twenty-eight days of no boob tube

one of my more generic resolutions set for 2009 was to watch less tv, and do more of anything else that is productive, active, stimulating. i knew i had a problem when i finally outwatched my 20 hour tivo over a lazy weekend in december.

quickly (on jan. 2, if you must know), i realized "cutting down" wasn't going to work with my viewing habit, just as it hadn't worked with my smoking habit. i was addicted to my tv shows, and i was going to have go cold turkey, as i had with my smoking a few years back. and in thinking about the concept of addiction, the first thing that popped into my head was sandra bullock's "28 days," which i must have watched recently on tnt. that led me to noticing that there just happens to be exactly 28 days in february. happy coincidence in a neat package. one month. four weeks. and, this year, the first of the month even falls on a sunday. neat. i decided to do it. 28 days, no tv.

i believe you can do, or, abstain from doing, anything for 28 days.

as the chosen month neared, however, my resolve started to waver. then, over the last few days, the hesitation turned to panic, which was immedately accompanied by bargaining. i remember well the bargaining that accompanied my attempts to quit smoking. i would plan to quit on a monday, and during the preceding weekend, i'd suddenly become an extra diligent smoker. i'm sure somewhere, some ph.d has conducted a study regarding such behavior; hopefully the published results prove that i'm predictably human. the thing is, with smoking, i could convince myself that after 28 days, if i want, i could always have a cigarette. the next cigarettes could (and, would) wait. smokes don't have episode numbers, or seasons. the problem i was facing with doing without tv was that 20 hours on my tivo would not provide enough space to record my 8-10 "must watch" shows i'd be missing during the 28 day. not even with my cleverly adjusting the recording preferences and priorities. not even close. the bargaining, this time, led to several possible solutions: one would be to replace my current tivo with an 80-hours model. another would be to catch up following the tv-fast by downloading the missed, unrecorded episodes from the web. i could also wait for the dvds to hit.

while struggling with my time-space dilemma, i realized that what i was about to embark on was not so much an abstention, as a promised delayed overload. in fact, i'd be best advised to keep my calendar cleared for march. my tv-fast would be followed inevitably and immediately by a tv-fest. i was planning to fail.

then the most perfectly-timed kismet thing happened last night. i left happy hour early so that i could be an extra diligent tv-watcher for the final 2 days, and clear space on my tivo (i hadn't upgraded to the 80-hour tivo). i rushed home, only to learn that my tivo had DIED, taking with it several hours of recorded programming. and, to my surprise, i was relieved.

the universe once again nudges a sprout to become a better being.

stay tuned (:

-s

ps. boob tube