Sunday, October 26, 2008

A couple of discoveries

I found a few new things these past couple of days. As is usual, what is new for me may very well be old for everyone else.

First, I was on a quick afternoon ride on Friday on the portion of the BST hat starts just below Bridal Veil Falls. After trying a few trails to the left that didn't really go anywhere, I took the main fork to the left that starts after crossing Squaw but before you start the descent. After the first few steep switchbacks, I took a sharp left (rather than continuing straight to the clearing), which turned into a pretty cool trail that traversed the mountain and had some interesting rocky sections. It looked like it had some really good potential, but I had to head home before I fully explored it. Anyone know where this trail goes?

Second, this past Thursday evening, I had the choice of watching The Office or going on a night ride. Of course, I opted for the latter. The next day, after listening to my wife laughing about the episode I missed, I decided I wanted to watch it after all. We don't have a DVR, so I started searching for it on the InterWeb. I expected my options to be: 1) pay $4 on iTunes; or 2) download a pirated version from some nefarious website. To my surprise, I found that nbc.com allows you to watch every episode for free. Ya, I realize that I'm the last person to find this out. You do have to put up with a couple of 20 second commercials, but nothing too bad.

So for the past while, the only time I watch TV is for The Office and for sports. The Office because it's pretty funny, and sports because it offers instant entertainment with no long-term commitment. Most of the other shows these days seem to require a weekly commitment, which I'm just not willing to give to a TV show. Now as the days get shorter and colder, I'll probably eventually succumb to an occasional ride on the trainer down in the basement. Every year I tell myself I'll occasionally ride through the winter, but that's easy to say when it's a balmy 40 degrees outside, but tougher to do with it drops into the 20s. So while riding the trainer, I think I'll try out some of these shows I've heard about by watching them for free on the networks' website.

The problem is that it's been so long since I've watched anything, I don't know what is any good. I've heard about a show called Heroes and another one called Lost. I don't know what either of them is about (although I'm guessing that "Lost" is about someone who got lost), but I've heard people say they are pretty good, so I'll probably give those a try. Any other recommendations for what else I should watch while suffering on the trainer this winter? The options are pretty wide open, because it looks like nbc, cbs, abc, and fox all have posted full episodes. My only stipulation is that I won't watch any of the reality shows/competitions.

5 comments:

nate said...

I've been enjoying "chuck" lately. It's actually a show I could totally see dad getting into (it has a hot spy girl who's good at fighting) but it's actually pretty good.

Racer Jared said...

Your ride consisted of BST section called "betty" to Smith Ditch Road, across Squaw Peak Road, up the "gillespie trail" to the new trail (Nameless? that cuts back to squaw road at the big exposed switchback with a sign at it.) I refer to that trail as the "high line" if you got to the rocks you were 50 yds from the road.


Dexter, a showtime series, is very dark, but entertaining, first two seasons are on itunes.

chuck good, lost good, heroes is good but i am not into it.

I bought season 1 of Prison Break. don't know if it is good or not. we'll see this winter.

JZ said...

Definitely rent the Lost DVDs. Heroes, decent first season, crappy ever since. For my only trainer session so far this year I watched the first two episodes of Undeclared (from the makers of Freaks and Geeks with Seth Rogen - dang funny). I am going to watch 24 as well, which I have never seen.

I am total nerd, so last winter I watched the new Battlestar Galactica SciFi channel series, it is freaking awesome, and then you can also get Dwight's Battlestar obsession on the Office. Even my wife likes it. I seriously can't recommend it enough. Best drama going, plus sci fi to boot.

Mad Men is supposed to be really good as well.

Trainer time is definitely some good DVD watching time.

Aaron said...

Nate - I checked out a promo for Chuck. Are you sure you don't like it just because their theme song is a Cake song?

Racer - Dexter looks like my kind of show, but Showtime doesn't post full episodes, so I'll probably check out the freebees on nbc, abc, etc. first.

jz - you really should check out the free stuff online. You don't have to worry about returning a DVD and you don't pay anything.

JZ said...

Yeah free is good. Unfortunately I don't have a computer where my trainer is. I guess I could burn them to DVD from the network sites, but that would take some know-how I don't currently have, and I am sure the networks have made it difficult to do.