life hereafter

random musings from a wannabe economist

I learned something new today, even if you a) live in the city where Comcast is based, and b) Comcast has a franchise in the city where you live, you might still not be able to get cable in your new building. Condos can negotiate with, for lack of a better term, what I am going to call TV management companies. These companies control the type of service offered in the condos and basically add overhead.

My options are limited to Verizon FiOS for Internet (not a bad choice), and severely crippled 12 or 24 month contract encumbered packages of Dish Network or DirecTV re-sold by Hotwire Communications. Stupid MDUs.

Of course, I don’ really care about pay-for TV. I’m just as happy streaming Hulu to my TV or watching whatever I happen to have in my Blockbuster Queue. Although, TrueBlood has been awesome this season.

I’m still holding out hope that Comcast will offer to run a line just to my unit… I promise I’ll sign up for all of the packages which make you the most money!

Nothing is every simple, is it?

All I wanted to do was post two items I wanted to give away on Craigslist (CL). I spent a few minutes this morning taking and cropping pictures, writing witty little descriptions and (what I think is) posting on CL.

I end up getting two emails which look like confirmations that the ads have posted. Fast forward 12 hours and I started to get a little depressed. I’m thinking to myself, “Honestly, does no one want a free TV…? My how the world has changed…”

Then it dawns on me, I check my email. I re-read what was sent and I realize that I had to click a link to confirm my email address AND THEN click a link to confirm the posting & post it. ARGH!

Nothing was ever posted on CL, however it is now Saturday evening and I doubt anyone will really be perusing the thing for my free crap tonight.

…

Anyone want a 26” CRT TV or dining room table?

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Update 7/27: After successfully posting the ads I received approximately 200 emails in twelve hours. Did I mention that these 8 hours were between 7:30pm and 7:30am Saturday evening – Sunday morning. Apparently ‘free’ interests a lot of people. I had to remove the posts just to be able to read through the emails.

Unfortunately even though a ton of people seemed interested, everyone one who I contacted either ignored my emails or phone calls. It took me until today to find someone who was willing to drive to my place and remove the items. Apparently it’s one thing to be interested, but its another to be interested and have the ability to get off the couch and do some light lifting…

All-in-all not a bad experience, but it still would have been easier to take an axe to the thing and throw it in the trash. America, you have failed me with your indifference.

Comcast is really starting to annoy me with all of the Spanish language direct mail I have been receiving. I guess this is surname profiling? Should I fill them in that ‘Brito’ is Portuguese?I really want to know what got me onto this list. I sure as hell never pressed ‘2′ while calling them. The funny thing is, I still get tons of ads in English as well. Isn’t this all just a big waste of money?

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The ad I received depicts a remote control as part of the family. (A remote control whose buttons are written in English.) For only &.95 a month I can get all the rock en espanol I want…