I've been home now 8 weeks, and in those 56 days, I think I've watched a total of half an hour of TV a day. News mostly.
I stopped watching TV when I moved to New York in August 2002. When I moved into my broom closet, este, graduate student housing, I was too poor to buy myself a new TV. The choice was a new TV set or booze for two months. You can guess how I chose.
At first having no TV seemed strange. For starters, I didn't get the news. So I started listening to public radio and have been an NPR fan since then. I discovered a whole new world with NPR and fell in love with it instantly. Recently, I went crazy happy when a friend told me about their podcasts.
To pass the time one would ordinarily use up watching TV, I would read. By the time I left New York, I had a balikbayan box of books.
And I watched movies! Lots and lots of movies. I was on Netflix and being a true Pinoy, would return discs immediately to maximize disc turn-over and reduce overall rental fees. At my peak I was going through almost a dozen movies a week.
Back home and four years later (with TV's in almost every room), I still feel no desire to watch TV. It still feels funny at times when you're at a dinner party and everyone is talking about the latest show. I smile and shrug my shoulders. "No, haven't seen that one."
So tonight I blog, read, drink Bio Fit, send SMS messages to friends, and not wonder what's on TV.
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