Cutting the Cable: my version

It got to the point where I had to cut my costs. The cost of everything going up and a change in taxes making my paycheck a little smaller-I'm gonna go ahead and say "thanks a lot Osama...Obama"-I just had to find a way to reduce my monthly costs. Not being able to source ammo consistently has been an ersatz cost control, but I don't like it. I looked at what was going out every month, and there were two areas I could reduce: power consumption and cable TV. Turning off lights and not turning them on until they were required and shutting down the computer regularly made a huge difference in the power bill, and turning off cable TV while keeping cable internet cut $75 out of my cable bill.

I looked around a bit for alternatives, and found a way to get rid of cable TV without going batty: I bought a Roku 3. In order to use it, I also needed to get a router, which I found on Amazon as a factory refurb for about $50 with shippin'. The Roku 3 cost me $89, and shipped for free. I had a little trouble getting the disc for the router to work correctly, but I got that squared away by literally unplugging everything in the chain and plugging it in one step at a time following the boot disc directions. After that, setting up the whole thing was cake.

Using the Roku is really easy, too. Its well thought out and intuitive. That info is all over the net, so I'm not gonna rehash it again. Instead I'll run down how I typically use it.

I've tried pretty much all the premium services (Hulu Plus, Netflix, Amazon Prime) and keep finding that I keep going back to Netflix. I either didn't use them enough-as with Hulu Plus, although I may try again sometime soon-or just didn't get to see what I wanted, as with Amazon. They have the most content, but much of what I want to see on that channel is a paid show. That's no big deal for the convenience, but I don't wanna pay $79 a year and then have to pay a few bucks per on top of that to watch a movie or show. So, in order to reduce my costs the most, I stick to Netflix and manage to keep myself occupied with finding movies I haven't seen and some older shows I dig, like Battlestar Gallactica and Miami Vice. There's a ton they don't have, but I'm debating changing my account to get DVD's as well. At this point, though, the desire is keep costs low, so its the one service I'm using now.

I can still watch some shows streamed on their producer's website as well, such as Defiance, and regular TV programming on hulu.com. I tried to run a VGA splitter so I could send that signal to my TV as well as my monitor, but for whatever reason, the splitter isn't working, with the TV saying that signal isn't supported. My computer is pretty old, so I only have a single VGA out on it; only one monitor output. I think the right solution will be a video card that has two outputs, but again, the idea was to keep costs low, so for now I watch on my 'puter. At least I have a decent sized monitor.

To get local stations, I got a tip from a buddy of mine: after I took out the cable converter box and returned it, I took the cable that was going into said box and plugged it directly into my TV. I went to the antenna set up on my TV, set it to "cable", and searched. I came up with 38 channels, about 20 of which are visible. I get all my local programming, and in fact I'm watching the Spurs get a third quarter lead going against the Heat in Game 3 of the NBA Finals now. I miss out on some sports that are on TNT and ESPN, but the national stuff I still get. Oddly, I still get The Food Network, too. I'd trade that for FX or Fox Sports, but overall, I'm pretty satisfied with what I've got.

My boss said a couple months ago that he was sure that cable TV was on it's way out. With all the stuff that's available on the Roku-there's a lot on there I couldn't care less about, but some 20 channels have caught my attention so far-I can see cable TV going away and having all programming come over the net. At the time I wasn't so sure, but now I can see it happen. The programming will have to catch up; you're gonna have to be able to get all those channels online, and they're not all there yet. Once that happens, though, it'll be on like Donkey Kong, because the cost of programming will drop dramatically, and commercials will still be commercials. If the costs of the commercials doesn't drop significantly as well, then there won't be more of them than there already are. Honestly, I don't much care about commercials; if having a couple breaks during the show mean I don't have to pay out that $75 for cable TV, I'm OK with it. For what I'm saving, I'm pretty dang happy with the decision to dump cable TV.

One of the coolest shirts ever

Saw this on TV on the Travel Channel, on a show called Steak Paradise. There's a steak house in north Texas that serves a 72 oz. slab of cow. If you can eat it and the side salad, potato and some other side dish, you can get it free...if you survive, I guess. One of the guys that tried-and failed, even with a really valiant effort-had this slogan on his shirt. I had to go seek it out, because this is truly one of the coolest shirts in the history of ever.


This ranks second to my "PETA: People for the Eating of Tasty Animals" shirt, which offended a clerk at 7/11 so much that she didn't say a single word to me during the entire transaction of the purchase of a Super Big Gulp, and scowled at me through most of it once she read the shirt. Yeah, that was a great moment.

I still find it somewhat...I dunno...bemusing, I suppose...that there are people out there who allow their day to be affected by what someone wears. I see some slacker with no job in a Che shirt or "I wanna stick it to the rich with Obama, even though they're the ones who employ people" sticker on a vehicle, I simply think "What a poor, misguided person that is" shortened to one word ("idiot"), and go on merrily thinking about shooting and how great it is not to be represented by a Kennedy. Yet, those who worry about what other people wear instead of really doing anything about what concerns them so, can have their day ruined by a shirt slogan. What an odd way to live a life.

If you wondered what to get me for Christmas, this shirt would be a great idea.

For executives, they don't seem to get it very well

I went looking for information regarding The Sarah Connor Chronicles, to see if there was any hope of a season two. Results were inconclusive at best. There's no new info regarding Jericho yet, either. There's, what, four more episodes in the "seasonette"? It would appear that Jericho is in a bad place, seeing as the Writer's Guild decided to give up a bunch of income and not do their damn jobs. That put Jericho in a relatively good place since there were no other shows coming on, but without the writers, there could be no new episodes to follow the current seven, at least not right away. So, due to the writer's strike and the lack of understanding by the executives, we're going to be forced into more "reality" shows, because they're cheap to produce. Additionally, it seems there's no shortage of people who'll make fools of themselves for money.

Before the Intardweb, Nielson boxes were probably a good enough indicator of how a show was doing. Now, in the Information Age, the Nielsons just aren't cutting it anymore. Jericho is a perfect example: the ratings boxes showed that it wasn't doing well and got it cancelled. Fans brought it back (as they did with Star Trek back in the day, and we know how that worked out) with the epic "Nuts" campaign. Many Sci Fi afficionados are huge fans of "Firefly". They managed to get a movie made, even though the show was cancelled.

All that is to say that the networks have to figure out a new way of tracking audience numbers. People are Tivo-ing, watching online, and catching the show in other ways. Timelsots are no longer the hardpoint anchor that they used to be. However, tracking still appears to be done with the Nielson raters. I don't think I know anybody who's ever seen a Nielson box, much less had one. That puts an outsized amount of power in the hands of a relatively small number of people, who may not be in touch with most of the country's wishes.

I just don't wanna see another Big Brother, Survivor, Flava of Love, or some other piece of crap that's cheap to make and is of intolerable badness. Next time the writers go on strike, let 'em go and hire new writers. Unions will be the death of TV just as they are other fields of endeavor. Its not worth it to risk having another "Cavemen."

Bear Grylls: the real deal superhero survivor dude

Oops! Apparently Bear Grylls, hard core survival specialist with a background part time in a territorial SAS unit (21 SAS, IIRC) and having something-but-not-really to do with Le Phrench Foreign Legion, wasn't real survivaling while doing stupid stuff like jumping off boulders he should have climbed off of if he really was in a survival situation. Its been widely held belief by people who know (ask a SERE instructor or graduate; they're out there) that at least some of what he's shown doing is dangerous and could prove to have adverse effects on one's physical well being. Come to find out, it wasn't all on the up and up. Nice going, Discovery Channel. You're supposed to do an integrity check before the first ep is filmed, not after the second season. At least they're doing something about it.

What's so hard about making a good show?

I'm flabbergasted at how quickly shows come and go on TV these days. Smith, which had a ginormous push before it went to air, only lasted something like five episodes. It had Ray Liota in it, and a pretty interesting story line. Its gone. There have been shows that were on and off TV so fast that I never saw them. Its amazing. It probably also explains why there's so much junk on TV. Ya can't spend that much money on a show and not have it hit, which explains the continual march of new reality shows (which are nothing of the sort) that get run out every time its the season for new shows.

I miss some programs that should have lasted and didn't. The problem is, in some cases, that the producers of said shows are too PC to take any criticism, even if the show was a great big fat hit. Case in point: Combat Missions. The only "reality" show I ever watched, and I never missed an episode. I watched the re-runs. If it was on, I was in front of the TV for it. The premise was to get martial professionals from several different jobs and have them compete. There were Special Forces, SeALs, Marine Force Recon, big city SWAT dudes, and even a guy from the CIA's Operations Directorate. They had tactical problems to solve, were given time to formulate a plan, and then the teams would execute the plan. At the time, it was a great big fat hit for USA Networks, and the producer of Slurvivor, Mark What'sisface. However, since 9/11, ol' Mark seems to think that nobody wants to see this kind of stuff. Oh, how wrong you are, Mark. It could be the feel good story hit of the year; hell, the decade. But he's afraid to do it again, and instead we're stuck with Dancing with the Has-Beens, and American Idle, and controversies about Mangina's (or whatever his name is) hair.

I was thinking recently about some of my favorite shows that aren't with us anymore. Sadly, there aren't that many that were just great and didn't catch on. There were a few:
The first season of Soldier of Fortune, Inc. That show was great. Actual weapons handling, actual tactics used, strong characters for the most part, and decent story lines. What it lacked was a sizable enough budget to pull it off as it shoulda been. It couldn't find an audience because of its weird time slots, and they screwed it all up in the second season. The concept was awesome, though. Even in the second season, with Dennis Rodman on the show, I never missed one. Firefly was obviously ahead of its time, and there are still a heck of a lot of viewers out there that want it back. That the movie ever got made speaks volumes regarding its popularity.

There is no new Miami Vice. There is no new Tour of Duty. There is no new SWAT, although they made a mildly entertaining movie loosely based on the characters from the series. I guess the bottom line is that its just to expensive to give the people what they want. By all means, lets run another cheap piece of crap "reality" show out there. Who cares if nobody is watching Big Brother. Its cheap. We'll keep making them.

Is this just a conspiracy to keep action off of TV?