Watch 'The Wire'. Just do as I say. It's on HBO. Better yet, if you're planning on buying anything for $50 or more in the near future, do not buy that thing and instead purchase the first season of the show. Do it. Buy The Wire. I just finished episode 9 and I've never seen anything like it. The show has been called THE BEST SHOW ON TV by TIME, Entertainment Weekly, The Gaurdian, the Chicago Tribune, Slate, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Philadelphia Daily News (according to wikipedia). Feel free to add LostonPurpose.com to that list. In my experience, this is one of the few things that has ever lived up to my expectations - not even the Mona Lisa managed that. Watch the show. Make it a priority. After two episodes it will become a priority. I hardly ever watch TV, but this show rules. Trust me.

Hey, LOP is up on the front page of Spindividual. If you're interested in hearing one of the non-free songs to the left, and don't want to buy a whole album, you can buy pretty much every song there for a buck.

Figures, I complain about the Cavs and they immediately win two back-to-backs in a row for the first time since 1993 (I think). Of course, the offense still isn't very good. But I am impressed by their defensive prowess. Their defense is like 4th in the league by any metric. Mike Brown deserves some credit for that.

I will probably be posting a couple new demos in the next few weeks.

As if on cue, a black DS has materialized...

This should boost my productivity.

I can't find a Nintendo DS anywhere. Not in Ohio, not in California. Well, I'm only looking at Circuit City because I have a surplus of gift cards there, but if they don't have any in stock then I doubt many other places do. So the New Super Mario Bros. game sits in my bedroom, burning a hole through my retina every time I look at it.

Speaking of burning sensations, the Cavs need to figure out a consistent offense. I know this sounds strange, considering that they've won 5 out of 6 right now, but ultimately they're having the same problems as last year. They finally have one of the best defenses in the league by any metric, but they still lose games they shouldn't have barely pull out victories of what should be easy wins. And they don't have the proper fundamentals to compete when they're not at the top of their game, like the 2nd game of a back to back. I hate to say it, since Ilgauskas is on my fantasy team, but they're built to run. They should take advantage of the NBA's new rules and just run other teams out of the gym - LeBron, Larry, Drew, Varejao, Donyell, Damon and Gibson are all athletic enough to do this. And when things aren't working, they can put in Z and run a traditional offense (as long as they consistently pound the ball inside). The guys over at The Wages of Wins are going to do a post on the Cavs in the near future (at my bequest, sort of) and I think their data will point out that while almost all the Cavs' forwards are above average, almost all their gaurds are not. So they might as well take advantage of the athletic prowess in the frontcourt as best they can.

The picture is from Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland.

Yeah yeah, it seems as though I don't exist. But I do, and I will prove it eventually, although not in the same fashion as Descartes. I've made significant progress on the album - I upgraded my monitor and my speakers, so now I can actually hear bass when I mix songs and I'm not embracing my monitor when I work anymore. This is a good thing.

Just pray that I don't start playing World of Warcraft anytime soon.

I can't believe Ohio State is in the national championship game AGAIN. When you're from Ohio, you PLAN to lose. This doesn't feel right. At least the Browns are keeping us in check. By the way, Tressel is a genius and hiring him straight out of Youngstown was one of the greatest decisions ever made at Ohio State. Also, my sister is at school there RIGHT NOW and she won the student lottery for a ticket to the game. And by some confluence of luck her school's basketball team is historically good as well. Must be nice.

Here's my 2 cents: the Cavs need to start sitting LeBron more often. The offense is stifled whenever he's on the court. Yeah, he scores, but that's because he's the whole offense, especially since Hughes is still (!) injured. I agree with Sir Charles - LeBron shouldn't be a point-forward. Yes, he can do it, he's very capable at it, but he'd be better as a finisher. Watch an old Bulls game from the early/mid 90s - Jordan often won't touch the ball until the shot clock is down to 12 or 10 or so. When I was much younger I never understood this, I thought you should give the ball to the best player so he could just jump over the defense or something. Now I know better. I also know that the best outside shooter in the world doesn't have as good a field goal percentage as your average power forward/center. Give Z more than 6 shots a game. Please. He's on my fantasy team. So is Gooden, who had a tremendous preseason but has been inconsistent all year because he's too busy getting out of LeBron's way. Seriously, give the rest of the team a chance to develop as a unit. I'd rather see that than see Gibson and Brown become marginal contributors in their rookie season. Well, Gibson's development could be significant to the team down the road, but at least try to work him into an 8-man rotation. Who is our coach again? Doc Rivers?

No, I'm not trying to become the next Sports Guy. I think my writing ability makes that abundantly clear.

Can't decide which next-gen video game system to purchase? Then let me make the decision for you: get the Wii. My roommate bought it on launch day, and I'm seriously impressed. Not so much by the current library, but by the obvious potential. Wii Sports, which comes with the system, is nothing more than a fun demonstration of what the motion-sensing controller can do. But as you play each game of tennis or bowling or baseball, you begin to think about how a fully-realized tennis or bowling or baseball game would play, and it's pretty hard not to get excited. Red Steel pretty much blew it in the control department, but my roommate and I have already come up with alternative control schemes (in theory only, of course) that will probably be implemented in the next generation of shooting games. I'm not sure how Ubisoft let that game get out the door as-is though. But anyhow, I'm recommending the Wii primarily because of its price at this point. Your $250 is at very little risk - Nintendo has made and will make incredible games in the next few years and the controller has opened up brand new possibilities. The PS3 and 360 could both be great, and the 360 already has some solid games, but if money is an issue I really don't see the point in throwing down your hard-earned cash (and lots of it) on an unproven console. Especially on an expensive trojan horse.

I know I've been promising a big update to this site for a while now, and someday it will happen. I recently got some new programs that will aid me in this endeavor, but I have to learn how to use them first. I'm thinking about a massive three-minute flash intro that shows me flying onto the screen on a winged horse...

I've finally got some big news: all Lost on Purpose songs will soon be available for purchase at www.spindividual.com, a cool new mp3 site started by a couple of Cleveland natives. They get major points for that alone, but the site is really geared towards being a parter in and facilitator for the careers of independent artists like myself. They truly value great music over profit margins, and for that they deserve your support.

In the movie Groundhog Day, did Bill Murray's character ever try to stay awake past midnight in the company of other people? I've seen parts of the movie, but not all of it, and while he definitely tried to kill himself I don't know if he ever tried this out. Like, he should have gone to a bar to see what happened at midnight - if the day was going to repeat, then everyone would have to magically disappear at midnight and go back to their physical positions at the beginning of the day, right? Does anybody know if he tried this? Also, did he always wake up at the same time/place on Feb 2? If he fell asleep out on the street did he always wake up in bed again? I think this answer might be a yes. These are the types of things I think about.