Done

The end has finally come. There were some definite ups and downs. But overall this no-TV thing can be fun, and it gave me more time for my friends that live far away or even next door. I realized that I actually have a fair amount of free time. I will in the next few upcoming months find ways to use my free time as affectively as possible. There will always be times when I want to watch TV but that is just for certain shows (Grey’s Anatomy, Friends, One Tree Hill, Big Bang Theory, Buried Life and My Life as Liz). I used to watch TV a lot of time before these last three weeks and I can see myself after the first couple days of freedom not watching that much TV anymore. Since I have learned how it feels to do the polar opposites, I am sure I will find a happy medium. That is my new goal- to have the right balance.

Plants vs. Zombies

In this entire experience I was hoping to gain better time management skills. That didn’t exactly happen the way I hoped. I ended up spending most of my time playing Plants vs. Zombies when I was really hoping to finish an entire book. Plants vs. Zombies is an amazing game but it was pointless for me to play since I have already beaten it. I plan on trying to watch less TV from now on. I have learned that I can do a lot more productive things with my life especially on weekends. I have almost finished “pimping” out my Mom’s bike, which is one thing I always pushed back on doing things. Since I will probably always continue to play my zombie games, but will use my other free time for more exciting things.

Almost Done

Not allowing myself to watch TV has been interesting. The thing I find most funny is that at times I have wanted to watch anything so bad and other I don’t care at all. I am actually continuing the no TV till my birthday. This experience will affect me for a while. I don’t think in the future I will rely on TV so much for entertainment. I will be spending most of my summer at camp then off to university, so I won’t be watching a lot of TV in the near future. So this experience I feel was a test for my upcoming months.

Green Beans

Spring as really arrived. Bad thing about this is the steroid mosquitoes that start to come out that are starving to bite anyone. Good thing is that my mom has been able to plant her organic vegetable garden. Since we live in the suburb we are very lucky to have a large garden. These vegetables will be used a lot; we always have too many tomatoes. In past years I my mom has done all the work but this year I will help her. I think it is amazing being able to have this as something our family can use every year.

Stupid Brother

Well one thing that I have definitely learned this past three weeks is that my brother and I can really irritate each other. We either have very similar taste in shows or complete opposites. So sometimes it became very annoying when he was watching, Tosh. or Jackass or Americas funniest home videos or The Big Bang Theory. He laughs so loud that you have to turn around to see why, but after doing this 30 times and always catching yourself looking at the time you started to get annoyed. So I basically have to send him away to another TV. I feel like I did that with my whole family that I am always the one that make people leave the room because they know they can’t watch TV around me. Or when Andy ( brother) purposely puts on a show around me because he knows I don’t want him to watch it when I am in the same room and then continue to laugh loudly at the show. He is not making this easy.

Boredom



My Turtle Beans



Even though I have been swamped with school work, everyone always needs a break from doing work. This is where TV would be a nice break from school work. I did state before that watching TV and not having a plan of what you want to watch is pointless, but when you need a break from being busy mindless TV is perfect. Obviously I have not done any of this recently for this project but that is one thing I am really missing- my small stress reliever.  So in the past two weeks I tried to find other things to do to relax or take a break from work. I did knitting, painted my bike and I got rather bored one day so I made my turtle Beans have a photo shoot. I have to admit I thought I wouldn’t be as excited for TV when the time comes but I will be. Also I think Beans will be happy too-he will be left alone to swim.

Babysitting Trouble

This week went by very fast due the amount of things I had going on during the school nights.  This was completely different compared to the week before where I was dying to find something to do each night. The school work has really begun to pile up, which means the "no TV" is being helpful. The one night I wasn’t doing homework all night I had to babysit. Without even knowing it I let the girls watch TV and I watched along with them. I felt rather guilty about that but then I realized that going to someone’s house and saying no you cant watch TV here would be really rude. So I felt less bad about it as the night went on. The worst part of the whole thing was that the girls lied to me and said they could watch this show called ICarly. The truth was actually revealed when there father came home and said that they haven’t watched that show in years because it turns sweet girls into rotten ones, then the oldest girl proceeds to stick out her tongue to prove a point her father was making. Their dad even mentioned that he thought he blocked that show. So the only chance I have gotten to see TV was something I actually really shouldn’t have done for more then this project. What I have learned from this week that child shows now are rude and teaching mean behaviors, nothing like they used to be, like veggie tales and Arthur. Also that there is no point in watching TV if you don’t know what you want to watch. That watching TV and you are just mindlessly flipping through the channels in a pointless waste of time.  

Week Two

Blinders in my own home

The first week is finally done! I am actually glad I decided to do this challenge in these three weeks. I have a large amount of summatives that have to get finished in the next two weeks. This is understandable though because it is the end of high school so other than the exam this is the last evaluations teachers for us.  So the free time of not watching TV is going to become handy. The main issue that I having right now and will continue for the next few weeks is the fact of how my house is very open concept. This meaning if anyone was watching TV in the family room you can see it from anywhere on the entire first floor. I almost feel the need to have blinders like a horse in my own house. We have three TVs in my house, which is a lot. Since I am not watching TV this means that everyone in my family has one to claim. I am always surrounded by the TV playing this makes it difficult to see any of my family. For instance right now my mom is upstairs watching TV, my dad is down stairs and my brother is in the family room. This meaning I have been listening to music constantly lately. This has started to become interesting. I am going to unplug the TV soon, most likely the weekend due to all my summatives. With unplugging the TV and it not turning on with the remote or switch they will give up on watching, well at least my brother will. That is going to be my master plan from now on.

The Dreaded Weekend

My no impact challenge has almost reached one week. It was not how I expected it to turn out. Throughout the weekdays I had 3 out of the 5 days with nothing to do after school which is where I would normally spend A LOT of my time watching mindless TV. So it was a challenge for me to find productive things to spend my time doing. I have become determined to make this old bike look nice and work better. I have taken many things apart so hopefully I can put it back together in the end. I also have my friend Anthea doing the same thing, so we will support each other and figure out the nuts and bolts. The main worry I have realized for me for this challenge is the weekends. Luckily I have two weekends taken up by a lifeguarding course. The extremely hard part is when I come back from the course and am exhausted. So I am going to make sure  to keep up the self control to find better and more productive things to do.

The Beginning Days

Yesterday was my first day on my three week journey of not watching TV. It was not as much of a challenging I expected it to be. I was rather busy all night with schoolwork and university preparations so I didn’t notice the change much. Today has been a different story though. I often always have something that needs to get done each night and tonight I didn’t have anything.  So this would be a typical night for me to catch up on shows and watch a lot of TV in my large amount of spare time. So with this new free time not taken up by TV I have found myself doing things that I often kept pushing back to another day to do, which I am VERY happy I am fianlly getting done. I am doing things I know should get done and always say I will do soon. For instance I need a bike next year for school and I have always planned to take my mom's old fashioned bike. It is very rusted and dirty so I have been spending the whole night basically “pimping” it out. I finally am going to paint it which I have said I was going to do for a year. So overall this free time so far has not been painfully boring more beneficial.

NO IMPACT- Statment of Intent

         

        Our environment class has decided to embark on doing something or take something out that is having a negative affect on the planet. This was inspired by the documentary No Impact Man created and done by Colin Beavan and his family. Colin   his wife, 2 year-old daughter and dog spent an entire year creating a lifestyle where there was no impact on their surrondings and in the world. To sum it up, the Beavans lived an entire year with no trash, no carbon emissions, no toxins in the water, no elevators, no subway, no products in packaging, no electricity, no TV,  no toilets and many other things.

         Our class is not being as committed as the Beavans, basically due to the comfort level that they had to give up. So each person in the class is giving something up that impacts their environment for 3 weeks. There are many options for each of us; it is just choosing how committed people want to be. I have finally been able to become vegetarian over the past year against my mother's wishes. I originally decided to make this diet due to animal rights but I have also recently have learnt I have  less of an impact on the environment by making this choice. By just cutting out all meat and fish it saves water because farming consumes 70% of the water for live stock. It also saves land, protects the ocean and over all reduces your carbon footprint. Livestock farming is responsible for almost 20% of all greenhouse gas emissions and 65% of Nitrous Oxide emission which is very dangerous. Cows and sheep are responsible for 37% of the total methane generated.

        Being vegetarian is something that I plan on keeping for the rest of my life, so for this project I decided to do a couple other things. I have decided to completely cut out all TV for the next three weeks. This includes internet TV and movies. I never realized till this project how much TV I do watch until I totaled it all up. I would watch over approximately 20 hours a week. That is just not right-that is almost a full day a week wasted! This is going to be great challenge for me. I will probably want to cheat because TV is almost a comfort blanket for me to have each night which is pathetic. I don’t plan on cheating at all, because I am excited to see what I will be doing with this spare time and hopefully just not use it for sleep. Sadly I don’t think that what I am going to be giving up will be measurable due to the fact that my parents are not following me with my action. I have also learned that 80% of the TV's power is still used when it is plugged in. I do plan to unplug the TVs unless my family gets really frustrated with me. But I will see how that goes.

        Even though this is not something that creates a huge difference as I would have liked, it is a test for me for the future. If I am able to do this now and see what I get out of it I will see all the things I can do with this free time and hopefully carry on watching less in the future. I also plan in the future that when I have my own TV I will unplug it as much as possible.

         I am very interested in my impact on the environment so I have also decided to really help my mother with our organic garden. She grows one every year but I have never really helped so now with all my free time of not watching TV I am going to truly help her this year. I love to eat organically so this only makes sense. This way my mother and I will feel better about what we are eating and  also what our family is eating.

        So from this day on I am not watching TV or using a TV for the next 3 weeks, and trying to eat more organically as well. I am excited to see what will come from these actions. I know I will not have the same experience as the Beavans’ but I am excited to see what I will get out of it and hopefully see a bit of what they had to go through.