Wikipedia

Ah, Wikipedia. The most valuable tool a college student could have. With every book, movie, story summarized, it is quick and easy to get a general understanding of the topic at hand. But that's all it may be, just a generalization, because to trust the information on Wikipedia, would be to trust everything you have ever heard.

Wikipedia is an open site for anyone to update facts and information to a certain site. It allows individuals to pose as experts on certain subjects, however this does not always allow for accurate information. As much as everyone wants Wikipedia to be flawless, it is just not the case.

A prime example of this, is in regards to Lady Gaga. When Lady Gage first became big, really big, I checked her out on Wikipedia because she seemed to pop up from no where. I wondered if she had been struggling to make it big for years or if she had just stumbled upon a rich rapper who funded her one hit wonder. To my amazement, she was from New York! But not the real New York City, she was from Yonkers.

I began to follow Lady Gage in the media because she really fascinated me. She would literally wear panties out in the street and call them pants. She would bring tea cups to her live appearances on late night. And she would wear a different wig for each occasion. Not to mention, the rumors of her being gender questionable was very intriguing as well.

What began to bother me, is that every time she was asked where she was from, she would say New York City. Me, being a fan, would yell at the screen saying, Yonkers! Eventually, Lady Gaga appeared saying that the information posted to Wikipedia was false. She was not from Yonkers. Since then, she has repeatedly logged into Wikipedia and attempted to update her own information, but someone keeps changing it back.

Today, if you go to Wikipedia, Lady Gaga's page has been corrected.

Although I always knew Wikipedia was never a reliable source for facts, this occurance lead me father down the path of dissaproval.

The moral of this story is, use Wikipedia for a summary to begin your knowledge and research of the subject, then stray far from the site when you begin looking for information that you will site.

John Mayer

This past week, Playboy published a interview with the musician John Mayer. The interview contained some racy comments regarding his prior girlfriend Jessica Simpson. Mayer said, "Sexually it was crazy. That’s all I’ll say. It was like napalm, sexual napalm." But what many writers and commentators are looking past, are his racist comments. When asked if he had ever dated a black woman, Mayer said, "My dick is sort of like a white supremacist. I’ve got a Benetton heart and a fuckin’ David Duke cock. I’m going to start dating separately from my dick."

Personally, I could care less what John Mayer is thinking, however much of the entertainment world is very curious. Poking and prodding until a reaction occurs, Mayer has given the media exactly what they want, a scandal. Creating drama from a few statements that total to about four sentences, the interview has been blown out of proportion.

If any of the commentators took the time to actually read the interview the entire way through, which I hope anyone reading this will do, they would find some insightful, very witty comments. Mayer discusses what lead him to music, his high school career, and how the status of his celebrity has ruined his social life. Instead of commenting on these personal details, entertainment commentators have picked out the few statements that would make people shocked. Interestingly enough, they left out the racist comments, which I believe to be much more hurtful than the comments about Jessica Simpson.

My final comment regarding this interview, would be that many of the commentators seemed shocked at what was said and almost offended, however this is what they want, as it allows them to have jobs. If John Mayer has said he loves music and is going to become celibate, Access Hollywood and Showbiz Tonight would have to look else where for material.

Are we over extended?

After watching the program ‘Digital Nation’ on Frontline, I began to think about the idea of being distracted and over extended. Do we, as a society, extend ourselves too far into technology? Is it possible to participate in one thing at a time, without constantly downloading information and uploading our lives?

The topic is not new to me, as I am currently in the class AJRL220, Visual Culture. In the class we discuss the ideas of Marshall McLuhan, in which he describes the process of extending ourselves into technology, so much so that we eventually extend our central nervous system. We eventually become technology.

In today's society, it is impossible to exist without technology and electronics. I myself have become obsessed without even realizing it. After watching the Frontline special, I evaluated myself and realized, I am no different to students found on the program. When I watch a film, I have my laptop on my lap and my BlackBerry in my hand. When I was younger, I would sit and watch an entire film in one sitting, where as now I need to be occupied with other forms of media. This became evident while watching the special, as I was updating my Twitter from my BlackBerry. For some reason, I needed people to know what I was doing. What happened to the era of mystery? I have uploaded myself.

Super Bowl Ads

In the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl, there was much controversy regarding the commercials that would air during the program. One in which that was grabbing the majority of the press' attention was the anti abortion ad featuring Tim Tebow, a Heisman trophy winning quarterback. In the ad, Tebow's mother would appear and explain the difficult decision she had to make while pregnant with her son.

Discussion stemmed from the use of the one sided argument. In the commercial, there is only one side of abortion shown. CBS turned down several other commercials, including one which advertised an online dating site for gay men.

The real problem here is that CBS specifically chose to show biased commercials.

The end result was the actually airing of the comercial, in which the word "abortion" was never even used! The full meaning of the comercial is still hard to find, leaving many viewers confused. The controversie seemed to be over nothing.

Now that the hype is over, all that is left is to make jokes. Jimmy Kimmel gives his pro-life ad.

Thoughts?

Twitter!

I, jmine414 originally entered the Twitter world while I was studying abroad in England. I became very homesick while away and needed a way to connect to home, without writing lengthy emails to my parents, friends, and other randoms. I stumbled onto Twitter and found that I could update people back home, no matter what i was doing. Updating when I go to class or when I went to Paris, either way I was staying connected in a quicker form.

Since joining Twitter, I have used it as a news forum. I am able to find out the latest gossip regarding my favorite celebrities. I follow the moves of each of my college roommates. I can even follow newspapers, allowing me to quickly scan through articles and choose the ones I am interested in. My main use of Twitter has been to stay connected. I use it simply to find out what is going on. Some days I try to connect to others, but I find getting responses back very difficult. As for using Twitter as a professional forum, I have no experienced this yet. As I search for a job in the coming months, I may use it to network and market myself, but I have not started this task.

At the moment I am following 117 people, while 32 people are following me. My top ten people I follow on Twitter are as follows:


1. aayzjer
Aayzjer is my boyfriend, Joe Reeves. He is the first person who introduced me to Twitter. He originally joined to decrease the distance between himself and his favorite band of all time, Blink 182. Since following Blink 182 on Twitter, Reeves has participated in numerous events in which the members of Blink 182 give instructions to their followers, in order for their followers to interact with them on a global scale. One such example would be an event that happened in Nottingham, UK. Mark Hoppus, a band member, left a USB memory stick in a local shop in the city of Nottingham. On the memory stick, there were unreleased songs, photos, and information exclusive to the stick. In order to obtain it, Mark Hoppus left specific instructions for his followers to find it, almost like a scavenger hunt. By doing this, the band then allowed it's fans to feel a part of Blink 182, by owning something that had once belonged to them, with private information, exclusive to that one stick. By following aayzjer, I am able to get fast, brief updates from my boyfriend through out the day, which get sent directly to my phone, allowing the two of us to stay connected at all times.

2. johncmayer
I began following John Mayer because of my sister. Not only is he an amazing musician, he is actually very witty! Updating comical posts such as, "My life on the road is a lot like '70s Fleetwood Mac, except instead of cocaine it's Cinnamon Toast Crunch." He also writes insightful, poetic posts much like his music, tweeting, "And that's what adulthood is: you wake from the nightmare and realize there's no bigger bed to climb into."

3. PerezHilton
Although he can be obnoxious and rude, Perez Hilton is very enjoyable to follow on Twitter. He discusses celebrities from Lady Gaga to Jon Gosling. Reality television, music, entertainment, fashion, and random gossip; it's all there. Perez Hilton has a website as well, however his Twitter account gives updates which read fast, rather than scanning his entire site for what you are looking for. He also offers links to his site, so if an article is worth reading, you can click and go

4. iamdiddy
Although I have never been much of a fan of P. Diddy's, also known as Sean Combs, music, I still enjoy reading his tweets on Twitter. He is very inspirational and uplifting when he writes, " 'Make yourself familiar with the Angels and behold them frequently in spirit; for without being seen, they are present with you.' " He also uses his Twitter account to promote himself when he has a new commercial coming out, a new fragrance, signed a new artist, or simply took some photos of himself.

5. BrittanyLT
Brittany Tronolone, my housemate and a close friend, tweets about her everyday life, which mainly includes her brand new nephew. She includes tweetpics of the newborn and shares his development with the world.

6. KF5689
Kelly Fitzgerald is another of my housemates and close friends. Fitzgerald and Tronolone are the only two of my housemates that actively use Twitter, updating on average about three times a day. Fitzgerald updates about her serving job, her marketing homework, and being deprived of sleep.

7.nytimes
I follow The New York Times on Twitter because of time restraints. As a student, I don't always have the time to sit down and read through the entire paper. By following the newspaper on Twitter, my Tweetdeck alerts me every time The New York Times posts a new article of blog. I can then choose if it I want to read on, past the 140 characters allotted by Twitter. This also proves to be an effective source of a news feed, allowing me to obtain general knowledge of what's happening.

8. rzrachelzoe
Rachel Zoe is a stylist to the stars, a new designers, and a reality television star. She updates her Twitter with style suggestions. She also is one of the best celebrities with responding to replies. Often times she has an hour of question time where followers can ask Zoe fashion advice and she responds straight away.

9. makeupbymario
Mario Dedivanovic is a professional make up artists to the stars. He offers ideas and suggestions on make up through out his Twitter. He also links tutorials on YouTube and other video sites to help his followers in achieving certain looks

10. Sn00ki
As embarrassed as I am to write this, I follow Snooki, whose real name is Nicole Polizzi. She is a newly formed reality star with her appearance on MTV's "Jersey Shore." On the show she made a fool of herself repeatedly by drinking too much and dancing too weirdly. She captivated audiences and still has me following her!

Don't Ask, Don't Tell

After watching the State of the Union address last week, I was rushed with a few conflicting emotions. Many of the ideas seemed great, but the key word was "ideas." Turning on the news the next morning, I expected to hear political commentators arguing over taxes and health care reform, but instead, I heard something that may have been the smallest input of the entire speech.

Waking up to HLN, a sister station to CNN, I was overwhelmed with the amount of callers and bloggers discussing the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. I remembered that President Obama had included this in his speech, but only at the end and it was only briefly discussed. What seemed to be the smallest, least discussable statement became the most heated debate in the media. Now, almost a week after the address, political commentators are still arguing over it!

One caller called into HLN, stating that the government doesn't know what's right for the military, only the military know what's right for the military. Another woman followed by saying, men might feel uncomfortable knowing they are sleeping in the same room as a homosexual. I have news for you, they already are! The policy of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" simply means that a soldier cannot be openly gay. If it is kept a secret, the soldier is fine. So under the current ruling, these soldier are in fact sleeping in the same room as homosexuals, yet they don't know it. So what will be the difference when these people are classified as "gay." Many of these soldiers may still choose to keep their sexual preference a secret.

To me, with the important matter of our economy, it seems insane that the matter of homosexuals serving the country is even an issue. Brooke Anderson, a reporter for HLN, said this morning that if this decision to allow homosexuals in the military, it will be the first decision of it's kind since African Americans were allowed to openly serve. That worked out okay didn't it?