Someday in the future, perhaps when the dinosaurs return to Earth to claim their rightful title as the true leaders of the planet, the Writer's Strike will be over. When that happens you'll be ready to submit your idea about a teenage, female, vampire slaying cyborg (see, there IS a difference) to the networks. The question is how you go about doing that without being thrown out on your posterior by a bunch of overweight, bald, cigar-chomping executives in pinstripe business suits and bowler hats.

That's where the website How Stuff Works comes in. In addition to having articles on removing grease stains and parallel universes the site has a pretty extensive section on television and things related to television which, when you think about it, is pretty much everything. One of the articles is about getting your idea about a television show to the networks.

One of America's lamest reality shows has just announced the audition schedule for the second season of the show, which airs on ABC.

The first audition venue is in Los Angeles on March 18. The other dates and places are as follows: San Francisco, March 25; Chicago, March 31; New York City, April 4; Orlando, April 9; and Houston on April 13. Inventors have to be at the venue no later than 8am, so it's good that someone invented the alarm clock.

And I say this is one of the lamest show not because some of the inventions weren't good (the winner of the first season, who came up with a new baby car seat, is working with Evenflo, and that's great to hear), it's the fact that the judges are kind of hard to take, and some of the inventions they let get through to later rounds were...gah. Let's hope the second season is a little more satisfying (and please, editors, let's cut way down on all of the weepy stories and people talking about their DREAMS. Please?)

(S02E01) To celebrate thirty years of Jefferton, the Mayor has decided to hold a contest to see who can come up with the best painting to represent the city. After a slightly modified opening sequence where the Mayor announces the contest, we cut to a scene in his office where he rejects contestant after contestant by knocking their paintings out of their hands with a stick. Like clockwork, Tom Peters shows up with a great new idea that's going to inevitably end up in disaster. This time, Tom has invented something called Big Cups, large receptacles that hold almost two liters (1.8 to be exact). Tom, not one to always think his ideas through completely, doesn't enlarge the cups to house an entire two liter bottle of soda, but instead offers a smaller disposable cup and a plastic bag with which to dispose of the extra soda. Tom Goes to the Mayor is full of subtle gems like that, where even the most absurd moments aren't given much more than a passing glance. A lot of these moments center on the Mayor himself, who always greets Tom in person as if he's answering his phone: "Hello, Mayor's office!" There's also the "one-man band" toward the end of this episode, which is really just a man with a CD player taped to his chest. Also, instead of walking behind the podium to give his speech, two people actually drag the podium in front of Tom. It's hilarious because it's complete unnecessary.