Tangled in a World Wide Web

In this month of season finales, I can't help but to consider the shows that last, and those that don't. The ones where you get closure and the vast majority that don't. I can't help but wonder about the shows that run past their prime, and those that "jump the shark" as it were. If I compare my life to a sit-com, I'm long past funny, past stagnant. I've reached the point where the older couple would adopt a child. Or the smarter co-star would die, leaving a flailing, less than whole cast and a fading star to change careers and/or maybe adopt a kid. I don't see me adopting a kid and there is no co-star, so I suppose it might be time to look for a spin-off. New job, new city, hell if I'm lucky, maybe a hot, new co-star. Or maybe this show has had its run. Maybe it doesn't get renewed or a spin-off. No new Darren, no new neighbor or landlord. Maybe it's time for the traveling one-man show... Shatner style. If Kirk can become Denny Cr...

OK, so most people who know me, know that I have only had 2½ channels for years. One that always comes in great, one that comes in pretty good most of the time and one that comes in sporadically at best. You know, on a cloudy day, if I open the front door and hold onto the doorknob while touching the antenna, I can almost tell an elbow from a knee. Yeah, that's the half. Well, unless you live under a rock or in a cave, you can't help but know that television is going all digital. It was supposed to happen on the 17th of February but, thankfully, I got a reprieve from the President.  Now, I have a 19 year old TV with a cheap rabbit ears antenna and an almost equally old VCR. I already had to buy a box to allow me to hook up a DVD player a few years ago.  It is no secret that I am a procrastinator but early on I decided to send off for the coupon offered by the government to offset the cost of the digital converter. I got them in the mail but it became a contest of which would ha...

So I was doing laundry and watching as the washer filled and started washing and I began to notice an eerie similarity to my life. You know, going through the same motions over and over and getting no where, while occasionally, someone dumps a load on me. The agitation, the roiling, the feeling of being tossed about and out of control. It was all very eye-opening in a disheartening kind of way.  Now, before somone starts passing out Prozac ® , Paxil ®  or Zoloft ® or whatever name the latest 'happy-high with a child-proof cap' goes by, let me just say that I am neither suicidal nor overwhelmed with despair. I have my moments, for sure, but this was just an observation that cried out for blog time and, well, my blog was feeling a bit neglected. Besides, if I wrote a blog entry and wasn't bitching or moaning, either no one would read it (which is only a slight drop in readership as it is) or those who did would believe that I had been abducted and replaced. For anyone who is...

Last night I watched the last ever new episode of Boston Legal. It is a strange and wonderful show with a merry band of misfits, an odd and well disguised sense of morality and the balls to take on timely issues when the people we expect to take them on, tend to gloss over them with well-planned and superbly executed soundbites. I will miss the antics and the camaraderie, the silliness and the politics (is that redundant), the absurdity and the unexpected. In all its wondrous absurdity, it usually poked fun at real problems, real issues or realistic cases. It did so as one might poke a bear with a stick, with little thought of consequence or repercussions. Perhaps it was the bear that finally caught up with them, or maybe just the intelligent arguments became too much for the advertisers. Let's face it, advertisers need sheep and intelligence is counterproductive to the cause. Intelligent broadcasting attracts intelligent audiences and intelligent audiences are not as easily distr...