se71

« Being Dead | Main | Ian McEwan - Amsterdam »

April 05, 2005

24

I watched the first series of 24 on DVD, and have to say enjoyed it quite a lot.

I started watching the second one on TV, missed one episode, then didn't like to keep going and decided I'd get the DVD of that too.

In the meantime, I had disturbing thought.

There are only 365 days in a year, and I'm about to spend a whole one of them sitting in front of a TV watching a single show.

When you look at it like that, it's a pretty big commitment. And now they've made three and four. And a computer game. Am I really happy spending almost a whole week of my life on this? I've decided no.

We all vegg out in front of the TV. Chances are I'll watch at least 2 or 3 hours TV nearly every day. It's not generally a singular activity though, it's a family thing, and gives us a shared cultural background. Thankfully I cut out soaps and sport completely about 10 years ago, as those things really do drain your time, and keep you away from what I'd call 'real' content. I tend to like films, short series, or long series like CSI and Law and Order where it doesn't matter if you miss an episode, they are all pretty much self contained.

This all leads into a much broader issue of time management. Actively choosing what you do with your time, rather than letting it just slip by. Setting up goals, and working towards them.

So if your goal is "Never miss an episode of Eastenders", and you've actively chosen that as something you'd rather do than the other myriad of options, then so be it, that's fine. However if you've just fallen into it as a habit, then perhaps it's time to stop and think about that old chestnut phrase:

On your deathbed, will you look back at your life and say "I wish I'd watched more Eastenders" :-)

Posted by se71 at April 5, 2005 10:40 AM

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://se71.org/cgi-bin/suid/~shiels/mt-tb.cgi/27

Comments

Post a comment