What the hell am I doing?

Today left me wondering why I’m writing a blog.

During the White Sox/Cubs game, the second consecutive game the Sox bullpen blew, I wrote a blog, ranting about things that irritate me regarding The Price is Right, and explaining how the game works. What a waste of time!

I enjoy creative writing. Before I decided to be a reporter, I was a creative writer. I don’t do much creative writing these days, but I would argue creativity seeps into my stories now and then. For me, a blog is a good way to flex my creative muscle, something I stopped exercising many, many years ago.

But when I finished my silly blog about TPIR, I checked Drama’s blog, something I do almost every time I sit down to download porn from the internet. (That’s a joke, I’m too poor to afford online porn.) Sure enough, Drama had written a follow-up to the blog he wrote late last night about the pharmaceutical industry and the reasons he finds it evil and corrupt.

And this chucklehead is writing about a game show.

I never promised a lot of passionate prose about political or social issues, but Drama’s blog made me wonder how deep of a person I am, and question if my time could be better spent. The short answer is yes, my time could be better spent. A lot of my time could be better spent. But am I getting enough of a return on the investments I make with my time to sleep well at night? Tough question. I hate tough questions.

Perhaps taking a few days off from blogging will help me come to terms with what the hell I’m doing. We’ll see.

In other news, I have been slow to get rolling on my bicycle this year, way too slow. I already hate myself, but I can’t change the past. I labored at times while bicycling 17.5 miles tonight, which is sad because in three weekends I’m scheduled to bicycle 150 miles in the fight against MS. I’ll be fine, I am sure, but I hope it doesn’t rain on Sunday, as I expect to log 30 miles, and it’s a training ride I desperately need. It’s hard to believe I biked 2,120 miles last year, you wouldn’t know it by looking at me today.

It’s already an uphill battle, but I haven’t given up on my goal of biking 3,000 miles this year. That goal, however, is highly contingent upon being able to participate in a one-week bicycling trip around Indiana, a trip I could easily be forced to forego if I find a new job. I’m rooting for the new job. If so, then I can lower my goal to 2,500 miles, which is still a long way away at this point.

I’ll close with a TPIR nugget.

I bought a collection of VHS tapes recently, tapes of various game shows. A lot of them are episodes of TPIR. They’re not high quality tapes, but I don’t care. Simply watching old episodes of TPIR from the 1970s and ‘80s is highly entertaining. There are episodes of the show from the early ‘70s featuring cars that sold for less than $3,000. Some episodes feature games that have been retired for varying reasons. It’s a lot of fun to turn back the clock.

One episode contained a great piece of TPIR history, it featured Professor Price, a game that was played twice before being retired. The game was played for a car, and the contestant had to get three right answers before s/he got three wrong answers. It featured general knowledge questions, such as “how many ounces are there in one-half cup,” or “how many outs are there in a complete inning of baseball.” In addition to the general knowledge questions, the contestant had to guess if the answer to the question was a specific digit in the price of the car.

It was an odd game because TPIR games are dependent upon knowledge of prices, not general knowledge. In the episode I watched the audience wanted to help the contestant answer the general knowledge questions, something the producers probably weren’t interested in. (Bob tried to discourage the audience from doing so.)

The game featured a lame puppet that counted the right and wrong answers on his fingers. He would nod or shake his head to answer yes or no to the answers the contestant gave, as well as questions Bob asked prior to commencement of the game. It was rather lame, so it’s no surprise the game was scrapped after two appearances.

At least this blog has lasted longer than Professor Price.