More to Watch than Cable

After finally deciding to cut my symbolic cable cord, the hard part was convincing pomfast (the cable company who's name will not be said). I called pomfast and said I wanted to cancel my cable...what I thought would be a ten minute conversation turned into a thirty minute argument. At first the woman was nice, asking me what I liked to watch and then offering me deal after deal to get me to stay. They even offered me a 6-month promotion where my internet speed would be higher and I would have the exact same cable for $50 (about half of what I was paying). This was quite tempting, as one of the main reasons for ending my cable was money. But I stayed strong and politely said I was not interested in continuing cable of any fashion - just internet. That is when the lady got nasty and berated me for not taking such a generous offer. I ended up with slower internet for ~$46/month...same price as fast internet and my previous cable - makes sense.

So for those of you thinking about quitting - prepare yourself for a stressful conversation and stay strong!

So what can you do without cable? The possibilities are endless, and that's what I want to blog about. So a really easy thing I discovered you can do is watch something other than cable - birds, in this case. Yes, I know, sounds a little "elderly" of me, but birds are fascinating, social and quite entertaining. I had my boyfriend safely secure a bird feeder to my balcony one weekend and since then I have identified about 10 different kinds of birds. From the incredibly shy cardinals to the fearless sparrows, the bird world is loving my freedom from cable. They have a unique hierarchy for who gets to eat and I have gotten to know the pairs who nest in the trees outside my apartment. And don't worry for you urbanites with fewer outdoor ecosystems...I live in a pretty urban area and I'm pretty sure if you build it, they will come.

My cats, too, have greatly enjoyed this new addition to the balcony. Although they haven't figured out how to be too sneaky yet.

Until next time...turn off and tune into life.
-Becca

Sans Cable.

(stands up and waves) Hi, I'm Rebecca Logsdon, and I was addicted cable television. You name it, I watched it, from Disney to PBS to MTV and TLC. My most recent obsession was the Food Network: Chopped, Restaurant Impossible, Iron Chef, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives...I watched it all. When I came home from school (I'm currently a graduate student), the first thing I did was turn on the TV, plop on the couch and numb my mind and body with the ever-dependable cable TV. The TV stayed on...even when I went to sleep. Yep, I couldn't fall asleep without it on (I did use the sleep timer to save energy, though). TV was always there for me, to entertain me, to teach me, and most importantly to provide an escape. TV was my drug and I didn't even realize it.

So how did I finally get the cojones to finally "just say no"? I'd like to think it was motivated by a sense of "sticking it to the man" - showing the big cable conglomerate (which shall not be named, but rhymes with pomfast) that they didn't control me, but it was more than that. As I said before, I am a graduate student...and for anyone who knows about graduate school, you know we work many hours for very little pay. So, with an ever tightening belt, I started reviewing my expenses vs. what benefits I was getting from my expenses. A red flag went up with my cable bill. I was spending about $100 a month for TV and internet...and what was I gaining from it? Occasionally I would learn something new, but was it worth that much of my hard-earned stipend? As I thought about this, I also thought about my productivity levels when the TV was on...and they were low.

At the same time as these thoughts were rolling through my head I also was going through my grad school mid life crisis (as I like to call it). I had just finished my preliminary exams - which means I had about a year until I could finally graduate with my Ph.D. Well that's (excuse my language), fucking scary. I started thinking about life and what I wanted to be and all that I hadn't done. I tried to remember what made me happy (outside my wonderful friends, family and love of my life), and I came up with nothing. I had been so entrenched in graduate school and developing my career that I had lost my sense of self.

After talking to a few lovely ladies I knew that had ditched their cable, I made my decision. I was going to quit cable cold turkey and use my free time to discover new interests, passions and myself. Turns out, that was the easy part...the hard part - actually cutting the cord with pomfast - was yet to come. So join me as I blog about all the adventures, discoveries and joys that I have found, in my life sans cable.