The death of the Dish

So alas, after almost exactly four years, the time has come to part with my Dish Network service. Many factors play into this, but the main one is purely financial: I’m already paying for cable just to get the internet. Simultaneously paying for Dish Network service, especially when we’re paying for a two-receiver package and the second receiver hasn’t even been hooked up to power since we’ve lived at our current house, is just nutty – especially when, in the end, we’re essentually watching channels that we could watch on cable. Our local cable system finally caved in and put Sci-Fi Channel and HGTV on expanded basic. This really just leaves one satellite channel that I’ll really miss…and that’s NASA Select, which really doesn’t merit $60+ a month. I’d rather have the sixth bucks.
That our satellite guy never showed up again after January 2000 to run the cable over to my game room for the second receiver certainly didn’t help. At one point, I even called Dish to let them know that I’d be more than happy to turn over that second receiver to them if it’d save a buck or two. No dice. We were signed up for a two-receiver package, and a two-receiver package was therefore what we were stuck with. Alas.
Got some gaming in today – some Atari vector classics on the PS1: Space Duel, Tempest, and Battlezone. I don’t think anyone’ll be mistaking me for someone who’s any good at the above games anytime soon, though.
I’ve also been reading, as an e-book on my handheld PC, the first Honor Harrington book, On Basilisk Station. It’s a bit better than I expected, though you’re well past the halfway point before things really start cooking. I’ll have a more comprehensive review down the road, but at the moment I can honestly say my biggest problem is pacing. David Weber abruptly hits the pause button in the middle of the book’s most intense space battle to spend several pages explaining the evolution of FTL flight in the Honorverse, and all the while, I’m thinking “That’s great, Weber, but WHAT’S GOING ON WITH THE FIGHT RIGHT NOW FOR GOD’S SAKE?” There are a few times where the exposition/backstory just cuts right into a big moment and I just go arrrrrrgggghh!
Stay tuned – I’m hoping to come back from Christmas with some brand new photos and video of Sampson. My little yellow fuzzy boy’s all grown up now. *sniff*