bex77

I just took another step toward becoming an internet creature. I had a lovely conversation with the Comcast customer service rep. I cut my "cable" bill in half. Woot!

I've been looking at all my bills to figure out how to make them lower. Last year, I ditched daily delivery of the Boston Globe. I realized recently that we don't watch cable TV anymore. I haven't turned the TV on since August. I don't keep up with series TV anymore, except for NCIS, and I can watch that online. So I took a hard look at the Comcast bill. $163. Yuck. More than half of that is for TV. I checked the channel line-ups and decided basic service is all I need. Probably more than I need. But it's only $7.50/mo. So that lowers the bill to $80 (mostly internet, DVR and taxes). I may ditch more next month when I see how that shakes out.

I've been meaning to call Comcast for awhile. You can do lots of transactions online, but not downgrading your service. You have to talk to a person for that. And I always think of calling in the evening. After the people have gone home. Yes, they talk about 24/hr phone service, but that's just the automated line. No one is there after 7 pm.

But I got another huge bill yesterday, so I was determined to wake up this morning and call and I did! Yay!

I adore my new DVR! I know most of you went through this awhile back, but it's all new and wonderful to me.

It is so great to spend a little less time watching each show, and not have to watch another car commercial or drug commercial or any commercial ever again, and be able to stop when the phone rings, and start up whenever I want and get it to record "Jeopardy!" every night! And even if I didn't think to record, it is still recording and I can rewind when I didn't catch some bon mot. And time-shifting is awesome.

There are probably more features I haven't figured out yet, but that will be icing on the cable box.

I watched the pilot for the new series USA network "White Collar," saw it on hulu.com

Premise is FBI guy springs a con man from prison to help him with a case.

Writing is good, well cast, lead character cute, nice NYC scenes, has elements of caper movies, "48 Hours" or "Catch me if you can." Nice to see a show about smarts instead of violence.

Check out the first photo of the outfit for the 11th Doctor Who - with BBC fashionista comments. See the hair, the shirt, the tweed jacket, the rolled up trouser, the boots and...the bow tie! A British fashion academic (eh?) described it as "influenced by Indiana Jones' geekier nephew." It doesn't seem quite strange enough for my vision of a Time Lord, but I'll wait to see it in action to form an opinion. It has possibilities. And seems like something the fan boys and girls can mimic at cons.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8160710.stm

There have been more new shows and new episodes of old shows this summer than I can ever remember. I've taken a look at bunch, and here's my take on them:

Royal Pains (USA) - LOVE IT
Smart, funny, different, gorgeous architecture of the Hamptons and Campbell Scott. Yum. It's kind of like "Lives of the Rich and Famous" mixed with medical MacGuyver. It works.
Added it to my weekly roster.

Mental (FOX) - like it
It's just like House, MD, except the lead doc is NICE! And very nice looking. And he's a shrink, so there's all sorts of funky brain stuff going on.
Added to my weekly roster.

Listener (NBC) - eh
Had its moments but poorly written.

Virtuality - no, wish I hadn't
I watched it to see more of Nicholaj Coster-Waldau, but it stank big time.

The new episodes of "Law & Order:Criminal Intent" are good. I didn't think I'd like Jeff Goldblum, but he is growing on me. I try to watch "In Plain Sight" but it focuses too much on the lead agent's personal life, when I am really interested in the witness protection stuff.

I'm looking forward to more episodes of "Leverage" that starts up again July 15 on TNT. It rocks.

I didn't catch up with The Philanthropist (which got good reviews), Merlin or HawthoRNe (which got terrible reviews). Anyone see those?

Nathan Fillion, the drool-worthy captain on Firefly, has a new TV series starting March 9 on ABC.

"Castle"
 
TV Guide: 
http://www.tvguide.com/tvshows/castle/296087

Moonlighting mixed with Murder, She Wrote

He plays a famous mystery writer-turned-sleuth, who teams with a NYPD detective (Stana Katic) to solve bizarre murders.  He flirts with her constantly.

IMDB: 
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1219024/

Trailer: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voLQY3KyWRk