The world has fallen for Susan!

Maybe it won't last, but for the moment, a lonely spinster from a village in Scotland has become an overnight star, thanks to YouTube, which posted her unforgettable appearance on "Britain's Got Talent", belting out the song "I Dreamed a Dream" from the show "Les Miserables". What made that performance so unforgettable is not only the fact that she sang it with such longing and passion, but no one expected a dowdy, middle aged woman with her looks to have even one remote shred of talent to offer, but oh, did she ever prove 'em wrong! She showed every one of us on the wrong side of 40 that age is no barrier to reaching for your dreams, and that in our youth and beauty obsessed culture, someone like her can make it, if you want to grab for the gold ring badly enough to put everything on the line and take a risk like that, even if it means possible public humiliation in the process. Reality TV shows mean real people putting it on the line, whether it's to lose weight ("The Biggest Loser") or to try to show a panel of snarky judges that you've got some shred of talent to offer the world ("America's/Britain's Got Talent", "American Idol"). They are often portrayed in withering moments of humiliation, whether it's a spectacularly bad audition on a talent show or a morbidly obese person struggling to exercise in a state-of-the-art gymnasium with a trainer breathing down their necks at them. But to see people perservere and overcome monumental odds to achieve their dreams makes us all feel good, because honestly, how many of us have those old deferred dreams locked up in our minds that we just don't think we can achieve, because we put some sort of artificial barrier in our way? Like, oh, I'm just not good enough, or, later, I haven't the time right now, or, no one would ever take me seriously if I tried this or whatever. We've all been there, done that. People like Susan Boyle, who obviously deferred her dreams for decades, had the cojones to dust it all off and put it out there for our approval, and boy, did she prove that it's never to late to go dig out those old hopes and dreams and make 'em happen, because time's a wastin', and the longer you put them off, the more likely it is that you'll never do those things you said you'd do someday. Thank you, Susan, for showing us in this youth and beauty obsessed culture that someone like you has a beauty that shines from the inside out, no matter what anybody says. May your dreams all come true, because goodness knows, you earned it!

DTV CONVERTER BOX
Last night I went to the store to buy a DTV converter box for my old analog signal TV, which still uses rabbit ears to get reception. I had to do it last night because my government issued coupon expired today, and I wanted to be able to use it to get a break on price, which I most certainly did. After getting the unit home and finding hook-up to be a tad confusing, I had to call the company for assistance to get it all done. Kindly, they walked me through the process and eventually I got it all done, but I found, to my dismay, that I am not getting terribly good reception with this thing. I don't think that many stations have made the switchover yet. Either that, or I may, as the Magnavox guy said, have to buy a new antenna, because I am using my rabbit ears still and you do have to hook the DTV box up to your rabbit ears. Well, needless to say, I disconnected the DTV box and put it away until the conversion is complete, and I plan until then to continue using my rabbit ears, because the channels I want to watch come in very clear using them as opposed to the almost non-reception I got using the DTV converter. It'll be interesting to see if, come June when the cut-over is complete, if I get good signals on the channels I watch most often. I will probably have to go out and buy a more powerful antenna. Either that, or I can experiment and see if, rather than connecting the DTV converter to the rabbit ears, I use the VCR for an antenna, because I have my rabbit ears connected to the VCR at the moment, which I suspect is giving me the good reception I am currently getting. If that doesn't work, then it's back to the store in search of a decent "powered antenna", which is what I was told I may need to get. No government bailout for that - I'm going to have to pay for that out of my own pocket, unfortunately. Let's hope that it won't cost too much, since my finances are a tad tight right now and probably will be for the foreseeable future.