When Pete and I moved from Texas to California two years ago, we left our small television behind. It was around the time that you needed to buy a converter box, and we figured we would just replace our old television with a new and bigger one once we got settled. We got settled, and then decided to get serious about paying off debt, which meant no money for extras like televisions. We watched movies on our laptop, and replaced t.v. time with reading, playing card and board games, and creative pursuits like writing (such as this blog and my husband's someday bestseller on Romans 8!) and art. We realized we LOVED not having a television. We were just overall happier, more productive, and even nicer to each other without filling our minds with sarcastic zingers from "Everybody Loves Raymond".
Then about three months ago, Pete bought this television pictured below at a garage sale for 5$:
Around this time, Pete finished teaching a two-year intensive Greek class that I helped him with daily, and I came down with a nasty bug. I started watching lots of movies, and playing LOTS of facebook Tetris, and noticed that on top of being sick, I was feeling quite unhappy, almost depressed. A week of this and I decided enough was enough, so I dared myself to STOP playing facebook Tetris entirely and only watch movies when I am ironing (I'm sorry, but it is impossible to iron without watching some sort of media) or once or twice a week in the evenings with Pete while embroidering or mending clothes. Then last Sunday night I dared Pete to see if he could not play Tetris for a week (he has played three times as much Tetris as me, and I was so addicted I would see tetris pieces falling in my sleep!) The deal was that if he failed, he would have to forego sugar for a week, and if he won, I would have to watch Rockie IV with him. Today is Saturday, and no Tetris for my disciplined husband, so I am forseeing some gory boxing and "Adrian"'s in my near future.
Since I stopped all of this Tetris and movie nonsense, I have to say that I am back to my happy former self. I am getting done organizing projects around the house (the top of the fridge has never been this clean!), Pete's New Testament Survey notes are actually getting edited this semester, more of the Bible is being read and Greek being studied, and I feel full of dreams again. Dreams about finishing my story "16th and Island" and (gulp) submitting it for publication, dreams about calligraphy pieces being painted and sold, dreams about new skills being learned like knitting and canning, dreams about even eventually a part-time job to help pay down student loan debt, (once I get my energy up). Dreams which were not being worked towards when facebook Tetris and old 80's classics were robbing my time!
What are your dreams and how does television and computer games affect them?
