Several years ago, when I was just shy of my 22nd birthday, my mother got swindled into buying me a flatscreen HD TV. I don't know what she thought she was getting, but it sure as heck wasn't as great as whoever sold it to her made it out to be. It was 26" and Norcent brand. Now I know you may be saying, Norcent? What's a Norcent? And that's exactly what I asked as well. But the TV made it's way onto my wall and there it sat for three whole years, until I moved out. Then it was very attached to a very sad looking stand and lived atop my tiny Ikea TV cart. As much as I really hated the thing, it served it's purpose...but this past black Friday, it met it's demise.

Well, not really. It's not dead. It's just been replaced by a 32" HD Samsung LCD beauty which my friend Vicky affectionately named Betsy. Betsy is gorgeous and well worth the Black Friday deal that I got her for. And I didn't even need to camp out. Instead I just strolled into PC Richards, pointed and said Is that one gone yet? Lucky the answer was no. I got her home, moved the piece of junk out of the way and plugged her in. And now, you can expect better blogs from me. With a TV this crisp I can officially say that my opinions will be significantly altered. Who knows? My vocabulary may even improve. With my old TV is it was more like "Me English speak good." Now it'll be like "Me English Speak Better." I kid, I kid.

The one good thing about this new TV is that I'll be able to spot promotional products much more clearly and I won't have to worry about squinting or rewinding. I'll be able to spot those items and read those imprints as clear as day. And considering the fact that I'll be using my new TV for the purpose of researching the Motivators TV blog, I think that qualifies as a work expense. Anybody wanna pick up the tab?

Anyone?

Anyone?

Bueller?

*crickets chriping*

Eh, I figured it was worth a shot!

All My Children recently vacated their upper west side studios in NYC to move cross country to LA. And as we all know, when you move, you've gotta get rid of all that junk. In AMC's case, that "junk" happened to be set pieces and props that they wouldn't be needing out in La La land. But like they say, "One man's junk is another man's treasure." Make that another "fan's" treasure. this past Monday, Rachel Ray helped AMC get rid of some opf that useless junk by hosting an All My Children garage sale at her studio. Fans could go and purchase little bits of memorbilla that appeared on screen over the years. And this got me to thinking...

If you could choose 5 props from your FAVORITE show, what would they be? I, of course couldn't decide between NCIS or Bones, so I'm doing 5 for each.

Bones

Booth's FBI badge.

Jasper the pig (the little pig Booth gave Brennan after her second run in with Howard Epps)

Brainy Smurf (which Booth gave Brennan to remind her of how much he evolved)

Brennan's dolphin ring

Brennan's ID badge

NCIS

Any of Gibbs' boats.

Abby's little evil baby doll that she shot in the head with a paint gun.

McGee's iPhone

 An NCIS jacket

An NCIS hat

Of course, I'd have to include some custom apparel. I mean how could you not? So what would your 5 dream props be?

The countdown is on: it's almost time for...

No, not IT beating Sales in the annual Food Drive.

No, not our awesome potluck Thanksgiving party in the office.

No, the craziness that is Thanksgiving Eve at the local bars.

No, not Turkey and Mashed Potatoes.

No, not Pumpkin Pie

No, not food coma associated with Turkey, Mashed Potatoes and Pumpkin Pie.

No, not ridiculous, riotous lines outside stores like Best Buy, Sears, and Walmart.

No, not a 4 day weekend.

No, not the legendary leftover Friday (my favorite Thanksgiving tradition)

No, not the holiday season.

It's not time for any of those. Ok, it is, but at the same time, it's not. It's time for...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCWfBQaF5J4

It's gonna be legen...wait for it and I hope your not lactose intolerant because the second half of that word is DARY. The countdown...is on.

That my friends, is the perfect title for the week in review of all my favorite TV shows.

How I Met Your Mother

Not the greatest episode of the show. Isn't it called How I Met Your Mother? Recently it should be called How your Uncle Barney and Aunt Robin worked through their relationship? As much as I love NPH, I love him mostly because he's extremely attractive. Well, that's not entirely true. I do love his comedic timing, his ability to do drama, and his amazing singing voice but it's really mainly the hot thing. And Barney in a fat suit? No. The best line of the episode was however the final one. Barney: Daddy's home.

NCIS

Was there other storyline going on here besides the one where the viewers realized that now the tables have turned and Abby is hopelessly in love with McGee? I'm sure there was and I'm sure it had something to do with that deep, raspy voiced assassin that was trying to kill the director. However, I only saw the love that Abby clearly has for McGee. Thanks for twisting the knife in the heart for us Abby/McGee fans Mr. Brennan, really appreciate that.

Glee

I laughed, I cried and I decided that if I were in high school and accidentally got pregnant, I'd really want it to be by Puck. He's really proving to be a stand-up guy. Also major redemption for Sue and exceptional performance by Jane Lynch. I'd say Emmy worthy (and I will) but the Emmy's seem to hate Fox...unless you count Arrested Development. I'll say it anyway...EMMY. Phenomenal episode that truly blew me away.

Bones

The incomprable Stephen Fry was back again as Gordon Gordon Wyatt, Booth's former psychiatrist and he counseled the confused and love lorn FBI agent that when it comes to his seemingly unrequited love for one Temperance Brennan, the answer lies with "hope and patience." That seems familiar to the time when Booth casually told Bones that "everything happens eventually." Oh and then when Cyndi Lauper played the psychic and told Booth that "this all works ouut eventually." Thank you writers, we get it. But we'll appreciate it because when you finally relent from beating us with the brink of death with "almost's" and "eventually's" and our own hope and patience is almost worn out, you'll treat us to the most mind blowing hookup between Booth and Brennan ever.

And just to keep this in the spirit of promotional products, take a look at this cute picture of Emily Deschanel (Bones) with a promotional rubber duck (courtesy of EW). According to John Francis Daley (Sweets), there's a whole bowl of promotional stress relievers in his office on the set. That's what I like to hear.

Til next week...keep watching.

Oh Sesame Street, you don't look your age at all. In fact, Big Bird looks like he hasn't aged a day. I can't say the same for Gordon, but hey Oscar is still as grouchy as ever. I, like millions of others, grew up on Sesame Street and I've loved it all along. I still remember sitting on my huge couch at my old house and just laughing at Bert & Ernie's antics. At some point you do need to stop watching those sort of shows because you grow up. But everyone has their "kid-side." Take for instance, Steve in Order Entry. Just yesterday I found him in the breakroom enjoying a slice of pizza and some Spongebob reruns. I can't blame him, I do love a good cartoon every now and again. And Sesame Street, well I haven't stopped loving that at all.

In fact, two years ago when I was up at Alumni weekend at my college, I saw a promotional hoodie that I simply had to have. Now, working in the promotional products industry I generally tend to stay away from promotional apparel because I know the markup and the original cost. My cheapness gets the best of me, but this time it didn't. I paid a whopping $40 for a grey hooded sweatshirt with the greatest imprint ever. It proudly boasted "Brought to you by the letters MSMC" (I went to Mount St Mary College) and featur Big Bird, Grover, Elmo and Oscar. It was the cutest thing I had ever seen and while my bank account may have regretted the purchase, I ceertainly didn't. In fact, I'm wearing an MSMC sweatshirt today and it's just not as cool as that one.

So take a little time to reminisce about your favorite Sesame Street memories. Feeling particularly gushy? Why not buy some promotional rubber ducks in honor of Ernie. And speaking of that,  let's all take a moment and do de rubber duck.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsjbEWKK8AU

In a word, wow. To those of you who have come seeking video, we promise it's coming. But for now, you can let me entertain you all with my recap or Glee cap, as I fondly took to calling it of yesterday's cast signing at Roosevelt Field mall. Let me start off by saying, that wasn't what I thought I'd be doing with my Monday afternoon.

Having been at the mall last week, I have to say the lack of signage regarding the Glee event was quite prominent. I had no idea they would be there. And somehow over the weekend, I found out and then promptly forgot. It wasn't until I happened to be on Twitter and saw a tweet from Amber Riley (Mercedes) telling people to come see her at the mall. Anthony and I, being the Gleeks that we are jumped into action and just a few short hours later we found ourselves in my car blasting the Glee soundtrack on our way to the mall. And yes, we did have giveaways, of course. What would we be without promotional products? We had sunglasses, frisbees and since it was a signing, we figured we'd bring some promotional hand sanitizer sprays along just in case the cast didn't feel like possibly getting the flu.

The hand sanitizers were placed on the table for the cast and we made our way outside to set our plan into motion. Anthony had the great idea to have some fans sing along with their favorite Glee songs. Being the super Gleek that I am, the soundtrack was already loaded onto my iPod. I happened to have one of our custom mini portable speakers in a box on my desk for such an occasion (sure we'll go with that) so I brought it along. And thankfully, it worked out.

We had some brave souls that dared to sing without music, two girls in particular who did a great rendition of Mama Mia, but most grabbed the iPod and listened intently for their cues. We had the whole soundtrack (plus the It's my Life/Confessions mashup that I had already previously downloaded.) We had a diverse group choosing some songs. We had a little Defying Gravity. There was a particularly fun rendition of Bust Your Windows. Some girls went non-Glee and sang Single Ladies. And we chose a deserving young lady who sang Take a Bow all by herself to be the recipient of our other mp3 speaker. Anthony, Tony and I even tried to get the whole mall to sing Sweet Caroline, but we didn't really have to much luck with that. But there was one song that everyone seemed to want to sing. Wait, scratch that...it was one song that everyone wanted to belt. That one song just happens to be my favorite song of all time and the very first song on the sondtrack: Don't Stop Believin. Never in my life will you hear me argue that that is not the most amazing karaoke song ever. And boy, did the crowd love it.

At one point, a group of about ten girls wanted to sing it. I cued up the iPod, handed it over and then it just spiraled out of control. Those ten girls turned into twenty and those twenty turned into forty and all of a sudden the entire line of probably about 250 people were singing along at the top of their lungs. Camera crews came running out from inside to be sure to catch the moment on video. And at the center of all...a Motivators custom imprinted speaker. See, promotional products and some good music will always bring people together.

The event was awesome and the only thing I have to add, besides a huge THANK YOU to everyone who had the courage to sing on camera, is this: Cory Monteith is much more attractive in person. :)