recommendables.com

Recommending both The O’Reilly Factor and Countdown with Keith Olbermann

Bill O’Reilly
When O’Reilly burst onto the scene at the birth of FoxNews long ago he seemed to truly be an independent watchdog. That is no longer the case as he is clearly a pitbull for the conservative way of thought which is not a sin, the sin is that he claims to be impartial.

Keith Olbermann
Countdown with Keith Olbermann is one of the most entertaining news shows on television. It definitely approaches things from the left side, but it also makes no secret of that, and it is very open of it’s political feelings.

These two shows seem to be polar opposites, so how can we recommend them both? That is the key, there are no truly impartial news sources in the world any longer, the best we can do to find the truth is view the message as filtered through both sides of the political spectrum and do our best to filter out the muck. For the truth lies somewhere in between.

One of the more popular gifts this past holiday season was digital photo frames. These are a great idea in that they’re rather “techy”, they are efficient (multiple pictures in one wall space), and they are constantly able to be updated with new photos. Be careful though, there are many reports of these frames being released onto the market with computer viruses pre-loaded onto them. This has happened somewhere in the manufacturing process. Once the frame, or it’s memory card, is hooked up to your computer then the virus can spread to your entire system. The only way to guard against this is by having your computer protected by up-to-date anti-virus software. It’s a great gift idea… but be careful.

People can get attached to a good television show. You spend one night a week with a cast of a well written show and you begin to feel like you know them. Sometimes a character or a whole cast will be going through something in their lives that parallels something you are going through. And, sometimes the plot of a series will just be so well written that the show serves as an escape from our everyday lives into a fantasy world.

If any of the above means anything to you, modern technology has done something we couldn’t even dream of a couple of years ago. For a few years now, we have been able to buy complete seasons of our favorite TV shows on DVD, but now the TV to DVD market has exploded. It seems that almost every show you can remember is now on DVD. This is a great way to pass time with family and friends. No longer do you have to wait for that special show to come on, you can now pass two, three, or more hours at one time watching episode after episode.

So, if you have fond memories of…

The X-Files
The Waltons
Happy Days
The West Wing
Little House On The Prairie
Will & Grace
The Love Boat
or The Andy Griffith Show…

then TV shows on DVDs are here to make your day.

Those that grew up in the early 1980s know that if you stayed home on a Saturday night, your life centered around two television shows. The Love Boat, followed by Fantasy Island. Looking back on this time one would now think “how on Earth did America fall for this mind numbing programming?” Before you think that too fast, what will public opinion say 25 years from now about Survivor, Rock of Love, The Girls Next Door, Big Brother, Flavor of Love, and The Moment of Truth?

The Love Boat and Fantasy Island used the same formula to provide an hour’s worth of entertainment. They would write and interweave 3 stories that would all resolve near the end of the ship’s voyage or the stay on the island. The other trait they used to lure viewers was that while there were regular characters on each series (Captain Stubing, Doc, Gopher, Mr. Rourke, Tatoo, etc), the storylines were acted out by guest stars who usually had a popular TV series on during this same season or were big name actors from years before. This automatically did two things, it pulled in viewers that were already fans of these stars and also led to people tuning in to see who was going to be on this week’s show.

The Love Boat’s stories usually centered around some aspect of love, whether it was falling in love, rekindling love, or showing that love was still there. Fantasy Island, being the show that aired later in the night, would from time to time tackle darker issues in a more mysterious way… sometimes intimating that unknown powers were at work on the island itself.

The Love Boat season one was just released on DVD. Grab the confetti, widen your lapels, and get on board.

Deciding on the next book to read is tough. Its not just the purchase price, more importantly its the time investment. Who wants to put an hour, or even a half-hour, into reading a book before finding that you don’t like it? Not me.

Well, here is an author that I can recommend. Jeffrey Archer. Archer writes mostly historical books that are classified by some as either mystery or thriller. I think the things I like the most about Archer’s books are his character development and his plot twists. He does a good job of taking you right inside the lives of those you’re reading about, and his books are heavy on the unexpected.

Archer books that I recommend:

As The Crow Flies
Honor Among Thieves
Not A Penny More, Not A Penny Less
Kane & Abel
A Matter of Honor

and even his books of short stories are good reads:

12 Red Herrings
To Cut A Long Story Short

Whether the subject matter will be to your liking, only you can decide. But, most books by Jeffrey Archer are books you have trouble putting down because you don’t know what will happen next.

Here is one that we can wholeheartedly recommend. It’s the NET Bible. A free downloadable bible for you to use or give away. It’s absolutely free!

Link for free NET bible!

The only stipulations are that you cannot sell it, charge shipping for it, or give it away with something else that is sold.

Movie Review: Band of Brothers

With very few widely known names acting in it, Band of Brothers kind of snuck up on a lot of people. The HBO mini series had big names backing it up though in the form of Stephen Spielberg and Tom Hanks.

The movie documents a close-knit group of World War II soldiers as they advance through training, the landing in France and the fight against Germany. A lot of attention is paid to how much the soldiers come to depend on eachother and trust eachother in times of battle. The characters are well laid out with many soldiers playing distinct roles within the group.

The realism presented is fantastic, from the parachute drop on D-Day to the up close hand-to-hand combat. The great plot combined with the great action and all wrapped up in historical context makes for movie watching bliss. If you don’t have a lot of time you may want to wait, as it is a six disc set that measures in at more than ten hours of footage.

Highly recommendable!

If you are the type of person that is interested in books, you may be interested to know that although Amazon.com got started as a book selling business, it is also set up so that you can start your own online book selling business. Amazon has a number of different levels of selling and provides a great place to market your used books. Check out the Amazon seller opportunity!