Sometimes the weight of it all would hit me: Who am I to decide? I watch maybe two hours of TV a day, 11 p.m. to 1 or 2 a.m. The average American watches more than six hours of TV a day.

And who's to say my odd tastes are more valid than theirs? Idiosyncratic and quirky choices don't indicate quality, just idiosyncrasy and quirkiness.

And besides, since the moment I had gotten my box, my TV viewing had become self-conscious. And most days I'd forget to watch the shows I did like, like Howard Stern, The Abbott & Costello Show, Dragnet. I just didn't watch that much TV, so even if I did want to send a message to The Man, I was too apathetic to do it.

The answers to these questions came after about two months, on a week when my TV viewing consisted entirely of watching Nicholas Ray's The Lusty Men on TCM and taping an episode of Strangers With Candy.