Included in the monthly rent for our new apartment is a full boat package of DirecTV. (I only just now, after years of commercials, noticed that there's only one T in there. Huh.) Part of this glorious celebration of televised goodness: my very first DVR. The potential for recording countless episodes of mindless television shows and movies to completely destroy my life will be examined at a later date, provided my life has not been, up to that point, destroyed.
Once we had everything all hooked up, the TV watching started. And, lo, it was glorious. Until the screen made a little popping sound and text came up telling us that the channel was about to change. But, uhh, we're knee-deep in an episode of Tough Love - you can't deny us our trash escapism.
Turns out the reason for this interruption was that the DVR still retained all the settings of the previous tenants of our place. Before we moved in, our landlord had told us that these people had spent all their time smoking weed with the blinds drawn. They were so filthy that in 11 months they put six years of wear on the brand new carpet, what with the footprints and the cigarette burns and the soy sauce stains. So it was not surprising that the DVR looked like the lineup for a stoner marathon: South Park, Adult Swim cartoons, and a bevy of random nature shows. (Do you know how many episodes of the Simpsons aired on L.A. television in the past month? Almost a hundred. It's a popular show.)
Going through the season pass settings and the shows still in the library, I felt like I was intruding somehow. Sure, when we agree to have a piece of technology controlled by a third party record and save things for us, we know that some stranger might see it. I'm just not used to being that stranger, eavesdropping in on someone else's life. And judging that life. Don't forget the sweet, sweet judging.
Why I Am Awesome: I'm a great tenant, and I treat all floor-coverings with respect.
Why I Am Not Awesome: I replaced those admittedly great cartoon shows with CBS sitcoms. I'm apparently 45-59 years old.
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