One thing I won’t miss from prison is all of the slow walking. Some people walk so slow and you get stuck behind them when you are going somewhere. I know it sounds hard to believe, but I have a long list of items on my list of things to do each day (Reading, writing emails/journals/book reports, studying Spanish, going to classes, helping others study for their GED, exercising, cooking some food, etc) and I don’t like wasting even one minute.
Another thing I won’t miss is everyone watching either fishing reality shows or gold digging reality shows. It seems like they are always on TV! I hesitate calling them reality shows because they seem extremely fake to me. I think inmates tend to like them because is seems to them like the least work to get something. For example, throw a net in the water, catch fish and sell fish; or dig a hole, find gold, sell it for a lot of money. They never stop to think of the large capital investments to buy a big boat with GPS, large nets and lots of labor or alternatively payloaders, bulldozers, large trucks, sorting equipment, etc. I have never liked reality shows anyways – this is just one more reason not to like them.
I probably rent 2 videos/month to watch on our tablets. If it is a two-hour movie, it gives you 3 hours to watch it. Yesterday, I watched Gran Turismo. I really enjoyed it. I then got the idea to use up the remaining hour watching it again in English with Spanish subtitles – one to use up the extra hour and more importantly, to improve my Spanish skills. It really helped out! I intend to probably watch another video per month and do that again because you pick up more complex sentences and new words.
I had an interview on Thursday with a research company that is determining the effectiveness of the “Threshhold” class that I am taking. I had to wait in the Religious Services office while waiting for my scheduled time with the interviewer. While there, I noticed a bunch of DVD’s behind the counter. I asked what they were and it turns out you can rent the TV for 2 hours per week to watch some of the videos (mostly Christian or at least wholesome family-based videos). I went ahead and booked two 2-hour slots in June. I noticed that one of the videos is on my “Movies-To-Watch-When-I-Get-Out” list, so that is the first one to watch. I am trying to get a couple more guys to go in with me on this so that we can turn it into a weekly thing to do with a group of guys.
I just had a visit from my friend, Steve Welker. It is always nice to have visitors from home. The interesting thing is that you cover a lot of ground when you have a visitor because there is nothing else you can do but talk to one another. No phones to look at, interuptions from others, food to cook, etc. Just talking to one another.
