I just want to start with a big ….”LMAO”. This is probably the first year I have been conflicted on starting. On the one hand…I am getting married, and on the other “Dolores Umbridge (Harry Potter Character)” is our President. I really don’t want to get too much into Trump because it makes my blood boil. This could be mean, but I see him impeached or assassinated within the year. I wonder if he is being controlled like a puppet or if he is just that stupid. I just noticed today that we might go to war with North Korea, Syria and Russia, and April just started! I now just randomly skim through some of his changes to make sure I am not any danger and then do some jumping jacks to relieve the stress of skimming through one of his new Presidential Orders. So 2017 is also bringing about a lot of cool innovation and technology to the world. We have also entered the “Movement” age. We have gone from semi blissful ignorance; to questioning and scrutinizing every single incident that occurs. Every traffic stop, and “questionable” conversation is on video and shared all over social media. I like and hate this form of protest and information sharing. I think this form of recording and blasting information can cause abnormal behavior from someone because they are being filmed. I totally agree with the right to make sure you are being treated fairly, but if your behavior is out of hand; then I can’t support ya. The main new avenue that 2017 has brought on is Social Media contagion. Everything you do on the internet can be commented, shared, tweeted, FBed, and Snap chatted . I miss the old times of enjoying a meal without a pic, and just having an experience without having to immediately share it on Social Media. Our lives have become basically 80-90% public. Finally I really like the strides we are making to fight discrimination and racism, but I hope we get to a point where we don’t need to protest. I want to get to a point where no one needs to advocate and can just live peacefully.
Handling Racism Better
This topic is so in your face everyday; that it is hard to not write something about it. Over the past 5 years we have seen a country filled with diversity and growth turn into the “age of movements”. We have taken the innocence and freedom of speaking your mind into sensitivity and insecurity. These incidences could be spun to help support the different tragedies that befall the world.
Many countries around the world have racism in a variety of ways and many different levels. Throughout the ages racism has shown its face and harmed the masses violently and verbally. I am not sure about you, but I think we can grow to be a little more thick skinned when it comes to the verbal aspect of it. The use of energy on ranting on Facebook is going nowhere. I was taught to ignore ignorant verbal statements, because they are usually not true, and the person saying it will eventually shut up. The U.S. has fallen into the “age of movements”, where anything said becomes a march, protest, boycott, and/or movement. In my opinion; the more we make spectacles out of small incidences; the more it will occur.
The world has X number of problems that plague and diminish our way of life. We have to deal with issues like the Flint water crisis, natural disasters, terrorist attacks, and/or diseases. If we put a little more focusing on resolving those crises; then focusing all the media’s attention over not being nominated for an awards show, or a halftime performance …. There so much ranting you can say with that situation; it hurts your brain. If even half those celebrities used that to spin into a positive event to help any of our world problems the outcome would be life changing.
These movements and protests can all be easily spun to help improve the livelihood of these races. One idea that comes to mind is to use a racial shooting or a racial slur to maybe start a fund to start after school activities for kids and/or programs to create a better relationship between the police and our youth. If we teach our youth and even have group settings with officers; we can set a stage to avoid these situations in the future. Everyone wants these slayings to stop happening, but in reality; protesting and yelling on camera is not going to do anything. We as a community should put our energy to smarter use to realistically build a better future for our youth.
Netflix
I bet you can predict this whole article from just the title. That is a sign that this generation and era has shifted to what I am coining the Netflix Era. We have gone from playing outside to TV shows to video games and now to streaming anything and everything. No one has the time or the attention span to sit in front of a TV during a live episode. Now I am not saying this is a good or bad thing, but I will say its interesting. In a sense its good because you don’t waste precious time on commercials. Also it could be bad because your first thought after school or work is : “what can I watch on netflix”. It will be interesting to see if this fad lasts the decades or if it gets blown out of the water like ….blockbuster.
Thirst for knowledge
Over the past 10 years one thing that has vastly spiked is a crave for information. From the top of the chain to the bottom; everyone wants to be informed. If something is bugging you; then your first instinct is to find out what it was. It is actually a vast improvement that the everyday American has a bigger thirst for knowledge and information. Another craze is a crave to know every single thing the government is doing. Now I am all for keeping the government in check and making sure they are working in the countries best interest, but these socialites and information enthusiasts aren’t making a difference with spreading this info. For hundreds of years government has kept things under wraps and we have only improved over the decades. I am sure some of the reasons that information is kept classified is idiotic, but the critical reasons are probably for the safety of the country. If you’re protest isn’t going to realistically help anything then I would stay quiet; in some sense “ignorance is bliss”.
The invisible bylaws of being an employee
America has had a need for a steady, routine workforce ever since the industrial revolution hit us. For more than a hundred years we have developed a standard for being part of the workforce and society. Once you are ready to start looking for your big boy or big girl job is when these rules are set in place. One of the first things you start on is your appearance. You have to change who you are and what you look like in order to even get past the interview. Shouldn’t you be judged on your work and not how you look and not your work?
Once the interview process is over there is a whole ordeal that goes on changes your lifestyle. Now with change there is always a compromise percentage and some adjustments that need to be made. The only thing is there are all these rules that you don’t notice you must adhere too to be “professional”.
One of the things I noticed that you must do is wear business professional or business casual clothing in ordered to be employed and professional. Now in my opinion the main thing employers need out of their employees is production. Now don’t you think employees would be a little more efficient if they : didn’t have to spend time ironing clothes and dressing up every day, could wear clothes a bit more casual that they would be more comfortable working in. Does the clothes that are worn change the personality of the employee? Most of these employees are just sitting in cubicles anyway. Why would you cause your employees to conform to a certain conduct that hasn’t really proven to cause efficient work?
Another aspect of hidden bylaws is your personal life. I wonder which someone decided that working 9-5 is the most efficient way of working. There probably is some data and research behind this, but it also hinders peoples sleep, and daily routines. Many countries in Europe and Asia have 2pm breaks for the whole country. The employees in Europe can go home at 2 and nap or have lunch with their families and come back rested for the rest of work. When employees leave work they have a limited amount of time to do things around the house and rest before they have to go back to sleep and get up early to start the next day. When there is a spouse and/or kids involved; the amount of sleep your employee gets decreases even more. You also are judged if you decide to go out during a work day or have a few drinks after work. The work hours cause you to have a 11-12pm bed time and have you looking for to a day with less traffic.
At the end of the day we shouldn’t need conformity and bylaws to be successful in the work force. Restrictions have never been a good thing when you need success and growth. There should be a more comfortable compromise to produce efficiency out of employees and not wear them out year by year.
Traffic and the torture of your soul.
This phenomenon has been around for hundreds and hundreds of years; yes there was traffic in the horse and buggy days. The real problem is that there still is traffic nowadays despite the amount of technology and brilliant minds working on it. I would be fine if there was a steady traffic every day for weeks with the same amount of time, but that’s never the case. The traffic issue seems to fluctuate more than our stocks. It is crazy how one day your commute could be 25 minutes, and the next day it could be an hour and ten minutes. Now I understand the usual cause for traffic: an accident, or roadwork, merging of lanes, but that is only the case some of the time. I have noticed that a lot of traffic are cause by dumb drivers; yeah I said it. The “stop and go” traffic is usually caused by a bunch of idiots that see a cop pulled over on the side of the road with another vehicle. Usually when a cop already pulled someone over; he won’t stop mid-sentence and go and pull you over too. The amount of times I have seen stop and go traffic is insane. Also another traffic starter is a cop that just slowly drives through traffic and just makes everyone nervous and slows everyone down. Now I understand the police is there to regulate traffic, but instead of regulating traffic they usually cause it. I can tell some of these theories are probably true, because a lot of the Fridays are traffic free and cop free. My guess is the idiot drivers take off on Fridays. Finally even when the lanes merge; it is funny to see how many selfish drivers are out there that won’t allow others to merge. These selfish drivers need to understand that the faster you allow that driver into the lane; the faster traffic will move.
Apple Iphone’s new “Innovation”?
Over the last 4 years there has been an epic battle in the technology world. Mobile technology has gone from very simple flip phones and blackberries; to the new age smart phones that can do just about anything. The current war for best OS has two front-runners: Apple and Android.The two major OS companies have been battling head to head since the galaxy S1 has come out. The two programs were close in contest, but that has now changed. Ever since the Galaxy S3 has come out; Android has trumped Apple OS in many, many ways. Apple has even had to super simplify it’s phone and marketing just so it can make sales. I don’t know what voodoo Apple has used, but they actually convince people the next phone is better than the older one and that it is better than a Droid powered phone. Between the Iphone 4 and 5c there has been literally no need to get the newer phone. I wonder how their RandD meetings go (Research and Design): “So sir we have the Coolest idea, were going to make the phone a tad longer, change the kind of charger that ever customer uses, and screw Youtube!.” The head of that department who is probably been bought by Android : “Great Idea!.” Just today Apple had a conference on their new IOS 8 , and I kid you not, it is adding the technology that Android had a year ago and calling it “new”. So they basically follow in Androids footsteps, and take their “already did it”, and put customers in a trance(kinda like the Riddler in Batman and Robin). The only thing i will give props for is Apple’s use of Siri beforehand, but that is just a more sophisticated version of using voice control on phones; which can link to Google. Some critics have amusingly labeled Apple as “the lagging brand”. These customers shouldn’t waste all this money to upgrade to the next phone; when any of the last 3 phones work the same as the newest one. Yes, I do have the biased towards Samsung Galaxy phones; so I also have to inform you that the HTC One (M8) has phones that are outperforming any other phone at the current time. At the end of the day a simplified Droid phone is still faster and more useful than an Iphone. The best part is that Apple bought the beats (HTCs leftovers) because they finally realized their days are numbered, but they haven’t understood that it’s not gonna help them much. Speculation says that the main reason they bought the beats because the app was beating Apple’s prized possession “Itunes”. The sound at their own event today was being criticized by people there. Come on guys, you might wanna fire the guys that Droid has bribed and start anew.
Modern Day “Acting”
There is a new trend that is hitting many movies, and tv shows. This trend is in my opinion called fake acting. There are loads of new “actors’ that portray roles of how they act in real life and consider that acting. When I think of actors and actresses that are portrayed as true or a thespian I think of Tom Hanks, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Anne Hathaway, Zoe saldana, Leonardo Dicaprio, Johnny Depp, Halle Berry, Hugh Jackman, etc… Those are true actors that don’t stick to their type cast in every single role they play and consider themselves actors. Heck if i could get roles in movies and shows by just being myself; I would drop my job right now. Some of these movies have shit scripts and just call for “actors” to act like they would on their normal routines. People like Emma Stone, Jim Parsons, Jason Statham, Robert Downey Jr. , Robert Pattison, Nicholas Cage (that’s just a total other article in itself), etc… It’s kinda like deceiving the movie goers into thinking that your actually acting and putting on a performance.
Modern Man
Cubicles and desks stick to you like a bullet to a gun
Working hard and climbing to the top is an obstacle filled run
Compliance is death and life persists like a rant
9-5’s are a must and shirt and ties are needed with some ironed pants
What the future beholds depends on his ambition, determination, and dreams
Some can’t handle it and waste time sipping on bottomless glasses; wanting to scream
The modern man pursues money, achievement and power
A Big house, nice cars, and a hot wife planting flowers
Inspirational quotes and mantras are put up for motivation
To be doing a job you love is always great validation
He should protect his own and teach the young how to thrive
Strong morals, values, and family is what he must derive
Art: the most non-essential but essential part of society.
The arts have been around since the first form of writing was made. The paintings in caves can even be considered works of artists. The true popularity of art started during the renaissance period; art was everywhere. Artists, painters, writers, and entertainers thrived from all parts of the world during the renaissance times. After the renaissance period Art was taken more seriously and protected and archived. Most people make strong cases for the Arts, but there are also many people that can make a case that there is no need for art. Some people think that art is a useless skill and a waste of money. Anything can be considered art nowadays; art should have some criteria or qualification. Now yes to some Art can be done by closing your eyes and run a brush over canvas, or throwing together a bunch of scraps,and people will be amazed for days. Apart from the cons; there are also a few pros to art. Real art can change the mood of a room, and real art saves us from being colorless and robots.
What many people don’t realize is the subtle influence that Art has on everyday society. Something as simple as setting up a living room can be considered a work of art. The meshing of colors, furniture, trinkets, and carpets is always a must in every room. Imagine if nothing matched and everything was in disarray and in black and white. I don’t know about you but I think I would go insane. Another example could be having the right painting set up in a doctor’s office. This painting isn’t noticed by all, but it creates a calming ambiance in the room. This single painting distracts kids from thinking about their pain. One of the biggest fields of Art is music. Music is one of the oldest and most solid part of society. Listening to a good song can influence someones mood, health, work performance, competition, etc… I don’t think anyone can do a day without music unless they are forced to. Music can soothe the soul of even the coldest of hearts. Finally when you dress yourself up in formal attire; you in a way are a work of art. A man’s belt matches his shoes, and his shirt and tie have to blend together. This criteria for suit etiquette is a work of art. With art so intertwined into everyday society; it can never truly die.
The Art naysayers have a few solid arguments, but they should be taken into account as well. Back in the beginning of Art there were only a certain great pieces that were considered true Art. In modern day society of Instagram, and Facebook, and the growth of erratic creativity; Art can be anything. There are abstract paintings, pastel paintings, oil paintings, chalk paintings, etc… There is tons of money put into an Art that has no true criteria or guidelines to accomplish it. Why waste money on something so irrelevant; when we can put it into science or business or medicine. There are any number of things that could use those funds to better use. Also if and when the Earth is plunged into chaos and despair; what will the use of art be then?
At the end of the day any of those arguments have a valid point, but it isn’t that simple. Art is so intricate and complex that it can’t just be extinguished. The value and influence that true artists have on our society is remarkable. If you can do without any of the mainstream forms of art; then maybe we can start a real debate on extracting art from our society, but that day will never come.
sp0727 