There was supposed to be an earth-shattering kaboom!

The unthinkable has happened: my parents have unsubscribed to Foxtel. The contract is supposed to end on the 20th which is today, but it is 11:59pm and the television still displays the vast selection of channels that I have known for so long. The clock now shows 12:03am and still, the Foxtel remains; I am taking this as a sign that I should be taking advantage of the situation by experiencing so many channels that I had for so long skimmed past. Now I am watching Bookmerang, a channel that airs children's programmes mainly from before my time such as Looney Tunes and Popeye. I have had brief experience with these because they were shown on Cartoon Network when I was younger, but until now I had ever realised the pure genius that is Looney Tunes. I have decided that Marvin the Martian is one of the greatest children's characters of all time. This realisation, however, is not the point of this post; I just thought I would share the brilliance of a love-struck skunk, a determined coyote, an over-confident rabbit, and a hungry cat with you all.

I have known for almost a month that we would soon only have access to commercial television and I have been dying a little inside every time I think about it. Due to having Foxtel since I was just five, I cannot remember a time when I had only a few channels to choose from; this is the point of the post. I have fallen so deep into the comfort of pay tv that the thought of not having so much to choose from actually scares me. I am not a frequent watcher of television; I enjoy the Foxtel re-runs but I don't have many set television times. In fact, in the current summer season, the only show that I have taken note of the screening time is the Partridge Family; good quality, cheesy television. Most of the shows that I enjoy are on one of the many channels so frequently that it doesn't bother me to miss a few episodes and watch another later because I know there will always be another one. The comfort in Foxtel is that when I have nothing to watch on the commercial channels, there will be something waiting for me on Arena or Fox8, but this is not always the case. It has finally occured to me that Foxtel is no better than regular televison; nothing is on during the day and most of the prime time shows are old episodes. I know all this, yet I am still worried about losing the 'precious gift' that is Foxtel. Why?

I know that I could easily live without it, but it has been so easily accesible for the majority of my life. Like a dish washer, it is convenient, helpful, and great to have, but if it was to be taken out of your home, you would no longer notice after a few weeks. I have realised that over the years, I have fallen into the comfort of so many things. It has only been five years since our house was extended and I managed to move into my own room, but now, I can't imagine being back in the old room with my sister. Recently, I have had to share a room with her at my dad's house which was hard to get used to, but at mum's, my room is mine, and her room is hers; any other way would feel odd. Not five years ago we had no dish washer and I was often washing dishes by hand, but I now cannot imagine washing an entire load of dishes because my life was simplified; there is no looking back. Soon after moving into our own rooms, my sister and I were given our own computers. I spent countless hours locked away in my room on my desktop computer, only emerging for food, drink, and the occasional Foxtel program (I didn't need to leave for a commercial tv program as I had a television in my room). After a few years, I could not imagine life without my own computer; the restrictions and time conflicts baffled me though I lived with them for many years before. I fell into the comfort of my own computer. Less than a year ago my sister's computer suffered a dramatic death and we were both given laptop computers. My dusty old desk top is turned on maybe once a month and my Compaq follows me everywhere I go; the Robin to my Batman. After so little time, I have fallen into the comfort of my laptop (who I have named Jack as it rhymes with the brand name 'Compaq') and can barely fathom the idea of being stuck in my room in orer to access the internet. With every improvement, it becomes easier and easier to have a different comfort zone. I say to myself with every little thing that I willwork hard on this aspect and never leave it, but that is rarely the case. Even the move from Myspace to Facebook was a shame. Now, like many others, I solely use Facebook, but the countless hours spent beautifying my Myspace homepage and brown nosing so that my comment box was always updating seem wasted. I wanted to use both but it seems as though the upgrade turned into a new comfort zone. Before this move, was the move from Piczo to Myspace. Before Myspace, many of my friends had their own websites supported by Piczo. www.marlzy.piczo.com was taken care of more thoroughly than Myspace; days on end spent changing the layouts and linking each page to a category all wasted. I insisted that signing up to Myspace would not make me abandon Piczo, but I found a new comfort zone, which was updated again of course.

I have had different groups of friends over the years, with each one I was not able to imagine life with another; but for one reason or another, we have separated. I though that my primary school friends would be my best friends through secondary school, but I rarely speak to all but one of them. I could not imagine making new friends when entering school in year seven, but I did. Now I find it hard to believe that I will make friends at Monash University, but I know that I will; I have to or my whole blog post sounds like bullshit. I will find another comfort zone and although I want to stay close to my current friends, it is certain that I must also have friends in my course and on my campus or I will not survive.

It is too easy to fall into the comfort of things, in this case, having Foxtel. I must admit, I will definitely miss 'Super Simpsons Weekend' on Fox8; it will be sad to see four hours of episodes disappear, but I will live without it. If my laptop was to crash (heaven forbid), I would use my desktop and find that, although it is slower, there is nothing wrong with how I used to operate. If only we could fall into theze comfort zones yet not be scared to be pulled out of them. I know that being pulled out of this one will only send me to another one in which I will feel just as good, but for now, I like where I am and I of course don't want to be pulled out. After I am, I will not want to be pulled out of where I am next. I hate change even if it is simple; most people do. Thanks for reading.
-Renji