Something to try: Mute everything.

[Alan]

It might be my current sleep deprived state (damn craving night time and becoming sleepy in the morning when it's bright and hot), but for reasons of domicile harmony and personal irritation control I made the tv mute for internet videos, and when I was done with that I muted the internet device (so happens was the tv to my PS3).

So right now I'm at the actual computer, which is muted to prevent the annoying sounds of various chat programs and such and it occurred to me that this is rather soothing.

Just now I've found that by relying entirely on visual stimulation, the media bombardment of everyday life is cut by like 70%. You can avert your eyes, but you can't avert your ears. Sound is a lot more pervasive in an environment than a source of light.

Of course one could simply turn these things off, but I still want something reasonably entertaining going on. Wouldn't it be nice if you could turn the sound off something by simply turning your head away from it? Well we don't have that yet, but muting everything seems to have a similar effect.

Try it and write what you think.

[Vinay]

Who watches TV!

[Alan]

Ehhh, I wouldn't tolerate it if it weren't for the meds I have to take. I can sit through any stupid trainwreck-and-avalanche video show just fine. Not saying this is a good thing, just pointing out how easily distracted I can be at times with this stuff. Damn five point blank bullet wounds to the torso.

[Karandash]

In Russia some time ago they had loud commercials inside buses. Just imagine you want to get home after a hard working day, payed your bus ticket, yet still be bombarded with audio adds all the way. Luckily it's banned now!

[Alan]

That's pretty bad. Our busses and subways are free of that, thankfully. Can imagine that getting quite annoying. Imagine being the driver.

[Marcel]

Dont do tv! and turn off instant messenger sounds.. works for me, some music cant hurt =)