Just read an interesting study that takes a look at the amount of time spent doing various activities and how happy a person is. Essentially, the more time a person spends doing non-work activities, the happier they are. The one notable exception in the study was television. Though people indicate enjoying TV, those who watch more TV are less happy.

Some other researchers have found evidence that suggests that different parts of the brain fall asleep and wake up at different times. When a group of cells gets tired enough, it turns off. When enough of your brain is powered down, you fall asleep. I think we need to get these researchers together because this is *exactly* what watching television does to me.

Categories: TV, memes, work-life balance
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I have a confession to make: I didn’t watch the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. The reason? I couldn’t get TV reception.

I don’t really watch TV. Back when Kevin and I lived in apartments, we had several hundred cable TV channels, not that we ever took advantage of them. They were just included in the rent, and it wasn’t possible to opt out. Looking back, I find it strange that many of our neighbors also subscribed to several hundred more satellite TV channels, as evidenced by the telltale receivers on their balconies.

Then when we bought this house, Kevin installed a giant antenna on the roof just so I could watch one show, the Gilmore Girls, but reception was bad because of a huge hill that stands between us and Mt. Wilson, and after every windy storm Kevin had to climb on the roof to readjust it to make it point in the right direction. He hadn’t touched it since GG ended in ‘07, so when the Games began airing, we turned on the TV and got… static.

At first it was no big deal. I’m not a sports fan anyway, so I made do with Internet photos, videos, and recaps via blogs and Tweets. But I did feel a little bummed after hearing just how spectacular the opening ceremonies were. Then, after the Games, I started ruminating on how much I might be missing by opting out of synchronous TV viewing experiences…

I’ll leave the philosophy for another time. The short story is, we bought a $25 digital TV converter, and now suddenly we have over a dozen broadcast TV channels. On Friday we watched the Presidential debate, and so did a lot of other people. Next Thursday we’re going to watch the Vice Presidential debate. We don’t have TV viewing plans beyond that at this point.

Categories: TV, politics
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RIP, Estelle Getty.

Categories: TV
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For someone who doesn’t watch TV I’m sure guilty of abusing a lot of these TV catchphrases.

Tags: funny
Categories: TV
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