Today does be a slowish day.
For that reason, I will deliberate on... stuff. That's happened. Somewhat recently. (It seems like it's been much longer since my last post than it really has...)

For one, I have discovered a reason that I might want to buy music: convenience. On a whim, but really while looking for rollerblade wheels (much harder to find than one would think), I wandered into HMV just to see if they had any albums that I wanted. Turns out, they had a surprising number of discs that were it not for a few reasons, I would have happily swooped up and carted home. Compare that to the hunting and searching for torrent files and the subsequent waiting and remembering to leave the client running and then fretting about sluggish performance on my PC because of BT being such a bandwidth hog. Yes, it's free, but that doesn't mean it's not also a bit of a hassle. Plus, I would be guaranteed of having a good rip when I pull the tracks off of the disc, since I'd be doing it myself. The good bits peter out there, however, because that's exactly one of the problems. I don't listen to music from CDs directly (or at least, I do it so rarely as to say that I don't). The first thing I would do after opening the disc would be slap it in my PC and rip it, while perhaps ogling the liner notes before they get banished to the closet. As a result, I find it really hard to slap down money for what is basically a disposable medium - sure, the liner notes are pretty, but I can do without, and the CD is a nifty hard copy of the album, but the odds of me losing the rip I make are slim. Plus, nowadays the labels are going to such lengths to make CDs rip-proof with stupid DRMs that they make them next to useless (ie. I could very likely end up running into such difficulty ripping that I just download the album like I would have if I had not bought it). Toss on my beefs with the recording industry, and any conveniency or ethics benefits I would get from purchasing my music are somewhat quashed, and I shall continue my wait for blanket licensing before buying music again.

(That, and I was able to find my albums much more easily via Overnet, albeit it will go much, much slower.)

For two, I have been steadily increasing my meat intake over the past couple of days. From having some really good burgers (they were easily one-third pounders!) Tuesday to the Quizno's yesterday, and the promise of more murdery goodness tonight, my protein needs are making themselves fulfilled with a vengeance. I have also firmly ensconced the goal of the meatwich on the horizon. A co-worker came up with the idea after deciding that his sandwich didn't have enough meat in it (although this was a sandwich from a place called The Butchery, where the meat:bun ratio is along the lines of 1:1). The solution proposed was to do away with the bun entirely, and use a nice long, thin slice of meat to contain the meat and sauces (and maybe even some lettuce for texture). Something like pancetta, but less fatty/greasy/sausagey? The whole thing would be done up into a roll and eaten like a fajita or wrap. Sounds like mighty good eating to me.

For three, I have been shopping! Well, I only got one thing, but it still involved hitting a retail establishment, which means shopping in my book. As my sunglasses were left to their unknown and probably somewhat dull fate at the cottage, I went and purchased a new pair. Because these ones will probably be just as abused as the last, I only spent about 20 bucks on them, but they don't look horrible and perform their function satisfactorily. It was a tie between the typical black sunglasses look and the amber-ish aviator style driving glasses, but I think good taste took the day with the standard black. I didn't think the driving ones looked too badly, but I also think that most people wouldn't have agreed. I will also be going shopping again tonight, but this time for a birthday present for my mom. Unfortunately, she is nigh-impossible to buy for, and presents me with a dilemma every year around this time. I have a plan to resurrect a mistake on my dad's part from many, many years ago (very much pre-me, as this occurred when my parents were still dating) (also, this was not entirely my idea, as I only heard the story from my aunt on Sunday), but otherwise I still haven't the foggiest idea what to get her. The problem is largely that her tastes and mine operate on entirely different wavelengths, resulting in almost all of my choices being rejected, and I fear that this will only be slightly addressed with my wandering a mall or plaza aimlessly, hoping that something jump out and scream "She wants one of me! Buy! Buy!" and that I can ignore all the things sidling up to me and saying "You know, while you're here, you might as well purchase one of me... Being here and all, you know." (whilst simultaneously my psyche yells "IT MUST BE MINE!!")

So yeah. I think 3 things is the extent of just about everything that's happened to me that I feel like sharing. Indeed. Yes. Right.
  ¶ 11:10 a.m.