Wise Beyond Her Height: The Troll As a Role Model

The Troll updated her Facebook status this weekend by informing everyone that she was ditching digital cable. "Yeah, right", I thought. "She'll be back". To be fair here, the Troll and I have never experienced life with rabbit ears. When Cablevision came to our street in the early days of 1982, our family was the first on the block to sign up (and dad hasn't left the couch since). When I moved out on my own I considered a tricked out cable package to be a basic human right, second only to potable water. Therefore it never even dawned on me that paying $100/month for television is absolutely absurd.

Here's the kicker, tho - I have a 46" HDTV with an HDMI input that plugs directly into my laptop. I can get HD through the TV's QAM tuner and can watch online content directly on my TV. 95% of what I watch is either available through basic cable or online. Watching the latter just means that I have to draw up an Internet page rather than click a button on a remote. The truth is that I've just been really lazy. After a heart to heart with the Troll, I realized that my laziness was costing me big - to the tune of $90/month.

Considering the switch? Consider this: The difference between my super duper Comcast package and my new basic cable subscription is $90/month. This adds up to $1,080 over the next 12 months. That much extra cash can buy all of the following:

One round trip ticket between Boston and New York on Acela
A one year membership to Netflix (1 DVD at a time option)
An 8GB iPod Nano
2.5 lbs of Kona Coffee Beans
A Sylvania 22" LCD TV
A pair of Gap Low Rise Boot Cut Jeans
One Jiffy Lube Signature Oil Change
One Passion Pink Haier Mini Cube Fridge
A case of Sam Adams Beer
One Coach Signature Clip Demi Flap Purse

Basic cable probably isn't for everyone. In fact, I'm not even sure that it's for me. However, I'm willing to try it out for a bit to see if it suits me. If it doesn't, I have absolutely no doubt that Comcast will still take my money each month (they're good like that).