Netflix is Too Good to be True

I predicted it would end and it seems that Netflix is on its way out. I hope that I'm wrong about this but Netflix may have jumped the shark. The recent price hike combined with splitting the DVD and Streaming service is the first major sign of the possible death of Netflix.

Since my first red envelope arrived with a Netflix DVD I have thought that it was too good to be true. It was what I always wanted in media content. No annoying advertisements and I pick what I want to see when I want to see it. When they added streaming it was even better and far too good to last.

The problem is not Netflix. The problem is Hollywood. They want us to watch their morally bankrupt content by either paying for the movie tickets and/or the DVD's or by watching the show with 1/3 of the time taken up by advertisements.

Along comes Netflix. Now, for about the cost of one movie ticket I can watch exactly what I want commercial free when I want it. It takes up no storage space on my shelves or on my computer hard drive and I can watch as much or little as I want.

This is simply too good to be true and the movie companies and cable companies will not stand for it. The streaming takes up a great deal of cable bandwidth and people are watching Netflix instead of their advertisements.

Hollywood and Big Cable Provider X want to charge us for the bandwidth and to price Netflix out of business. We will probably watch the media whether Netflix exists or not but Hollywood controls the content. Why should they want to give any control over to Netflix?

I can do $11 a month but $16 seems too much for having to deal with two websites. First you raise the price by 60% or so and then you tell me that I can't search on the same website for a DVD and the streaming. I don't really care if it is streamed or on DVD. I just want to see the movie or TV show.

Because fuel and food and just about everything else but my wages are going up in price I have seriously been considering pulling the plug on my Netflix subscription before this price hike for less service announcement. I expect that many others are in the same boat.

I could be wrong about this jumping the shark thing and I hope that I am. Netflix may have it right that streaming is the future. The move will either end up in the business school textbooks as what not to do or it will turn out to be the right move. As Hastings said, only time will tell.

Netflix still has by far the best selection and there are many customers out there who, like me, either watch Netflix or nothing at all. If I have to choose between commercial television and nothing, I'll take nothing. So it is commercial free DVD's or streaming or nothing. I'm also far more interested in watching natives climb trees, a panther hunt down its next meal, or how the Allies clobbered the Nazis than watch the latest he man action hero or the barely dressed bimbo that Hollywood likes to send my way. The documentaries are not the high grossing and high demand type shows that Hollywood will charge a premium price for so Netflix may be just fine in the long run.

My finger is hovering over the "cancel my subscription" button on Netflix and Qwikster but I want to see what Qwikster and the streaming only Netflix has to offer first. If they will throw in video games for not much more then it might be a great deal.

Sept 17, 18, & 19

I set the paleo diet aside for a time due to vacation. I traveled all day on the 17th eating lost of granola bars and other such food. My worst offense was a Cinnabon Cinnamon Roll at the airport. This caused a burning in my throat almost immediately afterwards.

It is hard to say no to family meals and I partook heavily and paid a heavy price in sleep as a result.

Ignoring a problem or thinking that this time will be different does not help to resolve said problem.

Days 14 and 15

Not quite Paleo but did keep the calories down. Juicing is messy and time consuming. Had lunch at an all you can eat resturant and ate all I could eat. Ate no dinner and was still up past midnight with heartburn. BMI = 25.3

Day 13

Ate very little solid food. Mostly juice smoothies and juiced vegetables. A ate two small samples of not so good for you food they were offering at the grocery store, a few cashews and a couple of dates.

The smoothie from the grocery store I ate at lunch was large and consumed far too fast. The result was belching and a feeling of pressure in my throat. Fortunately, this did not last and was not severe.

I discovered that it is recommended that dark green vegetable juice consist of no more than 1/3 of the juiced drink. Based on my experience the last few days, I can vouch for the wisdom of that advice.

I am starting to feel calmer, mentally sharper, more in control, and less anxious.

BMI = 25.5

Paleo / Caveman Diet Day 11

Image from: http://www.marksdailyapple.com

Woke up thirsty. It must have been the salt laden cashews from last night.

I had an apple for breakfast and belched most of the rest of the day. It had to be the apple since there was little else in my stomach. Had a light salad for lunch and a 100% fruit smoothie for dinner.

Yes, I'm hungry but pain and the fear of far more pain are great motivators.

Same BMI as yesterday.

Days 9 and 10

Yesterday I had some spicy salad dressing. I blame the salad dressing for the sour stomach I woke up with today.

Today I ate only natural foods but at what should be bedtime the belching and upset stomach make sleep a long time coming from here.

Despite my meals being all natural I ate a large quantity of sugar. Natural sugar, yes, but still sugar. I had grape juice. I also had spinach, broccoli, carrots, and celery all put together in a nasty tasting 12 + ounces of juice. After work I had dates, agave nectar, a grapefruit, and more grape juice.

Quite a few cashews also went down the gullet.

The only non caveman thing I ate was about two ounces of puffed rice.

I know that foods high in sugar make heartburn worse. I also suspect that the juice didn't help. At any rate my stomach is not happy right now.

Perhaps I should just not eat at all.

BMI = 25.7

Day 8

I started doing some juicing a few days ago. A few fresh apples makes a much better apple juice than you get in the store. Even broccoli juice tastes better than expected. The carrot juice tastes like dirt.

BMI = 25.7

Days Six and Seven

Day six went very well (BMI 25.8), day seven, today, did not.

Today's BMI was 25.8.

We had a staff meeting with food. I decided to eat a hamburger with bun and a chocolate chip cookie. The cookie was a big mistake. First I felt it my throat right away and second sugar is like a drug. Get a little and you want more. I ate the free candy and then granola bars, which are more like candy bars, when I got home. As of this minute, I'm back on the wagon.

Caveman Diet Day Five

Today was not easy. The vending machine was calling. Cereal looked good. Nevertheless I stuck to the plan. I had a big piece of chicken with some barb-b-q sauce and a little catsup. for dinner. The sauce and catsup was a bit of cheating and the chicken was far too large.

Not a perfect day but far better than virtually every day for the last 30 years.

BMI = 26.1

Day Four

I woke up with my mouth coated like I have for several decades. However, those days are over.

No grain, no processed food, and no milk products. This is the first day I've stuck with the diet completely. I had very little coughing little pain and only a little swallowing. I also ate relatively little food. BMI = 26

Day 3

I fasted for two meals and ate cereal and milk for dinner.

Caveman Diet Day 2

- 2.5 pounds from yesterday. BMI = 26.1. Target BMI = 21.7

I stuck with the Paleolithic diet except for a small KFC biscuit.  I ate far too much and did not chew thoroughly and suffered heartburn as a result. The bacon was not so good and neither was the greasy chicken breast. It was great going down but getting to "enjoy" it for much of the day was not so good. 

Some itching in the roof of my mouth possibly due to the KFC mashed potatoes. Coughing, belching (nobody was around to offend), and swallowing for much of the day especially after I ate too much. Part of the coughing was as a result of allergies. I was sneezing badly last night and part of today. I believe that most of the coughing etc. was due to reflux. Eating a large quantity of dates and drinking a large amount of commercially produced fruit juice didn't help either.

Paleo Day 1 (9/3/11)

Day one was not completely Paleo. I had a sandwich I had made two days before that had bread (of course) and cheese. I hate to waste food.

GERD Elimination Plan

My question is what is the best way to solve the GERD problem quickly and permanently.

I have been to doctors who have diagnosed me with asthma, allergies, and GERD. Only the last doctor, an ENT suggested GERD and that was after a second visit. The allergy inhaler did nothing to improve my symptoms. The Prilosec did help my symptoms but I believe also sent me to another doctor visit with lower abdominal pain.

Ending today I tried a rapid weight loss plan using Slim Fast shakes. I have lost a few pounds but it has not been good on my lower end so I'm ending that plan as of today.

After much research on the internet and quite a few years of these problems worsening, my hypothesis is that my GERD has the following causes:

• The fat around my stomach pressing on the stomach and pushing the stomach contents up my esophagus.
• Eating too fast
• Eating too much
• Sugary and processed foods especially chocolate
• Foods that I am allergic to according to a recent test (Corn, milk, oats, peanuts, potatoes, soybeans, and wheat)

I also believe that the GERD is a life threatening emergency that must be stopped as fast as possible and through any reasonable means necessary.

I will test this hypothesis by going onto a paleolithic diet for at least 30 days and by chewing all food until it is completely liquid in my mouth before I swallow it. The ENT recommended that I try the paleo diet and my research points to this as a possible solution as well. 

The theory behind a paleolithic diet is that humans developed over millions of years as hunter gatherers and that our bodies are best suited for that type of foods.  Modern hunter gatherers don't suffer from the heart disease and obesity that we "civilized" people do.

I have no desire to live in the bush wearing a loincloth and being a snack for bugs on a regular basis, but the idea behind the paleolithic diet sounds reasonable. At any rate it will cut out the processed foods that I know are not good for me.

I will report the results as they occur in this blog.