http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6593#comment-648967

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For the second time in two weeks, I've somehow burst a blood vessel in my right eye.

Grrrr.

Oh, and a major dental appointment today. Sucks to be me...

Yesterday I stopped at a gas station to buy some gas cards for a friend. I needed a particular brand/franchise.

It was a bad sign when I was driving along the frontage road to it and there were three police cars stopped, lights flashing, sitting on the edge of the road.

Then I go in. It's like the most ghetto gas station I'd ever been in - prepay (which is very unusual in my city), glassed-in counter/staff (bulletproof, I'm guessing), people milling about in gangsterwear, and a dude trying to push around in front of everyone yelling at the counter guy that he wouldn't sell him a blunt instantly. He later went out, came back in, and threw a dollar at the gas station dude and grabbed a cigar from around the glass window and dashed out.

I ended up just leaving because things were pretty chaotic. As I was leaving, there was an additional cop car or two on the frontage road, and they were handcuffing some dude.

I ended up finding another station of that franchise which was a bit less crazy.

I obsess. I obsess obsessively. And once the obsession ends, it ends big time. I have a very hard time with the concept of moderation, pacing, etc.

It is annoying.

Another thing I've never understood is the allure of chicken wings. Are they just an excuse for hot sauce and ranch dressing? I've never really liked food I have to fight in order to eat it, and it seems like with all the bones and stuff, and the possibility of getting really messy, it just isn't that great of a thing. But people do seem to love them...

Heated massage recliner chair. Yeah. I think that would be totally awesome.

So I went a bit crazy the week of Christmas and bought myself a Christmas present. A big-ass TV. OK, in today's scale of big-assedness it doesn't reach record proportions at "only" 37 inches, but it seems huge to me.

I bought it in part likely due to my insatiable jealousy of others with cool toys. A co-worker just bought a new big TV and I think I was all jealous. Despite the fact that I do have a pretty big TV in the living room.

But my current living room TV is a rear-projection, and is experiencing some convergence issues, and I fear it may go out, and according to Dr Google, cost something like $400 to fix. Plus it's rear projection - that's old tech! I'm not an old-tech kind of gal, right?

I also kind of envisioned my home like one of those showplaces where everything looks good and the flat TVs are all non-chalantly affixed to the walls and are completely cord-free. Of course in reality, that's not gonna happen...

So in my jealousy and fear I ordered a new TV right after Christmas. It arrived yesterday and I unboxed it, amazed at its largeness, and then really had no idea what to do with it. I had thought I'd put it in the bedroom, which I did do, but it really is ridiculously large for the room.

Just another nod to my inability to restrain myself, as well as television addiction.

At least I hope this will prompt me to finally get rid of the two old "tube" TVs that I have and don't use and are just gathering dust...

I suppose if/when the rear projection goes, it'll go in the living room and I'll feel less freakish about it. Although then I might be addicted to bedroom TV and need to buy another one!

Crazy...

Ran across this on Boing Boing:

1. Go over to Wikipedia.
2. Click "Random Article" just below the Wikipedia unfinished Death Star logo. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
3. Choose the link in the article you think will get you closest to the Jesus article.
4. Keep track of the articles. Continue step 3 until you arrive at Jesus.

Scoring:
1 point for Random page
1 point for each click
1 point for Jesus page

My results: Random page was for some arena football team I'd never heard of (to be honest, I don't think I've heard of any arena football teams). I grimaced and was like, I'll never get to Jesus through Arena Football! And yet, two clicks later I was there.

In other news, I think I may have to kick the kitties out of my bedroom. I feel tired all the time and I think its mostly because they keep waking me up. They woke me up at 2:30am today, and then continually until I had to get up for work.

I did try to exclude the kitties from my bedroom a number of years ago, and it didn't work. They seemed to be noisier outside than in. Seriously, Toby sounded like he was trying to break the door down with his shoulder like in some cop show.

So I'm going to remember this holiday as the "Wii" holiday. Wii items made up an extremely large percentage of the total Christmas gifts at our family's gathering.

I gave my mother two Wii games.
She gave me three Wii games.
My stepfather gave her two Wii games.
I gave him one Wii game.
I gave them both an extra Wiimote, nunchuck, and wheel

So guess what we did most of the holiday and subsequent weekend? Played Wii, of course!

It was Wii-mania!

Overall a fun holiday. I got some very nice presents, and I think that the gifts I gave were enjoyed as well. My mother liked the stained glass piece I made for her especially.

Other stuff I received: An opaque projector. Will be very handy for doing paintings (well, the initial drawing for paintings, not the actual paint part). Will also be good for stained glass pattern-making. And heck, I can paint murals on the walls if I want to!

Also got a snowblower. A small single-stage electric one. And a roof rake to prevent snow buildup and ice dams on my roof. Cool stuff, but I'm a bit depressed about winter in general and thinking more and more about a warmer climate as a possibility. Someplace green and lush and warm and longer days and sunnier in the winter. But I guess for the time being, snow removal equipment is a practical gift.

I have an actual blister from shoveling snow yesterday. Annoying.

It wasn't that it snowed all that much (I think about 2-3 inches), but I was dealing with the aftermath of a blizzard a couple weeks ago when I was away on vacation. My neighbor, bless his heart, used his snowblower, but seems to think I don't need more than one car-width to use the driveway. I'm glad he did do at least that, but it was very annoying to keep almost getting stuck in my own driveway because I can't drive perfectly straight up it, and having to back out into the street and then wheel my trash containers down and put them in the driveway because there isn't room for them and still have room to pass.

I feel bad for whining because R is a great neighbor and it was a bad snow, and I could have arranged to hire someone to do snowplowing if I was really that particular. But still, a halfway job is a bit annoying to come home to.

But finally tonight the driveway is clear! (and I have a broken blister, which sucks)

I really couldn't do much with the bottom apron though. I hacked away at it for a while, but wasn't getting very far since it was all snowplow snow and compressed into a giant chunk of ice now. I may have made enough room to put the trash out now, though, which would be most excellent.

I am getting a bit tired of winters in the midwest. I'm too chicken to give up the security I have and move though. If I knew what I wanted, I'd go for it. But the problem is I just don't know.

Apologies to you, new shoes.

I know that you're from the south - Alabama to be precise. When you were brought into the world new and shining with your newness, pristine, there's no way you expected to have to trudge through snow and slush. You probably expected warm and sunny skies for your shoe life. Well, I apologize for bringing you here to this place of ice and snow and cold.

Yeah, its snowing today. Great. And it's supposed to be snowy, sleety, and slushy for Christmas. Yay. Not.

Dearest kitties,

Please to be keeping your food in your tummies. I'm sick of all the puking!

In other news, I'm having some post-vacation blahs. I think its the snow. Stupid blizzard. Why didn't I stay in Florida? Not that they weren't having an early winter there, though. Still, as long as it didn't have 14 inches of snow like we did here, I guess I can't complain about it.

I'm getting too old. I'm like my grandma who remembered when item X was only a nickle and decades later can't see paying $1 for it.

Times do change, but some things make me wonder if we don't have too much disposable income. I know, we're in this recession and stuff, so it's a weird time to think about this, but it sprung to mind when I ran across an article about UPS and FedEx suspending their delivery guarantees for the Christmas holiday, so now even if you pay extra for 2nd day air or whatever, your package has no guarantee of reaching its destination on time.

When I was in college, I don't think FedEx existed, or it was certainly not very prevalent. UPS existed, but I don't recall the speedy shipping being very prevalent. I remember the standard "4-6 weeks" expected on most shipped things. I didn't really know anyone who would have considered spending the money to pay for such a thing as next day air, etc.

I recall that once I did need something desperately for a project at school. My father did ship it with some special fast shipping. It got to me in two days, halfway across the country. I think it cost like $17 or maybe $27 in shipping, and when the guy gave it to me, he seemed surprised and said something like, "someone sure wanted you to have this fast" in a sort of awed voice. I was pretty awed myself, and thought it was a horrendous expense to have paid (I suspect, actually, that my father's employer paid it, but I don't know that for sure).

Remembering this got me thinking, though. Nowadays it's pretty commonplace to be willing to shell out extra funds for fast shipping. People do it. Sometimes out of need, but I suspect muchly out of want and convenience. They have the disposable income to do it.

I also think about changing considerations about "value for money" and what we're willing to spend on various things and wonder if that has changed and what percentages of various spending have allowed us to have enough disposable income to be willing to pay a premium to get stuff fast.

Just a few musings that are rambling and probably a bit nonsensical, but I wanted to get them down.

You know you're staying in a quality motel when you are parked next to a car with three bullet holes in it. Big bullet holes - probably 40 or 45 cal. One in the driver's door, two in the passenger.

Today was a three-soda, 1 nitro day.

It started at about 2:30 am when my achalasia was bothering me (well, started before that, but it was finally driving me to distraction by 2:30am). I finally got up to ease the pain and watched TV for an hour. After that the pain got a bit better but I had watched Hoarders, so I couldn't go back to bed, but instead had to scrub down my bathroom due to the psychological effects of that show.

So of course, tired today. Hence the three sodas this morning. The achalasia pain kept coming back on an off. If I hadn't had some stuff I had to do, I think I would have stayed home today. I finally took a nitroglycerine tablet. Felt a little funny after, but it seemed to help some. Tonight starting to feel quite a bit better in an overall sense. Fingers crossed I can sleep tonight.

There's the old saying that there's nothing that tastes as good as being thin feels, but that doesn't mean that I can stop eating doritos when I visit my mother, or that I can necessarily resist the chocolates that I have stashed the cupboard for "special occasions" when I'm being bored and lazy.

The instant gratification seems to outweigh (heh, no pun intended) the slight long-term benefit of not partaking. That's really the way of the world. That's why it's more pleasant to lie around than to undergo cardiovascular exercise. Sure with the exercise, you feel better overall, but that momentary discomfort of getting hot and sweaty and the procrastination of I can do this later is difficult to overcome.

I have, however, been better with the exercise of late. Having a fitness room at work is really a nice perk.

But I didn't want to start this subject talking about diet and exercise. I just want to use it as a very common example where people often do not do what is best for them.

I really want to talk about television and my own pathetic addiction to it and how I was resolved to cut the cord, but instead did the opposite.

My current cable "deal" has expired. So I think... Now's the perfect time to cut way back. It would be good for me to watch less TV. I'll just switch to the simplest basic package... Well, that thought lasted only a little while, then I figure I'd get expanded basic because, you know, things like the discovery channels are educational!

So I call in to change plans. Well, not only didn't I cut back, but I still have what I had before - Expanded basic plus digital view, plus HBO, Starz, Cinemax (same low price!). And not only that, but I also have Showtime for six months (free!) and upgraded internet service (free!).

Pathetic.

And have you heard the term "Tivo Guilt?" Because I have it. All the cool movies I want to see and have access to through cable premium channels, I Tivo. But I just don't have time to watch them. So the Tivo fills up with stuff.

A better person would just hit the delete button until their finger got a blister. But I can't do that. Nope. So I've been writing them out to DVDs because sometime I might want to watch them...

It'd be better to just cut the cord and go cold turkey on cable and Tivo.

But then, I don't know what to do with myself if I don't have that TV time. What do people do that I don't do? I read a lot already. And I take care of a house and a yard (which I could do better, I suppose). I work full time. I paint some and do some stained glass and sometimes play the Wii. Without kids to haul around, complex meals to prepare, or some particularly enthralling hobby, I just don't know what else to do with myself. What do people do if they don't watch TV?

Fascinating. Totally. An intriguing look at the world and the growing problem of obesity and why/how it is occurring. Science and biology and culture and society, the author explores everything with a style that is interesting, but not overly bogged down like a textbook.

Not much to say. The second in the Chiaverini Elm Creek Quilts series. The author does take on a bit of a different tack in each of her books, so stories that could be very formulaic don't fall into that as I had expected. Still, they are a bit similar in theme - family, friendship, quilting. Good, not great. A fun read, light and not too long. I enjoyed it.

This is the first book in the Elm Creek Quilts series, by Jennifer Chiaverini. A friend of mine was reading them and recommended. I found it light and charming. A fun book. Not super deep, but some messages about family, forgiveness, and friendship. The author's narrative is OK. She's not that great a writer, IMO, but tells a pretty good story in a straightforward plot-driven way. I liked it and immediately commenced on other books in the series.

These books (the Agatha Raisin series) make me smile. They're light and short and they just cheer me up with their charm. They're much the same, one is like another, and yet I enjoy reading them because the Agatha character is such a hoot. This one did not disappoint.