Phineas and Ferb ©Disney Channel
“I know what we are going to do today.”
Drake has managed to get me watching Disney’s Phineas and Ferb. The basics of the show are two kids on summer vacation that create and do crazy things in their back yard . Like… building a rocket, fighting a mummy, climbing up the Eiffel Tower, discovering something that doesn’t exist, giving a monkey a shower, surfing tidal waves, or creating nanobots.
Drake’s love of all things Phineas and Ferb has gotten to the point where he calls members of his family names of the characters. He is Phineas, Theresa is Ferb, I am Perry (the platypus), and Garrett is baby Perry; occasionally grandma gets referred to as Candice . It’s odd that Garrett is baby Perry as there is not a baby Perry on the show, but there are plenty of other characters.
If you don’t know the show, Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz is an evil doctor and 
Perry is a secret agent that is charged with stopping his plans. This is one of the subplots that goes on in every episode. No on knows that Perry is a secret agent, unless he puts his hat on.
Now that I’ve been watching the show for weeks and there are plenty of episodes saved on the TiVo, I do have grown to like it. I’ve gotten the show so stuck in my head I have now changed some notification tones on my phone. Perry has a one liner that gets played in the background whenever he is found out by Doofenshmirtz. The 
Perry line plays on my phone whenever I get an email. The other tone is for txt messages, Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated.
If you have kids and let them watch TV, I would have to recommend giving Phineas and Ferb a look. Disney Channel has some episodes right online for sampling. 
Phineas an Ferb on Disney Channel
Tags: The TiVo announcement was last night, the short story is that I am underwhelmed.
I have looked at the Moxi DVR before and last night I did some more looking. I have not pulled the trigger on Moxi because of all of the time and money I have invested with TiVo. My original unit is a S2 with lifetime that currently serves as a cartoon box for the toddler. Our big screen TV has a S3 with lifetime hooked up to it, and in the bedroom there is a HD with $6.95/month service.
The current UI does not bother me at all, it’s been around forever and I’m used to it. Now I’m sure if I all of a sudden had a new UI I’d like that one too, but the UI alone is not a reason for me to upgrade. This whole Premiere unit feels like a face lift and spec update.
In it’s current state I would take a Premiere, but I won’t buy a Premiere.
I really like what I am reading about Moxi and the Mate. I’m going to patiently wait for Dave Zatz’s new review of Moxi. Maybe he’ll have a TiVo vs Moxi comparison.
Update: TiVo could have at least made it possible to set up WishLists and manual recordings online.
Recently I had two gadget failures. My Slingbox Pro, and Harmony Remote both failed on the same day. Yeah, I was upset and down right angry. Both situations have been resolved to my satisfaction.
This all started when I wanted to move things around in our media cabinet under our television. The idea was to remove the CD changer, add the Retro Duo and Nintendo 64, and make some room for my son’s books. At the same time I consolidated the cables running to the TV. I had everything moved and hooked up how I wanted it, except for the Slingbox. I left that unplugged because I wanted to get the remote updated as the day was getting late.
I started up the Harmony software and changed all of the settings that I needed to change. The wireless extender updated no problem, the RF receiver that repeats IR signals. The 890 remote tried to update, it failed. The software was trying to update the firmware on the remote, which it seemed to complete, but then it wouldn’t update the settings. I did some looking around in the Logitech forums and found out how to put the remote into safe mode. I tried again.
While in sleep mode it indicated that the firmware still needed updated. The remote again looked liked the firmware was updated, however it still would not complete the update fully. I even tried the suggestion of creating a new online account for the remote. I added just two devices and one activity, it still wouldn’t update. After some more frustrating attempts to update the remote I gave up. I was not sure where I would get with Logitech phone support because they have a new policy for Harmony remotes that limit phone support to 60 days after purchase, which was not the policy when I purchased the remote.
I called and used the new online account to make reference to my remote. I was able to talk to someone there. He did keep asking me when I purchased the remote, but I have to admit that I lied. I told him that I got the remote as a gift and didn’t know when it was originally purchased. I know, I lied in order to get phone support. I spent some time on the phone and had to try just about everything I had already tried. Nothing work and I was asked to contact the warranty center.
At this point I had no expectations of getting anywhere. I figured I could give it a shot and see what comes of it, since I knew the remote was out of warranty. I called the warranty center and informed the woman on the other end of the phone what was going on. She confirmed that the phone support sent me in this direction. I gave her my case number and the serial number from the remote. The next few sentences out of her mouth truly surprised me. I was informed that yes the remote was out of warranty, however they would be able to do a one time full replacement of the remote. After confirming some information she thanked me for calling Logitech. A few minutes later I got an email that included the particulars and letting me know that I would be receiving a new remote in 7-10 business days.
Now that the whole remote situation was taken care of I focused my attention to the Slingbox. I plugged in the A/V cables, ran the IR blasters to the TiVo, on a side note I want the IR kit for my Vudu box, and then went to plug it into the Slingbox. There was no resistance. I tried again, but there was no plug there. I grabbed a flashlight and confirmed that the plug for the IR blasters was missing. After I picked the box up I fount the plug, it had come off the board and was freely rolling around inside the case.
This gadget was also out of warranty and I knew it. I jumped right on the phone with Sling Media support. They offered to swap out the unit for a fee. At this point I was just exhausted from things failing. I agreed and pulled out my debit card.
A few days later both of my replacements arrived and are in perfect working order. Logitech sent a fully new retail box with all of the extras and accessories. They also asked me to dispose of the broken remote properly as they do not want it back. Sling Media sent a refurbished Slingbox Pro, just the box in some bubble wrap, with a return shipping label. I hooked the Slingbox up and it is working just fine. Now I just have to drop off the broken unit to UPS.
In the end I am glad that everything is working well.
Last night Theresa and I watched Baby Mamma. I’m not sure I would ever watch it again, but thanks to Redbox, TiVo, and a large hard rive I can pull it to the TV again. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, who does not have a profile page on IMDb, are funny. The only cast member that bothered me was Steve Martin. I just can’t put my finger on it, but for some reason I just don’t like him very much. Maybe it is all of those stupid Pink Panther promos that he did.
Yesterday for Free Movie Monday I ripped rented Sex Drive. Theresa had made the recommendation. We’ll probably watch that one later this week or next. I still have the X Files movie on the TiVo waiting to be watched. Once there is a night with no TV on I’ll watch that.
Today I am going to pick up Transporter 3 and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. I feel kind of bad for getting all of these free rentals from Redbox, so I am going to pay for a couple, plus the are only $1. On top of that I should be getting a fresh disk since these were released today. The potential of scratches should be zero.
I’m not sure what I will get for Free Movie March Wednesday yet. Maybe Body of Lies.
The weekend started a little early with me starting a clean install of Windows on my computer at home. I backed up all of my data and made note of programs that I needed to install. Once I got Vista installed and upgraded to Ultimate I started the process of getting my programs back on the the computer.
The only thing that is not working correctly now is pyTiVo. I use this to transfer videos back and forth from my TiVo units. For some reason I cannot get the TiVo units to see my computer. The computer can see 3 of the 4 TiVo units in the house. What’s even stranger is that now the TiVo units cannot see all of the other units in the house. I still cannot figure it out. The only real bad thing about this is that I cannot transfer my movie collection that is on my computer to the TiVo units. This might put a damper on Free Movie Monday with Redbox.
Thursday Criterion Games released new cars for Burnout Paradise. Yes I did buy them, just like I bought the Party pack. This whole paid DLC is new for me, as this is the first bit of Add-Ons that I have purchased for games that I already own. Both of the packs have seemed worth it to me. The new car packs that have been announced, Toy Cars & Boost Specials, may see screen time in my house, but I’m not sure. I do know that I will purchse the Big Surf Island pack as well as the Cops & Robbers pack. I still think they should bring back Crash Mode.
Drake went to a play date with Aunt Pat, and an old friend of mine stopped by to say hi.
Friday was a short day at the office. For lunch we went to the bar next door for some food. After that we just decided to call it a day. We went to the arena for a hockey game, but couldn’t get in. I had ripped the wrong tickets our of our season ticket pack. Theresa and Drake waited for me as I ran back to the car to go home and get the correct tickets, I still can’t believe I did that. That was the first time I brought the wrong tickets, now I’ve forgoten to bring tickets all together twice, but not the wrong ones.
The Griffins on Friday put together one heck of a game against the Manitoba Moose. This bit of statistics make me happy:
GriffinsHockey.com: With the victory, earned before a raucous capacity crowd of 10,834, the Griffins (33-13-6-5) pulled within four points of Manitoba (38-15-0-5) in the North Division race, broke the Moose’s eight-game point streak and ended their 14-game road point streak one game shy of the American Hockey League record.
Saturday morning it was nice to sleep in a bit as Drake didn’t feel the need to wake up at 6.30am. After we got up and what not Drake and I left to go to my parents house. Theresa stayed home to get some shopping and a few things around the house done. My mission was to install an external hard drive and move the document folders on the computer at my parents house. I had forgotten that the internal drive there is only 30GB. They now have plenty of space on their new 500GB drive. I also tried to fix the VHS/DVD Recorder combo unit that I bought for them some time ago. It is acting really strange, it shuts off after being on for only about 14 seconds. Since it is out of warranty the only suggestion the manufacturer had was to leave it unplugged for a while to see if it would reset itself.
The Saturday night game was a different story then Friday night. On paper we should have had no problem beating the Lake Erie Monsters. On the ice however we did have a problem. I’m not sure if the Griffins were all there mentally for the game.
Per Ledin scored twice to lead Lake Erie to a 4-2 victory over the Grand Rapids Griffins on Saturday, making the Monsters the only team this season to claim a pair of regulation wins at Van Andel Arena.
GriffinsHockey.com: Grand Rapids owned a commanding 33-18 advantage in shots for the game, but Garden City, Mich., native Jason Bacashihua made 31 saves to help the visitors to their second road win in as many nights against a second-place team, following the Monsters’ 3-1 win at Rockford on Friday.
Sunday morning Theresa and Drake stayed home from church. She was not feeling well, and a bunch of snow had fallen. We had a laid back morning watching TV and playing video games. The Grffins played at 4 in the afternoon which gave them 3 games in less then 72 hours. This time they were able to pull out a win, which shouldn’t have been a probem, but the third period was almost heart stopping.
GriffinsHockey.com: Jimmy Howard made 32 saves in his return from the Detroit Red Wings on Sunday, including 20 during a frantic third period, to help the Grand Rapids Griffins claim their third win in five nights, a nail-biting 5-4 triumph over the San Antonio Rampage at Van Andel Arena.
Combined with Manitoba’s 2-1 loss at Chicago this evening, the Griffins have moved within two points of the first-place Moose in the ever-tightening race for both North Division and overall AHL supremacy.
After the game we went to the grocery store to pick up some dinner and some food for the week. I think this week I am going to be playing more of Burnout and Roller Coaster Tycoon, as long as I don’t get sucked into too much TV.
