If I find something of interest, I simply click on it – browse the description, and it will tell me which channel to select in order to view that program. You can synchronize with just about any television platform including Comcast, AT&T U-Verse, and Direct TV among others. Switch locations, no problem! Just reset the  Peel app to reflect your current location and television programming platform and your back in business at your home away from home, wherever that may be.

In terms of added functionality, I’d love to see this app be able to synchronize with a user’s television so that they can actually select programming on their television from the smart phone once the user has decided upon a selection. It would also be great to incorporate a “feed” or “interactivity” component where users can comment or discuss the television programs that they are watching with other users.

This app doesn’t necessarily “wow” you at first use, but the utilitarian side of me finds it very useful. In fact, I find myself using this app pretty much every day. I think that you may find it pretty productive app as well. Check it out for free in the App Store, today!

DOWNLOAD:

The Channel Guide – Episode THREE

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Meet Corbin Howard, OC, Ajani, and Trigga Tay of the Howard University hip-hophenomenon $urreal.  They stop by to report on their exploits on stage, in the studio, behind the mic, and forever in rotation…..

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"Follow me on tour, follow you on Twitter"

• $ureal’s Fan Page
• $ureal’s Twitter

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Download the “Similar Diversity” mixtape.

Download the “Blue Dream” mixtape.

Download the “Surreality” mixtape.

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“Who the fuck is this, claimin’ they know ‘bout this Well-Off movement?”

Posted on August 4th, 2009

By Jeff Pfeiffer

When he was in his late teens, young heartthrob Paul Wesley played his first supernatural being — werewolf Luke Cates in the short-lived 2001 series Wolf Lake, which remains a cult favorite among some. It was a role that seems fitting now, to Wesley, for the age he was then.

“I always associate werewolves … with this kind of instinctive anger,” he says, ” … More like animals with rabies. When I was playing the werewolf, I was like 18 years old, and I think I was just like this teen who was running rampant. And I had a great time, and it fit the character perfectly, this alpha male machismo … and that was me.”

But the Paul Wesley of today, who was at the recent CW presentation at the Television Critics Association (TCA) tour, has obviously grown beyond that. He’s calm, thoughtful, and quietly enthusiastic about his new series The Vampire Diaries — one in which he plays another sort of monster, but a show that looks poised to have more staying power than Wolf Lake. He plays a vampire named Stefan Salvatore, and again it’s a role that seems to be a good fit for where the actor is at in his personal and professional life.

“Vampires,” he says, contrasting with the werewolf role, “Stefan at least … he’s more of a thinker. He’s an introvert, an intellectual, he sits there and writes. There’s more finesse.”

Vampires do occupy a higher chain of command among monsters in pop culture because of their intelligence; werewolves are pretty one-note. In addition to that advantage, Wesley and the crew behind Diaries also have the good timing to be striking while the iron of the Twilight franchise is very hot, and the sex appeal of vampires is again in the forefront of audience consciousness.

Like Twilight, this series is based on books (these by L.J. Smith) and features a vampire in love with a human girl (Elena, played by Nina Dobrev). But it’s got a dash of ‘Salem’s Lot thrown in as well, as executive producer Kevin Williamson’s (Scream) script seeks to explore the undercurrents of evil beneath a small town’s facade, which the arrival of Stefan and his more sinister vampire brother Damon (Ian Somerhalder) brings to the surface as they battle for Elena’s soul. For good measure, there’s a bit of Southern Gothic a la True Blood as well (the show is filmed in Atlanta and set in Virginia, with Stefan and Damon having a history dating back to the Civil War).

“Stefan hates being a vampire,” Wesley points out. “He doesn’t want to be a vampire. He’s constantly struggling with the dark side. He has a need to feed on human blood. It’s not easy for him not to do it. He wants to experience life as a normal human being, whereas his brother loves vampirism; he’s enjoying it.”

This conflict and loneliness turns Stefan into the brooding type of vampire we see often in these types of stories, but that archetype seems to have more appeal than perhaps some happy-go-lucky vampire would. And it seems to have always drawn in women particularly, as Wesley has noticed.

“It’s certainly empowering [to play a vampire]. There’s an omniscience. Being a lowly human, it’s nice to play a character who has this omniscience. But it’s so easy to make that one-dimensional. Vampires are flawed, flawed individuals. It’s just that they come off as really stable, and I think that’s what women gravitate towards. Of course, it must be amazing [for vampires to have that power]. But I assume if you’re thousands of years old you’re probably used to women throwing themselves at you.”

Wesley may need to get used to that himself in real life, should the show take off along the lines of Twilight, and with the unique crowd of vampire fans of all ages. And as a human, that may be a tough adjustment for a man who currently likes to remain fairly under the radar.

“I do everything anonymously,” Wesley says. “I walk around Atlanta and nobody bothers me. I think my whole life would change if this [series] were to take me to a different place. I’m a city boy. I thrive off culture. There’s something about, like, Manhattan (I’m going there this weekend). So walking around and not having anonymity would really take away that experience of being in the city.”

On the series, Wesley won’t even be covered in special makeup effects to help keep him anonymous, either. But that he somewhat likes.

“Makeup’s never fun,” he says. “Nobody wants to show up at 6 in the morning to get makeup. The good news is we don’t have a lot of makeup [for the show]. We have these contact lenses that we put in. I’ve worn contacts my whole life, so it’s not a problem for me.”

Not having been exposed much to vampire stories growing up — but being very interested in mythology — Wesley has found himself researching the myths of vampires. “There’s so much history,” he says.

One element of the mythology of the vampire that Wesley finds a little melancholy is that whole immortality part.

“You know what’s bad about that? Being like a nomad. You can’t really establish relationships with anyone without revealing your secret for more than like a decade before they realize that you’re not aging. So I think Stefan hasn’t been able to establish relationships with anybody, and that’s lonely.”

But Stefan’s loss will be Wesley’s gain, as — like it or not — he should be anything but lonely once The Vampire Diaries reaches rabid CW fans Sept. 10.

If it wasn’t already a chore to find an apartment, charm the manager into believing that I can afford rent on no income other than support from 2 ex’s, get my phone up and running, start school, and remember to breathe, having cable installed topped my list of things-that-make-me-ab-so-lute-ly-crazy!!

I first needed to figure out who actually serviced my area. I did the normal thing by going online to direct tv, timewarner, verizon. you know, the normal places one would go for service. All I needed was an internet connection capable of sending packets without much sluggishness or outright failure (for school purposes) and of course, I needed some channels to keep the 13 year old entertained while I pulled my hair out doing my homework. So, there I sat, in front of my screen with 3 windows open. One for each typical cable/internet service provider. They each asked for an address. Simple enough, if you’re not me, for after many attempts I discovered nobody on this planet serviced my area. How can that be? Easy logic. I’m retarded and wasn’t putting in the correct apartment number. Not only was I not using the correct information, I don’t even have an apartment number. Nope, girls and boys, I have an apartment LETTER. Yeah, sheesh! Get it straight woman!!

Of course, before I realized my error, I went into a complete panic because, although I can live without television channels, I can’t live without my internet (for school purposes…I swear!). Once panic set in I began to make some phone calls. The first person I called was Mr. Sober. He lives out this way and he knows all there is to know about Monrovia. He listened and, after a short pause of silence, which I translated as pity that I’m helpless, mentioned a cable company that he knew for a fact serviced my area, and it wasn’t one I’d ever heard of. Champion Broadband services all of Monrovia. Champion? Yeah, see? Even you haven’t heard of them. So I called them and set up a connection for both services I needed. The deal sounded wonderful. I got 3 rooms and the best broadband speed ever for a low low price. Why was it so low? Because I didn’t need to rent HD boxes. I have 2 televisions, both are HD capable, both are going to be used, and I want to be able to use them for all of their capabilities. HD is the way to go. Has anyone, who after experiencing high definition, gone back to a regular digital signal and said, “Hot damn, regular digital is good enough for me”? No….I didn’t think so. And, I am a princess. I’m as spoiled as spoiled can be. If you’ve read any of my blogs, you can see how spoiled I am. Heck, I can’t even put air in my tires! That’s how much of a princess I’ve become.

So, now that we have all agreed that I need HD, I will finish this story as painlessly as I know how.

The sales rep for Champion said that, since I have 2 televisions that are less than 2 years old, I don’t need high def boxes because my televisions come already equipped with high def descramblers. Huh? He promised my signal would be just as good and that I would more than likely get even more high def channels than Joe Blow who has the HD boxes. He suckered me in, I ordered it and I thought all was well. Then, just for giggles, I called Verizon, because I thought, “How can Verizon be the number one phone service in the state and not service my area?” That call was interesting. It was also the call that pointed out my error in my address. “Ma’am, there is no number 3 at your location, but there IS a unit A,” was what the lady told me. Huh. Well that explains why I thought nobody serviced my area. I mean, how can they service a location that doesn’t exist? We spoke for a minute or twenty and she told me that I could not only get a decent internet connection with them, I could also get a land-line.

Land-lines aren’t as important as they once were to us new agers. Who needs a land-line when they have a cell phone that already costs more monthly than a grocery bill? Who? That question is easy if you’re me with a 13 year old limit pusher. I need one, for 911 calls, when said 13 year old breaks something from doing a crazy stunt on his skateboard without the proper safety accessories. I need a connection to 911 without going through the CHP first, which is exactly what happens when I dial 911 from my cell phone. I know this, I’ve experienced this, don’t ask questions, I just know. So……I set up a connection date for broadband and a land-line with Verizon, keeping in mind to remember to call Champion and change my order. Just channels, no internet please and thankyouverymuch. To my many friends and family who know me better than I know myself, remembering to call them is a whole other story, haha.

Now, knowing that I have a unit A and not an apartment 3, I decided to do some more shopping around for some cable channels. First place I called was direct tv. Negative on them. They want an arm, a leg and a first born just for basic channels. Want HD boxes? That will be another $10 per box. Screw that. I don’t have that kind of money growing from a tree. Then I called TimeWarner. TimeWarner not only was willing to give me a good deal on channels, they also were going to throw in the HD boxes for free. Yeah, 3 HD boxes for no additional cost. They also explained to me that the HD channels I would get from Champion, although would in fact be clear, would not be as clear with an HD box because HD boxes have filters. Whatever. It was all Chinese to me. I was sold on TimeWarner because they gave me a cheaper rate. Money talks is all I’m gonna say. I scheduled them to come on the 2nd of January, again keeping in mind to call Champion and cancel their services, but this time I was canceling completely.

Three days after setting all this stuff up, I remembered to call Champion to cancel. I actually remembered to call. I was so proud of myself! Anyway, I canceled but they wanted to know why. I told them the truth. They asked for rates, I gave them rates from both TimeWarner and Verizon. They said they could work a deal with me, I said no thank you. I was done. It was getting exhausting just breathing at this time so no, I didn’t want to wheel and deal. A couple of hours later, I get a call from Champion’s sales rep. He sweet talked me into keeping their service and canceling with TimeWarner. They not only gave me a way better deal, they were willing to set me up the very next day. If anyone had doubts about how wishy washy I can be, this should settle those doubts. Not only do I not like making a decision, but I hate having to change it once it’s done, but to save money, I’m willing to do just about anything. My only dilemma? Remembering to call TimeWarner to cancel. I know. I think I’m crazy. Shhh. Don’t tell anyone.

If you’ve stayed with me this long without going completely crazy yourself, you’re in for the humor in all of this, but first let me get through the install with Champion, teehee.

Champion came as expected, on time and with an installer guy who looked like he knew what he was doing. He said, “One hookup and one broadband service, right?” Ummm….no. It was supposed to be 3 rooms with broadband. He asked about the service. It was going to just be digital, right? Ummm…no. It was supposed to be HD hooked up directly to the televisions without the boxes. “HUH?” he asked. I explained in great detail, cause I love giving full explanations whenever I have an audience, and the look on his face was….well, let’s just say it was not the look I wanted to see. He was pissed and irritated. The irritation was that his job was no longer an in-and-out one television one broadband thing. I’m sure he hadn’t had lunch yet, and with the look of his belly, that boy never missed a meal. The other thing that bugged him, and was the cause of him being pissed, was the fact that the sales rep let me in on a little Soviet Union style secret. “Yes, you can connect directly to the back of a newer television for HD without using a box, and yes, it will descramble it, but it’s pretty much like pirating channels and it’s not right to sell a service that we all get if we know how to tweak the system.” Those were his words. Now, I’m not into pirating anything other than music and the occasional software program that would normally cost me a bazillion dollars from a reputable store, so this whole idea of getting something for free didn’t sit right with me. Plus, I imagined the channel police knocking on my door in the middle of the night, led by no other than my ex husband, demanding I turn around to be cuffed, while checking my pockets for any unregistered remote controls I may be stashing.

I told installer guy to just forget about it. Thank GOD I forgot to cancel my TimeWarner installation was what I was thinking. Installer guy asked me to call the sales rep to in fact get the okay, while he called his supervisor to bitch and moan about the crap that just hit his fan. Sales rep guy told me to just continue, everything was legit. Installer guy got orders to continue with the install from his supervisor, and I think he got a tongue lashing as well because he was even more irritated with everything. And, when I told him I just didn’t feel right about it, he insisted, “Let’s just install it, see how it looks and, if you’re not happy, since you never signed a contract, you can cancel without much worries, then get TimeWarner to hook up up ‘legitimately’ and everything will be good”, was what installer guy told me. So I did.

After we had everything hooked up, installer guy went through the channels. He was just as curious to see how the HD channels looked since he had never dealt with that before because, remember it was like a Soviet Union secret! I was pirating! Aaargg! The HD channels were many. Heck! I have never seen so many HD channels from one company before in my life. They were all clear too. Very very clear. I was happy, but just before he left we noticed that all the HD channels weren’t on the same channels as listed on the channel guide. Hmmm…might that be a problem for me? Before I could point it out, installer guy grabbed his stuff and was rushing out the door. Remember, he probably hadn’t eaten lunch, and by the time this job was done, it was almost dinner time. The boy needed to eat. But I couldn’t help but think he shared the same vision I had of the channel police coming to hook him up. Before he left, he reminded me that if I wasn’t happy I could cancel with one phone call, and away he went.

That night I was trying to watch something on television and, because I came from a DirectTV household and was used to their channel lineup, I was irritated that all the channels were different than what I was used to, but I was more irritated that I couldn’t’ find some channels in HD without flipping through each channel. Ugh and talk about a princess!! I got more and more irritated too. My thoughts were, I’m starting a new life fresh, I’m 44 freaking years old, I’m a basket full of stress, why I would be okay with flipping through channel after channel to finally get to one I wanted to watch was, simply put, bullshit to me. I was done! And again, thank GOD I forgot to call TimeWarner!!

OH YEAH!! I almost forgot. The broadband they promised was great except installer guy couldn’t figure out how to access my wireless router. It’s a Linksys, easy peasy to me. I was getting concerned because the initial hookup was done in Mr. T’s room. I had it done there so that I could hook him up with a netbook for his studies (yeah right). I needed wireless so that I could get online and take my classes. Although the connection was great, I couldn’t see myself doing my classes in Mr. T’s room, on the floor since we don’t have any damn furniture in there yet. As it was, I was finding it hard to read a damn book without my butt falling asleep because I was either reading on the floor or on my air mattress. While installer guy was trying to access the router, I suggested he use my username and password that the router already had on it. Duh, right? No. He said there was a completely different username and password and he couldn’t for the life of him remember what it was. But, he suggested I call one of their internet service guys and have him come hook me up since he was really just a channel pirater, er…I mean servicer thingie guy. Whatever.

Upon realizing I didn’t like the channel set-up, it dawned on me that I had never canceled my Verizon account. That, and I still had their internet equipment, which was modem and wireless router altogether. How convenient! So, I would just cancel Champion and hook up my Verizon router. No problemo paco. Unfortunately, hooking up their wireless router was very different than what I was used to. Linksys is what I’m used to. It’s more difficult because of the security features one can do with it, but I’m old school Linksys. I knew exactly how to hook it up. This Verizon stuff was just a little different.

Anyway, one day later, TimeWarner showed up, hooked me up, gave me a free room, showed me the channels and left. I was happy…..for a little bit. I say that because later that night I sat down to actually watch a program and realized the picture on the television was so awful I had to stand 20 feet from the television to see it without it showing double. It was like being completely drunk, except closing one eye didn’t help. Crap! Whatever the case, I was not going back to Champion. I had all of their equipment ready to take back. We had called (that is I asked Mr. Sober to call since everyone seems to take a male more seriously, plus, remember I have become completely dependent on men and can’t even put air in my tires) and they wouldn’t pick up, so I said, “We’re just going to walk it in. Will you (Mr. Sober) do all the talking?” Mr. Sober said he would, we packed up the equipment and drove to their headquarters.

When we arrived at their headquarters, the front desk woman heard our complaints and told us that, although the channel lineup wasn’t the same as theirs, wasn’t there anything she could do to keep me as a customer. Yeah, give me channels for free I felt like saying. Instead I said no. She did some calculator magic and lo-and-behold, discovered she could lower the price on the boxes, to nothing, AND throw in that extra room. Well well well!! Now I was faced with another decision. Do I keep them? I mean, TimeWarner’s signal was awful, and I really don’t like TimeWarner after Ted Turner took over and started charging for channels that we once got for free. Did y’all know they are now charging for channel 11? I bet you didn’t. They do!! Can you believe it? A channel we all could get with bunny ears they want to charge for. Communist!! So, I kept Champion. See how fickle I am? I rushed home, unplugged all of TimeWarner’s equipment and asked, again…..poor guy, Mr. Sober if he would do me the favor or returning the stuff. Again (bless his soul) he said he would and again we went together.

Before we went to TimeWarner, Mr. Sober had tried numerous times to disconnect over the phone. He got hung up on 3 times. On the 4th try, he called instead and asked for the new customer dept, pretending he was going to open up a new account with them. Not surprising he didn’t get hung up on. Instead he went straight to the new customer dept. Once he got connected with them, he told them he really wanted to disconnect service and could they help him. They promptly hung up. This got him so mad. He was fuming! It really was quite humorous because it was him and not me having to deal with it. I know that’s mean, but I never claimed to be nice so whatever. After that fourth hang-up we looked up their location and walked in. The line was out the door and there were many many complaining customers. Mr. Sober tried to contain himself while he waited (and while I sat on the chair and played backgammon on my cell phone) but you could see he was still so upset from the phone call hang-ups. Then, a little old lady, who was in front of him, was being helped and Mr. Sober overheard that conversation. Later he told me they were charging her for things she didn’t order, and that the woman who worked there got so snotty that the little old lady got intimidated and left after paying her bill. That explains what happened when it was Mr. Sober’s turn at the counter. He told the woman he was disconnecting service, told her about the numerous hang-ups he got when he tried calling, and asked for his money back (they ask for one months payment upfront before they turn your service on). She asked him why, but before she could get the entire question out of her mouth, Mr. Sober said, “I’m not here to discuss this and you can’t intimidate me like you did that lady before me. I’ve already had a bad day and I’m trying real hard to be nice”. The man behind him couldn’t contain his laughter. It sounded as if Mr. Sober was capable of reaching over and poking the woman’s eyeballs right out of her head. After some hm’s and haws the lady promised most of the payment back and off we went.

Champion came by and installed my cable that same day. So far so good. The channels are crispy clear, even the regular channels. All channels are where they should be on the channel guide. I’m satisfied, but I can’t help but think I caused so much trouble because I can’t make a decision to save my life, and when I do it poops all over me, and whomever is around me, heehee.