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The new house is coming along nicely. There's still a pile of stuff to move in, but it's non-essential stuff - the rest of the books and CDs, some more shelving, kitchen stuff and the rest of the clothes. I'm getting the hang of lighting fires again. The wireless network is starting to work (that's down to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
olethros, though). The kitchen floor is cold in the morning, particularly on bare feet, but I'm learning to deal with that. And then there's this television thing.
As many of ye know, I was brought up without a television, for the most part, andinannajones and I have spent the last four years or more without one. So it's this exotic thing for me, and I sometimes get hypnotised by the moving images.
I sat down on Sunday evening, I think, to watch an episode of Enterprise on Sky One. It was the one where T'Pol is recounting the real first contact thing, and while it was quite dreadful (there's a reason the fifties are in the past - leave them there!), it was dealable with. But just as I'd settled down to watch it, there's this break for ads. And it went on, and on, and on, and all the ads were inane, and evidently aimed at people with not much more than animal consciousness and a credit card. Eventually, the program came back on, and just as I was picking up the thread of the story again, boom, more ads.
I'm told Sky is really bad for ads. But if I want to watch something, I want to watch that and not ads. We're paying a subscription to the cable company for this; I can only assume that some of that money goes to Sky, so presumably they don't need the ad time to be heading for equal to the program time.
I've since seen two more episodes of Enterprise (still not impressed) and a few news broadcasts. But so far I'm not enamoured. I don't see why people like this medium; the signal to noise ratio is much worse than many mailing lists.
olethros, though). The kitchen floor is cold in the morning, particularly on bare feet, but I'm learning to deal with that. And then there's this television thing.As many of ye know, I was brought up without a television, for the most part, and
inannajones and I have spent the last four years or more without one. So it's this exotic thing for me, and I sometimes get hypnotised by the moving images. I sat down on Sunday evening, I think, to watch an episode of Enterprise on Sky One. It was the one where T'Pol is recounting the real first contact thing, and while it was quite dreadful (there's a reason the fifties are in the past - leave them there!), it was dealable with. But just as I'd settled down to watch it, there's this break for ads. And it went on, and on, and on, and all the ads were inane, and evidently aimed at people with not much more than animal consciousness and a credit card. Eventually, the program came back on, and just as I was picking up the thread of the story again, boom, more ads.
I'm told Sky is really bad for ads. But if I want to watch something, I want to watch that and not ads. We're paying a subscription to the cable company for this; I can only assume that some of that money goes to Sky, so presumably they don't need the ad time to be heading for equal to the program time.
I've since seen two more episodes of Enterprise (still not impressed) and a few news broadcasts. But so far I'm not enamoured. I don't see why people like this medium; the signal to noise ratio is much worse than many mailing lists.
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This is, quite frankly, evil. It's also why these days I tend to only watch series' on BBC (ah, sweet lack of ads, Red Cap is one hour long and it's all good) or things where I'm in the company of others so we can mute during the ads and chat about stuff.
There is a hell of a lot of "noise" on TV, but there is some quite terribly good "signal" in there as well. The trick is to buy the Irish Times on a Saturday and use the helpful TV Guide to avoid all the noise. VCRs are also useful for obvious reasons.
Television is a wonderful medium, but in moderation, and you have to pick your spots, like any other medium really. Funny that. :)
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On TV
Besides, being exposed to things you wouldn't necessarily go out of your way to encounter is educational. Unless it is TV3 in the afternoons, coz that's never good:) But otherwise, Channel4 documentaries, Discovery Channel history nights, Scrapheap Challenge, Scrubs, Nigella's cookery programmes are good TV fodder:)
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So it's this exotic thing for me, and I sometimes get hypnotised by the moving images.
Happens to me whenever I am in the room with a turned on TV. I put it down to lack of resistence build-up in the tender years.
Never had a TV in the home growing up, and by now I certainly don't want it.
Shallow perhaps, but it would be a big timesink for me.
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Lor
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As for signal to noise, for the most part I have mastered that button on the remote the lets me flick between two channels, and also have an eerie internal timer that lasts three minutes, so I usually half-watch another show as well. If it really bothers you, you can always do something else at the same time. My mother thinks watching telly is a total waste of time, so always does ironing simultaneously. I'll sew, or in my prime Buffy watching years I had a nail painting ritual which worked out perfectly because I'd do a coat in each ad break. :)
God, that was long.
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