I love blogging and rarely need a break, but when the thought of writing a blog post was a burden, I knew I needed a breather. While I did briefly considered quitting altogether, I realized that’s not what I wanted. I did want to continue, but I didn’t want to give you all filler until I was ready to write a “real” post again.

So, let’s move on to a “real” post, shall we?

I’m giving up television for the month of April.

I’ve written before about how addictive I find TV and how I wanted to cut down on how much I’ve watched. For the most part, I have. Still, I struggle with turning on the TV as an easy out when I could be something more constructive, or even more enjoyable.

So, I’ve decided April would be it. I’m not sure I’ll give it up forever. I hope that after this month I’ll have it out of my system and better habits in place, so it’s no longer a temptation. But perhaps I’ll be able to add it back in, more moderately. For right now, I’m just planning on giving it up for this month and we’ll see what happens when it’s over.

I am giving myself the exception of sporting events. I mean, I wouldn’t want to give up tonight’s national championship or this weekend’s Masters tournament. And I’ll still watch the occasional movie. Thankfully, I’m cheap so renting a movie isn’t much of a draw.

I don’t know what that means for my April. I do know I’ll do more reading (though I probably would have done so anyway, thanks to the 24-hour Readathon later this month). Maybe I’ll be more active, too, taken advantage of the lovely spring weather.

I’m looking forward to it. Sometimes it just takes cutting something out of your life to realize you didn’t really want it there, anyway.

Television isn’t evil. But it’s also certainly not essential and rarely constructive. Reading a book isn’t always especially constructive either, but there is still greater value in reading junk than in watching junk. Not that I usually read junk…but most of what I watch would be qualified as “junk.”

Why do I struggle with watching too much TV?

1. It’s easy. You know that. You probably watch more than you want to, too. Watching television requires almost nothing of me.

2. It sucks you in. If there is one show that want to watch, it’s easy to turn the entire evening into a TV-watching binge.

3. I am, if only in part, a product of my culture. I have grown up with technology and stimulation. To sit silently in a room with a book that does not interact with me isn’t as easy as it may have been for someone who had books as their only form of entertainment.

4. I like the noise. Being single, my apartment is usually silent unless I choose to make it otherwise. I don’t always have to have noise, but I do prefer it to silence. I have taken to listening to audiobooks while I do my chores around my house, but some activities (like reading and sending emails) don’t allow me enough brain power to also listen to an audio book, so sometimes I turn on the TV. Enter point #2.

So what am I going to do about it?

I wrote this post last week and just left the question hang there for a couple of days. I really didn’t know how to answer it. But Friday afternoon I decided not to turn on the TV all weekend. And I didn’t (well, except to listen to audiobooks on my DVD player). I had a great weekend, too. Instead of watching TV and whiling away the hours, I listened to one whole audio book, crocheted a lot, and took care of a few chores around the apartment. The time didn’t drag, but it also didn’t fly by. It was quite pleasant.

I want that to be the norm in my apartment, not the other. I’m not giving up TV completely, but I’d like to cut my viewing to just a few hours a week.

Next project: working on silence.

Sense and Sensibility is both my favorite Jane Austen book and my favorite movie. I love Pride and Prejudice along with the best of us, but Sense and Sensibility resonates more with me, because I relate to both of the sisters.

I’m a lot like Elinor, the put-together, sensible, putting-others-first rock of the family. To those who don’t know me well, I can come across as stoic or unfeeling. I tend towards order and routine and tend to shy away from spontaneity and anything that upsets my order for things.

But I also am a lot like Marianne. I can be flighty and overly emotional. I cry quicker than anyone I know (though I still blame it on a physical abnormality…doncha know I have overactive tear ducts?). I have thought my world was falling apart when a suitor hasn’t appeared. I have interpreted my interactions with a man to make them into something they weren’t.

You see, I’m both sisters. I can be both sensible and overcome by sensibility.

And for the record, Colonel Brandon is by far my favorite of the Jane Austen’s heroes. A man who doesn’t arrogantly assume you think he’s all that, prefers you to be happy than to be with him (as much as it pains him), and is willing to quietly serve in whatever way possible? Yes, please!

Actually, several of the books that I want to be made into movies are in the process of being turned into movies. While it used to be important to me that movies reflect the books perfectly, I’ve since realized it makes more sense for the them not to be exactly the same. After all, what makes a book good and what makes a movie good aren’t the same things.

So, these are books I want to see made into movies (or movies that I’m looking forward to seeing):

1. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

I’ve wanted to see a movie of Ender’s Game ever since I read it for the first time. I think that it has the makings of a very good movie that would have mass popularity. Card has/is writing a script for it, but I’m not sure it’s gone much farther than that.

2. Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden

Okay, so this is already a movie…in Australia (where it did well). No word on whether it will be released in the US in the theaters or on DVD.

3. The City and the City by China Miévelle

I think this would be a fascinated movie, if someone could pull it off. Having two cities overlapping–and yet you’re only allowed to “see” your own city–would possibly require some Inception-like visuals.

4. The Journal by…well…me

Wouldn’t that be absolutely cool? A girl can dream. But seriously, it could make a great movie I think. I love futuristic movies, and this would definitely be one.

5. Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

If you like Hunger Games at all, you’ve likely heard that this is going to be a movie. The casting of the main characters has just been released, so it’ll still be a while. I think that it makes for a great story for film, but it’d be hard to not to make it gory.

6. Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

A great story that’d make for a great kids’ movie.

7. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Based on this list, I think I need to watch more sci-fi movies. I love seeing other people’s imaginations at work in how they create a future society.

8. When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

If this would be as touching a story on film as it is in print, I’d love to see it happen.

9. C. S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy

Why not follow up The Chronicles of Narnia with Lewis’s lesser-known fiction series? There are some really poignant points in the books that I’d love to see on film, though I don’t think it’d make for very popular movies as the books aren’t nearly as action-packed and suspense-filled as most alien movies out there.

10. The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

This series, on the other hand, would make for an action-packed alien movie.

Would you/do you want to see any of these movies?

But I can’t help but think that the amount of TV I’ve watched in the last couple of months isn’t healthy.  I don’t feel I watch excessively (maybe an average of 10-12 hours a week…you all know how much I read, but that still sounds like a lot), but I still feel too tied to that little gray box, or really, the little gray computer screen.

I hate being tied to a TV show.  Yet shows like 24, Glee, and So You Think You Can Dance “make” me come back week after week.  And then there are all the crime shows that suck me in.

During finale season, I repeatedly cringed as conversation after conversation, online and off, dealt with this show or that show.  And then just the other day we had some friends over, and the group of us sat around discussing TV for about an hour.  We could have intelligently discussed any number of topics, but we went for the lowest common denominator (and I definitely was a part of the problem on this one).

I guess that’s what I don’t like about TV…it IS the lowest common denominator, rarely challenging.  There’s nothing inherently wrong with it, sure.  There’s nothing wrong with mindlessly relaxing occassionally, but a book can have the same affect while improving your vocabulary and reading abilities without you even realizing it.

Like most things, TV’s best in moderation with a healthy dose of discernment and critical thinking.  Moderation has never been something that I’ve been good at.  If I start watching TV any given evening, I’m not likely to stop before going to bed (late).  So I’ve been trying not to start.  Aside from the previously-mentioned SYTYCD (hey, at least dancing is “the arts”), I don’t want to watch any TV during the week.

By cutting out a lot of my TV watching, I’ll be able to keep up my reading habit and be social (obv not at the same time).  And if I know what’s good for me, I’ll throw in some exercise, too.

Photo by schmilblick

I do realize that this post is at least a few weeks late, if not years.  Still, I wrote it now.  Actually, I’m rather pleased that I wrote anything “real” this week at all.

I read Twilight a couple of months ago after the umpteenth suggestion.  Didn’t hate it, but didn’t like it, either.  Over Thanksgiving break, I significantly miscalculated the number of books I’d need (I guessed 3, but 2 were youth books, so bad call) so I needed something to read.  Knowing my mom had New Moon, I thought I might as well continue the series.

After reading these two tomes, I still don’t get what it is about Edward that people like. At all.  In the interest of full disclosure, my ideal man-in-a-book/movie is Edmund in Mansfield Park (the movie, not necessarily the book).

9 Reasons Why I Couldn’t Like Edward

1. He’s pale as all get out.  Sure, being pale isn’t necessarily a bad thing (though I must admit I like my guys darker), but I don’t see how it’s a good thing, either.

2.  He’s a stalker.  Sure, Bella eventually gave permission for Edward to watch her all-night (like that isn’t creepy itself), but he did it before without asking.

3.  He sparkles.  If someone is going to sparkle in a relationship, it better be me.

4.  He’s mopey.  Sure, we all can be sometimes, but he seems to be too much (Bella, you too).

5.  He’s hard. How is that cuddly?

6.  He doesn’t bother to check his facts before making a big decision (killing himself).

7.  He likes Bella ’cause she smells good. That isn’t shallow…

8.  Other than these things, what else do we know about him?

9.  And then there’s something about being non-human…what was that again?

I already talked about how sex isn’t everything.  Well, on a related point, neither is pleasure.  The adage, “Do what makes you happy” might well define our culture, but that doesn’t make it right or true.

I think for any of us who have tried to follow this (and I think most have at one point or another) find that the pleasures that we seek never fully satisfy, are never enough.  Just like the alcoholic wants one more drink, and Rockefeller, one of the richest men of his time, says that enough money is “just a little bit more,” we want “just a little bit more” of whatever we’ve determined will make us happy.  If it’s someone, we might smother them.  If it’s something, we might poison ourselves or drown ourselves in debt to get it.

Instead of pursuing my own pleasures (and I’m more than willing to admit that I do that all too often), I’d rather seek to obey the greatest commandments:

” ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’  This is the great and foremost commandment.  The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ” – Matthew 22:37-39

And perhaps I’ll stick to 24.

Photo by mandj98

Yet, even the reading for entertainment requires discernment.  Though I’m just a baby fiction writer (“embryo” might be the better term…a complete novel has yet to be birthed), I know that part of why I write is to express my worldview.  Even if that wasn’t my obvious goal, my worldview is bound to work itself into the piece.  Even the more entertainment-only authors still express a worldview.

That’s why I don’t buy arguments for books like The Shack that say, “It’s just fiction” as if that’s code for “no thinking allowed” or “for entertainment purposes only.”  I imagine William Young would take offense if you were to tell him that it was a great story but nothing more.  I don’t want to speak for him, but I’m pretty sure he meant there to be a deeper purpose behind his writing than just a pleasant way to spend an afternoon.  It’s the same thing for many other books and authors, though it might not be as clear.

Lest you TV-watchers and movie-goers think you’re in the clear, these forms of media are also excellent conductors of worldview.  Possibly more so, since we tend to be in a more passive position (rather like a sponge) when we’re imbibing them.  I love these types of visual entertainment, but I also enjoy parsing them a bit.  I listen for key value statements and look for stereotypes.  The world of a show or movie is often what the creator makes it…is there a part of reality that has been written out?

When I see these things, I ponder them, and when I have a young, captive audience, I’ll point them out, too.  Thankfully, Lana didn’t mind me pausing the movie to point out something…like how often the Star Wars characters entreat each other to look to their feelings for validation (more often on the dark side, but both do it) as if that was the final source of truth.

So what do you think…do you think fiction can just be fiction?

Photo by swruler9284

I still occasionally catch 30 Rock, Numb3rs, or a CSI, but these don’t require me to watch every episode.  I make them a treat for when I happen to be home at that time and don’t have anything else pressing.  I also have started watching Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune, because they come on during my typical dinnertime downtime and don’t require close, or regular watching.

There’s really only two exceptions: sports (for obvious reasons, but I only have to watch Big XII football and the NCAA tournament when they’re on) and in the summer, for SYTYCD because it IS the summer, and my friends like to watch it with me.

I don’t feel I need to cut TV watching out of my life completely, but I have limited it.  I don’t have to watch TV everyday, and more often than not, I’d rather read than watch TV anyway.  Since I’ve weaned myself off of must-see TV, I guess you could call me a TV weanie.

What show would you find to be the hardest to give up watching?

On the other hand, there was a commercial in Kansas when I was there over Thanksgiving that I enjoyed.  It was a car commercial, no less.  Sadly, it betrays my lowbrow sense of humor.

Why did it make me laugh?

It had a dancing chicken.  A person, dresed in a chicken costume, dancing next to the cars they were selling.  Something that would terrify me in real life, made me laugh on screen, and I don’t know why.