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| I'm grabbing my ankle and holding my wife, |
SUMMARY:
As most of you know, Callie and I are not watching TV or movies or anything until March 31st (with the exceptions of the crappy Super Bowl and the Olympics that Callie can watch without me). Personally, I am enjoying this NO TV so much I may go without TV a lot longer.
SIGNAL TO NOISE RATIO:
Broadcasters have a term called Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR). SNR describes how strong your TV picture or your cell phone signal is compared to any interference.
It's kind of like when I want to listen to my I-Pod in my car. My car is old so my car stereo does not have a USB port for me to directly plug in my I-Pod. So, I have to connect an FM transmitter to my I-Pod. That transmitter then broadcasts an extremely low-power signal to an FM frequency of my choosing. If I then dial my FM stereo to that same frequency, I can hear my I-Pod. Of course, if the frequency I choose is the exact same frequency as the Mexican radio station, or the mind-wasting Top 40 station, or my wife's favorite/ awful country music station, then that radio station's stronger signal will trounce my weak I-Pod transmitter signal and I will hear a bunch of crappy static- or worse yet, country music- interfering with my awesome Morphine music. In this situation, the noise is as strong or stronger than the signal I want to hear. The ratio is unfavorable. What I need to then do is find an empty FM frequency so my awesome music signal is stronger than the noise. It's all about the ratio.
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| My wife and I watched all 263 episodes of Frasier. 263 episodes! Geez! |
My brain has thoughts, a signal I can transmit into the world with my words and actions.
All these TV shows I have crammed into my brain are noise. For years now, my brain's eye/ear/thought in-holes have just taken the constant stream of noise the hundreds of episodes each of the hundreds of TV series got paid to shove into me. Opiate of the masses? No: try the 2-foot FIST of the masses. That information fist has punched itself into my brain for years, hammering at my ambition, strangling my creativity.
FRASIER:
In 2013, Callie and I watched all 263 episodes of Frasier! 263! That's about 132 hours of TV, or about 6 straight days of TV. There were only 365 days last year and we spent 6 of them on Frasier! Our honeymoon was only one day longer than that. It's like we spent a second honeymoon watching Frasier! Sad.
What's sadder is that was not the only show we watched.
WEAK:
My signal has been weak. The noise has been strong. My signal-to-noise ratio is lopsided. I need to put more out into the world- but not just more- more quality! There is already enough more. The world already has more than enough garbage to fill the landfills of our minds. The world has enough noise. Everybody thinks their signal is important- but to the rest of us, it's just more noise.
SUMMARY:
In short, it's time for quality over quantity. It's time to reduce the noise I am receiving, and the noise I am broadcasting. It's time to transmit a clear signal.Om.
Bye! I'm Jake!
