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Thursday, June 11, 2020. Like a whole lot of folks, we still continue to use discretion in our goings. Based on everything I am seeing this virus thing is not over and it is not going away. This means we continue to spend 99% of our time here at the home location. As a result, we end up watching much more TV than normal and I ordered up the BritBox feed so we can watch hundreds of different programs and series from across the pond. (The United Kingdom) We catch the local news from time to time on the regular broadcast channels and we check occasionally to see if anything worth watching has shown up on Netflix. This means more than 80% of our viewing is now on paid-for premium feeds. When we do watch the regular stuff we are reminded again at just how many commercials there are. It's clear the model we have followed through much of the pandemic has changed our preferences in a significant way. The reason I mention this is because I know we are not the trailblazers here, therefore, coming out of this quarantine mode these changed viewing habits has to impact the entire broadcast community. Fewer eyes viewing any feed will lead to consequences. I suppose, on the overall level, it could change the way we operate. I know. It's always a little iffy when I tackle issues way above my pay grade. That doesn't seem to keep me from at least sharing my opinion. I know. You are well aware of that.
The problem doesn't end with the entertainment feeds. Trying to use a variety of news and commentary web sources can also be challenging. Some of those feeds are fee-based. I don't have any that is. However, I do check a number of sources in trying to keep up with what's going on in the world and in particular, our nation. They furnish the information at no charge. EXCEPT for the paid advertising, (think commercials), that often dominate their web offerings. Their job is to keep you on the site long enough to get a pop-up ad in front of you. At times, the pop-up is hard to get rid of. And, you might just miss the kill it and suddenly you are transported to the world of the products being pitched in the ad. People will soon require a desktop computer capable of controlling the space shuttle just to deal with the avalanche of ads. I know folks have gone crazy with conspiracy theories regarding nearly everything under the sun. Here's one that has no conspiratorial undertow. It is based on absolute fact. The other day I searched for but found out the red baseball style caps I purchased a few years ago have been discontinued. No problem, I'll find some somewhere else. That proved more difficult than you might think. I finally settled on purchasing something similar from a new to me vendor. The order should arrive around the middle of the month. Here's what happened as a result of my making this search and subsequent purchase. Facebook suddenly started inundating my page with ads for caps. Yahoo Mail did the same. Even Drudge showed me cap options. On my phone. On my computer. I'll leave us all to ponder this one:
How did they all know?
We use the laptop to stream the shows onto our large screen TV. Since I listen to old time radio programs via the internet, I can now play them through the hookup through the laptop. I am well aware you don't need a large screen TV to listen to radio from yesteryear. I am always sensitive to the programs preserved from the time near the death of my dad in January of 1954. Since, back then, we didn't have a TV, I vaguely remember hearing programs playing on the radio. I don't remember much at all about our last Christmas with dad. He was very ill. He was a sketch scribbler and even at 7 years old I was into drawing. I believe they or Santa gave me some drawing materials for that Christmas. It's all pretty muddy due to the impact of his passing. I do enjoy thinking about him and mom and the six of us kids in the context of what I have discovered was going on at that time. While it may sound like an obsession, it really isn't. I haven't thought about it in a long while until I recently listened to an old Fibber MaGee and Molly episode. The particular episode was about welcoming home our soldiers after the end of WWII. Some of the cast of the program were actually deployed and they were returning to the show after having served their time. It reminded me of my dad who also returned home after the war. Just for the fun of it, the wife and I then watched some TV programs from 1953. I know. It sounds like I am hurting from a lack of something to do. Enjoy. Cherish your loved ones. Remember to thank God. I'll do my best to do the same.
Amen. .....More later.
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