While searching for “hot” blog topics, I came across this site with its most current blog discussion talking about the idea of Remote Control Humans. As soon as I saw this I did a double take and was like, what the heck? I read the short blog on Blogma, a news blog on the web. Basically a process called galvanic vestibular stimulation messes with nerves in your ears, really delicate ones and causes you to be off balance. This Japanese technology can control bodily movements which is really frightening, in my opinion.

A journalist by the name of Yuri Kageyama wrote in an article on CNN.com her take on this new technology; she experienced first hand the technology that caused a stir among bloggers, who sent the info to Blogma, (and they write about the hottest blog topics that bloggers are talking about on the web.) The technology was created by a company by the name of Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp., and the experience of Kageyama, as put in her words, “I found the experience unnerving and exhausting: I sought to step straight ahead but kept careening from side to side. Those alternating currents literally threw me off.” (Kageyama)

I’m not very scientific myself, but I just wanted to write about it a little bit because I thought it was extremely interesting. It is nuts how impersonal technology is getting. I really don’t like the idea of someone being able to control my body. Some scientists think this technology is going to be a big breakthrough and that it will be great for training people in flight simulation programs for pilot training.

The unfortunate thing is that the side-effects on humans are not yet understood or known. I personally don’t like the idea and regardless of the positive effects, I don’t like the idea of being controlled. It makes me think of Big Brother from 1984 by George Orwell, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, and even Anthem by Ayn Rand and it makes me feel slightly sick to my stomach. (Brave New World I think is one of the most disturbing, yet, most accurate depiction of what our world could come to. Someone controlling my mind or even knowing my thoughts without my consent is almost a form of identity theft and it makes me so bothered I don’t even like writing about it anymore…

I had a little trouble finding many legitimate blogs or at least blogs of journalists I actually know. But eventually I came across Lisa Ling, whom I recognized from the View on ABC. Lisa left the View a few years ago because she wanted to make an impact on the world; at least that’s the impression I got (it’s been a while since she left the show, so my memory isn’t so strong on remembering when that happened) and she’s been traveling around the world doing stories for National Geographic Magazine. I found her blog on:

http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/channel/blog/2005/03/explorer_maximum.html

Her work before this was quite different than what it is now. The View dealt with entertainment and things that weren’t necessarily world-changing. I think Lisa Ling’s transfer to National Geographic was quite a smart move. As much as I love watching the view, I don’t think it’s going to change my life in a major way. Lisa Ling’s work on television is different in the sense that it’s far more personal than on a blog, but nonetheless her writing leaves an impact and personable feel on her readers that makes it seem like television, or even more, that it’s reality and it’s in your home.

Ling’s writing style is very effectual in relaying her experience to her readers. She sees people, places and things in ways that are so realistic that they make you cringe and think, “I’m so glad I’m not going through that,” or “Wow, that’s an idea I never thought of before, or something that I didn’t know existed or was so interesting until after I read about it.”

For example in this article about prisons in the United States, Lisa Ling expresses a great interest/fascination with the prisons of our country. From this article I gathered she visited and took the time to find out about the people behind the prison walls and it was rather a brave act on her part to go and learn about this kind of thing. Not only does she do this sort of assignment for National Geographic, but she also goes all around the world to investigate various new discoveries, the miscellaneous cultures on the planet and her intense interest in Earth, its peoples, animals, societies and cultures is what makes her so unique as a journalist.

Usually what I read about in newspapers is not relative to a lot of things that I’m interested in, or at least not to an extent that I feel it’s important/affecting the world and its communities. In this case, in reading Lisa Ling’s blog, I felt what Lisa Ling had to say was important and reflecting something that matters to the world’s communities as a whole. I felt as if she was trying to make a difference by participating in the kind of journalism she does. It’s not the same as just getting on the news every night and looking beautiful. Perhaps there is a certain beauty aspect in Lisa Ling’s career as a journalist. (I mean she was on the View first; as much as I enjoy the show, a lot of the popularity of it revolves around the attractive image of the hostesses. Their personal charisma is part of the show’s success as well as the fact that they are intelligent women. But without their looks, as sad as this is, television would mostly likely not accept them. Not that easily that is. The reason for this is just another sad truth of American television and society. We are too obsessed with the “beautiful” image.)

Aside from the slight digression from the subject of journalists’ blogs, I do think it’s extremely important to continue the trend of blogging, in addition to completing their regular tasks because this is a way to get the public interested in the news and world events. Those who have the ability to change the world with their public influence really should take the opportunity. If I was a famous journalist, and my views and explorations interested people and had the opportunity to make a difference through writing a blog, I’d write about these things and see how it played out.

~

So a few days ago I saw the movie, American Beauty, starring Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening. I know, I know what you're thinking, that movie was so like 1998 or whatever the year it was when it came out. But I have to say, ignoring the fact that I hadn't seen this oh so popular movie until recently, that this movie was pretty fabulous. Granted it was sad, but I was like holy cow, the little "subtle" motifs throughout the film, like the roses/rose petals, as well as the color red and dim lighting in most of the scenes said that something was amiss in the world of Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey). And yes he did say in the very beginning of the film that he was going to die within a year of the beginning of his tale, but somehow I think every viewer still was drawn in by the fact that he was such a decent guy and he didn't really do anything profusely wrong in his life from what we're told. He seemed like this poor dude who really lived his life the best he could despite his bitchy wife (Annette Bening) and seemingly unforgiving teenage daughter. In addition he had to deal with an extremely nutty neighbor who was a little too obsessed with being part of the army and has this secret desire for men that he hides all too well in this film to everyone that matters except his eventual victim.

Overall I thought the movie was fairly decent—it was the first in a long time that didn’t seem cliché or unbearable to watch. In fact I wanted to keep watching and when I have more time I’d love to analyze it…I saw so many things I’d like to have rewound to look at again. (the creepy neighbor boy and his mother, mentally ill because of her husband's homosexual/homophobic tendencies?) But alas you can’t do these things without savagely annoying the other people you’re watching the movie with.

So for the past two nights, I've experienced a new sort of media that most people my age grew up with, but because my parents either didn't find it necessary, or felt it was too expensive of a hobby, I was not exposed to Nintendo or Playstation, XBox, etc. My first "gaming" experience with controllers, etc., was last night and continued tonight with a full thirty rounds of Super Marios Smashbrothers or something to the effect of that name...I'll be honest I don't know the correct name, but I found it to be quite entertaining, but because all my other gaming experienecs have been on the computer using simple arrow keys and the spacebar and/or mouse to retrieve, shoot or get an object.

The interesting thing about not having ever played nintendo before is that one's reflexes are completely horrible, especially if you've never really used controllers in ANY way before, like even just simple arcade games at Pizza Hut. When you're that deprived from entertainment, you just don't know how to adapt as quickly as those who've grown up with this sort of thing in their homes. I mean, everyone I know who's grown up with Nintendo has almost always had fabulous reflexes and I've even heard about some study about how kids who've played video games when they were younger, have better reflexes when it comes to driving and stuff, it's kinda weird, but I think it would make sense, because you're used to seeing things come at you and almost gain a way of being able to block certain things out or at least push them in a direction where they won’t affect the driver.

It was quite demeaning to realize just how bad I was in comparison to some of my awesome Nintendo veteran friends…I felt completely out of place and out of time with these good friends of mine, even though I know just as much about computers or even more than they do…I somehow felt behind and wanted to be able to jump forward, but alas, that’s why there’s the phrase, “Practice Makes Perfect.” Because if we don’t practice, we won’t have any skills, and that’s clearly what I learned while trying to play the characters of Zelda, Mario and Yisho on Smash Brothers and Mario Party of Five…regardless of all that it was ridiculously fun, but I couldn’t help wishing the competitiveness curdling in my blood would’ve subsided, cause it was absolutely fruitless to concern myself with winning when I had absolutely NO experience whatsoever with Nintendo.

Advice for the sad hearted about being a bad Nintendo gamer…

If you want to be good at these things, as with any skill, you need practice…serious practice, like riding a bike and practicing, and I’m told it’s supposed to happen. And since I successfully learned to ride a bike, I’m giving myself the hope that I’ll be able to be a great gamer someday…

And being the optimistic type, it’s not like me to give up that easily…I’ll be a gamer yet!

So I know it must be sad to anyone reading this who's a play station/Nintendo addict, but some people just can't help what they've grown up with I guess, but I must confess it feels like it will be another time waster to pull me away from the necessary things in my life, as fun as it is. Well, what’s life without a little fun right?

The Ipod is a fairly recent invention (medium) made for playing music but so you don’t have to switch your CD every 11-22 songs. You can also put your library on “shuffle” and listen to extremely different, oftentimes eclectically different music without switching discs. For someone who doesn’t like every song on a CD might find that option extremely efficient to their tastes and distastes, depending.

Some versions of the Ipod are able to hold 7,500 songs, some 30 Megabytes. The device weighs around 5.6 ounces (which according to the Ipod Companion by Tony Bove is less than the weight of two standard CDs) and is shaped to fit in your pocket. With connector cables like the universal USB, the Ipod can easily hook up to your computer and using the fabulous Itunes, (which I use for my own music,) you can automatically update your music library.

I have yet to purchase my own Ipod however, because they are extremely expensive for the average college student attending the usual money-draining institution. And with the amount of songs that I have on my computer, it would be a good idea to get an Ipod soon because I have that terrible fear of either the pipes breaking or my computer getting a horrible virus that wipes out my over 6,000 songs in my Itunes library.

For a 20GB Ipod, the cost is about 254.99 after rebates. (Reg. 299.99) What’s exciting is that you can get refurbished Ipods for the same price with more space, for example, 40GB Ipod refurbished is 299.99, and a 20GB is 229.99. (hpshopping.com) It’s still over two hundred dollars, but it’s better than being over three hundred, at least in the case of these two types of Ipods.

Another great thing about Ipods is that they are versatile for both Macs and PCs. Though they were created by Apple Computer Incorporated, they are available to work with PCS with simple instructions from www.apple.com.

I think the implications of this particular new medium are pretty positive. They aren’t going to make CDs obsolete but I think the technology of being able to buy CDs and download them off Itunes right to your music Library is fabulous. Personally, it’s more convenient and assists in not having to have a lot of clutter; all your music is one your computer, and you don’t have to go searching for albums, just type in what you want to listen to. I do enjoy looking at some CD covers, albums, and their designs, etc. But otherwise, the computer is more convenient. You don’t have to make space in your room for them, etc.

Ipods are also fabulous for playing in your car, just hooking them up to the cigarette outlet for charging and playing ones music. Put it to the right radio station and you’ve got your music. It’s a good thing.

For More information Visit www.apple.com or www.hpshopping.com.

Extra Blog for film "Network"

I really liked the film, "Network." I’d give it probably 3 and a half stars out of five. I felt like it was well done, though I must admit it seemed so real for a satire, though the ending was definitely reminiscent of that satirical aspect I didn’t see at first.

I still could see this sort of thing happening because of so many of the capitalist themes that were prevalent throughout the piece. There was the big head honcho, Arthur Jensen who took this mentally ill man and used his mental illness as a form of manipulation to gain economic profit. And then there was this relationship between characters Max Schumacher and Diana Christensen that at first seemed out of place, but then had this air of necessity, to show just how cold Diana was. He called her a “Humanoid” of Howard Beale. She was too obsessed with the commercialism, promotional and financial success. It’s an intense moment when you think that she’s leaving him and in fact he turns it around and makes himself the hero and wins out.

The assassination however of Howard Beale seemed a little out of place. I mean it worked in a weird way, but I think at first I was like, oh my goodness I can’t seriously believe that they’re just gonna kill him off, that’s not-no way, they wouldn’t and then lo and behold; two communists stand up on two separate sides of the audience and shoot him. It was crazy. I mean when they said they were going to do it, I sensed that they would, but I just thought it was ridiculous.

It made me a little scared to tell you the truth. Capitalism truly rules, and it rules hard. If we have a bad television show and the head honcho wants it on, wants us to continue it, but those beneath him don’t, those who want that spot or a better show might just kill me if that’s the only way to get rid of me. And yet, despite it was definitely a real thing that happened to Howard Beale, it seemed like just another showbiz stunt to the media. It’s kind of scary, you could be doing something that you love and someone could kill you off if there were enough people who hated you and were willing to do it.

I just felt what I was watching was much more real than some of the people in the audience laughing about it might’ve realized. There were funny parts, but there were a lot of painful truths in it. Some people are more machine then man or woman. Diana Christensen is a prime example of this, and many men might’ve just been attracted to her physical body, but overall, she didn’t really seem to have much of a soul. Her interests were in her work. And I think it’s hard to have a soul if you don’t honestly connect to other people, especially people you love or care about or admire. The loss of and great importance of the individual is the ironic twist of fate in Network. The individual is important, but loses its value in Corporate America because of the mass struggle for power and money.

The following is the interview I did with my grandparents and my own response to their answers as well as my answers to the questionnaire.

1. Interview your grandparents by asking them the following questions. Ask them to think back to when they were your age or younger for their answers.

A. Family

1. What was the most important medium in the household?
Radio mostly.
2. How many televisions were in the house and who controlled them?
One TV in our late teen years. Parental control.
3. Were their viewing rules? Restrictions on kids?
Limited viewing allowed. Restrictions were less important because programming was family oriented.
4. Did family members ever read books or magazines to one another?
Yes.
5. Did family members listen to radio or music together?
Yes, very often. This offered better family togetherness than television did later.

B. Politics

1. Where did people get most of their information about political campaigns?
Newspapers, radio and movie news.
2. Did they go to political events, such as rallies, speeches, or meetings?
No.
3. Can they remember any political ads? If so, what sticks out in their minds about those ads? Images? Negativity?
"I like Ike" buttons and JFK posters.
4. Do they have any strong memories about news coverage of nominating conventions,
Primarily of the Kennedy / Nixon conventions.
the campaign,
No strong recollections.
or election returns?
Newspapers mistakenly announced Dewey was the winner over Truman in 1948. Also the surprise JFK win in 1960.
C. Religion

1. Did they used to listen to religious programs on the radio or watch them on television?
Occasionally. Billy Graham
2. What was their opinion of religious leaders at the time?
Major religious leaders were respected generally. Radio evangelists not so much.
3. Do they feel that religion has changed in the past several decades? If so, do they think the media had any influence?
The perception of religion has definitely changed over the last several decades. Media has been very influential in that it has exposed the fraudulent behavior of the charlatans, leading people to question all religious leaders. The media also has fostered unwholesome behavior as a normal reference for those who are inclined to accept it's precepts. Having said that......"True Religion", being a personal thing, has not really changed much.

~

I thought it was interesting to read the answers that my grandparents gave me about the time when they were my age and the certain sorts of media that they encountered. I was particularly intrigued by the political ads answer. I don’t even remember learning much about Eisenhower in school, but one of the political ads was the “I Like Ike” button. I wasn’t surprised about the JFK poster, but I think that’s because growing up, especially growing up in Massachusetts where JFK was from, I was used to seeing and hearing about his life and his presidency on the news. “Camelot” was what the White House was called when JKK was in residence at the White House. I think growing up in Massachusetts there was a lot of pride in the fact that JFK was from our state. And that might’ve contributed to me hearing a lot about him in my youth.

I find that I’m also not surprised to read that my grandparents heard religion in the house more. It was expected more back then. I was not surprised that my grandparents found that TV was more family oriented, that is one thing that I find unfortunate about modern programming. It’s a lot of the same reality show crap that really isn’t reality, or it’s cliché drama. There are probably one or two programs that I do watch on primetime television, like Smallville and the occasional CSI Miami. I enjoy PBS specials much more. I like the history stuff and documentaries on how things started. What someone’s life was like. To me, that’s reality television.

The most important medium in my household growing up was television: black and white and then color. There were two televisions at one point: a little black and white one and a color when they could finally afford it. When my parents and I moved away from my grandparents house, we only had one television and it was a color one. Mom and Dad controlled them. We were only supposed to have two or three hours at most of television a day, but that changed when we got older. My parents definitely read books to us. We had reading time almost every night until I was about seven or eight. We would listen to music and radio a lot when I was younger. My mom had country music on the most and then I was allowed to listen to Disney CDs mostly. There was a PBS show called A Prairie Home Companion hosted by Garrison Keillior. My mom and my brother and I listened mostly together because my Dad was usually at work.

We usually would get our news from the TV and newspaper. They did not attend or take us to any political events. I only did at college. I don’t remember many political ads, just the recent ones, like the Bush and Kerry cartoon during the election, “This Land is Your Land.” I remember the Bush/Kerry elections, mostly, but that was so recent, I don’t know if it’s even worthwhile discussing. All I remember about the Gore election was being so upset that I thought our country was going to hell because I didn’t see anything that Bush could offer us at the time. I still am not too fond of him, but I’m a little more optimistic. I remember the CHAD thing with the votes. Man that was annoying!

All I can say about religion is that I was not exposed to it much, my parents weren’t avid churchgoers. But I do remember the extensive trials of the Catholic Church, and I just remember that because it happened in Massachusetts, that that was all they talked about. I couldn’t get away from it. I loved living in Mass., at the time but I wanted to move I was so embarrassed—part of me was just like, “How could this have even happened?” Religion is supposed to be a sanctuary, not an open door to sexual predators. It just really angered me, and the fact that the media covered it so much was driving me nuts. They just have to OVER-cover stuff and it’s annoying because I want to get back to watching other programs. I don’t have time to hear the same thing over and over, and I don’t have the money for cable, so they should just have one channel for news, not five billion. It’s too much and we don’t need it.

Extra Blog Entry 2

So I've been sick with an annoying cold and that's why I didn't get the chance to post my entry on this as soon as I would've hoped, but here it is now. At least I sort of made it.

On Thursday of last week was the fabulous SEASON PREMIERE of SMALLVILLE. I was extremely impressed, even though I hadn't seen much of last season. About all I knew was that ClarkKent's earthly destiny was to be changed because of the increasing influence of his biological and strangely omnipresent father, Ja-rel, only represented as a powerful voice.

A meteor shower had hit the town of Smallville in the season finale at the end of the spring of this year. Clark was fighting against the fact that his friends were all changing. His relationship with long-time crush Lana continued to affect his judgments. His friendship with Lex Luthor was slowly deteriorating as Lex began to follow the dark path that most Superman stories talk about when referencing the wealthy, power hungry Lex Luthor.

Lana found a recently arrived space ship after crashing in a helicopter that was hit by a meteor and Clark’s close friend Chloe followed Clark into the world where his father started to speak to him of how he had to save earth.

And this season, Lana encountered the aliens from the space ship that arrived, they kept asking for “Kal-el” which is the Kryptonian name of Clark Kent. But Lana didn’t know this. The aliens would’ve killed her at this point if it weren’t for the fact that a crew of police cars, helicopters and government trucks showed up at the scene of the space ship and started shooting at the aliens. However the aliens wiped out every defense machine used against them with the same powers that Clark Kent has exhibited. They set vehicles on fire by shooting lasers out of their eyes. They lifted things as heavy as a car and moved (not to be cliché) but “fast as a speeding bullet.” Lana ran and hid.

Chloe was stuck in the ice cold world where Clark Kent encountered his father. Ja-rel told Clark he needed to be educated in the ways of his people in order to save the planet. But a slowly dying Chloe, affected by severe hypothermia, called out to him and broke him out of his educating state where a beam of light with symbols and figures circled around him as if sending the powers into his body. Clark chose to save Chloe and his father warned that if he did not return by the setting of the sun, dire consequences would occur.

Clark ended up conquering the aliens by sealing them in a prison vortex and saving Lana from certain death after being crushed by some falling object and in addition she had sustained her injuries from the helicopter. He even had to lie to Lex about how he escaped injuries from the meteor shower, made sure his adopted parents were okay and confessed to Lana his love for her and shared a promise of no secrets between them. Unfortunately, Clark ended up staying beyond his time he was allotted on earth and found at the end of the episode that he was human. He bled, when before he used to immediately heal, from anything, including bullets.

I was greatly excited by the episode, but I’m wondering what’s going to happen to Clark now that he’s human. Will he fulfill the duties of the Superman that we’ve always known growing up? Will Lana die? Will he have this future with Lois Lane? I’ll be honest, I don’t like the Lois Lane they’ve created for the show. They use the name Lana Lang, so what I’m hoping they’ll do is, kill off Lois Lane and have Lana take her name and work as a reporter in Metropolis. I think Lana would’ve made a better Lois, but who knows. It’s all up in the air yet. So far so good, but still, I want a Lana and Clark marriage or something. He’s been saving her life for four seasons and finally they proclaim their love for each other. I don’t want it to be short lived.