T.V free summer

I am free.

Television has loosened its stranglehold on me.

"Survivor"

is over and I am now free to write about whatever I want to write about.

Next week I plan to write about the rise in vacationers taking tours of

Transylvania on what is called the "Dracula Tour." This week,

my brain is still filled with the sweetness of season finales and my decision

to give up network television this summer.

You must understand

that I, like many of you out there, love television. Everything from "Angel"

to "The X-Files." It seems like there is a good show to watch

every night and some nights there are even two or three on. Thursdays

were a good example. I watched "Survivor" from 8-9 p.m. and

then would watch a tape of the episode of "Friends" I missed.

Ninety minutes of network television. I have even gone so far as to not

watch "The West Wing," which is an excellent show, on Wednesdays

because it was the one night a week that I didn't have a show I "had"

to watch.

So, now that

all the television shows I do watch have gone the way of the rerun for

the next three months or so, I have come up with a plan. I will not watch

network television during the week. Saturday nights I still plan on watching

"Cheaters" which is an amazing reality program and I still plan

on watching "Futurama and The Simpsons" on Sunday nights, just

because. 90 minutes of network television a week is pretty good though,

right?

This is my

own way to get