Friday: 13:08
Chocotaco? Sounds hideous.
It's My Time and I Want It Now!
Call J. G. Wentworth! 877-TIMENOW.
I was asked to join a few Discords today. It's pretty ironic that a social media tool is called Discord, but whatever. I technically have a Discord, but I almost never use it. It starts up automatically when I reboot my PC, but that's like, once a month, and I usually quit right away. Spotify also autoruns on startup, which I almost never use. I know I can fix this in my settings, but I just don't quite have the spoons for that.
I never really paid for cable much. In my first place in the Bay, (2009) we had some Canadian satellite service that was pretty close to American TV, but I watched the Sopranos by downloading seasons on BitTorrent. We had basic cable as part of a bundle at my second place, and I got through Breaking Bad on that, but we decided to cut it, as Netflix and Hulu were becoming prominent. We ditched the CRT for a cheap flatscreen, and watched some movies via HDMI to laptop through that, and I never really looked back. Other than Breaking Bad or the occasional Jeopardy, it was so liberating to live outside of a schedule. The reason streaming services caught on (before that, Tivo did much of the same thing) was because it freed you from a schedule.
The trouble with cable was that it was never à la carte. I could get by on like 7-8 cable stations: ESPN, TNT, USA, FX, Comedy Central, MSNBC, maybe SYFY, maybe Spike or TBS or something. If I could pay for only those channels for maybe $1 each, I would. But the only option is 200 channels forced on me, most of which I have no interest in ever watching, and pay extra for that "privilege," not to mention you still have to abide by their schedule.
Now, with Twitch, we're back to living on someone else's schedule. Some streamers have VODs posted later, or port them to YouTube, but even then, it's not always "complete." Some of LSV's videos start after the draft, before the games. But watching the draft is the best part, and I could have, if I'd been there at the right time. You can turn on notifications, of course, and get your phone pinged whenever your favorite streamer goes live, and Discord can serve a similar purpose, though those seem like they are more like interactive blog/message boards. But I like my schedule. Even if I spend a lot of time at my computer, I don't want to interrupt my movie just because someone I like decided to stream right then. I made a reddit post this week that got 9000+ upvotes, and I got an e-mail every time someone commented on it. I get what they mean when some big thread has the almost meme-like "Wow, this blew up. RIP my inbox." Please, leave my phone alone. My inbox was already dead.
So anyway (hey, that's the name of the blog!), HBOMAX and Hulu and Netflix are great, because I can watch whatever whenever. Disney+ is also great, although they still do weekly releases of new series (makes sense from business standpoint. As a newer service, you want to attract new subscribers), while Netflix tends to drop the whole thing at once (while I don't like waiting a week for a new episode, but watching 6 episodes in a row, you can really lose focus. Pace yourself, if you actually want to watch the show).
Still, a lot of thongs are fractured. I'm not going to pay for Peacock, or Paramount+, or whatever media giant is trying to do their own thing. Disney, with its acquisition of Fox, has a MASSIVE library to draw on, but so far, they're capping their content at PG-13, and the only Fox stuff is Marvel-aligned (X-Men/F4 movies, but not Logan or Deadpool, or the 2 X-Men movies in which Wolverine says "go fuck yourself" (this is literally the only reason I can think they don't offer First Class and The Wolverine, but everything else is no worse than any other X-Men movie (On my old PC, I downloaded the MCU so I could have access whenever (but I had the R-rated stuff too, and I'd like it if they had the "Rogue Cut" of Days of Future Past))). Oh, and the Simpsons too. But you can't even get Family Guy. HBO at least has South Park. But there are always workarounds if you can't find what you want from a legit site, especially when it comes to movies.
Sheesh, this got long and winding, and ended up being more about TV and time than Discord/social networks. That's the way writing is sometimes, but usually it's bad writing. I honestly hate hate hate the whole thesis statement, hourglass model essay. I initially titled this "Being Social." It started out about Discord but went pretty far afield, and never really got back. The new title doesn't really work either, especially since I don't really get there until the third paragraph, but it tickled me, so I kept it. It's the same sort of problem I've had with the Black Hole essay, which still sits unfinished in a draft form (it's so outdated, I started it shortly after the whole thing with Aziz Ansari (remember that?)), because it keeps drifting, or leading into something else entirely, and I had a point in there somewhere but it gets lost in the weeds.
But as any writing teacher will tell you, it's important to just do the writing, even if it's bad. Because some parts are good. Even individually, the paragraphs aren't bad, they just don't flow that well together. Do I not have the time to get it all down and piece it together? Because I did have a point, but I didn't actually think about what it was before I started writing. I don't know. I waste a lot of time, but it's my time, and I want it now!
