Keeping In Touch Is Easier Than Ever

via iTunes website

So my sister got married and recently moved all the way to North Carolina. Needless to say, I don't get to see her a lot. Thanks to media such as Facebook, texting, and this awesome app we both have on my iTouch and her iPhone, we can keep updated and stay in each other's lives in a cheap and efficient manner.
With the time change and both of our hectic schedules, it's hard to keep in touch via phone or even Skype. Having Facebook or just texting, we can get a hold of each other or just say a simple, "Hi. I miss you" without interrupting in each others' daily lives. The thing about this app is that we are playing this game together (where she usually always kicks my butt) whenever we have time to get to it. We'll get little updates on our Apple devices saying, "it's your turn" and for those 30 seconds out of my day, I feel like I am back at home actually playing a game of Scrabble with my sister, when she is really over 1,000 miles away. 

Real American High Schoolers???

via Google

We talked about this show on MTV in class today called "Skins". I've never heard of it before. Or the British show it's based off of. There's huge controversy about its airing in the United States because of the mature content displayed in it. Since I had no idea what actually goes on in this show, I went to mtv.com tonight to see what's so controversial. Obviously something was up when I had to verify my birthdate because of mature content. Um. Is this porn? Is this illegal? If the company has to have viewers "verify their age" because of "mature content", why is this show being shown on a channel watched mainly by teenaged viewers? Really, "underaged" viewers could type in some phony birthdate and MTV couldn't prove it. Less than ten minutes into watching episode two online, I am disgusted with what's going on. This is supposedly the portrayal of real American high schoolers? What is our world coming to?! Seriously! While at their school, one of the girls pulls out a "travel-sized" bottle of vodka and takes a swig. Really? I'll save you from many other gruesome details of this episode.
So the main controversy about this show and why its advertisers are dropping out fast is the fact that a lot of the actors in the show are under 18. This is a problem because of the risque-ness of the show so there is controversy about child pornography laws. I guess we'll see how this plays out.

via Google

Heath Ledger

via Google

Saturday, January 8 was TNT's showing The Dark Knight for the first time on television. As I sit here munching on my Jimmy John's, (I feel like a jerk, by the way, it's a blizzard out and that amazing Jimmy John's employee still safely and successfully got me my delicious chow! He should have gotten a better tip!) I am in awe at this amazing display of this actor's last work. Going over the movies that Ledger has been in, it's amazing at the vast array of different characters he has played over his career. One of my favorites is 10 Things I Hate About You, ("A remake of the classic Shakespeare play The Taming of he Shrew, set in a modern day high school", according to IMDb.com). Of course there's also The Patriot,  A Knight's Tale, and Casonova, among many others. But Ledger's role in The Dark Knight is immensely different than these characters, which tend to be gorgeous, witty, charming young heroes/badasses. In my opinion, there are many characters that are able to make their audience believe that they are who they are paid to be. But the Joker is by far Ledger's most successful role. We've all heard of the Joker as a comic book character, but to see a real person portray this character (Jack Nicholson also played the Joker in 1989) is down right creepy.  When he walks out of the first hospital he blows up?? Ha, I don't kno...he kind of just makes you laugh by his "WTF. Why didn't the big explosion go off?". 
Prescription drugs were supposedly the cause of his death, still, no one knows for sure if this incident was accidental or intentional. All in all, Ledger's death is a true loss to our movie making society.

My Facebook Adventure

I was one of the first students at my high school to get Facebook. At that time, it had just opened up to high schoolers in addition to college students. I got hooked via my sister. Once I was on, all my high school buddies thought this new toy was amazing and immediatly joined with me.
razy. I personally haven't seen "The Social Network", the movie about the making of Facebook, but I guess the tagline is true: "You don't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies".
During our last journalism class, we talked about things we liked and things we didn't like in the media. One student brought up the point that it takes away the interpersonal communication with friends. Professor Alloway came off that comment with a story about a guy's daughter and her friends being completely silent while he drove them to a movie. When asked about this the daughter replied that her and her friends were texting each other. In the same car. This is insane!
Today's society is much better at multi-tasking. People can be texting and talking to another person face-to-face at the same time. I tend to lean towards to side that when I am with a friend face-to-face, each of us should make an effort to be completely there, otherwise it's just rude.
Branching off of this comment of interpersonal communication, I personally do not like what Facebook has done to our society, as far as this form of communication goes. Before Facebook and cell phones, if you had something you needed to tell someone, you would wait until you got home from school or work and call them via your landline. It wasn't that big of a deal. Now, I can text my friend and tell her a funny story about my teacher before class starts. It's not important, but I can do it. I can keep in touch with all the important people in my life without even actually speaking to them...whether I see these people everyday or they live in a different state.
Status updates are what I can not stand. I don't really care if you are going to go make a Target run. I don't care if you are sitting in class bored out of your mind. You don't need to announce that to the world. I don't really want to hear you whine about your pathetic problems to your Facebook audience. It makes you look childish and needy and I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want my Facebook friends to think that about me.
Another part of Facebook that really pushes my buttons is relationship statuses. When I was in high school and Facebook was just getting popular with the younger kids, to be in an "official relationship", Facebook had to confirm it. This defeats the purpose of a mature, adult relationship. People shouldn't care whether or not everyone knows about your relationship. A relationship is between two people. Not those two people and their Facebook audience. Go ahead. Look on my Facebook page. Does it say, "Megan is single" or "Megan is in a relationship". Nope. Because I don't care if the whole world knows whether or not I am "single" or "taken". Actually, I do have a boyfriend. The only people who know are the people who care to me. I don't have to announce it to the world.
Ok. I will now thank my computer and you for my little venting session. If you've read this far you should get an award. And maybe some chocolate.
Muchos gracios (my Spanish teacher said today to start to use Spanish more in our everyday lives!) Hasta luego!

...and I'm back

Ok, go figure: I'm back. So I was on to my other areas of study time (yes, Mom, I was actually studying) when I realized: "Um. I totally messed up on my first post! Of course I've heard of real bloggers before." However, this "real blogger" I thought of turned out to be Sarah Jessica Parker. So technically she's not "real", but hey, I'd like to think there's some big shot editor out there in blogger world who will come across my amazing new outlet and say, "Hey, I like her." And then I will be paid big bucks to go sip martinis with my girls. Life is good.

My First Blog!

As stated in my profile, I am starting this blog as a requirement for a class. However, through just the process of setting up this amazing and fascinating, beautiful piece of art, I have realized that Professor Alloway was definitely correct when he warned about the horrible affects of a blogging addiction.
I've never really been big into the blogging world. My mother started a blog as an outlet for her artwork. Through this she has come into contact with many talented individuals around the country, and she is also encouraged to more actively pursue her own work. My sister started a blog as a countdown to her wedding: talking about all of the stress that goes on behind the scenes of that big day. But when she writes, it's mesmerizing. You can see the words explode off of the page in a glorious, triumphant celebration. Me? Yeah, right. Who would want to hear what I have to say? That's the amazing thing about the world of blogging. I don't have to care whether or not people who will read this will like it or not. I can put my thoughts out to the world and if someone doesn't like what I have to say they can keep their mouth shut. Or, hey, just don't read it!
Blogging (as summarized by Wikipedia...yeah, yeah, not supposed to use Wikipedia as a source...whatever) is "a blend of the term web log" and is usually maintained by an individual with regular updates of multiple entries.
It's crazy how many writing entries you can read online now. When I was younger, the only things I remember that one could read online were articles by people that got paid to write. Even when my mom and sister starting blogging I was like, "You can do that?". At that time I was still in my little bubble. I don't wanna blog. Blogging's stupid. Blogging's for wanna-be writers that sit in coffee shops, drinking expensive coffee and acting like they're doing something important. But once again, I came back to the belief of who would want to hear my thoughts?
Now that I think about it, blogging is a public journal. Some people sit in bed at night and write down their private thoughts while snuggling under the covers. While, apparently, others sit at their computers composing posts that anyone in the world can read. Seems like the opposite point of a journal, but hey, who am I to judge.
As soon as I finished titling and creating a background and design for my new blog, I immediatly starting writing. After a paragraph or two, I emailed my mom, exclaiming how much I am loving this "assignment". "I am addicted, mother. I love this stuff. I feel like I'm expanding not just as a writer, but as a person, too. Normally I feel that I take into consideration what everyone is saying and don't necessarily make my own opinions off of those. And I feel through blogging I am growing and evolving my own opinions and I don't give a crap what anyone else thinks about it!! I have to be careful though. This is homework, yes. But I have other classes too :("
So my audience members, I must now attend to my other studies. I bid you adieu, and thank you for being a part of my first post!