Television, RFF and working for a living

What is time for except to do those things described above? Work is not a theif of time if it provides the necessities, relaxation in any form is not a thief if we want to relax, RFF is not a thief if it teaches and discussions like this are not thieves if used wisely.
Having the same argument (is it legal to take pictures?) over and over is wasting time, like throwing money to a thief and blaming the thief.
...That took about 1 minute....
 
I spend a bit of time on here unwinding , I really should have been trying to sleep late at night. My internship at the paper has me working late hours and my 40 min ride home keeps me wide awake. My day job has cut my hours drastically, so I now have this free time to hop on here for a few minutes here and there during the day. I watch TV in much the same fashion as spending time on here , in addition to reading books which also get the same treatment. Unwinding after long days and trying t get to sleep. I also put together cars for friends of mine in addition to any basically freelance mechanic work to make a few extra bucks . By late friday into early AM saturday I am on hour 80 or so trying to make sense of why I can't sleep. The upside is I have learned a vast wealth of information from many of the posters on this forum.
Television has become a bit of a white noise item in the background.
 
Ducky said:
What is time for except to do those things described above? Work is not a theif of time if it provides the necessities, relaxation in any form is not a thief if we want to relax, RFF is not a thief if it teaches and discussions like this are not thieves if used wisely.
Having the same argument (is it legal to take pictures?) over and over is wasting time, like throwing money to a thief and blaming the thief.
...That took about 1 minute....
Click to expand...

Time is stolen when we realize, after we have been doing something, that (a) we didn't need to do it, (b) we didn't enjoy doing it and (c) we didn't really benefit from it.

There are plenty of things that compete to make us waste our time this way. Learning to recognize them, and maximizing the enjoyment and benefit we get from our time (in whatever varying proportions we choose enjoyment and benefit) is something we are often actively discouraged from doing, especially at school, at work and in the consumption-oriented media.

As a musician friend said a few years back, "We are encouraged to become consumers of music, and discouraged from creating it." The same is true of philosophy, literature, and even thought.

Cheers,

R.
 
TV? Nah. Hardly ever watch it. If I'm not shooting, I'm working on pictures I shot. If I'm not doing either, and I'm not out and about, I'm reading....
 
I never had a television until aged 42 (7 years ago) and only finally acquired one because my children were becoming disadvantaged at school by its absence. However neither my wife nor I ever watch it.

This is not to imply any kind of superiority to those who do--as a radio 4/radio 3 addict, I probably spend as much time in wasteful listening as a diehard couch potato spends comatose before the TV. Nor is radio an inherently superior medium (except that in fact it is...).

Regards,
D.
 
D.O'K. said:
Nor is radio an inherently superior medium (except that in fact it is...).

Regards,
D.
Click to expand...

As a dedicated fan of the BBC Home Service, I have to agree, though I spend far less time than I used to on listening to the Third Programme. What I can't understand is why the Light Programme now appears under two names. It was no good on ether medium wave or long wave, and to pretend that it now warrants two names is ridiculous.

Mind you, I quite like parts of Radio 7 (The BBC Wireless Repeats Service).

Cheers,

R.
 
Vic said:
I watched most of the World Cup games on ESPN's High Definition channel, as well as on ESPN's Spanish and Portuguese channels (to get the Brasil, Spain, Argentina perspective). What a wonderful experience!

I don't think it's constructive to indulge in black and white thinking. A lot of intellectual snobs think that it's somehow cool to say that one doesn't own a TV. One can use discrimination in choosing what one watches. Booknotes on CSpan is a great program, as are shows on Ovation and Sundance. Ovation had a series on photography that was well worth watching.
Click to expand...

Oh dear: you really are laying yourself open to the snobs, aren't you? But not all intellectuals are snobs, and not all snobs are intellectuals. I fear you are conflating the two.

I've never understood why anyone watches any sport, but then, I could never stand playing team games, let alone watching them. And if you don't play, I can see no reason at all to watch. What 'perspectives' are there? You have a load of young men chasing a ball, and that's of much the same interest to an outsider whether they're Chinese, Albanian or Welsh. I love Terry Pratchett's observation that everything happens for a reason, except perhaps football.

Consider also the possibility that it's not necessarily intellectual snobbery that stops me (or anyone else) watching television. It's the self-knowledge that it's all too easy to watch any old rubbish, even CNN (though not Fox). I've owned televisions in the past; I sometimes even watch them in hotel rooms; and that's why I don't want one any more. I suspect (I'm not sure) that I've spent about 1/3 of my life without television, in total, or maybe a little more, and I simply prefer life without it.

Cheers,

R.
 
Last edited:
"As a dedicated fan of the BBC Home Service, I have to agree, though I spend far less time than I used to on listening to the Third Programme. What I can't understand is why the Light Programme now appears under two names. It was no good on ether medium wave or long wave, and to pretend that it now warrants two names is ridiculous.

Mind you, I quite like parts of Radio 7 (The BBC Wireless Repeats Service)".

I agree with all of this! Also this:

"I've never understood why anyone watches any sport, but then, I could never stand playing team games, let alone watching them...".

Shall we start a club?

Regards,
D.
 
Last edited:
If I watch TV, it is to catch a baseball game. I usually fall asleep within 10 minutes. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
 
I watch a movie per week from Netflix, otherwise the only television viewing is if I go to the gym where there is not much else to do while using the machines (I'm not able to read while bouncing around). Otherwise, reading for work or pleasure is my most common at home activity. I wish I had more time for photo and darkroom work.
 
Watch films, soccer, and documentaries about photography, engineering or outer space on TV. Since I manage a TV channel (local municipal channel) in addition to other duties, I never watch any of the major TV shows, they are all crap to me.
 
Working from home - I mean in paid employment, not free-lancing/cosulting/contracting - is a huge thief of time; it's becomes very very hard to isolate work time and define when it's over.

I spend hours on-line participating in forums (not mainly photography); also time spent planning/pricing up the next holiday/cruise/etc. I'm afraid photography comes a poor third these days. There's also 'enjoying that nice bottle of Malbec/Sauvignon Blanc'; that seems to be coming up fast on the rails as way of spending lots of time.
 
Vic said:
You don't have to be on the grid. You can own a TV, not have any cable or antenna, but have a DVD player and watch movies and shows that you get from your local library. A perfect solution for your tribe, with you being in total control of what is allowed to stimulate your optic and aural nerves.
Click to expand...

Dear Vic,

I think you're rather missing the point. It doesn't matter where it comes from, it's still TV.

Cheers,

R.
 
Last edited:
tom_uk said:
Working from home - I mean in paid employment, not free-lancing/cosulting/contracting - is a huge thief of time; it's becomes very very hard to isolate work time and define when it's over.

I spend hours on-line participating in forums (not mainly photography); also time spent planning/pricing up the next holiday/cruise/etc. I'm afraid photography comes a poor third these days. There's also 'enjoying that nice bottle of Malbec/Sauvignon Blanc'; that seems to be coming up fast on the rails as way of spending lots of time.
Click to expand...

Dear Tom,

My last salaried job was working from home for ICL in the early 80s. ICL found that they tended to get more per 37.5 hour week from people at home than from those on site, because people at home didn't count idle conversation, time reading the paper, etc., as working hours. There's an awful lot of 'presentism' in working for someone else on company premises, 'presentism' being defined as 'being physically present, though doing nothing'. It's like 'absenteeism' but in a different place.

Then again, I'm not averse to a drink while I'm working. My first wife, no mean poet, songwriter and artist in her own right, used to refer to wine as 'writing fluid'. The trick lies in getting enough on board to aid the creativity, while staying sober enough to keep it coherent.

Cheers,

R.
 
Roger Hicks said:
Dear Vic,

I think you're rather missing the point. It doesn't matter where it comes from, it's still TV.

Cheers,

R.
Click to expand...

Some relatives of me have the same relationship to TV as you. It is evil (and not in a good way), the story is that the father threw it through the window without opening it.
 
I'm finding the Internet-connected netbook computer to be the opiate of the masses around my house, I'm afraid. But, at least it's taken me away from watching the telly in the living room. But it's still a big time-sink, which I can justify by saying that I need (must, really) see if that latest thread on RFF explodes, or else watch some YouTube/Netflix/Vimeo.

~Joe
 
Vic said:
So what you're implying is that form is more important than content. Is that correct? The medium is more important than the message?
Click to expand...

With TV, yes, in the sense that the medium is of its nature an opiate. There are good drug-induced dreams and bad drug-induced dreams (I had some good ones on morphine when recovering from my appendicitis last year). But they're still drug-induced dreams.

IF you have, at all times, the strength of will to watch ONLY programmes that are 'worth watching', I salute you. But most of us are suckered into watching rubbish sooner or later. Personally, I'd rather have interactive rubbsh, with real people, on RFF. Overall, the rubbish level is lower than on TV and I enjoy myself more.

As for 200-channel rubbish, I'd spend so much time trying to find anything worth watching -- a triumph of hope over experience -- that I'd never get anything done. I waste enough time re-checking threads on RFF that have been hijacked by the hard of thinking. Frances pointed out that she'd rather watch rubbish than be constantly channel-hopping.

Cheers,

R.
 
when I had TV (am moving currently), 90% of the output were soaps, reality shows, commercials etc etc. 8% semi interesting news updates, nature and history documentaries.

but that last two, random surprises of unseen classic movies or something that justified to tolerate the idiot box for all the rest of time :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom