My computer Has It's Own Facebook

I have a Facebook, a MySpace and a Twitter, none of which I created.  Don’t get me wrong, I love to socialize, but I’ve always preferred face to face interaction.  My MySpace was created by two of my best friends in high school because they thought I should be on it, so they hijacked my e-mail address, and I used it a few times, then I went to the Air Force and used it a ton, then I quit because I wanted to hide from everyone.  A past girlfriend encouraged me to make a Facebook so we could share pictures.  Most of our sharing was not on Facebook, but I’ve kept the page she made me.  Two others of my friends created a Twitter using my name because I tend to deliver a fair amount of knock out one liners, but I don’t like to share my clever retorts and thoughts in this manner because a clever statement or comeback over the internet equates to little more than “I know you are but what am I” through our silicon sounding boards.  I’ve kind of stayed with Facebook because it is nice to keep in touch with people we’ve left behind but I wish it weren’t here so I would be forced to do better things with my time.     

I like the social networking experience as a tool for researching a person for whatever reason.  People say be careful what you post because employers will look at it.  I say just don’t be stupid to begin with.  If you have a page that says nothing but timely pleasantries and contains five professional glamor shots and a few carefully staged scenes it looks like you’re hiding.  Granted, if you have a picture kissing you’re best friend’s wife, and one kissing your best friend, they might wonder a little.  What does that say about a person, they like to have fun, they might be a little confused, maybe they’re equal and impartial, they surely aren’t hiding anything, and maybe that their friend’s wife is attractive enough that you would kiss him to get to kiss her…who knows.  I wouldn’t post a picture drinking Jack through a beer bong but I think they would probably be alright with it if you were holding a beer.  Overall I think employers should follow their own advice and leave home at home and work at work.

Decidedly undecided, I guess

I would be lying if I said I had a clue what’s next for me.  I’ve worked in a trade that I hope(d) to be in for life, and now I find myself on the outside looking in and there’s nothing else I can think of that I want to consider doing for the rest of my life.  Time spent in a military setting allows for exposure to a variety of career fields and even provides a snapshot of how a job will shape your life.  It’s not every day you can find a job that suites your dysfunctions, and takes advantage of your strengths so well that you feel uncomfortable and awkward without it, and it’s hard to expect to find that in any number of course descriptions.  Military time also gives you a chance to call a few new places home for a little bit.  As many places as I’ve been and called home, I seem to be drawn back to the environment and atmosphere I grew up in.  Sure it’s nice that you don’t need snow boots or a coat, but one season all year gets old.  It’s nice to live on the beach too, for a week or two a year.  The rest of the time people tracking sand in your house and all the rude tourists get old.  It’s also amazing how much more awesome the beach is when you only see it a few times a year.  I guess I can live anywhere, and I’d like to live everywhere, but I can’t sit still for long.

                Honestly moving forward, I’m undecided and that’s probably going be the case for a little while longer.  I’m still holding out for another chance to do the job I love, if I end up with a degree while I wait I guess I’m fine with it

I dressed like a Power Ranger when I was little

It’s easy to see, and just as easy to try to argue against, that Television is the most influential establishment in the world today.  Due to the expense involved with producing a television program, and the modern TV infrastructure, and the low cost and easy distribution of comparable programing via the internet, what might pop up on your TV is taking on a new personality.  For much of its nearly century long commercial lifetime, TV was run by small sample, for a small sample. financed by wealthy whites, produced by middle class whites, and intended to entertain the social classes that gave it life.  Most early television was a middle class white family with small problems and an inability to not smile.  As time has gone on the landscape of America has changed and so has our best friend, the TV.  Before the rise of the internet, the majority of TV programs were aimed at the most valuable demographic, leaving little room for diversity in programming.  The mornings were filled with educational programming for the young children not in school, and soap operas and talk shows for the housewives.  With the rise of TV’s in homes it has been one of the most useful tools to educate children of Pre-school age, even more so than pre-school.  Now with more channels putting on different programs, some directed at the high school aged rebel skipping school, it’s not hard for a diaper clad little guy to accidently catch an episode of MTV Real World or a nice scene from spring break when left alone with the remote.  We see sports, dancing, exploring, and all types of activities on TV, we can learn anything, and how to do anything through the TV, and those who will be lazy, will be lazy.  In the time when you only saw one type of family, and one type of person on TV, chances are wherever you travelled what you saw wouldn’t vary that much, but today that’s not the case.  Now no matter where you are or where you have come from, you can likely find someone assuming the back home style.  Slowly, TV, and all media are eroding and molding together world cultures, and eventually blurring the lines from one set of ideas to the next.  TV is the most solidly structured and theoretically reliable mass media, and without it people would be way behind.  Without TV, sure we might not have people looking up to the most ignorant people some agent could find, but we would also be clueless on a lot of what’s going on in the world.

In Bed

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s “In Bed” portrays two people, whom it appears have just engaged in sexual activities left to the imagination of the audience.  Most aspects of the piece makes use of conveyance of contradicting elements: satisfied but not happy facial expressions, bright colors with dark undertones, and course but soft texture, to seemingly point out the guilt the two people feel about what had transpired, and the content they had found in it.  I would say the intended purpose is to elicit sympathy for the act, from the intended audience of those who would frown on, at least publicly, the actions of the pair, seemingly conveying innocence with the young appearance and a posture that lends to shame. Toulouse-Lautrec’s aristocratic upbringing likely compelled him to invite the viewer to experience the softer side of the uninviting life he had been thrust into by unusual stature.  Though it is indiscernible, the ambiguous figures could be anyone, though they appear young,  it is unknown if they are men or women, adults or children, husband, wife, lover, or client.  This for me allows interpretation and encourages one to make a connection before passing judgment.  Above all else a moment of genuine happiness is clearly depicted, a moment where only one thing matters.  Outside of the soft and comfortable white linen lies a world that isn’t clear or pronounced, with a darker colder feeling, possibly an indication of the time and place Toulouse-Lautrec, and his perception of the state in which he would like to be.

Forced Landing... Why WSU?

When prompted to blog on why I am attending Wright State University, I was confronted by a razor tonged sub conscious version of myself.  All the harsh words that I swallow with blood when  pointed at others,  reach their intended audience with more clarity than the break-up text you accidently sent to the perfect girl you just met at the bar while you had been waiting, waiting for your girlfriend who had been helping your roommate’s best friend "find his contact" in your bathroom.  I had to write a blog...for college.  As I grew up, something made me want to do things my own way, and we all know that works out great.  Sophomore year in high school I had decided as soon as I had obtained my driver's license, I was going to start on a pilot's license.  I wanted to fly, but if there was one thing I wanted more, I wanted to defy convention.  A few weeks before I would have received my license I flew into a controlled airfield during peak traffic, and rather than control instructions, I received a string of expletives about as long as my flight.  I joined the Air force as an Air Traffic Controller.  This was the greatest thing I could have possibly done.   I was surrounded by the world’s most cocky, arrogant, skilled, irritant, and efficient.  The first question my supervisor asked me on my arrival was “what job I would like to have in the Air Force,” he then supplemented this question with “After you fail here, of course.”  Just the motivation I needed.  Five years later Standing at a fork in the road, I had to swallow my pride and join the academian herd.   I chose this school simply because it was far enough away from home that I wouldn’t be forced to see a lot of the people I grew up with, and there are tunnels if it rains.