Foiled

Normally, this time of biennium, I would be glued to the TV at all possible hours, soaking in as much Olympic-ness as possible. This year, however, we do not have cable TV, since we literally never ever watch it. Normally not a problem, since we have the new-fangled version of rabbit ears, which I call the "bat ears," since they look very much like the Batman symbol. Through this fancy-Dan HD antenna, we can get, in beautiful, crystal clear high-def, any number of home shopping channels, Spanish-language stations, PBS, and even the broadcast networks! BROADCAST. As in, gov't lets them have the air waves so they can BROADCAST to people with antennae! (Yes, this is leading somewhere. Rather pointedly.)

Being a long-time Olympo-phile, I checked out which station bought the rights this year. NBC. Done. Let's check and make sure we get that station (why shouldn't we?). Aaaaaand the surprising answer iiiiiiiisssss......? No. Of course not. Neither of the NBC channels Yahoo TV says we should get are picked up in any form by our antenna. Sweet.

Well, this is twenty-ten, right? We are out of the dark ages of the aughts, and YouTube has been around for YEARS by now, so surely we can stream some form of at least the opening ceremonies and some of the main events, right?

Not so much. Apparently, you need to be a subscriber to cable to be able to access "Premium" content online, like anything more than a 5 minute clip of the hours-long opening ceremony. That was shown for free on the "free" broadcast network. Somehow, I feel like getting cable to watch the stuff online that we can't see on TV defeats the purpose.

Yeah, I know they have to make money, but I am still bitter. However, this did teach me an important lesson. The Oscars are NOT on NBC and I WILL be watching those.

In the meantime, you can find us parked in front of the TV at our former neighbor's house, since they still get the free cable from the university we used to take for granted, and they are also eternally patient and generous.

(Post-script: I love the Olympics so much that when I went to tag this post, I already HAD a tag for the Olympics!)