BLAMESTORMING: Sitting around in a group, discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed, and who was responsible.

SEAGULL MANAGER: A manager who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on everything, and then leaves.

ASSMOSIS: The process by which some people seem to absorb success and advancement by kissing up to the boss rather than working hard.

SALMON DAY: The experience of spending an entire day swimming upstream only to get screwed and die in the end.

CUBE FARM: An office filled with cubicles.

PRAIRIE DOGGING: When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cube farm, and people's heads pop up over the walls to see what's going on.

MOUSE POTATO: The on-line, wired generation's answer to the couch potato.

SITCOMs: Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage. What yuppies turn into when they have children and one of them stops working to stay home with the kids.

STRESS PUPPY: A person who seems to thrive on being stressed out and whiney.

SWIPEOUT: An ATM or credit card that has been rendered useless because the magnetic strip is worn away from extensive use.

XEROX SUBSIDY: Euphemism for swiping free photocopies from one's workplace.

IRRITAINMENT: Entertainment and media spectacles that are annoying but you find yourself unable to stop watching them. The O.J. trials were a prime example.

PERCUSSIVE MAINTENANCE: The fine art of whacking the crap out of an electronic device to get it to work again.

ADMINISPHERE: The rarefied organizational layers beginning just above the rank and file. Decisions that fall from the adminisphere are often profoundly inappropriate or irrelevant to the problems they were designed to solve.

404: Someone who's clueless. From the World Wide Web error message "404 Not Found," meaning that the requested document could not be located.

GENERICA: Features of the American landscape that are exactly the same no matter where one is, such as fast food joints, strip malls, subdivisions.

OHNOSECOND: That minuscule fraction of time in which you realize that you've just made a BIG mistake.

WOOFYS: Well Off Older Folks.

SALT LAKE CITY - Walter Fredrick Morrison, the man credited with inventing the Frisbee, has died. He was 90.

Utah House Rep. Kay McIff, an attorney who represented Morrison in a royalties case, says Morrison died at his home in Monroe, Utah, on Tuesday. McIff is from Richfield, Morrison's original hometown.

"That simple little toy has permeated every continent in every country, as many homes have Frisbees as any other device ever invented," McIff said. "How would you get through your youth without learning to throw a Frisbee?"
Morrison's son, Walt, told The Associated Press Thursday that "old age caught up" with his father and that he also had cancer.

"He was a nice guy. He helped a lot of people," Walt Morrison said. "He was an entrepreneur. He was always looking for something to do."

Morrison sold the production and manufacturing rights to his "Pluto Platter" in 1957. The plastic flying disc was later renamed the "Frisbee," with sales surpassing 200 million discs. It is now a staple at beaches and college campuses across the country and spawned sports like Frisbee golf and the team sport Ultimate.

An official disc golf course at Creekside Park in the Salt Lake City suburb of Holladay is named for Morrison.

Morrison co-wrote a book with Frisbee enthusiast and historian Phil Kennedy in 2001. Kennedy released a brief biography about Morrison on Thursday, wishing his late friend "smoooooth flights."

According to Kennedy, Morrison and his future wife, Lu, used to toss a tin cake pan on the beach in California. The idea grew as Morrison considered ways to make the cake pans fly better and after serving as a pilot in World War II, Morrison began manufacturing his flying discs in 1948.

He would hawk the discs at local fairs and eventually attracted Wham-O Manufacturing, the company that bought the rights to Morrison's plastic discs.
Kennedy says Wham-O adopted the name "Frisbee" because that's what college students in New England were calling the Pluto Platters. The name came from the Frisbie Pie Co., a local bakery whose empty tins were tossed like the soon-to-be Frisbee.

Walt Morrison said his father is survived by three children. The family is planning a service for Morrison's friends and relatives Saturday at the Cowboy Corral in Elsinore.

From the AP

The following article appeared in USA Today on Wednesday, February 10, 2010 and includes quotes from The Mindless Man. The full article can be found at http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/internetlife/2010-02-10-1Asocialbacklash10_CV_N.htm

By Marco R. della Cava, USA TODAY

Facebook reports that it has 400 million active users worldwide. Make that 399,999,999. Laura LeNoir is done.

"I feel better, I feel lighter, I got my privacy back," says LeNoir, 42, an office manager at an educational software company inBirmingham, Ala., who logged off a few weeks ago. "People say, 'You'll be back.' But I read more, walk the dogs more. I'll be fine."

As the social networking train gathers momentum, some riders are getting off.
Their reasons run the gamut from being besieged by online "friends" who aren't really friends to lingering concerns over where their messages and photos might materialize. If there's a common theme to their exodus, it's the nagging sense that a time-sucking habit was taking the "real" out of life.

"When I first closed my Facebook account, I felt disconnected from the world and missed the constant updates," says Leanna Fry, 32, of Provo, Utah, who is teaching English in Erzurum,Turkey. She signed off after feeling harassed by strangers. "But I've discovered I don't have to know what hundreds of people are doing. Now I have more time for people who really matter in my life."

Even super-connected celebrities are bolting. Disney pop siren Miley Cyrus quit Twitter last fall, followed by British singer Lily Allen. Both women said the site was proving a distraction from their relationships. Allen signed off with "I am a neo-Luddite, goodbye."

That desire to unplug has made an unexpected success out of websites such as Web 2.0 Suicide Machine and Seppukoo (a play on the Japanese word for "suicide"), free sites that automate and turbocharge the otherwise laborious manual process of scrapping your online self.

Lucca, Italy-based Seppukoo helped 20,000 people erase themselves from Facebook after the site launched last fall. Two-month-old Web 2.0 Suicide Machine - where a noose dangles near a ticker tracking the digital mayhem ("181,898 friends have been unfriended, 329,908 tweets removed") - has been used by 2,600 people. Thousands more are waiting to be accommodated by the site's small server, says Walter Langelaar, 32, one of three programmers who created the "art project" for Moddr, a media lab in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

"We are not anti-social-networking," says Langelaar, noting that the program was conceived for a party the lab threw a year ago to encourage face-to-face interaction. "We do, however, feel things are getting so messy in that world that (the sites) just get in the way of people living their lives."

Facebook is not amused. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company has blocked the servers of both sites and sent cease-and-desist letters stating that they violate Facebook's statement of rights and responsibilities policies by collecting user login data.

"Facebook provides the ability for (users) to use the site to deactivate their account or delete it completely," says Facebook spokesman Simon Axten.
Langelaar says Moddr has circumvented the block and counters: "We're not collecting login information; users bring their (data) to us. We are thinking of hiring our own lawyers."

Seppukoo, however, is now lifeless. "We have postponed any decisions until after our next Anti Social NotWorking art project comes out in the next weeks" is the cryptic comment from Guy McMusker of Les Liens Invisibles, a consortium of Web-focused artists responsible for the program.

Although Twitter is among the sites that programs such as Seppukoo can scour, the San Francisco-based micro-blogging venture has "no issues with people who want to leave," says spokesman Seth Garrett. "Our research shows that quite often they come back later."

Even tens of thousands of dropouts represent a fallen leaf in the forest of social networkers happily updating their status/thoughts/whereabouts at this very moment.

Facebook dominates that landscape, according to The Nielsen Co. It drew more than 110 million unique visitors in the USA in December, double its 2008 numbers. MySpace was second with nearly 60 million, a 17% drop from the previous year. Twitter pulled in nearly 20 million, and sites such as Classmates and LinkedIn had about 10 million.

Youth still rules in this domain. About 65% of kids 12 to 17 (and 37% of adults ages 18 and up) use a social networking site, according to the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project. "For many, the time and energy spent putting content up means it's hard to leave," says Amanda Lenhart, Pew senior research specialist.

That said, the 24/7 tech addiction is causing even diehard social site fans to set limits, says Genevieve Bell, a cultural anthropologist with Intel. In a recent survey on mobile-device etiquette, Bell found that 69% said checking e-mail and sending texts in the company of others was unacceptable.

"This always-on lifestyle is being pushed as desirable, (but) there's a deeply rooted human need to have downtime," says Bell, director of user experience at Intel's Digital Home Group. "Perhaps tuning out of social networking is just a way of recalibrating that need for downtime."

Her recent interviews with users reveal that for some the ideal vacation spot is one without Web access. "We're starting to ask, how does all of this (technology) truly fit into our lives?" she says.

'Push back from this tide of technology'

One antidote to the always-on life is Freedom, free software that disables any Apple computer's Internet access for up to eight hours. About 100,000 Web users have downloaded Freedom since 2008, says Fred Stutzman, a graduate student in information sciences at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and the program's creator.

"Freedom is a statement that it's OK to push back from this tide of technology and find some space to really think," he says.

People tuning out temporarily eventually could spell trouble for networking sites such as Facebook, says Danah Boyd, social media scholar at Microsoft Research in Boston. "A huge number of early adopters joined Facebook because they felt as though they had to, not because they were passionate about the site," she says.

Boyd cites the early networking site Friendster, which many users ditched for newcomer MySpace. "When the passion was lost, the group walked away. The folks who disengage from Facebook may not be vocal," but they're not to be ignored.

Another frequent user complaint: the barbarians at your virtual gates.
"With social media, there can be this critical moment where strangers take over," says James Fowler, co-author of Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives. "Twitter could face such a danger, because it's this enormous spam machine now."

Mark Dockendorff, 30, an investment adviser in Cincinnati, initially liked the way sites "let you get to know people through their pages, which is so much easier than talking in a bar. But now a lot of my friends are putting their pages on the back burner and just not updating."

As is Dockendorff, who was put off by his mom friending his ex-girlfriend. "Awkward," he says.

A move to Beijing led Larissa Paschyn to leave Facebook when the site was blocked by the Chinese government. Now this "avid user" feels liberated.
"There are many other ways to meet new people and truly experience life," says Paschyn, 24, a television host for CCTV International.

She also has a confession. One of her Facebook guilty pleasures was "checking up on people who were mean to me in school so I could gloat about my life," she says. Being off social sites has "made me a better person and less self-centered."

'It was consuming my life'

When Julian Smith grew frustrated with Facebook, he got silly. His video 25 Things I Hate About Facebook, which has 1.3 million views on YouTube, shows him being literally poked by a friend (No. 2) and lamenting ads for hot singles (No. 21).

"It's the way people are using social networking sites that's lame," says Smith, 22, a Los Angeles-based filmmaker. "Sure, it's a great way for me to let people know if I have a new film clip out. But to socialize with friends? Don't think so."
Dustin Blythe was initially elated when he joined Facebook. Then the snowball grew.

"I felt compelled to update my page every hour or so, even if there really was nothing new to write or show," says Blythe, 35, who registers voters in Mishawaka, Ind. "It was like (the sci-fi movie) Logan's Run, trapped in a society I couldn't get out of."

So he went cold turkey. Blythe now blogs instead, updating friends and family on his own timetable. "I have no regrets," he says. "Now I can post what's on my mind without the perceived pressure of keeping up with the Joneses and their BlackBerrys."

Getting off Facebook was tough for Roger Williams, whose love of technology earned him the nickname "Chaplain Geek" at St. Joseph's Medical Center in Stockton, Calif., where he's a grief counselor. But his New Year's resolution was to take a break from social networking.

"I liked that I could reconnect with friends from 30 years ago, but that soon turned into all sorts of people contacting me who I really didn't want to hear from," says Williams, 52, whose alma maters and friends-with-causes hit him up for donations. "I was getting hammered for money. I thought, 'Hey, I'm not a commercial entity.' I felt used."

Another frequent complaint from social networkers is that the variety of sites is overwhelming. Joe Ross recently used Web 2.0 Suicide Machine to wipe out his existence on MySpace, because he felt the site was getting too commercial.

"It was very cool to watch," says Ross, 26, a law student who works for the Philadelphia Housing Authority. But don't write him off the scene yet.

"I'm still on Facebook, and I'm a heavy Twitter user and blogger," he says. "Most of the people I'm friends with are people I wouldn't know if it weren't for social networking."

Ah, that word again. Friends.

Jim Hennessey was an avid social networker, using MySpace and Facebook for social updates, LinkedIn for work contacts, not to mention Meebo, Geni, Jiibe, Flickr and others.

The result? "I was so busy updating my various sites that there wasn't a social desire left in my body," says Hennessy, 42, a marketing consultant from Nashville. "It was getting impersonal."

So much so that when he was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma last year, Hennessey didn't get much support from his online community beyond a few messages. "I knew a lot of people (online), but it was a false sense of comfort," he says.

Though not willing to commit social networking suicide just yet, Hennessey, his cancer in remission, is now more circumspect about its powers and promises. And hungry for the human touch.

"A while back I met up with someone I got to know on Facebook, which was nice," he says. "But when she introduced me, she said, 'This is my friend Jim from Facebook,' as if it were a place.

"I just want to be Jim from Nashville."

Here are some of the best commercial spots from the 2010 Super Bowl. What were your favorites? Comment below.

According to a rep from the site, the company submitted the ad on January 18, and when they checked in again on January 22, they were told that the ad had not yet been approved and that all the spots were sold out. ManCrunch then requested that the ad still be considered, in case a place opened up.

According to Fox News, a CBS representative told Pop Tarts that spots were still open, so the situation is rather murky.

“Although the CBS Sales rep told us that it typically takes 24 to 48, hours it’s been 11 days and although we follow up with CBS every day they keep telling us they’re still reviewing it,” said a ManCrunch rep. Officials from the dating site say that they think the process is taking so long because CBS does not want to air the ad, yet the network doesn’t want to reject it outright for fear of backlash from gay and lesbian advocacy groups.

Such an ad airing during the Super Bowl would be a big coup for the site, “At no other time during the year can you reach men at the same point in time,” said the rep. “Plus, we knew our ad was going to be one of the more memorable ads that the media and public would talk about well after the big game.”

The rep still anticipates that CBS will accept the ad, but expressed distress that the process was taking such a long time. “We do wonder how long it took for them to approve the Pro-Life ad,” he said when asked about Tim Tebow’s hotly debated spot, “[but] regardless of whether or not you agree with CBS’ decision to accept the Pro-Life ad, we do applaud them for allowing freedom of expression and hope they treat our commercial the same.”

Still, unlike the Tebow spot, the ad is currently all over the Internet, and is likely to become more and more visible as the days go by. In fact, the ManCrunch rep said that he believes that it is sure to go viral. So perhaps the controversy will make the commercial more ubiquitous than a Super Bowl showing would.

mashable.com

The year 2010 has barely begun, but we beat the heck out of some phrases in 2009 that we should leave them behind in the old year. So, in no particular order, here are the phrases we shall not utter in 2010:

Engagement. Marketing isn't combat, or marriage. Stop trying to tell me I need to propose to every single potential customer who comes to my site.

Twitterverse. Just. Don't. Say. It.

Tweeple. You KNOW you've got a winning media platform when you can generate two hated terms in the same year.

New media. Are you FREAKING KIDDING ME? This term is back again? Bury it. Forever.

Social media. So prevalent that I have to use it in training and sales presentations, even though mouthing the phrase sends jolts of nausea through me.

Tiger Woods. Ah, crap. I just said it.

Change. No political agenda here - totally behind Obama. But for all the other millions of wannabe politicians, writers, gurus, experts, authors and whatever: I swear I will tune up your car with a claw hammer if you use the term again.

Guru. Actually, it's OK if someone else calls you a guru. But when you call yourself a guru, you fail on a scale not seen since "read my lips: no new taxes". You're crowning yourself a genius. It's artificial, and it stinks.

Crowdsourcing. Also known as stupidsourcing. You get to replicate your mistakes a thousandfold via tons of people who have no zero accountability. Actually, I kinda like the concept. But it terrifies me, too. Sort of like nanotechnology: Cool but likely to wipe us all out in Crichton-esque fashion.

Twilight. Yes, the series of books and movies is now a phrase to me. It represents the destruction of every cool vampire mythology ever created. Bram Stoker is going to rise from his grave and start devouring the entire cast.

Green. Green factories. Green toilet paper. Green TV sets. This color is now splashed across every thing we consume. That's supposed to help us ignore the fact that all this 'green' stuff is being built by contaminated underpaid workers 1000s of miles away. See - we're greener. Didn't say anything about anyone else.

ROI. Oh God. Spare me. Even I've beaten this one to death. Why do we have to tell people what we're doing will help you make money? How is that even a question?

SEO expert. I think this is more a translation problem. In some other language, it seems to mean "I built a web site in Dreamweaver, and know how to use SubmitEase." Like guru, above, it only seems to go horribly wrong when people apply it to themselves.

Content marketing. Another translation problem. Seems to mean "Write drivel. Publish to my site. Repeat."

Conversation. Dammit, I stole this from the ClueTrain Manifesto first. The rest of you slackers quit copying my theft.

Free. "Free" is not the new "money"! Don't believe me? Go to McDonalds and try to buy a burger with a blog post. It doesn't work.

Posted by the Mindless Man

The team of 17-year-old Bae Yeong Ho and 18-year-old Ha Mok Min went thumb-to-thumb against competitors from a dozen countries to win the title in a competition Thursday in New York City.

The LG Mobile World Cup challenged nimble-fingered youths on both speed and accuracy. The winning team took home a $100,000 prize.

Second place and $20,000 went to the U.S. contestants – 16-year-old Kate Moore of Des Moines, Iowa, who is the 2009 U.S. National Texting Champion, and 14-year-old Morgan Dynda of Pooler, Ga., the 2009 runner-up. An Argentinian team came in third and the Brazilians took fourth.

With many languages at play, English was the texting language of the U.S. competitors and those from Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Other nations represented were Indonesia, Portugal, Russia, Mexico and Spain. Interpreters were hired for non-texting communication.

"My thumbs are up for the challenge," Moore announced hours before the afternoon start time.

But inside Manhattan's Gotham Hall, with the pressure on to text for about two intense minutes at a stretch, she and Dynda fell behind the Koreans by 20 seconds after a good hour of competition dubbed "Race of Death."

"New York sure is an active, lively city!" said Bae, the Korean national champion for 2008 and 2009, basking with his teammate in a crush of admirers.

The drill of the third annual Mobile World Cup was simple: Copying words and phrases in one's native language off a monitor correctly, with no typos or abbreviations, and as fast as possible with the required capitalization and punctuation. Some words were intentionally misspelled to test alertness.

Privately, Moore averages 12,000 texts per month, entering up to 3.5 characters per second.

As in mainstream sports, the event drew vocal fans who offered fever-pitch cheers for their favorites – amid peals of laughter.

"USA, USA!" yelled a front-row crowd.

The winners were showered with confetti as they held up mammoth checks representing their earnings.

The event is sponsored by LG Electronics Inc.'s mobile-phone division, a company based in Seoul, South Korea, that supplies its latest handsets for the contest.

Moore said that although she's almost always "carrying on a conversation with someone, texting, "the habit doesn't detract from face-to-face social life. "I can talk and text at the same time, without looking at the phone."

Her friends all do it too; anyone who doesn't is socially ostracized. "When you see someone who doesn't have unlimited texting, it's like, 'What's wrong with you?'"

But there's one thing the teen stopped doing: texting in class. A teacher took her phone away, and her parents were asked to accompany her to the vice principal's office to retrieve it.

The 26 finalists who made it to the World Cup were chosen from more than 200,000 wannabes in a global text-off that began in May. Before they even got to New York, female texters had the advantage – hands down, Moore said.

"Girls are faster 'cause their hands are smaller," she said, adding, "I have perfect hands for texting – thin, long fingers. And fast, of course."

www.huffingtonpost.com

So here we are - one week into 2010 and time to check in on those New Year's resolutions. Did you make any resolutions? Are you keeping them?

A recent study of people aged 18-66, uncovered some interesting findings about our start of the year resolve. It seems most people make several resolutions (67% made 3 or more). People also tend to make a commitment to start or increase a behavior (84%) than to stop or decrease something (16%).

The most interesting thing to me: Only 65% made their resolutions between Dec. 28 and New Year's Day. The rest made pledges they considered to be New Year's resolutions as early as May and as late as the end of January.

Also interesting: Persistence pays off... Of those who successfully achieved their top resolution, only 40% of them did so on the first attempt. The rest made multiple tries, with 17% finally succeeding after more than 6 attempts.

The most common resolutions, according to the study, are to begin or Increase exercise; be more conscientious about work or school; diet or develop better eating habits; and to stop smoking, drinking, or using drugs (including caffeine).

My resolve in 2010 is to reach out and do more things that impact others and are not self-focused.

I want to keep in better touch with my friends and not simply by Facebook, Twitter and texts. I actually want to use a phone and call distant friends to talk and catch up on life. I also want to be more aware of the events to celebrate or support in the lives of friends and family.

I resolve also to be more consistent in blogging and updating this site. My goal is to provide new posts or content at least three times each week.

My last resolution is for my puppy Fitch to make sure I reduce his exposure to harmful chemicals in the home (Go Green!) and to not feed him people food!

What are your resolutions for 2010? Share in the comment area below. The last item from that study said that 60% of people believe by sharing their resolve with friends and family they are more likely to achieve their goal!

Posted by the Mindless Man

Just like with my 2009 movie recap - the 2009 TV list isn't a "best of" the programming on the tube this year. Instead these shows struck a chord for their storytelling, humor, and daring. And, of course, Glee made the list

The Big Bang Theory (CBS) For a while there, the phrase "traditional comedy" was starting to sound like an insult. And over the past decade or so, too many multi-camera comedies have trafficked in predictable writing and lazy characterization. Then along came Big Bang Theory, which proved that excellent acting and a smart approach can make even the most traditional network comedies deeply satisfying. Consistency can indeed be overrated, but it's hard to come by in the comedy realm, and The Big Bang Theory gets major points for managing to induce smiles on a weekly basis.

Modern Family (ABC) Modern Family took one of the most tired TV genres -- the family sitcom -- and updated it with the hip "mock-umentary" format that shows like The Office made popular. But what makes Modern Family work is solid execution of the comedy basics. The characters feel real and lived-in, the performances by the top-notch cast are razor-sharp and the stories the show tells are inventive without being overly broad. Most important of all, this show has a heart as big as Fizbo the clown's shoes. This is a modern gem with old-fashioned appeal.

True Blood (HBO) If this show were a fashion ensemble, Tim Gunn would call it a hot mess. Still, despite its flaws and its occasional forays into true ridiculousness, True Blood proved impossible to resist. It offered charismatic performances from Michelle Forbes, Nelsan Ellis, Ryan Kwanten, Allan Hyde and Alexander Skarsgård, among others, and it took all the old-fashioned pleasures of a melodramatic serial and sexed them up, Bon Temps-style.

Glee (FOX) Glee is a silly, smart and delicious parody of all high school movies, including "High School Musical," with charming musical numbers and two standouts: Jane Lynch as the totalitarian cheerleading coach and Lea Michele as the talented and monstrously ambitious self-promoting star singer of the glee club.

Big Love (HBO) The hook that gets you in the door of this series is polygamy: the Henricksons' efforts to live as man and wife and wife and wife in Salt Lake City, and the fascinating subculture of the dangerous religious compound that Bill (Bill Paxton) escaped. But really, the show is about community: Can this strange - but strangely functional - family exist as its own unit, not fully contained by either secular society, mainstream Mormonism or Bill's fundamentalist roots?

Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List (Bravo) Wait, is K-Griff technically still D-list now that she has two Emmys? Actually, who cares when this ballsy redhead's self-promoting ways are so freaking funny to watch? The cameras capture bits of her stand-up gigs and the inner workings of her support group (known as Team Griffin). But most of her time is spent shamelessly attempting to become an even bigger celeb.

Cake Boss (TLC) While Cake Boss isn't a replacement for all time favorite Ace of Cakes, the show clearly displays a happy family business. Even with the complaints and screaming, they all come together as one big happy Italian family. Also, I love the way that Buddy pronounces "Fondant."

Royal Pains (USA) The summer series starring Mark Feuerstein as Hank Lawson, M.D., a doctor who is on-call to some of the most demanding patients around, the richie-riches who live in the fashionable Hamptons of Long Island was a blast of fun and sunshine.

Honorable mentions -- Top Chef (Bravo), Brothers & Sisters (ABC), Castle (ABC), So You Think You Can Dance (FOX), Entourage (HBO)

Posted by the Mindless Man

NEW YORK — Peculiar things have been happening this season on "The Real Housewives of Orange County."

Gretchen Rossi had a garage sale, Jeana Keough went shopping with her daughter at H&M and Tamra Barney is now doing her own housework.

What?

This is a dramatic turn from season three when Barney's husband gave her a diamond Rolex for her 40th birthday, Vicky Gunvalson debated over buying a yacht (she decided against it) and Rossi's fiance gave her a Harley.

"All of them have been very much affected by the economic situation," explains the show's executive producer, Douglas Ross.

This means the downsizing we're seeing on camera is not just for show. A number of the cast members were involved in real estate that's been on a downslide the past two years. And this season, we'll see Lynne Curtin's family get evicted from their Laguna Beach home.

"We try to treat it as gently but as honestly as we can," Ross says. "We happened to have been there with our cameras ... as part of our normal schedule when they were served the eviction notice. It's one of those great reality TV moments that happened to be caught because we were in the right place at the right time."

Money is a sensitive subject and some people – even reality TV stars – may not want to expose their financial struggles to millions of people. But the housewives don't seem to mind sharing – they even fancy themselves as an inspiration to others in similar situations.

"It helps people across the nation because they realize it's not just them," says Keough.

Barney says the exposure is just her being honest.

"I'm pretty open. ... There's not too much I'll hide. It was difficult for my husband ... but the world's in this place right now and I think people are going to relate to it," she says.

So far it looks like Barney is right. Ratings for the fifth season have been strong and average about 2 million viewers an episode.

This could partly be due to the popularity of the "Real Housewives" franchise in general, which has taken off thanks to over-the-top versions of wig-pulling, table flipping and incredulous statements from women in Atlanta, New Jersey and New York, like, "I'm up here, you're down here." Their actions make viewers ask, "Are they for real?"

Perhaps this season we're finally getting the answer: Yes, they are.

While "The Real Housewives" are compensated for appearing on the show, Keough says it's not enough to support a family. "It's so minimal. It's not enough to make your house payments. It's more like a location fee to keep your house clean."

Keough only filmed three episodes of season 5 and then opted out of the rest – she said she wanted to focus on her real estate career and her family.

Not all the Orange County ladies are having a hard time paying their bills, though. Self-professed workaholic Gunvalson says her insurance business is doing better than ever. And she proudly reveals she's 42 and on target to retire comfortably at age 55.

"When I first started (on the show), I was working out of the house with two employees and now I have a huge office with 10 employees, 700 agents out in the field," she says.

Then there's new cast member Alexis Bellino, 32, who has three children and two nannies. On a recent episode, her husband gave her a 7 carat diamond necklace, just because.

This season, there have been some inconsistencies to the ladies' money woes. Curtin allowed herself to be filmed getting a face lift while her daughter got a nose job. Her husband, Frank, acknowledged the cost of the procedures on camera but said his family's happiness was more important.

Despite the eviction, Lynne Curtin says her finances are improving and predicts her family will be able to build a house next year.

"My husband is a builder in Southern California. It's not like he doesn't try. He's not sitting at home watching TV. He is going out and making an effort. ... I've been married for 20 years. ... We've had the high life we've had the low life. It's just reality."

www.huffingtonpost.com

UPDATE: January 8, 2010

Tamra Barney's husband Simon filed for divorce on Wednesday, charging his wife with infidelity.

In the bombshell divorce papers Simon Barney wrote: "Petitioner contends that Respondent has been verbally abusive and has committed acts of disloyalty and infidelity."

"The Real Housewives of Orange County" star moved out of their million dollar home earlier this week and into a two-bedroom apartment.

Their marital problems have been shown on the reality show this season. In fact, a promo for this week's episode shows Tamra crying to her mother about their marriage and how it may be heading for divorce.

Yes, it is another year end list. This one capturing the movies that touched or inspired me during the last 12 months. Of course, I didn't see every film that came out in 2009, so I am not claiming these as the "best" but they are pretty darn good in my opinion.

The Hurt Locker "War is a drug," the opening title informs us, and in one of the best war movies ever, Jeremy Renner plays an expert member of an elite bomb disposal unit in Iraq. Somewhat guarded by a protective suit, he handles delicate mechanisms designed to outwit him. It's like chess. He's very good at his job, but is that what drives him to put his life on the line hundreds of times? Not pro-war, not anti-war, not about the war in Iraq, but about the minds of dedicated combat soldiers.

Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire The heart-rending story of an overweight, abused young teenager and the support she finds from a teacher and a social worker, who both glimpse her potential. What a sure and brave lead performance by newcomer Gabourey Sidibe, and what a powerful one by Mo'Nique, as her heartless mother. She, Mariah Carey, Paula Patton and Sherri Shepherd are all but unrecognizable as they disappear into key supporting roles.

(500) Days of Summer An offbeat romantic comedy about a woman who doesn't believe true love exists, and the young man who falls for her. The story is presented in a non-chronological format, each scene being introduced by which of the 500 days it is.

Funny People Judd Apatow's third film could have simply been a fascinating folly-a naval-gazing exploration of the neuroses specific to middle-aged comedians. Instead it's one of the richest and most ambitious Hollywood films of the year. A human comedy that takes its characters seriously and follows an unpredictable narrative path, the movie was criticized for its excesses-but that's exactly what makes it special.

Up The animated tale of a cantankerous old man who sets out on an incredible adventure in the twilight of his life to fulfill a lifelong promise to his deceased wife. The movie, like all Pixar films, has plenty of humor, but also has moments that will have you blinking back tears.

The Hangover Two buddies (and one soon to be brother-in-law) take their friend Doug to Las Vegas for his bachelor party. As often happens in Vegas (even in real life) things get quickly out of hand and after a night of debauchery the sorry crew wakes up and discovers they've lost their friend. Unable to recall what happened they must try and retrace their steps from the previous night to try and find Doug and get him home in time for his wedding.

Star Trek The series has been completely reinvented. It is darker, more violent and grittier than any of the previous installments. This film is actually a prequel to the others, and follows the adventures of a young James Kirk, detailing how he came to the academy, met Spock, Bones, Scotty and the rest of the crew, and eventually came to captain the Starship Enterprise.

Julie and Julia Julia Child and Julie Powell - both of whom wrote memoirs - find their lives intertwined. Though separated by time and space, both women are at loose ends... until they discover that with the right combination of passion, fearlessness and butter, anything is possible.

posted by The Mindless Man

Between pranks, sports, tech, video games, singing, dancing, and television— there was a lot to choose from. These are the top 100 videos that became famous on the web in 2009, all in less than three minutes.

• The Top 100 Broken Down One-by-One:
• 1. The Amazing Beat-box Kid
• 2. Elephant Sneezing
• 3. Surprised Kitty
• 4. Weird Animal Gets Tickled
• 5. Cat Kicked By Breakdancer
• 6. Mambo Dog
• 7. Two Dogs, One Cockroach
• 8. So Your Cat Wants a Massage?
• 9. The Horrifying Sleeping Dog
• 10. Baby Does Beyonce's "Single Ladies"
• 11. David After Denist
• 12. Baby Jack-In-The-Box
• 13. Little Girl Flushes Fish
• 14. Talkative Baby
• 15. The Stay-at-Home Dad Workout
• 16. Dog Freaks Out Upon Soldier's Return
• 17. Sad Giants Fan
• 18. The Matrix in Legos
• 19. NES Game Cartridge
• 20. Soccer Gutar Hero
• 21. Post-It Note Animation
• 22. Cardboard Animation
• 23. 20-Foot Front Flip
• 24. The Tree Bike Trick
• 25. Bruce Lee Plays Ping Pong
• 26. Man and His Exercise Ball
• 27. This Guy is Good at Everything
• 28. Human Mattress Dominoes
• 29. Little Kid Break Dances on Ellen
• 30. Glow-in-the-Dark Dancers
• 31. Choreographed Wedding Entrance
• 32. Fat Kid Gets Served
• 33. The Crazy Shirtless Man Dance
• 34. Insane Japanese Backpack Commercial
• 35. Ghostbusters A Cappella
• 36. Great Mascot Dance
• 37. Smoking and Singing in the Shower
• 38. Ping Pong Celebration
• 39. Amazing JumboTron Performance
• 40. The Breakfast Song
• 41. Close Call With a Bus
• 42. Man Defies Death Twice
• 43. Woman Passes Out In Front of Train
• 44. Kick to the Face #1
• 45. Snooki Gets Punched
• 46. Russian Prank Gone Right
• 47. Accigone
• 48. WoW Freakout
• 49. Bad UPS Man
• 50. Butt Acrobatics
• 51. Bat Prank
• 52. Saving Private Ryan Prank
• 53. Be a Smart Bully
• 54. Fat Kid Sings About Being Fat
• 55. Vanilla Ice Says Sorry
• 56. Extreme Faith
• 57. Jesus Pwn3d U
• 58. Jesus Christ Bail Bonds
• 59. Vince With Slap Chop
• 60. Shamwow Guy in Jail
• 61. Take U to the Movies
• 62. OK GO - WTF
• 63. Billy Mays Re-Dub
• 64. Fat Kid Loves Bacon
• 65. Balloon Boy Pukes
• 66. 80s Video Dating
• 67. Chicken Tetrazzini
• 68. Phillies Fan Ruins News
• 69. The Problem With Live News
• 70. Giant Seagull Ruins News
• 71. Will Ferrell Crashes Newscast
• 72. Students Define Grinding
• 73. Crazy Georgia Fan
• 74. Susan Boyle
• 75. Sharon Osbourne Vs. Charm School's Megan
• 76. Jimmy Kimmel Vs. Melissa Joan Hart
• 77. Frisky Ewoks on Today
• 78. Kittens! Inspired by Kittens
• 79. Kanye's Imma Let You Finish
• 80. Mad Men's Lawnmower Fiasco
• 81. Wrecking Ball Vs. Mini Van
• 82. Conan Hits His Head
• 83. Hot Water Floor Prank
• 84. Terrible Singers, Great Production Value
• 85. Sleepwalking Dog
• 86. Japanese Sniper Prank
• 87. Unbelievable Baseball Catch
• 88. Baseball Spin Swing
• 89. Impossible Baseketball Shot
• 90. Double Bicycle Kick
• 91. Fantasy Football Players Show Off
• 92. 9-Year-Old's Amazing Hockey Goal
• 93. Oops, Wrong Tackle
• 94. Taco Explodes in Slow Motion
• 95. Crazy Soccer Girl Fight
• 96. Redhead Kid Dances
• 97. Strange Kid Sings
• 98. The Most Drunk Guy Ever
• 99. Risky Business Fail
• 100. Keyboard Cat

The author of this post can be contacted at tips@gawker.tv

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(From thrfeed.com) Golden Globes nominations were announced Tuesday morning with Fox's first-year series "Glee" earning the most honors of any program, garnering four nods including best comedy series.

"Glee" led more seasoned favorites such as NBC's "30 Rock," AMC's "Mad Men," FX's "Damages" and Showtime's "Dexter," all of which earned three nominations each. In addition to best comedy series, "Glee" also received nominations for actors Lea Michele, Matthew Morrison and Jane Lynch.

“We are the little train that could over here at ‘Glee,'" Michele said. "I think this show makes people happy. I’m thankful and grateful that the HFPA has accepted our show so early in the game."

ABC's acclaimed freshman comedy "Modern Family" broke into the series category too, though didn't score any acting nominations.

Though cable networks have ruled awards season in recent years, broadcast made comeback -- four out of five comedies nominated for best series were from the major networks. The other comedies rounding out the category were NBC's "30 Rock" and "The Office," and HBO's "Entourage." Only two broadcast comedies made the category during each of the previous two years.

On the drama side, there were few surprises, with HBO's "Big Love," Showtime's "Dexter," Fox's "House," AMC's "Mad Men," HBO's "True Blood" earning honors.

David Shore was going to join the writers and "have some champagne in the office" to celebrate "House's" third best drama Golden Globe nomination."It means a little more because we're in our sixth season," Shore said. "We worked very hard to try not to have the show get tired and to keep it fresh."

HBO led the list as usual with 17 nominations, followed by Fox and Showtime with six each and NBC with five.CBS dramas made gains, with Simon Baker enjoying his first Globes nomination for his starring role in CBS' hit crime drama "The Mentalist" (joining Jon Hamm, Michael C. Hall, Hugh Laurie, Bill Paxton) and Julianna Margulies earning a nod for freshman legal drama "The Good Wife" (alongside Glenn Close, January Jones, Anna Paquin and Kyra Sedgwick).

ABC's "Cougar Town" star Courteney Cox and HBO's "Hung" lead Thomas Jane were also recognized. John Lithgow received a supporting nomination for his riveting performance as a serial killer on Showtime's "Dexter."

Among the longform categories, most titles were familiar to those who watched this year's Emmys, with HBO's "Grey Gardens," "Taking Chance" and "Into the Storm" joining PBS' "Little Dorrit" and Lifetime's "George O'Keeffe." The O'Keeffe project's multiple nominations along with Sigourney Weaver earning a nod for "Prayers for Bobby" gave Lifetime a total of four nominations -- the most in the network's history and putting the channel at the forefront among basic cable nominations.

Snubs include FX's "Sons of Anarchy," which many thought would earn a nomination or two. Jim Parsons was overlooked for "Big Bang Theory," and the series itself was squeezed out of the comedy category. "Breaking Bad" and star Bryan Cranston were left out despite Cranston winning the Emmy this year. "Curb Your Enthusiasm" didn't receive any Globes love, though this season was widely praised ("Curb" could still earn a nomination next year since the Globes eligibility period started before the bulk of its season aired).

HBO led the list as usual with 17 nominations, followed by Fox and Showtime with six each and NBC with five.

www.thrfeed.com