Well, the world has spun around one rotation to bring us to another day…and another blog.
So since I decided to start this blog a whopping 2 days ago, I have notice myself saying the phrase, “I should blog about this” way too often. Apparently there are a lot of topics that can be blogged about. Because no one in the right mind would actually talk aloud about half the crap they would write about into cyberspace. So here we are, another day, another topic not worth talking about to another human being…
Funny thing was, I was going to write about procrastination, but I’m going to procrastinate on that and write about a topic that just popped into my head…communication. More specifically - the lack of face to face communication in the modern society. I like to consider myself an amateur sociologist since that was my undergraduate major, and since you can’t do anything with that as a major except consider yourself an amateur sociologist, I believe is enough right to expostulate on social communication and the effects of modern technology on social interaction…Sure, why not. So let’s delve, yes let us. So head down to your local College/University in between classes and you will find a disproportionate number of students surgically attached to cell phones and/or iPod devices. I should preface with the fact that I am not here to ridicule those individuals that communicate non-verbally or enjoy listening to music, that would be hypocritical of me, I am merely making observation and hopefully make it humorous. OK, back to the cell phone babies…now I have had the pleasure of working with computers back to Windows 3.1, and I insisted my first computer have a modem so that I could call my friend (who was and still is much more advanced than me in computer wherewithal). So without any ISP I was on my way to peer-to-peer modem dial-up connectivity. Granted back then (early ’92-ish to be specific) computer-to-computer communication was limited, very limited, and I never really got into BBSs because they were like fraternities, you had to know the admin, have something to offer in return, just be granted access to their bulletin boards. Then came the World Wide Web and newsgroups, easily interfaced by using this program called an internet browser: Netscape. Then college = “high speed” internet connection, Pine e-mail, and, wait for it...wait for it, Windows 95! (what a revolution). Pine e-mail was a very basic DOS and Unix based application that allowed users to read messages. Well, the program, as far as I can remember, made you log in each time you wanted to read new message…well, I probably checked that e-mail account about 18 times a minute while in my dorm room first year. That deep blue background would laminate the dark room in a wave of blue colored tinted bliss…until I realized I never had any new mail. About 6% (arbitrary #) of the population used e-mail in ’95 (I found that 29% of households in ’95 accessed the internet, so I’m sort of close). And today? Well, let just say if our University e-mail system goes down for about 5 minutes we’ve got the entire academic, medical, and administrative community calling us for ETAs and how dare we ruin their lives by causing the servers to crash like we did it on purpose. Which brings me back to my observation which I will begin with an anecdote of one such user…
So this woman calls all panicky about not being able to send out e-mails for this important blah, blah, blah. So I tell her that the e-mail servers are acting slow and message sent out may take some time to reach their destinations. And she’s all like, “But I’m just trying send them down the all and around the corner.” As if your distance from the recipient is in direct relation to the time it takes to receive of the e-mail by said recipient. For the uninitiated, its not exactly. Yes, to some degree, but in this case, no. The point being…the recipient is down the hall and around the corner. Its not like she even had to pick up the phone! Just stand up, take 22 steps and see the person – IN PERSON. Alright, another thing you should know about me…I have some weird phobia about calling people on the phone, not talking to people on the phone, just calling. Not to this degree: Phone Phobia, but more like this: “Cold Call Phobia”, so I prefer to talk to people in person…or better yet, by e-mail. But if e-mail is down or unavailable…I prefer to go to the person/store than call. Don’t ask, I don’t know why. I’m sure my friend just think I don’t like them when I never call but that’s not the case. Place that in today’s ultra-cell phone/electronic society and that makes me antiquated. So that should give you some idea where this observation is coming from…but back to the topic at hand, which I have no idea what it is anymore…thanks for playing along.
Oh, right, non-personal communication. IM, text-messaging, E-mail, chat rooms, myspace…blogs (oh the irony) and other non-verbal communication are creating a whole new level of dangers that our younger generation faces with the added accessibility and connectivity to the larger world. Not to mention the distractions when driving, in classes, or walking alone…so what are we to do to protect society from falling into communication overload, attention deficit, and over exposure? That is a tough question to answer but it is certain that technology and teens (and younger) will always be one step ahead of regulation (see file sharing). Cell phones certain have their benefits: protection when walking alone (I know, I’m contradicting myself, but it can act as a deterrent and distraction from your surrounding), calling for emergencies or if lost, etc…we all know what they can do and how they have revolutionized our lives. Children of today will take it for granted and we will be the old geezers talking about the days before cell phones, phone tag, non-caller ID, rotary phones, and quarter pay phones…and actually remember people phone numbers by heart. And I am sure there are endless uses for cell phones that I am completely unaware of, but what will happen when we get to a point where we are talking to people by cell-phone, or atom-phone, or implant-a-phone, to a person right next to us. Or when we don’t recognized our own children when we run into them that one day we just so happen to be in our house at the same time.
On an unrelated note, I recently got a Bluetooth hands-free headset for my cell phone and it totally kicks ass. Now I can blog, chat, e-mail, drive, look pompous, talk on my cell phone, talk to other people, talk to myself without looking crazy, all with this fashionable earpiece dangling from one ear. I highly recommend them. Until tomorrow…unless I procrastinate some more.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Tele-vision Impaired
So where to begin? What topic should a blogger tackle first? Politics? Religion? World Peace? Iraq? The state of the U.S. Educational system? All in good time my friends…no, the first thing I want to discuss (rant) is the very thing I love and hate the most. A device so cunning and devious it sucks out your brain, blinds you vision to nothing but it. A subject that is so addictive and evil the devil hass delayed Armageddon because he’s got to know what will happen on the next episode of “Lost”. The television, TV, the boob tube, the idiot box, the telectroscope (historical reference). This site has some good facts on how effectively the television has taken over the world. 6 hours and 47 minutes is the average time a TV is on in an American household. And consider me guilty as charged…if I actually spent that much time at home not asleep. Being a future educator I find this number disturbing, that and the fact that most children spend about twice as much time watching TV than in school. As long as I can remember, I have had a TV to watch - granted 13” black and white sets aren’t the best to watch afternoon cartoons such as G.I. Joe, Transformers, and M.A.S.K. - I managed to enjoy them just the same. I remember going to buy a Zenith color TV with my Mom, I remember moving the living room (with the TV) from one room to another, quite a shock to a kid who’s hero was Optimus Prime and was the sworn enemy of Cobra Commander, not to mention the evening sitcoms, “Cheers”, the “Cosby Show”, and “Night Court” (oh that Harry Anderson was a funny one, and the magic tricks!), and the hour long dramas, “Greatest American Hero”, “The A-Team”, “Buck Rogers”, “Fantasy Island”, “Dallas” (Mom and her primetime soap operas). Oh, the classics…but that walk down nostalgia lane only shows how covertly the Televisions wooed our senses, brainwashed our thoughts, and made us long to be able to jump over tall fences, talk to really short people in robot costumes, and walk into a bar and have everyone know your name (first sign that you might be an alcoholic – seek treatment). The expansion of Cable TV revolutionized the world of television reality. That old cable box got you the USA Network, MTV, and if you pushed down two of those toggles at the same time, inserted folded paper, you may just get semi-blurred, just able to make out scene from Beverly Hills Cop.
These mechanical beasts of electrodes and resisters have been replaced by their modern and far superior upgrades. LCD, HD, DVDs, ESPNHD, 1020i, like humanized cyborgs infiltrating humankind only to turn and nuke the whole existence, televisions are evolving into our virtual reality. They are predecessors to the control system used by the construct in the Matrix while we are being used as batteries. Ironically we watched that movie on TVs that will be the tools used to keep us incubated in our battery charging beds which will be powering the TVs being watched by the machines harvesting us as batteries to avoid doing work until their weekend comes. Movies will be discussed at another time but you see what I’m getting at here…or maybe you don’t because re-reading that, I totally confused myself. Anyhow, it’s a paradox.
And how do these hypnotic color carriers reel us in? By using pretty people in unrealistic reality shows written to exploit the beautiful, the crazy, and the outright conflicted. TV shows like “American Idol”, “The Block”, Real World/Road Rules Challenge: Survivor: Fiji Island: Escape or Die, all gravitate around the pretty and/or crazy people. And how can we as human beings not watch that? How is it possible to defy our human nature to watch a long, purpled haired - 30 body pierced – 300 pound transvestite sing Lionel Richie’s “Dancing on the Ceiling”? I mean, come on, its like the machines know we have to watch shows like “Cops” and World’s Craziest People Attack Rabid Animals While In a High Speed Chase with Police. They have figured us out and are now taking aim at our very souls. Soon we will be powerless, we well never see the sun-drenched world again. Our eyes will be blind to all but liquid crystal displays and images that change every 2.5 seconds.
I actually went without cable for a year of my adult life, back to rabbit ears, and all that did was get me addicted to broadcast network TV shows. Don’t get me wrong, I certain wish I was lost on a freaky island with Kate, Claire, Shannon, and Libby…but I have a feeling that when the truth is revealed on that show, it will all have been one big giant commercial ad for Honda. And why do you ask, would they cancel great shows like “Arrested Development” and “Firefly”? They are too clever, too funny, and too entertaining that the Television conspiracy would be exposed.
So parents, get your child away from the TV while there is still time. There is no hope for us, the ship is sinking, mankind is in peril and our children are our future (poor, poor, Whitney). Get them outside into the sun-drenched world, expose them to sunlight so that they won’t get burnt every time they have a tee-ball game. Or just get them the Nintendo Wii and maybe they’ll get some exercise that way. At least that’s moving in the right direction….even for us older “kids”. There’s still hope yet…maybe.
These mechanical beasts of electrodes and resisters have been replaced by their modern and far superior upgrades. LCD, HD, DVDs, ESPNHD, 1020i, like humanized cyborgs infiltrating humankind only to turn and nuke the whole existence, televisions are evolving into our virtual reality. They are predecessors to the control system used by the construct in the Matrix while we are being used as batteries. Ironically we watched that movie on TVs that will be the tools used to keep us incubated in our battery charging beds which will be powering the TVs being watched by the machines harvesting us as batteries to avoid doing work until their weekend comes. Movies will be discussed at another time but you see what I’m getting at here…or maybe you don’t because re-reading that, I totally confused myself. Anyhow, it’s a paradox.
And how do these hypnotic color carriers reel us in? By using pretty people in unrealistic reality shows written to exploit the beautiful, the crazy, and the outright conflicted. TV shows like “American Idol”, “The Block”, Real World/Road Rules Challenge: Survivor: Fiji Island: Escape or Die, all gravitate around the pretty and/or crazy people. And how can we as human beings not watch that? How is it possible to defy our human nature to watch a long, purpled haired - 30 body pierced – 300 pound transvestite sing Lionel Richie’s “Dancing on the Ceiling”? I mean, come on, its like the machines know we have to watch shows like “Cops” and World’s Craziest People Attack Rabid Animals While In a High Speed Chase with Police. They have figured us out and are now taking aim at our very souls. Soon we will be powerless, we well never see the sun-drenched world again. Our eyes will be blind to all but liquid crystal displays and images that change every 2.5 seconds.
I actually went without cable for a year of my adult life, back to rabbit ears, and all that did was get me addicted to broadcast network TV shows. Don’t get me wrong, I certain wish I was lost on a freaky island with Kate, Claire, Shannon, and Libby…but I have a feeling that when the truth is revealed on that show, it will all have been one big giant commercial ad for Honda. And why do you ask, would they cancel great shows like “Arrested Development” and “Firefly”? They are too clever, too funny, and too entertaining that the Television conspiracy would be exposed.
So parents, get your child away from the TV while there is still time. There is no hope for us, the ship is sinking, mankind is in peril and our children are our future (poor, poor, Whitney). Get them outside into the sun-drenched world, expose them to sunlight so that they won’t get burnt every time they have a tee-ball game. Or just get them the Nintendo Wii and maybe they’ll get some exercise that way. At least that’s moving in the right direction….even for us older “kids”. There’s still hope yet…maybe.
Introduction
Well, here it is, my first blog. I’ve never been a big fan of blogs, never really understood the purpose but maybe by doing one, but I’ll figure that all out, or better yet, we can figure it out together. I am writing this as if people are actually going to be reading it. Talk about delusional, but hey, that’s just how I operate…
I should begin with a little history…well first, I am a big fan of history. I love to know where things have come from, where they’ve been, how they got there. And I mean everything, old buildings, people, a bolt, a Popsicle stick, this chair I’m sitting in. Where was it made? Who made it? Who’s sat in it? How many farts have passed through its mesh lining? Knowing the history of something or someone gives us a better understanding on who or what it is.
And I will begin with what I know the most history about….me. My name is Rick, short for Richard, like the king, but I am far from kingly. I grew-up and currently live in the history rich state, sorry, Commonwealth of Virginia, named after the first Queen Elizabeth. I think it is always good to know where someone is writing because of my one, all-encompassing and ever-present belief that everything thing is relative. What I experience in Virginia is vastly different then, say, what someone else experiences in “Northern” Virginia (NoVa as it is referred to around here) I swear those people want it to be a separate state, sorry, Commonwealth. Maybe we’ll have another Civil War around here, because that just what this state, sorry, Commonwealth, needs, another damn civil war to languish in for another 150 years. As you can tell by now…I tend to go off on tangents, bare with me, maybe this medium, and modern word processing technology, will help me fix that problem. Now where was I? Relative-ness, or something, so even what I experience in this very cubicle is a variation of what my co-workers experience in their cubicles. I think you get the point. Which brings me back to the very point of writing a blog. If everything is relative then I am certainly not here to try to tell you what you are thinking right now is wrong (unless it is somehow related to me being a bumbling fool) and I’m not here to influence opinion or political beliefs. I guess it all comes down to the basic concept of education. The more we are exposed to the relative beliefs and views of individuals, the more we can understand the world around us…or something like that. And besides, what else do I have to do? Its either this, work, or school work. Which brings me to factoid number, whatever, I am a career academic…which basically just means I don’t know what I want to do with my life so I’ll just waste a whole lot of money listening to really boring people talk about stuff I’m too lazy to read about. Actually the goal is to be one of those type people someday…maybe to a lesser “degree” (oh I am so witty). I did briefly spend time in the “real” world but didn’t like it, so I’m back in my delusional reality.
And a comment on the blog’s name: All credit must go to Joshua Radin and his hauntingly beautiful song of the same name. In reality, my reality, its just a cool name, and on a figurative level, and I’m sure its “trippy” on some altered reality plain, it is like exposing the world to you through my sunlight. Yeah, I don’t know what that means either, maybe one of you can explain it to me.
I will be covering a lot of topics with thoughts and ideas that have been bouncing aimlessly in this head of mine, that have had no outlet except in verbal rants to my friends and family, so thank you world of blogs, and my family and friends thanks you as well, for giving me this opportunity to write, vent, expound, capitulate, to absolutely no one. So I am new to all of this, forgive me if this all comes out like a bubbling idiot, which isn’t really that far from the truth, hopefully together we can figure what all this is about.
I should begin with a little history…well first, I am a big fan of history. I love to know where things have come from, where they’ve been, how they got there. And I mean everything, old buildings, people, a bolt, a Popsicle stick, this chair I’m sitting in. Where was it made? Who made it? Who’s sat in it? How many farts have passed through its mesh lining? Knowing the history of something or someone gives us a better understanding on who or what it is.
And I will begin with what I know the most history about….me. My name is Rick, short for Richard, like the king, but I am far from kingly. I grew-up and currently live in the history rich state, sorry, Commonwealth of Virginia, named after the first Queen Elizabeth. I think it is always good to know where someone is writing because of my one, all-encompassing and ever-present belief that everything thing is relative. What I experience in Virginia is vastly different then, say, what someone else experiences in “Northern” Virginia (NoVa as it is referred to around here) I swear those people want it to be a separate state, sorry, Commonwealth. Maybe we’ll have another Civil War around here, because that just what this state, sorry, Commonwealth, needs, another damn civil war to languish in for another 150 years. As you can tell by now…I tend to go off on tangents, bare with me, maybe this medium, and modern word processing technology, will help me fix that problem. Now where was I? Relative-ness, or something, so even what I experience in this very cubicle is a variation of what my co-workers experience in their cubicles. I think you get the point. Which brings me back to the very point of writing a blog. If everything is relative then I am certainly not here to try to tell you what you are thinking right now is wrong (unless it is somehow related to me being a bumbling fool) and I’m not here to influence opinion or political beliefs. I guess it all comes down to the basic concept of education. The more we are exposed to the relative beliefs and views of individuals, the more we can understand the world around us…or something like that. And besides, what else do I have to do? Its either this, work, or school work. Which brings me to factoid number, whatever, I am a career academic…which basically just means I don’t know what I want to do with my life so I’ll just waste a whole lot of money listening to really boring people talk about stuff I’m too lazy to read about. Actually the goal is to be one of those type people someday…maybe to a lesser “degree” (oh I am so witty). I did briefly spend time in the “real” world but didn’t like it, so I’m back in my delusional reality.
And a comment on the blog’s name: All credit must go to Joshua Radin and his hauntingly beautiful song of the same name. In reality, my reality, its just a cool name, and on a figurative level, and I’m sure its “trippy” on some altered reality plain, it is like exposing the world to you through my sunlight. Yeah, I don’t know what that means either, maybe one of you can explain it to me.
I will be covering a lot of topics with thoughts and ideas that have been bouncing aimlessly in this head of mine, that have had no outlet except in verbal rants to my friends and family, so thank you world of blogs, and my family and friends thanks you as well, for giving me this opportunity to write, vent, expound, capitulate, to absolutely no one. So I am new to all of this, forgive me if this all comes out like a bubbling idiot, which isn’t really that far from the truth, hopefully together we can figure what all this is about.
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