Disconnected

For the first time in my life I’m living in a home that doesn’t have a working television. Well it works, it’s just not hooked up to anything other than a DVD player. When my roommate moved out he took the DirectTV bill with him. I figured I would sign a new contract within a month, but, I think I’m good.

I thought my life without television would be so much incredibly better. I figured my house would be cleaner, I’d read more, I’d write more, and honestly that hasn’t been the case. TV isn’t the massive distraction I thought it was, rather it was a source of background noise, and an excuse to sit still for a few hours. Getting rid of that hasn’t made me productive, a better reader or a more dedicated writer. It hasn’t made me more social either, which I kinda thought would happen.

The reality is that so much TV is available free on the net these days. Through Hulu or station’s websites I can find most everything that I want to watch, legally, for free. The only thing I can’t find legally is sports.

Not having cable, or broadcast, means no live sports. Fortunately, I have friends who are big football fans that I can watch games with (Hi Charlie ), and there’s sports bars and other outlets, but for Indycar racing those options don’t exist. So I was left with the prospect of paying $70 a month for satellite on the back end of a two-year contract or going without. Basically I would be paying $840 a year, largely just for Indycar.

There is another option though.

I did not know this but people have started posting torrents of Indy races on the web. So I can down load the races, watch it on Monday morning and not miss much. Indycar, if you’re reading this blog I want to respect your copyright on races, I do, but in this economy I think it’s asking a bit much for me to spend that kind of cash just to watch your races. This is from a guy whose family goes to Barber Motorsport Park each year.

Yep, the web is a fire that will eventually consume all forms of media.
Also, if one of my more tech savvy friends could teach me how to hook up my laptop to my TV, that would be awesome.