ornoth

Now let me make sure I understand this properly.

You pay over $1500 a year to have a cord strung between your house and a huge advertising company. Which connects to a huge, expensive electronic display that you paid hundreds of dollars for.

You spend all your free time passively staring at this device while it beams messages at you.

Messages which you admittedly know are designed to control your behavior, written by people whose entire careers are devoted to mastering how to subconsciously influence you for the benefit of huge mega-corporations.

And you have organized your entire living space around this device, so that is the focus of your attention and the center of your life.

You have become so fully brainwashed by this device that you are compelled to devote more of your precious free time sharing the messages it delivers on social media sites, using yet another expensive electronic device you purchased.

Social media sites which are beaming tons more advertiser messages at you, all carefully custom tailored specifically to appeal to you, because you’ve given them all kinds of personal information that you somehow still think is private.

The messages from your television and computer are also one of the only topics of conversation you feel comfortable talking about with other people. You choose to create bonds of friendship with people who have been exposed to the same messages, and exert social pressure to conform on those who have not.

And you think I’m crazy for not having a television?!?

Let’s meme a meme.

Time?: 14:06 EST
Can you fill this out without lying?: I try my best to never lie, so lying would be more difficult for me than being truthful.
What was the last thing you put in your mouth?: A homemade chicken quesadilla, followed by two 400 IU Vitamin D-3, washed down with 3 cups of Langers Berry Punch fruit juice cut 1:1 with water.
Have you ever kissed anyone named Scott?: Not that I recall.
Where was your profile picture taken?: On Rock Harbor Road going through the salt marsh in Orleans, Massachusetts during the 2010 Pan-Mass Challenge. Approximately (41.797871, -69.99278).
Can you play guitar hero?: I have never tried.
Name someone that made you laugh today?: Probably Inna.
How late did you stay up last night and why?: I went to bed early last night, shortly after 10pm, because I've underslept the past several days and can only make that deficit up on the front side.
If you could move somewhere else, would you?: I would retain my current residence, but I would also maintain a summer home on Cape Cod and a winter residence in the Caribbean.
Ever been kissed under fireworks?: Probably. Ailsa and Inna are the most likely culprits.
Which of your friends lives closest to you?: Probably Roopa.
Do you believe ex's can be friends?: I am friendly with nearly all of my exes, and it's highly probable that they would be friendly to one another, as well.
How do you feel about Dr Pepper?: Like any soft drink, it's terribly unhealthy for you.
When was the last time you cried really hard?: I don't recall.
Where are you right now?: Home, at desk.
Who took your profile picture?: An official Pan-Mass Challenge event photographer.
Who was the last person you took a picture of?: Aside from my cat Grady, I shot someone's handbag; I think it was Kaela's. And before that, someone's feet; that might have been Zeenat. And before that, Ranjeev.
Was yesterday better than today?: Today's pretty good, but it would be difficult to beat the day I had yesterday, which featured a major life development.
Can you live a day without TV?: I have lived over 16 years without a television. I'll go out to a pub to watch the NBA playoffs if the Celtics are in contention, but that's about it.
Are you upset about anything?: Being upset is an indicator of emotional immaturity and denial of responsibility for one's internal state.
Do you think relationships are ever really worth it?: They probably are, but I tend to prefer relationships which are easygoing and undemanding. Most relationships aren’t worth a lot of drama.
Are you a bad influence?: I wouldn't be the right person to ask.
Night out or night in?: Usually in. Out can be fun, with the right small group of people.
What items could you not go without during the day?: There aren't any particular items that I require every day.
Who was the last person you visited in the hospital?: Possibly Inna or maybe an uncle.
What does the last text message in your inbox say?: "up?????"
How do you feel about your life right now?: Generally quite satisfied at the strategic level, although the aging process is a bit of a challenge. At the tactical level, there's some tension, as I'm in the middle of a transition period.
Do you hate anyone?: I try not to.
If we were to look in your facebook inbox, what would we find?: Messages from recruiters. Spam. Anke's recipe for aloo mutter. A thank-you note.
Say you were given a drug test right now, would you pass?: Drug have never been part of my life, and I haven't touched alcohol in three years.
Ever been arrested?: No.
Has anyone ever called you perfect before?: Many times. I do my best to live up to that expectation.
What song is stuck in your head?: None. I've taken to avoiding music recently for precisely that reason. Although I did recently receive a pointer to Madness' "Night Boat to Cairo" video, and Madness is one of my two worst bands in the world for earworms (the other being Bim Skala Bim).
Someone knocks on your window at 2am, who do you want it to be?: Ed McMahon, with a very large check.
Wanna have grandkids before you’re 50?: Not in ten thousand years.
Name something you have to do tomorrow?: Test my bike out by doing a workout on the indoor trainer, since I just lowered my handlebars. Bring my bike down to the LBS for its five-year overhaul. Reserve a car for a Foxwoods trip. Register for the Old Ironsides 4th of July turnaround cruise lottery. Let the maintenance staff into the condo to test the fire alarms. Run the monthly backup and defrag jobs on my laptop.
Do you think too much or too little?: I find it unlikely that you'll be able to convince me that there is such a thing as too much thought.
Do you smile a lot?: A whole lot more than I used to, that's for sure.
Who was your last missed call on your Mobile phone?: Inna.
Is there something you always wear?: During the summer, I usually wear sandals, and I'm always wearing my cycling sandals while riding. I also usually wear my PMC wristband during the summer.
What were you doing 30 minutes ago?: Flipping the stem on my bike's handlebars, in order to lower them.
Did you have an exciting last weekend?: Not bad. Dhamma book club was good, and hanging out with Jay was good, too, although I probably shouldn't have eaten that entire calzone.
Have you ever crawled through a window?: Numerous times.
Have you ever dyed your hair?: Blue, red, blond.
Are you wearing a necklace?: No.
Are you an emotional person?: What are these emotions you speak of?
What's something that can always make you feel better?: Bike, ice cream, sunbeams, kitteh, money.
Will this weekend be a good one?: Probably. Dinner with Carla, and my Kalyana Mitta group, at minimum.
What do you want right now?: Wanting is a self-destructive behavior. The less wanting you do, the more satisfied you will find yourself.
Have you ever worn the opposite sex's clothing?: Of course.
Have you ever worked in a food place?: Several.
Does anyone know your facebook password?: No. Even *I* don't know my F*c*book password, as all my passwords are maintained by a password safe, and you have to go to special lengths to view them. And even if I did see it, it's unlikely I'd remember it, since it's a meaningless random string of several dozen characters and symbols.

A couple days ago, I was walking down the street I overheard two girls talking behind me. I couldn’t help but eavesdrop, since we were walking in the same direction at the same pace.

One of the girls had just started a new relationship, and the other girl was asking about the guy, and the first question out of her mouth was “What television shows does he watch?”

Now, that freaked me out a bit. Like, are entertainment preferences really the yardstick that people use to measure someone’s character? Maybe I was just feeling sensitive after a meditation session, but I was struck by how pathetically shallow our society has become.

But they weren’t done yet. The other girl listed off his favorite shows and said that she didn’t like them. The only one I recognized was “South Park”, which—surprise!—doesn’t exactly qualify as “Television for Women”.

The inquirer then talked about how she and her beau had broken up because he liked to watch Sports Center, but she liked Gossip Girl. She was unambiguous that it was the primary reason they had gone separate ways. Wow.

The girls went on to talk about how important it was to fill the 7-10pm block of time each night with programs they wanted to see. At that point, I decided to vector off in a separate direction to avoid further deterioration of my world-view. Is this really how people live? People who think they’re deep, thoughtful individuals?

That hit me in a couple ways. First, it made me wonder what they would think of me: someone who hasn’t had a tv in 14 years, and hasn’t missed it a bit. If television is such an important part of determining how compatible two people are, I have very little hope of being some attractive lady’s “dream guy”.

But neither do I have much clue about how one might find a woman who is “deep” or “self-aware” by my definition of the word. In fact, the whole thing just makes me despair for the state of these clever apes run amok.

At the risk of self-aggrandizement, it reminds me of how the Buddha must have felt. According to the legend, after his enlightenment, people pleaded with him to impart his wisdom to them. But he demurred for several days, thinking that people would be unable to understand what he had learned. Sometimes I feel that way… Discouraged that so many people live their lives in complete unconsciousness, slaves to their habits and unexamined patterns of thought, yet at a loss for what to do about it.

The Buddha was finally convinced to teach by Brahma, the king of the gods, who said that there were people “with little dust in their eyes” who were capable of hearing his message. Like him, I have to admit that I’ve met some people who are exceptionally self-aware. They’re very few, but those people really do make all the difference in the world, and I’m very grateful for their presence in my life.

But they’re not people who base their mating habits on compatible Nielsen ratings.

The human organism has been designed with particularly good eyesight. We’re especially attuned to detect and focus on any movement in our field of vision, which was a significant evolutionary advantage for an opportunistic species that might equally find itself as predator or as prey. If something moves, we want to know about it, what it is, where it is, where it’s going, and whether it’s something to eat, run away from, or have sex with.

The counter side of that is that we’re exceptionally good at ignoring things that don’t move, because they don’t warrant our attention. In our daily lives, we don’t notice the sky, the grass, or rocks. They’re background, not foreground. It’s really hard to spend any time looking deeply at something that doesn’t move or change. Have you ever tried? We’ve even honored the phenomenon with a derogatory cliche: “about as exciting as watching paint dry”.

Media companies have known this for decades, as you can see from the ever-increasing pace of cuts and context switches. The sudden movements and changes of color capture your attention because we’re hardwired to give top priority to the most rapid movements we see. I’m sure everyone’s had the experience of eating at a restaurant or pub with someone who is constantly distracted by something on the television, even when they’re not interested in the content of the program. Or the experience of being that person!

The price of this evolutionary advantage is a very real kind of shallowness. No matter what we are doing, we are continually distracted by whatever’s moving around us. Our attention jumps from subject to subject with the rapidity of a hyperactive hummingbird.

I noticed this walking to work this morning. It was a wonderful day, and I began looking at the nature around me: granite boulders, gently swaying trees, green lawns, and a cloud-spotted blue sky. But I kept finding my eyes drawn away: to a splashing fountain in the middle of a pond; to the cars passing by; to the maintenance guy painting a fire hydrant; to the men playing golf at the course next door.

And, of course, I began to wonder.

As I looked at all those things, I was just letting my eyes dart around, never resting on any one thing for very long. I wasn’t deeply experiencing the cars or the golfers or the fountain; my eyes were just registering them and moving on. I may have seen a lot, but I didn’t see anything very deeply or with any sense of richness or connection.

So I decided to “see different”. I concentrated fully on looking at the things in my field of vision that didn’t move: the trees, those boulders, the grass, and the road beside me.

The first thing I noticed was that it was really difficult not to let my eyes dart away. We’re so used to the quick cut and context shift that our attention is always fragmented. People no longer have the ability to actually concentrate on one thing for more than a moment.

The second thing I noticed was that once I did look at the things that didn’t move, my experience of the world around me gained tremendous depth and richness. There’s more visual depth in a bare stone than there is in any fast-paced car chase scene. And a single tree has more elegance and a more complex story to tell than any feature film.

By looking at the things that don’t move, I literally began to see the world anew, with wonder and awe, and a very deep sense of being present in the moment I was living. There’s beauty all around us, even in the most decayed urban wasteland, if only we made better, conscious decisions about how to use the amazing gift of our vision.

So my challenge to you is to try it. Stop letting your eyes mindlessly jerk your attention around. Take the time to actually look at the things that aren’t moving, that have always been background but never received your full attention and appreciation.

Take a good, long look at the things that aren’t moving. See the world for what it is, not for what it is doing.

Do you watch sports? If so, which ones?: Not having a television, I generally can’t watch professional sports without making a significant effort. In fact, sports was one of the reasons why I got rid of my television back in 1994. You see, I asked myself what were the programs that I would go out of my way to watch, and there were only three (two of them sports): Jeopardy, NBA basketball, and NASCAR auto racing. Looking at it that way, I couldn’t justify spending $500 a year on cable just to watch that shit.

More recently, there have been a few times that I’ve made the effort to go somewhere to watch television, and those times, too, have been for sporting events: typically the NBA playoffs and the Tour de France. And I’ll occasionally go out to a Celtics game with friends.
What/who are your favorite sports teams and/or favorite athletes?: I don’t usually favor teams, but individuals. I have rooted for the Indiana Pacers, mostly because of future hall of famer Reggie Miller. However, I have a large number of professional cyclists whom I hope do well; that list includes local hero Tyler Hamilton, Lance Armstrong, David Millar, Francesco Casagrande, Tom Danielson, Greg LeMond, Bobby Julich, Michael Rasmussen, and many others.
Are there any sports you hate?: I don’t hate any, but there are several that I find uninteresting. That list includes just about everything not mentioned above, but at the top of my “boring” list are baseball, football, golf, hockey, college basketball, horse racing, bowling, skating, skiing, drag racing, and many others.
Have you ever been to a sports event?: Yes. Not worth getting into.
Do/did you play any sports (in school or other)? How long did you play?: For the past five years or so my primary sport has been endurance cycling (and commuting). However I have previously gone through phases of competitive running, soccer, baseball, bowling, and archery. I have also spent a lot of time doing recreational racquetball, billiards, inline skating, golf, swimming, rock climbing, skateboarding, and tons more.

Sorry, but this one’s gonna be as brief as last week’s, since I can’t answer these questions.

If your life were a movie, what would the title be?
What songs would be on the soundtrack?
Would it be a live-action film or animated? Why?
Casting: who would play you, members of your family, friends, etc?
Describe the movie preview/trailer.

Yaknow, I wouldn’t harp so much about how I don’t watch television or movies, except that people insist on bringing the topic up incessantly…

What was the last TV show you watched?: Probably game one of the NBA playoffs round one series between the Indiana Pacers and the Boston Celtics, which took place on April 19. That was the first time I’d watched any television at all this year, and I haven’t watched any since.
What was the last thing you complained about?: In telling my mother about the 2003 DargonZine Writers’ Summit, which occurred last week in Austin, I probably complained to her about my writers’ inability to function short on sleep. They started getting irritable and snappish, and it really made the tone of the Summit’s final day very tense. You’d think they’d come prepared to deal with sleep deprivation; it’s not like it’s any different from any other year, and it’s about as simple an exercise in self-control as one could imagine…
Who was the last person you complimented and what did you say?: I’ve been complimenting a lot of people in the past few days. Most recently, I told the organizers and writers who attended my DargonZine Writers’ Summit:
As with everyone else, big kujos go to our hosts, Rhonda and Pam, and also to everyone else for their energy and just plain showing up. A tremendous amount of work went into the Summit, both before and during, and a truly tremendous amount of value came out of it, thanks to each of you.
What was the last thing you threw away?: A parchment-colored Post-It Note that listed my electric (heat) bills for the months from October through March for last winter and compared them to this winter.
What was the last website (besides this one) that you visited?: I went to PayPal to make sure that I could properly instruct the two people with whom I’d shared a hotel room at the Summit on how to pay me their portions of the bill.

This week's questions are too easy.

How many TVs do you have in your home?: Zero. Been that way since 1994.
On average, how much TV do you watch in a week?: Zero. I only watch television when I am visiting someone who is so attached to it that they cannot shut it off while I'm there.
Do you feel that television is bad for young children?: That question is immaterial, because I have no intention of having children, nor do I have any intention of having a television.
What TV shows do you absolutely HAVE to watch, and if you miss them, you're heartbroken?: I have no irrational emotional attachments to fictional characters on television. Just because you have a problem, don't go projecting your social issues on the rest of us.
If you had the power to create your own television network, what would your line-up look like?: I'm sure it'd be unique. It'd actually have programs with depth, uniqueness, insight, and value, and no advertising of any form. Don't hold your breath for that one, TV fans!

Would have more to say, but I'm off for an exciting weekend starring in my own reality show!

Yesterday, as I was driving Inna to the airport, we passed a billboard for the new movie "Enough". Inna made a comment about how she'd had more than her fill of the leading actress, Jennifer Lopez, who apparently is an all-pervasive mass media star. I shrugged and told her that there were definite benefits to not being saturated by the mass media; I couldn't have named the actress for any amount of money, nor do I have any idea what she's done before "Enough" or why she's popular.

You see, I made a decision years ago to try an experiment. At the time, I was moving into Boston proper and decided to stop watching television, stop going to movies, and sell my car. That was eight years ago, and I've never had reason to reconsider.

Why? Well, let's start with the car. After I moved into town, I found that I really wasn't using it much. Then I calculated that it was costing me about $9000 a year to have, between car payments, repairs, maintenance, gas, parking, tolls, excise tax, tickets, insurance, and everything else. It just wasn't worth it. So I started buying MBTA passes, broke out the bike again, walked more, had my groceries delivered, and rented or borrowed a car for the rare times I really needed one. All in all, losing the car turned out to be a big win. I do miss it sometimes, simply for the joy of driving, but that's hardly worth $9000 a year to me.

Giving up movies wasn't a big deal, because I've never been a big moviegoer. I really only mention it because it's one of those things that people can't seem to fathom living without. But I find most movies, especially American movies, painfully formulaic and predictable, and my need for dramatic storytelling is well fulfilled by the reading I have to do for DargonZine. The way I figured it, there are better ways to spend $20 and three hours of my life. These days I do go out to see a few very carefully selected movies, but very few, and rarely anything that's "big" or mainstream.

But giving up television? That tends to shock a lot of people. Back in '94, when I looked at what I was going out of my way to watch (Jeopardy, NASCAR auto racing, and NBA basketball), I just couldn't justify spending $35 per month for cable. The final straw -- virtually the last thing I saw before pulling the plug -- was the pathetically overdramatized OJ Simpson "low-speed chase" along the highways of Los Angeles. So when I moved, I didn't bother ordering cable, and figured I'd see how long I could survive. Amazingly, my life did actually get better. I had more time for writing and DargonZine, cycling, concertgoing, work, and sleep. So it's become a permanent situation.

Often people wonder how I possibly get my news without television. Actually, I find myself far better informed about the things I care about then anyone around me, and I often "scoop" my friends with news they haven't heard yet. I get concert listings and local happenings from the Boston Phoenix, the local alternative paper. But most of my news comes from the Internet. The Boston Globe's Boston.com site is a great source for local and national news. I supplement that with My Yahoo! for local, national, NBA, financial, and technology news. I get local weather directly from the National Weather Service, rather than a dumbed-down version edited by a 7th grade dropout with a toupee and the pseudoscientific title of "Meteorologist".

But beyond that, I am able to get more detailed news about specific areas of interest that television could never provide. I get future show dates for all my favorite local and national bands. I get tons of international cycling news and remarkable photography, as well as all kinds of news about local cycling. I get to read the comic strips that I specifically want, including the bisexual, polyamorous, BDSM-oriented "Jake the Rake". I get in-depth local transportation news. Complete weekly open house listings for my neighborhood. Event calendars for local early music, classical music, art studios, and author signings and readings. Upcoming album releases. Visiting warships. Detailed user interface design and Web developer news. Tons of local news from Boston, or my original home town, high school, college, or places I'd like to visit. Live flight data so that I can pick friends up at the airport without waiting. Financial news as soon as it's released. Try getting any of that through your boob tube! But I shouldn't need to tell you about the value of the Internet as a news medium.

Instead, I'll tell you what I lost when I gave up television: saturation by the mass media. I gave up knowing (or caring) who the hell Jennifer Lopez is. I gave up being bombarded by the same old inane and intentionally-annoying commercials, repeated several thousand times per year. I gave up having to sit through the tedium of the news media's fixation on one event for months at a time (the OJ trial, the Florida election recount, the 9/11 terrorist attacks, whatever they're following this year). Apparently I didn't give up anything worth keeping, because eight years later, I still haven't called the cable company.

Well, except to hook up my cable modem, of course...

Yes, I admit that I take a reactionary pleasure in telling people that I don't watch television. I enjoy shocking people. But if that were the only benefit, it wouldn't be worth it at all. In all honesty, I'm now endlessly better informed, have become more physically active, taken a more participatory role in my community, and gotten rid of the truckloads of annoyances and pointless angst that come with television saturation. The reason why I don't watch television is because my life's immensely better without it, as was so obviously demonstrated by Inna's irritation versus my complete lack of reaction to seeing a billboard featuring Jennifer Lopez... whoever she is.

Kill your television.
It's a no-brainer.

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