Thursday, April 25, 2013

Life at up to 30 Mbps

It's been tough again for me to write.  First, Boston, and then West, Texas, just took my heart.  And yet, the days keep coming.  The world keeps spinning.  Somehow.

The human spirit again proves irrepressible.  Still I wonder how much more we can take.

Some have said the thing to do is to live your life.  Go out.  Run another marathon.  Hop on a plane.  Blog.  And so, here am I.

The spring has found me busier than usual, which let's face it, wasn't very busy at all.  I've taken on some freelance work on the side, and have also started a lawn care business.  At present I have precisely two clients.  That may not sound like much to you, but it's about fourteen steps further than most of my ideas ever get, which in case you're wondering, is usually about the point where I think, "Hmm, that's a good idea, I should really look into that.  Woo, I'm sleepy.  Nappy time." 

It's all in the name of not only making ends meet, but perhaps even having them overlap a bit.  My apologies to those of you whose image of me was that of a kind of southern Kardashian, independently wealthy and making millions more from this blog.

Today, that image has been shattered.

The freelance job forced me to finally do something about my internet.  My AT&T DSL, which for years was decent, had in recent months been doing a dead-eye impersonation of dial-up.  Dead being the operative word there.  So as of this past Tuesday (martes, for my Hispanic readers), I'm on cable internet.

Oh. Em. Gee!

It's like I hopped in the DeLorean un martes tarde to go for a drive, hit 88 miles per hour, and boom!  Instantly I have been transported from 1997 to 2006.  And while I do kind of miss Hanson and Mark Morrison -- I mean, I think we all thought they were here to stay -- now my Netflix doesn't freeze five times during a half-hour show!  I never said anything before because it was so embarrassing.

I feel like I just got indoor plumbing for the first time.

To celebrate -- the internet, not the plumbing -- I watched two episodes of The Hills on Netflix.  Ugh, that Heidi.  Even in reruns, she just... ugh!  Don't get me started.  Oh, oh, OH!

And...

They brought me out a cable box.  See, I'd been getting my cable straight from the wall all these years, which evidently was robbing me of HD and limiting my number of channels.

Whatever.

The only thing you really need to get from all this is:  I've got SoapNet back!  So now I can watch my stories every night!

I haven't been this excited since... have I ever been this excited?

Probably not.  Especially when you consider there is a channel that shows WKRP In Cincinnati at night, AND there was an ABBA movie on last night!!!  I didn't even know there WAS an ABBA movie!!!  (Also, if I ever learn how to make that backwards B, I may just retire from the internets.)

Anyhow.  Naturally, I watched General Hospital the past couple of nights, and began to catch up with Luke, Laura, Scott, Dante, Lulu, Patrick, Brenda, Sonny, Nikolas, Michael, and unfortunately, Carly.  However, I'm still not sure how Stavros managed to escape the bottomless pit Luke pushed him into all those years ago?  That's seems a tad unrealistic, GH.

After that, The Young & The Restless came on.  Now I've never watched the show (honest!) but I left it there, just to see if I could catch a glimpse of Jason Morgan.  At first there were two old guys on there I didn't recognize.  Personally, they didn't look all that young or restless to me. 

And then...

There he was.  The gangster/coffee importer/main-reason-I-own-a-black-leather-jacket formerly known as Jason Morgan.  In all his perfect-hair glory.

I'll admit, it was tough.  I mean, this is a guy I modeled much of my life after.  At least, my stoic facade and my cool manner with the ladies.

It was like seeing an ex-girlfriend you dated for years, but now she's married to someone else, and he's a nice enough guy and she acts happy, but you know they'll never have what you and she had, and sure you made mistakes but who doesn't, your story wasn't over yet and how could she give up on that and settle for him when the two of you had so much left to do!  And why?  Because it's convenient???  Well love's not always convenient!!!!!!

So... uh, yeah.. it was a lot like that... 

Here's a fact you may find amusing.  This actually started out to be a Music Monday post.  I know, normally I post those on Tuesdays.  But anyway, that just goes to show you how much I procrastinate, er, like to plan things out in my head for a few days before actually getting around to doing them.

It's one of my endearing qualities. I like to pretend I have several.

Monday was Glen Campbell's birthday.  As I was googling and listening to some of his music, I hadn't realized how many songs he'd done with a positive, upbeat message.  Sure some of them were a bit hokey.  But after the previous week the world had seen, I was in the mood for some hokey.

This is a song called "I Will Never Pass This Way Again."  It definitely has a bit of a gospel feel to it.  The time stamp is a little distracting, and the audio and video are a tad out of sync.  Hey, it was 1973. I'm sure it was a crazy time for us all.



I also came across Glen's version of "MacArthur Park," a song I've loved from the first time I heard it.  I really like Waylon Jennings' version of this, but it wasn't Waylon's birthday, so...



"I will taste the wine while it is warm / And never let you catch me lookin' in the sun..."

15 comments:

  1. I am jealous of your SoapNet. (Yes, all of those things you wrote about, and this is what I noticed.) #RIPJasonMorgan

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  2. I don't have cable TV, haven't for 20 years. I remember when I got it turned off, I thought I'd miss it, but I never missed it for a second.

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  3. First I need to point out that Heidi is not representative of all or even most Heidi's. Second, I want to watch TV with you. Third, since your netflix is smoother, if you don't watch "Kolchak: The Nightstalker" check it out, and you're welcome.

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  4. We don't have TV at all anymore (which isn't to say we don't watch tonnes of box sets!) I have a serious lack of willpower and will actually spend my entire life on the sofa if given an excuse to... not having a TV is a good way of avoiding the problem!

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  5. Music Monday on a Thursday is so you :)

    It was like seeing an ex-girlfriend you dated for years, but now she's married to someone else, and he's a nice enough guy and she acts happy, but you know they'll never have what you and she had, and sure you made mistakes but who doesn't, your story wasn't over yet and how could she give up on that and settle for him when the two of you had so much left to do! And why? Because it's convenient??? Well love's not always convenient!!!!!!

    Um, it's obvious this isn't the first time you've experienced this. So...which ex are you referring to? (Not Jason Morgan. You've already mentioned him.)

    PS: Though not Hispanic, I appreciated the (attempted) Spanish nod.

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  6. Funny...my provider must've just done an audit because now I'm sans Bravo and I missed the third part of the Real Housewives of Atlanta reunion. :-( Although I can't really see myself paying $150+ just for TV so I'm trying to make the best of this by watching reruns of Maude on WGN (Chicago) and more QVC. :-)

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  7. General Hospital still features Luke and Laura? Some things never change. This was a fun and amusing post.. bopping all over the place and full of smiles (aside from the news lately). Thanks for your visit to my blog. The image of someone running up the down escalator and likening it to trout swimming upstream made me smile. Thanks for that.

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  8. Cami Smith ~ I figured that'd be what you picked out. Well, that or Mark Morrison.

    MarkD ~ I think I'd be fine most of the time without cable. But I'd die during college football season.

    Heidi ~ First I need to point out that Heidi is not representative of all or even most Heidi's.

    Good to know :) I really like the name Heidi. At first, I was thinking, "There's no Heidi on General Hospital, is there?"

    I've not heard of Kolchak. As long as we're swapping Netflix shows, check out The IT Crowd.

    J Adamthwaite ~ I know what you mean. I hate when like three hours disappear and I don't really know where they went.

    TC ~ Yeah, I'm pretty sure I "Spanglished" that up pretty good.

    Murf ~ You almost chose Maude as your blogger name, didn't you?

    Hilary ~ Yes. Luke has always been on there. But they brought back Laura and Scott and Frisco and seemingly about twenty other people for the 50th anniversary show.

    Thanks for stopping by!

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  9. I'm the opposite of you. I initially had cable modem but lost it when I had to give up my cable tv. Instead I went down to AT&T DSL. It SUUUUUUUUUCKS!!! If I may make a geeky sci-fi reference, it's like having a TARDIS and having to downgrade to a DeLorean.
    I now watch all my tv online and for free so that's cool. The only thing I miss is flipping through channels and happening upon some funky tv show or movie that you didn't know was on or some channel that has an interesting show on that you didn't think you'd like but it's hooked you.
    If you're watching GH again, then I can stop recapping the episodes. I might stick with the show for a bit now, just to see where they go with the NuLulu and her amnesia. And to see how they bring back those 3 actors who can't be the characters they were then they first started the show.

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  10. The paragraph I was going to copy is the same one TC did. But I like it all!

    I don't know when exactly you turned into me--going all over the place in a post.

    I went to sleep yesterday at 5PM--accidentally and didn't really wake up until this morning--still exhausted. Safe in the knowledge that the big bang theory was being DVR'd--someday, someday you will like that show!!!

    Helena resurrected Stephan and kept him on ice (keeping the ice theme alive) while medical science advanced enough to bring him back mentally. But Laura killed him for good I think simply so GH can get rid of the Ice Princess storyline forever.

    xinher--half the time my menu doesn't work so I can't channel surf. The cable company is very aware of this and desperately wants my business which they might lose but wants me to call another number for a credit when the cable is down which I refuse to do since I spend enough time on the phone with them--so they're forced to give me a credit without me further losing my mind. Of course I just learned that the electric box is on side of my house and the cable splicer on the other. This means I have become expert at figuring out cable problems. Not good. "If you don't call how will we know you're having a problem?" "Because you always give me stupid suggestions that don't work." "call anyway." This is not how I want to spend my life but they just upgraded and the color looks sensational. So I just put my TV on half an hour before I want to watch to have time to reboot if needed. It's gotten to the point where I put the TV on Saturday (never watch) just to make sure it's working then for Sunday--Good wife and Mad Men. Then redo it on Sunday. It's called obsessive TV watching with Pia!

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  11. Well you've made your first step. Next step is to get you up to 2010 standards and 100 Mbps speeds that we have. You can download the entire movie in less than a minute!

    I loved the Glen Campbell videos. It is such a tragedy that he has to go out the way he is where he can't hardly even remember his songs anymore. Guys like him should just grow old playing their guitar and die peacefully in their sleep.

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  12. You're so right, Bone - the news this past week made it hard to be enthused about much. But like you say, the best thing to do is to move forward...and I'm glad you did because, as always, your post made me laugh and smile throughout. :)

    MMMBop! lol

    P.S. I forget how beautiful Glen Campbell's voice is - thanks for the reminder! And good luck with your freelance work!

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  13. I'm all good with "General Hospital Martes" over here at your joint. Because ugh CARLY.

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  15. Faster internet and you go for the soaps, at least you're a clean kind of guy, Bone :)

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