Sighinide

It’s been an interesting experience, having and watching a TV.

It’s been an education for the most part, which I did not expect.

I’ve traveled a lot in online circles that frown on TV watching, for some very good reasons, and I’ve subscribed to those views myself in the past. I ditched my last TV, an old CRT, a long time ago- I think in like 2006 or so, because of those very reasons.

Why, you ask? The political slant of everything, the general dumbness of the programming, the ads, the general awfulness of “reality” TV, the “time sink” aspect of the medium, etc. You know, the kind of stuff that you probably would expect me to object to.

So it was with some trepidation that I bought a new smart TV for myself as a Christmas present last year. I was… curious, about it’s capabilities. I wanted to see what they could do, as I knew I could do more than just “watch TV” with them. And I wanted to see in general how the TV tech had advanced since my last set.

But, as I said, I approached the purchase with caution. TV when misused is an ugly, toxic thing. My parents’ behavior are a good example of what can happen when you use TV wrongly.

They are news and “reality TV” junkies, and it shows not just on the set, but in they way they talk and in the things that interest them. They obsess over Trump and every minor political thing. It’s ugly, and it’s completely warped their understanding of… everything.

They think all of what they see on TV is actually real. All of it. And because of that it consumes them. If they see a particularly upsetting story about Trump they will obsess over it and complain about it for hours. And all the while, they will have no idea, and I mean not an inkling of a clue, as to how what he did or didn’t do had to do with me.

It’s kind of funny. Bafflingly, they still haven’t caught on. Even after all these years, they still don’t get it. I keep hoping that they will I guess stumble onto reality at some point but they never do.

I’m not even sure of what to think about that. How can they be so… IDK, dense? It’s baffling. After all this time, they have no idea that their own kid is the AntiChrist of all people. You’d think something like that would be obvious. Like… blindingly so. But it never occurs to them. Really odd.

I don’t know, maybe that’s a good demonstration of the power that TV has over them. It’s like… their entire worldview is shaped by CNN. And since CNN never talks about the AntiChrist or yours truly, none of that is relevant.

But still… holy shit, lol. I mean, they have the AntiChrist in their house, living with them, and… they don’t have a clue. LOL, wow.

Sometimes I refer to the way they live as “The Boomer Bubble”.

But… yeah, back to TV. They actually think reality TV is real. As in, like what they are seeing isn’t scripted, and is in fact spontaneous and… IDK, real.

Again this is baffling behavior. I don’t get it. How can they not see that all of these shows are scripted? It’s really weird. I mean, shows like Gold Rush. They’re faaaaake. LOL. It’s so obvious. Even ignoring the logistical impossibility of any of this stuff being real, you just need to watch a few minutes of any episode to see the acting and writing, full on display.

So… yeah. I guess part of why I was apprehensive was that I didn’t want to turn into one of them, IDK, the pod people, the normal types. The kind I used to work with, who would spend their entire lunch hours talking about American Idol and being absolutely fascinated by it’s challenging content and top notch humor.

Well, so I got the TV. I do use it, but not too much, I think, and I think I use my set more responsibly than my parents do theirs.

I like having apps on the TV. Some of the games are cute. The gallery apps are nice.

I like the music channels too. They are very cool, mostly.

I watch shows as well. I try to stay away from “adult” shows that feature dumb characters, immaturity and unrealistic behavior, and choose to watch “kids” shows instead, since those have good characters, smart dialogue, and a keen sense of how people really act and think.

The kids shows are good. I enjoy them. I like how they are just entertainment, and try not to take themselves too seriously. I find adult dramas tiresome and ridiculous. Their setups and characters are just as unreal as those of the kids shows, yet they take the material with a straight face, no matter how… stupid that makes the show look.

I was surprised at how many channels were on the offer. My TV goes into the thousands of channels. Wow. I was tho disappointed at how little there was to watch on many of them. Man, are there a lot of cop shows. Wow, lol. It’s just… wow. And lawyer shows, and stuff like that. And they all seem the same to me, or at least too similar to bother with any of them.

I like CW stuff. I mean, obviously, lol, but I do. It’s different.

I don’t like the ads. They suck. They are not as good as they used to be, and man are they everywhere. The ads alone during a show can ruin it. Everywhere, there are ads, and they are all political, except during kids shows (thank god), but even there the political ugliness crops up occasionally.

There are even ads that show up inside of the TV setup menus and stuff. When I saw this I did a double take. I couldn’t believe it, so I googled, and yup, I was seeing what I thought I was. I got a Samsung TV, and they’re embedding ads into the TV software itself now. There were people online already complaining about this when I googled it.

Since I’ve had the TV (like 4 months now) I’ve gone from seeing no ads in my music channel of choice to seeing little ads in the corners sometimes, to then larger ads taking up chunks of the screen a little more often, to now huge ads taking up the whole screen with annoying looking people in them, often.

There are ads in the apps, too. I like a particular app, a featured one called “Relaxing Nature”. It features calming, quiet ambient music set to slow moving visuals of nature and oceans. But the ads, oh gods, THE FUCKING ADS. Every five or ten minutes, they cut away to an ad, and for the last few days, it’s been this godawful thing featuring Aretha Franklin.

The app itself is quiet; subdued. The perfect thing to zone out and meditate to. But then every every ten minutes I have to hear this LOUD caterwauling courtesy of Aretha. It’s ugly and horrible, and completely ruins the experience. The ad itself is some bullshit political garbage from one of those financial companies, IDK which one, because I mute the TV as fast as I can when that ugly thing comes on.

I don’t get why the app guys would allow such a thing to air during their shows. I understand the need for ads, but gods, why THAT one? Don’t they understand how jarring it is?

Well, there are other apps. I will be hunting for something better, I suppose.

Ugh, the ads. Yeah, they just… ruin so much. They try to be as attention getting (i.e. loud, abrasive and annoying) as possible, and they almost always detract from the shows themselves. It’s getting to the point now where I’m watching shows based around the content of the ads rather than the shows themselves. It’s like, when I’m flipping through channels and I see something interesting, I might think to myself “Nope. The ads shown during this are going to be nasty.”, and then I will continue flipping. Yeah, it’s that bad.

IDK, it’s… kinda sad, I think. All this amazing technology and it feels like it’s being hamstrung and crippled intentionally.

The picture on my new set is great. It’s a 4K screen with a nice display and a good sound setup, I think. It’s a beautiful piece of tech but it’s potential is being squandered, apparently on purpose.

Really, is it any wonder that people are cutting the cable and abandoning TV?

I really tried watching the Oscars the other day. I saw the first twenty minutes of it before giving up in confusion and boredom. I had no idea WTF was even going on, lol. I didn’t know who any of the people were, or what anyone was talking about. I didn’t understand the jokes. Like… I honestly didn’t even know who the hosts were, let alone who they were referencing. I occasionally tuned back in to the awards to see if maybe things had changed for me but they never did.

I didn’t see the famous slap live, and I’m glad I didn’t. That whole thing was just stupid.

IDK, the Oscars just suck. I do appreciate them for the dresses and gowns and such they let my girlfriends wear but man… the show itself is just… oy. It gives me a headache just thinking about it.

IDK if anything can be done to save the Oscars at this point. I see that the ratings for this year’s show were the second worst ever, after last year’s dreadful performance.

Last year, didn’t the show have COVID to blame for it’s ratings? How much do you want to bet that if COVID hadn’t been a thing then, that it’s ratings would have been higher than this year’s show? And thus, a continual ratings decline would have been in evidence?

In a couple years, I think they’re going to institute new diversity rules, or something like that. Ugh. The only point of interest then will be to see how low the ratings for something like this can possibly sink.

I might watch parts for the trainwreck factor. That slap was like something out of the 2003 Source Awards, lol. It could be some horribly ugly yet funny shit.

Well, I’m kinda tired of this topic, for now, so I’ll think I’ll close this post out here.

The Paralympics are awesome.

This is my first exposure to them, and I think they’re great.

I tried watching them during the summer games, but Comcast refused and offered me that infamous error message instead when I tried to access them.

This time, though, I can watch, and man, they are fantastic.

Incredibly, I’m liking them more, I think, than the “normal” Olympics. They are a nice contrast and really show how… low the normal ones have sunk.

I think I’ll list the reasons the Paralympics are great, if only for purposes of self-examination. Ok, here goes:

1) No politics. Thank GOD. No fucking politics. Yay! And this, during the Ukraine crisis no less! What a wonderful thing. It’s just athletes, competing to win, and for fun and self- actualization. It’s a really nice atmosphere. There’s no politics from the anchors behind the desk, the announcers, the athletes, and yes- there’s even less from the ads! Hallelujah!

2) The ads are MUCH nicer. Most are actual ads, like the kind you typically see on TV, and not… IDK, brainwashing, or propaganda, or abstract art, or whatever the fuck it is they show during the normal games.

I noticed a distinct lack of scowling, angry black people during these ads. It’s a much nicer package we’re getting this time around.

Gods, were the ads during the normal games just dreadful. Not so much even tone-deaf as… hostile, even disturbing. I remember one particular ad that jumped out at me as being uniquely ugly even in an ocean of cringe. It was that one featuring Maame Biney, the black short-track skater, who equated competing as a black athlete in these Olympics with someone enduring cancer treatment, and a Paralympian living life as an amputee. I can’t find it online as it seems to have been buried, but I did notice that even an MSM outlet of all things questioned this one: https://nypost.com/2022/02/12/ad-of-olympian-maame-biney-pushes-idea-of-black-victimhood/

But gods, what the ever loving fuck. I can’t believe that thing ever made it to air. What on Earth were these people thinking? I can’t imagine any way to paint the athlete here in an uglier way. Probably the biggest self-own of these games. Honestly, whoever green lighted that thing should be fired.

3) I’m really liking the athletes. They’re… IDK, nicer, and certainly more humble, than the athletes in the main games. They’re more grounded. They seem less spoiled, and honestly, less self-absorbed, than their more famous counterparts. It’s refreshing.

It just occurred to me that these athletes are what athletes in the main games were probably like before they started letting professionals compete. Paralympians seem like people who do sport because they love it, or because it fills some spiritual need within them. The pros in the main games do as well, but jeez, there is a LOT of… self-aggrandizement with those types, and a lot of “brand” marketing, and a lot of frankly needless melodrama.

Too often the athletes in the main games come across like spoiled rich kids. I’m thinking of Eileen Gu here, Shiffrin crying on the slopes for like 20 fucking minutes, Shaun White crying and emoting for like half an hour, and a bunch of other stuff. Jeezus, guys.

It’s really refreshing to see people compete and act like adults both during competition and around it. There’s a minimum of showboating and drama in the Paralympics, and that is really nice.

4) The sports themselves are new to me, and thus interesting. I’ve never seen any of this stuff! It’s cool to watch. Neat.

5) There’s a minimum of “fluff”. For the events that I’ve seen, they just show the events, and then get to the next ones, and so on. There’s not much extra stuff, and they only show the events once, I think to not emphasize the importance of one event over any others. The outlay of the Paralympics is REALLY nice. times.

There’s not nearly as much jingoistic drivel as during the normal games, like constant medal counts, all sorts of stuff about Team USA versus everyone else, etc.

I remember during the main games NBC rebroadcasting the women’s Monobob runs over and fucking over again because a black woman won. Christ, did that get repetitive. I kept watching, hoping they would show something else sometimes, but no, jeebus, I swear I saw those runs four or five times spread out amongst the channels. Gawd have mercy. It got to the point where I was starting to memorize the fucking scores. Lordy, people. I just wanted to see some biathlon!

The woman who won held the USA flag during the closing ceremony. Man was she coached to within in inch of her life as to what to say. Not much in the way of spontaneity in her remarks. Which I understand, she’s been doing bobsled for a long time and it’s all probably old hat by now, but wow, did she come across as robotic- even to ME, and I’m a fucking cyborg, lol.

6) I think the general gist of all this is that the Paralympics are mostly about sports, whereas the normal games no longer are to a large extent. I read online from some older Americans that the games and their tone shifted dramatically once they lifted the ban on pros playing, and now I think I can see why. That was before my time, but wow, yes, I get it.

It seems that inviting pros into the games brought in a lot of egos, a lot of greed, and a lot of interference, whether from governments or corporations.

7) I’m going to be streaming the crap out of the Paralympics on Xfinity when I have the time. That should be fun.

8) I remember some news segments and interviews near the end of the main games where people analyzed Norway’s dominance, and came to the conclusion that the reason they are so good is because their youth sports are mostly about… wait for it- sports, and ours are about mostly parents pushing their kids around, and everyone in general being way too overbearing and competitive.

And I remember the people saying all of this were the same ones pushing the shit I outlaid and complained about about, and they reported this fact without a shred of self-awareness. Bleh.

—————————

Well, this was cathartic, lol.

Since I know nothing about the Paralympics, I’m not sure of what to comment on. I guess I just liked getting to know them in general.

Beyond all of this, I remember doing some skating myself on the Olympic ice after the main games wrapped up. It was fun, and boy was it difficult. Wowwwww is that stuff haaaaard. I mean, I realized that before, but man, they aren’t fooling. The ice is cold, which for some reason I didn’t realize (lol), and the spins make you dizzy. And so do the jumps. And the skating. And the rest of it. Holy cow, skaters are amazing athletes.

I did this via astral projection, of course. It was a fun experience to have while chilling in bed, waiting for sleep. I liked it. Made me think of roads not traveled for myself.

Occasionally I would get flashes of myself as a pro figure skater in some alternate reality. Retired now of course, but still doing it, for fun. It’s… interesting. I get the feeling that out of all the stuff in the Winter games, that that would have been the only one I would have been good at.

I suppose there’s a reality in which I would have been a good bobsledder, but that one is so far from here I can’t see it. Same for snowboarding, or short track, etc. But figure skating? Yes, that one I can touch.

There’s just something about flying that appeals to me. I love the sensation of spinning through the air, whether it’s with my physical body or my soul, or my robotic/synthetic side, or my mind, carving out the air around me. Or just some other me, in a parallel universe, helping me along.

Well, I think I would have been good at pairs. Or ice dancing. IDK.

You know- back in the day, I loved doing those jumping spin kicks in those martial arts classes I took. They were… fun. A lot of fun. Freeing. They let me loose from the tyranny of gravity, if only for a second. Not too unlike the jumps the skaters do, I guess. Kinda. Kinda-sorta.

Well, something to think about.

I hope that other me has a gold medal somewhere in his closet.

Well… whatever. I think it’s time to pack this one in.