We watched Friday Night Lights last night instead of on Tuesday because the San Antonio NBC station WOAI made the phenomenally dumb decision of pre-empting this week's episode for a Billy Graham Christmas special (don't those things usually run on Saturdays?). The FNL episode, which I'm going to say was the best since the pilot, aired at 2:05 a.m. My TiVo cut off the last few seconds of the show, as did my brother's Time Warner PVR. Nice one WOAI. Way to whack a shovel at a fantastic show that's already struggling.

I sent an angry e-mail to all the addresses listed on that WOAI page. No response back from them.

I make no exaggerration here when I say that the episode was so good that it had me in tears for the last 30 minutes. I was a blubbering snotty mess from the moment Matt Saracen (best teen on TV) had to cut off his big date early to take care of his seemingly senile grandma. When he started singing "Mr. Sandman" to her in his dead grandpa's voice as the coach's daughter watched ... how can you not cry? 99 percent of TV shows won't go a whole season with a single moment as great as that. The rest of the episode was just as good -- funny, heartbreaking, truthful, wonderfully written, acted and directed. At 2:05 a.m. I'm pretty pissed about that.

If you've missed the show (and I don't blame you given NBC's spotty scheduling), there's a marathon in late December. Please try to catch it. I promise you that you won't be disappointed.

Drunken Bee on TWoP encapsulates the episode nicely in the recaplet.

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I've had a few questions from people reading about my new job and about what it is exactly.

I've moved to the features department of the Statesman as a reporter (after about six years, I really needed a break from editing/managing) covering technology as culture. I'll be doing games and gadget stuff, surely, but the bulk of my time will be spent working on stories about how tech affects culture for better or for worse, and writing about culture clashes brought on by tech.

It's exciting for me, but also scary. I'm trying not to step on the toes of our business tech writers and to do reporting on topics that at times will seem a little nebulous. But I'm thrilled to be in features and so far I'm being given a lot of freedom to work at my own pace as long as I'm productive.

To that end, I'll be updating the Digital Savant blog at least once a day, probably more. If you'd add it to your bookmarks and give it a look-see now and then, I'd be much obliged.

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Rob's in New York next week on a panel that at one point included hottie/political liability Jessica Cutler of Washingtonienne fame. Too bad she dropped out because I couldn't wait to read what Rob would have written about her.

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I'm on Almost Late Show with Bobby Bones again tonight in a very short audience bit. I have yet to see a single episode since we don't get ME-TV in New Braunfels, but I've been to every taping. If you live in Austin, check it out. 9 p.m. tonight on ME Television, channel 15 on cable.

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I'm supposed to go to two holiday parties this weekend (one of them is actually a goodbye party for a Statesman writer who is moving on to another job). Our weekends are pretty jam-packed and any trek to Austin or San Antonio has to be pretty important to get us on the road. Last Sunday, I was filming a sketch that I'm in for a movie that Clasico Entertainment (congrats on winning that contest, guys!) is doing, a spoof of Law & Order. It was my last day of shooting for that project and we managed to shoehorn in a trip to Nordstrom for a holiday event right after.

I was annoyed that this holiday event wasn't a sale because I tend not to buy anything there unless it's discounted (hello awesome shoes, hello very niiiice shirts), but the event was even better than a sale because it was invitation-only (my lady shops there so much she warranted an invite) and waitstaff carried around trays of delights I had never seen or tasted before.

I'm not even making this stuff up: bacon crusted with brown sugar (exotic, no; tasty, oh mah oui!), spicy chicken on skewers wrapped in bacon (yes, lots of bacon about), little tiny coconut cupcakes, actual alcoholic wine, cranberry margaritas, hot cider with your choice or Grey Goose or brandy with Red Hots candy, and all manner of other treats. We hadn't dinner, but we filled up on drink and treats. There were also little chocolate tarts and fudge.

In fact, the smooth man carrying the fudge tray would just go up to women, look them up and down and say in his deep voice, simply "Fudge?" Best pick up line I could have hoped to witness at Nordstrom.

On the way out, they gave us chocolate truffles in a silver box and wished us well. I felt a tiny bit guilty that the only thing we bought was some very froofy shaving cream, but I'm sure we've spent enough money there to justify getting tipsy and full-of-belly on Mr. Nordstrom's dime.

This story just breaks my heart into a million little pieces.

Even if you don't pray, please say a little one for his family.

Click here to take the virtual tour!

Go visit my Flickr set for my new desk. You'll see an exhaustive inventory of everything on (and under) my new workspace.

LIVE the adventure!

Space Monkeys! is back after missing a day last week. In today's strip, we get into the thorny ethical dilemma of cloning: should you or should you not masturbate with yours?

My "Hey, guess what? I'm back!" entry for Digital Savant was just posted.

Y'all, I'm seriously freaking out that I may not be able to keep that bagel promise.

But, dammit, I have to try.

Today is the first day of my new job at the Statesman. It really is just like the first day of school, except instead of standing in front of the class, an e-mail was sent to re-introduce me.

I was totally dreading the first part of the job which is just getting my (downgraded) computer to work; stuff like setting the right screen resolution to not hurt my eyes, getting Firefox to work (my bookmarks all mysteriously disappeared), then getting my e-mail going.

Most surprisingly, the worst part so far was that my new chair had some sort of strange Topple-Over technology that made it want to tip over every time I leaned forward more than 10 degrees. I went back to my old office and swapped it out for my old chair.

They also wanted to give me a weird, beige ergonomic keyboard from 1985. It was in a distinct V shape and looked like a Commodore Vic-20 that someone had taken a chainsaw to. It was so old I couldn't even find a photo on the Web to show you.

I've been offered cookies and a good chunk of my morning was spent decorating my desk with some toys and action figures. I came over here to be taken seriously as a writer and now I'm starting to wonder if everyone thinks I'm just going to sit around and play videogames all day and write about that. I'll give it a day. Maybe I'll bring it down a notch with the Street Fighter figures and stuffed animals.

I'm wondering exactly how much conversation I should be making. I'm used to just listening to my iPod when I'm writing, but I don't want people to think I'm an asshole. But I also don't want to be the guy who starts meaningless conversations while people are trying to work ("So, eh, you catch that cliffhanger show last night where the guy died and stuff?"), because I hate it when people do that to me.

Mostly I want to fit in even as I learned a long time ago that I never want to fit in too much in the newsroom, where you get gossipped about and people ask you incredibly personal questions and chart your every move. (You think I'm being paranoid, but it happens.)

So I'll keep plugging on. At least I figured out how to get Blogger to work from here.