I believe I am addicted to television. I’m not making light of addiction here.
(Alright, maybe a little) I believe I am truly addicted. Supporting evidence follows. When I step in the door, the TV must go on. I rate the purchase of my DVR equivalent to letting a heroin user walk around with a ‘I.V’ drip. I can mainline TV to the exact flow I need. Thanks to the (nigh)infinite content available I can have most of my waking hours fully programmed. Is it an addiction? Or just as innocuous as turning the radio on in the background?
When in doubt I Google. What are the official signs of addiction? After a quick search I determine there is too much information; so I pick the first site I find with a list. I’m a sucker for a list with 10 entries or less.
| There will be some back and forth so click the items below to play along at home |
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| You no longer have a choice about whether you want a particular substance or activity.I cannot by my will alone stop time (yet) so that ‘24′ will run out of a plot mechanism. The fact about me is – if there is a new LOST available to be watched I have no choice but to watch it. This gets a Yes. |
| You use it to relax or deal with your problems.When the TV is on there are no problems… unless the cable goes out (like it did the other night during Survivor). If that happens I’d have use my back-up – my pusher – the DVR. Another Yes. |
| You start having problems with performing at work or at school.Does talking about TV shows during work count as ‘having problems’? I have convinced most of my co-workers my theories about LOST are spot on. I guess it would be an issue to some managers so I’ll give that one a strong Possibly. |
| You lose interest in activities that used to be important to you.I am biased answering this one. If you ask a truly addicted person they cannot remember ever being really interested in anything else. So my gut reaction is that I’ve always been interested in TV. Letter of this question, No. Spirit, Yes. |
| Spending a lot of time figuring out how to get more of the substance you are addicted to.I spend a lot of time researching my addiction. I want quality and quantity. I make sure every day has content. There are the dailies – Coronation Street, Y&R. Then there are the nightlies – which vary from night to night but include Lost, The Office, Survivor, anything Joss Whedon. So yeah, I make sure I always have enough. |
| Changes in demeanor.Only when I’m let down by my fix. Yes I’m looking at you Flash Forward. And during that Survivor outage I was pissed. So this one gets a yes it effects my mood. |
| Keeping your activities a secret from family, friends and co-workers.Until this blog is read most of the people I know might be surprised by the dailies. Another in the yes column. |
| Changes in appetite and/or sleeping habits.During the writing of this entry I am up prohibitively late re-watching an episode of LOST. There have been many sleepless nights trying to fit in all the nightlies. Consider this a yes. |
| You need to take more of the substance to get the same “high” or “rush.”What I consider good TV then would not be the same TV now. Each Survivor needs to be better than the last. Fringe needs to be greater than X-Files. Battlestar Galactica needed to be better than Battlestar Galactica. Yep to this one too. |
| You experience withdrawal symptoms when you try to stop.Now this is a biggie. This one is real. It’s that room thing I mentioned at the beginning. If I am in a room with a TV and it’s not on… Woah. That sends the creepy crawlies all over me. I have been known to lunge at remotes in other people’s homes during uncomfortable silences. Big yes here. |
Eight Yeses and two might as well be Yeses. I am addicted. Case solved. I decided I am going to live with the addiction. Does an addicted person have a choice? But the realization that I am addicted to the medium allows me to make choices. Before I thought I was choosing to watch TV. I now know that I must choose NOT to watch TV. I practiced that choice the other day, the silence wasn’t half bad. But the plot sucked.
Posted in All the posts I've made.
Tagged with enlightenment, TV.
I haven’t written this much for years. And it brings to mind the fact I love writing. My mind has been in different worlds and down intersecting plot lines for the past few weeks. I haven’t written any down yet. I think it’s a subconscious (now semi-conscious) fear preventing me.
It’s not a fear of the act of writing. Nor a fear of writing something bad. What I believe is, I have a fear losing these worlds I am creating. I fear shoehorning them into an unfitting medium.
I’ll walk you through that thought pattern. Let’s say I create a vast world with a layered plot. The first question to myself is, which medium does this story belong? Usually they are quite visual, my first instinct is then phil·em. But they are also layered. A novel seems more appropriate. Again I have to remind my self of the visual factor. A graphic novel perhaps. They can be both visual and deep. But then I recall I cannot draw.
A television series. That medium is visual and can get deep into a complex plot. Reality – I cannot actually get on television. I could get on the web though. Web series are just coming into their own. But then I have to get the whole web thing going to see it through. This was supposed to be about writing not bringing my work home.
Then I usually spiral deeper, back and forth through the different mediums. I will even toss a series of short stories into the mix at some point. I do not want to define these ideas by the way I tell them. I want them to have the ability to be bigger than the medium they are communicated in. So, I tend not to write any of them. Or at least I tended to not write any.
This blogging has given focus to that medium question. So I write. And it has given me a tool to face the fear. Narrow the medium first then get the idea. Seems simple in retrospect. My mind might not be built to see simple, only shoehorns.
Posted in All the posts I've made.
Tagged with Me, phil·em.
When Robb was [-number-] years of age had a [-adjective-] problem when he [-past tense verb-] [-noun-]. One day this problem happened in the middle of [-noun-]. He didn’t seem realize that other people noticed this problem was occurring. But they did. The[-noun-] came up to him and said [-question?-]. Robb was [-verb-] and [-adverb-] ran away to the [-location-].
It took a long time to get the [-noun-][-verb-] of his [-noun-]. After all he was only [-number-] years old. When his friend came into the [-location-], he was sure he was there to get him. His friend said [-question?-] Robb [-verb-] [-adverb-] and said he would only be [-adjective-] [-noun-].
That was almost as embarrassing as the time he [-verb-] [-adverb] his [-noun-] and it [-past tense verb-] [-direction-] his [-body part-] into his [-noun-]. As he tried to [-verb-], a [-specific person-] walked by and pointed out that it wasn’t in his [-noun-]but [-verb-]to his [-noun-].
Posted in All the posts I've made.
Tagged with Mad Lib.
First of all congratulations to Liam and his family. I try not to put to much externally personal stuff on this blog. I want it to be more of a commentary than a personal diary, but since this blog has its content solely based on the Challenge that Liam issued, I thought it is only right to make one entry about him.
I met Liam about 9 months ago at this great job both of us had. My first impression of Liam wasn’t good. Luckily I don’t hold much stock on first impressions. He started a month after I was there. I had just got settled and in comes Liam. He was eager… way too eager in my opinion for his first day. He was volunteering for any and all jobs. What I later found out is that it wasn’t a first day act. It wasn’t someone who was trying to kiss up to everyone and show off. This was Liam on day 1 and day 121.
Liam inspires me. Not to many people do… not real people any ways. After talking to Liam I want to be a better person. I want to treat people better. I want to listen more. I want to do more. He’s a genuinely good guy. Not many people like that out there, at least not ones who wear it on their shoulder like he does.
So, I want to again congratulate him on the birth of his newest daughter. She couldn’t have chose a better daddy if she tried.
Posted in All the posts I've made.
Now drawing as an art form fascinates me. Do you know what type of fascination I am referring too? It’s the type that comes from the unknown. You can tell me utter ignorance of the subject because I refer to it as drawing. I would loosely put any medium that a drawing motion is made as ‘drawing’. That’s a pretty broad scope I realize. I am a definition of neophyte when it comes to this type of art.
I can doodle. I am a seasoned meeting time doodler. I draw an unmistakable pumpkin. It’s on the vine with leaves and everything. I’ve got a fairly practiced cube also. But I have nothing beyond that.
Then how could this be a passion of mine? It’s one of those passions that is hidden but runs deep. It come from the admiration of any one who can draw. A number of my endeavors would benefit greatly from someone with the ability to create “art”. What if I narrow the scope and focus on a particular a discipline like graphic design.
Can this skill be trained though? Is it one of those things you’re born with or not? I don’t know. Like anything else you can train only to a certain ceiling of skill, whereas if you have natural ability you crash beyond that barrier. I haven’t done it enough to know what I have or have not. I have my first short list alternate.
Posted in All the posts I've made.
Tagged with 10 000.
I tend to gravitate towards the artsy endeavors when thinking about which activities, vocations so to speak, to put on the short list for my 10,000. I am going to examine what I call the traditional arts to see if there is enough passion to keep at it for all those hours. I decided to consider music first ’cause I think that’s the easiest for me to critique due to my history.
The following tale is a rundown of my musical history. Some would say I took up and mastered the xylophone at a very early age, but to that I’d retort I was merely banging away at the coloured blocks. Later at the ripe old age of 2 I was making sweet music on that fusion of metal and reed known as the harmonica. There was a 8 year gap before i picked up anything else, but at least I could transfer my skills with the grade 6 state mandated Recorder lessons. You know what a recorder is don’t you? According to the American Heritage dictionary it was popular in the 14th through 18th century.
Grade 7 came more lessons, this time vocal lessons. They were with a bunch of kids who didn’t want to be there. That was the definition of most of my junior high years. In high school I took a few years of violin. You know how far a few years of violin will get you? Not Beethoven for sure and no where near “The Devil went down to Georgia”. That’s it for formal music training.
I never stuck with one becasue I just didn’t find the one instument that felt like me. I’ve always wanted to learn the piano. One of my joke proffessionshas always been a Lounge Singer… and all good lounge singers play piano. Or it could be that I just don’t have the desire, I’ve always been a more visual guy. I’ll pass on music for the short list. I’ll examine drawing next.
Posted in All the posts I've made.
Tagged with 10 000.
I decided to write about me a bit more. I’ve been writing my likes and opinions but I haven’t said much about myself. And in the future I will most likely be the same. I will not open up too much. But I’ve always thought that you can tell a lot about a person by their morning routine. That’s the time of day where everyone shows their true priorities. I’ll let you know more about me by writing about my routine. It’s not glamorous, so if you’re looking for an action/adventure you going to have to wait till I add some short stories to the mix. My typical morning starts at varied times but the events all happen in this order every day.
There’s always a shower involved. Then shave – every other day (I have to check every day just to remember what day it is) . Grab a shirt and a pair of pants. Then I’m out the door. There’s usually a podcast or an audio book involved on the walk to the bus. I get to the bus terminal and the bus leaves plus or minus a minute after I get there. It sucks on the minus days. No comments please that if I leave 5 minutes earlier I can stop those days. I’ve told myself every time it happens and I just don’t listen.
The bus takes 20-25 minutes to get to work. That’s a couple chapters or half a podcast. Getting off the bus I have the choice to take the LRT or walk. I walk 95% of the time, but there are the rainy 
days, the I’m late days, the lazy days.
When I get to work another choice is presented. There’s a Tim Hortons at the base of the building I work in. It’s very busy, but what Tim Hortons isn’t’ busy? The choice is stand in the line now or stand in the line later. The line’s are huge, but these downtown Tim Horton’s workers are a different breed. They’re ex-military. Trained merc’s there to do the job and get out alive. Seriously it’s a precision machine in there. I have nightmares of a tiny Asian ladies yelling “Next PLEASE!” over and over and the people standing in the front of the line are not responding to the hail. There are peaks and valleys and if you find a valley you can be in and outta there in 30 seconds. Peaks are in the upwards of 15 minutes.
I weigh any decision I make heavily on the length of that line. The outcome of the choice tells me if I go work right away or grab a bagel (12 grain bagel toasted with plain cream cheese) and a coffee (double-double). If I don’t get my fix right away – don’t worry it just happens later.
Then when I get to my desk I click on my iGoolge. I have it layed out just the way I like it. Weather top left corner. Gmail top middle. Quotes of the Day top right. I’ll give you a moment to analyze that before I list the rest. Speaking of the rest it’s populated with: Fark, Slashdot, SciFi Wire and PopCandy. There is the obligatory World News section at the bottom, just in case something worldly happens during the day. I’d hate to not know about Michael Jackson’s death not within the hour of it happening. Twitter has recently move smack dab in the middle of the page, but that’s a blog post in itself.
I sacn the page, address anything that needs addressing then start work. That’s my routine. I’d analyze my own but I don’t think I would give an unbiased answer. I think my iGoogle page says more about me actually. Maybe I will have to update my saying to: you can tell a lot about a person by their iGoogle page.
Posted in All the posts I've made.
Tagged with Me.
I am a fan of movies, but I am no expert. I’ve got an odd assortment of movie trivia in my head, but I couldn’t tell you the technical elements necessary to make a crane shot work. I do have some friends who could and would. I had a certain ‘movie’ friend who would correct me right away when I’d say that I’m a movie fan – they would say something like “That’s Film, not Movie. You’re a fan of Film” To them the word “movie” was slang for the word ‘film’. The word
movie’s
etymology is a twist on ‘moving picture’ and has been around for about 100 years now. But they were still against the word thinking that it adversely effected the medium. To them it brought the art form of film (by the way he pronounced it phil·em) down to a pedestrian level. Obviously he was a stuck up film snob. But thanks to this friend I can’t say film the right way anymore.
What I really enjoy are complex films. The more layered the better. I get a rush out of the possibility of not getting it. Usually I sit in the theatre waiting for the plot I’ve figured out in the first 10 minutes to unfold. I long for the day that Hollywood makes a movie that I have to go back twice, just to understand it. Hollywood is all about money so they of course don’t want to alienate the core audience. Personally I’d go in a different direction. Alienate them, make it your goal. Confuse them but make it interesting. The audience will come back just to understand it, if it’s interesting enough. (see 2001)
The last Hollywood movie I thought was close to making me scratch my head was back in 1995. The movie: 12 Monkeys. It had just enough of a twist to mislead me till the end. I did go see it twice in the theatres, but it was not to understand it, but to pick up the little things. I do like a movie that makes the second viewing more enjoyable than the first. Terry Gilliam is a master at that. You need evidence? Go watch Brazil if you haven’t seen it, and if you have go see it again – I bet you’ll get more outta that phil·em the second time than any blockbuster out this year.
Posted in All the posts I've made.
Tagged with phil·em.
I’ve got a crazy idea. Actually I get them all the time. They are usually stupid and involve making money. They all share one characteristics though – they’re original. Again I have to define originality as in “I’ve never heard of it”. In order to get “original” they have to be crazy and that usually causes the fatal flaw.
I’m going to share a few of my ‘greatest hits’ ideas. They’re now public domain. Feel free to run with them. They’ll cost you more money then you get out of them, you’ll get sued/arrested or maybe you’ll just laugh.
Posted in All the posts I've made.
Tagged with I've got a crazy idea.
I’ve got a crazy idea. This one’s been hanging around since university. It’s my world lottery idea. Think of it as the
Irish Sweepstakes but on a global scale. Ok I know that the fact I know about the Irish Sweepstakes means it’s already on a global scale or I watched to much 70’s TV where it was used in a bunch of running gags. The original part of the scheme is the scale of the idea.
The idea goes like this – call it a 50/50 lottery. Fifty percent of the take goes to the winner, the other fifty percent goes to charity ( minus a small administration fee ). No seriously it would be small – less than 1%. It is all done through the Internet, back during my university days my roommate and I couldn’t figure out how to market it internationally. People buy their tickets online and redeem them online. Hence it’s the World Lottery. (Maybe the World Wide Wottery??? I know, I know… horrible)
Being on the Internet means this idea has the same issues as online gambling – it’s illegal in this country. Which means setting it up in a beautiful “internally self-governing dependent territory of the Crown and is not part of the United Kingdom” with loose laws like the Isle of Man. It also means the idea has issues with the banks. But those issues are also the same as the big Internet gambling sites, so we’ll just follow their lead in these matters. (Notice how I used the word “we’ll” as if you are now deeply involved in the scheme.)
The idea goes a lot further. (As most of these ideas do) The scale and rate of the draws will be staggering and the ticket pricing and game variety will be innovative in itself. Of course it’s all ‘maths‘ out so everything is random, but we’ll make it feel as if there’s a strategy. Think of it as extreme Keno but fun. The key is in the marketing (thank you Google) and word of mouth (that you Twitter, Facebook, My Space, the Liberal Media). And since it’s such a stealable idea, the ‘take the money and run’ approach must be used. Don’t try to build the business, use it as a steping stone, sell it quick – whatever – just don’t expect it to last long. I think way too much about the reality of these stupid ideas.
Most of my ideas do have a semi-altruistic featurue in them. Yes I am profitting, but I’m giving 50 times more to charity and distributing wealth around the world. Some ideas are more generous that others… remind me to tell you about the Canadian Comic Co-op.
Posted in All the posts I've made.
Tagged with I've got a crazy idea.
(Alright, maybe a little) I believe I am truly addicted. Supporting evidence follows. When I step in the door, the TV must go on. I rate the purchase of my DVR equivalent to letting a heroin user walk around with a ‘I.V’ drip. I can mainline TV to the exact flow I need. Thanks to the (nigh)infinite content available I can have most of my waking hours fully programmed. Is it an addiction? Or just as innocuous as turning the radio on in the background?