I used to give either thumbs up or thumbs down. I’m switching to thumbs up, thumbs down, or neither.

Microserfs — This is the kind of book I should just lap up, isn’t it? A geek novel? But I didn’t. It dragged.

J-Pod — More enjoyable than Microserfs. Douglas Coupland’s self-referential bits were a bit hard to take, but overall I enjoyed it a lot more.

Torchwood series 2 — Less gratuitious L/S/V, it’s calmed down a bit. The insertion of Martha and more Who references (especially in the penultimate episode) made it all more enjoyable to watch, though I didn’t think there was a stand-out episode this year, not in the same way I enjoyed Random Shoes. The finale was a bit of a let-down, but came up with some surprises. I’m not a hard-core Buffy fan, and don’t know what those that are would have made of Captain Spike. The BBC actually put out a PG-rated version, but I think even that is pretty dark for kids to see. I’d watch it again one day — it wasn’t brilliant, but it had its moments.

Fistful of Quarters: The King of Kong — Great stuff. Not so much about classic video games as about the personalities involved in the world of classic video games — so non-gamers will enjoy this. The people involved are geeks, and know they’re geeks. The trust from the score referees in the messianic Billy Mitchell, and their mistrust to his challenger is particularly interesting. Not surprised Mitchell wasn’t happy with the way the film portrayed him. Definitely thumbs up. (Maybe I should start giving the double-thumbs up where appropriate?)

Next I need to see Chasing Ghosts.

How’s this for a scheme?

1. Buy discounted Kit Kat Chunky chocolate bars for $1.29 at Safeway. (On special only until closing time tonight; normal price $1.88)

2. Eat bar.

3. Use code inside wrapper that gets me a $1.69 song from iTunes.

4. Profit!

I like chocolate, and I already have an iTunes account.

And in fact I’d been planning to buy a few songs, such as a couple of those David Bowie tunes used on Life On Mars (wasn’t the ending utterly brilliant!) including the title track, and Starman, also used to good effect on Torchwood. It’s cheaper to buy once-off songs for $1.69 than splash out and buy whole CDs full of other tracks I don’t really want. (How come the David Bowie best-of I already have didn’t include these two anyway?!) Even cheaper at minus 40 cents.

So what’s the catch here?

• According to the terms and conditions, you can only do this up to 5 times per iTunes account. Damn.
• They’re Nestle bars. I’ve long boycotted Nestle. But the costs of the discount and the promotion are likely to be borne by the manufacturer, which hopefully means they’re earning nothing at all, or even losing money on the deal.
• I have to eat the chocolate. Bummer. (I’ll pace myself.)

Life On Mars trivia: Sam Tyler was named after Rose Tyler from Doctor Who.

One night last week I was flicking between the six o’clock news services and I came across a Channel 9 story about someone’s wedding dress being delivered late for the wedding.

WTF? Look, I feel sorry for them, but THIS IS NOT NEWS.

You don’t want your journos to be aloof and distant from the people, and reporting only on stories that don’t affect anybody. But to run a fully-fledged two minute news story based around something this trivial is really pushing it.

I’m betting it would be enough to make many people switch over and never come back.

(There was a cranky letter in the Green Guide about it, too.)

Even before the ABC switched over to the ABC1 branding to help emphasise ABC2, I had started shopping for a digital Set Top Box to get the new channels. I’ve been able to sample them through the TV tuner in the computer, but of course watching on the big screen* from the couch is always more comfortable.

Originally the plan had been to buy a plain ol’ standard definition STB, until the new High Definition second channels of the 7 and 10 networks had started up. Now it would appear to make sense to buy an HD unit instead, getting me a total of 3 extra fully-fledged channels: ABC2, 10HD and SBS Digital (though given the latter is wall-to-wall foreign language world news, my chances of understanding any of it is minimal). Plus 7HD, which has a few bits and bobs of different programming.

The question now is, should I jump in and buy an HD STB, or buy a box that also does recording to a hard drive? Indeed, what about a dual-tuner unit so I can record two channels at once (occasionally useful during media storms when I wish to stoke my ego). Those Topfield boxes are meant to be pretty good — though it looks like only the high-end (expensive) model includes an HD tuner.

Or should I go completely over-the-top and wait for the Australian launch of TiVo, rumoured to be coming up before the Olympics in August? Monthly fees attached though, so not free.

Decisions, decisions.

Not that I watch a lot of TV, but on the occasions I do flick it on, it’d be nice to have more options.

*OK, my TV is just a 68cm 4:3 CRT model, but to me it’s still big. I don’t want any bigger.

Stupidest commercial of the moment: that Fisher and Paykel washing machine advert with the woman continually bending down/standing up to empty washing out of a frontloading machine, and bemoaning “Surely there must be an easier way?”

Pah, some adverts just make me want to throw a brick at the TV, and shout at the screen. (I used to have a sponge brick for such purposes.)

Yes there is an easier way, you stupid idiot: put your basket on the ground in front of the machine, not on the top.

(With apologies to Bargearse.)

Like most technology, DVDs rarely do anything other than drop in price. I just found The Late Show — Best Bits: Champagne Edition for $19.95 in Dymocks. According to the ABC Shop Online and that wondrous assistant to DVD shopping, DVD Plaza’s Pricecrawler, it’s widely available at that price. 6 hours of 90s-era hilarity for $20? Woo hoo!

A few brief snippets:

Okay, so it’s December now. And I’ve sent precisely zero Christmas cards. Really should get into action, shouldn’t I — I’ve already got some from overseas.

Who Do You Think You Are with Stephen Fry on Sunday night was gripping, fascinating, poignant television. Looking forward to the rest of the episodes.

I didn’t know this before: A character in one of my favourite all-time TV series Edge of Darkness was based on Lyndon LaRouche, who is the leader of the Citizen’s Electoral Council.

I’ve written about this before, and the other day Danny Katz wrote a column on the wimpyness of air conditioning.

Booked tickets to Spamalot in a couple of weeks. Cost a small fortune, but hopefully very funny — it seems to be getting good reviews, and given the kids want to see it and I’m the sort of person who spent years quoting bits of the movie (and other Python scripts), I thought I should take a look.