I never asked for this...

...Terrible scheduling of television shows.

You’re paying for a service that doesn’t let you control anything, forces you to watch things on its schedule, and to top it off, a third of what you get are ads. That’s how “basic cable” works. All I’ve got to say is that we’re getting ripped off. There are plenty of services that are completely free, where you pay to remove advertisements and get even more features. At least we’re moving away from that. With services like Netflix and Hulu, we’re only adding a few dollars to our monthly internet bill. That, and the ability to watch anything whenever you want with no advertisements, seems like a great deal. Heck, even a DVR is great for breaking free of the scheduling-menace that is television.

I used to watch TV whenever I had free time, but eventually shifted to watching everything on my computer and Xbox through Netflix. Once I started using Netflix exclusively, I realized that this was definitely a much better deal than cable television. On Netflix, I could watch 33% more of what I wanted to watch with absolutely no advertisements or commercials. This also let me watch anything I wanted to whenever I wanted to. That meant that I could pause whenever I was busy, and resume at a later date. This flexibility removes much of the problems people have with cable these days.

Television is a gigantic time vacuum. You spend hours, watching one unrelated program after another, changing channels on a whim. That’s why moderation is a good thing. Like anything else, learning when to stop will change a television addiction to using it for recreational and entertainment purposes.

As per my first blog post, I watch a lot of television. Currently, I’m watching and/or have watched:

· Doctor Who – It’s a British show that’s been airing since 1962. The show’s main character is The Doctor, who is a time-traveling humanoid alien. He travels across time and space, visiting many places in the past, present, and future in different planets and galaxies. It may seem cliched, but Doctor Who was probably the show that started the trend.

· Chuck – Chuck is a show on NBC about an “ordinary” person, Chuck Bartowski (played by Zachary Levi), who has his brain implanted with the entire CIA database. Needless to say, this leads to a lot of strange scenarios.

· White Collar – Con man Neil Caffery is captured by the FBI after years of being chased, and offers to help them solve cases using his connections, experience, and skills, in exchange for his eventual release.

· Psych – After an odd situation forces Shawn Spencer to pretend to be a psychic, he must use his actual detective skills and wit to pretend to be a psychic while solving crimes for the Santa Barbara Police Department.

· Scrubs – This show follows the antics of J.D. (John Dorian) and Christopher Turk through their experiences at Sacred Heart Hospital. With a bunch of slapstick humor and short episode times, watching Scrubs is great for relieving stress after a long day.

I watch TV for the reasons posted above. It’s for entertainment and for when I have free time, and it’s a great escape from the pressures of life.