Killed Our TV, Well the Cable Anyway

When I deployed and Wifey went home we canceled the tv, internet, etc all. During the last year the cable company changed the services they offer. They added a couple channels and made it 'digital' then almost doubled the cost. We were not happy with the value of the service BEFORE the price almost doubled. It went up to $80 IIRC which we just were not going to pay.

Also we have another significant consideration, we now have a small child. Babies don't notice things like TV but toddlers sure do. So we decided to drastically cut down on our TV watching. In the past the TV was just kind of on most of the time. As background noise more often than not. Well that needed to change.

We have AFN (which is a few (4 or 5 I think) networks put together by the military to provide US news and entertainment to service members all over the world) which is sufficient. We watch a bit of cartoons with the kid every day, sometimes for him and sometimes for us to get a breather. After he goes to bed we watch a bit of TV before hitting the hay.

Wifey doesn't miss watching more TV. I sort of miss the news in the morning while drinking coffee. I have started listening to news online which is not a bad substitute. Wifey listens to the radio during the day. We don't plan to cut TV out entirely, just to cut it back. Wifey enjoys some shows and The Walking Dead on Saturday night is the highlight of my entertainment week.

If you are short on money and time but still have cable or satelite you might want to consider this.

In Case You Are Bored

I was recently able to see the 2010 remake of True Grit. I hesitate to compare it to the original as it is hard to beat John Wayne and all but in any case it was a solidly enjoyable film. Jeff Bridges did a great job as Rooster Cogburn and I appreciated that they were able to update the dialog and some of the situations while still saying true to the original. Definitely worth watching.

For fiction Full Black by Brad Thor was enjoyable. Definitely a thriller and faster paced than Clancy or your average spy/ intrigue book. Came away with some interesting ideas and was solidly entertained.

Speaking of Tom Clancy I am most of the way through his new book Locked On. I read all of his older fiction but stopped when he went to a loosely ghost written format with different characters. In this book he seems to be back in true form with the characters we have came to be fond of. I am about halfway through it and would definitely suggest it to anyone who enjoys that genra.

I am catching episodes of The Walking Dead when they are on AFN here. I am probably terminally lost until I come back to the states and can fill in the blanks but I an enjoying it none the less.

Anyway that is what I have been enjoying for fiction and movies lately.

Homework Assignment Of The Week

One night this week I challenge you to entertain yourself without electricity or electrical/ electronic stuff. Not saying that you need to flip the breaker, cook dinner on the coleman stove and all that (that would be another assignment). Simply your assignment is to entertain yourself and your family for an evening without TV, computers, the internet, cell phones, etc.

Read a book, play cards, bust out those old board games or just talk. You might even enjoy it.

Home Brewing Day 1

Day one took place about a week after day zero. The yeast had finally done its thing and was ready to participate in the whole venture. So it was finally time to make some beer.

To start off I sanitized everything. The kit I got came with some solution but you can do the same thing with some bleach and hot water.  Anyway getting everything clean is real important. I then poured four gallons of water into my giant brewing pot. Put the stove on high and waited. Then I waited some more. After that I waited for awhile. It took like an hour and twenty minutes to get the water to boil. In hindsight either putting the water into 2 or 3 pots to get the initial boil or purchasing a turkey fryer to speed things up would be smart.

So after a long time and a delightful Chimay beer the water finally boiled. At this point I added the malt and the sugar stirring them in well. After the re boil I waited five minutes and then put in the first batch of hops. The brew boiled for 50 minutes and I added the second batch of hops. After the wort had boiled for an hour it was time to cool it. I quickly discovered that my kitchen sink did not have sufficient space to hold enough cold water to cool 4 gallons of wort. I grabbed the pot and took it to the bathtub and filled it with 8 inches or so of cold water. It had sufficient mass to cool the wort.

Once the wort was cooled to 85 degrees I poured it into the fermenter. I took the fermenter and put it in a cool dark place then cleaned up. That ended day one.

Spoiling Myself a Bit

My birthday was awhile back. Since sending gifts to us is kind of problematic (timely, expensive, etc) I asked some of my family for Amazon gift cards. I got a couple gift cards and they have been sitting around in my in box. Today I decided to spend them on something completely frivolous. Usually I am pretty practical with my money but every once in awhile it's nice to get something you just want.

I ordered about a half dozen Spencer novels as well as Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics and The Theory of Money and Credit by Ludwig von Misses. The latter two were just sort of tossed in after the fact. Spencer novels are something I really enjoy. A good book that I can pick up and read 50 pages of if I am bored but not need to pick up again. I read them over and over again so they are a good value. I can't wait for them to arrive in the mail. 


Assignment: I am not going to tell you what to spend, though if you can't come up with $10-20 then seriously reexamine your life, and spend it on something you want and totally don't need. Got to live and enjoy life now and then.