As I said yesterday, I’m capping off two weeks in our new home in San Mateo, today in fact. One unique thing about these two weeks is that I’ve been without Tivo for them. For some perspective, my average television consumed while I had Tivo was 2.7 hours/day, and since then it has fallen to 1.0 hours/day, with my solely watching The Daily Show and The Colbert Report at their 11pm air time. If I miss them, I miss them, and the world goes on. In addition, I’ve spent about a half hour a day watching streaming programs, typically on the train, and most lately Showtime’s Dexter, which is quite well done. 

For many, television is somewhat addictive, or at least it’s a hard habit to break, because shows are fairly specifically designed to keep you hooked, using appointed ritual air times, cliff-hangers, and empathy-driven character development, along with other ways of getting you emotionally invested in various programs. I’d compare the withdrawal to an emotional “jones” versus the physical addiction of, say, cigarettes. The key to success in handling this sort of habit is to replace the activity with something else. I suspect wedded life will come in handy here, along with sleep and exercise. Speaking of which, time for a jog!