Good bye blog

Funny story - ironic really, more than anything else...

I changed this blog to being about something bigger than just choosing God over TV - now it's about choosing God... period. Over everything, TV, massive amounts of junk food, laziness, everything... even unnecessary computer time. I'm not sure what's necessary yet, but I have decided that this blog is unnecessary. This stuff doesn't need to be public. These posts are supposed to be about spending time with Him, and though I may be writing about my walk with Christ, when I write it on the computer, I am not WITH him, while I'm writing it. The computer demands my attention more loudly than He does, and it's a distraction that I am CHOOSING to say goodbye to... at least for this exercise.

This isn't blog time folks, it's GOD time. Excuse me while I go "blog" in a journal with fewer distractions, and more time with Jesus. :-)

Thanks blogger - you served your purpose - good bye.

What to see...

Sitting at home for summer vacation with no TV is HARD. Fortunately, my summer vacation is only days long, and then I'll start my new job at Boston College. In the meantime - I'm treating myself to an afternoon at the theatuh. Shall I see Knight and Day? Karate Kid? or the one I've been pushing to see for a couple of weeks now... The A-Team? So many good movies in the summer!

If anyone happens to read this before I go down to Fenway at 1:30, comment your opinion and I'll probable follow it. If not - well then you'll probably just have to wait another month for me to post on here and tell you what I actually saw.

In any case, I don't know how many days it's been at this point... but I'm still going!

"I'm Steve Brule, you're green grocer"

Simply put, an awesome clip. I love it. I've seen it 3 times now, and each time it gets better. I actually need to stop watching it before it becomes like watching re-runs of a TV show. In any case, I've been walking around the house shouting "SWEET BERRY WINE!" for the last 24 hours or so. It's driving Emily a little crazy at this point. She laughs, but she also suggested that I wouldn't find it nearly as funny if were still watching TV. Maybe that's true. You watch this a couple of times, and then report back. Funny? Or am I just enjoying the fruits of drastically fewer motion pictures?

Since I'm at work right now, I can't embed a youtube video, but I do have the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SEiMu3dGyY&feature=related

I'll embed when I get home.

Today's temptation rating: 1

Days without incident: 91 or 92 - I'll see you again on day 100!!!

73 days in counting...

It's been a REALLY long time since I've posted an entry, so I thought I would check in. Not too much to report. I think I've denied myself TV in most of the situations that usually would have cued me in to turn it on enough times at this point that I don't think about it too much anymore. I still miss my favorite shows, but maybe a little less than I used to.

I think maybe I don't post much about it anymore because I'm tired of thinking about something I don't do anymore. That's good, right? Anyway, I think that's about all I've got for now.

Today's temptation rating: 1

Days without incident: 73

A world without me...

Yesterday I was talking with my friend Dan, who has also liberated himself from the television. He said, "It's great! I don't even really miss it!" While I'm excited for Dan, I don't know if I'm in the same boat. I wish it was! But I think I still miss it a little. A lot less than I thought I would, but still - I do miss it.

Last night, I went out for a pretty long run while Emily watched a little Hulu action. I put that all together in my head a little later that night. So, of course, I asked in excitement, "What'd you watch?" Community! Ohhhh... "What did Troy do? Peirce?!" Oh I bet it was funny! Apparently, Peirce has become a level six buddhist hot-tub monk. I'm sure something funny must have happened with that.

So you see, I clearly still miss it. It's like when you break up with someone. If you're not really over them, then you still want to check in with someone about them - find out how they're doing. Probably a nice thing to do, even if you are over them, but if you're jumping out of your seat to find the juicy details - you're probably still a little dependent upon them. I think of these scenes of Friends and 30 Rock and I think about what it looks like when someone is still not over something they've given up.



... sadly the scene from 30 rock where Jack makes Liz eat a $54 steak in front of him is not available. I did find this song that Vaughn made up (the hippy that always takes his shirt off on Community) about getting over Britta after she dumped him. It's a break-up song about life after the relationship... so it's... well... almost fitting. :-) Enjoy!



The bottom line though, people, is this. Though I feel I feel the impact of a world without them (them being my TV buddies), the course of my favorite shows probably hasn't been altered by the fact that I'm no longer watching them. In fact, yeah... I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that the course of those shows DEFINITELY has not changed as a result of my lack of viewing. A little sad for me to think about, but also very true. And I think that's an important step in getting over something/someone you miss - that is, knowing that they're over you (or in this case, that they never knew you existed in the first place because "they" are fictional).

So I guess I'm not out of the woods with this TV thing yet... but we're still moving forward!

Today's temptation rating: 3 (It's too nice outside to be tempted by sitting inside watching the TV)

Days without incident: 54

For the record...

youtube clips are not cheating as long as they're passed on by someone else. I just can't go looking for clips. I'm setting the record straight on this one because my friend sent me a FANTASTIC youtube clip today, that I have watched twice now. Check it out:

Also, a little while back, someone found this incredible (triathlon related) video. I actually posted a blog entry on teamscrappy.blogspot.com about it:

I think I appreciate these that much more because I don't get to watch TV. That's all for today. Funny stuff.

Today's temptation rating: 5.4

Days without incident: I'M 50!!!!! (A little reference to a Molly Shannon skit on SNL.)

Today's new outlet for procrastination...

So I'm trying to become this super fit professional triathlete, right? It can be difficult when your wife tries new concoctions like chocolate chip cookie brownies. No, not chocolate chip brownies. Nope, not those chocolate chip cookies that come in bricks like brownies. Chocolate chip brownies. Just look below at the deliciously unhealthiness that is my new favorite dessert.

 

First you take a brownie pan. Fill it with brownie batter... mmm... then you take chocolate chip cookie dough and plop it in the brownie batter... MMM... Then you bake it. But wait folks there's more!

Then you make this chocolate sauce from cream and butter and chocolate chips, and you pour it all over the top! I know right. Freakin' delicious, let me tell you. So delicious I was actually eating it just moments before racing at my swim meet this weekend (as were several of my relay team members). Awesomeness all around.

ANYWAY... we consequently have a large sum of left over cookie dough sitting in our refrigerator. If we had a TV, I would have procrastinated on doing my workouts for the day by picking up the bag of cookie dough and proceeding to have eat an unmonitored quantity daily as I zoned out in front of the TV after work. The bag might have lasted a day or two. It's now several days later and there is still about half of the cookie dough still sitting in the fridge (I'm so healthy... not really). Well, maybe on the counter... because without TV, I just found a new way to waste my after school time. 

PAN FRIED CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES. That's right friends, take some cookie dough and put it in a non stick pan... see what happens... I did. The first one burned... pretty badly on the outside, but was still gooey in the middle. How do I know? Well despite the charred outside, I ate it anyway of course. No sense wasting perfectly good cookie dough. The second cookie was much more successful. It's a rather slow cooking process, but the result was almost worth the wait. It took about as long as it takes to bake a cookie in the oven, but yielded two crispy sides instead of one. If you like your cookies crispy it'd definitely be something to try. I'd show you a picture, but I only made one and I ate it already. I tried finding a picture of it somewhere online, but would you believe it... I found no recipes for pan fried chocolate chip cookies. Deep fried, sure, but not pan fried! I guess this not TV thing has my creative juices flowing.

Anyway, time to go work off the cookie dough. That's all folks!

Today's temptation rating: 6.5

Days without incident: 49