RIP - Paul Timothy James, Jr.

Hello my faithful readers:

I lost a friend this past weekend.  Paul Timothy James, Jr was probably one of the few people that knew me best about 10 years ago.  He was like the big brother I never had; one of my biggest cheerleaders who made me believe I could (and should) do anything I set my mind to do.

It doesn't feel like Paul is gone.  I had not been close to him in years, although I was blessed to have caught up with him sometime last year, after we fell out of touch for quite a few years.   Social media was the sliver that connected us after all these years and for that I'm thankful to the power of Facebook for giving us even that briefest connection.

Paul always saw me as way more interesting and intelligent than I ever saw myself.  He was always encouraging me to strike out on my own and start my own business and we even worked for a while on producing a concert series called "Grown Folks Music."  We even went as far as trade-marking the name, but that's just the nature of Paul, always working on something.  There was always something going on with him and he was a man of great character - always fighting for the underdog in every situation.

The one thing that strikes me about Paul was that he had so many different friends from so many different walks of life.  Intellectually I always knew this, but it was made evident when I visited him at the ICU in his last week here on earth at Brooklyn Methodist Hospital.  I met people that I'd heard him reference over the years as well as people I'd never even heard of - people who mattered in his life.  That's the thing about Paul James, he took people under his wing and took care of them, even if he hadn't seen you in years, you had the assurance that he would remember you and give you the shirt off his back if that's what you needed at the time.

Paul James lived every last drop out of his life.  He was a warrior, fighting until the end, although he always fought more for everyone else than for himself.  I wish that he was still here so that I could give him one last hug and tell him (when he was awake to hear me), just how much he meant to me.  He was someone who knew me well, at a time when I probably didn't know myself.  I lost my big brother from another mother and right now I'm a bit numb right now.  In my way of coping, I can just pretend that he's off visiting with friends.  In reality, I won't ever get the chance to say to him what I should have said when he was alive to hear it, "I love you man, thank you for being my big brother.  I will miss you."

Peace and blessings to everyone who was touched by Paul for those who loved him know that he's in a much better place right now and maybe, just maybe, he's finally allowing someone to help him on the other side.

Paul Timothy James, Jr. (July 24, 1960 - July 20, 2013)

Best regards,

Georgia Peach

TV Junkie Digital Streaming Options Review - the Dish Hopper

Hello to all of you:

It's been a while since I've posted here, but I thought I'd take the time to share some of my recent experiences in digital streaming.  I am a TV junkie... (there I've said it).  I love great tv, plain and simple.  It's a bit of a challenge watching great tv, without actually paying for cable, but that just makes me a bigger advocate for streaming everything online.  I thought I'd start to blog more regularly here by sharing a few of my thoughts about the state of streaming from a casual, non-techy user experience perspective.

Just to explain why I'm so passionate about streaming - I moved to Belgium in 2009 for graduate school.  While there, I wanted to continue watching some of my favorite shows and I was able to do so with some of the early streaming site aggregators (although some were & remain quite nefarious in nature).  I was frustrated by the lack of legal ways of seeing the content (I tried Hulu, etc), but had to remain conscious that I was living on a limited budget.  In fact, when I moved back to the states and eventually back to NYC, it was my limited budget status that caused me to realize I had to make some tough decisions and I realized I'd rather eat dinner each day than pay for a super expensive cable bill!!

Unfortunately the marketplace doesn't have a great, simple, legal streaming solution for those without cable - yet!  There are companies that are working to change this, but if you have kind parents who will share their username and passwords to their TV Everywhere online streaming platforms, then you've won half the battle.  One that I'd recommend trying is the Dish Hopper. 

My thoughts on the Dish Hopper:  Overall the stream is pretty solid here, love the fact that watching live is available on all their channels.  I think their search functionality on the iPad app is horrible, it seems to be a much better experience when using my computer!  It's difficult to find shows on their On-Demand Platform here. I also hate that Dish now has some very limiting legal language about the number of devices you can stream on...I tend to stream from my computer and my iPad depending on how fast my ISP (internet service provider) is pumping my (very expensive) connection to me.

Channel Guide

DVR Recordings Display (on Computer)

Overall I give the Dish Hopper a solid A- on the overall experience.   If they came up with a lower priced web only a la carte solution, I'd be willing to give it a try.  Take note all of the other MPVD's (Multi-Channel Video Programmers) out there!

I'll try to blog next week about my experiences with some of the other streaming options out there next week.  As always, thanks for reading and I'd love to hear from you in the comments section if you've had any experiences with other platforms.

Mwuah,

Georgia Peach