I watched the first disc of “Arrested Development” last night while failing to adjust to Eastern Daylight Time. Good show, as everybody knows by now, and it already made some of the later episodes funnier because of backwards references. It’s a little easier to see how daunting the continuity of the show was/is for attracting new viewers.

One thing that annoyed me, though: a “behind the scenes” documentary as an extra feature on the first disc. This is going to be seen as blasphemy by my peer group, but: sometimes I wish David Cross would just shut the hell up. The documentary has a bit where the other cast members all talk about how funny he is, and then a little while later they talk to him and he goes on this rant about how commercial television demands the show be 20 minutes so they can get 10 minutes of advertising into each episode.

Well that’s a damn shame, Dave. Just think how many more times you could do the same gay-guy-in-denial joke if you just had those extra 5-10 minutes. You know the one — it’s the one-note gimmick your entire “Arrested Development” character is based on, and the same joke you did about a dozen times in “Mr. Show.”

Yes, the guy is extremely funny. Or if he’s not, he at least knows really well how to get carried by genius-level funny people, because he’s been on two of the most brilliant shows ever. But he also comes across as being like the kid who’s gotten told by one too many adults that he’s “gifted.” The other people on the AD documentary are firm but gracious when they talk about the show and how it was handled; Cross goes on rants. And the only problem I have with that is that he’s in my opinion the least funny member of the ensemble — still funny, especially in the mole suit, but he stands out as too showy for a series where everyone else manages to be simultaneoulsy absurd and subtle.

Granted, it says a lot about the quality of “Arrested Development” that my biggest complaint is a member of the cast who’s extremely funny but too grand-standing. But when everybody else seems to have a healthier take on the situation, and he goes off on these predictable “Blame Fox!” and “Stupid Middle America!” type rants, he just comes across as obnoxious as the characters he did on “Mr. Show.”

I’m reporting live from suburban Atlanta, where I’m rethinking my earlier claim that nothing is colder than San Francisco weather. It’s 18 degrees right now. They’re predicting a high of 28 degrees tomorrow. I mean sure, the “snow and freezing rain” effect on the Apple Dashboard weather gadget is pretty cool, but eighteen degrees. I’ve gotta smoke in this weather.

Other than that, it’s nice to be home. I was feeling all morose before I flew out, but it seems like things are going to be okay. I had a three-hour delay at the airport yesterday, and I spent the time wandering around hearing news reports of torture and seeing three couples crying in absolute misery, presumably over having to separate. And I was reading the in-flight magazine with articles about Atlanta and feeling like a man without a country — I still don’t know San Francisco all that well, and reading the article made me realize I don’t even recognize Atlanta anymore. At the time, it all seemed monumentally depressing, but now it just seems normal.

It’s nostalgic here, too. In that I’m remembering the years using my Commodore 64 with its 300-bps Vicmodem. The wireless connection here is slooooow. I considered getting them a faster wireless router as a gift, but that’s selfish even by my standards. Could be a not-entirely-bad thing, though: I’ve been realizing that I don’t really know where all my wasted time goes, but I suspect that most of it’s due to the internets. I didn’t get much written on the plane, but maybe the rest of this week? I see Seppopodopolous has already gone over the mark — congrats to him!

And oh, hi! Disneyland was cool. I’m not posting any pictures since I could type more than a thousand words in the time it’d take me to upload them over this connection. It’s all a blur of beef and people and Christmas decorations and “Steve Holt!” at the moment, but I remember having a good time.