TiVo Season Passes, Part 1

As mentioned yesterday, I decided to go through my TiVo Season Passes (the TiVo tool that lets you set up recurring recording of shows) and give a little bit of detail as to why I TiVo the show or use it as a vehicle to rip another show.

Basically, I just want to write about TV for a bit, and this is a good opportunity, since it's just before new shows start up and I have to figure out what new shows are worth watching.

Alright, here are the "rules" of my list:
1) There is nothing wrong with TV. People who say that they don't watch TV or that TV is worthless are douchebags (that's the word of the week). There are any number of TV shows that are as well-written, performed, and produced as great movies or books. It's just another storytelling medium. I will punch in the groin or boob anyone who tells me that watching TV is a waste.

2) TiVo Season Passes needed to be ordered in priority order. Thus, shows that repeat a lot or shows that I care less about are down the bottom. However, there are a number of shows in the middle of the list that I like more than shows above them, but they better shows are on more often, so I can catch multiple shows by adjusting their relative priority so that the crappier show is higher in the list.

3) I'm doing the list in reverse order, some quantity at a time. Tonight, it's my bottom 6.

Here we go:

34. Queer Eye for the Straight Guy
Queer Eye. A male makeover-type show that caught people off guard by being funnier than it had any right to be. It was great.

Then, after about 3 episodes, you realize the same damn thing happens every week. Seriously, there's never any drama. They never makeover a homophobe or a guy who's completely disgusting and impossible to repair.

Yet, I still find myself compelled to watch the show. Mostly for tips from the grooming guy, since I'm completely lost when it comes to male grooming. I know about brushing my teeth and shaving on occasion. That's about it.

Anyway, QEFTSG is a show built for TiVo. My TiVo is setup to do the 30-second skip thing. So I basically skip through the show until I find something interesting, stop for a minute, then blow through another 1o minutes of repetitive crap. I can finish the show in about 6 or 7 minutes, which is about all the show is tolerable for these days. Hence it's location at the very bottom of my Season Pass list.

33. MI-5
A repackaged British spy show originally titled Spooks, MI-5 is what 24 wishes it could be. Compelling spy action, good interpersonal stories, done by the Brits, so it's got a modicum of rationality.

I'm sure I'll rant on 24 later. That show sucks balls. The fact that it's "critically acclaimed" is the biggest travesty since someone decided Will & Grace deserved a Thursday night NBC slot while better shows (like Newsradio) get shuffled off to die on Tuesday.

32. The 4400
A new USA sci-fi show about what would happen if 4400 abductees from the past 75 years or so are brought back to modern day and dropped off in the same place (the Pacific Northwest). The pilot was pretty compelling sci-fi, but it became less X-Files/Close Encounters and more Roswell as the mini-series has gone on. Not that there's anything wrong with that -- I dug Roswell, but more so in the first season and a half, before it became more teen soap opera than sci-fi. The middle 3 episodes were very Roswell at the end of season 2 -- good TV, but more soap than sci-fi. Thankfully, the finale definitely came back and turned the show on its head a little bit, which was great to see.

I'm guessing USA will pick this up and give it a full run. I'll probably tune in to check out where they go with it.

31. World Series of Poker
I like poker. It's fun to watch the WSOP. It's not great TV in most cases, and, lately, if ESPN was a person, they'd be a douchebag, but it's worthwhile just to see some decent poker on TV.

30. Celebrity Poker Showdown
For the most part, a more entertaining poker show than the World Poker Tour purely because the play is less predictable and they usually get on some people that I find entertaining (David Cross, Seth Meyers, Amy Poehler). Dave Foley's a better host than Vince Van Patton, but he deserves better than this.

29. World Poker Tour
I like poker. It's fun to watch the WPT. It's not great TV in most cases, and Vince Van Patton is a douchebag, but it's worthwhile just to see some decent poker on TV.

P.S. 24 still sucks.

Coming soon ...

I have a (crappy) idea for a post, but it involves me actually being able to sit down in front of my TV. That hasn't happened in a few days. Apparently since my roommates and I are moving out, they've decided the need to use my TV as much as possible in the last few weeks.

Which means I've got a few days of TiVo'd stuff piling up, and two Netflix movies that have remained unwatched for a couple of weeks.

Not that I mind not getting to use my TV. Well, I do, but not enough to raise a stink. Tomorrow, however, it shall be mine. And if I'm motivated, I'll blog what I had intended to write about today.

So lucky you, instead of my witty and biting satire, you get my passive aggressive lashing out. Serves you right, douchebag.

No, I'm not really calling you a douchebag. That was humor, you douchebag.

Coming soon ...8/10/2004 08:06:16 PM

I have a (crappy) idea for a post, but it involves me actually being able to sit down in front of my TV. That hasn't happened in a few days. Apparently since my roommates and I are moving out, they've decided the need to use my TV as much as possible in the last few weeks.

Which means I've got a few days of TiVo'd stuff piling up, and two Netflix movies that have remained unwatched for a couple of weeks.

Not that I mind not getting to use my TV. Well, I do, but not enough to raise a stink. Tomorrow, however, it shall be mine. And if I'm motivated, I'll blog what I had intended to write about today.

So lucky you, instead of my witty and biting satire, you get my passive aggressive lashing out. Serves you right, douchebag.

No, I'm not really calling you a douchebag. That was humor, you douchebag.

Occasionally Good Stuff Does Happen

I won $120 by coming in first place in a small online poker tournament with a $20 buy-in.

My new landlord offered me rent $50 off of our agreed rate, without even asking me.

I was able to put my towel back on before the people looking at our current apartment opened the door and walked into the bathroom as I was getting out of the shower.

Dead Like Me is back on tv.

I'm buying a washer and dryer for my new apartment for $25. Combined.

Tomorrow is the weekly meeting for our group at work and we always have fun food.

I hear the new issue of Astonishing X-Men (written by uber-auteur Joss Whedon) is really good. It's almost not dorky to buy comics these days.

I watched In America tonight after having it for over a month (thanks Netflix!) and it nearly made me laugh and cry simultaneously.

Life's been pretty good recently. By posting this, I've probably guaranteed that I'll get stung by a mutant bee tomorrow and end up looking like ALF.

Bad User Interfaces in Every Day Life ... or How The Vending Machine Nearly Stole My Money

Like most offices, we've got a vending machine in our kitchen filled with various types of (mostly) edible stuff. And like most people too lazy to make breakfast and with little regard for my health, I'll often grab something from the vending machine in the morning if I'm hungry.

Today, I decided I wanted some breakfast and headed to the vending machine to grab my usual Frosted Cinnamon and Brown Sugar Pop Tarts. I do have to say, however, I got a little bit excited when I saw that we had some new items in the vending machine. I quickly scanned the rows and found my breakfast - a Nature Valley Frosted Vanilla Yogurt Granola Bar.

I threw in my 60 cents, looked at the item number - E10 - and started to punch in the code. E, then 1 ... well, thankfully I realized that as soon as I pressed 1 I would be getting whatever was in slot E1. Looking more closely, it turns out there's a button for the number 10 on the vending machine.

Why in the world would you do that? How natural is it to look for a button labeled with a '10' when the item number is E10? Isn't your first instinct to hit E-1-0?

Making it more egregious, there's no E0! Now, I understand folks who've never programmed don't always grasp the concept of an index starting with 0, but I really think most people could conceptually understand a vending machine that went from E-1 to E-0 or E-0 to E-9. I have to think either of those would be infinitely preferable to E-1 through E-10.

All of this got me wondering if vending machine interfaces go through some level of UI testing, or if the low cost of making a mistake (usually less than a dollar) and the either very captive or very temporary audience allow the vending machine company to not worry about lost sales?

Personally, I think it's a huge conspiracy, meant to steal an extra 60 cents from people every day. Think about it. Some company has thousands of vending machines (let's say 10000) out in an area and places completely opposite items in the 1 and 10 columns of each row. Like a granola bar on one end and a pixy stick on the other. If one person spent an extra 60 cents a day due to mistakenly buying the item in column 1 instead of column 10, that could add up to $6000 each day (gross). Even if they only make a small profit off of that (let's say 10%), it's still an extra $600/day. We're talking about an extra $150,000/year (using about 240 workdays/year - I have no idea if that's accurate).

Of course, it gets even scarier when you realize that there's a huge vending machine monopoly run by a Saudi-owned corporation. And that corporation is one of the biggest contributors to the Bush family. With millions of vending machines all stealing 60 cents a day, it's no wonder the Bush campaign has seemingly bottomless pockets.

(Ok, I made up the last part about the Saudis/Bush and the vending machine conspiracy. But, is it really that implausible?)

Good Night, Bad Poker

Played poker with some folks last night.  My game normally works pretty well at a large table, since I generally start off pretty tight.  Not last night.  First one out at a table of 9 with trip 8s against a well, slow-played trip As.

Later, in a side game, I'm about to knock out one of the other players, with top pair (Ks, I think) vs. pocket 6s.  At the river, only 2 cards in the deck can help - and one of those 6s drops to give the guy trip 6s.  That sucked.

Finally, I make a good read and go all in (as the short stack, but only by a few chips) with As against a straight draw.  Only 2 cards in the deck can beat me.  The stupid K comes down and I lose.

Definitely my worst night of poker in a long time.  The big game was too loose to get a read on anyone, and I was catching cards.  The side game was a lot more fun, but in the end, I came out on the short end there too.

At least the Red Sox played well!  Wait a minute ....

Time for a change ...

This current BoSox team is in need of an enema.

I'm not even sure I can express in words how frustrating this team is to watch.

Nomar still hacking away at the first pitch, even though it's obvious he's not the same hitter he was before the injury. So, inevitably, a smart pitcher throws him something shoulder level that he pops up.

Our manager is still managing like he's trying to be a "stats" guy, but he doesn't understand how to use stats. He puts in pinch hitters based on 3 ABs, when they're obviously not the best option on the bench.

The team comes out flat every single day.

This Red Sox team is a testament to the fact that intangibles and "team chemistry" are complete horseshit. This is the same team as last year, minus Todd Walker and John Burkett - who've been replaced by Mark Bellhorn and Curt Schilling. It's the same Kevin Millar/David Ortiz bunch who "Cowboy'd Up" last season.

Yet they're completely unmotivated this year.

What's the difference?

Last year's team was winning.

Winning breeds confidence and "chemistry." Team chemistry is a complete load of crap. And this team proves that.

It's time for a shakeup. Whether it's benching Nomar for not adjusting his style or moving somebody (maybe time to get that Nomar to the Pale Hose for Magglio rumor going again?), this team needs a kick in the ass. And it doesn't seem like Tito .. err, Terry is the guy to do it.

Time for a change ...7/14/2004 12:02:51 PM

This current BoSox team is in need of an enema.

I'm not even sure I can express in words how frustrating this team is to watch.

Nomar still hacking away at the first pitch, even though it's obvious he's not the same hitter he was before the injury. So, inevitably, a smart pitcher throws him something shoulder level that he pops up.

Our manager is still managing like he's trying to be a "stats" guy, but he doesn't understand how to use stats. He puts in pinch hitters based on 3 ABs, when they're obviously not the best option on the bench.

The team comes out flat every single day.

This Red Sox team is a testament to the fact that intangibles and "team chemistry" are complete horseshit. This is the same team as last year, minus Todd Walker and John Burkett - who've been replaced by Mark Bellhorn and Curt Schilling. It's the same Kevin Millar/David Ortiz bunch who "Cowboy'd Up" last season.

Yet they're completely unmotivated this year.

What's the difference?

Last year's team was winning.

Winning breeds confidence and "chemistry." Team chemistry is a complete load of crap. And this team proves that.

It's time for a shakeup. Whether it's benching Nomar for not adjusting his style or moving somebody (maybe time to get that Nomar to the Pale Hose for Magglio rumor going again?), this team needs a kick in the ass. And it doesn't seem like Tito .. err, Terry is the guy to do it.

The 2004 NBA Crapshoot

The 2004 NBA Draft happened this past Thursday. As a pretty huge Celtics fan who's been upset with the direction of this team since Danny Ainge took over, it was a pretty important day. This draft was a chance for Ainge to show what his plans are for the team - how to get better, and how quickly he's going to do it.

Going into the draft, there were a few scenarios I thought might play out for the C's:

-We might keep all 3 picks and draft high schoolers (or maybe a couple of high schoolers and a Euro), hoping to catch lightning in a bottle and have one or two turn into legitimate NBA players.

-The C's might move some or all of the picks to move up in the draft and take a "sure" thing. This would be hard to do, considering mid-to-late picks in the draft are near-worthless these days.

-The C's might make a big deal, moving Paul Pierce and picks for a player (Jamal Crawford, Eddy Curry?) and a high pick.

As the draft approached, I heard rumors of the Mavs and Bulls both interested in swapping players and picks with us, giving us a chance to move up in the First Round. Putting it all together, I thought there might be a chance for the C's to make a huge move, reshaping the team and franchise in one night, and maybe getting better *today* and better for the future.

Those deals would have been moving two of our three picks, cap fodder (let's say Michael Stewart and Jumaine Jones) for Jerry Stackhouse and the number 5 pick in the draft. The C's could have then moved Paul Pierce and the remaining pick to the Bulls for the #3 or #7 pick (let's assume #7), getting back enough to offset Pierce's salary - Tyson Chandler and Scottie Pippen.

Presumably, the C's would then have drafted Ben Gordon or Andre Iguodala with one of the picks, and maybe grabbed Livingston, Deng, or Devin Harris with the other pick. In this case, let's assume they go with Devin Harris.

That series of moves would have done a number of things for the C's. The team would get young, but experience players (Stack and Chandler), while also bolstering the size and skill of the team. They'd also be a whole lot closer to having some cap room, with Pippen's contract being an expiring deal.

At some point in the offseason, you have to dump Chucky Atkins, who no longer fits here, and wasn't particularly happy about being exposed in the expansion draft.

Next year, you'd have a team that looked like this:

PG: Banks, Harris
SG/SF: Stackhouse, Iguodala, Davis, Welsch
PF: Chandler, LaFrentz, McCarty
C: LaFrentz, Perkins

Add another post guy with the MLE, and you've got a young, athletic, incredibly skilled team. It's also a team that's amazingly solid defensively, though LaFrentz/Chandler will have trouble with bigger post players.

It seemed like all of the pieces were falling into place for the Celtics.

Then the Celtics drafted Al Jefferson, Deonte West, and Tony Allen.

My initial reaction, influenced by my thinking on the potential to completely overhaul the team, was that this was a horrific draft.

Days later, I've tempered my reaction. I really like Al Jefferson, but there's all sorts of issues with drafting high schoolers on a team that's not going to have the cap room under the luxury threshold to resign him to a huge deal in 3 years.

I really like Tony Allen, but he would have been around in the 2nd round, when you don't need to give him a guaranteed deal.

I like Deonte West, but not when you're going to turn him into a PG. Who was the last 2-guard to successfully transition to the point? Dwayne Wade did it this past season, but he handled a lot of the PG duties at Marquette, and wasn't playing next to the premier PG in college basketball. And Wade wasn't asked to solely handle the PG duties in Miami, as they've got a nice point-forward by the name of Lamar Odom.

They reached on the last two guys, taking players who, while not being projects, are not worth guaranteed deals. They're also at a position the Celtics are loaded with players.

But all in all, it's not a disaster draft. It's just a questionable one. It's a firm C.

Of course, then Ainge had to go and piss away all of the goodwill by saying the following on WEEI:

"I believe in West and Allen we got the 10th and 11th best players in the draft... tell me this, who do you want West or Devin Harris... I take West every time."

I understand the idea behind wanting good PR and to talk up your draft, but you've simply got to stay within the realm of sanity. Ainge, of course, followed that up by ripping Atkins, ensuring that we won't get anywhere near fair market value for him (which wouldn't have been much anyway). Eerily reminiscent of the Antoine Walker situation when we had the "pleasure" of trading for an injured, overpaid, soft PF/C.

Fahrenheit 9/11

I saw Michael Moore's new movie yesterday afternoon. It was definitely a cool experience. I headed down to Harvard Sq. around 2pm to catch the movie. I figured that if I'm going to see the movie, I might as well see it in a neighborhood that was going to be super receptive.

Most of the showings were sold out, but I had Fandango'd my ticket, so I was in good shape. The theater was packed, with a pretty diverse group of folks - young, old, male, female, variety of races.

The movie itself was pretty powerful. The first hour or so is typical Michael Moore satire. Think Roger & Me or the lighter parts of Bowling for Columbine. This is the portion talking about the, let's say, suspicious links between the Saudi royals and the Bush family (and friends). Lot's of easy jokes poking fun at members of the Bush administration, juxtaposing contradictory and hypocritical comments, etc. This is the part of the movie that will be the most divisive. If you agree with Moore, you'll love it. If you disagree with Moore, you'll hate it. He does take some shots at the Democrats, and rightfully so, as the weak-kneed assclowns rolled over for the Bush Administration post 9/11.

The most damning bit of evidence in the first hour is the now well-hyped 7 minutes that President Bush spends chatting with a classroom of children after the first two planes had been crashed into the World Trade Center. Now, I'm a pretty dyed in the wool liberal, and prior to now, even I had a hard time questioning the President's behavior in those first few minutes.

But seeing it happen ... well, it's hard not to question whether or not he was the right man for the job. He just sits there looking confused, his handlers not sure what to do. It's a pretty amazing sequence, and one of the most powerful of the first hour. The way Moore handles the actual tragedy of 9/11 is also masterful and quite tasteful.

The second hour of the movie is handled with very few appearances by Moore. It's predominantly footage of our troops in Iraq along with footage from Iraqis. It's alternately stirring, inspirational, depressing, tragic, and comic. You see the good and bad of our troops. You see the good and bad of the Iraqis. And you see the absolute tragedies of war (juxtaposed with some choice quotes from the Administration).

This portion of the movie also includes a mom from Flint, MI. whose son is in Iraq. You follow her from pride to worry to sorrow. It feels exploitative, but the message is a powerful one, and one that few people (thankfully) ever experience first hand.

Fahrenheit 9/11 is a pretty great op-ed, pretty great piece of propaganda, and incredibly well-timed movie. Selfishly, I hope that millions of folks see the movie and it helps them to make up their minds which way to vote come November.

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