Just because I haven't posted, doesn't mean I haven't been watching. I've just been too busy to post :)

"First Wave" cycled back to the beginning, so I stopped the daily taping and watching. FK is approaching the end of the first season, but I missed a few episodes, so I'll have to catch them the next time around. TAR2 has been wonderful and I, like others on the TWoP forums, am already dreading the TAR-withdrawal that I'll face in three(!!!) short weeks. RW/RRC is dragging along. It's taught me that they really shouldn't throw in so many repeats on a reality show or we'll stop caring. TE2 has slipped in more soap opera crap than last year. It detracts from the actual demands of the competition. If it's not careful, I'll be left with only TAR3 to care about in the world of reality tv.

On the upswing, with the approach of sweeps, BtVS will return with some (finally!) compelling episodes -- at least that's what all the spoilers I've read suggest--and other shows will be pulling out the guest starts and cliffhangers to make things interesting. More importantly, PBS is following up "1900 House" with "Frontier House" and, I, personally, find this type of historical reality show incredibly compelling. Time to invest in some blank videotapes so that I don't miss anything!

Yes, I know I'm a mid-level television addict. It's not as bad as a decade ago when I religiously watched seven (yes SEVEN) soap operas a day in addition to watching nightly television shows and attempting to record every episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" AND "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" in order! Right now I am taping two shows on the Sci-Fi channel that are on while I'm at work(one just to watch because I missed it when the show was first run, the other because I have an incomplete collection of the episodes and it's not available on dvd-- yet). I watch three reality shows religiously (even taping them while I watch in case I need to go back and catch something I missed), and I don't miss a new episode of BtVS.

I'm sure that sounds like a lot. But a month ago two of those reality shows weren't on the air and right now BtVS is mostly reruns. A month from now, "First Wave" will have cycled through the entire three years of the show and I'll stop taping it and "Real World/Road Rules Challenge" will be over. In May BtVS will finish it's season and by July I'll have all of "Forever Knight" on tape and will be able to end that daily recording. Once TAR2 and Tough Enough are finished, I won't have any ongoing TV addictions. Just shows I enjoy when I happen to see them.

Hell, I even told my mom that she can use my TNG collection as blank tapes, because I don't think it's worth her shipping all those tapes to me out here. Seven years of episodes that I worked hard to get in order and I'm thinking just toss them. Of course, I did tell her not to touch anything with DS9 on it or the favorite episodes of "Highlander: The Series" that I collected. And there is the pesky fact that I'm working now to get "Forever Knight" on tape. Still, I think if something is good enough to hold my interest for 10+ years (I remember stumbling across the premiere of FK back in college in 1990) that it's likely to do so for another decade. As enjoyable as I find BtVS, TE, and TAR, I don't think I'll care five years from now. Maybe that's why I'm making a point to enjoy them now.

Someone on a discussion list posted that she hasn't watched tv in five years. I suppose if you have children, two jobs, and are busy running discussion forums and websites as well as having a significant other, tv may not be your first choice for entertainment. I just happen to be one who grew up on television -- and even wanted to write for television for a long time. I doubt I'll ever go five days without turning one on, let alone five years.