Recently at work, my OCD was acting up on me. I drive a van at work, and usually I rely on the digital clock that's on the dash board. For whatever reason, the radio channel was the one that was on display and not the time. I could press a button for the clock to go on, but it will revert back to the radio channel display in a few seconds. Now this isn't the case of me being lazy of pressing that little button that'll make me change the display, but a case of me "needing" it to display the time constantly, so that I can just make a quick glance at the time without having to press a button. That's where my OCD kicked in, and it was frustrating me and actually causing me anxiety because the clock's time isn't being displayed. I even went through the van's manual, but it did not have the information as to how to revert it back to just the clock. For almost a half hour, I was doing work, and I was consumed by this "little" problem. My mind would not mentally let it go, and I needed a solution fast. I ended up just pressing and holding down the control buttons on the dashboard, just hoping to find some kind of positive result. At that point, I didn't care if I was going to mess anything up, I just wanted my freakin damn clock displayed constantly!!! Luckily though, I figured out how to fix the problem after pressing and holding a button on the dash. You wouln't believe how relieved I felt in having things "back to normal" with the van. Damn OCD make me go crazy.

Here's a question from a discussion with a teenager that's very telling, "...buy a CD? why would you want to do that?" Yup, that says it all right there, from someone who is part of the mp3 generation (or the iPod generation). With over 100,000 units sold in the first week of a CD's release actually considered a good thing, times have really changed from six or seven years ago, when those numbers weren't anything to brag about. Many people simply do not bother getting their songs from the tried and true hard copy of a compact disc, but prefer to just download it from the internet (be it legal or illegal). I'm not saying that's a bad thing, because there are actual music artists out there who only sell their songs through online downloads. I'm just saying that I'd rather not see CDs become extinct and go the way of the "8 track."

I personally still support buying CDs and actually prefer it in many ways. First off, they are not as expensive as people assume, because honestly $9 - $14 is not a big deal for me (Best Buy prices). Sure there are still CDs being sold at $17+, but those aren't as common as detractors make them out to be. I also like having the liner notes and the artwork that comes with a CD, especially in a collector's sensibility. Admitedly, compared to just last year, or the year before, I haven't been buying as many CDs this year. I'm doing a combination of online downloads and buying CDs, and honestly the tide is turning towards more on the download side for me.

We have to keep in mind though, that the music artists themselves get more money out of a CD sale than a music download. Musicians have to now do more touring and promote the sale of their merchandise, since that's the only "real" way for them to make money in this business. The rich established artists don't have to worry about that so much, but think about the up and coming musicians or the independent artists. So if you love an artist, please support them by buying their CDs.

Random Atlantic

RIAA Jury fines Minnesota Woman $222,000 for music Piracy (link)

you name the price for Radiohead's newest album (link)

top 10 perfectly timed sports pictures (pics)

riding a coach down a sandy road (video)

Condom Cannon (video)

scarecrow bot (video)

doggy prison break (video)

local McDonald's commercial (video)

Raymond (video)

the reason for school shootings? (video)

The new Fall TV season premiere weeks have now officially passed, so here's my take on what I'm watching and what I'm not watching.

First and foremost, out of the new shows that were released, I'm definitely sticking with "Reaper," and "Pushing Daisies." Both of those are just really good. At this point I'm also kinda still watching "Journeyman," because of curiousity more than anything else. It's not bad or great, but the "Quantum Leap-esque" premise seems to be hooking me more than it should. I'm not going to continue watching "Bionic Woman," "Kid Nation," or "Survivor : China" though, because they just aren't keeping my attention like I hoped they would.

I'm definitely still continuing on with my old favorites, like "the Office," "Family Guy," "American Dad," and "South Park" which all had really great premieres. Some other shows that I regularly watch are also still on my schedule, like "the Simpsons," "House," "Supernatural," "Law & Order : SVU," "Robot Chicken," "the Batman," "Beauty and the Geek," "Heroes," and "Smallville." Ofcourse the specialty shows like "Bodog Fight," "Human Weapon," "Mythbusters," "the Soup," "Attack of the Show," "Ebert & Roeper," and the occasional "Deal or No Deal" are still on my season pass list.

"Smallville" has always been a show that I was dangerously close to cutting from my viewing schedule because of it's inconsistent quality. I'm glad however that last season's improvements are carrying on with this season. Let's just say that when it's balancing between being a "fair show" and a "bad show," it's a lot more stable in the fair side of things lately (I still got some huge complaints though).

"Heroes" on the other hand is moving away from the high standard I gave it in the majority of it's first season. Now it feels more like it's just going through the motions, and my interest in the show has diminished more than I wish it did. I could say that it's becoming more like how I feel about "Smallville."

So there you go, if you want my opinion on the top ten shows you should be watching this fall season, then they'll have to be "Reaper," "Pushing Daisies," "the Office," "Family Guy," "American Dad," "South Park," "the Simpsons," "House," "Robot Chicken," and "Beauty and the Geek" (that's right, a much better show than you would think).

Here's a quick update on my wedding video project. I've got all the video and pictures I need to start working on the DVD. Hopefully I'll have it done in a week.

When You Return Random

get your free Wii-mote sleeves! (link)

perpetual mario machine 2 (video)

doberman slide (video)

Human slinky (video)

Mario flip book (video)

Master Chief meet Mistress Chief (link)

magic bat (video)

world's dumbest police dog (video)

jihad suicide hotline (video)

terrible video game endings (video)

It has been brought up to me (again) that if one half of a married couple works the graveyard shift, there's a good chance the marriage is not going to work. I've heard and even understand why this general rule exist, but I'll say this here right now, me and my wife are going to be the exception to that rule. I've already been working the graveyard shift for several years when we were just dating, as well as when we were already living together, and there has been no sign that it's been a negative to our relationship. I don't understand why people have to assume that a married couple has to spend as much time as possible with each other. It's not like we're separated from each other in a span of days, it's just hours within a day. If hours not being together is reason for some married couples to break up, then there are more problems in that relationship that needs to be looked into.

I wonder if I really am in the minority here, but is everyone still pretty active on instant messenger clients like AIM, MSN, yahoo IM, etc? Because it's been practically a couple of years now since I was on any of them (I used Trillian for simplicity sake). I suppose instant messengers stems from "chatting" with people online, and I think that I just lost the need to do that in real time. Message boards and my blog here seems to be enough for me in communicating with people online. Heck I prefer cell phone text messaging over e-mail in many cases. Maybe it really is just me *shrug*