I'm fat, can I have my plant?

I was exhausted earlier. Then I took an hour nap and I'm wide awake. Story of the week. Massive fatigue, short naps, followed by excess wakefulness. This sickness would be so much better if it was the knock you out all night kind. I heard of some great Brit drug that's essentially like Nyquil and does knock you out, but I was too lazy to go get it. Anyway, I'm slowly getting better and I think the worst is behind me. At least I hope.

I had the misfortunate of watching 5 minutes of Desperate Housewives on Thursday night. It's five minutes of my life I'll never get back. I've read about the show a bit because ESPN's Sports Guy raves about it (he loves bad TV). It took all of 30 seconds to realize two things: what horrible acting and are Americans nuts? I can't overstate how terrible the acting was. I'll never understand the bad TV movement (90210, Melrose Place, the OC, Desperate Housewives, etc).

Last night, because I was feeling weakened, I watched Super Size Me, the documentary about McDonald's. It was surprisingly good. Now, the director Morgan Spurlock is no Michael Moore (anyone else find it odd that the Right primarily targets Moore's girth when attacking him?), but I think he could be in time. The real problem with the movie is that the publicity stunt part, his consumption of nothing but McDonald's for 30 consecutive days, is less interesting or relevant than the "filler" material that is the heart of the debate - people are getting fatter in America because they are told to eat all the wrong things by an ad crazy culture that dominates our lives from the time we are very young until we are very old.

Spurlock makes this point very succinctly when he discusses the addictive nature of sugar and caffeine - two primary ingredients that McDonald's offers to kids - when he says they don't stand a chance. They are bombarded with TV spots from the age of 2 to eat junk food, fast food, soda, candy, etc. and on an average basis, each person in the US has over 10,000 such messages told to them a year simply by watching TV. His point? The food industry says that people should be informed and that parents should educate their children. But in the "never in a million years" possibility that a parent had EVERY single meal with their kids for an entire year, repeatedly telling them how to eat right, they still only imprint that message about 1,000 times. The ad industry is overwhelming the good messages with negative ones.

At any rate, it's a really interesting take on a serious problem. People put fast food into their bodies every day - some people literally every day - without thinking of the consequences. Americans are getting fatter every day to the point that former US Surgeon General (and Barkley Forum Georgia Speaker of the Year!) Satcher stated quite clearly that it's only a matter of time before obesity passes cigarettes as the number one preventable killer of Americans. That's frightening for all kinds of reasons, but should be truly terrifying when you think of the costs involved. We need to transition from a fast food culture to a healthier culture.

Spurlock, unfortunately, doesn't appear to be that bright of a guy. In fact, I'd say that he comes across as little more than trailer trash lucky enough to inherit a decent camera in a glorious dumpster diving find. Ok, that's a bit harsh. But one of the things about Michael Moore that I like (and it's not his tendency to play loose with the "facts") is that his films are never about him. And this movie definitely is about Spurlock. It shouldn't be. But, as an unknown director, I can see how he felt he needed an angle to make it big, so I hope his next film is more of a documentary and less of a Morgan Spurlock for President kind of approach.

...In other news, it's become apparent that the cold shoulder that I've been giving Real World is fairly obvious. She asked me if I was still mad at her. I lied and told her I was just sick. (Small lie of omission, but Mama taught me right - a lie's a lie.) Eurotrash asked me today if she was "on the outs". We haven't had a chance to talk much about it (I've been sublingual with this whole illness thing), but he's the perceptive sort. The truth is what I said the other day. I don't have time, effort, energy, or interest in giving a sh*t about her anymore. I can only be there for people for so long. If one of my "friends" wants to incessantly act like a child, then they can do that - on their own time. If they want to act like an adult, then I'll be happy to socialize with them. Until then, piss off.

I must once again state the power of dark chocolate. After rivers of multi-colored lung butter, my cough is mostly gone, but I still do have episodes. This morning at about 6 am, I was awoken to non-stop hacking. I drank water, had a cough drop, nothing was working. Finally, I downed the last of the cough syrup (straight from the bottle - because I'm hardcore like that) and that settled me down a bit. I had run out of chocolate the night before. This evening, same thing. Except this time, I had restocked my chocolate supply. Two bite-sized pieces later and the cough was killed. I'm telling you. Best. Medicine. Ever.

On a final note, it's absolutely killing me that I can't watch the NBA playoffs right now. Great games, great matchups, great energy and I'm missing it. D'oh.