It is often said that the only constant in the universe is change. Resistance to change is futile and change is inevitable. What I've been trying to do for the last few years is to maintain a mental blueprint for my future. Some people keep a written list of goals to remind them of what they want to accomplish. I keep that list in my head because it isn't very long. I spent 20 years in the military and personal goals don't mix well with military orders. It has only been since I retired that I've been able to set my sights on anything concrete.

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"MyTvTalk" is a very new website, less than a month old if I base my guess on when the forums were installed.

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It may not be discussed as openly as it was perhaps a year ago, but piracy in regards to downloading is still a hot topic. How do I know it when I'm not seeing new articles about it splashed across the different news sites? It's quite simple. The search history of my analytics service shows it to me every single day.

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The Kentucky Derby is not only a sports event, it's big business. It involves horses, jockeys, trainers, owners, television networks, Internet websites and videos, gamblers and consumers. The latest race occurred on May 3, 2008. Stay tuned until the end and I'll tell you why I'm writing about this. If you don't care for the sport, feel free to skip straight to the end.

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This is a blog that's co-authored by the team of Mike Olbinski of A Mike Life and Jason Clark of Jason A Clark, both of which I've visited from time to time. I'm not here to talk about either of those blogs, so I'll skip any more pleasantries.

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No, I'm not going to list the programs. Rather, I'm going to tell you what I'm looking forward to on broadcast and cable television. My source is tvguide.com, but there are a lot of other places you can find the same information.

I'm not into crime dramas and of course, all the CSI whatevers are returning this season. Boston Legal, regardless of the fact that William Shatner ("The Shat") is in it, I'm not the least bit interested in watching it. Of the returning shows, and I'm not sure what channels carry them (i.e., I'm too lazy to look), these are the ones I'm looking forward to, in no particular order:

• Heroes – September 24
• Eureka (SciFi) – September 25
• Smallville (CW) – September 27
• Stargate Atlantis (SciFi) – September 28
• Dexter – September 30
• Battlestar Galactica – I don't know

I lament the loss of Stargate SG-1. There are some new shows that look promising. I've already scene the new show on SciFi called "Flash Gordon" (only the first episode) and it looks promising. Here are some new shows coming up that may be interesting:

• Chuck – September 24
• Journeyman – September 24
• Reaper – September 25
• Bionic Woman – September 26
• Moonlight – September 28
• Cavemen – October 2
• Viva Laughlin – October 18

I don't want to get into any plot lines, but Bionic Woman is a re-imagining of the campy 70s version and I think it's from the same people who re-imagined Battlestar Galactica. Cavemen is based on the GEICO commercial that had cavemen in it.

There are some shows I have never seen and may never see because I either don't know about them or I don't care about them. Since the episodes have to be sent to me by my friend in Phoenix, I'm in a constant state of waiting anyway.

Although we'll be buying two TVs when my wife returns to the Philippines, I don't have even one in my house right now. I don't miss watching television, though there's a bit of history behind that.

As I was growing up in Coolidge, Arizona, there were almost always two televisions in the house; one in the living room and one in the den. Both were black and white TVs until my parents bought their first color one in 1972. After that, the color one resided in the living room. It didn't matter to me because I never had the chance to choose what I wanted to watch. I had eight siblings and the older ones controlled the sets.

For most of my adult years, I had a television blaring at me. First, while single and living in the single barracks wherever I was stationed and second, from the time I got married and onwards because the wife and children were TV addicts. I never really had much time to watch because I spent at least 80 percent of my waking hours involved in my career, the US Marine Corps.

In 1996, I was transferred to the base in Barstow, California, and I didn't take my family with me. We had a nice house in Phoenix that we didn't want to sell or rent out. My wife didn't want to give up her job either (Barstow jobs were scarce). I ended up commuting back and forth on odd weekends and 12 of those hours were spent driving to and from home. Television reception was horrible there. I didn't bother putting a TV in my room for that reason. We did have a community TV room with cable, but it was almost always tuned in to sports channels. I'm not into watching sports and I stopped watching TV completely for those two years.

After I retired in 1998 and lived at home again, I never felt the desire to sit and watch more than a couple of hours of TV with my family during the week. I had too much going on with work and other activities. Sure, I would glance at it every now and then because my boys were always watching TV when they weren't playing video games.

We haven't put a TV in our current house since moving in, in September of 2006. My wife, when she was here, always went over to her mother's house to watch TV in the evening. They watched the Tagalog dramas together and it's just not my cup of tea, even though I understand 90 percent of the language. I just don't get into soap operas, whether they're cleverly disguised as movies or not.

I do miss the cacophony coming from a TV in the same room as I. It makes the room sound "lived in". I don't miss the garbage that modern television has to offer.