life with Cincinnati Bell's FiOptics

It's been a bit over a week now with my new Cincinnati Bell FiOptics service and I want to post some follow-up to my experience and things I've learned in the past week.

First, the internet is still great. 20Mbps up/down is still hands down the winner vs Time Warner or anyone else in town. For the price you can't beat it. No complaints there at all. If you can get it, I highly recommend it. No issues with latency or service drops, which I'm impressed by since there seem to be Cincinnati Bell trucks outside my place every other day.

On the television side... I'm still undecided about it. The DVR's disk space seems a bit lacking compared to Time Warner, and the UI on their guide and the overall interface is pretty unclear and dated-looking.

Stability wise, the TV service seems OK... however it took us a while to get 'on-demand' programming working and it seems seems quite slow to load (and has a horrible UI). I've also been having a few random issues with certain standard definition channels not displaying on my TV and some guide outages here and there.

In terms of the DVR, Cincinnati Bell never really gave me an hour count on what it would hold, but they said it was 'bigger' and 'better' than Time Warner. My first recording said it took 17% of the DVR's space, but now after 6 recordings (around 5 hours of HD content) it is reading 28% full. The device seems wildly inconsistent with how much disk space content takes, or that it reports. Because of this I still have no idea how much it will actually hold and I've probably driven the CB rep in my building to never speak to me again. For comparison, Time Warner states their box will hold something in the realm of 80 hours of standard definition TV and 35 hours of HD, which is about on par with my experience.

I queried some of my neighbors about the issues and concerns I've had and they're seeing more or less the same with their service, and also echo my feelings on the horrible UI and lack of, or unclear, DVR functionality.

I relayed my concerns to Cincinnati Bell via my rep and one of the heads of the FiOptics team gave me the following bits of info:

1. Disk Usage - may be higher with CB since they are not compressing their signal as much as Time Warner, the result is a better picture (in theory) but also recordings take more space, up to 4x that of standard definition.
   
   
2. UI - they're planning to roll out a new interface 1st quarter 2010 - this is something Cisco is developing and should be a cleaner and more user friendly UI.

Overall I'm happy with the internet service, and taking a wait-and-see attitude with the TV service as I get more comfortable with it and work through some of the irregularities and bugs I am seeing.

My suggestion to anyone who has FiOptics as an option is to do your homework and make sure you're getting an apples-to-apples comparison. Get out your current bill and make sure it matches up, make sure your channel lineups match and see if you can get a more concrete answer on the DVR space.

Mariemont Theatre

While I love the Mariemont Theatre... it's no Esquire (which, somehow, I haven't posted about yet?!).

Mariemont and the Esquire are sister theaters-- one in Mariemont (hm) and the other right down the road from Dan's place in Clifton. I prefer the Esquire for a couple of reasons:

1) I run into way more people my age at the Esquire

2.) I can walk to the Esquire

3.) The layout (particularly the lobby) of the Esquire is much more open and friendly.

That being said, there aren't many differences between the two. They don't run all the same movies, which is how I ended up in Mariemont on Friday night: it was playing the new Coen brothers movie, A Serious Man.

The differences, on the other hand, between an independent theater and your local Showcase Cinemas... are vast. For me, there is no comparison. I love the hometown, down-to-earth, almost vintage feel of these local theaters. The prices are often cheaper, the movies are the kind that rarely make it to the major theaters: documentaries, foreign films, indie dramas. (My kind of movies.) These are the kind of theater that play Rocky Horror Picture Show at midnight, for crying out loud.

If you go straight to your nearby megaplex for movies, just check to see if it's playing at the Esquire or Mariemont first. Just once. If you hate it, maybe I'll give you a refund.

Mariemont Theatre website: http://www.mariemonttheatre.com/home.htm
A Serious Man on IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1019452/

Proud Rooster

The Proud Rooster is-- apparently-- one of the gems of Clifton. It's been in business since the dawn of time, and Dan's been itching to visit... but it's only open for lunch (during the week), and we both work downtown.

As luck would have it: ugggh! I woke up feeling like hell warmed over! So when lunch rolled around, we schlogged down Ludlow to the chicken place to end all chicken places.

What looks like a tiny carry-out-only area is actually only the facade for an adorable greasy spoon (by far my favorite kind of eatery). All the bling on the walls comes from trophies and plaques from local sporting events and teams that the Proud Rooster has sponsored.

And the food was delicious. Dan ordered the fried chicken and enjoyed it. I had the meatloaf hoagie with mac 'n' cheese and-- sweet mercy-- there are leftovers in my fridge and it's killing me not to pop 'em out and heat 'em up. Warm, comfort-y foods perfect for autumn.

We will definitely be back, if we can carve out another lunchtime (or a weekend, if we're ever home!).

You might hate me...

...because I'm going to bring up Christmas already. Before Thanksgiving. Hell, it's still the first week of November.

But! I have a reason! I'd like to challenge you to buy more gifts/decorations/whatever locally this year, for your holiday celebrations. I'm bringing it up now because there are some incredible artisans that take custom orders, and you'll want to think about those ahead of time.

I don't believe buying everything locally is feasible for most of us, and I doubt I'll ever be the kind of person who does that. However, the more I shop local, the happier I become. I feel like I'm putting my money more directly into our local economy, which needs it. I'm directly supporting the businesses that I care about, and more of those dollars go toward things this city needs.

Plus it's fun! Did I mention the fun?!

If you don't have a slew of local businesses you already support, I'd suggest trolling Etsy's awesome Shop Local tool. Save yourself some postage and pick up the items yourself, if you're in the area.

What are your favorite Cincinnati-based businesses? How can you support them this holiday season? If I get a solid list of your favorite businesses I'll post it here, and I promise to try to buy from them soon!

Burnet Woods, Diggs Fountain Plaza, nameless fountain

Before all the trees are bare and Cincinnati turns a relentless shade of gray, make sure you take time to stroll through Burnet Woods and around the fountain plaza in Clifton.




It's difficult to find a lot of information about this beautiful fountain-- I stumbled upon an article from 2002 talking about construction of the fountain, and while it names both the garden and the surrounding plaza, the fountain is only described. This article goes on to call her "the new Clifton fountain" and "the best semi-naked woman in public," and as of yet I haven't found anything that gives her a name. A shame, isn't it?

I hadn't realized the fountain was that new-- only seven years old? Shows how much time I used to spend in Clifton. Now I can't imagine walking to the Esquire without seeing her.

Flying Pig #5: Cincinnati Shakespeare Company

I knew without looking that this pig must be Hamlet.

Earlier I blogged about my first trip to the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company downtown. Naturally, this is where Hamlet lives. A bit about the pig skull from the Cincinnati.com interview with artist Brian Heim:

I wanted a real pig skull so I found a pig head at a butcher shop, borrowed my grandmother's pressure cooker and boiled it for about seven hours. It was a really strong smell.

Niiiice. Another bit I like, which I hadn't noticed:

Words from Hamlet's monologues are written in silver around his clothes, as if they are stitched in thread.

Hamlet's Pig Profile: http://www.cincinnati.com/bigpiggig/profile_072200.html
Cincinnati Shakespeare Company website: http://cincyshakes.com/

Chef Todd

This man... is Chef Todd.

And this man... bakes up some of the best flippin' desserts I've ever had.

When I told him I wanted to write him up in my blog he kind of scowled at me, but it is my civic duty to tell you where you need to order your sweet somethings. (You know... when you need a break from Take the Cake and Dojo Gelato. Even I do, from time to time.)

Most Friday nights, Dan and I meet up with two friends of ours for "geek double date night," and we like to bring the desserts. (I hear wine is more traditional, but no one has ever turned their nose up at the cupcakes we bring.) Lately I've been ordering them from Chef Todd.

This week's flavors:
-->Piña colada cake with coconut frosting
-->Blueberry with lemon frosting
-->Bailey's triple chocolate with fudge icing

annnnnnd...

waiiiiit for it...

-->Corn and bacon with maple frosting

All were at least as delicious as they sound. My favorite by far was the piña colada, which had such a subtle, sweet coconut taste that it even won over this chocolate lover.

Chef Todd is also the man that, when I asked him if he had any black forest-y type desserts, whipped me up a dark chocolate cake with cherries blended into the icing inside the cake and oh man I'd best stop now, before I make him fire up another one.

Chef Todd has ridiculously reasonable prices, is undaunted by any flavor request, also does full catering (I've only tapped into the dessert side but apparently I'm missing many more offerings), and has an awesome personality to boot. (Oh! And none of his desserts have any calories! ...I assume... right Dan?)

So! Do as I do, and use "eating local" as an excuse to order some of the most divine desserts in Cincinnati. Tell him @redrabbit sent you!

Chef Todd's Twitter (how I discovered him, through @foodhussy): http://twitter.com/cheftee
Chef Todd's services: http://myfoodarts.com/2.html