Sinigang

I MUST ADMIT, I don’t watch as much TV here as when I was back home. There comes a point when you just had it with English shows or the English language for that matter. You see, speak and hear it every freaking day, 24/7! Even my dreams are in English now! When I was in Japan it was the same, only it was much worse- Try watching a Japanese show for 10 minutes and I guarantee you, you’ll be grabbing an Advil on the 11th minute. (No offense my dear Japanese friends! I love all of you and your country, if only Nipponggo is as easy as A-B-C I would have tried to learn it! Nihonngo-o hanashimasen or something like that…)

You might say, get The Filipino Channel (TFC) then! It’s not as easy as that. I don’t have the time to watch all the shows to get my money’s worth on it! Call me cheap but do you know how expensive TFC is? It’s $99.00 for the satellite equipment and a monthly subscription of $25.95! Well, I don’t wanna pay that amount only to watch John LLyod Cruz sing or see Carlos Agassi or John Pratts make a fool of themselves hosting every Sunday on A.S.A.P. If I subscribe, I’d be compelled to watch every gaddamn Filipino shows we have which 80% I must say are rubbish anyway! So what am I complaining about?! Well, you know- there are times when I feel so out of touch, I don’t even know what the latest teleserye is today! Or of late, if kapuso is getting ahead of kapamilya in terms of viewership in primetime! There are good shows and I miss them like The Coresspondents or Pipol or F! I just want to be able to watch every now and then without feeling like ABS-CBN or worse, GMA-7 is shortchanging me with the kind of shows they show. I get the latest Pinoy scoops from various Filipino internet sites but it’s not the same because everything is in English format. [A note on ABS-CBN's website. It's a wonderful site. It's interactive and geared more towards Pinoy overseas. The thing is, they want you to pay for everything. They have this $4.95 monthly subscription to access TV shows you want to watch on your computer. So add that to your monthly internet subscription = overspending! Then they have this $2.99-3.99 pay-per-view tagalog movies to watch on your computer! It's sad that we have to pay extra to get a glimpse of life back home. Oh well, that's how business works.]

Let’s see, I pay for my internet connection and basic cable TV for $26.00 a month so if I want to watch Pinoy shows, I would have to add another $26.00 to my already humongous bills?! Add the one-time satellite equipment of $99.00! Heck, did I mention that already? I get jittery when I spend my dollars, you know. Ok, ok I admit. I’m still one of those Pinoys who unbashedly begin converting and counting with their fingers while staring at the ceiling or floor of Macy’s and fighting whether I should pay cash or credit for a stupid blouse that costs $40 (hey, it was on sale and the original price costs, $80!)!! My point is, everything is expensive here! You’re earning dollars BUT last time I checked, you’re spending dollars as well. It’s not like my dollar is Php 55.00. Here, a dollar is a dollar- almost totally valueless. Sigh.

Would someone kilndly check this out for me and give me a feedback?
I’m just curious if this hit Manila already.  There is this brilliant innovation called TiVo or Replay TV. Basically what it does is, it allows you to digitally record tons of shows on TV you don’t want to miss. It finds the show for you, set it to record and voila! you have the shows waiting for you. It’s amazing! Like a computer, it has a memory so it can only store so much. But how does 100 recordings sound to you? Not bad, huh? The best thing about it is that you can actually shorten the time you spend watching the shows by skipping the commercials! Bid goodbye to those annoying 30-second spots that invade our TV lives. I have only been thrilled watching commercials here for a day. I skipped it after that! Oh they have stupid ads here too! Like duh!

How does the thing work? First I scan all the shows I’m interested in. Then it tells me when and what time it will be shown. So I then press record show. If it’s a series, you tell how many episodes you want it to record and every week it records new episodes. Not only that, when you’re watching and suddenly you got to pee- no problem just pause it. You have a phone call to answer? just pause it. You miss a line? No problem, just rewind it. Time for the commercial break? No problem, you know what to do, forward it! See, You never have to miss another TV show again! I watch everything from recording now. From news, comedy shows, movies, among others. It’s better than watching live because you get to skip the ads! The only thing you want live is when you’re watching an awards show or a sports game where you don’t want to miss out on who won. But even when I was watching the Oscars, I still recorded it so I can watch it again for later when I want to. But see, one more cool thing about it is that you can pause even a live show! So if you’re suddenly caught on something while watching the show live, you can pause it and then play it later when you’re ready to watch! Isn’t that technology’s greatest gift to enjoying TV viewing? And that is how I watch TV here US style.