Cable TV vs. Internet TV

Recently Eleanor and I decided to downgrade our cable tv from Comcast - the fees and charges were ridiculous. With a landline, internet and a premium digital package we were paying almost $130 a month. RIDICULOUS. It would be justified if the system ran flawlessly, but it certainly was not. In our new, developing neighborhood the internet and cable services would just crap out at any given moment. 

With a lot of my design work relying on the high speed internet this just frustrated the hell out of me. Some days my service would be out for half the day. I would also have to constantly reset my router to get it back up and running. If I called Comcast I would on occasion get prerecorded messages of services being temporarily down.

The landline was specifically added to accommodate a dedicated line to my job, but those calls were far and few between with the Florida and Arkansas offices. Mostly it was from solicitors (I briefly forgot why we even cancelled a landline in Florida in the first place). That line is long gone.

I'm not a huge watcher of daily shows or sitcoms. In fact, I can still watch episodes of Seinfeld when the mood hits and there's a chance I haven't even seen the episode before! I don't know any TV schedules of any particular show, nor am I aware of any new programming out there. Most of my viewing was centered around Travel Channel or Food Network. Sometimes the local news would be on. No Dancing With the Stars, no Survivor XVII, no Burn Notice, nada (although I did get hooked on The Walking Dead on AMC last season).

Eventually we downgraded to regular cable and now basic cable - all 15 channels we are "allowed" to watch. Almost half are dedicated to public access, shopping or spanish. I am not paying for that crap. So more than likely we are killing cable tv altogether. I do like watching the local  news, but shouldn't that be free anyways? 

So on a trial run I subscribed to Netflix. Not the full blown DVD package, but the instant queue for $8/month. I've always been a movie guy and the one saving grave to the digital Comcast package was the ability to watch boxing matches and newer movies on Pay-Per-View. But at $4 a view and $60 for a fight on top of the $130/month bill forget it! Keep yer damn digital package. Netflix for a short time offered a substantial library of movies, but like DVD rentals at a store, eventually you exhaust what you're interested in and the selection of "newer" movies disappears. What to do?

Instead I started trying foreign and indie films. WHOA. A whole world had opened up. The past three months have been a revelation in what American movies have been missing - telling a good story. So far I've actually been into Korean, Chinese and (surprise surprise) Eastern Indian films like Kingdom War 1 & 2, Chocolate and the Warlords. The production can be great and for the most part they rely on a good storyline, whereas American films rely on the absolute best CGI and production tricks to sell a film. I'm not turning my back on the big blockbuster - I do enjoy those. Just lately as I surf Apple for movie trailers I don't see much that's all that appealing. I hate the Twilight and Potter series. Action flicks aren't what they used to be (the Expendables, Fast & the Furious - pleh!) and the funny thing about comedies now are they just aren't all that funny (Hangover 2 - really?).

A recent purchase has been a Roku player to take advantage of my high-speed internet. Now I can get Netflix downstairs. I use the laptop so El and I can watch in bed and I have a Nintendo Wii to watch it in our Master Sitting Room. The only downfall is losing connection on a fairly regular basis - no faut of my wireless router, but of Comast constantly losing its signal. Once I research a less expensive carrier I'm switching. Comcast you blow. You can add more channels to the preloaded Roku, but honestly the ripoffs of Food Network and Travel channel are just plain terrible. What do you expect for free?

For anything I'm missing I can just log onto Hulu or the hosting cable network's own site to watch the latest episodes, but honestly I haven't been jonesing for anything in particular. One unexpected result has been me actually getting out of the house on a regular basis to explore Charleston and its surrounding areas more - that's a plus. No vegging out in front of a monitor unnecessarily. That's what I call a win-win situation.

The Man's "Little Black Dress"

Of course, I'm not literally talking about "a little black dress", but rather the equivalent of it. I had to do some wardrobe updating today. It all started with Eleanor looking for something new to wear to Rya and Todd's upcoming wedding. I pushed her into getting a new "little black dress" and then followed it up by getting her some new black CK pumps (another classic must have for a woman). This, of course, led to picking up accessories and such. This led to her asking me, "what are you going to wear?"

Good question. Since the wedding is in the evening the smart play is to wear a dark suit and I just so happened to have a nice dark pinstripe Kenneth Cole Reaction suit I've been looking for an excuse to wear. This made me think about what to wear with it. Over the years I've gone through the standard style cues of trends of the time. This included the black on black/no tie option, the monochromatic shirt/tie combo (think maroon short/maroon tie, and so on), the suit jacket with jeans/I don't give a damn look, the texture on texture shirt/tie options and so forth. After giving it considerable thought I decided to not try and make a fashion statement and stick with a tried and true option - the white shirt.

Years ago, as a younger me, I would normally shun this option as being too vanilla. I'm a designer damn it and I need to show my more risky, creative side! No more. The last couple of years I've embraced that less is more with all that I do. I did purchase a nice Brooks Brothers version with french cuffs a few years ago during my cufflinks phase. It's a nice classic, cotton piece. Well made. Keeps its shape with no wrinkling. Spread collar. Simple and effective.

Eleanor made me go through all the options of the past that seemed to do well, but I kept going back to the white Brooks Brothers dealio. I paired it with a silver Calvin Klein tie to go with the dark pinstripe suite. Clean and modern. Out of curiosity I put said shirt with a couple of other suits/coats and ties for other upcoming occasions. Again nice results. So I'm sold.

A little older, but wiser I've embraced the man's version of the "little black dress" wholeheartedly. All those fashion experiments over the years and I have come back to the basics. Nothing beats the feel of a crisp, white shirt.

Alot has happened in the past 2 years...

Alot has happened in the past 2 years..., a photo by erickpineda527 on Flickr.

Tonight I decided to water the garden and lawn by hand vs. using the sprinklers. It had been a long day and I guess I needed the quiet night air. Weird how a cool breeze after a long, hot day at dusk can put you somewhere else. It had got me thinking about the past two years and where I had been.

I missed alot of what I did on a regular basis as a way of journaling what had been going on with me and my family. TWO YEARS. I know I:

1. Missed putting entries into my blogger
2. Working with my hands (as evident by the sudden compulsion to immerse myself back into home projects)
3. Understand that I work hard (too hard sometimes?) and forget to take a breather
4. Glad to be back in Charleston closer the people that matter most to me
5. Am enjoying my weekends much more now that I... (see #3)
6. Am contemplating where my career will lead me to next (am I a designer or am i entrepreneurial restauanteur?)
7. That in some ways I still miss Florida (the Gulf beaches, the diversity of GOOD "hole-in-the-wall" eating joints)
8. How much has changed in my career so quickly

...amongst other things. SO what's the next logical thing to write about? How about where I left off after I resigned after 10 years at the Golf Channel.

1. I resigned TGC after 10 years of dedicated work to pursue and grow as a designer
2. Got hired on as art director for Caldwell Group during which time I immersed myself into rebranding and conceptualizing a whole new face for Golden Living.
3. 4 short months later after GL cut the budget from Caldwell I was hired on directly as their art director in which again I immersed myself into helping develop and grow a fledglling internal marketing department.
4. A year later because of personal reasons I decided to move my family back to Charleston, but not before informing my boss that I was thinking of resigning.
5. My boss then asked me to stay on board and work remotely from Charleston (to which I am currently doing)
6. I move to Charleston and sell my home in Orlando all in the very short span of two months later
7. I am back to my roots and quite happy.

There you go. So now about my family...
My wife, Eleanor, was offered two position before we moved to SC and chose to work with her old alma mater Medical University of South Carolina. We now have occasional weekends and nights together (we hadn't actually had any QT for the past 4-5 years after we had kids). My children, Isabella and Nicholas, are cute little knuckleheads whom I adore immensely. I consider myself quite lucky in this regard. They're fantastic kids. I still have my old pal, Bailey, with me. He's been a good dog despite that we don't quite give him the attention we lavished upon him in Florida prior to us having children. Poor guy.

Lately, I've been doing some research in two areas of interest regarding my career. Do I continue on in the field of design (starting over here in SC)? Do I go back to agency life? Do I go freelance? Do I start my own studio? I've got the equipment. I've got the experience, knowledge and skill. I've got the desire to do so.

OR

do I continue exploring my other love - cooking? Anyone who has followed this blog knows my past history and dreams of reactivating my passion in the hospitality field. I have a plan in mind. I've got a solid concept and partners in the wait. It's currently in the planning/development stage. Can;t say what is yet lest I jinx myself.

Ahhh choices, choices, choices. The next question is will I continue down this path of blogging??? I used to enjoy (maybe I still do), but my time to devote to something like this is already limited. I use(d) Facebook, but it's become something of a passing novelty now. I even "cleaned house" a few months ago of "friends" and left only the ones I actually still read or communicate with on a somewhat frequent basis. Social media has its place, but I find it tempting to pull the cord on my FB. There's something liberating about minimizing my personal memos out in cyber land and only including those who know where to find me (here, for example).

Facebook has become MySpace. I don't "collect" friends. I no longer need to validate my existence by having 350+ "friends". Who the hell actually KNOWS that many people? I can count my closest friends on my toes and fingers - not including family and relatives, of course. So overrated.

Alright maybe I will get back in the habit of posting my photos and memoirs here instead of blabbing it out on FB all the time. I kinda miss the nightly ritual of getting on here and just writing whatever...