Surviving without Cable

I've been hearing quite a few people talk or write about how they do not have cable. We have gone back and forth with cable over the years. About a year ago we dropped cable once again because it is simply too expensive. We also realized that many of the shows we like are typically available on the Internet, so we really have not missed cable all that much.

Even though we do not have a text messaging package on our cell phones, we are somewhat on the cutting edge with our television set up. We have a TV tuner connected to our Mac Mini and we have a large flat panel monitor that allows us to get a good digital picture. The TV antenna connects to the TV tuner, so we can watch all of the local channels. For the shows we used to watch on cable, like Monk, Psych, and Burn Notice, we are able to watch them either on the USA Network web site or on Hulu. Hulu.com is a great resource for current and older television shows (like The Pretender). It is also a legal way to watch the shows. IMDB.com also provides links to legally available episodes of television shows.

For sports, we switched to DSL through AT&T so we can have access to ESPN 360. Many games are available as well as a variety of sports that I've never even heard of.

The final method we have used to replace cable is Netflix. Since we have the computer as our television unit, we can easily watch the movies and shows available online at Netflix.

It will be interesting to see what the future of cable will be with the way more and more shows are made available on the Internet.

The Buttertons

Have you seen the commercial for I Can't Believe It's Not Butter where there is a family, the Buttertons, from the 50s who are shown eating food with sticks of butter on them? The other night as we were watching the commercial, I thought that it was ironic that the purpose of the ad is to show that we know better than to eat butter today, but with all the knowledge that we have about diet, exercise, and what not to eat, the number of people who are overweight today is greater than it would have been in the 50s. With all the knowledge that we have, why aren't we all skinny?

I know that there are a number of reasons behind why more people are overweight today and the solution to the problem is not an easy one, but I think that the major reason is tied to the same reason our country is facing the economic situation that it is: lack of self-control. The weight gain of Americans is just an outward representation of the desire to own and possess whatever one wants when one wants it.

Young Adults and Cell Phones

I had an epiphany in one of my Comp classes today. One of my students was in the back of the room with his head laying on one arm and his cell phone clutched in his free hand. It almost looked like he was asleep except that occasionally he would enter some text message into his phone. As I was watching him (there are some battles that are just getting to hard to fight and keeping students from texting in class is one of them), I came to the realization that the cell phone is a pacifier for many of the students.

For many of them, the cell phone is apparently a source of comfort and security. They have to constantly hold it in their hands and they check it every five or ten minutes to see if some "important" message has come in like what their friends are doing in their other classes. They keep it one their person so that they are never without it and they can never seem to be able to not answer it when it rings (unless it is their parents). They answer it in class, in the bathroom, in the locker room at the Y. They also text in some of the most unusal places: as they eat with their friends, watch movies, and walk up or down stairs.

I believe that many of them might actually begin to cry and pout if their phone was ever taken away. I wonder how they would respond if I were to share my epiphany.

Conflicting Messages

Have you ever noticed that the media sends conflicting signals about being "green" and being sanitary. We are told to use reusable plastic bottles and to try to produce less waste, but then we are told not to eat in a kitchen where the homeowner uses a dishrag to wash the dishes because there are too many germs; we are told that instead we should use a paper towel so it can be thrown away. Likewise, most people today use disposable Kleenexes instead of handkerchiefs (although I will admit that I don't know if I can bring myself to use a handkerchief), and almost all the advertisements for toilet bowl cleaners involve a disposable head.

Who are we supposed to listen to? Which direction are we supposed to follow? Do we listen to the voice of being sanitary and controlling all the germs (can this really be accomplished?)? Or do we try to be more environmentally responsible?

World's Greatest Non-Invented Invention?

People will think of anything to try and make a buck. Here is a story that details the 10 worst inventions in history. The wig for cats is especially strange as is the prankster fire alarm trap.

Have you ever thought of an invention that you think other people would appreciate? I know that I have, but none come to mind right now. Of course, since I am currently grading research papers, I would like a device that could numb my brain to the frustration of realizing how little my students listen and follow directions.

Space Junk

What's the deal with all the space junk? It would appear that space travel is not all that safe since debris the size of a tennis ball is enough to require the people in the space station to go into the escape capsule just in case it penetrates the space station itself. If I were an astronaut, I don't think that I would feel all that safe in the space station.

I wonder what the engineers are working on to combat this problem. It sounds like this space debris can also cause problems for the space shuttles. Are they designing a huge cosmic vacuum that can suck up this debris? How would they find all the debris out in the wide expanse of space? I guess they will just have to come up with tougher coverings for the space station and the vehicles used to send people into space.

Research Update

I realized that I never gave an update on my student's research paper topic. The final idea came from an essay that my students read called "I'm Like a Bird." In the short essay, the author writes a defense of the pop song "I'm Like a Bird." He argues that while the song may not last as a long as classical pieces written by Bach or Mozart, pop music has its place in the musical world. He finds enjoyment in the way pop music can make a person feel good, at least for a little while, and in the way the music is disposable.

One of the writing prompts at the end of the essay asked the students to write a defense of an activity they participate in that they feel other people unfairly criticize. This prompt gave me the idea to have the students write a defense paper. I expanded the scope a little bit to include values and beliefs. I thought that this would be a great opportunity for students to research and discover why they think a certain way or have certain beliefs. I did limit their topics in that I told them I wanted them to avoid topics like abortion, the death penalty, steroids, marijuana, and the environment. I usually limit these topics because students rarely write a strong papers when they chose these topics. They usually pick these topics because they think it will be easy to write the paper because there is a plethora of information available. Of course, they forget that the information is often unreliable and biased (at best).

They are going to turn their papers in next week. Based on their proposals, I have some interesting topics coming in and I am looking forward to reading what they found. I think I gave some of the students extra stress because I did not place strict parameters on the type of research materials that they needed to find. I told them that they have to have three outside sources and they have to be good, reliable sources. It is up to them to determine what is a good, reliable source (they have to learn how to fly sometime).