We Don't Walk Slow

TV and the Act of Doing

This is a simple concept that smart/experienced TV watchers understand that flies over the heads of unintelligent/no concept of efficiency people. I don’t like having to wait or be forced to do something when I watch TV. This is why the number 1 way to watch TV is to DVR your show and 5x through the commercials. HBO and Showtime give a mini preview in the beginning (which 2xing through isn’t that bad) and then you can watch the rest uninterrupted. Completely acceptable. The major culprits of this thought are FX, AMC, and other cable channels that don’t individually collect for service. What happens? They have introduced a fast forward block on their programs in OnDemand. This ruins the viewing experience and I actually stopped watching The Walking Dead because it was unbearable to sit through commercials. Allow me to explain.

Sam and I both agree that we don’t like watching DVD’s or BluRay because it commits you to that program. We’d rather watch 15 minutes of a movie we already have seen on TV than go through the trouble of DVD. The process of getting up, grabbing the DVD, inputting it into the player, and then waiting is overbearing. This was the same with The Walking Dead that I described earlier. I started it up and it’s 1 hour long. When the 1st commercial break was on I couldn’t fast forward or change the channel. The not changing the channel is the key here because when I watch it live I don’t have to watch commercials and can skip through other programs. Being forced to sit through AMC commercials, any commercials really, isn’t right. It’s unfair. Unfortunately it’s how out world works and the populations smartest minds are being put to work on how to make people watch commercials.

Morons watch commercials. It’s the epitome of being brain washed and not doing anything but allowing yourself to fall under corporate s(p)ell. Avoiding commercials at all costs is the sign of someone who watches too much TV and understands this reasoning. It’s fairly simple to pick up on how well versed someone is when they watch TV. Just off on the tangent, when people don’t fly through channels with the guide, I feel it’s my place to point it out and take over remote control duties. Not watching in HD is another sure sign of a rookie. Back on topic, I ended up turning off the Walking Dead (a program I really wanted to watch nonetheless) and put on Eastbound and Down, Season 4 Episode 1, and it was phenomenal. 30 minutes of uninterrupted watching was exactly what I was looking for and I ended up DVR’ing Walking Dead on a later time slot so I wouldn’t have to put up with the commercial nonsense.

This brings me to what should be concluded from the whole experience? Most people watching TV won’t reason like me and do what I did. They’ll sit through the hour long OnDemand version of the Walking Dead and watch the 20+ minutes of commercials. In that time, they could be watching an entire episode of something else. People don’t hold this time as valuable though because in their minds they are relaxing even when they are watching commercials. We all know advertising works and it works because people are too stupid to not notice it. I understand this won’t relate to many people, hardly any people most likely, but to someone who watches a lot of TV, these cable networks and the OnDemand are blowing it. Let the consumer watch your show. We’ll like you more for it. It reminded me of the article Brookes showed me on David Byrne of Talking Heads and how he was complaining the musicians aren’t making their fair share off of Spotify and it was killing creativity. My answer to him and the networks would be that they’re not creative enough in problem solving. The consumer wants to be treated fairly and will pay for products they want/need. Making us watch 20 minutes of commercials isn’t one of those answers. Create something that I want to pay for. I read some guy wanted to release 6 minutes segments of new Breaking Bad’s (before it concluded) that you had to pay a buck for. I would do this because I want to. I don’t like watching commercials because they want me to. MONUMENTAL DIFFERENCE.

By Tom Stortz|2013-10-16T00:07:21-04:00October 16th, 2013|My Brain|1 Comment

Welcome to a Home – Step by Step Instructions

My life has turned into a step by step manual. Everything I’ve been doing lately has been new and requires a tutorial. What’s been happening is that since a lot of these endeavors are first time things to me, I’ve been doing them fairly well but not exactly right. Although I’m sure you can “chalk it up to experience”, I have a boatload of items that aren’t done correctly due to my ineptitude or lack of knowledge. This is probably easier in list format.

Installation of a new sink

The picture is a pretty good depiction of what my sink looks like. When I bought the house I knew that the faucet was loose. The guy doing the inspection mentioned something that it’s a simple fix with a washer. So when I get to this little project, I’m not too sure where the simple part lied. After un-screwing the faucet, there were a bunch of pieces and nothing seemed easy. I decided on purchasing a new faucet to solve the problem. Simple enough except that the faucet I bought didn’t match up directly with the sink. I had to drill holes through a piece of wood for it to stay and then still the plastic washers were too big for the sink holes so I couldn’t secure the sink properly. I ended up putting putty around the sink and it’s functional and sturdy but I know it’s not how a plumber would have handled it. The installation of the pipes though was the easiest part which I was most worried about. I will say though that that tight area under the sink definitely drew a few swear words out of me.

The Ikea Vortex

If I go the rest of my life and never have to see an IKEA instruction manual I will die a happy man. In the past week I’ve built in this order: 1) Bureau 2) Desk 3) Chairs 4) TV Stand 5) Desk Chair. The bureau went well and took 4 hours with only 2 minor mistakes that took place in the drawers but wasn’t costly. The desk was put together 100% successfully. Laura and I made a minor error in the slats on the chair and have the velcro pointed the wrong way. I made an error in the TV stand on step 2 and it made the entire project wrong. I have a board that goes vertically flipped around and now the cabinets only open 3 inches and the wood is exposed. There is no going back. The desk chair was the easiest and currently working fine. These 5 projects probably took about 10 hours of my life and I wouldn’t care to do it again. Ikea is reasonably priced for what you get and that’s all I have to say about that.

Photoshop Tutorial

I’ve been watching a 27 part series on Youtube of how to use photoshop. It’s been pretty overwhelming but the more I use it the more I pick up on how to make the pictures look better. If you’ve been following the past few days you can tell I’m having some fun and I have to think I’ll continue to improve. I’m also looking at learning German as I’m planning a trip in a few months so it would be good to know. The photoshop though will take this blog to another level.

Comcast Headache

I get a bill from Comcast that says $334.44. I know that at the end of August I suspended service, transferred service to my new place, and I even had a 70 dollar credit because I was all paid up early. So this bill was much to my surprise. After a phone call for 20 minutes I got the billing all straightened and needed to activate my 2nd box for action. I waited another 25 minutes and went through the process of getting the box activated. I hook up the TV yesterday and I don’t get any channels. It’s typical Comcast. I love their service, I really do, but their service is incredible. Not good incredible, just unbelievable. I’m trying one more time tonight and then I’m going apeshit.

Miscellaneous Issues
The lock I complained about last entry still isn’t fixed. My cords around my TV are everywhere. I have a desk and a table in the living room that have no place to go. I didn’t know what day trash day was so I have an inordinate amount of trash. I’m getting a couch delivered tomorrow. I have city parking now. I’m way behind on Homeland, Boardwalk Empire, Walking Dead, and Eastbound and Down but at least I can watch now. I finally was able to run today even though my knee isn’t strong enough for full speed and I had to cut it short at 3 miles but at least I can get a sweat in again. Work is relatively good though as the new website launched today. Life is good, stay tuned.