I’m enjoying my new TiVo so far. Last night I slothfully sat at home and watched stuff. (Wednesday is usually my vegging-out night, because 1) “Smallville” and “Angel” are on; 2) it’s usually the only weeknight that I’m not otherwise occupied; and 3) Matt has his weekly residence staff meeting.)

One way in which TiVo has already changed my life is that I’ve started watching “Days of our Lives” again. I’ve watched it on and off since 1986, when I picked up the habit from my mom at age 12. During eighth and ninth grades I was obsessed with the show, taping it every day, making family trees, memorizing the order of all the actors’ names in the closing credits. On an unrelated note, I also had no social life. My obsession only ended when we moved to Tokyo in 1988. Since returning to the States in 1991, I’ve watched it sporadically, sometimes for regular stretches, such as during the spring of my first year of college (I’d monopolize the TV in our dorm suite from 1:00 to 2:00; our cleaning woman watched it, too, and she’d always ask me, “Did you see the story today?” — she always referred to it as “the story”) or during the summer I was studying for the bar exam. I’ve decided to start watching again, because there’s this big serial-killer storyline that’s been going on since August. Several beloved major characters have been murdered, including many whose histories with the show go back 20 years or more. It turns out that the Salem Stalker (as the serial killer is known) is Dr. Marlena Evans, one of the most well-loved and respected residents of the town of Salem, who’s been played by Deidre Hall since 1976 (except for a hiatus from 1987-1991 so she could star on “Our House”; Marlena was presumed dead during that time). None of the other characters knows it’s her, although some are starting to suspect. We, the viewers, have no idea why she’s gone evil. The show sucks these days — it’s poorly written, badly acted and too campy — but I can’t seem to stop watching because I want to find out why Marlena’s doing all this killing.

I watched the pilot episode of “Alias” last night (not on TiVo, but on DVD), because Matt has gotten me into the show. Wow! It was one of the most amazing pilots I’ve ever seen. I can’t wait to watch the rest of the first and second seasons on DVD and catch up. I’m always a latecomer to all the good shows — I didn’t start watching “The X-Files” until season 4 and “Buffy” until season 6. I guess I don’t want to put in the time with a show unless I think it’ll be worth it.

I’m philosophically and morally opposed to television. I think it engenders sloth and passivity and sucks away the time that one could spend doing other things. And yet I can get very passionate and obsessive about the shows I do watch. And I know lots of TV minutiae. For instance, at Trivia Night on Monday, I knew that the show that spun off from “Love, American Style” was “Happy Days.” I’m weird like that.

Like sands through the hourglass…