Television is more interesting than people. If it were not, we would have people standing in the corners of our rooms - Alan Corenk

We work less than a few decades ago and have thus more time than the former generation. It is a fact however, that no generation has complained more about 'lacking time' than ours. Besides the number of working hours, the number of hours spent on housework has also dropped significantly, even for working women, so the sense of 'having no time' is a strange paradox, all around.

[from What's Offline Sunday New York Times by Paul Brown]
"Since 1965, there's been a six- to eight-hour weekly increase in leisure for the average worker age 21 to 65," Mr. Hurst told Kiplinger's.
Mr. Hurst explains where all that free time is coming from: men are working less, with part of the increase attributable to stay-at-home dads. "For women, all of the increase is from a decline in housework — less cooking, cleaning, laundry and grocery shopping than 40 years ago," he says.
And what are we doing with all our additional free time? "Roughly two-thirds of the increase in leisure is spent watching television. That's been consistent across population groups since 1965. More recently, we've spent more time on the Internet, less time reading and a little bit more time exercising. We're going to church about a half-hour a week less."

On average, people seem to be watching 2-3 hours of television per day. We are no exception. Our satellite receiver broke down a few days ago and we have hence not been able to follow our daily television routine. It is strange how you find yourself feeling oddly deprived. The routine is gone and you have all this spare time on your hands. What to do with it? Do important and rewarding things such as: Read, talk to other half, paint, do tax declaration... The options are plentyfold.
No, we tried to fix the problem and when that didn't work we looked for other means (DVD's, second satellite receiver...) - everything to get the precious television back.

It is funny albeit a bit sad I admit :-)