I've got a new addiction, or perhaps a change back to an old addiction: news and information media, rather than entertainment media.

I've been listening to an AM radio station I recently discovered (but has apparently been around for a while), all about business news and such. This seems to go with the fact that I keep watching Bloomberg News on TV here (it's broadcast on a local UHF station early in the mornings).

You know, when I was working the temp job last month I really felt sorry for a lot of the folks who worked there for some reason I couldn't put my finger on. Like I said, when I started the training class, the Marcus Cole "Babylon 5" look-alike realized that he knew me from somewhere, or had heard of me, anyway. We realized that it was probably the circles that we traveled in, or I used to, and he still did. I'm sure we have some mutual acquaintances somewhere along the line. Anyway, over time I realized that about a third of the folks that worked there were all into the same things. Fantasy roleplaying games. Multiuser dungeons, Asheron's Call, Evercrack^H^H^H^H^Hquest, and every conceivable add-on and permutation of Quake, Unreal, Half-Life, and other multiplayer first-person shooter games. Society for Creative Anachronisms. Only now I'm realizing what it was - they're still hiding behind their fantasy worlds, distracting themselves, complaining about their lives, and how they haven't done anything, frittering away their twenties (and a couple, their thirties) doing this stuff. And I was coming to realize it, and they hadn't yet. Maybe there's hope for me yet.

I seem to have developed a keen interest in business news. It's remarkable in itself that I've started to listen to NPR again (news seems to have become less draining), started listening to programs like "A Prarie Home Companion" for entertainment, and started some cursory reading, despite the effect my allergies have on my eyes.

I think part of this is a symptom that GenX geek television, heralded in by programs like "Star Trek: The Next Generation" being a success in the late '80s, and then thrust into the stratosphere by "The X-Files" and "Babylon 5", is coming to an end. The media landscape is changing, moving back to the baby boomers and to Generation Y, the kids of the late-to-procreate boomers. I'm stuck in that in-between generation, and our experiences and thoughts aren't valued because we're a smaller market segment than either of these.

Also, I think I'm trying to reorient myself - it's time to do something, change myself back to what I want to be. Way back when I paid attention to the Real World�, rather than some fantasy worlds that I or somebody else created to distract myself, I felt like I started to know where trends were, where (the ever-elusive) "it" was at. My experience bore that out - unfortunately, I didn't have the mood, energy or resources to pursue "it" then. Maybe it's time to work that way again.

I've remained slack-jawed and hopeless long enough. Retooling and reenergizing are the watchwords of the day.

restlessmind