by John Oystein

Created on: October 07, 2007   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

My folks didn't get cable TV until I was in middle school. My grandparents had it, but that was only a weekly exposure. I tried to be temperate in my usage. During my sophomore year of high school I became a huge wrestling fan, so Monday nights it was the WWF on USA and WCW on TBS on Saturdays. Watching MTV was a hit and miss proposition. I didn't like most of what they played, and was always annoyed they had not schedule to say what video is played when. I guess that was done on purpose.

My television consumption increased dramatically while I was in college. I finally got a TV and the university provided its own free cable service. It wasn't the same as the real service the city received, which was both good and bad. Good because we had our own movie channel and some interesting broadcasts from elsewhere, bad because we had a smaller selection of things I actually wanted to see.

In 1995 I was in a particularly bad way. I believe I actually suffered a nervous breakdown, and dealt with it by mental anesthetization. I was too young to drink myself away. I didn't believe in drugs. Without drink or dope, I had TV, a lot of TV.

I always had wrestling to see. "Highlander" came on right after class. I could squeeze in student movies here and there. I had "USA Up All Night" on the weekends. Sundays were usually hard because I didn't watch sports, and nothing else was on, so it was saved for church and studying.
The craziest part was the slumber party in my room every weeknight. At 10 p.m., Central Standard Time, I'd turn off the lights and curl into bed, the remote in my hand. Then I'd invite my four buddies to come in, one right after the other. Their names were Beavis, Butthead, Rush Limbaugh, and Dennis Prager. When Dennis told me to "think a second time," I'd say it was time to say good-night.

I got out of that rut, thank God. For years, I hardly watched TV at all. When I moved out of my parents' house I didn't even consider a cable connection. It would have been nice, because I had a job requiring me to stay in touch with the world, and where I lived, only one channel came in.
I decided to get cable to catch up on my wrestling buddies. And there was this quirky show on USA called "Strip Poker" which I found strangely compelling.

Cable was great in moderation, until I bought my car. Suddenly, "Monday Night Raw" didn't justify the $35 that could have gone to the car payments. So, the cable was gone. And I've never missed it.

For one thing, there's hardly anything

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