Reviews and More

I don’t know about you, but I’m still having trouble figuring out how HBO’s schedule works. The last original episode of Entourage aired back in August 2006 with what I thought was the Season 3 finale. In case you don’t remember what happened, oh, EIGHT MONTHS AGO, Vinnie fired Ari, and we were left hanging as to how the super-slick agent would get his most prized client back.

As it turns out, that episode wasn’t the finale, but was just another mid-season offering. Season 3 will actually resume this Sunday (April 8th) with an episode called “Less Than 30″. I have missed Vinnie and the gang (but especially Piven), so I can’t wait to see what’s in store for them. I’ll be watching for sure!

I have an uncle who has had problems with his teeth for a long time now. He has had several extractions in the past few years, and (for some strange reason) hasn’t even bothered to do anything to replace those teeth. He doesn’t want dentures or a bridge, so he walks around with big gaping holes in his mouth. Bear in mind that my uncle is not even 50 years old yet — certainly not old enough to just give up on his teeth like that.

I’m going to recommend that he at least read about dental implants and consider that option if he hasn’t done so already. A dental implant is simply a small metal pin that is implanted in the jawbone, where it then serves as an anchor for a false tooth, a crown, or a bridge. Dental implants are much easier to live with than dentures or bridges because they don’t impact nearby teeth, don’t impair the ability to chew food, and don’t require special cleansers or devices for maintenance.

While dental implants are pretty expensive, I think they would be worth the investment. They usually last a lifetime and would greatly improve oral health and appearance. I hope my uncle takes these benefits into consideration and does something about his teeth soon!

CSI was back with a new episode last night. It was called “Big Shots” and followed the classic CSI “A” plot, “B” plot formula. Let’s get right to the recap here:

The show opens with a totally gratuitous shot of two women kissing each other outside a strip club. Then suddenly we see a black stretch limo careening towards the crowd gathered near the club. The limo has obviously been shot up and we see that one of the passengers has died while another one survived with just a few scrapes and bruises.

Brass, Grissom, and Greg arrive on the scene to start the investigation. Brass knows the survivor: he’s a club promoter named Drops. Drops tells Brass that they were just driving along minding their own business when someone started shooting at them. Grissom and Greg find blood, as well as evidence of drug use in the limo. They take everything back to the lab to process.

Meanwhile, Catherine, Warrick, and Sofia work on the “B” plot. They’re processing another crime scene, and this one contains the dead body of a young woman with scrapes all up and down her body. It looks like she has been pushed out of a car, but the CSIs are unable to determine if it was a body dump or if she was carjacked. They head back to the lab with their evidence too.

After analyzing the evidence, the CSIs are able to determine some very important things in both cases. For example, they conclude that at least one shot was fired from inside the limo, which doesn’t match up with what Drops said happened. The shot fired from inside was from a .38, and Drops has one registered to his name. Brass gives him one more chance to tell the story the right way. In addition, lab tests on a rolled up $100 bill shows that there were at least two other people in the limo that night: Aaron James, the brother of the kid that Greg ran over in episode 7×04, and Melissa Gentry, Catherine and Warrick’s vic.

The rest of the episode shows Brass and the CSIs trying to piece together what really happened based on their interrogations of the suspects and further analysis of the evidence.

My Reaction: For the second week in a row, I was nearly put to sleep by CSI. Neither plot held my interest at all, and it just felt like the episode dragged on and on. There were a couple of good one-liners between Brass and Drops, but other than those, nothing else caught my attention. Plus, I’m all for continuity on TV shows, but only if the recurring theme is compelling in some way, shape or form. Please just drop this whole Greg vs. the James family thing. It has been played out for a while now.

There are four episodes left in the season. I hope they give me a reason to want to tune in next season.

I have a younger friend who dropped out of high school after her junior year. She was one of those aimless kids who wasn’t really sure what she was going to do with her life and she didn’t see the point of having to go to school every day. She wanted to work instead, because she would just feel more productive that way.

So that’s what she did. Then she got married, had a baby, and suddenly realized that she was 26-year-old who didn’t have so much as a high school diploma. She finally understood that she was never going to have a good job or make more than $8 or $9 per hour until she finished her education, so she decided it was time to go back and get her GED.

At the time, my friend simply couldn’t afford to quit work in order to go to school, so she looked into other options. She first thought she could get a GED online, but discovered that wasn’t a possibility. So she did the next best thing and looked for ways to take high school classes online. My friend had much better luck with this approach and eventually found a program that suited her.

Online classes are far more flexible and affordable than traditional classes, thereby making them a perfect way for working adults to address their educational needs. With online classes, the students are in complete control of their schedules. They can do their coursework late at night or early in the morning, which means they can keep their full-time jobs and still spend time with their families.

If you’ve been thinking about getting your high school diploma but have been putting it off because of work or family obligations, then online classes might be right for you. It’s never too late to complete your education, so get started today. You’ll be amazed at all the doors that will open for you when you have your diploma in hand!