So there is this thing that I was, at first, sort of dreading. Then I was angry about it and then I finally just resigned myself that it was going to happen and became zen.

But then, out of the blue, something happened that saved me from what I had been dreading and I was back in the game and put it out of my mind. I have been chugging along happily and everything was dandy.

Today I was bopping around one of the social networking sites reading other people’s updates when I read something that may mean that I should start worrying about that thing again. It was from some other people who are in similar, but not exact situations as me with said thing. From the messages, they should totally be worrying about the thing, but I am not sure if I should be or not.

Before, when I had resigned myself to it, I would have been like “bring it on.” But now, I had gotten all comfy in the idea that I was safe and the idea of it happening now is terrifying.

Not to mention that I am not even sure if I know what I think I know. You ever try to glean actual information using only status updates? It’s near impossible.

Should I worry about something that I might be mis-reading? If only I could just turn the zen back on. That was helpful.

Look, I get that there is a lot of news. I get that they cannot possibly report it all.

If there is a major crisis (earthquake, tsunami, etc) they I understand if the news cannot cover those poor men and women trapped over in Iraq for a night. I definitely understand that.

What I don’t understand is how most people don’t even realize how many people have died or been injured in this war because the news doesn’t cover it. Not because there is too much real news. But because suddenly fluff pieces get preference over “real” news.

Preempting news about the war for something really huge and important, I get that. Preempting it because Paris Hilton got a new boyfriend or the son of a has been 80s wrestler is whining in jail is unacceptable. Ignoring the work and the sacrifice of our soldiers overseas for what amounts to nothing but mindless entertainment drivel because the reality of a war is a “downer” is unacceptable and I just cannot understand why more people aren’t outraged by this.

We live in a world where the news is graded and judged by ratings like a fictional program so the news networks give president the stuff that they think the most people would like to see. “Reminding people about war is sad, the advertisers won’t like that. Hey, I know, let’s see if we can get Britney Spears to overdose!” As long as the system stays how it is, there will never be “real” news again. Every news network’s goal is no longer to present the truth to the nation, it’s now to sell ad time to advertisers to pay of the cost of running the news. How are you ever going to achieve fair news with a system like that?

If we as a country faced the reality of war every single day, in theory, wouldn’t we work harder for peace? As long as we have our heads in the sand of fluff news, we are letting everything go to utter hell around us.

I know that this post is, in effect, a downer but it upsets me that, even on memorial day, the news happily trots out photos of World War One and Two and other past wars like a child going La La La with his fingers in his ears like we have to just forget that we are in a way right now, a war with costs rising every day, a war with no end in sight and a war that most of the population has forgotten is even going on.

I guess what I am saying is that it would be nice if the news reported actual news again.

So my brother has both Playstation 3 and XBox 360 (and a Wii and every other vintage system, but let’s not go there) which means that he owns both an HD and BluRay DVD player. I never watched one of the HD ones but we the family watched Enchanted in BluRay and it looked pretty amazing.

Am I going to be purchasing a BluRay player? No yet. I am too cheap. That and our TV is huge so everything looks pretty good on it already, even 16 bit Nintendo games.

That and I really don’t want to have to re-buy every DVD we own as BluRay.

Anyway, if you are in the market for some, Amazon has almost their entire stock at 50% off which seems like a very good deal to me.