How I spent my Writer's strike vacation . . .

The first day of my Writer's strike vacation, I went to look for a job. I could not find one, so I hung around the drug store . . .

No wait, not at all what happened.

This homework assignment is courtesy of the Whatever, J. Scalzi proprietor, linking from Karen Funk Blocher's site.

So, what is different since the WGA strike?

Um, nothing, but here's why: Too much backlog of really really good stuff.

Like John, I had gotten out of the habit of too much tv watching, somewhere in high school. I found one summer that I watched tv from sunup to sundown and decided that was no way to use a brain.

And I hated being tied down by TV schedules. Worse, most of the shows weren't that good, so setting a slot aside in the week, that was to be inviolable seemed pointless.

Besides, if you have a job, kids, grad school, all that, there's really precious little time to spend in front of the idiot box.

Then something happened. I think it was whispers about Buffy. Or TV shows with long form plots, i.e., while each show is about something, the whole series is about something too. Why that intrigued me, I don't know, but it did. Serials? (Shall we discuss why "24" is the best serial about a paranoid country ever?)

But the thing that drew me into any TV watching whatsoever, wasn't a show . . . it was a thing: the DVR. Well, that and Battlestar Galactica. Now I could chase down those shows that sounded interesting. I didn't have to miss anything. I could see them when I had time, after the kids were to bed. I could save the ones I wanted! I could rewind if I missed something, fastforward through commercials!! Oh praise the gods!! TV as the gods intended!!!

Also, for whatever reason, I don't like my shows parceled out. Yeah, yeah, I know that's the way of it, if you want the new ones, but here were all these shows on DVD where I could watch the whole season: So what am I doing now? Working my way through "The Prisoner" which is great, and the first season of "Heroes". There are the two movies I got from Christmas that I haven't even cracked open: "The Thing" starring Marshall Dillon and a new Christopher Lee Dracula!!! That doesn't even get me through the HOURS of Xbox games I haven't finished.

There's more good entertainment I haven't seen yet than they're going to make this next year. I think I'll be okay.