My Own Progress

Last week I basically gave up my lovely customized home desktop computer. It was tough. I sacrificed it to become the media center. My morning schedule has been disrupted more than I realized. I usually pack away my laptop before I try to sleep so that I don't have to do it in the morning before leaving for work, so I wake up and no email or no checking the news online. And no TV either. Because this week to finish what I started I terminated my DishNetwork service. I could get online and go to a station and check their streaming video for news. It is so much easier to just click a remote and get instant on so now instead of mindlessly and out of boredom turning on noise I have to think and deliberately choose what I listen to or watch.

It is always scary to take steps that bring you so far outside your comfort zone, but really felt it was needed. We now have one less bill each month and one less outside influence upon which we are emotionally dependent. And you want to know something? It hardly even hurt. We still watch DVDs and hulu.com works perfectly. Of course we also have hours of non-electric sound, listening instead to birds, wind, crickets, frogs, rain, whatever nature has to offer at that moment. It forces me to explore other options for everything. For example as I write I am using an app on iPod called 5-0 Radio, listening to a Fire and EMS scanner channel from a nearby city. We still have not replaced any sort of radio since the tornado. Might have to do that.

Not sure what my next step will be. For now I will just adjust to where I am.