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Confessions of a Television Addict

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  • Confessions of a Television Addict

    The leading man discussion got me to thinking......how did a heavy TV addict of the 90's go to being a dry non watcher in the 21st century.

    Interestingly enough, however it happened, I don't think rational thought had much to do with it except perhaps in hindsight. I mean, there I was, feeding perhaps a six pack of tapes into my machines a week. I was taping, say, Party of Five, week after week, never really getting around to watching it, but never really stopping and asking myself if I am not watching it, why am I doing it?

    Changing show formats, changing network formats, changing channel formats probably covers a lot. Couple that with changing media formats and then it all happening in a rapid sequence and it probably became too much, too complicated, to keep up with it.

    On show formats, take Charmed or Crossing Jordan for example. In the former case, they went from being single to getting married, starting families. Well, despite that being the normal way of life (and course of a TV series), it's not for me, so the interest drops. As to the latter, the show becomes boring when the namesake character isn't in the show for a year.

    Somewhere along the line, I got tired of shows where people were just mean and bad and they got away with hurting others. Granted, in the 90's, I was hooked on nighttime soaps and it was like that....and maybe it was because in the early days of the NET, there were many of us discussing each episode, support group if you want, but at least there, some of us were questioning when Kimberly would get caught for framing Sydney (or was it Jane?) for attempted murder. Maybe, without that support group, just seeing it myself without anyone to talk to, it finally got to me. Admittedly, I have become rather critical of TV and music that says it is okay to take the law into your hands or the heck with it entirely. Or perhaps it was because of the LE research that I was doing that I finally realized the hypocrisy of it.

    Changing network formats as in good bye drama, hello reality.......NOT ON YOUR LIFE! Changing channel formats? Well, two examples. Dumbing down of educational channels like History, Discovery, A&E, and eventually Nat'l G. Sci Fi going from a familiar feeling of the college sci fi club to show anything that we have made and if you go for it, we make money. Plus, there was something else with Sci Fi. It went 'Nanny'. All its commercial sessions were telling me that each night of the week was the most important night of television and I just had to watch it. Between that and every session telling me that I had to watch Stargate, which before I just didn't like but now HATE, in my face, all the time, and I really grew not liking to tune into that channel at all.

    Then the world went from VHS to home DVR and then, those suddenly vanished. As someone who used the tuner on their VHS to watch TV, who left those cable boxes with their separate controls on the top of grandmother's TV long ago, who wouldn't get around for weeks to what was recorded, none of that was encouraging.......it didn't help, either, that my power company likes throwing the switch for a second or two and that clears out stored unit programming. Why, back in my addict days, I was considering for a while having UPS batteries around my machines.

    Of course, it wasn't just the change in TV format, either. The estimated number of VHS tapes, of TV taping, is around 2000, last time I counted. Twenty years of recording. That's a lot of storage to provide for, a lot of cataloging.

    Once upon a time, things like this

    were easy, cheap to get. They came in VHS, CD, tape cassette, and DVD versions. I was buying them frequently, mostly in the VHS versions but also the CD and cassette types. And then, suddenly, they vanished. They did reappear but at twice the price, the stock probably bought up.

    Storage for media is very fluid, both in styles and availability. Someone may have a design, perhaps where you can hook units together, but then, suddenly, they are gone, perhaps the company bought out, and the units bought before now have to mesh with what's out there. Further, what is out there now may be of poorer design than what was before. Once I could get stackable drawers for my CD/DVD's; now about the only thing is boxes which means if I want something in the bottom box, everything on top of it has to come down first.

    My cataloging system is a Borland C++ 4.5* program I wrote long ago. I think the basic thing that, in this fast paced world, it just became too much to keep up with though that is probably a mute point considering the compulsion for it, doesn't exist anymore. As such, the program, if it will work on a modern system, can be used for cataloging my DVD library.....if that is even needed, considering the power of word processors today.

    Change of TV Guides. Once upon a time, one got the guide on Saturday or Sunday, and it was loaded with detail. It told you what was on, all hours of the day, all days of the week. It gave you something about every movie.

    Then they whittled away. What was on during the day on the week day was listed on a one day, one size fits all, schedule with "various programming". Then they only listed from 6 PM to 2 AM. Then to midnight. Then only from 7 PM to 10 or 11. Then they only bothered to tell you something about movies that had more than a certain number of stars.

    And then, finally, we come to being tired of being jerked around over the years. Networks suddenly canceling shows, changing their scheduling without notice or even lying about it, the constant editing, trimming down of shows for more commercial time. I stopped watching new shows on FOX after what they did to Briscoe County and Sliders. I tried and liked Wonderfalls to see if FOX had changed but with that ax, I turned FOX off completely. NBC had bugged me since the early 90's with their anti gun agenda so they had always been on thin ice. Sci Fi giving encore presentations of Battlestar Galactica and then are the season end, they aren't there?

    Or the trimming of shows. As ER was in its final years and it went from the entrance it had to a few second blip, what a LOSS with its changing cast members. Before, each week, you were given a picture who they were, what they did. Then the show went to their blip, the cast members names listed as the show opened up, but you didn't know who was who, didn't know what they did. Probably a contributing factor to why, after Maura Tierney left, I stopped watching.....because who was left was just too weak to carry the show. It didn't help that the show was also developing in the path of you can do wrong and get away with it.

    Or compare a 50 minute show of the past with a 40-42 minute show now. The story development, running difference between the two is so clearly different, of how the longer running one is superior. Or the trimming of reruns. A snip here, a snip there, things might be seen as not contributing to the telling of the story.....but certainly do contribute to the watching of it. They take out the elements that build to the suspense of it.

    Year after years, I had finally had enough.

    So, do I want to go back? While every so often, I wonder what I am missing, I think not. I rather like not having my evenings tied to a TV screen, one way or another. That I am free to sleep or dance or whatever as I wish.

    Granted, I am vastly out of touch with the popular world, sometime to a disadvantage. I came across "Hirokin: The Last Samurai" tonight on the Spanish channel and will soon have it on order. I wonder what have I been missing, what else is out there with Julian Sands should I be checking out.

    Still, though, it is quite a thing to look back to how I was only a few short years ago and see what brought on such a change.
    Attached Files
    Last edited by Tamara; 03 Dec 13,, 11:20.

  • #2
    You forgot your aging or if you wish maturing process.

    Simply there is nothing worth your attention or that you haven't seen.

    In the past I was very faithful Discovery/NG/History channel "follower". I was making arrangements according to the show I want to watch. These days I only watch cartoons, if even those.
    No such thing as a good tax - Churchill

    To make mistakes is human. To blame someone else for your mistake, is strategic.

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by Doktor View Post
      You forgot your aging or if you wish maturing process.

      Simply there is nothing worth your attention or that you haven't seen.

      In the past I was very faithful Discovery/NG/History channel "follower". I was making arrangements according to the show I want to watch. These days I only watch cartoons, if even those.
      About aging, I don't quite think so, at least not to a great extent, for two main reasons.

      First of all, I am not turning off to what I have recorded. Today, for example, I watched a "Ray Bradbury Theater" today that was probably recorded in 1995 or 6, the picture was obscured with visual static, I had never seen it before, and I loved it. By the way, it was "The Lake". Watching it, I compared it to "Portrait of Jeannie" which I read in high school, remembered the details to this day, and I was totally into it. It's not that what I watch today is trash but rather, what is made today is trashed.

      Secondly, and admittedly this is one of my problems, I am out of my time line. I still think in my 20's, perhaps 30's. On the good side, I think young, a young with experience. On the down side, though, it makes it very hard to relate to others.

      In any event, saying that my taste of TV has changed primarily because I am 50ish is not understanding what I am.

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by Tamara View Post
        About aging, I don't quite think so, at least not to a great extent, for two main reasons.

        First of all, I am not turning off to what I have recorded. Today, for example, I watched a "Ray Bradbury Theater" today that was probably recorded in 1995 or 6, the picture was obscured with visual static, I had never seen it before, and I loved it. By the way, it was "The Lake". Watching it, I compared it to "Portrait of Jeannie" which I read in high school, remembered the details to this day, and I was totally into it. It's not that what I watch today is trash but rather, what is made today is trashed.

        Secondly, and admittedly this is one of my problems, I am out of my time line. I still think in my 20's, perhaps 30's. On the good side, I think young, a young with experience. On the down side, though, it makes it very hard to relate to others.

        In any event, saying that my taste of TV has changed primarily because I am 50ish is not understanding what I am.


        Forget aging. Ask yourself "Do you want to get smarter or get stupid" If you want to get smarter walk away from network TV which I liken to pop bubble gum music. You don't need the commercials and TV stations butchers movies. You can keep up with current events via the computer and radio and even…gasp…having conversations with real people. There are a few options for watching movies at home and even certain TV shows that does not involve the network.
        Removing a single turd from the cesspool doesn't make any difference.

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        • #5
          I seldom turn on the TV except for sports and certain movies/concerts I want to see on a big screen. My desktop, laptop, tablet, and phone all connect me to the world 24/7.
          sigpic

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by Minskaya View Post
            I seldom turn on the TV except for sports and certain movies/concerts I want to see on a big screen. My desktop, laptop, tablet, and phone all connect me to the world 24/7.
            AND
            Originally posted by bonehead View Post
            Forget aging. Ask yourself "Do you want to get smarter or get stupid" If you want to get smarter walk away from network TV which I liken to pop bubble gum music. You don't need the commercials and TV stations butchers movies. You can keep up with current events via the computer and radio and even…gasp…having conversations with real people. There are a few options for watching movies at home and even certain TV shows that does not involve the network.
            Well, the computer is really not that reliable these days when it comes to news. For example, consider, the Houston dancer incident. That link is not news; it is someone taking an incident and promoting their own agenda. A lot of the stuff out there that may be presented like it is news is rather an incident and then someone writing in their own opinion......which is not to say that the "news" is not biased.

            Add to that where a lot of this world, when they want to say note something, they present some video....and I don't watch "news" videos. I want to read it in text. If it is not in text, then it is not worth my time to have to sit through it, especially when one considers, at best, the lack of quality control people put into their productions, and at worst, the misleading applications they can make with videos.

            As far as talking to real people, well, that is perhaps a fault of my life. Working graveyard, I often call it a "Nostromo Shift", because I talk to someone at the start, I talk to someone at the end, but for hours inbetween, aside for work phone calls, it is very quiet, my voice is in hypersleep. Further, it doesn't help when one's morning boss is a conspiracy theorist with an emotional cuff.

            About radio, I wonder about that. It's great when I come across a UPI news blip, but those are few and far between. As far as news radio goes, well one must remember that they have to be putting out things to get one to keep listening....to say nothing that I am not thrilled that much by talk radio, anyhow. Got turned off from that with the various morning shows on the music stations, people coming over the airwaves who think they are funny....and they aren't. As far as the conservative stations go, might as well be talking with my morning boss. So....what stations did you have in mind?

            Still, though, news wise, I am probably better off than most.....because I occassionally link into foreign news sites, watch foreign language news.

            No, what I meant about being out of my time line is that the expected life experiences that one is suppose to have by a certain age.....I have not. Ie, at this age, being single, it is expected that I am either divorce or widowed........not never married which is what I am. Really don't want to go much into that so let me see if I can sum it up quickly. In the area of relationships, I approach it with the experience, if on the light side at that, of someone in their late 20's, early 30's, not someone in their 50's.....mentally anyhow.

            Relating that back to TV, that's rather what I was saying about Charmed. It starts off with a swinging single, she gets involved, gets married, starts raising a family.....and I still want to be in 1st season with the swinging single because that is where I am at. I am, however, not much of a swinger which may be what I see in such shows, to have that fantasy. So if we take TV and we take the aging comment, we could say that a person's tastes in TV changes because their life has moved on past that, they now have experiences past that.............and I don't.

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            • #7
              Originally posted by Tamara View Post
              Still, though, news wise, I am probably better off than most.....because I occassionally link into foreign news sites, watch foreign language news.
              I am multilingual (Russian/English/Hebrew) and do that every day. I can also converse in Arabic fairly well (but alas cannot read or write the Arabic script).
              sigpic

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              • #8
                Originally posted by Minskaya View Post
                I am multilingual (Russian/English/Hebrew) and do that every day. I can also converse in Arabic fairly well (but alas cannot read or write the Arabic script).
                Reading the good Captain on the linguistic issues he had and the ongoing convo afterwards, I'd assume that being fluent in more then 1 foreign language is great plus.
                No such thing as a good tax - Churchill

                To make mistakes is human. To blame someone else for your mistake, is strategic.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by Minskaya View Post
                  I am multilingual (Russian/English/Hebrew) and do that every day. I can also converse in Arabic fairly well (but alas cannot read or write the Arabic script).
                  My use of languages is a bit more barbaric.

                  Once upon a time in grade school, I had a year of Arabic and 3 years of French, but I can't speak more than a few words of either. I can probably read more of French, nothing of Arabic, but I still would need a dictionary and lots of time.

                  I do want to get back to being able to understand spoken French to a decent degree. One of my movies at home is in spoken French with Anglais subtitles but I have learned two things with subtitles. First of all, you are not watching the movie if you are reading them. Secondly, you may not know who is "speaking" what.

                  I do watch the Spanish news and that is in captions. If I see something interesting, for example there is something about Jenni Rivera's Learjet 25 crash from last year on now, I can figure out enough of it in CC to look it up on the net.

                  I want to get more into languages for two other reasons. First of all, I have many foreign films (and getting more each day). Secondly, acting wise, I occassionally have parts that require me to do a different language. As it is, I have just done a few words here and there, but I'd like to do more.

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                  • #10
                    Attached Files
                    No such thing as a good tax - Churchill

                    To make mistakes is human. To blame someone else for your mistake, is strategic.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Doktor View Post
                      [ATTACH=CONFIG]34539[/ATTACH]
                      Well, you know how there's that snippet for "Be like Han"?

                      I'd like to take an example from James in "You Only Live Twice" where he asks Blofield that if he has to watch television, may he at least smoke?

                      Now as it is, what he's seeing on TV is the extermination of his comrades and we know that Bond doesn't smoke just any kind of cigarette but still, to be of that quality that one doesn't watch TV......

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                      • #12
                        I watch 3 shows on TV. Dr Who on BBC America, The Walking Dead on AMC and Anger Management on FX. Other than that I may catch a movie here or there. The rest of the time its on one of the korean stations with the wife watching a miniseries or the latest in KPOP.

                        Or I'll watch a anime series on the computer. Most of the time we will just grab a few DVDs for the weekend.

                        Other than that I read more than I watch TV.

                        As for languages, English, Korean and Japanese. Can understand all three. Can read English and Korean. Some Japanese depending on the script. Call it "get around" reading. Signs, menus but don't ask me to read a book.

                        Now that I'm out of the Marine Corps I have regained my southern accent. Speaking either Japanes or Korean sounds horrible. The locals in Florida understand cause they do the same but my overseas friends and relatives have problems.

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