Nay, we are but men. Rock!

A while ago I wrote about my quandary about what to do with regards to television, keeping cable or over-the-air or no TV at all.  A couple of weeks ago I started the “implementation” process of my chosen solution, and I have to say that freely available, over-the-air TV is nice!

A year or so ago we replaced our old, tube TV with an HD LCD TV.  While we’ve had the ability to display HD content, we’ve been rocking the standard definition (SD) cable signal.  I’ve been craving an HD signal ever since we got the TV, but I had just couldn’t justify the added expense that cable and satellite providers charge for an HD signal.

Well, now I have an antenna on my roof pulling down the over-the-air signal, and we have 5 HD channels, plus some SD channels.  There are two national channels that we’re not currently getting, so I have some tuning yet to do, but all I can say is “Wow!”

I watched some of the Wimbledon Men’s Final in HD, and was just awestruck by the clairity of the picture.  The color of the tennis balls just jumped off of the screen.  Yesterday I had the pleasure of watching my first baseball game in HD.  Granted it was the Phillies/D-Backs, but it was glorious.

This week, Tuesday night, is the MLB All Star Game.  Guess where I’ll be?

Back with the second athlete that I don’t like — in no particular order of course, just as they come across my TV (or mind).

Back in the mid-1990s a freshfaced teen yet to be known as A-Rod came up with the Seattle Mariners, and proved to be as important to that team as an older teammate, oddly known as Junior.  Alex showed his excellence both at the plate and in the field.  The fans in Seattle had a very solid team that was shaping up to be a playoff contender for many years to come.  One year after Junior skipped town to go play for his hometown team A-Rod did something that will forever make me root against him.

Alex got all Cuba Gooding Jr in Jerry Maguire.  “Super agent” Scott Boras went out and got Alex the money; 10 years for $250 million.  At the time an astronomical, totally unheard of contract.  At the time could he be foreseen as becoming one of the best players ever?  Yes, definitely.  However, it showed the true nature of most teens who become professional athletes who don’t know any better, and are led by agents looking for top dollar over anything else.  Let me explain.

Sure, the idiot owner of the Rangers coughed up the money, and A-Rod (and Scott) took it to the bank.  The problem is that Texas never was, and may never be a true contender.  Before, during, and after Alex being on the team.  When A-Rod signed that contract he became a mercenary.  No longer was he playing baseball for the joy of the game.  Going to Texas he definitely wasn’t playing for championships.  He was following the money, which is what mercenaries do.

You can say that I feel this way about him because he’s a Yankee, and I’m a Red Sox fan.  Totally not true.  Before he became a Yankee there was a failed trade of him to the Red Sox for Manny Ramirez.  I was totally against that trade, and I’m very glad that it didn’t happen.  I like Man Ram too much to have lost him to a mercenary.  He totally fits with the Yankees, though, because the love their mercenaries.

Most importantly I’m a lifelong resident of the Pacific Northwest, and the only MLB team around is the Mariners.  They are the region’s team.  The way A-Rod left the Ms totally smacks of the pretty girl who ditches her middle-class prom date for the rich kid who’s driving a Porsche.  It’s all superficial, absolutely zero substance.  I find it a bit more than ironic that the first year post-A-Rod in Seattle was the best year they’ve ever had.

I’ve decided to start a segment here known as “Athletes I Don’t Like.”  It basically what it says, athletes that I struggle to like.  On with the show.

I’ve been watching some of the NBA Finals over the last few days, and I’ve been reminded about an athlete that I just can’t find any reason to like:  Pau Gasol.  There’s just something about him that makes me wish the worst for him.

I think he’s a bit of Bill Laimbeer with a side of Vlade Divac.  He flops all over the court.  He has never committed a foul, the refs get it wrong.  Just that stupid look of, “What? You’re calling a foul on me?!  Are you kidding?!?  What did I do?!”  Any call that goes against him is like someone abducted his firstborn.  He’s actually a good player, I just can’t get past his pathetic whining.  Play the game and stop acting like an infant.

Congratulations, Pau!  You’re number 1!

I am in Dublin (California, not Ireland) for work.  We’re implementing new software at work, and I’m here for training on one of my portions of the software.  During my travel today I’ve realized some things about who I am, neither good nor bad.

My first real job right out of college had the opportunity for extended travel.  Something like spending a few months at a location building and configuring a network.  I was single, and the money would have been good, but the economy turned sour and I lost my job before I had a chance to do this.  Since I never got to travel for that job, I didn’t really get to find if I enjoyed it or not.  I liked the idea of it, though.

The job I used to do full-time (now half-time) had me going to Boise 2-4 times a year.  Typically for 2-day, 1-night stints.  And I’d typically go over with Brendon (and others), so I wasn’t required to get outside of my introverted shell to have social interaction.  The last time I made that trip was now 14 months ago; that seems kinda odd, but that’s what my Outlook calendar says.

Maybe it’s the fact that I now have two kids at home that makes this a little bittersweet (I can hear my wife asking if I’m crazy).  Maybe it’s that I’m used to traveling with someone else, and not flying solo.

I’ve been on the ground in California for only 5 hours now, so I probably need to relax a bit.  I’m sure once the class starts tomorrow things will be better.  I’m just glad that I do this infrequently, because I don’t know if I could handle being on the road by myself a lot.  Even though my kids drive me crazy sometimes, they are my kids, and I miss being around them (again with my wife asking if I’m crazy).  I also wish I would have had the forethought to fly my wife down here for the weekend, and we could just cruise around the Bay Area for a couple of days together.  I’ll have to remember that for next time.

I’ve got two kids.  The oldest, now 3.5 years, didn’t like not being able to move.  When he could roll, he wanted to crawl.  When he could crawl, he wanted to walk.  And as soon as he was walking he wanted to run and climb and jump.

Our youngest, 11 months today, is a different story.  He never was a “holy roller” like his brother.  For a long time he preferred to army crawl as opposed to regular crawling.  It took some encouragement from another boy his age before he started pulling himself up on things about a month ago.  The latest development is when the fun (and “fun”) start happening.

Just yesterday, having pulled himself up on things, he started letting go.  It’s fascinating to see one so little developing a two-footed sense of balance.  I just really hope he doesn’t start walking this week while I’m out of town for work.  That would be teh suck.

I’ve had a number of people tell me about the greatness to be found on Hulu, and I got my first taste of it tonight.  I was giving the wife a backrub, cracked open my laptop, and turned on some Newsradio.  Good times.

They do put “mini” commercials in the show.  There are three 15-second ads: one at the very beginning (”limited interruption brought to you by …”), and two in the episode at the normal spots.  Overall, very non-annoying; I can live with it.  Ditching cable might be a whole lot easier than I though it’d be.

I was talking with MattC the other night, and I made some comment about something I saw on Twitter that day.  He responded by asking what Twitter is.  He has an account, but didn’t really understand it, and therefore doesn’t use it.

I tried to explain it, and I think I did a decent job, but this video by Common Craft does a much better job.

If you Twitter, you can follow me @jschwanz and Brendon @bzo.  And for that matter, you can follow We Are But Men @wearebutmen.

This has been a discussion going on in our house recently.  Do we continue with our current cable plan, jump up to the next level for some channels we would definitely watch, ditch cable and hope we can get the free, over-the-air signal (we live in an area with lots of hills), or just not “do” TV.  Could we cut the cable, and save ourselves a little scratch?  The arguments are as follows:

For the more channels, as I said, we’d watch the additional channels we’d be paying for.  On the flip side, do we really want to spend more time in front of the TV?  Are we going to watch it enough to justify the additional expense?  I dunno.

For the over-the-air broadcast, it’s free save for the equipment.  I’d probably need to get an external antenna for the house, since the rabbit-ears don’t seem to want to work.  But since I don’t know for certain that the antenna would work I hesitate to shell out for one.

For the no TV option, most shows of interest are available through the various network websites for online streaming.  I had a coworker say last week that they watch CSI on TV, because it’s better to watch The Office online than CSI.  That’s totally a growing trend.  DVRs are great, but with the online streaming you don’t have to do anything but push play.  The major blow for this option is the lack of ability to watch sports.  My friends would probably get tired of having me over every Saturday and Sunday in the fall.

If I can get OTA to work that’ll probably be the direction I lean.  With gas prices on the rise, and in tow food prices, cost of living, etc. the savings from cable could be a nice little offset to the rising cost of pretty much everything.  I would miss me some Discovery Channel, but that’s a sacrifice I think I’m willing to make.

Do you think you could drop cable?  Could you go TV-less?

“…there is only one game at the heart of America and that is baseball, and only one beverage to be found sloshing at the depths of our national soul and that is beer.”
-Peter Richmond

“We old folks have to find our cushions and pillows in our tankards. Strong beer is the milk of the old.”
-Martin Luther

Much more over here.

If God had not intended us to drink beer, He would not have given us stomachs.
–David Daye

Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
–Benjamin Franklin

You can find more here.