Tivo

Insomnia Sucks

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I can’t sleep. I can’t stand that I can’t sleep. I actually am up now (obviously). I usually stay in bed for hours hoping sleep will come. It usually doesn’t and I don’t feel any better so this time I got up and I am trying to do stuff to keep my mind off the fact that it is 5:30 on a monday morning and I don’t have to be up for another 2 1/2 hours but I am up. I have been up since 4:30. Well that was the first time I checked my watch. I have probably been up long before that. I am not sure how I will get through he day with almost no sleep, but I will find out.

Not much to do at 5:30 in the morning. I might watch some stuff I Tivo’d last night. Or just write some more. Not sure yet. What to do with hours of time you didn’t want or expect to have before work…

Resting, & Cleaining

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I am so sleepy today. I woke up around 10:30, and I have been sleepy ever since. I tried to lie down and take a nape (not something I usually do) but I couldn’t fall asleep. I am done cleaning up my apartment. My parents are coming over later so I decided that my weekly weekend cleaning should be a good one. I finished most of the the work last night, but I put the finishing touches on the place this morning.

I would be watching TV now, but there is nothing good left on my Tivo or DVR. Oh I have about 100 hours of crap on them, but nothing I want to be watching now. I watched the latest episode of Spooks (aka Mi-5) last night thanks to usenet!!! All I can say is I love watching a show where no one is safe from getting killed off. Too bad US TV isn’t as good as some of the stuff coming out of the BBC.

Rich and Amanda are back from their honeymoon. They called and wanted to know if I wanted to goto a steak brunch. Now I am up for steak, but for sunday brunch? Who am I kidding? I would have said yes if it wasn’t for my parents coming over later and me being so sleepy.

At least it stopped raining in NYC!

Nothing

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I have been sick all week. Not bed ridden flu sick or anything. Just head cold feeling like crap sick. I ended up taking off monday. I also took today off as my floating holiday. It is a major jewish holiday. Not that I observed it or anything. I slept, and watched everything anywhere close to good on my Tivo. And yes I did some work. I can’t help it.

I was going to goto my parents for dinner last night at the start of the holiday. I called my dad around 2pm asking if he could pick me up from the rail road. My plan was to leave early and be at here place so I could lie down before dinner. He was like “why are you coming?” He didn’t think I should be traveling in the crappy weather when I was sick. I told him my mom wanted me to be there. He got off the phone with me and called my mom. then next thing I know she is calling telling me she didn’t realize I was in that bad shape and not to travel out to them. I am upset because it is two weeks in a row that I missed seeing them. Probably for the best so I don’t get anyone else sick.

Not much else to report. I have eaten most of the food in my apartment. I need to order freshdirect soon. I am so bored being stuck home. More later.

Day Off

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I took today off. I mean I did work all weekend, and I needed the time off. My big plans for the day are sleeping and watching stuff on my Tivo. Well I got up at 10AM. There went the sleeping part of my day. Then I realized that I don’t have much left on my Tivo that I want to watch. So I am just relaxing now. Maybe I will go get a hair cut later, or go out and do something. Since I was running around all weekend it is nice to sit around and not do anything for a while.

Tivo Needs The Boot

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I keep talking about it, but I think I am finally going to pull the trigger on getting rid of my Tivo. With an extra capture card I can get 2 tuners on my PC, for no cost per month. I almost exclusively use Beyond TV now and only goto Tivo for things that I forget to capture on my PC. With a second capture card I could get everything on the PC in nice transportable MPEG files. I think this month is the month.

For me it is either Beyond TV or EyeTV on my mac that will replace the Tivo. Still debating that. it is not that I don’t like the Tivo. Mine is almost like a pet. It is great, but why pay a monthly fee for something I can get for free?

Working on a Saturday

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I worked most of the day today. Busy, busy, busy. See the work Blog for details. After a late lunch at outback I was tired. I didn’t go to the beer garden for Dave’s birthday like I hoped. I ended up relaxing at home and walking to Best Buy.

I am now updating my version of Beyond TV to the latest revision, and at the same time looking through the TV guide for anything on TV that looks good to record over the next 2 weeks.

While running my software update I have been giving serious consideration to dropping the Tivo in favor of a second computer based DVR (PVR). My reading has proven that I can plug a second USB Video capture card into my desktop and use the existing Beyond TV software to record 2 shows at once, or watch one and record another. Some would say that is overkill, but even my mom who has a Time Warner DVR has asked to watch something and record something at the same time. Right now I have 2 cable box’s with one plugged into my Tivo and another one into my computer. The thing with Tivo is it costs $12.95 a month. With a video capture card going for a little over $100 depending on what I get the device pays for itself in 10 months. That is assuming I get no money for the Tivo I have.

I am still pondering what I want to do.

Lazy Saturday

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I hung out at home yesterday. I watched a bunch of TV off my Tivo, and finished installing Mac OS 10.4 on my mini’s. I am almost done on that front. I moved my iTunes music collection to my work mini before I went to bed.

I didn’t do as much cleaning of my apartment as I would have hopped. Maybe tomorrow.

Today I am planning on going to John’s for some Halo on the Xbox. Not sure what time I am leaving. I should probably get showered and dressed now just to be sure I am ready. More later.

Whats Hot And Not on TV (for me)

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As I always say I am a science fiction geek. I don’t care what you think about that. It is not like I have costumes and goto conventions. There was that time at Burson that I ran around with a Star Wars laser gun, but that was more to make fun of Jeffrey M for having it than anything else, but I digress. Being a sci-fi fan I get very happy when I see a real good sci-fi drama. Battlestar Galactica is my latest favorite. it is dark, gritty and has a real feel to it. Granted it is sci-fi but it is at least tries to put a human element in everything it does. The stories are fantastic, and lets face it CGI doesn’t make everything ok. The story is what makes things work. The first season is more than half over. I am already dreading the months to a year for the next 13 episodes to come out.

Season 3 of Mi-5 (Spooks) is still as good as the first 2 seasons. the only problem is that 10 episodes does not a season make. Maybe that is why the british tv calls it series 3? Even the Soprano’s has more than 10 episodes a season. of course if my only complaint of a show is that they make too few of them, then they are doing something right. Even after 2 of the 3 main characters are out this season it still keeps its stride.

For all those people out there saying DVR’s like Tivo with the ability to keep shows forever are killing DVD sales I have one thing to say. I can (and do) burn shows to DVD for person use, as is my right under fare use laws. I had all 10 episodes of season 2 of Mi-5 on my hard drive. I still went out and bought the dvd series, and deleted the perfectly good high quality MPEG-2 files from my hard drive? Why because I wanted the DVD. you are afraid of losing money because of people like me saving files on my computer. If I can get the season’s of stuff on DVD quick I will still buy them. I will let you in on a little secret, I spend more on DVD’s now that I have a DVR than when I didn’t. Buy tightening the reigns on DVR’s you are only pissing me the consumer with $$$ off. Think about it.

I haven’t watched a complete season of 24 since the first season. I just bought that one on DVD a few weeks ago. This year I watched the first 2 hour episode of season 4 and I was interested. I had the Tivo grab every episode. I find that 24 is better to be watched 6-9 episodes at a time. When I was recovering from being sick I sat and watched all the episodes I have up till now. Man can I say action packed. Granted it is unrealistic, but it is a good serial drama. I still have my season pass waiting to capture the remaining episodes. I actually like what fox did and waited to put the show on until January to give it a 23 week run with all first run episodes.

Now I don’t normally admit I know this show exists, let alone watch it, but Gilmore Girls used to be good. I mean you may ask why a 30 year old guy is watching that show? I say why wouldn’t I? I will watch any show on TV now a days with good witty writing on it, decent stories and did I mention hot actress’s on it! So a chick show, maybe, but don’t mock me for it. Did I mention hot actress’s? I blame my friend Jenn for getting started on that thing. Yes Jenn another plug for you:)

Law & Order is another great show. A semi realistic look at crime fighting. Recently I am a fan of the Special Victims version of that show. Just good all around crime show. It is not as good as my all time favorite crime show, Homicide Life on the Street, but it is better than everything else out there now. Now if you never have seen Homicide, you need to go get the DVD. I need to finish my collection of that series on DVD soon.

Some shows that I watch, but I don’t know why are things like Enterprise. Man I really don’t care if that show gets canceled. I am a sci-fi fan, and an off and on again Star Trek fan, but looking back on all the series they made I only like about 1 1/2 of them. I don’t care if you agree with me or not, but some of those people need some spines. I don’t know about you but if I was on a ship (space ship, naval ship, inflatable raft) and I saw/knew a bad guy is coming after me I wouldn’t try to talk. They don’t want to talk to you. You need to show them a whole six pack of wup ass. I need a good show like Babylon 5 again. The good guys don’t always have to be squeaky clean pussies. OK, I feel better now.

Third Watch was another show that used to be good, but it is so over the top now I don’t know why I watch it? I keep hoping it will get better. I don’t know. It is not like I have more time for TV than I did before. I actually have less. I guess I am an optimist sometimes. Of course there was a time that I liked ER also, and now I can’t stand that show. How some shows should be pulled off the air after a while.

Lastly one last good show Arrested Development. Funny, witty, and well written. If you know me you must be wondering why I didn’t mention the Simpsons sooner? The answer is the Simpsons are always good, no matter what I or anyone else says. Mmmm Simpsons… And that is what is on my mind about what is on TV. Just remember this is my opinion. I don’t care what you or anyone may thing about my opinion. I am just writing because I feel like writing about what is on my mind.

There are plenty other shows out there that I can comment on, good or bad. This was just a few that came to mind when I couldn’t sleep last night.

TV and Not Much More

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I did some work, watched TV, etc. today. I went to the bank to deposit my Tivo rebate that I finally got. I hit Best-buy. I got Angel Season 5 while I was there. I liked that show and never got to see the second half of that season so I am eager to watch it.

Right after I got home jayson called and needed my help because he hurt his back helping danny move. I met him by Petco. We ended up grabbing food at burger heaven. Well I ate and he drank. I also brought him Alien Vs. Preditor. I still have not watched that dvd, but I saw the movie already so I am not in any rush.

I felt bad that I couldn’t help danny today. I was originally going to have electrical work done in the office, but then I got sick. So lifting would be bad for me today.

I also got a card for Morgan. Her birthday gift is already on the way. I still wanted something for her on her party day but I will settle for her just getting the package.

Spoke to Sean today. He is happy (as a father of a 4 day old can be). Little Scott is doing well also. Kelly is resting. Sean had some website questions. I think his idea of a baby site is cool. that is what I did for morgan.

Tivo To Go, Got It, Don’t Like It

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As if by weird fate I wrote my waiting for Tivo to go post a few weeks ago and never posted it. I put it up yesterday. Then I sat my lazy ass down in front of the TV and what was the first thing that Tivo showed me? It had a big message saying hey you got the latest software on me so now you can go and use that to go crap you have been bitching about. So that is what I am trying now for the first time. I am copying a 30 minute episode of the Daily Show onto my laptop.

First impressions are that this will suck and I will never use this software. I have a 100 megabit switch and it is saying it will take 50 minutes to copy a 30 minute show. What is that all about. I turned off my wireless so it should be going at 100mbit. that would mean 5-10 minutes TOPS for a show that size. But now, it is slow! More news as it develops. At this rate I will be sleeping by the time this show copies.