Zeigen

Hey folks, amongst all the hubbub for our Q1 results released today, we also announced a partnership with CinemaNow to deliver Disney movie rentals to your box via our Video Download service. (MegaZone has some additional coverage on this as well.)

We’ve been working hard with the CinemaNow folks to get this ready for you. Keep an eye on your Download TV, Movies, & Web Video menu (under TiVo Central -> Find Programs & Downloads); this new service will arrive later this year.

Between CinemaNow and Amazon Unbox, every major movie studio will be available on your TiVo-branded DVR.

Personally, my favorite classic Disney movie has to be The Jungle Book. I’ve been reading the book version to Sammy for a few weeks. At some point pretty soon, he’ll be old enough to watch the movie — now I know how I’ll get it to him.

If you’ve been a participant in the TiVo Rewards program, today is the last day to redeem your points, so act quick — as of midnight Eastern time, the program will be completely over.

Today I attended Jack and Andy’s fifth birthday party at Hoover park, and watched Bob get pelted by water balloons and shaving-cream-filled sponges by ten ecstatic kids. (How I escaped that fate, given I’m a co-godparent? Dunno! But I am oh so grateful.) Aunt Beth made two cakes, one a race car, and the other a chocolate volcano with lava made from melted orange lifesavers. Amazingly beautiful cakes.

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While I was feting twins, Kimi took Sammy and Sophie to the Hiller Airplane Museum, which never gets old for Sammy.

Me: Sammy, what did you see at the airplane museum today?
Sammy: Airplanes.
Me: What kind of airplanes?
Sammy: Old airplanes. With wings!

* * *

Yesterday was Sophie’s eight month birthday. She babbles incessantly now, has the tiniest of teeth buds coming in, gives a smile to everyone, likes to wave somewhat erratically at people, and can roll over, but seems to show no interest in crawling. We’ve started the ferberizing to break her of her 3 a.m. feedings, and so far so good; she slept through the night for the last two nights.

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Yesterday was also photo day at Sammy and Sophie’s school, and in addition, teachers’ lunch out for Sophie’s class. This semi-annual event asks the parents to donate their time and a little money for the teachers to get an escape, while parents come in during the lunch hour to watch the kids. There are eight kids in Sophie’s class, ranging from four months to almost a year old. For the noon to 1 shift where I helped out, we had five parents. When we first started our shift, the teachers had left us well-fed, happy, clean-diapered kids. Within about, oh, ten minutes, half of the kids were bawling, and most had dirty diapers. We parents just looked at each other and laughed. What a profoundly difficult job. The two teachers handle four infants each, with aplomb. We parents were having difficulty with less than two each. Things soon settled down though, and the hour ended up flying by.

* * *

While the photographers set up outside the school and we lined the kids up to have their individual and class photos taken, smoke and haze filled the sky from the nearby Santa Cruz mountains fire. Yesterday morning over 3,400 acres had burned, dozens of homes were destroyed, and the fire was less than 1% contained. Even though we were fifty miles away, kids rubbed their eyes and coughed; and the strange air reminded me of a smell from my childhood, in London: walking down the street in winter evenings, with seemingly every house having a fireplace with a blazing wood fire, smoke pouring out of chimneys, getting on your clothes.

Chim chimminee, chim chiminee, chim chim cheroo.

I was very glad to see the unexpected and unseasonable light rain today, giving the firefighters the break they needed to control the mountain blaze. The dull weather was not so much fun for five-year-olds attending a birthday party, but everything in life is a trade-off.

* * *

Earlier in the week, I caught Speed Racer and then snuck in to a showing of Prince Caspian. It took me about thirty minutes to catch on to Speed Racer’s vibe, but once I did, I loved it. I think this is a vastly underrated movie. The critical smackdown is somewhat intense; I guess most of the critics never watched the original cartoon, because I think the movie catches the goofy tone of the movie pretty much perfectly. And the visuals do not disappoint, exceeding even the hype.

Prince Caspian, on the other hand, is a dreadful bore, missing all spark of charm and whimsy of the first Narnia movie, laying the religious theme on over-thick, and really missing the point of the book (which I read probably twenty times before I was 12).

Speed Racer is over two hours but feels like 60 minutes. Prince Caspian is over two hours but feels like three or four.

* * *

Rob and I have been playing a new card game, Race for the Galaxy (which Steve and Larry introduced me to when they visited a couple of months ago). We play whenever we get a chance. I love this game. It’s a bit fiddly to learn, and the fact that you’re not directly interacting with your opponents takes a few plays before you understand how you can actually have a huge effect on your opponents’ play — but it’s such a short and intense game, I find myself even dreaming about it. Get this game!

* * *

Kimi gave me the new Flight of the Conchords CD for my birthday (among a lot of other CDs, thanks sweetie!). Although I loved the first season of the HBO show, I had thought some of the songs were hit or miss. But I was able to really listen to the lyrics (thanks to the iPhone making it easier for me to carry around music), and now I love all the songs. Buy this CD. Please mister, you won’t regret it.

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There’s a friends-and-family deal at TiVo right now for a TiVo HD. If you’re a friend or family and want a new HD DVR, drop me an e-mail.

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While I do aim to generate content, rather than pass along content from elsewhere, here’s a link. I have to say I applaud these two for their convictions and avocation.
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Kimi: “Your blog is so random. No one likes all the content. No one!”

Guilty — variegated miscellany is what this is. I do tend to be all over the place. Everything’s connected, somehow. Just think though — there are half of the categories listed on the right not even touched by this post. But comments are what I like best, so let me know what you’d like to see more of, and less of.

Summer is officially here, which means we should all be spending more time outside…but why would I do that when TV is on? In between last Thursday’s finale of The Office and whatever it is that’s happening on Battlestar Galactica, there are still plenty of great video downloads for you to be watching. Here’s what I enjoyed this week:

1. Remember that scene in Network where the anchor, troubled by the content forced upon him, finally breaks down and screams at the camera that he’s mad as hell and not going to take it anymore? This isn’t that….Barely Political brings us a hilarious take on everyone’s favorite Fox News commentator losing his cool back in his early Inside Edition days. It’s almost as if he’s going to spontaneously combust right there on the set of his syndicated “news” magazine.
2. Channel Frederator’s ReFrederator went all VH1 on us last week with a pop-up version of “Superman in Mechanical Monsters.” With a mix of insightful commentary and a bit of Beavis & Butthead, I hope Channel Frederator tries this kind of thing again.
3. If anyone knows of anything funnier than a guy dropping to the ground and flopping around like a salmon after asking his friends to shoot him with a taser from this week’s Break.com, please let me know.
4. Pulp Secret’s Summer Movie Spectacular was a great preview of all of the blockbusters based on comic books we have headed our way this summer. Alex, Justin, and Pete always have lots of say about the way some of my favorite characters are handled in comics, so it was great to hear their thoughts on these big screen adaptations.
5. Last but not least, happy birthday, Indy Mogul! Today’s episode is a retrospective of some of the best moments from the past year of my favorite DIY film-making show (giant sandwich!) and includes a great joke about bees. What started as a single show (”Backyard FX”) has grown into three great shows a week with the addition of “Q & Erik” and “4 Minute Film School”. Even if you’re only shooting home movies of your family, Indy Mogul’s full of great tips to help you get the most from your camera.

Friday was a teacher in-service day, so I took the day off work and our family escaped the unseasonal heat wave and made our way across the Santa Cruz mountains (stopping in Moss Landing for a 100% deep-fried seafood lunch) to Monterey, where we stayed for an Aquarium weekend. After checking into our hotel and heading out for a drive, the kids promptly fell asleep for their naps. (We could have timed it better.) So Kimi and I enjoyed the 17-Mile Drive in nearby Pebble Beach. They woke up just in time to see the lone cypress, and then we picked up overpriced sandwiches from the Lodge market and ate on the beach as the sun started to set. (In turn, the mosquitoes had their own dinner.)

The kids adjusted to the hotel room pretty well , and we enjoyed the aquarium on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Sammy was particularly impressed by the hammerhead sharks of the Outer Bay exhibit, but also enjoyed watching the otters play, touching bat stars, walking through the giant wave room, gazing at the jellies, peeking in on hermit crabs, and much more.

I can’t say the weekend was without stress (particularly on Saturday trying to find a good lunch spot, and Saturday night, when a loud neighbor kept us awake), but it was great to get away. The hotel pool was fun too.

Crappy iPhone pictures from Pebble Beach follow (as a placeholder until I have some time to see if any of the real camera’s pictures from the aquarium came out).

Driving home from work today I was listening to NPR and heard this story, which reduced me to tears. Reading the words has nowhere near the same impact as listening by clicking their “Listen Now” link (11 minutes, 44 seconds).

People often talk about how it’s very hard to relate to a large number of deaths that are very far away, of people who you don’t know personally. I did not think much about the earthquake when I heard the news Monday, and it didn’t occur to me to contribute to the Red Cross. All that changed after hearing the story.

Because I have a 2 year old son, like the Fu’s, I’m sure the story had an extra impact on me. But right now I cannot think of anything else.

…there is a “me.”

Here are some other words that are in team, just as an FYI:

• Meat
• Tame
• Mate
• Mat
• Eat
• Meta
• Tea
• E.T.A.
• Met

A meta team mate met me. Am at tea mat. Tame meat eat ETA? Ate!

[John was out on vacation and involved with special projects for a few weeks, so it's been a little while since we last had a "Best of" -- but here's the latest installment! --Stephen]

I watch it all so you don’t have to and here’s what I enjoyed this week.

1. Week 33 of Dan Meth’s 39 week experiment on Channel Frederator brings us a re-imagining of the first 32 weeks in glorious 8-bit. Insane? Yes. But Hilarious? Most definitely.
2. John McCain is calling you out, sissy-boy! This week The Onion had an important report about McCain’s plan to control government spending by eliminating the need for a Secret Service detail during his presidency. What will the Treasury Department do with all that extra money and manpower?
3. Speaking of politics, during last Tuesday’s CNN primary coverage, things got a little heated between some of the panelists. Thursday’s Veracifier gives the Sportscenter treatment to the best political team on television.
4. It all began with one red paper clip….and ended with a book. Tuesday’s Rocketboom gave us an interview with Kyle MacDonald, the man who just kept trading up.
5. Remember when the Wachowski brothers’ name stood for crazy effects and an awesome story? Anyone? Well, that first Matrix movie was awesome, but apparently their newest project, “Speed Racer,” (with Jack from “Lost” as Racer X?) misses the mark. Luckily, The New York Times is here to steer us clear of this one.

Not using Web Season Pass? You should be! This week I also enjoyed these shows using TiVo’s Web Season Pass:

• Lindsey Campbell was arrested for civil disobedience following the Sean Bell verdict in New York and covered it all on MobLogic.tv (http://www.moblogic.tv/)
• The blockbuster season kicked off with reviews of “Iron Man” (awesome) and “Grand Theft Auto IV” (more awesome) from the guys on The Totally Rad Show (http://revision3.com/trs/shuttlecock/)
• No idea what to make for dinner tonight? Left with crazy ingredients in the cabinet that don’t go together? Sounds like a job for Stump the Chef (http://onnetworks.com/videos/stump-the-chef/)

Enjoy!

John

My favorite koan:

Whenever anyone asked him about Zen, the great master Gutei would quietly raise one finger into the air. A boy in the village began to imitate this behavior. Whenever he heard people talking about Gutei’s teachings, he would interrupt the discussion and raise his finger. Gutei heard about the boy’s mischief. When he saw him in the street, he seized him and cut off his finger. The boy cried and began to run off, but Gutei called out to him. When the boy turned to look, Gutei raised his finger into the air. At that moment the boy became enlightened.

This week, we added a new channel to our growing lineup of free TiVo Video Downloads: Zen Living, from On Networks.

Zen Living is all about incorporating a balanced lifestyle through the connection of food, exercise, spirituality, and medicine, blending old world philosophies with the convenience of contemporary advances to improve well-being.

The first episode, “Cooking a Macrobiotic Meal,” explored how to make fried tofu with an organic miso salad and a pear granola dessert; the current episode, “Asian Supermarket,” walks you through what may some unfamiliar aisles.

To download these episodes or to subscribe, visit the Zen Living page on TiVo Central Online, or on your broadband-connected TiVo DVR, visit TiVo Central -> Find Programs & Downloads -> Download TV, Movies, & Web Video -> Browse Other Videos -> All -> Zen Living.

New episodes will make their way to your DVR every Monday.

We’ll have four more new channels from On Networks in the next few weeks. Please let us know what you think!

I recognize the relationship between Taco Bell’s menu and actual Mexican food has always been something similar to the relationship between how computers work in Hollywood movies versus how they actually work in real life — a fiction loosely inspired by the source material, designed to look real to those who have never had much hands-on experience with the genuine article.

But as I drove by a Taco Bell this morning and saw an ad for their new “Bacon Club Chalupa,” I couldn’t help but feel that they’re not even trying any more.

I don’t eat bacon (heresy!) but I’ll bet 31 grams of fat and 970 milligrams of sodium never tasted so muy bueno.

Well, I thought everything was back to normal on Thursday morning. Sophie and Sammy slept through the night (more or less), no undue bodily fluids appeared, and everything and everyone seemed happy and well.

Until: Thursday afternoon at work, the school called to tell me Sophie wasn’t keeping her food down. So I picked her up and Kimi and I took turns looking after her; she was in a great mood, but with a very touchy tummy. (That’s the scientific medical term.)

Today she’s “excluded” from school, but still very happy. We’re giving her juice and very simple foods instead of milk, and Kimi’s watching her today while I try to catch up at work. (A friend who is a father of twins told me that he was useless at work for the first year after his twins were born. I don’t feel “useless” but it’s definitely harder to balance life and work.) Hopefully Sophie’s back to normal after today — just in time for her teething pain to start.

In better news, Kimi had her two week follow-up appointment after her back surgery of April 22; they declared her to be healing well, and gave her the green light to drive (which she took advantage of by slipping off to see Forgetting Sarah Marshall last night, and seeing Baby Mama with Yvonne Wednesday). However, they extended the ban on her lifting/bending/twisting by another two weeks, so it’ll be six weeks more before she can carry her children.

Tough weekend.

On Thursday last week, one of Sammy’s teacher’s reported that Sammy had a condition that I will not describe in detail (this being a family blog). Friday it continued, even causing an accident on the floor at one point. But then he was better. Friday night, Kimi gave me a break and I snuck off to see Iron Man (thoughts on that later). Saturday morning, Sammy woke me up at 5:45 and I felt miserable, my stomach in knots, weak, in pain. I soon discovered I was suffering from that same unmentionable condition as Sammy.

Now, previously, Kimi had worried that handling the burden of watching the kids mostly solo (while she recovered from the back surgery of two weeks ago) was too much for me, but I dismissed her concerns. After all, I had handled the first weekend all right, right?

(I had taken Sammy and Sophie to Happy Hollow on Saturday, and we went out all day Sunday as well. For once, work on Monday felt more relaxing than the weekend…)

But now Kimi was right, the lack of sleep and Sammy’s bug had caught up with me, and I hadn’t arranged any backup. I was too exhausted to call around much, but our usual fallbacks for help with kid care were either out of town or dealing with their own kids. So, Kimi, despite recovering from back surgery, stepped up while I recuperated, and John and Yvonne helped by taking Kimi and Sophie out to a rummage sale in the morning while Sophie and I slept. Then Kimi took Sophie in the afternoon while Sammy and I napped. By the late afternoon, I finally had started to feel better. I didn’t eat a thing all day. On Sunday, I was still a bit weak, and still dealing with the condition, but was mostly better. (The only thing I ate on Sunday was half a rice cracker.)

Kimi was now exhausted, however; still, she kept Sophie while I took Sammy for an abbreviated version of our usual morning cafe-and-Farmer’s-Market routine, picking up some food for a barbecue with Rob and Kelly at noon. (Which was fun.) We all took it easy that afternoon.

Alas, the bug that had bit Sammy and me then got to Kimi at around four in the morning on Monday. Only she got it much worse than either of us. After I dropped the kids off at daycare Monday morning, her condition had got much worse. She was alternating between being unable to get warm from chills and unable to cool down from hot flashes. She wasn’t able to keep food or even water down, and was in so much pain that Urgent Care was the only option. They saw us right away, which gave me hope, but then it was so inefficient: First a nurse took her vitals. Then wait 20 minutes in the room. Then another nurse for more vitals. Wait 20 more minutes. Doctor finally comes in, asks all the same questions. He gets called away (it is an emergency room after all). Wait 20 more minutes. He comes back, resumes exam. Decides it’s the same stomach bug. Writes an order for anti-nausea shot. Wait 20 minutes. Nurse comes in to give shot. Wait 20 more minutes. Doctor comes back to re-examine. Writes a prescription for anti-cramping. Kimi convinces him she needs a pain-killer, so he grudgingly orders some vicodin. Wait 20 minutes. Wait 20 more minutes. Meanwhile Kimi is moaning and shivering from the pain (although no longer nauseous). I go looking for a nurse for the pain. Finally she arrives, Kimi takes the pill, we get a wheelchair, off to the pharmacy, then finally to the temporary home so she can sleep. I’m still a bit weak (plus it’s been weeks since the kids have slept through the night — the 3am and 4am back-to-back wakeups are really getting to me), so I grab a couple of hours before it’s time to get the kids. So much for work on Monday.

Today we’re all better, finally, so that’s a relief. And both kids slept through the night last night (well, at least they did after 10pm — before that, not so much). And even better, Sophie slept in until 6:30am and Sammy until 7am, so everyone had eight hours.

Twenty-four hour stomach flu bugs — put them on your list of things to avoid.

* * *

This next part I wrote a week ago but never got around to publishing.

* * *

Last Wednesday, Kimi and I checked in with our contractor to see how the house reconstruction was going. They’ve been at work for a week, and in that time have removed all the carpet and old flooring down to the foundation (revealing far more cracks and patchwork than we had imagined even pessimistically), knocked open the walls we’re removing, and removed the shower in the master bath where they was extensive dry rot and termite damage.

Sammy was with us, because he was in a weepy mood and didn’t want to be left with the sitter; he seemed to take it all in stride, asking (as he frequently does these days), “What’s that!?” with great interest as each barely-recognizable-room was explored.

It’s been a bit challenging to live in one big room for the past few weeks as Kimi recovers from her back surgery on April 22. The good news is that Kimi’s back pain is gone, and she’s recovering from the surgery well (after being initially underprescribed for painkillers). She’s still supposed to be taking far more bed rest than she actually does, and for another week she’s not allowed to drive, and for five more weeks no bending, twisting, or lifting anything more than 8 pounds.

* * *

I took a fair number of pictures from the Happy Hollow expedition on Saturday, April 26. It’s conceivable I might actually load them and publish a couple. Suffice to say a great variety of happy experiences were enjoined. Except for me keeping him out long past his normal nap time, which caused quite a host of difficulties for the rest of the day.

* * *

Kimi: [reading from a new book about Africa, picked up at Sunday's rummage sale]: This is a picture of a pygmy hippopotamus. Can you believe there used to be hippos that small? There used to be a lot of them in Madagascar, but now they’re all gone.

Sammy: Now they’re pretend.

* * *

Update, 12:40am Wednesday: Sophie’s turn. She just went through three cycles of throw-up/clean-up and is now out of clean pajamas. She seems to be in good spirits, despite all the vomit. She is now on my lap wrapped in a towel, while I wait to see if she throws up a fourth time, babbling happy noises that sound suspiciously like “uh-oh.”

The Webby Award winners (Video category) were announced this morning. Congrats go to Fast Lane Daily for picking up a People’s Voice award in the Sports category, and Onion News Network for winning several awards, including a Best Writing Webby and Comedy: Individual Short or Episode.

(Congrats also to nominees David Pogue of the New York Times, Barely Political, ThreadBanger and EPIC-FU!)

To subscribe to any of these for your broadband-enabled TiVo DVR, head over to the TiVoCast page, or visit TiVo Central -> Find Programs & Downloads -> Download TV, Movies, & Web Video -> Browse Other Videos -> All