My View on Politics

This is a dangerous topic to discuss with me, because I care about our political situation very much, and I get really into it. First off, if you're a Republican you may want to stop reading now. George W. Bush is literally the worst president we've ever had not only in my opinion, but statistically as well. The numbers don't lie folks, between our economy numbers and his approval ratings, he's just miserable. Not only is he a terrible speaker and an awkward person, for the past eight years he has slowly but surely driven the most powerful country in the world into the ground. I don't even consider him our President, he's Dick Cheney's puppet who makes up words and has no idea what he's doing. I can't wait until next year when the Dems retake the White house. Obama's platform is "Change we can believe in". Thank god, because I'm sick of the change that never happened, or correction, change for the worse. Bush can seriously eat it.

I think by now you tell which side I'm on and who I'll be voting for. The media has always done a good job covering the Presidential elections. Literally, I think it's been covered some way some how through every single type of medium, and that's how I stay on top of it. Whether it be while I'm surfing the net, flipping through the channels on TV, on the radio in the car, as the election nears its getting more and more coverage and I feel that even if you're not into politics, you still have some idea of what's going on.

How Does Advertising Affect Me?

Advertising doesn't affect me very much for several reasons. First, I'm a guy, I hate shopping unless it's for something that I really want. I would never go out shopping just for the sake of shopping, sorry ladies. Secondly, I feel I've been exposed to all types of advertising through all types of mediums for so long that I can just see right through it at this point. A prime example is if I'm watching a TV show or movie and I see a brand logo and it's obvious, I snicker to myself and think of what a feeble attempt it was to subliminally make me go out and buy their product. It's actually kind of funny we were given this particular topic to blog about today, because literally before class I was on a website and this stupid flashy ad came up (which I believe to be the equivalent of a telemarketer........cough jump off a cliff........cough cough) and for once it actually struck my interest. This website was selling those stupid t-shirts that have the sarcastic one-liners on them, but low and behold this show that I was obsessed with a few years back (until it went off the air), "Arrested Development", had one of these t-shirts and when I saw it, I almost fell out of my chair with laughter and excitement. Needless to say I bought it there on the spot. That is an extreme rarity for me.

Below I'm posting a commercial advertising Heineken (God by now you must think I'm a raging alcoholic with all the beer references I make, but for the sake of the example bare with me) and it really makes me want to go out and drink a nice cold Heine due to the jolly song in the background, and how happy everyone looks in the commercial. It promotes sharing and I believe really does a fantastic job reaching out to every single demographic. The funny part is that I think Heineken tastes like German moose piss, so you know they do a good job advertising.........just watch and you'll see what I'm talking about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sn-NtOXFE3Y&feature=related

Now for the advertisement I get to bash. I know we brought it up in class today, and I searched YouTube for over 30 minutes and couldn't find the link, so for that I apologize. It's the infamous "WIC" commercial. For those of you who haven't scene it, I'll give you a quick synopsis. Basically this young girl, I'd guess around the age of eight or so is singing the "itsy bitsy spider". Cute right? Wrong. Well she's having a grand ol' time, doing the little hand gestures, just singing along, out of tune and everything , then she gets to the midpoint of the song and ALAS! after stumbling on her words for what seems like the longest five minutes of your life, this little girl forgets "what the spider climbs up" (we all know its the damn water spout, I knew it when I was 4) and in the most dumbfounded, uncute look, she looks right into the camera and obnoxiously says "I FOH-GHETT". Now I can understand, a young kid forgetting the words to a song, that's fine, it happens. Folks, it's a commercial promoting nutrition, and apparently little Sarah didn't have enough cheerios that morning cause she failed miserably in my book. Stupid low budget commercials like that shouldn't even be shown. They're a waste of time, and just for little Sarah forgetting those words and whoever wrote that commercial trying to promote health in the most obtuse way possible, I'm going to go enjoy a Big Mac.

Wendy's and the infamous finger chili

If I ever was eating anything and found a foreign object in my food, let alone a finger, I would throw up right there on the spot. On the positive side, I would probably never have to eat at that establishment again due to the massive settlement I would obtain from suing their asses off.

Now if I was the CEO of Wendy's and I had a memo delivered to my desk that someone just found a human body part in one of our food items, I would definitely hit the panic button. The first thing that would cross my mind, is keeping the positive image of Wendy's intact. I would have an intermediary and the best team of lawyers money can buy on standby for such an occasion. They would then post a nationwide statement reassuring that the quality of Wendy's food, and the safety of of its patrons remains its number one priority and that there is no need to panic. I would then issue a nationwide thorough inspection of every single Wendy's franchise, from the corner tile in the restrooms, to the salt that goes on the french fries. This would be a strong measure reassuring people that we have taken the matter very seriously and have taken every possible measure to make sure that this was a fluke accident and an isolated incident. I would take extreme internal measures from the corporate level down to the person who takes the orders at the register to be on high alert for anything deemed suspicious and or unsanitary and report it immediately. I would make sure that the public eye knew how adamant Wendy's was about serving nothing but the highest quality food and I, CEO Ryan Hamel would not hesitate to bring my own family to any one of Wendy's restaurants at any point in time.

Music and the impact its had on me

Music has been around for hundreds of years. Its been a form of communication through sound that conveys some type of emotion. It wasn't until the turn of the 20th century that new technologies were developed, new ideas were developed thus creating new sounds. Before the 1900's all you would be able to find was classical music. I don't know if this had to do with the limitations of the instruments or just the conservative times, but that was it. Over the past one hundred years music has altered so drastically and gone through so many changes. There is one thing constant in all music, from Mozart to Snoop, all music conveys some type of emotional message. Whether it portrays a feeling or something that has happened in that persons life, it's sending you a message through sound.

Music plays an enormous role in my life. Not only does it fill the void of silence when I'm alone, but with the creation of the iPod, I can listen to music in my car, on the way to class, when I'm in the gym, virtually anywhere. This is important to me because I'm a strong supporter of music. I believe it takes a tremendous amount of talent to produce music and even more talent to produce music that I will entertain me. Music can set the tone or mood of any function, whether it be a funeral or a party, you can tell by listening to the emotion or vibe of what type of message that sound is trying to portray.

If you click on the link below you'll find a link to an article I found on a parent who filed a lawsuit fighting the ban of Christmas music at his children's school. Good for him. I understand with how conservative everyone is today that when the word "Jesus" or "God" is mentioned in school, everyone that isn't Christian automatically has an uproar. I do believe there should be a separation between church and state, but how far are we going to take it. The article mentions that for the first time in the schools history their not letting the kids play "Frosty the Snowman" and "Winter Wonderland" in their annual winter concert. What the F? These are songs that spread joy and represent a season of giving and being mindful of others. They make it sound like singing these songs is an evil conspiracy by the Christians to promote Jesus. I fully support the father that took this to court. I think that this is stupid and absurd.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=47925

Futuristic papers and the Radford Tartan

I'm not going to get caught up in commenting on every ones project individually because my ideas on what kind of information a futuristic paper should contain and how its distributed probably differ from other peoples opinions. But I will say this, it was apparent to me that everyone put some thought into the assignment and it was interesting to see the different routes that people decided to take. Although everyone had different, creative ideas there was one theme that tied them all together and that was that they were all environmentally friendly. No one can really tell if newspapers will be around forever, whether web based or on paper, but I can reassure you this, however the paper of the future may look it will definitely be environmentally conscious. With the technology we have today and the technology being developed for tomorrow I see standard, bulky newspapers quickly becoming obsolete and a thing of the past.

I've never been into our school newspaper. The biggest role it's served for me was for a mini new stand being conveniently placed outside one of my classes for me to scoop up and glance at to kill time before class. I don't really know how it stacks up to other school papers, but I've always felt it just either A. regurgitates major news which I probably already heard several days prior or B. gives me a biased column of the writers thoughts on something. I have my own thoughts and opinions, if you want to vent about politics or why Greek life is bad, get a blog and stop wasting paper and my time. Also, a huge pet peeve of mine is that little section in the middle that calls out people who get in trouble. Thanks a lot Radford, I was drunk and being stupid on Saturday and now the whole school knows about it. Not me in particular, I'm talking in a general sense. Mind your own business. How will it look in the future? I think it will look the exact same. Whether you read it or not, school newspapers have always been around and always will be. The only variance from school to school is its budget and time time and quality put into the paper itself, and you can tell ours isn't very high. How should it revamp itself for the future? That is a very good question that I just don't know the answer to.

War on literacy? Give me a break

My mother always told me growing up that if I announce the fact that I hate reading it makes me sound unintelligent. Well I'm all grown up now and believe I'm pretty level headed without reading for pleasure. It may just be me, but I find staring at words for pleasure tedious, not too mention it puts me to sleep. Whenever someone comments on a movie based on the book, I feel all I hear is, "Oh the book was way better!!" How??? I can either sit down and flip pages putting a strain on my eyes or get some munchies and refreshments and go on a cinematic adventure. With all the special effects that go into today movies, even the most boring of movies would be more appealing to me than reading for pleasure.

Now that's my stance on reading for pleasure. I do believe when it comes to education that there's no escaping some forms of literacy. In the article, it mentioned several books I read in grade school, such as "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and I believe that these are extremely important to keep teaching to kids. Not only do they capture how it was when the book was written, they're American classics and relate to history. I think whoever says any of the books on the list shouldn't be available or taught to kids in grade school should go play in traffic. There is always some radical group of parents that has something to bitch about whether it be because of the "language" or the "sex and violence" these stupid naive people are probably the same people that rally and then go out buy there son or daughter the video game "Grand Theft Auto" or don't restrict what they can see on the Internet or TV. These books teach kids how it was through different eras, let them use there imagination creatively and most importantly introduces them to how it is in the real world. Guess what? People swear, people have sex, there is a homosexual community, there are racist people and if your biggest fear as a parent or teacher is your son or daughter discovering these realities through a book then you have bigger problems. Instead, let the kids read these books, let them ask questions about it. Let them think multi-dimensionally and be able to understand that just because all this stuff is out there, they don't have to believe in it or do it.

Media and Me

It wasn't until I was introduced to this course that I realized how many forms of media there really are. I found the media log activity interesting because I receive media on a daily basis without even knowing it. It wasn't until I actually forced myself to keeping track of all the different forms that I realized how many way information can be transmitted.

On an average day, I normally turn on the TV and watch the news for a little bit to wake up, that's media source number 1, seconds after waking up. Then I normally roll out of bed and check my e-mail, there's number 2. Within the first five minutes of waking up I'm already connected to the world and know what's going on. If i go to drive to get breakfast, I'm listening to a CD or the radio, there's 3. It's almost impossible to escape it. I'm effected severely on a daily basis by all mediums of media. I can't remember the last time I went a day without Internet or a cell phone. I recently had to purchase a new cell phone, and was phoneless for three days and although I still had Internet and other means of communication I felt distant from everyone. The day my phone arrived I had it activated within minutes and had peace of mind again. It's sad because I know twenty years ago I would be getting laughed at for saying such a thing. I feel privileged to live in an age where technology and communication are so readily available.