Yes, the title of this blog is a line from a J.T. song. Cringe if you will, but that line is vaguely relevant to what this blog will be about, and there are very few things that I love more than relevant song lyrics, so cry me a river. As I'm sure is the case for many of you, a key characteristic of my holiday season has been time wastage. In my opinion, time wastage is ok so long as it is kept under control and within a specified time frame. After a year of pouring over notes, cramming for exams, labouring through assignments and persevering with late nights and early mornings; as students I think that we have earned the right to a spot of time wastage. That said, it is not ok to spend the holiday season sitting around idley and becoming a hopeless sluggard whose only achievement over the three months of holidays (or thereabouts) is a permanent body imprint on the couch. My pursuit of time wastage has involved several technologies this holidays; movies, TV, facebook, email, etc.
A good friend of mine has lent me six seasons worth of Gilmore Girls episodes on DVD to get me through the holidays. I don't really watch TV during semester, so it is very exciting to have something worthwhile to watch. I LOVE Gilmore Girls - the quick-witted banter and character dynamics make it a great series that I'm sure most girls would enjoy. One thing that has struck me from watching a few episodes of Gilmore Girls over the past week is how much I have begun to take on traits of the characters. For example, I've noticed that my rate of speech has increased significantly. Yesterday I needed to call student enquiries at JCU because I had a question about enrollments. I rattled off about two minutes worth of essentially useless information before the bewildered man on the other end of the line asked me to repeat what I had just said. I took a deep breath and managed to summarise the important points of what I needed to say within 30 seconds. Anyone who has seen Gilmore Girls will understand the connection - the discussions between Lorelai and her daughter Rory are so fast-paced that apparently viewers over 60 find them quite difficult to follow. Additionally, Lorelai's shameless addiction to caffeine has only served to reinforce my steady reliance on coffee. Suddenly drinking 12 cups of coffee a day seems perfectly sensible. Not that I drink 12 cups of coffee a day, yet, but if I were to drink this much coffee I'm sure that I could easily justify it with a Lorelai-like response that had something to do with my body being made up of 2% water and 98% caffeine and I am just doing my bit to maintain an enthusiastic if not perky existence. That sentence is way too long, but I think that it is reinforcing my point. I also have the urge to make comparisons and references to people who are famous for obscure reasons, such as Charlie Rose. This is all because of the influential power of the American TV series Gilmore Girls. I was pondering the power of TV today while I was drinking my third cup of coffee. We're kidding ourselves if we think that TV, technology and the media aren't powerful. What we allow into our brains through mediums such as Television can influence our thoughts and actions. This is the danger of explicit viewing, and why we should think very carefully about what we watch on the tube. The influence of television is even stronger for children. Even with regards to programs that are mostly harmless. The mother of a little girl I look after says that she needs to carefully monitor the number of High School Musical episodes her daughter watches. Apparently after a High School Musical overload, this little girl prances around the house flaunting a showy Americanised attitude. I imagine it would be very cute, although something you wouldn't want to encourage in your child.
Another source of enjoyable holiday time wastage has been facebook. The list of pro's and con's regarding facebook are numerous. However facebook is a social tool that I will continue to use. Leah posted an article recently exploring some of the issues relating to facebook from a Christian perspective. The article articulates the main points much more clearly than I could, so check out the link. http://www.gospelandculture.org/2008/12/redeeming-social-life-online/ Facebook over-useage (known as 'Facestalking') is certainly an issue for many people. However shunning such a popular source of virtual social networking isn't necessarily the answer either. Facebook can be a wonderful source of encouragement... but yes, have a squiz at the article.
Phones are another technological advancement that is taking up more and more of people's time and money. Something that gets my goat* lately is spending time with people who are constantly texting someone else during the time that you are together. I am a firm believer in making the people who you are with your priority. Obviously there are exceptions to this rule, sometimes it would be inappropriate to not reply to a message upon receiving it. However making the person you are with sit idly while you engage in a superficial text conversation with someone else is just ridiculous. Fortunately I don't have the patience for texting, so it is not hard for me to find an excuse to avoid it in a social situation. Actually it isn't hard for me to avoid calls either. If ever my phone rings all I have to do is look at it, and the poor thing folds under the pressure and hangs up on itself. A new phone is on the cards for the very near future.
* I googled the phrase 'gets my goat' - apparently it dates to circa 1900. According to H. L. Mencken, this phrase is from American horse racing. Trainers would put a goat in a racehorse's stall to calm it; if the goat was removed, the horse would likely become agitated.
How cool is that?!
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i hate people texting for no important reason when they are actually with people, too. Fortunately I dont hang out with people who really do that. The only texts me or my friends send in each other's presence is when we've received a text asking something like "where are you? I thought we were meeting at xyz" when really you were supposed to be meeting at abc... haha.
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