Goodbye Time Warner

When Yuna was born, we splurged and got not only cable TV, but also a DVR to boot. Combined with our existing high-speed access, the addition of these two services landed us with a monthly bill of well over a $100 to Time Warner. DVR was wonderful (and useful for keeping some 20+ episodes of Dora on hand).

When we moved to Albany, Time Warner made us close our New York account and open a new one in Albany. They also provided us with a new cable box. The interface of this new box was clumsy and frustrating to use. I couldn't understand why they simply didn't keep the same interface from the New York one, but they were still in the "testing" phase.

Today, I returned my cable box, remote and all accessories to the local Time Warner store and kept only my internet access (total bill including taxes and BS fees: $49.99), knocking my bill by more than half. I was inspired by this recent article in the Times about people getting their TV content directly from the Web.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/10/technology/personaltech/10basics.html?_r=1&em

I have also been actively bidding on Mac Mini's on ebay. I wonder if this article has increased the bidding activity on Mac Mini's, or conversely taken a toll on the business of Time Warner? I am beginning to think that charging customers an odd C-note monthly to provide a single purpose hard drive (DVR) is an outdated business model. The computer has a hard drive and an internet connection, so as long as the content is available online, there is no reason to have a dedicated, expensive and clumsy box sitting there costing me money every month.

I also set up my Airport Extreme and external hard disk tonight, something I've been procrastinating on for the past month. My MacBook is finally backing up via Time Machine (sorry about all the Mac-speak), and I have a wireless network name and password that is personal again (versus the machine generated network name and password that Time Warner's wireless router assigned). I feel a little more at home now.

Writing as Catharsis

A close friend of mine once remarked (critically) that all I care about is fun, and I would not disagree. The highest compliment you can receive from me is that you are “fun”. In contrast, an assessment that you are “boring” was in my book, worse than say, “evil”.

A few years ago, I travelled to Shanghai for a month on business. Shanghai is a very dynamic and cosmopolitan city, full of energy. I grew to love the city towards the end of my stay. However, the most dominant feeling I had during my stay was boredom.

During my stay in Shanghai, I was bored. I didn’t know a soul in Shanghai. I didn’t speak Shanghainese or Mandarin. I didn’t have the stomach to travel outside of Shanghai by myself, and dining out alone is positively the most depressing thing I can think of (perhaps rivaled only by going to watch a movie by yourself). The month I stayed in Shanghai is the only other time (besides now) in my life that I have felt compelled to write. Usually, I’m too busy living my life to sit down and maintain a blog. Only after a complete shock to my system jolted me out of my comfort zone did I feel the need to engage in writing as catharsis.

My drawing instructor at Michigan once told me that she travels to sketch. When she goes to a new place, everything she sees is new and stimulating to her, and she is motivated to sketch (perhaps the way tourists are motivated to snap photographs). Like her, the utter foreignness of my surroundings compels me to act and my response is to write as a way to “work it out”.