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Average Jane’s Cable-Free TV Watching Update

It's been about four months since my husband and I discontinued our cable television service and switched to a combination of digital antenna and Roku streaming. Now that we've gotten used to the arrangement, I thought an update might be helpful for any of you who are considering the switch.

I'll start with the stuff we don't like about our arrangement.

Mainly, it's the huge number of shows that are available for streaming to the computer but not to the TV. Right now, they represent about 80% of the shows we'd like to watch. If we're really motivated, we'll go ahead and watch them on the computer. If we're really, really motivated we'll purchase them via Amazon ($2.99 for HD, $1.99 for regular, which is plenty good enough) and watch them on the TV.

It's odd that the networks can't work out some kind of advertising model that will make Hulu watching more equivalent to regular cable TV watching. Most Hulu shows have minimal commercial breaks and usually show only one ad per break. That's nice and all, but I'd be willing to sit through a standard number of commercials in exchange for getting to stream all my favorite shows to the TV.

In most cases, we've just stopped watching the shows that are too difficult to watch conveniently. Unfortunately, most cable network shows fall into that category, so I didn't catch the last several episodes of "Psych" last season. I'll probably go out of my way to get "Burn Notice" and "Warehouse 13" when they start up again, but I doubt I'll start watching new cable shows unless the model changes.

Some of our issues with convenience could be solved if we simply hooked our TiVo to our digital antenna. That's my husband's job, so I'm just waiting. The antenna itself is another weak link in the chain: sometimes the reception is perfect but a lot of times the picture is pixellated, the audio doesn't synch correctly, etc. We probably just need to find a better place to hang it.

So on to the good things about living cable-free (aside from saving about $90 a month).

Between Netflix and Crackle, we're pretty covered for movies. We still get one DVD at a time from Netflix, but we could probably do without them considering how long it often takes us to watch the disks. Netflix has turned out to have a great selection of stand-up comedy specials, so that's been our go-to entertainment lately when we can't think of what else to watch.

Hulu's interface is a little awkward (still not sure why Subscriptions and Queue aren't the same thing), but the playback quality is good and they have several of the shows we like, including "Raising Hope" and "The Event" (which just got canceled).

One of the best things about dropping our cable is that we simply watch less television now. When you're paying a bazillion dollars for cable, TV watching starts to feel like an obligation to get your money's worth. Now we only watch it when we feel like it, which frees us up to go live our lives the rest of the time. It's rather refreshing.

Photo credit: Rantes

May 18, 2011
Average Jane Begins Her Gardening

I took the day off from work yesterday and, after fortifying myself with coffee and a breakfast sandwich from Mildred's, set about getting the things I needed to work on my flower and vegetable gardens.

This was one of those times when it was helpful to have a smart phone. I looked up the website for Planters and was pleased to learn that they open at 7:00 a.m. each day. I wasn't far away, so I headed there and started choosing plants for my vegetable garden.

I selected several varieties of tomato, bell and jalapeño peppers, eggplant, cilantro, rosemary and marjoram. I also picked up a flat of safari red marigolds and seed packets for green beans, zucchini, lettuce, spinach and sugar snap peas.

After I'd dropped off that load of purchases, I went to Lowe's for cypress mulch, a new trowel, work gloves and potting soil. While I was there, I picked up a couple of hosta plants to fill in around the oak tree in our back yard, two small pots of ground cover for a bed that's looking a little sparse, and a cucumber plant for my vegetable garden.

It was a bit challenging to fit it all in my car:

As you can see from the photo, it wasn't exactly sunny yesterday. In fact, it was rather chilly and the guy at Planters suggested that I wait a week before transplanting the vegetables. That, and the fact that it looked like it could rain at any moment, caused me to decide to begin my gardening at home.

First on the agenda was the restoration of my herb garden. It had been several years since I last planted anything there, but the chives and one oregano(?) plant were still volunteering. I dug up and weeded the bed, planted my new herbs around the more established plants, then mulched around them.

The next bed was to be given over to the elephant ear bulbs I'd stored for the winter, with marigold plants for accents. Eight of the elephant ears seemed to have survived nicely, one was questionable and one had obviously rotted. I thought that was pretty good for my first overwintering experience.

Once again I dug up all the weeds, did my planting and mulched.

It will look a lot more impressive in a couple of months, but at least it's tidy.

I also planted my new hostas and the ground cover went in a back yard flower bed with some of the elephant ear bulbs. I'll be filling in that bed with some of my extra marigolds today.

Because it's still cool and cloudy outside, I'm planning on limiting my vegetable garden planting to just seeds today. I'm keeping the plants outside, but I'll give them a break on the transplanting until it warms up again. Once I find the motivation to get dressed, eat breakfast and drink coffee, I'll load up my tools and seeds, head over to the community garden and get things going.

I love long weekends.

May 14, 2011
Average Jane’s Weekend in Pictures

Checking out the local food trucks at First Friday.

With M. Toast and Well Hell Michelle watching an air guitar flash mob.

SUNDOG surf band at First Friday.

Saturday morning trip to Shatto Milk Company.

Locally made cheese. Yum!

Hanging out with my sister and brother-in-law at a blues, brews and barbecue fundraiser.

Watching my husband play with his new band, Voice of Reason. They're really good.

Free yoga class on Sunday morning with my niece and sister at the Leedy-Voulkos Gallery as part of America: Now+Here.

I also saw I AM and Thor on Sunday. And did my usual volunteer work with the homeless kitties. I went walking both mornings. And probably did some other stuff, too. So it was a busy weekend.

What did you do?

May 9, 2011
Average Jane Previews America: Now and Here

This seems like a Kansas City-centric post, but not really. It's about a very cool event that may very well be coming to your town, too!

Tomorrow evening is the official debut of the America: Now and Here traveling multimedia art extravaganza. I had the good fortune to get a sneak peek at some of the exhibit tonight at the Leedy-Voulkos Art Center and I was blown away at the quality and variety of art on display.

The exhibition will remain in Kansas City through May 28th and there's a full schedule of free special events that includes music performances, movies, demonstrations, hands-on art activities, yoga classes and much more.

If you're going to First Friday tomorrow in the Crossroads, be sure to check out the America: Now and Here kickoff activities.

Here are some of the photos I took this evening. I apologize for not making note of most of the artists' names, but I hope you'll get the chance to come and see them yourself.

I liked this one because the woman looking at the child beauty queen is herself dressed up with a fancy hairdo.

These sculptures are by Kansas City artist Peregrine Honig.

Be sure to go to the basement to see some installations suited for the relative darkness there.

If you get a chance to experience America: Now and Here either in Kansas City or as it travels around the U.S., definitely take advantage of it! Just look for the distinctive 18-wheelers.

Disclosure: I got the chance to check out this exhibit early because of my company's relationship to the event. However, my opinions are my own.

May 5, 2011
Average Jane Goes to Texas

Last Thursday, I left town with three other Soroptimist Club members and traveled to Rockwall, Texas for our Region Conference. There were no conference activities scheduled until Friday, so we took our time getting there and the first two days felt almost vacation-y.

We stayed at the new Hilton that overlooks Lake Ray Hubbard. It's flanked by a row of restaurants and shops, and we almost made it to the movie theater one evening, but everyone was too tired to stay up that late.

On Friday afternoon, we were treated to a cruise on the Seawolf, a 40-foot catamaran that had been hand-built by its captain. As you can see, it was a bit windy that day and we got sprayed with lake water from time to time, but it was a very relaxing and pleasant jaunt around the lake.

The conference became a little more thrilling than expected when I arrived for the Saturday morning session and spotted my name on the agenda. No one had told me I was supposed to stand up and give a five-minute report, so I did some quick research on my iPhone, scribbled notes on my notepad, and said a whole bunch of stuff when it was my turn. Fortunately I had known I was doing another presentation later on, so I basically just introduced that subject, padded it with some additional information and called it good. Whew.

It wasn't all just conference, even on Saturday. My travel companions and I managed to squeeze in some time for shopping near the hotel and in downtown Rockwall, which netted me a cute top and some new tea towels.

After breakfast and a brief meeting on Sunday, we packed the van and headed toward Kansas City. It had been 90 degrees most of the trip, but Sunday was windy, rainy and chilly. As we crossed through Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri, the weather remained that way.

When I wasn't driving, I took photos of roadside attractions like Bigfoot's BBQ:

We even stopped for fresh produce. I got five juicy tomatoes and a bag of new potatoes.

Even with the rainy weather, I was glad we'd taken a road trip rather than flying. The gas was expensive, but not anywhere near as expensive as plane fare for four people, and I got to see a part of the country I'd never seen before.

I'm looking forward to my next road trip.

May 4, 2011
Average Jane vs. Cat Hair

I love my cats. I guess that's pretty obvious considering that I have four of them. However, I am not as fond of their fur. I like it when it's attached to them, but not so much when it's floating in every ray of sunlight, clinging to my clothing and collecting in the corners like an army of supercharged dust bunnies.

We actually have a "no more white cats" rule in our house because my husband and I wear dark colors most of the time and there's no hiding white cat fur on a black garment. Dr. Jones, with his buff-colored belly, barely made it past the committee on that one. It's no coincidence that Xena, Velvet and Trillian are all black or mostly black.

So I was recently offered the opportunity to get my hands on a new Furminator for free. In exchange, I would talk about National Hairball Awareness Day, which is today. I was also asked to brush all my cats with the Furminator, make sculptures out of their fur and send in photos of said sculptures, one of which is posted at PEOPLE Pets today, along with those of my fellow pet blogger participants, all of whom were much more creative with their sculptures than I was.

I have an older Furminator model that I purchased several years ago. It works pretty well, but my main complaint about it was that it seemed to build up a lot of static electricity, which in turn made the cat hair stick to everything it touched once it hit the comb. The new Furminators have a feature that pushes the fur off the end of the comb and that seems to help a lot. The fur goes into the bag in eyebrow-like rows, which leads to a lot less of it floating around attaching itself to your pantlegs.

I brushed all the cats who were willing to cooperate (Trillian opted out, with prejudice) and stuffed the fur into a sandwich bag. Then, cementing my crazy cat lady status for all eternity, I sculpted the fur into two different shapes: first a bunny and then a weird little creature with a Cheshire cat grin that I decided was named Marv.

Dr. Jones' tabby colors made a nice contrast with Xena and Velvet's black fur, don't you think?

Velvet got the most benefit from her brushing. She'd been yakking up hairballs over the previous couple of weeks but stopped immediately after that first, thorough grooming.

I'm looking forward to brushing the gang more often and cutting down on the furballs in the corners. No more sculptures, though. I promise.

April 29, 2011
Repair Day at Average Jane’s House

Today, three of the more egregious electrical issues I've been putting up with at home for years were finally addressed. I am living proof that a person can learn to ignore pretty much any problem around the house.

The longest-running problem was the ceiling fan in our bedroom. When the motor started going out, it would periodically stop moving and refuse to start again without a little push. I could live with that, but when it developed a horrible, high-pitched squeak (think hamster wheel), I did the sensible thing and purchased a new fan.

Then that fan sat in its box in our bedroom. It sat and sat and sat. Do I know how to install a ceiling fan? Yes I do. Did that make any difference? No.

I have the receipt for the fan here. The purchase date was January 10, 2009. Procrastination: It's not just a hobby, it's a lifestyle.

Late last summer, I was lying in bed with the windows open and the attic fan on when I heard a loud "thump." The attic fan shut off and no amount of fiddling with the timer dial (which, incidentally, had never worked as a timer the entire time we'd lived in our house) would get it to turn back on.

I called our electrician to arrange to have him come out to repair the attic fan and install the ceiling fan. We had a little trouble finding a date and time that worked for both of us. I stopped calling him, he stopped calling me and we both forgot the whole thing until this week.

In the meantime, the ceiling light in our kitchen was getting wonky. It would be on and then randomly turn itself off. The switch was inoperable when that happened, although if you happened to graze the metal switchplate with your finger, the faint tingling feeling you experienced made it pretty obvious that there was a short somewhere.

So yes, it was completely ridiculous that we lived with so many electrical issues for such a long time. That's why, when the electrician called today at 5:00 p.m. to say he could head to my house right then, I didn't hesitate to shut my laptop, shove it in the bag and head out the door immediately.

It turned out that the attic fan had some bad wiring, which he fixed promptly. Because the timer didn't work anyway, he put in an on/off switch in its place, and that will serve us just fine. Incidentally, the person who installed the original timer switch had made a note of the 1969 date on the back of the switchplate at the time. No wonder the timer didn't work anymore.

The new bedroom ceiling fan is delightful, but the lights on it are so bright that it makes the room look even more hopelessly shabby and horrible than it did before. There is no way I'm letting this summer go by without renovating that room.

It took the electrician less than five minutes to swap out the kitchen light switch and now the switchplate doesn't carry a current anymore. That's something else I could have done myself, but by now you have a pretty good idea of my home improvement work ethic.

The charge was very minimal for all that work and now we'll get a lot more enjoyment out of the spring and summer weather, not to mention the joy of steady kitchen lighting.

Now I can concentrate my SEP field on the screen door that slams every time it's opened.

Photo credit: F Delventhal

April 26, 2011
Average Jane Crowdsources

It's time I invested in a decent device for uncorking wine. Despite my otherwise gadget-packed kitchen, I have never managed to obtain a corkscrew that doesn't have some kind of major flaw. That flaw is usually poor quality, as I've broken more pot-metal corkcrews over the years than I would like to admit.

I do have one of those nifty wine openers that blasts CO2 through a hollow needle to force the cork out. It works great for real corks, but it's hit-or-miss for the synthetic ones. Because my favorite cheap wine comes with a synthetic cork, I really need a more reliable uncorking method.

So I'm going to throw this out to all of you. Tell me what brand of wine opener you use, include a link if you can, and tell me why it's so great. Keep in mind that I'm a cheapskate at heart, but would be willing to invest a reasonable amount for something that I can expect to last and function perfectly for many years. Also, I'd prefer to stay away from any device that's so complicated that I can't figure it out just by looking at it, but I'll take your word for it if you can convince me otherwise.

Thanks!

Photo credit: Gisela Giardino

April 23, 2011
Business Blogging Resources

Here are some resources and links discussed at the Enterprise Center of Johnson County Blogging for Your Business Workshop on April 21, 2011.

Blogging Platforms

WordPress (initially free)
Typepad (paid, various levels)
Blogger (free)

Spam Filter

Akismet

Community Guidelines

Here’s are the Barnes & Noble Community Guidelines on Facebook. It’s a good example that can easily be modified to apply to blog commenting instead.

Blog Readership Stats

BlogHer/Ketchum Social Media Matters Study 2011 (PDF file)

Pew Internet & American Life Project Generations 2010 (PDF file)

Some Posts About Business Blogging

10 Reasons Your Small Business Should Have A Blog

6.5 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Blog

Top 5 Business Blogging Mistakes and How To Avoid Them

15 Excellent Corporate Blogs to Learn From

Notice that the last two posts are both from Mashable. They’re a great resource for news, advice and information about social media.

Optimal Posting Times

When’s the Best Time to Publish Blog Posts? from Problogger

Image Resources and Attribution

Per the question about removing tracking data from photographs, here’s an article discussing how to do that.

Creative Commons

Flickr – Photo sharing site with with a lot of Creative Commons-licensed content.
Search for a word or phrase. Once you get initial results, click the “Advanced search” link and narrow the search down to “Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content” and “Find content to use commercially.” Be sure to credit the photographer (by name or Flickr handle) and link back to the original photo post on Flickr within the post.

SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Basics

A Few Business Blog Examples

Nuts About Southwest – Southwest Airlines
A great example of a blog that has a large number of contributors yet maintains a casual tone and does a good job of varying subject matter.

Marriott on the Move – Marriott Hotels
One of the earliest CEO blogs – still a great example.

Off the Shelf – Barkley
Industry-focused blog with content very specific to consumer packaged goods manufacturers and marketers.

stuff – Blog! – A local small business blog that features a combination of personal musings from the store owners along with new product and sale mentions.

Top Corporate Blogs – Listing of the most recent posts from a large number of corporate blogs via aggregator Alltop

Social Media Clubs

If you’d like the opportunity to meet other professionals working in social media and learn from them in a variety of settings, check out our area social media clubs.

Social Media Club of Kansas City (I’m currently VP of this club)

Social Media Club of Johnson County

Social Media Club of Lawrence, KS

Any questions? Feel free to contact me.

April 20, 2011
Average Jane Receives A Message

Yesterday I was fishing in my purse for something and I noticed that my last cough drop was propped up inside my wallet, revealing the message, "Don't waste a precious minute."

Now, I wouldn't mind so much if that were written on a nice piece of candy or gum. However, it comes across as a little chilling on the wrapper of something that is essentially medicine.

Does my cough drop know something I don't?

If it had more space, would it be saying something like, "Wow, that cough sounds pretty bad. And you've had it for weeks. In fact, this is the last cough drop in the bag. You say you're also using a steroid inhaler, taking codeine cough medicine at night and dosing yourself with prescription allergy pills and nasal spray? Hmm. Well, I don't want to alarm you or anything, but maybe you should take some time to stop and smell the roses. Did you hug your husband today? Call your sister? Pet the cats? I'm just saying…"

Then again, maybe it's suggesting that I spend less time goofing around online. In which case, I suppose I'm done here.

April 20, 2011