me in high school

A couple of days ago, I rediscovered my livejournal and my xanga from high school, and I have been reading all the old entries. It is crazy how much I have changed. I used to use my xanga/livejournal a lot to let someone know I was mad at them, let off steam, make snide remarks to a friend, or to apologize to a friend. Of course, most of the entries weren't like this, I was just so surprised to see those entries that I did post!

It's kind of comforting to look back and see how much I have changed. Now, if I was mad at someone, I would never post it in a public place! I would talk to them about it in person, and not let the whole world know! I guess all of my experiences in reading these online journals the past couple of days have taught me that the media is a great place to find memories (some of those posts are valuable as journal entries, and it's fun to remember things that happened that I forgot about). But, the media can also be used to harm relationships.
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you've been watching too much CNN

Yesterday as I was reading a nonfiction book, I came across this passage that totally reminded me of Gerber's cultivation theory and the mean world syndrome. It was interesting to see something that related so well to a concept we recently covered in class.

"Dilara informed us that she keeps abreast of world events by watching CNN... Over a period of an hour Dilara gradually approached the subject of life in the United States. It felt like she was tap dancing around something; finally, it came out. 'Life in America must be... difficult with so many guns and all those gangs.' ...'You've been watching too much CNN,' September replied conversationally; then shot me a meangingful glance. 'A lot of us are guilty of that.' ... She told us that in spite of all the 'obvious' dangers, she even planned to visit the United States someday. 'I'm certain that some parts of the U.S. are safe,' she explained. 'By the way, could you please tell me which parts those might be?'" - 360 Degrees Longitude: One Family's Journey Around the World (page 124) by John Higham

This book is a nonfiction account of a family who took their two children, ages 11 and 8, on a trip around the world for an entire year. This family is in my home ward, and I used to babysit their kids. I recently started reading the book, and I love it! It discusses many cultural differences we find across the world, and wraps it up with the hilarity that only real life can bring.

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So Much Cooler Online

I heard Brad Paisley's song "Online" on the radio today, and it reminded me of the lecture where we talked about social networking sites. The lyrics are pretty funny:

I work down at the Pizza Pit
And I drive an old Hyundai
I still live with my mom and dad
I'm 5 foot 3 and overweight
I'm a scifi fanatic
A mild asthmatic
And I've never been to second base
But there's whole ‘nother me
That you need to see
Go checkout MySpace

'Cause online I'm out in Hollywood
I'm 6 foot 5 and I look damn good
I drive a Maserati
I'm a black-belt in karate
And I love a good glass of wine
It turns girls on that I’m mysterious
I tell them I don't want nothing serious
'Cause even on a slow day
I could have a three way
Chat with two women at one time
I’m so much cooler online
So much cooler online

When I get home I kiss my mom
And she fixes me a snack
And I head down to my basement bedroom
And fire up my mac
In real life the only time I’ve ever even been to L.A
Is when I got the chance with the marching band
To play tuba in the Rose Parade

Online I live in Malibu
I pose for Calvin Klein, I've been in GQ
I'm single and I'm rich
And I've got a set of six pack abs that would blow your mind
It turns girls on that I’m mysterious
I tell them I don't want nothing serious
'Cause even on a slow day
I could have a three way
Chat with two women at one time
I’m so much cooler online
Yeah, I'm cooler online

When you got my kind of stats
It’s hard to get a date
Let alone a real girlfriend
But I grow another foot and I lose a bunch of weight
Every time I login

Online
I’m out in Hollywood
I’m 6 foot 5 and I look damn good
Even on a slow day
I could have a three way
Chat with two women at one time
I’m so much cooler online
Yeah, I’m cooler online
I’m so much cooler online
Yeah, I’m cooler online

Yeah, I’m cooler online

Yeah, I’ll see ya online

Watch Music Video Here

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relationships

In many of our lectures, we've discussed the effect of different types of media on relationships. In the New Media lecture, we talked about the social penetration theory and the model that discusses how new media relationships start with facebook friends, then IM, texting, and phone calls. That reminded me of a friend that I had a couple of years ago. We had a friend in common, who gave him my number. He called me once. After that, we became facebook friends. We wrote on each other's walls all the time. After awhile we started to text back and forth a lot. Eventually, we started to talk on the phone a lot. I just thought it was kind of funny to see this situation using that theory, because, really, we wouldn't have been friends without the new media (we actually hadn't ever met until after all that went down).

I was also thinking about how media probably can drive us apart a little bit. I kind of laugh when I see the way my roommate and I are with each other. We're both a little bit obsessed with our computers and the Internet. Most of the time we spend in our room we are both sitting in front of the screen, looking our own stuff up on the web. The other night, we both stayed up really late on our computers. She told me, "I'm so glad you're awake too, it gets so lonely when I'm the only one up." It was kinda funny, because we weren't even talking to each other. I'm also reminded of a guy that I used to date. I got really frustrated with him because I felt like every time we hung out, he would be on his computer or watching football on TV or something. A lot of times I feel like media drives a small wedge in relationships when someone pays more attention to the media than to you when you are with them.

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Balloon Boy

In case you haven't heard of this story, I'll quickly recap it. On Thursday, a Colorado family launched a hot air balloon that they had made themselves. After quickly discovering that their 6 year old son was missing, they put two and two together and realized that the boy must be on the balloon. They called up the police and there was a two hour long wait for the balloon that finally landed 60 miles away. When it landed, the parents quickly discovered that the boy was not on the balloon, and soon found him hiding in the attic.

Later, several interviews were performed with the family. The most notable one was on Larry King Live. When asked why he didn't come out when his parents called for him, the 6 year old said, "You guys said we did this for the show." Watch the video here, skip to about 30 seconds in to see his infamous line.

It turns out that this family has been on wife swap before, and has tried (unsuccesfully) to launch their own reality TV show. This family seems to crave media attention, and whatever their son means by saying they did it "for the show", this event seems to fulfill their desire for more attention.



When I first heard about this story, I immediately thought of this class. I thought it weird how addicted some people are to certain types of media that they would go to any length just to get some kind of news coverage or material for a TV show. I feel that the media makes us selfish to some degree. I think it's a natural aspect of being human to want to have the attention of others, but the media just blows this kind of attention out of proportion, and that makes some people just go crazy.

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Video Games

I've never been a fan of video games. I never had them in my home, and I never planned on having them in my future home.
I feel like being in this major, we have heard all about the evils of video games. I can think of many different classes that I have taken at BYU that have convinced me even further that video games are horrible and your children will be more violent and have worse grades if you allow them in the home.
I found yesterday's lecture kind of refreshing, actually. Previously I had had this hugely negative view of video games. The same might be true, but now I realize that there are some merits to some types of video games. I think that really, the distinction needs to be made in my mind that not all video games are mindlessly and graphically violent, or highly addictive. Many are educational and can help with spatial reasoning, among other benefits. Although I will still hold a negative view of that group of video games that portray violence, and the highly addictive MMORPG type games, I can now feel good about having positive opinions about games like RockBand and Wii Sports, and other games.

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Hymns

I listen to music all the time. I listen to it while I'm getting ready, walking to school, sitting around at home, driving, and even while doing homework or eating. You know, it's kind of ironic. A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post about how obsessive I was about listening to my iPod, and how I couldn't seem to escape the thrill of using it as an escape tactic. Well, my iPod broke last week. I have learned to live a little bit more without music.

That doesn't make it easier. This semester, I'm taking an organ class. Every week I have to go to the organ lab and read through lessons on the computer in addition to my practice. I usually end up in the organ lab for 1-2 hours. It's really hard for me to sit for this long, so I usually get really restless. The worst is when I'm just sitting and reading the lesson- there's no background music and I just start to go crazy. The other day I discovered the coolest thing: the electronic organs have hymns on them that you can set to autoplay!

Ever since that discovery, I have been listening to hymns while I do my reading assignments. It has made such a difference in my concentration and the way I feel! The hymns are amazing, as soon as they start to play on that organ I feel myself instantly calm down, feel the Spirit, and feel able to concentrate. I love it!

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Roald Dahl

For quite a while, my favorite book during childhood was Matilda. Matilda is a story by Roald Dahl (an author that I loved in childhood!) about a little girl named Matilda. Her parents are absolute scum who treat her horribly, and she finds a sort of escape in her teacher at school, and they develop a friendship. Matilda goes through many adventures, including those with her parents and her horrible headmistress Ms. Trunchbull. At some point, Matilda discovers she has a magical power to move things with her mind, and she works on developing this supernatural talent.
I think one of the reasons this book was a favorite was because of the writing style. As mentioned previously, I loved all the Roald Dahl books that I read in childhood. All of his books were funny and interesting. I loved the fact that this book combined something so real wi(troubles at school and at home) with things that are so ridiculous and comical. I loved the ending of the book- Matilda has such a hard life for a young girl, and at the end of the book she ends up being able to go live with the teacher that she loves, and they both live happily ever after.








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Taken

Yesterday I watched Taken for the first time. I was really excited because I have been hearing about this movie for months. I told my roommate that I was really excited to see it, because I've only heard good things about it.

As the movie started, I found myself really enjoying it. The plot was interesting and suspenseful, and it really made you think about your relationships and how you might act in certain situations. However, at a certain point in the movie, I realized that there was much more violence than I expected.

First Brian killed about 10 people inside of the Rue de Paradis house, each in a different and vulgar way (sticking a knife up one's throat, shooting another one with the hand of an already dead man, etc.). Later, a man was shown being quesitoned by Brian, and Brian tortured him by submitting him to the electric chair. This was shown onscreen several times. As the victim pleads for mercy because he honestly does not know the answer to Brian's question, Brian says "I believe you.... but it's still not going to save you" and turns the electric chair back on and leaves the room. In addition, Brian shot at a coworker's wife, in a situaiton where the wife had been nothing but kind to him, and she had nothing to do with the issue at hand.

Frankly, all this violence bothered me. I felt like there were so many instances where the movie seemed to be too graphic. In addition, I realized that Brian was not the hero that I once thought he was. Brian was cruel and showed unusual forms of punishment. Not only did he kill people in inhumane ways and injure those who did not deserve it, but I feel that these gross displays of violence were glamorized. Brian is the hero of the movie, so every time he brutally murders one of the "bad guys", his image as a hero increases. He shows no remorse.

All in all, I did enjoy the plot and premise of the movie, but the violence just seemed to overshadow everything- I thought it was too much. Did anyone else get that impression from the movie?