Where's Idol? Not on My TV

Texted The Lovely Steph Leann as I was coming home from church this evening... "Are you home?" She said "Yes". I texted "Watch Idol when I get back?" She said, "Hurry." I texted, "Set up computer?"

Didn't hear back from her, but I came in, iPod in the ear, jamming to "The Best Things In Live (are free)", a great duet by Janet Jackson and Luther Vandross from a flick in The Dave100, "Mo' Money", starring Damon Wayans. It would have so much easier just to say, "I came in, listening to the iPod", but what fun would that be? You know I have a propensity to over-explain everything.

So I sit down, pull out the keyboard, and notice that The Lovely Steph Leann is watching "Clean House" on Style Network, one of her favorite shows. I also notice that the little orange light indicating a recording show on the DVR is not on. Hmm... well, maybe it came on at 7, and was just an hour show... you know, with 10 performances. Ten singers in a single hour. Why not, right?

So I click "record" on the episode of "Clean House" so The Lovely Steph Leann could watch it later, and she asks me what time Idol came on. I told her I thought it was 7, and she muses, "I don't know that it recorded. I didn't see the orange light?" Uh... what? Its the DVR... it is supposed to record everything, right?

I take the remote, flip over to 006 for Fox, and see that yes, Idol is on. Lil Rounds must have just finished singing, as Seacrest is talking to her. I push the Menu button, and go to my playlist... no Idol. I then go to the "Prioritizer", making sure that it wasn't pre-empted by anything, or that I had done it right... I had. "American Idol" was at the top... right next to the words "Nothing Scheduled". I look at the guide, and saw the little circled R there, showing that not only had I set it to record, I had set it to record the entire series. But yet, nothing on our DVR. Its now 830.

The Lovely Steph Leann shouts, "Record it!" so I hit the record button again. I grab the phone and call DirecTV.

Them: How are we doing tonight?
Me: Not too good, my friend. Its a silly little show, but we missed American Idol tonight. It was set to record, I did everything right, or at least like I usually do, and tonight, my DVR didn't record.
Them: So your DVR was set to record it, and it didn't do it tonight?
Me: Yep. It was supposed to come on last night, but The Messiah had to lay forth his vision for prosperity and comfort, so it came on tonight... and we missed it.
Them (chuckling): Uh (laughing) yeah... uh... dude, that was funny... the joke, I mean, not the DVR... uh, let me transfer you over to someone who can help you...

So they transferred me over. I talked to a lady who, basically told me to just clear the recordlist completely and try to record a show later, to see what happens. And if it doesnt work... well, then, we'll just have to get us a technician out here, won't we? Sigh.

We got to see The Ambigiously Gay Adam, The Widower Danny Gokey and Red Ally perform... and then they showed the clips of the performances, to which Matty G didn't sound good, Kris Allen sounded pretty good, Scott the Blind Guy sounded okay, Lil Rounds sounded awesome ("I wish I could have seen that," sighed I), Megan Joy sounded terrible (when did she drop Corkery? How did I miss that), The Oil Rigger guy also sounded not all that great, and The Lovely Steph Leann finally just came out and professed her love for The Ambigiously Gay Adam ("Oh, he sounded so great... he is so talented").

I think The Widower Danny Gokey sounded a little overwrought... does anyone else think he might be overrated? And Allison did great.

I'm pretty unhappy at DirecTV. The main reason we were happy to switch from Charter to DirecTV is because our neighborhood is pretty spankin' brand new--about 14 months or so... when we moved in last February, the 'hood had barely been here 5 or 6 months, so Charter wasn't here. I've heard that they wait until a certain number of people live in an area until they service it... and when our contract runs out with DirecTV next February, I'm all over it.

My main issues with Charter-and there were a lot of them--all had to do with our interweb service. We haven't had any issues with AT&T interweb so far, so we'll keep that and make the jump to Charter. Cause I'm pretty unhappy with the satellite service I'm getting now.

If there is one thing in this world that you can depend on, it is that your DVR will record whatever show you ask it to record--this is why you do Digital Video Recording. To be comfortable and secure in the knowledge that if you want to record "American Idol", "Lost in Austen", "Being Erica", "Survivor", "The Amazing Race" and "WWE: Raw", you just press a few buttons on your remote and those shows will be there until you delete them.

And in flipping through my DVR playlist, I realize that not only did I not get a recording of "WWE Monday Night Raw", it also didn't record "Survivor", which means now I have to get off of frickin' iTunes at $1.99... all the while, we're shoving $85 towards DirecTV to not have to buy shows off of iTunes. And it also didn't record "Celebrity Apprentice".

I hate DirecTV. Hate their service, hate their prices, hate their DVR, hate everything about DirecTV.

So... I guess that gives me time to do other stuff. Like scan pictures.