For six months now, I've lived without TV.  When I moved to the apartment in Kosice, I simply never bothered to subscribe to cable or satellite.  TV had been a decreasingly important aspect of My life for a few years now, aside from programs like NOW! Bill Moyers or The Daily Show, so when it was clear that only a handful of crappy channels in Slovak and Czech were available, the decision was kind of a no-brainer.

Of course the obvious effect is that I read more, listen to much more music, and occasionally watch a good film.  But the difference is that those things are selected by me to meet my needs, not beamed at me to meet the needs of corporations.

So a few things happened post-TV.  Firstly, I lost weight.  It isn't that I needed to lose weight, really, but I'm now in my ideal form.  While I haven't been dieting at all, it seems that when one leads a more interactive life, one doesn't sit around bored wondering what to eat next.  Also, I stopped shopping as a hobby almost completely.  It is also interesting that my wife and I are having a lot more, and far better, sex.  I remember, back in Seattle, after a few hours watching TV...feeling slightly insulted and offended by the low-brow tone of everything...it just wasn't much of a turn-on and it just made me grumpy and in no mood for sex.  These days, many times a week we'll light candles, turn on some sexy music like Gotan Project, Portishead, Wolfsheim, or Nouvelle Vague...we'll sip some wine, and then fuck into the middle of the night ;)

When we detach our lives from the artificially constructed notion of reality beamed at us through the airwaves and cables, we begin to realize that life, at it is, is fascinating.  Without TV, one begins to take part in the drama and beauty of life.  One begins to actively participate.   One's mind is clear to observe the beauty and pleasure, as well as the absurdities, disappointments, and pain, of real life.  Without TV, life happens every day and a month's worth of experiences happen in a week.

Just turn it off.  You weren't really enjoying it anyway.