This morning when I got up I did my usual vegetative state with my coffee. I was sitting in my recliner and I started meditating about the changes in my entertainment lifestyle. For instance, I used to get up and turn on the TV if my wife was at work. Well, commercials got so bad that I quit watching TV other than NFL football and the movie channels that are non-commercial. I had watched baseball for a lifetime, but I quit watching when they started putting up commercials during the game.
Long ago I deserted watching TV news and switched to reading Google News on-line. Sure, they have ads on the sides but they are not wasting huge amounts of your life like TV. The TV industry is doing what the record industry and the book industry has done. They have a gun in their mouth and are even now slowly squeezing the trigger as they happily listen to the wormy little marketers in their board rooms. Cool imagery, huh?
A lifetime sports fanatic, I began to think more clearly a few years ago. I saw how sports viewing carried to excess was a huge waste of life. I saw how unfair it was to my wife that sports was all that was on our TV. I changed. I started to only watch games in which one of my favorite teams were involved. Bingo! All of a sudden I had more time. Enough time to learn how to play piano or keyboard or fail miserably to play guitar. Enough time to sing my wife a love song. Wouldn't it be sort of tragic to finish your life and review your accomplishments and say, "Hey, at least I watched 100,000 hours of Braves baseball"? And oh, by the way, 50,000 hours of it was totally wasted on commercials. At least get a DVR so you can fast forward through the commercials. All of a sudden you have an extra 1.5 hours out of the 3 hours of the game. Hey, I understand the guys. It's escape from the rigors of life. For some of us it's about the only fun we have and our wives want us to be happy. Just remember that moderation is the key to many problems. Also, you'll be surprised how much more you'll enjoy the sports you do watch.
No one really minded commercials when they were reasonable in duration, frequency and so on. With success came the feeling of entitlement which encouraged them to bite the hand that fed them. So like most of us the industry created their own problems. Satellite TV is the same. Goes up in price almost every month. So video stores get popular. Then kiosks for rentals destroy Blockbuster. Netflix is in the mix. People start to spend their time on line. Which brings us, at last, to the subject in the title of the post.
My TV watching is less than half what it was five years ago. Perhaps as low as a fourth. This is very liberating. TV was a form of bondage, almost. Most of it, especially network shows, is horrible. The I-Pad has become my favorite entertainment option.
I like to play games on the I-Pad, as you know. This morning I read Google News while I drank my coffee. When I was on my western trip and my Jekyll Island trip I did my blog posts on it. I can check for traffic problems on it. I read a book last night, for free, which has been out of print for forty years. You can watch movies on Netflix with it and if you're really desperate you can watch network TV on it. By the way, sports fans who don't hate me now, I recommend an app called CBS football.
The I-Pad's pictures are in a league of their own. The thing makes an awesome digital picture frame, by the way. That alone saves you forty bucks. There's all these fun apps to make your pictures look different. Change your friends' hair, weight or location. Heck, put your head on Brad Pitt's body or a super-model's face on your body. Yes, I have done both. You will never get to see either.
When I was on the road or in my recliner I checked e-mail. Since the I-Pad has an external speaker I listen to my vast music library while I eat supper sometimes. It sounds better through the ear buds but if my wife is home that is not an option. Sometimes when my wife is at work, I'll sit on the deck and multi-task with the padster. I may be on Amazon reading in a discussion forum, listening to music, writing a blog, reading a book or web-surfing. Fully aware that bragging on anyone or anything is a sure way to be disappointed in that thing, I have to make this statement. Of all the things I've bought, in many decades of life, the I-Pad is the best. I take it to work and use it when I take breaks. If you like to make new friends, take it to the library. See what happens.
By the way, I now have a weather app on the device which is so much faster and easier to use than watching 30 minutes of the weather channel on TV before you see the weather for your area. It even has radar. In seconds I can see what the weather is at Jekyll or anywhere.
All this said, there are those trying to mess up a good thing. A few app developers are doing unsavory things. One put out an update strictly for the purpose of adding adds. This was not on a free app but on one which people had bought. I will not mention any names, of course.
Just a little more imagery before I close. In the boardrooms of video game corporations a few years ago they held meetings. The CEO asked the question: "How can we destroy our billion dollar cash cow?" One guy timidly raises a hand. "Sir, we should charge $50 for games when we are getting rich at $20. That way Apple can create an app store, sell games for a dollar or two or three. Then they can run us out of business." The CEO looked at the youngster and said, "Great idea."
From the green retreat. CE Wills
Long ago I deserted watching TV news and switched to reading Google News on-line. Sure, they have ads on the sides but they are not wasting huge amounts of your life like TV. The TV industry is doing what the record industry and the book industry has done. They have a gun in their mouth and are even now slowly squeezing the trigger as they happily listen to the wormy little marketers in their board rooms. Cool imagery, huh?
A lifetime sports fanatic, I began to think more clearly a few years ago. I saw how sports viewing carried to excess was a huge waste of life. I saw how unfair it was to my wife that sports was all that was on our TV. I changed. I started to only watch games in which one of my favorite teams were involved. Bingo! All of a sudden I had more time. Enough time to learn how to play piano or keyboard or fail miserably to play guitar. Enough time to sing my wife a love song. Wouldn't it be sort of tragic to finish your life and review your accomplishments and say, "Hey, at least I watched 100,000 hours of Braves baseball"? And oh, by the way, 50,000 hours of it was totally wasted on commercials. At least get a DVR so you can fast forward through the commercials. All of a sudden you have an extra 1.5 hours out of the 3 hours of the game. Hey, I understand the guys. It's escape from the rigors of life. For some of us it's about the only fun we have and our wives want us to be happy. Just remember that moderation is the key to many problems. Also, you'll be surprised how much more you'll enjoy the sports you do watch.
No one really minded commercials when they were reasonable in duration, frequency and so on. With success came the feeling of entitlement which encouraged them to bite the hand that fed them. So like most of us the industry created their own problems. Satellite TV is the same. Goes up in price almost every month. So video stores get popular. Then kiosks for rentals destroy Blockbuster. Netflix is in the mix. People start to spend their time on line. Which brings us, at last, to the subject in the title of the post.
My TV watching is less than half what it was five years ago. Perhaps as low as a fourth. This is very liberating. TV was a form of bondage, almost. Most of it, especially network shows, is horrible. The I-Pad has become my favorite entertainment option.
I like to play games on the I-Pad, as you know. This morning I read Google News while I drank my coffee. When I was on my western trip and my Jekyll Island trip I did my blog posts on it. I can check for traffic problems on it. I read a book last night, for free, which has been out of print for forty years. You can watch movies on Netflix with it and if you're really desperate you can watch network TV on it. By the way, sports fans who don't hate me now, I recommend an app called CBS football.
The I-Pad's pictures are in a league of their own. The thing makes an awesome digital picture frame, by the way. That alone saves you forty bucks. There's all these fun apps to make your pictures look different. Change your friends' hair, weight or location. Heck, put your head on Brad Pitt's body or a super-model's face on your body. Yes, I have done both. You will never get to see either.
When I was on the road or in my recliner I checked e-mail. Since the I-Pad has an external speaker I listen to my vast music library while I eat supper sometimes. It sounds better through the ear buds but if my wife is home that is not an option. Sometimes when my wife is at work, I'll sit on the deck and multi-task with the padster. I may be on Amazon reading in a discussion forum, listening to music, writing a blog, reading a book or web-surfing. Fully aware that bragging on anyone or anything is a sure way to be disappointed in that thing, I have to make this statement. Of all the things I've bought, in many decades of life, the I-Pad is the best. I take it to work and use it when I take breaks. If you like to make new friends, take it to the library. See what happens.
By the way, I now have a weather app on the device which is so much faster and easier to use than watching 30 minutes of the weather channel on TV before you see the weather for your area. It even has radar. In seconds I can see what the weather is at Jekyll or anywhere.
All this said, there are those trying to mess up a good thing. A few app developers are doing unsavory things. One put out an update strictly for the purpose of adding adds. This was not on a free app but on one which people had bought. I will not mention any names, of course.
Just a little more imagery before I close. In the boardrooms of video game corporations a few years ago they held meetings. The CEO asked the question: "How can we destroy our billion dollar cash cow?" One guy timidly raises a hand. "Sir, we should charge $50 for games when we are getting rich at $20. That way Apple can create an app store, sell games for a dollar or two or three. Then they can run us out of business." The CEO looked at the youngster and said, "Great idea."
From the green retreat. CE Wills
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