone connection just a bunch of dead air and billions in licensing up for auction.

Currently channels 2 and 4 over the air are showing a how to guide, in English and Spanish, on what to do next. Repeating continuously for the next few weeks.

Some channels like 18-WMBC and few others are still coming through but it may only be temporary. I will note that I have a VHF antenna hooked up to the convertor box and it would be better if I had a dual VHF/UHF antenna. This allows all the signals to come in.

NY1

Before I start I'll explain my setup. I have a regular non-HDTV set it has a Scientific Atlantic: Explorer 1850 cable box with remote. This box is not the most advanced and limits the amount of channels I can get because it is not capable of interactivity. There are certain video game, house buying, and other channels that are blocked because they are too advanced.
Cablevision is the cable company under the name of Optimum and I have the iO Gold package. This package includes nearly all of their alleged 385 channels for a final price of about $105 (it changes all the time and I'm always late paying). I think it's a bargain since the internet access is great. Plus they just started a Wi-Fi access point in the neighborhood.

NY1

Channel # 1 on the box.
This is a 24-hour local news channel. Unlike CNN or the others this station tones down the hype and pundit speculating and just report the news. They do lots of local stories, obviously, and many interviews of residents. The slant is very much towards New York residents meaning officials, businesses, and the authority can seem a bit cold and uncaring. Still they are very fair with their handling of important stories.

History
Started in 1991 it uses the "half-hour news wheel" format and relies heavily on digital video technology. Currently located in the Chelsea Market building it took over the studio seen in Oz.

Highlights
NY1 Minute - A 60 second rundown of the top stories and upcoming segments every half hour.

Weather on the Ones - Every ten minutes from the ones of the hour (:01, :11, ..., :51) the devote a few seconds to give the 24 hour and 7 day forecast. It's very accurate and one of the best around.

In The Papers - Done every morning the anchor grabs about 6 or 7 local papers and goes through the stories he/she finds interesting. Most are headline stories and occasionally odd news, here the anchor is quick to give their opinion of the value of each print story.

In Transit - A 15 minute segment every weekend that tells us the status of the public transit system. Half of it consist of what train or bus lines is not working.

On Stage - An hour weekend show highlight the latest in theater news. Interviews with celebrities are great since they always stick to the art of acting and whatever play they are in.

The World Beyond New York - This segment reminds New Yorkers that news exist outside NY. State news, national news, and international news is rounded up for a minute long rundown, just enough to keep us watching before we yawn.

Other things that make this one of my favorite channels is that they follow up. Often you here of some person getting into an accident or keeping a tiger and two alligators in their apartment and after the "incident" nothing else is known. NY1 will keep following up for years.
Also during events they have insight to shut up. During a news conference they just let the entire thing play out and wait until it is over to talk. For New Year's celebrations or other holiday events they stay quiet during the high points even if you just hear crowd noise.
Since they are a 24-hour local station they also have the privilege of allowing a breaking story or council meeting to play completely through. Sure at time it's dull but you see the entire thing uninterrupted and without the clipping that often brings about media bias.
No running crawl at the bottom of the screen unless it's an emergency like blizzards, steam pipe explosions, strikes, etc.

Advertising
Most of the commercials are local, lots of public health ads. The best is no pop-up ads during the shows or news. Any sponsored segments are mentioned up front.

What's new?

Finally done with all my finals and when it came to formulas and computer programming I did well. As for writing I also did well but it took me twice as long to write a paragraph then it did to make a force, moment, and torque diagram.

So I'm making a pledge to write something on each blog I have everyday. With little to watch on TV for the next few months I will blog the TV channels that I have on my cable. Hopefully this will improve my writing skills.

What have I been watching?
Glee: Pilot
A typical Fox show with young kids played by young adults who don't quite fit in but find a home in the Glee club. The main character is the teacher who put together the club but the most interesting is Rachel Berry, played by Lea Michele.

Berry is an overachiever with two dads and a hate for everyone but the popular boy. She is picked on in the most vicious ways and is on the verge of a breakdown. Michele plays this stereotype with a mixture of Tracy Flick and every character Andrea Nemeth ever played. The show does have a Boston Public feel without the heavy drama.

The music is great but Journey makes every show great. They are packaging the show with American Idol which is just wrong since after Kelly Clarkson there has not been any other true American Idol, country does not count. With the cancellation of The Sarah Conner Chronicles and a shorten season of Dollhouse expected next year Glee will make a great alternative.



News: Every Station
I have no idea why the rest of the country cares about Idol, pageants, or anything "reality" based. In NYC the top stories have been constant H1N1 virus(swine flu) news with Mayor Bloomberg speaking in fine English and the worst Spanish since I last tried speaking Spanish. Still he gets an A for effort.
They even broke into the breaking news of the flu report to mention a group of Muslims tried to blow stuff up in and around NY.
Another big story is any time a job fair is announced a line of 2,000 people deep encircle the place until everyone gets rejected interviewed.

TV Installation

The installation of Timothy Dolan as Archbishop of the New York Catholic Church took over the airwaves. This is news because this ceremony has not been done in NY for decades because all other transitions have happened when the former Archbishops died in office.

I watched the ABC coverage because they had a color commentator dropping little facts such as:

• There are 23 branches of Catholicism under the Pope
• Each branch is distinguished by the bishops hats (gold, black,...)
• Eastern Orthodox Catholics are represented but do not follow this Pope
• The Popes letter of appointment must be read in ceremony to be official
• Parts of the ceremony were in Spanish without translation
• Prayers were read in a dozen languages
• No one but bishops are aloud to sit in the cool gold seat on the altar
• Dolan has precided over an outdoor homily briefly with a Green Bay Cheesehead hat
  

Other curiosities include today is Tax Day, which did not escape the church officials as they made some jokes of it. Also it's still Passover and while many Jewish officials are there in support they can not greet him on the altar. The longest applaud was when Dolan recertified the church's position on the sanctity of life. It is still Easter by the way.

To interrupt 3 1/2 hours of programs for a religious ceremony is unique among New Yorkers. In Los Angeles TV is often interrupted by car chases and nationwide only for grand disasters but rarely for church ceremonies. Often I said the real heartland of America is NYC, it's why we are constant targets form all sides. Seeing such a unique thing reminds me why TV is still relevent because checking some news sites on the internet does not even mention this in the top 10 news stories of the day. Local news can be silly but occasionaly they do pull off stories without the ignorance or arrogance that pundits and internet trolls often bring.

Penn State

Kal Penn was the best part of House lately. His sudden exit was shocking in a time when TV shows rarely shock. I was just complaining about the lack of suicidal storylines on dramas and then poor Kutner had to prove me wrong. And yes that was Penn playing his own bloody corpse.

Penn is now part of the Obama White House and should make a fine…liaison? Whatever he will do it at least we know he’ll still be acting.

Seen here with Jenna von Oÿ for no particular reason.

This is Not Spring

Andy Hallet was great as the thin green Lorne on Angel and wondered why he never worked much. Apparently he got sick shortly after the final episode and after years of struggle died this past week. This is sad and one of a number of tragedies to follow the cast and crew of Angel.

The guy was 33, seriously messed up. If your wondering no I don't believe in the jinx or on set curses.


Another loss is the oldest soap opera ever has been canceled.
Guiding Light has been going on for 72 years, that is before TV for you young ones.
Starting as a 15 minutes serial on radio in 1937 it made the successful switch to TV in 1952 but alas the internet will not see graceful transition. The hour of TV is now free for some awful talk show or daytime reality crap.
Not that I can ever recall seeing any episodes I will watch it sign off on September 18, 2009.