My household has always had hundreds, if not thousands, of channels to choose from, routed to our ump-teen televisions throughout the house via coaxial cabling, delivered to the house either from a "cable company" or from a "satellite television provider." After moving to California, we decided to go the "techie route" and watch all of "our shows" from hulu, Boxee, or other Internet sites. With good old coax, we had thousands of channels and nothing to watch. I thanked the stars when DVR came to the boxes! Now I could watch the programs I wanted when I was able, not when the networks play them. However, it was costing a hundred or better a month for this luxury. Could we really get by (or away) with "free TV?"
Boxee was awesome for a minute. There is an app in the Android Market to control the Boxee desktop software from your phone, so that was neat. Shows played just fine there, and there was plenty of content. Then, something happened. Shows started not playing. Horrid lagging if one did play. Next, shows started disappearing. Let's try hulu. Hulu is pretty good. The desktop app is adequate (wish I had an Android app to control it), and there are a lot of shows on there. I subscribed to huluPLUS so we could get to all of the extra content there. Now we have access to tons of movies, previous episodes of shows, whole seasons even, right there with huluPLUS. Since Blockbuster charges extra for streaming, let's try out NetFlix! We love it.
Now, for less than 23 bucks a month, we can watch tons of nothing again (and take it all with us on the road)!
Read the rants and raves of an East Coast guy who has been pulled to the Left Coast!
Welcome to California!
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Time Gone Bye (-Bye)
So, it's been some time since my last blog. Just as I figured, it would be difficult for me to be consistent and timely posting. I even had a great plan, and started it right, write what I could, when I could, and have entries ready to post and post one each day.
Maybe daily is too often. And who wants to read my rantings daily anyway? I don't even have any real followers yet, so who and/or what am I even doing this for? I want to write. I miss writing. There are things that get in my head and I feel the need to get it out "on paper." If others read it too, all the better. In my mind, for some reason, my blog needed to have "reason," a subject, a theme. Now I'm thinking that I'm wrong. I mean, really, how much can I write about living out here in Cali, and how much different it is than living on the east coast or in the Mid West. Okay, I can write a ton if I were sitting to write a book - and maybe I should one day, but that really isn't the purpose here. Now I'm thinking that I titled it perfectly anyway - who says that's it's about living out here? Well, I did, but it's my blog! It shouldn't be about life here in Cali, or more specifically, this farm-town or the eclectic Santa Cruz county area. Let me blog about whatever, right? It's MY LIFE out here, and that can mean anything. I'm living "out left." So it's just a blog about whatever - and me...
Good! Now that we have that settled, I can move on and write about most anything I want and maybe even keep it flowing better.
Maybe daily is too often. And who wants to read my rantings daily anyway? I don't even have any real followers yet, so who and/or what am I even doing this for? I want to write. I miss writing. There are things that get in my head and I feel the need to get it out "on paper." If others read it too, all the better. In my mind, for some reason, my blog needed to have "reason," a subject, a theme. Now I'm thinking that I'm wrong. I mean, really, how much can I write about living out here in Cali, and how much different it is than living on the east coast or in the Mid West. Okay, I can write a ton if I were sitting to write a book - and maybe I should one day, but that really isn't the purpose here. Now I'm thinking that I titled it perfectly anyway - who says that's it's about living out here? Well, I did, but it's my blog! It shouldn't be about life here in Cali, or more specifically, this farm-town or the eclectic Santa Cruz county area. Let me blog about whatever, right? It's MY LIFE out here, and that can mean anything. I'm living "out left." So it's just a blog about whatever - and me...
Good! Now that we have that settled, I can move on and write about most anything I want and maybe even keep it flowing better.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Excitement in the Little Village
Watsonville is seeing it's share of excitement this week! A murder, shoot at a cop, night-long stand off suicide last night followed tonight by a small aircraft crashing into our hospital.
It is usually quiet in this small farm-town, at least over here on the west side in our neck of the woods. We don't hear anything, aren't bothered by anything, and just enjoy our peaceful evenings. It's a nice town. Easy to walk or ride your bike where you want to go. Nice streets to get you there in your car, and even the transit system. We could bus it to San Jose if we needed to, then light rail, trains, or buses wherever; even all the way to San Francisco. We work and live on the west side of Watsonville. All of our shopping is right here too. A minute to Hwy 1 and we can be in Santa Cruz or Monterey in less than 20 minutes (unless we hit traffic - see previous post). A quick drive over the hill on the back side of Watsonville and we are in Gilroy.
So, being in the middle of the Monterey Bay has it's benefits. I love it here - even when there are weeks, no, months, of no excitement!
It is usually quiet in this small farm-town, at least over here on the west side in our neck of the woods. We don't hear anything, aren't bothered by anything, and just enjoy our peaceful evenings. It's a nice town. Easy to walk or ride your bike where you want to go. Nice streets to get you there in your car, and even the transit system. We could bus it to San Jose if we needed to, then light rail, trains, or buses wherever; even all the way to San Francisco. We work and live on the west side of Watsonville. All of our shopping is right here too. A minute to Hwy 1 and we can be in Santa Cruz or Monterey in less than 20 minutes (unless we hit traffic - see previous post). A quick drive over the hill on the back side of Watsonville and we are in Gilroy.
So, being in the middle of the Monterey Bay has it's benefits. I love it here - even when there are weeks, no, months, of no excitement!
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
I've Learned - A Year in Santa Cruz County
So I don't want this to be just a rant, but I have a feeling...
I think almost all of it stems from one of the first things I've learned, there is no sense urgency. Really, no one is in a rush, no hurries-no worries. Now, that's not always a bad thing, but just not how I grew up, and it sure isn't how things are on the right side of our country. After 30-some years of rushing here, rushing there, in a hurry to get here and there and to get this and that, I'm simply not used to the laid back attitude out here and, as I said already, lack of urgency. I'm really trying though, I wanna slow down and just be more relaxed. This would really help with the second thing I've learned...
The driving out here SUCKS! People don't know how to merge, how to drive on a freeway, well, basically, how to get the hell outta my way. Remember, I'm in a hurry to get somewhere. Just because everyone else isn't doesn't mean they should be able to get away with clogging up our freeways so it now takes an hour to get somewhere and it should only be 15 minutes. Yes, it is only a 17 minute drive from our driveway in Wat to the Westside in Santa Cruz - when no one is on Hwy 1. Around 4 PM to almost 7, it's going to take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour!
If you think that the driving is bad, the parking is even worse. If you are a friend of mine on Facebook, I'm sure you have seen my comments, looked at the pictures, or both. It is so interesting, no, frustrating, when you see so many vehicles that have been parked across lines, diagonally in a spot, or worse... now, here's where it gets better. I'm parked out away from others, go into a store, come out and can either barely get in my car or almost can't get out of my spot (I'm perfectly centered in), or both.
Here's the good though... the people are friendly, the landscape is beautiful, the weather is perfect, and I'm very happy! Now I've just gotta learn to SLOW DOWN!
I think almost all of it stems from one of the first things I've learned, there is no sense urgency. Really, no one is in a rush, no hurries-no worries. Now, that's not always a bad thing, but just not how I grew up, and it sure isn't how things are on the right side of our country. After 30-some years of rushing here, rushing there, in a hurry to get here and there and to get this and that, I'm simply not used to the laid back attitude out here and, as I said already, lack of urgency. I'm really trying though, I wanna slow down and just be more relaxed. This would really help with the second thing I've learned...
The driving out here SUCKS! People don't know how to merge, how to drive on a freeway, well, basically, how to get the hell outta my way. Remember, I'm in a hurry to get somewhere. Just because everyone else isn't doesn't mean they should be able to get away with clogging up our freeways so it now takes an hour to get somewhere and it should only be 15 minutes. Yes, it is only a 17 minute drive from our driveway in Wat to the Westside in Santa Cruz - when no one is on Hwy 1. Around 4 PM to almost 7, it's going to take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour!
If you think that the driving is bad, the parking is even worse. If you are a friend of mine on Facebook, I'm sure you have seen my comments, looked at the pictures, or both. It is so interesting, no, frustrating, when you see so many vehicles that have been parked across lines, diagonally in a spot, or worse... now, here's where it gets better. I'm parked out away from others, go into a store, come out and can either barely get in my car or almost can't get out of my spot (I'm perfectly centered in), or both.
Here's the good though... the people are friendly, the landscape is beautiful, the weather is perfect, and I'm very happy! Now I've just gotta learn to SLOW DOWN!
Sunday, July 3, 2011
A Bit About Me
If you don't know much about me, you can learn enough here. I was born a Buckeye. That means I'm from Ohio; Newark, Ohio - right in the middle of the state. Lived there for 30 years. I finally made it to my dream place to live, Tampa Bay (Pinellas county) Florida in the late summer of 2003. Living in the St. Pete/Clearwater area of Florida is a wonderful thing for me, it's where I've always wanted to live. Finally making it there at 30 was great! Should have done it sooner! I love the beach, especially the beaches of the gulf coast. Snow-white, fine soft sand, very warm waters, and the heat... love it all! I also love Theme Parks, Amusement Parks, or whatever you prefer to call them. So Florida really has it all for me!
Working for West Marine was nice in Florida too. A fantastic company to work for, well respected in our area, and the office (call center) was so close to home too. When we moved out of the building and began working from home, it was just as nice. What an easy commute! It wasn't long working under a new director in the call center management team I started getting requests to come on out to California to West Marine's headquarters and work with him in the offices. Trips to Cali started. Stays in Cali started. The preasure to move out here started.
How torn... this Florida lovin guy, in Florida for only minutes, and really getting the preasure from work to move clear across the country. It is so beautiful out here! My visits became longer each trip. I got to know the Santa Cruz county area well. I ventured the short drive up to "The City," San Francisco, to check it out a few times. Yeah, if I gotta move for work, this is is so not bad place to have to do it!
Some talking with the boyfriend and others, including long solo convos, helped me to make up mind. The offer would need to be good, of course, but we will do it! And we did!
Now you have just a tiny bit of my background, where I'm from, and what got me out here. Hope you come back for more!
One Year Later
So last week, one week ago today, marked one year living in California. For this "east coast guy," California is a bit different. I've also been wanting to start a blog for a while, just didn't know what I would blog about. I know, I really don't need a "a subject," it's a blog. But this will help me. This blog will contain the amusements and frustrations I find being from the east and moving out to the "Left Coast."
Hope you enjoy! Leave comments!
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