I’ve become one of those people. Those people I used to resent because I thought they exhibited some sort of superiority. You know those people who don’t have a T.V.

Last month, I decided to do a little experiment and pack up my TV and stash it in the basement for a week. It was motivated by the fact that I had a big project due in my AI for Robotics class, but that project came and went. And the TV stayed in the basement.

It wasn’t like I was especially into TV; I mean I never even had cable. But, I was guilty of binge watching whole TV seasons (White Collar, Damages, West Wing, The 4400, this list could be embarrassingly long) over the course of a week. And even though I was sans-TV, I actually watched a couple episodes of Portlandia on my iPad (don’t you make that look). But, 60 minutes of TV is way different than the tens of hours that a season would have sucked away from me. Oddly, I haven’t missed it at all. So what have I been doing? It’s not like I’m sitting on the couch staring at the wall.

By my account my TV hours have gone to:

• Skiing a shit-ton of Pow
• Skiing even more bullet proof hardpack (come on Bridger!)
• Cooking some pretty epic meals
• Putting way too much effort into my cognitive AI class this semester
• Running or walking my dog 3-4 miles everyday

So in sum total, bad for the media networks, good for my dog. And I think I’ll keep on taking that deal.