>>>Like anyone should trust me after my recent recommendation of "Rescue Me."
>>>
>>>Hey, baby, trust me.
>>>
>>>I have moved right on to "The West Wing." Probably three years ago I bought the complete series box set cheap on eBay, based on all the awards it received. There it has sat ever since on top of one of my bookshelves, literally gathering dust. It must have been my father's death that stirred me to take it off the shelf, since it was his favorite TV show. He had probably every season in individual DVD collections.
>>>
>>>This show is so good it's almost unbelievable. Characters, plot, dialogue, on and on. I am not going to look up how many Emmys it won, for fear of spoilers, but it was a lot. You see the whirlwind of activity of an American Presidential staff that is on duty 24 hours a day and reacting as fast as it can to unfolding events. You think yeah, I'd do that, go without sleep for 8 years to be part of it. Martin Sheen is terrific as President Bartlet but the focus is on his staff. It's masterful writing because within about two episodes you already care about a dozen of them.
>>>
>>>I am so confident in this recommendation I have a plan in mind already. When I finish watching it I will make it a traveling trophy of sorts. That is something my dad would have liked. It will be a while until I have finished watching, even at this rate. There were over 100 hour long episodes (less than 45 minutes each on DVD). I will mail it to the first person who asks with the only condition being that they do the same to the next person. And so on.
>>>
>>>Insanely great.
>>
>>Maybe you should push them out a few at a time? No point in someone having 100 hrs to watch before they pass any on.
>>
>>At my current rate of TV consumption it would take me two years, at least, to finish.....
>
>That's a good suggestion and I am going to take it. Each season is in a jacket of 7 DVDs or so and I will mail them out that way. John Baird is first on the list. All he has to do is agree to pass it along to whoever #2 is. This is cool.
>
>Like you, I watch little television. Most days I don't watch a thing and when I do watch it's usually sports. Once in a while, though, I get onto a TV series and watch them like I'm drinking water from a fire hose. Bill Gates reportedly watches series the same way. The only thing that separates us is a few billion dollars ;-)

I've only tried watching a series (or serial) back-to-back a couple of times. I find I can't take more than two or three episodes without a feeling of overload. Also, any niggling annoyance I might have with the plot/acting etc. seems to increase. I guess these things were actually designed to be watched in small chunks ?

>Guess what? I took my bicycle down from its hooks on the garage wall and went over to a nearby trail for a spin. For once I am not starting with overly grandiose plans, just a few miles a day. No goal whatsoever other than trying to ride every day.

I must say I find riding a bike provides the best way of taking in your surroundings.
In a vehicle, even as a passenger, you miss most stuff.
Walk and you see it all. But if all you cover is 20 miles a day it doesn't change much - and in parts of France you'd feel as if you had been in the same wheat field (or town) all day.
A bike is the best of both worlds. You can stop anywhere - places with spectacular views where a vehicle can't stop etc, but still have a sense of progress.
It does feel odd being in a moving vehicle after a couple of weeks just on a bike - you realize just how much your perception of time and distance has changed. I guess the same thing happens after being on foot as well. Maybe that's the attraction of the Santiago de Compostela routes

>PS -- now here is a question for the many people here who know far more about science than I do. My TV is a projection HDTV. Recently the projection lamp burned out, as they do every three years or so (if you cohabit with teenagers), and I had to replace it. The picture seems noticeably sharper. I had assumed the lamp is binary, it either works or it doesn't, but do they in fact degrade over time? Dust getting onto the lens or something like that? Just curious.