Dear Friends,
You know that song about making new friends and keeping the old? Brace your electronic selves, because, it’s not always true.
VCR, we’ve had a good run. Nay, a great run. I mean, you have served this family so well for more than two decades. You played Jurassic Park, the first movie Mark and I watched together. You recorded a stunning number of episodes of Married…with Children before we met and you were solely at Mark’s mercy. And then, in your brighter days, you recorded countless episodes of Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars.
Oh, those were the days.
And let us not forget my semiannual dedication to exercise. VCR, you were always there, always willing to play my Tae-Bo tape – and never mocking my roundhouse kick. If that’s not true friendship, I just don’t know what is.
Alas, our time together has come to an end.
When we brought that Black Friday flat-screen into the house two months ago, it never occurred to me that you wouldn’t connect with our new friend. I had no idea that you would be evicted to the cold, dark garage. I didn’t know.
But I can’t deny your absence did make room for the new kid on the block.
Ahh, yes, DVR, it’s your turn to shine. Sure, sure, I know you’ve been around for a while. I’ve heard, okay?! If it makes you feel better, I’ll stop calling you the “new kid.” How do you feel about “BFF+EVA”? Because, yeah, you are totally my best friend forever and ever. Amen.
I just have one teeny, tiny concern. (See? A lesser friend would have lodged a complaint. But not me. I simply have an itsy, bitsy concern.)
The thing is . . . as wonderful as you are (AND YOU ARE. Oh, YOU ARE.), you’re also kinda, sorta, just a little bit STRESSING ME THE HECK OUT.
That thing where you keep track of how many shows I have waiting to be watched and how much space I have left AS A PERCENTAGE? Yeahhhhhh, it makes my eye twitch. The right one, if you were wondering (and I know you were, seeing as how we’re best friends and all).
Are you really telling me I need to narrow down my [long, fine? LONG] list of shows? Or are you saying I need to drop everything and watch my shows RIGHT AWAY? Because those two things are kind of the opposite of each other, and I’m not really sure which way you’re leaning right now.
Please advise. But don’t stop recording my shows. Except Last Resort, because last night’s episode was, sadly, the series finale.
In closing, my dear friends: I love you. You are equal but separate, and by “separate,” I mean that VCR lives in the garage now and DVR is like entertainment magic that also sometimes makes me twitchy.
Love,
Your Best Friend Forever (or until you move to the garage)
How many shows do you record? (Are we talking double digits – or is that just me?)
LOVE this! Thank you!!!
Oh my goodness, I was waiting on this type of post since you upgraded but it’s like a zillion times better. I LOVE this.
And how about this for irony? I don’t have EITHER right now.
I rely solely on Hulu to get me through so I HAVE to keep up.
What on earth?! How are you managing without the basic necessities of life? (And seriously, what did we DO before Hulu???)
I love my DVR. Although I had to change its settings so shows can only be manually deleted. For some reason it wanted control over how long the shows would stay. Right now I record The Bachelor, The Good Wife, Mob Doctor (although I haven’t watched an episode yet, but they’re all there when I’m ready!), Parenthood (well, I was, you know, until the season ended!), Kentucky and Murray State basketball games we want to wait to start until the kids are in bed, and Downton Abbey. The list would be longer, but I also love Netflix, where I’m currently watching Bones and Felicity. I have zipped through many, many other TV series on Netflix.
Ooooh, I loved Felicity! And I kind of wish I’d catch up on Bones (I stopped watching two seasons ago). So basically I’m real jealous of your Netflix activities right now. :)
I am so happy you upgraded! I completely understand the panic that can arise when you pull up your list and you are at 70% and you have a long line of shows to record this weekend. :)
I have way to many shows that I watch to even list. My DVR is my sanity. At times it is like a good book. I am able to lose myself in the shows and nobody is asking me for anything.
Just a quick note if you record your shows on the non high defination channels it will take up less space. This is the true with TWC dvr.
Enjoy!
Yes, I remember now that if I record the non-high def channels it takes up less space. But…I might be kind of hooked on my high def now, too. *SIGH*
This is the post I’ve been waiting for.
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Happy to oblige. ;)
This cracked me up.
Love. You are hilarious, Mary. And I love it.
We are up to 8 shows that we record. Which is an insane amount for us, since before it was 2.
Ummm…would it help to know that I just *might* have more than twice that amount recording? Maybe even close to three times that amount? {*sigh* I wish I could say I’m surprised to be needing a DVR intervention so quickly, but really, I’m not.}
Mine’s in the double digits for sure. I’m a really big nerd because i love staying within a certain percantage on my dvr. I get a thrill from seeing the number go down. #nerdalert
Whew! Thank you for a) having double digits in your list of DVR-ed shows and b) being a fellow nerd. ;)
You might have an addiction…
I don’t record anything. And I don’t have cable. I just watch things online (don’t have Netflix either, sos I just have to google them online and hope I can find them, because chances are, the library doesn’t have the series I want). But that means pausing while they load sometimes and sometimes giving up and missing out. So it’s not ideal, but it works OK. Also, I liked Married with Children. :) (I know.)
Well, of course I have an addiction! {sad.} Your system doesn’t sound too bad to me . . . mainly because it’s so similar to my former system. ;)
Definitely double digits! I went through the guilty feelings of having a LONG list of shows to watch when I first got my DVR (ahem, almost 5 years ago), but then Christmas came and so did summer, and I caught up on a lot of shows and movies during that time. Don’t let it stress you out unless you really ARE running out of room to store them all. That’s when it’s time to take a look at your priorities :D