Clearing up a little rumor about me

I heard a rumor about myself yesterday from a friend. It went like this: "Someone told me that you were asked to write for a television show."

Me: That's not exactly true.

Friend: I heard it was for 'The Office."

Me: !

Me: That's not true at all.

Here's the story that this rumor is probably based off of... when I was in college one of my professors in a screenwriting class was a well-respected television writer. She really liked my writing and a script I was working on for her class and she thought that she might be able to get me a job. She said there was this new television show coming out that was looking for young writers and I might be a good fit for it.

Professor: I think I can get you a job with this new television show.

Me: That's GREAT!

Prof: It's a show based on a movie.

Me: What movie?

Prof: It was called Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Me: HA HA HA! That was a terrible movie!

Prof (offended): I don't have to get you a job.

Me: No way! I will write for any show!

I finished the script as my prof requested and sent it to her and never heard from her again. I always assumed this was because I broke the Hollywood rule of never badmouthing the work of someone else because you might work with them in the future (I didn't know, I swear). It wouldn't be the first time that my Big Mouth got me in trouble. On the other hand, in retrospect, it may have been that the script I sent just wasn't very good. I try not to think about that.

Why Everyone Loves Japan

Krista put this picture up on her blog, which is me and a bunch of our friends watching "human tetris":



Later that night Ken and Sarah introduced us to the wonderful world of Japanese pranks which included this one, which caused me to laugh so hard that I was in pain (may not be appropriate for work or if you have young kids looking over your shoulder):



And lastly, for fans of the Office, here's the "original" Japanese version (about as appropriate as an episode of the Office):



So, there you have it. Japan is great! Yay!

Behind the times... but catching up

Our good friend Ken is here visiting this week. This is great, because we love Ken and he brings many advantages with him in addition to his excellent company. One of which is that he is teaching me that there are many websites that I don't know about (but should). I thought I would pass along some of these to all of you, who probably already know about them and use them often:

1) Check out Hulu. Hulu is an online collection of free t.v. shows and movies that do things the old fashioned way: pay for themselves by having commercials. There's a pretty good collection of shows including News Radio, 30 Rock, the Office, Monk and Battlestar Galactica (old and new).

2) Pandora. Pandora is an online radio station that lets you pick favorite artists, and then it plays music from those artists and artists like them. It also lets you give feedback on which songs you like so it can tailor the site more closely to your taste. Just be sure not to open "the box" as it will release death and suffering into the world. Just kidding.

3) Jott. With Jott you can make a phone call, leave a message, and the website will send an email or text message to the people you choose. Ken points out that I will never have to type in an "Eavesdropping With Matt" episode ever again, I can just hold my phone out and record people.