I love Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris) on How I Met Your Mother. I love Nathan Fillion from Firefly. When I found out about Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, I had to watch it. By the way, why am I always late to finding good stuff? First Firefly/Serenity, now this…

Anyway, this is a manly musical. Why? It’s funny, it’s short (only 43 minutes), it’s convenient (Netflix instant online play), and the music is great. I actually purchased the soundtrack from iTunes after watching the show. I never buy soundtracks, but this was a must-have.

I’m not going to spoil the plot for my one (maybe two?) readers. Just watch it. You’ll be glad you did.

My wife and I started watching Firefly last week on Netflix. We decided to watch Firefly because we love Adam Baldwin on Chuck. We have watched 6 episodes; here’s my official one word review: amazing.

Great stories, original concept, decent special effects (for TV). It’s a shame it didn’t last more than 11 episodes. (11 shows were aired, 14 were filmed. Netflix has all 14.)

Seriously, how did I miss this series back when it was on in 2002? What was I watching in 2002?  Oh yeah…crappy reality TV (Joe Millionaire or some terrible shows like that). Damn you, America! Your love for trashy TV that appeals the lowest common denominator prevented Firefly from becoming a success.

We finally did it – we ended our monthly dish/cable expense. With primetime television now showing reruns or crappy reality shows, we just don’t watch that much TV. It was time to drop Dish Network. Total savings: $65 a month.

Don’t worry, Manly Dad still has plenty of entertainment choices thanks to Netflix. The online offerings from Netflix has greatly improved over the last few months. I’ve added a few dozen shows to my online queue. I’m set for the summer. Right now I’m finishing off the original Battlestar Galactica series and BBC’s Wild China documentary series.

What am I doing with my $65 savings? Well, it’s going directly to my savings account. I increased my automatic savings account deposit by $100/month.

Dear Sportscenter,

I tuned in to your broadcast last night to catch the latest highlights in baseball. I had a few minutes to kill before we started watching our Monday night shows. Apparently, an NBA playoff game had just concluded. I dutifully sat through the highlights and a little “analysis” hoping the baseball highlights would be forthcoming. I was wrong. Instead, you cut to a post game press conference with a coach from one of the teams. No big deal, I’ll just switch to ESPN News. What the hell?  ESPN News was covering the same post game press conference. I don’t remember what was on ESPN 2, but I know it wasn’t highlights from today’s events…probably just some reruns of a lame poker contest.

By the way, when is this poker fad going to end? I’m really tired of seeing it on ESPN. It’s not a sport. If you really must show it, just have one poker tournament to rule them all and crown a grand champion…then take a 10 year hiatus.

Why must baseball always take a back seat to all the other sports? I’m tired of it. Last week I finally watched the MLB Network for the first time ever. I was at the dentist, and that half hour was more enjoyable than any recent Sportscenter I’ve watched. If my local cable provider carried the MLB network, I would have little reason to ever turn to ESPN or its sister stations.

Sincerely,

ManlyDad

P.S. Yes, I know ESPN has Baseball Tonight, but that’s only 30 minutes (sometimes one hour) and most of that is dedicated to the Red Sox and Yankees.

My love affair with fantasy baseball began 10 years ago in 2001. My friend introduced me to it and I quickly learned the ropes. It was a hobby my nerdy brain could finally support and be very competitive in. Soon I rose the rank of league commissioner. After a few years, I joined another league…then another. In 2009, I participated in 4 leagues. I spent at least an hour each day reading fantasy blogs and studying my teams.  I was a junkie and fantasy baseball was my crack.

Hell, I even watched entire season of The League on Hulu just because it was about fantasy sports. True, it was about football instead of baseball and it had very little to do about fantasy sports, but I still watched it because I was addicted to fantasy baseball. Mini-review: it was funny but very dirty. It was like Sex In the City for guys that loosely related to fantasy football each episode.

I didn’t have enough time to dedicate to each league (and my real life). Well, things changed this year. I quit 3 leagues cold turkey and I’m down to just the original league that started in 2001. I can’t quit that league…it’s my nicotine and I need my fix. Plus, I’m essentially Commissioner for Life, and that’s a title you just can’t walk away from…it’s too damn manly (in a very nerdy way).

On Monday I was spent some quality time with my boy.  Like I mentioned yesterday, he loves Spider-Man.  So he asked me to find the theme song from Spectacular Spider-Man.

A few Google searches later and Voilà!  Found it on TelevisionTunes.com.  I spent a good 30 minutes on that site playing TV theme songs from my childhood: GI Joe, Knight Rider, The A-Team, and Ducktales.

Great find.  Now it looks like I need to update my ringtones…

I usually tell my 4 year old a bedtime story every night.  It’s part of the nightly routine.  Honestly, sometimes I half-ass it with a short story (yeah, I feel a little guilty about that).   However, last night I turned in a solid performance.

Lately, my son has been into Spider-Man and Super Hero Squad.  We watched a few Spectacular Spider-Man episodes on YouTube (via my blu-ray player) yesterday.  He loved it (and so did I).  When it came time for the bedtime story, he requested a story featuring him and Spider-Man.  No problem.  Here’s the basic outline of the story:

• My son drove a car to visit Super Hero City (that’s where Super Hero Squad takes place)
• He looks for Spider-Man near the tall buildings buildings, but he’s not there
• He looks for Spider-Man at the park, but he’s not there
• He remembers that Peter Parker is Spider-Man so he goes the science lab to find Peter
• He finds Peter and tells Peter that his secret identity is safe
• Peter thanks him buy changing into Spider-Man and taking my son a webslinging tour of the city

That Spider-Man story was a good one.  How do I know?  1) He didn’t get out of bed the rest of the night and 2) that’s all he talked about as I got ready for work this morning.

Image Source: spideytv.com

Tonight I had to watch the kids during that dreadful hour between dinner and bedtime.  It actually wasn’t too bad: minimal crying, very little fighting, and no big messes to clean up.  How did I manage that?

I was focused on 8 pm…that’s the magical bedtime.  I had to pick up the toys, give the boys a bath, put their pajamas on, and get them to bed in one hour.  Here’s how it went:

7:00 pm – put on a Phineas and Ferb episode while I clean up the toys and start the bath.

7:15 pm – put on a Max and Ruby episode for the older boy (it calms him down) and put the younger boy in the bath.

7:25 pm – put the older boy in the bath.  Wash both boys’ hair.

7:35 pm – get the youngster out of the bath and dress him.

7:45 pm – get the big boy out of the bath and dress him.

7:50 pm – put the big boy to bed with his toy robots and threaten to take them away if he opens the door or leaves the room (this trick works 95% of th time).

7:55 pm – read a few stories the little guy and put him in the crib.

Made it by 8 pm!  Great night.  When the wife gets home we can finally catch up on the backlog of shows on our DVR.