faithful readers! sorta ran out of things to do at work so i'll post...

it's kinda been a bad october so far. health issues have kinda gotten me down and i can't really say i've been myself for a week or so. already hit the doctor and everything, doubt it's serious, but it's a pain in the neck, quite literally. back of my head and neck just have a dull pain most of the time, if i exert myself too much the pain really grows into a serious headache. so i've had to stay out of the gym/track to see if that helps, which combined with taking celebrex and a muscle relaxant just makes me feel so damn lethargic. so far i don't think any of the drugs i'm taking are really doing much besides giving me more and more side effects. 3 aleve's (the max) a day were kinda helping a bit, but they gave me all these sores on my tongue and lips, almost not worth it. so at this point i'm kinda just hoping the ol' immune system will do its job and fix whatever's up with me. don't even know if it's all related to tension/stress or if it's a strength training based neck/spinal strain of some sort.

having a cubicle-based job really doesn't help for those kinds of things. yeah i know if i was in like construction or something it'd be even worse, but having to sit in a chair and look at a monitor all day just isn't gonna help you for head/neck type aches. i wish i could take some time off to see if it'll help but i'm really trying to spread out my paid-time-off to maximize 3-day weekends and stuff. 75% of the time lately i just don't wanna be at work, which at some point is prolly gonna start coming across to anyone's peers. i've been bringing the pda to work and listening to music for about half the day which seems to sorta help me take my mind off the pain.

i really wish i could figure out how to get tired from like 10-11pm. most nights i'm completely wiped at about 8pm and usually end up passing out somewhere in the house for half an hour or so. problem with that is, i'm tired in the evening but then i wake up for the night. believe it or not, prolly half of my weeknights are spent thinking that i'll try to get to bed around 11 or 11:30, but that's hard to pull off for me. i just can't go to bed knowing i'll be sitting there bored for half an hour. so most of the time i end up being tired for a while in the evening, either taking some kinda nap or getting thru it, doing whatever for a while and finally getting tired around 2am. then a lot of the time i get in bed and realize i'm not quite as tired as i thought, so i end up watching an episode of family guy or something. so realistically, i'd say i probably average sleep from 2:30-7. so 4 and a half hours every night. i wouldn't really say i even get *that* tired at work, it's just i wonder sometimes if that affects other aspects of my health.

in some ways that's kinda why i think living alone is somewhat dangerous for me. i think as soon as i went to a&m, i forgot how to really have any self-discipline. after 5 months of work it's starting to hit me more that i haven't regained it yet.

when you live alone, there's really no reason for anything you do. you have no one else to frustrate, disappoint, excite, etc. you don't have to work around anyone's schedule, you have your own schedule, whatever you make that. sometimes that just burns you that you can do so much without consequence. i think that's part of me not getting very good sleep, i don't have anybody else in the apartment to shut up and be quiet for to facilitate anything other than halo at 1 in the morning with work the next day.

hmm, i'll slow down on the mopeyness...

the show of the new season has gotta be 'lost.' so far it's been terrific, and in HD it looks phenomenal. finally a reason to look forward to wednesdays, although i can't pull in ABC in HD, so it's kind of a moot point. luckily HD rips are posted at alt.binaries.hdtv, so you can wait a few days and see it in pure HD.

survivor and ER have been so-so thus far. everybody in the world is starting to feel like they've gotten their fill of survivor and the format's wearing thin. they've had one too many competitions that were exactly like those in the past for the whole experience to really feel all that enthralling anymore. ER looks good in HD, but i think the show has a shitty slate of characters right now. i'm not planning on giving up on it or anything here soon, but they need some new exciting shit to happen.

the networks are getting more and more pathetic every year man. i remember in the late 90's being completely in love with NBC, and now i think they're such a fuckin joke most of the time. scrubs and ER are still worth watching, but holy christ i can't believe what crap they (and the other 3) are playing these days.

at least directv put up the MLB playoffs on fox in HD. prolly not the best postseason i've ever seen, but it's been alright considering we'd usually have the first games of the NHL season by now. i'm not even gonna go all into the NHL lockout, it's such a crock of shit that i'm somewhat embarrassed to be such a hockey fan.

times are a-changin, man. alayna and i hardly ever go to the theater anymore. when we're likely to be able to get the dvd rip a couple months later anyway, there's not that much motivation. if she's gonna fall asleep halfway through the movie, she might as well do it when i'm not paying $15 at cinemark. it's the same reason my blockbuster card is gathering dust.

lately i think tv dvd's is where it's at. i'd say if a show's been on within the last 10 years, it's still mostly current, it's got the same sense of humor to it. we're always so obsessed with the new shows on tv, we have to see what's just come out, to the point where the networks now market it so heavily. how many times now do you see a promo for a show where their tagline is "all new?" and what the fuck does "all new" mean anyway? as opposed to half new? imagine watching the first 15 minutes of a show, knowing you've never seen it before, then finding the last 15 oddly familiar. my point is you can watch sex & the city from 1998, curb your enthusiasm from 2000, home movies from 1999, whatever, and it's still new to you, it's just as good, if not better, cuz you're watching something you sought out, not just what happens to be on when you're bored.

i've found that's pretty much what i do when i just wanna sit around and i'm too lazy to play a game or whatever. i've got these long queues of shows i like to just burn off one by one, watching them at whatever pace i want. whether you burn through sex & the city in a manner of weeks like alayna, or indulge in a home movies episode every few weeks like me, it still works.

tonight's a celebration of mom's birthday, with the family + sig-o's going to see everyone's favorite clean comedian brian regan perform. alayna and i saw him in houston and enjoyed the show, so we're ready for another round. i figure my parents will prolly like him, since he's not ridiculously profane or anything.

thanks for riding that one out,
justin