i haven’t had cable tv for a while, but now, especially with the writers strike and few new episodes of good shows, i decided to go back to the wire. i actually get pretty good ota hd at my new place, and still use it to watch the network channels, but now get all of the other channels that i had been missing too.

my series 3 tivo accepts cable card, which means i don’t need time warner’s lame dvr, and can do all of my digital cable’n directly through my tivo. cable card is also a bit cheaper, because instead of renting their crappy dvr with the terrible interface for $7 or however much it costs per month, cable cards are only $1.70… big savings!

so last friday, i took a half-day to have the cable guy set me up. the cable/internet would be the last utility before i as all hooked up at my new place. this vietnamese cable guy showed up at 2pm (i was given a 1-4pm window), and asked me if i wanted a regular cable box or a digital cable box. i told him i ordered cable cards and he asked me again if i wanted a regular cable box or a digital cable box. grr. i then pointed to the order form he was holding that said (2) Cable Card, and he asked me what a cable card was. He then called his boss (on my phone, his was out of battery) to find out what these mysterious cable cards were. He told me they’d have to send someone else out to help me with this. Great.

so about an hour later another cable guy comes and says he knows all about cable cards, but that his boots are too muddy to walk into my place, so he’ll have to call another guy to set me up. wtf?! so this guy sits on my steps while he waits for the third guy that comes 30 minutes later, that doesn’t know about cable cards, but has clean boots, yes!?

so mr. clean boots comes into my apartment and follows the directions of mr. dirty boots + cable card knowledge guy. it was like if mission control was trying to instruct me how to land the fucking space shuttle. anyway, this ridiculous scenario took about 30 minutes to play out, and eventually i had my internet up and my cable cards spittin’ out cable.

but seriously time warner? wackiest install, evar!