I just did it. I have lost the battle. I have given up. I\ntried not to do it. With all my might. As much as my poor, frail, meek body\ncould. Not to be a sucker. Not to give into temptation. Not to be a glutton for\nendless entertainment, and all the offers out there. To say no to technology\nand mass media and things I don\u2019t need. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
By golly, I tried. I even sat down, swore it off and read a\nbook. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But I failed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I signed up for Disney+. Another streaming service. Because\nI want Star Wars. And a new Star Wars show called \u201cThe Mandalorian.\u201d I would\nlove to blame it on children. Or demons. Or \u2026 I don\u2019t know \u2026 capitalism! But\nthat\u2019s all a lie. It\u2019s me. I wanted it. I had to have it. I needed to drop more\nmoney on \u2026 another service. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, now I am directing that my paycheck continue to feed my\naddiction. I\u2019m the worst (or if you\u2019re an entertainment provider, the best!)\nkind of customer. I still have my old-fashioned, old-timey cable that comes\ndown from the hills in one of them yesteryear copper wires that the whipper-snapper\nhipsters snicker at because it\u2019s old-school and, like, totally dates me as a \u2026\nI don\u2019t know \u2026 would they say \u201cfuddy-duddy?\u201d Or just dummy? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCable!?!\u201d they say. \u201cThat thing where you flip through 200\nchannels and never find anything to watch? And then you get frustrated, land on\nthe Hallmark Channel and start watching, \u2018Christmas in Phoenix\u2019 because you\nhave to justify all the money you spend. So you actually watch it!!! Dumb old\nfuddy-duddy!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yep, got that. Got to have my live English soccer, and my\ndaughter has 82 shows from 8 years ago DVR-ed that she\u2019ll never watch again. But\nwe can\u2019t part with them. So I have to pay for that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And then, yep, I got my Netflix. Because, honestly, who\ndoesn\u2019t have Netflix? You have to have Netflix. Because if you\u2019ve got cable,\nand you want to feel better about yourself when people are laughing at you, you\nhave to be able to say, \u201cDude, just like step off, OK? Because I\u2019ve totally got\nNetflix!\u201d (And if you actually say that, people will literally start rolling around\non the ground in hysterics. But, after they stop laughing, they will at least\nadmit, \u201cWell, at least it\u2019s not Hulu.\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And I\u2019ve got my shows on Netflix. And my wife and daughter\nhave their shows on Netflix. So we pay some money to Netflix. Once I\u2019m done\nwith my shows, I go on Netflix and I flip through like 200 different streams\nand not one of them has anything I want to watch. So then I land on \u2026\n\u201cChristmas in Phoenix\u201d by the Hallmark Channel. Because, you know, it was really\ngood!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And I\u2019ve got Amazon Prime Video. Because I can get shipments\nof my hair conditioner with the mango chai scent in like 23 seconds. Which\nmeans I can also stream all their videos. So I go on there and scroll around\nand then settle on \u2026 \u201cChristmas in Phoenix.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And I might need to add (don\u2019t tell the hipsters) Hulu. Because\nI\u2019m thinking my family should binge the TV show, \u201cLost.\u201d It\u2019s exclusively on Hulu.\nSo, I better add that. Cha-ching!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And of course, back to Disney+. That\u2019s their new streaming\nservice for movies and TV. Heard about it? It has that strategic \u201c+\u201don the end.\nThis just means I added another entertainment provider. Which really means \u2026\ncha-ching! But I had to do it. Because, you know, \u201cThe Mandalorian!!!\u201d And I\nhave to watch that. Because \u201cboo!\u201d books. And \u201cboo!\u201d cable. And \u201cboo!\u201d\npaycheck. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And, before you know it, I\u2019ll be scrolling through that one\ntoo, and I\u2019ll land on \u2026 you guessed it \u2026 \u201cChristmas in Phoenix.\u201d Because, man,\nthat was a really great movie. And, after all, I AM paying for it. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I just did it. I have lost the battle. I have given up. I tried not to do it. With all my might. As much as my poor, frail, meek body could. Not to be a sucker. Not to give into temptation. Not to be a glutton for endless entertainment, and all the offers out there. To say no to technology and mass media and things I don\u2019t need. <\/p>\n
By golly, I tried. I even sat down, swore it off and read a book. <\/p>\n
But I failed. <\/p>\n
I signed up for Disney+. Another streaming service. Because I want Star Wars. And a new Star Wars show called \u201cThe Mandalorian.\u201d I would love to blame it on children. Or demons. Or \u2026 I don\u2019t know \u2026 capitalism! But that\u2019s all a lie. It\u2019s me. I wanted it. I had to have it. I needed to drop more money on \u2026 another service. <\/p>\n
So, now I am directing that my paycheck continue to feed my addiction. I\u2019m the worst (or if you\u2019re an entertainment provider, the best!) kind of customer. I still have my old-fashioned, old-timey cable that comes down from the hills in one of them yesteryear copper wires that the whipper-snapper hipsters snicker at because it\u2019s old-school and, like, totally dates me as a \u2026 I don\u2019t know \u2026 would they say \u201cfuddy-duddy?\u201d Or just dummy? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[575,559],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2019-nutshells","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2001"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2002,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2001\/revisions\/2002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}