Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Giving In


I have a confession to make. Well, it's not really a confession, since many of you have heard me mention this several dozen times. But I'm going to make another confession here, so deal with it.

For the past year and a half, I've been surviving without cable.

Yes, it sounds shocking that in 2007 there is someone on the face of this earth without cable. It all started when I realized that I was paying money for all these channels that I didn't watch. Sure, I got to see movies occasionally, but I had a netflix membership for that. There were also music videos and some cable shows that I watched, but I could easily wait and get it on DVD. Plus, I was trying to cut down on the amount of TV I watched.

I knew it would be a struggle since I once dated a guy who didn't have cable. At the time, I thought, amazing! How avant garde! Of course, I never took into the account that he was always at my place, mesmerized by the clear picture on my television.

At first, it was easy. I got some rabbit ears from Wal-Mart and put them on my TV. I found myself watching channels I wouldn't ordinarily watch because of my limited channel selection. I watched lots of educational stuff on public television instead of letting my brain rot by watching MTV, BET or my personal favorite, the Style network. I could almost feel my brain growing each time I tuned in for quality program.

But one day recently, I had enough. It was a Wednesday night -- I'll never forget because 'Lost' was on. Now 'Lost' is a show where you really have to pay attention, you have to see everything in order to know what the hell is going on. Well, that was the day both my TVs turned completely to snow. I raced from room to room raising the rabbit ears above my head, moving them from side to side, but nothing worked. In the end, I was a sweaty, frustrated mess. My annoyance continued the next day when I got to work and my colleagues wanted to discuss the show, along with their hypthosesis. I had to tune them out and wait till I could watch the show online.

I say all this to say that I've decided to give in to the pressures of society and am getting cable. Basic cable, that is. That'll be enough to give me my fix of Battlestar Galactica (Don't hate, Tha L -- it's the best show on TV!), Nip Tuck, The Look for Less, How Do I Look and Nigella Bites. Of course, I'll still have to wait for DVD for shows like The Wire, but I think I can handle that, even though it's taking them forever to put the most recent season on DVD.

Anyway, as soon as I can find a good date for the cable man, I'll will join normal society again. I think once I get it installed, I'll just stay on my couch for a full 24 hours just to see what I've missed in the last year and a half. Can't wait!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have cable tv here, but I don't watch it, save for the specialty French channel, which I have to pay just over ten dollars each month to get. I used to have all of these channels, but I noticed I never deviated from the French channel and BET and MTV are huge no-no's for me.

And, I had to ween myself off of the buffoonery that now comprises VH1's programming.

I do like pay per view on a rainy day, but that's about it. Ooooh, Rome, that HBO show was excellent, save for the last episode. I did enjoy having HBO for that. :0)

That part about you running around with the rabbit ears was just too funny. Have you heard of Angela Nissel? She started out blogging...then published a book...and now she's a screenwriter for that show scrubs and some other stuff. Your writing reminds me of hers. It's a good thing because she's effortlessly funny! :0)

Strength/Courage/Wisdom said...

I watched one episode of Rome, where it was revealed that a brother and sister were having sex. I got so disgusted after that I refused to watch anymore. Ewwwwww....

As for Angela N., I didn't know about her but I've since googled her. She does seem very funny! I'll have to check out one of her books. And thanks for the compliment!