A Small Victory

blogs and cable and birthdays, oh my!

I added even more weblogs to the sidebar and changed the heading from Daily Fixations to Damn Fine Weblogs. Seriously, I cannot possibly read all those blogs every day. At least not since they took away our internet connection at work. But I do try to read each of them as much as possible because they are damn fine.

Today my digital cable is a week old. And what a week it's been. Besides the constant avialablity of a plethora of movies at my demand, and besides the Lindros Cam on the Ranger games, and besides the interactive channels and the ability to see Darkwing Duck once again, there is the digital radio. The channels between 800 and 840 offer me the chance to hear music that you just can't find on the radio. We hooked up the tv to our stereo speakers and spent most of yesterday surfing through the channels. The metal station is my favorite. Yesterday, I got to hear Godflesh, Kilgore and Type O Negative all in a row. And then there's the 80's station. Cheesy new wave at my fingertips 24 hours a day. They played Bill Nelson. Who even heard of Bill Nelson besides me? I was in my glory. There's 24 hour Christmas music (ok, it drives me nuts after 1 hour, and I doubt they play Pansy Division's Homo Christmas), and the Showcase station which was playing KMFDM when I checked yesterday.

The video on demand is like having a Blockbuster in your house. On Friday, DJ called up Gladiator and fast forwarded the movie so he could watch all the battle scenes. I watched the HBO Eddie Izzard special three times this week. I am in love with digital cable.

And speaking of HBO, last night we watched the live George Carlin show. Doesn't there come a point in your life when you are too old to tell fart jokes? I don't know what it is, but he's just not funny to me anymore. His material seems tired and forced. I did laugh out loud a couple of times, but not like I used to laugh at him.

Anyhow, got a birthday party for my nephew today, a big blow-out party because it's a special kind of birthday. One year ago, David was born to a single mother, an illegal immigrant from Burma living in Queens. A month later, he was placed in the arms of my sister. Today we celebrate his birthday. Next month we celebrate his adoption anniversary. I started writing a story about the events leading up to his adoption, because they are extraordinary. It's the story not just of the adoption itself, but of the man who orchestrated the whole thing, and what an angel he is to so many people. But I haven't finished the story yet, and I need to bake a cake (which may be a laughable story in itself) so I will post it tonight.