Good Idea, Bad Idea

Damn, when don’t I? Being caught up in the moment is a great distraction for shooting yourself in the foot. Take for example one of my earliest blunders, not an intellectual one but never the less a blunder. I was 15 years old, and lost in translation. I was invited to eat at a lovely young ladies house so that I could meet the family, yes I kind-off had a thing for her. So everything is going great, trying to get my ethos on, I had on my lucky socks, favorite jeans and an ironed buttoned down shirt, and a splash of Old Spice. Pretty snazzy.

So we’re eating dinner and everything is going great. Her dad and I found some common interests. I flirted a little with her mom and yes everything was going good. I was on a roll before the unthinkable occurred, I dropped the ball, I really dropped the ball. We’re at the dinner table just talking after we finished eating, and the dad says to me “So, how was the food, would you like some more?” I replied “No thank you I’m famished”. WHAT!?!? FAMISHED!?!? Are you kidding me? So the mom is giggling and the dad looks to me and says “Is it the good kind or the bad?” I didn’t figure it out until I got home later that night. In every sense of the word I made an ass out of myself. What was I thinking, couldn’t I just say stuffed like a normal teenager. Even till today those seven minutes of my life haunt me.

Mom, dad, her everyone was convinced I was an idiot. What business did I have using a word which was not and still to this day isn’t in my vocabulary? Was I trying to impress them by using a big word, maybe? In regards to a culture that is either unfamiliar or not in good standings with western culture, this incident might have cost me internal shame as an outcast. Or maybe even a war between tribe or nations. But not in the good old USA, no sir they just forget about you as if you were another notch under the belt. As a politician, maybe I wouldn’t get off that easily, but I’m not hurray for me. Looking back at that particular point in time helps remind me that just being myself in the truest form is the best me I can offer anyone, talk if you know shut up and listen if you don’t.

My Media-Your Media

Talk about an interesting 48 hours. NO TV’s in my partners’ house, what is the world coming to. Not weird, but certainly different for me at least. I watch around three to four hours daily. More than anything CNN or CNBC and on Tuesdays for some twisted unexplainable reason, LOST. I was however pretty lucky in the sense that I didn’t have to deviate too far from what I’m used-to. I didn’t fall far from the tree. A primary source of information that we shared was the mighty WEB, not to say that it is where we go to find information, but more so where information is hurled at us. Part of the experience was to go to the website to read a magazine instead of reading it in line at the grocery check-out. “Clean-up on isle 9”. In honor of my partner, who listens to a lot of mp3’s, I opened an account with Pandora Radio an online website that play the music you like based on artists, genre, and style. I even downloaded the app to my Blackberry.

I spent more time on the on the web than normal, surfing and fighting my way through all the crap advertisements. “Click here to know your credit score”, “Earn $950.00 from your home computer”, “Most popular celebrity pics”. Go away!!!!!! Watching TV is so much easier, change channels until you find something you like or catches your attention, and when a commercial comes on just change the channel. Not like the web where it’s up to you to search for what you like. Don’t get me wrong it has it advantages but damn, it feels as if the intension is to grab your attention and pull you in another direction. Luckily since there wasn’t a big difference between or our schedules, I didn’t feel the impact some of my peers did. My perception of how people gather info certainly has changed however. Gathering, analyzing, and making use of information, including information about the natural environment is presented to us via all mediums from TV to a Starbucks cup. Useful or not, that’s up to what you value.