I am such a slacker.

June 12, 2003

I apologize for not writing on my website before now, but…OK, so I have no excuse. It’s not like I’ve been busy with work, or school, or much else, but I just kept putting it off.

I’ve been enjoying my time “off” as best as I can, relaxing and doing what comes naturally. What come naturally is usually watching “Babylon 5″ at 9 AM on the Scifi Channel (even though I swore to myself I’d never watch it again after their cancellation of one of my favorite shows, “Farscape,” this last fall), “Law & Order” every night on TNT, and then whatever else comes on. Oh yes, and “La Femme Nikita” every day at 4 PM. I went this past year withoutout watching much TV at all–an hour of TV a week in the lounge, and then a couple of movies a week on the weekends, maybe. Except for my binge of movies earlier in the term when I discovered that Hollywood Video in Beloit was renting all their movies for only $0.99, I was pretty much television-free. NOw that I’m home, I’m not binging as much as I thought I would. In past years, I could start watching TV at 11 AM and go all the way until 1 AM if I so chose. Now I don’t have a designated “start” time, I just watch the shows I want to watch, which I already listed. I discovered that “E.R.” is on twice every morning on TNT, but I don’t think I’ll make time for it. I like the show, but not enough to rearrange my schedule for it. I’ll watch the reruns on Thursday nights, but that’s about it.

One thing that I’ve been doing is walking fairly regularly. I convinced my Mom to get me a graduation present and let me pick it out, so having already seen the deal, I let her buy me an Apple iPod, their portable MP3 player. It holds 10 GB worth of music, and it’s fantastic for taking on walks. When I go, I usually walk about two miles or so, but one I took went for more than three. That’s been nice getting out and about, and it’s a welcome change from the exercise machine downstairs. I moved over about 20 CDs or so, plus a lot of random songs for playlists, and I still have 2/3 of the unit free for more music. Sweet.

Speaking of getting out, I haven’t been terribly social since I’ve been home. I’ve done some things with my family, but no one else. I’m not totally broke, but I don’t have a steady income coming in, so I shouldn’t be spending too much of my money going out on the town. Last week I went with my Mom to an improv show in downtown Portland with two of the guys from “Who’s Line is it Anyway?,” the woman who plays Mimi on “The Drew Carey Show,” some other random comedians, and an unbilled appearance and performance with the others by none other than Drew Carey himself. That was a riot. They did a lot of standard improv stuff, and by the end, I was laughing so hard I was crying. Good times. I started watching the series “Band of Brothers” with my Dad last weekend after picking it up on DVD at CostCo, but I had to go home after only getting through 6 of the 10 episodes. I came home and told my Mom about it, and she really wanted to start watching it, so we fired it up, and now we’re four episodes in. Strangely enough, I’m not tired of the show. I mean, I watched it this past term in one weekend by myself, then most of it last weekend with my Dad, and now again with my Mom. It’s SO fantastic, and I’m sure that either of them would back me up. Best series/TV show/movie I’ve ever seen, I think.

My Dad picked up a new receiver for his stereo system in his house, and I managed to bum his old one off him. He bought a new one because the one he was getting rid off wouldn’t save various presets. I, however, do not care about presets such as radio stations, and I’m using it as a hookup for the pair of KLH bookshelf speakers I bought last summer on sale for $20. It’s a pretty nice setup, so now I have the speakers coming out of the receiver, and my TV, VCR, and DVD player all going in, so I can watch TV and movies with the big speakers instead of the mono TV speaker. It’s not the surround sound I had at school, but it’ll do for the time being. When I get financially secure (read: have a job) and get my own place, I’ll make myself a decent home theater setup, but not before then. This’ll do in a pinch until then.

So…there’s not much else going on. I’ve been tooling around on my computer a bit, but not too much. In any case, I should really get the trip pictures up on my site, shouldn’t I? Soon enough, young Jedi. I’ll work on it, I promise.

Phear the iPod.