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I wrote this story in response to my problem with TV.

Another long day of classes, and Charlie was exhausted. Three papers had been due on the same day, and Charlie had had many sleepless nights in the library with his friends. He lived in a small apartment close to campus with a an old friend from grade school days, and it was to this place where he went at this particular moment. He walked in the door, threw his backpack in the corner, and headed to the kitchen to get something to drink. After selecting a frosty root beer that his roommate had been hiding, he plopped down on the tattered sofa and turned on the tv. As usual, there was nothing on. Frustrated, he flipped channels and finally landed on an old re-run of Giligan's Island. It was exactly what he needed, something mindless after a long day of thinking. It appeared to be a marathon, and after the 3rd episode aired, his roommate came in.

"Hey, you didn't happen to buy some root beers today, did you?"
Charlie remained silent, and gave a slight smirk.
"Seriously," his roommate said, "Nothing is safe in this place! Next time, you can buy me a case of drinks!" The roommate walked off, muttering some foul words under his breath.

His roommate having gone, he went back to watching tv. It seemed as though the marathon had just ended, he flipped through some more channels and found an old horror flic that was filmed in the 40's. He usually didn't watch old movies, but this one was particularly good.

There was a knock at the door.
"Come on in!" he yelled.
In walked a young woman in her mid-twenties. She walked up behind him and started rubbing his shoulders.
"I hope you haven't forgotten about our date tonight. This marks the one year anniversary of our first date. I hope we can go somewhere romantic. What about that French place that your parents took us to for your birthday? Should I call and make the reservations?"
Charlie reached his hand behind him and rubbed her hands.
"Sure!" he said. "As long as it makes you happy! Hey! Do you want to sit down and watch this movie with me? I can't remember what's its called, but it's pretty good!"
She took a quick glance at the screen and declined his offer.
"I have to get some errands done, but I will see you tonight!"
She gave him a hug, and walked out the door.

The movie had just ended, and he didn't even get to see it's conclusion! He was slightly irritated by this. Still, he couldn't think of anything better to do, so he turned the the home and garden channel. There was some show on about organizing cluttered houses. For some odd reason, it captured his attention. Perhaps he could get some ideas for cleaning out his own appartment. Just then, his roommate walked past him.

"Still watching a bit of tv, huh?" he asked.
"Yeah, I can't think of anything really to do. I've never been that great with hobbies."
His roommate considered this a moment, and then let it pass.
"I'm on my way to a dinner with the boss. Hopefully I can get that promotion now that Mr. Cole retired."

And with that, he walked out the door. "Odd," he thought. "I thought that he was still a full-time student. When did he get a job? Then he thought, it's not uncommon for students to have part-time jobs. I just wonder why he never told me about it."
He went back to watching watching the organizational show, but growing bored, he turned it on an action adventure movie. Guns and bombs! Just what the doctor ordered!

"Can I sit with you?" a small voice asked. Without waiting for a response, a little boy crawled up on the couch beside him. "What are you watching?" the boy asked.

Charlie realized that the action movie wasn't good for a small child, so he turned the channel to a Sesame Street. Wait! Who was this child anyway? Perhaps his girlfriend was babysitting again. After a while the child left. Since the child was gone, he turned it to a sports channel. A football game between two rival teams was showing. Before the end of the second quarter of the game was over, the phone rang.

"Hello?" Charlie said. But, he was confused by the voice on the other end of the phone. It was a lawyer asking for a Charlie, but the lawyer must have had the wrong number. He didn't recall ever being married. He hung up the phone, but something about that call bothered him. He went on watching the game, and luckily, his home team won. It was getting late, and all that was on were infomercials. Some guy was selling some type of home workout system. He needed to tone up, so he decided to watch it. He might even buy one some day. The wind was picking up outside, and the lights flickered on and off, and finally they went off all together. He sat a moment in the dark, waiting for the power to come back on. He picked up a flashlight and walked down the hall to find his roommate. He shone his light onto the walls, and suddenly a ghastly old man appeared. Who could possibly be his apartment at this hour? "Oh no!" he exclaimed! He had forgotten all about his anniversary date! He hoped that his girlfriend would forgive him! He already felt a bit guilty anyway for not recalled how they first met or any of the dates they had been on. There must have been something wrong with his mind. Just then, the lights came back on, and to his horror, the strange figure who was standing in front of him was none other than himself! When had he become so old? He heard a crash of thunder, and he walked to the door, opened it, and beheld the majesty of nature. The lightning flashed, the thunder crashed, and the wind blew in a symphony of fury. It was so beautiful, that his heart skipped a beat, and then stopped.

The doctors said that he had suffered a prolonged loss of oxygen to the brain, and that he was physically alive, but brain-dead. His ex-wife, son and daughter-in-law, and his own two grandchildren stood in silence for a quite some time, staring at Charlie as he lay in his bed; the only sounds were the hum of his life support system and random chatter from some talk show on the hospital room tv.
"What should we do?" they asked. "It would be unfair to leave him in this state. He doesn't even know what's going on around him."
They stood and while and contemplated their dilemma. Charlie lay in the bed, still breathing, staring, but he did not appear to be looking at anything in particular. His grandson stared for a moment at his grandfather and remarked, "But why would you want to do anything to him? He doesn't look any different from usual."

Good story!

As far as the whole "TV is good" or "TV is bad" thing, I dunno. I'm kind of in the middle. I'm not addicted to TV, but I am not "anti-TV" either. I do kind of have to watch myself when I'm home alone during the daytime because I keep channel-surfing, but I eventually just get frustrated and turn the thing off. I have a TV in my room, but I use it strictly for watching videos and DVDs, and I don't watch stuff in my room very often. So...yeah. I do get annoyed when the TV is on all the time, but I'm not as frustrated as you are about it.

Whiiiiiiite Collllllar....I like that show. heart
I also watch Mythbusters, NCIS (although my mom kind of overdoes it rolleyes ), soap operas (but usually about once a week), and, occasionally, Dirty Jobs. I used to watch Magnum, P.I. reruns until the stupid TV station that was airing the show replaced it with DR. OZ. evil Grrrrrrr.
What drives me crazy is my mom's incessant watching of NCIS--yes, I love that show too, but there can be too much of a good thing; that's how she got me thoroughly sick of M*A*S*H--and my dad's addiction to auto racing and all these weird, random shows on the Speed Channel. Especially Pass Time. My apologies to anyone who likes it, but that show makes me want to hit things. I always leave the room when my dad has it on.

My mom and I both use the phrase "eye candy" quite frequently, especially when discussing Harrison Ford, Tom Selleck, and yes, the guy from White Collar. (I'm 24 and she's in her late 50s, but somehow we both like the same actors.)

About racing shows: Well, I don't mind NASCAR, and I tolerate NHRA drag racing fairly well. It's just when both of those things are on the same day, one after the other, and my dad monopolizes the television for eight or nine hours at a time, that I go crazy. It's the other shows on the Speed Channel, like Pass Time and Pinks, that drive me insane. Like I said, Pass Time makes me want to hit things. Actually, any car-related programming gets mind-numbingly boring after a while, even NASCAR. I've gotten to where I like it okay, but I don't want to watch any one thing all day long. I like a little bit of variety, please!

Too much to read! Must come back. xp

Oh, and how could I forget? WAREHOUSE 13!!! I LOVE WAREHOUSE 13! Too bad Season 2 doesn't start until January. emo

You would love Warehouse 13. Historical artifacts with superpowers! heart