Slowly Learning...

I thought that sounded heavenly. I bought one that afternoon.

So it would be about 9 days into the no TV period, but it's not anymore. Did I slip up and fail and give in? Not exactly. It's more like I just gave up. The vegetarian thing was something I honestly wanted to try out and do. I wanted to know what it was like living that life. I wanted to see if I could do that if I decided to sometime later in my life. And I proved to myself that I could, and learned some stuff along the way. As for the TV? I've gone stretches without TV before. And unlike some people (which would probably include me in my youth), I'm not hung up on TV. I don't dictate my life around it. In fact even since I gave up on the whole idea last night, I've barely watched much of any. A couple hours before bed last night, and then about another hour or so while eating and doing some chores today. Basically what it comes down to is that I wasn't getting anything out of it. I wasn't experiencing something new, I wasn't learning anything about myself or life. I was just doing it cause I felt some need to keep up this 30-Day thing. But this time my heart wasn't in it. So last night, as I sat in my bedroom without my computer (it was at the other house), not tired, with nothing really to do, I just said "fuck it" and turned on the TV for a while. And when I did I didn't feel shame or failure or anything like that. So I think I've made the right choice in the end. Why force something on myself that I'm not really into and that I won't get anything out of. However if I ever do come up with something that I feel a desire to try then maybe I'll do another month. Until then though it's back to normal for me.

In Other News:
- The New Top Three! With a Bonus Two! After some disappointing seasons of Gilmore, and some hair dying experiments, I felt the need to re-examine my Hollywood Women Top 3. As some of you may remember used to be, in some sort of order, Alexis Bledel, Scarlett Johansson, and Zhang Ziyi.

Alexis, after hitting a high after Sin City, has tanked recently with the way Gilmore has been going. I know she's not fully to blame, but still, her performance on the show has seemed stale as well. I know the writing isn't up there anymore, but Lauren Graham still puts in a solid performance.

And as for Scarlett, she decided to go blonde, and make The Island, both of which hurt her, and I heard that she's something of a bitch in person (but that's just a rumor). However, she also did Scoop (and Match Point, which I still need to see), In Good Company, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (I never thought that would possiblly go in the postivie group, but it does), and Robot Chicken. That's a lot of good for a little bad. And I've also started to come around some to the hair. It's still not as good, but it's acceptable.

And Zhang? Not much new there. Also heard that she's a bitch, and that the Chinese don't like her that much, but she always has had that bitchy look to her. It's part of her look. And I still haven't seen Memiors of a Geisha yet. So that's a draw.

So after much soul searching I came up with my new three. It was very difficult, but I've finally come to a conclusion. First off, Alexis has been completely bumped off the list (this may be a big surprise to many of you). Replacing her at #1, Lucy Liu who is not only hot, but also has given us such recent gems as Kill Bill and Lucky Number Slevin (which is one of my favorite movies from 2006 already). Zhang moves up to #2, not so much out of her positive contributions, but more from Scarlett falling back slightly (and the fact that Zhang is still as kick-your-ass sexy as ever). And just managing to stay on there (after her good job in Scoop, and me overlooking the bitch rumors) is Scarlett at #3. I know it's not much of a change, but then again I did drop Alexis clear off the list. And with the inclusion of a thirty year old (yes, Lucy Liu is nearly 38, Zhang is still only 27, and Scarlett is the youngest at 22), I've also decided to give special honors to both Catherine Keener (46), and the ageless Carrie Fisher (50) as the hottest 40 and 50 year olds.

- Do I Have to Sell My Soul? As I was waiting for The Proposition to begin I was glancing up at the advertisement slides playing along and managed to see one for a HIV vaccine test. It was asking for volunteers and all and had a list of qualifications. And while I applaud it, and anyone who is willing to help, I had to pause for a second when I took a closer look at the three bullet points. Normally people ues dots, or arrows, or dashes, or something like that. But this group decided to use the number 6 for some odd reason. This on it's own may be ok, and maybe there is some reasoning behind it, but when you have three bullet points you might want to reconsider your choice. 666? Not the best thoughts come to mind, especially when considering a disease that some have claimed "will wipe out humanity!" A bit extreme, but still, you might want to keep the devil out of your study.

- Feast or Famine at Wegmans. As I may have mentioned I got roped into working 8 straight days at work (I can't quite remember if I posted about this, seeing as how I was a little fried after it). I really wouldn't reccommend this to anyone. Sure it's only 8 days, and it was only 60 hours (only!), but waiting on people (many of whom are quite grating on the nerves) for that many straight days without a break does manage to drive many a sane person crazy. So you can only imagine what it would do to someone like me. So what did the schedulers at Wegmans do to compensate? They decided to give me 4 straight days off! Followed by one day of work and then another 2 off! Meaning that after I worked 8 straight days, I got 6 out of the next 7 off. This is why part-time work is quite often worse than full-time employment. Thankfully they seem to be back to normal now as I have 4 straight days on, followed by at least one off. And even if they do find some way to screw it all up again at least I have next weekend (18th-20th) off to go visit Sabra. So at the very least I'll be able to recover a bit of my sanity that weekend. Just in time for the start of classes!

- I Like School! Yes I've said it. And I mean it. And I have missed classes. It's been a while since I've been in them (China doesn't count). But starting August 28th I'll be back on my path to staying in school for my entire lifetime (true I will be teaching a lot of that time, but I'll still be in school until I retire, hopefully). I do get to ease my way back in too. I only have 3 courses in this fall, and none of them should be all that difficult (I mean math is always a breeze, and I'm sorry, but most psych courses are a joke). Which is doublely good because this means I'll be able to see how hard it is to juggle school and work, and also I'll be able to focus more on getting a good base in French.

- Dark or Clear Liquids For Me. While I still have not grown to like coffee (and probably never will), I have found that I prefer dark or completely clear beverages. When I choose I beer I go for the darkest. My liquor of choice is vodka (clearest of clears). When drinking tea (which I have come to know and love quite well) I prefer the darker varieties. And when I go for pop (yes, it's pop, not soda), I either go for something dark like root beer or completely clear like Sprite. I don't know what it means (nothing I'm sure), or why I was even thinking about it (you don't even want to get into the inner workings of my thought process), but I thought I'd share that anyway.