As some of you may know I recently went through a long and very protracted pissing match with my cable provider, Optimum/Cablevision. It was an ugly fight that ended up with me canceling all of their services save one...internet. I did actually cancel all three, including internet but the buffoons over at Frontier Communications couldn't deliver the 12 mbps they said they could for the $44.95 they were going to charge me. So much for the honest, talking Buffalo. So I went begrudgingly back to Optimum for my internet and the $59.95 they are gang raping me per month to have said internet.
Needless to say, I have cut the cord. I no longer have cable and the accompanying VOIP telephone. Has anyone ever stopped to consider that a VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) telephone couldn't work without the internet I already paid for??? That not only was the cable company charging me $60 for the internet, they decided to rob me again for another $39.90 for the phone! Oh yes I could have gotten one of those VOIP's like Basic Talk, Net Duo or such, but really, with a cell phone lately, who needs a landline, and really, is a VOIP phone a true landline? NO, its not. When the cable goes out, so does the internet and so does your phone.
In the end it was a giant rip-off. I was paying $140.00 a month for cable, and not even the premium channels, just basic plus one tier up, internet and a phone that used my internet that I paid for to work. Just a huge bill for basically a handful of channels that I actually watched and a phone I barely used. I use some internet now, don't get me wrong. For what I pay, I probably used between 10 and 30 megabytes per month, depending on my level of depression and hence use of Netflix and Hulu. I get my money's worth on internet.
So what to do with no cable you ask? Well I have two flat screen, high def. TV's so I bought an antennae. This one antennae cost me $60 bucks and sits on the wall in my living room behind a giant mirror I have. This one antennae provides reception for both of my TV's, the one in the bedroom and the one in the living room. I get 17 channels. I get ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, ANT TV, CW, THIS TV, 3 PBS stations and each of the major channels I get three choices. Say for CBS, I get the local feed, the NYC feed and a all news channel. The same for all the rest of the big 4. I couldn't be happier with these channels.
To begin with, the signal is not compressed like it was on cable or even satellite. Both cable companies and satellite companies compress the signal down to save on bandwidth. All this accomplishes is a picture on your very expensive TV that is not true 1080i high def quality. Nor is the sound true 5.1 stereo on cable and statellite systems. This is not the case with Over the air or OTA broadcasts. I was shocked when I plugged my little antennae in and woosh there was a picture I never got from Optimum. I was even more shocked when I heard the sound come out of my sound bar I have attached to the TV. Some channels which are OTA do not broadcast in 1080i, some broadcast in 480 or 780i, but for some reason the picture quality is just better.
With my 17 OTA channels I have Netflix and Hulu along with Amazon Video, and I access all of these services and many more through my Roku Stick. All done told, I pay $23.00 a month for these services. With Hulu I am up to date on all of my regular shows, and yes dear reader, even Bravo is now on Hulu.
With my cutting of the cord I have gained control back over my viewing life. I watch what I want, when I want and pay almost nothing for this seemingly wonderful control. I have a DVR on my main TV and my bedroom TV allows me to record to a USB memory stick anything that plays on my TV. I have Google Chromecast in the bedroom so I am also able to lie in bed and veg on Netflix for days on end. I finally have the control over me and what I view and I don't pay for what I don't use.
In cutting the cord, I did go through withdrawal from Bravo. The ladies and their fighting. Tre and her back to the big house BS and Brandi stumbling through yet another season of Real Assholes of Beverly Hills. Then something happened. I discovered other TV shows which were on Hulu and Netflix. Black Is The New Orange, Scandal, Spartacus. All well written, funny, suspenseful shows with HAWT boys and devilish gals. Where was I when these shows were coming out? I was lost in the land of Andy, my eye is lazy and I love ruining peoples lives and filming it happen, Cohen. I cannot believe all the good shows I watch now. I feel like I have awakened from a coma.
I have heard from several followers they miss my snarky comments during the shows and truly I do miss banging on those messy broads. To continue to do so was sort of like kicking a bitch while they are down. They are way too easy to snark on. My nights now are better spent watching TV shows I may have missed while watching Downton Abbey. Through my Roku stick I have access to FX, Lifetime, TLC and etc. CBS, NBC and MSNBC all have 24 hour feeds on the latest news. I even have Sirius on the Roku. I listen to Pandora and have access to the BBC and SkyNews.
I am not some Zombie for Cohen and Bravo. I watch things now as they fit into my schedule. I feel free. I am not into the Housewives much. I occasionally will pull up an episode on HULU and then I remember why I don't like them anymore. I see the tweets go by. I hear the chatter on FB about them. I am waiting for another casualty like Russell Armstrong to happen. Kim or Brandi seem to be the most likely candidates. Tre is in jail and the Snooki-ish sisters of RHONJ showed the world they are not really wrong about New Jersey. Trust me, someone on the shows will get hurt and maybe even die. The shows are wrong. The lives of those on the shows are unraveling at an alarming rate. Kyle and "her gays", like we are dogs, Reza calling other gay men, Faggot...yeah...I'm out.
This is what I have accomplished since cutting the cord. I have painted my kitchen and bedroom. I have sewn and recovered a chair in my living room. I found a MAN, an actual living MAN. We got to know each other through talking. I am actually moving from Connecticut to Wisconsin to be with him. I would have never met him if I had been rushing home to catch and live tweet the shows. Our paths would never have crossed. We share our love of Scandal and Stalker.
I have all but paid for the truck that will take my stuff to WI from all the money I saved from not having cable. I save over a $150 a month in not having cable. I will never go back to cable. Optimum could never get a bill to be the same each month even though my services never changed. There is no more having to sit down and go over the bill to see where they fucked up and having to climb the food chain until I got the right supervisor to clean up the mess the billing department created. I don't get twitchy when the cable bill comes....its the same every month now. $59.95, no taxes on internet...it never changes...for once.
My man and I share the cost of Netflix and Hulu. We each pay for one service and I pay for Amazon Prime anyhow, so it works out well. Besides the cost, convenience and most of all freedom, I have learned to think and feel again. To be back in the world. I miss the community of people I interacted with, of course, but y'all are still there and I interact with you differently now. I wish everyone would just try to cut the cord....we could really send a message to the cable and satellite companies to change the way they do business. I am now patiently awaiting Google Fiber to come to where I will be living...Google may be taking over the world but they usually give me what I want in product....
