Archive for the ‘General’ Category

I’m all about change and technological enhancements this year.

After ditching Netflix for XM Radio just a few weeks ago, I have now dumped Vonage’s phone service in favor of Comcast’s.

This decision made because of the following…

1. Comcast’s “Triple Play” offer gives me, digital cable (including upgrades to HBO, Showtime & Starz), internet and phone service for only about $5 more per month than I pay now for regular cable (no HBO, Showtime & Starz), internet and phone.
2. One bill for three “utilities”! Everything is auto-deducted anyway but one bill is just a smidge more convenient.
3. My Vonage wireless router died. This in and of itself is not a big deal but when combined with this, it is…
4. Vonage was sued by Verizon over patent infringement. There is a lot of legalese left to this issue but it is certainly a possibility that Vonage is forced out of business by the ruling. I certainly don’t want to buy a new router if I’m forced to find a new provider in a few months.

Seemed like a no-brainer to me.

I’ve been a big LOST fan since the show kicked off a couple of years ago. Aside from SportsCenter, it is the only show on TV that I watch with any regularity. However over the past season, I have grown increasingly frustrated with the growing complexity of the plot and the inability of any characters to ask the simple questions that would provide viewers with even a single answer to the hundreds of questions that have been raised. Up until this point, I’ve blamed the writers more often than not saying, “They have no clue what they’re doing!!!”. I still watch every week but the show is on the brink of losing me as a viewer.

Today, a friend forwarded me this article on CNN that tells us of the scheduled end of the show three seasons from now.

After a quick read, this got me thinking… not knowing how long the series would run must have made it extremely difficult for the writer’s to put together a long term game plan. Imagine someone asking you to write a story such as this but you don’t know if you have 16 or 80 episodes to tell it. Impossible. Hardly any writer would be cable of telling a story that would remain both interesting and believable the entire time.

In the article, the writers describe having an end point in sight as “incredibly liberating”.

I hope this means we’ll finally start seeing some answers and seeing the same level of quality presented in season 1.

So a few months ago I bought a new car. I splurged a bit for a brand new car (rather than used) and one that was a little nicer than my ’97 Honda Accord. Along with this car came a free three month subscription to XM Radio which honestly didn’t weigh too much into my decision making process. I’d never been exposed to satellite radio and never thought I would want to pay money for it. I can deal with commercials… why pay for something that I can get for free?

However over the past three months, I’ve really grown to like it. It’s not just the lack of commercials but it’s the variety. Radio stations in DC are so watered down that regardless of the genre of music you like (or the station), you are still doomed to listen to the same 20-25 song playlist. XM gives you multiple flavors of classical, jazz, pop, rock, rap, country, talk, weather, traffic and the decades (70s, 80s, etc). I went from 10 so-so stations to over 175 which is kinda like upgrading from bunny ears to digital cable with HBO and Cinemax. You have so many channels to choose from, it’s almost a bad thing.

When the trial subscription ran out last week, I found myself missing the variety. Knowing I wanted it back and despite the relatively manageable $12.95/month cost, I had to find a little room in my budget. (Buying a brand new car versus a used one necessitates such a decision.)

A quick glance at my Quicken (Is it a shock I track things in Quicken? No) and the choice was obvious… Netflix had to go. And to be honest, Netflix should have probably been canceled a long time ago. It’s is a great service and I would love to keep it going for the pure sake of having new movies around but I just don’t ever watch them. I’ve had “Saw” and “Little Miss Sunshine” on my coffee table for the past three months. I might as well set 12 one dollar bills on fire every month.

So those two movies went back today (unwatched), my Netflix account was cancelled and I re-upped for one year of XM.

Can’t wait till the Sirius merger goes through (barring approval). The NFL is on Sirius.

Found this today on Bill Simmon’s blog at ESPN.com. I don’t think you have to be a Hokies fan or from Virginia to appreciate it…

“I am a student at Virginia Tech and this woman basically singlehandedly led our campus from utter despair to a feeling of hope. I was just hoping you could pass this clip along so that maybe some other people out there could feel the same thing. I appreciate it.”

Last night I went to the DC United home opener against the Kansas City Wizards (unfortunately they lost 4-2) and found myself thinking that a United soccer game might be the best professional sports ticket in town.

I know I’m horribly biased towards soccer but here’s my reasoning…

• Tickets are cheap. The most expensive ticket is $45. Cheapest… $18.
• Tickets are available. After all, it is soccer… not quite America’s past time. Roll up on game day and get a ticket for just about any seat in the stadium.
• The crowd is great! Drums, singing, smoke bombs… what more could you ask for? They will easily pull 2-3 times the number of fans I saw at the Nats game two weeks ago.
• The team is good. They’ve started 0-2 but inevitably will be a playoff team and may content for the title.
• The Nationals are HORRIBLE. They may lose 120 games this year.
• The Wizards season, for all intents and purposes, is over. Missing their two best players, they’ve lost 8 of their last 10 games. Would you want to watch the Miami Heat without Dwayne Wade and Shaq? Same deal for the Wizards. (A healthy Arenas and Butler would prevent me from being able to write this post.)

If you’ve never been to a United game before, give it a shot sometime. Next home game is Thursday, May 3rd at 7pm.