2001-07-01 - 11:51 p.m.
I spent my day watching TV. Movie after movie after sitcom after cartoons after re-runs of Simpsons. I think I must have sat there for 6 hours. It was a refreshing experience - I haven't watched that much TV since high school. These days, I find little desire to watch TV at all, what with the supposedly satirical reality TV to magnify the banalities in my life. As if the theme of human frailty has not been exploited enough through the centuries, people now find it immensely fascinating to observe how fellow humans/actors react under extraordinary circumstances. Do we seek solace in knowing that others also cheat on their partners when given the first chance (even on national TV), that backstabbing, two-faced, malicious people do not only exist in your workplace, that survival necessarily means doing away with one's morals?
Don't get me wrong here. I'm not taking a moral highground, preaching about the promiscuous and hedonistic excesses Coupland's Gen-X faces today. What disturbs me is how the world is participating in this media orgy- ogling at the intimate embarassments, sly advances, accentuating the very ugly side of human nature. Do they really find following someone else's daily routines intrinsically entertaining? Or is it just reassuring to know that their lives are normal?
I spent the rest of the day with dad. He came home with a new muffin-making machine. It's like one of those sandwich makers. We experimented with banana muffins. That wasn't exactly successful, the muffins tasted more like bread. Just as well anyway, dad always wanted a bread-maker.
