Kill...my...tele-vision, Part 2

Today I’m cheating. It’s college football’s final regular season Saturday and I’m setting aside my TV-less experiment to watch the games.

I’ve observed each gameday this fall with religious reverence. At my old place I had a game on upstairs in my room, a game on downstairs on my roommate’s plasma, and the “live” play-by-play of the Iowa game updating on my computer. College football echoed throughout the apartment. (This was made possible, for the most part, because my old roommate always spent the weekend at his girlfriend’s place, leaving Apartment C all to me.) Even in the bathroom I could hear the commentators and keep track of the games.

Pathetic? Not to me. I love college football and don’t care what anyone else thinks.

But this football Saturday is a little different: It’s the first at my new apartment. There’s no upstairs or downstairs, no TV in my room, and my new roommate is parked on the couch in front of the only connected TV in the joint. However, despite these obstacles, I watched the Alabama-Florida game. How? On my computer via the CBS Sports website.

Like I said, despite all the shit I talk about television I watch quite a bit of it, and this week I’ve missed having the ability to turn on my Trinitron for a little mindless entertainment. Needless to say, my porous dedication is shameful and unencouraging.

But until today I’ve been a good boy. Except for seeing a few plays of the Ball State-Buffalo game last night I haven’t watch any TV. Besides my football and basketball craving, my life has been unaffected. I’ve been busy with my grad school application (which I sent today — fingers crossed) and syncing my MacBook and iMac. I’ve also been putting my room together.

So what happens when I’m done, when I have no other personal responsibilities for the time being? The yearning to buy a splitter and connect my TV will be there, as it is now, but I’ll do my best to resist.

See what I’m talking about? The draw of TV? It’s like a drug addiction you can’t shake, regardless of the circumstances or how hard you try. Television is very difficult to resist when available. I’m sucked in mainly because I’m a sports fan, but others, I assume, are drawn to TV because they have nothing better to do; watching television passes the time.

A thought just popped into my head: Perhaps I’m unfairly blaming TV because I’m such a big football and basketball fan. After all, that’s all I watch.

Tonight I told my mom about my TV-less experiment, explaining why I don’t want to get cable in my room. I don’t watch much TV, I said, but it’s been hard not being able to see football and basketball games.

“Well, now’s not the time to be living without TV,” she said.

Stay strong. Stay strong.

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