I wonder what's on?

I love to watch television.  I know many people would likely look upon this admission with a certain amount of disdain, but I can't deny who I am.  I am a person who likes to watch the old boob tube.  Don't get me wrong, I like to do other things too.  I like to read and play my guitar.  Sometimes, I just like to watch my kids while they play.  I have many ways I like to spend my free time, including watching television.

I suppose I could soften my TV admission by saying I only watch documentaries and public television - people who look down on TV usually make an exception for public TV, like it's the lone granola bar in a snack basket mostly full of Snickers.  I could say that I only watch public TV, but that would be a lie.  The truth is I watch a variety of things, some of them very pointless.  In fact, often it's the pointlessness that I find attractive.  Sometimes watching TV is like looking out the window, I don't need something that's going to engage me for too long or require me to watch the beginning in order to know what's going on.  I just want to pop in, view the landscape and move on.

I spend most of my day working with computers and connected to the internet.  But television is the medium I grew up with.  On the farm, we had only black and white TVs.  The reception was limited to a couple channels.  Once in a while, if the weather was right, a couple of others would show up - those were always exciting times.  I've heard that ABC had quite a lineup of prime time shows in the 70s.  I missed most of it - our ABC reception was fuzzy at best.  We got our first color television after we moved to town.  I still remember when it was delivered, a Saturday morning - I think Scooby Doo was on. 

Recently, my wife brought home some DVDs of Gilligan's Island.  I used to watch Gilligan's Island on the farm after school.  Seeing it now, in full vibrant color on our large screen TV was almost like watching a new show.  In these episodes, you could tell that color was a relatively new feature.  Everything is brilliantly colored.  I suspect that we may see something similar happen with the advent of 3D TV - lots of things jumping out at us.  Perhaps some day, one of my boys will be blogging about how he suffered with only 2D TV growing up - or perhaps blogging will be passé by then.

I love technology and I love all the advances that I've seen thus far in my lifetime.  Cell phones do so many things I sometimes forget that you can also use them to call people.  I have an IPod that serves as my primary link for surfing the internet and using email.  So much power in such a small device.  It's all wonderful, but for a guy who's becoming increasingly dependent on reading glasses, television seems to be the only thing getting bigger.  It's like they're making it just for me and my aging eyes.

Yes, I do like television.  Please don't judge me too harshly.