So this morning I finally began Five Little Pigs, the 24th Hercule Poirot, by Agatha Christie, with only two days left on loan as an e-book from the Free Library of Philadelphia. I think I’ll probably have it finished by … Continue reading
Tag Archives: television
When I’m sick, the last thing I feel like doing is reading
When I’m sick, I always think I’m going to catch up on my reading. “This will be the perfect time to read that book I’ve been meaning to read, but haven’t yet,” I tell myself. So with that in mind, … Continue reading
Pete and Repeat were sitting on a wall. Pete fell off. Who was left?
Don’t worry this isn’t going to be a repeat. However, I have been thinking about repeats the last few days. Maybe it’s because I’m rereading A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin. Or maybe it’s because I’m rewatching the … Continue reading
This Is Your Brain On TV
“Brain Fog? Anxious? Moody?
Is Your Brain Undernourished?”
All I could do at 3:30 a.m. this morning as I was volunteering at a hospice where I had been up most of the night was nod, “Yes” to the television asking me the questions on the bottom of the screen.
The solution, the TV then spoketh unto me, was this new drug, which I won’t name because it gets enough shilling as it is and they pay to shill it on TV and not on my blog. It was developed by a board certified neurosurgeon, the TV continued to quoth.
A mother of 5 boys and a first grade teacher said of the product: “It really helped me maintain a high level of energy.” She mentioned her husband is an attorney (code: attorney for said product).
The neurosurgeon interviewed by a female talking head hinted at it helping with Alzheimer’s. Then the talking head asked if it might help women who had menopause, who might be on “an emotional rollercoaster.” “Yes, that too, Mary.”
Maybe it could help the minister, who was sitting at the desk with Bible open in front of him who said the following:
“God doesn’t need us to fight wars. He can fight his own wars.”
“He can stir up a tsunami any time he wants…”
Need someone to blame for the problems in our world? Blame God. Mother Nature? Gaia? Mother Earth? Pshaw. I don’t think so.
Speaking of Mother Earth, become a Green Millionaire.
The male talking head said he will provide you with a directory of sites where you can save thousands a year.
“I thought you had to be a millionaire to grow green, but I learned through this program that you can become a multimillionaire after going green!” said one woman.
“But wait, do you like breasts?At Girls Gone Wild [you can find the links yourself, you perverts], we’ve seen millions of breasts…and now we pick out the Top 50 breasts ever.”
“I hope they’re in pairs,” The Wife says this morning after I tell her about that.
“Feel more attractive, successful, vibrant, energetic…”
The answer this time is white teeth. “I used to have coffee stains and never walk out of my house,” said the man with the smile that reminded me of the onset of what happened before the Joker’s laughing gas twisted the faces of his victims into that permanent smile. “Now that I have white teeth, I walk to the mailbox and back. Hot diggity damn.”
“Free money. Only $29.95.”
I flip the channel to the news scrolls and they’re not much better. “Tiger Woods to pay $164 fine…” Wife: “He probably has that in the cupholder in his car.”
“Robert Pattison on fame: ‘I’m pretty much exactly the same.’”
Once a douche bag, always a douche bag.
“Wake me up when it’s broke
But only if it’s broken”
Oh, yeah, it’s definitely broken.
Don’t believe me. Watch:
My brain is in a state of famine. Hand me one of those pills, Doc.
TV-Turnoff Week 2008 April 21-27 2008
This week’s version of Movie Monday has been preempted for In TV-Turnoff Week 2008.
Through my SparkPeople page, I found a link to this site: http://tinyurl.com/3jbdf3, the Center for Screen Time Awareness, which is hosting this year’s TV-Turnoff Week, which begins today and lasts through Sunday. For my wife and me, it’s not that difficult since we already ditched our DirectTV at least six months ago and we don’t have cable TV either. The only things we watch on our TV are DVDs from NetFlix or our local library, which is even better since it costs us nothing, but this week in honor of TV-Turnoff Week 2008, we also are not watching any DVDs.
We decided this even though I already had picked up a couple of DVDs from the library that we haven’t watched yet, but they’ll be there later, and we have a couple of movies from NetFlix, but since there’s no rush in getting them back, they’ll be there later too.
The interesting thing, of course, is that the group, Center for Screen-Time Awareness, began as TV-Turnoff Network and TV-Free America, but changed its name to reflect other media, including computers. So while I’m down with the group on turning off the TV, I’m not so much with them, at least today, on turning off the computer for the week. That said, I have given myself a “Computer-Free Day” each week on Wednesdays, during which I mostly read. As the weather is getting nicer here in the Northeast of the U.S., I also will be heading out to the trails for some runs on Wednesdays.
For me, giving up the computer on Wednesdays isn’t a matter of pride (like “Woo, look at me, I’m giving up the computer for a day!”) as much as it is a necessity, because often I’m writing stories for a newspaper for which I work part-time or blogging or networking via Facebook or SparkPeople or Vox or et cetera on other days and just need that down-time. I need both the mental and physical (eyestrain and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome) break.
I’ve also learned to limit my time on the computer, even though my wife may not believe this. 
(Emoticons are another indicator of how little our society knows how to convey its emotions verbally; instead we put up a silly smiley face, instead of allowing the reader to cue in on sarcasm and hence satire of the writer, but that’s a subject for another time.) I check e-mail and blog mostly in the morning, but then try to get out of the house to do other things as the day goes on. Yes, later in the day — usually when the missus is home — I do check back in and try “to connect” with some folks via e-mail and blogs.
If nothing else, maybe TV-Turnoff Week will make me aware of how much I watch movies and TV shows on DVDs, and use the computer. I think it is good for all of us to see how much time we are spending doing anything. To what are we devoting our lives? Be it in our work, in our daily interaction with other people — either face-to-face or online. As adults, we might not be like our children spending hours on violent video games, although then again some of us might be, but might we be be addicted to Solitaire or something else seemingly benign (Facebook? Instant Messaging? E-mail? dare I say it…blogging?)? Time is ticking away. What am I, what are you doing with it?
Posted in Mind
Tagged Center for Screen-Time Awareness, computer, television, TV, TV-Turnoff Week
