So I did some math a little while back, justifying to myself and others my television viewing habits. And now that is all in disarray. Let’s look at what we had:

Farscape (4) + Pretender (5) + Daily Show (4) + Buffy (1), and that’s 14 shows a week. But the Daily Show is only half an hour, so make that 12 hours a week, which isn’t terrible, although its higher then I would generally like. But then count TiVo time, meaning that I can watch them whenever I want (like when I can’t fall asleep at 3 AM), and I can skip commercials, making an hour show about 45 minutes, and now it adds up to 528 minutes, or 8.8 hours.

Simple enough, right? And then some other good shows come on. First off, I don’t think I’m going to watch any new Buffy episodes, because I’m so far behind. Then look at this: FX is running the entire show from the beginning. I’m catching it about halfway through. But what’s this now? It’s running how many times per day? Oh, yeah, four. Two “new� shows and then the repeats of the previous day. Crap!

I’m also watching 24. But nothing else! NOTHING ELSE!!! So let us recalculate.

Farscape                                   4.0 hours
Pretender                                  5.0 hours
Daily Show                                 2.0 hours
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (AHHHH!!!)       10.0 hours
24                                         1.0 hours
The West Wing                              1.0 hours
----------------------------------------------------
SUBTOTAL                                  23.0 hours
(Assume 15 min/hour commercials)        x  3/4
TOTAL                                   ~ 18.0 hours

Eighteen hours or so. Hmm. I dunno, its too long, now I have to figure out what I can cut out. But I have no idea what I would cut. What I can do is assume that, since Farscape is getting nearer to their new season, this schedule should be reduced by next semester to 1 hour/week. Similarily, The Pretender is reaching the end of the line in anticipation of a made-for-tv movie, so that one should cut down. So starting next semester, I should be okay! I hope, I hope, I hope.

I’ve also realized (not for the first time) how useless cable TV is to me. If I had my way I would pay the same money for, say, 6 channels, all commercial free. Give me NBC, ABC, CBS, SCIFI, Comedy Central, and HBO. And maybe throw in Discovery Channel and TLC. Eight channels. I’ll give you eight bucks a month, now dump my commercials. Please?