I'd be stunned - an intro

this is my first blog entry on blogger.com, and going back to the title, i'd be stunned if anybody read this whole thing (i'd be stunned if anyone got past the first sentence.)

i'm not totally sure what i'm going for with this blog; my half-assed vision is that i'll just write about my take on various things that catch my attention. it will be a little bit tv, a little bit sports, a little bit stuff i notice just by going out there and being in the world (as you've probably noticed, one thing you will not see much of is capital letters.)

on to tonight's rambling...

thursday night. the dvr ate our recording of grey's anatomy, the same way a piece of crap vcr will occasionally eat video tapes. i'll explain. i'm not sure what happened*, but in the middle of the recording, our dvr decided it would rather record a rerun of law and order on usa than grey's anatomy on abc.

i kicked around a couple of theories, and in the interest of giving both people who will read this only the best, i'll just tell you the best one i came up with.

the best thing i can come up with is that after a couple of months of recording everything dutifully for us and never infusing its own opinions, our dvr feels comfortable enough with us that it wants to start making some decisions about what we record. it's kind of like when you get a new job; for the first few months you do your best to just quietly go about your business, stay under the radar and not ruffle any feathers, until you feel reasonably comfortable in your surroundings and you start making your opinions known. i've always suspected that electronics (especially computers, which is what a dvr essentially is) are more human than we give them credit for, and perhaps this is a little evidence of that.

it's not totally unheard of; i've heard that tivos will recommend shows based on what shows you watch and record. i just find it kind of interesting that our dvr seems to be taking the extra step of actually replacing the stuff we want to record for what it thinks we should be watching. also, i'm not sure the dvr's choice of programming is much better than ours. while i admit freely that grey's anatomy is a glorified soap opera with acting only slightly better than porn, it's not like syndicated episodes of the later seasons or law and order are really any more than a lateral move.

looking at the whole experience, while i am glad our dvr is comfortable enough with us to chime in on what shows we watch, i just wish it wasn't so heavy handed about it. maybe next time there is a difference in opinion, the dvr can just flash a message when we hit record, asking us to consider other options. i don't mind my technology having opinions; i just don't think i'm ready to give it full veto power.


* actually, i know exactly what happened. it was just a weird glitch, but thinking of other options is more fun. besides, if i just said that it was a glitch from the beginning, this would be an awfully short blog.