I just wanted to somehow mark the fact that I believe that ten years ago today, Tara, Sarah, and Dave launched Television Without Pity (which was then called Mighty Big TV). They had done Dawson’s Wrap for a year prior, and decided to branch out and cover more shows. I was fortunate enough that they asked me to write the Real World recaps (continuing what I’d been doing on the time on my own site during the Hawaii season), and I’ve been writing and moderating forums for the site continuously ever since.

I have gone on to write over 900 pieces for the site (including two that were published today) on a total of 50 different shows. The site has provided me with income when I was only working part time at my day job, and allowed me to go back to part time when I decided full time wasn’t letting me have the work/life balance I needed.

But besides all that, writing for the site has helped me make lifelong friends, and made me proud of the accomplishment of all of the people I’ve met through the site. A lot of my fellow recappers have gone on to write professionally in various industries, not to mention the millions of laughs they have brought me from reading their recaps.

Just about every entertainment site does recaps of television shows now, and there are many forums out there to discuss your favorite shows, but few have been doing it for ten solid years. I know Tara and Sarah and Dave went through some really lean times, and put a lot of their own blood, sweat, and tears (and money) into keeping the site going even when it looked like it wasn’t possible — remember the Internet bust years earlier this decade? While none of them are affiliated with the site anymore, and I know they will all go on to do bigger and better things, I hope that they all take pride in having created a site that has been hugely influential and provided entertainment to millions of readers over the years.

Wow. Who would’ve thought that my stupid musings about Colin and Amaya would lead to this?

I love every entry at Go Fug Yourself (buy the book!) but I think my favorites ones are the entries written in the “voice” of a celebrity, most famously, Britney Spears. So be sure to check out the letter from J Lo to Bennifleck. Cracked my shit right up, because I STILL do not get Marc Anthony. Like, how is he alive? And how do women allegedly find him attractive?

I finally got off my ass and donated to the Dewey Donation System. I sent some Little House books to the library, and then donated some money in my mom’s name to the Rockhouse Foundation. It felt good! It was really easy, and it made me feel like a good person. In support of the cause, I changed the banner at the top of my page into an ad for Dewey — click on it to go right to the site. Maybe you’ll feel like donating while you’re there. Since Dave and Tara sold TWoP to Bravo, they don’t get to put free ads for Dewey all over the site this year, and I’d hate for the drive to earn less money this year as a result. So donate! And guilt trip your friends/family/co-workers into donating too! Unless you gave up doing charity for Lent or something.

You may have donated to Sarah’s Tomato Nation fundraiser, and you may have heard that she danced in a giant tomato suit in downtown Manhattan as a result. But now you can watch the video. There’s nothing funnier to me than a giant tomato just walking around like, “And what of it?”

Sarah is doing her Fall contest, but this year if her readers raise enough money, instead of shaving her head, she’s going to wear a tomato costume around Manhattan. We need to make this happen. You know, plus funding all those awesome projects. Go here to donate.

Jason, originally uploaded by Kim Reed.

I swear to God, some day I will post something here besides photos of babies, but come on. Mary’s baby is super cute.

jason zoom_filtered, originally uploaded by Kim Reed.

Jim and I went to visit Mary and Terry and Jason today and I took some photos. This was the best one. So very cute, that baby.

My friend Mary, frequent commenter to this here weblog, went and had a baby! Jason was born Friday and he weighed 8 lbs 3 1/2 oz (apparently the 1/2 is very important). Mom, Dad, and baby are all doing fine. If you know Mary in person or through the weblog, feel free to leave a comment as I’m sure she will see it eventually!

I chose the best of my Memorial Day photos to share. If you want to see all of them, you can go to the Memorial Day Set, but this is the best of.

When I was at my Dad’s for Thanksgiving weekend, I got to spend time with my friends, above and beyond our little mini-reunion. Gretchen and Molly were both in town. Did I mention that Molly moved to Maryland? She and Andy moved away from Buffalo to Maryland this summer. So I was able to get together with Molly, Brenda, and Gretchen, and their respective children. Little did I know it would suck so much.
(more…)