Late Like Me...

This has been a pretty busy week - hence my lack of any important information here. Oh, nothing really important, just doing some picture scanning, some treadmilling and that sort of thing.

The picture thing: I have posted before that I have amassed over the years, a huge collection of pictures taken during the past 25 or so years. When we came into the digital age, I bought a scanner wear I could begin the tedious process of scanning in said pictures so they could be preserved, cropped, e-mailed, whatever. But, the technology when I got my first scanner was somewhat slow. I mean, really slow to the point that it took probably two full minutes to preview, scan, size, and save each picture. So there was no way I was going to sit there and scan pictures for an hour at a time and only get through a few sets. It ended up that I would just scan specific favorites that I wanted to send to family or use for projects.

As the technology has progressed and as I have gone through five or six different scanners, things have sped up and it is now worth the effort to scan even the ugly pictures. It is not unthinkable to scan 100 pictures in an hour or so.

So I have been busy with that and I'll be sure to share some more Random Photos with you.

The other thing that has taken a little bit of time from my usual blog-surfing and restaurant reviewing is the fact that I may have been doing a little too much blog-surfing and restaurant reviewing, and not enough of the treadmill walking.

Oh who am I kidding; have you seen my fat ass lately? At the 4th of July Parade, I think I nearly gave the little electric motor on the scooter a heart attack! So, following much good eats during the 4th of July weekend, my wife started me back on a more sensible diet. In other words, I'm not eating everything within grasp. And, of course, I am back on the treadmill.

My older brother told me about using the Wii Fit deal to lose an assload of weight. So we are also in the process of getting that little action going. But in the mean time, I'm hitting that treadmill and of course, watching Hulu while I do it.

My wife and I finished watching all the episodes of the British version of Life on Mars (loved it) and we have made it through all the episodes of the follow-up show to that, Ashes to Ashes (loving it). And this week when I fired up the treadmill, I finished watching the one and only season of Manhattan, AZ. (I loved it!)

That brings me to today. I just happened on to the season 1, episode 1 of Dead Like Me. I am hooked!

I know, you are saying to yourself, "Where has this guy been?" Several people have told me about this awesome show before, but to be honest, I only have so many allotted hours in a given day, and I just can't spend them all watching TV. But, when I do stumble upon something good, even if it is coming late to the party, I'll tell you about it.

So now you know.

The Hulu Report: Manhattan, AZ...

I may have mentioned a while back that I have been using Hulu.com and my laptop as a source of distraction while I engage myself in the all important work of the treadmill. Oh yea, I may be a fatass, but at least when a doctor asks me about exercise, I can answer in the affirmative without bending the truth. Unless of course, you don't think that walking in place while looking at TV is a form of exercise. Hey; I'm not going to debate you on the topic, but I do know that at least in some societies, walking on a treadmill is considered at least some form of exercise, and depending on what the definition of "is" is, I think I'm on safe ground here.

Anyway, on to the important topic at hand, and my discovery in the really far back pages of the TV shows available on Hulu, of something called Manhattan, AZ. Let me give you my gist of it, then you can see if it is worth a look.

So this LAPD officer works as an undercover vice squad guy (and I'll leave it at that) while his wife is busy being involved in Greenpeace intercepting fishing boats. Meanwhile, their 13 or 14 year-old son sits at home eating potato chips, playing video games, and looking at Internet porn. For some inexplicable reason, half-way through the pilot episode, the actor portraying the son as a fat porn watching dumpling is replaced by a healthy, thin kid.

Anyway, the wife, out on her Greenpeace mission is somehow caught up in a fishing net and is tragically killed - but is not discovered until she has been processed by the tuna fish company. Many tears are shed as several cases of canned tuna are lowered into a grave. (Not kidding).

The LAPD vice cop gets a call from the mayor of a town in Arizona called Manhattan and is offered a job that will allow him to leave all the stress of the loss of his wife and the vice squad in LA, and become the sheriff of this small, vibrant but peaceful town.

When father and son arrive in Manhattan, AZ and find that they are in a desolate town totally unlike anything the mayor (played by Chad Everett) has described, they begin to balk at the job. But of course, the new sheriff has already put 30K down on a house in the middle of nowhere with no refund.

Okay. The pilot was only mildly humorous and had I not been walking on the treadmill, I probably would not have made it through the entire 22 minutes. But episodes 2 and 3 have quadrupled in entertainment, humor and quality.

The town is loaded with really eccentric people like an A1C who works at the super secret "Area 61" Air Force Base where something strange is taking place; a retired couple fully armed with all sorts of weaponry who have made their home in an abandoned hardened missile silo, and many other freaks of nature who could have easily ended up in any number of Showtime or HBO series.

As you might expect, the sheriff and his son being the outsiders in this bizarre town have to deal with the latest crazy thing to happen as the mayor of the town who also owns the store, the diner, the bar and every other business venture in town attempts to capitalize on ways to make money.

Look, if you are my age, you will recognize Manhattan, AZ as an updated version of Green Acres. Much of the comedy is predictable, but so far, I enjoy the quirkiness of the characters. I think Chad Everett does a great job of really poking fun at himself (in this show, he is a retired actor who has been in every B movie ever made as a minor cast character), and the young kid (who by now is probably in his mid twenties) who plays the son (the thin one, not the fat one) is actually pretty funny.

Oh, and that is the other thing about it. This show apparently played on the USA Network in 2000, so it is 9 years old. Where was I when it was on?

Got 22 minutes to waste? Check it out on Hulu (or wherever you get your Internet TV from) and if you can get past the pilot episode, I think you'll be okay.

Now that you know I enjoy really bad TV, do you have a show I need to watch? Tell me about it or leave a comment.