The Poor Man's TiVo

Damn you November sweeps! That's right. I went there. I have to say that I had a much easier time when the World Series was going on. That narrowed my religious TV watching down to only three shows: The Office, Grey's Anatomy, and Desperate Housewives. (And that is the order in which I care.) When Fox had this year's games on, I didn't have to worry because House was on reruns. Yeaaa! Don't have to think. That's a big thing with me. But last night I had the unfortunate situation of having Super-Sized Office conflicting with my Grey's. What's a girl to do?

Well, the entertainment powers that be have granted me a solution. ABC offers me the newest episodes on their website for free. This is awesome for when I miss the show, but it sucks for when I want to buy the DVDs when they come out. I will have seen every episode and will have to struggle with my wasting money verses completing my set hankerings. So with this offering, I know to ditch ABC shows in favor of the other networks and then catch up later. The occasional stops and low bandwidth (which I so do not have!) messages are a distraction but I get the episode and I'm good. (Though I can't stand that it doesn't include the scenes from the next episode. It sucks.)

But now that House is back on I have to remember more shows on more nights. What am I supposed to do if I can make it to my picture box and drool at, I mean gaze lovingly at, I mean stare at, I mean watch my favorite pill popping, insult cracking doctor? Well, I have not been blessed with TiVo or any of those fancy schmancy digital recording dealies. Instead I call up my substitute for Hugh Laurie and asking him nicely if he can set his VCR for me.

Not everyone can afford to have one of these damn things, you know! I'm still saving for a pony.
(The photograph is by Redjar and is available under a Creative Commons License.)

Yes, VCRs are still out there and deserve so much more respect than 8-Tracks, Laser Discs, and Beta. I grew up VCRs and taped hours of my favorite shows and have drawers of tapes that I will never watch again, but keep because I may be able to find a VCR with superior auto tracking that will make these tapes watchable again. Or I'll trash them when all of these shows are on DVD. I even used to want to keep recordings of random commercials that I love and SNL skits, but with the invention of YouTube I think I let these things go. If I ever want to watch Janet Reno's Dance Party, that Jungleheiemer Junction skit or those Volkswagen commercials that I thought were awesome, the internet provides me with all my heart's desire (and it has porn too!).

So that's the best I can do until I can afford TiVo. It seems as though if I tried hard enough, I could catch my shows and not need to subscribe to the digital recording world. But I want to hit that point to where I'm making enough money that I can pause live TV. Ahh the power! Until then I'll just have to rely on the VCR timers of others. (Oh and just in case you were wondering, the rich man's TiVo is just having TiVo, but it's programmed by Reginald, your butler.)