YOU (& your) TUBE

It's official, there are more people in the U.S.A. -- the number of obese American adults outweighs the number of those who are merely overweight, according to the latest statistics from the federal government. One of the common statistics often cited by video game industry trade groups is that the average age of a gamer nowadays is around 30 years old. What you might not know, however, is that among game players between the ages of 25 and 34, women far outnumber men, according to a new study by the Consumer Electronics Association (as reported in The New York Times).

I've worked one-on-one with hundreds of people of the last few years and it always surprises me to see the most beautiful, "LARGER THAN LIFE" plasma-screen TVs in the most modest houses. However, happy people don’t spend a lot of time watching television, a new study finds. The study relied primarily on the responses of 45,000 Americans collected over 35 years by the University of Chicago’s General Social Survey, and on published “time diary” studies recording the daily activities of participants. Speaking of the Roman Colosseum one expert said: "Entertainment has always played in important part in human history. People go to great lengths to escape their mundane lives..." And as most of the lower and middle class lead lives of quiet desperation, they've learned to escape from other areas of life:

--4 in 5 of us will be married at least once

--1 in 3 will be divorced at least once

Stop watching in prime time and start living in prime time. Prime time is 7-11 p.m. EST, when all of America is watching other people making money and having fun in their professions. So if you want to watch other people making money, having fun in their professions, which gets their ratings up so they make more money, go ahead and do things that are tension relieving, instead of goal achieving. But if you truly want to live YOUR life in prime time, then write in prime time, have intimacy in prime time, talk with your children in prime time, live and do in prime time instead of unhooking and engaging in tension relieving activities. So stop watching and use the television set as an appliance. It has doors on it. Close the doors and use it like an iron. When you need to iron your clothes, bring out the TV set. Regarding the television, there was a guy who wasn't doing too well in my industry and he asked for some advice from his friend. He had a television set and watched a lot of it, so he was asked, "How much did that television cost you?" He said, "About $400." The friend responded, "No, you're mistaken." He said, "No, this television set cost me $400." The friend said, "Well, that's to buy it. To watch it, I am sure it is costing you about $40,000 a year to watch." He finally got the message and he called his brother-in-law, who had a pickup, and he and his brother-in-law hauled his television out of the house. His brother-in-law did say, "Well, you can just shut it off."And he said, "No, for now I don't trust myself, my friend is right. I'm not going to let this television set cost me $40,000 a year anymore."

What does your tube cost you? T.V. could cost you: money, an opportunity serve, health, or relationships. Count the cost, and if you have to, call me -- my father-in-law has a pick up truck for your T.V.

CAP