One week with TV

Comments

# William said on May 28, 2005 2:51 PM:

When I was a kid my Dad wouldn't let us have a TV so I never watched it growing up unless I was at a friends house.

I will watch movies in my DVD player but other than that I don't watch TV at all. When I was in Denver a few months ago on business I ran out of books one night in my hotel room and I watched some show called "Monster Garage" which wasn't to bad, then I watched a show called "Lost" that was so f#cking dumb I turned off the TV and read through the local paper instead.

In the last five years I have watched 3 episodes of "Sex In the City", 2 episodes of "Friends" and that "Monster Garage" show. I don't watch sports or anything else. So probably 5 or 6 hours of TV in the last five years.

I avoid it like the plauge. If you want to quickly lose me in any conversation talk about TV shows from anytime during my lifetime because I will have no clue what you are talking about.

# William said on May 28, 2005 3:16 PM:

Hmmmm, so you and KC are both TV Avoidant... probably no suprise as to why we all hit it off so well. I know some people that honestly live their lives in TV. I mean, they actually get upset when people lose on Survivor - and will argue with me to the death that Reality shows are 'real' in every sense.

I have one former co-worker/friend that is two years younger than me. He's never been with a girl, not even to like second base... and a lot of chicks like him but he doesn't get very far afterward. He does stuff like tape the olympics, and he'll watch every single minute of every event. I used to try to get him to go out to clubs and stuff so he could meet someone, and he couldn't hold a conversation for more than 2 minutes without talking about TV and getting really into it. One time, we went to this restaurant where this waitress worked who he really liked. I knew her pretty well and said, do me a favor and just go out on one date with him. So she was like "sure, he's cute and he seems like a nice guy". So I told him, just ask her out, I know she'll say yes. So we're eating dinner and she's dropping all kinds of hints on him. When she left ot the kitchen, he was like "I'm going to ask her out tonight.. you think she'll say yes right." She was throwing herself at him. So he's all stoked, and then realizes that it was 7:45. He freaks out and says, Come on. We had already paid the bill so he just abruptly leaves. I'm behind him saying "Jeff, you forgot something dind't you..." and he said "Yah, but this is the season end of Charmed and I forgot to set the timer on the VCR. This is but one example of this, but there was a whole crew of people Kim and I used to work with that lived and breathed TV. They would even take 1/2 days so they could have "Survivor Parties" and all sorts of lame shit like this.

When I hear people like this, and I say "Well, I don't really watch TV." they always look at me like I'm a whacko (which I am, but not b/c of TV). It's weird b/c they'll sit there and tell me how they wish they could be as productive as I am in terms of reading and learning stuff but when I say, you know, if you just read 30 minutes a day, learn one new thing about C# for instance, (Java back then), every day, you can't help but get better at what you do - and it's like I'm telling them to shoot heroin or something. That shit actually used to give me the creeps... talking about people on Survivor like they were your brother or something

Do you know anyone this hard core about TV?

# William said on May 28, 2005 6:19 PM:

No, I don't know anyone that bad.

My friends from work probably watch an hour to two hours a night but they rarely talk about what they watch. I have one friend that watches three hours a night to wind down right before she goes to sleep and I think she watches the most TV of all my friends. Josh my buddy from the Corps has his TV hooked up to a DVD player and nothing else so he can't even watch TV if he wants to, which he doesn't so it works out ok. Of all the people I know off the internet that Mia Chick that comments on my blog watches the most TV. She lives here in town and I would say she watches the most TV of anyone I know via the internet but she's no where close to what you are talking about. The type of person you are talking about is just straight creepy weird.

P.S. E-mail me your phone numbers because I have free in the continental US long-distance for the next 3 months.

# William said on May 28, 2005 10:49 PM:

I go weeks at a time without TV. Then I might hit a stretch where I watch a couple shows a night, then realize I just sent hours of my life that I'll never get back, and I'm on the 'no-TV' wagon again for a month.

# William said on May 28, 2005 11:09 PM:

Scott - that's great to hear... another guy I truly admire with a habit that feel pretty strongly about ;-)

# William said on June 1, 2005 5:38 PM:

*late*

I flip between two channels, maybe 3. Cartoon Network, G4TechTV, and Comedy Central. My friend doesn't have cable and we were thinking that if a service gave you just the channels you wanted, that'd be something we'd prefer. I don't want the news or local channels (Fox is excluded. 2 words: Family Guy) and the rest of it (MTV included) just plain sucks.

We have a PVR and the only shows I record happen to be on Adult Swim which is from 11pm to 6am on Cartoon Network. I love me some good anime and I happen to be addicted to the 30 minute shows that come on once a week on Saturday. They piss me off because by the time I'm really into it, I have to wait 7 days for the next installment. G4TechTV is good for filling time but I'd never record any of their shows, they just aren't worth it. Comedy Central has new South Park but most of the rest of their programming sucks, so I don't really watch it much.

I don't think I'm as much a TV junkie as I am an anime junkie. If I could order the season DVD *before* I see all of the season on TV then I'd just watch DVDs. Since I can't do that, I load up the PVR with shows like Family Guy, American Dad (somewhat), Inuyasha, The Venture Brothers, Full Metal Alchemist (my favorite), Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Samurai Champloo (new but damn good), and a couple more that happen to be new. Most people consider anime "grown up" cartoons but I don't mind a good children's cartoon either. I prefer them over "normal" TV shows any day of the week and that says something, though I have no clue what.

TV isn't that bad but I can see how it easily becomes a problem. Without a PVR I wouldn't watch any TV I think, or it would be kept very minimal. I'm really only interested in a few things and if push comes to shove I can get their DVD when the season ends, I just don't like waiting. Not all TV is bad and I think I'm doing reasonably okay if I can say that I'm only truly addicted to a couple of anime shows. It could be a lot worse.