My Dog Wears Diapers

Normally, I’m not the gloating type. You’ll never see me pulling a Sharpie or cell phone out of a concealed location following a rousing play in a pick-up game, though I have entertained the idea of changing my name to “Palidogringo.” But I have to celebrate my recent quasi-victory over my cable company, despite the fact that it took two months and five phone calls.

Here’s the deal: I’m about to have a little one in the house (see here for more on that), and I don’t want him watching several hours of TV per day from the moment he comes home. When you’re a critter, that stuff should be limited to Sesame Street and, well, just other PBS shows. Increased time in front of the TV (or monitor) has caused obesity rates to soar and worsening political and civil ignorance.

Moreover, I resent paying hundreds of dollars to one company for a super-happy-joy-joy bundle of services thanks to their monopoly on my neighborhood. Besides, I watch maybe 1% of our 2,000 channels and don’t even use the landline phone they provide. The solution? Cut them out of the loop as much as possible and get my entertainment from the Interwebs.

I did it by buying an HTPC—in this case, an Acer Revo 3610—and hooking it up to our receiver and TV in the living room. Bam! Instant online gratification, which sounds dirtier than it is. Between Hulu, YouTube, and other content providers, I’m not missing out on much by limiting my cable consumption to a dozen channels (again, most of which aren’t watched).

I’m also switching from Vonage to Ooma, which should save a pretty penny per month (and the quality is great, incidentally). When it’s all said and done, we’ll be saving a decent amount—and sticking it to The Man, which I just like saying. Awesome.

UPDATE: I may have to rethink this decision, as it’s been brought to my attention that my cable/phone conglomerate has added new channels. Take a look at what they tweeted about it:

Something tells me the former will be a bigger hit here in Texas.