...So, as we determined from yesterday's blog entry, I clearly have no life.

This is because I have seen over 85 movies from a particular movie meme that I did, but honestly, I think the originators of the list meant if you'd seen 85 movies in your lifetime. Maybe that was true 40 years ago, but definitely not today.

My generation (I'm 35) went to the movies as part of the social scene. It's what you did, and movies became events. Not like they were in the 30s and 40s, but they became appointment situations. There was the Star Wars trilogy, and the Indiana Jones trilogy, and the Back to the Future trilogy... sequels, and prequels and the advent of computer generated special effects instead of miniatures and fishing line. Not that there's anything wrong with that methodology, but the effects now are so much cooler and more realistic. And it seems that people want realism with their escapism techniques.

Movies were part of the social scene, the dating scene, the conversation around the water cooler. You watched a new hot movie or you were left behind in the dust. It's like in the early days of Survivor on television. You didn't know what being "voted off the island" meant unless you watched the show. I didn't watch it (still don't), but I figured it out eventually. Still, it took awhile.

I had A count the DVD shelves after I did that meme (I did it a couple of weeks ago, just didn't get around to posting it until now), and she's seen 130 of the 175 sitting on the shelves. And many many more than that, since we rent movies too. She's only 11. B has seen what A has seen... she's 9. I've rated almost 2000 movies (and still have more to go) on my Netflix account, and I'm only 35. That's an average of 57 movies a year for every year I've been alive. Of course a lot of those involve television series, and there are quite a few more that I haven't rated or aren't available for me to rate because they're not out on DVD, but that's still a lot of time sitting on my rear watching a movie or television.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. I like watching movies, and I've already admitted to having a television addiction. But to think that someone who had watched more than 85 movies has no life is a little unrealistic. Unless, as I said, this was 40+ years in the past.

An article came out near the beginning of the year that mentioned the number of hours that the average American spends watching television a day. Apparently average Americans are up to about 4 1/2 hours a day of watching television. I think I only manage that on weekends, and only then because of the kids watching cartoons in the morning. I manage maybe 2 hours a night, and sometimes 15 minutes of that is spent napping. I think if someone is averaging 4 1/2 hours a day watching television then something is clearly wrong.

Does that mean I need to work harder at being lazier? Because clearly I'm under average, and no one likes an underachiever. That's not to say that I haven't spent some days where the television has been on the better part of a day. It's just that I don't make a habit of it.

On a not totally unrelated topic, it's not realism that I'm after when I watch television most of the time. Yeah, I spend some time on Animal Planet and Discovery Channel but far more time is spent watching network television and things that aren't "reality shows". I want, when I watch television, to turn my brain off for awhile - as some woman on a radio station that DH was listening to put it. It's that turning off of the brain that helps me wind down at the end of the day. I don't need to watch every night, but it sure helps me relax and escape from anything that's still swirling around in my brain and won't settle down. And while television is wholly unrealistic, nothing beats watching a movie for true escapism...

...now be quiet and pass the popcorn. This is the good part.