Tenth Musee

I feel like there’s almost no point to television sometimes.   I’ve known TV was crap for a long time, so it’s no big surprise.  In a 2-hour episode of The Biggest Loser, I watch probably grand total of 45 minutes — the rest I just fast-forward through.  In an hour show, I get maybe 35 minutes of true footage.

I’m so sick of all the previews.  Commercials show the whole damn show, practically. The preview they show before the show starts (for FIVE MINUTES) reveals everything we’re about to see. The preview before each commercial break shows us 30 seconds of what we’re about to see when they’re done recapping for another 30 seconds after the commercial.  Then they maybe show me 3 seconds of real show they already showed me in the preview and then preview what’s about to happen next. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Now it’s happening in the ‘info’ on cable, too. I was sorting out my shows and was checking to see if something was a repeat. I hit ‘info’ on a particular episode and it told me the entire episode in detail, down to the ’shocking surprise’. Thanks, now I don’t have to watch the show.  Assholes.

I don’t even bother going to the movies anymore. Why pay $10 for something I can see for free in the commercial?  Then the moment a movie actually hits theaters, the morning that it opens, before anyone has a chance to even see it, they show even more of it in the previews.  You just saved me $10 and my firstborn child for a box of Red Vines.  Thanks, Hollywood!

I tallied up the amount of series I have listed in my ’scheduled series’ profile and it’s something like fifty. Fifty shows.  Granted, not all at once, most shows are cyclical and seasonal and only are about 8-12 episodes. Its not like I watch fifty shows at once. But seriously… fifty shows?  As Oprah would say, what am I hungry for?   Why does anyone have that much scheduled television?  Because there’s no show in my show!  I’m entertainmentally deficient! Showtime and HBO series (and sometimes Bravo) provide actual nutrients, but everything else is just empty calories.  Television is the 64 oz. Big Gulp of media.

And on top of that, now that so many people have DVR, shows automatically run 2-3 minutes beyond their scheduled end-point so that you purposefully lose the end of the show. I think they do it to discourage recording the show since television is losing advertising dollars due to the almighty fast-forward button.  Fortunately, AT&T U-verse has a “record until 5 minutes past” feature, which is handy, but I still think it’s shifty.

Gee, perhaps all this griping will get me to whittle the series list down to a manageable 35 or so.  Probably not.  But it does make me realize I really do have time to go to the gym… *sigh*

While contemplating what to get Reilly for Christmas and his birthday this year, I’ve started noticing toy commercials more.  I tend be one to give creative or fun educational toys. Yes, I’m the aunt you can thank for the washable markers and the “Make your Own Stalagmites” kits.  It’s not Grand Theft Auto: Punch a Hooker Edition, but they’ll thank me later.

Anyway, I’ve been seeing a lot of these Leapfrog books advertised lately. I’m not really sure what I think about it. I’m not an education expert or a teacher or a children’s development specialist, so I don’t know how to measure scientifically the impact these books have on reading. But, and correct me if I’m wrong here, I kind of think if you drag a pen over the word and hear the word read to you, that ceases to be reading. I’d say that’s listening.

I don’t entirely get it. Sure, it seems cool and fun and how exciting that the book talks!  I see the appeal.  I was a little old for them, but I had step-sisters, so I remember those books with the buttons down the side that added sound effects to your story. It’s not like the concept of sound in books is new or unusual. I’d go as far as fun. But, I don’t really see how dragging the pen over a word and hearing it said for you teaches you to read it, but maybe it does.  What happened to sounding things out? What about recognizing the letters and learning what sounds those letters make and what happens when you string them together?  Maybe I’m just old school.

I know people learn other languages that way. Rosetta Stone uses an visual/audio connection to teach you to speak a foreign language, so I suppose the same principle applies here.  Perhaps the combination of using both hearing and seeing helps solidify the information. I’ve always been more an auditory learner, was never one for much note-taking in school. I spent too much time writing things down and I’d miss the next thing the lecturer was saying, so I just paid attention unless it was imperative I take note.  So I can understand how hearing the words read would help drive the point home.

I guess I just wonder where the line is drawn between reading and storytime. Or maybe its teaching that reading is play… and I agree it can be. Reading is awesome and as a child, I was a voracious reader.  Adding the voices of the characters and hearing the story told for them robs the child of a piece of their imagination, part of the joys of reading.  The ability to create your own scenario when you read is part of the fun of it, not having it spoon fed to you in the voice of Jack Black.

I have mixed feelings. What do you think?

This nicely sums up the next 5 days.  I can’t wait until Kathy gets here!  It’s officially our vacation, but I know we’re going to end up talking shop at some point.  We have too many ideas we want to dish about and when we only see each other once a year on average, we’ll take any opportunity we can get.

It’s first and foremost time off, but it’s a lot easier to talk shop with a side of margaritas, don’t you think?

I noticed last night that in commercials for Oreo cookies, the people in different commercials all eat their Oreo exactly the same way: twist open, lick once, put back together, then dunk and eat. I don’t feel Oreo is best representing a wide cross-section of Oreo eaters. It’s like they’re trying to set some kind of Oreo-eating standard.  I have never in my entire life met anyone whose Oreo Process™ was that.

Oh, I don’t doubt they’re out there — those who absolutely must eat their Oreo just like they do in the commercial. But what about the artists? The rebels? What about those who just bite into it as-is?  What about those who (*gasp!*) couldn’t give a damn about the “creme” filling?  What about those who consume sans milk?!

Personally, my Oreo Process is as follows:

• Nibble off the top cookie in little bites like a mouse.
• Scrape off the “creme” filling with my bottom teeth in small bits. Never lick.
• Nibble bottom cookie at my leisure.
• Store on my thighs for Winter.

I’m not saying it should be done like this, per se. I just don’t understand why Oreo feels they have to force their belief system on the rest of us.  We’re buying and eating your cookie, Nabisco. What more do you want from us?  Our souls?