Daylight Savings Time came along at a good time this year. Halloween night. That way, all the kiddies out partying the night away can have an extra hour of revelry. You're partying until 2am and then, all of a sudden, it's 1am again. Brilliant!

The complete opposite of this viewpoint on Daylight Savings Time is to be in bed before 2am, thus gaining an hour of sleep. While being in bed before 2am is nothing to be ashamed of, there is something exciting about being able to make Halloween Night last an hour longer. However, if Halloween is not a big deal to you personally, that doesn't mean something scary can't result from the time change.

The scariness comes from knowing you're getting older when you awake around 8am on a Sunday and think it just might be time to get the day started. Then you realize it's an hour earlier and you could get back in bed for an hour and feel zero guilt for it. To look this opportunity in the eye and decide to not only stay up, but then do the following activities is completely ridiculous:

-Go for a 3-mile run
-Shower
-Eat a breakfast consisting of no pork or powdered sugar
-Watch a suitable amount of a blockbuster movie edited for TV
-Sweep the floors
-Clean the bathroom (including the under- and backside of the toilet)
-Wash hands with soap
-Cook lunch for two
-Watch NFL and obsess over fantasy football
-Visit the Lord's house
-Watch an independent film at a local not-for-profit theater
-Enjoy a pizza
-Be in bed at a reasonable hour of 11pm

Wow, with all this extra daylight, life can be so rewarding. You only have to be willing to take advantage of the daylight at 6am because there won't be any left by 5pm. This all begs the question, why can't daylight savings time occur during the work week? It seems like most people would appreciate the extra hour of sleep on a weeknight. Then again, people might undersleep, show up an hour early and the world would end.

So, ABC has this new comedy, Modern Family, and it is amazing. The lead is played by Ed O'Neill, best known as Al Bundy on Married With Children, and his character doesn't really seem like that much of a reach. He sorta plays the same character in everything he does. Even Little Giants. Regardless, he is the core of this show and not just because he is the father, stepfather, father-in-law, grandfather and husband of all the other characters.

The show works by somehow over-saturating and exploiting some of the easiest target demographics in modern society. All of the characters seem to embody a stereotype and no two characters seem to be like one another. Yet they're technically (and legally) a family and thus the premise of the show is born. The Modern Family.

It may be a bit of reach, but this is the kind of thing that might actually open some eyes and lead to more understanding in society. No effort is made to rub your nose into the message of the show. You're allowed to laugh at things that would normally conjure guilt. Yes, there are gay people. Yes, there are Latinos. Yes, there is a grouchy old man. Yes, there is a trophy wife. Yes, there is a teenage diva. Yes, there is a foil in the vein of Lisa Simpson. Yes, there is a geeky dad trying to be hip. Yes, there is a little boy that puts a box on his head and jumps on a trampoline in nothing but his underwear. The jokes are often very suggestive and the interactions are often very awkward. It really feels like watching a comedy on HBO or maybe Comedy Central, but it's ABC. On a Wednesday. At 8pm.

So basically, this show has the potential, based on it's first few episodes, to be the next big thing. It would be so refreshing to hear people standing around talking about how funny something was on primetime network TV the night before, not just how freaky Lost was or how lame American Idol was.

And the best part? No vampires.

Disclaimer: "Overrated" does not mean bad. Overrated just means that regardless of how great something is, people seem to think it's even better.

These things are overrated:

-The New York Yankees
-Animal Collective
-Bud Light
-Garden State
-Brooklyn
-H&M
-Summer
-The Boston Red Sox
-In N' Out Burgers
-The suburbs
-Clean-shaven faces
-Indian food
-Cats
-Nobel Peace Prizes

President Oprah and her friends Barry and Michelle couldn't quite squeeze the Olympics out of, uh, the Olympic committee. Those rude Olympics people should be ashamed of themselves for not indulging the most important person in the world, not to mention the President of the United States. It really shouldn't come as a surprise that a panel of foreign dignitaries weren't so impressed with Chicago's main endorser being a TV star. Isn't the idea of a TV star who is constantly linked to bizarre weight-loss schemes sorta the antithesis for the pure athletic competition the Olympics are supposed to embody? Sure, Oprah is an easily recognizable media personality in this country, but it's doubtful that Sydney rested their hopes in 2000 on Crocodile Dundee's influence. However, the Olympic committee had to be appreciative for the free juicer and Desperate Housewives DVD they got just for being in Oprah's audience in Copenhagen.

Wait, that last paragraph ended up being a jab at this country's self-imposed media monarchy. That can't be right. Or maybe it is. If a country relies more on coked-out musicians and reality-deprived actors for its political opinions, there is no reason to think that the same country wouldn't think a TV talk show host is clearly the best person to bring the Olympics to the city from where she just so happens to broadcast. Do you think there could have been some ulterior motive for Oprah in bringing the Olympics to Chicago? Maybe a week or two of special shows where she runs around in a USA tracksuit and eats those little gymnast girls?

Well, there's another paragraph about the failed bid for the Olympics. Remember, we lost. Just imagine if Chicago had finished third. Or second. Or, God forbid, won. It would be the ObamaOprahOlympic Games. Well, maybe not. The games aren't until 2016 and at the current rate, Obama will still be trying to convince members of his own party that he has all the answers for healthcare reform. That's also assuming he is reelected. The ever-influential medium of bumper stickers has already started playing a role in that once-believed foregone conclusion.

So, is Obama kinda like Prince now? Has it come to the point where the President of the United States has been branded by a logo? Of course, the last president was simplified to just a letter. Will future presidents be identified by just a color? A punctuation mark? An abstract thought? How will that translate to car bumpers?

So anyway, back to the Olympics. Since the summer of '16 will belong to Rio, the clever advertising people are left with only two choices for how to brand the last letter of "Chicago" for the time-being. Obviously the Olympics felt like they already had enough O's in their life.

Muse is a band that has never put out a bad record, but they have gotten a little silly on some of their records with the over-the-top bombast and production. Regardless, nobody can accuse Muse of a lack of talent, creativity and huge sound, which is to be commended. To summarize, they have roughly followed this career arc:

1999: Bashed for being Radiohead rip-offs
2001: Crazy prog-rock that is too crazy and too prog for an American record deal
2003: Reemergence as a stadium-worthy with some political leanings
2006: American relevance from an album that sounds forced, but attention-grabbing
2009: A much more focused effort with a well-deserved opening slot for U2

Then there's this. Muse recently appeared on what appears to be a completely ridiculous looking Italian TV show. Apparently they were told they must lip-sync their performance and they agreed. However, they made it interesting by switching roles. For your reference, in the video, the singer/guitarist plays drums, the drummer sings/plays bass and the bassist plays guitar/keyboard. The entire thing is one big joke and nobody seems to notice, or care.

It was strange doing the following last weekend:

-Flying on an airplane on September 11. Eight years after that date actually started meaning more than just another day, so much of life has changed. Certainly the increased security and scrutiny at airports is there, but even life on the ground has changed a lot. The price of oil, the White House administration and even tiny Mexican towns are a lot different now than 8 years ago.

-Visiting an NFL stadium on the opening weekend of the season, but not to watch a game. NFL stadiums have a different feel to them, especially one like Soldier Field that is visually interesting on its own, much less when something impressive is happening inside.

-Eating pork rinds at an honest-to-goodness high-end restaurant.

Ok, there had to be more to that last entry's train of thought than was demonstrated. Time is a weird thing, but hopefully that's not really of interest to anyone. It's just odd how time dictates so much, yet is so abstract. Time is told by atomic clocks and swiss watches, but also the ocean's tide, the moon and the earth itself floating in orbit. Kinda odd.

Once you grasp how and why time is told, there's the confounding matter of time moving fast and slow sometimes. Why is this? Of course a second is always just a second and a minute is always just a minute, but perception of time varies greatly. Eight hours of sleep feels a lot different than eight hours of ditch digging, just like a 5 minute massage feels a lot faster than 5 minutes of holding your breath. Is time actually slower? Well maybe, but most would assume these differences are just the result of how the brain and body respond to different stimuli. This begs, is time really that powerful or important if we can alter it with our simple minds? Time seems have a bit of an identity crisis. People want their week-long vacation to somehow last longer than a week, yet people can't count to ten accurately without saying a 4-syllable, 11-letter word ("Mississippi") in between each number.

Just to further over-analyze and bother, how is it that simultaneously one person could be having a "fast" day and another could be having a "slow" day? What is actually moving faster or slower? Well, it just "feels" longer or shorter, you know? That may be true, but does it mean anything? Is a busy day at work more likely to feel long or short? Some would say long because they were forced to do so many things and when you think about one thing, then another, then another, that implies a great deal of time passing. However, some people feel like staying busy makes time go by faster. For instance, this blog entry has taken about 20 minutes to write so far because SportsCenter is on, but it doesn't feel like its been that long. However, 20 minutes of just typing on this inane topic would seem like an eternity by comparison.

So, in some weird way, are some people moving in fast motion while others are moving in slow motion, but your brain just can't process the difference? Maybe, in some strange space-time continuum kind of way. Thing is, if you stop and think about it, it doesn't really matter if you think about it for 10 seconds if it feels like you think about it for 10 minutes. What is 10 seconds if it feels like 10 minutes and all you have to show for it is a headache. Right?

"Time" is the name of a song by many artists, including Pink Floyd, David Bowie, Ben Folds, Anthrax, Alan Parsons Project, Hootie and the Blowfish, Megadeth, Sarah McLachlan, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Tom Waits. Clearly, time plays a pretty major role in whatever, be it music, sports, politics or life in general. This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, but some people still have a slight misunderstanding of how universal time is and how it is basically a constant in everyone's life, not just their own.

"Time is very important in my life"

These inspiring words were uttered by a client on TLC's highly-esteemed show LA Ink. The specifics of this client aren't really important, although it may have been the overweight stand-up comedienne. Regardless, she wanted to get a tattoo of a pocket watch because of how important time is to her.

It seems that time is one of those things that is kinda important to everyone. This may be nothing more than digging for something to complain about, but it fits the theme of this entry. Would it be silly if someone got a tattoo of money or gravity because of their importance? Why not oxygen or nitrogen?

All of the aforementioned musicians obviously thought time was important enough to write a song about it, so maybe there's something to this. Pink Floyd appropriately started their "Time" with a recording of an alarm clock and metronome, along with other time-keeping devices. Then again, they also have the song "Money" that starts with the sound of cash registers and coins clanking. So, there's the secret to making a historic album like Dark Side of the Moon: just record sounds and name the song after whatever sound is contained. Moving on...

Thank goodness for calendars!

Ok, this entry wouldn't be complete without some ranting about a Facebook status, but try to deal with it. Who says this (aside from the obvious)? In today's technologically-advanced world, is a calendar something that really needs to have its praises sung, as if somehow people might forget about its existence? Aren't calendars just one of those commodities that can taken for granted among anyone with the facilities to read Facebook? Would it be any better if someone expressed such admiration for modern marvels like indoor plumbing, newspapers or peanut butter and jelly in one jar? Clearly some people are just too easy to please.

While it is certainly old news to anyone that cared enough to pay attention to the story, the Henry Louis Gates fiasco bears discussion. The incident that led to all the mess was certainly unfortunate for everyone involved, but it did illustrate an important lesson: There doesn't always have to be a "right" and "wrong" side of an issue/argument.

A brief recap:

-Dr. Gates, an esteemed Harvard professor that is African-American returns to his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts after a trip overseas.
-Upon arrival, he and his driver struggle to get the door unlocked/open. It is apparently jammed.
-While they (both African-American) try to pry the house door open, a neighbor sees this happening and calls 911 in fear that the house is being robbed.
-Two police officers arrive on the scene and begin questioning Gates as if a robbery had been attempted. Gates explains the scenario and cause for confusion.
-Gates is highly agitated and becomes "disorderly" with the officers, so he's arrested and taken into custody by Officer Crowley (white), with assistance from Officer Lashley (black).
-Boom!

In the end, all charges were dropped and President Obama made a hasty remark about the police officer(s) responded "stupidly". (Incidentally, how that little faux pas hasn't been further scrutinized, the world may never know.) Regardless, it basically was portrayed as a clear-cut example of racial profiling since among the two men trying to open the door and the two police officers, three were black and one was white. If only it could have been all one race or another, this would have never been a story.

Not to sound like a conspiracy theorist or anything, but the media really has taken this story and made it into something it is not. This is easy to assess because the story was nothing to start with, so making it into anything is, by default, making it into something it is not. By presenting this as actual "news", it has made people think they have to have an opinion on it and ultimately take a side. Once everyone chooses sides, it is their duty to defend their position and spit vitriol at the opposing side. Then the media can report on that. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

Could it possibly be that there is not a "right" or "wrong" side to this story? Maybe Dr. Gates is partially innocent and partially guilty? After all, he was never charged with breaking into his own house (obviously). He was charged with disorderly conduct because he became very aggressive and hostile toward the police officers, both white and black. That's usually what happens when you are aggressive and hostile toward a police officer, regardless of your race or theirs. Officer Crowley can also be held to blame for not being more rational, given the circumstances. He acknowledged that it was Dr. Gates' house during the proceedings, so he had a basis for why Dr. Gates would be so frustrated in such circumstance. Ultimately it doesn't really matter who did what first or to what extent. Among two grown men, one an internationally-esteemed scholar and the other a civil servant, it is sad that the outcome was what it was. It doesn't really say much for society, especially in the cradle of higher learning of this country.

Almost on cue in response to the actions of a couple of grown men that know better, President Obama made his now-famous offer to have a beer with Gates and Crowley. Of course, this was just what the media needed. Was this a new and exciting way to resolve conflict from the brilliant leader? Or was it a lame attempt at appearing harmonious and cool at the same time? Again, couldn't the answer be "neither" and it not really matter either way? Will the Obama/Gates/Crowley beer summit stop a violent act from happening? Will it make anyone legitimately feel better about themselves? Unfortunately, the answer has to be "no" to both questions. But did it give the media something to talk about once they were tired of talking about the incident that led to it? Absolutely.


Geez, hopefully nobody noticed that Gates' beer was darker than the others.

New favorite Facebook comment for anything:

WOW!...Just WOW!

Find new and fun ways to work it into your daily life...

-When you get cut off in morning traffic: WOW!...Just WOW!

-When you get a ridiculous assignment at work: WOW!...Just WOW!

-When you eat too much for lunch: WOW!...Just WOW!

-When you read a story in the newspaper: WOW!...Just WOW!

-When your obnoxious neighbors make highly inconsiderate noise all night: WOW!...Just WOW!