I Love Time Travel - Part 17 - ...And Here's How It Started

I genuinely have no idea how I became obsessed with time travel stories.  I usually know these things. It could have been some Saturday morning cartoons. Maybe Spider-Man traveled to the Old West.  Probably not.   I did not start really reading fiction until I was in middle school so I didn’t get hooked from a book. But there was life before Back to the Future and 1985.  This is back in the days when the DeLorean was the clunky car that brought down a company and before it could shoot itself back in time.  I had a handful of time travel influences floating around the TV rerun landscape of the early 1980’s.  There were also a couple of movies that piqued my interest in the genre in different ways.

First, I would like to detail the first story I ever wrote.  We had a project in my seventh grade gifted English class, and we had to write a fantastical story.  I was twelve (1983-1984-ish).  I may have read six books by then on my own.  I just knew that my little story was going to be about time travel.  I created a scientist that accidentally fell through his time-portal thingy and ended up at Custer’s Last Stand.  He was at the fort and tried to warn Custer and the infantry before they took off, and he failed.  Then the professor went home.  The end.  Three whole pages.  Did I mention I never wrote anything before?

Eagle-eyed readers (and there are none) will notice that what I wrote was a rudimentary Twilight Zone episode.  I am not even sure if I saw many episodes with time travel as a focus, but it was one of my dad’s favorite shows so I saw dozens of them before I hit puberty.  It had some essential ingredients; science fiction, a lesson learned too late and, well that’s about it.  Later I realized that The Twilight Zone taught me more about premise and setting than it did about story.  The hook, and where all the action takes place is just neat and clean creativity.  Story is a lot messier.

Time Bandits came out in 1981 and was shown on HBO 10,000 times, which was the style at the time.  To say I was heavily influenced by the movie would be a lie.  To say that I understood what was happening is a lie.  To say I could follow half of the dialogue because of the British accents is a lie.  But, it was a time travel movie.  It was also fun.  It was ridiculous (it is, actually, an unofficial Monty Python movie) and there was no heavy-handed drama.  It was the story of a boy jumping through time with a gang of little people who stole things as they went along.  I loved that the focus was the confused boy.  I remember feeling jealous of the character, because he was also a nerd who thought about history. Most of the humor and absurdity was over my head.  Comedy at the time for me was Bugs Bunny.  I think Terry Gilliam is best served for people who have at least finished high school.  But having adventures in different time periods was enough.

Another film that ran ad nauseum during cable’s infancy was 1979’s Time After Time, with Malcolm McDowell.  Now this movie, which is undoubtedly more subtle and drier than Time Bandits, was very influential.  McDowell is HG Wells.  Now this is the guy who should be the first time traveler, right?  Author of The Time Machine (1895)!   In the movie Wells actually made the machine.  The man police suspect to be Jack the Ripper discovers the machine’s use and travels forth in time to 1979.  (November 5.  Sound familiar?)  Our hero Wells can follow him to the future in the machine after it returns.  He zips in the machine, which just vibrates or flashes light and he appears in the machine as it sits in a museum in San Francisco.  I thought that was so cool. 

This was a fish out of water movie.  Wells is amazed and confused by everything around him, but he studied it like a scientist.  I still remember him pawning his glasses, which were now antiques, for money to eat.  He eats at McDonald’s and is so overwhelmed by the experience he asked for the same order, in the same voice, as the guy ahead in line.  “Big Mac, small fry.”  I just remember putting myself in his shoes.  What is more alarming: the cars and traffic, airplanes, the amount of people?  Who would believe you if you told the truth?  You have no ID, family or friends.  You have no home.  Unlike Time Bandits, this experience occurs in the real world, so the problems of existing in a time that is not your own were center-stage.  Wells chases Jack the Ripper through the film and eventually is able to return home, along with Mary Steenburgen.  (Not her last time travel experience in film.)

I remember daydreaming about storylines and situations for time travel.  I imagined it was me, having gone back to the kids on Little House on the Prairie or to a black and white WWII movie and trying to explain the future.  How would you do it?  Would it even be a good idea?  What if you only had five minutes to do it? There is just something inherently interesting about the notion of being unstuck in time.  There is a pioneering feel to it; like it is a frontier that has not been explored.  It is difficult to express how my mind was blown in 1985 when I saw Back to the Future.  It was one of those things that seemed like it was made just for me.  The time travel seeds were sown years before, and I also didn’t know that in 2014 I would be compelled to write about it week after week.  But hell, it’s still fun.

I Will Never Tire Of These Three Things - Part 1

After we account for our families and close friends; our jobs and our homes, we are all defined by our stuff.  Not the material stuff, although some of us are “in there like swimwear” as my brother once put it; I mean the stuff we love.   There was too much time in my youth spent categorizing and complaining about all the stuff I did not like.  No one cared, no one should care, and it took precious time away from me finding other cool stuff.  With gray hair comes the wisdom of appreciation.   Now, I find all this stuff that has been around for years is part of my little story.  What everyone else thinks about it is of no concern; but I enjoy detailing these things just the same.  There are just things, it seems, I will always love.

Fried Chicken.  I have talked about fried chicken so much that an outsider would assume I weigh 600 pounds.  I do not.  Since I was a little kid, no meal has excited me more than fried chicken.  I used to have a recurring dream that I was pushed into a giant vat of fried chicken and I have to eat my way out. Steak, barbecue, duck, gumbo, Italian food, Mexican food, all take a back seat to fried chicken.  Words fall short of how I feel when I take a bite into that crunchy, juicy insanely delectable meat.  This is one of the many reasons I feel bad for vegetarians.  They miss out on this sweet treat of fried glory.  When I was a kid, my brother and I could knock out a 20-piece box of Popeye’s in an evening.  Now, with my wife’s perfected a recipe of her own, the leftovers must be wrapped and put away after dinner or I will sneak back for seconds or thirds.  I am at its mercy.  This is why my servings of the stuff only come every four or five weeks.  I’d be dead otherwise. 

Beastie Boys – Paul’s Boutique. For me, Pauls’ Boutique marks the true beginning of choosing music for myself.  I had been a classic rock fan in the eighties; forgoing most of the music of the decade with a few exceptions. In 1990 or so, most of my music collection was by artists that were my parents’ age. Whatever I did latch onto in my teenage years that was targeted to my age group I picked up and quickly set back down.  I listened to the first Beastie Boys record just like everyone else.  It was super-fun, but it was temporary and without an immediate follow-up most people though the group disappeared with ALF and Max Headroom. 

I read a review in Rolling Stone and they gave Paul’s glowing praise.  The Beastie Boys have glowing praise?  I bought the cassette the next day.  The tape itself was blue, the group was now on their own label through Capitol and to that point it was nothing  like I had ever heard before.  The hip hop was there, but there were more cultural references than a Dennis Miller special. Original musicianship mixed with classic rock beats, the Eagles and busy signals, the Psycho theme and funk, it was so layered and detailed.  I listened to that cassette for weeks, maybe years. I included it in mix tapes and mix CD’s.  In fact, there has not been more than a month or to in my life where I have not checked in and listened to at least something from that album in 25 years.  I really love all the Beastie Boys discography; but something about Paul’s Boutique hit me just the right way at just the right time.

The last half-hour of The Shawshank Redemption. TNT plays The Shawshank Redemption all the time.  We all know it.  We know how it is now an American classic.  It was overlooked when it was originally released and how it was a launching pad for Morgan Freemans’ narration career.  I love the ending so much.  It could be my favorite ending of anything.  My guess is that I have seen the whole movie two or three times, but I have seen the ending through cable reruns about fifteen times over the years.  I will pause the scene where Andy sits in his cell with the rope and waits for the lights to go out and it will stay paused until I have my chores done.  Everything that happens afterward is movie perfection.  The beautiful scene at the end of the rock wall in the Maine summertime…it is the best.  Wouldn’t you like to have a treasure buried for you right there?    I think I could watch that over and over 100 more times and still be emotionally affected.  One more thing that I can’t let go of that teaches me a little about myself.

I Love Time Travel - Part 16 - Continuum

Rachel Nichols and the magic orange wedges.

Continuum is a current show on Syfy that will enter its third season in April.  I don’t aim to spoil that much about a show that is still running, and to be completely honest I think I missed a few episodes of the second season. In the interest of this nerdy blog, I feel I have to at least include something about a time travel show that is pretty interesting. The time travel is interesting and the premise of a sci-fi drama where the protagonist just wants to get home is very old school. 

Keira is a cop from 2077 that is projected back to 2012 against her will.  Along with her came a bunch of terrorist/freedom fighter types called Liber8 (blech) that planned the time travel event at their execution for terrorist activity.  Keira not only wants to get back home to her son, she tries to round up Liber8 in 2012 with the Vancouver PD and keep them from altering the future.

The tech is cool.  There are a few shows out there with some cool ideas for future tech (Almost Human) and this one is among the slickest.  Keira’s cop gear includes a type of switchblade/transformer laser blaster and a slick cop cat-suit that does practically everything, including invisibility.  The thrust of the show is the time travel itself, which, for the most part, all happened in the first episode.  Episodes switch back and forth between the future and modern day, and the nature of the time jump is a mystery.  Was it an accident?  Who is behind it?  That type of crap.  There are some nice action scenes and it is refreshing to see one of the many show that are filmed in Vancouver actually take place in Vancouver.

It is a deep cable show, so some concessions have to be made.  There are some stale melodramatic moments for sure, and the dialogue I a little laborious at times.  But the weekly crime-solving and Kiera’s quest to keep her secret are enough to keep you coming back.  There is one wrinkle I find quite compelling, and I hope they explore it more in the future.  (The show’s future, dude.)  Kiera represented the technological police state of the future and the escapees represent a type of domestic terrorist freedom fighter group. It is not entirely clear to route for.  She’s the obvious hero and a good cop, but the people she fights for are shady.  The terrorists are guilty and the established baddies, but they seem to be fighting on the side of justice even though they are murderous assholes.  Two or more savvy writers added to the staff and it would be golden.

Time travel is the center of the show, but what type is in use remains a mystery to the characters in play.  Liber8 (still…blech) attempts to alter the rise of the technocratic regime that owns the world in 2077 (single-string), but there are signs they were the ones who were the catalyst in the first place (loop).  Kiera tries to stop the bad guys from changing her future and possibly herself and her son’s existence (single-string), but some episodes suggest her trip to 2012 helped the future Bill Gates of 2077 create the tech that ruined the world (loop).  The writers insist there is a bible and a set of established rules, but the characters are still unaware.  A little frustrating for a time travel nerd but cool for the story.

I’ll keep an eye on this one.  If you like a little low-budget sci-fi you could do a lot worse.  If you like time travel TV, it’s your best bet.

*I just watched the season premiere last night.  It does not suck.

When Nerdiness And Football Collide

Hey, I'm just looking at the numbers, here.

So, I like football.  There is no football now, and that I one of the many things I like about it.  Short season.  Another reason to enjoy a sport is that the conversations about it are endless and ridiculous and fun.  I have worked up another reason to argue after an hour of collecting data and having a little fun with an Excel spreadsheet.  I realize I am stretching the boundaries of what can be described as “fun”.

My premise was simple:  What is the best NFL team of the Super Bowl era?  It has been 48 years and that is a pretty decent sample size.  Most fans don’t give a shit about the old leather helmet days, anyway.  Sorry.  I think it is pretty cool, but the game is so different now that sticking to a modern era seems like a wise choice.  It was not the era that made me try this out, it was the criteria.  You see, sports people usually say they only care about championships.  I believe this to be a lie.  If that was the truth, the Lions, Browns, and the Cubs in baseball would have no fans. I also think it is particularly untrue in football. The season is so small, I think fans that watch or attend home games need to justify the experience and they want to find the moral victories where they can.

Also, keep in mind I am interested in fandom itself.

A Super Bowl championship means something.  Your team won the season.  Cool.  My team (one of my two, really) just won.  I was happy the Seahawks won.  But if the Niners beat them and that team went to the Super Bowl, would I have retroactively hated all the wins and great games and accomplishments of the season?  No.  I don’t think fans do that.  “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing”, is a quote from Vince Lombardi.  If you play football, you should pay attention to him.  If you watch football sitting on your ass like me, there are more factors.

            Also, teams like the Bills and Vikings have no championships, but they should not be delegated with the likes of the worst franchises ever.  They have won divisions and made it to 4 Super Bowls each.  That should count when estimating the sum total of a team’s accomplishments.  The Broncos have two championships which is nice, but they also made it to the big game 7 times.  I still believe that making it to a Super Bowl is tougher than winning that one game, even if it is the biggest of the year.

I devised a point system to account for the whole of the accomplishments:

5 points for a Super Bowl win

5 points for a Super Bowl appearance

3 points for an AFC/NFC championship appearance

2 points for winning the division.

I let Excel crunch the numbers and the results have a few surprises.  First, the greatest team in the Super Bowl era is the Pittsburgh Steelers.  Not only do they have the most points overall, they are first place or tied for first in all the above categories except division wins.  (Dallas leads that by one win.)  Here is the list of all 32 teams:

1.       Pittsburgh Steelers             153

2.      Dallas Cowboys                    147

3.      San Francisco 49ers            138

4.      New England Patriots         112

5.      Oakland Raiders                  103

6.      Denver Broncos                   98

7.      Green Bay Packers              94

8.     Miami Dolphins                    84

9.      Minnesota Vikings              80

10.  Indianapolis Colts               78

11.   New York Giants                 76

12.  Washington Redskins         74

13.  St. Louis Rams                     73

14.  Chicago Bears                       66

15.   Buffalo Bills                          55

16.  San Diego Chargers             47

17.   Philadelphia Eagles             46

18.  Seattle Seahawks                 40

19.  Baltimore Ravens                40

20. Cincinnati Bengals               34

21.  Kansas City Chiefs               34

22. Tampa Bay Buccaneers      31

23. New York Jets                      30

24. Cleveland Browns                29

25.  New Orleans Saints             26

26. Atlanta Falcons                    24

27.  Carolina Panthers               24

28. Tennessee Titans / Oilers  23

29. Arizona Cardinals                16

30. Detroit Lions                        11

31.  Jacksonville Jaguars           10

32. Houston Texans                  4

Observations:

The average score is 59.4, which splits the list between the Bears and Bills.  That seems about right historically.

The top three teams are at least 26 points ahead of the Patriots, in fourth place.  The Steelers, Cowboys and 49ers are undeniably the top teams of the last 48 years.  Maybe there is room to argue about the placing, if you feel like it.  But these teams have been in nearly half (22) of all the Super Bowls, and won one-third of them (16).

Most people, including myself, would not have guessed the Raiders would be in the top five.  They are with the Vikings and Dolphins in the top ten of teams that have not shown up for much in the last fifteen years. 

The Ravens and Seahawks are tied with 40.  That says a little more about the Ravens’ success in their short existence than is does about the Seahawks.  The Seahawks, Chargers, Bills, Bengals, Chiefs are the middle-of-the-pack teams with little Super Bowl experience and only two total wins.  They are considered second-tier   because of better consistency and attempts in the playoffs. 

I would say the shameful section begins at the Jets at number 23 to the end of the list. The Jets have basically done next to nothing since 1970 or so. The Panthers get a bit of a pass because they are still relatively young.  They have more consistency then the Jaguars who also started in 1995.  The Texans don’t have much to be proud of, and that brings me to another point: Division placement.  The Texans came into the league in 2002, right when Peyton Manning and the Colts were dominating the AFC South.  That is no excuse, but it is one reason the Texans took so long to get into the playoffs.  This also applies the AFC East, where Brady and the Pats have stomped over the lowly Bills, Jets, and Dolphins for 14 years.  Does a bad division help a golden team each year?  Does sharing a division with a Hall-of-Famer have an effect on team success?  There are your arguments. Have at it.

But no sympathy is given to the true bottom of the barrel franchises of the Browns, Cardinals and Lions.  Three of the oldest franchises in the league have appeared in exactly one Super Bowl in 48 years.  The Lions and Cardinals have appeared in one Championship game each.  Shame on you!

However, things have changed dramatically in the last 15 years.  The reason can be boiled down to the careers of Tom Brady and Peyton Manning.  The same list of criteria, now from the 1999-2000 season to last season, shows a much different list:

Since ’99-’00:

1.       New England Patriots         83

2.      Pittsburgh Steelers             42

3.      Indianapolis Colts                40

4.      New York Giants                 33

5.      Baltimore Ravens                32

6.      Seattle Seahawks                 27

7.      Green Bay Packers              24

8.     Denver Broncos                    19

9.      St. Louis Rams                     19

10.  Chicago Bears                       19

11.   Philadelphia Eagles              19

12.  Tampa Bay Buccaneers      19

13.  New Orleans Saints             18

14.  Oakland Raiders                  17

15.   Tennessee Titans / Oilers  17

16.  Carolina Panthers               14

17.   San Diego Chargers             13

18.  San Francisco 49ers            11

19.  Atlanta Falcons                    9

20. Arizona Cardinals                9

21.  New York Jets                      8

22. Minnesota Vikings               6

23. Cincinnati Bengals               6

24. Dallas Cowboys                    4

25.  Miami Dolphins                   4

26. Kansas City Chiefs               4

27.  Houston Texans                  4

28. Jacksonville Jaguars           3

29. Washington Redskins         2

30. Buffalo Bills                          0

31.  Cleveland Browns               0

32. Detroit Lions                        0

This time, the average cuts off right around the Titans and Panthers.

The Patriots are ridiculously dominant; having more than twice the points of the number 2 team…well what do you know, Pittsburgh.  The Steelers are not only the most successful; they have to be the most historically consistent team in the league.

How different would the top ten be if Archie Manning never had kids?  Could the Giants have won two Super Bowls without Eli?  The Broncos would not be in the Top Ten without Peyton’s last two years, and the Colts have half of their total points overall (78) during Peyton’s reign.

The Seahawks are number 6!

The Bears are a more consistent team than I realized.  The Cowboys get the most media coverage for a team that has been among the worst in the last 15 years.  It is interesting to note they have the same point total as their fellow state team, the Houston Texans.

The Redskins fell the furthest; from among the top numbers to the next to worst.  And the Bills, well, more shame.  I don’t want to address the Lions and the New Browns.  Zeroes.

            Now, I need a superhero movie to balance this out...

I Love Time Travel - Part 15 - Seeing The Future Usually Sucks

Sometimes time travel stories have the smell and taste of the genre without any machines traveling through wormholes or historic fishes out of their historic waters. Characters learn knowledge of the future and are faced with similar questions as the time traveler.  Can we change the events that we see, or is this our destiny?  The trouble is, most of these stories fall flat.  Either the decisions made are dubious, or the premise runs out of steam halfway through the movie.  On television, where the waiting time is much longer, the effects are, well, shittier.

Minority Report and Paycheck were two movies based on Philip K. Dick stories.  I consider Dick to be one of the classic American sci-fi creators, although I don’t know if everything he wrote was meant to be a full length movie (Okay, Blade Runner...) Minority Report, starring Tom Cruise, was a mostly satisfying futuristic action film, complete with fancy gadgets.  Paycheck was a cool concept that turned into a frightful mess, with lots of help from director John Woo.  I won’t break down the critiques of the films, there is plenty of that out there anyway. It is the simple plot point of the ability to see the future, often reserved for time travel films, is just too problematic to ignore.

In, Minority Report, There are “precogs” enlisted by the future police bureau who are humans with special abilities to see murders before they happen.  They are so efficient that all premeditated murder is eradicated and only crimes of passion are now detected.  Cops, with knowledge of the impending future, storm in and interrupt murders before they happen.  The would-be murderer is put in jail.  The thrust of the movie is Cruise’s character wrongfully accused of a future crime.  Okay, but that is not where the story is most interesting.  Cops prevent crimes, so there are no crimes.  If there are no crimes, there should be no criminals.  The movie spends a minute on this discussion and moves on.  Take seeing the future out of it, is this constitutional?  Why would a future society allow people who almost commit crime go to prison?  If we truly had the ability to alter future events in the present, why would anyone pay for crimes that occurred in an alternate reality?  The thrust of the movie is a an extended chase seen with cool effects, but missed an opportunity. The movie ignored the most interesting wrinkle.

The premise of Paycheck is kind of fun.  Ben Affleck is a computer dude in the near future.  He works on top secret projects and then has his memory erased.  These projects can last months or even years.  He wakes up from one and something has gone wrong, he doesn’t remember the past three years, and all he has is an envelope of junk he left for himself. But, as his day progresses, the junk comes in particularly useful.  The project he just left was some sort of telescope into the future.  He left himself the materials he would need to survive.  Okay, fine.  It’s a nice little idea that is more loop time travel. But, now what?  Right.  That is pretty much it.  This is a sweet little short story premise with a chance to be expanded into something special that goes nowhere. John Woo turns the last thirty minutes into a kung fu fight between goons and scientists; complete a bunch of explosions and bullshit. 

Speaking of bullshit, remember FlashForward? This was a show that lasted one season and rightfully so.  It was just not good.  FlashForward was the first post-Lost show that tried to drag the die-hard fans kicking and screaming into a new sci-fi based drama.  There were even actors from Lost that filled out the cast.  The problem was that the premise was really dumb.  Everyone in the world blacked out for 137 seconds and saw what the future would be in six months.  This caused a lot of personal trauma as well as a lot of bus crashes, apparently.  There could be a pulse in that premise, but it is hard to find.  Keeping the total amount of seers to a minimum instead of the entire world might have helped.  I don’t know.  Everyone sees the future and tries to reconcile why they saw a murder or someone different in bed next to them.  I’m guessing most people saw themselves eating lunch or taking a leak. Truly, the premise could have been saved but the writers obviously suffered the fate of what so many people thought the problem was with Lost.  They had no idea where the story was going, because the premise had no steam.  Lost had a writer’s bible, with touchstones and major events that kept things moving.  FlashForward made it up as they went along and never hooked anyone.

Then, there’s Heroes.

There were 10,000 problems with Heroes but my eye will focus on one and only one:  The comic book that revealed the future.  If it was so important to see what was going to happen, events that would somehow destroy the world, and someone has already meticulously plotted it out in a comic book, and you needed to know what to do to change the inevitable future, SKIP TO THE LAST FUCKING PAGE!

I have to stop.  Boy that show sucked.

I Ain't Down With The Disposable Entertainment

Single rainbow.

What interests people always interests me.  I always want to know what is going on inside a person’s head when they enjoy something; especially if I cannot figure out why anyone would care about it.  There is no accounting for taste.  That is understood.  There is no reason why we all prefer different things.  But there is a reason why that specific person likes that specific thing, even if it that the person has never thought about a specific reason.  It is in there.  I am willing to bet if those reasons were collected, patterns would emerge.

When I turn the camera on myself I run into a few stumbling blocks.  There are nostalgic reasons, and intellectual curiosities, artic respect and then there is just goofy shit that makes me laugh.  One aspect of something I tend to reject has always confused me.  I like to think of myself as a person who does not take life too seriously, and even has trouble doing so when the situation demands.  When it comes to the art and media with which I decorate my life, there is one pattern that is certain.  I do not like disposable entertainment.

This applies to a few categories.  I do not like pop music, or specifically, one hit wonder stuff that is on pop radio.  I never have.  I do not like trendy speech, or memes, or latest craze in anything. If there is a TV show that is “hot”, I usually back away.  I do not have a ridiculous need to buck trends or be a permanent outsider. In fact, I have been burned a few times by turning away from a popular piece of entertainment and loving it later.  (The Simpsons comes to mind). This is not based on a belief that pop culture is shallow or hollow or without any merit at all.  There is something inside me that just does not want to get sucked into a thing that will be gone in a few weeks.  I prefer the long term relationship. I am a committer. 

This does not leave room for spontaneity and fun.  Also understood.  I am trying to be honest.  If you inspect my iTunes music list, my Netflix queue or my collection of DVD’s, there is a reason for all of that to be there.  I like to fall in love with stuff.  It is difficult to understand unless you have the same affliction.  Either I want it to be a part of me or I usually don’t give a shit.  The same goes for comedy.  I have a higher bar than a lot of people.  Yeah, it needs to be funny.  But I have seen so much in my life that the threshold is tougher to harder to determine, and some run of the mill Vince Vaughn/Owen Wilson flick won’t cut it.  But what does it need to be?  Not sure.  I just know it when I see it.

YouTube videos do next to nothing for me.  I have giggled at a few babies and laughed at the dog running in his sleep.  But I never troll the site clicking on everything to get another piece of bite-size piece of input.  Maybe my brain is conditioned to engage in hourly purges of extraneous information.  A lifetime of having sharp memory and a million hours of commercials flash in front of your face may do that.  The experience is of little interest and is almost always forgettable.   I like silliness for sure.  I like dumb physical comedy and fart jokes now and then.  I like it all, but apparently I will not accept it unless there is some kind of context other than “Hey, look at this dumb guy.”

This has recently spilled over into watching TV.  My wife and I were adrift for years with what was out there.  There was a long time where I thought my way of sticking with something would have to be abandoned.  All of TV was reality-based, jobs shows, competition shows, family life. None of it was based on a story and the quality and commitment level did not interest me at all.  About four or five years ago, genuinely fine programming reappeared and pulled me in.  I love to have a continuing story my wife and I can check in with every season.   In the last year or so though, with so many options, I have to cut a few cords.  My standards have gone up and I have to kick a few shows to the curb.  They had plenty of time to hook me, but something went wrong. 

It is not the art or the entertainment, but the delivery system.  Maybe I have an innate protection system against what I think will be a waste of my time.  It could be ego; it could be that I am lame.  I am wired to ignore extraneous information unless it is in a framework that I take seriously. I shy away from snacks.  I like meals.