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.

It's not that simple

Sometimes I really wish life was like it is on TV shows. In this case I would like it to be like CSI. See, a little over a week ago my house was broken into, my big TV was stolen, along with my XBox360, Wii, and all the games that go with them. I filed a police report and gave them names of suspects as I thought it might have been people my roommate knew, but without anything more to go on they can't do anything about it. We also found fingerprints on the back window where they broke in, and when the cop told me they were very clear and should be easy to match I got pretty exicited that they might actually be able to get the guys who did this (I know it was more than one because my TV was a 55" and impossible to move by yourself). Then the cop said they check prints by priority based on the severity of the crime, meaning murder, rape and such would take priority over something like burglary, but priority is also based on the quality of the prints, so mine would probably be pretty high up with the other burglary prints. Well that makes sense, so I answered the rest of his questions, had him take down the serial numbers of what was stolen and he left.

Now if things were like in CSI, they would have somebody checking all these prints trying to match them in their computer program that scans the entire database and finds matches, and it would only take like 10 minutes per print. Given this is the only knowledge I really have of how this stuff works, I figured a few weeks, a month at most, and they would either match the prints or find out they aren't in the system, either way I would have an answer. Well I called yesterday to check and see if there were any updates and the officer asked if I had any proof that it was any of the suspects we had given him before, but of course I don't, so I asked him about the prints. He proceeded to tell me the same thing the other guy had said about the priority thing, but this one said for burglary it could take up to 6 months to make it to the top of the list and get checked. Damn, I guess it takes a lot longer to match prints in real life than it does in CSI, but I guess that makes sense. I know computers are fast, but to check every print on file in just one city would take a while, and while I doubt they check against the entire country unless they have to, just checking the county must take a long time, and for how many crimes actually happen out there, my little burglary crime has a long way to go to get those prints matched. But the officer also told me he'd see about looking up the records of those few names of suspects we gave him and seeing if the prints matched, which apparently they haven't done yet.

Up until I had this information I thought it might be a good idea no to replace the stuff I lost yet in hopes that they would find the guys soon and I would either have it back or be reimbursed or something, but it doesn't look like that's gonna happen. So if any of you know of any good deals going on for TVs or game systems then let me know, I'll be looking to replace what I lost in the next few weeks assuming those prints don't match any of the suspects.

To BSG or not to BSG

Actually that's not the question, because I think everyone should see this show. If you don't know already, I'm talking about the new Battlestar Galactica. Sure it plays on the Sci Fi channel, and it is technically a sci fi show, but it's also one of the best dramas on television right now. The storyline is great and keeps you guessing at what's going to happen next. I've gotten quite a few people hooked on this show, some of them hate the sci fi genre with a passion, but this isn't your typical sci fi with laser guns and such. The show goes beyond just the cool special effects and advanced technology and gets into the heads of the characters. After the events that happen at the very beginning of the series, no one truly trusts each other, not even married couples, and the show explores this, the enemy uses it to their advantage, and the situations these people are put in never have an answer that is clearly better than others. So if you think you'd like to see a drama with elements of sci fi, politics, war and psychology then you should really check out this show.

Now on to the elitists who will deny this show is any good because they are too busy comparing it to the original series and how different it is. Guess what? It's not supposed to be the same. What would be the point of doing it at all if it was exactly the same show with different actors? I think almost all of the bashing this show gets is for exactly this, and while I understand the original show was a breakthrough in its time, this new version is a breakthrough of its own. I suppose I see their point though, I mean, if someone were to decide to recreate the Star Wars movies I think I would be pretty pissed, but while they would never compare to the originals, I would still give them a chance to prove themselves. It's hard to set aside your bias in a situation like that, and it probably wouldn't entirely go away, but you have to try to see past the fact that it's a remake and just see that it's a quality show.

So anyone out there who hasn't seen this show, rent or buy the DVDs, set aside a few weekends and just watch it from the beginning, then when you're caught up you can watch the latest season as it comes out. This isn't just for geeks, this is for everybody, get to it.