Cord Cutting.

I’m not impressed with the choices for “traditional” streaming services available for the American public. Instead of paying for cable TV, which is peppered with hundreds of channels we have no interest in watching, I went searching for a streaming package that would get us some news during this political season.

As an aside, every day has felt like political season since 2016.

Anyway, it would be nice if we could go to a CNN or MSNBC app and buy a stream of just that news. But it’s not possible. The only way one can get CNN (or another news service) is to get in as part of some sort of package. Luckily, AT&T offers AT&T Watch for $15 per month. There’s no contract, no minimum subscription required, so we are giving this a try.

AT&T Watch has quite a few Food Network like channels, a smattering of news, and a bunch of other “secondary” cable channels. I can rationalize $15 a month in the budget, especially since we decided to ditch CBS All Access when “Star Trek: Picard” turned out to be not our cup of tea.

I told my husband we’d probably keep AT&T Watch through the November elections. We can enjoy coverage of the end of the world through the presidential election, the end of the world through the Coronavirus, or the end of the world through an asteroid hit.

Stay tuned.

3 March 2020 by This Ain't No CNN. 0

Queer.

I’m not a fan of the word queer. I never have been, mostly because it was hurled my way too often back in my school days and even though the young gays insist they’re “taking back the word for empowerment”, I still cringe when I hear the word ‘queer’.

I tried embracing the word and taking it back for my personal empowerment a couple of years ago, but old ways die hard for this old gay and the word doesn’t really describe me. I’m gay. I’m eccentric. I can be erratic. I can be flamey from time to time and I’m content just being myself.

Some folks may feel as snug as a bug in a rug and happily embrace the word ‘queer’, it’s just not my thing and I don’t feel part of any queer community. I don’t even feel part of the gay community. I’m just me.

I guess I’m more obsolete than queer.

2 March 2020 by Gayish. 0

Pete.

I was hoping to vote for Pete Buttigieg in the November election. A relatively young guy, Pete had accomplished a lot of what I’ve always wanted to be. Intelligent, multilingual, successful, confident, Pete was the total package. He has great ideas, he’s well spoken, and he was always a steadying force in the wild frenzy of the Democratic debates.

Since he has suspended his campaign, I honestly have no idea as to who I’m voting for, in the Illinois Primary or in November. Warren lost me when she took a DNA test. Klobuchar just rubs me as disingenuous. I can never tell if Biden knows where he is or not and Sanders just screams like the Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz all the time. Politically, the majority of them are trying to out do each other in the crazy department. I have no motivation to vote for anyone in Congress, they haven’t gotten anything done in years. I think Biden missed his chance.

Pete embodied the hope and aspirations I believe we need for this country. I guess I’ll continue to follow him and his lead.

Godspeed Mayor Buttigieg, you’re a good man and you have great ideas. I hope to shake your hand someday.

1 March 2020 by Politics. 0

Sister Act.

It’s amazing, the things that come to mind at times. Whenever it’s time to recite The Lord’s Prayer during a church service, I sing it to myself. I never knew there was a video to accompany this Top 40 hit from the early 1970s.

Here’s Sister Janet Mead with “The Lord’s Prayer”.

https://youtu.be/DZF9rsgKZHw

29 February 2020 by Fun and Games Dept 0

Get Up, Stand Up.

This is still one of my favorite dance tracks of all time, and I find Brandi Emma quite endearing.

Here’s Stellar Project with “Get Up, Stand Up”.

28 February 2020 by DJ 0

Upgrade.

I’m upgraded the monitor in my home office. After staring at two 24-inch Dell monitors that were provided by the office I went ahead and made the decision to move to a single monitor. Chris was selling one of two 31-inch monitors he had and this E series 31-inch curved monitor from Philips is a beauty.

I can fit all the windows I need to do my job on this monitor and still leave a little breathing room between the windows. This helps reduce my stress just a little bit. No more turning back and forth between two monitors with a low resolution and fuzzy fonts.

Interestingly, my Mac Mini runs a heck of a lot cooler with one monitor at 3840×2160 resolution than it did with two monitors running at 1920×1080.

I’m a very happy geek with this purchase.

27 February 2020 by Geek 0

Shear Madness.

Photo courtesy of NewCityStage.com

It’s been a little over 30 years since I first saw “Shear Madness” in the Theatre District, back in the day when I lived in Boston. My first experience with the show was a solo adventure. I remember being enthralled with the idea of a stage show having a variable ending and being so up-to-the-minute with current event references in the dialog. I’ve seen the show a few times since, the most recent being the late 1990s in the same theatre in Boston.

“Shear Madness” is playing at the Mercury Theater around the corner from us here in Chicago. The four of us enjoyed the show very much and all of us were laughing throughout.

There are several important ingredients in this show, the most vital being an ensemble that works well together, and the performers in tonight’s production worked the stage wonderfully as a team.

The production, the set, the approach, all echoed the productions I saw back in Boston, mind you with all the Beantown references removed and replaced with Chicagoisms. Part scripted production, part improv, part stand-up, all of the performers were up to the task of a great performance. Not to give too much away, but there’s a part of the performance where the audience participates (“Big deal, I took a whole place setting.” “Not now, MA!”*). The four of us all contributed (not that there was a test or anything) and even outside of the audience participation portion, I still felt quite engaged with the show.

I’d like to give a special shoutout to Brittany D Parker as Barbara DeMarco and Mary Robin Roth as Mrs. Schubert. The whole cast was very good.

If you get the chance I highly recommend seeing “Shear Madness”. It’s a great escape and a fun time for all.

* Props to those who get that reference from another whodunit scenario.

26 February 2020 by Fun and Games Dept 0

Innocence.

Truman has been a bit wild today. During my lunch break he decided to completely rearrange the cushions on the couch and make himself a nice little fort. He then proceeded to pull pillows out of the cushions.

By the way, my grandmother had a different name for the couch or sofa. She called it “the Davenport”. It always sounded so regal to me.

I think Truman was sensing the changes in barometric pressure as the latest storm system moved in. I poked fun at meteorologists on Twitter this morning because they’ve been screeching and hooting and hollering about the incoming snow storm but one change of so many inches and the predicted foot of snow becomes an inch of snow.

Let’s face it, Mother Nature will do what she wants to do and that’s all there is to it.

And Truman will do the same.

25 February 2020 by He's A Feline. Ponderings and Musings 0

Tuned In.

Obscure photo from the interwebs.

Just to give you an idea of how random my brain can be, here is a picture of a set-top cable box identical to the one my city grandparents had in the mid-late 1970s.

Sing with me if you know it, “Eleven! Eleven ALIVE!”

That was the jingle for WPIX out of New York. One of several “superstations” they received through this analog box. Others included WGN-TV out of Chicago and WTBS-TV from Atlanta. My uncle would fall asleep on the floor in the wee hours of the night watching movies on “Home Box”. We now call that HBO.

The stuff I remember. Whew.

Oh, and the television tuner was always tuned to Channel 4, because in Syracuse we already had channel 3 and that would conflict with the signal coming from the cable tuner.

24 February 2020 by Geek 0

About J.P.

Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.

Weird? Eccentric!

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