Diary Tuesday

Fingerprints, Fitness, and Free-Trials

Yay for alliteration! Today I got fingerprinted for my volunteer job, and it reminded me that when I was a kid I had a book that talked about fingerprints, and I used to always want the whorl fingerprint because all I have are a few boring arches and some loops. But I'm not sure why I decided that some fingerprints are more exciting than others.

I rode my bike to the police station, so I decided that was enough exercise for today and opted not to go to the fitness room. But, yesterday, when I went I got to once again marvel at the lackluster exercise habits of the residents here. I'd say they were in there about fifteen minutes and then I saw them walk towards the weight room but they must have either been heading for the drinking fountain or just looked at the weights and felt that was enough because they left seconds afterwards. To be fair perhaps they were chased away by the loud TV I was watching. But they didn't ask me to turn it down or change the channel, so I didn't. To be honest I wasn't that interested in the vapid news show I was watching but I do tend to assert dominance over the TV if I'm there first just so others can't. Also in faint hopes that it might chase people away because I like exercising alone (but I promise this cannot have always been the reason people left because I didn't always have the remote). Maybe that makes me evil, but I promise I'd turn it down and possibly even change the channel if asked.

After cardio, I went to the weight room to try to figure out the odd contrivances they keep there. It took me several minutes to figure out how to adjust the leg machine properly and understand how to change the weight setting because the very helpful instructions went something like: "Change the weight setting to a comfortable setting." Yes...how? But I worked it out eventually.

In more sedentary couch potato news, a few days ago I signed up for the free trial of Netflix, but I have every intention of cancelling after I've watched the DVDs I want to see. The problem I have with subscription based rentals is I can go several months without watching a movie. This is probably a good way to be. But the subscription based rentals have cornered the market. I would have just gotten what I wanted from the library or Blockbuster but neither had it. I'm annoyed that the best service forces you to pay whether you use it or not. As my sister likes to phrase it, "they become your pushers." You're wasting your money if you don't watch more movies than you probably should. But they're also the only ones left who have obscure things available to rent. And by "obscure" I mean the first season of a popular TV show! Very frustrating.