my opinion matters

I have now been Facebook-free for just over two weeks, and I'm loving it. There's something about that kind of social media that pulls you in and makes you want to check it constantly. I don't know why Instagram and Twitter don't have the same pull as Facebook, but they don't. I check them once or maybe twice a day and it's nice. For some reason I never noticed, there was pressure associated with Facebook that doesn't exist anymore, and I am happier without it. Who knew? My parents have officially cancelled their cable, and it's awesome that they are tech-savvy enough to pull it off. They have Hulu and Netflix and a Roku and torrent capabilities. And it's awesome and I am super proud of them. I also don't watch enough to keep paying for cable, so the cord cutting for me will happen soon. We did it once before but reactivated the DVR and cable for the Olympics and the World Cup - I always meant to cancel it after that, but I never did. Almost ev

There is nothing more irritating to me than people who make fun of Facebook users for not paying attention to the world around them or for stalking people they used to know. Why is everyone else so occupied with how I choose to spend my time? It's not anyone else's business but my own. While saying that, I am pretty sure I'm going to quit Facebook. Really, the last straw was the addition of Facebook Messenger. I hate that I was forced to either download the app or never see my messages again. Like, Facebook is so popular and has such a monopoly on the social media market that they can just do whatever they want and you can't stop them. To hell with that. I don't use Facebook to "like" things and get status updates on celebrities or the news - I use Twitter for that. In fact, I pretty much exclusively use Twitter to the point that I have my Twitter and Facebook accounts linked together. I am NOT saying that I think social media is evil. I love the idea an

Fall TV is exhausting and I've had to make some deep cuts. So far, the front runner is Madam Secretary. Gotham was okay, hopefully will get better, and How to Get Away With Murder , aside from the really stupid name, was good. Viola Davis was fantastic, but the supporting cast leaves something to be desired. I like that the plot is moving along quickly, but Shonda Rimes should have learned from Grey's Anatomy that if you move the plot along too quickly, you will run out of things to talk about and suddenly there's a ghost on the show. Forever is another great new show, even though it's a little fantastical. Excellent cast so far and the show is both episodic and connected. It's nice when they pull that off correctly. I don't think Forever or Madam Secretary will stick around for much longer, as I'm sure will be the same for the Doctor Who -heavy Gracepoint and Selfie , but we'll see. And I love Scott Bakula, but NCIS: New Orleans was one of the wo

I watched Gotham last night, and the new episodes of The Big Bang Theory - thankfully, The Big Bang Theory is just as good as season... 3 or so. The only problem with the show is I'm not a big fan of the girls. Penny is fine, but it's pretty unbelievable that she would be engaged to Leonard and it's almost impossible to believe that her best friends are Amy and Bernadette. Where are her dumb friends? She would totally have some. And Bernadette is WAY too one dimensional and doesn't add anything to the show. Amy, on the other hand, has grown on me and I think she's finally getting some of the funnier lines. But the essence of the show is the four guys together doing nerdy stuff, and that doesn't happen very often anymore. The show won't be on forever, so they should really stick to what the people like. Unless the people like the boring relationships. I don't. Anyway, Gotham was interesting. I am ashamed to say I know very little about DC Comics or

It is officially my favorite time of year - time for new fall shows to start. Usually I pick and choose what to watch based on descriptions and everything, but this year I am trying something different - everything gets two episodes. I will try all of the half hour comedies and all of the hour long dramas and we'll see. One episode is not enough because although pilot episodes are supposed to be awesome and show how great a show can be (like the pilot episode of LOST ), sometimes they are just horrible and make you never want to see the show (unfortunately, I am choosing the example for this one to be Hanna Montana - and I chose that because in the pilot episode Miley Cyrus is much too young and it's stupid, but that show is actually really good). First up was Dancing with the Stars , although that doesn't really count because no matter how horrible that show is, I'll still watch it. I can't help it. The first actually new show of the season was Madam Secretary ,

I refuse to use Instagram. It might be the first time I refuse to use new software (not that it's new, but you know what I mean) or new social media, and maybe that's a sign that I am officially old. But I'm pretty sure it's completely redundant. Facebook officially replaced MySpace when they opened up Facebook to anyone with an email address instead of anyone with a college .edu email address. So I stopped using MySpace because it was redundant to use both MySpace and Facebook. I started using Twitter because it was new and fun, but I never really had a use for it because it was a lot like Facebook, at least until breaking news and celebrity tweets became way more fun than anything on Facebook, especially constant and obnoxious request to play Candy Crush or Farmville. But Instagram doesn't give me anything I don't already have. I can post pictures on both Facebook and Twitter and I can put a caption with those pictures and even change the lens on the picture

Since a bought a Roku 3, it's a lot easier to download movies and watch them - I mean, it was easy on the Apple TV, but not really. Not like on the Roku - it's much more plug and play and I love that. So right now I'm watching Non-Stop  with Liam Neeson and a TON of other people - including the poor guy from Pennsylvania who was murdered on House of Cards  and Julienne Moore - who I have recently decided I don't hate as much as I used to. I generally hate a lot of women on TV without a lot of reason for it, so I'm trying to get better. Anyway, Liam Neeson pretty much sounds like Batman but he doesn't do bad movies, so I have high hopes. The kind of annoying thing is that there isn't much that can be done in a movie on a plan. I mean, Snakes on a Plane, Flight, Red Eye, Airplane!, Con Air, Air Force One  - it's pretty slim pickings to come up with something original. So far, Liam Neeson is an air marshal who gets a series of texts saying that one perso

Because most new shows on television are terrible - seriously terrible - I've been trying to find new shows on Netflix that I haven't seen that maybe I would like. So now I'm hooked on Pretty Little Liars . In case you've never seen it, you should. I don't want to ruin any of it if you decide to watch it, but it's a show that just started the fifth season on ABC Family. And I know saying that it's on ABC Family is reason enough not to watch it - trust me, I've seen Secret Life and I hated it. But I also watched the first season of Switched at Birth before it got terrible, and that show had a little promise. The problem with shows on ABC Family is that they try to fit every possible problem teenagers might have and throw it all into one show. Drugs, lesbians, pill-popping, anorexia, bulimia, mental illness, blindness - I mean seriously, what school is this? And how does one social group have all of these problems at once? I would be like, hey guys, I do

I am over-the-moon excited about wearable tech – and I know it’s finally a thing because Amazon has its own wearable tech store ( http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=9013937011 ). I have a Fitbit Flex, an iPhone, an iPad, and numerous mp3 devices. I am hopeful that the iWatch is coming soon, although I’m not positive I have a use for it. One of the articles telling me about the iWatch (which is far from confirmed) quoted a poll from September stating that 49% of Americans believe wearable tech is a fad. And that’s about how much of America I hate. I don’t know where the idea that technology is bad comes from – maybe movies like I, Robot and Transformers , but I can’t wait for Rosie robots like on The Jetsons and an entire life like The Circle . If you haven’t read The Circle yet, you should. It’s extremely well-written by Dave Eggers and it depicts a world I’m excited to be a part of… even though I think the point of the book is to discourage a social media-driven world. I we