Enough is enough, I brought back my cable box. When I got cable installed in my apartment 5 years ago I believe the bill was about 90 dollars a month. Last month it was 117. (Including internet.) That's an enormous increase in price for no change in services. And fact of the matter is, I don't like what's on. "SyFy" shows wrestling. History Channel is now showing programs about UFOs or Jesus, or Jesus In UFOs or some other bullshit. Discovery channel, well there's Myth Busters -- and a dozen terrible knock offs. There's "Future Of" on the Science Channel, but I don't get the Science channel. There are a dozen channels with shows that seem to involve people standing before tribunals of their peers in awkwardly constructed social situations with a lot of arguing and crying. I think they call it "reality". If I was a sports fan there's a reason, but I'm not. There's nothing worth this much money a month on cable. If I want to watch 30 Rock so badly, I can watch it online. If I was the type of person to torrent, I could clearly get anything I wanted and watch it when I want to, but that's a gray area I can't admit to loving deeply. There's Netflix, aka "Movies Cable Will Never Show". So what does cable TV have to offer? Well, nothing actually. If I needed to know that Kayne West was a dick, no doubt I'll see clips via every single person I know who posted a link to YouTube about it. If cable offered a la carte, say 2 bucks a channel, perhaps I'd take a couple things, but of course they don't. Above and beyond the utter uselessness of cable TV there's the attitude. Those of you locked into a large city's cable company (let's say Comcast or Time Warner, etc.) understand the vortex of arrogance, the impenetrable wall of Soviet Era style bureaucracy they present. There are a few things in NYC that make people grimace with anger and begin instant mutual kvetching, and that's health care and cable service. So fuck it. I'll save 72 dollars a month, 864 dollars a year -- and what will I do with that money? A hundred bucks to NPR. A hundred bucks to EFF (above what I already give them). I'll have enough left over to build a dedicated Boxeebox. Of course I still have to deal with the cable company for internet, but it's a step in a less stupid direction.