I have to admit I found the premise of Heroes intriguing, and last year, I tuned in every week to see how this story of people with superhuman powers would play out in a televised series format. How would it convey the drama of everyday people, from different cultures and walks of life and their discovery of their powers? How would it relate to audiences in a way that wasn't over the top or cartoony or cheesy?

The short version? it didn't do any of that.

As others have already mentioned, it’s a bit ironic that the America’s Choice vote, in which viewers were asked to vote for which of the evictees they’d like to see return to the house, decided on Kaysar over Eric. In today’s world, with our nation at war against the threat of terrorism, how is it that America decided that this Iraqi man was more deserving than the American?

Not to say that Kaysar is a bad guy—he’s far from it. Nor am I saying that there’s any equation with terrorism and the Iraqi people, but if our current government had any say, they’d probably tell you that “America is doing everything it can to help the poor little Iraqi people to learn how to be like us”. The truth is that Eric, a firefighter, being a symbol of contemporary American heroism, was just a straight-up asshole. Plain and simple. A bad sport, an overblown ego and most of all, a shepherd of idiots, Eric was probably a bitingly accurate metaphor for our president and his administration. And when he was guided out of the house by his own doing, most viewers were all to happy to see him go.

When CBS pulled this twist by allowing viewers to “vote” for their favorite evictee, people didn’t choose Kaysar because he’s Iraqi. They chose him based of his attitude, his integrity and from what I hear, probably for his looks too. But when Kaysar made what will probably be considered one of the biggest master moves in Big Brother history, now called “back-dooring” by the houseguests, he ultimately set himself up for the same fate.

Call me lame, but I've just now begun watching some great stuff that's been available on "the pay TV" for some time now. I've heard about them, read about them, and while I'm sure most folks have already digested them fully, I was still hungry for a taste. So I only had one other option--rent them on DVD.

The upside to not having cable TV is that I don't have to put up with all of the crap that airs in between the really good stuff.

I'm talking about shows like Da Ali G Show, Chappelle's Show and The Office. Having only recently made their way to my television, I'd even dare to say that they've made up for the last few years that I haven't had cable TV.

I used to like the news channels, perhaps even to an unhealthy degree. I still read CNN.com several times a day, but as far as the TV network goes, I can do without all of the talk/panel/pundit programming. That and after seeing what has become of FoxNews and MSNBC--which I have subsequently judged it's parent companies by--I have to say "no thanks".

There was always MTV, which while still keeping a cutting edge visually, has grown stagnant from prolonged exposure to Britney-crotch-rot. That and I just don't like any of the music anymore. From what I've read, fuse is on the verge of becoming the new MTV. Hmm...

Finally had a visit at the office from the RoadRunner folks and got everything running. Took a little time with the modem-to-router configuration, but it's working like a champ now.

Went to see Hollow Man on Saturday. Nothing new for Kevin Bacon, just another sleazeball wackjob. Nevertheless, I guess it was a decent effort, and I should have known, because after reading Salon's profile on Paul Verhoeven last week, I've gained some new insight as to what I could expect. Not high caliber, intelligent filmmaking (or at least not on the surface), but entertaining and quite sensational (Basic Instinct, Showgirls) at best. And effects like you've never seen before (think Robocop, Total Recall, Starship Troopers, and Showgirls?). All in all, I would recommend it if you liked any of the aforementioned movies. If you didn't, go see Thomas and the Magic Railroad.

Speaking of which, we tried to take my little bro to check that out (it's all he's talked about for weeks), but he's just not used to going to movies, you know, that whole "dark theater" thing. He's three, give him a break. So he didn't dig it, we got our money back and went out to eat instead. I think, as far as he's concerned, he saw enough of the movie to believe he "saw it."