Monday, December 13, 2010

I Don't Like MySpace

DISCLAIMER: I know many people out there are fans of MySpace, but I'm not one, as this song will show you. I hope you will respect my opinion on this matter, whether you agree or disagree with it. Enjoy!

I DON'T LIKE MYSPACE
To the tune of "I Don't Like Mondays" by the Boomtown Rats

The silicon chip inside my Mac
Gets switched to overload
No wonder it was blocked at school today
It's more than bad enough at home
And I never will understand it
'Cause kids said it was so cool
But I can see no reasons
That this site's is any fun
Why did I even to this site go?

CHORUS:
That is why I don't like MySpace! (3x)
I wanna take the whole site down!

MySpace pages are just so busy
It just makes me wanna hurl
And, after all the shocks
My computer is locked
It's so against what I learned in Web school!
Used to think that my Web block reeked
I know now I wasn't missing anything
This dumb site I'm leavin'!
And I'm not returnin'!
This trash I do not need, oh!

REPEAT CHORUS

Down, down, take it all down!

And, I'm going to go read a book now
Because I need to clear my busy mind!
Hey, the school is open for techno-learning
And the topic today is Web Design!
When MySpace they access
And their computer's crashin'
All that flashy stuff is exactly why!
And that's just one reason
Out of many reasons
Why MySpace really needs to die, die, oh...

'Cause the silicon chip inside my Dell
Got switched to overload
And, after I had to force restart
I won't go on there again!
And I never will understand it
'Cause the kids said it was so cool
But I can see no reasons
That this site's any fun
Why did I even to that site go?

That is why I don't like MySpace!
That is why I don't like, I don't like...
(REPEAT)
I wanna take the whole thing down!

Saturday, December 4, 2010

It's Electrifying!


Yes, I admit it; I watch the new version of The Electric Company. I've talked about watching it on Facebook, and none of my posts about it have gotten any replies. At first, I was only watching it because of Jenni Barber, the cute, Ashley Tisdale-esque blonde who portrays Lisa Heffenbacher. However, after watching it a few more times, I realized that its appeal is more than just who stars in it.
As usual for this blog, I'm going to take you back into past experiences I've had: From 1995 to 1999, I was a pretty avid computer game player. Most of the games I played were edutainment titles; that is, ones that were both educational and entertaining. I had everything from Dinosaur Safari (conceptually similar to Pokémon Snap, but with dinosaurs instead of "pocket monsters") to Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? (who doesn't remember that one?) to even Let's Explore the Airport. There was a edutainment software maker back then known as The Learning Company (TLC for short, though not in any way related to the cable TV channel) that made games that included both learning and arcade-style action. Looking back, I can say the plots were a bit, for lack of a better word, stupid. Midnight Rescue! involved you reading passages to get clues all the while taking pictures of robots in order to find out which one the Master of Mischief was hiding in, and if you lost, the school got covered in disappearing paint. (I think there were--and still are--a lot of kids who would love it if their school disappeared. Anyone remember "Deck the Halls with Gasoline"?) Spellbound! had you training for and then competing in a spelling bee against those same baddies. Treasure Cove! had you capturing sea stars, who, because of a spell, only spoke in riddles, to get clues to find gems and a puffer fish.
All those plots seem absurd, right? Well, those games' plots had a lasting effect on me. Seriously, even in recent years, I have watched some shows and movies with inane plots. Want a list? Princess (a 2008 ABC Family movie,) Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie, Bloodhounds, Inc.: The Ghost of KRZY, Dragon Ball: Evolution, Fred Claus, and there's probably others. So, the plot of each Electric Company episode (This guy is stealing all the Fs! Why is he doing it? He must be stopped!) doesn't bother me, because I've seen it all before. In some ways, plots like those, nonsensical as they are, remind me of my childhood, which was a much simpler time.
I'll end by saying this: You may think that it's wrong for me to watch things like The Electric Company. I can't help but disagree; I think that everyone, no matter what age, has an inner child, and he/she lives on well past the time we've reached adulthood. I've decided to completely embrace my inner child. If you don't like that...there's the door.

Friday, December 3, 2010

My Lifelong Love for Calendars

It's pretty much an annual tradition in my family: After Christmas, we go to a place that sells calendars--usually the calendar store in a nearby mall--and buy them for half off. My mom and I have both done that almost every year, if not every year, for at least the past decade. She usually gets a Thomas Kinkade one; I usually get something related to pop culture and/or trivia. Over the years, I have had calendars of everything from Scooby-Doo to Wallace and Gromit to Garfield to Hilary Duff to Jeopardy! to Digimon to Star Wars to Harry Potter to even iCarly.
Maybe I'm just weird, but I always look forward to buying calendars after Christmas (or getting them for Christmas.) They may not be high-tech gadgets, but they do look nice on my wall, and they don't take much effort to change every month. I will admit, sometimes the torn-off pages from Page-a-Day calendars (aka desk calendars) can make a mess, but I still like ones with trivia because they're fun.
Truth be told, I've actually found creative uses for calendars after they expire. One time--and this won't surprise those of you who knew me back then--at the beginning of 2005, I cut out all my favorite pictures from my 2004 Hilary Duff and Lizzie McGuire calendars (notice that's plural, because those were two separate calendars) and put them on my wall. I ended up taking them down in March, though, because that was when I made the switch to Anne Hathaway. Even beyond that, I once made a collage that consisted of cutouts from a Harry Potter calendar, as well as pictures of Facebook friends, and other random images.
Who knows? I might not be alone in my love for calendars. Some might say that I have a love for things that tell time, because I also have had many clocks and watches--mostly digital ones--over the years. In fact, it wasn't until recently when I became unable to use both wristwatches I had--the band broke on one, the battery went dead on the other--that I started using my cell phone as a timepiece. That's probably what everyone will be doing in the future, though; plenty of people of my generation started doing it well before I did.
Any comments?