The Bachelor kills brain cells

In a move I hope to never reprise, I watched approximately five minutes of the "The Bachelor" last night. I was flipping through channels and saw it was on, remember that a friend of a friend (but a first degree friend on Facebook) was one of the contestants. And this was the episode where the women speak! How could I pass that up.

Sadly, within five minutes, my brain was seeping out of my ears and I wanted to stab myself with a spoon.

This is the third time in a few weeks I've watched or read something about a TV show that holds (or should hold) zero interest to me. I've become dumber every time.

I tuned into MTV's "The Paper" last week. Someday, I'd like to teach high school journalism, so I thought this would be a great glimpse into that world. If it's anything like that when I make it to the classroom, somebody stop me. My God...there was nothing about journalism. Just a group of back-stabbing prima donnas whose voices pierced my eardrums like...something.

Then Rolling Stone comes to my mailbox with a cover story on "The Hills." I don't know who these girls are, but that might be a good thing. I like RS because it has interesting political coverage and turns me on to cool new bands. But this story made me feel empty. Who. Cares?

This coming from a guy who read the entire article. Sigh.

New MTV video: Walking for Mother Earth

Native Americans are walking from SF to DC to promote awareness of Native American issues. It's called the Longest Walk, and they're finding that reservation water is polluted. Have a look-see:

Web site face lift

I've grown very disenchanted with Yahoo Small Business and the way it hosts (or doesn't host) my resume Web site. So I've moved to WordPress. It's not as fancy as my Yahoo site, at least not yet. But I've got my main points there. It's sleek and to the point; people can read my clips; my greatest hits, and visit my Multimedia Corner (catchy, no?). It's a start. And it's free! Though I did print up 300 or so business cards with my other URL. D'oh.

A question for Twitter-heads

OK, so I get the premise of Twitter, but at the same time I don't. While I don't have many important things to do, I know that I do have more important things to do than to subscribe to a Twitter feed. I don't have a Blackberry or a phone w/ Web capabilities. I check the news when I need to: Every few hours I'll check out the Chicago Tribune, Lawrence Journal-World or Kansas City Star to learn what I need to. I see Yahoo's homepage every half hour or so. So, Twitter, what up? What's your deal?

Furthermore, per Mindy McAdams' post about the future newshound, does Twitter provide location-specific feeds? Say I live in Kansas City, Mo., or Lawrence, Kan., or the boondocks of Nova Scotia, can I find feeds from my area? I'm curious. Sell me on Twitter. I dare you. (Also, you can subscribe to my Twitter feed at http://twitter.com/parkeral.

Represent! Another tale from Kansas

KU junior Clarissa Unger is the only college student elected to represent Kansas at the DNC. Here's my latest MTV piece, telling her story:

Associated Press + me = APsquared

I love seeing the AP logo next to my work! w00t!

RIP Christy Bradford

One of my favorite professors here at KU, Christy Bradford, passed away today. She died of a heart attack. I was in the newsroom when I heard the news, and I was shocked. I didn't know Professor Bradford well, but I respected her and enjoyed the conversations we had.

She came to KU from the Detroit News, where she presided as ME over a Pulitzer Prize in 1994. Her experience, in fact, is one of the main reasons I came to KU. This may be one more example of how that was a bad idea. (Here is the News' obituary.)

Professor Bradford and I last spoke last week when I asked her to chair my thesis committee. She declined, citing her desire to take the spring 2009 semester off to relax. She was looking forward to it very much. When I ran some ideas by her, she sat there silently, contemplating, then fired back a million different ideas, that will, eventually, strengthen the product I put out when/if I finish the thesis project. She was a newswoman through and through.

I'll miss her mentorship, and, if I may dare say, her friendship.