• 32″ Westinghouse LCD (SK-32h240s)
• Wii  (two controllers and nunchucks )
• 2.1 Logitech speaker set we got from eMusic four years ago for being awesome (that’s what they told us anyway).
• Mac Mini (1.83GHz, Combo Drive, 1GB RAM, 80GB Primary, 400GB USB)

Our experience…

• iTunes hates everything and commands all input devices like a jackbooted thug
• Power settings needed to be tweaked in order to keep the display from sleeping while we watched anything on Netflix or Hulu
• The keyboard is gorgeous, light, and responsive
• The mouse pairs fast after being turned on and is very responsive
• DVD playback is smooth and fast, far better than the Memorex player we were using)
• Netflix Instant is amazing

In the works…

• Importing 33000+ song collection
• Ripping Gabi’s Sesame Street DVD’s so that discs are less likely to get damaged
• Set up feed reader so we can browse news easily
• Import our photo collection

Years ago I took a media studies course as part of my undergraduate degree, it blended rhetorical analysis, social psychology, and communication theory with the goal of examining how people use media and in turn how media uses people.  Media consumption is a two way street, viewers consume and in turn are consumed.  The first lesson of class was looking at the business model of television and I, like many in the class, viewed ourselves as the customer or the target for the networks.  That perception of the relationship could not have been further from the truth.

What I can away with from that class was that I am never the customer, I am always the product, advertisers are the customer and the content created is essentially bait for media companies to fish for viewers.  For years that understanding left me unsettled in the back of my mind and with Gabriella arriving it has surged forward to sit on top of my thoughts.  I don’t like the thought of being a “target” and when I think of my daughter being a “high value target” I am very uncomfortable.

Granted economics, like most everything in this world, is the primary initiator.  The savings we will realize is substantial, nearly $1500/year USD, but there are also the intangibles.  We will control our consumption patterns and hopefully avoid the narcotic trap of “television as ambiance” and in the process raise our daughter to be critical of the messages that swirl about the media-sphere.  My hope is that this decision will make it easier for her to ask those very important questions of “What is being said?”, “Why is it being said?”, “Who is saying it?”, and “How is it being said?”.  My dream for her is that she always questions everything even if sometimes it is only to herself.

We’ll see how the project goes and I’ll be writing about it here, from the challenges of wiring up the living room for a media center to the withdrawl from having television as a one-dimensional companion.  If we are lucky we will learn more about ourselves, each other, and the culture in which we swim.

Well, more like, bye-bye Dish Network.  Management and I sat down and talked about everything from the economy playing out like the Titantic to how much TV we actually watch and came to the conclusion that we are not getting $120 a month worth of anything from it.  Our solution? We are ditching it.  Completely.  Moving on to cable? Nope.

Here’s our crazy idea. GreenCine for our main DVD rentals, Netflix account for streaming, and an Xbox 360 for watching the streams and playing games.  All together it is a little less than $30 a month so we are looking at a net savings of $90 a month and if we cancel the gym and spa memberships we will be saving around $260 per month.  Sure we have the up front cost of the Xbox but that really is only 20% of the annual cost of Dish.
We are thinking that the end of this month is when we’ll leap feet first into the “post television” era, just in time for the Holidays.

The thought is that we should be making cutbacks to our lifestyle before we are forced to and to truly make an effort to live as far below our means as we can.  We have, over the past year, been consciously cutting back on dining out and delaying or not making purchases that aren’t of an immediate need.  The hope is that we can put our lifestyle on a diet so that when lean times hit they won’t feel so lean.

If anything we’ll be saving some money and maybe have more time to read a book and who knows maybe it will all work out and television as a monolithic service will be nothing but an expensive memory.

The first day was gray and ominous but it captured well that slow fuzzy-headed feeling that had enveloped us over the past couple of months.  With no real agenda we stumbled into odd little nooks and crannies like an abandoned summer camp miles down a dead-end that was listed on our GPS as being a restaurant only to find solace in friendly people at places like Ozzies Steak and Eggs.

After checking into the hotel Management took a long nap and I wandered about abandoned buildings and train yards in the rain.

By Sunday morning, the skies cleared and we awoke bleary eyed to bright blue skies.

It was a fine weekend and got us thinking about shaking off suburbia, now and then, and seeing what lay outside our towns and off the highways.

There are men - now in power in this country - who do not respect dissent, who cannot cope with turmoil, and who believe that the people of America are ready to support repression as long as it is done with a quiet voice and a business suit. — John Lindsay

Thirty-eight years later it still carries the same weight if not more.

As usual it is invigorating to cast my ballot but that isn’t to say I am exactly thrilled with the country’s prospects and I can only hope that my fellow citizens open their eyes to see the real motivation beyond the “Values Vote” and the endless fear mongering that has dominated the national dialog for the last 7 years.  Our grip on the process beyond slipping and our grasp beyond tenuous.  We do not own the process and in the “ownership society” are becoming more akin to serfs laboring in a corporate feudal system.

When you go to the poll ask yourself hard questions about your canidate of choice.  Question their motivation.  Ponder what is at stake for them and what is at stake for you.  And think deeply on who “owns” them because very likely they do not and will not answer to the electorate.  Maybe if we keep questioning real change will occur.