Entertainment

Bye Netflix

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Yesterday I canceled my Netflix account. It wasn’t because I didn’t like the service. I actually loved it. I think it is a great idea, and the best option out there. I just wasn’t using it enough to justify the expense. I looked at my queue a few times in the past few months and there never really was any really interesting I wanted to watch. I had cleared out the backlog of movies I had wanted to see. The amount of movies I do want to watch I can simply download on demand using my Apple TV. I think it will be cheaper. I tried this once before and after 3 weeks I was back on Netflix. This time I am not so sure. I really haven’t used it much in the last two months, and I hadn’t used their streaming service at all in months so that wasn’t even a selling point anymore.

The Movies

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I hung out during the day today. Nothing spectacular. Just happy to relax after a long week at work.

Meet up with Danny this evening to see the new Star Trek movie. I was skeptical about the movie since I can’t remember a good Star Trek movie since my dad took me to see Star Trek II in the mid 80’s. I was pleasantly surprised. It was a decent movie. Nothing spectacular in my opinion but pretty good.

Afterwards Danny and I grabbed food at a bar near the theater. I got to have some Obon, so I was happy to have some nice scotch.

Observe and Report

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Went to see Observe and Report with Danny tonight. That movie was disturbing. That being said, it was also funny so overall I liked it. After the movie we headed over to The Heartland Brewery for dinner. I stuck with one Obon scotch and no other drinks. I am still recovering from my cold.

The weather today was fantastic. I brought a jacket thinking that it would get cold at night. Leaving for the subway after dinner it was still nice enough out that I didn’t need it. Go figure. All and all a nice relaxing day, even if I didn’t do any of the shopping I had wanted to!

Grand Torino

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Beata and I went to see Grand Torino on Monday. I read good things about the movie. It didn’t disappoint. It turned out to be a great drama. It also turned out to be pretty funny. That was unexpected. Well I should say it was unexpected by me. Beata said she read it was funny. I didn’t believe her. They were able to make a dark drama actually be a bit funny. I liked it.

Afterward we went to Dukes for some dinner. I haven’t been there in a while so it was good to go back there.

I am not sure why my friend Brian thought that I remind him of the Eastwood character. BG, I never beat someone down with a hand gun, and I don’t think I am that jaded:) Now my will might be as colorful as the one in the movie, but that is where I draw the line!

Friday TV

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Since I was being lazy Friday night, I watched a bunch of TV. I went through my Tivo and watched a bunch of stuff I missed since I had plans most of the week. After watching most of the good stuff (still a ton of crap on there) I watched some semi live TV. I say semi live since I don’t start watching anything until it has been on for at least 15 minutes so I can safely fast forward through the commercials. Gotta love Tivo!

I ended up watching the first episode of Dollhouse. It was pretty good, but lets see if Fox cancels it like they did the last Joss Whedon show. For now it is programed into my Tivo.

I also watched the latest episode of Battlestar Galactica. It was really good this week. I though John Hodgman as the brain surgeon was great. I loved his little bit of comedy in his scenes. I am not sure if he was supposed to be funny but he was. The regular doc is always funny so he fit right in.

Supercharging My TivoHD

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When I moved into my new apartment last August I got digital cable but I opted to not get a cable box. Instead I got a TivoHD and two CableCARD’s. The TivoHD and CableCARD combo has been fantastic. I got two CableCARD’s to use in the Tivo. I figured it could handle two, and two cards was still cheaper than renting one cable box. The issue was when the cable guy came to setup the cards I didn’t have the Tivo so he configured on in my TV and it worked great, but after the initial test the second one didn’t seem to work. I tried several tests with one and two configurations of the cards in my Tivo and always got no luck with one of the cards (always the same card). I wasn’t in a rush to call in the issue since I would have to either pay to have a service visit or go into their office to swap the card.

I finally broke down and wanted to fix the issue with the second card so I can record two shows at once with the Tivo. After over a year of procrastinating I finally called to figure out what was wrong with the second CableCARD. The rep I spoke to didn’t really have much of a clue so I wasn’t confident she would figure out the issue, but I got lucky. She sent some sort of signal boost to my TV and then after two hours both cards were working normally. I was very happy. Now I can record two shows in HD at once! Mmmm HD. I don’t even know how often I will need this function but it was a problem that I finally wanted to have resolved!

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