I think my post titles are getting progressively cheesier. Oh well, at least it's kj & fat free cheese.

When I moved, about three months ago, I left behind my crudy old could-barely-get-a-reception television. It wasn't worth the effort of moving it. Because of the costs of moving and other financial shit going down at the time, I couldn't afford to replace it. Things were tough back then. I had no television, no computer, no internet. Nothing. My son hadn't packed the cord for the stereo and I couldn't replace that so all I had was my clock radio.

I was broke, not working and in debt from moving. I'd just started a new job where I got paid monthly, so that meant I worked 2 weeks, got paid for those 2 weeks then worked another 4 weeks before I was paid again - ie. I got 2 weeks pay in the first six weeks.

I started going to the local gym. I was $4 a visit casual rate so it was an entertainment I could afford. Slowly I started to fill my life back up with distractions - got the stereo working, got a computer, got the internet back on (hence the sudden explosion in posts). But I still don't have a television. I can afford one now but I'm wary.

The trouble with television is that it can suck the motivation right out of your bone marrow. Look around you, the world is filled with couch potatoes wasting their lives watching things they don't even care about. I am no anti-television evangelist but I get annoyed at people who say they don't have time to exercise/read/learn Italian or anything else they want to do, but find it essential to watch that repeat of The Simpsons for the hundredth time. That isn't not having time, that is choosing not to, my friends.

Like chocolate, television is great in small quantities, when you make a conscious decision about your consumption and you are doing it because you really want it, not out of habit or boredom or lack of anything better to do.

So, you might ask, what's the problem? You don't like tv, don't have tv. Simple as that.

Yet it is not nearly so simple. See Australian Idol starts today. I love that show. It's trashy and bad and wrong, like eating fast food on the run. But I crave it.

Tonight I'm going to the gym and I'm getting on that treadmill and tuning my walkman to the tv. I'll get fit while watching Idol. It may not be a long term solution but it will do for now.