THIS! Christine

The waning blog posts, what can I say. I offered excuses upon excuses, but here's the real reason.

I've been watching the news. Worse! I've been taking it seriously. It starts so insidiously with me. A story will catch my attention during the 5 minute factoid on the radio. If it doesn't take too much time, effort or commitment, I'll look for more indepth details on the net. If it still interests me, I may mention it to DHM during the lunch hour. If he's interested enough we'll catch the evening news... that's how it starts.

Pretty soon I'm listening to full news broadcasts, and from there it doesn't take long until I'm watching or listening to at least 3 news broadcasts a day. And then the psychosis sets in and I start talking back to the news. Reporters are idiots, they don't ask at least three questions I need the answers to, if they ask any intelligent questions to the subject at all... (example of idiot question. Emergency response personel cleaning up after a disaster... reporter asks, Do you feel sorry for the families of these victims? My screaming response to the TV.. 'No you moron, I don't feel sorry for them at all. In fact if they weren't such cheap bastards (making them take the train, or live in a trailer) their loved ones would still be alive!) Seriously, how does any sentient being respond to such assinine questions?

Then we have lurid reporting or as I like to call it, the Valdez Supposition--always fun. A train derailment, a ferry collision, a domestic dispute, the reporter just has to get in that police have not ruled out Alcohol as a contributing factor. At the point in time of the report, the police haven't ruled out little green men from mars as a cause, but no, lets immediately speculate whether the perpetrator[s] had been drinking.

The result of my global edification is that after time it manages to suck every last bit of joy out of me. I can barely find humour let alone joy in life. That's when it's time for a vacation, preferably to some remote region of the world. That's when I get my attitude adjusted, and my perspective checked. Vacation for me is to escape the pit of the rat race I've fallen into. That the news has simply amplified. What are the trends, what I should eat, how much I should exercise, what I should be afraid of (apparently everything, including breathing). On vacation I come to understand that i can live quite happily in a thatched roof cottage, welcoming the geckos (they eat the other nasties), and my greatest concern is a cold beer in the hammock. Western news and concerns are a million miles away, and I'm content once more.

I come home refreshed and replenished, and full of life.

So guess what I'm doing for the next little while? Yep. Planning a vacation. Any destination ideas... must be warm and have a beach.