Birthday Stuff

As usual, my dad gave me money, and it was just enough to cover two DVD sets I've had my eye on. Ancient Voices and Lost Civilizations. I haven't officially mentioned it on the blog, but I no longer have cable ... largely because I lost track of the bills at some point and they strangely objected to not being paid. I got home, saw a polite little note on the door informing me that it had been cut off, and mentally said, "Huh."

I suppose some people would have frantically rushed over to the office and begged or bribed them to turn it back on. I just shrugged and decided to see if I really missed it. Answer: not by much. I missed the few channels I actually watched: Discovery, History, HGTV mainly. I didn't miss any of the network programming. So I've just been getting myself a good documentary collection now and again and very much enjoying the complete and utter lack of commercials. Once in a while I do turn on the tv at my mom's house, and sort of recoil in horror from all the commercials, rather like I do when I have to use IE (no adblock). So that's $600 less of a drain on my income every year, with my mom's place as a backup should I desperately desire to imbibe of the boob tube. [Aside: that's a really weird sentence; I think I should go get some sleep.]