Okay, I meant:

30 Rock Filter

Der.

I have long lived in a tensely tolerant relationship with TV. It was tolerant because I was getting free cable - for a long time, it was free full cable, and I watched the Food Network and Bravo and stuff. Then it was changed and we only got Basic, which you can loosely define as "the fifteen suckiest channels available." The 3 networks, 2 PBSes (those were OK), Telemundo (nicknamed unmentionably in my house because of the lascivious soaps), QVC, New England Cable News (that wasn't half bad), local access, and Daystar.

Then, about 3 weeks ago, the Cable Cops came through our neighborhood. They busted my landlord, and he went down into the basement and disconnected his illegal splice.

So far, I'm really not missing it, and it's something of a relief.

Miko: it's been discussed here earlier, but good antenna + HDTV or much cheaper digital set-top box = why did I ever pay for cable?

Seriously, if you don't want to buy the new TV, shell out a few bucks for the set-top box, and you'll be pleasantly surprised.

It's cool -- I don't really want it back. It's good for me to do other stuff instead. Despite my best intentions, I was using TV as a distraction and a timesuck.

Frontline, and some other stuff. I spend more time doing other things like making sawdust or playing with the pooches, and life is good. Many folks at work think I'm crazy since I'm not media savvy anymore, but I like it. They're not savvy about Roman numismatics, dovetail joints, eclectic music, or the joys of the quiet. I have a wilder imagination now. It's funny. When I was visiting my ex, and she had all kinds of cable access, and I'd watch shows that I thought I liked before, I wondered WTF I was thinking. WHAT CRAP! TeeVee really does numb you, and your acceptance of poor quality entertainment, and ADVERTISEMENTS goes way up. Nowadays I can't follow a show with ad breaks. It's too disjointed. And shrill. etc.

Now I just post long rambling posts that are meaningless to the internet tubes. and stuff.

Wow, half my post disappeared

I suck at the internets. I guess I'll give that up as well as teevee.

I have a wilder imagination now.

You know, I was just thinking about the way TV sort of narrows your range of available thoughts, or something. There's sort of an illusion it creates -- that it depicts some sort of real world, out there somewhere, that Most People are involved in. When, in reality, it's a contrived set of rather odd and inoffensive presentations chosen for their ability to draw eyes to advertising. It's such an odd thing, how TV can seem more real than real life, it becomes this pool that seems like reality because everyone is dipping into it and talking about it at work the next day. But when you turn it off and get away from it, all this other stuff floods your mind - and you can barely remember what was even on it that ever seemed so important. I don't miss the news, (there's radio, net, and the newspaper) so I'm not less informed about current events. I don't miss what I've never seen, so I don't feel I'm losing out by not seeing a bunch of shows. And there's a lot of time to do other stuff.

It does weird things to the brain, TV.

I suck at the internets. I guess I'll give that up as well as teevee.

I've given that some thought, too. I mean, I love the internets. But recently I took a 4-day trip where I had 0 access. I was with great people, and I didn't really have time to think about it. It does enrich my life a lot. And yet, there's a degree of addiction I find creepy - like, I feel like I hafta hafta check email at least every 3-4 hours or, I dunno, I might miss something. That's kind of nutty. Since I can remember a time before our brains were like that, I think sometimes about the ease and relaxation of not having any messages to check up on or any constantly changing sites to track and read. Just relaxing within a day with no further need to be 'updated.'

I'm not a TV person ... I don't think my weekly viewing adds up to even one hour a day most of the time - probably more like four hours a week, I'd guess. This is probably mostly attributable to my family not having a television for the first eight years of my life, I'm guessing. Also, you know - Greek TV. But I didn't watch much when we were still in the U.S. with cable and a million channels and premium.

Still, this doesn't mean I'm all creative and productive, unfortunately. I definitely suffer from Internet Gluttony syndrome, and I read a lot, a lot - which is fine, but isn't creative. I need to cut my tubes time by at least half to even begin to resemble a sane person.

Damn, and here I was hoping to jabber about The Office. I think that show has shot its wad and it makes me sad. There is so much ridiculous crap that goes on at mrs chewie's place of bidness that is excellent fodder for that show. Like, some chick got "promoted" to "Practice Manager", except she actually has no title, no job description, no visible purpose whatsoever and has turned into the email and policy nazi because she has no brain, no vision, and no talent. WTF? I'm treated to daily tales of incompetence about this buffoonery that truly is going to waste.

*hugs TV*
It's OK, baby. Don't let the nerdy people make you feel bad. I love you, my sweet, sweet Television.

I am so happy 30 Rock and The Office are back. But I thought it was strange that they both came back with episodes that were really claustrophobic and dark.

I'm really not missing it

I just spent 10 weeks visiting my family out in the sticks, and TV via satellite is the only entertainment. Out of the hundreds of channels available, the only decent show was HBO's John Adams.

I'm starting to hope Jan and Michael will break up. To me, she's becoming the worst written character on the show.

After our last DVR died, I've been trying to watch less television. Now my box is just filled with old episodes of "The Woodwright's Shop"

And some reality shows

I pretty much don't watch TV, and I haven't watched non-time-shifted shows in years. We don't have cable, and the TV is basically only used for watching dvds of Buffy or Angel and playing video games.

Battlestar Galactica is my one addiction. I download it from iTunes or Amazon. After which I have sex dreams about Apollo.

Feel free to jabber on about The Office, because of course I watched both 30 Rock and The Office. (I skipped Earl and Scrubs, meh.)

There were some gems in this episode of The Office. Like when Jim and Pam leave and Jim's face with the cops are there. But the last montage with Michael in the car (I won't spoiler) made me wonder if they were losing their way a bit.