Digital Apocalypse...Day 15

It's been two weeks since the Digital Apocalypse swept Canada. Two weeks. Am remembering I had every channel at breakfast. Checked news and traffic. Weather Network. Ten minutes of Sandy Dennis making her way Up the Down Staircase on Turner Classic Movies, before heading for work. Home again after sundown, after work, the teevee universe had gone dark.

Thursday night, two weeks ago. None of my fiddlings and positionings of rabbit-ears, of omni-directional bargain-bin antenna scavenged in the spring, none of it pulled in more than a single channel, CHEK 6, from Vancouver Island. And it appeared to be snowing heavily there. Possibly high on the Malahat.

It felt just exactly like an ending of something would feel like. The stars extinguished in a blackening universe. Yes, the Digital Apocalypse sweeping Canada. I was alone, sudden'like, isolated in the unnatural heart of the, um, world's n'th most livable city (downgraded as of August — Darn you, Malahat![Shakes fist]).

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Am not a victim, no. No. Had canceled Shaw cable before summer. In the spring, Shaw had switched off some channels I'd paid for, said they had gone Digital, said I'd need a for-now free wee box if ever I wanted to see those channels again. They sounded like kidnappers, Heh. And I didn't like the word NEED. NEED smelled of weakness of character, and stubborn is my main flaw, and I won't negotiate with kidnappers. Shaw didn't switch off immediately, though, 'Bless 'em. Maybe Shaw figured I'd be back. Maybe Shaw figured it an unnecessary effort, to turn off one party-poopin' NTSC luddite when the Great Analogue Cut-Off in a single efficient sweep would switch off the thousands of us who wished to chance Canada's digital future without NEED of Shaw services* and the wee box.

* Along with Shaw, add Telus, Rogers, Bell. Am visualizing them all, imagining the CRTC hosted Labour Day long weekend barbecue. Beer and burgers. And clapping all around for the great job of turning Canada's airwaves pay-per-view.

Am not boasting: I could have afforded to go ATSC, to pay, to continue to see their idea of the teevee universe. I'm stubborn when it comes to being force-fed, though; also count my pennies; I've chosen not to join the party.

But what about Canadians who cannot afford to pay? I hate to say a word against [Fanfare] Vancouver, world's n'th most livable city, but there are folks, living in the heart of post-Olympics Here, who not only couldn't afford to go to the warmest winter Oly' ever, they also cannot afford to pay for tv they used to see for free over rabbit ears, over [gasp] rooftop fishbones.

Information, at its best, is also education. Am only wondering if this Digital Apocalypse also heralds the beginning of a separation: There'll be Canadians not in the information loop. And how can the CRTC see that a good thing? Why can't Marshall McLuhan step from behind a theatre curtain and save the day, Heh?

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That, above, is more wordy than I intended. It says what's on my mind, though.
Am doing fine, gleaning news, entertainment, and interesting bits from internet and around the radio dial. Just the same as folks did before teevee.
Radio, I mean.
They didn't have internet.
They probably just talked to their neighbours. Real chat rooms, that kinda thing. Tea and cakes, too.

Digital Apocalypse...Day 5

Was eating my Labour Day breakfast. Also trying to polish the blog draft I've been picking at since Saturday. Doing all one-handed. So spooning away at my oats in milk. Being careful not to spill over the keyboard. One finger holding down SHIFT for capitalizing. One finger going for P for Probably. And [cuss cuss] Windows decided to activate StickyKeys!

Okay. Read the pop-up explanation. Yes, Thanks, much, really. Not in the final stages of a time sensitive project. CANCEL.

Didn't cancel.

Held down SHIFT again. Duplicating what I did. Explanatory pop-up returned. Careful didn't fix it and it was déjà vu all over again.

It was a blur after that. Trying to clear multiple documents The Machine wouldn't allow me to de-select. I surrendered to the moment, reasoned that reason wasn't much use before breakfast and should take one step back, yeah, that's good. Emotion obliterated evolution. And wonderfully, as it turned out. I had tapped into something powerful, perhaps always there, in our 21st Century collective human soul, waiting in a dark corner. Perhaps I used the Force. Or perhaps one of my opposable thumbs tapped the correct canceling key in the correct sequence.

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Now Saturday's blog draft feels...too late. It was timely at the time. I'll just post the nice bits then and be done with it. Maybe. It was intended, perhaps, to begin a series of posts...My Life Without Cable TV, A Survivor's Diary, something like that. Humorous. Exploratory. Possibly even daily. Just imagine all the writing exercise I might benefit from from posting a thing DAILY.

Anyway. Apart from the time used up by my job, I'm fully expecting to discover scads of other-time now for actually writing, now that I've said No to cable tv. Said No to all that stuff I'd never watch. It was the right time, too. Am planning to experiment some, discover, and re-discover information options in the age after free teevee. Am sayin' it's free when you can pull it out of the air with a coat hanger. Can't do that any longer, unless a wave of the hand can transform the old electronic fireplace, from NTSC to ATSC. The Great Analogue Cut-Off has swept Canada, you see. And the Digital Apocalypse is banging at our doors. They'd like to sell you DTV.

Actually. That, above, is better than the draft. 'Figures. Okay, done.

'Wonder what's on the radio?