Greetings my peepareenos --
I think Ive come to realize Im a person of extremes. Im either all to the right, or all to the left. Rarely, if ever, am I in the middle. Case in point, my sleeping habits.
For the better part of this year, Ive had the superhuman power of being able to stay up until ungodly hours, watching tv or doing nothing, and then catching a couple hours sleep and then waking up super early and doing it all over again. At times, many times, it was an ability I wish I did not have. Many I night I would finally decide to cease all activity and try and get some rest, only to lay in bed wide awake until it was time to get up for work at 3am. Many times Id have to go through my work day, and the hours after I was off, on zero sleep. The only bright side was that I was able to watch every single one of the shows that were fortunate enough to have me as a viewer. This, despite having a dvd recorder that would allow me to sleep through them and watch them the next day. After plenty of rest.
Then the unthinkable happened. The dvd recorder I didnt really have a need for broke. But that was ok, right? At least I was still "Stays-Awake-Forever-Man" right? Not so fast bub. With no way to record shows, I had suddenly turned into "Semi-Narcoleptic-Boy." The far right of staying awake until stations signed off has quickly turned to the far left and into the very real possibility of falling asleep during the evening news.
For the past month or so Ive woken up pissed cuz I fell asleep - yet again - during a show I really wanted to watch. A show I had no way to record. A show I would never get to see unless I bought the dvd set a year or so from now. There seems to be no hope for me.
Or is there?
The internet can truly be a marvelous place sometimes. And one of its greatest wonders is Time magazines "Invention Of The Year"... YouTube.
No, I didnt just stumble upon it yesterday, its been a valuable resource of mine for some time now. Ive watched things on there I had always wanted to see, things I had never thought Id ever see, some things I didnt know were even on tape. Some of these things are the shows Ive fallen asleep before or during. For example, this morning I watched this weeks "Smallville", "South Park", and "Drawn Together". Back, to back, to back... and all without commercial interruption. Thank you YouTube.
But if my discoveries had ended there, Id be happy. But they dont. Theres something possibly even greater.
Im not sure how accurate this is, but its my belief that the networks have been scared by YouTube. They dont want people like me going to an outside source to watch their shows. If I do that, they get no benefit from it. Especially no profit. So last week during "Lost" - yet another show I fell asleep during - there was a commercial that basically said "Go to ABC.com to watch tonights episode of Lost." So... I went there the next day.
Not only did they have the most recent Lost, but they had previous weeks too. And not just "Lost", they also had their other shows too. All of em. Just waiting for narcoleptics the world over to click away. And its not just ABC, I was kinda bummed that I havent been able to watch "Heros" and after seeing ABC.com, I decided to check if NBC was doing it too. Guess what... they are! I can watch "Heros" from the very first episode. Or I can just watch the Cliffnotes versions and get caught up. How fricken cool is that?
No longer do I have to curse myself in the morning for not being able to stay awake. I can lay back, relax, get some much needed rest, and then enjoy all of my favorite shows whenever I want to the next day.
Sometimes the internet is a marvelous place indeed. Now Im gonna go to sleep.
Good night.
-- DBW --
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