I get pretty amazed all the time at the things my kids seem to know and at the knowledge they often display.

All sorts of stuff from the latest in rocket science to new developments in alternative energy fuel sources, to the very latest emerging legal technicalities in a popular musician's controversial trial they are learning and soaking in information from the tube at an amazing rate, all sorts of stuff that they do not even learn in school.

Despite having grown up with Television myself, I honestly do not remember ever being that knowledgeable about such a wide range of different subjects and topics.

Of course the battle to keep them off the tube long enough for them to do some decent amount of school work, still rages more than ever. And mostly it is battle that many parents all over the world are losing, whether they like it or not and whether they know it or not.

Many times I trace back the source of my kid's information to Television and do bear in mind the fact that we are well into the information age where the World Wide Web or internet is supposed to be ruling as the undisputed heavy weight champion and king of all mediums. Is it not amazing that Television still rules in terms of educating us all?

My own personal habits that I have unconsciously developed in recent years still point to Television being the major education tool even for me. I often watch something interesting on the tube that sends me to the World Wide Web for more information. See how these two mediums are working together in our lives? Indeed many of the other mediums these days, like newspapers, radio and books seem to be constantly sending us back to the World Wide Web for more information. Usually it is for more depth while at other times it is for more recent developments and updates on the subject of interest.

By the way, like most working parents, I do not watch very much Television these days. Still I tend to gather lots of information on the few occasions that I do find the time to watch a little Television.

Whatever the case, the internet seems to be very efficient and useful in providing more information. However it is clear that the initial information and education is still provided by the tube.

Yet it was not too long ago that some people had started predicting that Television was on its way out with the emergence of the World Wide Web or internet. These guys must have gotten really excited when research figures, proving that the net was the first medium in decades to cause people to watch less Television, started coming in.

Still there is no sign of Television disappearing from our lives, at least not any time soon. And if anything, history tells us that Television will only redefine itself but will never disappear. The introduction of new mediums throughout history has yet to cause the demise of previous other mediums. For example books did not disappear when newspapers came and neither did newspapers exit when radio came. Today radio still thrives long after Television took over as king. And so it stands to reason that Television will not disappear, even as the internet continues to become more and more important to our daily lives.

So the scene in our home in the living room continues to be the pretty much the same old and familiar one. My son armed with the remote and his siblings arguing with him over which channels he should flip to and which ones he should not. My daughter's interests are naturally very different from those of my son and it is not really just an age thing at all.

Once in a while they will arrive at a channel that they all want to watch. This is of course increasingly rare and order only truly exists when that remote is firmly in my hands. Then I get only polite requests and equally polite and swift compromises.

Have you ever thought about what your life would be like without television? TV is a part of all our lives now, even for those who choose not to have a set in their homes; it has changed our culture tremendously. Television makes our lives more immediate; we can know about important events going on all over the world just by clicking on a channel and looking into the lives of others. Although many may think television has become too invasive and has changed our culture in a negative way, it has also been used to educate and teach us about things we would have never known if we were living in previous times.

During the Middle Ages, people usually did not venture farther than a half day's journey away from their home villages. Many people never went farther than that during their whole lives. News traveled very slowly, and it was sometimes several months or even years before a messenger or traveler would come through a remote village and tell the people about the results of wars, new kings being crowned, and other important events. Average people back then lived in a perpetual state of unawareness of current events; they probably knew intimately the affairs of their neighbors, but international news made no impact on their daily lives, at least not until the taxman came around.

It's interesting to think how some of the events of past history would have been covered by television news shows. Imagine seeing Michelangelo painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel on a CNN feature story, or an interview with Frederick Barbarossa on his way to the Crusades. How about a reality show featuring some young people who had fled to the Italian hills to avoid the plague? Survivor would have had contestants roughing it in the newly-discovered Americas, and a soap opera of Henry VIII and his wives or the court of Louis XIV would have been popular mid-day fare. Would absolute kings have been able to stay in power if television cameras had been documenting their every move? Doubtful!

I read a story in a newspaper about some very poor citizens of Mexico who lived in a landfill. They lived in shacks made of paper and tin and other materials they found in the piles of garbage, but they did have electricity. One of the photos showed an open door to a shack, and inside was a television, its picture gleaming in the darkness of the windowless hovel. A television is almost a necessity for most people today, and one of the first things that teenagers, newlyweds, and those moving into new homes buy.

Televisions serve as friends to the lonely, can make people happy and sad, or angry and apathetic. Can we believe all we see on TV? TV is a powerful tool, and is a tool that can be used for good or for no good. Is it today's equivalent of the ancient Romans' "bread and circuses?" We don't have to leave our homes, or even a room, to be voyeurs of the world, to travel to faraway places, to see people grieving or jumping for joy all over the globe. Television, you have changed our lives forever. What's next?

I was studying in my fifth grade, and at that time, had much charm for the TV and films that were telecast on it. But at that time, there were no digital channels and the only channel that we had, showed little number of films, and we were always finding a chance to see one, anyhow!

The times changed and VCRs made their way in the market, and luckily, one of the neighbors purchased one VCR set. All the boys of my street got very excited at the idea of watching a film on a VCR, as we would have all the control on its functions, and there will be no limitations. However, the limitation came soon, as the Granny of that household was not that very accommodative to the children of the whole street! And we found it very difficult to get into their house for watching the movie that they might have brought for themselves.

The main-gate of their house started remaining closed, as it was not the case previously. And whenever there was a movie played in their house, they tightly locked their door and sit inside. However, the other members of the family was not that irritated by our invasion in their house and they generally let us in. But we had to rush out, as soon as there was a talk of the Granny coming into the room. It was just like watching the clips of the movie, and we hardly watched any movie completely. But we could not control ourselves for the charm of the VCR and were satisfied to watch that much!

And now that I am grown up, I laugh at our idiosyncrasies, as we have a large number of digital channels but I have no interest to watch the movies. It all changed and the charm of VCR is nowhere around. Time has changed but the reminiscences are still there and I can't forget those days--perhaps those were the best days of my life!

Television became the part of life, and there was no household, which did not have a TV set! People sacrificed other important things for their life, but they bought a TV set anyhow. No wonder that children got spellbound by the effects of TV sets and there were times when parents thought that TV was spoiling their academic career.

It was before long that the parents decided to completely pack-up the TV sets during examination days. And this in turn increased the passion for TV, more, as if you keep away a thing from a person that he or she likes, the liking is going to increase and not decrease, as some may think! There were times when conflicts arose among the parents and the children, and both the parties thought that the others are not understanding and valuing their feelings.

Teachers were also aware about the growing popularity of TVs and they knew that students talked about the serials and films that were telecast on the TV. Whenever, there was a talk between some students, it tended to divert towards that films or serials or some other programs that were recently telecast on the TV! And before long, some teachers decided to make TV a way for learning, as there were educational programs and other things that was intended to impart knowledge in the minds of people. Somebody got more into the science and found that for making a film appear continuous on the TV, the screen was flashed 16 times in a second. And how the children remember those film and serial scenes, when they tend to forget they learn from books? They advised to read the books for 16 times so that the students could also remember the content, as they remember the TV scenes. It was a wonderful analogy but none took it seriously, as they thought it was a burden to read the books for sixteen times! But somehow, the TV kept its popularity and the charm for it never abated!

Is television really a waste of time? This is one of those topics that cause a lot of controversy, half people say yes and the other half say no. To me though I think it is valuable in more ways then one. Here is a list of why:

If you homeschool you may want to watch the discovery channel, this is filled with so much to learn. Recently my family and I watched quite a few shows on Egypt, so much that my son asked to go to the library and borrow more Egypt movies from the library. There are many shows that families can benefit from, another one that comes to mind is Dora The Explorer. Once again this is one of those things that people would say that is just a cartoon, but it is not. Dora The Explorer actually teaches children on television different words in Spanish. Granted she is not going to have your children speaking fluently in Spanish but she will teach them words. In all honesty no one learns to speak fluently in one afternoon either. It normally takes several if not many years to learn another language. Dora teaches the children through singing and having fun, with a little story to keep your children entertained.

As for a waste of time, it helps me at night. I currently have it on now. No, I am not watching it but I need it for the noise. I can not stand a house that is too quiet, at least this way I feel someone else is with me keeping me company.

Yes, during the day I must admit I am a soap junkie. I actually have a schedule and when it comes on I know right after that I need to start dinner. But during it I get to take a break, whether I am sitting their glued to it or sitting in the other room on the computer I still watch it. At night I watch certain programs such as CSI, Gilmore Girls, or Law and Order other friends watch the Survivor shows, The Nanny or Smallville, it is just recreation.

If you are wanting to learn to cook or just want to improve your cooking there are several channels dedicated to just that. Flip on your television and do a search, whether it is a juice sirloin or a mouth water crisp fruit salad drizzled with chocolate sauce there is definitely something to learn.

As you can tell there are many uses for television and in future blogs I will go into further detail about them. But from this small list I hope you can see that you can learn something from them as well as use it as recreation. Flip on the television and see what peaks your interest.

I spoke with my parents this week and while I was on the phone with my father he told me that he had just got his TIVO. That is right a TIVO! Okay, I never would have thought of my parents getting something like this, to me it sounds like getting a Flat Screen T.V. Just something the rich own. My dad was telling me that he could leave the room or talk on the phone and just pause it and later come back to where he left off and fast-forward through commercials.

Would not that be great is the regular televisions just gave us that option? Yeah I know if they did that then why would we have TIVOs. Commercials help with television programs and all that but some of these commercials I can really do without. What about you?

It would be great to be able to pause a movie if I had to run to the store to get a gallon of milk too. There are so many times during the day I miss something on the television because I need to do something, whether it is changing a diaper, fixing dinner or just tucking the kids in. Some time during a show I need to do something and most of the time it is not during the commercials. I decided to look up more on TIVOs and find out more about it so we could talk about his nifty little television set.

Here are some facts about owning a TIVO:
- No need for video tapes
- You can rewind or fast forward any shows you want to watch
- You can skip any or all commercials
- Works with antennae, cable or satellite
- Will record your favorite shows

However not all TIVOs are the same, some have 20, 40, 60 or more hours of recording. Granted this does mean that you do not HAVE to go to the video store to rent movies but at the same time that is a little extra money in your pocket, after all there is always something you can watch on television. You may never know what time a show is on anymore because TIVO lets you watch whatever shows whenever you want. If you watched a daily show like Smallville you may lose track of the time it actually comes on anymore when talking with a friend or maybe you get to watch it sooner than he/she does. Not to mention if you and her/him go out one night and miss the show you can still catch it later on. There really are not too many limits to watching shows through TIVO.

By looking up all this information I found some slight arguments against it but most things were extremely positive and why not. After my research I wonder why I do not have one. Not quite sure if we even have them out here. I will definitely have to check that out. In the meantime I sit and wonder if I got one would I be able to set it up. As I stated once before I am not really good with programming things, my luck I would buy something, not sure if you could but I would somehow figure that part out.

The next time I talk with my father I think I am going to ask him what new shows he has found through TIVO. How the TIVO machine is working? Does he get much use out of it and is it a better investment than his VCR?

I am pretty sure he will tell me it is great!

In old days, there were a charm for a new car and the enjoyment that it can bestow to the driver of the car. People felt obsessed with these cars and there were automobile companies trying to attract maximum number of customers by making their features and models up-to-date. Mechanical engineering and automobile engineering was greatly benefited by the advancement made by electronics engineering and the features of Mechtronics were awesome and mind-blowing. However, the benefits for electronic engineering were enough to enhance the popularity of some automobile companies, as they adopted these features in their cars and vehicles. Latest of them is incorporating a DVD player in the car. There is almost nobody without DVD players and if you own a car, you must have one for your car, for, making the journey light and enjoying.

It is obvious that car DVD players come in varieties of prices and features, and you may be baffled during making a choice for your car. However, below are some points that can be a little helpful:

The first thing that almost everybody thinks about, while buying a DVD player, is the price that he or she can afford. These car DVD players can be cheap and can be more than you can afford, so you can choose one that fits in your bill!

You must be aware about the exact place where you want to install your car DVD player, and this may also make up your choice. The quality and option of input systems will also have their part.

It is better if you make sure that any component system is expandable, so you can adjust your system in the future for more or different screens and input devices. Remember that the science and technology changes almost every second and the moment you buy a DVD player, you may come to know that it is already outdated!

It is very important to know the strengths of your vehicle's electrical system, for, the demand of these DVD players can be high and demanding at some times! There is nothing to ask a professional installer while determining these things.

You perhaps don't know that DVD players also play CDs and if you have one with you, it can be helpful for checking the DVD player at the shop itself.

These guidelines can serve a better lot for your choice while buying a car DVd player. But remember that front-seat viewing is illegal and it is almost idiotic and suicidal while the car is in motion. Male proper arrangements to install your car DVD player in a proper place! Taking the advice of a professional installer is never bad and you will really be benefited by him or her.

Also remember that these entertainment things are theft prone, and therefore, it makes proper sense to install a proper and reliable car alarm while you install a costly system in your vehicle. Investing a little more money can fool-proof your investment and you can enjoy the charm of DVD players without any tension.

Television: Taking Over the World?

You pick up a magazine that you just had to read and flip through the pages, and there are a few articles complaining about technology taking over for the worst. Obesity in children linked to watching television and playing video games. What should you think? Things get so confusing. Just when you got done watching Everybody Loves Raymond and laughed your guts out and then read that article: what SHOULD you think? Well, some articles may be right that television and obesity are linked together but that does not necessarily mean that television is bad for you. Sitting down to watch Sabrina the Teenage Witch with your kids isn't going to give you a beer belly to groan about. Television can be good for the emotions and education as well. It also has a way to cure boredom. Heck! You can even lose weight watching television when you plug in a work-out video! So with all the hype of becoming obese or becoming less educated is for the most part, falsified information. I'm not saying that means that your life should consist of nothing but watching television that is when it becomes an unhealthy degree, but just because you watch it doesn't mean that you'll become an addict. You can ride a stationary bike, or perform crunches or any sort of physical activity while watching television, the only question is, are you semi-talented at multi-tasking? If you are this shouldn't be a problem at all. Television can help express your emotions and help release stress, even if you didn't know it! You can't help but cry when you watch Titanic! And laugh your guts out at Will and Grace. It allows you to get in touch with your emotions, and there is in to way, shape or form anything wrong with that. It does not mean that you are going to become a television zombie that can't live without a remote control. Sometimes when our lives are so hectic, watching television is a great way to unwind from the stress of it all. You have 3 jobs, constantly cater to the kids' right when you get home and still have to drag in time for your spouse. So when you finally get that rare moment to yourself to just let loose, enjoy the moment and relax, television can honestly be a beautiful thing. The rumor about children becoming uneducated by television totally baffles me. I have no idea where anybody got that theory from. When I was over at my friends house baby-sitting, all of the television shows that they played for children were anything BUT un-educational. They taught them how to count, tie their shoes, the alphabet, and the little girl that I was baby-sitting had random spurts of moving along and dancing with the television show. It opens up a world of creativity and imagination for children. She had quite the sense of adventure when we had just got done turning off the television after the show Dora the Explorer was finished playing. Given all of the benefits over the bad reviews and articles of watching television, I think the benefits win. Studies HAVE shown that there is obesity linked to watching too much television, but that is by the persons CHOICE. You choose to sit down and watch the television instead of go out and ride a bike. Who ever said you can't do things and watch the television at the same time? I know that all of my friends can so I'm quite certain that it's not impossible. There are so many benefits to watching television. The food channel giving advice on some great healthy alternatives, exercise programs, children's shows that open up a world of imagination, heart touching shows that allow you to spew out all of your bottled up emotions, those pay-per view movies that add a splash of laughter and adrenaline rush. Sometimes the shows that they play on television open up new perspectives and teach you new things that you never new before. Sometimes its fun to watch television just to get out of your own reality and not have to deal with anything but watching someone else have their problems. Television has so many lifestyle options that it's hard to believe that someone would write a negative article about them. There are religious channels to help express your faith; old classics that you grew up with, and television shows that just really get into your core. So the next time you read an article that has several complaints about how television is ruining society and so on and so fourth that doesn't mean your life will be ruined or anything of the sort, there's so many other great benefits to watching television than there are any amount of bad reviews. Please also remember though, that if you do let television consume too much of your life, that is when it becomes unhealthy. Make sure that your children are getting their homework done instead of watching those double episodes of Pokemon, and make sure that both you and your children (or anyone else living in your family for that matter) have a healthy lifestyle outside of the land of laziness. That is very important, and that is where the bad reviews come from. People do watch TOO much television, to the point where it consumes their lives and they just can't miss that episode of Sex and the City. That is extremely unhealthy, not only physically, but it affects your social life and many other aspects. Television can be wonderful and quite beneficial to a certain degree when overdone it can be unhealthy and destructive to your life. So please make sure to balance how much television you want, but I must say that the constant bad reviews on watching television is a little over falsified. If you have time for a social life, physical activity, work and time for television you do have quite a healthy lifestyle (I'm not saying you have to be perfect though!) and you will not have anything to worry about when you pick up those concerning articles. Good luck, and remember that television is NOT evil!

By Kat Yares.

With the advent of DVDs taking over the marketplace, there are many ways to build a library full of VHS movies at a cost of next to nothing.

While I know, DVDs have all those little extra's on them, most of the time it really is the movie what you want to watch and I've found some easy ways to collect those movies you've always wanted to see.

Pawn Shops. Many pawnshops sell VHS movies for as little as a dollar each. Our local shop sells twelve for ten bucks. The selection is usually pretty good. Looks for cases in good condition as this generally means the movies haven't been watched much.

Garage sales. As more people make the switch to DVD, they are clearing the shelves to make room. While costing a bit more than pawn shops, expect to pay no more than two dollars each for blockbuster movies.

Flea markets. As with pawnshops, movies are generally rock bottom priced, as the idea is to get rid of them. Here too, the more you buy, the lower the price becomes.

Friends and Family. Ask around for those movies you really want. As the switch to DVD becomes more widespread, many people will give their old videos to loved ones that ask.

Online auctions. Online auctions such as eBay are a perfect place to pick up those hard to find videos. While you may have to pay a bit more, this is the place to look for those movies that cannot be found in your area. Watch out for exorbitant shipping charges. They can make your bargain a folly. Other online places to check are sites such as half.com and amazon.com.

Most super centers also have bargain videos at reasonable prices. You may have to dig through bins to find the good ones and you will also have to check often for new marked down titles.

All the above places are also great ways to build a new DVD collection if you've made the switch. Or do what we do, and look at both. Some older movies are not available on DVD yet, so VHS may be your only option.

I get all sorts of nightmares about television and its harmful effects on life, only that I cannot seem to pull myself away from the darn thing. It is like a spell that has held me totally stuck, totally devoted and firmly in it's' grip. I will share one of the most recent most horrifying nightmares.

You know those fast forward clips you see on television, used to illustrate progress and development over time. For example a person can start off seated in an empty room which fills up over time with all sorts of furniture and good things. Helps the decorators to see how ideas are developed, I guess.

I had this fast forward clip nightmare with me seated staring at the Television the whole time. It starts off with me alone, and then my wife joins me and then our two children. They grow up with my eyes still glued to the tube. They fight, do all sorts of cheeky things, but I never notice because my eyes are glued to the box.

Worse of all, my wife talks and I ignore her. She walks up to where I am seated and forcefully turns my head so that I can face her and listen to what she is saying (she's had to do that several times). Even then my ears are listening to the sound coming from the box rather than what she is saying. The moment she releases my head, it quickly turns back to the tube.

The kids grow up and they stand at the door and wave goodbye. But I hardly notice because... (You've guessed it.) And then I suddenly take my eyes off the tube one day to find that I am old. My faithful wife who gave up many years ago is still there
with me seated at a corner knitting something. But she's sickly and coughing all the time. The kids are all gone and yet I never really had the chance to get to know them. Heck I never even noticed them growing up.

Worse of all I am old and tired and have no idea where my life went so fast.

Shortly after this nightmare I took my family to the beach for a change. It wasn't too bad. We live in a coastal town now and one would have thought that we would take full advantage of it after all the previous years of being stuck in some stuffy town. But thanks mainly to television; it has not quite worked out like that.

The trip to the beach was not too bad. Except it took a lot of planning and I was worried sick the whole time. Worried of pickpockets, muggers and other criminals at the beach. Every time I was in the water and some stranger passed near where my family were, my heart would skip a beat.

As we all had Black & White televisions in our homes for entertainment, I also had one in my house. It is with my family since my birth, and so it was a memorable thing for all our family members. It was like a rectangular box with doors opened and a blue colored screen to prevent rays, and with manual control of channels and all other functions to operate the system. It has a four legs removable stand for resting it and also it can be placed on a table or almost on any other things that had some flat tops. We used to place it on a table in our home.

After using it for a period of about 20 years, we thought of taking a new television which may have a remote control, colored screen, and many more functions with a good quality of sound and visual effects. But keeping in mind the memories of the television, we never gave this idea a physical shape. But it is true that what will have to happen in future give some sort of strike to your mind in advance! As the time passed, the condition of television goes on decreasing and one day it started giving only the sound of the program without showing any picture, whatsoever. We played it for a number of days in the same condition, and after a few days some known person to our family brought a mechanic to out home and asked him to see the fault and get it repaired. The mechanic started his work but he could not find the fault. He guessed about the fault and tried to find it from the help manual, but in no way he was able to repair that television set. After a long process of trying to find the fault he told us that the picture tube of set is gone, so it must be replaced.

We, however, thanked him for his suggestion and paid for his try and took the set to some other mechanic the next day. He took the whole analysis and asked whether it was earlier analyzed by some other mechanic also. We told yes it was, then he told that during the process of analysis some faulty action made the picture tube failed to work! He told that the fault was at some other point rather than the point where the earlier mechanic analyzed. So there was nothing at that juncture that we could do, except changing the picture tube. Then came the time of our desire to purchase a color television with extra facilities for operating it, in our mind, and we finally decided to take a brand new color TV set rather that getting the old one repaired. That was the takeover of Old Memorable Television set's place by a new well-featured color television. a interesting journey for the TV, indeed!

Sometimes, I am forced to wonder about the importance of television in our life. Can we imagine a world without television in today's time? Well, many would say unimaginable! Prior to the advent of Internet, television was enjoying a place where Internet is probably having now. But still, its importance in terms of its reach to the masses all over the world has not decreased very much although the price of television sets may have come down.

Now let us take a look how the television has taken big strides by improving its form, voice quality, visual effects, working hours, types of entertainment and so on, along with its vital role play in the field of information and technology that is to say, by playing the second fiddle to computers, in the last two or three decades!

Previously, the screenplay was not used to be an instant effect. But now, it is! Not long ago, the remote control system was a non-existing entity; whereas today, one can have a number of effects with a remote control. In earlier times the number of TV channels was limited; but now, to count the number of channels a television can be very difficult! In the beginning, a television set was required to be installed with a number of accessories; but now, you can hang a television on a wall also. Further one can have a plasma screen in which the physical aspect of the screen does not exist at all.

Now talking about the size of the television: it has come of ages by being as minute as the palm and as large as a mini theatre. Also the sound and the visual quality have gone leaps and bounces according to the requirements of today's generation. In yester years, when a television used to be a means of entertainment for a particular class; but now, it has become an essential part of virtually every household, as every class can find its own taste in it. One can even find as many television sets as the number of people in a family in a single house; for, a single television set may not live up to the requirements of the whole family, and may lead to debates and disputes among the family members.

So we can say that television has changed, improved or developed itself to keep its place intact in the society rather than to loose its place because of Internet.

Television has been king for a long time, a very long time.

That is why I was recently amazed by a report I read which indicated that in a recent survey, internet use has become the first activity in 40 years that has clearly been documented as something that causes people to spend less time watching Television.

Of course this does not mean that Television is on the way out. Far from it. Just like radio did not die when television came along. And newspapers did not go out the moment radio arrived. The arrival of a new medium so far in history has never caused the demise of the previously dominant one. Only an adjustment and repositioning to accommodate the new king. In fact even as you read this, television is busy trying to do just that.

In fact despite the current heavy assault by the internet on television, there is no doubt that television will remain in the center stage for many more years to come.

This amazing box that sits in living rooms the world over. Looking so harmless and yet innocently encroaching on the privacy of our homes to bring us pictures of gory violence and other events from all over the world. But mostly the violence, the ratings depend on blood, the more the better. Everybody knows that.

This box that won John F. Kennedy the Presidency over the much older and more experienced Richard Nixon, but almost lost President George W. Bush his bid for a second term as Senator John Kerry scored resounding victories in the eyes of the public over him.

Television really is powerful, make no mistake about that. Analysts credit the tube for being responsible for the fall of the infamous Berlin wall that separated west and east and the two major ideologies that they represented and that dominated the world in that cold war era. The same analysts also credit Television for the dramatic fall of communism.

When TV pictures from the free western world arrived in communist Russia, the experts say, the masses were able to see for them and for the first time what life really was like in the West. No propaganda, just plain TV pictures and images of the truth. Well, at least the truth according to the major TV networks.

The Russian masses decided then and there that they were sick of communism and that they wanted the lifestyle that they saw on television.

Yep, that box is pretty influential. And responsible too, for all those prejudices and opinions that you and I hold dear.

Yet despite everything we know and everything that people say about television, we can't seem to have enough of it. And even if the net is dragging us away from the tube it is only for short moments and then we all inevitably get back to man's real best friend.

Oh what the heck, let's cut out the pretence and hypocrisy. To tell you the truth, I really want to know what's on
the tube tonight.

There has been huge changes in televisions and television programming in my life. I can remember as a small child watching television with my family. in those days people actually did that. The whole family would gather in one room, what everybody called the "TV room" and watch television together. It was actually a family time. Family shows were the big thing too. We would sit and watch the Ed Sullivan Show or Jackie Gleason. For us as kids there were some decent shows too. Many is the day I spent in front of the tube watching The Lone Ranger, Johnnie's Follies. Going back even farther I can remember watching Romper Room with Miss Linda and her magic Mirror that looked out through the television set and actually allowed her to see us in our living rooms. I waved back at her like an idiot.
As we got older the shows changed. I would watch I Spy and Mission Impossible. Star Trek and the like were just too good to be true.
If anything, the evolution in technology is even more remarkable. We spent our time glued to the small black and white television sets with no concept of what was in store for us down the road. Our neighbors got a color television set and we were just amazed at such a thing. The first remote control television was another major wonder; the idea that you could sit in your chair and change channels without getting up was just phenomenal.
The number of television stations is another huge difference. I was lucky enough to live in a moderately sized city and we had three whole stations to choose from. The advent of UHF programming in New Orleans tickled us to death. Another station!
Nowadays we have color, high definition, flat screen, big screen, and everything in between. The image quality is unbelievable compared to what we grew up with. Having witnessed the progress made in television over my short lifetime I can only guess at what lies ahead of us. The idea that three dimensional images being broadcast into our living rooms is certainly not a stretch by any means, and the technology to make television interactive is already here. It's going to an interesting time over the next twenty years as television reaches deeper into our lives.

What's wrong with this picture?
By Kat Yares

Three years ago, for our anniversary, we broke down and bought a DVD player. Up until that point, we thought the cost of one of these newfangled machines too cost prohibitive. Besides, most movies were still coming out on VHS tape, so what was the big deal? VCRs were cheap.

Needless to say, we fell in love with the DVD player and decided we would never again buy another VHS tape. All our new movies are on DVD. Besides, we still had the VCR for all of our older movies and to tape the occasional television show for watching later. We had joined the DVD revolution.

We were happy we were content. We had both formats, and could watch all of our favorite movies. Because as much as we loved DVDs, we weren't about to go to the cost of replacing all of the tapes on the shelves.

Several months ago, our old VCR gave up the ghost. No longer would it play our movies, but we still had the DVD and figured we would get by for a while without it. No such luck, I'd want to watch one show, he wanted to watch another. We had to have another VCR just so we could tape one while watching the other. We were in for a shock.

Inside the local super center, and no there are no electronic stores near us, we looked at the slim array of VCRs available. Honestly, they only had three models. But, that wasn't the shocking part. Each and every one of those models cost more than the DVD players.

Now wait a minute. Everyone knows VCRs are on the way out, as are VHS tapes. So why were the machines more costly. Is this a way to force us to buy all of our classic movies on DVD? I don't know, but it seems strange to me.

My better half and I looked at each other. We both had that look in our eye - is it worth it? Finally, we settled on the model that was mid-priced of the three. Brought it home and hooked it up.

The picture is terrible and it doesn't matter how much you play with the tracking buttons, it doesn't play back well at all. Am I a happy camper?

This weekend, the VCR goes back to the store. We're calling it defective. Now the choice has to be made, do we buy the cheaper one? Or, do we buy the more expensive one? Or, do we look online? Or, drive a hundred miles to a store that may or may not have a large variety. I don't know yet.

What I do know is they have me. I can't do without either of these machines, the DVD or the VCR. We'll buy something; I just don't know yet what it will be. Any suggestions?