I got a Roku for Christmas. It might change my life. Again.
I don't watch TV, partly because I don't have a signal. I don't have a signal because I don't watch TV, so I'm not going to pay for cable or satellite. It's kind of a chicken/egg thing. If I had the option, I might watch TV now and then (although it seems to me every time I tried, Legally Blond was all I could find). I gave up on Netflix because I was never in the mood for what I had ordered earlier - although I might have kept it for the streaming, if they hadn't pulled a Netflix on everyone.
Anway, I figure Roku will let me find something to watch (even Legally Blond) when I'm in the mood, without having to go rent a movie at the quick shop. Amazon Prime gives me all kinds of stuff to stream for free or for a video-on-demand fee, and really that pretty much suits my lifestyle.
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My house is quiet. It's been quiet ever since Dale moved to the nursing home and I turned the TV off. After 26 years of TV around the clock, I like the quiet. But sometimes I find it enervating. If there were background noise, I might be more motivated to get up and accomplish something. When it's quiet, I just want to curl up with a book.
Today I realized why that is. For a wife and mom who works outside the home, it can be hard to find time to oneself. My Kay Time was when Dale was away or asleep - when I could turn off the TV and have a little time to myself. So the silence of the house makes me want to crawl into my private space, ignore all the demands on my time, read and daydream.
He's been gone three years. I think I can change my habits and accept that it's ALL my time now.
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So, Roku. My son-outlaw set it up for me and showed me how to work it, and we tested it on How the Grinch Stole Christmas (in my Amazon video library). Freaking amazing video quality, color and clarity. Further testing: how about a feature-length movie? How bad will the buffering be? I tried The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (and developed a crush on her). Again, amazingly sharp, vivid picture - and no buffering. And rewind! I didn't think you could rewind on streaming! I haven't finished watching it because I forgot to pay attention to the subtitles and lost track of the plot.
Today I looked for something else I might be in the mood for, and settled on Cats Don't Dance, a Warner Brothers animation from 1997 that I'd never heard of. It had Randy Newman listed as the top credit, and I had just been bragging to the newlyweds about how great Randy Newman's songs are. (I think that listing was misleading; I can't find him at all in IMDB credits, and on screen I only saw that he did the words to the songs.) And it rated highly on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer.
AND ... it stars an orange cat. (Voice by Scott Bakula.)
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