Cable TV is Killing TV

I don't care what cable service you have, in some shape or form it is a rip off, there is no other choice for the consumer except to act in a slow motion boycott and I am happy to know that is exactly what is going on. The reason for this blog post is to communicate to the TV watching community that it is up to us to say no to the cable companies and that includes Dish TV and Direct TV, they are just as guilty.

Now do to the fact I don't have a study job, I guess I should not apply at the companies I mention in this post. I am sure this will somehow show up in a background search. But sometimes you must speak up.

Before I go on my attack on my cable company, lets look at a article I found about the death of TV, I am not sure if I fully agree with the end result they have concluded with but it uses my Cable company as a prime example.

Cord Cutters are the death of TV

I was at the Time Warner office yesterday dropping off my cable boxes and I want to share the complaints I over heard from other customers.

I don't want the phone service I don't need it.

Can I just get the channels I want.

Can I get just the local stations and prime time networks?

Well if I can't get what I will cancel internet also

You know what the response from Time Warner was?

You can't do that because it is breaking up the bundle

That means it is not the customers choice, it is the cable companies choice. it is never our choice. We just foot the bill. Think about this. For this bundle that Time Warner thought was such a deal, it cost 180 bucks a month for a phone service I don't use, DVR, internet and a bunch of extra channels I don't use.

The cable companies are committing suicide and don't know it or refuse to acknowledge it

180 bucks a month to sit a few hours a day and watch a box, If you read my blog you will know I love my TV, but at what cost? Do you know what you can do with 180 bucks a month? Pay the power bill, help with the rent or car payment, buy food? Pay the cell bill which is another over priced luxury that I may talk about in another post, But not on this blog

After spending a hour on the phone, I still ended up paying 70 bucks a month for internet and a few channels, I still have that stupid phone line I don't need and have never used once. I am looking at what I can do next to cut that price down.

And for you other cable companies that may be reading this and don't think your guilty, all of you over charge for something, even the dish networks, and internet charges are climbing so that is next thing to target for a cheaper price. People are learning to say no, so you may want to get in that think tank board room and think about your product and what your selling.

 

Jack Flacco

Knowing what I was going to say in this blog post was easy, but I struggled for a title for a few days. I read many blogs but none get my attention Like Jack Flacco does. I found Jack a few years ago on Twitter because of my interest in the Zombie Apocalypse. I would read his updates on Twitter and go click on the link to his blog and think this guy knows there is more about life then the undead.

He writes about film, celebrities, TV and movie characters. and recipes, food and experiencing life's adventures. I read so much of his blog I forget about his passion for writing about zombies. He has a calm but yet exciting way of the pen, well these days it's the keyboard.

He can catch you off guard and make you look in the mirror and ask questions. He will also have you in the kitchen thinking about how to cook something up.I usually tweet every time he post to his blog, you never know what is on his mind.

Here is my list of great post from his blog, and this is just from this year

The Roamer

Jason Bourne

Clark Griswold

Favorite Zombie

Captain Jack Sparrow

Brian O'Conner

Benefits To Becoming a Zombie

Why Do We Fail?

Zombies Are Like

Appliances

Micheal Corleone

Zombies vs Vampires

Our Meals

James Bond

The Man With No Name

My Favorite Zombie Scenes


Before 2015

A Zombie Party

Zombie Evolution

The Three Commandments

Zombies The New Vampires

For you guys that use your phone to much, this is for you

Heads Down

I could go on and on listing titles from his Blog, but you should get the point, Jack Flacco is a Awesome writer about the Zombie Apocalypse, but he writes so much more.

Not only does he Blog, he is the author of the Ranger Martin Series

Here is the Amazon link to get your copies. The final book comes out later this year

There is so many more post I could have added, but the bottom line on Jack Flacco is he does not write a bad blog post, he can give you quality writing about any subject he wants.

I Have only Watched 54 Movies This Year

My goal was to watch over 400 movies this year. It is not looking good, here is a list of what I have watched so far. It's only half way through the year, lets see what happens later on.

The Double (2011)	1/1/2015
Underworl: Evolution	1/2/2015
Pacfic Rim	1/6/2015
Tron: Legacy	1/8/2015
Avatar	1/9/2015
Scarface	1/10/2015
Rambo (2008)	1/10/2015
Batman Begins	1/11/2015
The Fifth Estate	1/13/2015
The Omen (2006)	1/13/2015
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit	1/14/2014
Out of the Furance	1/16/2015
Sinister	1/18/2015
Hawking	1/19/2015
Texas Chainsaw	1/20/2015
Backdraft	1/21/2015
Dante's Peak	1/21/2015
Queen of the Damed	1/21/2015
Tombstone	1/22/2015
Elysium	1/24/2015
The Interview	1/24/2015
Pink Floyd: The Wall	1/27/2015
Doc of the Dead	1/29/2015
The Amityville Horror (1979)	1/30/2015
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring	1/31/2015
The Rite	2/1/2015
Horns	2/7/2015
Hercules (2014)	2/7/2015
The Giver	2/26/2015
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes	2/28/2015
Divergent	3/6/2015
Pulp Fiction	3/13/2015
Draft Day	3/27/2015
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies	3/28/2015
Into the Woods	3/31/2025
The Maze Runner	4/2/2015
Insurgent	4/3/2015
The Imitation Game	4/4/2015
Interstellar	4/4/2015
Alien	4/17/2015
Aliens	4/19/2015
2012 The Movie	4/22/2015
Insidious 2	4/22/2015
Captain America: The Winter Soldier	5/1/2015
Avengers: Age of Ultron	5/2/2015
Alien 3	5/5/2015
Fifthy Shades of Grey	5/8/2015
Alien Reserection	5/16/2015
Olympus Has Fallen	5/16/2015
World War Z	5/23/2015
Zero Dark Thirty	5/23/2015
American Sniper	5/24/2015
Deep Impact	5/26/2015
Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone	5/29/2015

Taylor Swift: Not Afraid to Have it Her Way!

When you think about Taylor Swift music, it is easy to let your imagination be cruel. I enjoyed her music when she was in the country corner. Songs like Tim McGraw,Tear Drops on my Guitar, from her first 2006 album. Then there was Love Story from Fearless. Then there was the 2009 event with Kanye West at the VMA's, I was heart broken for Taylor. I just did not understand why that happen. But then in my opinion her songs started to be all about failed relationships. I lost interest in her music and turned it off when it came on the radio.

I don't think I could consider myself as a Taylor Swift Hater, but you could say I was boarder line. Then came the announcement that she was leaving the country label. To me this was a wise decision for her. I just always felt that the country label was holding her back, I can't explain it, it's just a opinion. So my interest peaked a little.

Now we have this album 1989. And I bought my first Taylor Swift album because of the message in the songs. the hit "Shake it off" with the lyrics " It's like I got this music in my mind" I think she explained it all in those words. Taylor loves music, and she likes to get it right and I don't see her as a music star that lets her crew manage what she is going to sing about. I am sure she listens to advice, but at the end of the day she make the decision.

You could say I read all this and heard it in interviews, maybe I have but if you listen to the short but long history of her music you could pick up a pattern of what she started out as to what 1989 is now. To me1989 screams I am Taylor Swift and this is what I am about and what I wanna do. It's like personal independence. it's Taylor saying I am here now deal with it, but in assertive polite way.

I don't know how she should top this album, and maybe that should not be the focus. I expect Taylor Swift to look at it as if "whats next and what will the true fans like?", not not worry about blog writers like me.

It's not so much the music as the Person Taylor Swift saying this is my career, I will take it from here.
At least that's what "1989" says to me

American Sniper: A Portrait of Rememberance

Last night I watched the 2014 Movie "American Sniper" for the first time. It was directed by Clint Eastwood staring Bradley Cooper as Americas most deadly hero and the military's best sniper ever Chris Kyle, Sienna Miller stared as his wife Taya.

This is not about how the acting or directing was, as always my so called movie reviews is what the movie said to me as I let myself step into the story being told. To experience the vision of the writer and director that created the movie. Chris Kyle is the writer of the book the movie is based on

There is nothing that don't sound more cliche then to say that war is intense. I don't think any movie no matter how well directed can clearly give a true feeling of war. War movies have got better at giving you a visual of the surroundings, but you are not there. Even when we are watching the news video of gun battles and fire fights, We are still comfortable at home with our chips and drink looking at the screen saying how sad. Video games give you a simulation but dead is dead. Once you are shot or wounded there is no running to a corner and waiting to get better.

However American Sniper was about Chris Kyle's journey and that was described in detail. Because of past life experience that I have had to deal with, I could relate to some of what Chris was feeling, but again I am not Chris, I was not there. I am trying to say that the movie was very clear in letting us know when Chris was in pain. I felt ashamed when I was watching and would say this is intense or I know what he is feeling, because I did not really know.

No movie has ever given me that feeling of how I as a American citizen take advantage of the freedoms that our American Soldiers provide for us at the cost of the blood they spill. This movie hit me in the heart a little more then usual.

I did not read the book, but I knew the tragedy of what happen to Chris Kyle on February 2nd 2013 when I watched the movie. When I seen him on that roof top in Iraq calling his wife telling her that he was ready to really come home and stay, I felt the tears start welling up. When I saw the date of February 2nd 2013 appear on the screen I knew what was going on. My heart began to ache as I watched him hug the kids and hug his wife. Then she shut the door as he got in a truck with a veteran he was trying to help. The look she had on her face as if she knew it was the last time she would see him alive.

When I seen the funeral procession that was in Texas my tears started to flow, and there was no holding them back.

Back in August 2005 in a period of 3 days 20 Marines  died. 6 by small arms fire and 14 from a explosion in Barwana Iraq, They where all from 3rd Battalion 25th in Brookpark Ohio, a few days later I went to the memorial service they had at the IX Center in Brookpark, Ohio. There was no funeral procession, but there where make shift memorials. The fence at the 3/25 was covered in American Flags, flowers, signs, cards, teddy bears etc. Yellow ribbons where every where. I took my son to the memorial service and we walked what seemed like a procession.

I was at that memorial service, so I have a good ideal what Chris Kyle's funeral was like. For a brief moment I felt like I was there watching the funeral of Chris Kyle, I felt like I was there.

Can you imagine what it is like for a soldier who has a flash back of war?

Before Interstellar a Movie Called Contact

One of my favorite movies for 2014 was Interstellar staring Matthew McConaughey. It was a movie that opened my imagination and made me ask the what if question. How would I feel being my age and know that my child is going to die of old age because I went to another dimension and came back to my normal time line? You may have a better description of what happen in the movie but that is just one of many questions and how I understood the movie.

But before Interstellar there was a 1997 movie called called Contact staring Jodie Foster as Dr Ellie Arroway who takes a interstellar trip of her own. To her the trip seemed like hours but it was only minutes according to the authorities. Matthew McConaughey played Rev Palmer Joss and for the most part he was like the reluctant moral conscience to Ellie who did not believe in God.

After Ellie returns from her trip there are hearings on Capitol Hill to ask the question: Did indeed Ellie leave the planet? There is a statement she makes to the Senate hearing panel.

 "I was given something wonderful. Something that changed me. A vision of the universe that made it overwhelmingly clear just how tiny and insignificant -- and at the same time how rare and precious we all are. A vision... that tells us we belong to something greater than ourselves... that we're not -- that none of us -- is alone."

Think about that just for a moment.

As a society we have micro managed ourselves into a corner to a point that it is all most impossible to think outside of the box, and if we think outside the box to much we can get medication for it. Even modern day Christians have done the same. Let me be clear, I believe in God and the words written in the Bible exactly as they where written because of faith. People say it is a old book but it survived world wars and the tortured history of mankind. I do not believe that happen by chance.

I also believe that dinosaurs roamed the earth, but there is no mention of them in the Bible. What else is not in the Bible? Aliens? I don't know, it's just a question. For me God and the Bible is my foundation. But I do have a imagination and I do allow myself to ask what if?

I find it strange how the movies are almost at the opposite end of the question. Interstellar does not find aliens but more questions about love and the human condition while Contact test our faith and ask can we believe in something bigger then ourselves.

There was also another big statement in the movie Contact.

"So If it's just us ......Seems like a awful waste of space"