Vaidhyanathan’s article simply brings to the forefront all at once the many doubts that stand alone within their moment of relevance, when we simply click a box without reading and send off a myriad of personal information to wherever. As consumers we have embraced the direction of simplicity and ease of use the internet has gone in. With one-click shopping we do not hesitate to take advantage of its convenience. This is just one example of ways big business and big government tracks our purchases, learn our interests, and predict our desires. However, it is no longer just bureaucratic systems which stand to strip away our privacy. Nowadays with camera phones and the habit of some to simply carry around their high-tech, compact digital cameras, its common people who do not hesitate to infringe upon each other’s privacy. In this age of technology, growing rapidly beyond what most of could even dream, our individual rights are not as intact as they may seem. Even when one is signing up to become a member to a new website that information can be used and sold by companies to the highest bidder, today corporations are willing to buy your personal information regardless if it is you who is selling it to them. It is important for technology to evolve, to continue to transform, however, many people forget that it is done at a price and some don’t even care to know.
I have a very serious disease. Procrastination. I’m serious. It’s deadly.
I think this may be the direct result of my mother always making me do my homework as soon as I got home from school. Even on Fridays, I couldn’t go out and play until my homework was done. This died off somewhat in high school, but I was still the responsible little scholar and never had any problems getting my work done.
And then I got to college. And that big college issue popped up. No, not alcoholism. No, not mono either. TIME MANAGEMENT. I found I was not nearly motivated enough to do my work ahead of time. Especially since I was still maintaining good grades. As my time at college began to pass, the procrastination disease got worse. I wouldn’t start projects till a few days before they were due. The it would be the day before they were due. Now it’s the day they are due. Homework? If I have a half hour before class, that’s when it gets done. Studying? That’s what 11p.m. – 3a.m. is for.
The scary thing is, I’m getting very good at procrastinating. I can estimate, down to the hour and sometimes even the half hour, how long it will take me to write a paper or read a book or complete a project. And while this is all fine for now, I am concerned it may begin to backfire on me. I am reaching the end of my junior year. The end of college is in sight. And I have two (and a half) crammed semesters before I get that diploma. Will I be able to maintain my 3.6 GPA while still living this insanely stressful lifestyle?
Only time will tell.
The Sims. I’m sure most of you readers are familiar with this highly addicting computer game. If not, here’s a quick synopsis: You create a character(s) from scratch. This includes facial features, hair, clothing, personality, goals, etc. You then place said character in a house that you can also create from scratch. This includes building the walls, painting, furnishing, etc. You then control every aspect of that character’s life. Who he sees, when he eats, what he does, even when he uses the bathroom. You can get him a job, or let him be a bum. You can get fat or work out everyday. You can learn to cook or set the kitchen on fire.
It sounds like a lot, but once you get the hang of it, it’s easy to waste away hours of your life controlling your sims’ lives. Countless people own the Sims and many of its expansion packs. These expansion packs allow you to add things like a nightlife application or a pets application or the store H&M.
I myself have had an episode or two (back in the day) in which I have fallen into the Sims trance and awoken several hours later wondering where the day went. I’m sure many others have had similar experiences.
But is this a harmless computer game? Or is it a voyeuristic representation of the power issues many in our society suffer from? I tend to think harmless computer game, but I feel like the latter has its possibilities. Not everyone makes their Sims happy and healthy and good cooks. Some people make them go insane, or die in house fires, or get in fights with other Sims. Is this a natural vent since we cannot and would not do those things in the real world? Or is it a preview of what players may be pushed to do under the wrong set of circumstances?
We may never know…
I mentioned in the post below a show staring Micheal Cera and and Clark Duke that had been produced by CBS to be viewed exclusively online. It is a pseudo-reality show, in the same vein as The Office or Reno 911!, that is centered around following Clark and Michael while they attempt to seel a script they have written in Hollywood. If you are at all interested in viewing it, it is rather funny at moments, all 10 episodes can be found at the address provided.
Bob Garfield, “YouTube vs. Boob Tube”
As we enter into an increasingly ‘uploadable’ world, people have become more apt to spend time watching content according to their own interests on the Internet instead of choosing from the content provided for them by the mainstream television and film industries. Short films and clips made at low costs by unknown citizens have gained the recognition amongst the population nation-wide as well as world-wide. These kinds of successes, no doubt, have infuriated television and film companies who resort to expensive, high-tech visual extravaganzas as ways of targeting today’s younger demographic. Although it is not just today’s youth who is taking part in this increasing interaction with online videos. Internet users of all ages take advantage of what can be accessed online. Due to this ongoing escalation, the industries have now found ways to make use of a resource that was previously burdening their usual practices. More recently, most big network channels like NBC, ABC, CBS, TBS and others that follow suit have been posting whole episodes online from the series they run on their networks. Now people can catch the shows they like without having to confine to a schedule that conflicts with their own. Some networks have even been trying to cash in on drawing and even larger internet audience by posting extras, videos made exclusively for the Internet pertaining to one of their network shows that can only be found on their websites. In an attempt to gain more visitors through exclusive website materials, such as extra scenes from popular shows, some networks, like CBS have begun posting original series as well that are only available online. For example, last year CBS had produced an online series staring Michael Cera and Clark Duke that was only available on their site, although it began to become one of the more popular videos watched. In time, with the further popularizing of websites like YouTube combined with the current network practices, the Internet has the potential of drawing in just as large a viewing audience as television.
So facebook is a social utility. Awesome. It allows college students (and everyone else now) to keep in touch with old friends and make new friends. You can share pictures and write on walls and update your status and do a hundred other things.
You can also stalk people quite effectively. In fact, when the nifty little news feed feature came out, Facebook was widely referred to as Stalkbook (at least on my campus) for some time. Privacy settings helped nip this in the bud, but it’s still quite easy to keep track of someone’s life without their ever knowing it. With constant status updates, new pictures, new comments, and new applications, it’s pretty easy to figure out what people are up to.
I don’t really feel this is a good thing. For one, I feel that Facebook makes relationships more difficult. You may wonder how, since as a social networking site it would make sense that it brings people together. I have witnessed first hand World War III fights because of a picture or comment surfacing on the pages of Fbook. People are not meant to be in communication with one another 24 hours a day…especially if those people are 20-something college students with bad tempers and jealousy issues.
Facebook is also the devil when it comes time to start homework. You log in innocently enough, and then that damn news feed pops up. WHAT? Joe is “Facebook Official” with Sara now? Tim broke up with Katie? Sam changed her profile picture? And Jil posted a new album?! There’s so much to see. Then you start clicking through those dangerous little links and next thing you know it’s 2 hours later and none of your work is done. I have even seen friends with status’s like “Matt is procrastinating on Facebook instead of doing homework.” It’s an incredibly common occurrence on a college campus.
Yet I still log on. Everyday. Several times a day. Ok more than several times. Why? Because I’m addicted. And so is everyone else I know in the Facebook community. I can only hope that one day I will be able to give up this obsession. I wouldn’t be surprised if a real F.A.A. (Facebook Addicts Anonymous) truly surfaced in the future.
Why is it that men always think yoga is strictly for women? Is it just because a yoga session usually includes some soothing music? Just because it’s not lifting weights or hardcore cardio does not mean yoga isn’t a good work out.
I went to my first yoga session some weeks ago assuming it was going to be relaxing and easy. A couple stretches here or there with calming music playing sounded like a good time to me. What no one told me is that the poses that look so simple in the movies require a lot of strength and flexibility. Oh, and Downward Dog is the devil.
But after a good yoga session I do feel more relaxed and flexible and healthy. And the next day I usually have a fair amount of sore muscles that were used in some crazy new pose our instructor had us do. Each week I am eager to go to yoga, whereas I am never eager to go to the gym and fight for an elliptical machine or run on a boring track. That’s why I feel the need to share this discovery with everyone else looking for a good workout.
Most girls are open to the idea of going to at least one session. The guys on the other hand, are not as easy to convince. My friend Randy (yes the same snowboarder from my last post) feels as though you need to be flexible in order to participate in a yoga class, which I am proof against. He also feels it is only good if you are looking for lean muscle, and feels a slow work out is not for him. Yet he will not even try one class. Why? “Cause I know I won’t like it.”
My point is this: Everyone should try at least one yoga class. It’s like when you’re mom put some new and delicious food in front of you as a kid, and of course you refused to eat it on the basis of already hating it. What did she always say? “You won’t know if you like it unless you try it.” SO go try yoga!
So recently one of my friends spent about a week in Utah on a snowboarding trip. Personally, this is not my idea of a good time. Cold weather, snow, lots of layers of clothes…none of these are appealing. Curling up next to a fireplace with a book and some hot chocolate is more my style. But that’s not the point.
Before this friend (let’s call him Randy) left for Utah, I of course threatened his life if he wasn’t careful. I insisted that he not do anything stupid and go and get himself hurt. I specifically said “Don’t run into any trees,” since we all know that the better half of Sonny and Cher battled with a tree on a ski slope and lost.
So what does Randy do? He decides, on the last day of his trip, after 5 injury free days, to go down a particularly difficult slope riding switchfoot (which basically means backwards). He’s going and going, leading with whatever foot he does not normally lead with, when he sees two trees approaching. Instead of doing the intelligent thing (which any female would have done) and go around them, he decides to go in between them. Men!
Now let’s not forget that our hero Randy is riding switchfoot, and therefore does not have quite the control he would normally have. As he approaches the trees he realizes that he is too close to the tree on his right, and overcompensates by turning to the left. He then succeeds in crashing hip-first into the trunk of the tree. And landing butt-first on the ground. And getting covered in the snow that his dumb-butt shook out of the tree he ran into.
For all of you who are concerned, Randy’s dumb-butt is fine. His ego and his hip may be a little worse for the wear, but he’ll survive. The lesson learned? Always listen to a woman!
So I just got back from class and sat down to eat a delicious wrap. I reached for my remote and turned on my television. Little did I know what horrors I would find on the screen.
Little Beauties: Ultimate Kiddie Queen Showdown.
Gag.
My eyes were glued to the television. It was like watching a car accident…I didn’t want to, but I had to. These mothers were entering their 6 year old daughters in the kind of sickening kiddie pageants that the infamous Jon Benet Ramsey competed in. These little girls, that should be outside playing with other kids, learning to share and make friends and laugh, were done up like glorified Barbie dolls learning how to hate each other.
The caked on make-up and glittering hair and outrageous costumes all horrified me. Worse is the message these kind of pageants are teaching the girls that participate in them. They are taught to look down on other girls, especially if those girls aren’t as pretty. They are taught to put on a show, that they are not good enough they way they are. They need the make-up and the hair-do and the costume to be considered beautiful. It’s sickening!
You would think that in this day and age mothers would have enough sense to understand that kids should be learning other things. These mothers should be teaching these girls to love themselves for who they are, and not to look down on others for who they are. I cringe when I think about this generation of real life Barbies growing up.
Low budget history lessons from the inebriated and the famous. In these videos the perfect union is struck between historical accuracy and the deluded ramblings of a drunk with access to a video camera.
Drunk History Vol 1 – Aaron Burr vs. Alexander Hamilton
(Featuring Michael Cera)
Drunk History Vol 2 – Did Ben Franklin really fly a kite in a lightning storm?
(Featuring Jack Black)
Drunk History Vol 2.5 – How did Ben Franklin like to spend his time?
(Featuring Jack Black)
