I Am Media God

Some might think it’s overwhelming…hundreds of cable channels in front of you every day.  Thousands of on-demand options available. A DVD collection staring you in the face as you walk out the front door to hit the nearest RedBox. Those familiar red Netflix envelopes in your mailbox on a Friday getting ready for a nice movie weekend.  Social media networks throwing their news, entertainment and your friends newest designer shoes in your face. 

OK, you get the idea…there’s a lot of stuff out there in terms of media to consume.  But because there is so much more and so many options, we have the power now.  We have the control.

I remember having to turn the little knob on the cable converter box in my parents living room with curtains that were heavier than three of my blankets put together. Turning that knob trying to find something to watch on those higher number channels that featured “superstations” and the very rough, early days of ESPN.  So there were 20 or so options and as soon as my dad made up his mind, I could sit back down. 

Fast forward to what we have now. Quick glimpse at my media consumption habits as of six months ago:

• “Digital Starter Package” from Comcast bundled with the Triple Play (home phone and cable internet). 
• Netflix subscription delivering two DVDs to my mailbox as I saw fit. 
• My wife and I had our network shows that we enjoyed regularly, but we would frequently DVR them and come back to watch a few episodes at a time on a weekend every so often. 
• DVRing the kids' favorite shows and watching the episodes that way. 
• Lots of time spent with the television on in the background, with god-knows-what playing. 
• Lots of time spent sifting through those hundreds of channels to find something to watch if we were bored. 
• Having those Netflix DVDs sit on the table for weeks, if not months at a time. 
• A home phone that never rang except for non-profit soliciting and grandma. 
• Downloads from iTunes to keep our iPods full.

Aside from the costs of all of these services, the time spent with them was so minimal when you really sat down and analyzed it, that it wasn’t even worth it.  Spending 20 minutes looking through the guide to find something to watch is crazy. Having the television on in the background just for the hell of it is crazy.  Why do we have things in the DVR from 2008…shouldn’t we watch that or get rid of it? 

So we analyzed and surveyed our habits for a month or so. After documenting on a nerdy spreadsheet, we decided to look at the frequency of usage and the source of that particular item. We found that in several cases, we could get the kids' shows through Netflix. We could get our favorite network shows at any time over the air, or we could catch up on Hulu.  Pandora radio is a thousand times better than any of the Comcast music channels that were buried in the 800’s.  And there were plenty of other alternatives for just about anything we wanted. 

So it was decided…let’s pull the plug. 

Our set up as it stands today:

• Cancelled cable and home phone, kept Internet only. 
• Downgraded Netflix subscription to “instant only”.  We’re not huge movie people so if we want a new release that’s not available on Netflix instant, we can hit the RedBox. 
• Added a Roku box and a PlayStation 3.
• All children shows are addressed through Netflix.  Yo Gabba Gabba, Thomas the Train, Sesame Street and so forth…all at our fingertips. 
• Some favorite TV shows that we might have missed out on or stopped watching for whatever reason are on Netflix as well, and we've even found new ones that we never watched before but fell in love with like Weeds or Louie. 
• Our network shows are all available on Hulu or online. Even though I can’t DVR them, I still don’t have to sit in front of the television and wait for them to come on. 
• DVDs played through the PS3.
• Additional media files—DVDs borrowed from friends, home movies and so forth—all streamed over the home network through the PS3. Even family photo slideshows can be done this way in case grandma is over and would like to see them on the big screen. 
• Pandora radio through either our smart phones or the Roku box provides hours and hours of great music. 
• Total monthly cost for subscription to various services and such to make all of this happen? Less than $20, not counting the internet access that we already had.

Seriously, aside from the cost, it’s an amazing feeling to be able to control your own media usage. You don’t have to only choose between channels 2, 4 and 11.  Or you’re not limited to CNN, MSNBC and Fox News.  There are so many other options online or through Roku Channels, it’s ridiculous. 

It’s a liberating feeling really. I’m not held to anyone’s schedule. I’m not forced to see crap advertised during my shows or my kids shows. There’s more time to listen to music, read books or have a conversation with my wife…which still seems limited with two 2-year-olds around.

I know this sounds a little boring and not too exciting now that I read it back, but for me, it’s a small win over the major cable companies and puts the control in my hands.  If more people did this, they might start offering ala carte options or at least stop charging high fees if you don’t question it. 

This is my little win and a small way to stick it to the man. Watch what I want, when I want, how I want. I play media god. 

The Age-Old Argument

The age-old argument…print isn’t dead,but it’s seriously behind. 

So Tuesday night, Yahoo! Sports broke a big story in the world of college football.  An 11-month investigation found that a booster for University of Miami athletics, who also happens to be a convicted ponzi-schemer, says he dumped cash, gifts and favors on at least 72 athletes for approximately eight years. 

Here’s where I’m very interested about this—it was Yahoo! Sports that dug deep and busted this thing wide open. It wasn’t the Miami Herald or the Sun Sentinel…it was Yahoo! Sports. 

In just the world of college sports, Yahoo! Sports has busted at least four other similar stories wide open. The level of investigation, time and energy put into these stories is unreal. They broke the Reggie Bush fiasco back in 2006. Extreme details about a controversial fee for recruiting assistance at the University of Oregon came a few months back. Back in March when there were questions about the University of Connecticut basketball program and their recruiting tactics, Yahoo! Sports was there. And after the Ohio State football NCAA investigation that exposed several players of selling memorabilia, Yahoo! Sports was there to break the news to Buckeye fans that Jim Tressel knew about everything.  

And this is all just in the world of college athletics. Think about the other times the online world has beaten traditional media to the punch. When the US Airways plane crash landed in the Hudson River in Jan. 2009, Twitter was the first place that hundreds of thousands heard of the story. Video from the hailstorms and tornados in Westmoreland County hit YouTube before it hit KDKA, WTAE or WPXI, let alone any of the print formats. 

There are countless reports of newspapers across America struggling, downsizing staff, reducing their frequency, and that’s because they simply aren’t relevant. 

One important thing to note here…it’s not always about speed. Sure, breaking news in the traditional sense involved a live stand up on your local television news broadcast telling you about the latest tragedy or event, but as showcased beautifully in the Yahoo! Sports Miami investigation, speed isn’t important. 

What is important is giving the few reporters that newspaper have left the time and budget to focus on looking into these important stories. One potential reason for not allowing this to happen, aside from the budgetary issues and time constraints, could be relationships that journalists have with their sources. Maybe if the Miami-Herald football beat writer decided to take on this challenging investigation, they would be concerned about lack of cooperation from the athletic department in future locker room situations or pre-season insights, ultimately hurting the newspapers view in the eyes of the audience. 

Of course there’s the group of folks out there who don’t have a computer, or don’t have a smartphone or don’t want to access the news online—and that’s fine. But when you pick up the newspaper tomorrow and read about something that happened yesterday AND it was reported by a non-local reporter, don’t question why. Lord knows with initiatives like the one Comcast just rolled out, providing internet access and lost-cost computers, there’s no excuse…except wanting to remain behind the times. 

Either way, lengthy, worthwhile investigative pieces still have a very important place in our everyday lives.  It’s just a matter of who’s going to do those and how they’re delivered.

Perfect Time for a Second Chance

I’ve been seriously gardening for about three years now. Each year there is some good and some bad that comes out of my limited experience, but I learn a little more each year. This year is no different. 

In fact, this year was kind of bad for my summer crop—tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, lettuce and some herbs. Well, the lettuce and herbs did well. But the tomatoes, zucchini and cucumbers are lacking…a lot.  Some soil issues really messed those up this year. But again, you live and learn.



The spring crop wasn’t bad, getting a good number of small but extremely tasty strawberries and a planting of some raspberry plants. 

But with fall comes a time to really have another shot at a good 2011 harvest, and really, these should be the easy ones to grow—more lettuce, some spinach, broccoli and cauliflower seeds have been planted and will be ready for transplant into our “fall bed” soon enough.  So we’ll see what happens. Honestly, if I can’t start getting this right, the Mrs. isn’t going to be happy. 

Really it’s not all about saving money on produce, or eating organic or locally grown stuff…well, it kind of is about keeping it local and reconnecting with your food…but at this point, it’s about pride and accomplishment. 

I think there’s a reason that the only good gardeners I know personally are over the age of 60. It’s because it took this long for them to really know what they’re doing and now that they’re older, they have the time to do it. I wish I had gardening mentors, someone who could help me along the way. The Internet has been my guide so far. 

The boys really like helping, too, so I’m hoping as they get older, I can get this thing licked so I can teach them a thing or two.  Right now, they love watering and digging, just not in a very deliberate way at this point. Maybe in the years to come we can be successful in filling moms produce bowl every week together. As many people do, my wife and I briefly (for 2 minutes or so) talk about what we would do if we won a big lottery jackpot (we’d have to play first!) and we both agreed that we would buy a large plot of land and just garden. That’s all. Nothing else. No fancy cars, no exotic vacations, not the usual rich dreams. And I’m not talking about a large scale farm where we sell our produce and what not, I’m talking about just living off of the land and enjoying life. Just us, in the field with the boys and the dogs, asking for mother earth to provide for our little family as she has to millions for years. A little part of life we really take for granted. 

Freedom

Freedom. It’s a concept that is thrown around a lot, especially given the state of our nation right now. We all love our freedom.  And I’m not just talking about the right to vote, freedom of speech or even the opportunity to basically do anything we want in life and make it our own.

There are a select few people out there who don’t have the same freedoms as the rest of us, but absolutely should. But a few missteps here or there by so-called trusted members of our community and government or even flat out lies from others. The freedom of these individuals were taken away wrongfully.

I’m talking about individuals who have been wrongfully convicted of crimes and sentenced to many years, if not for life, in prison—some even sentenced to death. All for something they didn’t do. That’s our justice system at work.

Consider some of these stats:

• Since 1989, there have been tens of thousands of cases where prime suspects were identified and pursued, until DNA testing proved their innocence prior to conviction.
• There have been 272 post-conviction DNA exonerations in the US.  The first was in 1989 and thanks to scientific advancements, there have been 205 since 2000.
• 75 percent of those exoneration cases also included false eyewitness identification.
• 25 percent of those exoneration cases included false confessions and 35 percent of those had a defendant that was under the age of 18 and/or developmentally disabled.
• The average length of time served by someone wrongfully convicted is 13 years.

These stats come from The Innocence Project out of New York. They are the largest advocacy organization for such victims and are dedicated to exonerating the wrongfully convited through DNA testing and reforming the justice system to prevent future injustice.

There are several very well-known cases in various parts of the country, and there have been 11 exonerations in Pennsylvania. Locally, the Innocence Institute of Point Park University is the local innocence project started back in 2001 under the leadership of award winning investigative reporter Bill Moushey. It’s one of a few innocence institutes in the country that is affiliated directly with a journalism program rather than a law school.

Probably the biggest case across the country that grabs attention year after year is the case of the West Memphis Three.  Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley have been in prison for over 17 years. You can read about the case yourself but these three young men were incarcerated and in the case of Echols, sentenced to death, for a crime they didn’t commit. A range of issues point to the innocence of these three men, including corrupt law enforcement, law enforcement misconduct, judge and jury misconduct, evidence contamination, false eye witness testimony and false confessions.

This week, a final report on recent DNA testing conclusively excludes the three men that are currently sitting in jail. Chalk this up as yet another piece of evidence proving these guys didn’t do it. But here’s the issue…it’s harder to get them out than it was to put them in. They, as well as members of their family, friends, rock stars, movie stars, and even the victim’s families have been fighting to get them out.

So when you talk about freedom and celebrate this great country, remember people like this who were failed by the system that is supposed to protect us all.

Traditional, Club or Open Faced: Which wich are you?

Demographic terminology is a funny thing. I guess I’m kind of on the edge teetering in between Gen X and Gen Y, depending on the definition by the expert of the week. Or I could also be an Echo Boomer.   

But more importantly, (because really, does that matter?), I’m a sandwich. Meaning I’m in the sandwich generation. The definition of someone like this simply means that they are caring for aging parents while supporting their own children, usually younger children that still need cared for.   

Or the easiest way to test if you fit into that demo is if this has ever happened to you: You’re already running late in the morning, your youngest won’t put on her coat to go to daycare and your oldest can’t find that really cool dinosaur he wants to take for show-and-tell. Then you get a call from your mom who said your dad just fell and is on his way to the E.R. And don’t forget about that big presentation at work today. And... 

Yeah, if that sounds familiar, this is for you.   

The sociological experts have broken down this population into three more subgroups; Traditional, Club or Open Faced. Personally, I think they just wanted to have fun with the whole sandwich theme. 

I’m a Club...those in their 30s or 40s with young children and aging parents. I have two young boys and an aging mother who needs care. I’m not sure which one of us are the bacon portion of the club, but I’m in the middle somewhere.   

The number of aging Americans will double by the year 2030 according to the Census Bureau...all the Boomers I suppose. But really, why did we have to label this situation that we’re in? Weren’t there many others before us that cared for loved ones on both ends?   

I think there are a few factors contributing to this. One could be that people are simply living longer and tend to need more care than past generations. Also, a lot of people are waiting longer to have children. So the longer they wait, the older their parents are getting, and the better chance that they’ll be rolling around a stroller and a wheelchair at the mall.   

But really isn’t the point of all this to respectfully raise and care for our loved ones? We have our children to raise and make fit to set free on society someday. But we also have our parents, for better or worse, who we have to occasionally remind that their racist joke or old-time humor, doesn’t really work these days.  

Look, I’m as guilty as the next guy of having the same freak out on my mom that I do on my kids on occasion. Sometimes we get them mixed up...taking care of parents is sometimes similar to taking care of kids and it’s hard to switch gears. Maybe you went to the store to pick up Depends and you came out with Huggies.   

What’s crazy is, there are actually support groups, clubs, books, “coping strategies”, online communities and so forth to help those that are in this pickle (come on, you didn’t think I could pass up that easy one did you?).   

Most days I feel good about being that salty slice of bacon in the middle of the club. The other days, I feel like the funky swiss cheese that I typically immediately pull off of my sandwich. All any of us sandwichers can do is hope and try for more bacon and less swiss. Would love to hear which wich you are.  

2.5 Kids

It’s the American dream right? Marriage, 2.5 kids, house with a picket fence and walk in-closet? I gotta say, I’ve been pretty lucky...I’ve been able to achieve all of that. Yes, even the 2.5 kids. 

So three months ago, it was me and my wife, 2-year-old twin boys and our little, slow and getting-older-by-the-day basset/beagle mix, Heidi. Since then, we added our 1/2 child who also happens to be a golden retriever, Renzi. 

I know many people treat their dogs like their children and even use them as a substitute at times, but I didn’t know what I was getting into when committing to adopt this loyal and lovable pooch. 

Due to extenuating circumstances, Renzi’s original mom had to give him up. Long story short, friend of a friend situation, we’re approached with the idea. Oh, another dog? With two toddlers and a dog already? Sure, why not, how hard can it be. 

At a spry 18 months old, Renzi fit right into our toddlers-rule-our-house lifestyle. We used to have to worry about every little thing on the floor or in reaching distance when the boys started to crawl and then walk, mainly for safety reasons of course. We were just getting used to being able to set things on an end table again. 

That all went away. We found out pretty quickly that Renzi eats and chews everything. You name it, he’s had it in his mouth. On Sunday, he was chewing a bottle cap. I’m sure he would have finished the job if I didn’t stop him. 

This dog eats more paper than the dog on the Abitibi paper recycling dumpsters. I’m not even going to go into detail about how I know that since I rarely see him actually eat it. 

The boys get along with him fairly well, except that Renzi doesn’t realize that he’s as big as a small horse. He has knocked the boys over on numerous occasions and they immediately point the finger of blame waiting for us to dish out the punishment like they would receive if one of them did it. And you know it’s bad when I hear the boys say “No Renzi!” several times throughout the day. Even they know what he’s not supposed to be doing. 

Even with all of this destruction and child-like behavior, Renzi has quickly become a very much loved member of the family. The boys will have a dog to grow up with, we finally have a dog that can get along with other dogs and he’s so loyal that he would probably jump in front of train for me. A few weeks ago he even bit me as we were playing and was so upset about it he kept checking all night, to make sure, (in his own little way), that I was OK. 

And while I’m sure my wife would still want another child—a girl perhaps—I’m very happy with the 2.5 we have now. It’s the dream right?