College Do-Over
I was talking to a friend the other day about college, and what we would do differently if we could go back, knowing what we do now. Would we study more? Study less? Go out more and hit on more chicks? That kind of thing.
I've been thinking more about the subject and came up with the following list of "regrets" I have when I look back on my college experience. I say "regrets" with quotations because I guess I don't really consider them seriously as regrets. College was a great time for me, possibly the best years of my life, so it's hard for me to say I truly "regret" anything about it. And typically, I don't believe in living life with regrets about the past to begin wtih, I just try to take everything (good with the bad) as a learning experience and move forward.
Anyways, no matter what I choose to call it, here is my list of "Things I might have done differently if I were to re-live my college experience, 3 years after the fact". Who knows, maybe some high school senior or college freshman will stumble upon this and find it useful? If not, I guess it's still worthwhile to take some time and reflect a little. I haven't done that in a while, I think.
* These are in no particular order, I just started numbering them as I thought of them
1. Office hours - In 4 years of college, I think I went to office hours a total of 5 times or less. Part of it was pride in not thinking I needed to go, but a larger part was simply laziness. I guess up throughout high school, I never went to anybody for help on homework because I always understood everything or I could figure everything out myself. Now that I can look back objectively, I believe there were many times that I could have benefited from making that effort to go to office hours. Sometimes it was just not possible to learn from lecture, notes, or the book. But instead of asking for help and making sure I understood all the concepts, I usually decided to just slide by and be happy with making the grade with the bare minimum.
2. Study Abroad/Missions Trip - I had friends who went all sorts of places during college: Africa, South America, Europe, Asia, pretty much all the corners of the planet. For me, those trips always sounded so interesting, but I was afraid to step out of my comfort zone. Going to a foreign country where I knew nobody was just too scary. Plus with my family living in Taiwan it seemed like I was always spending my breaks on vacation with them, not saying that was a bad thing though. But after starting a full time job, it's become exponentially harder to commit to this kind of thing. I barely find opportunities to take even a couple days off here and there, and when I do, I don't think my body would agree to spending that time travelling to faraway lands.
3. Get to know some professors better - On the whole, there weren't a lot of ECE professors at U of I that I liked. But there were at least one or two that I thought were pretty cool. They were always offering opportunities for us to help out with their research projects and stuff, unfortunately I just never made enough effort to join. Now that I look back, I think it would be nice to have at least a professor or two that I could keep in touch with at the school. Not to mention I probably could have learned more about stuff beyond lectures and exams from being a part of those kinds of research projects.
4. Visit more churches - I remember in the first weeks as a freshman at school, I told myself that I would make it a point to check out at least a few different churches before joining one. But I never did. I'm not here to knock the church that I did join, because I really did gain a lot from being a part of it. I just wish I had taken more time to broaden my views by at least visiting other fellowships once in a while.
5. Join more organizations in general - Some people joined frats/sororities, business or engineering frats, AAA or PSA, intramural sports, res. hall associations, etc. I shot pool and played Starcraft for 4 years. Which was fun, but in the meantime I feel like I missed out on a big part of the college experience by not being more involved.
6. Take more "fun" classes - Out of all the classes I took in college, I can only remember a couple as being "fun". The one that sticks out in my mind right now was the Food Science course, when we got to taste food and write reports on it. The rest of my schedule was always stuff to fill graduation requirements, or just classes I heard were "easy A's". Maybe if I didn't focus so much on making my schedule easier, not having to wake up as early, or walk as far, I might have had many more memorable experiences, like I did with that Food Science class. In hindsight it seems pretty silly to think about how I approached registering for classes back then.
7. Internship/Co-Op - Finding an internship or co-op back in those days was tough, as the economy was in the dumps at the time. Also there were the family factors I mentioned in #2 above. So I guess I don't really blame myself that much for not doing one. Still, after working at this job for a few years, I have seen how valuable an internship or co-op can be, at least for the kids that come here. As a college student, it's purely an opportunity to learn things outside of class and see what a career in the industry is like. It's not a job where you work for a paycheck so you can save money and take care of bills. There's a big difference between the two. Also, if you choose to go on and take a full time position at the company, you're already months ahead of the other new hires who didn't have the same experience. So if I were a 2nd or 3rd year college student right now, I would definitely make it my priority to find a good internship for the summer.
So there it is, 7 things I could think of, not bad. There may be more I haven't thought of, but that probably covers the main ones.
I thought about also writing a "Things I wouldn't do differently" list, but realized that there were way too many to list. Like I said, college was a great experience and the positives I associate with it far outnumber the negatives. I have probably already written about all of the good stuff in this blog at some point or another anyways.
Thursday, March 03, 2005
Sunday, February 27, 2005
Follow-Up
First off, happy Kanye West Day to all my peeps.
Thanks for everyone who took the time to read my last blog and respond. I'm glad to hear what other people think of the subjects I write about. Even if you disagree with me (or maybe more so if you do). I don't think any of you are retards or anything.
As far as a follow up goes, I guess one thing I can start out by saying is that I'm sorry if the last entry came off as me knocking our country, our system of democracy, or capitalism. That was not my intention at all and I will try to explain myself better later on in this entry.
I will back away slightly from what I said about the DVD prices story (by the way if anyone is interested, here is a link to the original story I read: Warner to sell cut-rate DVD's in China). To say that we should base prices for products here on what is being charged in other places of the world was shortsighted I'll admit, and specifically I'd like to take back what I said about 99/100 people agreeing with me on that argument. I didn't think that part through very thoroughly but you guys brought up good points.
However, I still don't think the huge discrepancy in prices between China and the United States for DVDs is fully justified. I may have understated the standard of living factor, but again, I don't think we can write off a 600-700% price difference entirely to standard of living. Currency exchange rates may not be perfect in accounting for how a product's value varies from one place to another, but they are still generally determined by the open market and aren't completely meaningless (it so happens that China is one of those countries that doesn't allow its Yuan to be traded, but I'm going to try and keep this as simple as possible so I'll gloss over that fact for now).
Looking at it another way, consider that a Big Mac will cost you the equivalent of $1.25 in China, compared to about $2 (regular price) here. It's cheaper, but only 30-40% so. What I believe separates the McDonald's Big Mac from the Warner Bros. DVD is the fact that the price of food is much more heavily influenced by competition and the free market, whereas for a given DVD, Warner Bros. enjoys a monopoly. As we all know, a monopoly works against capitalism and severely limits the "invisible hand" of supply vs. demand.
I know what you're thinking: DVD's are intellectual property and we must protect their rights for creativity and innovation to prosper. A true statement, one that I won't argue, but it only justifies the story to some extent.
Here's a fact: 98% of the US movie industry is controlled by 8 major studios. 80% is controlled by 5 studios. I mentioned the word monopoly earlier, but more accurately, Hollywood is controlled by an oligopoly. When such a large industry can be controlled by only a handful of entities, Joe Schmo Moviewatcher loses. There's no way around it.
For starters, even though these giant corporations are in competition against each other, there are also times when they can get together behind the scenes and agree to keep prices inflated well beyond their true market value. Don't tell me that this kind of thing doesn't happen, because it has happened in the past and I strongly believe that it still happens today to at least some extent. We saw it in the music industry only a few years back, when it took a class action lawsuit to bring the story to everyone's attention.
High prices aren't the only thing that we have to worry about, in regards oligopolies. You can see in the case of today's box office lineup, where the vast majority of movies being released are these big-budget blockbusters. While I enjoy these mindless action movies or stupid formulaic comedies as much as the next guy, the fact is that many independent films that have more artistic merit and may be more deserving to be seen end up being elbowed out of the theaters before they even have a chance to be seen by the mass audiences. Occasionally you will see one of these smaller films succeed, but they are much more the exception than the rule. This by the way is one thing I alluded to in the last blog entry, only I was talking about music instead of movies.
Anyways, my original intent was not to debate the specific issue of DVD prices, though admittedly that is what started this discussion. My broader goal was to point out that I think a lot of things are going on that we often accept blindly as fact without thinking about it.
As far as democracy, freedom, and free-market capitalism goes, here is what I have to say. It may not have been clear from the way I organized the last blog, but I do greatly appreciate that our political and economic system have given me so many things in life that others don't have. I'll restate a paragraph here that may have been overlooked from my original entry, one which was buried amidst my negativity but still says things that I fully believe in:
"On the whole, it's hard to argue with [our political and economic system]. Compared to pretty much any other country in the world today (or in the history of mankind, for that matter), we enjoy a quality of life that is far above that of anybody else."
It is absolutely not a case of me taking our freedoms for granted; in fact, I would argue to the opposite of that statement. I value our freedom so much that I react extra sensitively when I believe my rights are being infringed upon in any way. I value capitalism so much that if I see that a monopoly or oligopoly is suffocating or nullifying the free market, flashing lights and loud alarms immediately go off in my head. I value democracy so much that when forces act to limit its efficacy, I feel the need to at least point it out.
By no means am I saying that democracy is bad, that capitalism is bad. I'm saying is that if we aren't careful, we may be letting a lot of things slip away from our control, and that's obviously not a good thing. I'm saying that if we don't pay attention, democracy and capitalism are fully capable of failing before we know it.
I know there is a point when maybe we should be satisfied with our current situation and just shut up. But the fact that we already have a better life that others do/did should not preclude us from pushing for more, asking for improvement. In the 1950's and 60's, blacks enjoyed a much better life than their ancestors did during the era of slavery. Does that mean it was wrong for Martin Luther King to march against segregation? And now that we have come a long way since those days, if a black employee notices today that he is being passed over for promotions because of his skin color, would we blame him for speaking out because of this?
Of course, the hard part is figuring out exactly what I, as an individual, can do about these things I'm talking about. As you may have figured by now, I don't have the answers or the universal solution to all the problems I observe. If you're looking for a panacea to all the world's ills here at http://dudo509.blogspot.com, I'm sorry to say you're in the wrong place.
It's hard sometimes, for one person to believe that he/she has the power to make a significant impact on the world. Though we've seen plenty of examples of individuals in history who have done exactly that, I have to admit that I feel relatively helpless many times when dealing with things I perceive to be injustices.
It would be great if I could drop everything I had in my life, plunge myself in debt to pursue a law degree, and sue these large corporations for abusing their power in the industry with unfair business practices. Or if I could dedicate my life to researching renewable energy sources as a replacement for fossil fuels. Maybe I could even work my way up as a local congressman up to the federal government level and make myself be heard on a much larger scale. But realistically, I just don't see any of those things happening in my life.
One little thing I did mention, though, is for each of us to stay informed and cognizant of what is going on around us. Now, awareness alone may not solve all of the world's problems, but in my opinion it's at least an important starting point. And this is partly what motivated me to write that entry to begin with, because I felt it might be worthwhile to share some of my observations with people reading my blog.
Beyond that, I guess I'm still figuring out exactly what I can do about the things I discussed. It's an ongoing effort but I do honestly and sincerely hope that someday I will, in fact, be able to make some difference in this world of ours.
Again, thanks for everyone who read through and/or participated in this discussion. If anyone has more thoughts to add, definitely feel free. I'll try to respond as much as I can, but can't guarantee that I'll have a whole lot of time to do so.
*****
Movie recommendation - City of God
I watched this movie over the weekend and I thought it was exceptional. It's a foreign film, subtitled, so keep that in mind. The plot was based on a real story, set in the ghettos of Brazil during the 60's-70's. Very intense movie, realistic acting, and cool cinematography. One of the best films I have seen in a long time. It took me and Olivia months before we found a copy available at Blockbuster for rental, though, that's the only bad thing I can think of.
First off, happy Kanye West Day to all my peeps.
Thanks for everyone who took the time to read my last blog and respond. I'm glad to hear what other people think of the subjects I write about. Even if you disagree with me (or maybe more so if you do). I don't think any of you are retards or anything.
As far as a follow up goes, I guess one thing I can start out by saying is that I'm sorry if the last entry came off as me knocking our country, our system of democracy, or capitalism. That was not my intention at all and I will try to explain myself better later on in this entry.
I will back away slightly from what I said about the DVD prices story (by the way if anyone is interested, here is a link to the original story I read: Warner to sell cut-rate DVD's in China). To say that we should base prices for products here on what is being charged in other places of the world was shortsighted I'll admit, and specifically I'd like to take back what I said about 99/100 people agreeing with me on that argument. I didn't think that part through very thoroughly but you guys brought up good points.
However, I still don't think the huge discrepancy in prices between China and the United States for DVDs is fully justified. I may have understated the standard of living factor, but again, I don't think we can write off a 600-700% price difference entirely to standard of living. Currency exchange rates may not be perfect in accounting for how a product's value varies from one place to another, but they are still generally determined by the open market and aren't completely meaningless (it so happens that China is one of those countries that doesn't allow its Yuan to be traded, but I'm going to try and keep this as simple as possible so I'll gloss over that fact for now).
Looking at it another way, consider that a Big Mac will cost you the equivalent of $1.25 in China, compared to about $2 (regular price) here. It's cheaper, but only 30-40% so. What I believe separates the McDonald's Big Mac from the Warner Bros. DVD is the fact that the price of food is much more heavily influenced by competition and the free market, whereas for a given DVD, Warner Bros. enjoys a monopoly. As we all know, a monopoly works against capitalism and severely limits the "invisible hand" of supply vs. demand.
I know what you're thinking: DVD's are intellectual property and we must protect their rights for creativity and innovation to prosper. A true statement, one that I won't argue, but it only justifies the story to some extent.
Here's a fact: 98% of the US movie industry is controlled by 8 major studios. 80% is controlled by 5 studios. I mentioned the word monopoly earlier, but more accurately, Hollywood is controlled by an oligopoly. When such a large industry can be controlled by only a handful of entities, Joe Schmo Moviewatcher loses. There's no way around it.
For starters, even though these giant corporations are in competition against each other, there are also times when they can get together behind the scenes and agree to keep prices inflated well beyond their true market value. Don't tell me that this kind of thing doesn't happen, because it has happened in the past and I strongly believe that it still happens today to at least some extent. We saw it in the music industry only a few years back, when it took a class action lawsuit to bring the story to everyone's attention.
High prices aren't the only thing that we have to worry about, in regards oligopolies. You can see in the case of today's box office lineup, where the vast majority of movies being released are these big-budget blockbusters. While I enjoy these mindless action movies or stupid formulaic comedies as much as the next guy, the fact is that many independent films that have more artistic merit and may be more deserving to be seen end up being elbowed out of the theaters before they even have a chance to be seen by the mass audiences. Occasionally you will see one of these smaller films succeed, but they are much more the exception than the rule. This by the way is one thing I alluded to in the last blog entry, only I was talking about music instead of movies.
Anyways, my original intent was not to debate the specific issue of DVD prices, though admittedly that is what started this discussion. My broader goal was to point out that I think a lot of things are going on that we often accept blindly as fact without thinking about it.
As far as democracy, freedom, and free-market capitalism goes, here is what I have to say. It may not have been clear from the way I organized the last blog, but I do greatly appreciate that our political and economic system have given me so many things in life that others don't have. I'll restate a paragraph here that may have been overlooked from my original entry, one which was buried amidst my negativity but still says things that I fully believe in:
"On the whole, it's hard to argue with [our political and economic system]. Compared to pretty much any other country in the world today (or in the history of mankind, for that matter), we enjoy a quality of life that is far above that of anybody else."
It is absolutely not a case of me taking our freedoms for granted; in fact, I would argue to the opposite of that statement. I value our freedom so much that I react extra sensitively when I believe my rights are being infringed upon in any way. I value capitalism so much that if I see that a monopoly or oligopoly is suffocating or nullifying the free market, flashing lights and loud alarms immediately go off in my head. I value democracy so much that when forces act to limit its efficacy, I feel the need to at least point it out.
By no means am I saying that democracy is bad, that capitalism is bad. I'm saying is that if we aren't careful, we may be letting a lot of things slip away from our control, and that's obviously not a good thing. I'm saying that if we don't pay attention, democracy and capitalism are fully capable of failing before we know it.
I know there is a point when maybe we should be satisfied with our current situation and just shut up. But the fact that we already have a better life that others do/did should not preclude us from pushing for more, asking for improvement. In the 1950's and 60's, blacks enjoyed a much better life than their ancestors did during the era of slavery. Does that mean it was wrong for Martin Luther King to march against segregation? And now that we have come a long way since those days, if a black employee notices today that he is being passed over for promotions because of his skin color, would we blame him for speaking out because of this?
Of course, the hard part is figuring out exactly what I, as an individual, can do about these things I'm talking about. As you may have figured by now, I don't have the answers or the universal solution to all the problems I observe. If you're looking for a panacea to all the world's ills here at http://dudo509.blogspot.com, I'm sorry to say you're in the wrong place.
It's hard sometimes, for one person to believe that he/she has the power to make a significant impact on the world. Though we've seen plenty of examples of individuals in history who have done exactly that, I have to admit that I feel relatively helpless many times when dealing with things I perceive to be injustices.
It would be great if I could drop everything I had in my life, plunge myself in debt to pursue a law degree, and sue these large corporations for abusing their power in the industry with unfair business practices. Or if I could dedicate my life to researching renewable energy sources as a replacement for fossil fuels. Maybe I could even work my way up as a local congressman up to the federal government level and make myself be heard on a much larger scale. But realistically, I just don't see any of those things happening in my life.
One little thing I did mention, though, is for each of us to stay informed and cognizant of what is going on around us. Now, awareness alone may not solve all of the world's problems, but in my opinion it's at least an important starting point. And this is partly what motivated me to write that entry to begin with, because I felt it might be worthwhile to share some of my observations with people reading my blog.
Beyond that, I guess I'm still figuring out exactly what I can do about the things I discussed. It's an ongoing effort but I do honestly and sincerely hope that someday I will, in fact, be able to make some difference in this world of ours.
Again, thanks for everyone who read through and/or participated in this discussion. If anyone has more thoughts to add, definitely feel free. I'll try to respond as much as I can, but can't guarantee that I'll have a whole lot of time to do so.
*****
Movie recommendation - City of God
I watched this movie over the weekend and I thought it was exceptional. It's a foreign film, subtitled, so keep that in mind. The plot was based on a real story, set in the ghettos of Brazil during the 60's-70's. Very intense movie, realistic acting, and cool cinematography. One of the best films I have seen in a long time. It took me and Olivia months before we found a copy available at Blockbuster for rental, though, that's the only bad thing I can think of.
Friday, February 25, 2005
Freedom
Hopefully this won't become a super long entry, but forgive me if it does.
I was reading some article yesterday about how some company (I think it was Warner Bros.) was planning to compete with the DVD bootleggers in China by selling their DVD's for really cheap (about the equivalent of $2-3 US). Even though this was still a little more than the price of bootleg copies, they figured people would be willing to pay a little more for having an "official" copy and to get it earlier. Which is probably true.
Well great, but what about us in America, where there really is no bootleg industry? If they can charge only $2-3 per DVD in China, why do we still have to pay $15-20 for the same thing (pretty much) here? Should we really be punished for not making as many pirated copies of DVDs as they do overseas?
If you go around and ask 100 people, I would expect that at least 99 of them would say no. And of course they would. The only reason I don't say 100 is because I figure maybe 1% of the population is A) Retarded, B) Works for a media giant like WB, or C) Both.
Anyways, I'm sure everyone who is smart enough to be reading my blog right now would agree that if a company is willing to sell their product for 3 bucks in China, they shouldn't be charging us 20 for the same thing over here. It just doesn't make sense. Ok, so maybe there's differences in taxes and standard of living is a factor, but a 600% difference? That's just not right. They're DVDs for crying out loud. Anybody with a computer and a DVD burner could produce DVD's, let alone a huge multi-billion dollar corporation like Warner Brothers.
I guess it's not really groundbreaking news to anyone that these large companies are all greedy bastards whose only goal is maximizing their profit. And hey, it seems that most Americans are fine with paying $20 for DVDs, so what's the big deal?
The larger issue that bothers me is that supposedly, we live in a society built on the grand concept of "freedom". We have laws that are specifically written to protect our freedom of speech, of religion, etc. Our economic system, as we were all taught in high school, is based on a "free" market philosophy. All of these things have made us the most prosperous nation on the planet.
And on the whole, it's hard to argue with any of the above things. Compared to pretty much any other country in the world today (or in the history of mankind, for that matter), we enjoy a quality of life that is far above that of anybody else.
However, I still think that in a lot of ways, we are a lot less "free" than we realize. It may not be that we are facing oppression by the government, or being physically enslaved by foreign conquerors. But the more I observe about life in this society, the more I notice that my freedoms are not as universal or sacred as I once believed.
In the past few years, I have come to the conclusion that often times, "freedom" is an illusion. More often than we might be led to think, "choice" is an illusion.
The DVD price thing is only one small example. But if you think about it, what are our choices when it comes to getting DVDs? We can either buy at Sam Goody for $25, Best Buy for $22, or Amazon for $19.99. Sure, we can choose not to buy it at all, but what I'm saying is, in reality we are being shortchanged as far as choices go. There is a fourth choice out there, buy it in China for $3, which happens to be unavailable to us. And that just doesn't seem right to me.
Even as we were discussing the title of that European song from my last entry, I wonder about how much freedom we have when it comes to choosing music in this country. How much of the stuff we listen to is because it's the best actual music, as opposed to the best marketed product? (I know what you're all thinking, this is coming from a guy whose favorite artist is Britney Spears, but try to hear me out nonetheless).
I mean, there's a lot of artists out there, and I don't deny that a lot of them are making great music. But there are times when I turn on the radio or I'm watching MTV and I can't help but wonder, how the hell did this crap make it onto the national countdown? There's gotta be something better out there than Jennifer Lopez or Lindsay Lohan's new songs, yet that is what we have to listen to. No it might not be Ozone's Dragostea Din Tei (by the way thanks for the info Vic and happy bday), but somewhere, someone must have decided what America is going to listen to (and like it) and what we are not going to listen to. That ain't right.
I could say the same thing about gas prices. We can believe all we want about a free market, supply and demand determining price, but in the end, does that really hold true when you head to the pump to fill up your car? When it costs you $1.80 per gallon one day and then $2.30 for that same gallon a week later, what can you really do about it? Get mad all you want at the government, but unless you want to walk or ride your bike to get places, or stay home entirely, you suck it up and pay that man his mahh-ney.
Probably the most egregious example I can think of was in this last election. We believe in our system of democracy and the inalienable right to vote for our country's leaders, at least many of us do. Which is great, but let's stop and think for a second about who we had to choose from. You've gotta be kidding if you want me to believe that out of over 200 million people in this country, the two best candidates we could come up with to be our President were George W. Bush and John Kerry.
My point is, what good is having a choice if you don't really have much to choose from to begin with? Can we really call it "freedom" if someone else is deciding what our options are? Like I said before, if this is the case, then our so-called "freedom" is little more than an illusion.
Of course, having a choice is probably better than not having a choice. And it's not like we aren't at all culpable for collectively acquiescing so many of our freedoms. Maybe if I made more of an effort to hear original music instead of just listening to the radio and watching MTV, I wouldn't have to complain about terrible songs being shoved down my throat. Maybe if I stayed more informed about politics and put more time into supporting good candidates for office, I wouldn't be stuck with two blue-blooded, special interest owned guys to choose from every 4 years in the Presidential election. Maybe we would've elected a guy who would have put more into developing renewable energy sources and then we wouldn't be as dependent on oil either.
Maybe, maybe, maybe.
Hopefully this won't become a super long entry, but forgive me if it does.
I was reading some article yesterday about how some company (I think it was Warner Bros.) was planning to compete with the DVD bootleggers in China by selling their DVD's for really cheap (about the equivalent of $2-3 US). Even though this was still a little more than the price of bootleg copies, they figured people would be willing to pay a little more for having an "official" copy and to get it earlier. Which is probably true.
Well great, but what about us in America, where there really is no bootleg industry? If they can charge only $2-3 per DVD in China, why do we still have to pay $15-20 for the same thing (pretty much) here? Should we really be punished for not making as many pirated copies of DVDs as they do overseas?
If you go around and ask 100 people, I would expect that at least 99 of them would say no. And of course they would. The only reason I don't say 100 is because I figure maybe 1% of the population is A) Retarded, B) Works for a media giant like WB, or C) Both.
Anyways, I'm sure everyone who is smart enough to be reading my blog right now would agree that if a company is willing to sell their product for 3 bucks in China, they shouldn't be charging us 20 for the same thing over here. It just doesn't make sense. Ok, so maybe there's differences in taxes and standard of living is a factor, but a 600% difference? That's just not right. They're DVDs for crying out loud. Anybody with a computer and a DVD burner could produce DVD's, let alone a huge multi-billion dollar corporation like Warner Brothers.
I guess it's not really groundbreaking news to anyone that these large companies are all greedy bastards whose only goal is maximizing their profit. And hey, it seems that most Americans are fine with paying $20 for DVDs, so what's the big deal?
The larger issue that bothers me is that supposedly, we live in a society built on the grand concept of "freedom". We have laws that are specifically written to protect our freedom of speech, of religion, etc. Our economic system, as we were all taught in high school, is based on a "free" market philosophy. All of these things have made us the most prosperous nation on the planet.
And on the whole, it's hard to argue with any of the above things. Compared to pretty much any other country in the world today (or in the history of mankind, for that matter), we enjoy a quality of life that is far above that of anybody else.
However, I still think that in a lot of ways, we are a lot less "free" than we realize. It may not be that we are facing oppression by the government, or being physically enslaved by foreign conquerors. But the more I observe about life in this society, the more I notice that my freedoms are not as universal or sacred as I once believed.
In the past few years, I have come to the conclusion that often times, "freedom" is an illusion. More often than we might be led to think, "choice" is an illusion.
The DVD price thing is only one small example. But if you think about it, what are our choices when it comes to getting DVDs? We can either buy at Sam Goody for $25, Best Buy for $22, or Amazon for $19.99. Sure, we can choose not to buy it at all, but what I'm saying is, in reality we are being shortchanged as far as choices go. There is a fourth choice out there, buy it in China for $3, which happens to be unavailable to us. And that just doesn't seem right to me.
Even as we were discussing the title of that European song from my last entry, I wonder about how much freedom we have when it comes to choosing music in this country. How much of the stuff we listen to is because it's the best actual music, as opposed to the best marketed product? (I know what you're all thinking, this is coming from a guy whose favorite artist is Britney Spears, but try to hear me out nonetheless).
I mean, there's a lot of artists out there, and I don't deny that a lot of them are making great music. But there are times when I turn on the radio or I'm watching MTV and I can't help but wonder, how the hell did this crap make it onto the national countdown? There's gotta be something better out there than Jennifer Lopez or Lindsay Lohan's new songs, yet that is what we have to listen to. No it might not be Ozone's Dragostea Din Tei (by the way thanks for the info Vic and happy bday), but somewhere, someone must have decided what America is going to listen to (and like it) and what we are not going to listen to. That ain't right.
I could say the same thing about gas prices. We can believe all we want about a free market, supply and demand determining price, but in the end, does that really hold true when you head to the pump to fill up your car? When it costs you $1.80 per gallon one day and then $2.30 for that same gallon a week later, what can you really do about it? Get mad all you want at the government, but unless you want to walk or ride your bike to get places, or stay home entirely, you suck it up and pay that man his mahh-ney.
Probably the most egregious example I can think of was in this last election. We believe in our system of democracy and the inalienable right to vote for our country's leaders, at least many of us do. Which is great, but let's stop and think for a second about who we had to choose from. You've gotta be kidding if you want me to believe that out of over 200 million people in this country, the two best candidates we could come up with to be our President were George W. Bush and John Kerry.
My point is, what good is having a choice if you don't really have much to choose from to begin with? Can we really call it "freedom" if someone else is deciding what our options are? Like I said before, if this is the case, then our so-called "freedom" is little more than an illusion.
Of course, having a choice is probably better than not having a choice. And it's not like we aren't at all culpable for collectively acquiescing so many of our freedoms. Maybe if I made more of an effort to hear original music instead of just listening to the radio and watching MTV, I wouldn't have to complain about terrible songs being shoved down my throat. Maybe if I stayed more informed about politics and put more time into supporting good candidates for office, I wouldn't be stuck with two blue-blooded, special interest owned guys to choose from every 4 years in the Presidential election. Maybe we would've elected a guy who would have put more into developing renewable energy sources and then we wouldn't be as dependent on oil either.
Maybe, maybe, maybe.
Monday, February 21, 2005
Numbers
A blog by the numbers....
24
Me and Olivia finished watching season 1 of 24 on DVD. It took us 3 long sessions (10, 8, 6 episodes in that order), split a few weeks apart each, but we did it. The show was entertaining and exciting as everyone told me, but a part of me definitely wishes I never started watching and had 18 hours (estimated 45 mins/episode) of my life back. At times the show was just too stressful and frustrating for my own good, because of all the plot twists and how many stupid characters there were. Overall it was a good show though, I won't deny that. I especially liked the subtitles, when they describe the background music in the scenes. Some of my favorite examples:
"(Sad instrumental music)"
"(Dramatic instrumental music)"
"(Somber vocal music)"
"(Suspenseful instrumental music)"
"(Mysterious instrumental music)"
360
Sunday morning on the way to church, I hit a patch of ice on the highway and completely lost control of my car. I was going about 60 when all of a sudden I started swerving and sliding like crazy. Turning the steering wheel did absolutely nothing, and at one point, I found myself sliding backwards, facing the wrong way, and seeing a couple cars coming towards me. Luckily the sliding continued until my car completed a 360 spin, before I finally regained control and continued on my way. Definitely one of the scariest moments of my life, being on a highway going the wrong direction with no control of the vehicle whatsoever, I thought I was going to die. Didn't see my life flashing before me or anything, but still not good. Not good at all.
33
On a lighter note, Yahoo Fantasy Baseball is up for 2005 and now I can start counting down the days to our draft again. As well as remind everyone not to schedule anything important on the morning of Saturday 3/26.
1
The Illini have held the top spot in the polls for what, 12 weeks in a row now? I have to admit I thought they would have lost at least a game or two by now, and dropped from the top for a while. But they just keep getting the job done. As we know, being #1 right now is not the ultimate goal, but that doesn't mean it doesn't feel good to see your team at the top week after week. The other day I was watching some random game on TV when Olivia asked me who I wanted to win. And I realized that I really didn't care. In the past, if there was no other factors involved in the game, I always rooted for the team ranked ahead of the Illini to lose, so that we could move up in the polls. But I guess when you're already at the top, you no longer have to root against anybody else, just focus on your own team winning. Kinda different and kinda nice.
100
Number of times I watched the clip of the fat kid singing/dancing:
http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/lyle_24/myhero.swf
Ok so I didn't really count how many times I watched it, but it was a lot. Believe me that song is catchy and I couldn't get it out of my head as I was trying to take a nap. It was frustrating but funny.
A blog by the numbers....
24
Me and Olivia finished watching season 1 of 24 on DVD. It took us 3 long sessions (10, 8, 6 episodes in that order), split a few weeks apart each, but we did it. The show was entertaining and exciting as everyone told me, but a part of me definitely wishes I never started watching and had 18 hours (estimated 45 mins/episode) of my life back. At times the show was just too stressful and frustrating for my own good, because of all the plot twists and how many stupid characters there were. Overall it was a good show though, I won't deny that. I especially liked the subtitles, when they describe the background music in the scenes. Some of my favorite examples:
"(Sad instrumental music)"
"(Dramatic instrumental music)"
"(Somber vocal music)"
"(Suspenseful instrumental music)"
"(Mysterious instrumental music)"
360
Sunday morning on the way to church, I hit a patch of ice on the highway and completely lost control of my car. I was going about 60 when all of a sudden I started swerving and sliding like crazy. Turning the steering wheel did absolutely nothing, and at one point, I found myself sliding backwards, facing the wrong way, and seeing a couple cars coming towards me. Luckily the sliding continued until my car completed a 360 spin, before I finally regained control and continued on my way. Definitely one of the scariest moments of my life, being on a highway going the wrong direction with no control of the vehicle whatsoever, I thought I was going to die. Didn't see my life flashing before me or anything, but still not good. Not good at all.
33
On a lighter note, Yahoo Fantasy Baseball is up for 2005 and now I can start counting down the days to our draft again. As well as remind everyone not to schedule anything important on the morning of Saturday 3/26.
1
The Illini have held the top spot in the polls for what, 12 weeks in a row now? I have to admit I thought they would have lost at least a game or two by now, and dropped from the top for a while. But they just keep getting the job done. As we know, being #1 right now is not the ultimate goal, but that doesn't mean it doesn't feel good to see your team at the top week after week. The other day I was watching some random game on TV when Olivia asked me who I wanted to win. And I realized that I really didn't care. In the past, if there was no other factors involved in the game, I always rooted for the team ranked ahead of the Illini to lose, so that we could move up in the polls. But I guess when you're already at the top, you no longer have to root against anybody else, just focus on your own team winning. Kinda different and kinda nice.
100
Number of times I watched the clip of the fat kid singing/dancing:
http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/lyle_24/myhero.swf
Ok so I didn't really count how many times I watched it, but it was a lot. Believe me that song is catchy and I couldn't get it out of my head as I was trying to take a nap. It was frustrating but funny.
Thursday, February 17, 2005
With Friends Like These...
I was getting some advice about where to take Olivia for a nice Valentine's Day dinner from some friends and coworkers, and I thought I would share a few of the ideas they gave me (names have been omitted):
- Get a Whopper from Burger King and cut it into the shape of a heart
- Take her along on a ski trip and once we get to the top of the mountain, "drop trou' and pee a big heart in the snow" (they were trying to convince me to go on their ski trip this weekend - that didn't work.)
- Buy her a gift certificate for cosmetic surgery (by the way this one was from my coworker who has never met or seen her)
The sad thing is, I don't know if they were joking or not.
I have to admit though, I got some pretty good ideas other than that. A bunch of restaurants that we haven't been to but sound like they would be good. So I have to give some credit where it is due.
By the way I know Valentine's Day was three days ago but we are "celebrating" it this weekend due to "scheduling constraints".
On a separate note, another "fly" has "dropped". A few days ago I heard that the girl I went to high school prom with (and a friend since childhood) got engaged. I'm pretty sure she doesn't read this blog, we haven't really kept in touch since college, but congrats anyways Julia! Seems like yesterday that we were all playing board games in your basement or our families were camping together.
As far as the Illini go, the TV situation for last night's game against PSU was a travesty. It was scheduled as an ESPN+ game, which usually means they show it on the U. But no, they were showing the Bulls game on the U. So they moved the Illini game to their sister station "MeTV", channel 23 for those without cable. For those with Comcast cable (me me me), tough luck. How dumb is that, I can see the game if I don't have cable, but not if I do have cable? Even stupider was that I saw an ESPN+ game showing on WYCC (normally channel 56), Iowa against Purdue. Seriously, who wants to watch that game? Oh well, I guess I'm not as mad because the game didn't end up being that close. Just amazes me how an Illinois fan can't watch an Illinois basketball game in Illinois even when they are the #1 team in the nation (for only the 3rd time in 100 years of history).
One last thing, I'm sure everyone who grew up in a grade school remembers playing a game called "Duck, Duck, Goose". All you do is get everyone in your class to sit in a circle, then one kid walks around the circle tapping everyone in the circle on the head in order while saying "Duck, Duck, Duck....", until he picks someone and says "Goose", at which point the "goose" has to get up and chase the kid around the circle, and try to tag him before he makes it back to the vacated spot.
Anyways, one day I was talking to Olivia about that game for some reason, and she told me that when she was growing up in Minnesota, they played that game, only they didn't call it "Duck, Duck, Goose". What, pray tell, did they call it? Get this - these wacky Minnesotans called their version of the game "Duck, Duck, Gray Duck".
You can imagine my reaction to this, a healthy mixture of hilarity and incredulity. Duck, Duck, Gray Duck??! Who says that? I refused to believe her at first, but she seemed pretty serious, so eventually I halfheartedly conceded the possibility that she was not messing with me. Still, I couldn't really picture a kid going "Duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, GRAY DUCK!!" and everyone in the room thinking this was normal.
So yesterday, for some reason the topic of childhood games came up in conversation with my coworker, and I decided to tell him about Olivia's "duck duck gray duck" experience. And he absolutely REFUSED to believe me. He was so adamant in his disbelief that he did a Google search for "minnesota gray duck" or something like that, just to prove me wrong.
And sure enough, there were actually articles specifically written about how Minnesotans are the only ones who say "gray duck" instead of "goose" in that game. Ho-larious. I guess Olivia was right all along. I just had to share that with everyone who reads my blog. And if any of you still don't believe me, do a search and find out for yourself.
Now that I think about it, this would make a good blog topic on its own. When you grow up in different areas, at different schools, it's interesting when you guys know of the same jokes, stories, etc., except with weird little variations. I can't think of that many examples right now, but maybe if I can compile a list of good ones someday, I will devote a blog to it.
I was getting some advice about where to take Olivia for a nice Valentine's Day dinner from some friends and coworkers, and I thought I would share a few of the ideas they gave me (names have been omitted):
- Get a Whopper from Burger King and cut it into the shape of a heart
- Take her along on a ski trip and once we get to the top of the mountain, "drop trou' and pee a big heart in the snow" (they were trying to convince me to go on their ski trip this weekend - that didn't work.)
- Buy her a gift certificate for cosmetic surgery (by the way this one was from my coworker who has never met or seen her)
The sad thing is, I don't know if they were joking or not.
I have to admit though, I got some pretty good ideas other than that. A bunch of restaurants that we haven't been to but sound like they would be good. So I have to give some credit where it is due.
By the way I know Valentine's Day was three days ago but we are "celebrating" it this weekend due to "scheduling constraints".
On a separate note, another "fly" has "dropped". A few days ago I heard that the girl I went to high school prom with (and a friend since childhood) got engaged. I'm pretty sure she doesn't read this blog, we haven't really kept in touch since college, but congrats anyways Julia! Seems like yesterday that we were all playing board games in your basement or our families were camping together.
As far as the Illini go, the TV situation for last night's game against PSU was a travesty. It was scheduled as an ESPN+ game, which usually means they show it on the U. But no, they were showing the Bulls game on the U. So they moved the Illini game to their sister station "MeTV", channel 23 for those without cable. For those with Comcast cable (me me me), tough luck. How dumb is that, I can see the game if I don't have cable, but not if I do have cable? Even stupider was that I saw an ESPN+ game showing on WYCC (normally channel 56), Iowa against Purdue. Seriously, who wants to watch that game? Oh well, I guess I'm not as mad because the game didn't end up being that close. Just amazes me how an Illinois fan can't watch an Illinois basketball game in Illinois even when they are the #1 team in the nation (for only the 3rd time in 100 years of history).
One last thing, I'm sure everyone who grew up in a grade school remembers playing a game called "Duck, Duck, Goose". All you do is get everyone in your class to sit in a circle, then one kid walks around the circle tapping everyone in the circle on the head in order while saying "Duck, Duck, Duck....", until he picks someone and says "Goose", at which point the "goose" has to get up and chase the kid around the circle, and try to tag him before he makes it back to the vacated spot.
Anyways, one day I was talking to Olivia about that game for some reason, and she told me that when she was growing up in Minnesota, they played that game, only they didn't call it "Duck, Duck, Goose". What, pray tell, did they call it? Get this - these wacky Minnesotans called their version of the game "Duck, Duck, Gray Duck".
You can imagine my reaction to this, a healthy mixture of hilarity and incredulity. Duck, Duck, Gray Duck??! Who says that? I refused to believe her at first, but she seemed pretty serious, so eventually I halfheartedly conceded the possibility that she was not messing with me. Still, I couldn't really picture a kid going "Duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, GRAY DUCK!!" and everyone in the room thinking this was normal.
So yesterday, for some reason the topic of childhood games came up in conversation with my coworker, and I decided to tell him about Olivia's "duck duck gray duck" experience. And he absolutely REFUSED to believe me. He was so adamant in his disbelief that he did a Google search for "minnesota gray duck" or something like that, just to prove me wrong.
And sure enough, there were actually articles specifically written about how Minnesotans are the only ones who say "gray duck" instead of "goose" in that game. Ho-larious. I guess Olivia was right all along. I just had to share that with everyone who reads my blog. And if any of you still don't believe me, do a search and find out for yourself.
Now that I think about it, this would make a good blog topic on its own. When you grow up in different areas, at different schools, it's interesting when you guys know of the same jokes, stories, etc., except with weird little variations. I can't think of that many examples right now, but maybe if I can compile a list of good ones someday, I will devote a blog to it.
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