Media Choices

The Wonder Years was recently added to Netflix, easily one of my favorite all time shows, I even watched 3 episodes just now.  Besides my DVD rentals, Sons of Anarchy, The Walking Dead, Star Trek, and How it's made, and that is just television, I have become overwhelmed with media I'd like to watch on Netflix alone.  This doesn't take into account a few podcasts I'd like to listen to, the internet I could likely spend far too much time on, and of course the books I hope to read, but haven't even cracked open.  All of what I just wrote has the glaring omission of video games which until about 2 years ago would have been on the top of my list of things I like to do with my free time.

Creatively I have to admit none of this does much for me, though I do find that reading does seem to assist my ability to write, watching TV while at times can give flashes of intellectual kindling, rarely if taken in large continual doses does much more than snuff your creative fire.

I don't lack time...per se.  My wife (and sometimes I as well) get the kids down early in the evening and usually are up for at least a few hours post children bed time.  This would be ideal "media" time.  Unfortunately TV has become the go to for me, and sadly it isn't even movies, they are dangerously too long and risk me falling asleep, which is really really pathetic of me.  I even find that I don't watch what I want to watch all the time because I want lighter fare that requires next to nothing to engage in, almost like the fast food of the TV world, which is sad because TV is the fast food of media choices.  Sorta like eating pork cracklings over chips, as if the chips weren't bad enough.

In the end I need a media "diet" but I keep doing the same thing over and over again, and I keep losing my motivation to do much else.

When you start working out, it is hard to begin a work out, but no matter how tired you are when you are done, you never regret actually working out.  I think my media choices need to start heading in the same direction.  I need to distill what I like to watch to it's simplest selection process, and that should put TV on the bottom for me.  Ultimately I feel like I made the wrong choice far more often than not. I can't say that I have ever said that after reading a book.  I easily feel the most fulfilled after I have written something, even if only 200 or 300 words.  I know that I have at the very least recaptured some of my writing muscles I may have lost, and if it has been a good week, I may have even built the writing muscles I hope will make me a better writer.

While I may have a week of good decisions, trash TV somehow sneaks back into my thought process of a guilty pleasure.  Reading, and even writing this now I sound like a junkie for mediocre television, but in a lot of ways I sometimes wish that the instant gratification of TV was a little harder, commercials actually have driven me to stop watching TV, because I just can't stomach them anymore.  This still doesn't stop me, I just watch on Netflix, or the internet.

I know I can't be the only one who actually regrets investing time in the mind numbing process of television watching, I'm just curious how others focus their energy, or is it just as simple as getting rid of the TV and canceling subscriptions to streaming services?

Media choices have in many ways become a source of disappointment for me, because ultimately I desire something that is as fulfilling as possible, but have turned to the  cotton candy too many times and now even chewing is perceived as too much work.  Where is a media personal trainer when you need one.



Occasionally when I am driving I get to hear Garrison Keillor do the writers almanac and his daily poem.  This is one of my favorite things to listen to. I think I am going to try my hand at a bit of poetry for my next few posts, we'll see how this all turns out.

The Empty Celebration

I drive through town an endless sea of people crawling along
Starting, stopping, rushing at 15 miles per hour

I drive through streets, neighborhoods, cities and fabricated forests
Sleeping, waking, escaping my current plight

I drive down roads, turning and waiting, continually waiting
As my truck burns gas I feel my energy slowly dissolve

I finally arrive, my commute complete and yet I feel no sense of accomplishment
Merely enduring feels like an empty celebration

Walking in my door the pitter patter of feet fill my ears
If only the other end of my journey sounded as wonderful