Guilty pleasure

Design Star on HGTV is my closet addiction. Each episode of the interior design challenge reality show is like an ice cream sundae for the mind.

My favorite contestant this season is Josh "Sparkle Josh" Johnson, an extremely talented, inexhaustibly cheerful designer from Hendersonville, Tennessee.

Here are a few quips from his contestant profile:

If I weren't a designer, I'd be: A Solid Gold dancer

Something you'd never guess about me: I was once a probation officer

Childhood dream: Flying Wonder Woman's invisible jet

Usual skills: Clogging

If my life were a sitcom, it would be: Moesha

Why I should win: Because America is ready for the "Josh Johnson Experience"

Some people say they love life; others show that they do. Sparkle Josh is clearly one of the latter. No matter what my mood is initially, after an hour of watching him, I am too.

As a responsible blogger, I must say...

I will not write about Paris Hilton! I will not write about Paris Hilton! I will not write about Paris Hilton -- but, OMG! After seven mini-days in prison (where 15 minutes equals 24 hours according to her lawyers), she's shed her vanity, reclaimed her intellect, found religion and promised to dedicate the remainder of her life to helping people less fortunate than herself, which, financially speaking, is, um, everybody.

I don't want to be cynical or snarky, but...it's sooooo hard not to.

So, I'll go back to my mantra: I will not write about Paris Hilton! I will not write about Paris Hilton! I will not write about Paris Hilton!

Playing on iTunes: How Little We Know by Linda Eder. She sounds a lot like a young Barbra Streisand.

3 weeks/24 weeks

I found an interesting article on CNN.com today. According to this account, it takes approximately three weeks to form a new, positive habit and as many as six months to get rid of a bad habit.

Well that explains a lot, doesn't it?

I've decided to put this theory to the test. For 28 consecutive days (starting, um, tomorrow) I'm going to do some sort of physical exercise: take the dog for a walk, ride my bike, work out, yoga, what have you. We'll see if this little experiment hard-wires the love of exercise into my brain.

Of course, the flip side is that I need to find some habit I'm willing to give up for 24 weeks. Hmmm. A bad habit I need to give up....Surprisingly, the list is staggering. (Just kidding. It's long -- okay, really, really long -- but it's not, like, outrageous...exactly.)

It may be cheating, but I think I'll just extend this little TV hiatus another 22 weeks and see what happens. Of course, that means a total of 24 consecutive weeks of no television. That could be...hard.

Fortunately, it's almost summer. And there's never anything good on television during the summer.

Right?

What I'm listening to right now: Crisis, by Robin Cook. Narrated by George Guidall. If you're a fan of books on CD, you've probably heard Guidall read. He is fantastic!

Suddenly, there's so much time...

Here's one of the unexpected consequences (benefits?) of turning off the TV. Suddenly, there seem to be a lot more hours in the day. I mean, A LOT more hours in the day. And I'm very aware of each hour passing.

I finished Martha C. Lawrence's Ashes of Aries a bit sooner than expected, so now I have two new books on my table and a two new footers for my blog:

What I'm reading now:
Fiction: Mergers & Acquisitions, a debut novel by Dana Vachon.
Non-fiction: Write. 10 Days to Overcome Writer's Block. Period. by Karen E. Peterson, Ph.D.

Playing on iTunes: Canyon Legacy from In the Midst of Angels by Dan Gibson. This is very soothing, New Agey album that makes me feel like I'm in a day spa treatment room receiving a massage.

My TV Vacation, Pt. 1

What do you do when you don't watch TV?

The folks at the TV-Turnoff Network have given that a lot of thought, as you might imagine. They've come up with a list of 101 screen-free activities to keep grumpy minds occupied when there's no access to TV.

I found the list squirreled away in one of T-TN's many resources pages. I'll be honest. My first thought was that the list would be geared more to children. Well, guess what? I was wrong. Not only are there are lot of activities for adults, many help increase mindful living -- the state where we give full attention to what's going on around us rather than operating on autopilot.

Dr. Mehmet Oz, who makes frequent appearances on Oprah, has quite a bit to say on the benefits of that!

From the TV-Turnoff Network
"I really didn't like TV-Turnoff Week -- except I did notice that my grades went up and I was in a good mood all week."
-- Drew Henderson, 2nd grader, Donora, Pennsylvania

Am I missing something?

The web is full of articles about a huge fight (yep, another HUGE fight) between Rosie O'Donnell and Elizabeth Hasselbeck on The View.

Is it just me, or is anyone else concerned that the bigger issue -- our growing inability to have anything that resembles civil discourse in this country -- is being ignored? I haven't watched The View in years because the sound of the hosts shrieking at each other is like nails on a blackboard.

I can't stand it.

Oh, and I didn't read the articles about the O'Donnell/Hasselbeck argument, either. The headlines were enough.

Playing on iTunes: The Gods Love Nubia by Heather Headley from the Aida soundtrack. This lady has an incredible voice.

Bored now. Hanging up the remote.

The revolution may have started without me, but I think I'm catching up.

According to an AP article published on CNN.com, TV network viewership is down 2.5 million people from this same period last year.

Some experts say viewership isn't declining. Rather, the way people watch TV has changed. They're more likely to use TiVo or DVR and watch a program when it's convenient than watch during the regularly scheduled airing. Since Nielson doesn't track people who watch a recorded episode, numbers look smaller than they actually are.

I'm not so sure about that.

Until recently, I was one of those dedicated TV viewers. Ask me about the latest episode of Heroes or Grey's Anatomy, and I could tell you all the details.

Not so anymore. This week, I retired my remote for the summer. Whether I pick it up again in the fall is anyone's guess.

Playing on iTunes: This Is My Time by Raven. (Yep, Raven. That cute little girl from The Cosby Show.) Good song.