Movies VS. TV Shows

This is actually something that I noticed quite some time ago...I dont know if I have written about this much before now. I think that I have made references about this, but I dont know if I have never thrown it out there as a main topic of conversation. Even if I did, its worth a second look.

Something that I have noticed myself doing a great deal more of, if I go to the video store, is renting TV shows as opposed to renting movies.

There are so many shows that I have actually never seen as regularly scheduled programming. Alias, and the love of my life Jennifer Garner, is one of the long list of shows that I have strictly watched in DVD format. A few more are 24, Boomtown, and Dead Like me (One of my favorite shows of all time btw...even though it only lasted for two seasons on Showtime). The most recent show that I have been watching is Lost (what a great show...I have only seen 8 episodes of season one and I am hooked).

There are many advantages to doing this...The greatest advantage is the time factor.

1. When watching a show on a DVD, there are no commercials. You can watch the show in 20 (for a sitcom) to 45 (for a drama) minutes.

2. Not only do you do without the commercials, but watching a 45 minute drama compared to watching a 2 hour movie saves time as well.

3. Then there is the scheduling factor. I have mentioned before that I cannot guarantee from week to week that I am going to have the same time slot open on any given night.

Do any of you find that you rent more TV shows on DVD than Movies in any given month?

Mini Marathon Here I come

I just wanted to share with my few loyal readers an accomplishment that is huge for me.

I have been running now for several months (started around March or April), but even though I have ran as long as I have now, I still have the occasional stops to catch my breath on the long runs...there is one hill that I run up near my apartment that kills me everytime. I can usually make the two and three mile runs without a stop...but anything more I find myself pushing myself too hard at times and wearing myself down to the point that I have to walk for 20 or 30 yards once or twice.

Last Friday evening I was able to make it up that hill and completely finish a five mile run without stopping once.

Now I just have to be able to do that for 13 miles by the spring :).

Hope all are well...

Funeral Etiquette

I do not handle funerals and death well. I never have...but to be honest, growing up I never had to much. I really only remember a few funerals that I had to go to growing up, and only one of them was a relatively close family member (a grandfather). This "fear" of funerals and those things related became intensified in college when I lost a very close friendship with my best friend from high school over a misunderstanding when her little sister died. I was trying to be there for her in the best way I knew how, and she took it all the wrong way. I have only spoken to her one time since, and that has made me even more anxious when it comes to funerals.

I think that the main problem I have is knowing what to say to people. What makes this even worse is that going into the ministry I will deal with this on a regular basis. This by far is one of my, if not the, biggest weaknesses I have.

As I have gotten older, I have had to see death more and more. My friends' parents, tragedies, accidents...so many people in recent years that I have known directly or indirectly have passed away.

This brings me to the first part of my two part question of the day...

1. Is there any way to get better at this besides just going to a lot of funerals and reaching out to people? Does anyone out there have any tips on knowing what to say to people?

The next part (related, but quite different) of this question came up the other day when I was talking to my boss about a funeral that was going on Tuesday (a friend of mine's father). I was trying to decide whether to go to the Visitation or to the Funeral. If I had gone to the funeral, I would have missed two conference calls that I am a part of on Tuesday afternoon. If I had gone to the visitation before the funeral, I would been back in time for the conference calls, but I would have missed the funeral.

2. What determines when someone should go to the actual funeral or just visitation will suffice?

For example...I knew the girl, and I met her father a couple of times...but I didnt really know him. I was great friends with the girl and her husband a while back, but I havent really kept up with them in recent months. Should I have attended the Visitation or Funeral or both?

Anyway...this is already too long.

Let me know your thoughts.

The mysterious smell...

For the past week the fridge in our office kitchen has gradually been smelling worse and worse. The smell was a mixture between parmesan cheese, belly button and butt (lol)...I know that sounds gross...and it really was getting more gross as the days passed.

The smell was overtaking everything. I put a can of diet coke in there the other day, and that smell had actually invaded the metal of my can. I even felt like the smell had gotten into my clothes when I got my lunch out of there yesterday. The office manager even took the time to clean out the fridge on Friday, but the smell was still there and getting worse.

So I took it upon myself, being the "hero" that I am LOL, to find the source of the smell. I started throwing away everything that it could possible be...and pinpointing the source was hard because everything in there smelled like it at this point.

Finally, after several minutes of searching, I noticed a gallon of milk in the back. As I grabbed it I felt the bloated feeling of a container with bad milk. I knew I had found the source. When I pulled it out I looked at the date...MAY 19TH!!! OMGosh...somehow a gallon jug of milk had stayed in there for almost four months and no one had caught it until yesterday. It was so "chunky" that it didnt really "slosh" so much as stay as a solid at the bottom of the gallon when I picked it up.

I have had a bad experience with spoiled milk before (not at my house, but at a friend's house)...this one may actually be worse. I dont know how long it will take before that smell subsides.

Favorite Time of Year??

I love fall...it is one of my favorite times of year. I love that the weather is cooling off, and I love football. Also, deer season is right around the corner.

I have a new "Mini Poll" (see right Column)...Vote and tell me what your favorite time of the year is.

If you are one of the unfortunate ones that lives somewhere that doesnt experience the season changes, I feel for you...leave a comment and tell me what you like about the weather where you live. :)

Learning how to say "No" and really mean it

OK...OK...I am giving in. I have been given a sufficiently hard enough time about not updating my blog...and now I am sure that it has been long enough that any regular readers I had have given up on me :).

I, as many of my fellow bloggers that I have been keeping up with, have also been extraordinarily busy. It is crazy how busy one person can actually be...which is why I have chosen the topic of today's entry.

It occurred to me about three weeks ago that I have way...way...too many things in my life that require too much of my attention...so much so that I didnt even really have a "life" to call my own. Prior to one week ago, I had seven days of my week planned...and every weeknight but one taken up with something. Typically I dont mind this too much. I like being a very busy person. For the most part, I work better under pressure...and I dont like not having things to do. Actually, when I dont have things to do, I typically look for things to do or get restless...which has brought me to where I am in this phase.

I decided to seek some counsel about my life, and a great man that I admire told me that I need to "Narrow my focus". It seemed that I had said "yes" to so much in my life that the planning side of me couldnt really get my arms around it, and the perfectionist side of me had actually retracted quite a bit. Apparently when I get as overwhelmed as I was this semester, my "production" gets very sloppy.

A prime example...my class this semester is Hebrew...learning a language is a very difficult thing that requires daily study. Basically what I was doing was cramming all studying for that class into one evening which is not near enough...thus, I am way far behind at the midpoint of this semester...Another example would be my apartment. I really cant stand clutter, however, I do take busy times into consideration and sometimes let my apartment get a little messy until a certain point. My apartment right now is so far past that point that I will probably have to have two cleaning sessions. The first of which to get back to my breaking point...and then the second to get it up to par.

One thing that I was made to do before this "counseling" session ended was actually say the word "No"...I have always had the hardest time saying "No" when asked to do something. I am definitely a sucker for helping out any and all people that need help.

Last week I was actually able to say "No" to two responsibilities in my life...not that I feel any less busy yet (this will be the first full week without them), but at the very least I have a little more room to play with in my schedule...and I have another weeknight freed up.

I hope all are doing well...and hopefully I will be able to keep you guys up to date about life or anything I see that deserves some thought with a little bit more frequency in the near future.