Originally published over at SavePlayers.com
The Austin American-Statesman is reporting tonight that Players has been sold to the McCombs School of Business Foundation, which sold it to UT. Read More
April 28, 2012 By Leave a Comment
April 19, 2012 By 11 Comments
One Year Without Cable
A year ago, we cut the cord. We struggled with this decision. We used cable as a crutch to help entertain Olivia when making dinner. We watched TV during any downtime and, with the DVR, we only watched shows we “wanted” to watch. Our first home, our condo, provided free cable through our HOA dues, so we took advantage of it.
One house later, the HOA didn’t cover the cost of cable and it is rather pricey. We were less than satisfied with the amount of TV we were watching, but if we decrease it, would our usage justify the price? With Catalina here and her uncovered medical bills arriving, we couldn’t justify it anymore.
Looking back a year and a few days, it was an awesome decision. We were given an Xbox 360 as a present and were impressed with the ESPN3 app. When our trial ended, we sprung $50 for an annual Xbox Gold account. Months later, we added on Netflix for $8/mo. The combo means we can watch a good amount of sports programming and entertainment programming for about ~$12/mo. That price makes sense.
I used to watch PBS as a kid. Sesame Street. Mr. Roger’s. Carmen Sandiego. With the Disney Channel, I forgot what free programming existed over-the-air. When we dropped cable, we started exploring KLRU, the local PBS station. We were impressed with what they had for kids of all ages. Personally, I discovered the subchannels. For those of us who had cable before the analog-digital transition, we were used to having a single channel for each station. With today’s digital technology, KLRU now has four different “subchannels” broadcasting. KLRU (the mothership on 18.1) is your normal PBS station, Create (18.2) is mostly (only?) do-it-yourself cooking/crafting/handyman shows. KLRU-Q, 18.3, has a great deal of adult PBS content and 18.4 is a Spanish channel that is much, much closer to PBS than what traditional Spanish television broadcasts. In other words, something I’ll let Olivia watch since I don’t have to worry about a random soccer highlight including the broadcaster surrounded by 30 bikini-clad women jumping around him.
The local channels are decent. Most of the shows we watch now were already on those networks. There are some nice things like a couple “weather” subchannels and one local station has actual music videos playing 24/7 on one of their subchannels (granted, the music is all about 20-years old). UT’s student television station that we’re close enough to campus to pick up including Bloomberg on one of it’s subchannel, so we have 24-hour news too.
Add on Netflix and ESPN3, we’re doing just fine. We miss the occasional UT football game on FX, Fox Sports Net, or LHN (who actually gets that one, though?), so it is a good reason to make plans with our cable-friendly friends/local establishments. Taking the leap to cut cable was more our own fear that we would miss something, which does happen, but doesn’t make the world stop spinning.
April 11, 2012 By 32 Comments
Hat Trick
Crickets… I’ve heard them on the site too. A little unannounced communications blackout, if you will. Forgive me.
Vanessa and I are going to for kiddie hat trick. We’re expecting another little one adding to the fray at La Casa de Kraft, with an ETA of October 15th. It was too difficult to write about the joys and pitfalls of fatherhood, freelancing while at home, etc, without mentioning the upcoming addition.
For those keeping score at home, when our fourth anniversary rolls around in early October, we’ll have two kids plus one knocking on the door. We spent our first anniversary with a ~1-month old. Our second, Vanessa was pregnant with Catalina. Our third was “quiet” with Catalina being ~8-months old.
We didn’t plan our first girls, per se, but none of them were we planning not to have a kid either. Without going into detail, our basic approach has been when we discerned that we weren’t in the right place to have a child, we would hold off, but we’re not there.
Olivia doesn’t like the idea of the addition, but she’s not liking how fast Catalina is growing up either. Yesterday, she starting chastising Lina for pushing a doll stroller—”Lina! That’s dangerous! Only Mommy, Daddy and Olivia push it!” She’ll adjust though!
In the near-term, nothing else is changing. Vanessa will continue at SJD. I’ll continue to stay at home and freelance. Now that we’re able to share this now, we’ll return back to our scheduled programming.
April 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Is Your Software Catholic?
[My latest piece over at Austin Catholic New Media]
I’m a big geek. While some guys like to fix cars, build things with wood, or tinker with things like that, I tinker with the Internet. I like digging into the guts of computers, specifically, what makes the web work. One of the reasons the Internet works is open-source software.
Open-source software, by definition, means that anyone can look at the guts, make changes, pass it along in an effort to improve the program. This is opposed to most of the software you buy in store. If there’s a problem or improvement, the best you can do is tell them about it and hope they get around to it.
I realized that open-source software is very “Catholic”. I don’t mean that the actual software or the people behind it are Catholic or that in and of itself, it promotes Catholicism. I mean that open-source software makes sense from a Catholic perspective. Read More
March 14, 2012 By Leave a Comment
We Are Too Important
[My latest piece over at Austin Catholic New Media]
Rita wrote a beautiful post about the passing of Austin’s own Leslie and how, despite virtually everyone’s uneasiness when meeting him for the first time, he had some impact on many in Austin. My wife and I had a brief conversation with the priest who administered Leslie’s last rites and celebrated his funeral. On the way home, my wife observed that part of the church’s beauty is our acceptance of anyone who wants to come back home, no matter their life circumstances.
Long before I was born, my family fell away from the church. The reasons are for a different day, but it took many decades for parts of the family to come back. Despite being away for many years, the path to return was simple. Celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation and start practicing the faith again. That’s it. There wasn’t an inquisition about why he or she left, no list of prereqs we were required to make up, and no barriers beyond what we ourselves have constructed.
Scripture gives us great imagery to support this. The Prodigal Son returning to the open arms of the Father, despite his unworthiness and squandering the gifts already received. The Good Shepherd risking it all to find and bring the lost sheep back to the flock. Jesus Christ giving up everything to reconcile all of us sinners back to our Creator. Read More
