Media Notes

Movies

• I Love You Man - saw this while I had freetime at drill (shocking). Pretty entertaining.

TV

• Dollhouse - Still loving it, all the way to the end. Me and CG gasped when we saw the reveal (I called it a little before it was stated). Next week looks... fantastic!!
• Chuck - OMG. I know Kung-fu!!! God, I love this show and really hope that all this bubble talk is just that. I really want to see how this plays out.
• Amazing Race - Really, the editors of this show are great. While there are no teams that I really love, there are a few I don't like (yes, I am looking at you deaf boy.... your mom sooo carried your whining ass)
• 24 - really, I think this may have been the most twisty season yet... Go Jack! Go Chloe (kick Janeane Garafalo's characters ass.. that woman pisses me off so much)
• Big Bang/How I Met Your Mother - This must be just about the best comedy block on TV right now. The season enders/near enders have just been entertaining..
  

I think my external drive for my Tivo is about to die. Already moving some shows off and have a replacement ordered....

Video Games

• I got nothing... a few games of Halo 3 and that is about it..... Rare for me..
  

Who buys DVD's anymore?

I recently wracked my brain and tried to remember the last time I bought a DVD (or BluRay or HD-DVD... pretty much any physical disc). As you can see above, I used to buy them... A lot.... (I probably have around 1500 disc's.... mainly Anime). I don't count games (since you pretty much have to buy them in disc form) but I think it came out to be the middle of last year (where I bought a collection of my of my favorite TV shows). I also can understand people with little children (who have the ability to watch the same show something like a billion times) or special excemptions for shows that you just love (like women and "Pretty Woman", "Sex and the City", etc).

But with all the options out there (Netflix, Tivo, etc) who really needs those physical discs cluttering up their environment? I know that I (and a couple of people I know that used to buy a lot of stuff) have seen our activity slow to a trickle....

Netflix on Tivo!!!

You got Tivo in my Netflix. No... You got Netflix in my Tivo.

So while I was always kind of interested in the Netflix Watch Now option, I must confess that I haven't really used it too much. Then they put it on my Xbox360... and I was impressed. Then it appears on my Tivo... and I am estatic that it is there. (I of course had been following these plans for a while, ever since they were announced.).

Though I must say that I am now somewhat disappointed.... I played around with it for all of a 15 minutes before it crashed... and then it crashed again. Very disappointed that Tivo would release something that so reeks of "beta".... This is not a polished product if it has crashed (luckily a "soft crash" where it boots me back the main menu, not rebooting the Tivo (which can take upwards of 5-10 minutes)) both of my Tivo's (a Series 3 and a Tivo HD) as well as my brother's Tivo HD. Not cool. Hopefully they are using the data from us 'chomping on the bit" early adoptors and are getting a fix ready shortly. Because overall, from the few minutes that I saw? Really cool.....

Game Overload!

Okay, I know that game developers love to have new titles available around the holidays, but....
Are they trying to turn me into a social hermit? In the past few weeks the following games have entered the scene:

• Dead Space - really, there was no way to avoid this game.... Zombies in space! You cannot play this game in the dark, way too creepy.
• Gears of Wars 2 - Like this game
• Endwar - This game may have the coolest way of commanding your units in a RTS game that I have ever seen. And it actually makes playing RTS's on the Xbox 360 feasable. Though you do look kind of dorky yelling at your xbox through the voice controller.
• Fallout 3 - Love me some PIP Boy. Can't believe that it took ten years to get the sequal to this awesome series.
• Call of Duty: World at War - Very cool. Obviously when I have more time I will look forward to delving deeper into this game.
• Left 4 Dead - Zombies!!! Really.... 'nuff said.

And because appparently since I feel that that I have too much free time, I bought a Wii last week (impulse buy when I was in Best Buy shopping for a PS3, I saw a few behind the desk and asked if I could get one). I managed to get my parents to play it for a hour and a half on Saturday night. And yes, I will probably still buy the PS3 (gets me a Blue Ray player and a game system).

And now my poor Tivo's are feeling neglected.

Disaster!

Dear Verizon FIOS... Perhaps changing the location of all the channels on the first day of the new TV Season was NOT a good idea. While I appreciate the additional HD Channels (SF Channel HD!!!) I do not appreciate that my poor Tivo's were very perplexed by this change. Read that as, I will be d/l-ing every show that was on last night since I was out of the condo yesterday evening (and I don't generally watch live TV so I was very perplexed when I saw no new shows on my Tivo's when I got back).

Still hate the Cable Companies...

But at least they finally got me my damn Cablecards so that my precious Tivo Series 3 and Tivo HD can finally work. Just in time for nothing to be on....... (damn you writers and networks.....) Now they just need to reprogram them so I can get all my channels, 3 of the 4 are only getting broadcast channels.

That and I bought a new TV for my bedroom (to replace the ill-fated Westinghouse that I bought and returned in less than a month. Crazy image problems made me deep-six it). On sale from Best Buy combined with a 12% off coupon for a shockingly $460 with tax. Not too bad, and it makes me less concerned given that it will be traveling with me to the great state of Georgia in a little over 2 months for my Army training (gotta have something to play the 360 on.....).

One week to go until they start my kitchen (and my condo can stop looking like an Ikea warehouse was established there.... 121 pieces), and only another 9 days until I get to hit the slopes up in VT (and then relaxing in my Uncle's heated indoor swimming pool up there).

No cable (AKA why Verizon and Comcast Suck)

I feel like I am a pawn in the great cable wars. I think that the animosity between Verizon and Comcast has hit a new high with both of them heading into the traditional areas of each other.

This came to a head this past week as I arranged for Verizon FIOS to be installed instead of my crappy Comcast service (overpriced and with bad service). So first step, they try to disconnect my cable and Comcast has locked the box (only noticed after waiting for 4 hours as the tech tries to find Cablecards for my Tivo's). So after wasting a day I have a bunch of Verizon equipment (though not sadly the CC's) that doesn't work sitting in my place.

Then on Thursday I was offsite at an alternate location (where I found this awesome hole in the wall Korean Restaurant, but thats another tale) the tech came back, unhooked my cable (with the assistance of a bolt cutter) but now I have nothing in my place. After several furious calls I finally have a tech arrive today (though he was supposed to be here yesterday (another 3 hours off)), got my SD cable boxes up and running, internet and telephone operational. However I still lack 4 cablecards that I require to actually get my beloved Tivo's working. Completely unacceptable..... Now I need to start figuring out what I will get them to offer me to make up for the 11 hours that they wasted of my time with a non-operational setup remaining.

Priorities

So all this stuff going on in the world and what is my attention on?
The Strike.....
And its all about how this stupid fight(and both sides have a point... Don't writers get paid a salary? I know that I do and that everything I do is the property of my employer... What makes "creative" people so special that they deserve unique treatment? However I just want them to resolve this and if this means the media company needs to throw a few bucks the writers way then so be it) is going to impact me.
All my favorite shows are shutting down production (Heroes just announced that they may make the December episode the season finale). Of course they would do this to me now that my Tivo 3 is finally set without any further issues....

I know that the video game industry, rentals and people starving for attention (reality show contestants) are all waiting in the wings to pick up the slack.

Fall TV shows its head early

I was excited to learn on Monday that via my Tivo and Amazon Unbox I would be able to get a sneak peek at some of the new shows (unfortunately I am still unable to get Journeyman (aka Quantum Leap from its descriptions) but I will try again tomorrow probably).

• Chuck - Of the batch this was the one that I was the most excited about. And I wasnt let down. Very quirky and fun. Does have flaws but it looks to be a good cast and fun little show... Kinda reminds me still of Jake 2.0
• Life - Wasn't sure on this one. But it grew on my during the show. Life hadn't made my initial cut of shows to watch and now will get a reprieve and a chance to prove itself.
• Bionic Woman - I am intrigued.... Pretty dark show but has a lot of possiblities. Jumps right into the action and drags you into the show. Seeing this episode solidified that this show would be on my list in the next few weeks.

Interestingly I was very impressed with the video quality provided from Unbox, it was one of the best SD signals that I had seen...

Movies! (and other entertaining stuff)

On Friday night I saw Ratatouille ... It was a lot of a fun. Right from the beginning, with the alien abduction bit then right into the main feature it was a very enjoyable movie. 7/10

Loving -

• Pysch - I loved the premier, and will definitely enjoy the 3 episodes that will be waiting for me when I return.


• Burn Notice - also lots of fun. will definitely be looking forward to the set that is waiting for me on return as well


• That my Tivo finally has a good HD


• That my GF is now living a lot closer. Her being out in Reston was a pain.
• That my best friend (from 1st grade) DV was in town last night.... I think we spent almost 4 hours catching up last night in Dremo's.... I m
  

Not so Loving...

• That DC United blew a frigging 3 point lead.... that was just sad


• That I have to leave my GF for 3 weeks... I hate that a decision that I made ealier is affecting her now.

Love my media...

What I am watching on TV this summer (assuming I don't lose any more shows from my Tivo... poor thing doesn't like the new external HD):

• Burn Notice - I have really enjoyed the first 2 episodes
• Eureka - loved this show last summer
• Pysch - Fun show
• Dresden Files - need to catch up
• Flash Gordon
• Reruns of anything that I have missed
• Pretty much anything HD

Movies!

• Harry Potter
• Transformers

What I am playing

• Command & Conquer 3
• Carcassonne
• Settlers of Catan

Now back to my game of Carcassonne.... darn game is addictive. And the best part is that you can play heads up, unlike Catan...

T-minus 9 days until Phase III... 2 weeks of hell in Alabama.

Celebrity Sightings and NYC

Stupid finals..... They take the fun out of life.
But now that I am free (and assuming the grade works out well I will be receiving my diploma from VCU in the next month or so) it feels good. Of course now I have my periodic depression that comes right before heading off to drill.

So I went up to NYC this weekend, me and my brothers (3 out of my 4 brothers, thats a big chunk of my family). Lots of walking, lots of eating (I swear, even now I still feel stuffed), lots of drinking. We had our requisite celebrity sighting (Colm Meaney). Yep, out of all the people in NYC I of course run into Chief O'Brian of Star Trek:TNG fame (and also Stargate..... ). We were so looking him up on my blackberry while we were in the job and of course I actually went and talked to him for a minute after having a few beers (my brothers gave me a hard time on it but they also were probably expecting it).

Lots of fun. We also got back home in time for us to go out to dinner with Mom.

The it was on to IT ninja stuff. Adding a eSATA drive to my Series 3 Tivo (typically they turn it on now that the TV season is just about over), setting my brother and my mom's Tivo's at home to control the Verizon FIOS boxes that were just installed, and moving my other brothers Tivo over to his place (finally).

So its time for Scientific Atlanta to go.... One glance at my cable bill, the fact that I haven't used the 8300 in weeks (and neither has the roommate), Video on demand isn't enough of a lure. Looks like my Tivo Series 3 wins (like it was a real suprise)..

Time to burn of the Supernaturals and then that will be it, off the wrecking yards on Monday.

Now its time to head the gym, do some laundry, and then get ready for my date tonight.

Hrmph... Some media addict I am today. One episode of Stargate (RIP you fine show... but as I said to my brothers today, 10 years is a heck of a run for a Science Fiction TV series... I am not sure how it has survived for as long as it did considering I liked it (and in the media world that seems to be the kiss of death from me)) from way earlier in this year (why did it take me so long to watch a series that I like? I blame Tivo and my roommate for drawing me off to equally good shows like Veronica Mars and Medium. That and one "eh" movie (Silent Hill).

And with me off doing the Army thing this weekend as well as watching DC womp the NY Red Bulls (hehe.... I still get a laugh every time I mention that name) tomorrow night as well as a date on Thursday its going to be a slow week for me. I will probably get "V is for Vendetta" in with the roommate in there somewhere as well as my other 2 discs from Netflix.