Blankbaby

The TV is happy now

The Big Move In continues! My fancy new TV has been in Apartment 2024 for awhile now, but a couple of days ago we finally bought a fitting stand for it. That's the West Elm Modern Storage Media stand in acorn. The website lists it for $349.00, but luckily for us there is a West Elm in Center City. Marisa and I stopped in the store on our way back from Fork You Live (more on that in a little bit) to get a look at this media center in person. We had seen it online and liked it, but you want to touch these kinds of things. Boy, are we glad we did! It would seem that the acorn colored Modern Storage Media stand had been recently discontinued and was available in the store for $200 less than what was listed (and still is listed) on the website. The only problem? Finding a store that had one in stock. Luckily, we had the most helpful salesperson ever who looked up what stores were listed as having some of these in stock, and called them to make sure they had them. He then handed the phone over to Marisa, who ordered the stand and had it shipped to the apartment for $20. Not too shabby at all.

Big Brawn, courtesy of Hulu

Thanks to Roz, I am now a happy Hulu user! Hurrah! That means I can watch this Big Brawn ad over and over again.

Comcast, you minx!

I have been meaning to add HBO to my digital cable package for awhile now. If you live in downtown Philadelphia you get your cable from Comcast, which I don't have a problem with... for the most part. My cable modem is great, and the while I wouldn't mind spending less on my cable it is luxury. No one is making me subscribe to cable, so I really can't complain.

The reason I wanted HBO? I managed to watch a few episodes of John from Cincinnati, on the recommendation from Joe, and I really enjoyed it. The writing is top notch and very stylized. The situations are odd, and Al Bundy is in it (Ed O'Neill is his real name, and he is really great in this series)! What's not to like?

This is how I found myself on the phone with a very nice employee of Comcast. Somehow I got it into my head that adding HBO to my cable package would cost $10 a month. I was willing to pay this because John from Cincinnati isn't available by any other legal means and it is a more enjoyable experience watching shows on my TV with its nice sound system. The dude on the phone told me that adding HBO was a snap, and he went ahead and did it. I was happy as a clam until he said, 'Okay, so that'll add $18.95 to your bill every month.'

What the heck?! That didn't make the entirely made up amount I had in my head. How dare Comcast!

I said that seemed like an awful lot of money just to add one channel to my package. I thought that since I had Silver Digital I could add a premium channel for less, but the dude on the phone explained that wasn't so. I asked about any specials Comcast might be running and he told me that there weren't any special offers that included HBO.

Okay, Comcast, I can play your game!

I asked him if there were any way for me to get HBO for a little cheaper. What would happen if I upgraded my entire package to the Gold level? He asked me to hold, and then came back to me and said, 'Well, if you upgrade to Gold you'll get HBO, Showtime (which means I can watch Big Brother: After Dark. Bonus!), and Starz for $5 a month more than you're paying now.'

That's more like it! Though, I do wonder why he didn't tell me about that option in the first place. I imagine Comcast doesn't really want people to save money if they are hot to get a premium channel.

The moral of the story is to ask lots of questions when adding something to your cable package, it might save you some serious dough!

Wanna see me get yelled at on TV?

I have been a busy, busy panda here at WWDC (that's Apple's World Wide Developer's Conference to you, bub). Oh, that's right, I was so busy leading up to it that I didn't mention on Ye Olde Blankbaby that I would be in San Francisco this week. I'm here until Friday, so if you are a Blankbaby reader and you live in the Bay Area now is your chance to meet me!

Anyway, right after the Steve Jobs Keynote I get an email from a producer at CNBC. It would seem Steve Rubel (thanks, Steve!) gave him my name (and the names of a few of my fellow TUAW bloggers) because he was looking for someone to appear on Fast Money's Face2Face segment. They wanted someone to talk about the Keynote, though the catch was that they wanted someone at the conference. Since I'm currently in SF covering it, they went with little old me. They had me log into a WebEx session, dial up a conference number (using speakerphone) and talk into my iSight. They also made me take off my glasses, which made me sad but anything for TV (there was some glare from the glasses).

You can check it out here on iTunes and see me try to talk some sense into these fast talking traders (or you can look at it on Viddler. Thanks, Alex!). I don't know if I succeeded, but at least I didn't sound like too much of an idiot.

It is useful to keep in mind that I really didn't have any idea what they were going to ask me about. I knew they wanted to hear the 'Man on the Street' view of the Keynote but they didn't give me any specific areas they wanted to talk about. I wanted to talk about Safari 3 being on Windows but they were more interested in the iPhone (shocking, I know).

Oh, and thanks to Frank for the kind words. It was quite an intro that Dylan gave me... and one I try to live up to though I fail miserably more often than not. What's that saying, 'being there is 90%.' I might have just made that up.

Ugly Betty

I am secure enough in my masculinity to admit that I enjoy watching Ugly Betty (add another to the list of 'chick shows' like to watch: Gilmore Girls, Veronica Mars, and now Ugly Betty). Anywho, I am enjoyed watching Ugly Better much more now that Rebecca Romijn is on it (even though she is playing a dude turned dudette).

Calvert DeForest, a.k.a Larry 'Bud' Melman, is no more

Calvert DeForest died today. You might remember him from David Letterman's show where he played the character Larry 'Bud' Melman. He always got a laugh from me, what with his odd delivery of pretty random stuff (my favorite kind of humor).

Death has been in my thoughts a lot as of late. Well, perhaps not a lot, but more than usual. A friend of mine recently died due to complications from surgery and I don't think he was much older than I am. Not to mention the sudden, and entirely unexpected, death of Star. It really makes you think about what you're doing with your life.

Death is also a great motivator, at least for me. It is the main reason I have managed to shed 75 pounds in recent months. Death is a constant thought in the back of my mind as I go about my day. I really don't want to be another person who dies because they didn't take care of themselves (though heart disease does run in my family. Hurrah!). I'm not afraid of dying, really, so much as not willing to miss out on everything that will happen after I'm gone. I don't believe in an afterlife, or reincarnation, or anything along those lines. This life is the only one I get, and I damn well better enjoy it.

Heavy stuff, huh? I promise I'm not depressed! I'm a pragmatist when it comes to my own death (cremation, I think, is what'll happen to my body since I doubt any of my organs are harvestable... but the doctors should check. If they can use it, they can have it!) but I am against it happening to other people.

Blinking is for lamers

Oh David Letterman, you make me laugh. Check it out.

3, 2, 1 Contact!

I was walking back from lunch today with Joe and Kurt when the topic of television came up. I'm not sure how we arrived at the subject, but I started to sing the theme from 3, 2, 1 Contact as we were walking down the street (I sing in public, often and loudly). That got me thinking about watching 3, 2, 1 Contact as I was a child and for some reason a shiver ran up my spine. Why would 3, 2, 1 Contact freak me out?

Ohh, right... the mimes.

I don't know who thought it would be a great idea to have people dressed in black leotards with oversized heads and toilet paper rolls for eyes cavort around on a show about science, but it always creeped me out. Especially when the mimes were sad (they cried by pulling lots of toilet paper out of the rolls that were their eyes). I'm getting the chills just thinking about it.

Anyway, Youtube has the intro to the show. Be sure to turn up the volume and sing along. Let's make contact!

Legcutus of Borg

How cool is this?

Answer: very cool.

Bring on the Cylon threesomes

Table of Malcontents has a post about listing the Ten reasons Battlestar Galactica is doomed. Now, I still think that BSG is the best show on television, bar none, however, last week's episode was pretty lame. I mean, boxing? Come on. It felt like filler, and that's the first time I have ever really felt that way about a BSG episode.

One bad episode a series does not doom! Plus they list Cylon threesomes as something that points to doom. Silly blogger, threesomes never point to doom (unless you're in a committed relationship, in which case I would recommend against threesomes).