Ugh. My head feels like someone filled it full of chalk. Painful chalk. I did something that kind of goes against my principles last night, and watched tv. It's a way of staying in touch with humanity, I suppose. I watched the news, there was a big special about them re-dating meat and putting it back on the shelves. I suppose this is supposed to come as a great shock or something. It's not. This is yet another one of those things I cannot tell Kat about lest I give her another reason to vegetarian us all to death. (just kidding, Kat.) I also watched a bunch of sitcoms. I haven't watched any TV in about six months, with the exception of the occasional twenty minutes or so at someone else's home or something. Movies don't count, of course. Anyway, tv is okay if you watch it with about that schedule, and the shows were about what I expected quality wise, but the commercials were actually a lot better than I expected. See, I have this theory about commercials. About six or seven years ago, according to my theory, advertising was experiencing the beginnings of the end in certain ways. Oh, sure, ads are still effective in some ways, they always have been and always will, but the days of product loyalty and consumer trust are gone, and the times when people didn't see through the inherent deceptiveness of ads is also gone. Not that they can't pull one over on us, just that we're ready for it. If you look, you can see evidence of this in some modern advertising. It's as though they've realized that somehow it's not working, and they're desperately trying anything and everything to regain our attentions. In some cases, they've given up, and the commercials are delightfully surreal and nonsensical. I noticed something last night that I hadn't seen them do, though - almost all of the commercials during about three breaks had really good music. I mean, really good. The kind of stuff that makes you want to go out and find it. It made me wonder why no one had ever thought of that before. They've visually assaulted us to the point where we are no longer sensitive, but jaded and calloused. With every possible stimuli they could think of, they rubbed us raw and beyond in commercials, until we have nothing left to give except our cynicism, yet no one has ever thought of putting good music in them. At least, not too many people...the Diamond Cartel, I forget their names, but they're the ones who own 90% of all the diamond trade in the world. DeBeers, DeBoers, or something along those lines - they have good music for their commercials, although I prefer the original arrangement. Definitely not "Cheese, glorious cheese", know what I mean? Anyway, good music seems like a smart idea - it's one sense they haven't burned out yet, although MTV and top 40 radio has already gotten a head start on that one. Just a thought. Also, since when did Charlie Sheen have a sitcom? Geez, you don't watch TV for six months or so and it all goes wacko.