There are days when there's no one around to talk to about your interests... Sure you could fire off an SMS to close friends. You could fire off an SMS to other people with similar interests. You could even fire off an SMS to other friends who don't share your tastes (although at a very high risk of you looking like a complete tool), but really, finding another person who shares the same interests is one of the most difficult things to do.

You can't really discuss everything, even with a significant other. You'll have to explain some basic ideas about certain interests, and look at their reactions to see if they understood, or grasped enough about the concept to get interested; worst case scenario, they'll just smile, nod and change the topic. They might even do this for years on end to humour you and get some peace and quiet on their end, but that's a different discussion.

Simply put, its slightly depressing or lonely to realize that you have unusual tastes in shows or ideas, and you have no one else to discuss it with. You know that your usual friends won't appreciate the topic, and you're afraid that people online sharing the same interests would turn out to be geeks, weirdos, or other antisocial archetypes you'd rather not be lumped together with.

So when you're having fun watching, say, Super Sentai on your work computer, you can't just suddenly laugh out loud -- you don't want to be categorized into a closet weirdo by people you spend 8 hours a day with. You're restrained from having as much fun as you can.

If you watch the same show at home, you'd be safe and alone alright, but that also means you'd be discussing and criticizing the show with your shadow, your reflection, your wall, or whatever convenient imaginary friend will be there to help you out. Nobody will call you a weirdo, but I highly doubt you'd find any form of productive discussion with yourself (part of the reason I stopped writing here is because I'm largely discussing and arguing with myself).

You can watch the same show with family, of course. Chances are you'd find a group that largely shares your same interests, with much greater difference in opinion. And really, this is a great idea, except that I'm not high with staying at home these days with my family.

These days, I'd rather get my own place and live alone for a bit; support myself, realize how difficult it is to work for myself and buy my own stuff, rather than stay at home and relax, knowing a huge part of the next paycheck will be used to pay for bills and other expenses I didn't fully utilize.

So going back. I just finished my part in the surveillance audit for our ISO 20000 recertification, and since 1PM, I've been extremely bored out of my mind thinking of ways to entertain myself. I just finished watching an episode of Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger, but couldn't find anyone to discuss it with. As I mentioned, I could send an SMS to djesie, but I already know that she'll just feign interest to humor me. I could send a quick PM to mac, but he wouldn't care much. I could send an SMS to dennis, knowing he's family, but he couldn't care less either.

So instead, I find myself writing about how grainy the video quality of the show was back in 2004. How TV technology back then wasn't equipped to display high definition shows compared to recent videos like Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger, or Kamen Rider Decade. And I'm reprimanding myself because of course! I'm doing this from hindsight, 7 years after the show was initially broadcast. Even a remastered DVD copy of the same episode wouldn't compare with the more recent HD shows that came out since 2007. Duh!

Unfortunately, the video quality wasn't the only annoyance I had from watching the episode. I'm finding the red ranger, Deka Red, inordinately dumb. Not naive, as he's frequently described to be -- he's just freaking dumb as a doorknob. All bravado and no brains, relying on good instincts and purity of heart as compared to using his brains a bit. I'm comparing him of course to Gokai Red, or even Kamen Rider Decade -- two individuals who have a tiny modicum of brains despite the fact that they also just charge out at the slightest provocation. They spare a bit more brain power to think things through, as compared to just blindly charging at the enemy no matter what.

Perhaps that's the point of the entire series though, to show that some red rangers don't start out as the impeccable leaders that they're later depicted to be. That early in their careers, when they're group wasn't as well-oiled as they later turned out to be, their eventual leaders were also human beings capable of making (stupid) mistakes in order to learn and grow. Too bad that when I was younger, I didn't see this "flaw" from the red rangers of the time: Red One and Red Mask were pretty much shown to be reliable and capable from the get-go. Its annoying to see a brash and hasty child assigned as the leader of a group of professional space cops just because his "unprofessionalism" is justified by the number of times that he turns out to be correct because of his amazing instincts. And the other, more composed, more intelligent members of his group will just have to accept that as a fact. I'm not sure how they can accept his methods when its all basically spitting on the faces of everything that they've done to get promoted to their current positions. What is this, a bunch of Space Cops who originated from the Philippines?

Anyway...

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I was going through the Abenson Mall in Ortigas earlier today, and I saw a 40" Samsung Smart TV for roughly 60k php. This was interesting because the last time I paid attention to the price of the same unit, it was still around 80-90k. The price drop was significant, not to mention, I bothered to look at the features of the TV to understand why it was "Smart"

Basically, a Smart TV is an LED TV that allows you to browse the internet, connect to a LAN or WLAN, play videos from connected devices, or watch conventional TV. It can't really allow you to code, but will allow you to watch YouTube all you want. Was thinking if you could view porn straight from streaming sites, but then again, if you can't, you can still connect a USB flash drive to the TV and just play from there.

Because its already 40", you can even start watching HD movies or HD TV episodes on your Smart TV, and you can expect the same video quality from a home theater set up. The only drawback is of course, regular TV shows will look like crap. Once you have a working internet connection (plugging a LAN cord directly to the Smart TV should be sufficient), you should be able to go directly online and watch movies or other TV shows directly from Youtube or some other viewing site.

Pushing this concept further, you need only connect a PS3 (or some other entertainment system) or even a PC to the Smart TV, and you can play high-end games on the same 40" TV that you're watching your movies on. Put up a great sound system and that's probably all you will need in your living room -- you don't need no sofas! Just set up some mattresses or some futons on the floor and you're all set!

And really, what makes this all achievable in my mind is the lower cost of the Smart TV these days. It might actually make saving for a TV worth it.

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There's probably a huge elephant in the room here that I'm not giving attention to. I'd rather not give it any thought, otherwise I'll just ruin my mood. I've had over a year to think/feel things through, so from here on out, I have to focus on myself. I'm going to leave it at that for the meantime, and continue watching my Sentai.