local news really sucks

or What Did We Do Before We Had High-Speed Internet?

Our internet was out yesterday and part of today. This was nice in that it was an excellent excuse not to do work and just sit in front of the TV. It was not so nice in that we no longer have cable TV (would that have helped?) and broadcast TV (at least) is really sucky.

I don't know what time the national news comes on in LA on Saturdays, but it is apparently not 6:30 pm like it is on the weekdays (I think). We normally watch the news on the internet cuz (a) less commercials (though TV on the internet is on various stages of development, depending on the network, and there was like a 3 month period last year when the only commercial on the NBC Nightly News was for ... some car company. It had a stupid poem read by a kid-like voice that went "Say I had a car company, here's what I'd do. I'd tell everybody to listen to you ...". Read about it in this well-written, insightful article by "Kyle Hagen".) and (b) then you can skip the boring stories about e.g. how cold it is for those suckers east of California, blah blah blah :).

Anyways, we watched the local news. The first story was about car commercials, and featured rock'n'roll theme music through the entire thing, and was not altogether discernible from a regular car commercial (Hollywood, I guess).

The second was a story about a "scam" where some companies were offering to help you apply for property tax relief and charging $100, when you could fill out a form for free yourself. I'm not sure that's a scam, since there are lots of things like that. Like income taxes, for instance. Apparently, one of the companies listed their address as a P.O. box at a UPS store, and they showed footage of the local news reporter interviewing the clerk at the UPS store, saying "So this isn't the headquarters for blah-blah-blah company?" It was completely retarded.

When we first moved to San Diego, we had no internet at all, and after that, only dial-up. That wasn't that long ago, maybe 5 years. So, my question is, what did I spend all my time doing in the past? And is my life better now, whatever better means?

In any case, I think this weekend is evidence that the internet is out to brainwash me and turn me into a loveless troll. Speaking of Perfect Strangers (in case you missed it, the previous link was to the "I Watched this on Purpose" review of the thriller "Perfect Stranger"), the theme song to it is super-awesome:

[[Embedded YouTube Movie Perfect Strangers Intro]]

The little dramatic pause with the "duh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh" at the end is so heart-wrenching. By the way, you know which show is unwatchably awful as an adult? Perfect Strangers! I don't remember where I saw it recently, but it was really bad.