Joel Johnson's Choose Your Own Adventure-style HDTV buying 'guide.'

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Some hilarious (and profane) fake CYOA covers (one and two) at Data-What, I don't know whence they came, but they rock.

You MUST watch last Monday's episode of How I Met Your Mother: "Slap Bet."

It's available through CBS's Innertube. (Works both with Mac and PC) You'll have to click into "Other Shows" at the top, then "Comedies" then "How I Met Your Mother" then "Full Episodes." A pain, I know, but COMPLETELY worth it.

It is simply the funniest thing ever.

And so very well structured.

Seriously.

After that, make sure to follow this link. (NOT before, it'll spoil it.)

My GOD that's funny.

italisizy: Timeline of timelines. via kottke

Sir Turley: Timelines have a rich history

italisizy: So it turns out.
This part's my favorite:

1582
Gregorian calendar reform instituted.
Ten days dropped from the year. October 5-14, 1582 do not take place.

Sir Turley: Ha!

Regarding the new TV from the past few weeks:

Day Break (Wednesday, 8,00, ABC)
Taye Diggs is pretty. And he plays a detective who is accused of killing a DA. And he must prove his innocence. And he's dating the ex-wife of his former partner, who works now with Internal Affairs and is investigating his current partner. Oh, yeah, and the IA guy is working with the bad guys.
Convoluted no? But compelling in a lot of important ways.
Hm... now what was the other thing I was going to mention about this show.... Oh, that's right!
It all takes place, Groundhog Day style on the same day. Except that his injuries carry over from day to day. Actually used to good effect here.
What is, perhaps, most interesting about this series is that ABC is promising that by the end of the show's 13-week intra-LOST run, all questions will be answered and everything will be revealed. So, it's a continuing drama in the vein of LOST, Alias, The Nine, etc. but with a reasonable chance of actually having a satisfying resolution. Worth looking in to.
Preliminary grade: B+.
Did I mention that Taye Diggs is so very pretty?

3lbs.
House-light, but oh so very obvious, about that and about everything else. So, House but shitty. Fuck it, just cut out the middle man and watch House. Stanley Tucci is not good and Mark Feuerstein hasn't done anything good except for his four episode stint as Republican Cliff Calley on The West Wing. And don't be all "Good Morning Miami was good." No it wasn't. It was shitty. Ashley Williams was very cute and that confused you about the quality of the show. But she later went on to be Victoria on HIMYM and it made everybody happy.
Prelimiary grade: D+.
That would be a C- if it were anything resembling original.

House
I dunno about the season that's currently on, but if you're not catching up on House on DVD, we're no longer friends. Yes, I feel that strongly about this. House is the most consistently excellent drama on TV since Aaron Sorkin stopped writing The West Wing. Seriously, it's got something for every-one. There's a patient every week, but there's also a bevy of continuing stories about characters that matter and the things they do. And it's so damn FUNNY. How does a drama have any right to be that damn funny? Seriously.

30 Rock / 'Til Death
Have both picked up their game quite a bit.
30 Rock is still hit and miss, and the B-stories are consistently funnier than the A stories--except this week, where the B story BLEW ASS. But I blame Jane Krakowski. But for me to watch a show, week in, week out with both Jane Krakowski and Judah Friedlander? That says something about how good the rest of the show is. Or my extreme crush on Tina Fey. You tell me, people. But I feel like adjusting this show's grade upward to a solid B. Part of the new comedy Rock-Block NBC's putting together for Thursday night. Earl / The Office / Scrubs / 30 Rock? Why yes, please. Thank you. And, as always, watch "The Office" or I'll put your eyes out.
'Til Death is a little different story. Still much better than it started the season, I'm not sure if I can give it a full on recommend, but I want to note that each member of the four person ensemble was perfectly cast. Grade goes up to a C+. In a comedy-starved world, a C+ is pretty good.

Bones vs. Men in Trees, What About Brian
While I've tried to cancel as many procedurals off my schedule as possible, Bones is much better than the continuing dramas I replaced them with. Hence-forth, let it be known that What About Brian and Men in Trees are now to be known as Last Resort Shows, that is, shows to be watched only if my tivo is completely empty of GOOD content. And that Bones has been added back into the mix. And that I could triage what went wrong with Men in Trees or What About Brian if you want, but I don't think any of you ever bothered watching either of them, so what does it matter?

How I Met Your Mother
This season is excellent. Last season was excellent. Last season comes out on DVD on Tuesday. I am buying three sets. Seriously. One to keep, one to loan and a third one to give away. But to whom? If you don't believe me after watching "The Pineapple Incident" and "The Limo" that HIMYM is worth your time, I will buy your DVD set from you so I can give it to someone who doesn't need to go to the hospital for insanity. Seriously.

Maps of which NFL games you get based on where you live. Best ever.

via kottke

Is it just me, or is HD-DVD or Blu-Ray the exact wrong way to watch A Christmas Story?

Maybe it's just me, but it seems like picture quality is the exact opposite of what you want out of a nostalgia-film. Where's the edition that will look like a dub of a dub of a VHS copy from 1914 being shown on a 1000-year old TV with wood-paneled sides that's been wheeled on a six-foot-tall cart into my reading teacher's classroom on December the 21st? Where's that edition?

I'd buy that.

Sorry for no posting. I've been getting ready to have my wisdom teeth out. And buying a TV. And playing Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. Etc.