My excitement is going through the roof

Poor Positioning...

For my other blog..

Delicious.

Those poor, poor unicorns

We are totally living in the future....

Historically Hardcore 1

A series of digital projects that I just loved....

First update Post Vegas

SOrry for the lack of updates recently. Things/ life have just been a little out of hand recently. But for your enjoyment, a great list that I found via Dan Amira at Daily Intel on reaction to the MTA considering a ban on food in the subways. Here are his list of other things that should get banned......

1. Those groups of teens who shout "SHOWTIME! SHOWTIME!" and clear a space on a crowded train so they can break-dance Some of their moves are actually pretty impressive, but nevertheless, I can't read a book and worry about being kicked in the face at the same time.

2. Jesus freaks Bonus demerits if you also have strong opinions about the Zionist control of the media.

3. Continuously staring at me for no reason Do I have something on my face? Do we know each other and I don't recognize you? This is really uncomfortable.

4. Playing music without headphones or so loudly that we can hear it despite your headphones Oh good, some unexpected reggaeton, no one on the train thinks to themselves.

5. Falling asleep with your head back and your mouth wide open You look like one of the creatures from Beetlejuice.

6. Any ad containing an image of a grotesque body part Mixed messages: You tell me not to get on the train if I feel sick, then you stick a photo of a deformed foot in my face.

7. 9/11 Truthers It's not fair that you've caught us in the one place we're not capable of escaping. Of course, that is your strategy.

8. Clipping nails, wiping boogers on the wall, farting Basically, no remnant of you should be left behind when you leave the train.

9. Pushing someone out of your way prior to saying excuse me You're doing it wrong.

10. Trying to make a seat out of a space that isn't a seat Pretty sure your body is more than eight inches wide, but sure, go ahead and give it a shot.

11. Yuppie parents talking with their precocious kids about what they just learned at the museum Stop making me feel shitty about my childhood.

http://bit.ly/i5s3pb

Sufficiently Cute Picture of the Day

Words Courtesy of Charlie Sheen

Mind Officially Blown.

I'd Vote fro Him....

VIA GAWKER "I f—ked too many chicks and did too many drugs, and that's the truth." — George Clooney on why he doesn't have any plans to pursue a career in politics anytime soon. [Newsweek]

Damn, Idahoans are BADASS

I Know a Few People Who'd Be Guilty of This....

Food for Thought

A Few Scattered Thoughts...

For near 17 years, I have defined my status in life as a student. Being a student has fully defined who I am and where I stand in society. Whether it’s going through the grades or being a freshman, sophomore, junior and then senior in both high school and college, I have always had a set itinerary and focus on what came next. Now, I feel a bit like I am standing on the edge of a cliff. I have never loved school that much. While I might have done fairly well in my studies, I never had the motivation or talent to be truly exceptional. In the end, it never really seemed that worth it to give the extra 40 percent effort for the five percent reward.

As the end of my education draws near, I have been thinking a lot about the decisions that have brought me to where I am. A few weeks ago I saw the movie The Adjustment Bureau. The film deals exclusively with the idea of fate and how the decisions we make affect the person that we become. After watching the whole thing, I couldn’t get this sinking feeling out of the pit of my stomach.

I decided to take my mind off things by going out. As I enjoyed a few drinks with good friends in the heart of hipster central, Echo Park, (a place that should be avoided at all costs, if possible) I finally realized exactly what it was that was bothering me so much. As much as I have looked forward to the real world and all the responsibility that comes with it, the idea of complete responsibility and control over my life freaks me out.

As I exit college, I know that the safety net is slowly but surely being pulled out from under me. If I fail, I will have NOBODY to blame but myself. Four years of boarding school and four years of college 3,000 miles from home have prepared me for the rigors of independent living, I just wonder how capable I am of handling full onus of complete freedom.

I have made plenty of mistakes in my young life. I have always defended my failures by reminding myself that every mistake is a lesson in how to do things better. So, if I am going to be fallible for the rest of my life, do I ever really stop being a student? Or is it that stakes of failure or success grow exponentially when you enter the working world.

Not to sound too cliché, but I am a little freaked. I wonder how much my choices have affected the person I have become. People love to define themselves by their heritage, their friends, their family, their hometown, or even their astrological sign, but at the end of the day, nothing says more about us than the choices we make and the ramifications of those choices. I am not too sure if there is a point to this post, but maybe what I am trying to say is that at the end of the day, we are most responsible for whatever situation we are in, not our parents, not our friends or even Leo the lion. One of the best quotes I have ever heard on the topic comes from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar:

“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves”

Truer words have not been spoken. 

Reason # 28389742305804509724897356 Why I Wish I was In NY

McSorley's Anniversary

Russians Sure Know How to Have a Good Time... at an Early Age

Courtesy of Nick Breuning

Truthiness

Damn Tunisian Hipsters

The Richest Men and Women on TV

I really should have been an actor.....

Drama (per episode)
Hugh Laurie (House) $400,000+
Christopher Meloni & Mariska Hargitay (Law & Order: SVU) $395,000 (each)
David Caruso (CSI: Miami) $375,000
Marg Helgenberger (CSI) $375,000
Mark Harmon (NCIS) $375,000
Laurence Fishburne (CSI) $350,000
Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer) $350,000
Denis Leary (Rescue Me) $350,000
Gary Sinise (CSI: NY ) $275,000
Patrick Dempsey (Grey’s Anatomy) $250,000
David Boreanaz (Bones) $200,000
Jeffrey Donovan (Burn Notice) $200,000
Julianna Margulies (The Good Wife ) $175,000
Dana Delany (Body of Proof ) $150,000
Lauren Graham (Parenthood) $150,000
Jada Pinkett Smith (HawthoRNe) $150,000
Jimmy Smits (Outlaw) $150,000
LL Cool J (NCIS: Los Angeles) $125,000
Chris O’Donnell (NCIS: Los Angeles) $125,000
Mark Feuerstein (Royal Pains) $125,000
Jason Lee (Memphis Beat) $125,000
Joe Mantegna (Criminal Minds) $125,000
Tom Selleck (Blue Bloods) $125,000
Michael Weatherly (NCIS) $125,000
Matt Bomer (White Collar) $100,000
Nathan Fillion (Castle) $100,000
Thomas Gibson (Criminal Minds) $100,000
Jon Hamm (Mad Men) $100,000
Cole Hauser (Chase) $100,000
Alex O’Loughlin (Hawaii Five-0) $100,000
Timothy Olyphant (Justified ) $100,000
Scott Caan (Hawaii Five-0) $80,000
Angie Harmon (Rizzoli & Isles) $75,000
Anna Paquin (True Blood) $75,000
Blair Underwood (The Event) $75,000
Zachary Levi (Chuck) $60,000
Ian Somerhalder (The Vampire Diaries) $40,000
Shailene Woodley (The Secret Life of the American Teenager) $40,000
Ashley Tisdale (Hellcats) $30,000
Late Night/Talk Syndication (per year)
Oprah Winfrey $315 million
Judge Judy Sheindlin $45 million
David Letterman (The Late Show) $28 million
Jay Leno (The Tonight Show) $25 million
Conan O’Brien (The Conan O’Brien Show) $10 million
Ellen DeGeneres (The Ellen DeGeneres Show) $8 million
Jimmy Kimmel (Jimmy Kimmel Live) $6 million
Chelsea Handler (Chelsea Lately) $3.5 million
George Lopez (Lopez Tonight) $3.5 million

Reality (per year)
Ryan Seacrest (American Idol) $15 million
Joel McHale (The Soup) $2 million
Piers Morgan (America’s Got Talent) $2 million
Kate Gosselin (Kate Plus 8) $250,000 per episode
Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi (Jersey Shore) $30,000 per episode

Comedy (per episode)
Charlie Sheen (Two and a Half Men) $1.25 million
Jon Cryer (Two and a Half Men) $550,000
Marcia Cross (Desperate Housewives) $400,000
Teri Hatcher (Desperate Housewives) $400,000
Felicity Huffman (Desperate Housewives) $400,000
Eva Longoria Parker (Desperate Housewives) $400,000
Dan Castellaneta (The Simpsons) $400,000
Julie Kavner (The Simpsons) $400,000
Tina Fey (30 Rock) $350,000
Jeremy Piven (Entourage) $350,000
Steve Carell (The Office) $297,000
Angus T. Jones (Two and a Half Men) $250,000
David Duchovny (Californication) $200,000
Kevin Dillon (Entourage) $200,000
Adrian Grenier (Entourage) $200,000
Miranda Cosgrove (iCarly) $180,000
Edie Falco (Nurse Jackie) $175,000
William Shatner ($#*! My Dad Says) $150,000
David Spade (Rules of Engagement) $150,000
Ed O’Neill (Modern Family) $100,000
Patrick Warburton (Rules of Engagement) $85,000
Betty White (Hot in Cleveland) $75,000
Kaley Cuoco (The Big Bang Theory) $60,000
Johnny Galecki (The Big Bang Theory) $60,000
Ty Burrell (Modern Family) $50,000
Jane Lynch (Glee) $50,000
Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory) $40,000
Matthew Morrison (Glee) $30,000
Selena Gomez (Wizards of Waverly Place) $30,000
Dylan and Cole Sprouse (The Suite Life of Zack and Cody) $20,000 (each)
Rico Rodriguez (Modern Family) $15,000

News (per year)
Matt Lauer (Today) $16 million +
Katie Couric (CBS) $15 million
Brian Williams (NBC) $12.5 million
Diane Sawyer (ABC) $12 million
Meredith Vieira (Today) $11 million
Bill O’Reilly (Fox News) $10 million
George Stephanopoulos (ABC) $8 million
Keith Olbermann (MSNBC) $7 million
Shepard Smith (Fox News) $7 million
Wolf Blitzer (CNN) $3 million
Christiane Amanpour (ABC) $2 million
Lawrence O’Donnell (MSNBC) $2 million
Eliot Spitzer (CNN) $500,000

>
Hat tip Flowing Data
>
Source:
Who Are TV’s Top Earners?
Stephen Battaglio
TV Guide August 11, 2010    http://tv.yahoo.com/blog/who-are-tvs-top-earners–1459

Awesome Ad

Doesn't make me buy bourbon but makes me think. 

A few words to all my fellow bloggers out there

Who is really a journalist? When it comes down to it, our society’s definition of the term has evolved exponentially. Traditionally, someone becomes a journalist when he or she works for a published magazine or newspaper or is working for a major broadcast station. While many countries throughout Europe and Asia require their journalists to be licensed, the United States requires no form certification to report the news of the day. Thus in this country, journalists traditionally earned their title not through their actual work but through their employment status. By being part of a publishing or broadcast staff, you had earned the right to be considered a propagator of news. Beyond the obvious flaws in that self-policing and self-regulating system, the Internet Age has changed the ways people distribute and disseminate information. Large amounts of capital are no longer needed to reach millions. All people need these days is an Internet connection and some free time. However, we as a society have to question what exactly makes a journalist and how bloggers and other informal Internet opinion leaders should be treated under the law.

The new FTC regulations have drastically altered the way we view and define the status of bloggers. Today, bloggers are now viewed as amateur journalists who are still held to the legal standards of writers for hallowed new institutions as the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, when in reality they are little more than people trading information around the water cooler. With these new regulations that hold average people to the highest of journalistic standards, it becomes increasingly more difficult to distinguish between the story of a season journalist and what regular people say or do on Tumblr. If I win a free iPad from Apple, do I need to disclose when and how I got that device to everyone I tweet, Facebook Post, and blog to? While it is commendable for the government to hold bloggers to a higher standard for the benefit of the consumer, I really wonder what kind of environment this will create. The less oversight that the government can have in our lives, the better off we as citizenry are. The more I read about the FTC regulations, the more I feel like we are stifling online expression. While the FTC exists “to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices and to provide information to help spot, stop, and avoid them,” (FTC online)[1] it is not too hard to imagine a situation where the government tries to directly control what is written, said or posted on the internet.

As I read over the FTC regulations, I realized that they make a lot of important changes to protect the modern consumer. By fining bloggers up to $11,000 for misrepresenting themselves, the FTC has taken a stronger stance on “material connection,” otherwise known as the exchange of gifts or payment for endorsements. The Commission sent a message that if you are going to post online, then you are subject to regulation and certain standards and practices not unlike a journalist. On top of the regulation of bloggers and material connections, the FTC ruled that advertisements must explicitly detail what typical results of a product might be and not just include the phrase “results are not typical.” The 1980 guidelines were in desperate need of update after almost 30 years of advertising advancement, but the choice to restrict speech on the Internet will have a lasting impact that could negatively affect generations of Americans to come online. My issue is not with the laws themselves. To an extent, consumers and citizens need to be projected from deceit and misdirection. In dire circumstances, regulation is the key to making sure that the invisible hand of the market balances everyone’s self interest. My biggest concern comes with dealing with people who write on the Internet in the same capacity that we view advertisers and journalists. I dread that we are setting a dangerous precedent by not realizing the slippery slope that we are heading down if we as a society choose to accept these regulations.

In the 20^th century, legal precedent has spurred on major social change. Brown v Board of Education brought down segregation in schools, in the same way that Plessy v. Ferguson had affirmed separate but equal some 50 years earlier. While still highly contested across this country, no one can argue that Roe v Wade has led to a major change in how we view and talk about abortion in this country. While we like to recognize the people who dedicated their lives to changing the status quo, it is usually the legal system that lights the powder keg of social change.

I include this in the blogger discussion because I fear how choosing to legally stiffen online expression will negatively affect American interaction with the Internet in the long run. Though China vastly outnumbers us in terms of people online or percentage of the population using broadband, English is still the most popular language on the net with over 536.6 million users in 2010 (internet world stats.com.)[2] In order to have continued growth online, we as a society must be able to distinguish between journalist and citizen by allowing people to express their opinions without worrying about governmental backlash.

While it is important to recognize the necessity of the government to make sure that consumers are not being swindled, I believe that it is even more essential that our government provide a strong and lasting foundation for the future. In the end, not all bloggers are journalists or advertisers, most of the time they are just people using technology to share their thoughts and views with the digital world. Since our founding, we have been a country that has given the benefit of the doubt to our citizens. Why can’t we do that for our bloggers as well?

---

[1] http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/endortest.shtm

[2] http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats7.htm  

---

[1] http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/endortest.shtm

[2] http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats7.htm  

Poor Steve Harvey

Gotta love this country.

Ruminations on Media Madness

I have been thinking a lot about how we consume media, social or otherwise. Last semester, I had the opportunity to take a class on the relationship between media and politics. One of the strongest and most pertinent topics we discussed was how the rise in media outlets and forms has affected our information intake.

Since the rise and fall of the dot com bubble, people have been heralding this as the age of information. Nowadays, we can get our news fix from millions of sites on the internet. For every niche, nook and cranny of society, there is a news site solely devoted to reaching that segment of society. Instead of building an informed understanding through consuming as many news sources as possible, people are gravitating toward the “experts” that share their same beliefs.

Even with such a vast amount of information out there, people are gravitating toward strong opinion leaders instead of using a limitless access to information for a broader to better understand their world.

 You only need look at the rise of Bill O’Reilly, Keith Olbermann, and Glenn Beck to see that we Americans gravitate to strongly opinionated new sources. Coupled with the decline in ratings of more balanced networks such as CNN, this has led to a culture of opinions and not knowledge.

How can we as informed citizens possibly understand the complex background and reason behind new events when we are too busy trying to decide whom to blame for their occurrence? If we accept this attitude, then we are doomed to repeat history. I am really not so naive to believe that people weren’t short sighted and overly opinionated before cable and the information age, it just seems that more than ever, we are just lost in this media landscape and instead of choosing to be challenged by what they see on TV, we choose to find the loudest opinion out there that happens to be closest to their own. 

I really wasn’t trying to be too dire when I stated with this post. However, as I sifted through the thousands of channels on DIRECTV, I couldn’t help but question what is the role of media in educating our society.

Something to Think About...

Hmmmm

RIP society

A Real Quandary.....

Summer Sequels

A Few More Awesome Sequels Coming To a Theater Near You....

Great Quote From Patrick Bateman Himself

Christian Bale at his finest: " I think there's such enjoyment in just getting lost in a city. Having no idea where you are, how you're gonna get out of it. Getting to be the middle of the night, you're still lost, walking around. That's the best way to discover a city. That's how you're born into life. You got no freaking idea which way's up or down."

The "Mark Sanchez"

This guy makes me so proud to be a near USC alum. 

The Dark and Funny Knight

Reaction by Batman himself to his new villans.

Californication

Great quote from Californication on Sunday. If you don't watch it, you should. In last week's episode, the protagonist, Hank, writes a beautiful letter to his daughter. While I have no kids, it's impossible not to have some emotional connection to what he's talking about. Here's a small excerpt.


" To my dear beautiful daughter: I'm writing you a letter. That's right, a good old-fashioned letter. It's a lost art really, like handjobs--shit (crosses out "handjobs" on the typewriter). I have a confession to make: I didn't like you very much at first. You were just this annoying little blob. You smelled nice, most of the time, but you didn't seem to have much interest in me, which I of course found vaguely insulting. It was just you and your mom against the world. Funny how some things never change. So I cruised along doing my thing, acting the fool, not really understanding how being a parent changes you. And I don't remember the exact moment everything changed, I just know that it did. One minute I was impenetrable, nothing could touch me. The next my heart was somehow beating outside my chest, exposed to the elements. Loving you has been the most profound, intense, painful experience of my life. In fact it's been almost too much to bear. As your father I made a silent vow to protect you from the world, never realizing I was the one who would end up hurting you the most. When I flash-forward my heart breaks, mostly because I can't imagine you speaking of me with any sort of pride. How could you? Your father is a child in a man's body. He cares for nothing and everything at the same time. Noble in thought, weak in action. Something has to change, something has to give."

Dazed and Confused and Back Again

Sorry for the lack of updates recently. I have been enjoying some quality R&R for the last month. Much deserved, but it has given me a lot of time to think about the state of things. While I have never been one for New Year’s resolutions, I have been thinking a lot about my college experiences and the things that it has taught me.

           

I am about to graduate. Which I could bore you to death with a long drawn out anecdote about how so much has changed and how I am now truly ready for the real world, I won’t. I don’t write to be conventional and I don’t like to bore my five readers with shit that they already have heard. Instead, I would just briefly like to impart a few nuggets of wisdom I have acquired over the last three years.

Never be Afraid to Try Something New. While college is labeled as the location for exploration, the kind of change I am talking about goes beyond binge drinking and recreational drug use. What I am talking about is fearlessness and having the courage to try something completely outside your comfort zone. During my college experience, I had changed my major three different times. From film production to international relations, I tried to always make my college experience about exploring untapped interests. For two years, I even took Russian, a language that previously had ZERO exposure to outside of the occasional old school Bond movie. Never be afraid to try something new. My generation has become so obsessed avoiding failure that they never take risks. To me, that is about the worst possible way to live. So invite new challenges into your life because the alternative will leave you wholly unfulfilled.

Never Take Yourself Too Seriously. Granted this one is a bit more personal to me, but I hate people who take themselves too seriously. All too often, people build an air of entitlement around their accomplishments, their social status or their wealth. To be honest, you probably haven’t done too much that requires you to carry yourself as a complete asshole. The sign of a truly insecure man (or woman) is when that person needs to step on other people to make themselves look bigger. In the end, you need to understand that all people are different, not necessarily better or worse. They have come from all walks of life to get to where they are now; living lives unique as the countless snowflakes fell this December. Just maybe this is the year that some people realize that life is just too damn short to allow small things to lead to a false sent of pretentiousness. As my father always told me growing up, “ There’s always somebody smarter, there’s always somebody richer and there’s always someone better looking.”

Never Leave Anything Important Unsaid. Maybe the general theme that I am trying to hit on throughout this scattered and incoherent post is that life is too damn short for most of the bullshit and drama that we allow to settle and fester in our lives. While thousand of people have made millions of dollars by selling the idea of living without regret, I prefer to go with a far more realistic way of thinking: never leave anything important unsaid. More often than not, you will regret leaving something important unsaid far more than just coming out and saying how you truly feel. We live in the age of communication, social media and ECT. Take some of that fearlessness that anonymity that we so masterfully employ and incorporate it into your real life. With every kind of relationship, friendly, romantic or professional, honesty is key. When communication and honesty die out, people lose the strongest of foundations of human interaction.

Hope I didn’t bore you all too much. Thanks as always for reading. I promise to try and make this a weekly occurrence. Maybe I should try some fiction writing next week?