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sarahbhb

sarahbhb

Happy Anniversary babe! Now, pack up!
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Feb 20, 2011
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So for the past 4 years or so we've lived without cable. We had Tivo, Netflix and over the air broadcasts (from two pretty major markets), and for the last year or so Hulu+...well with Football season starting up DH decided he wasn't going to go through a 5th year without ESPN (and we also have very crappy CBS reception here as well), so he signed up for cable tv yesterday. Today I found myself tuning into The Food Network and 2 hours later shaking my head at how it sucked me in.

My favorite thing about not having cable tv was that everything I watched was with purpose...not just flipping through the channels to see what's on. I love the food network and HGTV and could seriously while away a whole day doing nothing but watching those two stations...I really really hope I don't fall into old tv watching habits.

So how do you deal with stuff like this? Do you find yourself getting sucked into tv not realizing how long you've been watching. I think I need to allow myself to only watch a show if I've predetermined it's something I want to watch (and use my Tivo to record it beforehand) and not just because it's on...and then I need to turn the tv off when it's over. Just need the willpower..rofl.
 
We are in the same boat!
We didn't have cable for about 6 years or so. We used Netflix for a while but eventually stopped even that. We had a digital antenna and got most of the major channels and dealt with lots of glitches but could see most of our favorite shows. I also got a lot of DVD's from the library.

Now we have DVR, HD tv, and I don't KNOW how many channels... I flip through the guide all the time. It's been very overwhelming. I use the TV guide listings a lot to see what's on to prevent the flipping. Scott, my hubby, has all the football games and that's awesome too.
 
We are complete tv junkies here. It's ridiculous the amount of tv we watch and the amount of time we spend flipping channels.
So I am absolutely no help.
 
We have satellite tv but with the exception of college football in the fall I could totally live with the rest of my life without tv. There is usually nothing but garbage on these days so it was easy for me to give it up. Scrapbooking helped cut my tv time too.
 
So far all I've sat down and watched today was the Arkansas State/Nebraska game. I would have considered it a complete waste of time except that I almost finished the scarf I've been working on..lol.

It was exciting to watch my little nobody knows who they are school play on the big screen vs. the computer monitor though.

The rest of my day I've spent scrapping..so that's good. :)

I should probably go clean something at some point.
 
gracielou said:
We have satellite tv but with the exception of college football in the fall I could totally live with the rest of my life without tv. There is usually nothing but garbage on these days so it was easy for me to give it up. Scrapbooking helped cut my tv time too.
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My biggest issue is the food network...I can sit down to watch one program..and then get sucked into the next one, and then the next one after that. I like food a little too much..and having an entire station dedicated to something i love has always been a problem for me..lol. Too easy to just keep watching. The bonus is that while i love cooking shows, I'm not a fan of the reality type shows that food network seems to show in the evening so it's just daytime viewing that's an issue (especially in the afternoon after DD's school work is done and I don't really want to do anything else).
 
I don't ever watch anything I haven't Tivo'd or purposely planned to watch, and we've had Directv forever! My dh has the football and baseball packages though, so there is usually a LOT of sports on at our house!
 
Since we first got DVR about 5 1/2 years ago, I detest watching anything that requires me to sit through commercials. So, that is how I deal with it--only watch recorded stuff. And I really like to 'watch' tv while I scrap/edit pictures, so I am usually multi tasking. :) or that is how I justify it to myself.
 
I'm with you Becky....if I do watch a show on real time (usually a news show), I have to pause it to build up time. I refuse to sit through commercials!
 
4noisyboys said:
I'm with you Becky....if I do watch a show on real time (usually a news show), I have to pause it to build up time. I refuse to sit through commercials!
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That is what I do too!! i figure if I can pause it for 15 minutes and do something else, then I can usually watch it through until the end.
 
Honestly, it's a temporary thing. Kind of like how Pinterest sucked up every minute of my life for the first two weeks I was on it. When we went from no cable to cable after being married for 4 years (and on top of that, my parents haven't had tv at ALL since I was 10!!), I felt the same way. SO much to see, all day long! But the novelty does wear off. I generally don't watch tv at all during the day - we'll have it on from 7 pm until we go to bed (except weekends because heaven forbid we miss a second of sports).
 
i just embrace it..i work in television, so watching tv is my job..although i often multitask and do other things while watching tv so it's not so bad!
 
We used to have all the channels, including all of the premium channels, it was crazy and then I decided I was so tired of spending as much as we did to get all of these things, plus the tv seemed to be on 20 hours a day..lol...drove me nuts. Those are the main reasons we gave it up....So far other than my lapse on Friday with the Food Network all I've watched is one football game and an episode of The Voice last night (which we did pause so we could fast forward through a good bit of the commercials). I know a football game was on when DD and I got back from scouts this afternoon and DH was in the other room on his computer...I think that's what drives me the most nuts..is when it's on and making noise and nobody is actually watching it...at least with the Roku and Netflix or Hulu+ when a show is done it goes to a screensaver and doesn't make any noise.
 
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