The shock is setting in. That's The Dau who has nothing to do now. She has to go play with her friends or work on an art project or read a book or something. My fiendish plan is already working!
My mantra for this project is, "Tell me what you want to see, I will help you find it." There's a little bit of a learning curve involved but most of the problem is having too many places to look.
Number One Son is most independent so far. He's discovered that every episode of The Office is on Netflix and that it's the funniest thing he's ever seen. That's what he turns on when he wants to watch TV. I suspect there may be some inappropriate content but I haven't caught any yet.
The Hubster said he misses flipping channels. I adjusted the antenna (and added one on the other TV) and now we have 23 channels coming in through the tuner. He also told me he particularly likes Anthony Bourdain's No Reservation which we found on Netflix. Tonight we started watching The Cape on Hulu. That is some stupid awesome television, right there
It turns out The Dau just wants to watch the preschool shows while she eats her breakfast. I don't really know what that's about, but we found some Sprout vodcasts on the Nowhereman Roku channel. They're only about ten minutes long which is just fine for a little morning dawdle. What's very nice here is that when the vodcast is over, she has to pick up the remote and choose again; it doesn't just feed the next show. And as long as the remote is in hand, she might as well turn off the TV and get ready for school. This is so full of win!
A little bit more on Over The Air (OTA) channels: Antennaweb.org indicates there are only 12 channels in my area but I'm picking up almost twice that. Some channel strengths vary by time of day but most seem pretty stable. I went to My Yahoo! to see what listings I could get. There's an option to show only favorite channels and that lists more than the default channels but there are still some discrepancies. I'm not getting my local PBS station which probably means I should play with the antenna more. But I am getting This TV and it's not listed.
Also, the antennas I have are puny and cheap. This one, on the TV in the dining room is about 1" high and 2" wide. The poles extend to make it about 14" wide. It has a little suction cup so I stuck it on a nearby window, as high as I could reach. I'm a little surprised to see that I paid the full $5.99 for it, I usually have a coupon for Meritline.
The other antenna I have came with a portable TV I keep for travelling. It's just a stick about 5" tall with a magnetic base. I may try a "better" antenna to see if I get more channels. There are salespeople who will say you need a special, digital antenna and point you toward something pricey. I don't know how true that is. I plan to try something in the $12- 20 range and if that proves out I may consider a pricey one. But too many more channels and I'll just be defeating my purpose!
On another note, we tried a 'free from digital drama spring break sanctuary' last year: http://www.shapingyouth.org/?p=10541 and this year SHE is the one looking forward to 'no devices' being 'off the grid' in the Rockies this year. (solar cabin, but yah, bringing her BFF for companionship)
ReplyDeleteLove the idea of shift and sift through media streams to see how it's landing in diff ways...Lately she's been lovin the Wii dance party bit during rainy season but know it will be abandoned once the wakeboarding/sunshine sets in this spring!
btw, I'm about to post on CCFC's April 18-24 event: http://www.screenfree.org You might wanna join in the fun and amp up the support for your familial social experiment. (also, do you follow the #ShesGeeky conf? Great folks there using media in directed, positive ways) Pleasure to 'meet' you...