My Entertainment Appendix
I Think I Can Do Without
from 
JoeUser Forums
JoeUser Forums
Last October I bought a townhouse. It was the first property that I have owned. There was one problem, though. When the local cable monopoly was laying their lines, they forgot to connect my building. They had “plans” to correct this, but they estimated that it would take about 90 days. So that meant no cable for me for the first three months.
I thought about getting a dish, but I knew that I would get cable eventually, if for no other reason than Internet access. So I decided to go without for the three months. The lack of Internet access would be hard, but I could do any online business at work.
I didn’t feel too bad about having no TV channels since I don’t tend to watch a lot of television. Most of my television usage was in watching DVDs. It was football season, though, but I was already spending Sundays at a friend’s house for NFL action.
A friend suggested a surrogate for cable TV: Netflix. With this service you can rent movies online, and they are mailed to your home. I got the three DVD deal, which meant that I could have three DVDs out at a time. My turnaround was about a week, so that was 12 DVDs a month.
This turned out better than I had imaged. Netflix carries so much more than I could get from cable. In addition to the latest and classic movie DVDs, they have foreign films, anime, and series DVDs.
I love the series DVDs! While many of these series are still in sindication, with the DVDs you get to watch them at your leisure and in order. Some of the series I have rented: Band of Brothers, Firefly, Penn and Teller’s Bullshit!, and a host of others.
Also, I actually found time to read some of the books I had laying around. I have a habit of buying books that I intend to read, but then taking a year or two to get to them. But without cable TV, and without Internet access, I had a lot more “free” time on my hands. So much reading was accomplished.
Between my weekly influx of DVDs and the many words waiting to be read I really didn’t miss cable television. When the chance came to get cable, I only signed up for the Internet service. However, the cable guy did not bring the filter that would deny me television, so I have that too, but it’s become something like the appendix of my entertainment life; it’s there, but not really used.
I thought about getting a dish, but I knew that I would get cable eventually, if for no other reason than Internet access. So I decided to go without for the three months. The lack of Internet access would be hard, but I could do any online business at work.
I didn’t feel too bad about having no TV channels since I don’t tend to watch a lot of television. Most of my television usage was in watching DVDs. It was football season, though, but I was already spending Sundays at a friend’s house for NFL action.
A friend suggested a surrogate for cable TV: Netflix. With this service you can rent movies online, and they are mailed to your home. I got the three DVD deal, which meant that I could have three DVDs out at a time. My turnaround was about a week, so that was 12 DVDs a month.
This turned out better than I had imaged. Netflix carries so much more than I could get from cable. In addition to the latest and classic movie DVDs, they have foreign films, anime, and series DVDs.
I love the series DVDs! While many of these series are still in sindication, with the DVDs you get to watch them at your leisure and in order. Some of the series I have rented: Band of Brothers, Firefly, Penn and Teller’s Bullshit!, and a host of others.
Also, I actually found time to read some of the books I had laying around. I have a habit of buying books that I intend to read, but then taking a year or two to get to them. But without cable TV, and without Internet access, I had a lot more “free” time on my hands. So much reading was accomplished.
Between my weekly influx of DVDs and the many words waiting to be read I really didn’t miss cable television. When the chance came to get cable, I only signed up for the Internet service. However, the cable guy did not bring the filter that would deny me television, so I have that too, but it’s become something like the appendix of my entertainment life; it’s there, but not really used.
I want more than just your ears and years.. can I have something else too? 
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