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My Mindless Entertainments

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by Jonathan Hilton
crazyThere are a lot of things about myself that I look at and have to wonder about.  I really want to learn a lot. I was writing to someone today that I want to learn as much as I possibly can. And for the most part I am pretty focused on figuring out how we humans work and what to do to be happier about life.

Yet there are moments I look at the things I find interesting and I am in shock at the simplicity of many of them.  I guess every mind needs some rest and simple entertainment. I am going to sit back with a coffee with an espresso shot and reveal several of my favorite television shows.

 The Family Guy

fam guyThis one took me by surprise because I really wanted to hate it.  A stupid cartoon, about a family, a talking dog and a talking baby? Boring. Yet I couldn’t take my eyes of the mess.  Seth MacFarland is clearly a comic genius and I think that the edgy topics and low brow humor appeal to something in me. I can’t help but laugh out loud when I watch sometimes.  I think the best thing that I can say is that Peter Griffin often says things that many men think but would never say.  You can judge me harshly for this one and I will take your judgement to Spooner street and tell Stewie all about it.  This show is funny. Everyone needs to laugh.

Music and lyrics by Stewie Griffin

I am a Psych-O

psychThat doesn’t mean that I am a danger to society. Well no more than anyone else but it does mean that I am a major fan of Psych. This is the make believe world of psychic detective Shawn Spencer and his lifelong friend Burton Guster. Who help the Santa Barbara Police solve crimes.  I started watching on Netflix and I couldn’t stop streaming until I had seen all available episodes.  This is another one that just makes me laugh with the silly behavior and the stupid jokes.  Love it. I want to ride around in the blueberry and solve crimes. Not a lot of thought behind these but a lot of heart and laughter!

Hi my name is Shawn Spencer and this is my partner…………….Click here.

Scrubs

scrubsThis is a show that is no longer with us, yet it is definitely still running on my dvd player!! I am not afraid to say, (perhaps I should), that I not only know most of the episodes but can quote them word for word. Can’t help it, watching the adventures of Doctor John Dorian and his best friend Turk, and all of their hospital cast is one of my favorites. It was a sad day when it finally made its last house call.  I love the fact that the show went all over the place, funny, serious, threatening, I mean who hasn’t been tormented by the janitor, or had a supervisor who was a total jerk like Dr. Cox?  I love this and there is just nothing I can do about it.  Even though I know all of the jokes are coming and what is going to happen, I still laugh.  I need help.

Some clip show from a bad sitcom too lame to come up with a fresh story

The Big Bang Theory

sheldon quotesI have used this one before yet it is true. I often wonder how a show about super smart people can be classified as low brow humor? Yet here we are.  Watching Sheldon Cooper go through life is relatable to many including myself in this way. We have all been in situations that we know we don’t quite get what is going on. Didn’t get the joke, missed out on the good time, was busy playing video games. That is Sheldon Cooper’s life!  It makes me laugh out loud as the previous two shows do as well.

Big Bang Flash Mob

The Mentalist

mentalistI am fascinated with this show, because it should suck, yet it doesn’t.  Some people say that it is the intelligent version of Psych, yet I think that is a disservice to them both.  The mentalist is a cop show where the police in some I believe fictitious unit from the CBI, (I refuse to do research less it add validity to this post.) Uses a psychic to solve crimes. I have been a huge Simon Baker fan since he was on a show called the Guardian. Which I also liked.  These cases always end up solved yet he can never catch this Red John character who murdered his wife and daughter.  I find this a little baffling. He is so smart in arresting everyone else yet this super criminal can roam the streets committing horrific murder after horrific murder?  Seems strange. But I like the characters and the back storylines are usually interesting.

Can’t Catch Red John

Bones

bonesI could watch the Bones series from morning until night and never get bored.  It has wit, great cast, good story lines and I guess I don’t even really have to feel bad about watching it. Until I realize that the Jeffersonian doesn’t really exist, but the story is based on real life so that has to be pretty good.  They have had some great plot twists over the years and that has kept the show developing.  Each episode a new murder, Bones father shows up, bones is pregnant, Seely Booth is the father? What the heck just happened?  For Fox this is a pretty cerebral offering.  Thank you Fox.  I am probably the only person who has ever typed that sentence.

Bones and Booth Sing

The Waltons

waltonsOK now I am dating myself here, but when I was a kid my parents used to make us watch the Waltons because it was about values.  I thought it was dumb, but a funny thing happened in adulthood. I started to watch this show again.  It was by accident at first, passing it on a channel surf, stopping and realizing I was really worried if John Boy’s book would ever be published.  I also realized that I really didn’t remember anything about the show.  John Ritter was on it for years and he wasn’t even funny.  When Richard Thomas left the show, I lost interest, but you have to hand it to those Waltons. No depression or World War could ever keep them down.   They also ended every show by saying goodnight throughout the house.  I wish I had a nickel for every time I endured the good night John Boy line from someone.  Anyway, I like this show and if you don’t then stay away from Godsey’s store and there will be absolutely non of the recipe for you!  Click to visit Walton’s Mountain.

I could go on and on but this will have to do because I am out of writing time for today.  I like these shows and I just can’t help myself.  We all have things about us that we can’t understand about ourselves that make us totally  unique and totally us.   I think that is is weird that I like the Family Guy and the Waltons.  Makes you think.

What are the shows you can’t believe you like?

Articles

Secrets From the Vault

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by Jonathan Hilton

There are a lot of people who look at a book and make a judgement based on the cover and fail to even open the pages and read even a little of the story that is contained inside. That is something that I try to avoid doing all the time and I appreciate it when it is done for me.

The insight about me that is offered here is to let you know what my guilty pleasures in life are. These are defined as interests and likes that you have that may be embarrassing for others to know about because of their low brow or uncultured appeal.  Everyone has these interests, here are my top guilty pleasures in life.

The Big Bang Theory

sheldon
There is a little Sheldon in all of us!

This is a show that I just recently became infatuated with. It is the tale of four nerds and their good-looking female neighbor.  Pretty basic plot lines, but I seem to enjoy watching Sheldon Cooper struggle through life.  From his fear of birds to being unable to understand sarcasm.  If this is on and I have a moment I will watch it. I can’t stop myself.

The Music of Taylor Swift

taylorI would not mention this anywhere else, but for some reason the music of Taylor Swift that is about nothing I can relate to, I really like. It has been going on for years and I have secretly liked songs as old as Tim McGraw and as new as We’re Never Ever Getting Back Together.  Her act of continually getting dumped is going to have to end eventually. If it never does, that will be fine with me.

Red Sox Baseball

red sox fightThis is not a shock to anyone who knows me but I love the Red Sox. I watch a part of most games and follow the side stories that the team provides.  Even though I have never played Major League Baseball I am like many people I think that I know what is best for the team.  I have always been infatuated with the statistics of certain players and am not ashamed to say there were a few tears when they won it all in 2004.

Duck Dynasty

Duck
“Everybody, happy, happy.”

Another show that I happened to accidentally see and now I watch them quite often. There is something interesting about watching Grandpa Phil try to kill beavers and talk about the old times being , “Everybody, happy, happy!”  I was born and raised in Maine so there is a bit of red neck in me that I can’t escape from. This show touches this. A lot of the situations are clearly created just for television but that is OK, it entertains anyway.

  Country Music

country MusicUp until I turned 39 I believed that all country music was really a joke. I was one of those that laughed about playing a country song backward, you get your wife, your dog and your truck back.  Then it all suddenly changed as I was listening to a song once and thinking, “Wow, that makes a lot of sense.”

From that day on I was hooked, and even though I enjoy all types of music, country music is high on my list.  Kenny Chesney, Dirks Bentley, Tim McGraw,  you name it and if they have a good song I probably like it.  I think my rural heritage has a lot to do with this, but there is something about a country girl that is indescribably beautiful!

Romantic Comedies

shaI hate to admit this but the more of them I see the more I think I am a hopeless romantic. Recently a fellow blogger had been reviewing her favorite romantic comedies which got me to watch a few. The more I watched the more I liked them. Not all of them but most of them.  I did have someone in my past who liked those types of movies and I would watch them with her.  If I am by myself and Sweet Home Alabama is on I can’t help but watch it.  There are a thousand others but lets suffice it to say this is a guilty pleasure of mine. Don’t tell anyone!!

Learning Stuff

Learning stuffThis is one thing that makes me kind of a super nerd because I find learning new things fascinating.  Especially in the realm of psychology, human behavior, quantum physics, string theory or any science what so ever.  This is not only in substance but I like learning how to do new things as well, particularly in the field of technology.

I am old enough to remember life before there was an internet and having access for the first time and asking,”What do you do with it.”  Even though no one gave a satisfactory answer back in 1996, we figured it out.  I am not one of those who sees technology as something you fear but I see it as something new to master.  I enjoy learning how to do things from working on new platforms to building websites. Learning stuff is fun!

Reading and Writing are a Good Time

reading and writingAlong with the learning new stuff revelation is my love of reading and writing. It probably wouldn’t come as a shock to anyone who reads this blog, but to people who just know me from any endeavor in my life, it would be a shock.  Reading to me is not done to read a story or something like that, it is done to teach me something. Expose me to a new idea. I can’t remember that last book I read for “fun”, it seems I just don’t have time.

Writing is an ongoing process for me, as I expand my comfort with words and let the emotions and thoughts I have in me, flow freely without a filter.  That has been the biggest challenge of writing for me.  The fact that I have a biggest challenge of writing would surprise many of my “friends” from the past.

I am sure that I can come up with about fifty-five more but I am out of time for this writing experience.  So  that will have to do.  I am sure that I am not the only one who has embarrassing interests.

What are your Guilty Pleasures?