{"id":88,"date":"2005-05-16T10:56:17","date_gmt":"2005-05-16T14:56:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/snarl\/2005\/05\/16\/updates-from-a-simple-life-in-beantown\/"},"modified":"2005-05-16T10:56:17","modified_gmt":"2005-05-16T14:56:17","slug":"updates-from-a-simple-life-in-beantown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/2005\/05\/16\/updates-from-a-simple-life-in-beantown\/","title":{"rendered":"Updates from a Simple Life in Beantown"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Well, I got my lastest fix of life in little Vega, Texas, on Saturday night when I watched the latest episode of Popularity Contest. Yep, I’m addicted. It’s the little engine that could, that show. I didn’t want to like it, but it sucked me in. This also happens every season with Big Brother. I watch the first episode and think “I could care less about these contestants. Last season’s were so much better. At least those guys had personalities.” But after a few episodes I start picking favorites (and least favorites) and then I alter my social calender (don’t laugh, I can be social) just so I can be home to watch my stories.<\/P>
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Anyway, I’m getting upset about Popularity Contest. Maybe Deb or Rory (blog readers who participated on the show: one as a town resident, the other as a contestant) can clarify this, but I think Jose is pure evil. I learned my lesson about judging these folks based on the editing of the TV network…but Jose comes off as way too inconsiderate and arrogant. And I can’t even see how he could be a model back home in Atlanta (then again, I never understood the appeal of Kate Moss, either). But when he called friends from home and asked them to dig up dirt on Jason (who I liked) and then exaggerated the truth by saying Jason was gay and had a pornographic website (when in fact he’s apparently straight and only did some semi-nude modeling with his twin brother), he went over the line. Again, I know I’m only seeing what the producers want me to see. And I know it’s a game so people have to do what they have to do to win. But dammit, that Jose is just so damn smug.<\/P>
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Unfortunately, the townsfolk voted and Mandell was the least popular. I even had to watch Deb (the commenter on my blog) cry as a result! Life is so unfair. But I suspect that Jose’s day is coming.<\/P>
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In other news, Rich and I were walking around the city yesterday and stumbled upon an open house a block from my apartment. It was a typical old North End apartment building – a brick 5-story walk up with one set of stairs and exterior fire escapes. There was no elevator, no views, no parking and no land\/gardens. Believe it or not, the largest unit was just around 700 square feet for a two-bedroom unit (one of the “bedrooms” couldn’t have been larger than 8′ x 10′) – and it was listed for $600,000. You’re telling me you’d expect me pay that much money to climb 5 flights of stairs every day to an entire apartment that could have fit in my old living room?<\/P>
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Still, it had these awesome bathroom mirrors. You look at the mirror and it’s a normal bathroom mirror over the sink. But you flick a light switch and behind the mirror (below where your head would be) is a TV screen! It turns on and you can watch the news (or Popularity Contest, of course) while you’re brushing your teeth and brushing your hair! But once the TV is turned off, you can’t even tell it’s behind there. I think I want one.<\/P>
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Though, not for $600,000. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to buy in Boston again. I wonder how much a place would cost in Vega, TX?<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, I got my lastest fix of life in little Vega, Texas, on Saturday night when I watched the latest episode of Popularity Contest. Yep, I’m addicted. It’s the little engine that could, that show. I didn’t want to like it, but it sucked me in. This also happens every season with Big Brother. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}