Imaginating

[susandennis]

When he was little, my brother used to sit and stare for hours when we'd ask him what he was doing he'd say "I'm imaginating."  It's a great word and a great pastime. 

A couple of weeks ago I was sharing a meal with a friend and she was telling me about growing up with her father who was an inventor.  She learned to always reconsider what she saw and how she did things.  How could it be different?  How could it be better?  What a wonderful gift.   I've been trying.

It was in one of those imaginating mini sessions that it occurred to me how very silly it is, in this day and age, to have to find a channel on the TV by number.  I can never remember what the channel number for Bravo or HGTV or FoodNetwork is.  I'm good if I can keep the locals - KOMO, KIRO and KING straight by number.  No one brands their station or network by number.  When I'm watching KIRO they tell me about upcoming shows on KIRO not on channel 7.  Cable companies switch channel numbers around with glee,  so why in the heck do I have to remember numbers?  Why can't I turn to channel HGTV?  or KOMO?  It's been a few bascillian years since it was necessary to fit the channel info round a knob.

Seriously, I had this conversation with myself less than a month ago.

TiVo, as it turns out, was listening in!!

Their latest upgrade includes a select by "call sign"!!  Bless their little hearts.

Now I can go imaginate something else. 

Comments

[angelamermaid.livejournal.com]

Heh. Back in my CSR days, I hated it when we got the converts from cable to satellite. They'd be trying to find their favourite shows, and could only say "It was on channel 4" and of course would be really pissy that they were missing their shows.

"What was the name of channel 4?"

"I don't know! You look it up for me!"

One of many reasons I am no longer in customer service. :-)

[susandennis]

This reminds me of when my Dad moved his mother from Oklahoma to North Carolina after his dad died. She was old and crotchety and refused to watch her tv because she said that it was an Oklahoma tv and could not be set right for North Carolina. Translation: Lawrence Welk was on a different channel number.

Daddy finally gave up and bought her a new North Carolina TV. My brother now has the Oklahoma one - and it's working fine... in Texas.

[porcinea.livejournal.com]

I am SO annoyed with this one. Our Replay grouped the channels -- all the news channels were together, broadcast, movies, etc. In sets. *SO* much better.

[alice-q.livejournal.com]

My Comcast DVR doesn't do this by default, but I can fairly easily switch the channel guide to this view. It does make things easier.

The only channels I can remember are the Seattle ones

[vixter.livejournal.com]

CBS KIRO- 7, NBC KING - 5, ABC KOMO -4

And I moved away in 1973.

I've solved the problem by not watching TV anymore.
We don't have cable and we only get 5 English channels and we're missing one of the 3 majors but I don't remember which one it is.

[howeird]

Two things. First, from the beginning the FCC rules said cable companies had to carry local broadcast stations on the same number as they appeared on the dial. KOMO is on channel 4, KING on 5 KIRO on 7 and the Tacoma stations should be on 11 and 13, though there's a loophole which would allow them to be on cable channels 3 and 6. The loophole also allows UHF stations to move to lower numbers on cable.
Second, cable boxes and Tivo has always had a searchable channel guide. Figuring out how to use it may be a challenge.

HD channels on Comcast also retain the numbering system, just add 700. So 704 should be KOMO HD, 705 KING and 707 KIRO. Did I guess right?