Stop the Presses

"Teenagers’ Internet Socializing Not a Bad Thing" !!!

According to the New York Times, based on a $50 million study done by the MacArthur Foundation:

“It may look as though kids are wasting a lot of time hanging out with new media, whether it’s on MySpace or sending instant messages,” said Mizuko Ito, lead researcher on the study, “Living and Learning With New Media.” “But their participation is giving them the technological skills and literacy they need to succeed in the contemporary world. They’re learning how to get along with others, how to manage a public identity, how to create a home page.”

My favorite part of Catcher in the Rye is when he stops thinking everyone's a phony and learns to create a homepage.

The study describes two early Facebook messages, or “wall posts,” by teenagers who eventually started dating. First, the girl posted a message saying, “hey ... hm. wut to say? iono lol/well I left you a comment ... u sud feel SPECIAL haha.” (Translation: Hmm ... what to say? I don’t know. Laugh out loud. Well I left you a comment ... You should feel special.)

Okay, these old person questions have been on my mind for a long time, so I'm just going to ask them:

1) Do all teens use this "chatspeak" now, or just, like, the trashy ones (i.e. the majority of teens)? The teens in Nick and Norah wouldn't do that, right?

1a) We wouldn't have done this if we were teens in 2008, right?

2) When you get texts/wall comments from people our own age who do this, what are you supposed to think? Why do people our own age do that? Is it a class thing?

“New media allow for a degree of freedom and autonomy for youth that is less apparent in a classroom setting,” the study said. “Youth respect one another’s authority online, and they are often more motivated to learn from peers than from adults.”

So what this study found is that humanity doesn't automatically get worse every time there's a new technology.




I'm going to posit that as a general principle.

Now give me five Genius Grants, please.

Do You Guys Like Art?

Because I think I just found some:



[Sound of capitalism crumbling at its foundations.]

If only I had been to a museum before taking out twelve subprime mortgages.

Oh well. I’m going to go fantasize about Hendrick Hertzberg picking me up in a horsedrawn carriage and explaining to me why he deserves all his success, in a speech full of debonair emdashes, rhetorical crescendos, and restrained finales.

It's true that Nick and I don't always see eye-to-eye when it comes to politics, but our friendship is too strong to be broken by his weird boy-sympathies for Sarah Palin. We share so many memories (three).

This one's from our thirtieth birthday party:



Here's us getting married:



This one's just Nick and his violin.


Just Nick 'n his violin.

(thanks, internet.)

tout est different!

I've learned a lot of things during the last 4 years of keeping this blog. One of the lessons I'll never forget is that Liz leans slightly toward Hendrik Hertzberg, while I lean away, thinking, "All writing should be like this, it shouldn't deserve praise. Plus the essay in Politics where Hertzberg writes about how he's finally matured enough to understand that he deserves all of his success is unattractive." Secondly, I learned that, regarding Bernard-Henri Levy, I let my judgment err on Levy's side, while Liz is dismissive and resistant, closing her mind and attempting to shut down any dissenting voices by means of fear and violence.

Here are related videos:

BHL on Sarah Palin:


Hendrik Hertzberg on moments of soberness and whimsy on the campaign trail:

Laughter is One Kind of Medicine, Among Thousands

On Salon right now there's an article about medical student comedy skit revues. The essay asks 3 main questions:
1) what do you think of medical student comedy skit shows?
2) Do you think just one way about them?
3) Did you know that there are two ways to think about them, pro and con?

In addition, the essay provides: an undeveloped subplot about how now the skits are in the form of videos posted on youtube and the Internet changes everything. Does it? And then another less-developed subplot about how how maybe humor challenges power and can be a tool of change?

here's one of the sample videos:

It's stupid.

The best part of the article is when the author rips off his "mask" and says, "THE REASON I KNOW IS BECAUSE I WAS ONCE A MEDICAL STUDENT!" And he does it in style, saying:

In my fourth-year show, lyrics of a barbershop quartet song were changed when some students felt they unfairly stereotyped women of a specific ethnic group.

I'm writing this blog post to ask you: what could this mean?
What ethnic group of women? In what ways was the stereotype made present in a barbershop quartet song?


"He look a like a mAAaaAAAaan"


Pretty.

Headline from the near future

"Bristol Palin's child born: Everyone feels weirded out and regretful and awkward about it."
Look for it. Having to deal with that (Sarah Palin generally) was complicated, and the reminder (Bristol Palin's baby) in a month or whatever is going to come at a really uncomfortable time in our greater healing process. Just when we're out there really stepping into our confidence like "you know what? Yes, we can. I think we really can," it's gonna be:

He's a superhunky bad-boy ice hockey player from cold country; she's a chestnut-haired beauty and popular high school senior.
The all-American teen twosome will make GOP vice presidential pick and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin a grandma at age 44 - just in time for Christmas.
Doe-eyed Bristol Palin, 17, and ruggedly handsome Levi Johnston, an 18-year-old self-described "f---in' redneck," have been dating a year, locals in Wasilla, Alaska, told the Daily News.

Personally, I advocate playing it cool when that time comes. Just ignore it.

That said, I already miss Sarah Palin.

Dear Sarah Palin,
You remind me of the fantasy where you go to 50s prom and your girlfriend -- who you probably just made love to for the first time -- dies in a terrible accident. (car, here, is 50s-themed space car). And the rest of your life you feel 1) responsible for her death, 2) resentful that she existed at all if she was just going to give you one night of passion and then a lifetime under the constant weight of her absence. Also, right now you seem like a beautiful ghost face blasting into heaven saying like "I don't want to go! I'm scared! Don't let this happen to me!" while your eyes are like "I know I must leave," and I don't know what to trust.



if that were Sims, in a spaceship, and more optimistic seeming, that's how I'll remember Sarah Palin.
Just some food for thought

Halloween: Prepare your old lady costumes

For those of you who are going Halloween partying as an old lady character, or for comediennes developing an old lady character for the stage (which I recommend!), I found wikiHow How to Appear as an Old Lady
As a time saver, I've cut and pasted the entry. Here:

Steps
-Apply some darker foundation.
-Use brown eyeliner to make the wrinkles.
-Wear something from your grandma's wardrobe, preferably a dress.
-Match it with old-fashioned shoes
-Tease your hair and powder it, so that it looks white or grey.
-Wear fake, extravagant jewellery(it's better if it's gold).


Tips
-To appear more believable, fake an old woman's voice and speak like old people do.
-You can also carry a bag or a walking stick.
-Say stuff like "Back in my day" or "Before the war..."

"OUTRAGEOUS LIES! A BROAD, DEMEANING CHARACTERIZATION! I'M OUTRAGED!"

Another big thanks to the combined wisdom of millions/the Wiki Age. The world is flat y'all! Happy Halloween.

BUCK FUSH

I'm really upset about the Bush administration. If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention. These guys are like Hitler. And "Dubya" is an idiot who thinks he can just start wars when he feels like it. O did they hurt your daddy's feelings you poor little MONKEY.

I found this on the internet, and I just had to share it:



WHy isn't anyone talking about this?!

I feel helpless. I'm going to start another blog.


What a terrorist.