Morning has broken,
Still no damned snow plow,
Our asses still buried,
In ten tons of snow
We can’t go out yet,
Got cabin fever,
We’re getting screwed by,
Howard County.
Plows just drive past us,
Ignoring our street,
We’ve got places to go,
And people to meet.
T’morrow a new storm,
More of the same shit,
We’re going nowhere,
Nowhere my friend….
Yesterday morning, we were talking to a fellow who, for whatever reason (I truly can’t remember) mentioned that he had taken his medication late. He went on to explain that, at the age of 40, he had beed diagnosed with ADD. He went on to describe his symptoms, and I thought, “Holy crap! That’s me!”
It would explain a lot, especially in the past couple of years, although some ADD symptoms have been with me for years, now that I think about it.
To some degree, I experience a large percentage of the symptoms on this chart:
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Interestingly enough, I did not many of the usual ADD or ADHD symptoms as a child.
Skip ahead to today. I was hanging out at Border’s again while a prospective buyer was touring the house, and decided to see if there were any books on Adult ADD/ADHD. I couldn’t find any, but also came to the realization that I probably couldn’t get through reading it! (I used to love to read, but now have a difficult time getting through even a couple of paragraphs without having to go back to see what I’d just read!).
So, in addition to all the other things I have to during the week, I’ll be finding an appropriate professional to discuss this with. Hooboy!
I’ve read a fairly disturbing article this morning in TV Technology magazine (a trade publication for television broadcasters and cablecasters). You can read the whole thing yourself, but, the gist is that under pressure from various lobbyists, the FCC is looking at the possibility of limiting broadcasters’ use of the DTV frequency spectrum just allocated to them. This, after the broadcasters were forced to spend billions of dollars to convert to DTV in the first place. One scenario suggests that broadcasters would be limited to a single standard definition DTV broadcast channel, and that HD services would only be available as provided by cable providers — usually as at additional expense to consumers.
Does the FCC have the authority to do this, after Congress spent years debating DTV/HDTV, finally issuing a mandate for change in US broadcast television? Probably not, as things stand now. But if two bills are passed (HR 3019 and HR 3125), they just might.
The bottom line is that, should this go through, a good number of people who can’t afford cable will lose access to a valuable service that has been upheld as paramount through the entire process — access to a wide range of free, over-the-air television programming that the government has forced them to spend money to get (the cost of buying a new TV or set-top-box tuner). Further, some people in outlying areas who do not have access to or cannot afford cable (or who cannot afford satelite) might be left with no ability to view TV at all (some are already in that position, as DTV signals do not penetrate into some outlying areas as well as analog signals did).
Frankly, IMO, this possible future could spell the death of local television entirely, especially in smaller markets, where stations are already struggling due to the costs of having to have switched to DTV in the first place. The extra streams afforded them additional sources of advertising revenue that may no be taken away with the stroke of a pen.
Now would be a good time to contact your Congressional and local representatives, and ask the to defeat HR 3019 and HR 3125, and to reign in the FCC.
