It would have been just another semi-productive business trip where I breezed in and out of a city so fast it felt like I was hardly there at all. Except that it was the weekend we rolled the clocks back, so of course on the one morning in years that I could have slept late, I found myself wide awake at 6am.
This was one of those fancy, ultra-modern hotels where everything is brightly colored and nothing comes in a recognizable shape. (That egg looking thing is an ottoman?) There was no TV in the bedroom, but there was a small one in the adjoining “living room”. I sat on the ugly, uncomfortable deco couch, pissed off that this stupid hotel was robbing me of the chance to at least lie in bed while watching the meager 10 channels they served up. (Really in this day and age of 300+ channels, to offer only 10 is simply insulting.) The inside of the room’s coffee maker was coated with some sort of rust-colored sludge. Even though the hotel had many questionable design choices, I was fairly confident that this was not one of them. Since it was both ass-early and pouring rain outside, so I dared not venture out for caffeine.
I numbed myself with an hour of political coverage before stumbling onto a rerun of “Mythbusters.” And that’s when it happened, the thing that made this whole trip worth it. I very rarely watch TV live anymore, so I very rarely see commercials. But sitting in this cold, unfriendly room there was no Tivo, so I was forced to watch everything that appeared on screen. And right in between the ad where they will buy your gold and one for the next “Dirty Jobs”, I saw this:
I went home and immediately set the season pass. A few days later it appeared on my hard drive. WonderWife™ by my side, I sat down to watch wearing a big giddy grin.
The verdict? Come on, did you watch that promo? You already know the answer.
Oh "Time Warp" where have you been my whole life? I am so happy that this show exists. It’s such a simple thing of beauty—a few geeks with some amazingly sophisticated cameras, who like to set stuff on fire, shoot things and watch people leap in the air in slow motion. Even things that I didn’t think would be interesting, like a woman pole vaulting, become unbelievable when slowed down.
Good ol’ Discovery Channel…keeping me in geekboy heaven.
4 comments:
I'll watch Discovery on a weekend afternoon when they're running one of their archeology or anthropology specials, but otherwise my greatest praise for them is the creation of the show "How It's Made", because ever since that show came out, describing my job to the average person became one hundred million times easier.
"You know that show How It's Made?"
"Yeah."
"You know how about halfway through they say something like, 'and all this is controlled by a computer that makes sure everything happens when it is supposed to happen'?"
"Yeah."
"I program those computers."
"Oh."
Damnit. All that comment and I forgot the point of stopping by.
1. Add your email to your profile so bloggers can email you in response to your comments on their blogs. (Email me for info if you need it.)
2. You HAVE to post the harassing yourself story.
I'd probably tune in even if all they did was play sweet promos like that one. Ode to Joy indeed.
It's the little things, right?
Post a Comment