You See Dry Bones

You Watched How Much TV?

Here comes my TV / internet / video game confession.

In case you have missed it, are all the posts on why I am logging my electronic entertainment from the last week: All the TV posts (2 of them) you need to read.

Here is my log:

Wow. 18 hours and 45 minutes of TV/internet.

My Goal this week:

I am going to cut this down to about 9 hours and 15 minutes. All the while I will be doing something to better my local society or the world as a whole.

I am somewhat surprised by the number. To be fair and transparent; I did not include times I was surfing the web and working at the same time. It happens a lot as an IT guy because you often have to play the waiting game (waiting for people on hold, computer processes, etc) . I also did not include the workout video (about 25 minutes) in my totals.

So, how did you do?

-Don-

TV or Not TV

That is the question.

Last week we kicked around the idea of a challenge regarding our TV / Video Game / Web Surfing habits. Most of us agreed we are probably more saturated by media than we should be. We started to wonder what we could be doing or “what we could be” if we had a better handle on our TV / Video Game / Web Habits.

MGEO brought up a proposal for all who read that day. Here was his idea organized into nice neat bullet points:

• Starting October 5th (TODAY) and going through October 11th, keep a log of how much TV / Video Game / Web Surfing you do that is non-work related.
• Report your findings on October 12th (next Monday) and come up with some ideas on how that time may have been better spent. These ideas should be ” ..both viable and equally enjoyable. They should also benefit either another individual or the community at large.”
• Between the 12th and 19th of October, participate in the above ideas / events instead of TV / Video Game / Web Surfing
• See if you can cut your TV / Video Game / Web Surfing time in half.

This week is easy, just be yourself.

All you have to do is keep a log. Get a cheap .80 cent notebook from Target and make some columns stating the amount of time you spent in front of a TV or computer.  If you are more tech savvy, make a spreadsheet or Word document.

One word of Internet warning.

There is going to be no shaming anyone for their habits. If you find someone has spent what appears to be an inordinate amount of time entertaining themselves, keep it to yourself. Any remarks of admonishment will not be tolerated. The purpose of this is for people to get their own clues.  I am sure we do not need others to point this one out to us.

Got it?

Let us begin.

-Don-

TV Proposal

Commenter (and friend) MGEO started something yesterday.

I wrote about time management and entertainment. In a nutshell; how often do we waste time being entertained when we could be accomplishing something else in our lives?  The comments exploded with a great conversation (and I now know I am one of the few who do not watch scrubs).

MGEO brought forth a unique proposal / challenge which I am supporting. Here it is:

My proposal:
How about starting Monday, Oct 5th:
Every time you are either online (non work related), playing video games (added via suggestion from wife -don) or watching television you are to log the time spent (I know Don was also including reading for enjoyment, but as an academic I have difficulty justifying this as all reading is beneficial in some way to the individual), On Monday the 12th we report back here with our totals and our individual assessment of how that time could be better spent. The other options should be both viable and equally enjoyable. They should also benefit either another individual or the community at large. The challenge culminates during the week of the 12th through the 19th with us actually doing some of the alternatives we came up with INSTEAD of watching TV/surfing the web. The goal being to cut our TV/ online time in half while doing a little good in the world (besides the reduced greenhouse emissions from not using as much electricity).

I like it. Of course, I am always up to a good challenge. Here is what I am going to (try and) do. I am going to load a sign up page and let people “register” for the challenge. This way you can participate in some kind of tangible sign up procedure (I find this helps accountability). I will also feature willing participants stories and encourage more comments.

Sound good?  Let me know if you have any other ideas on ways to help make this exciting and fun. Stay tuned for more info on this as I get the page set up.

Until then, I leave you this quote from Groucho Marx:

I find television very educational. Every time someone turns it on, I go in the other room and read a book.

-Don- (and in a way, MGEO)