Media Catch Up Weekend

Over the weekend the world of podcasts threw me for a loop.

Fade Out
On Friday Penn Jillette announced that it was the last episode of The Penn Jillette Show. I have been listening to and loving, his one-hour talk show which was put out each weekday for many months and had no clue that the end was near. I am sure that I will find something to fill the void, but I am going to miss this show.

The end of next week will also mark the end of The Show with Ze Frank. From its beginning this series has been advertised as a one-year run of short video clips which were produced five days a week. You’d think that advance knowledge of a show’s demise would prepare me for losing it on my daily routine of media nourishment, but somehow I know that I will miss it very much as well.

Fade In
I have to admit that I might have a “man crush” on somebody. Okay, it’s really more of a Mann crush because the person in question is Merlin Mann. In case you are unfamiliar with Merlin, he is a forty-something nerd who throws around obscure jokes about the eighties — hmm, that sounds vaguely familiar….

Unlike me, Merlin is successful in the Web 2.0 sphere. Merlin is the founder of the “productivity website” 43 Folders and a regular on many of the tech podcasts that Leo Laporte has created for his TWiT Newtork.

This past week Merlin Mann started a new interview-style video podcast called “The Merlin Show”. In the first few episodes he has interviewed musicians, Google employees, and musicians who are also Google employees. Consider this to be nerd porn.

Party Pooper
This weekend there were two fantastic hash parties. Even though I had expressed plans to attend each, I went to neither. I really don’t like being that flaky but in each instance something else intervened (which included drinking beer) so I felt it was best that I not drive to a party to further inebriate myself.

I wholly apologize to the party hosts who probably had no idea that I was MIA. 🙂

ITP Flickr Pic
One of the events which caused me to miss one of the parties was a opportunity to learn about studio lighting — something I know nothing about, at least until this coming weekend when I take a two-day workshop.

Extraspecial

I’ve also learned that I have so much more to learn…

The Sooner They Go The Better
Even though I was worn out from hashing I managed to stay awake long enough to watch last night’s Amazing Race.

The sooner Charla and Mirna go, the better; their over-the-top attitude and paranoia bug the living shit out of me. If I had to deal with them I am certain that I would kill them.

I was kinda bummed to see David and Mary get ousted. I didn’t much care for them in the previous season, and even hinted at conspiracy the two times they finished last but were not eliminated, but this season I appreciated them more. Given all of the blunders committed by the other teams I was surprised that they were the ones eliminated.

The mark of a good show for me is the feeling of “Crap, I have to wait another week for the next show?”. While watching the coming attractions for next week’s episode I had that feeling.

Hello Netflix My Old Friend
I rejoined Netflix this weekend. I had been contemplating rejoining for some time, but the backlog of movies I had recorded on my DVR convinced me not to. This weekend I was sent a new set-top box by my employer, Dish Network, and was asked to return the one I had. Therefore that backlog of movies has gone away. Not to completely lose the movies I recorded I entered each into my new Netflix queue. Next up, add some HD-DVD’s into the queue…

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood – late
Current Music – Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing Field Music — “A House Is Not A Home”
Website Of The Day – I don’t recall how I found out about The Subversive Sounds, but do know that it is interesting blog with some pretty cool music videos of old.
Exercise (b)Log – a good day of hashing yesterday

March Goals
1) Lose two pounds. (starting weight ~205 lbs?)
2) Run no fewer than thirty miles.
3) Do twenty push-ups and fifty sit-ups at on Monday, Wednesday and Saturdays.
4) Finish February’s book and read at least one more.
5) Take Marta to work at least ten times.
6) File my Income Taxes.
7) Wear “nicer” clothes to work at least one day a week.

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

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9 Responses to Media Catch Up Weekend

  1. Amity says:

    David and Mary. 🙁

    I’m with you on Mirna and Schmirna. I would have loved to see them go last night.

  2. Stacy says:

    Oh, I noticed you were missing from ours alright. When you didn’t show, I didn’t feel so bad that Jackass “stole” your reserved parking spot!

    I watched TAR this morning and am addicted as well. I just love me some Rob and Amber. I know a lot of folks are getting tired of them winning all the time, but I just love it. I didn’t get what the host said to them at the pit stop though – something about might wanting to slow down? Huh?? Or maybe I just misunderstood at 5am. 🙂

    With your podcasts going bye-bye, I’d like to recommend a little one called Keith and the Girl….ever hear of it? 😉

  3. Paulie [eatl/ga] says:

    I think Phil (the host) was just making a joke that R&A should slow down so that they weren’t such a big target. As if!

    Does anyone think that Charla and the “little person” at the pit stop hooked up? Muhaha!

    I think some people I know really like that Keith and the Girl podcast. 😉

  4. Barb says:

    I really thought the beauty queens were going to go last night, they were so lucky that their screw up was only a few miles out of the way.
    And – what’s up with the fish challenge? Could the teams not see & think that since they were near the ocean and there might be fish involved? That challenge would have had Allan’s name written all over it.

  5. Paulie [eatl/ga] says:

    Both the beauty queens and the lifetime partners were lucky. Imagine if the partners had not run into Charla and Mirna…

  6. Stacy says:

    As for the Beauty Queens having to go back for their clue — what would have happened had it not been so close? Like, what if they had missed the clue some place before an airplane flight?

    I know in past seasons there were time penalties sometimes. I’m just wondering when the distinction is made between going back for a clue or taking a penalty.

  7. Paulie [eatl/ga] says:

    I thought they might have been assessed a thirty-minute penalty starting from the arrival of the next team. Maybe the rules have changed?

  8. Oliver says:

    Yo Paulie,
    Somehow I missed the post where you got the HD-DVD player. What kind did you get? Why? I’ve been contemplating making the jump but was going to wait until the multi-format players came down in price just in case Blu-Ray doesn’t actually pull a Betamax. Thanks.

  9. Hey Oliver. I didn’t buy a stand-alone HD-DVD player, I bought the one that connects to the Xbox 360. I figured if Blu-Ray won the war then Microsoft would magically come out with one of those to connect to the Xbox 360 as well.

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