Newsworthy

My sister-in-law accused me not too long ago about being “as bad as my brother” because I don’t blog as often as I should. I have a good reason for this. Well, okay, I have a reason for it. Probably not a good one.

I love to write, and I like blogging. But I have a tendency to want to “wow” my audience with something spectacular. Therefore, until I have a great idea of something to write about, it tends to remain undone. Not that I neglect it. I write about once a week. My sister-in-law just happens to blog approximately three times a day.

Anyway, I was at the gym yesterday (which is pretty newsworthy in and of itself), watching the news on the TVs they have set up for the cardio machines. Or, more accurately, trying to avoid watching the news on the TVs they have set up for the cardio machines. I’m not a big fan of the news. Especially at the gym. I’m sweating and I’m in pain, and you want me to watch commercials about food, interspersed with depressing news about how the world has gone to seed? Come on, people! Give me something that’s going to keep my mind off of my aching muscles!

There are seven or eight TV’s in front of the cardio machines, and they are all inevitably turned to the news. Because apparently when you’re working out, you need to know what every single station considers newsworthy. Doesn’t seem like it should be that big of a deal to change one of them to a TV show or a cable channel, but they rarely do.

It was for this reason that I wanted an IPod, so that I could download audio books and ignore the screens in front of me. Thing is, though, you apparently have to sync the books to the IPod. There’s always something.

So I’m stuck watching the news for now.

Without sound and without subtitles.

When it comes to current events, I prefer to get my information from newspaper headlines or from more reliable sources like, you know, my brothers. That way they can sort through all the crap and let me know what’s really important.

At least the weather’s interesting. The best part of watching the weather at the gym is seeing the discrepancies in the forecasts of the different stations. Either it’s going to be cloudy and 45 this weekend, or it’s going to be sunny and over 60.