For the guy who has everything...

This will be a ho-hum post. Sorry! I've actually decided that my blog will be my digital identity, so not only will I talk about the goings-on of my life, I may throw in tidbits from my past that illustrate things I generally believe in. Maybe my blog is schizo. I keep changing it.

So, blaurb asks me yesterday what I would like for my birthday, which is coming up, and honestly, it took me a long time to think of something I want. I'm a very difficult person to buy gifts for, I realize now. I suppose the reason for that is because in my mind I associate things with a personal value. I ask, "how valuable would this be to me?" If something has a justifiable value to me (it will make me more productive, etc.) I will usually buy it. This of course means I have pretty much everything I want, right?

What about experiences, you say? Yes, the gift of some sort of experience (skydiving, dinner, etc.) is typically a good alternative for the guy who has everything. If I were to nitpick though, such gifts typically require an investment of time that I may or may not want to invest, because frankly, I may have other things I'd rather do (This is why video games would not be a good gift, because I have better things to do than waste my life on video games).

How about the gift certificate? This is a clever option, as it allows me to pick and choose at my own leisure, but it does lack that element of thoughtfulness and care that is embodied in an all-out gift, you know?

Back to Posting!

I guess I'm starting to have things to say again. For example, I have built my own Personal Video Recorder (Tivo) with a leftover computer of mine, and it is functioning beautifully, allowing me to watch TV on my own time. I must admit, I have a weakness for TV. TV draws me in, and it sucks my time away, and I know it, but I can't stop. I think it's very much like an addiction.

When I was younger, in elementary school, I probably watched about 7 hours of television every day, starting at 3PM when I got home (invariably to watch the Disney afternoon) all the way through Saved by the Bell, the local news, through Prime Time and all the way until the nightly newscast. I would then start doing my homework, or possibly sleep, and then do my homework before class started the day it was due. What is it about television that makes me watch so incessantly? Is it because I grew up with such monstrous tv-watching habits? Has my brain been programmed to accept passive television entertainment as its lowest-energy resting state? Or perhaps is isn't a function of my environment, and perhaps it is my attention-deficit-disorder seeking out an appropriate medium to supply the constant stimulus it craves. Once again, it's the tried-and-true nature vs. nurture question, rearing its ugly head.