I want to officially put a stop to those stupid tickers on the bottom of the screen during teleevison shows. Those tickers that come up and give us breaking weather and news reports during a program we are trying to watch to escape the world.
The thing is that in this day and age there are many ways to get information, I do not need to have a little ticker on the bottom of my television. There is the Internet with literally millions of websites with up to the second information. There are cable television channels devoted to non-stop 24/7 news coverage, nowadays even my cell phone gives me breaking news and weather. I also have windows and can look outside to see that it is storming out. I am also already indoors and do not need to be told to seek shelter immediately. Usually these "breaking news" events are worthless and don't change my life in any way.
I was watching Lost on Wednesday and they interrupted the show 4 times with a ticker that a verdict had been reached in this trial in Manitowoc County (80 miles away). Hey, I don't care. The fact of the matter is that I don't care. The kid gave a 2 hour confession and then a while later recanted the confession. Seems like a pretty easy case. Why interrupt a show to tell us that a verdict has been reached. They didn't even tell us the verdict, just that one had been reached. I could have jumped on the Internet and found the verdict in 2 minutes if I really cared. Stop trying to keep us glued to the television to watch the news after the show to see the verdict, if I really cared I could find the verdict a million different ways. The episode of Lost actually was featuring a good number of subtitles and the became very difficult to read when the ticker came on.
I watch these television shows to escape reality, for 30 or 60 minutes I want to pretend that the real world doesn't exist. Its all I've got left to hold onto, don't take this away from with your breaking news tickers.
Why don't we use commercial time to our advantage here. Put these tickers up during the commercials or take a quick 15 second break from the commercials and go in studio and have soemone telling us this breaking news or weather instead of having us have to read it.
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Can everyone please take me seriously?
Recently Tobey Maguire came out with a statement that he was not going to make Spider-Man 4 because he wanted to make more (implying he has made some) serious movies that make you think and become a more serious actor. (Sorry, I wiped my ass with the article and cannot get a direct quote).
Two things to note:
1) I strongly believe that movies, especially comic book superhero movies, should also be trilogies, no more. Star Wars, Matrix, X-Men (hopefully they will not make the rumored 4th), Indian Jones, Rambo Bourne Identity, and Back to the Future have all followed this. Movies like the original Superman, original Batman, Halloween, Poltergeist, Friday the Thirteenth, Saw (they will beet this into the ground), Rocky, Karate Kid (the forgettable, "Next Karate Kid") made one or more too many films. Spider-Man should stop at three. They have exhausted all the villains and the storyline. Period. Move on.
2) With that mentioned, how can Tobey Maguire say he want to make more "serious" movies that get people to think. Okay, he was in CIder House Rules, a very serious and well done movie about abortion. Thats it. Let's look at some of his other "serious" roles that have really gotten the world to think about important issues.
Two things to note:
1) I strongly believe that movies, especially comic book superhero movies, should also be trilogies, no more. Star Wars, Matrix, X-Men (hopefully they will not make the rumored 4th), Indian Jones, Rambo Bourne Identity, and Back to the Future have all followed this. Movies like the original Superman, original Batman, Halloween, Poltergeist, Friday the Thirteenth, Saw (they will beet this into the ground), Rocky, Karate Kid (the forgettable, "Next Karate Kid") made one or more too many films. Spider-Man should stop at three. They have exhausted all the villains and the storyline. Period. Move on.
2) With that mentioned, how can Tobey Maguire say he want to make more "serious" movies that get people to think. Okay, he was in CIder House Rules, a very serious and well done movie about abortion. Thats it. Let's look at some of his other "serious" roles that have really gotten the world to think about important issues.
- Revenge of the Red Barron ( The Red Baron returns in a toy plane to kill the former World War I ace that shot him down.)
- SFW (An alienated and misanthropic teenager gains sudden and unwanted celebrity status after he's taken hostage by terrorists where his indifference to their threats to kill him makes news headlines., also featuring Stephen Dorff, a joke of a human being).
- Empire Records (The employees of an independent music store learn about each other as they try anything to stop the store being absorbed by a large chain, and his scenes were actually cut from the movie, yet he is still credited in the movie)
- Joyride ( To a dumpy motel in an out-of-the-way little town, a mysterious woman, calling herself only Ms. Smith, comes to stay)
- The Ice Storm ( 1973, suburban Connecticut: middle class families experimenting with casual sex, drink, etc., find their lives out of control.)
- Pleasantville ( Two teenagers find themselves in a 1950's sitcom where their influence begins to profoundly change that complacent world.)
- Ride with the devil ( Jake Roedel and Jack Bull Chiles are friends in Missouri when the Civil War starts. Women and Blacks know their place, costarring Skeet Ulrich during the time there was a rumor he had committed suicide and was gay)
- Wonder Boys (An English Professor tries to deal with his wife leaving him, the arrival of his editor who has been waiting for his book for seven years, and the various problems that his friends and associates involve him in., actually a good movie quite witty and funny but because of Michael Douglas)
- Don's Plum (A group of Los Angeles teenagers meet every day at their local diner hangout to discus their latest misadventures with their miserable lives; might be his auto-biography)
- Cats and Dogs (A look at the top-secret, high-tech espionage war going on between cats and dogs, which their human owners are blissfully unaware of. Does the voice of Jeff Goldblum's dog. At first I thought this was a fake movie but he actually made it in 2001)
Lets Use Big-Boy Word
IMNSHO - (In My Not So Humble Opinion) these texting shortcuts and abbreviations have gotten way out of control and need to be stopped. Have we become that lazy people? If are message to someone is that long, how about we do the old fashion thing and call the person with our cell phone (usually this is cheaper anyways). I have also noticed that these text message abbreviations have made there way into common language.
This site: http://www.swalk.com/ has literally hundreds of abbreviations that can be used. "I h8 every1." There are abbreviations for ridiculous phrases like rolling on the floor laughing unable to speak, and ok, old man, good night. Who uses this crap, seriously?
WTS? (What the shizzle) Texting should be used in the extreme case in which either you or the other person cannot literally talk on the phone. (In a bar, club, church, at work, in a meeting) Thats it. Otherwise it is a slap in the face to the other person, that you don't even want to talk to them, you just want to text them. I have seen people have 20 minutes conversations with people, one in which they have sent 8-9 messages. This conversation on the phone would have taken 3 minutes. If you are going to text someone, just use real big-boy words, not these crazy abbreviations that really mean nothing.
I have also seen these abbreviations make their way into common language. I was recently reading a blog on the show Lost about some theories this guy had. I literally could not read it, he used abbreviations for every other word. It made no sense. When you are typing on the computer, there is no reason to not type the whole words, it will take an extra 3 seconds per sentence at most. I have also seen people use common abbreviations like U, 2mrw, 2day, 4ever, when writing normal, business type, documents to be read by others. If you want someone to think you are a complete idiot-douche bag, then please keep using abbreviations in common documents, otherwise use real words. If aliens landed on our planet, they would think we started a new language, but would then quickly figure out that really it is just that we have become incredibly lazy.
BFN (Bye for Now)
This site: http://www.swalk.com/ has literally hundreds of abbreviations that can be used. "I h8 every1." There are abbreviations for ridiculous phrases like rolling on the floor laughing unable to speak, and ok, old man, good night. Who uses this crap, seriously?
WTS? (What the shizzle) Texting should be used in the extreme case in which either you or the other person cannot literally talk on the phone. (In a bar, club, church, at work, in a meeting) Thats it. Otherwise it is a slap in the face to the other person, that you don't even want to talk to them, you just want to text them. I have seen people have 20 minutes conversations with people, one in which they have sent 8-9 messages. This conversation on the phone would have taken 3 minutes. If you are going to text someone, just use real big-boy words, not these crazy abbreviations that really mean nothing.
I have also seen these abbreviations make their way into common language. I was recently reading a blog on the show Lost about some theories this guy had. I literally could not read it, he used abbreviations for every other word. It made no sense. When you are typing on the computer, there is no reason to not type the whole words, it will take an extra 3 seconds per sentence at most. I have also seen people use common abbreviations like U, 2mrw, 2day, 4ever, when writing normal, business type, documents to be read by others. If you want someone to think you are a complete idiot-douche bag, then please keep using abbreviations in common documents, otherwise use real words. If aliens landed on our planet, they would think we started a new language, but would then quickly figure out that really it is just that we have become incredibly lazy.
BFN (Bye for Now)
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Don't Tell Me How to Give
I've always received way too much from my alma mater high school and college asking for donations and what not. I usually read what they have to see and see where they are going to waste my money and then toss it away. I just got from my high school talking about a new fundraising program they were starting in an effort to expand and further increase opportunities for their students and the community as a whole. This time it even came with a DVD I could about what this money was going to. I don't need a DVD to know that it would go to spoiled rich kids who already are elitists and have a better education than anyone else in the city. Also, this school has never done anything for the communityt that it is in. Every year they try to hide behind stateements saying they are helping the community even though the majority of the students hop off a yellow bus or out of their Beamer, go to class, and then speed off back to the suburbs. Also It also came with a doantion card asking how much I would want to donate. The funny thing was that donations started at $1000, and went up from there. If I want to give $1, you should be willing to accept that. Don't tell me how much of my money I can donate to your cause, take what you can get, now you get nothing.
Friday, April 6, 2007
IceBreakers
I just wanted to take a moment to tell everyone how much I hate icebreakers in groups as a means to get to know everyone. Why do I need to get to know all theses seemingly perfect strangers. In fact I will come out and say I don't want to get to know any of these people. Throughout my life any friends I have ever made and gotten to know, I made without any icebreakers, the old fashion way (a bottle of whiskey, 3 yards of rope, and a bowling pin). Why force us to say stupid things or do stupid things in front of people we have never met to "get to know them."
As a member of many groups through school and work throughout the years I have "participated" in hundreds of icebreakers, and hated each one. Any time I have been a leader of a group and asked to form an icebreaker for everyone, I have refused. Usually these meetings are put together to get something done or learn something, not to force us into friendships with people we have never met and have nothing in common with.
Yesterday I have a meeting for first year teachers with about 15 other teachers I have never met, and have no desire to ever really get to know, and may never see again. But the administrators of the meeting thought it was a good waste of time to have us do two icebreakers instead of learning something about teaching or what not. The game we played was two lies and a truth, here were mine: I love icebreakers, I was the starting goalie in high school my freshman year, I can't swim. Tricky, tricky.
As a member of many groups through school and work throughout the years I have "participated" in hundreds of icebreakers, and hated each one. Any time I have been a leader of a group and asked to form an icebreaker for everyone, I have refused. Usually these meetings are put together to get something done or learn something, not to force us into friendships with people we have never met and have nothing in common with.
Yesterday I have a meeting for first year teachers with about 15 other teachers I have never met, and have no desire to ever really get to know, and may never see again. But the administrators of the meeting thought it was a good waste of time to have us do two icebreakers instead of learning something about teaching or what not. The game we played was two lies and a truth, here were mine: I love icebreakers, I was the starting goalie in high school my freshman year, I can't swim. Tricky, tricky.
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Seriously People...Who Cares
Yet another angry rant on the beast that is American Idol. I know you're asking yourself, how can some one who doesn't even watch the show get so angry about it. Because I care about the well being of the American public and have a keen interest in what music is entering the average ear. (Mine being above average obviously).
The newest controversy is involving the contestant Sanjaya (congratulations on your name). Apparently he sucks but people keep voting for him. Now some fear that this will bring the end of American Idol. I think people are miss using the term "fear" I think they mean they are "hoping" this brings the end to American Idol.
Lets say he does suck (I'm sure he does) and he does win. So what? I pretty sure "America" could vote for a six-legged rat that just burped into the microphone and American Idol would still be the most watched show on television. Does it really matter? Those who I know that watch the show don't vote, by the end don't care who wins, and will watch it again next year.
(Warning I did some Wikipedia research for this next part, I promise I am not obsessed with this)The fact is that except for Kelly Clarkson and maybe Carrie Underwood, the winner has not had as much success as the runner(s)-up. Clay Aiken sold more than Ruben Studdard, Jennifer Hudson won an Academy Award and Fantasia did not, Daugherty has sold more records than last year's winner Taylor Hicks. SO who cares if this sucky singer wins; just don't go buy his record, but the record of your favorite (because they all come out with a CD anyways).
The real problem is that Americans wouldn't know good music if it bit them in the ass. (True story: Chris Martin from Coldplay once bit me in a Scottish bar and then I realized that Coldplay was a good band.) Most people will watch the show knowing that Sanjaya sucks but will forget about that this summer and then when his record comes out in the fall they buy it "because he won American Idol and must be good."
The other thing that angered me about this story is that Howard Stern is getting involved in this. Howerd Stern?? Do people still listen to that guy? Wow, thats sad. If I had satellite radio with thousands of channels, the last station I would listen to was the Howerd Stern station. I would listen to the white noise station or the the crying babies station before him. Why does Howard Stern care? Someone should be try a scheme to bring about the end of his "show." Oh wait, I think he's doing that fine by himself.
Well America my advice is watch whatever the hell you want on t.v., vote for whoever you want in whatever shitty reality series you watch, and listen to good music.
The newest controversy is involving the contestant Sanjaya (congratulations on your name). Apparently he sucks but people keep voting for him. Now some fear that this will bring the end of American Idol. I think people are miss using the term "fear" I think they mean they are "hoping" this brings the end to American Idol.
Lets say he does suck (I'm sure he does) and he does win. So what? I pretty sure "America" could vote for a six-legged rat that just burped into the microphone and American Idol would still be the most watched show on television. Does it really matter? Those who I know that watch the show don't vote, by the end don't care who wins, and will watch it again next year.
(Warning I did some Wikipedia research for this next part, I promise I am not obsessed with this)The fact is that except for Kelly Clarkson and maybe Carrie Underwood, the winner has not had as much success as the runner(s)-up. Clay Aiken sold more than Ruben Studdard, Jennifer Hudson won an Academy Award and Fantasia did not, Daugherty has sold more records than last year's winner Taylor Hicks. SO who cares if this sucky singer wins; just don't go buy his record, but the record of your favorite (because they all come out with a CD anyways).
The real problem is that Americans wouldn't know good music if it bit them in the ass. (True story: Chris Martin from Coldplay once bit me in a Scottish bar and then I realized that Coldplay was a good band.) Most people will watch the show knowing that Sanjaya sucks but will forget about that this summer and then when his record comes out in the fall they buy it "because he won American Idol and must be good."
The other thing that angered me about this story is that Howard Stern is getting involved in this. Howerd Stern?? Do people still listen to that guy? Wow, thats sad. If I had satellite radio with thousands of channels, the last station I would listen to was the Howerd Stern station. I would listen to the white noise station or the the crying babies station before him. Why does Howard Stern care? Someone should be try a scheme to bring about the end of his "show." Oh wait, I think he's doing that fine by himself.
Well America my advice is watch whatever the hell you want on t.v., vote for whoever you want in whatever shitty reality series you watch, and listen to good music.
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