Cutting the Cord - How My Family Cancelled Cable

About six months ago, I decided it was time for my family to cut the cable TV cord. There were several factors that went into this decision.

One, my cable bill went up to over $200 a month. I called to ask wtf and was told that I was on some kind of graduated billing where my bill increased over three years to it's final $200+ that it was. This is for both cable and Internet. Considering how much TV we actual watch, this number was unacceptable.

Secondly, we'd had a little experiment with no cable for about three weeks when our house was struck by lightning and our cable wasn't working. This was my fault because I didn't feel like calling a tech out to the house. In that time, we streamed Netflix like it was cool. We had, at the time, 1 TB of data to use per month and almost hit that limit. And we didn't really miss the cable.

Thirdly, there are so many options out there that allow for you to customize what you want and what you watch. With Google Chromecast, Roku, Hulu, and Netflix (to name a few), there are so many subscriptions and packages to choose from that you can ensure that you're paying for what you want and not for what cable companies force on you.

So, we bought a Roku, cancelled the cable, and upped our Internet to 2 TB a month with a faster speed (not sure what that is). This is the biggest Internet package my cable company offers and it's $99.99 a month. Add in $11.99 for Netflix (that we were already paying so doesn't really count), $7.99 for Hulu, $22.46 for Sling, and $4.99 for FUBO and we're saving money. We're saving about $65.00 a month. What's more, is that the things we are choosing to pay for are things we actually watch. With cable, we were paying $200 for channels we were never watching.

I miss my subscriptions to STARZ, Showtime, and HBO but I can add those if I wish to. I don't at the moment.

Additionally, in anticipation of the 2016 Olympics, we bought a digital antenna and now we get all of our local broadcast channels like NBC, CBS, and ABC. We don't get FOX because we live too far and that's a bummer, but it's nice having those channels again and being able to watch the local news.

What I really like about our television watching subscriptions is that we can cancel them and resubscribe or add new stuff (Sling has add on packages plus HBO, etc.) any freaking time we want to. If you've been thinking about cutting the cord, DO IT!! I have absolutely no regrets.

A Reason to Rejoice

You already know about my altoholic-ism, right? I think that also extends to the want I have to play many games. I have to stop right here and wonder if I'll ever truly grow up, lmao!!

I have a PC that's about five years old and a MacBook Pro that's about 2 1/2 years old. Hardly any of the guts of my PC are the original parts. I've replaced things like memory and video cards as they've become outdated. Even so, or maybe because of this, it sucks. I can't do ANYthing on it anymore. When I play games, any game at all, I get about 10-20 minutes of play time before I get the blue screen of death. The other day, after letting it sit dormant for a couple months, I decided to give it another try. While wandering about Pandaria, my cat escaped out the window and onto the roof. During the ten minutes it took me to get him off the roof and back into the house, my computer crashed. I sit back down, winded, irritated, and dirty only to see a blue screen. Talk about frustration. I've tried troubleshooting the issue and can't find anything useful on the net. I bought a new vid card, upgraded Windows, blah blah. I'm thinking it's a motherboard issue.

During all the PC downtime, I've been playing WoW on my Mac. It's an ok solution if you don't have an alternative. But the sound sucks (my PC has speakers that'll knock your socks off), the screen is small, the mouse is inadequate, and I have to turn the graphics almost all the way down just so my frame rate will go about 10 fps. Plus, playing on a Mac means absolutely no GW2 since they don't have a Mac client and the frame rate on D3 is so bad I can't function.

Yesterday, I finally broke down and bought a new computer. I put it off for a good two years. Going back to the growing up thing, I feel pretty silly buying a new computer just so that I can play games on it. When it comes to school and business, I do everything on my Mac. So seriously, a new PC's use will be about 99% game play. I rationalized finally making this purchase because my kids like to play the Sims and we don't have a computer capable of handling that game anymore.

I would put my new build on here but I'd probably get made fun of, lol. Despite the fact that I bought a gaming PC, I still went mid-range on components because I can't justify spending much over $1000 on it. It meets and exceeds the minimum requirements for both WoW and The Sims 3 and that was my bottom line. All in all, I can't wait for next week to get here when it gets delivered.

Survey Time!

I found this blog surfing the other day. I wasn't tagged to do it, but I don't let that stop me. Props go to Zanbon.

1. If you could be any height, what would it be?

I'm 5'4 1/2" so I would go another 1 1/2 inches. I've always thought that 5'6" is the ideal female height.

2. Would you rather be able to talk to all birds, or all fish?

I've never seen this question before. Probably birds so that I could ask them what it's like to be able to fly. And to be able to tell them to stfu when they squawk too much. Cuz dang, birds are loud.

3. What historical figure would you most want to visit?

There are absolutely TONS but if I could pick just one I'd say Marie Antoinette. I'd like to tell her to take her family and freaking leave France while they still had the chance.

4. What is something you’ve always wanted to do with your hair but never have? (and if you have done it, post pictures)

You know the show Amsale Girls? First of all, I don't admit to watching this show. It's on the WE channel following Frasier some days which I do watch and maybe sometimes I just don't change the channel. Anyway, I LOVE Emily's hair. I wish I had the guts to try cutting my hair like that.

5. Favorite book you ever read?

I couldn't possibly answer this question. I've read and loved so many books over the years. I will just say that every book I have on my shelves and on my Nook are my favorites.

6. What was the last movie you cried during and why?

I don't remember. The last movie I watched was Friends with Benefits and that movie was just freaking hilarious. I don't watch movies too often.

7. Cake or pie?

Pie. Apple if you have it.

8. If you were a starter pokemon, would you be grass, water, or fire type and why?

I've never played Pokemon for the first time in my life. Have no idea how to answer this one. Fire? Because Fire! Fire!

9. Do you believe in alien life?

I believe in the definite possibility of alien life. The universe is too vast of a place to assume life only exists on Earth. It's really a naive and presumptuous assumption.

10. What sport/activity did you enjoy as a child?

I didn't play sports in school. As a kid, I enjoyed swimming, playing tag and hide and go seek, make believe, riding my bike, and reading. I grew up in the days where we played outside until the street lights came on and we used this thing called an imagination to entertain ourselves.

11. What is your perfect date?
June 20th or whatever day the summer solstice is on.

If you read this, consider yourself tagged. ;) Hey. It's easy content for us NBIers.

Personas: Real vs Gaming

 I figured it's best to start precedences as early as possible and thought I'd end my first week with a somewhat off topic post. Do you keep separate accounts for your "real" self and your gaming self? I'll admit right here, right now that I do. I would hope nobody's mother would name them Maruka, heheh. But why? I do so for several reasons. Allow me to explain.

For one reason, I do my very best to keep my kids' online identities private. I'm careful about where I post their pictures and mention their names. I don't like it when other people post their pictures or mention their names online. There are too many predators out there. I want to make connections with other gamers and bloggers, but if I've never met you in person and in real life, then you don't get to know who my kids are.

Secondly, professionally, it's best to keep those two parts of my life separate because so many people are judgmental about gamers. Do they have the right to be? No. But that's the case and there isn't much I can do to change it. I don't want to lose potential income because of a leisurely pastime.

Thirdly, and this goes with secondly, I don't like dealing with the stigma that comes with being a gamer. My husband and I don't tell too many people that we play WoW. It's really nobody's business what we do with our free time as long as it's legal and we aren't neglecting our kids. But still. There it is.

This has resulted in my having multiple Twitter accounts, e-mail accounts, and G+ accounts. I've debated setting up a Facebook for Maruka but have yet to do so. I don't know if I can manage all that and actually make use of it. Does it bug me? Not all that much. It's kinda nice keeping things organized in that way. It really irritates me when I accidentally tweet something to the wrong account though.

What's your take? Am I too obsessive about this or am I not alone with juggling multiple personalities??