…of a major life experiment.

I’m without cable TV.

For the first extended period of time (except while traveling) since mid-1984.

Sorry, videophobic hippies: Tubelessness hasn’t instantly transformed me from some brainless, tasteless, corporate-drone “sheeple” into an all-wise Renaissance Man. I’m still the same imperfect meat-n’-potatoes dude I’ve always been.

Of course, I’ve quickly learned that most everything I’ve been regularly viewing is available either on regular broadcast TV or online. The two major exceptions:

• Certain live sports events, but in this post-Sonics winter there haven’t been many of those I cared about; and
• Coronation Street. Recent UK-aired episodes of this workhorse prime-time soap (Britain’s most popular show) can be found via BitTorrent, but not the nine-month-behind episodes on CBC’s schedule. CBC’s own Web site only streams episodes to users with Canadian IP addresses.

What’s it like so far? I can’t browse away through the 121 or so channels to discover something novel and bizarre. Also, I’m missing a lot of the cheap snarky fun I get from sneering at particularly dumb commercials (Shamrow, Snuggies, Obama collector plates, funnel cake machines, etc.).

And as for the background noise, which I’ve come to need for certain types of creative brainwork, I’m learning to get it from substitute sources, including online audio/video sites.

This experiment will last at least until I can pay two months’ back bills to the cable company. Beyond that, we will see (or won’t see, as the case may be).