Rediscovering Life

Chris and I took a giant step recently. One that would make some of our friends weep openly and question their ability to cope. Many couples would break up in record time if they took this step. But we have faith.

What did we do that was so drastic?

We shut our cable off for the summer.

Yep. And Novus took us seriously. About 3 weeks after the first of the month we came home to static. Last year we cut it down to the basics for the summer and it took them 2 months to make the change.

Cable companies do this for 2 reasons as far as I can tell. One is they hope you change your mind before they get here, the other is that 9/10 cancel requests are place where tenants move and they hope the new occupants will subscribe. Either way a month or two of service costs less than dispatching a warm body, so they leave it on until x amount of time passes or they “have a guy in the area.”

With TV season drawing to a close and our ability to watch shows online increasing daily, plus the impending summer weather (you hear me mother nature?) we want to try to lessen our dependence on the tube.

How’s it going? Other than the 2 – 24 hour delay in watching the 3 or 4 critical shows on TV, it’s good. Rumble gets more playtime, more work gets done, more walks get taken and Chris and I get to spend more quality time together.

Which inevitably means sitting at opposite ends of the couch ignoring each other in favor of our laptops.

I joke. That’s the scary time some other couples would dread. What do you do to fill the time otherwise filled by TV?

I’ll let you know how it goes, but being released from the LCD bonds of the TV feels good so far. Now we watch it on our terms. We may never turn the cable back on.

PS: by never I mean until September.

  • Citytv (CKVU-TV) Now Available in HD (newswire.ca)
  • Novus extends fibre-optic network to Richmond through Canada Line tunnels and guideway (newswire.ca)
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Canadian music suffers

Ringo Star & Justin Bieber

In the past, Canada has put forward a lot of great musicians like Celine Dion, David Foster, Alanis Morrissette, Bryan Adams, k.d. lang, Luba, Leonard Cohen, Sarah McLachlan, Barenaked Ladies, Tragically Hip, Neil Young, Ashley MacIsaac, Randy and Tal Bachman, and the list goes on and on. Click the link above to visit the Wikipedia list. It’s pretty amazing.

Today, we present the modern equivalent. Justin Bieber.

What’s a Justin Bieber? You ask? He’s a 16 year old kid from Stratford, Ontario (read: nowhere) and he taught himself how to play the piano, drums, guitar, and trumpet. In 2007 his mom started whoring him out posting videos on YouTube of him performing songs by Usher, Justin Timberlake and Stevie Wonder.

He’s a tiny little boy who’s talent will probably only last until he hits puberty, but for the time being he’s making teenage girls “swoon” (we’ll call it that for the sake of propriety) all over the place. Ok, I admit, I think he’s relatively adorable, but that swoop of hair across his face is annoyingly cutsie and I just find him generally annoying.

Sadly, this is the current state of Canadian musical talent export. Feel free to check him out at his official site if you wanna be “current” in Canadian “music.”

Dear America. Back-atcha. Canada.

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