Comcast Took My TV And I Can’t Complain

On Monday a nondescript van pulled up in front of my house. What alerted me to its presence was that I heard the sound of a ladder being extended. As I looked out the window I noticed that there was a man climbing the ladder up the pole that houses my Internet connection. I’m connected via a cable modem through Comcast, so my initial opinion was that the next door neighbor was getting high-speed Internet installed at her house. As I made my way back to my desk the thought occurred to me that he could be up to something more “sinister.”

I’ve been very lucky. I haven’t had to pay for basic cable TV for the past 5, or so years. Did I purchase one of the descrambler boxes you read about in your SPAM? No, I acquired my television signal through much more benign methods – I sweet talked the installer. If you don’t have cable TV and you order high speed Internet, they put on a governor that blocks the TV signal and only allows the Internet data to pass. When the installer came to my house close to 4 years ago, and to my apartment 2 years prior to that, I chatted him up and nonchalantly asked if he HAD to install the governor. In both installations, the installer left the governor off. As a result I’ve enjoyed basic cable free of charge.

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I Want My MythTV!

I watch too much TV as it is, but I have been wanting a Tivo for well over a year now. Calvin Parker, of Calivn’s Palm FAQ, turned me onto them, but I’ve simply never taken the plunge and bought one. I like to think it’s the $12.95 monthly service fees that have kept me from buying one, but in reality I think it’s the fear that I’ll never get up from the couch.

Now that I’ve dipped my toe in the Linux pond, I’m now considering putting together my own Linux box and rolling my own Tivo. Thanks to a Wired article on the subject, I’m considering attempting to install MythTV, which is an OpenSource project that allows you to setup your own digital video recorder. I read this article back in June, but it wasn’t until I saw the Hush Silent Mini-ITX PC that I started giving it some serious thought. There’s a plethora of Mini-ITX cases out there, with all sorts of options and bells and whistles. What appealed to me about the Hush is that is already pre-configured and it’s super quiet, which is perfect if you’re going to have it in your living room.

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Passing The Torch?

By now you’ve no doubt heard about the big kiss between Madonna, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera on the MTV Video Music Awards on Thursday of this week. In case you haven’t, here’s a quick run down. For the first number of the evening, Britney and Christina began singing Like A Virgin dressed wedding dress-like attire. Clearly this was an homage to Madonna’s controversial 1985 performance. Part of the way through the song, Madonna comes out in grooms attire, singing her new song Hollywood. After writhing on both of them, she proceeded to give an open mouth kiss to Britney and then one to Christina. You can find stills here and the video here. It was all quite the shocking moment – a mainstay in Madonna’s career.

All scandalous behavior aside, I mean Madonna is old enough to be their mother, the overwhelming feeling I came away with was that Madonna was passing the skank torch. Madonna’s focus is now more on the spiritual life and on being a mother, not singing and writhing on stage. She’s done the sex thing and now she has matured, so it’s time for the new breed of shock vixens to take the stage. What better way to pass the skank torch than to give a lesbian kiss?

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I’m Not Gay, But My TV Is

My television viewing habits have changed a lot this past year. Used to be that I was totally hooked on the Law and Order franchise and a few other shows on the major networks. Now it’s a whole different story, most of my TV viewing is done on cable channels and not on the 3 major networks. The reason is simple – the shows on cable networks is getting better. What I’m finding a little surprising is how my tastes are changing along the way – they are getting a little sexually bipolar.

The first Cable hook to set was 24 on Fox. From the first episode, I knew that I was going to watch every episode and I have. Since then I’m now an avid viewer of The Shield and Nip/Tuck on FX, but more recently, the Discovery Channel has nailed me with a series of hyper-hetero shows, Monster Garage, American Chopper, and Monster House. If that’s not enough, there’s a new show starting on Sunday called American HotRod that could easily be added to my list of faves. So where is the bipolar part come in? I’m glad you asked.

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Almost Normal

Well, things have almost returned to normal. I stopped for lunch about 4pm and I noticed that all the major networks were carrying the war now and even MTV was doing some limited coverage. Most of their coverage was of the protests in New York City, but at least their attention is now on what is happening.

Of course seeing reporters in Kuwait donning gas masks still adds a bit of surreal effect.

Totally Surreal Morning

This morning was totally surreal. I’m trying to get back to an early morning schedule, so I’ve begun waking up earlier and will keep pushing back the time I wake up until I reach 5am. A few years ago, I shifted my internal clock and was able to wake up at 5am every morning and believe it or not, it was a good experience. However, it seems that in the “computer world” things tend to run late into the night and I’ve slipped back to my normal routine of staying up quite late.

So, here I am up at 6:00am and I go downstairs to do my AM Yoga. 20 minutes later, I rewind the video and turn on the TV – the war with Iraq has begun. I quickly absorb the news of what has happened thus far and am glad to hear that nothing severe has happened to our troops thus far. We’re in the early stages, but so far so good.

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