TDTVS

Deny Crane. Denny Crane. Denny Crane.

So as to make episodes of House not seem so repetitious we have decided to inter space those DVDs with episodes some different TV shows. First up was Disc 1 – Season1 of Boston Legal. We watched 15 minutes of the first episode, Head Cases, and turned it off. Too quirky.

We were sitting in the living room eating dinner off the coffee table. Popped the DVD out and surfed for entertainment. Couldn’t find anything else on the tube to watch, so Donna suggested trying to watch some more of Boston Legal. I said OK, and put the disc back in and started at episode 2, Still Crazy After All These Years. I don’t know if this episode was less quirky or we recognized guest star Elizabeth Mitchell from Season 3 of TDTVS and liked her, but whatever reason, we hung with it. We then watched episodes three and four to finish off the disc.

I’ve added the rest of Season 1 to the TV queue. Thanks for the suggestion D.J.

Started up, still up.
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Miss Me Last Night?

Not Penny's BoatSorry, I got Lost, literally.

That’s right, Season 3 of TDTVS came out on DVD last Tuesday and we mainlined all 23 episodes and most of the extras on the 7th disc yesterday and today, with only brief breaks for eating and sleeping. Yesterday I was the only one to leave the house and that was just to the end of the driveway to check the mail. The Emperor sat in the garage from Thursday after work until today at 1:30PM when the both of us went out to lunch, but within an hour we were back home on the couch watching the final 2 discs.

Not only do we still have Forbidden Planet and the 3 Bourne movies to watch, but yesterday’s mail brought my 4 disc 25th Anniversary Bladerunner set and a wildcard, a mashup of The Wizard of OZ and Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon – Dark Side Of The Rainbow.

Sorry, can’t stay long, I have to go finish watching Dangerous Days.

Started up, still up.
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18-24

HostGator is it. Signed up this afternoon and mr-miata.net is live. Of course it leads right back here for now. Just have to upload WordPress, export the database here, upload it there and I’ll up up there. This site will redirect to the new home as long as it takes for the chowderheads over at ssWebHost to figure out they aren’t getting paid anymore.

From 5 PM until about 9:30 PM we were glued to the TV watching the last 6 episodes of Season 2 of TDTVS. After seeing it through to the end I have come to the conclusion that it is either the most clever bit of TV ever conceived or I’m as stupid as I look. I have vowed not to watch season 3 on it’s regular night or even when the next set of DVDs come out. I’m through being lost…right after I watch all the season two extras on disc #7. đŸ˜‰

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
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Weekend Update

First the good news: We are finished with Phase Three of Donna’s breast cancer treatment, Friday was #33 and her final radiation treatment. Lumpectomy, chemo and radiation are done. Now we are on to the preventative process. Because her cancer was ER+ she will be taking a drug called tamoxifen for 5 years to help prevent any recurrence.

Now to the mediocre news: We only made it through 18 of 24 episodes of TDTVS, AKA Lost: Season 2. Some of the situations and happenings are just too weird. But mostly what keeps us coming back is the humor, especially Sawyer’s irreverent and on target nicknames for the rest of the survivors. It seems as if some of the back-story we are getting is mostly rehashing of last years back-story with a touch of new stuff added to make the character’s stories meld together with strange coincidences, how their lives interacted in the past without them knowing about it.

Then the bad news: Two help desk tickets, two separate emails and even two phone calls have gotten me anywhere with my current web host, ssWebHost, so I’ll be moving to the .net address soon. The first ticket actually prompted a dialog. They said that I should let them know and they’d send me a link to where I could set up my new credit card. I responded that they should send it to me. 4 days later I still hadn’t heard back so I tacked on another message to the ticket asking again. After a week of no replies, I opened a separate ticket asking for way to change my billing info. I figured the new one would pop up on their radar. Nope.

I emailed the billing department of the web host. Silence. OK, let’s try emailing their support address. All I heard back was the white noise of packets zipping by my node.

Hidden in a dark corner of ssWebHost’s web page was a contact phone number, Friday I gave them a call. After an unusually long time the phone started to ring with a very strange sound. I knew I wasn’t calling Kansas. After about 7 rings an automated voice mail system kicked in. It was not English, could have been Russian or some other middle European language. Having dealt with enough of these type things I figured if I hit the #2 on the phone I might get another language and if I was lucky it might be English. Nope. Maybe I misdialed. The second time I had the same pause as before, but this time instead of the funny ring I was disconnected.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
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The Lost Weekend

LostStarring Brian Bogardus as Don Birnam and introducing Donna Bogardus as Helen St. James.

We went to the video store this evening and spent $25 renting all 7 DVDs of TDTVS. Twice.

The first time we went into the store and found the TV section where they had the Lost discs all lined up. I grabbed the first three thinking that would be enough to keep us busy for a while. Donna said, “No get all of them.” Checked out all seven and came home. Donna took a quick nap and about 5:30 we thought we would start our marathon. Each disc has 4 episodes and each episode lasts about 42 minutes, so we figured we would watch one disc tonight leaving 3 for Saturday and 3 for Sunday. When I opened up the case for disc one, I realized it was a Season One disc. WTF? All of them were Season One…

We didn’t pay attention in the store, we just figured that the second season’s stuff would right up front because it just came out on Tuesday. Nope. Donna called the store up and asked if they had Season Two in stock. They did. She asked them to put the whole set aside for and we would be in later to get them.

As we were checking out we asked for the “Stupid Renters Discount” and explained what we had done. The manager was there and had the clerk call up our account. She could see we had picked out 7 DVDs just two hours before and took pity on us. She did a swap thing and we didn’t have to pay for them the second time. Nice.

Started up, went down, back up, back down, still down.
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Lost

No, not TDTVS, but First Daughter.

I put this movie in the rental queue at the behest of my lovely wife. I’m not exactly sure what prompted her to want this movie (maybe because it starred the future Mrs. Tom Cruise,) which is fine because sometimes I’m not sure where I get the idea to add a movie either. The disc showed up in Saturday’s mail and we decided to watch it that evening. We endured about 25 minutes of it before hitting the eject button.

It went back in the mail to Netflix on Monday. It still hasn’t arrived back at movie central, so tonight I reported it missing. They say they forgive an occasional missing disc, but if you pass a certain level they might cancel your membership. I just hope they don’t think I liked the movie so much that I decided to keep it, I don’t need that kind of reputation.

Started down, went up, still up.
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The Loud Thud You Heard

Was me crashing down from 40,000′ just like Oceanic Flight 815 (Sidney to LA.)

Last night was a new episode of TDTVS and true to my decision, I didn’t watch it. I was going to wait until September and watch the DVD of Season 2 in it’s entirety. Donna, who has less will power, watched it in the other room, while I wasted time on the internet with Radio Paradise playing softly in the background to mask any dialog leakage.

I’m not saying I’ve been a saint all this time either, I have pumped co-workers for a few details of what has been happening and I have peeked at a few screen captures from Season2 on some fan sites.

After talking with one friend/fan at work during break this afternoon, I fell off the wagon. I spent the next 45 minutes reading the synopsis of the first 12 episodes of Season 2 on the official ABC site.

Started up, still up.
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