My Strange Hobby
I tape TV shows.
What's so strange about that? Well, in the early 90s, I had two jobs. I didn't get to see all the shows I wanted to see. So I began taping them, and said, "I'll just watch it tomorrow."
Tomorrow came, and I didn't have time to watch it. So I used another tape, to tape that night's shows, thinking I would catch up sooner or later. And the next night, and the next, and the next. It was soon complicated by two VCRs (because I had to clone all the episodes of Quantum Leap), then three, then four, and cable TV, and more and more channels and...
I am, right now, watching tapes from the end of April, 1999.
The downside to this is that I haven't stopped taping, although I tape much less these days. I have too many tapes left to watch. I have started skipping stuff, like movies I can now get on DVD, if I want to. But there is an upside, too.
Today I was watching the Rosie O'Donnell Show, from April 22, 1999. All of a sudden, she holds up a book and says, in essence, that she has just finished reading "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone", that's it's a great book, and everyone should read it.
Did you know that one of the reasons HP became so popular in the US was because Rosie talked about it on her show? I was told that by a women who worked in an executive position for Barnes and Noble.
How many people do you think have this little Rosie snippet on tape? Or the three subsequent interviews that JK Rowling did on Rosie's show? (Points to self) This idiot, who tapes too many shows. And I'm looking forward to all the HP stuff that will be on Entertainment Tonight, and elsewhere.
It's like time travelling, sometimes, this little hobby of mine. Tom and Nichole are still together. Sept. 11 hasn't happened yet. Johnny Carson is still alive. I'm watching the first season of "Charmed" the third season of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "The West Wing" hasn't even started yet.
So there you go. You now know my biggest secret, my albatros, and my joy.
What's so strange about that? Well, in the early 90s, I had two jobs. I didn't get to see all the shows I wanted to see. So I began taping them, and said, "I'll just watch it tomorrow."
Tomorrow came, and I didn't have time to watch it. So I used another tape, to tape that night's shows, thinking I would catch up sooner or later. And the next night, and the next, and the next. It was soon complicated by two VCRs (because I had to clone all the episodes of Quantum Leap), then three, then four, and cable TV, and more and more channels and...
I am, right now, watching tapes from the end of April, 1999.
The downside to this is that I haven't stopped taping, although I tape much less these days. I have too many tapes left to watch. I have started skipping stuff, like movies I can now get on DVD, if I want to. But there is an upside, too.
Today I was watching the Rosie O'Donnell Show, from April 22, 1999. All of a sudden, she holds up a book and says, in essence, that she has just finished reading "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone", that's it's a great book, and everyone should read it.
Did you know that one of the reasons HP became so popular in the US was because Rosie talked about it on her show? I was told that by a women who worked in an executive position for Barnes and Noble.
How many people do you think have this little Rosie snippet on tape? Or the three subsequent interviews that JK Rowling did on Rosie's show? (Points to self) This idiot, who tapes too many shows. And I'm looking forward to all the HP stuff that will be on Entertainment Tonight, and elsewhere.
It's like time travelling, sometimes, this little hobby of mine. Tom and Nichole are still together. Sept. 11 hasn't happened yet. Johnny Carson is still alive. I'm watching the first season of "Charmed" the third season of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "The West Wing" hasn't even started yet.
So there you go. You now know my biggest secret, my albatros, and my joy.