I have not had a lot of time to work out recently, a few quick runs here and there.  I am quite the time hacker, so it is time to get this process of living down to a science and just make time.  Heath is a priority, period.

I am not sure having all the movie channels is good for that goal however.  My roommates were pretty insistent we get the premium channels when we got cable.  OK, since it is split 3 ways who am I to argue?  It has been a few years since I got the premiums, and at that time I only got HBO and Cinemax.  I enjoy Entourage on HBO and Real Time with Bill Maher but other than that I didn’t watch much on HBO.  Now I have everything.  It is like being a 9 year old in a candy store.  Damn the cavities…CONSUME!

There are SO many movie channels.  I think there is a Starz channel entirely dedicated to movies about dentistry and another for movies staring heart-throbs from the early 80s (I think it is Starz-Jan Michel Vincent Channel).

The movie that sure seems to be on several times a day on several channels is ‘The 300′.  My friend Bill and I debate this movie.  I love it, I think the overly dramatized lines and surrealistic film style is addictive.  Bill thinks it is almost all style and more like the graphic novel than a real movie.  No matter what way you see it…there is one thing you just can’t miss.  Everyone has fantastic abs.  I am quite certain it was before the development of this:

So, that leaves us with the realization that there may have been the careful application of massive amounts of make-up.  I had not seen the movie in HD until I got the Showtime 2 HD Gladiator Channel.  Now, I am quite convinced I am right about the spray-on abs.  There is something very appealing to think that you can go and eat the whole New York Cheesecake and go home and spray on a great figure.  Certainly works with the ‘I am too busy to look like that now’ philosophy I currently have.

So since I can’t look like that today I think I will just start talking like King Leonides:  “KSBY never retreats! KSBY never surrenders! Go spread the word. Let every Central Coast resident assembled know the truth of this. “  On second thought, I think you have to have ridiculous abs to make over-the-top statements like that work in passing converations.

Maybe I should just watch, ‘He’s Just Not That Into You’…less intimidating.

“Should we go out for a walk or a run?”  That is what Leslie was asking me Tuesday night.  She asked this while stretching, putting on track shoes, and informing Runner’s World magazine (she might have also put on one of those paper numbers you see people wearing in the Boston Marathon).  You have to know that Les is quite the athlete so that having me run with her did involve the possibility that she would have to fireman-carry me back home and operate the de-fib kit.  I used to average about 25 miles a week, but recent busy-work cut that to a trace amount.  Fortunately, I had enough in the tank to make it to the Pismo Pier and back.

It is July, so that means a lot of tourists are in my town.  I have a love-hate relationship with it.  I certainly love that people have easy smiles enjoying our lovely coastline.  I am less in love with traffic, garbage, and longer lines at resturaunts (I am not terribly patient when I want to eat).

Having ran down to the pier we saw a smattering of tourists slowly walking planks in the murk.  You can tell these people are from the area, they were checking out the $1.87 necklaces at the pier bait/trinkets shop and were resplendent in their West Kentucky State sweatshirts.  I usually tune that out, but there is one thing I found interesting: that people were REALLY amused with the birds.  Yep, the same birds that more or less naturally paint the deck were looked at in awe.  Seagulls and pelicans were the rockstars that night.  Kids feeding them and adults nearby looking on with joy.  I guess the squawking we hear as part of the landscape is actually something unique and special.  I know without a doubt we live in a beautiful area but sometimes simply forget some of it.

Pismo is interesting that way.  When I moved here six and a half years ago I made a promise to live near the ocean for a while.  And I was fortunate to get a place only 50 yards from the beach.  Ethan was so little then that I had to hold his hand as we stumbled down to the water to find cool rocks.  For whatever reason I slowly moved away from it, but now I am back…poised in the hills.  I have the benefit of seeing the water and sand, but am far enough away that the tourists look like specks in the natural painting.  I am just a quick run down to the shops, the pool hall, and the birds.

Yep, even the basic ocean birds have a special draw.  OK, yes, one or two has successfully over the years hit their target on one of their bombing runs but I’ll forgive them that.  The birds made that kid from Indiana or Luxembourg or Taft laugh very hard, and you might have even put a glib smile on my face…wedged somewhere between gasps for breath trying to keep up with Les.  I need to run more and watch the tourists less.

Here I am sitting in my new place, writing my blog as I get ready for work.  This doesn’t seem like quite the technical marvel, but it is.  I took two days off from work to handle organizing and putting stuff away at my new place.  The first of those days I scheduled the gas company to come and  a roommate has arranged for the cable person as well.  The gas guy was pleasant and efficient and was gone in about an hour.  The cable guy more or less became our 4th roommate.  I know why this happens, because cable is not just cable anymore.  The boxes are basically all internet machines as well.  On top of that we also ordered internet.  Nothing was easy to hook up.

The new place is large and completely wired for calble, there are jacks everywhere.  However you don’t want to hook all of them up since it saps the signal.  So, our guy had to get into the attic to figure out every wire he needed to install.  Then there was the issue of telling the company which DVR boxes he had used.  He communicated thru some wireless company’s direct connect.  So we all heard he process involved.  Then he hooked up the internet, and left.  It was like losing a family member he had been here so long.  By the time he left he had figured out several of us work on TV, and ‘no’ he doesn’t watch much TV even though he professionally installs it.

About an hour later I noticed the internet connection was VERY slow.  About .4 mbits/sec, about a tenthof the speed you would hope for.  Which means…more dealing with the cable company.  I hate the phone tree business.  I understand this as a business efficiancy, but dislike it because the person on the other end HAS to assume you are a technological idiot.  “Is the modem plugged in?”  “Which operating system do you have?”  “Is your computer turned on?”  I have tried that in the past and found it too damn frustrating.  The service I have been using more recently is the ‘live tech chat’ box a lot of businesses have.  I had enough internet service where I could try it, and ‘by golly’ that person sent a signal to the modem and fixed the problem in far less time than it would have taken to just get a customer service rep. over the phone.  Interestingly, while writing this I just got a call from Charter asking me why I had cancelled my service at my last location.  Seems like some strange romance-laced question: ‘Why did you break up with us?’  When I told this person I still had Charter at my new place, she seemed better. 

So, most stuff works. Errr.  Well, except the washer and dryer.  Whatever plug is there is NOT the plug we need and there is no adapter.  You have to wire a new box…expect in this case when I looked at our breaker box it clearly states, ‘washer/dryer has NO breaker switch’.  This implies, you will clearly die if you are not an electrician.  There is a master switch, but I don’t feel very daring.  I had my roommates pick up a continuity tester before I even think about this.  We all need to do laundry.

On the up side, I finally am not living out of my car anymore.  I used part of my time off getting the tires I DESPERATELY needed installed on my car.  It was insanely busy at the tire store yesterday, the cars stacked in the small SLO lot more like Jenga pieces.  Then I got my car a hand wash.  I am not one to do this.  I generally do all the work myself, but in this case I was just mentally and physically exhausted from a week of transferring my life about 15 miles away.  The hand wash is interesting.  It got most of the really horrible stuff clean, but there are a number of things were missed.  I guess that is what a ‘detailing’ is for.  So, when I got home I finished what they hadn’t.  Fresh with slimy Armour All all over everything it feels like a new car again.

I know all these things fall into ‘regular errands’ catagory, but since I did them all in compressed time it seemed like some type of military operation.  Now time to get back to work, and honestly I am just fine with that.

My favorite shows are all on hiatus.  I would list them, but not ALL of them are on NBC.  I did actually watch a little of Lou Diamond Phillips winning the coveted “I am a Celebrity, get me out of here!”  So, in the last several months I saw Lou Diamond Phillips and Joan Rivers win reality shows.  I am not sure even a great predictor of the future like myself or Nostradamus could have foretold such unreal events.  I suspect this is how the Roman Empire started to tip.  I am sure one Centurion at some point turned to another and said, “Really, we are throwing these people to the lions?”  “Yep, the Senate said it does well in villages 18-35.  It is called ‘I am a religious heretic get me out of here’.”

Another way I know we have hit the great broadcast desert is that my DVR isn’t filling up on anything other than “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and “The Deadliest Catch”.  I have probably 20 shows set to record, except they are stuck in the space-time continuum several months away.  Even the PBS Frontline show has not made many new appearances in my cue.  It is as if nobody wants me to see anything.

Additionally the drought has even extended to my use of the TV.  With a laptop nearby and HULU on the favorites it is not really a matter of which medium offers more for free consumption.  The only trade-off is quality and that barrier is falling fast.  I watch a little 30 Rock before bed last night, I felt better that I was watching a program which originated on NBC.

The salvation is in The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien.  Not only is it as good as I was hoping, it is better.  He just gets it.  It is not about the interviews, it is about making me laugh.  There are definitely a lot of taped bits, but think about it…what did people like about Leno…’Jaywalking’ a taped bit.  OK, I will give him that ‘Headlines’ was performed live but orchestrated before.  The only real interview I remember is when he asked Hugh Grant what he was thinking in his dalliance of Elizabeth Hurley.  “What the hell were you thinking?”  It was a good interview, Jay.  That was what I wanted to know.

Well, the great experiment begins this fall when live TV faces off against scripted drama.  Leno vs. Grey’s, Lost, local Fox affiliates, etc?  That may be better drama than anything I hope starts populating the DVR.

I ran into an area supermarket in Wednesday night hoping to buy a reasonably priced energy drink for Thursday morning.  Oh, I can already hear the keyboards clicking away.  “Don’t drink that stuff it will kill you.”  “There is no such thing as a reasonably priced energy drink.”  “Try coffee.”  Just follow me on this one before draining the bandwith better served for YouTube videos of Mentos and Diet Coke.

I went into one of those supermarkets where you have to present your customer card or be charged $7.15 for a loaf of the cheapest day old bread available.  I actually had to look to find the energy drinks which are usually peddled like suggestive handouts on the strip in Las Vegas.  I eventually found the single dose supply in front of each cash register, but none of the same brands were together.  So, because I do this, I walked between the isles and peered into the small glass covered refrigerators to compare brand and price.  No real price difference.  For 16oz of heart-rattling caffeine and other radioactive chemicals (according to the nay-sayers) they wanted $2.69.  Oh, come on folks.  If you look, even just a little, you can beat that price by nearly a dollar.

I have my preferences when it comes to energy drinks, I usually go for the Zero-Carb Rock Star.  It doesn’t taste like cough syrup as so many do.  However, it is not always reasonably priced.  What dealer would price the tastiest legal drug cheaply?  So, I often go rouge.  The picture at the top of this blog shows what I will try Thursday.  The sugar-free Jolt.  The can is big, more like a car battery and just as elegant.  Can is kinda subtle don’t you think?  There is a good reason I drink these with the shades drawn.

I should add that I left the grocery store and walked a short distance away to a drug store where you’d think economy might not be the top item on the agenda.  But this is me, I will actually spend 5 minutes shopping to save a dollar.  I think it is more on principle than anything else.  In this case I went off the grid to prove a point.  So, if you see a man bouncing through the streets of San Luis Obispo with an unnatural glow and likely exhibiting super-human strength…it is probably me.  I don’t think I have ever seen anyone consume a car-battery-sized energy drink.  Come to think of it, perhaps I should have just purchased a car battery or defibrillator.  CLEAR!!!

It sure is interesting how important some decent service can be. I saw both ends of it on Tuesday.

As my moving process continues (day 4 of general complaint here), I find myself without any plates, spoons, knives, forks, microwave, pot, pans, etc. (I should add I am not a Wolfgang Puck in the first place) This means a lot of eating out.   I met Leslie out for lunch and we went to a nice place in downtown Pismo. The waitress was very kind, did a wonderful job of suggestive selling (I even got the Eggs Benedict she pushed). She stopped and chatted several times, always more than the perfunctory ‘how is everything?’ but she was not talking about her latest EKG chart of anything. By the end you just wanted her to sit down and tell us more about life. After consuming 5000 calories I was casually offered desert in a way that made me want to say ‘yes’. I declined, but was offered a story about how a woman ate what I ate the other day and also consumed a desert waffle with a large side of strawberries. Even the waitress smiled with a legitimate face and said, ‘Yes. Even I thought that was a lot of food.’ I should add the young man who seated us was also pleasant. He spoke in surfer terms, ‘awesome, hope you have a rad lunch!’. And when we left we were bid, ‘Have an awesome day’ in the sort of half swallowed-dialect of a guy who’s short board is stored behind the cash register ready to hit the next decent wave which has been in limited supply. Despite the gray skies overhead and a car full of odds and ends to be hauled I couldn’t help but swoon over the experience.

After 5 hours of work, I was ready for my lunch break. Again I was forced to the open road of various restaurants. As yesterday’s post indicated, I definitely was not about to triple-up on pizza. This time in SLO I decided some quick (but not fast) Mexican food sounded doable. I am not about to name the place, but look on Broad and you’ll find it. We walk in at about 8:20pm and I was careful to note the time and compare it to the advertised hours on the door (open til 9pm the sign cheerfully announced). However upon entry the foreboding ’slippery when wet’ signs were out. In fact, I don’t think I have ever seen so many used in a compressed space. Extra water appeared to be dabbed on the floor for the ‘get out’ experience to be complete. One employee was eating on a nearby table and you could hear the heavy breathing of other employee as he lumbered over to take our order. No eye contact was made, if there was it was only to roll them. He took the fun right out of Taco Tuesday. My girlfriend is as chipper a person as you will ever meet so she ventured in playfully, ‘So, how is your night going?’ (inaudible grunt) ‘Closing time’. At this point I look around and note the other half dozen people eating, and knowing I was right on the closing time I just ordered.

We sat down and were made to feel better when another 6 or 10 people walked in beating the clock and certainly beating this guy’s hope to be in bed at 9:01:01pm down. I hate to admit this, but the food was good. However I hate to feel uncomfortable when I am spending money to eat out. Hey man, we have an 11pm news too. It is late and there are days I am nonplussed doing it, but we do it and do it well and by gum I will paste on a smile. You’d never know it was not my favorite show.

If I had to pick good food or good service, I would probably pick good food…but it is not as easy a pick as your might imagine. The worst part is as a former server I am incapable of stiffing on the tip. So despite being told to ‘get out as soon as possible’, I still did 15%. Shame on me. I was in a good mood before I came in. In other moods, I might have inquired on the advertised store hours, and how I was offending them.

I don’t know if this guy knows but people aren’t exactly showering the economy with their loose cash. At least when you take mine, just smile a little. It helps you, it helps me, and you know what…smiles are just generally a good thing to hand out.