Darin, because the 40 channels and headaches provided courtesy of TCI Cable were not enough for him, got a satellite dish. It was just installed yesterday. You know, when I came home for the weekend.
Guess what I've been doing all day?
Well, mostly I've been watching TVLand, which is a channel I get down in Los Angeles anyhow, but somehow it's more fun to watch here. Also, I would be at Spring Creek Pictures if I were in LA, not watching Cannon (a really godawful Quinn Martin production) and Hill Street Blues.
What I should be doing is taking advantage of the 78 HBO channels provided. Well, there are only 5 but the incredible number of channels -- something like 250 -- makes it hard to find anything to watch. You get the feeling that there is something to watch, you just have to page through the on-screen guide to find it.
The picture on this system is amazingly clear. The only problem is that you can't get local channels on satellite, which means that last night we crowded 135 people into our living room to watch the final episode of Season Three of Babylon 5 to watch KBHK via antenna. An antenna, for those of you who haven't used on for a decade or so, is a thin metal stick that allows you to receive "free TV" via "the air". It's a strange concept, and most of the TV you get are Cheers re-runs. Nevertheless, some channels are only available via antenna or cable.
There was a hell of a ghost on the screen during the entire episode, not that we noticed. "Z'ha'dum" was, shall we say, intense. So intense that a group of people stayed to watch it again after the episode was over.
Yesterday was an important anniversary, one CJ didn't even remember -- last year, Darin and I went out to dinner with CJ and Sho in Palo Alto, and after dinner Darin said, "Oh no! We'll never get home in time."
"In time for what?" CJ asked. (This is what we in the Biz call "famous last words.")
"Babylon 5!"
"You can watch it at my house."
So the four of us went over to CJ and Lance's and watched the final episode of Season Two. I had to leave to get some equipment at De Anza, and when I came back the episode was over and CJ was saying, "That was kind of interesting, a little cheesy, but fun."
Then she caught a cold, borrowed tapes of all the episodes, and became fanatical.
It's been only a year. Amazing.
After Nina's class yesterday, Carolann, David, and I spent an hour or two running around trying to fill out paperwork and get permissions to take the One Hour Episodic Drama writing class (which is supposed to be for second years only). There are barriers to taking it. It's annoying and I won't recount it again, other than to say USC's bureaucracy is really, really beginning to tee me off.
After we went through the official rigamarole, Carolann ran into Jody, who was the student who had told us in the first place about taking the One Hour Episodic Class. Carolann told her about the song-and-dance she'd have to go through. Jody got a pissed-off look on her face, turned on her heel, and walked away without saying anything. Like it was Carolann's fault that we had to go through these hoops, and if Carolann, David, and I hadn't said anything Jody would have been able to take the class no problem.
I felt like taking Jody aside and saying, Get over yourself, okay? Take that problem outside and walk it off.