A Little Nip/Tuck Never Hurt

As I heard wonderful stories from the spring breaks of my friends, I looked at myself, vegetating away in my bed. Time to watch television, I suppose. Over break I became addicted to a show that I had heard about from friends and in the media for it's "racy" content. Naturally, I had to watch it.

WHAT A SHOW! Nip/Tuck, a drama about the wild, adventurous lives of two top-notch plastic surgeons, has easily become one of my favorites. From the pilot, the show just seemed to draw me in. The twisting plots, the risque content, and the clever dialogue have cemented the show as television gold. I am used to watching comedies and of course the healthy dose of reality television, but dramatic shows seem to have a special place in my heart. They have the power to draw their viewers in with tempting twists and plot turns keeping viewers at the edge of their seats. I find myself caring and really connecting with what will happen to the characters and generally screaming at the screen when something takes a turn for the worse.

Nip/Tuck really is one of the most fun, attractive, and thought-provoking shows I have seen. The show brings up issues of morality concerning marriages, sex, relationships, the pursuit of money, and the morality of plastic surgery. Often, I would end up pausing in the middle of a show and just think about how surreal this world created on the screen is but then I would immediately connect it to something in my life. I think what drew me to this show is how the it makes a point to try and de-glam the world of superficiality. The show tries to show that underneath the layers of Botox and money everyone has problems. The show in a way, seems to be arguing that with the luxury of money and vanity comes a price to pay. Every character at some point in the show has problems that they must deal with most of them stemming from the lavish lifestyle they all live in.

A truly wonderful show, I highly recommend that the next time you have an hour to kill, watch an episode of Nip/Tuck, but be warned; Once you start, you will never want to stop.

Life in Tabs

Sitting in the English building waiting for my Italian lesson to start, a college student sits down. She opens her laptop up and goes straight to the internet. Being the eavesdropping individual that I am, I decided I should extend that quality to view what she was doing on her laptop. I mean, what else was I supposed to do?

She had several tabs open. From the Compass (UIUC online center) to her Flickr stream. All the while she was constantly chatting with her friend on iChat and searching for, "yummy cookies" on Google and reading about the Wisconsin Union situation. Soon, she read a Jane Austen novel online and finished her session with a quick stop at her mother's Facebook page to wish her a happy birthday.
I never realized how much you can learn about someone just from seeing their "tabs". A brief look at my browser will yield a fairly accurate conclusion of my personality. First tab-Bloomingdales Sale. Actually, about 25% of my tabs were related to clothing, from Gilt Groupe to Nordstrom. Not to worry, Socially Conscious Individual! In addition to there materialistic indulgences were: The New York Times, Fox News (Fair and Balanced!), Bloomberg.com, and The Huffington Post. Rounding out this "electronic template of Rohit Palekar" were tabs leading to Goop.com (for more cookie recipes) and 30 Rock on Hulu.

An admirer of my browser can gather that I obviously enjoy idling at online boutiques.  Not only a true consumer, I crave current events almost as much as I crave television and baked treats. Though our personalities are obviously deeper than what our internet browser tabs display, they represent who we are on a surface level and serve as the launching point of more to come.