To cable or not to cable...that is the question...

Okay so I've been debating whether or not to completely drop cable from my life for a variety of reasons. Including my broadband connection, digital televsion package and HBO, Showtime and Cinemax I pay about 140 bucks a month. I don't watch that much television now compared to when I originally ordered the service. I have memberships to both blockbuster online and netflix which pretty much covers any movies I want to see. In addition most of the shows I would normally watch during the year I can find on Itunes for either 1.99 a show or 34.99 for the entire season. Any sports I can go watch at the local bar or over at friends houses. I see myself watching MAYBE 5 shows a week if that and watching maybe 3-4 movies during that time frame as well. I added up the costs of 5 TV shows at 34.99 a season to be about 175 bucks and would be equal to about 14.60, my netflix is 17.99 and my blockbuster is 17.99 which all told takes me to about 51 bucks. My internet is 42 bucks a month plus 51 bucks is about 93 dollars. My question is this...can anyone see a reason why I should keep the cable as it is? Any pros or cons to paying the extra money? Just curious about suggestions.

Addicition...thy name is lost....

Sorry I haven't updated in a while, things at the new job have been busy, but in a good way. I've been staying late most days to get ahead after my bout with the flu last week and also had a few fun social engagements with friends as well so...yeah life seems to be flowing back and It's weird trying to balance a life and a blog when before I was trying to balance ALL WORK and a blog. Additionally I've picked up a bad habit in the from of itunes and all the television shows I've missed the last 3 years. To say the least I've been catching up on a lot of lost time socially and also on the idiot box :) I'm watching the show "Lost" which I hadn't seen and damn it I'm addicted to it. I know some people love it or hate it and I guess I'm just enjoying watching it so far...the problem is I have like 40+ episodes to catch up. And that's where a lot of my life is right now...catching up.

Oh and 25 things about me will soon be up...so those of you interested should stick around...hopefully it will be entertaining.

Week 1...down the toilet...literally

Well I'm through with EFL with week (Ebola For Life) I think...I've mananged to lose another 5-6 pounds through the efforts of a stomach virus or perhaps it was food poisoning. Needless to say my ab workout was fantastic the whole time I was sick and who says you can't lose weight with that kind of effort? BULLSHIT I SAY!! Man I'm telling you what...a few more bouts like that and I may need to start eating heavy fats and plenty of sugar to get the weight back. I seriously think I lost about 10 lbs total and it was possibly some of the most surreal moments in my life. I mean out of about 4 days of being deathly ill, about 3.5 of those days were spent sleeping on a bed of towels in the bathroom because I knew being further away simply meant I wouldn't make it in time...yeah...it was that bad. You look at the ceiling tiles...one of my friends came over and helped me out a bit, I finally told them to turn on my MP3 player on my desk and just select the entire music folder on my PC (I have somewhere around 15000 songs) in shuffle mode...so yeah that was interesting. I completely forgot that I had complete comedy albums as MP3's and one learning spanish MP3 that was 8 hours long. So to say the least I spent the better part of 8 hours at one point puking while learning to habla in espanol...silly right? To say the least my dreams weren't any better and having a cat stand on your shoulders while you are throwing up and licking your ears is just...well wrong. Good kitty...bad timing. My office was extremely nice about the whole thing...I was worried they might think I was a slacker and they assured me that things like this happen all the time, still I hate it because it was during the 2nd week of my new job...yeck. Well that's all done and hopefully I'll get something more solid in my system tommorow, today it's been applesauce, gatorade and a little bit of banana so we'll see. Hope everyone is doing well.

Looks like I picked the wrong week to get ebola...

Short entry...I'm sick as a dog with some crazy stomach flu...I'm alive but barely...I'll check in when I'm feeling a little better.

ahhhhh lucidity....

Well I think I'm finally hitting my stride and getting back to normal with my sleep patterns and getting back in touch with my old social life. I went out for sushi and coffee tonight, had long nice and relaxed phone calls with friends and even just sat outside and watched the sun set. It's amazing the thigns you miss working a god awful shift and furthermore working in an oppressive company. You miss the small moments in your life and it's so amazing to realize how special they really were. I'm letting go of a lot of the stress and embracing the warm months coming up and...well...I think it's time to stat a mini challenge. Yes that's right I'm gonna get in the gym coming up on monday and get my ass back into shape again with a little mini challenge...say...6 weeks and see what I can get done in that time. Who wants to join me?

I'm going to try and update my blog a bit as well. I need to add more links for friends and that color is really not something I'm terribly happy with. Does anyone know of place where I can get some decent templates?

Day 2 and 3

Well yesterday was nearly unbearable due to lack of sleep. I did bring in some tea to help pep me up but there really is only so much caffeine can do when you've had abour 12 hours sleep combined over the previous 3 days. Today is a little better as I took some Tylenol simply sleep and got nearly 6 hours last night. I'm still groggy though but not NEARLY as bad as Monday and Tuesday.

The last two days I've been reading the manual explaining the product line, basic configuration, and lab examples. The rest of the week I'll probably be in the lab doing more hands on work and other stuff that's keeping me out of the books for once. So far I think everything is going pretty well. I'm gelling a little better with everyone...the culture here is a lot more open and people seem to speak their minds a little better. I guess that's possibly analagous to people escaping oppressive countries and seeing how free they really could be. They work hard here but they don't work stupid like we did at my old job which is good to see. Plenty of time for idle chit chat but when work needs to get done they get right to it.

I still haven't had time to take advantage of the social options with my new shift yet. All of the weird sleeping and trying to get my body adjusted has me cranky...also most of the people I associate with lately have had other plans but they are open to some stuff next week and I am having dinner with some friends tommorow night and lunch with a friend today, so it's picking up a bit. It's weird to come home at 5:30-6:00 everyday and have plenty of options open to me. I'm also getting a paycheck on the 15th, combined with my last paycheck from AT&T on the 1st of the month...so I'm going to be a little richer soon which will be nice to pay down some bills I think, maybe pay off the remainder on the credit card and a lot down on the laptop.

Also I was informed that I'll be going to Santa Clara for about a week once or twice a year so if that happens I'll see if I can make a way to see some of the blends as well as my brother and sister in law. This is pretty exciting stuff to be honest...I'm hoping that I do well at this job because it's small enough to be noticed but large enough to have nice fringe benefits that you normally see in the larger companies.

My eating suffered a little yesterday when I had two...rather large size pieces of pizza. However, the eating was clean and today looks to be the same as well. I'm back to cooking a lot more again which helps keep the choices plentiful. Anyone have some decent crockpot recipes that are EFL friendly?

First day report

Yep this is the new badge picture...I may just use this as the before pic for my next challenge...believe me red shirts don't help to make one look very flattering!!

Well today was the day and overall it wasn't too bad. Diet colas and juice are .25 and .50 a piece and everyone seems friendly. I have my own cube, a nice PC (flat screen monitor) and a BIG ASS BOOK to study. Should be grand. I guess I'm a little deflated because I don't know anyone, everyone seemed really busy and unapproachable and I guess that just the usual...making new friends. I really miss my co-workers and I was a little homesick for their camraderie...not the job that i left mind you...just the joking and conversations I used to have with them on a daily basis. I'm sure things will turn out to be fine and overall today was better than any day over the last two years. It was just...sort of lonely which was something I didn't expect. Probably just the fact that I didn't get but about 3 hours of sleep either...but I'll get over that...just try sleeping 5 hours tonight lol.

Today I've eaten clean for the first time since about the end of February. I've been proud of myself and I think I can at least try to keep it up and see where it takes me. Was waaay too tired for the gym this morning and this evening so I'll try to fit it in once my schedule even's out. Things are going to be better I just need to stop letting the old lifestyle run things and let the new one take over.