On May 15, 2011, this missive celebrated its 10-year anniversary. Think about that for a second. A decade. Pre-9/11, back when I was in my 20s, back when I was leaving the TV manufacturing business to get into marketing, back when my wife and I were about to celebrate three whole years together, back when my brother was still in high school, oh, and back when I was still living at home with my parents - no mortgage, no association dues, no city dues, no utilities - whatever did I do with my money back then?
So much has changed since the day I decided that the company I had just co-founded needed a newsletter, which over time would morph from a PDF attachment to an HTML email, then ultimately into this blog site. It had many names over the years: the WS Financial Business Update, WS Financial Update, Quietly Working Update, The Patriotism Page, and finally, just The Update. Today, it's just called my blog.
But here I sit now, looking back over the past three weeks and I am seeing something interesting. My last actual blog post was 16 days go, yet in that time I have shared 15 articles and posts on social media.
Now, we all know that a lot of folks are saying that social media is the wave of the future, but to a number of us, especially those who work in technology, social media has already been around for quite some time. So naturally, you can see, as I reflect on the past decade and all of the methods I used for reaching out to folks in my network, how I might contemplate the future of this blog vs. quick and easy links and posts on my social media pages.
There are defintely advantages to the blog. Try to find something you posted on Facebook two years ago. Try to easily search or sort your tweets, especially the ones for which you have forgotten the hashtag you used. Quickly and easily find what you posted on your birthday, or on Fourth of July five, six, seven years ago. The historian and archivist in me shudders at the volume of data that is being lost to the world with these quick and easy posting of links to social media.
Yet, it takes me a lot longer to write the blog posts than it does to simply shell out links to the articles that I have read, though it might take you as the reader longer to read the long articles and less time to read the short articles. We all know that the linked articles are going to have a lot less rhetoric and ramblin' (unless they're Fox News articles) than crazy Old Man Savastano's posts, but at the same time, just a link with even a quick few words from the poster still do not do that person's own opinions justice. And, from what I have heard, my rhetoric and ramblin' tend to make some of you laugh, tend to ruffle some of your feathers, but either way, spark much more of a conversation than a simple link to someone else's article ever does.
Needless to say, a definite decision on the blog vs. social media is not going to happen today. It's Sunday as I write this, and our daily agenda has afforded me the time to write and prepare a post for the next business day, which obviously, the past three weekends' agendas did not allow. So, I guess for now, I'll continue to use social media to point you to the blog and I'll write blog articles when I have the time and simply shell out links when I don't. I guess I'll have to keep an eye out for further signs that it is time to hang up the blog, but for now, it's just not time yet.
Showing posts with label Fox. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fox. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Monday, February 24, 2003
My “Fellow” “Americans”...
So, I’m flipping channels the other night and come across a little TV show called “Are You Hot?”. Now, maybe I don’t see a yellow-tinted-glasses-wearing Lorenzo Llamas or a badly-aging Rachael Hunter judging the looks and sex appeal of the common idiot masses as entertainment, but apparently there are millions out there who do.
Please note that when I talk about America, it’s usually, “us,” but when it comes to reality television and the dramas we all just have to watch, folks, there’s usually me and everybody else. I’ve never watched a single episode of The Sopranos. Do I totally love real-life mobster stories? You bet. Do I totally love an intriguing mystery/action novel? You bet. Do I enjoy being the only one in the room that hasn’t seen a single episode of Survivor, Fear Factor, or Who Wants To Marry Some Dumbass Who Wants To Marry Someone On Live TV? See the pattern? You bet!
There was a time when I enjoyed going to a little Italian Restaurant/Irish Bar called BirraPoretti’s at South Coast Plaza. The law aside, I started going there when I was 15 and spent countless hours upon hours enjoying their wonderful Italian food, Guinness on tap, and conversation with the well-dressed, properly-mannered clientele that made up the crowd there for many-a-year. I actually wrote some of my best stuff at one of the tables in the back corner of the bar there.
Then, about four years ago, after decades of a prosperous business model, some dumbass decided to move the tables out of the corners and put big screen TVs in their place. I can call on over twenty witnesses that will tell you, when they put those TVs in, William said, “I give them five years, tops, then they’ll be out of business.” TVs led to the dress code, the dress code led to football jerseys and a slip in food quality, which led to the menu changing, which led to no where. Guess whose doors are closed forever? Thanks, TV! You ruined Birra’s for me!
Now, just when you thought reali-shitty TV could not get any worse, Fox is proud to bring you, “Married By America.” On this one, single folks who haven’t been able to find their significant other are going to be paired up in matrimony by their fellow idiots...sorry, I mean peers. So, these morons are going to let “America” pick their soul mate and then they are going to get married before even meeting each other while “America” watches.
No matter what we’re arguing about and no matter what position you are in during the argument, there seems to be two “Americas.” There’s a 98% and a 2% that used to be a 97% and a 3%. There’s a something-% and a something-% when it comes to every aspect of America. So, while there’s 98% who enjoy reality TV, there’s the 2% of us who do not. So, what’s wrong with those of us who think MTV should show some god-damned music videos once in a while and force those f-ing Real World kids to get lives and jobs? What’s wrong with those of us who aren’t shocked and amazed that some construction worker is experiencing guilt over lying to a group of gold-diggers who are after his fictitious money? Nothing, really, it’s just that we’ve made the choice to experience life ourselves, instead of relishing in other people’s triumphs and defeats (if you can even all them that) while we sit in front of an appliance.
There is so much wonder going on in my romantic life that I don’t need to worry about who J-Lo is screwing this month, even though whenever I watch a 24-hour news channel, I have to turn off the last 15 minutes of every hour because they want to tell me. There are so many wonderful and intriguing people around me that I’ve never had to watch “Friends.” There are too many wonderful things out there in the world to be learned and enjoyed and there is so much to be done in the short time we own this wonderful gift of life. Am I the only one whose life is so full that I don’t have time, nor care enough, to know who’s getting the rose and who’s getting booted of the island, or fjord, or whatever the hell it is this season?
All right, All right, now, I’m not just bashing reali-shitty TV for no reason here...I have a message. See, like I said, there is in America, always two “Americas,” and there is no exception here. How is it that I am able to recite the gist of these shows without every having watched a single one? Between advertising, the buzz, and the media, they’re bombarding the 98%. You don’t want to be the only one at the water cooler tomorrow who didn’t watch, do you?!
So, watch up, 98%, because that still leaves 2% of us that are going to look back and relish in our accomplishments. We’re going to smile, knowing we can’t tell you who won American Idol this year, but could tell you the socio-economic reasons Saudi Arabia backed the Taliban (both sets of information are coming from the same appliance, people). One group of kids will settle into couch-potato-ism and another set of kids will one day lead America. 2% is going to hand a generation’s worth of growth, industry, and prosperity over to the next generation, knowing that thanks to things like reali-shitty TV, they will have even less competition than we did. 98% is going to leave their next generation Yoga DVDs by actual Real World cast members and memories of Darvas, Richard Hatches, people who will put their heads in a box full of scorpions if the price is right, and sports fanatics who can’t turn the game off long enough to sing “Happy Birthday” to their wife or kids. And yes, I’ve even seen that. Grown men actually reading the closed captions on a game while they sang, one eye on their kid and one eye on the game!
Please note that when I talk about America, it’s usually, “us,” but when it comes to reality television and the dramas we all just have to watch, folks, there’s usually me and everybody else. I’ve never watched a single episode of The Sopranos. Do I totally love real-life mobster stories? You bet. Do I totally love an intriguing mystery/action novel? You bet. Do I enjoy being the only one in the room that hasn’t seen a single episode of Survivor, Fear Factor, or Who Wants To Marry Some Dumbass Who Wants To Marry Someone On Live TV? See the pattern? You bet!
There was a time when I enjoyed going to a little Italian Restaurant/Irish Bar called BirraPoretti’s at South Coast Plaza. The law aside, I started going there when I was 15 and spent countless hours upon hours enjoying their wonderful Italian food, Guinness on tap, and conversation with the well-dressed, properly-mannered clientele that made up the crowd there for many-a-year. I actually wrote some of my best stuff at one of the tables in the back corner of the bar there.
Then, about four years ago, after decades of a prosperous business model, some dumbass decided to move the tables out of the corners and put big screen TVs in their place. I can call on over twenty witnesses that will tell you, when they put those TVs in, William said, “I give them five years, tops, then they’ll be out of business.” TVs led to the dress code, the dress code led to football jerseys and a slip in food quality, which led to the menu changing, which led to no where. Guess whose doors are closed forever? Thanks, TV! You ruined Birra’s for me!
Now, just when you thought reali-shitty TV could not get any worse, Fox is proud to bring you, “Married By America.” On this one, single folks who haven’t been able to find their significant other are going to be paired up in matrimony by their fellow idiots...sorry, I mean peers. So, these morons are going to let “America” pick their soul mate and then they are going to get married before even meeting each other while “America” watches.
No matter what we’re arguing about and no matter what position you are in during the argument, there seems to be two “Americas.” There’s a 98% and a 2% that used to be a 97% and a 3%. There’s a something-% and a something-% when it comes to every aspect of America. So, while there’s 98% who enjoy reality TV, there’s the 2% of us who do not. So, what’s wrong with those of us who think MTV should show some god-damned music videos once in a while and force those f-ing Real World kids to get lives and jobs? What’s wrong with those of us who aren’t shocked and amazed that some construction worker is experiencing guilt over lying to a group of gold-diggers who are after his fictitious money? Nothing, really, it’s just that we’ve made the choice to experience life ourselves, instead of relishing in other people’s triumphs and defeats (if you can even all them that) while we sit in front of an appliance.
There is so much wonder going on in my romantic life that I don’t need to worry about who J-Lo is screwing this month, even though whenever I watch a 24-hour news channel, I have to turn off the last 15 minutes of every hour because they want to tell me. There are so many wonderful and intriguing people around me that I’ve never had to watch “Friends.” There are too many wonderful things out there in the world to be learned and enjoyed and there is so much to be done in the short time we own this wonderful gift of life. Am I the only one whose life is so full that I don’t have time, nor care enough, to know who’s getting the rose and who’s getting booted of the island, or fjord, or whatever the hell it is this season?
All right, All right, now, I’m not just bashing reali-shitty TV for no reason here...I have a message. See, like I said, there is in America, always two “Americas,” and there is no exception here. How is it that I am able to recite the gist of these shows without every having watched a single one? Between advertising, the buzz, and the media, they’re bombarding the 98%. You don’t want to be the only one at the water cooler tomorrow who didn’t watch, do you?!
So, watch up, 98%, because that still leaves 2% of us that are going to look back and relish in our accomplishments. We’re going to smile, knowing we can’t tell you who won American Idol this year, but could tell you the socio-economic reasons Saudi Arabia backed the Taliban (both sets of information are coming from the same appliance, people). One group of kids will settle into couch-potato-ism and another set of kids will one day lead America. 2% is going to hand a generation’s worth of growth, industry, and prosperity over to the next generation, knowing that thanks to things like reali-shitty TV, they will have even less competition than we did. 98% is going to leave their next generation Yoga DVDs by actual Real World cast members and memories of Darvas, Richard Hatches, people who will put their heads in a box full of scorpions if the price is right, and sports fanatics who can’t turn the game off long enough to sing “Happy Birthday” to their wife or kids. And yes, I’ve even seen that. Grown men actually reading the closed captions on a game while they sang, one eye on their kid and one eye on the game!
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