Hey! There's this blog thingie... And it looks as if someone's not paying attention to it!

What, it's been over 3 weeks since someone wrote somethign here?

Eh, whatever...

So Sandy and I take her car over to the Home Despot the other day--we need a screen door for our front entranceway. Last November, my uncle Bill installed a brand new front door for us, and in that process, removed all the existing not-so-good stuff that was there, including the old screen door. (It's still sitting in the garage with frame and everything if anyone wants it...)

Anyway, it was November when we lost the screeny goodness of our front entranceway, so Sandy and I were none too concerned about getting another--the upcoming winter months did not necessitate any move on the screen door front.

Well, that was then.

Now (finally), at the end of April, when the smell o' spring is in the air and the daffy-dills are a'bloomin'--now's the time for a noce screen door.

Hence the trip to the Despot.

Well, we immediately head to the 'as is' section of 'The Despot' (Sandy and I having had wonderful results from the 'As Is' sections at Ikea and Leons in the past). After checking out the various doors and such in the 'As Is', we decided on a very simple white screen door--around 100 bones. Can't go wrong with a door for a hundred bones, I says!

Since the door was in the 'As Is', a manager has to come over to the checkout to 'adjust the price on the register'--eh, when it comes to internal workings of companies, I'm never surprised or bothered by their own policies.

So we purchase said door, and head out into the parking lot with door in tow.

As we approach our ride, Sandy mentions that maybe we should have brought the pick-up.

That's when it hit me.

We didn't have the pick up--how in all things door-y are we suppose to get this door home?

Well, back into the store to leave the door with someone whilst we go get the pickup.

Turns out that the Despot has this policy--the door had to be taken to service for 'storage' whilst we get the pickup

So off I carried the door to the service department, stood in line, and, when my turn came up, put the door 'into storage' (got a nifty piece of paper to boot stating same) and headed back towards the car.

Sandy comes running up to me in the parking lot--turns out that someone heard of our little door-transportation dilemma, and since htis person was going by Quigley anyway, he'd be more than happy to transport the door.

So back in line at Service to retrieve the door.

Got our door (after 5 minutes in line) and proceeded to walk out of the Despot.

The manager comes running up to me at the exit--'Need to check the receipt' (since, of course, I didn't go thru a checkout line this time)

I'm looking at her--'You just sold me the door--you were there at the register adjusting the price'

'It may be a different door!' she says...

I'm carrying a door--3 feet by 6 and a half feet (by myself, mind you)--it's not the heaviest thing in the world but it is awkward, and I'm looking at her--'Does it look like the same door?'

'I'm just checking!' She states emphatically.

Again, internal rules--no issues. And here's my receipt and stuff... but checking the same door held by the same guy--and then she spends a few minutes looking over the receipt--one purchase--a door. And that takes a few minutes, why?

Anyway, not wanting to cause a scene, I'm left 'holding the door' whilst she checks out the paperwork.

Free to go when she gives me the receipt back, I head off towards our new friend. We load the door into the back of his pickup--he's got drywall and insulation back there going somewheres for some project, and, with us following him, we proceed home.

Weget to our place and unload the door from the back of the pickup, and I remember that Sandy and I have a full sheet of drywall in the garage (left over from our winter renos), and, not wanting any good deed to go unpunished, we offer the drywall to our truck driving saviour.

He gladly takes it, we shake hands, and Bob's your uncle! (or at least, cousin)

So now Sandy and I have a screen door.

It's not on the front of the house yet--that's our weekend project, and I'm sure, as with all our projects, there'll be pictures and stories and fun times had by all.

We'll let you know--hopefully quicker than 3 weeks from now...

My very good friend, Craig, and I have been parlaying regarding, well, life in general, and the direction it appears to be heading in.

Much of our conversation revolves around the idea that, by the looks of things, 'society is getting dumber'. In order to support this hypothesis, we use the medium of the television--with no scientific basis, but just going with what we appreciate on teh telly--there are fewer shows that we like. It appears that television is 'dumbing things down'--reality television being the main culprit.

We're not saying that watching 'Survivor' makes a person stupider, or that only stupid people watch 'Survivor', but there are no inherent 'intelligent +5 bonuses' to these shows.

After much pontificating and pining for 'teh good ol' days' (I'm not talking 'Gunsmoke' or 'I Love Lucy' days of yor), we both would appreciate a more-than-cookie-cutout television. When was the last time that 'Everyone Loves Raymond' or 'King of Queens' or the other sitcoms didn't look like cardboard cutouts of one another--using the same tired plotlines in almost every episode--husband does some 'y-chromosome' thing which annoys wife/family. It's like the scene from 'Crocodile Dundee' (yeah, I realize the delicious irony of using a scene from a 'predictable Hollywood movie' to make a point about 'predictable television') when he says "Oh, I saw one of those years ago" (referring to the telelvision), turns it on and sees the opening to 'I Love Lucy'--"Yep, that's what I saw" and promptly turns it off. When was the last time you saw something truly unique on screen? Even for Sandy and I, who love HGTV and TLC--'Trading Spaces' has a plethora of copy-cats, and home reno shows (which we love) are a dime-a-dozen these days.

But therein's the problem--television, in the ongoing field of entertaining, has to appeal to the broadest possible range for the least amount of money, so of course they'll copy what works and distribute it across the board--it's what they do.

So the speculation continues--buy why? Why is television 'dumbing us down'? Where are the shows that make us think? I mean, 'West Wing' was a shot-across-the-moon, once-in-a-lifetime show that actually, almost every single episode, had something to say to us, the viewers. M*A*S*H would've been another--but again, these shows are few and far between.

The premise then goes that there's an ulterior motive to the 'appealing to the lowest common denominator' television shows--it goes something like this--"Get as many people interested in what's going on with the latest 'Bachelor' 'cause we (this is the nefarious 'we' of some shadow governing entities) don't want them thinking about how bad it is in the real world (not to be confused with the show, 'Real World')"

See, if the telly stopped working tomorrow, what would happen?

Well, as history has shown, first there'd be a popluation explosion in 9 months.

But after that, people would see that we are a debtor's nation, that we're wreaking havoc o nthe environment, that some of our fellow citizens need help, and that the governing powers need a wake-up call.

So there's the hypothesis--dumb movies and dumber television are there to keep the masses occupied--escapism as it were--so they can't rise up and change things for the betterment of socieity.

I admit there's some part of me that appreciates that view. I've been hearing this view for many years--from discussions in college way back in the '80's (What role does the television have in society) to talking amongst friends and peers.

But always, in the back of my mind, is this guy named Occam. See (again the beautiful irony is forthcoming), there was a Simpsons 'Treehouse of Horror' ep (can't recall which one) in which all the giant advertising logos came to life and started rampaging through town. Lisa (always Lisa--she's the smart one, see) found the solution--by ignoring the giant destructive icons, they 'die'--if no one's paying any attention to them, they cease to exist.

So that's what happened, except Homer couldn't stop looking at the giant doughnut---Mmmmmmmmmm.... giant doughnut...... Ggghhaghahghahhghhghhhhhh... (Homer Simpson Drool)

The reason why television shows what it does is because we watch what it shows. That's all of it boiled down--we turn on the telly when we get home form work/school/wherever and we watch it until we go to bed.

We (the collective 'we') enable these producers and these executives to keep on putting out the 'dumber and dumber' shows. If we stopped watching them, they'd stop producing them. It's simple economics--executives have to make money for their television networks. If there's a truer form of capitalism than the telly, then I can't think of it (beyond the 'government ownedor subsidized' stations, that is)

And, according to capitalists anyway, the power of the almighty dollar can't be wrong! So we get what we get on television 'cause we want it that way.

Actually, that's scarier than the nefarious 'shadow governing entity' idea because this is saying, '*we* want to be dumb' instead of '*someone else* is making us dumb.'

Either way, however, I think I'm going to try and read more.

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One of my favourite blogging entities, Wil Wheaton, gives a parenthetically related post here--

there is no sunken treasure