in a effort to keep the streak going of posting something every day, here’s a pretty picture.


i do promise i’m working on a couple of longer pieces, but they’re taking a bit of time. hopefully, this will distract you in the meantime.

this one was taken with my canon t5i during my visit to new zealand. toward the tail end of my time there, we had dinner and stayed the night in taupo. this is one of the first i made substantial edits to using lightroom.

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…a time not so long ago when i still had some hair.

my younger brother was visiting for a week or so and these were taken during an “around the island” excursion with friends dean and becky.

they’re all married now and, with the exception of becky, have kids in tow. these are both nice a reminder of a time when i had more close friends nearby as well as a reminder of the progress others have made in their personal lives. so it goes.

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about a week ago, or so, i came across an essay that intrigued me: how a tv sitcom triggered the downfall of western civilization.

i’ve said for a while now that it was, in fact, reality television that brought down civilization, but this guy may have it right when he points to show friends as the real “trigger.”

in 1994, when friends first aired, i was a sophomore in high school (man, i’m old…). though in those days the only shows i watched religiously were the star trek reboots the next generation and deep space nine, i am embarrassed to say i have vivid memories of driving around in my metallic-blue oldsmobile delta 88 listening to the friends theme song. i’ll admit to thinking at the time that it was a catchy song, with the caveat that my car had no tape deck, no fm radio. looking back now, i can’t for the life of me understand why the song was so popular that it played frequently on kansas am radio.

from the essay:

The show ended in 2004. The same year that Facebook began, the year that George W. Bush was re-elected to a second term, the year that reality television became a dominant force in pop culture, with American Idol starting an eight-year reign of terror as the No. 1 show in the U.S., the same year that Paris Hilton started her own “lifestyle brand” and released and autobiography. And Joey Tribbiani got a spin-off TV show. The year 2004 was when we completely gave up and embraced stupidity as a value. Just as Green Day; their album American Idiot was released in 2004, and it won the Grammy for Best Rock Album. You can’t get more timely. The rejection of Ross marked the moment when much of America groaned, mid-sentence, at the voice of reason.

the author makes a reasonable point. though friends did have a certain appeal, while watching reruns of the show in my young-adult years, i always found it odd that this group of people could possibly be friends. and it seemed that in addition to having some strange shared or overlapping history, they all (with the exception of ross) had a shared loathing or general apathy for anything that actually mattered, current events, etc. and they’d throw verbal tomatoes at ross if he attempted to enlighten them.

that ross and rachel ended up together was always the happy ending the romantic in me wanted for ross, though critically it’s hard to understand what they had in common besides that shared history. friends was always a show that entertained me, but took it for what (i thought) it was, a funny sitcom cast with attractive people. but my eyes have been opened and i can see how it might have been friends, as the lead-up to reality television, that has led to the fall of civilization.

from his conclusion, the author pivots to some simple actions we as individuals can take to “retain our sanity in a dumb, dumb world”:

No. 1: read a fucking book.

No. 2: learn something.

No. 3: stop buying so much shit.

And finally: protect the nerds.

check out the essay, it’s an easy and entertaining read.

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in addition to trying to post… something here everyday, i’m working on a number of other efforts to better myself.

i know i’ve said things like this here before and i have no expectation that these renewed efforts will be any more fruitful than previous attempts. still, at least for now, i feel like this time it could be different.

the difference is that this time there’s no long-term plan or grand goal at the end. rather than saying, “i’m going to lose weight” or, “exercise more” or the like, i’m just taking it one day at a time. and if a day goes off the rails, i’m not getting worked up about it; tomorrow’s another day and we’ll try again.

with no lofty goals, i’m just trying to be conscious of a few things throughout my days.

for starters, i’m trying to eat better. though i’m still not keen on cooking and am not preparing homemade lunches, i’m focusing on smaller portions. this not only saves me a bit of money, but keeps me from eating too much in the middle of the day. lunches are where i’m also trying to get my starch as plate lunches are difficult to get without rice, or the like. in the evenings and weekends, i’m focusing on lean protein, fruits, and vegetables. its at home where most of my junk-food eating seems to take place… mostly because i don’t like cooking.

in addition to trying to eat less and better, i’m also trying to spend my time in more productive ways. though this effort has been met with mixed results so far, it’s still just one day at a time.

conscious of my inclination to stay up late for no particular reason, i’ve been setting my bedtime at 10pm. for the last week, or so, the plan as been as follows: i come home after work, or whatever, have a small snack (cheese, fruit, or a pice of bread), then watch an hour or two of television while i prepare and eat dinner. following dinner, i’ve really been trying to turn off the boob-tube to read, write, or do other work. this has been trickier for me, as i have a difficult time starting. once i sit down to do… whatever, i usually stick to it. but it’s always the starting that i struggle with.

finally, partly as an effort to have more to write about and partly just to spend time other than playing games or watching television, i’ve been trying to read more. mostly news stories and related studies. for a quite a while, i’ve been adding articles and such to the “reading list” in my safari, though never actually going back to read them. now, to curb that bad habit, i’m keeping the articles open in tabs; i may not get to them all right away, but they’re less likely to be set aside indefinitely and then forgotten. this has also been met with mix results. there are articles that have been open in tabs for more than a few days, though mostly because i intend to write something about them and so they remain as easily accessible references.

all in all, after about a week i’m doing fairly well. my therapist says it takes something like 16 weeks to form a habit. and while i’m in the very early stages with all this, and really trying not to look down the road too far, it is my hope that at least some of these efforts will become habits.

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