Damn you, Jack Bauer! Tonight marks the season premier for "24," starting with a two hour episode tonight, and another two hour episode tomorrow. This has become typical of how the show opens its non-stop season every year. Unfortunately, because I am generally pretty busy in January, it instantly puts me 4 hours behind on just that show, not to mention all the other shows that will start back up this week. It's rare that I will ever be up to date on "24" and I have to avoid all water cooler talk about last night's episode because I haven't watched it yet. Still, I've never EVER missed a single episode. Thank God for Tivo.

But still, there's something to be said for having a little self-restraint when it comes to the DVR. I love my dish and my Tivo and I probably would be unhappy to live without them. And yet, I have a co-worker who this past year got rid of both because, as he said, he had "become a slave" to his Tivo. Apparently, he felt he had to tape anything and everything that interested him, and he was Tivo-ing upwards of 70 hours of programming per week. Knowing the hours that we work, this had to mean that he spent every waking minute away from this place camped in front of his TV set trying to catch up on the Tivo.

The thing I've found about Tivo, at least for me, is that I will actually feel guilty for abandoning a series. Just because you actually CAN go without ever missing an episode, I sometimes feel compelled to do that, even when a show has gotten boring for me. At least, I used to. Then I got to the point where I was constantly behind because I had to watch things I didn't even WANT to watch. So I've taken back control. Now, every season, I go through and thin out my season passes. Just because I watched the first season of "The O.C." doesn't mean I have to continue to watch it until it gets canceled. (Plus, I realized I'm not a 15-year-old any longer). Just because I started to watch "Studio 60" doesn't mean I have to continue to watch them all, when I'm starting to find the show slow and boring.

The song for today is "Round and Round" by Ratt. Come on...who DOESN'T have a copy of their 1984 album Out of the Cellar somewhere? It seems like almost everyone does, even though this is the only good song on it. This was the first big hit for this band, and I don't remember them having too many more after this, though hair band lovers seem to have great affinity for this band. The band still has a website, though I'm not sure how current it is. I imagine you can see them play live if you happen to be at a fair in Montana this summer.