Television is a stupifier
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Televisionfree's LiveJournal:
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| Tuesday, April 24th, 2007 | 12:43 pm
[keithlard]
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| | Monday, February 19th, 2007 | 8:53 pm
[furzecat]
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| | Wednesday, January 24th, 2007 | 12:12 am
[kirwar4face]
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| | Saturday, January 13th, 2007 | 9:30 pm
[ginasketch]
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Hey there. I joined this comm a few days ago after someone ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.2) killtest suggested it in this post: http://community.livejournal.com/radio4listeners/45258.htmlI've been television free for about 3 years now, and find I get so much more done. I'm a student animator so I need all the time in the world, really. I don't really have anything against tv, but the level of shit shows on it has reached an all time low-I don't even have to watch it to know. Every time I open Yahoo! News Big Brother is on the front page. (Yeah. I don't care who tongued who in the what now.) Of course I love animation, but there isn't much of that on tv nowadays since Channel 4 scrapped their scheme and Claire Kitson retired. Was speaking to animator Barry Purves at college and he said he tried pitching an animation about Hitchcock to the new execs there. Their answer?: "Who is Hitchcock?" *headdesk* *facepalm* *buttslam* After animation, my favourite medium is Radio. I think I love these mediums best because they allow you to express your imagination in boundless ways. So. Here i am. Current Mood:  complacent | | Friday, January 12th, 2007 | 7:38 pm
[twistjusty] |
Why does television bother me so much now?
Admittedly, I looked on television to see why one building in the World Trade Center was on fire. And I watched "Almost Live" reruns, and the election returns on television. I have a television set, and I even watched it this week screening some "Ben Stiller Show" DVD. I have used the television set for screening DVDs and VHS cassettes. Yet seeing a television perched above the bar of my fave coffeehouse brought me down. It was as if the staff said: "Get out. You're not welcome here anymore." There's already a large-screen television set, with DVD and VCR in the back. I object to the television being front and center, rather than hidden somewhere for the television watcher to find. The coffeehouse has many assets: it supports local arts, some baristas serve great coffee, all but one of them have terrific personalities, and there are seating areas for small meetings upstairs and downstairs. It is unique among coffeehouses in my city in that I was an instant regular. I could talk motorcycles, scooters, music, or politics with the barista or with someone sharing the counter. I've given them $500 over the past year, twice my year's electricity bill. I don't want to feel disconnected, yet for the past week I have, and it's erupted into a soft pang of betrayal and mourning for something I thought existed but really didn't: a community outside my home where I could have a breve, a Merlot, or a Pterodactyl and banter, or better yet listen to people who could make my head work a whole new way. I thought there'd be enough patrons to keep my coffeehouse going well enough to not introduce a television. Now I wonder if the coffeehouse'll still be in business when my birthday comes around. It feels like a sob in my solar plexus. My question isn't so much about the cafe: it's about me. Why am I irritated by this development? I wasn't bothered when my family had a television in everybody's bedroom throughout the 1980s. My in-laws have three household members and four televisions, and I wasn't bothered the last few times I visited them. Current Mood:  curious | | Tuesday, January 9th, 2007 | 9:34 pm
[marquesate]
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Television free and Serendipity
Hooray! People without a telly. I'm not the only "freak". ;-) Found this community by a stroke of serendipity (via a completely unrelated post on another community) and have been without a nasty telly for several years. In fact, may I claim the rare joy of having in my possession a letter of apology from the TV licensing agency? Apologising for the distress they have caused because of harassing me. Twice. Every time I moved and since I'll be moving again at a date in the nearer future, I can already look forward to more harassment via letters, but not to fear, I know the trick of being more obnoxious than they are. After all, I am aiming for another letter of apology. The next time written in blood! MWWUUAAHHAAA! I have never ever missed a telly. Not once. In hotels and B&Bs, no matter in which country we usually flick through the channels for 5 minutes, groan with distress at the utter shite that's being aired, and switch off. Current Mood: amused | | Thursday, January 4th, 2007 | 7:49 pm
[furzecat]
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Almost disappointed
When we got back from shopping this morning there was an official-looking bloke with a clipboard at the front door. "Not another bloody meter-reader?" I mumbled as they seem to read the wretched things once a fortnight.
It was a man from the TV licencing (which explained the dodgy-looking camper van over the road).
"Mr Dimmock?" he said, waving his I.D. at a distance which rendered it unreadable. "I'm from the TV licencing. Have you sorted out your television licence?"
"We don't need a licence!" I growled at him.
"You don't have a television?" he piped.
"No" we declared in unison.
breidox launched into what he thought about the TVLA's inability to take a hint and stop bothering us (Fuck off, he hinted) and that he's had enough of their harassment and that the afforementioned officer should leave our property. Actually, he was already scuttling away. This may be because confronting someone who looks like a common-or-garden Hell's Angel and talks like a civil rights lawyer is too confusing for some people to deal with. No matter how calm and polite my husband is, or how reasoned his arguments are, the primitive part of their brain is going, "Run, you fucking moron. He'll kill you, violate your body and eat you! [1] The calm and reasonable act is just to get you off your guard before he pounces. RUUUUUUNN!"
So he didn't even ask to come in and check, but offered us a leaflet (which he was told to take back to the office and tell his superiors where to put) and buggered off.
*snorts sorted out your licence? *snorts*
[1] Not necessarily in that order
| | Thursday, December 14th, 2006 | 9:46 am
[furzecat]
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| | Tuesday, October 31st, 2006 | 2:23 pm
[furzecat]
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| | Saturday, September 30th, 2006 | 6:34 pm
[tie_my_wrists]
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Hi
I know this community from two folks who are in it, and before I had met them, I never would have contemplated a life without television. You do what you know, and if you don't know any different you carry on doing it. Anyway, it made me think a little deeper, but I still carried on watching crap I wasn't really interested in. 3 months ago I moved, we sold the telly and all our worldly belongings before embarking on an adventure to Switzerland. We have a flat and all the furnishings now, but no telly, and by choice. I once heard it referred to as a 'procrastination box', which is very accurate. I miss one or two things, like Dr who, and erm, Formula One. But, Dr Who can be downloaded and and the F1 can be watched at the pub - no need to have an extra piece of electical equipment in the house if it will not be used. I have seen a huge difference in how I operate at home now, I read a HELL of a lot more, and because I am now also reading in french (not many english books available in Switzerland), it is helping me with my vocabulary and grammar. If I REALLY want to see something, I download it, and because it will take some time, I know that it is something I will very much be interested in. I don't even miss watching news reports - I prefer getting things from the internet now, from various sources to ge a more balanced view. I really enjoy being television free now, and I can't imagine ever having one again. I think of all the wasted hours 'not really' watching soaps and think of all the constructive things I could have been doing with my time instead. I always thought I never had enough time to do things, now I know why, so the bad habit has been kicked. And handrejka, I am actually really sorry for having sold our telly to your boyfriend, I kind of understand now. Current Mood: awake | | Wednesday, August 16th, 2006 | 10:56 pm
[juicy_peach]
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Yay! People who also do not like TV! I just moved in with my boyfriend. Seven months ago, actually. He didn't have cable, and we still don't. Life is good. Very good. I hope he never has the desire to get hooked up to cable. We still watch TV shows and movies on DVD. Does that count? I love House and ER. It wasn't the shows that bugged me really. It was the stupid commercials! Ug. The commercials! They made my head hurt. The commercials also almost seemed to hurt my psyche. I really felt like I hated myself when commercials were a part of my life. Now that they are gone....I don't hate myself..as much. I think the thing I like the most about not watching TV is that I get to CHOOSE what I watch. Having a choice is a great thing. | | Friday, August 11th, 2006 | 11:36 am
[opensourceress]
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| | Tuesday, January 31st, 2006 | 2:22 pm
[twistjusty] |
Introduction: Weanie with Questions
Hi, I'm a thirty-something parent and anti-television person. I have two television sets, one in use. I'm trying to get rid of the other one without having to pay a fee. As for the one in use, it does not have cable--I've been without cable for nearly ten years, and I don't watch television programming anymore, as my work schedule took me away from the one weekly half-hour program I would watch. I have been advised by a public health nurse who's observed my child to remove the television or restrict my child's exposure. He currently watches commercial-free television: one half-hour children's television show in the morning, and children's VHS cassettes and DVDs. I am happy to oblige the nurse because her suggestion vindicates my anti-television bias. Questions: what's a good way to get rid of a television set without cost? I tried freecycle once--I may try it again. If it weren't over thirty-five years old, I'd be tempted to leave it in a truck in a "bad part" of town but thieves are picky about their home electronics nowadays, aren't they? They don't want some huge remoteless console that takes three minutes to warm up. My search for anti-television print resources have turned up nothing dated later than 1997. Do you have or know of any twenty-first century print resources, other than the 25th anniversary of Marie Winn's The Plug-In Drug? | | Sunday, November 20th, 2005 | 1:09 pm
[lexin]
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Any suggestions
I own a TV (and am therefore obliged to pay for a licence) but don't watch broadcast programmes. Of any kind. I only have the set in order to watch DVDs (not going to do that sitting up to a computer monitor when the DVD's in question are the extended editions of Lord of the Rings) and play games. I wish, wish, wish there was some option which gave the size and playability of a TV which had no tuner card. Does anyone have any suggestions that won't break the bank? Current Mood:  cynical | 1:31 am
[panaqqa]
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Hello all...
Hello everyone. I just set up a live journal account this evening, and I found "televisionfree" quite by accident. I first became thoroughly disgusted with television about 15 years ago - enough so that I had the cable disconnected, and sold the set. I have not owned a TV set since, but I will admit to looking at some of the newer wide screen plasma TVs recently - I think one of them would make a great computer monitor! I am not sure how many others there are out there who do not use TV by choice, but there are few enough of us that it has been several years since I have met anyone else. Mostly people just consider this eccentric, but a few make the mistake of assuming I can't afford TV, despite all indications to the contrary. I can't say I've had any experiences like dealing with bureaucrats insisting I buy a license for something I don't own. I did have a rather interesting experience about 10 years ago, though. I had just moved into a new apartment here in Toronto Canada, and while I was unpacking, I had a technician from the local cable TV company, Rogers, knock at the door and announce that he was here to hook up my cable. I informed him that I did not want cable hooked up because I did not own a TV, watch TV, or ever intend to buy a TV. He seemed very nonplussed. It was almost as if he could not believe that a person would not watch TV given the choice. I sent him away and thought nothing more of it. Three days later, a bill came in the mail from Rogers - a bill for $64 for not giving 24 hours notice of canceling a cable installation appointment. I called them and indicated that I did not make an appointment, and told them my views on television. Apparently, the landlord of the building notified Rogers of all new tenants so that cable connection can be scheduled automatically. They tried to collect that $64 (plus late charges) for over 4 months. Finally, when they threatened a collection agency, I told them to go ahead - but that if they did, not only would I see to it that their behaviour made it onto the agenda of our national broadcasting regulator (the CRTC) at the next public hearings into Rogers, but that I would also lay a private criminal charge against them as a corporation for extortion (give us money or we'll wreck your credit rating!) I made certain that they knew that defending themselves against such a charge would cost them into the tens of thousands of dollars. They finally backed down, the arrogant SOBs. Life without TV is just fine by me. I have 5, 10, or more hours of leisure time every single week that none of my friends have. I no longer know who is sleeping with whom in Hollywood, and it is unlikely that I will ever be subjected to five cartoon rabbits singing about toilet paper. I have never seen an episode of a reality TV show, and I am not pressured to feed my cat the latest "gourmet" incarnation of pulverized snouts and spinal cords. I cannot offer you any opinions on hip hop music videos, and my news is brought to me by the paperboy, not a talking head whose hairstyle cost more than my refrigerator. Ahhh, life without television. If only more people realized... Yours truly, Panaqqa. | | Wednesday, October 12th, 2005 | 1:05 am
[killtest]
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License fee
I see that the BBC is requesting a sizable i ncrease in the license fee. Not having a TV, this doesn't directly have an impact on me. No doubt, however, it will surely give the License Sniffer General more reason to cream his brown nylon y-fronts at the thought of greater degrees of harrassment. Ah, more of the same then. Current Mood: barely awake zzzzzzz | | Wednesday, September 28th, 2005 | 12:28 pm
[killtest]
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| | Monday, September 26th, 2005 | 5:15 pm
[killtest]
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For all the people on my friends list who mention Television in their posts
Horrocks Mathematical had a gene-complex that processed iron molecules in his head. It lined them up in a delicate tracery that intercepted electromagnetic waves and transmitted electrical currents to his occipital lobes, where they stimulated neurons that formed images in his visual system. The gene-complex was activated at puberty and the resulting structure reached maturity several years afterwards. It was not considered suitable for children and adolescents. It was called television.~Extract from the just published SF novel Learning The World~ Ken MacLeod - a man of subtle humour cross posted to my own journal and ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif?v=92.2) televisionfree, please excuse repetition, thank you Current Mood: Thank random chance for books... | | Thursday, September 8th, 2005 | 3:23 pm
[furzecat]
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Those loveable scamps…
...the TVLA. They sent a letter to Theo C Cupier saying "YOU ARE A LYING CRIMINAL GIVE US MONEY NOW" or words to that effect.
I wrote back and said "Mr Cupier is buried under the patio, I am the householder, I don’t have a TV so piss off and stop bothering me" or words to that effect.
They have written again saying they need "confirmation" I don’t have a TV. Confirmation? Since when is a signed statement not good enough?
I work in financial services and my signature is good enough to witness transactions of property worth hundreds of thousands of pounds and to sign paperwork to ensure money-laundering regulations are adhered to. BUT IT ISN’T GOOD ENOUGH TO STATE I DON’T HAVE A TELEVISION.
Previously, when they have sent an Enforcement Officer to the house they always do so between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. on a weekday. According to the Citizens Advice Bureau, the majority of convictions they obtain are against single-parents who are not in work. Ah, pick on the poor, I get it. Also, anyone who could afford a TV and licence would never, ever choose not to have one. In their eyes, the entire country is populated by sad bastards who only care about Coronation Street.
I don’t have a television. I don’t want a television. I don’t see that it’s the business of anyone else but it is a business, isn’t it? The police do not make money from the regulation of firearms certificates, and hence they don’t keep a record of every unregistered household and harass them for not having a licence for firearms they don’t own, but Capita MAKE MONEY from the Television Licence scheme.
XP'd to karentheheathen Current Mood: moody | | Thursday, September 1st, 2005 | 2:06 pm
[furzecat]
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