BirthTelevisionDeath

We're approaching the a time when people will have spent their entire lives within the era of television.

A bit of TV is fine, but here in Brazil you can watch 4 or 5 tele-novelas (soap operas) a night, 6 days a week. And people of all classes often do.

Things you can do instead of watching television.

• try to find a cure for cancer : I'm serious. You're likely to die of it. (That or a heart-attack) But what are you doing to try to protect yourself? Not just EatingHealthily. What about raising money for research? Learning about cancer? Trying to come up with a totally left-field, amateur piece of research?

• try to find a cure for poverty : As above. Do you understand how society and the economy work? Do people have to be poor? Why? Or if not, what can we do about it?

• try to find a cure for crime : Why the hell is there so much crime in the world? Is it going up? Are you afraid of it? And what are you doing about that?

I'm definitely watching less TV than I used to, and some of these are good at filling the time whilst not being quite so... daunting ;)

• cooking : in particular, bread or cake. I'm not really a big one for food, but kneading bread is really therapeutic. And quite hard work :) (Smells good too)

• plants : currently going through a bonsai and herbs phase. Soil is good, dirty fun.

• cheap art : get some 20p crayons or chalks, and a 50p pad of paper. You might start off with no idea or inspiration, but after a page or two of random marks, something usually forms of its own accord. The important thing to remember is that it doesn't have to be good.

– GrahamLally