I have tried everything under the sun to create entertainment for myself...or at least shift my lifestyle in a way to fulfill my entertainment needs for the few hours a night I have to consume entertainment.  I have a Roku for streaming TV and movies to my television from Netflix, a Wii when I need to rock some tennis or ski my fat backside down a mountain missing 7 flags (ug, I know), I have a Tivo for time shifting content of my choosing from network and cable broadcasts, I have a 5 disk DVD changer, I have the highest level cable with HD + "On Demand", I have an iTouch full of video podcasts and audio podcasts...  Basically at any given moment between 6pm and 10pm I should be in complete control of how I spend my evenings...at the mercy of NONE....even the big whig "we know better than you what you want to watch" network broadcasts.

But even with all of this technology at my fingertips, I still have been finding myself struggling in the evenings to entertain my brain in either a fun way or a meaningful way.  I'd say 1/4 the time, I am generally enthusiastic about what I find on TV.  I have certain television programs I dig. The Big Bang Theory, Dirty Jobs, Survivor (I know...get off my ass), Big Brother (I know...get off my ass), The Amazing Race, Mythbusters, The Office, and a handful of others.  But the other 3/4 of the time from 6-10pm I am searching out things...looking for something that doesn't suck...or at least doesn't suck enough for me to turn the channel.

Tonight, thanks to a posting on Facebook, someone pointed me in the direction of http://live.twit.tv.  I thought "why not, it's either freaking American Idol, which I hate, or some crap on cable about UFOs or Monsters...."  So over I switched to watch Leo Laporte, a guy I listen to weekly on This Week in Tech.  Well I hve just spent the last 3.5 hours watching Leo Laporte and his various guests create shows, discuss technology, discuss the podosphere, and basically entertain my nerd brain this entire time.  I actually have had my 50" LCD Sony Wega TV turned off for hours because I've been watching this stream on my Macbook (holy crap, 24% battery left..I better charge).

So is this the future of my nerd entertainment?  Have I just evolved from a nerd that watches Cranky Geeks on my iPod from the toilet, listens to TWIT at work, and generally hits G4 TV every now and then for nerd news delivered by random hot chick into a dude that has spent way too much money on technology to satisfy my nerd entertainment cravings only to spend every waking moment watching video streams of nerd news on the internet instead of watching the cable I pay $130 a month for?  

 Leo Lapore, Twit, the entire Twit.tv network are far more entertaining to this geek than crappy broadcast television.  The few things I actually dig I will probably continue to Tivo and catch when time permits...but my days of watching "Extra Extra" just because it is on at 6:30 and it's either that or Wheel of Fortune, which I can't watch because our stupid dog barks at the door every time a correct letter "ding" dings (the dog thinks it's the freaking doorbell). are completely over.  I think I have truly set my mind at ease with not having to watch my TV and my cable just because it's a big TV and I am paying out the ass for cable programming.

If it sucks, it sucks...and I won't watch.  I will find my own content....I will watch it when I want and how I want....I will not be forced into the mind numbing boredom of crap, crap, crap any more....I, my friends, will watch nerd shows on the internet.  Thank you very much Leo Laporte! 

Two weeks ago, I posted a video podcast episode discussing the Roku player, how it worked, the ease of setup, and so on.  After having two weeks with the device, I thought I'd write a quick review regarding having the entity as a living piece of technology in the house.

First off, I still love the form factor of the player.  It's very small, smaller than most external USB hard drives I've got scattered around the house.  The built-in wi-fi is genius, the connection options are great, and the remote is so simple, a 4-year-old child could (and has, in my house) run it.

Disappointing, though, is the Netflix selection.  On Christmas day, I had a handful of family members over, movie buffs all of us.  With their curiosity fueling the fire, they tossed out movie after movie to me as I searched each one on Netflix to see if it was possible to stream.  Much to everyone's disappointment, 85% of the films they named were NOT available to stream.  Netflix would happily mail them to me, but not deliver them to my Roku on demand.  Now please note, these were not all brand spanking right from the box office movies like Iron Man or The Dark Night (neither are streamable at the moment).  We hit some oldies but goodies like One Flew Over The Cookoo's Nest, Annie Hall, Dances With Wolves, Top Gun, and even Porky's for God's sake!  None were available to stream.  These movies are 20+ years old and any viable financial benefit to keeping them in the "for mail only" category is just flat out crazy!

Not being a business man, I really don't know much about how Netflix determines what they turn into streamable items and what they don't.  I'd sure like to know so if any of you have inside info or links to details, please post in the comments.  

So after two weeks with the Roku, I still give it a 10 for 10 when not taking the lacking Netflix content into consideration.  I'd have to give it a 4 of 10 when you do take into consideration the poor movie selection.  If Netflix would please be so kind as to focus on getting a LOT more movies in their stream queue and focus less on getting old episodes of Family Ties (yes, I'm serious...you can now get season 1 of Family Ties streamed to you....but no ALF?!?!  WTF?), they'll have a LOT more success selling Roku players.

On a good note, I can and have been streaming the first season of Dr. Who...and had I paid $4.25 per DVD (I think there are 4 episodes on a DVD) it would have already cost me about $15....so in terms of financial savings buying the Roku vs. renting from the local Hollywood Video, the Roku has almost paid nearly 1/6 for itself so far just in Dr. Who episodes alone.  Though it must be said I can't stream any Battlestar Galactica nor Stargate.  *sigh*.  Netflix, get your stuff together and start digitizing your ENTIRE library.  You will, only then, slay Blockbuster... 

I was sitting at work today when I received an email about the joining of Blogworld's expo and the New Media expo into one event.  I attended the first Podcast Expo (had a great time, met lots of awesome people) and the second which I believe was changed to "New Media Expo" the following year, both in Ontario, CA.  Although I haven't been able to go since, due to family and work, I still follow all of the happenings in the podosphere and in the new media expo world.

The email I received today was titled "BlogWorld Expo & New Media Expo Merge to Create One Huge Event for the Entire New Media industry!" from Rick Calvert, founder of Blogworld and New Media Expo and Tim Bourquin of the Podcast and Portable Media Expo (later named New Media Expo).  The two gave their perspectives on how the joining expos came about one, big mega nerd get-together.  The full contents of the email from Rick's perspective was published over at  Blogworld.com and Tim's perspective at newmediaexpo.com.

Ah, the old days of sipping beers in the Ontario, CA Marriott hotel bar with the likes of Keith and the Girl, Brother Love, Dawn and Drew, the guys from Nobody Likes Onions, Rob from Podcast 411, Nate and Di, Swoopy, Bibb, and countless, countless others....  (my old Flickr photos of the first year's event can be found here)

It's nice to see the two groups getting together and hopefully an official "sticking it to the old media man" expo will come out of this.  As active in the podcasting community as many of us are, either as content creators or fans/listeners/viewers, we new media folks need all the togetherness we can get.  I think that by these two forces joining together, we might be in for some of the best new media expo adventures yet!

-Corby-