Random Thoughts Thread Part 4

dobrojim · Post #181 » by **dobrojim** » Fri Sep 11, 2015 4:53 pm

My youngest daughter turns 18 today. Jacqui, now also goes by Max, is thrilled to be away from the
congestion of NoVA, in college, and (apparently) back into basketball at the Div 3 level. We go down
to visit her and her sister (same college) this afternoon.

Post #182 » by **pineappleheadindc** » Fri Sep 11, 2015 7:32 pm

dobrojim wrote:My youngest daughter turns 18 today. Jacqui, now also goes by Max, is thrilled to be away from the
congestion of NoVA, in college, and (apparently) back into basketball at the Div 3 level. We go down
to visit her and her sister (same college) this afternoon.

Happy birthday to your daughter!

Post #183 » by **montestewart** » Fri Sep 11, 2015 10:52 pm

dobrojim wrote:My youngest daughter turns 18 today. Jacqui, now also goes by Max, is thrilled to be away from the
congestion of NoVA, in college, and (apparently) back into basketball at the Div 3 level. We go down
to visit her and her sister (same college) this afternoon.

It's my wife's birthday today too. Don't let the terrorists take your birthday!

Chocolate City Jordanaire · Post #184 » by **Chocolate City Jordanaire** » Sat Sep 12, 2015 12:59 am

The one I wish I married (God knows that's been over 25 years ago and I really need to let it go) has a birthday tomorrow. I think of her often because she treated me very well.

Happy birthday to your daughter, Jim.

Ironically, here a local sports talk host (Artie Wilson) has a daughter who also celebrates her birthday today. She's 23. (Artie mentioned it over the air today and he hosts my favorite sports radio program in Honolulu).

(No, it's not here birthday but my daughter who graduated from Nebraska is 22).

dobrojim · Post #185 » by **dobrojim** » Mon Sep 14, 2015 1:21 pm

happy to report that after not quite 2 full weeks away from home in college,
Max is adjusting as well or better than I could have hoped. She is playing basketball
which makes her very happy. She is playing for a coach that will actually praise her
once in a while. This new very young coach was involved in Point Guard College
which was something Max really got into. But most important of all, she just loves
being in college, likes her classes and has already incorporated herself into the social
scene there. It didn't have to work out this way, but I'm really glad it did, or has so far.

Chocolate City Jordanaire · Post #186 » by **Chocolate City Jordanaire** » Mon Sep 14, 2015 1:56 pm

Coaches who don't praise are a pet peeve. I cannot fathom why any coach wouldn't express faith and confidence in their players.

Can't stand consistently mean and irritating coaching. My H.S. football coach took being gruff to the extreme.

"Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin,"
"Be the change you want to be."

dobrojim · Post #187 » by **dobrojim** » Mon Sep 14, 2015 2:20 pm

coaches who can't find a way to praise their players are a bane on amateur sports.
Can they even hear themselves? Certainly not through the ears of their players.

Higga · Post #188 » by **Higga** » Mon Sep 14, 2015 5:49 pm

Time to put the tshirts and shorts away and bring the hoodies and sweatpants back.

dobrojim · Post #189 » by **dobrojim** » Mon Sep 14, 2015 7:20 pm

The Giants might be worse than the Slurs.

queridiculo · Post #190 » by **queridiculo** » Mon Sep 14, 2015 8:25 pm

What's up with all this talk about silver linings in the Washington loss?

They're awful, and Gruden's offensive wizardry is nothing but a lame joke.

The highlight of yesterday's loss to me, Forbath missing the 45 yarder after Gruden pussed out on the 4th and 1. Who didn't see that one coming?

Wouldn't be surprised to see the Slurs winless by the time the Wizards season opener comes around.

Only question, who's going to be starting quarterback by then, Gruden is an expert at making a mess out of that situation.

Severn Hoos · Post #191 » by **Severn Hoos** » Mon Sep 14, 2015 8:33 pm

Any cord-cutters out there? My DirecTV bill had gotten up to over $100 per month, and that was without any premium channels or Sunday Ticket/League Pass, etc. I did have HD and a couple DVRs, each of which dinged the bill by $5 or $10, and before you know it, I'm over $100.

So, I went out and bought an OTA antenna (Winegard boosted) and signed up for SlingTV. I added the Sports package for Sling, which takes my total to $25 per month, and because I paid for 3 months upfront, I got a Roku 3 for $49.

So for a $100 initial investment, I have all of the following for only $25 per month:

Local channels (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, PBS)
The entire ESPN family (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNNEWS, ESPNU, SEC Network, and Goal-Line/Buzzer Beater coverage)
Various Cable channels: TNT, TBS, Travel, HGTV, CNN, Food, and others
Easy access to Netflix & Amazon Prime through the Roku (which we watch more than live TV anyway)
All the apps for MLB, NBA, etc. - I plan to sign up for Team Pass and have access to all of the Wiz games for $120 per year
Various other apps & channels (Sirius, Pandora, WeatherNation, hulu, vudu, etc.) through the Roku
(There are options to add HBO and EPIX to the Sling subscription, but I wouldn't be interested in those anyway.)

Basically, the only things I am missing that I used to have are:

BBC America (my kids want to watch Dr. Who)
Fox Sports - shows a lot of UVA basketball, so I might have a tougher time following the Hoos this year
Turner Classic Movies - this is an option for $5 per month on Sling, and I might add it at a later date.
DVR - this is the big one. If you're used to recording shows and watching them when you want, or starting a game 30 minutes in and skipping commercials, then you're out of luck. But for me, that's a nice feature, not one I ever got to the point of a must-have feature. Since I grew up watching all TV live, it's just "normal" for me, especially when watching games. Even with the DVR, I tended to watch games live just because I am impatient.

Is that worth $85 per month? No way. I get my news & weather from internet sources more than TV anyway.

I cut the cord, and am plenty happy. And frankly, I have more time now that I'm not scanning TV channels out of habit any more.

Post #192 » by **nate33** » Mon Sep 14, 2015 8:59 pm

Severn Hoos wrote:Any cord-cutters out there? My DirecTV bill had gotten up to over $100 per month, and that was without any premium channels or Sunday Ticket/League Pass, etc. I did have HD and a couple DVRs, each of which dinged the bill by $5 or $10, and before you know it, I'm over $100.

So, I went out and bought an OTA antenna (Winegard boosted) and signed up for SlingTV. I added the Sports package for Sling, which takes my total to $25 per month, and because I paid for 3 months upfront, I got a Roku 3 for $49.

So for a $100 initial investment, I have all of the following for only $25 per month:

Local channels (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, PBS)
The entire ESPN family (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNNEWS, ESPNU, SEC Network, and Goal-Line/Buzzer Beater coverage)
Various Cable channels: TNT, TBS, Travel, HGTV, CNN, Food, and others
Easy access to Netflix & Amazon Prime through the Roku (which we watch more than live TV anyway)
All the apps for MLB, NBA, etc. - I plan to sign up for Team Pass and have access to all of the Wiz games for $120 per year
Various other apps & channels (Sirius, Pandora, WeatherNation, hulu, vudu, etc.) through the Roku
(There are options to add HBO and EPIX to the Sling subscription, but I wouldn't be interested in those anyway.)

Basically, the only things I am missing that I used to have are:

BBC America (my kids want to watch Dr. Who)
Fox Sports - shows a lot of UVA basketball, so I might have a tougher time following the Hoos this year
Turner Classic Movies - this is an option for $5 per month on Sling, and I might add it at a later date.
DVR - this is the big one. If you're used to recording shows and watching them when you want, or starting a game 30 minutes in and skipping commercials, then you're out of luck. But for me, that's a nice feature, not one I ever got to the point of a must-have feature. Since I grew up watching all TV live, it's just "normal" for me, especially when watching games. Even with the DVR, I tended to watch games live just because I am impatient.

Is that worth $85 per month? No way. I get my news & weather from internet sources more than TV anyway.

I cut the cord, and am plenty happy. And frankly, I have more time now that I'm not scanning TV channels out of habit any more.

I cut the cord for about 2 years, 2 years ago. The SlingTV wasn't a thing then so I just went solely with OTA plus Netflix. I later added NBA League Pass. I didn't really miss cable much. The worst thing was not being able to watch college basketball. (I don't watch much football.) But the family still had access to a ton of good shows on Netflix both old and current (Walking Dead, Breaking Bad, House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, Dr. Who, Star Trek TNG, Buffy, Gilmore Girls, Freaks and Geeks, Stargate, Friends, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Frasier).

Recently, my business is doing so well that I decided to turn cable back on, but I'm finding that I never watch it. We'll see if that changes significantly during basketball season. If not, I'll probably cut the cord again. Frankly, I really should go ahead and cut the cord now and go with SlingTV like you do. I'm throwing money away.

Severn Hoos · Post #193 » by **Severn Hoos** » Mon Sep 14, 2015 9:47 pm

nate, I've been pretty pleased with Sling. The base channels are $20 per month, and I added the Sports package for $5 per month to get ESPN & ESPNU. (I'll occasionally watch something on SEC Network, but not much - more for my UGA friends if they come over than anything else.)

After I posted, I realized that the NBA Team Pass might not be an option for lots of people on this board who still live in the DC area, because they black out national and locally televised games, correct? For me, that's not much of a problem because I can still watch the national games on TBS or ESPN through Sling, so the only games I might miss out on are the games vs. the Hawks - though if they are over the air, I could catch them that way. That's why I feel like I'd be completely set if I had Fox Sports South, because that was the only other channel I watched with any regularity. Could be tougher for you since you'd presumably miss out on the Wiz-Cavaliers games, which should be pretty entertaining. Of course, there are "other ways" to get a game feed if you're creative enough...

Good luck - I'd be interested to hear what you think if you do sign up.

Post #194 » by **LyricalRico** » Mon Sep 14, 2015 9:57 pm

Severn Hoos wrote:After I posted, I realized that the NBA Team Pass might not be an option for lots of people on this board who still live in the DC area, because they black out national and locally televised games, correct?

That's basically what's keeping me from cutting the cord - not getting to watch Wiz games live. I've had NBALP in the past, and everything was blacked out locally. If anyone knows how to get CSN Mid-Atlantic aside from cable, let a brother know!

Severn Hoos · Post #195 » by **Severn Hoos** » Mon Sep 14, 2015 9:58 pm

LyricalRico wrote:
Severn Hoos wrote:After I posted, I realized that the NBA Team Pass might not be an option for lots of people on this board who still live in the DC area, because they black out national and locally televised games, correct?

That's basically what's keeping me from cutting the cord - not getting to watch Wiz games live. I've had NBALP in the past, and everything was blacked out locally. If anyone knows how to get CSN Mid-Atlantic aside from cable, let a brother know!

You could always move to Georgia! :nod:

Higga · Post #196 » by **Higga** » Tue Sep 15, 2015 8:30 pm

queridiculo wrote:What's up with all this talk about silver linings in the Washington loss?

They're awful, and Gruden's offensive wizardry is nothing but a lame joke.

The highlight of yesterday's loss to me, Forbath missing the 45 yarder after Gruden pussed out on the 4th and 1. Who didn't see that one coming?

Wouldn't be surprised to see the Slurs winless by the time the Wizards season opener comes around.

Only question, who's going to be starting quarterback by then, Gruden is an expert at making a mess out of that situation.

I thought we did some things well, but it was tough blowing a very winnable game.

I don't expect much this year, just want to see how some of the young guys do. Its all about building for the future.

Post #197 » by **TheSecretWeapon** » Thu Sep 17, 2015 2:16 pm

I cut the cord because, like Sev, I was paying DirecTV $100+ per month and no one was watching anything. My kids were busy doing their stuff, I was busy driving them to their stuff, and my wife was busy keeping all of us on schedule. Plus, my attempts to get DirecTV to upgrade the service to HD failed because of DirecTV's debaculous installation process and customer service (out of three scheduled appointments there were two no-call no-shows, and one call to say they were out of boxes 15 minutes AFTER the appointment window).

I watch basketball online. Whatever shows we might decide to watch we can usually find on Netflix or Hulu.

Chocolate City Jordanaire · Post #198 » by **Chocolate City Jordanaire** » Thu Sep 17, 2015 5:49 pm

I don't miss driving kids to do their stuff. One son had football coaches who quite literally held practices well into darkness. No lights at that practice field either. I waited in the car in the dark for practice to end virtually every night. (Got bored and did run hills in the dark a couple times with the team but when that embarrassed my son I took the hint.)

Don't miss that at all.

"Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin,"
"Be the change you want to be."

Post #199 » by **Rafael122** » Thu Sep 17, 2015 8:15 pm

I don't know how to cut the cord, Comcast always keeps me "well we'll give you HBO, Showtime, Starz and Encore for free." I'm also a sports junkie, so I need the ESPN channels, Fox Sports, etc. If there was a way where I can keep the channels I watch religiously (AMC, all the ESPN channels, HBO, etc) and have high speed internet, I'm all ears.

Higga · Post #200 » by **Higga** » Fri Sep 18, 2015 4:12 pm

I have the FIOS package so for ~$100 a month I get high speed internet, TV with every channel I really need, and phone service.