Friday Night Lights on ABC Family

I'm pretty sure everyone that reads this is related to me, hence all of you are already familiar with the greatness that is Friday Night Lights. But just in case a random stranger drops by, I'm going to recommend that you watch Friday Night Lights every weekday at 5 pm (CST) on ABC Family. Don't miss out on this chance to catch this stellar show from the beginning. Actually, it started airing daily this Monday, so you've already missed the first five episodes.

Run, don't walk to your tv and set a seasons pass recording, then watch the few episodes you missed on Netflix ** or something. Or ask nicely and I'll loan you the first season so you can get caught up.

However you go about it, make sure that you watch this show. It will make you want to be a better person. And it will make you fall in love with a certain Tim Riggins. Male or female, you will develop strong feelings for Tim. That's just what happens. Don't fight it.

** If you go the Netflix route, please check your internet capabilities before doing something crazy like watching 50 episodes in 5 days to make sure you're not massively exceeding your monthly download limit. I'd hate to see you suddenly shocked by a $350 wireless bill. Not that that happened to me or anything.

Pretty on the Outside, Ugly on the Inside

Jennifer Aniston lost me forever when I found out she used the word "retard" on a talk show. She's so pretty and her hair always looks great and I imagine she always smells really good and I wholeheartedly back her original statement about women having kids on their own and her subsequent rebuttal to Bill O'Reilly, but now my image of her is tainted.

It is never ok to use this word. I don't care if you're a brain surgeon with three degrees from Harvard, when I hear you use that word, I'll think you're uneducated, ill-bred, and unobservant, not to mention insensitive, uncaring, unfeeling, uncouth, crass and cold. There's no quicker way to show me what kind of person you are than to casually drop that word into conversation.

I don't want people to stop using this word so they can be politically correct or so my stomach doesn't turn everytime I have to hear it. I want people to want to drop it from their vocabulary because they come to an understanding of how horrible it is to throw that word around when the fact is that it's a derogatory term for retarded people. It's mean and ugly and hurtful to make fun of or make light of people that, through no fault of their own, were born with mental disabilities. Have some character, some integrity.