TV Update - Excuses for Turning on the Boob Tube

If you've read any of my most recent posts, you've read that one of my biggest goals for 2007 is to cut back on hours the tv is on and increase my reading and writing.

The first few days went very well and I was enjoying life without television. Thursday was my third day in a row without tv, but I ended getting violently ill most of the night (don't think it was from tv withdrawal). Friday I stayed home from work and slept most of the day, but eventually got tired of being alone and listened to pounding rain on the roof of our house. So .... I foolishly turned on the tv. Not a great way to break a streak.

Yesterday I was on a plane for a good portion of the day on my way here to New York City for the Inman Real Estate Connect conference. I have to admit that as soon as I checked into the hotel (right after trying to get an internet connection) I turned on the tv in my room to watch the Seahawks get very lucky to get past the Dallas Cowboys in their first round wildcard playoff game.

I'm still not feeling that great and didn't get started this morning until about 9am and could not get an internet connection at all (I eventually ended up changing rooms this afternoon so I can get connected). I was planning to attend the final day of taping of the most recent HomeTeam television show, but by the time I was able to get ahold of the people on set, I was informed that the "reveal" had been moved up from 1pm to 11:30am and that I probably would not be able to get there in time. My mistake, as I was really looking forward to finally seeing part of the show being filmed. I look forward to watching the latest New York (Mount Vernon) HomeTeam episode when it airs across the country (next month?).

Since I wasn't able to make it to see the reveal, I spent some time exploring the city in the morning - finding the conference hotel, checking out Rockefeller Center and the Empire State Building and then came back and ..... turned on the tv in my room so that I could watch two more NFL games - each involving a NY team. My buddy Rolf's team is the Jets and they got beat up pretty good by the Patriots this afternoon. Right now, the NY Giants aren't looking so good against the Eagles. I was really pulling for the Jets, but every time I see the Giants play I want them to get their butts kicked - and probably will as long as they have a Manning on their team.

The reason I will never pull for a Manning is the way that Eli and his father handled the draft situation when the Chargers had the first pick in the draft and Archie told them not to draft his son because he would not play for them. They drafted him anyway and immediately traded him for David Rivers, who has led them to the best record in the NFL this year. I really wish I could see the Mannings watching the Chargers playing the in the Superbowl.

But I badly digress .... The point of this entire post was supposed to be how difficult it is (at least for me) to avoid television - especially while sick, traveling and/or during football playoffs. I'm not giving up, but I definitely have room for a lot of improvement. On the positive side, I did get well into a book called "Mortgage Confidential" by David Reed while on the plane yesterday and will be doing a lot of blogging from the Inman conference in the next few days.

Stay tuned.