MichaelMcKinlay.com

For most of my life I’ve had cable but when I started paying the bills, I decided to skip it. I figured that while I enjoyed watching lots of tv, it was a waste of time. When I lived in Japan, I didn’t have cable and I could only receive 2 or 3 really boring Japanese channels. When I returned to Canada I was excited to start watching tv again but as I did, I became really angry. You see, in Japan, when you watch shows broadcast in English, they often skip commercial breaks. I’m not really sure why they do this, but they do. Japanse television networks tend to put a bunch of commercials just before the beginning or at the end of the shows, they even do this for movies! So when I came back, it seemed like there were so many commercials and I thought it was dumb that cable was charging me to watch them.

Ever since I got my place in August of ‘06, I’ve lived without cable tv. Actually I didn’t mind it cause with a fancy set of “rabbit ears,” I got decent reception and received 5 channels, well 6 if you include the French language one. Since these channels featured most of the popular tv shows, I was satisfied.

Last week the cable company called me and had this promotion that they would give you free cable for a month, and then for the next 6 months they would give you the service for only $20 a month. I think that’s like 60% off the regular price. So how could I say no???

I now have the service and am enjoying it. I have to remind myself not to watch too much as I’ve got other things that need to be taken care of. Anyway its free for now, and if I dont want it, I can cancel it anytime. I don’t know if I will keep it past the free month but if I do, Im pretty sure I will be canceling it after the $20/month promotion ends in around 6 months. Who knows, maybe a few months after I cancel, the cable company will come round again offering the same deal!