Television, Television

Alright. I think that Miriam gave pretty much my view on the Heath Ledger topic. I added a little in my comment but I think that I have found the root of the problem. Television. So, this whole example started out as news on CNN, a TV channel. Look at all of the shows devoted to the lives of celebrities, Extra and Access Hollywood, as a few examples. I know that these shows are on way too often and that they expose gossip about celebrities. That is about all of the contact I have chosen to have with them. TV stations have prime time spots, Thursday and Friday nights from six o'clock to about nine are considered major slots. Extra is on every weekday at seven. How much crap can you have to say about such a small group of people? Extra's site is insane, take a look, you will agree. This is the most obvious connection between celebrities and our daily lives but what most people don't see is that they sneak into our lives through the back doors and crawlspaces of our minds and they have been doing it since we were children. The shows that we don't see as celebrity related are probably the biggest threats to keeping our lives Britney-free. There are shows that are made to create new celebrities, there are shows that are devoted to talking to celebrites, there are reality shows about former celebrities' lives, there are celebrity match-maker shows, on and on and on. When I come to think about it I don't know of more than a few channels that are out of the loop. Cartoon Network was sinless for a while, seeing as it was all animated, but even it is now following the path towards creating baby stars. No station is safe anymore. Between the shows of Jay Leno and Conan O'Brian I think that nearly every star has been on at least once in his or her lifetime. These shows set up false images of the people who appear on them. They not only make the celebrities seem like real people (we all know that they are robots) but the shows also create a feeling of closeness and friendship with the celebs. This false relationship is devastating to a person's social life. We take an interest in people who are not really there, we care more about who JLo is dating than about our best friend's new boy. This problem is not just among adults; it has spread into a much younger population. Disney is to blame! Because of new teen sensations like Raven, Miley Cyrus (whose real name is Destiny Hope), and Ashley Tisdale, young girls all across the nation have been hit with celeb fever. Just the other day I heard a young girl say "Mommy can I have a nose job, too?" Isn't that just sad? We have been infected and nobody knows. Is there a cure to the mania? Will there ever be an end? Salvation comes in small doses everyday. It's called literature.

cookies 'n cream, a tribute to the intro

After reading the first pages of the introduction to The Tipping Point all I could think about was making a midnight run to Long John Silver's, but before I could grab my keys I decided to get my fix elsewhere by dishing myself up a nice bowl of cookies n' cream. Almost before I could get onto page six I had proceded to spill my dessert all over, not only myeslf, but on my book and blankets as well. For a short while I was bothered by my clumsy and very sticky stupidity but after a while my fingers became too tacky to continue without my fingers clinging to the pages. After this somewhat uncomfortable escapade that was ended my a shower I had managed to skim, but not retain any of the information I had read about the New York Crime wave. Upon rereading I realized that it was not worth reading a third time because I knew that, even then, I would not understand how "the classic American brushed-suede shoes with a lightweight crepe sole" had anything to do with Brownsville, New York in the 1980's. Frustrated, I put down my book and turned to the ever-so-comforting Vonnegut before hitting the hay. The next night, after choosing to skip my after dinner snack, I once again picked up The Tipping Point and snuggled under the freshly washed covers. Mr. Gladwell was much nicer to me this time. He finally explained what he was talking about: epidemics and their three characteristics. All was well with the yawning paragraph, I was happy because I only yawned once, and it pretty much made sense. I thought that that paragraph what effective in explaning that contagious didn't just apply to sickness or disease. His use of examples was amazing and it made reading more interesting for me because I got examples that give clear meaning to what he is trying to say. The study of high school drop out rates was not something that I found very intersting, because it was mostly statistics, but the example about the snow made everything more simple which is so much better (because I need things to be simple). As of right now I have not read the first chapter but I am excited to read what he has to say about Blue's Clues and the syphilis outbreak in Baltimore. I know that I will read the next chapter soon but I am not sure if my squabble with cookies 'n cream will be over as soon because he won't apologise. It seems that my delectable treat and I are on hiatus.

Research and Linking-1

http://www.lostblog.net/
Is it bad when your obsessions tie into your schoolwork? For the past few weeks I have been becoming increasingly excited about the new season of LOST that airs this Thursday. Because I am such a focused person it is all I can think about, sadly enough. I could go on and on but basically I decided to check out what other people were saying about TV's most talked about drama. This is the best thing I have ever found on the internet by far and I fear that it may fuel my addiction to the show. The blog has so many things to read that even a quick-reading, LOST-know-it-all would have trouble getting through in less than 24 hours. When you first open the site you see a page of LOST news that summarizes events or articles about the show. Totally sweet. Anything that you could want to read about LOST is on this site. The best thing that I read, the thing that was the most exciting, was the news about the LOST characters being refrenced in many new Marvel comicbooks. While this may not excite you it makes me ecstatic. One thing about LOST is that it is a show that attracts alot of theories as to what is going on in the characters' world. I think that the best part is that the person who is writing this blog is very good at updating the theories whenever important information is gathered from the show and he is also good at weeding out the theories that aren't very good. When I am reading for information I find that only having plausable theories to look at is usually good but sometimes I like to read the stupid ones and then make fun of the people who wrote them. Is that bad?

Research and Linking-.5

http://www.girls-softball.com/
This blog is one that I would not really read on a regular basis even though I am interested in its topic. I find that it is more geared toward parents of girls who play softball as opposed to the girls themselves. It is something that my mother would read for information that she couldn't get from other parents. The blog is updated about every other week or so and it is pretty old, the oldest are from June 2006 so that would suggest that the blogger has a fair amount of experience. The main poster "Dave" seems to know what he is talking about, in his most recent entry he talks about choosing a composite bat, something that none of you probably know about but he goes in to pretty great detail. Dave puts a personal spin on problems many prarents have associated with softball and he answers questions using his experiances to back up his opinions. While I love the fact that this guy can relate, I think that he writes way too much. The most recent post takes up too much time to say what could be put in to a short paragraph. Because of his excessive word usage I dont think that I would read his blog but instead click on the "softball tips" link on the side. The site also has links to the major softball organization websites, all of which are potentially important to coaches for teaching or finding rules. The site has a few ads but they aren't too distracting or overly loud. Overall it was a pretty good site; I liked the designs and the arangement because they fit well with the theme. The thought of yet another man involved in the softball industry irks me. I hate it. It is suppost to be a woman's sport. In the end this Dave guy is probably a creepy stalker or just another over zealous softball daddy. I dislike men involved in this sport so much that I hope that this one is secretly a woman. We will never know.