I have to make a conscious effort to stay away from YouTube. If I make my way there, I can’t seem to leave. I have enough trouble getting my work done as it is, and I don’t need to get my nose stuck in videos and make things worse.

If there’s anyone out there with ADD (which I still haven’t found out for sure whether or not I have, but it seems very likely), it’s easy to understand how one can get lost in a sea of short videos on every subject imaginable. If I take a notion to watch that kooky OK Go video where they’re dancing on treadmills, I can’t just stop there. There’s that listing of related videos next to it, taunting me, saying, “Kriiiiiiiiisty… you must watch this… it’s so awesome!” So I do, and the cycle continues until I’ve gotten nothing done all day except watching those blasted videos.

For that reason, I try to avoid YouTube at all costs. It doesn’t always work, but I try.

I haven’t been to the movies in ages, but there’s a movie coming out next month that I think might just change that. It’s called The Women, and it features an awesome cast that includes some of my favorite actresses: Meg Ryan, Debra Messing, Annette Bening, and Jada Pinkett Smith.

Although the cast is all female, this isn’t your run-of-the-mill chick flick. It takes a close look at two issues that are important to women: the definition of beauty and friendship. You can watch a great mini-documentary about the making of the film at Dove’s website.

The documentary features teen journalist Cammy Nelson (pictured above with director Diane English), a very smart young lady who has been involved with projects designed to promote self esteem in young women since the age of 12. She worked with Go Girls! and PeaceJam before teaming up with Dove to go behind the scenes of The Women. She toured the set and spoke with the actresses about their opinions on beauty. You might be surprised at their answers, which had nothing to do with outward appearance.

In addition to the documentary, you can read Cammy’s diary entries about her experiences on the set. There’s also a director’s diary written by Diane English about the making of the film.

My Take on Beauty and Friendship

As you may know from some of my previous posts, I think it’s very important for girls and women to realize that real beauty comes from the inside, and from the things that make us unique. But I don’t think I’ve touched on the subject of friendship very often.

In today’s impersonal world, fewer and fewer people have real friends. I can’t say that I have any that I talk to on a regular basis. Well, there’s Hubby, who is truly my best friend in every sense of the word. I can talk to him about anything, and he’s always there to comfort me when I’m down. But it’s nice to have female friends to talk girl talk with, and to do the things that the menfolk just aren’t interested in with. I guess I need to give some of my old friends a call, because I miss that. Maybe I’ll invite them to go see The Women with me.

So what do beauty and friendship have to do with each other? Well, your real friends will appreciate you for who you are, not what you look like. In high school, I had some “friends” who decided they didn’t want to be associated with me because I didn’t try to be a carbon copy of the popular girls. But to a real friend, things like that do not matter.

Win Tickets to See The Women

Want a chance to win free tickets to see The Women at a theater near you? Visit Dove’s website starting on September 3rd. They’ll be giving away 100 pairs of tickets. You can enter once a day between September 3rd and September 19th.

Hubby, Pumpkin, Hubby’s cousin, his daughter and I are going to see wrestling tonight. Not WWE or anything like that, just mostly local people. But the Boogie Woogie Man and Kid Cash are going to be there.

Hubby and I went to where they’re having it to give his brother some money today and met the Boogie Woogie Man. We hadn’t planned on going to the event, but the promoter talked us into getting tickets. I thought it would be fun for Pumpkin, so it wasn’t a hard sell.

Gotta go… Hubby’s in a hurry to leave. Laters!

We finally got our satellite service canceled. I would have done it a long time ago, but when I first mentioned it I was met with protests. But Hubby finally came around. Pumpkin said she wanted her Disney and cartoon channels back, but she hasn’t kicked up a big fuss about it. And me? I don’t miss it a bit.

I joined Netflix so we would have something to watch when we wanted to without having to pay an arm and a leg each month. We got our first movies last night. I ordered Pumpkin a Hannah Montana DVD, and we watched that first. Then Hubby, his cousin and I watched Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story after she went to bed. If you haven’t seen it yet, you should. But make sure the kids aren’t around, because there’s a bit of nudity and raunch in it.

Anyway, I enjoyed that more than I would have enjoyed sitting around watching TV. Even though we don’t have a projection system or home theater sconces, it’s nice to have a movie night. Especially when we get to watch something we haven’t already seen a million times.

Not being much of a television watcher, there are few shows that I watch regularly. But I caught a couple of episodes of VH1’s Celebrity Rehab, and I really liked it. I had planned on watching every episode, but I just got through reading a news story about how the final episode just aired a couple of days ago. So much for that, I guess.

Maybe I’ll manage to watch all of them in reruns. For some reason the idea of celebrities going through drug rehab intrigues me. It seems kind of voyeuristic (as do most reality shows to me), but I think this one has the potential to benefit people instead of just invading the participants’ privacy for profit.

When I took my lunch break, I turned on the tube to see if I could find something to watch while I was eating. My beloved Rock Fest was on VH1 Classic, so I was happy. It was something I could watch without getting too attached to when it was time to get back to work.

They were playing some pretty awesome tunes, so I decided to leave it on and listen while I worked. I came back in the office, got back to work, and rocked out. Then the rocking stopped, and something that sounded like one of those trippy old kids’ movies started.

I thought it was just the beginning to another video, but this went on for about 10 minutes. I finally decided to get up and investigate. It turned out that The Song Remains the Same, the Led Zeppelin movie, was on. And I was missing it!

I wanted so badly to sit down and watch it. But it lasts 3 hours with commercials, and I need to spend that time working. I would have recorded it, but if I had done that I would have wanted to start from the very beginning. I’m weird like that.

So, heavy-hearted, I turned the TV off and came in the office and sat back down. Then I looked at the clock and realized that I’m also missing Steve Wilkos. Noooo!!!!

The TV is becoming way too big of a distraction. If I had my way, I’d just sell it and use the money to help pay the bills. But Hubby and Pumpkin would both flog me if I did.

There are few reality TV shows that I can even remotely relate to. I like some of the Celebreality stuff on VH1, but that’s mainly because I find it amusing to watch famous people acting like everyday doofuses.

But there’s a new show called The Next Internet Millionaire that I’ve been dying to watch. I haven’t gotten around to it yet, but I will. That’s one reality tv show that I could actually learn something from! Episode 5 is online now. Maybe I should go watch it while I’m not busy.

Back when White Zombie was huge, I listened to them often. I still rock out to “Thunder Kiss 65″ and “Black Sunshine” every chance I get. But what, you ask, does this have to do with horror movies? Allow me to explain.

If you’ve listened to White Zombie or former frontman gone solo Rob Zombie, you know that their music is laden with awesome horror movie sound effects and sound bites. The local Halloween haunted house often plays Rob Zombie’s albums during their show. Zombie now writes and directs horror movies, and does a fine job of it.

Zombie’s latest project, Halloween the movie, is scheduled to be released on August 31st. It’s a remake of the original movie of the Halloween series. I’m not a horror movie fanatic myself, and it takes a lot to impress me. But the Halloween movies have always been among my favorites, and I can’t wait to see what Rob Zombie will do with this.

If I were to speculate, I would say that he will make it a bit more modern and intensely gory and detailed. The original Halloween was in my opinion one of the best horror movies ever made, and there is little room for improvement. But Rob Zombie is definitely the right guy for the job, and I think he’s going to rock the house with this one.

Check out the trailer below, and mark your calendar to go see Halloween the movie on August 31st.

The Who has many fans, and I am one of them. I can’t claim to be their biggest fan, but I own their Greatest Hits and have seen Tommy live and in person. But I was a bit surprised to find out that they are also quite popular among the canine set.

I don’t know whether this pooch discovered the Who’s “Who Are You” by watching CSI or was a fan from the early years, but he sings along quite well for a dog, don’t you think? As I watch this, I can just hear what my grandmother’s reaction would be if she were still around today: “What kind of music is that? The dog sings better than they do.”

I’m not really a soap opera fan. As a matter of fact, I haven’t watched a soap in years. But CBS is having an essay contest in which the winner will be meeting two stars from As the World Turns, and I would love to win. Here’s why:

• The stars involved are Austin Peck and Terri Colombino, who play Brad and Katie on the show. And that Austin is a hottie! Sure, it would be nice to meet… er, what’s-her-name… but it would be awesome to see Austin’s pretty face in person!
• The two have to come to your house and do your least favorite chore. That would be a tough decision, but I’m sure I could find something for them to do… like washing the windows!
• The winner also gets a check for $5000 big ones! Enough said!

I’m off to write my essay now. If you would like a chance at all of the above, just click here to enter. And if you win, I expect pictures! It’s the least you could do since you heard about it from me.