Wednesday morning and Gumpy and I are hiding out as the plumber is here. Gumpy can’t go outside because the day of night of my last blog, one of the bites from his most recent fights swelled up and popped in yet another scene reminiscent of the movie “alien.” Yup, just like last year (scroll back in my blog), he’s all stitched up and hopefully learning from this. I sure am.
The plumber is here putting in a new upstairs toilet and fixing the septic system. I’m not sure what’s wrong with the septic system, but I’m glad about the new toilet in the upstairs bathroom. We currently have a non-standard ancient toilet that has a rectangular seat and bowl. Someone broke the seat connector last year and it’s been impossible to find a replacement seat. My grandfather jury rigged the thing together last time he was here, but really, we needed a whole new unit in there.
Three trucks in our driveway now. Gumpy ran to the other computer room when I peaked my head out of this one and is hiding under the bed. I think there’s a guy in the bathroom putting the toilet in. The sad thing is that I really have to go to the bathroom and didn’t get a chance to do anything before they got here. LOL. At least I got a shower this morning so I’m not sitting here feeling funky while I do the “I gotta go to the potty” dance.
About to flip TechLive off. It’s over in 8 minutes anyway, and as much as I like Erica Hill, the hour and a half of recycled news is getting old. The set is too empty and the news is so flat lately that it’s hard to watch. While today was good, recently they’ve averaged exactly one new segment per broadcast. The rest of the segments featured recycled stories from weeks or months ago. I’ve asked it before, and I’ll state it again, what’s the point of airing it live? I mean seriously, have Erica Hill tape a half hour each morning then recycle it for the other two half hours of the broadcast. There’s no need to be live because they’re not exactly breaking news any more. The only real segments that take advantage of her being live are the interviews, and really, you can tape those at any time.
I’ve given up on Call for Help completely. I used to watch it from time to time, but now, with the user-unfriendly combo of the Gnome and Cat, I won’t watch and I can’t tell anyone to watch that show. IMODO, it simply isn’t worth watching any more, other than for getting screen captures, and, if you’re looking for help, you can find more help on the Screen Savers. Part of me sort of misses the format from last year with two people taking live calls. I mean it was dumb, but it wasn’t insultingly lame like the current shows are.
On the subject of the Screen Savers, I think a lot of the magic of the show has been leeched out by tinkering. The Screen Savers used to be an intimate show where a bunch of geeks hung out, shared computer tips, had some fun, and weren’t intimidating or full of themselves. It was homey cool. With the “upgrades” the show is now trying to be hipper and cooler than it should be. For example, I think it’s an incredible stretch to put Martin over as Hollywood Savvy, and frankly, while I’m getting some cool screen captures to eventually use here, there’s no point to the recent segments with Martin other than to show that Paul Block still has D-level Hollywood connections.
I realize that it’s a scary time for TechTV. I realize that this is their first ratings period ever and it’s a make or break time for the network, but stuff like this turns me off. While I can take Leo’s smarmy book plugs and sleazy delivery (it used to be cute, but now it’s just old), I can’t take turning the show into some sort of quasi-bigger-than-life-entertainment based show. It’s a computer show. It’s about computer tips. It needs to go back to basics before it alienates the rest of the audience.
I’ve already given up on one show, I hope someone listens before I give up on another …
k9