popplers

Poetry in motion

After reading the A.V. Club's TiVo This Now! feature, we recorded an episode of Peep and the Big Wide World, a show that endeavours to teach science to preschoolers. It stars a spherical yellow chick (Peep), a round red robin (Chirp), and a duck that resembles an eggplant (Quack). I love the simple animation style, and it's narrated by Joan Cusack, with a theme song by Taj Mahal. Never before has science been so cute.

Where no fan has gone before…

I just read this today, in the Globe: 'Star Trek' nears its final frontier as UPN cancels 'Enterprise'. My first thought was, Wow, it's still on?

Friday quickies

• Not The Onion, but still funny: Microsoft's AntiSpyware Tool Removes Internet Explorer.

• David Letterman must have been a repeat on Wednesday night, because I heard this Top 10 list while driving to work the next morning: Top Ten Ways To Irritate Alex Trebek, presented by Jeopardy! Champion Ken Jennings.

• Finally, Jeopardy! announces its Ultimate Tournament of Champions— past masters will compete for a chance to play against Ken Jennings. Yikes!

Yet another reason why I love the TiVo

Via Boing Boing: a cautionary tale. All DVRs are not created equal.

[…] Our second Explorer 8000 is also a piece of junk. Like the first one, it regularly fails to record requested shows. But this one goes even further in its attempt to aggravate me by freezing up while playing back a show, and pixelating and jittering like a lost episode of Max Headroom.

Yesterday I was at Best Buy, and I noticed that 40-hour TiVos were on sale for $50 after rebate. I bought one and set it up. What a difference! If TiVo were a beverage, it'd be a tall glass of Jamaican ginger beer with chipped ice and a lime wedge, while the Explorer 800 would be a paper cup of warm fake lemonade stirred with the finger of a nose-picking six-year-old. […]

"Wardrobe malfunction"? Right…

Now I almost feel bad that I fast-forwarded through the freaking half-time show. Almost.

The baring of one of Jackson's breasts at the end of her duet with Justin Timberlake, which caused a flood of outraged phone calls to CBS, was replayed a record number of times by TiVo users, a company representative said Monday.

"The audience measurement guys have never seen anything like it," said a TiVo representative. "The audience reaction charts looked like an electrocardiogram."

Jeopardy, Part 2

My second episode aired tonight. For those of you who couldn't watch, I'll just let you know that you don't need to bother setting the VCR for Monday.

Sean, Chris, and I went up to Tyngsborough and caught a matinee (Alien: The Director's Cut). Went out for sushi afterward. Came home to 8 more messages on the answering machine from well-wishers who were watching tonight's episode. I think 4 of them were from K., who called at every commercial break to update me with her thoughts on how the game was going—too funny.

I loved Elke's comment (via email) about last night's show:
Although after his zipping through all that presidential information, your opponent had me a little nervous (and no wonder, since he was apparently old enough to remember all of them personally). But as soon as Alex announced the Science History category, I was certain you were going to emerge victorious.

Jeopardy!

The TiVo is set to record. (We're crossing our fingers & hoping that it doesn't crash between now & then.) We're cooking up a storm: chili, hummus, marinara sauce, manicotti. Really looking forward to tonight's shindig, and finally being able to answer the questions that people have been asking me since the end of August…

Woot!

Hope springs eternal! We're keeping our fingers crossed— the TiVo seems to have gripped itself. I was able to watch The Daily Show earlier today with no ill effects. It hasn't rebooted itself since last night. Current theory is that there was a bad sector on the disk drive and that after doing its disk check/ software reload dance it got better. But what do we know?

No joy in Mudville, redux

Sad news for our TiVo, again. It froze up and, after restarting, came up with the dreaded Green Screen of Death. It tried to fix itself, rebooted, green screened again, and finally seemed to regain its sanity. Started watching The Daily Show and it lost its mind again. Chris thinks that we have a hard drive that's flaking out (just past its 1-year warranty, of course). What is it about our TiVo and game show appearances? The last drive flaked out right after I was on Win Ben Stein's Money; this one craps out just prior to my Jeopardy appearance. Grrr…

Jack Black: Scrabble enthusiast

Watched The Daily Show with Jon Stewart the other night (it's the only news show I trust). Jack Black was the guest, touting his new movie School of Rock. Imagine my surprise when he told John Stewart that he plays Literati (a Scrabble-type word game) and recommended Stefan Fatsis's Word Freak! I just tried playing Literati, and it's pretty good. The interface is easy to figure out (although I flailed for a bit trying to use the "blanks"). I apparently ticked off some grandmother from middle America (I was winning, 300+ to her 100) and she booted me from her table. So much for being a good sport…