Television

One aspect of human culture I have not talked enough about, but deserves much more attention particularly because of its breadth and influence where I have taken up residence, is television.

I have particularly enjoyed watching the Food Network due to my newly found interest in cooking. More recently, I have expanded my knowledge on the workings and content of this device that is, I believe affectionately, called the “idiot box.”

Thanks to my recent illness, I was unable to do much cooking, so I turned to other channels for entertainment. My sister is enamored with the program “Dancing With The Stars”. Dancing is, of course, a universally shared activity for many species throughout the galaxy, but for bipeds encumbered by their inability to fly, humans have a greater variety of dances than I anticipated. It is a testament to their creativity. It is also a testament to their hormones, since most every dance seems to be part of some mating ritual or another.

I am impressed with the sheer volume of programming that is produced for television, and after being sick for over a week and unable to do much else but watch television, I am further impressed by how hard entertaining programming is hard to find. Yet, everyone watches. “Glee” is quite entertaining, though. I do not get the sense from my sister that there is quite that much singing in her high school, but I am curious what goes on over there.

To digress a moment, I suspect this boy she went on a date with this past weekend is in some kind of musical group. That seems to be the pattern, but she will not answer any questions on the matter, insisting I need to get a girlfriend of my own. Again, I do not see the logic.

I have also become introduced to Video On Demand. They may seem the same, but movies are quite different from television. Curious by how humanity must think of extra-terrestrial life, I have listed a queue of movies on the subject. “Alien” being at the top of the list alphabetically, is quite amusing. Apparently, humanity thinks that we aliens have nothing better to do than to attach to their faces, turn them into symbiotic hosts, then burst from their chests only to continue to hunt them for food. The whole acid for blood thing is quite unfortunate also. I imagine, the poor Aliens from the movie do not get invited to many sporting activities.

I will continue to watch on. I am hoping to learn more about the human space exploration program “Star Trek”. Of course, I will always go back to the Food Network. I do still like that Giada De Laurentis.