I actually had decided over 3 years ago to cancel my television service, but somehow I never did get around to do it. I had continued to invent some excuse or another, and avoided making it happen.
TV had become as ancient and useless to me as the ad below exhorting consumers of 50 years ago to buy a black and white television.
Now that I have no television service it is OK, really isn’t that bad, it’s a kind of trash purge. No more TV garbage, no more channel surfing over 500 channels and finding nothing to watch. And then I’d get my monthly bill and curse that I was paying so much money for this "privilege".
Finally the other day while watching some streaming live news on my laptop, it finally hit me, I could stay in touch with the parts of the media and 2 other series shows that I do watch, by using my computer for this purpose.
There are even inexpensive gadgets that allow the computer signal to be wirelessly transmitted to your TV, if you want to still have a big screen experience.
It had come to a point where I barely ever even turned my television on. It just made sense to me, I got rid of it. My pocket and brain are grateful.
Most of my tiny list of programs are on the Internet – Hulu, Netflix, the network online websites. I’m covered for the very few things that I still want to watch. So, here’s to the joys of no TV and no more monthly bill.
I have now cut the chains to television and join the cyber world of streaming media as my sole media interface.
The Wolkoff family, each of us, honestly, stubbornly, proudly following a personal credo in everything we do, as being uniquely ours:
I DID IT MY WAY
As I write this, talking about a seemingly benign act on my part, it has brought me back to thoughts about my son Steven Nathaniel Wolkoff, who was one of the original pioneers of developing the rich streaming media process to transmit video/audio content to millions of computer users, all watching at the same time various content on the Internet, without the servers crashing from overload.
They often called Steven "Mr. Flash", named after his role in further developing the Flash Player corporate version of the streaming software that is an integral part of how media actually ends up being seen, heard as content that is alive on your computer screen.
I remember Steven talking about the technical challenges of many of the different team projects he supervised, what he was doing, his solutions, ideas, and the enormous potential he said it would mean for a revolutionary new way to view media.
I sort of understood some of what he was saying but technically he was light years beyond my ability to follow the sheer magnitude of what he and and others were working on.
Steven knew and saw some of his dreams come true, this was one of them. Unfortunately, he also never got to see so much of what was his legacy, his future life, and the every day pleasures of being alive, that the rest of us take for granted.
You can read more about Steven at the link:
STEVEN NATHANIEL WOLKOFF MEMORIAL PAGE
I write this Blog in loving memory, dedicated to my son Steven, and others such as him who are the victims of such evil, injustice, and the acts of those who do not care about the value of a human life.
As a professional Social Worker I have seen so much tragedy throughout my long career, and witnessed unspeakable pain, suffering, of the human condition by tiny baby's, toddlers, little children, adolescents, young adults, adults, Senior citizens.
It is something that I never got used to witnessing as both a professional and a human being. It often is the driving force behind what I choose to write about on this blog.
So I dedicate in particular, today's Blog post, to my son Steven, I am so very proud of what you accomplished in your short time on this earth, you taught me so many things.
I miss you Steven, and I love you very much.
