Boring TV

I feel so out of my rhythm after moving. Before my previous house was burglarized it was pretty normal for me to come home, work out, then watch TV the rest of the night while simultaneously on my laptop either gaming or just surfing the web. The biggest problem is that my big TV was stolen along with all my latest generation of gaming stuff, but luckily they left the retro gaming stuff alone, probably figuring it isn't worth anything (when in fact it's worth much more to real gamers based on rarity alone). Anyway, now that I've been downgraded to a little 23" TV that's been around for about 12 years, I'm finding regular TV much less enjoyable. I don't really know why the size of the TV would make any difference, so I can't really say that's the cause, but I'm just finding the multitude of reality TV that's around now to just be too much. I watch a few of the shows, but some of them are just horrible.

Hell's Kitchen is at the top of the list right now for network reality shows. I find cooking to be very interesting, I think mainly because I know so little about it and I will probably never be any good at anything besides grilling meat. I was never a huge fan of the Real World, but I do find myself watching it sometimes, although I don't exactly keep up with it, so half the time I'm clueless as to why one or two of the characters aren't around. I also liked Rock of Love, but I can't say why. I'm not a Bret Michaels fan, nor a fan of Poison at all, and I hate most of the other reality mass dating shows, but I think I can at least stand to watch this one because the girls aren't nearly as irrational or annoying, and most of the fights are over things that should be fought about.

Aside from those I love watching some of the Discovery Channel shows, namely Dirty Jobs and Deadliest Catch. Those are just some great shows, and Mike Rowe just knows exactly what to say in the situations he gets put in, with comments that are both comical and insightful. I think I like Deadliest catch just because I'm glad I don't have to do that for a living, but I like to watch people who do.

Besides those I don't watch much. Most other shows that I do watch every week had their season finales already and won't be back again until this fall or later. I do still watch reruns of Seinfeld, King of Queens, and Scrubs, but those tend to play the same 10 episodes over and over and it gets old really quick. Lucky for me I'm getting my new TV delivered this weekend, and now I'm finding I'm not really sure what I'm gonna be watching on it. Maybe the fact that I will be able to see the details on the screen again will renew my interest, because if not I will have to replace the game systems I lost and start playing again. I really just want Rock Band back.

Check this out

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/

Awesome site. Being a white person, this might be more funny than if I wasn't, and while many of these may not apply to me directly, the fact that I'm white means I know lots of white people that it does apply to. I suggest starting from the beginning, but you can pretty much read them in any order you want, and if you're also white I can guarantee that you will find this funny, even if it pisses you off that it's so sarcastic toward you.

The millenial generation

Apparently there is a name for the generation that was born between around 1981 to 1995, meaning we were still in pre-college schools at the time of the new millenium, and we have been called, of course, the millenial generation (or generation Y). I happen to be a part of this generation, and have read a few articles on the characteristics that I am being lumped in as having. For the most part I agree with the assessment of this generation, either from my own characteristics or those of the majority of people that I know that are around my age.

The first attribute is that we are exceptionally tech-savvy, and I have no doubt that this is the case, mainly because we grew up with fairly sophisticated electronics and had to learn to use them. This wasn't only because we needed them, but I found that when my parents would buy a new electronic device, it was usually my job to figure out how it works because they didn't have the time or patience to deal with it. Then I would either teach them the basics or they would tell me what they wanted and I would do it for them. For the most part we have this attribute out of a need to help others more than for ourselves, although at this stage in my life I am using the skills more for myself.

Another characteristic that I found interesting was that there is a general lack of loyalty to an employer which mainly stems from the fact that we believe we are valuable enough to them that if we don't like the job we can find another employer to be valuable to. This one I blame mainly on the way we were brought up, not only by our parents, but by the public school system and the pressures they put on our teachers of how to treat us. We were the kids that got trophies at the end of the soccer season, even if we were in last place. We got awards like "most improved" and "most enthusiasm" even if we contributed the least to the team's success. It wasn't our fault, we didn't decide to reward mediocrity, it was because of the pressures of society saying every child should be treated equally. That and the fact that parents of this generation could never accept the fact that someone else's child was better than their's at anything. It's amusing to me that parents thought this was doing their child a favor by never pointing out their flaws, when in fact I expect it will be the downfall of many in this generation when their flaws are pointed out by others later on in life. I also hated losing a ball game because everyone had to get equal play time when it could have easily been won if they had sat out more, of course when I made the varsity soccer team in high school I rarely played and hated it, but we did win. Hmmm.

One attribute I want to add to the list is that we are also exceptionally good at getting wires untangled. I can't even tell you how many times in my life I've had to figure out how to get a wad of wires from a tangled mess to a nicely placed and separated set of wires. The most common occurence was with game system controllers, but this also occurs in wiring for computers, stereos, televisions, and almost anything else that has multiple wires. Now all the game systems have wireless controllers, and I expect most electronics will be using wires less and less in the future, meaning the next generations will never be faced with learning this skill. It's always fun to watch someone try to untangle wires when you can tell they have no clue as to how to go about it and all the mistakes they make that you made years ago and learned from to become the expert that you are.

Just plug it in

Well I moved into a new apartment a couple weeks ago and last night I set up my stereo. I also ordered a new TV because right now I'm stuck with a little 19" LCD that's all the way across the room and I really need something bigger. While shopping online I saw all these bundle deals for TVs that come with a DVD player and installation service and they give you a discount for it. Now it's nice that they have sales like that, but I already have a DVD player and I can set up a TV myself, but I was sort of interested in seeing how much they would charge for the installation if someone were to get it. To my surprise, the cost of installation of a TV was $200!! How could it cost that much? You plug in the power, plug some cords in the back and you're ready to go. Takes 10 minutes, and even though you are getting a discount, the installation cost kinda cancels out a good chunk of that. I do realize that some people are behind in the times and might not know some things, but seriously, it really isn't that hard. They have everything color coded so you know which wire to plug in where, and the input name is right by the plugs so you know what to set your TV to.

Now there are installation fees I understand. I just had my cable service installed and the guy had to set up some stuff in the main phone room in the building, then test out my connections with some voltage meters and such, all of which I don't know how to do. Then again, the installation was free. Hmmm. Also, if you're rich and want some kind of home stereo system set up. You know, they kind where you have speakers in each room and outside, all connected to a central stereo? Yeah, I don't have all the equipment to do all that, and even if I did it's just something you want done by professionals because any mistakes that are made could be costly. I can even understand bringing in your computer to a retailer to get it fixed, although it really bothers me how much they charge for things as simple as wiping your hard drive and reloading the operating system. Computers aren't all that straightforward sometimes, and while I always fix mine myself, there are people who don't know how to save a file without help, trust me, I've met more than one.

But back to TV setup. It's not really even installation, it's putting the TV where you want it, plugging in a few cords, maybe turning it on and showing you what each input goes to, and thats it. Not worth $200, I wouldn't pay more than $20 for that, unless it's a big TV and there are lots of stairs to climb, then maybe I'd go so high as $40. Needless to say, I didn't get installation for my new TV, and delivery is free. Little do they know I live on the third floor and the stairs have some pretty narrow turns, it's not gonna be fun carrying a 56" TV up that, glad I don't have to do it.

Storytime

Not really, but I thought I'd touch on some of the type of books I like to read and maybe I can get some suggestions for other books I'd like based on what I write here.

For the most part I really enjoy sci fi books (go figure), and fantasy to a certain extent. Through middle school and most of high school I stuck exclusively to the Star Wars novels that were created as sort of a continuation of stories to go in the Star Wars universe. Some of the novels took place before the movies, some during or in between movies, but most are set to take place after the last movie and while they are written by different authors, the authors read each others' books and make sure the stories don't contradict each other. It's pretty interesting what kind of stuff they come up with, and you get to know various characters much more intimately, but I pretty much finished all I wanted from those. Once it strayed from the main characters and started focusing on Han and Leia's kids I lost interest, but I read almost every single one up to that point.

A must for sci fi fans is Ender's Game, and while it is a great book on it's own, there are sequels that are great as well that continue the story of not only Ender, but of some of the other children he competes with in his training.

Another great series is the Otherland books, a four book series that should not be read by anyone with a bad short term memory because it follows so many different storylines that it's easy to lose track. It incorporates not only sci fi elements such as advanced computers and virtual reality, but the author also uses his great knowledge of various other literature to create worlds that the main characters have to travel through on their way to find out the answers they seek.

I have of course read the Lord of the Rings books, no surprise there, but it is worth it to state that these are a must.

I have been recommended to read the A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin and the Hyperion series by Dan Simmons. I also plan to read another series by Tad Williams (author of the Otherland series) called Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn. Right now I have a pretty good idea of what I will be reading for a while, but I would like to get some other recommendations for the future, so suggest anything you think I might like based on what I have listed and I will look into anything that sounds interesting. And for those of you who enjoy sci fi books and have not read something that I listed above, I would highly recommend anything up there.