I do however enjoy watching movies when they come on TV. And for whatever reason, even when I have a DVD of a movie, when it comes on TV I feel obligated to watch it. I also enjoy older movies. I’m not talking silent screen stuff, but, well for example, The Longest Day is one of my favorites.

Now for the weird taste in movies…I’ll start off with a shocker: I think Anchorman isn’t that good. I was excited to watch it when I saw it was going to be on TV. Well, I didn’t last 20 minutes into the movie. Honestly I can’t stand Will Ferrell, who everyone else seems to think is a comedy genius. To me he’s annoying and over-the-top.

While at work I mentioned that I didn’t like Anchorman, and I could only laugh when everyone thought I was joking. Seriously? Is my idea of humor that different? My coworkers then rattled off titles of other “great comedies” and I dismissed all of them as either “bad” or “haven’t seen/no interest in seeing”. Ironically, the majority, if not all, of these titles starred Will Ferrell. Huh.

Sports I really enjoy watching include rugby, Formula 1 racing, and soccer/football/whatever you want to call it.

Soccer has become more common to see on TV in the U.S. thanks to the MLS. Most of the MLS games though are on cable channels, with ABC occasionally showing a game here and there. I have no problem with these games.

This year marked a first as Fox Sports took the plunge and showed the Champions League final. I thought it was terrific that such a big event was available to such a wide audience in the U.S. Sadly, not many people in the U.S. are familiar with the European clubs, which sadly Fox realized. Problems started in the pregame show with the commentators continuously pointing out how big the Champions League final match is. The commentators spent alot of time talking about how popular and great the players are. Thankfully soccer is popular enough that they didn’t feel the need to explain the rules of the game.

But it bothered the hell out of me listening the commentators bringing up how big the match was, how great the players were etc etc over and over. The majority of the audience were probably the big fans of the sport, and they already knew this. Fox knew that to make this work, they needed to get the people wondering what Champions League is all about, people that haven’t really ever paid attention to it. Once they tune in, the commentators had to remind these viewers how great it was so that the viewers kept watching.

This happens with Formula 1 racing also. SpeedTV carries the races in the U.S. and to be honest their coverage is great fun. Bob, Steve, and Dave are both know their stuff, and keep it funny at the same time. A car as a technical problem, Steve can give the viewers a pretty good guess as to what the problem is within a few seconds. If the team finds new parts on the cars (which happens throughout the season), the commentating team sees them and explains how it will make things better. They educate the viewer keeping in mind that the viewers already know the basics. They aren’t going to waste our time explaining why the steering wheel isn’t round…we know that already. They will tell us if Mercedes GP are running a longer wheel-base car, which is something F1 fans find interesting.

I bring F1 up now because this coming weekend is the Canadian GP and Fox is airing it. The SpeedTV commentator team will have the call, but it’s on Fox. Traditionally when F1 is on network TV, whether it be CBS (a few years ago) or Fox, they always dumb it down. Once again, trying explain what’s happening, give the viewer history of the sport, in the hopes of bringing in new fans. On the flip side, while chatting about the basics, it bores me to death, and I’m sure other regular F1 fans feel the same. I can only hope the same doesn’t happen this year, but it always has in the past, so I’m not betting on change.

Finally, I love rugby. I watch rugby online, I tune into Australian ABC radio to listen to NRL games, it’s great. This last weekend NBC decided to give rugby a try. They aired Rugby Sevens with college teams. I’m not familiar with Sevens other than the fact that they play with 7 players instead of the usual 15 and the games are much shorter. There were a few rules changes from what I’m used to, but picked up on them quickly, and I enjoyed the matches. But NBC hit a new low with their attempt to introduce the sport to new fans…new low for me anyways.

Rugby has positions like “prop”, “fly-half”, and “wing”…or “the flyer”. What was NBC’s way of describing them? Football. They actually used a graphic listing the football position equivalent like “quarterback” “running back”. Wow! Once again, to the majority of the audience watching, they probably liked that. Viewers that enjoy rugby already probably hated it, like me.

This whole thing leaves me between a rock and a hard place. On one side I’d love to see the sports I’ve grown to love get bigger in the U.S. and receive more coverage. On the other side, I don’t want to sit through games, matches, and races listening to commentators tell me the basics I already know. Part of me wishes network TV would give up on these sports and leave it to the specialty channels that know their audience to broadcast. (ah hem F1 races…Fox, give up…keep them on SpeedTV and let Steve, Dave, and Bob do their thing.)

I wonder if people in England have the same problem when it comes to NFL games that air there. Do the few die-hard fans have to sit through basic rules (the yellow flag means a penalty) and history (the Packers won the first two Super Bowls) the whole time? And if you don’t understand what I’m complaining about, aren’t you annoyed just a little bit that I told you what a penalty flag is and about the Packers’ SB I & II wins? You know that, I know that, but this is the bs the networks feel they need to point out with new sports. ugh.

Formula 1 does knock out qualifying. All cars on track for 15 minutes, and the 7 slowest cars at the end of 15 minutes are out and take the last places on the starting grid. Then a 10 minute 2nd session…again the slowest cars are done. Then a final session for pole position.

I like to watch qualifying on TV. I also like to keep tabs on things on the Formula1.com website with their live timing. Until now I haven’t yet been able to log onto the live timing due to them updating their site’s timing. Well, it’s working now, and I’m not happy.

On TV we have 6 minutes left in the 2nd session. According to the website’s live timing, session 3 started 2 minutes ago.

I understand delays and all that…I work in TV. I guess I’m just bummed by the huge delay. I remember last season when I’d watch the race and watch the live timing at the same time. Hopefully the race tomorrow night will be better (as in no delay).

“How I Met Your Mother” (CBS): I’ve never missed an episode of this show. I watched the first episode, thought it was funny, and I’ve been watching since. And to be honest, I think this show is getting better as it goes on. It’s easy to relate to the characters, topics are hilarious, and seriously…Doogie and the band camp girl are in it. Suit up and watch. word.

“NCIS” (CBS): Most people are sick of “cop dramas” like CSI etc etc, but to me this is different. It adds humour. The characters are crazy, but yet professional. I would love to work at NCIS if it were really like the show…goof around, but yet employees know when to focus on work. I think I’ve seen almost every episode now, thanks to USA. Plus, did I mention I’m in love with Cote de Pablo?

“LOST” (ABC): This will go down as one of the best television shows of all time, I swear. Me personally, there’s no reason I’d ever go back to the island when I finally got home…even if Sawyer and some other people were still there. I wouldn’t care enough to go back. But, Jack, Hurley, and the rest were crazy enough to feel the need to go back, so the show continues. This is the final season, and the writers better do something fantastic to end this thing, or me and millions of others are gonna be pissed. This is the season where all our questions are to be answered. So what’s the first thing the show does in the final season? Of course…introduce new characters at the temple. Brilliant! And I stand by my theory that the only people that don’t like LOST are those that didn’t start watching at the beginning when it started and are now jealous. HA!

“NCIS Los Angeles” (CBS): This is a new show, and spinoff of NCIS. LL Cool J and Chris O’Donnell. It was first teased when the regular NCISers went to L.A. From that show, I’m a bit sad the character Mace isn’t on the new show. I like it mainly because of the new tech and Daniela Ruah. The original is still better, but for some reason I love this show’s theme music. On a side note, I remember when I was in high school and people thought I looked like Chris O’Donnell, not only because of our same haircuts, but we both don’t have earlobes (technically they’re called attached earlobes…whatevs). What happened to me?

“Better Off Ted” (ABC): This show is ridiculous. Ted works at a huge company that creates weird stuff and he works with weird co-workers. As weird as it is, it’s still realistic enough for you to say “hey, that guy acts like ____ where I work” or “that weird throw-the-bagel-into-the-air-vent game looks pretty fun”. I love this show. Sadly it’s not on right now. It’s one of those “in-between” season shows…like it’s just keeping the seat warm until the boss (LOST) arrives haha.

“Chuck” (NBC): This isn’t really a must see show, but I like it. I usually watch it at work. But if I miss a bit of it, or even a whole episode, I’m not about to go to the NBC website to watch it. It’s still fun though, even if it is a bit repetitive. And you thought I wouldn’t mention a single show on NBC…

Last week one night I sat down and threw in my new DVD Whale Rider. It’s a good movie and a great story about a girl and if I tell much more I’d probably give the movie away.

The last scenes of the movie is all about the people of the town trying to save some whales from death. The movie ended, I said to myself “wow, that was pretty good” and checked the time…almost 10:30pm.

I decided to quickly scan the TV channels. As you would imagine I burst out laughing when I flipped to PBS station only to find myself watching the final scenes of “Moby Dick”.

It’s strange how one movie is all about saving whales from death, and then a minute later watch another movie where guys are throwing spears at the biggest whale ever.

And that’s all I got. Cheers.

2. I never miss “How I Met Your Mother” on Mondays. Now I’ve started watching “The Class”, which airs right after it. Besides the somewhat unbelievable basis where old classmates that haven’t talked in years are suddenly once again best friends, the show’s pretty good. The character Richie Velch (played by Jesse Tyler Ferguson) is hilarious. Also, I kinda like Lizzy Caplan, who plays Kat Warbler. Hi Lizzy/Kat! yup.

3. I still want a Porsche.

4. Playing online games at ea.pogo.com is fun. My favorite: Pogo Bowling. While bowling you can talk to people you’ve never met before…brilliant, for the most part. I now even have some Pogo Bowling friends. Sadly, I also have a few stalkers…you know, the people that live somewhat close to you (same state), so they feel they were meant to meet you in real life. ugh. Thank goodness for the “block member” feature Pogo added to the friends list…

5. MySpace = evil

6. Adidas never sent me a pair of their vintage series Superstars to test. booo.

2. The new Kasabian album is great. Everyone should buy it. Hell, buy two…just not at Best Buy.

3. I must have crap movie taste. The last two movies I wanted to see in theaters never made it to a cinema within a 5 hour drive of here (granted they weren’t wide release films). Finally a movie is released I’m interested that is big enough to have a few TV adverts and once again it won’t be coming to my local cinema. TV adverts or not, I’ll still have to drive an hour just to watch Flyboys.

4. The new TV season isn’t very good, well the new shows anyways. “How I Met Your Mother” is still great! “NCIS” is still good. The CSI shows aren’t bad if you’re flipping channels (the Miami version being my favorite of the three). But alot of the new shows probably won’t last long…I hope at least as, in general, they all kinda suck. “Lost” will be back next week, and along with “How…Mother” it’s my favorite show. I can’t wait.

5. I posted it awhile ago and I still have the same opinion: the adidas superstar II is the best shoe currently made.

6. Go Fulham FC!!! Antti Niemi = Superhero

7. I’m starting to like Volvo more and more. The S40 looks nice. I really like the interior. Too bad the soon-to-come C30 won’t be AWD. Curses. In any case, I’m almost split: Swedish or German (Audi, BMW, M-B). mmm.

Monday night I was watching ‘CSI: Miami’ on CBS. This show seems to have an overflow of color, especially in the opening shots and when coming from commercial breaks. Colors are so full and vibrant that once again one may think the settings on their TV are screwed up. So once again I ask, is this planned to portray Miami as a playful, vibrant city, or do the producers just like playing with the huw filters?

Monday night before ‘CSI: Miami’ I watched one of my favorite top 2 shows, ‘How I Met Your Mother’ (‘Lost’ being my other favorite show, if you were wondering). The color is just fine with this show. Plus it’s hilarious. Everyone should watch every week. Hell, record it while you’re watching and then watch it over and over and over all week until the next episode. Yup.

For the most part I’m a good TV viewer. What I mean by this is that I’m able to make it episode to episode without reading about what’s going to happen. Sure there are a few slip-ups, but overall I’m good at avoiding interviews in magazines/online with show actors and writers. They don’t try, but always end up giving something away in every interview I read.

Sadly there was a slip-up about two or three weekends ago regarding ‘How I Met Your Mother’. One of the few features of the Sunday newspaper I always make sure to browse is the USA Weekend insert. A couple weekends ago they did a write-up on the upcoming season finales for the hottest shows. Both of my favorite shows were included.

The article made little attempt to ruin any plots developing, but did ask each writer “how will the season end?”, or something to that effect. Any reader could tell the creator of ‘Lost’ had been asked this question far too often because he gave the perfect answer “nothing short of epic.” The answer makes people want to watch, but gives nothing away. Well, the writers of ‘…Mother’ must not have had as much practice answering the question.

The writer of ‘…Mother’ answered the question by saying something to the effect ‘tie up loose ends and possibly a big break-up’. So what’s the big problem with this answer? THERE’S ONLY ONE COUPLE!!! Yeah, for those that watch the show, Ted and Robin don’t count as a couple, never have…only in Ted’s dreams. Barney hates relationships so the only break-up involving him would be with a one night stand…whoopie. Yes, Lillie and Marshall are the only couple in the show. They are engaged and them break-up would be huge.

Sure enough, the last two episodes before tonight’s finale hinted more and more towards a Marshall & Lillie break-up, but always kept them holding on. Finally tonight it happened. Thanks to the article I shouldn’t have read I knew it was gonna happen. In the show’s defense, if I hadn’t read the article I would have been quite surprised. Damn me and my joy of reading.

1. click here if you’re a fan of the NES RBI Baseball game, Boston Red Sox, New York Mets, or clever computer stuff in general. Someone has replicated the famous 1986 game and it’s worth watching all 8 or so minutes of it. It’s Great!!!

2. I’m in a phase where I feel it’s bad luck if I spell a word wrong while typing and don’t retype the whole word, so instead of simply hitting backspace and correcting the wrong letters I feel compelled to delete the entire word and type the whole thing over again. Since this obsession began it’s taken me much longer to type things.

3. I listen to Chris Moyles Show everyday and 5 of the best songs, in my opinion, currently on BBC Radio 1 playlist are: Orson “Bright Idea”(too bad their first single was crap), Snow Patrol “You’re All I Have”, Keane “Is it Any Wonder”, Matt Willis “Up All Night”(kinda 80′s sounding and kick ass…too bad he used to be in Busted haha), Feeder “Lost & Found”. Now go pay money for them on itunes, or listen for free by listening to DJs’ shows on the Radio 1 website.

4. I have been thinking about this for a few months and finally decided it is indeed my life goal/dream to buy the Minnesota Vikings. Wilf family, name your price.

5. Scott Speed is the first American to drive in Formula 1 since Michael Andretti in 1993, so I decided an interview was needed. Check back soon for an exclusive Scott Speed interview…hopefully, maybe.

6. May is TV season finale month. All the shows are promising huge, epic endings. I can’t wait! And yes I know I’ll most likely be disappointed by a few. Oh well.