Plato was Right

Back in the 70’s and 80’s my dad kept the only television (a black and white 15’ deal) under wraps in his bedroom. How could a growing boy, living in an age when not only did everyone have television in their homes (color no less), but most of my friends had a couple of TV’s, cable, and Atari—how could a boy survive? Oh, I survived. I read. I read a lot. I went outside and played. I had action figures (not “dolls”). I even had a couple of friends (but they lived on the other side of Kipling Street, so I didn’t get to hang out with them very often.) I also wrote stories of my own, and listened to a lot of radio.

That was when radio was king…a dying king with the usurper MTV emerging from the shadows. I used to listen to The Who’s “Behind Blue Eyes”, and I used to think that they were singing about me. Hey, I had blue eyes. I had reason to be sad: I didn’t have TV, my dark hair didn’t shine like the blonde tresses that my brothers and sister had, and I would never reach 6’+ height range that my younger brothers would enjoy. No one could possibly understand the sad man behind my blue eyes.

Yeah, how cool was that: The Who singing about me? I guess I never really listened to the rest of the lyrics back then. I never got how much non-sense rock stars could live with when they just wanted to sell records. They just gave up on language sometimes. When I listen to the old stuff, and then the soundtrack of what we will all one day call a “classic”, “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-long Blog”, they just don’t compare. The songs in Dr. Horrible waste no words. Not only music with content, meaning, and flavor…but FUN-NEE! These tunes stick to my brain as if held there by Dr. Horrible’s freeze ray technology.

It makes me long for the days when I didn’t rush home to my DVR life-- where if I didn’t record it…that’s because I can catch it On-Demand. A life where sit in front of my 74’ screen, with my laptop on my lap, and watch Barney and Friends with my son while updating Facebook, and downloading new music to my iPod. I would say that I’m wired up for technology…but of course I’m actually wireless. I went from the imposed stone ages of my father’s house, to an enlightened renaissance prison of my own virtual design. Now my soul feels dead…or just radiation burned by the LCD screens that mesmerize my brain.

How Platonian I have become. Is Platonian even a word? Oh well, I’ve queued NCIS up on the satellite…so who cares?

Oil Spill Madness + US' Tendancy for Bad Journalism = XKCD

Here is the ultimate worse case scenario, as supplied by the stick figure genius that brings us XKCD. I wasn't too worried about the oil spill. Oh, I know that it's bad, I realize the peril to the environment, and I don't discount the billions of dollars that Congress will fleece us for in the name of cleaning it all up...but I knew that we'd pull through.

But after this...I'm not so sure.

(I realize that the picture may be too small to see...so here's the link.)
http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/worst_case_scenario.png