My usual weekend blog is a bit earlier this week as I will be in Bangkok from tomorrow for a business conference next week. I will also be catching up with an old friend whom I have known since we were 10 years old – 43 years now to be exact, as he is based there now.
Subscription cable TV has been declining for the last few years as streaming giants like Netflix have gone global. They provide so much interesting new content that they are getting new converts every day. When was the last time one sits in front of one’s TV in the living room to watch a program that was scheduled to be broadcasted? On-demand TV is the norm now. You watch whatever and whenever you want, not the other way around. Except maybe for live sports events.
Even TV sales are falling. Who wants a bigger screen when each person can watch in the privacy of their iPad or iPhones? With websites like youtube, most programs are uploaded almost as soon as their official broadcast has ended.
I have scaled down my cable TV subscription to the bare minimum since we signed up with Netflix. For USD 7.99 per month, my family of 4 can log into the app and watch a buffet of shows at any time. The catch for this package is that only 1 person can watch at a time. We do have Sunday family movie nights while ordering in dinner. It is a fav activity for us as it brings the family together.
The content is so wide that one can find almost any shows or series from all parts of the world in one location. There is even a term for couples now: “Let’s Netflix and Chill this weekend”. It means to binge watch and have sex at the same time. Netflix continues to invest billions into new content and even showcase some from different countries like India and South America, which had caught the interest of a global audience.
One particular new Netflix show has recently become the darling of new converts when it started on 01 Jan. It is called “Tidying up with Marie Kondo”. https://www.netflix.com/sg/title/80209379 This famous Japanese lady is well known for her books on methods to clean up your house and make you happier in the process.
I was a bit sceptical at the start but decided to watch the first episode before I make a judgement call. The episode looks promising and her methods may look odd at the beginning but it seems to work for the family by getting more order into their lives after they had kids.
Marie had been working in a Shinto temple during her teenage years before she wrote her book at age 19 and started to make tidying as a career choice as she enjoyed it so much. Some of her methods were relatable to her Shinto experience. Before she starts work with a home, she will ask all members of the household to thank the home for blessing them with a roof over their heads. The American family felt a bit uneasy initially but got into the act slowly as they cleaned up their home, room by room.
Her main modus operandi was to pile everything in the middle of the room as a first step. Then for the owner to hold each item to see if it sparks joy in them. If yes, it is a keeper. If no, the owner should thank the item for sharing its life with him and then discard it.
There is also a certain way to arrange things standing up within the drawers so that when it is opened, one can see everything immediately. There is a method to the madness. With much effort put in, the decluttering exercise should make the owners happier as a result.
With the internet nowadays, there is a show for everyone and any interest. There is an ongoing human phenomenon where one seeks to watch a type of video repeatedly that makes one feel good but cannot say why it does so. There is Dr Pimple Popper to watch the extraction of blackheads, channels to watch multi-coloured soaps being squashed together or setting a red hot iron rod into a bunch of crayons and so on. Strange but true, a sign of the times and evolving human social media behaviours…
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