I'm nearing Year Six here in Japan

[chronovore]

I've been gone long enough that some of the basic operations expenses of living in the USA have changed and I can't really visualize them. Can someone fill me in on the status of common monthly entertainment and communication expenditures? Whenever I think about what people are paying in the USA, I always picture some massive heap of bills being paid just for regular stuff.

Here's what I picture:

• Cable/Satellite TV reception
• Internet provider (may be bundled with Cable)
• Phone/VOIP/Cellphone
  
• Tivo monthly charge (may be bundled with Cable/Satellite, if set-top box is installed
• NetFlix / Blockbuster and/or GameFly
• Xbox Live
  
• MMORPG fees, such as World of Warcraft, Everquest, etc.
• Satellite radio, or Rhapsody / Launch
  

When I look at that, I see a couple hundred bucks, every month, going out into the ether. I can't fathom it. Some of it's unavoidable, but some of it appears redundant. Is it?

While I'm asking, is it common for people to have their home phone line served through their internet provider? Or are people switching to mainly cellphone service now?

My wife and I both have cellphones; if my cellphone wasn't paid for by my work (and therefore not really mine), I think we'd ditch the home land line and just go all-cellular.

FWIW: When I last was in the USA, the cable in my area was delivered over TWO separate coaxial cables, and required a manual A/B switchbox on top of the machine to access each discrete line. If you wanted to VHS record anything, you had to make sure that the switchbox was on the correct setting for that particular channel and program. The last time I visited the USA, my sister was playing music through radio stations delivered through her cable service, and played through their home theater setup; direct service radio is still commonly used in Japan, and costs people about 7000 yen a month. Yikes! I've been trying to get some people to switch to internet radio.

Comments

Re: wow thassalotta stuff Uncle Bob!

[chronovore.livejournal.com]

Six year olds are brutal.
NO DOUBT! On the other hand, it's nice to receive an unfiltered, brutally honest opinion now and then.

So you are in for about US$135 per month for this stuff, and that's without cable TV. Wow.

Is there any reason you're using Rhapsody instead of Pandora, or even a regular internet radio channel? I've met another guy who is a complete fan for it - I just don't understand it.

Library fees: I was always stunned at how cheap they are compared to video rental late fees. If you manage US$6/month in late fees, you are on some kind of frequent flyer program for books... Which would make sense, considering the number of your book reviews that I read last year.

BTW, US$60/month for the lowest-end internet is SUPER LAME! In Japan there is a lot of competition for broadband companies, so 54Mb/s is about ¥3000 (http://www.google.co.jp/search?q=3000+yen+in+dollars&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8)/month. Of course, you'll be more stoked when San Francisco gets free broadband wireless, and I'll still be paying...

Re: wow thassalotta stuff Uncle Bob!

[hedr-goblin.livejournal.com]

I went back and checked my numbers... silly me. I was off in my internet and phone numbers by about $50, in my favor. That's what I get for not paying attention once I set things in motion. I love autopay.

I don't know about Pandora, but if it would let me create playlists and download them onto a shuffle, I would be all over that. I got a cute little iPod shuffle for xmas, and I haven't had the chance to figure out how to play with it yet, but I think Rhapsody is going to make me actually BUY the songs I listen to, in order to put them on my shuffle, and i don't wanna do that yet.

library. *love*. I also get TONS of books on dvd now and listen to them on my commute in the mornings and nights. I think I love that more than watching movies, to be honest. I just finished "pattern recognition" by William Gibson, and got that thing where you are both happy and sad when you get to the end. Listening to "Cold Mountain" now, as read by the author with a soft southern drawl. If I had to, I could get rid of internet and netflix and rhapsody (though I would VERY MUCH miss internet) as long as I could still have the library (although that's kind of cheating because I can use the internet AT the library).

As soon as we get free internet in SF, I will be one happy camper. Maybe free internet will tempt you guys to come back to SF for a few years? (I know, I know... *sigh*)

[chronovore.livejournal.com]

Pandora.com - go, check it out - it's different. Smarter than most sites. It finds music you'll like based on what you already like. And then it plays it for you in an endless stream.

iPod - If you have CDs that you like, rip them to your computer, then load them on your iPod. If you like, go to Last.fm and search for this username, and if you see anything you like, I'll burn CDs for you and send them your way. Alternately, I can make .zip files and put them on dropfile for you. Additionally, you can subscribe to podcasts of music you like, and those will load on your iPod as well. I've also found podcasts of old radio dramas, such as X Minus One and the Raymond Chandler stuff. Very keen. For me, my iPod is like a TiVO is used by other people. I find stuff I like, download, buy, rip it, and stick in in my iPod. BLISS.

Free internet in San Francisco does not compete with a soon-to-be-complete, custom built house in Osaka. Especially when many folks rather kindly run their own wireless LANs without any protection on them. Free internet by default.

[hedr-goblin.livejournal.com]

yeah, you win... Custom Built house in Osaka pretty much sounds like a dream.

[chronovore.livejournal.com]

You'll see!