Magazine Reading

How do you like that? It's been more than two weeks since I posted anything here. I've gotten a couple of irate emails, and I'm sure lost a few of my 10 or so regular readers. I just wasn't feeling like spending my free time at the computer lately. I do spend my entire workday staring into the retina-melting screens you know.

I haven't really been doing anything mentionable. Last weekend, we went to my in-laws' in the north part of Louisiana. It's a pretty slow place -- I read a bunch of magazines and watched a bunch of junky MTV shows.

Here are the magazines that I read last weekend:

• 2 issues of National Geographic Traveler: I never read this mag before, and I liked it pretty well. The problem with travel magazines is that there are so many places I'd like to go and do and see, and I realize that I'll probably never get to half of them. It's a bit of a downer. On the other hand, I do like to see pictures of these strange places and read about what other people did when they were there.
• 1 issue of Rolling Stone: Rolling Stone has good writers, but they don't do the best job of picking their topics. It's one of those magazines where every third or fourth issue there's something brilliant. The rest of the time, it's just something to keep your attention while the Mrs. watches American Idol.
• 1 issue of Entertainment Weekly: It's just the brain equivalent of potato chips. There's nothing substantive, but it's fun to consume.
• 1 issue of Sports Illustrated: This one is a cross between brain potato chips and the occasional brilliance. About once every six weeks or so, there's something that's way above average. By the way, I just got the Swimsuit issue, but I don't like to peruse in front of Mrs. theskinnyonbenny. It makes her irate. For many years, I've brought Iram at work my copy of the swimsuit issue, which he would put in a filing cabinet. Then, if someone wanted to know something about a three year old issue, he would just pull it out like it was a bank statement or something. Iram quit a few weeks ago. I wonder what he did with six or seven years worth of magazines.
• 1 issue of Outside: This is my favorite magazine. They usually come up with at least one really good topic per issue, and their writers are top notch. Even though I've never climbed a mountain in my life, and even though I have no desire to, I especially like reading articles about people freezing themselves to near death while trying to make some summit that I had never heard of before.
• 1 issue of Backpacker: The issue that I read was a gear review, so I really don't know if this magazine is any good or not. The gear review was interesting, but irrelevant to me.

It feels good to be back in the saddle. I'll post another one soon.