Monday, I posted this on Facebook, but it's worth repeating here: "My Roku arrived and it's all hooked up. This may have been the worst idea I ever had. It has Red Green and Mystery Science Theater 3000 and all the Doc Martin episodes I never got to see because I started watching late in the game. :swoon: Oh, man, this could be bad for my productivity."
Turns out it's only bad for my productivity if I let it be. Last night, I told myself 'you're going to write today', so I left Hubs in the living room watching some show about people building homes in Alaska and sat my ass down. I cranked out about a thousand words, had a cigarette, then sat down again. I ended with 2098. My hands are ouchy this morning, but it was worth it.
Anyway, I'm loving the Roku. I spent part of yesterday watching The Great British Baking Show and it's spinoff Celebrity British Baking Show. Then I watched Dr G. Medical Examiner and a little MST3K. Later, like I said, Hubs found that Alaska show to enjoy while I wrote. We decided to go slow on the Doc Martin episodes so we don't get burned out. There are like 18 seasons of that (2004-2022), most of which we haven't seen. We're reserving it for one night a week, probably Saturday or Sunday.
It hasn't slowed the internet down at all. Say what you want about Elon Musk, at the start of the year, Starlink saved us from Brightspeed's slow, sometimes non-existent, internet, and now it's saving us from the BS crappy phone - thanks to 1-VoiP - and skyrocketing bills through DirectTV.
I'm sure at some point we'll run through all the shows we know we like, but there are scads of shows we've never seen that we'll give a try to at that point.
By the way, going back to Red Green and MST3K, I laughed myself silly watching both of those, but I'll have to do small doses of them, too. Too much of a good thing causes burnout. And my face hurts from smiling too much. We should all have such horrors visited upon us.
So, anyway, if you're like me and dragging your feet to get some of this newer technology, give it a try. If I can get good service out here in the middle of nowhere, you can probably do fine with it, too. It does take a little startup scratch, but in the long run, you'll save money. Our combined phone and internet bill was $147 a month with BS, double that with DTV - so around $300 A MONTH. Now, $120 for Starlink, $24 for phone, and the Roku is free. All that for less than our phone/internet alone. So the initial outgo for $600 Starlink and the $34 for phone and the $57 for Roku will be recovered by the end of the year. Woot.
(Private thanks to my sister for recommending Roku and my nephew for getting her onto it. This shit rocks, man.)
