unchained

I "cut the cord", or should I say, disconnected my DirecTV satellite TV service a few months ago, after pondering on it for a long time.

We know cable/satellite TV services have been taking us for a ride for years, throwing at us bundles of channels we don't watch, nickel-and-diming for "extras" such as multiple TV outlets, "advanced" receiver and DVR rentals, "whole-home" service, etc. that ought to be standard in the first place, all adding up to an extortionary monthly sum we can't afford not to pay. 

Or can we?

The main snag I needed to overcome before I could ditch DirecTV was to find a good replacement for the "premium" Mandarin package they provided that contained programs from Taiwan my wife enjoyed watching that I couldn't find in public broadcast or through independent subscription.

One day I saw an obscure ad on a Chinese newspapers weekend edition for a set top box that claimed to provide full lineup of TV programs from Taiwan and mainland China, etc. We took a trip to the store and checked it out and bought it. It indeed does what it says, mish-mashing oodles of broadcast TVs, media streaming websites, cable TV channels from all over China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, etc. into one magic hub. Those channels my wife favors were on it. That took care of the issue. 

Then I needed to find out whether I can get good TV reception where I live--right at the mid point between LA and San Diego on a hill by the ocean. To do so I went online to Craigslist and looked up local Penny Saver ads for TV/antenna installation services and ended up with a guy who said he had done installation in my neighboring city and would come to my house to do a field test before I decided to go ahead with the installation or not.

He brought a tiny little rabbit ear antenna he said he got from HomeDepot for $5 for the testing. We put it on the floor of our second floor master bedroom, hooked it up with the TV and started the scanning... It got over 20 channels in a matter of minutes, capturing all the local channels from LA (ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, Channels 5, 9, 13) and a couple from San Diego, as well as some remote stations from San Bernardino and Riverside counties, PBS's, international channels, etc. That's all I needed. Another issue solved.

Now it's what antenna to buy. I had done research on which has better reception, reliability, ease of installation, etc., but the antenna man told me he'd got some good experience using a particular brand that he'd give me the name and I could get it directly myself while he prepared accessories for the installation. So I took his advice and ordered the antenna online and set up an appointment for him to come install it after I received the unit.

This is one of the more expensive but reputable antennas that cost me around $100 (refurbished, if bought new it would be $150). We first tested it on the master bedroom floor as we did before and it got over 70 channels in no time. Then we put it on the attic--where it permanently locates now--and got over 90 channels in one scan.

It's been over 3 months since, and we've been watching all the local and remote TV channels, in HD quality and not (many TV stations nowadays broadcast analog "sub-stations" along with their HD channel, using frequencies made available through new technologies that cable/satellite TV don't normally carry), via the air or through the Internet, from any room in the house, free of charge. 

Regarding Mandarin channels, it turns out there are so many on-the-air choices available my wife doesn't even need to go back to those old favorite channels she thought she couldn't live without. Though not an avid TV watcher myself, I do find it enjoyable watching many good movies--some are pretty recent, like Jurassic World--that this little made-in-China box streams from their tremendous library collections at the comfort of my own home.

I also get to watch History, Discovery, HBO, CNN, etc., channels that I believe come from some cable TV provider in Taiwan that get their Asian distributions from the US. The world is round after all, what originates here circulates all its way back where it comes from.

We used to pay about $65/month for DirecTV service, and that's after I cut it down to the very basic (local channels only), plus the Mandarin package. For Operation Cutting The Cord, I spent $200 for the media box (I probably could have found a better deal if I looked around; Or, you really don't need such box if you know how to set up your computer to go to websites that stream movies and TV programs from all over the world), $100 for the antenna, and $250 for the installation, totaling $550. I should be able to recuperate all of this in another 5 months or so. Not coincidentally, we noticed our electricity bills dropped about $10-$20 per month since we cut the cord, probably because we no longer need to feed 24x7 those DVR and receiver set top boxes that come with DirecTV (or any cable/satellite TV) that I heard are electricity hogs even when they are in stand-by mode.
 
Hurrah to the unchaining, and Yes We Can!

* I probably could have gotten even better TV signal reception if I put the antenna on the roof top instead of mounting it in the attic. I didn't do that because: 1) Aesthetically it's still nicer to hide it inside than sticking it out on the roof, even though by law your homeowner's association cannot stop you from putting antenna on the roof if you really want to do it, according to what I heard; 2) Maintenance wise it's less wear and tear and easier to reach if it's kept in the attic.  

* Missing the DVR that allows you to record and playback your favorite TV programs? Here's how I did it: I got a USB tuner ($45), connected it between my PC and the cable from the attic that carries all the live TV signals from the antenna, then fired up the Windows Media Center program that came with the PC, and now I have a full featured digital video recorder with timered/random recording, playback, fast forward/backward, real time pause, instant replay, closed caption... all the niceties and conveniences at my desk top.

* There are an increasing number of online services that offer TV series, movies, and even sports programs through Internet streaming that you can subscribe to to supplement your free broadcast TV watching. Netflix is probably the most popular one: for $9/month you get numerous movies and some original programming series; For $99/year, Amazon Prime offers many movies and TV series, plus streaming music and 2-day shipping for anything ordered on Amazon.com; For $20/month, Sling TV gives you basic-cable channels such as AMC, TNT, A&E, CNN, and sports channels ESPN and ESPN2. More can be found at this report: http://time.com/money/3963077/streaming-packages-cord-cutting-cable/

righteous chi

A recent sharing I had with my weekly meditation group: 

Zhuangzi was a wild, Diogenes-like, "don't block my sun" kind of philosopher born 370 BC. His writings, along with the Tao-Te-Ching by Laozi, form the foundation of Taoism philosophy of ancient China.

One story in his writings goes like this:

One day Zhuangzi was taking a stroll with his friend Huizi. As they stepped onto a bridge and stopped, watching the fish swimming down below, Zhuangzi commented, "See how happy those fish are!"

Huizi, a quick witted philosopher of different sort who liked to challenge Zhuangzi's, said, "How do you know they are happy since you are not a fish?"

To that, Zhuangzi replied: "How do you know I don't know they are happy since you are not me?"

Then he added: "I know they are happy from where I stand!"

I think he means to praise the universal joy he senses and shares with the being down below.

The Confucianism has been the dominating philosophy in Chinese culture since about 2000 years ago, when the emperors of China decided they liked the way it teaches people to respect the family, the social orders, the authority, and the emperors themselves ("Obey your emperor even when he is in the wrong") and promoted it through education and political/bureaucratic system.  

Ostensibly, Confucianism has never become a religion in form or spirit, but gradually and inwardly, traceable starting some 950 years ago, some great "gentleman-scholars", or I may borrow the word "gnostics" here, in a good way, who not only were well versed with Confucian philosophy, but also extended his humanistic thinking to include the harmonious co-existence of all things in the universe: "All people my fellows, all things my kind" (民胞物與); "Heaven and Man are one" (天人合一), they'd say.

So, for example, one article we were taught in high school was by a famous "ethnic hero" who was a learned man who picked up arms and led the national army to fight the invading Mongols and failed and got imprisoned for years but refused to surrender and finally got executed by the admiring Mongols. The article started like this:

"A righteous spirit (chi) exists in heaven and earth, appearing in various forms. Below it forms rivers and mountains, above it forms sun and stars. Grand in a man, exuberant in the universe..." (天地有正氣，雜然賦流形。下則為河岳，上則為日星。於人曰浩然，沛乎塞蒼冥...)

He died for/with such "chi", I believe, way beyond the superficial Han people vs the barbarian Mongols thing the traditional teaching may want us to believe.

A few hundred years later, another gentleman-scholar/gnostic made that spiritual and mystical aspect of neo-Confucianism even clearer. Long story short, this great guy's aha moment came when he realized "all the meaning of the universe resides in your heart;" (心即是理) and "if you really 'know' something, you are actually doing it already." (即知即行)

And "the innate state of the heart has no good nor bad; good and bad only comes when the intent comes..." (無善無惡心之體，有善有惡意之動...)

That I think is pretty consistent with Christian contemplative thinking if we substitute "the innate state of the heart is good" for "the innate state of the heart has no good nor bad" since the Bible says all things were good when God created the world... But, what the heck, call it "good", or "indescribable", I am good (pun intended) with either term!