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Houston, We Have TV Last night a very different sound filled my house. It was a jumble of fast moving background noise. Noise I'm not used to at all. I think of that noise as bar noise. Last night the TV was on. Up until last night I haven't had TV. I'm not just talking about Cable. But basic TV. Even one channel. Nil. And I've been fine with that. It was my choice.

As a kid, I didn't watch too much TV. I'd watch cartoons on Saturday morning. But that's about it. My mom always told me to go play outside. Go jump. Go swing. Go run. Get out of the house. So I did. My childhood was spent on the lake, fishing, in the woods, playing baseball. Just not in front to the TV.

In college I decided to start watching the news. And after a while it started making my days feel more stressed. Lots of bad news all the time. Plus, all these brain-numbing, staged reality shows started showing up and I just didn't want to be a part of it. I didn't want to get sucked in and care if Sally was still on some island or Brad slept with Kelly in a lapse of judgment. So, I decided to pull the plug. And for many years I've not had TV.

It was odd hooking up the bunny ears and suddenly seeing things on the screen that I couldn't fast forward. It's strange to think that this wave has been hitting my house for all this time and all I needed to do was tune it in. I watched Law & Order last night. And the whole time I felt like I was doing something wrong. It was really surreal and eery.

The reason for the change is this: Very often lately, I've been getting into a lot of conversations where I'm woefully uninformed and I'm just tired of it. People talk about Jeopardy and The Apprentice and little snippets of news and I just smile and nod. My long time excuse has been "dark hole, 26 years". And people smile and secretly wonder what's the matter with me. Only seen five episodes of Friends? I should be ashamed. (by the way, I just had to google "popular TV shows" to get the name 'The Apprentice'...it's that bad.)

I feel dumb. I hate getting into conversations where pop culture is involved (which is practically every conversation). I hate not knowing what they're talking about. I hate not getting inside jokes and having to either fake amusement or just say sorry, I don't know what you're talking about.

And yes, I was in advertising. No joke. I don't know how I got along without it while in that field. Really. Have you ever heard of an art director who made TV spots that they'd never see because they didn't have television?

So now I have a choice. I have the choice to turn it on, or I can leave it off. Strange concept, will power...I'm interested to see what I do. I think I may just go play outside.

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Man, I just love Illustration Friday. I love to see what everyone comes up with. All these different interpretations on the subject. How fun!

The next Illustration Friday topic, chosen by Whitney (no url) is "Fiesta".