That's why you seem familiar...

If you were a 'Non-Traditional Student' attending a certain university in the 'center' of Missouri around the time I was, I apologize to you for what I am about to say.
You ruined every class I ever had with you.
The other four to 100 students in the class were able to listen to the lecture and take their notes without interrupting to ask an inane question about a frivolous sub-point of the lecture. Why couldn't you? No one else felt the need to fill the first twelve minutes of the class period with asinine stories of their children, their pets, their children's pets.
I'm glad that you took the time to go back to school and get your education. I realize that you must have been very proud of yourself. But did you have to interrupt the class all of the time? Seriously?

This type of person came into my mind again, recently, when a new person was hired at our office. I am the youngest person in the office, four and a half years younger than than my boss, the eldest. All four of us are, in varying degrees, computer savvy. The new lady might well have babysat for any of us in the office, had she had the chance.
Her resume was impressive. Several years with a major credit card company as a high level executive assistant, among other solid positions with solid companies. The staffing company reported an above average skill in the MS Office Suite, which she would be using daily in her new position. She was warm and friendly in the two interviews she attended. She looked to be a perfect fit.
Then she arrived for work.
It was not long before I realized she was going to get on my nerves. I tried to chalk it up to 'First Day Jitters,' nervous about making new friends. (And to her credit, it would be extremely intimidating, being the junior member by tenure, and the senior member by years) But then she wasted the first five minutes of the staff meeting with a story about her cat getting into the garbage. An amusing story, true, but one more suited for the break room than the conference room.
The rest of the week, she wasted no less than three hours of my time, while I tried to help her do (what her Excel Skills Tests would indicate to be) average tasks in Excel. (Auto-filter, Date formating. Hiding rows and columns) She even managed to update each of us on the status of her cat's daily struggle with staying away from the garbage.
By Wednesday, I knew why I disliked her. She was the Non-Trad. Ruining work for me.
She was gone by the end of Monday, Day 6. She saved a file, her entire day's work, to a temporary internet folder. She never found that folder again. I'll probably never see her again.

No thank you sir, I'll watch that for free.

Living in a household without even basic cable can take its toll on an individual. We're lucky to own a Hi-Def LCD flat panel. We use it mainly to play video games and DVDs. We did invest in a digital antenna which we use to pull in four Hi-Def channels: NBC, and three PBS channels. Of these three PBS channels, the first is standard PBS programming, broadcast in high definition. The second is an alternate channel, which broadcasts mostly the local shows, but some of the national as well. The third, all quilting, all the time.
PBS has some very good programming, as I am sure my readership is well aware. They also have some less than great programming. But the one constant on PBS is the 'Membership Drive.'
It seems to me that the local station is always looking for new members. I believe they have a 'Drive' every other week. And this weekend, was that other week, with every show interrupted five or six times an hour, so that over-caffeinated PBS personalities can solicit funds to keep 'quality programming like this on the air.'

'And, as an incentive to you, our faithful viewer, we'll throw in some item related to the show you're trying to watch, but can't, because we keep cutting to footage of septuagenarians manning phone banks, while I beg for your sponsorship.'

(This morning, it was a 'One Skillet Meals' cookbook. (One recipe they cooked during the roughly seven minutes of actual show they allowed actually raised my cholesterol over 100 points just be watching.) (I was watching this, because today's Saturday Morning Cartoons are absolutely un-watchable. Seriously, they're crap. But that's a story for later.))

But this evening, the local PBS channel aired John Fogerty: The Long Road Home in Concert. Now, this is a great concert. Amazing, even. I thoroughly enjoyed it. But they cut in every third song, or so, with their beggary, asking me for money. And as an incentive they offered up the CD, or the DVD, or BOTH. The price? $80 for the CD, $100 for the DVD, but they'd give you a break if you pledged $160, and give you both the CD and the DVD for the one low price.
So here's what I did:
I got up, made myself a little dessert, and came back just in time for the next segment. After they broke back to the studio for more panhandling after 'Keep on Chooglin,' I got up, putzed around the kitchen for awhile, then came back in time for more concert.
Then I hopped on Amazon.com and bought both items for the low, low price of $24.46.

Come on, PBS, if you're going to offer incentives for me to become a member, you're going to need to start offering me something I can't get anywhere else. Especially something I can't get for less than 1/6th the price you're wanting.
Lure me in with Red Green seasons on DVD. Or Austin City Limits. Or Nova or even a Jim Lehrer T-Shirt. Those I would gladly pay for. You'll do a lot better if you do.