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stuff 3.27

stuff 3.27

My cable bill is astronomical. It's by choice that it's so high. I subsrcribe to the premium package, plus the premium sports package and digital cable. Add to that my cable internet connection fee and my bill looks like the national debt. One of the reasons I get the sports package is so we can watch the Yankees on the MSG Network. Now, the Yankees have formed the YES Network and will be showing 130 Yankee games on that station. It was their intention that Cablevision should include the YES Network as part of basic cable. But no, Cablevision wants to add it as a pay channel. Meaning we would only get 30 or so Yankee games on tv unless we wanted to add even more onto our monthly cable bill. There are negotiations going on between Cablevision and the YES Network. Opening day is Monday. Cablevision once again has us by the balls. This isn't the first time they've tried to fuck the fans over. It won't be the last. And they are the only cable company on the block. The sad thing is, if they end up winning and putting the YES Network on as a pay channel, I will probably subscribe to it.

About two weeks ago, I wrote something about careless driving and driving under the influence. Eventually, things like that hit home. This volunteer firehouse lost two members (brothers) on September 11th, and now they have suffered another loss because of one person's selfishness and ignorance. The man who died was a good friend of my brother-in-law, who is a member of that firehouse. Tragedy doesn't come in only large numbers. It comes to many people, every day and goes mostly unnoticed by the rest of the world.

And, rounding out my trip through the local paper, Natalie's school is listed as one of those that fall below state standards in 8th grade math. Which does not bode well for us, as math is her main downfall. I also found out the students are tracked and labeled starting in 7th grade. So next year Natalie can look forward to being labeled as "Regents with support" while most of her friends go to honors and I can pretty much see where this is headed. Why can't they do it without the labeling? If I had to do it all over again, I would homeschool.

Things to look at: Melly and Sarah both have redesigned. As did bad sam, and I think I shall be posting there today.

Today's aortal pick: collective arts.

Post of the day. Steve's feelings about the church sex abuse scandal mirror my own. Then read Michael's excellent post on the subject.

I need coffee.

Comments

Imagine when the cable company may choose to enter lap dance mode, where perhaps they can charge you in real time, by the inning, or the half of a game. Just when a killer play is about to go down, a pop up screen on your television, "To continue watching, please agree to $5 continuance fee....press yes to continue..."

Sorry to hear about another loss. The driver looks sort of evil and pathetic - not unlike photos of other drunk drivers I've seen.

If you are unable to help Natalie obtain a solid comprehension of math with the aid of the public school system what makes you think you could do it alone?

I couldn't, which is why I didn't. That was just a bit of retropsective wishful thinking.

I hope Frank is being sarcastic. If not you, then some talented tutor or friend out there could teach math. Math is one of the few subjects that is very easy to teach badly, yet it is so logical and step-wise, and pervasive in life that it needn't elude anyone who consistently tries.

I always struggled with math, but it always paid off in the end - there was a huge temptation to simply join the crowd and say to myself "I'm just at good at math". When I think back to my grade school, junior and high school math teachers today I realize how utterly terrible most of them were. Grumpy broken old men who didn't care.

golldangit - I meant to say, "I'm just not good at math" in the post above. (as an aside, what if a statement like that had the same connotation as "I'm just not good at being nice")

"the driver never even hit the brakes" -- not surprising, since she was too stupid to read the warnings on the pill bottle about taking with alcohol -- sorry to hear of the loss...

Sorry to hear about the loss of your brother-in-law's friend.

We just cancelled our cable. $92 a month and that is without any sports channels or internet access.
We're going to go with the Direct TV dish/Tivo combonation. It's still about $60 per month, but that includes 200 channels, local networks, and the Tivo service.
I'm not sure what it offers in terms of sports, but you should look into the Dish Network or Direct TV.

in a few years, the detroit red wings will go from sharing games between fox sports net, espn and the local station here to going completely to fox sports net. so yeah, if you don't have cable, you're screwed. pisses me off. i have cable, but it still pisses me off.

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