Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Picture a Day - Day 76

Today all of those cute little rabbit ears are being driven out to an empty field and shot. We've all made the switch over to digital (okay so at least all of us in Nebraska. To hell with that government ruling to push it back. We get rather impatient here sometimes, what with the corn still needing to be planted and the buffalo still needing to be herded. Plus there's that barn raising later and a sod house to put together).

And all this talk of TV's brings up my picture theme dujor. Awhile back Jenna (of the immensely popular That Bride, That Wife, and I hope soon That Tasty Baked Good) asked me just how it is I have time to do all those random little hobbies I do.

Well that got my brain a thinking (a very scary thing to encourage) what makes me so special? Sure I got lots of down time in lab waiting for stuff to come in, or boil, or enzimatically digest. So I can get in and blog and what not.

Meals I am an expert at streamlining, if it takes longer than 30-40 minutes it gets culled (unless it's a very favored recipe then it happens about once every few months) and I am lucky to have a helper elf in the kitchen. Though he refuses to wear the hat, such a spoil sport.

So where do I get these extra hours to crank out a painting or two in a week and get into a billion other little projects (I have ADD when it comes to hobbies I fear)? We watch just about no TV. This is the little TV in our bedroom and it is pretty much a storing place as this point. It's been turned on all of once to check to make sure it worked and that was it. (Which is good because I am very against TV in the bedroom and when we get a bigger place it's going elsewhere)

Our TV viewing experience is composed of about 4 shows. When we first get home I flip it on and catch a bit of Jeopardy while I prepare dinner. I am a bit of a Jeopardy nut because sometimes I just have to groan at the terrible puns the writing staff comes up with, also at least a few writers on there are from Nebraska so I get to feel all smart knowing questions about my state no one else does.


Any guess on what the question is?

After Jeopardy we switch to Cash Cab for the clean up, but it's more of a noise thing at that point. I'll occasionally listen in and provide an answer here or there but I'm just as likely to be at my computer going over the pictures I took today or perusing the internets.

The final daily show is The Simpsons. Recently our local affiliate has started playing the old old ones (we're talking 2nd and 3rd season) and it's a great flash back to days of preparing for spelling tests while watching The Simpsons (I remember it used to be new on Thursdays and my test was always on Friday). Can you believe that there are Freshmen in college who were born after The Simpsons premiered? Makes you feel really old doesn't it?

So by 6:30 we shut our TV off and move onto something else. (The only once a week new show we really follow is anything with Gordon Ramsay. It was mostly thanks to catching his original Kitchen Nightmares on the BBC but even though the new Fox version pales in comparison there are still some good moments.)

It's weird to admit to this, as people seem to either view giving TV up as some hard won accomplishment (it wasn't) or they think you're a strange anti-technology or pop culture freak (okay that may be true). Not watching TV came slowly, beginning in college as I was just too busy (and my best friend could not be ignored, even now) and was also the height of Reality TV time and I could not have cared less. Then the less you watch the less you hear about some new show you have to catch so it becomes an exponential spiral of more free time.

That isn't to say we don't still "veg" out. We covet our Netflix subscription and have actually been getting more old British TV shows as of late than movies. We also play the hell out of our PS3 and PS2 (we're revisiting Lego Batman right now, Scarecrow is my favorite in the game with his cute little hat).

I am sure that our TV habits will change as our life does (kids and all, plants really don't seem to care if the TV is on or not) but for right now it just fits for us. We're not some hard willed Hercules that fought off the brain sucking that is television nor do we only sit by candle light reading one of three pope approved books.

Okay now I best get back to that barn raising, I hear Ishmal is going to get DSL hooked up later.

9 comments:

Leslie said...

I can't possibly demand any attention...I think sims probably played a role in college too. We did do that quite a bit.

Chesney said...

You make a good point, if you don't watch tv much, you don't know what you are missing! :) I hardly ever watched tv pre kids, then once the kids came it was over, now when no one is home I am getting back to that no tv and enjoying reading a book or two - it is amazing what time is there when you skip a show or two! Interesting thought...

Lindsey said...

You are so right...I didn't know what I was missing all these years and now I am ADDICTED to so many shows right now!!

Anonymous said...

I used to not watch a lot of television. Then I got married and my husband watches a lot of television. Then I also got really sick and got hooked to watching Law and Order SVU. I really do want to watch less TV because I find that I'm a lot grumpier the more TV I watch. Go figure that I grew up with peasant vision (ie. the 4-5 channels that rabbit ears would bring it), so there was never anything good to watch.

Linda said...

We have DVR (like Tivo) so we rarely just watch tv. We have shows we watch usually DVRed like Lost, Life, and BSG.
We also enjoy the digital music channels.
I grew up watching Jeopardy. And my dad loves Cash Cab!

jennifer said...

Us too. We watch Monday night tv and Thursday night tv with only a few sporting events in between. On both Monday & tHursday our tv viewing is over by 9pm and we are off to playing a board game, reading, a bit wii playing whatever. And the other nights- we (dare I say it) talk!
We have no cable, and I haven't for 8 years now and I love it!

Leslie said...

I wish our TV would just disappear most times. My son (age 4) watches entirely too much, but even the days when I say no tv for him, Dad still is watching so he ends up watching too. It's a losing battle at my house. I envy you for not watching TV, though I'm addicted to SVU too as well as 24.

valerie said...

Growing up, I was never allowed to watch TV. I never watched movies either. Brett is the exact opposite because he had an entirely different growing up experience. I try to avoid TV mostly because I don't find it entertaining, but for the love of all things great and small, I cannot get over my addiction to the internet.

I obsessively research everything that comes to my mind though. That's how I justify being addicted to the internet.

TV... I can live without.

Jenna said...

I've been thinking about writing a post about how we have no TV and how sad it is that so many Americans are in a panic because they can't get the digital tuners in time because What would they do without TV? but that post will probably just annoy everyone except you so I might not write it.