Twitters Everyone Should Follow

Hi All,

It seems like it’s been forever since I’ve had time to write a blog post. Most of this is due to traveling work and being swamped both at the hotel and when I get back home.

Anyway, excuses aside, I’ve recently found Twitter. It’s awesome. Below are some great Twitter users that everyone should follow. If you want to follow me, I’m at @MarkTRoehl

@SimpsonsQOTD – Simpsons quote of the day. What else needs to be said. They also include a picture, which is awesome.

@arresteddev – The official twitter of the greatest show of all time (Arrested Development)

@_youhadonejob – You Had One Job. Funny fails with pictures.

@slmandel – Stewart Mandel – Former head Sports Illustrated college writer

@ExpCols – Experience Columbus – Tells fun stuff to do around the city

@Ken_Rosenthal – Baseball Analyst for Fox.

@11W – Eleven Warriors – Best site on the interwebs for OSU football news.

@OsuCoachCoombs – OSU Assistant Football Coach – King of the hashtag.

@KenTremendous  – Created of Parks and Rec, Moos from The Office and former writer from FireJoeMorgan.com

@JimTressel5 – Twitter of the greatest coach ever to grace the sidelines at The Ohio State University

@Buster_ESPN – Buster Olney – ESPN Baseball Writer

@DOMTIBERI – Dom Tiberi – Best sports anchor in Columbus and an all-around great guy.

@BraxtonMiller5 – Braxton Miller – #QBgeddon!

@CJ12_ – Cardale Jones – #QBgeddon!

@JT_theQB4th – JT Barrett – #QBgeddon!

@JPosnanski – Joe Posnanski – The greatest sports writer on the planet.

@_FloridaMan – Florida Man – Because everything strange or macabre happens in Florida. One of my top 3 twitters

@ShitTats – Shit Tats – Speaks for itself. Pictures of really bad tattoos. 

@harlowandsage – Amazing pics of Harlow and Sage – Two great dog friends (and one is a weimaraner)

@MedievalReacts – This is hard to explain, but it’s medieval paintings told in the language of today. Absolutely hilarious.

If you have any other good Twitters to follow, drop a note in the comments.

Cutting the Cord – Life Without Cable – Post Wedding Edition

One of the ongoing posts on this blog is how I’m coping without cable television and what I’m doing to pass the time. At this point, I’m now over 12 months without cable. This is a direct savings of at least $720 (minimal savings of $60 per month). I also have no added costs because I subscribed to Netflix and MLB.tv while I had cable.

Here is the list of what’s been keeping me busy.

MLB.tv

Even though my favorite team is on pace for their third 90+ loss season, I still love watching baseball. Lately I haven’t been watching as much as I’d like because the Minnesota Twins have been on the west coast, which means 10pm start times. That’s too late for me. I hope to pick back up this week now that they’re back in the central time zone

Orange is the New Black

Netflix has knocked their original programming out of the park. The next three entries are all Netflix exclusives. Orange is the New Black is based on the book by Piper Kerman titled ‘Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison.’

I’m continually amazed by the high production value to the Netflix series. This felt like it could have been on HBO or Showtime without missing a beat (As it should because it was produced by Jenji Kohan who was a part of Weeds on Showtime).

My wife and I completed the entire series in 6 days after we returned from our Honeymoon. Netflix has already picked up a second season so this is definitely worth checking out.

Arrested Development

Arrested Development remains the greatest television show ever. There was no way that season 4 could live up to the lofty expectations so I was glad to see the show take a different approach. While the new episodes weren’t nearly as good as the originals, they are still funny, well written and worth watching. So far, my favorite episode is episode 5 that focuses on Tobias (titled: A New Start). This makes the list for a second time due to the rewatchability of the episodes.

House of Cards

I got hooked on House of Cards a new months ago. This was my first exposure to a Netflix original series. The series focuses on House of Representative Frank Underwood and the shady dealings of Washington DC. Kevin Spacey knocks it out of the park and Kate Mara was fantastic.

Other Shows I’m Watching

Breaking Bad – Just watch it, it’s awesome. You won’t be disappointed.

Quantum Leap – Still Awesome

Scrubs – I would like to propose that we strike the last season from the record like it never happened (The Jar Jar Binks treatment). Other than that, I could watch scrubs all day long.

Futurama – I’m so sad that this got canceled again because it’s such a great show. Hopefully it’ll come back again in a few years.

If you are thinking of ditching cable or have any television show recommendations, drop a note in the comments.

Life Without Cable – February Recommendations

I haven’t posted an update in a while, but I’m still living without Cable Television. My grand experiment continues to go better than I ever could have hoped. Since I left Time Warner in July, I anticipate I’ve saved close to $400 (minimum savings of $55 a month).

Periodically on this blog, I post an update with how I’m doing without cable, so… without any further delay, here is what’s keeping me busy lately….

Work

Traditionally, December and January are supposed to be slow months in information technology as budgets run out in early December, then take a few weeks to trickle down in January. This was definitely not the case for me. If my project was going to succeed, my portion would need to be completed in early February. This meant an aggressive timetable of November, December and January. My project team did an amazing job and we finished a calendar week ahead of our estimates. This meant a lot of working from home in the evenings so it was probably a good thing I had one less thing to distract me.

Xbox

Game companies try to release their marquee games in the 4th Quarter of the year so they can maximize sales over the Holiday season. This year was no exception…. combine the amazing games with my Amazon addition, I was able to get some great deals on some great games. The games that I play the most are:

Borderlands 2 – This game is so fun it could get its own entry in the future.

NBA2k13 – This has quietly become the gold standard in sports video games. I attribute that mostly due to Electronic Arts having an exclusive licensing agreement with the NFL so they are the only company who can release a professional football game…. ever since they signed that agreement, the Madden series has gone so far downhill, I don’t even bother with it anymore.

XCom Enemy Unknown – I had reservations about this game, but I was able to buy it as part of an Amazon Gold Box deal. It is made by the same studio that created the Civilization series (The greatest games ever created) so I felt cautiously optimistic. After playing for a while, I highly recommend this game. It’s a fun and challenging turn-based strategy game. I’m looking forward to trying to beat the game on harder difficulties in the future.

Netflix

As in the past, I’m using Netflix as my cable replacement. Below are some recommendations.

Archer – This cartoon is simply awesome and the cast is amazing. I’ve always loved Aisha Tyler and I’m a huge Jessica Walter fan from Arrested Development. As an added bonus, the show even has the actor who played Dr. Spaceman on 30 Rock (Chris Parnell).

http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Archer/70171942?locale=en-US

Arrested Development – Without question, the greatest show ever. I am on a continuous loop of watching the entire series and each time I watch, I always pick up on something I never noticed before. I’m thankful that Netflix has renewed the series and I’m more thankful they are releasing all episodes at one time on a Saturday. If it were on a weekday, I’m pretty sure there would be a vacation day from work being used.

http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Arrested_Development/70140358?trkid=2361637

Ballplayer: Pelotero – A fascinating look at the signing process and the entire baseball machine in the Dominican Republic. If you are a baseball fan, I highly recommend.

http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Ballplayer_Pelotero/70246406?trkid=2361637

Up For Grabs – Admittedly, I’ve had this movie in my queue forever. I was intrigued, but not enough to watch. It is a documentary about what happened to Barry Bonds 73rd home run ball. After watching, this documentary was both appealing and scary because of how horrible people are. Similar to the 30 for 30 on Steve Bartman, this documentary will keep the watcher riveted for the entire 88 minutes.

http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Up_for_Grabs/70028941?trkid=2361637

Other things that keep me busy and probably should be listed in more detail…. Running, The Ricky Gervais Show (Thanks HBO App on XBOX), OSU Basketball (Thanks BTN App and ESPN App), Pandora, and finally, Weimaraner stuff.

If you have any recommendations or want to weigh in on anything from above, please feel free to drop a note in the comments section.