Tell me again why you don’t own a television set?

I gave up owning and watching a cable TV in 2007

This came about as a fluke, and not by any real conscious decision such as:

“Look at me world! I’m really going to give it to those capitalist pigs who are trying to make me buy crap by shoving cute consumerist commercials down my throat!“

Er.. it didn’t quite happen like that. 🙂

How it happened was a lot more anti-climatic.

I decided to give up my apartment, move things into storage, sell off all my furniture and move into the hotels located in the cities I would be working in on short-term projects.

I had no need for a TV set — the hotel room had it. Plus a good cable package.

Now that I’ve gone through a year and a bit without owning one, I just simply never got around to buying a TV or a cable package.

But, I still enjoy watching TV shows

Even when we go on vacation now, and are willing to spring for a hotel room, we turn on the TV.

We have NOTHING against television and cable itself.

We just don’t want to own the device, nor pay for the cable package.

So why no TV?

1. Sheer laziness. Never got around to buying another one, nor signing up for a package.
2. We watch all of our TV shows on DVD (BF’s preferred choice of viewing) or online (my choice)
3. Owning a TV is expensive and bulky (even the thin ones are heavy), and moving with it is a pain in the…
4. I hate commercials. I hate watching them even via online TV, but I hate the idea that I’m PAYING to watch ’em
5. I seem to have much more free time now than I ever did before when I watched reruns
6. We don’t have any video game consoles that require a TV (Nintendo Wii, I’m looking at you!)
7. I don’t like indirectly dictated schedules such as having to get home by 8 p.m. to watch my favourite show*

*I know that PVR’s (Personal Video Recorders) such as Tivo is a huge, very cool, commercial-fast-forwarding-awesomeness device, but I am one of those types that doesn’t have to see every episode as it happens, and can just wait months before getting the DVDs or waiting for the videos to be released online.

The downsides to not having a TV

• People spoil it for you on Facebook, Twitter and in real life while waiting in line at the supermarket (bah!)
• You miss cute commercials
• You miss “the game”, if you’re into sports (we’re not 99% of the time, but BF goes mad for European Football)
• You don’t know what the heck people are talking about, when they talk about TV shows
• You watch everything AFTER it has aired, is on DVD and was discussed to death (wait..a positive, perhaps)
• You always get asked: “Why don’t you have a TV?” 😛 .. and are lost in discussions of Plasma vs. LCD
• You always get horrified reactions as if you’re some sort of TV leper… (I kid, I kid!)

Er…so those negatives are not that big of a deal, except for the spoiling-it-for-you part and missing the important real-time events like the Olympics and “the game”.

All in all, not a bad thing, especially now that TV is so readily available online.

And where might that be, you say?

My Favourite Online Streaming TV Channels (CANADA only)

We don’t have access to Hulu, TV.com, or any of the other cool networks you have in the States to watch anything you want, so here’s my list for my fellow Canadians.

• Slice.ca — Ohhh the deliciousness of reality TV!
• HGTV — I may not like furniture or decorations, but I sure can appreciate interior decorating!
• Food Network Canada — I get so many ideas for pairings here
• The Discovery Channel
• CTV — The biggest selection online
• Global TV — The second biggest selection
• Surf The Channel — Kind of sketchy. Proceed with caution.
• City TV
• CBC — Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

Okay, I just noticed this, but we have a lot of “C” channels in Canada. Can’t we be more creative, guys? Sheesh.

True but strange story:

I know a guy so obsessed with his 52″ plasma TV, that if he got a new girlfriend and asked us to help him move his TV into her place (but not to actually move in with her), we knew it was serious relationship.

And when they broke up, before he told her he was leaving her, he quietly moved his TV out of her place…. and without saying anything later, she knew it was over between them when she saw the TV had disappeared.

Unbelievable, huh? 🙂