So, now that the baseball season is over and the Yankees have been denied another championship quite satisfyingly, I come to realize that I actually don’t watch that much television, now that my favorite sport is off the air for the next five months.

Growing up in the 80s in a suburban house with cable and a VCR, I would say I probably watched quite a bit of tv. I also read voraciously and wrote stories and drew pictures and ran around in the woods, but this was balanced with plenty of dedicated tv time. In fact in the evenings, I can’t really remember too many times when the tv was not on in our house.

On one night that I remember from high school, I went to my friend Jacob’s (hi jmichiko !) for dinner. It was some time around Christmas. It impressed me that his whole family sat around a table eating dinner and listening to the radio. “Prairie Home Companion” on NPR I believe it was, which funnily has not changed much in fifteen years.

In college, there was a big chunk of months where our apartment didn’t have a tv, but I was too busy going to shows and making fanzines and whatnot to care. I can’t imagine I missed much, apart from that whole Waco thing.

Anyway. Here it is, 2003, and I am trying to think of my “favorite” tv shows. On the big four networks? Hmm. I have been watching “Survivor” when I can, it’s pretty compelling this time around. Nothing else from the big four. On cable, I like “Queer Eye,” “The Daily Show,” “Reno 911,” and “Trading Spaces.” Noticing a trend? I guess they are all “unscripted” or fake unscripted tv. I also like Adult Swim on the Cartoon Network. On premium, I’m a fan of “Sex and the City,” “Six Feet Under,” and “The Sopranos.” It has to start with an “s” for me to watch, I guess. These three HBO shows are all on vacation right now.

And that is it.

I don’t watch sitcoms anymore. I don’t get into network dramas. I NEVER watch tv news. I don’t care about game shows. I don’t like most reality tv; it’s mainly “The Amazing Race” and “Survivor” for me. I’ve never watched “The Bachelor,” “The West Wing,” “The O.C.,” or “Everybody Loves Raymond.” I just don’t care.

I used to watch “Friends” and “Scrubs” and “Will and Grace” quite faithfully. But my interest has declined precipitously.

I think part of it is that I have this thing about advertising where it just makes me mad. I fight the messages that are attempting to worm into my head, I find myself rolling my eyes at almost every commercial I see. What a load of crap, I think. Yes, let’s all crush the earth with our land-raping SUVs. Yes, eating this sugar-loaded, salt-infused processed food product will make your kids stop whining — while simultaneously giving them diabetes. I see straight through this junk. I turn away from it. I hit the mute button.

I don’t think I will stop watching tv or anything. Some of it is great and entertaining. It’s just that most of it is truly garbage and I am teaching myself to break a lifelong habit of making television the default switch for an evening at home after a long day at work. Our culture has set things up this way, for us to spend five or six hours a day sitting there. Passively staring. Maybe also eating, but otherwise: doing nothing.

I don’t mean to disparage anyone else’s tv habits, not by any means. We all have our own unique television diet, we all go through binges and fasts. I’ve just been thinking about the tv I do watch lately, and how I am trying to make tv a scheduled event rather than just a non-activity to fall back on.