Just before Halloween last I pulled the plug on my cable television. It had nothing to do with the way the Cowboy's season started, nor the way the Mariner's once more kept the rest of the division looking good, but rather a lack of willpower on my part to wean myself off the addiction. How many reruns of any one show, airing on three different channels, can a person possibly watch in a week's time? Yes it takes the joy out of channel surfing for an hour while trying to decide if another show is really what you want to watch, but it saves the battery life in the remote.
With the advent of 'new and improved' service along with the 'new and improved' price, you can subscribe to a gazillion more channels showing the exact same thing you refused to watch before, only now it's carried in multiple languages, high-def, 24-hour breaking news ad nauseum, and on-demand. And is it just me, or are the commercials becoming more frequent while the length of newer shows shortens? It's all well and good if you need a bathroom break, but come on, soon we'll need a recap before the show resumes to recall what took place. Oh, but there's Tivo, or Hulu, or a dozen other watch without commercial streaming sites available, if it were only that easy.
All that time staring at the boob-tube, waiting for the latest and greatest show, or the next Hell's Kitchen, I thought, why aren't I doing something constructive with my time? Sure, it's easy to crochet afghans during the numerous replays of a sports game, but each time a commercial came on it served as a reminder that I was only becoming proficient at spouting drug side-effects. Drowsiness, insomnia, depression, and dependence. Hmmm, maybe they are on to something?
No, I haven't gone cold turkey. I still watch the odd show here and there via Netflix, the internet, or purchase/rent DVD's, and my sports addiction is sated by game-casts, but I have discovered a little more time for other things. Experimenting more in the kitchen with new recipes and baking a few more smiles for coworkers, friends, and family. Discovering new music and artists, organizing the cave. I've also managed to drastically increase the number of books read, partially fulfilling my insatiable hunger for stories.
Maybe I've only traded one addiction for another. It's all about baby steps, as I've stated before. One addiction slightly curbed, onto the next project. If I could only get Gordon Ramsey's voice out of my head every time I burn a cookie.
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