Art of Mass Destruction

I just ate a plate full of delicious yellow/orange/beige food items and washed it down with a rum and coke. I see a nap in my future. Right after I eat this brownie.

I just made my son take a big Ziploc bag full of Chex Mix to a house party he’s playing at tonight. I feel certain it will be a girl magnet.

I just wasn’t very impressed with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It was overlong, ridiculously padded with fluff and while the rest of his young cast mates have become decent actors, Daniel Radcliffe is still hopeless and awkward and difficult to watch. I WANTED to love it but found it disappointing. Doesn’t mean I won’t pay my dollars to see Part II next year.

It’s been a pretty good Thanksgiving here. Chris made possibly the booziest Tiramisu in history and we watched Inception and ate Mac and Cheese. I’m on my way to the studio for a bit before meeting Chris at the Monoco for a late showing of Harry Potter.  I hope the rest of you are enjoying your day as well. xoxox

Few things are better than eating Reese’s Puffs out of a giant Narwhal bowl you made yourself.

I’m an orphan. My parents and Grandparents have all gone now. Chris and I are lucky enough to have extended family who invite us to celebrate the major holidays with them and normally we’d be spending tomorrow with my Aunt Bonnie and her family a couple of hours south of here. This year Chris isn’t feeling well so we’re staying home and watching movies instead. And I say all of this because…

At the studio earlier tonight I was glazing pots and talking to another woman who was kiln sitting and watching A Christmas Carol with her two teenage daughters. Of course, the subject of our Thanksgiving plans came up and when I told her we were staying home this year she insisted on giving me her phone number so that we could meet at the studio tomorrow and she could share her family’s Thanksgiving meal with Chris and I. This is a woman I’ve met only in passing a few times before but like my Aunt she extended herself to me in a way many people would not.

So for all you misanthropes out there - be thankful for the kindness of strangers and be kind when the opportunities present themselves. I certainly will be.

The store was out of the little bottles of dark rum so I was forced to buy a pint. And some Coke to drink it with.

I just finished eating my first Thanksgiving meal compliments of the boss and now I’m sitting here popping bubble wrap and navel gazing until 5.

If you are not in the process of looking for a DVR to purchase or infinitely fascinated by the workings of Cable television and DVR technology this post will probably be one you’ll want to skip. For the rest of you, I’ll try to be as concise as possible (not gonna happen but I’ll try.)

Background Info / How I Got Here:

I purchased a Tivo several years ago and my apartment community provides basic cable, so the only tv related bill I’ve had for the past 3 years has been the $13 a month I was paying for the Tivo service. Comcast started making noise about transitioning to HD a couple of months back and as per their instructions I called and got the new digital box that would be required to keep all my channels working. Unfortunately, this new digital box had no way to change the channel when it was time to record something with the Tivo and would just record whatever channel was playing. So I was told I would need to exchange the small box they sent me with a much larger box. So I did. It didn’t work with my Tivo either, or rather it only PARTIALLY worked. It would change the channel and record, but only one channel at a time. No more dual tuner recording, or watching something on one channel while recording on another. In other words - BULLSHIT. WTF. Apparently the only solution to my problem was upgrading my Tivo to a newer version ($200) orrrr…..

“You know, Comcast offers HD DVR’s”:

Every time I’d get on the phone with Comcast to try to resolve my Tivo problem I’d get the soft sell on THEIR dvr which would only cost me $15.99 a month, not much more than I was paying for my Tivo service, and they would own the equipment and keep it upgraded. Sounded like a a decent alternative so I as much as I loved my Tivo I decided to give Comcast’s DVR a try. When I called Tivo to cancel my subscription and explain the problems I was having the lovely young man in charge of not-losing-subscriptions-at-any-cost wheeled and dealed with me to keep my account. He promised me I would be able to find an HD Tivo on eBay for $50 (HAHAHA. Not really.) and he gave me two months free service and a discounted monthly fee when my payments resumed in January. That gave me two months to find a new Tivo and try out the Comcast DVR before making a concrete decision.

Comcast vs. Tivo

Little did I know a month ago how much variance there is in the quality and usability of DVRs. This Comcast system SUCKS. Switching from Tivo to Comcast was like switching from Apple to DOS. Nothing is easy. And I’m not just talking about the basic operations of the DVR, but EVERYTHING. Even the most basic things such as turning the television on and changing channels is more difficult. I’m constantly staring at the remote trying to remember which combination of buttons will get me to the list of recorded programs on the DVR or allow me to get back to the TV Guide when I’m watching one of the HD channels (because it would be far too easy and make far too much sense to be able to just hit the Guide button).

eBay:

So now I spend my evenings and weekends searching eBay for an inexpensive Tivo HD. I’ve given up on magical $50 Tivos but I still think I can beat the $200 it would cost me to upgrade directly. Regardless of cost I WILL have a new Tivo by Christmas and I’d like to suggest to any of you who have read this far and are considering a DVR purchase - get the freaking Tivo.