Time’s a-wasting

 

While doing some research for a snarky remark I wanted to make (yes, I research my snark) I came across a website called “Bingeclock.” It’s sole raison d’être is to tell you how much time you’re about to waste – or have wasted – watching the entire run of a television or film series. (Pro tip: If you only have six weeks to live, don’t try catching up on Gunsmoke.)

Now, we’re all good at wasting time. Some of us make a living at making others waste their time. When you waste time watching me work, I guess there’s some productivity going on, after all, it is putting food on my table. It also means that I can rationalize my own waste. Because I am in the sports television business the three hours I spend watching baseball 200 days out of the year is really, you know, just professional research.

Many people were disappointed in how Game of the Rings, er… Lord of the Thrones… uh, that HBO series ended this past weekend. When something like that ends with a whimper instead of a bang, well, you’re more likely to feel cheated for the time you invested into it.

The most regrettable diversion I find these days is the movies. There isn’t a Julia Roberts picture my wife has dragged me to that I haven’t instantly regretted. (If she and Nicolas Cage ever made a live-action movie together, I’d probably just slash my wrists.)

It’s probably true that it’s impossible to be productive with every waking moment, especially today when technology has just handed us too much extra time. But our history of plays and literature show that even in the days of hard labor man needed his diversions. Storytelling probably began with one caveman looking at another and saying, “Grog, me bored. Tell me story.”

Maybe that’s why I had a love for old time radio and baseball on the radio. They both allow me to amuse myself and still do other, more productive things, like mow the lawn or make love to the wife. Podcasts are great, too, as you can have your Ricochet and still get something accomplished.

Where lies your biggest time regret? (Not including the 1 minute and 54 seconds the Read-O-Meter says it took you to absorb this drivel.)

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  1. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    EJHill: Where lies your biggest time regret?

    • #1
  2. EJHill Podcaster
    EJHill
    @EJHill

    And in light of the nature of this post I would kindly request that no one here ask what level I am on in Candy Crush. Thank you for your discretion and understanding at this difficult time…

    • #2
  3. Seawriter Contributor
    Seawriter
    @Seawriter

    I used to make model ships and spacecraft while watching TV. It was the equivalent of Janet quilting or knitting. Now I don’t watch TV anymore. So I don’t make many models.

    • #3
  4. cdor Member
    cdor
    @cdor

    I don’t mean to be rude, Mr. Hill. But……..“Maybe that’s why I had a love for old time radio and baseball on the radio. They both allow me to amuse myself and still do other, more productive things, like mow the lawn or make love to the wife.”

    Certainly you didn’t mean to say that you make love to your wife while listening to the Yankees on the radio, so I’ll take that as unfortunate phrasing. Candy Crush???

    • #4
  5. EJHill Podcaster
    EJHill
    @EJHill

    cdor: Certainly you didn’t mean to say that you make love to your wife while listening to the Yankees on the radio…

    That, sir, is just rude. I would never listen to the Yankees.

    • #5
  6. Jim Chase Member
    Jim Chase
    @JimChase

    Time regrets?  I have a few, but not so much in the realm of popular entertainment as it were.  I’m coming to the realization that I’ve spent far too much time and “energy” trying to keep up with politics, current events, popular culture over the years – feeling like I have to have a working or at least rudimentary knowledge of everything that’s “going on” out there – time “wasted” in the sense that I often feel like an info-junkie rather than an informed citizen.

    Sure, I’ll still watch the shows, check the box scores, and so on, but the information rat race is something from which I’m increasingly pulling away.  If I’m going to “waste” time, I’d prefer it to be somewhat more refreshing and renewing:  sitting on the back deck, reading an old western, listening to a little Tom T. Hall (outing myself here), and just resting.  Maybe even something not unlike my favorite scene from the Andy Griffith show below.  The truth is, of course, I still have to live in the hurry-up world, making hurry-up money to support a hurry-up family in a 24/7 environment.  But the rebel spirit in me is rising.

    Yeah, I have issues.  :-)

    https://youtu.be/ZcZcDHRGyOs

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcZcDHRGyOs

    EDIT:  Ah, just click the link.  Won’t embed for me now.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    • #6
  7. EDISONPARKS Member
    EDISONPARKS
    @user_54742

    I’m fortunate I can listen to podcasts/you tube and still do my much hated daily clerical duties(ie: invoice, payroll, simple mathy stuff).

    But I also have a serious golf addiction and between playing, practice, and watching, I don’t even want to know how many hours are wasted not saving the world …. so I just give money to charities(ie: not my time) mostly based on my golf guilt … and to save the world of course.

    Now back to the most important question: What was the snarky comment and where can we read it?

    • #7
  8. EJHill Podcaster
    EJHill
    @EJHill

    EDISONPARKS : Now back to the most important question: What was the snarky comment and where can we read it?

    http://ricochet.com/podcast/goldberg-long-podhoretz/the-wrap-on-thrones/#comment-4494417

     

    • #8
  9. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    EDISONPARKS (View Comment):
    What was the snarky comment and where can we read it?

    http://ricochet.com/podcast/goldberg-long-podhoretz/the-wrap-on-thrones/#comment-4494417

    Edit: Beaten by 20 seconds.

    • #9
  10. EDISONPARKS Member
    EDISONPARKS
    @user_54742

    EJHill (View Comment):

    EDISONPARKS : Now back to the most important question: What was the snarky comment and where can we read it?

    http://ricochet.com/podcast/goldberg-long-podhoretz/the-wrap-on-thrones/#comment-4494417

     

    Funny story …. I read your comment already the other day …. good one.

    I had the same Game of Thrones “why would anyone watch this” attitude before I watched it, then I watched it and was hooked.    My wife and I  started watching about two months ago and I still have about a day and a half to go? ( just finished Season 5 last night).

    I don’t really care the 8 years long series evidently ends with a whimper, the journey is still enjoyable

    • #10
  11. Hoyacon Member
    Hoyacon
    @Hoyacon

    So let’s go against the critical grain.  According to Bingeclock, I spent 2 days and 14 hours binging on Breaking Bad.  Personally, I have a hard time seeing the majority of that as a “waste of time” since I don’t regard enjoyment of something well done as a time waster. Still, I ceased to like it that much at some point at the end of the fourth-beginning of the fifth season, and didn’t particularly care for it by the Sixth.  But you gotta keep going.  Bingeclock helpfully points out that the show is the 1531st longest binge-watch, but I can only regard a portion of that (the part I didn’t like all that much) as wasted time (cue The Eagles).  So I think I need to subdivide my binging on this show into components–the latter being roughly 25-30%.  Makes sense to me.

    • #11
  12. Mountie Coolidge
    Mountie
    @Mountie

     Separate but related topic, my wife and I discovered 24 in its fourth season. We decided that we wanted to catch up since season 4 had  references to seasons 1, 2 and 3. So, you got it,  we binge watched  72 hours of 24 to get caught up.  Took us about  two weeks. Glad  we did that though I will say that the latter seasons of 24 were not worth the 24 hours that you put into them. 

    • #12
  13. Stina Inactive
    Stina
    @CM

    I’ve been trying to fix my time sink in tv by being more productive while I watch it. Forums are actually my least productive times and I really need to cut it out.

    Thanks to smart phones and streaming, I fold laundry, scrub toilets, clean garages, do dishes, sew, and sketch landscape plans while watching tv. So… addicted and head full of mush? Yes. Unproductive? Not necessarily.

    • #13
  14. EJHill Podcaster
    EJHill
    @EJHill

    @cdor One of the funniest times I’ve ever spent in a television production truck came at a baseball game at the Oakland-Alameda Coliseum. One Sunday afternoon our high-first camera caught a couple in flagrante delicto in the upper deck. While the young lady was performing oral sex on her boyfriend, what made it all amusing was the unwitting running commentary emanating from our announce team on the art of bunting: “Look, it’s all about the way you hold the bat. You’ve got to run your hand up that handle and really choke on it. And it’s important that you keep it level, otherwise you’re just gonna pop it straight up. And nothing good comes from that.”

    At one time there was a plethora of tapes that made the circuit of the production trucks. One of the more famous included a couple who swore the windows in their Toronto SkyDome hotel suite had to be one-way glass. As more and more women joined our ranks taping those kinds of incidents stopped. Today, we’re more likely to call stadium security.

    • #14
  15. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    EJHill (View Comment):
    As more and more women joined our ranks taping those kinds of incidents stopped. Today, we’re more likely to call stadium security.

    Pity.

    • #15
  16. DrewInWisconsin Member
    DrewInWisconsin
    @DrewInWisconsin

    EJHill: Maybe that’s why I had a love for old time radio and baseball on the radio. They both allow me to amuse myself and still do other, more productive things . . .

    I think this is why I tend to follow shows that don’t require screens. 

     

    • #16
  17. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    I skimmed and too like 20 seconds to get to the bottom. 

    I regret no time wasted, as it all has led to me right now, this moment and I like me.

    • #17
  18. cdor Member
    cdor
    @cdor

    EJHill (View Comment):

    @cdor One of the funniest times I’ve ever spent in a television production truck came at a baseball game at the Oakland-Alameda Coliseum. One Sunday afternoon our high-first camera caught a couple in flagrante delicto in the upper deck. While the young lady was performing oral sex on her boyfriend, what made it all amusing was the unwitting running commentary emanating from our announce team on the art of bunting: “Look, it’s all about the way you hold the bat. You’ve got to run your hand up that handle and really choke on it. And it’s important that you keep it level, otherwise you’re just gonna pop it straight up. And nothing good comes from that.”

    At one time there was a plethora of tapes that made the circuit of the production trucks. One of the more famous included a couple who swore the windows in their Toronto SkyDome hotel suite had to be one-way glass. As more and more women joined our ranks taping those kinds of incidents stopped. Today, we’re more likely to call stadium security.

    What a bunch of boobs. Uh, maybe I could use better phrasing also.

    • #18
  19. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    cdor (View Comment):
    What a bunch of boobs. Uh, maybe I could use better phrasing also.

    Come to the PIT. We’ll teach you all about phrasing.

    • #19
  20. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    Arahant (View Comment):

    cdor (View Comment):
    What a bunch of boobs. Uh, maybe I could use better phrasing also.

    Come to the PIT. We’ll teach you all about phrasing.

    And Linda Ronstadt.

    • #20
  21. Basil Fawlty Member
    Basil Fawlty
    @BasilFawlty

    Fawlty Towers. Six hours. It rhymes.

    • #21
  22. EJHill Podcaster
    EJHill
    @EJHill

    Percival: And Linda Ronstadt.

    Pre or post Jerry Brown?

    Pre or post Nelson Riddle?

    • #22
  23. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    EJHill (View Comment):

    Percival: And Linda Ronstadt.

    Pre or post Jerry Brown?

    Pre or post Nelson Riddle?

    It’s not a PIT trope, exactly; it’s more of a call/response routine.

    • #23
  24. Matt Balzer, Imperialist Claw Member
    Matt Balzer, Imperialist Claw
    @MattBalzer

    Percival (View Comment):

    Arahant (View Comment):

    cdor (View Comment):
    What a bunch of boobs. Uh, maybe I could use better phrasing also.

    Come to the PIT. We’ll teach you all about phrasing.

    And Linda Ronstadt.

    If you pay extra.

    • #24
  25. James Lileks Contributor
    James Lileks
    @jameslileks

    I’m pretty sure I have a solid year of Star Trek, what with all the series and rewatching. 

    • #25
  26. Richard Fulmer Inactive
    Richard Fulmer
    @RichardFulmer

    How does one research snark?

    • #26
  27. Matt Balzer, Imperialist Claw Member
    Matt Balzer, Imperialist Claw
    @MattBalzer

    Richard Fulmer (View Comment):

    How does one research snark?

    There are ways. You don’t wanna know.

    • #27
  28. EJHill Podcaster
    EJHill
    @EJHill

    Richard FulmerHow does one research snark?

    Simple. You think of the snarky remark and then you test its validity. 

    • #28
  29. Hoyacon Member
    Hoyacon
    @Hoyacon

    Basil Fawlty (View Comment):

    Fawlty Towers. Six hours. It rhymes.

    But not a minute wasted.

    A satisfied customer. We should have him stuffed.

     

    • #29
  30. Goldwaterwoman Thatcher
    Goldwaterwoman
    @goldwaterwoman

    Jim Chase (View Comment):
    Time regrets? I have a few, but not so much in the realm of popular entertainment as it were. I’m coming to the realization that I’ve spent far too much time and “energy” trying to keep up with politics, current events, popular culture over the years – feeling like I have to have a working or at least rudimentary knowledge of everything that’s “going on” out there – time “wasted” in the sense that I often feel like an info-junkie rather than an informed citizen.

    Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

    • #30
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