Domestic Geek

We listen to the station 99.5 The Mountain a lot at work. It's great because I keep hearing songs that I need to add to my iTunes library.

The other day I heard a song I love by Paul McCartney and Wings called "1985." I knew they had just released the Paul McCartney catalog on iTunes, so I checked as soon as I got home and all I could find was that tune by Bowling for Soup (which I already have, btw). I did several Google searches and that's the way every kept spelling the song title — in numbers. Yesterday I decided to search wikipedia and decided to start going through the discography. Since the song ended with "Band on the Run, " I decided to start there and lo and behold: it's spelled out "Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five!" I went to download the song and it was being offered as iTunes Plus, the DRM-free (without Digital Rights Management) version, so I paid the $1.29 of of my balance and it is all mine. I made Marcus stop watching his show on the AppleTV so I could hear it through the stereo.

I applaud EMI records for being the first to agree to get rid of this DRM crap. It's so easy to get around it, anyway. I will gladly pay a little extra for a song I can play anytime on any device.

Have you, dear readers, been noticing the changes occurring in the way we can get our televised entertainment? With so many networks offering their programs up for viewing online and the reasonable prices to buy programs on iTunes, not to mention that you can get movies online, through the mail or at rental kiosks, I strongly suspect that cable and satellite services as we now know them will soon be a thing of the past.

A few months ago, I wrote how Marcus and I downgraded our Dish Network package. The other day we went down to only the most basic package available. For one thing, we rarely watch live television anymore. The programs we do watch are all on local stations except for just a couple (like Mythbusters or the stuff on USA-Monk, The 4400, etc). I've been watching most of my programming online since the networks keep moving stuff around. I watch 24 on DVD from Netflix. We watch The Office through iTunes. Why would one continue to pay a satellite company for multiple useless channels of crap? I don't need a dozen shopping channels and I shouldn't have to have Spanish-language stations that I can't watch. Even stations I used to watch religiously like HGTV or SciFi run the same old tired programs. MTV and VH1 can't even really be considered music television anymore.

Then there are scenarios where the companies shoot themselves in the foot. Take for instance what happened to my father. In an effort to get him to upgrade to a more expensive digital package, they took away his on-screen program guide. Seriously, is this any way to keep your customers happy?

If they're smart, they'll change their practices and offer a more a la cart service. Otherwise, they'll get left in the dust.

I love this commercial.

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As I mentioned in the last post, we have an Apple TV (tv if you're an Apple Geek) in our household. We've decided that we're going to dump our Dish Network service (unless they have a very cheap basic plan available) and just rely on iTunes and the Internet for our entertainment. I already watch old television and movies through Netflix and most of the shows I watch have episodes on the networks' sites. We could get season passes for our most favorite shows (such as The Office) and still save money by ditching the dish for now. The only problem I foresee is stuff on USA (Psych, The 4400, etc) and a few other shows.

Honestly, though, I'll probably survive just fine not seeing any of them. I'm looking for part time work in the evenings and won't have much free time anymore anyway because getting out of this mobile home is becoming an obsession. We stopped in at PetSmart to get Timothy hay for the bunnies and my heart ached seeing all the dogs and their owners. I want to be a dog owner again so bad. This is the first time in my life that nobody in my family has had a dog and I feel lost.

Poor Harry Potter didn't adjust well to life after Hogwarts (according to the comedy troop The Monkey Box. WARNING: The following video has adult themes.

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