Watch movies and sports online for free

Lately I've been watching Veetle.com for the latest movies. It's a great place to find still-in-theater first run movies (Expendables, Salt, Machete), as well as older classic high school and horror flicks. The newest movies will tend to be handicammed "theater quality" but as the weeks go by, it will be replaced by a newer, cleaner HD version.

The movies are constantly running and chances are you'll miss the beginning. But after a few tries, you can catch all the parts and reassemble the movie in your head like a Tarantino film. Yeah, it's not the ideal viewing situation, but it's kind of fun when you stumble across a great film you haven't seen in ages. A few weeks ago they were showing the three Sinbad movies back-to-back-to-back. And last night I was switching back and forth between Lord of the Rings and the latest Freddie Kruger movie.

And for those of us in the Bay Area that will never be able to (or want to) see another Raider home game again, you can find it on veetle too (although I prefer atdhe.net for sports). You can also catch the latest pay-per-view fights and overseas soccer games. So be sure to catch the Raiders in the closing seconds snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in the comforts of your own home where you can cry in private.

Yesterday, San Diego ran an article about the blacked out NFL games on atdhe.net as well as a few other sites I haven't tried (channelsurfing.net, justin.tv, my2p2.eu):
Web users finding ways to evade NFL blackouts
I guess the Chargers are reaching the same woeful status as the Raiders.

Navigating around on Veetle will take some patience. The channels don't necessarily tell you what's on, so you'll need to click around. Also, you'll need to install a plugin for HD quality streams. And if you have lowband DSL like me, make sure no one else is surfing on your network or else your movie will be choppy. Veetle is also viewable on the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, but not all the channels are optimized for it. Still fun though. Enjoy.

Watch movies and sports online

I recently discovered a new website for streaming sports, tv shows and movies. It's called ATDHE.NET (don't ask how to pronounce it or what it means).

As you know, we have very basic cable at home, so I only get to watch the lousy Raiders away-games during the Fall. With ATDHE.NET, I get to watch baseball, hockey, NBA and ESPN, as well as a variety of other tv shows.

The three movie channels tend to be HBO-type action-packed guy movies (no chick flicks) and the quality varies. Sometimes the picture is stretched, sometimes it's blurry, and sometimes the channel is just offline. It's hit and miss but most of the time, there's something good on and it's good enough for me (life is so much sweeter when you lower your standards). Normally it shows older movies already out on DVD, but just this week, they were showing a handy-cam version of Russell Crow's Robin Hood, followed by and excellent version of Prince of Persia. So you never know what may come on.

Give it a try. You may find something you like.

Poor Jon. Poor Tony.

So did you watch Dancing with the Stars last night? It's week 2 and believe it or not, I've watch every episode so far. This season's 11 contestants are the most intriguing thus far. Personally, I'm rooting for Evan because he's the most likeable (and I don't even care if you were to tell me he's gay). Evan all the way! Many of the others are either too snotty, or too slutty, or just has that yuck factor. But today I'm only here to talk about one, Kate Gosselin.

I've never seen her reality show, Jon & Kate Plus 8, but I've heard plenty of the demise of the show/marriage from the tabloids and news. I mean, who hasn't? Naturally, the public would sympathize with Kate, while victimizing Jon as the no-good cheating, absent father that abandoned the family. But after last night's spotlight of Kate's meltdown, I actually feel sorry for Jon. I'm actually amazed Jon stayed with her that long. And those poor kids...

This woman Kate is insane! What a piece of work! She says, "I love how you teach but you're not taking into consideration how I learn." Translation: "Everything you say is right but I'm too much of a psycho control-freak to care."

Her partner is Tony – arguably the nicest, soft-spoken, most patient dance partner in the show – and she drove him to quit. Wow! Good luck on your love life after this show. Any potential suitors have been given the green light to run! It's obvious to everyone but herself when she says repeatedly, "I don't get it."

Unfortunately, this unofficial YouTube video shrunk the actual performance to promote another site, but believe me, you missed nothing. Even my wife said "she was painful to watch." Honestly, I've seen Chinatown merchants swing a bag of rice with more elegance. Poor Tony. Hopefully tonight she'll get voted off.

And to you husbands out there, I encourage you to sit through this video. By the end of the clip, I guarantee you'll love your wife even more. If not, then at least you'll find comfort knowing you're not alone (although Jon got out). God bless your soul.

To watch the entire episode, go to ABC.com.

LOST season 5 premier tonight at 8 p.m.

Like the rest of the Lost fans, I have waited eight months for tonight. Lost is the best show on TV (although I was really upset when they killed off Mr. Ecko). Here's your starter kit for those who have never watched or need a refresher:



More videos here:
Lost-Streams.com

My wife is crushed.

I've been trying to tell her for years! She wouldn't believe me 10 years ago when I told her about Rosie either... Remember, I worked in the crotch heart of West Hollywood for five years! Every year the gay parade ends and disperses into the parking lot of my Pavilions (Safeway) store. I observed and studied their mannerisms as they giggled and fondled my vegetables... So it's safe to say my eye is a bit more keen than others. Man, he looks more and more like a woman every time I see him! If you took away his glasses and put on some lipstick, you'll get Annette Benning!

It's OK honey, I don't think all the guys on Dancing with the Stars are gay...

And speaking of DWTS, has Cheryl been working out (at the buffet line)? Is it any coincidence that she gets partnered with a big strong athlete rather than Cody or Lance? Good thing for Maurice is that the heavy lifting won't happen until freestyle week at the finals.

Save the Cheerleader. Save your Marriage.

Oh Man!! I don't know how long I've been waiting for tonight! The return of prime time television with all new shows. Tonight, the only show I'm looking forward to is Heroes. And tonight, it will be a 2-hour premier, preceded by a one-hour recap special. So a total of three hours!! 8:00-11:00. Woohoo!!

But there's a problem. Tonight I'm playing tennis after work so I'll be home late. After dinner I'll have to do homework and put the kids to bed and maybe shower (heehee). By then it'll be 9:30 and I'm so tired, I'll be in bed by 10. So in reality, I won't get to watch at all tonight. No problem, I'll record it and watch it at my leisure sometime this week.

But wait, there's another problem. Chrissy wants to watch Heroes too, but she also needs to record Dancing with the Stars, Prison Break, Terminator, and Boston Legal – ALL of which falls into the Monday 8-11 time slot too. And I was hoping to catch some Monday Night Football... What to do? What to do?

Sure, multiple televisions may help, but it's hardly the ideal solution to catching 3 shows at the same time.

Enter the digital video recorder (DVR). Problem solved.

We got our first ReplayTV five years ago and I've been preaching to my friends about it ever since. It has single-handedly made the biggest improvement in our entertainment life! For the last five years, we've never had to watch the clock waiting for a show to start. We've never had to endure commercial after commercial, after hearing Ryan Seacrest say, "...after the break." We've never had a boring evening surfing the channels looking for something – anything – to watch. We always have a backlog of prerecorded shows ready at the press of a button.

According to a recent survey of 1000 DVR owners, they ranked the DVR as the 3rd most important appliance in the house, behind the washing machine and microwave. In terms of technology, it ranked second behind the cellular phone. "Intriguingly, the vast majority of respondents would rather give up their landline phone, dishwasher, radio and MP3 player than their DVR,"

And 79% of them claimed that the DVR improved their relationship with their spouse or significant other! I don't doubt this one bit. I would totally hate anyone who would make me sit through an episode of Brothers and Sisters or Ugly Betty.

If you're like me, underprivileged and still living in 2004 without an HDTV, and subscribing to basic analog Comcast cable tv at $16/month, a ReplayTV (with free built-in lifetime subscription) is the best low-cost solution. However, if you subscribe to HD or digital cable, most likely a DVR option is included at a sometimes-additional monthly rate.

It's hard to describe the peace of mind we have not having to chase down shows anymore. Chrissy's Our biggest dilemma now is to juggle and distribute the above 5 shows onto the 3 networked ReplayTV's we have. And each of our machines can hold 120 hours so they'll be working like mad this fall season. I know most of you don't have the same obsessive viewing habits that she we have, but still, even recording a few shows here and there will forever save you from watching junk television.

As parents, we always look forward to the best times to vegitate, like after the kids go to bed, or for you stay-at-home moms – when they go to school. That's the time when you'll always have the shows YOU want to watch, ready and waiting. That's much better than channel surfing the crap talk shows and soaps during the middle of the day. And when you blow past all the commercials, you're actually saving 20 minutes per hour-long show! So essentially, those 3 hours of Heroes will only take 2 hours to watch! (And I won't have to watch those crappy "I'm a PC" ripoff commercials from M$)

Watch in peace, watch in succession, watch on your own terms. You watch your shows, she watches hers. Your marriage is happy once again. What's not to love?

So if you haven't hopped on the HDTV bandwagon yet and you're interested in getting a ReplayTV, the prices range from under $100 for a Showstopper model to $300 for a 5000 series with auto commercial-skip (talk to me before you buy). Look on Craigslist or Ebay for a used one (they don't make them new anymore). The only tricky part is that you'll need either a phone jack or ethernet jack near your TV. Other than that, it's super easy to program, even a second-grader can do it.


Source:
Survey: DVRs more important than dishwashers, iPods

American Idol Shocker!

No, I'm not talking about the booting of Michael Johns. Was that any surprise? I told Chrissy last month that anyone who is married/engaged/bf/gf will never win. Teenyboppers with speed-dial make up the bulk of the votes, and they ain't gonna vote for someone that's not available in their fantasies. That's the reason why in seasons past, frontrunners like Daughtry and LaToya London were eliminated on week 8 when it should've been Yamin and Jasmine Trias (but she was sooooo cute!). So if I'm correct, be prepared to say goodbye to Syesha, Carly, and Brooke next.

Ok, now back to the shocker. The real shocker this week wasn't Michael Johns, but the suprise performance of Darlene Zschech's Shout to the Lord.

In the "Idols Give Back" special show, the Top-8 sang this song as the finale on the biggest stage at the Kodak Theater. I couldn't believe what I was hearing! It was an awesome and inspiring performance! And watched by 30 million viewers!! My only gripe was that they replaced "My Jesus" with "My Shepard" at the beginning of the song. But still an incredible moment for a Christian song to be featured on such a secular show. Unfortunately, the moment was ruined shortly afterwards, as they showed a clip of Ben Stiller on stage swearing... which quickly reminded me that I was watching network television.





On last night's elimination show, they sang a reprise, but this time with "My Jesus" re-inserted as it was originally written. Hmm, I wonder what happened... Maybe Darlene called and said she was gonna start crackin' skulls. Although she probably worded it nicer.





If you've never watched American Idol, I would rate it among the better family entertainment shows available. The contestants are talented, genuine and unlike Dancing with the Stars, they have all their clothes on.

Update:
For some reason, the Blogger video clip is not loading (maybe because it's blocking copyrighted videos). So I added the YouTube clip also.

Lost Returns Tonight

Oh man, I've been waiting eight months for tonight! Lost returns tonight at 9. Although it's just a repeat of last season's finale, it'll be a nice improvement to all the other lousy shows on tv. Chrissy's been watching practically every reality show there is. And can you believe Dustin and Colby's new favorite show is Bruno vs. Carrie Ann: Dance Wars??!! They watch so much they even memorized one of the Backstreet Boys songs!

If you've never watched "Lost" before, you can get all caught up with the previous 3 seasons tonight and tomorrow night. There was a great article written up about it in the Chronicle today. Below is an excerpt. You can read the entire article here.

For those of you who haven't invested in the first three seasons of "Lost," it's not too late. Tonight at 9, ABC is going to air the two-hour Season 3 finale, complete with "onscreen facts" dominating the bottom third of your screen, which will set the stage for what is happening and which elements are important.

At 8 p.m. Thursday, ABC will air a one-hour table-setter called "Lost: Past, Present & Future," which should bring everyone up to speed before the kickoff to Season 4.

Three words for Thursday's first episode: Oh. My. God.

Oh man, I can't wait!

Back at Work

So here I am back at my desk, eating lunch in peace. I feel ok but not quite back into my normal routine –– I don't feel hungry at 11, I'm not sleepy at 2, and I'm not combing the breakrooms looking for pastries. Weird. Maybe I've become a healthier person. Maybe I've been rejuvenated. We'll see how long that lasts.

Everyone greeted me this week, that was nice. No one dared ask me if I missed them because they know they're just asking to get slammed! My boss is especially happy to see me, that is, until I asked her to put me on a 4-10 schedule. She said she'll think about it. Hmmm, it's not looking good since she's been avoiding eye contact with me ever since.

Got on a new carpool schedule this week with three new riders. There are now five of us riding from Stoneridge. Four of us alternate driving, but the fifth person, a BART employee that gets a car every other month, he drives for an entire month! So for the month of June, I don't need to drive at all! Awesome! I can catch up on some serious ZZZZ's, think about blog content, or watch a show on my ipod. I just need to remember my deodorant, because as the days get warmer, it can get quite cozy in that car.

In the car I'm very quiet and don't like to talk (yes, very hard to believe, but true). Reason is, 90% of the content is always work related. So and so is making this much, and so and so is getting promoted, blah blah blah. I could care less. I make about a third less than everyone and they're the ones complaining about being underpaid. The irony is killing me. Also, what I've noticed is that government employees love to talk about retirement. They're obsessed. They start calculating how many years they need to work to get the maximum benefit and so on. And the funny thing is, for most of them, retirement is still at least 20 years away! Pathetic.

People retire here on a biweekly schedule it seems. I can't tell you how many retirement cakes I've tasted in the last 2 years. All the usual cliches are spoken and the rest of us (not me) are jealous of their new found freedom. Dude, what's to be jealous of?? You want to trade places with him?? He's 65, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, etc., practically three quarters way to the grave. I like my situation much better thank you. I am not wishing to fast forward my life 25 years for that golden ticket. All that means is more free time for doctor appointments.

No more TV
Last week was an incredible week of television with all the season finales. I follow Desperate Housewives, Heroes, Dancing with the Stars and Lost. I even watched American Idol hoping to see who the "big" mystery star would be this year (last year was Prince) only to be disappointed finding out it was Bette Midler. Even at the height of her popularity with the movie, Beaches, she was never that exciting. Oh well. I did enjoy Blake's beat boxing with Doug E. Fresh, and also the Winans. The weirdest thing was seeing Marlee Matlin in the audience. Not to be insensitive, but isn't she deaf? Go figure. If you missed the show, you can download the MP4 file here (566mb). I even edited out all the commercials for your uninterrupted watching enjoyment.

The timing of the finales was good for us. This week I had to start work and Chrissy had to start transporting both boys to school and back, as Colby started preschool fulltime. So coming home with no shows to catch is kind of a blessing. It forces us to relax, spend time with the kids, and at times, even talk to each other. Imagine that!

One Less Show to Watch

Ever since the Finale of the first season of American Idol, I've never missed a single episode. From the auditions to the eliminations, I found enjoyment in every episode. I watched, hoped and cheered, but never voted because I knew my one measly vote wouldn't matter.

This season is a lot different from previous years. This season I actually lost interest because none of the top 12 appealed to me. That is, until Sanjaya started making the headlines. I can't explain it but there's truly something magical about Sanjaya that makes you root for him regardless of how bad he sings, kinda like that movie Rudy. Or maybe that since no one else is likable, Sanjaya is the only excitement factor as he defies the odds week after week. I know a lot of people really hate him and wish he gets booted, but I think he's great for the show. I honestly thought he could go all the way.

Last week I voted for the first time ever. I voted for Sanjaya over and over again. Kept hitting that redial button like a hyped up teeny bopper for about an hour. Yeah, I have no shame. I got Sanjaya fever or as some may say, "Sanjaya is my papaya." It was pretty tiring hitting those buttons repeatedly. (I recommend using a speakerphone, to save that extra energy of having to put that phone to your ear.) A lot of work, and I only got about 20 votes in.

Tonight I watched with great sadness as Sanjaya was voted off. I can't believe he's gone! Aww man, what's to watch now? Actually, I've been secretly enjoying Dancing with the Stars, shhh. I might still watch Idol with Chrissy but whoever wins at this point doesn't matter to me anymore. So I guess I'll have a little more free time come Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

http://frommymindtoyoureyes.blogspot.com/
Do you remember Chris Sligh (he's the chubby one with curly hair) who was voted off two weeks ago? Anyway, he is a Christian and has a blog (that looks just like mine ;). If you're a big AI fan and want some insight from a Christian perspective, read his blog.

White Girls Can't Sing

I only watch 3 tv shows: Lost, Prison Break and American Idol. My evenings are often filled with fatherly duties and unexpected happenings, so thanks to my trusty ReplayTV and iPod, I can watch peacefully while I carpool, or at my desk during lunch.

This week I watched in horror as the guys sang. Out of the 12, only 3 guys were fairly good: Blake (beatbox), Phil (bald), and Chris (curly-fro). The others were unexciting, and some were downright painful to watch. Thanks to the ipod, I was able to skip through the performance and go straight to the judges.

The girls on the other hand, were quite good. The first singer Stephanie looked like a crossbreed between Fantasia and LaToya London. They're all pop and R&B singers, no country singers--man, I miss Kellie Pickler. There were at least 4 great performances, but unfortunately, only the minorities sang well. The white girls were terrible, really awful (except maybe Gina, who's not likable, and should not make the top 12, IMO). Fortunately for us, they'll be kicking off 2 at a time these next 3 weeks, so the pain is only temporary.

Last night Paul Kim (from San Jose) was the first to be eliminated. I don't think America is ready for an Asian idol anytime soon, let alone a barefoot Asian pool boy. Too bad, even though he butchered Careless Whispers, I thought he had a good voice. Fact is, his perceived fan base is nonexistent (Asian guys don't vote, and Asian girls only like white guys). The other unlucky ones were Rudy, Nicole and Amy--all forgettable. If you ever want to check on the voting status, check out this link for predictions: DialIdol.com. The software calls all the voting numbers and track the busy signals. It claims to be 87% accurate during the season, and 100% accurate picking the winner.

The season is still early, but so far I see no clear front runners. I think LaKisha is good, but we all remember what happened to Mandisa last year after Country Week. IMO, no one has the "whole package" of voice, charisma, and looks. In year's past we knew at Week #1 that Carrie Underwood and Katharine McPhee would make the finals. This year, not so. But either way, it's still great entertainment. 33 million viewers can't be wrong!

Sleepy Monday

Barely 10 a.m. and I'm already falling asleep again. I guess I'm still recovering from the busy weekend.

Yesterday Goff spoke at CIBC. Talked about heroic love--love for all people, not just the ones you know. Speaking of love, I invited a few of ya'll to come (Jim, Will, Pat, Matt), but none of you showed up! Yo, where's your love?? Regardless, we had a nice sushi lunch with Dave's family. I was able to enjoy my lunch because I sent Dustin off with a friend. (Rule #1, you cannot enjoy a meal when your kids outnumber you.) After lunch we ran into Clayton and Avalon, 2 more XCI (forgot to pull out my camera, but they look the same) and hung out a while near the fountain.

Got home in time to watch the Super Bowl, but for some reason I thought it started at 5 so I missed the first half. But we did get to see Prince perform. I used to be a big fan in high school but haven't been interested in anything from him since. Fortunately, 3 of the 4 songs performed were popular ones from Purple Rain. He still looked and sounded pretty good. I saw him recently at the Golden Globes and he looked horrible with ratty hair. I was able to finish the game (although disappointed that the Bears couldn't score) and have a nice quiet dinner (because of Rule #1).

After dinner, went down the street to pick up Dustin from Machella's. I helped them install and paint some wall mouldings that was left incomplete from their project 9 years ago. They entertain and feed my kids, I help them with home repair. I think it's a good trade. Another productive Sunday.

Update on the Toto: This past week, everyone has been instructed to poop in the Toto. We even allowed the boys to eat less veggies too. So far so good. The flush is fast, like gone in 2 seconds. Awesome!