Monday

I made two technological purchases this month: an Acer 710 Chrome Book for $199 and a Roku for $40. My jury is still out on the Chrome Book, but the Roku rocks.

The Roku is a small device that plugs into your TV that allows you to stream "channels" that you'd normally have to watch on your computer. So, for instance, I can stream my Amazon Prime subscription through the Roku, which is allowing my family to watch a ton of TV (hooray! chalk one up for the idiots!) that they normally wouldn't be able to access on the TV. A few offerings we've enjoyed on our TV from our Amazon Prime account: Arrested Development, the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, Gilligan's Island, Twilight Zone, and an assortment of free movies.

The Roku has over 1,000 channels available. Yesterday, I downloaded four Catholic channels: EWTN, Catholic TV, Catholic Life TV, and St. Anthony's Catholic TV. I'm really looking forward to checking out what the non-EWTN stations offer, especially St. Anthony's, since, if I understand the catalogue correctly, only I and 38 other people subscribe. I'm curious to know what kind of production power goes into a 39-person audience.

It kinda makes me think I could launch a TDE channel, though, of course, I have no idea what all would be involved.

A few other channels that have me intrigued: Lecture Kings, MIT, and Rutgers University. It appears I'll be able to watch a variety of university lectures on my television set, "on demand."

Pretty wild.