Information Diet, Part 5

by Sterling (Jeremy Frandsen)

Entertainment:

I had my cable TV shut off over a year ago. Why? Two reasons.

First, I was crazy for channel surfing. I realized that I could go two hours without watching one single program all the way through. I suddenly realized I was like some lab rat starting at the screen, just fascinated by all the random pictures going by. It had to end.

Second, you can watch most show on the net now OR just get the DVD. I had been just watching the DVDs of most shows for some time, which cuts out commercial watching and gets rid of having to wait an entire week to see how Jack Bauer gets out of each cliffhanger episode ending.

Most shows can be watched online if you cannot wait till they come out on DVD. I watch the likes of Lost and Heroes all from the networks website.

TIP: One way to get a lot of TV show DVDs is to join Blockbuster.com. They had nearly all of the TV shows I wanted to watch and as of now, you can take a DVD you get in the mail to a Blockbuster store and swap it for a store DVD, giving you double the DVDs then the plan you have.

Here is just a snapshot of shows I enjoy:

Lost

Heroes

Battlestar Galactica ß Jay turned me on to this one, I would have never thought it was as good as it is

Boston Legal

Prison Break

HBO and Showtime have my FAVORITE shows. Nearly every original hour drama on those channels I love, though they are Rated R style show, to be warned… The tops are:

Rome

Deadwood

The Sopranos

Penn and Tellers BS!

To name a few…

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9 Comments For This Post

Chris O' target='_blank'Byrne Says:

I thought Deadwood was canceled! Was I wrongly informed? That was one of my favorites!

Sterling Says:

Yeah, it was cancelled, BUT they are supposed to do two two-hour final episodes to finish up the series!!

Imutopia Says:

Yeah, but another promblem is the internet can be just as addicting with the surfing and finding ways to entertain yourself on some socialnetworks. Finding ways to cure the internet addiction is a good idea for an info product.

Sterling Says:

Yeah, you’re right. I know lots of people use the net directly for entertainment.

Surfing the net hasn’t been a problem for me, simply because I ‘work’ on the net it stops me from playing around with it too much. I have come to see most of the net as a way to market, rather then surf around and play. ‘Cept when Jay and I play Civ…

Anthony Says:

A small rant about Blockbuster: They are bad. The encourage (force) and practice censorship. They edit movies for their release and they refuse to carry certain films (and I’m not talking about porn either) I know they let you trade your dvds at the store, but they are deserving of being boycotted.

Their is a solution: NETFLIX. it is a better faster service made for and by movie lovers, not a faux-moral corporate monolith.

Sterling Says:

@Anthony,

I have tried both, and yes, NETFLIX has a larger selection, but I found the ability to go into the store and get movie to be a huge upside. It DOUBLED the amount of movies I got! That was very important because when you are watching a cliffhanger TV show and you need the next disc NOW you don’t have to wait a few days to get it!

I know this has nothing to do with the moral issue you brought up, but I know that sometimes morals can go out the window when you are desperate to see what happens next on the Gilmore Girls! (Not that Jay or I watch the Gilmore Girls, nor are we both very sad at the series ending this year!)

Jay (Jason Van Orden) Says:

Muahahahaha. I use Netflix. Guess I don’t support the evil empire, Sterling….

…nevermind that I have a Blockbuster Frequent “Whatever” card. Actually, when I live in UT I really like Hollywood Video. However, they don’t have an online contingent.

Ummmmm, you watch the Gilmore Girls? Who got you into to that?……oh…wait….

I guess my wife and I are just suckers for storybook towns and witty women.

Suzette Jeppsen Says:

Can’t say I’d ever experienced a joyful channel surfing habit, yet I’ve been TV and cable bill free for many years, and I absolutely love the independence.

Blockbuster is now pretty much busted, right? Netflix is now the top of the heap, and, I suppose, they mostly deserve to be. The cost of Netflix is quite minimal, but as with Blockbuster, they only deliver the movie itself, not the extras, which I often want to see, especially concerning old movies and Hollywood.

For those liking YouTube, hang in there; I know the quality of the video quality of the clips can only improve. However, when I like something, I save it; I don’t assume it will always be there or that it will always be available free of charge. After all, America may someday take after the Canadian Ips and charge according to each customer’s bandwidth usage.

Sterling (Jeremy Frandsen) Reply:

Yeah, I wrote this a while ago. I use netflix now and love it. It’s funny to think that my kids really wont know what cable is, they just use the online movie view from netflix.