Tag: tv

Very Boring

~ Sue ~ Leave a comment

Do I seem interesting?

With the immense time I put in to being an internet addict, probably not. Well, a little lie there, I actually find myself very interesting. I love my patterns of reading, blogging and TV. I say TV, because now my Sky+ is working properly mixed with Sky working on Xbox again, I have started watching a lot of TV. Most of it is The Gilmore Girls, but still, good quality, healthy TV.

The TV shows I like have to have good dialog and well written and developed characters. I like the fact that you can judge a character, because you have come to know their personality. I think it comes from a life a bookworm, where I did nothing but read for days on end. Not much has changed really, accept now, I tend to use writing to express myself more. It seems rather logical putting my loves for reading and writing together, but it didn’t happen that naturally. I liked to do things on my own, and write because I wanted to. When school became about essays and exams, it stopped being about writing for fun. It started to have a purpose. A purpose which was that I was writing for a meaningless grade.

That sounds bad. Grades aren’t meaningless. But I put a lot of love into what I wrote, and I didn’t like that it was graded and treating like a piece of crap, where all the feeling was sucked out of any piece, just so that the flaws (mostly in grammar) could be picked at. It was a bit of a change in things. Writing at school, became less a labour of love, and more a dementor. (5 points for HP reference.) And it made me think, ‘why’. Why did I have to put so much of ‘me’ into things, just for it to be torn to shreds because of my technical ability.

Through writing on my own, on blogs, etc, I have bettered myself in my grammar. I have become a better writer, but that is through reading a lot of novels, and writing a lot of pieces on other sites. Writing blogs has helped me a lot, in being an aide to help me find the words I need to express myself. The fact that I can put my thoughts across, and do it in such a way (I hope) people can pick up on what I am like, and how I feel. And that is a spiritual thing. The fact that you can connect to so many people, where age and country bare no significance.

Some say I am boring, and lead a boring life. I ask them, what do you do that gives you passion? What do you do, that makes you happy to be alive? What do you do to communicate with like-minded individuals? The internet helps me achieve all that and more, people only mock because they don’t know how to do what you do.

Purpose of Media

~ Sue ~ Leave a comment

As I sat in front of my TV watching the tenth documentary show this week (yes, I keep count), I had a think about the purpose of media in society.  As much as we use various types of media on a daily basis, not much thought is put into it’s actual purpose.

Most of the forms of media that we use regular (television, radio, internet, newspapers, etc) were originally created to be a way of telling people information. It was to educate people about things like news-worthy events, or to get messages to other people. But somewhere along the line, media became less about communicating messages, and more about entertaining the masses.  The dictionary definition of media is-

‘The storage and transmission channels or tools used to store and deliver information or data. It is often referred to as synonymous with mass media or news media, but may refer to a single medium used to communicate any data for any purpose’

It is a way of communicating which comes from cave paintings created by cavemen. And postal services started from as early as 500BC, and became a crucial way of communications in the Persian and Roman Empires.

Times have changed, but still people feel the need to communicate to one another, now with the help of technology it is easier than ever. Rather than send a letter to loved ones and wait weeks for it to arrive, you can send them an email or call them on the other side of the world in seconds. These advances have mostly come within the last 50 years, and the world is better for it. When a news breaks, it would sometimes take days to get to all corners of the world. Now, within 30 minutes, newsrooms all over the world can be reporting on the same story. The rolling news networks (Sky News, Fox News, BBC News 24) are probably the best examples of media in it’s current form. No matter what time of day, news is constantly being reported, and it never stops. There is always something happening somewhere, and media helps a normal person see what is happening outside the borders to their country. Media doesn’t stop anymore. Rather than  waiting to buy your newspaper in the morning to get updated in current affairs, you can flick onto a TV channel or switch on a computer. Everything is online. And online services really can be updated at any time of the day. Everything is posted as it happens.

And whilst you would think this would empower people as they have a wider scope of knowlege in front of them, it doesn’t. Rolling news hasn’t had the effect one would think. People are constantly feeling the need to switch off from their lives, and now use media to escape. If they have worked hard, they don’t want to be ‘snowed under’ with the rest of the world’s problems. So rather than watch the news or documentaries, many more watch TV talent shows or play computer games.

And working for a media company, I feel I notice this more. You can see the things that people want to spend their money on, and it isn’t news or documentaries, it’s movies and sport. The leading methods of escapism. Something where you can shift your focus away from what seems ordinary, and fixate your attention on something else. As nice as it is that people around the world can see whether Manchester United or Chelsea win the Premiership trophy, I find it unsettling that people would rather watch that, than be educated. I touched on education a few days ago, and I feel that is the most important resource we have. To learn how things work, and what happened on this earth before us. To learn how countries were formed and fought for. To me, that is exciting, that is what media is about. It is about being educated, not just in formal documentary format, but to educate on how others around the world live. Is that not the biggest selling point of the World Wide Web, that it connects the world and shows how other people live?

Or maybe it isn’t. Maybe the purpose of the media is to give deluded writers a forum to express their mislead views and opinions? I don’t know really. I like to think that all this technology has a higher worth than football and computer games. But, I guess that’s me. That is what I want to take from the media that surrounds me. Not everyone is like that.

A Life In Print

~ Sue ~ Leave a comment

For the majority of my life, I have been a nerd, the type of girl who would rather read a good book, than go out on the town. This hasn’t changed at all, in fact, if anything I am find myself reading books more and more. I find it relaxing, and I love the idea that just by reading some words on a page, I can be carried away to another world.

I wanted to crawl in between those black lines of print the way you crawl between a fence…— The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath

I guess, I get it suggested that movies and TV shows should also have the same effect on me, as they are also a form of escapism. A break away from the real world. But it doesn’t, unless it is very character driven and dialogue heavy, I can’t seem to get into TV or movies. I am guessing, that is because there is a lot of substance in most novels, so that the writer can paint the reader an accurate picture. Because story has to have depth, I find a lot of things on TV fall flat. I like when there is 3 or 4 stories interlinked and you follow them all, and it always takes more than one viewing to get EVERYTHING.

It’s just most things I try to watch, seem to try too hard, and end up being flat. That is all in my opinion, of course. But I think it helps that because I work during prime-time TV watching time, I have gotten out of the habit of watching the same shows, with the same story lines, just different words. And once you get out of that habit, you find yourself wondering how you could ever spend so much time in front of a TV.

Anyway, books are the opposite to TV, and reading one makes me happy and keeps me occupied. I love the idea of getting lost in a world, that noone else can see. It is like, the book creates a little world for only you. Like it’s my secret. I like holding a book in my hand, and knowing how perfect each printed page is. I’m sorry, I can’t see myself getting such an attachment to an ebook reader. A piece of plastic, which ultimately takes value out of literature, as much as the value was taken out of music. Yes, there is still value in music, but it has decreased massively. In fact, the only way a lot of bands make money these days, is through selling merchandise and touring. People think they are owed music and things for free.

I had someone tell me that they had downloaded the whole Shakespeare collection onto his Kindle. He downloaded it off Frostwire, for free, and didn’t care who he told. He said he really enjoyed the plays, and it was the best thing on his device. This upset me, because although he liked it, he didn’t value the work enough to even pay for it. That is the one thing I hate about the digital age. Everything is condensed into files which hold no value to anybody.

A book or an album, when you hold them, you feel great having the product. You feel like you can really appreciate it, because you own it. It is the self-satisfaction that you worked hard, and you are going to enjoy what you spend your money on. But that’s maybe just my brain that works like that.

Dumb On Down

~ Sue ~ Leave a comment

After a night of spending time with family, which ended up in watching brain-dead TV.

I’m going to try and talk about this as less as condescending as possible. It probably won’t happen, and I’ll offend half the people who decide to read this entry. But, I need to say it. After watching the ‘highlight’ of weekend viewing, which was Dancing on Ice, and being bored half way through the show, I felt like I had to say how stupid TV has become.

Maybe it’s because I am not an avid watcher of TV. I haven’t fallen into a habit of watching the television, just because I can think of nothing better to do. I couldn’t believe that a show about ‘celebrities’ learning to ice skate is the staple of ITV’s primetime, Sunday night itinerary. Why must the public be choked by people who are famous for having no real talent? It’s almost like by teaching them how to ice skate, they are giving them a skill, and publicising them all at once.  Which is all it is ultimately, publicising people who can’t get a job elsewhere.

To me entertainment should be something enthralling, something that can take you off into another world. Watching a ‘WAG’ fall over on ice, is not enthralling, it is just sadistic, so that people can laugh at her. And to be told that this is primetime, weekend viewing, as if this is the best television that the UK can produce. If I were to watch anything on TV, I’d prefer it to be a documentary. But that’s just because I like watching a program where I can ‘take away’ something from it. But other than the seeing that Jane Torville has had ‘work done’, I don’t think many people would have taken anything from the Dancing On Ice ‘experience’.

Maybe, it is because I don’t watch a lot of television, as I find most of it stupid. It’s not just the ‘celebrity’ filled reality shows that annoy me. The soaps do as well. Things such as having a mother swap her dead baby for a live one, in Eastenders, made me change channel. Why is that considered entertainment? Do people really want to watch something so unbelievably depressing?

It is a proven fact, that if you get someone into the routine of watching television at a certain time everyday, they will still watch television at the set time, even if the TV show of choice has moved times. People say that they like the idea of ‘logging off’ from reality. Why? So that you don’t have to cope? They can submerge themselves in another world.

That sounds like an excuse drug addicts spout on Jeremy Kyle, or any other chat show. People are so unwilling, and lazy to actually deal with things, that they are always looking for something else to take them away from everything. Some have alcohol, some have drugs and some have television. Television is an obnoxious drug, a drug that effects every person in the developed world. People watch out of habit, more than actual interest of what is on.

People have become so dumbed down by television, that they can no longer parent. They plonk a young child in front of the TV, and blame it when the child breaks the law. If you are stupid enough to allow a child to watch programs which feature rape and drug addiction, then you lose your right to blame anyone but yourself. And rape and drug addiction, as well as child abduction and domestic abuse, are all features of UK based soap operas.  Coronation Street, Eastenders, Emmerdale and Hollyoaks, does not have a balanced human being amongst them, and yet they are the most watched programmes in the UK.

I’m glad I don’t watch a lot of TV. Maybe I’ll hide in my bedroom, with my record collection and my library book.

Falling into a pre-Christmas stupor.

~ Sue ~ Leave a comment

The run-up to Christmas is always a dire time on television, unless you like soaps, reality TV and movies you have seen a dozen times. It feels like this year, they have thrown in about 50 TV ‘chefs’ into the mix, just for good measure. And, I look at the TV listings, and mentally tick off what is rubbish, rather than see anything I want to watch.

It says it all, that the highest watch programs in this country, are reality shows and soap operas. Both which are watched by people who include TV viewing as a hobby, and like the routine that it brings. Its like people put their brain into neutral and just watch the same-old stuff, over and over again. People are too lazy to even read a book, so we get the ‘kindle’. People want everything to fit into their ‘ultra-modern’ lifestyle, so they get rid of their CDs, DVDs and books, and their home loses all character. They believe that the ‘thing’ to do is to have it all on a computer.

I know, as a graphic designer, I should be championing the ‘digital age’, but I get my influence by flicking through the pages of my favourite book, or by reorganising my record collection. They are simple things that inspire me so much, but I couldn’t live without them. Looking through my itunes library doesn’t make me feel the same. It doesn’t feel like I can properly own something, if I can’t hold it and touch it. Maybe that’s me, and how I feel about things.

We have another 2 weeks of Christmas telly to go, and I want to throw my TV out the window already.

Yeah, well…

~ Sue ~ 2 Comments

I have been off work today, and wanna know what I have done? Watch tv.
I usually can’t be fussed with tv, but I watched so much of it today, it makes up for my usual month worth of tv viewing.
Take soaps, for instance, I watched Eastenders, Hollyoaks, Nieghbours and Coronation Street (i think Hollyoaks was the only one that held my attention though). I spent all afternoon watching Red Dwarf series 2, which in my opinion is the best comedy the BBC have ever shown. Watched some Top Gear, and this thing about trying to get the unemployed jobs. And now I am perched on the couch watching Sex in the City.

I know it sounds really lame, but that programme taught me more about sex and relationships than school ever did. The only thing about it, is that it makes me wish that I was in a relationship. Its not that I don’t enjoy my own company, cause I love chilling on my own. Its just it would be nice to have someone other than my cat to cuddle up to. I dunno, I guess everyone goes through that.

Its funny Miranda is going through the same crisis on Sex in the City. The whole I’m going to die alone and my cat will eat my face. Saying that, Billy would probably eat my arm, then raid the fridge. lol.

New obsession. When i am on my own, i had the habit of eating crisps. But now, its drinking loads of tea. Never been a tea drinker, but it keeps me from being bored, and eating myself to an early grave. I mean I dont want to waste my summer of walking (the only resolution for the summer that stuck), by eating crap. I mean, I am at the stage where i am wanting to register for the gym. I have never ever wanted to do that. But walking to work, has made me feel so much more possitive, as odd as that sounds.

Thinking about going swimming at the wing every saturday. Its not to busy