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No More Network TV

No More Network TV

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I’m really thinking about getting cable or satellite. I can’t believe I’m still only on network television. It’s getting to be a drag just finding clips on the internet. I feel like I’m missing out on too much.

I’d like the History channel, and Comedy Central, and CSPAN… I want to watch politics and political comedy. Frontline was great last night, and we have two public television stations, but I want more.

Here in Ted Turner media home Atlanta, we don’t get the Cartoon Network or CNN on network television.

Here’s what we’ve got on network TV, the way I break it down:

  • 8 – WGTV – Athens-Atlanta, PBS Public Broadcasting
  • 30 – WPBA – PBA/PBS Atlanta Public Broadcasting
  • 2 – WSB – ABC
  • 46 – WGCL – CBS
  • 11 – WXIA “11 Alive” – NBC, good weather
  • 5 – WAGA “Fox 5” – Um, FOX
  • 36 – WATL “The New WB” – Formerly Fox, now the top Warner Bros. affiliate
  • 17 – WTBS – Atlanta Turner Broadcasting (sitcom reruns, movies, Atlanta Braves games)
  • 69 – WUPA – CW network Atlanta?? Weird history. Owned and operated by CBS, I remembered it as UPN.
  • 4 – WUVM – Low-powered – Azteca America
  • 26 – WANX – Low-powered – Prism Broadcasting Network – ACN Jewelry sales
  • 14 – WPXA – Ion (formerly PAX tv) – also weird history – everything from paid tv to Christian Religious.
  • 57 – WATC – Various Christian networks – Christian Religious
  • 63 – WHSG – TBN (Trinity Broadcasting Network) / JCTV – Christian Religious

It looks like I could get Comcast cable tv and internet and phone for the same price I’m currently paying for BellSouth “Now the New AT&T” (arrgh) phone and DSL.

Or may DirectTV would be better? Or DISH Network? Please comment if you have recommendations or warnings.

OH, the aching back

OH, the aching back

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My neighbor Ron saved me. We were talking “over the fence” the other day and I mentioned that I’d been taken down by bad muscle spams in my back. It turns out that along the way of his medical training, he also picked up a chiropractor license. He said he’d stop by later.

I was thinking he’d “crack my back” with an adjustment. Nope. He asked some questions, tested out my range of movement, and then brought out a strange looking instrument.

It looked like a cross between a door jam and a syringe. He said that dentists used to use them to crack teeth (maybe they still do?). The door-jam part could “aim” the slight jarring jolt it gave to a fairly precise location. You could adjust the strength of the jolt by twisting the thing…. wow, this is a really bad description. I need some vocabulary – hold on…

Ok, it’s variably called a Chiropractors’ reflex gun, tapper, muscle activator, adjuster, impact tool, or chiropractors’ adjustment tool (CAT). Evidently, it can release a force of up to 32 pounds to a very localized area. It belongs to the genre of “thrust adjustment” devices (I will resist the impulse to make a bad joke, I will resist…). Adjustment Reflex Gun He tapped a few spots on my back, tested my range again, tapped a few more spots.

And guess what? The pain subsided quite a bit, and I immediately had more range of movement.

I’m unclear about how this thing works, something about muscles firing and impulses and “resetting” muscle groups. I haven’t been able to find much on the theory, except for some verbiage about muscles that have gotten out of balance. Clearly I’ll have to do a little more research on this. Buffy thrust adjustmentIt looks like you can get one of these for something like $150-200. I’ll be looking on EBay, etc. It really made a difference. Or maybe I’ll just use a hammer (grin).

I undid a lot of the good because I had to ready the house for Ben’s birthday party – including the cleaning, lugging supplies, doing decorations (including the helium balloons), moving a table outside, etc. I’m pretty creaky today after doing all that yesterday from 7-2.

If Ron hadn’t rescued me, I honestly don’t know how I could possibly have pulled it off. My back was slowly improving, but I was still waking up unable to turn my head to the left, unable to sit for any length of time without stiffening up, unable to move around much without spikes of pain, the whole thing.

I would have felt awful if Ben’s birthday party didn’t come off as planned because of Mommy’s back pain.

Now if only I could get a good massage…

Love the Sphere-ing it

Love the Sphere-ing it

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Did you notice that I’ve added a new plug-in under the sociables links at the bottom of each post?

The Sphere related plug-in is easy to install. It interconnects blogs and other media sources.

Try clicking one of the Sphere: Related Content links – a pop-up window will show you links to content that it thinks might be related to what you’ve posted. Very fun!

Get and rate Sphere: Related Plug-in

See all my Plug-ins.

Voice Opposition to the Creation Museum

Voice Opposition to the Creation Museum

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This Memorial Day weekend, the religious right will take a bold new step in their campaign against science education in America. The creationist organization, Answers in Genesis (AiG), will open their $27 million “Creation Museum” in Petersburg, Kentucky, dedicated to promoting the falsehood that science supports the notion of a 6,000 year old Earth.

The Campaign to Defend the Constitution (DefCon) calls on all educators and concerned citizens to take a stand against this latest attack on science education.

Voice your opposition to the “Creation Museum” as a concerned citizen.

If you are an educator at any level – teachers, professors and administrators – please also sign the educator’s petition against the religious right’s campaign of ignorance

As concerned Americans, we join together to express our opposition to the “Creation Museum,” an institution built by Answers in Genesis (AiG) and designed to promote the falsehood that science supports the notion of a 6,000 year old Earth.

This institution is only the most recent example of the religious right’s war on science education – whether in the form of anti-evolution stickers in textbooks or the promotion of intelligent design in the classroom.

As Americans, we support our fellow citizens’ freedoms of religion and speech, and as a private institution, AiG is free to deny the overwhelming evidence resulting from hundreds of years of scientific work.

We, however, oppose this nefarious campaign to institutionalize a lie. We urge AiG to cease their war on science and we call on educators, media, and citizens to exercise critical thinking and their own right and responsibility of free speech, and oppose AiG’s false claims wherever they are promoted.