melog-20110818.log.1

i got a great deal on a 50 inch tv. it's a dlp television. so, it's "old" by today's standards. it's a big projection tv. you have to replace the bulb and color wheel now and then. the person who sold it to me had already put a new bulb in. i bought it and then bought a new color wheel since it was making this horrible squealing noise. the seller warned me about it, so i knew full well what i was getting into.

i bought the part and fixed it. he sold the tv to me for $200. the color wheel was about $100.

so, i got a tv that once costed anywhere from $800 to $1000 for $300.

but, what i wasn't prepared for was after i relocated the cable in our house and all the tv programs started playing.

the big screen seems to enhance the power of television-- a power that i'm starting to despise.

tv has this ability to take people you've never met and force you to compare yourself to them. and the results are hardly ever good. then, commercals come on to feed your mind into thinking that if you buy their stuff, you will measure up.

or, if you could just be like the people you see on tv, you'll be living the "good life".

so you end up giving up your life to sit on the couch and watch people on (so called) reality tv shows do mundane things-- just with more style than you do them. and you wish you were doing what they do-- even though they are most likely doing very little that's different from what you could be doing if you got off the couch and went and tried it yourself (minus all the swank and style).

i can watch a good sci-fi, thriller, comedy, or action movie. i love an informative documentory and even a "reality" tv contest (like amazing race, survivor, or expedition impossible for example). i can even stomach an occasional heartwarming story or tear jerker.

but's these damn reality tv shows where people just bitch back and forth about how she's a liar and he's a cheat, and "they don't got my back" simply suck ass.

they only show whiny people manufacture sub-par drama while somehow making you feel like you'll never measure up to their standard of living. after all-- they are so important that even when they whine about their nails-- they should be televised!!!

ugh!

i love my 50 in. tv.

and i hate it, too.

or maybe i just hate the cable programming garbage that pumps through it, cause i gotta have my netflix.

melog-20110818.log.0

yesterday my daughter and i had a peculiar conversation:

daughter: daddy . . . are you my step-dad? (six years old, been in 1st grade for only one week)

me: do you even know what a "step-dad" is?

daughter: yeah. a step-dad is a dad who takes care of someone else's child.

me: well . . . how do you think you can find the answer without asking me?

daughter: i know . . . i can call grandma!

so, we took the phone and called grandma (my mother).

grandma: hello? (as she answers the phone)

daughter: (totally skips the greeting) is daddy my step-dad?

grandma: what?!?!

my daughter felt confident that "grandma" was actually *my* mom and therefore, i was her *dad* and not her step-dad.

i asked my wife if she overheard.

"yeah", was my wife's response. "she asked me the same question before she came in there and asked you".

apparently my wife tried to fool our daughter by saying that she was indeed her step-mom, but my daughter didn't believe that for a second.

funny that she had her doubts about me.

melog-20110818.log

well, i diagnosed my car problems correctly. once i found that the fuel filted wasn't the fix, i started looking at the spark plugs.

but i didn't feel comfortable changing those.

but, my car started making this horrible, dreadful knocking sound. i thought it was the end!

but, i read the car manual and saw how a pully could be loose or a tooth on the gear that pulls the belt could be missing. i had a bit more hope after reading that. so, i towed it to the repair shop.

they changed my spark plugs and that fixed the lull in my takeoff and acceleration. the knocking sound was a pully and they also found that persistant, pesky oil leak that that no one could ever fix-- behind the pully!

awsome moment of troubleshooting; awful moment in car expenses.

any way, now i can get to work again.