Belly of the Beast - Stopping the signal
Today I went into Wal-Mart. My car was making a weird grinding noise and I was concerned my oil was dangerously low. So I went in to get some oil.
I use to walk Wal-Mart like a ritual and would spend no less than an hour or two just going down the aisles like a ghoul searching for things that looked good. Often times I would emerge with a basket of merchandise that quickly lost its value as I left the lot - kinda like cars do when you buy them. (Although I’ll still only buy a new car. I don’t trust used cars because history is unknown regarding them. I’ll eat the extra money to know I’ve been the only one to drive it. I’m sure there’s some psychosis in this somewhere. 8^) )
So tonight the rain was a light sprinkle and I needed the car to cool down before I put oil in it so I did my routine. But an interesting thing happened. The stroll was flat. It was empty and nothing was appealling. I ended up making my way to the car section rather quickly, got my oil and left. I didn’t buy anything else. I put the oil in my car - it said it was a little low so I put some in it, I’ll check again tomorrow morning just before heading to work - and went home.
This in itself I think is a good thing. I had walked into the belly of the giant and wasn’t shat out the other end covered with debris and trinkets. This is progress.
I realized something else yesterday just before I crashed. (Remember the night before I had gotten up at 3am? I went to bed at 5pm the next day and basically stayed in bed until the next morning. I think I had a bowl of cereal for dinner. I wasn’t really that hungry anyway.) So anywho…
I realized that I haven’t been watching tv. I watch the evening news (maybe) but after that there’s nothing on that I’m interested in seeing. Reality programming is garbage, game shows are garbage (I saw 1 versus 100 a couple weeks ago and a woman was eliminated because she didn’t know the answer to this question:
Which of these movie titles contains a prime number?
A) Scary Movie 4
B) Ocean’s 11
C) Star Trek 6
D) Jason 10
What was worse was about two dozen people in the “mob” also missed it. What really pissed me off was it was a $75,000 question. 75 thousand dollars! Idiot!
Instead of TV I’ve been reading a lot more and cleaning around the house. I’ve also been exercising and while I should be having more energy I think I’m still in the phase were exercise makes you tired rather than perks you up. Like detoxing or something.
So that signal distraction is nearly whipped.
I’m going to be putting my wares on ebay next month. I’m not getting any hits from local geeks so I must expand my circle of buyers. I’m also going to put my Heavy Metal Magazine collection up for sale again. That is a great magazine. I forgot how good the stories and art were/are in that magazine. If you’ve never checked it out go to the bookstore and flip through a copy. Very cool.
Well it’s getting late and I should be going.