How did I get here??

Cable TV HOW!!

Cable TV HOW!!

I am the woman who did not watch TV for 1 year!!

Now I am paying for cable?

I will tell you, I got married.Everyone is not as against TV as I am so living in this house, I guess we will be watching TV.

Nuts!

My favorite channel is  NY1, I can see the same news over and over about nothing every 10 minutes! Yipee! NOT!!


26 Cents

13Jan09

That is how much I found going into my new experiment.  Yes, my new experiment is to pick up all the change I see on the streets of New York City. 26 cents.  I thought it would be more, but hey we are officially in a recession.

More on that later. For now I had to reach back to talking about my year without TV.  Could it get more obvious than this web site…

http://www.tv.com/

Yeah, TV is so over.  Shame on you if you are still paying for TV.  Yesterday I was at my sister’s house watching TV only to see that the same thing is being played over and over again on the same networks.  Aside from that, the same 100 movies that are always on TV are still there.  You guys know the ones.  The Lost Boys, Napoleon Dynamite, Rocky, The Last Dragon, The Breakfast Club, etc.

For $100 a month, I want to see more than cult classics. Which, by the way I have not seen Swingers shown in sometime now.

Basically, people, just watch the Internet.  This is the best way, when the switch happens I will be on Hulu, TV.com, You-tube, etc.

For now, I am watching HGTV.


New Experiment

03Jan09

So my new experiment is to pick up all the change I see on the streets of New York City for one year.

I shared this with a few friends, they chuckled.  I shared this with my honey, he chuckled, then realizing that this could be embarrassing, asked me to not do it while we were together.

Poor thing, he will be ok.

So the rules:

1. Must pick up all change that is visible.  If I see it and have access to it, I have to pick it up.

2.All change must be saved in one place, i.e a jar or separate account. I cannot spend anything until January 2010!

3.I cannot look for change.  All monies must be acquired by normal day in and day out activities.

So, those are the rules.

I find it strange that in day 3, I have not found anything yet. Days before, I found 5 cents total just running my weekly errands.  This will surely be a great experiment.  I hope you all stay with me for another year as I see how much misc. change is on the streets of NY.


I bet you fans were reading and watching to see if I would make it. Well I did and for me, it is just an indicator of how quickly time flies buy. I must admit, it has been fun, and I will go back to watching TV. I have had enough of alienating my friends, and I am curious to know what I missed in a year’s worth of commercials. I also have a buddy who is begging me to watch Gossip Girl.

O-well, I would appreciated comments and questions. I will be making my notes and searching for my book deal in the next coming months.

When the ball drops for 2009, I will be out with friends, well, my honey of 10 months. He is very excited about the new year and I hope you all check in with me to see how my next adventure will go…….

YES!!!

When the ball drops, there will be another experiment…………

Experiment for 2009, how much money will I have if I pick up all of the change on the ground of New York City.


This is what your TV will look like in Febuary

This is what your TV will look like in February

So today while watching TV, my sister tells me that her TV went blank into a test pattern of color bars. Shortly after, there was an announcement about the station running a test. This test was in relation to the upcoming TV switch to happen in February. For about 2 minutes there was no programming. I guess this is an indicator of what is to come if you do not sign up for digital cable.

Crazy stuff!!

She procedeed to change the channel and saw the same test pattern on every channel, even channel 31!

According to the info on the screen 20% of NYC are still watching analog TV.

What about you?


Isn't she like 80?

Isn't she like 80?

So as we approach the holiday season I wonder what I will do without my:

  1. Elvira Special
  2. Yule Log
  3. A Christmas Carol
  4. March of the Wooden Soilders
  5. and other random mess that usually comes on TV from OCt 31-Jan 1 of the new year.

Well, I will tell  you:

  1. Start my Kanji study in my Japanese lessons
  2. Build a meaningful relationship with my steady boyfriend
  3. Move back to my favorite place in NY to live with a good friend
  4. Continue trying to reach enlightenment
  5. Make some extra money working for myself and friends
  6. Get my teeth cleaned
  7. and other randomness that occurs when you are not sitting in front of garbage TV

Jingle those bells!


So just reading the news on line and wondering why all of my TV watching friends did not mention the humongous Washington Mutual bank bailout. Oh yes! WA MU was bought by JP Morgan Chase, unbeknown to you. While you were watching 2 hours of Grey’s Anatomy, or Dancing with the Stars at 9pm, all of this was going on. TV is not our friend, now is it.


I hope by now that I have some loyal followers of this blog that have checked back in with me throughout the months to see if I would make it being TV free for one year. As the year winds down, now in the 9th month, there is an interesting occurrence to report.

LEAVING WEEKLY DOOR ADS FOR CABLE?

LEAVING WEEKLY DOOR ADS FOR CABLE?

People from a certain cable company have started calling me, leaving tags on my door, and even knocking on my door to get me to change over to cable. Apparently there is not one person on this planet who does not watch TV. I wonder if I was really able to go public with this experiment if I  would find others who do not watch TV at all and are finding themselves being stalked to switch over.  Yes, in month 9, I am now being stalked by this one cable companies to get cable. No matter how many times I ask to be taken off of the list. For the last time, I do not watch TV! I also realized that once my experient is over in a few months, I will probably not go back to watching TV. At least not on my own. I will be able to sit in front of nonsense for my boyfriend, family, or friends, but of my own doing, I think not.

In case you are just tuning in (no pun intended), Here are some of the details about DTV and why I decided to do this little experiment:

DTV Transition – February 2009

Question DTV Transition – February 2009 Answer

Effective February 17, 2009 broadcast television stations nationwide are required by law to switch from the old analog method of transmitting TV signals to a digital television (DTV) transmission.

Will I be affected by the change?

Only those customers using an over-the-air antenna in combination with a older analog TV will be affected by the DTV broadcast transition change. If you are currently using an antenna with an analog TV, you will need to connect that TV to a cable line .


What an early beginning to Fashion Week. I spotted Christian Siriano walking down Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg Brooklyn Friday afternoon. He was so low key, blending in to the scene, all black as usual and looking FIERCE!!

CHRISTIAN SIRIANO aka Your Fierceness!

CHRISTIAN SIRIANO aka Your Fierceness!

Yes sweetie, I saw you. Hope to see you in the tent next week.

This weekend I am closing out the summer by switching over my closet to become 40% Fall as the weather gets cooler outside.

Still not watching TV, I mean the blog IS about me not watching TV for a year!

So instead of watching TV, I am looking for a new gig and spending my time studying my Japanese. After realizing that I could use this to boost my income, it became less cute hobby and more of a serious skill that I should spend more time on. So yeah, lots going on without TV even though people still seem into the old thing.

Funny, the other night many people sat around the TV listening to Barak Obama’s speech as if it were this enormous historic experience. It was, but I am not watching TV, so when everyone was glued to the set I was doing other things. And hey, why not? I watched on line the next day. Still just as historic without turning on the TV people!!

Jeeze!


(front)CONCERT TEE TURNED INTO A PILLOW

(front)CONCERT TEE TURNED INTO A PILLOW

So since, I have gotten back into my sewing, things are good.

(back)BOYS TO ME CONCERT TEE SHRIT PILLOW

(back)BOYS TO ME CONCERT TEE SHRIT PILLOW

I make handbags, pillows, scarfs, and quilts from t-shirts.

(side)CONCERT TEE TURNED INTO A PILLOW

(side)CONCERT TEE TURNED INTO A PILLOW

Old tees that are damaged, or no longer fit, get new life with smartalecky. I have stock of my own, but I encourage people to send me their tees to reconstruct into usable items. I am excited to see what somone will send me next.

My shop will be up soon on www.etsy.com, so search under the username smartalecky for me!

Here is my latest pillow made from a t shirt.