someday
one day
far away
you'll realise
wat i was
wat u lost
too late
i'm gone
forever
~Ratna Tiwary
Sunday, September 26, 2004
Friday, September 24, 2004
"All Things In Parenthesis Are Meant (To Be Ignored.)"
So he says to me, he says:
"I
(want to get in your pants,
don't want to commit to you,
don't really think you're pretty enough for me,
wish you had bigger boobs and a smaller waist,
can't wait to go home,
can't wait till YOU go home,
always think of my ex-girlfirend when we kiss,
wish you didn't talk so much,
am embarassed to be seen with you,
will never really)
love you"
And I was, like, totally floored.
"I
(want to get in your pants,
don't want to commit to you,
don't really think you're pretty enough for me,
wish you had bigger boobs and a smaller waist,
can't wait to go home,
can't wait till YOU go home,
always think of my ex-girlfirend when we kiss,
wish you didn't talk so much,
am embarassed to be seen with you,
will never really)
love you"
And I was, like, totally floored.
The faithful wife
Since im a literature-ish mood today. Lemme post another poem, this one i got for my A' level prelim literature paper, Poetry Appriciation and Criticism or something... oh, Practical Criticism. Basically, critisising an unseen poem. I was sooo in love with the pome on my first reading of it that i read and reread it repeatedly, anyway, i did well for that question in the end. i read this to my then BF - Mizra and he said it sounds like me. he must've been in a particularly sweet mood when he said that, but i agree. this poem is almost like i wrote it! thats a gramatically wrong sentence but well!
Anyway, this poem describes my attitude towards men and relationships and love! what i've experienced so far with the various shits (men) in my life... see if u get the gist of it...
~~~
The faithful wife:
---------------
But if I were to have a lover, it would be someone
who could take nothing from you. I would, in conscience,
not dishonor you. He and I would eat at Howard Johnson's
which you enjoy and I do not enjoy. With his I would go
fishing because it is not your sport. He would wear blue
which is your worst color; he would have none of your virtues.
Not strong, not proud, not just, not provident, my lover
would blame me for his heart's distress, which you would never
think to do. He and I would drink too much and weep together
and I would bruise his face as I would not bruise your face
even in my dreams. Yes I would dance with him, but to a music
you and I would never choose to hear, and in a place
where you and I would never wish to be. He and I would speak
Spanish, which is not your tongue, and we would take
long walks in fields of burdock, to which you are allergic.
We would make love only in the morning. It would be
altogether different. I would know him with my other body,
the one that you have never asked to see.
- Barbara L. Greenberg
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dunno if u see the hopes and dreams, disappointments and deep abiding love in the poem... maybe its jus me... well.. haf an amazing day!
Anyway, this poem describes my attitude towards men and relationships and love! what i've experienced so far with the various shits (men) in my life... see if u get the gist of it...
~~~
The faithful wife:
---------------
But if I were to have a lover, it would be someone
who could take nothing from you. I would, in conscience,
not dishonor you. He and I would eat at Howard Johnson's
which you enjoy and I do not enjoy. With his I would go
fishing because it is not your sport. He would wear blue
which is your worst color; he would have none of your virtues.
Not strong, not proud, not just, not provident, my lover
would blame me for his heart's distress, which you would never
think to do. He and I would drink too much and weep together
and I would bruise his face as I would not bruise your face
even in my dreams. Yes I would dance with him, but to a music
you and I would never choose to hear, and in a place
where you and I would never wish to be. He and I would speak
Spanish, which is not your tongue, and we would take
long walks in fields of burdock, to which you are allergic.
We would make love only in the morning. It would be
altogether different. I would know him with my other body,
the one that you have never asked to see.
- Barbara L. Greenberg
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dunno if u see the hopes and dreams, disappointments and deep abiding love in the poem... maybe its jus me... well.. haf an amazing day!
Red Roses Were Her Favorites
Red roses were her favorites, her name was also Rose.
And every year her husband sent them, tied with pretty bows.
The year he died, the roses were delivered to her door.
The card said, "Be my Valentine," like all the years before.
Each year he sent her roses, and the note would always say,
"I love you even more this year, than last year on this day."
"My love for you will always grow, with every passing year."
She knew this was the last time that the roses would appear.
She thought, he ordered roses in advance before this day.
Her loving husband did not know, that he would pass away.
He always liked to do things early, way before the time.
Then, if he got too busy, everything would work out fine.
She trimmed the stems, and placed them in a very special vase.
Then, sat the vase beside the portrait of his smiling face.
She would sit for hours, in her husband's favorite chair.
While staring at his picture, and the roses sitting there.
A year went by, and it was hard to live without her mate.
With loneliness and solitude, that had become her fate.
Then, the very hour, as on Valentines before,
The doorbell rang, and there were roses, sitting by her door.
She brought the roses in, and then just looked at them in shock.
Then, went to get the telephone, to call the florist shop.
The owner answered, and she asked him, if he would explain,
Why would someone do this to her, causing her such pain?
"I know your husband passed away, more than a year ago,"
The owner said, "I knew you'd call, and you would want to know."
"The flowers you received today, were paid for in advance."
"Your husband always planned ahead, he left nothing to chance."
"There is a standing order, that I have on file down here,
And he has paid, well in advance, you'll get them every year.
There also is another thing, that I think you should know,
He wrote a special little card...he did this years ago."
"Then, should ever, I find out that he's no longer here,
That's the card...that should be sent, to you the following year."
She thanked him and hung up the phone, her tears now flowing hard.
Her fingers shaking, as she slowly reached to get the card.
Inside the card, she saw that he had written her a note.
Then, as she stared in total silence, this is what he wrote...
"Hello my love, I know it's been a year since I've been gone,
I hope it hasn't been too hard for you to overcome."
"I know it must be lonely, and the pain is very real.
For if it was the other way, I know how I would feel.
The love we shared made everything so beautiful in life.
I loved you more than words can say, you were the perfect wife."
"You were my friend and lover, you fulfilled my every need.
I know it's only been a year, but please try not to grieve.
I want you to be happy, even when you shed your tears.
That is why the roses will be sent to you for years."
"When you get these roses, think of all the happiness,
That we had together, and how both of us were blessed.
I have always loved you and I know I always will.
But, my love, you must go on, you have some living still."
"Please...try to find happiness, while living out your days.
I know it is not easy, but I hope you find some ways.
The roses will come every year, and they will only stop,
When your door's not answered, when the florist stops to knock."
"He will come five times that day, in case you have gone out.
But after his last visit, he will know without a doubt,
To take the roses to the place, where I've instructed him,
And place the roses where we are, together once again."
~Author unknown
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
HOW SWEET IS THAT? to care for someone so much that u even bother about their feelings even after you're gone! we would all like to receive such love, but how many can claim to be capable to giving such love? its a world of give and take, not you give, i take, but mutual giving and receiving. we often fail to see that. the world has become so damn fixated with capitalism that the little things in life that make it worth living have been lost, thats why suicide rates are ever increasing!
And every year her husband sent them, tied with pretty bows.
The year he died, the roses were delivered to her door.
The card said, "Be my Valentine," like all the years before.
Each year he sent her roses, and the note would always say,
"I love you even more this year, than last year on this day."
"My love for you will always grow, with every passing year."
She knew this was the last time that the roses would appear.
She thought, he ordered roses in advance before this day.
Her loving husband did not know, that he would pass away.
He always liked to do things early, way before the time.
Then, if he got too busy, everything would work out fine.
She trimmed the stems, and placed them in a very special vase.
Then, sat the vase beside the portrait of his smiling face.
She would sit for hours, in her husband's favorite chair.
While staring at his picture, and the roses sitting there.
A year went by, and it was hard to live without her mate.
With loneliness and solitude, that had become her fate.
Then, the very hour, as on Valentines before,
The doorbell rang, and there were roses, sitting by her door.
She brought the roses in, and then just looked at them in shock.
Then, went to get the telephone, to call the florist shop.
The owner answered, and she asked him, if he would explain,
Why would someone do this to her, causing her such pain?
"I know your husband passed away, more than a year ago,"
The owner said, "I knew you'd call, and you would want to know."
"The flowers you received today, were paid for in advance."
"Your husband always planned ahead, he left nothing to chance."
"There is a standing order, that I have on file down here,
And he has paid, well in advance, you'll get them every year.
There also is another thing, that I think you should know,
He wrote a special little card...he did this years ago."
"Then, should ever, I find out that he's no longer here,
That's the card...that should be sent, to you the following year."
She thanked him and hung up the phone, her tears now flowing hard.
Her fingers shaking, as she slowly reached to get the card.
Inside the card, she saw that he had written her a note.
Then, as she stared in total silence, this is what he wrote...
"Hello my love, I know it's been a year since I've been gone,
I hope it hasn't been too hard for you to overcome."
"I know it must be lonely, and the pain is very real.
For if it was the other way, I know how I would feel.
The love we shared made everything so beautiful in life.
I loved you more than words can say, you were the perfect wife."
"You were my friend and lover, you fulfilled my every need.
I know it's only been a year, but please try not to grieve.
I want you to be happy, even when you shed your tears.
That is why the roses will be sent to you for years."
"When you get these roses, think of all the happiness,
That we had together, and how both of us were blessed.
I have always loved you and I know I always will.
But, my love, you must go on, you have some living still."
"Please...try to find happiness, while living out your days.
I know it is not easy, but I hope you find some ways.
The roses will come every year, and they will only stop,
When your door's not answered, when the florist stops to knock."
"He will come five times that day, in case you have gone out.
But after his last visit, he will know without a doubt,
To take the roses to the place, where I've instructed him,
And place the roses where we are, together once again."
~Author unknown
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
HOW SWEET IS THAT? to care for someone so much that u even bother about their feelings even after you're gone! we would all like to receive such love, but how many can claim to be capable to giving such love? its a world of give and take, not you give, i take, but mutual giving and receiving. we often fail to see that. the world has become so damn fixated with capitalism that the little things in life that make it worth living have been lost, thats why suicide rates are ever increasing!
Sunday, September 19, 2004
What i say about sayings...
They say No man is worth your tears, and the one who is won't make you cry. But what do you do when the only person who can make you stop crying is the person who made you cry?
They say love hides behind every corner, I think in that case; I must be walking in circles.
I knew that when I looked back at the tears shed, I would laugh.
I never knew that looking back at the laughs we had would make me cry.
Its simply unfair, it takes but a minute to find a special
person, an hour to appreciate them, a day to love them, but a whole lifetime to forget them!
They say love hides behind every corner, I think in that case; I must be walking in circles.
I knew that when I looked back at the tears shed, I would laugh.
I never knew that looking back at the laughs we had would make me cry.
Its simply unfair, it takes but a minute to find a special
person, an hour to appreciate them, a day to love them, but a whole lifetime to forget them!
Sunday, September 12, 2004
WHY I HATE REALITY TV!
As USA Today reporter, Gary Levin aptly described it; “reality TV suggests an unrehearsed, documentary-style look at a group of people thrust into unfamiliar surroundings. But many of the shows, including Survivor, The Mole and Temptation Island, are more like unscripted dramas, with soap-opera story lines, swelling music and corny visual touches” (adapted from USA Today (2001), Gary Levin, How real is reality TV?). According to Chris Cowan, the co-creator and executive producer of Fox’s Temptation Island, reality TV does not exist, this is because once the editors and producers of the show begin cutting down the show to fit the broadcast time of less than an hour, the show loses its realism and becomes a controlled form of reality. All the producers can do, according to Chris Cowan, is tell the tale of what happened originally as accurately as possible, its all ‘storytelling’, according to him. Erik Nelson, producer of ‘Redhanded’ and ‘Busted on the Job’ as well as other Producers of Reality TV shows make one very considerable and vital assumption about their audiences, that ‘Audiences are sophisticated enough to appreciate that these shows are crafted”. However, according to our survey findings, almost 9% of those surveyed, believe reality TV shows to be broadcasted in their purest form, almost 24% feel that these shows are 80% pure, 45% think they are somewhat edited, but mostly pure and 30% feel they are 80% fake, and a small 15% feel that reality TV shows are entirely crafted. These findings show that
audiences are apparently not ‘sophisticated enough’ to realize that these shows are ‘crafted’, which goes against the assumptions made by the producers (Yahoo News, Ray Richmond, Unscripted TV: Real or Phoney? (Year of work not available)).
Many of the participants of reality TV shows have themselves criticized the shows as being unrealistic and manipulated by the producers and directors. Stacy Stillman of the first Survivor claims that the producers of the show wanted to keep another participant, Rudy Boesch on the show so much that, they schemed to have her voted off the show instead. The show Big Brother started off rather slow and was not engaging to the audience, the producers then decided to ‘break their own rules’. Although the show rules clearly stated that the contestants were not to have any form of contact with other people, the producers brought back one of the contestants who was earlier voted off the show and even tried to offer money to other contestants in order to induce them to leave the show. Another example, was at Fox’s special ‘Who Wants To Marry A Multimillionaire’ taping, the groom Rick Rockwell was guided away from certain prospective brides.
As an avid reality TV show viewer, Shad Hernandez of Arcadia, California said, “I don’t see how anything can be real when there’s a cameraman with a sandwich sitting next to you (adapted from USA Today (2001), Gary Levin, How real is reality TV?).” The filming of Survivor, includes a crew 400, the question to ask ourselves is how much ‘surviving’ can a person be doing with an entourage of 400? The crew obviously has their food along with them, and while the contestants of the show are wondering where to get their next meal, the crew is calmly sitting right behind them, conveniently out of sight of the TV audience, eating their nicely packaged food. The participants of Survivor also apparently have their own medical kit, which contains tampons, sunscreen, prescribed drugs and contact lens supplies, they are also given the liberty to call on the in-house doctor at any point of time! These luxuries are not shown on screen and just add to our hypothesis that reality TV is fake! Another fact that will shock avid Survivor viewers is that the contestants on Survivor do not walk to tribal council, as is popularly believed, but instead are driven there and only walk the last fifteen minutes or so, the fifteen minutes that is broadcasted. Another survivor participant, Sean Keniff, a neurologist, claimed that his character was given a ‘one sided’ portrayal on the show, according to him, he said a lot of ‘smart, fun things, but it was edited out”. “I guess it was better television to make the neurologist a doofus than a genius (USA Today (2001), Gary Levin, How real is reality TV?).” Chris Cowen said, “as soon as you start pulling those seconds out, you change the context, you change the reality. Some people on the show will say they weren’t fairly represented and that’s a truth of this format. This is not reality. This is entertainment.”
With the producers themselves decrying the realism content of these shows, our hypothesis that reality TV is actually fake seems to have proved itself. The next step is to examine how this information will be useful to “a group, enterprise, agency, society or country”. Reality TV shows have been gaining in extremism, lately. A new show, called Danger Island proves that. Basically, 12 convicted criminals are put on an isolated island with some of the best man hunters in the world and the man hunters try to catch these criminals, the criminals also get to vote off one of their friends at the end of each day. The reward of one million dollars goes to the victim of the winning criminal and the child of the criminal is given a fifty thousand-dollar study grant so as to help the child stay away from the route his parent took. 38% of the people interviewed in our survey felt that reality TV shows have become too risky and 45% felt that they were too unbelievable.Also, because of the glut of new reality TV shows ,television channels and reality TV show producers are trying harder and harder to garner viewership numbers and increase the ratings for their shows, so much so that they have resorted to using dangerous plots and storylines to attract audiences.
Reality TV shows also portray a twisted view of life, it shows the audiences that one must connive and backstab in order to survive, although it emphasizes the theory of the survival of the fittest, it also emphasizes cheating and being sly. The young, who are very open to influence as it is, will learn from these shows things and principles which will go against the values of honesty and such that they have been always taught by their parents. The choice may be theirs to make as to which group of people to listen to, their ‘boring’ parents or the interesting TV shows which everyone seems to be watching, but we all know that the young often fall for peer pressure and may feel compelled to lie and cheat in order to ‘survive’ and always be the best in everything.
These shows also emphasize the lust for money. Survivor, Amazing Race, Fear Factor as well as many others offer large sums of money to the winners of the show, or at least to the person who is the last remaining. This teaches the young that one should do anything for money and that ‘money makes the world go round”. Their mindset is if, these mature grown ups can embarrass themselves on national TV for some money and then they definitely can steal or join gangs and extort money just to satisfy their craving for material wants. Reality TV has placed money and material wants over the other, more important values of life, like honesty. Also, children will always look for the easy way out to succeed. Instead of studying hard to get into the university, they will think that just by joining a reality TV show, they can make their first million, as well as gain fame and popularity. Many of the female participants of shows like Survivor have gone on to become models and have even been offered roles in movies and other TV shows, young teenage girls longing for people to admire their beauty will definitely be attracted to these shows. Young teenage boys dying to show off their bravery and how macho they are will do just about anything to get on a reality TV show and show the whole world, on national TV just how big their biceps and how daring they are. Of the people we surveyed, 35% said they would like to be on a reality TV show and the majority of them said that they would join these shows mainly for the money, thrill, fame and experience.
Reality TV shows are somewhat like television serials, they continue, week after week. Teenagers are mostly students, and have homework and school. Reality TV shows enrapture the students so much that they sometimes even skip school and neglect their homework just to religiously follow the shows. When it is time for the final episode of each season, where they decide upon the winner, students have been known to skip school in order to watch the finale! This obviously shows what values matter more to the youth of today. The popular culture of Reality TV shows.
Thus, we can see how reality TV shows play a huge role in the lives of the youth today, and one that has few, if any good points. Reality TV has taken the world by storm, the entire irony lying in the fact, that reality TV is not real at all! What the viewers see on TV is actually very different from what was actually filmed at first. Some common misconceptions like survivors walking to tribal council and there being no doctor on hand, have since been cleared up. Perhaps, the name of the entire genre of shows should be changed to “highly edited reality TV”. These shows not only influence to youth of today very much, but they also create a bogus world for the youth to immerse themselves in, this encourages voyeurism. These shows greatly distort the moral values that most youth have been taught by their parents, to put kindness and honesty above all else, etc. Reality TV shows exhibit the need for survival of the fittest, the competitors often choose winning the game and money over things like honesty and friendships. The youth enjoy watching other people suffer and this gives them a sadistic kick, which keeps them hooked on the shows. “The reason reality TV is so popular is because to observe human behavior is fascinating (Stanford University (2001), Betsy Mason, Psychologist puts the ‘real’ into reality TV).” Of the people we surveyed, almost 10% said they watch reality TV shows because they like the backstabbing and cheating in the shows, and another 15% said they like to watch the participants embarrass themselves. Comparing their own safe and comfortable lives to those that the contestants of these shows seem to be living, it makes the viewers feel very good. However, these shows create a fool’s paradise, they make people think that whatever is happening on the television is real, but as the producers themselves said, due to the heavy editing of the ‘boring’ parts of the original video, the outcome is all just “entertainment”, basically reality TV shows are just “storytelling”.
audiences are apparently not ‘sophisticated enough’ to realize that these shows are ‘crafted’, which goes against the assumptions made by the producers (Yahoo News, Ray Richmond, Unscripted TV: Real or Phoney? (Year of work not available)).
Many of the participants of reality TV shows have themselves criticized the shows as being unrealistic and manipulated by the producers and directors. Stacy Stillman of the first Survivor claims that the producers of the show wanted to keep another participant, Rudy Boesch on the show so much that, they schemed to have her voted off the show instead. The show Big Brother started off rather slow and was not engaging to the audience, the producers then decided to ‘break their own rules’. Although the show rules clearly stated that the contestants were not to have any form of contact with other people, the producers brought back one of the contestants who was earlier voted off the show and even tried to offer money to other contestants in order to induce them to leave the show. Another example, was at Fox’s special ‘Who Wants To Marry A Multimillionaire’ taping, the groom Rick Rockwell was guided away from certain prospective brides.
As an avid reality TV show viewer, Shad Hernandez of Arcadia, California said, “I don’t see how anything can be real when there’s a cameraman with a sandwich sitting next to you (adapted from USA Today (2001), Gary Levin, How real is reality TV?).” The filming of Survivor, includes a crew 400, the question to ask ourselves is how much ‘surviving’ can a person be doing with an entourage of 400? The crew obviously has their food along with them, and while the contestants of the show are wondering where to get their next meal, the crew is calmly sitting right behind them, conveniently out of sight of the TV audience, eating their nicely packaged food. The participants of Survivor also apparently have their own medical kit, which contains tampons, sunscreen, prescribed drugs and contact lens supplies, they are also given the liberty to call on the in-house doctor at any point of time! These luxuries are not shown on screen and just add to our hypothesis that reality TV is fake! Another fact that will shock avid Survivor viewers is that the contestants on Survivor do not walk to tribal council, as is popularly believed, but instead are driven there and only walk the last fifteen minutes or so, the fifteen minutes that is broadcasted. Another survivor participant, Sean Keniff, a neurologist, claimed that his character was given a ‘one sided’ portrayal on the show, according to him, he said a lot of ‘smart, fun things, but it was edited out”. “I guess it was better television to make the neurologist a doofus than a genius (USA Today (2001), Gary Levin, How real is reality TV?).” Chris Cowen said, “as soon as you start pulling those seconds out, you change the context, you change the reality. Some people on the show will say they weren’t fairly represented and that’s a truth of this format. This is not reality. This is entertainment.”
With the producers themselves decrying the realism content of these shows, our hypothesis that reality TV is actually fake seems to have proved itself. The next step is to examine how this information will be useful to “a group, enterprise, agency, society or country”. Reality TV shows have been gaining in extremism, lately. A new show, called Danger Island proves that. Basically, 12 convicted criminals are put on an isolated island with some of the best man hunters in the world and the man hunters try to catch these criminals, the criminals also get to vote off one of their friends at the end of each day. The reward of one million dollars goes to the victim of the winning criminal and the child of the criminal is given a fifty thousand-dollar study grant so as to help the child stay away from the route his parent took. 38% of the people interviewed in our survey felt that reality TV shows have become too risky and 45% felt that they were too unbelievable.Also, because of the glut of new reality TV shows ,television channels and reality TV show producers are trying harder and harder to garner viewership numbers and increase the ratings for their shows, so much so that they have resorted to using dangerous plots and storylines to attract audiences.
Reality TV shows also portray a twisted view of life, it shows the audiences that one must connive and backstab in order to survive, although it emphasizes the theory of the survival of the fittest, it also emphasizes cheating and being sly. The young, who are very open to influence as it is, will learn from these shows things and principles which will go against the values of honesty and such that they have been always taught by their parents. The choice may be theirs to make as to which group of people to listen to, their ‘boring’ parents or the interesting TV shows which everyone seems to be watching, but we all know that the young often fall for peer pressure and may feel compelled to lie and cheat in order to ‘survive’ and always be the best in everything.
These shows also emphasize the lust for money. Survivor, Amazing Race, Fear Factor as well as many others offer large sums of money to the winners of the show, or at least to the person who is the last remaining. This teaches the young that one should do anything for money and that ‘money makes the world go round”. Their mindset is if, these mature grown ups can embarrass themselves on national TV for some money and then they definitely can steal or join gangs and extort money just to satisfy their craving for material wants. Reality TV has placed money and material wants over the other, more important values of life, like honesty. Also, children will always look for the easy way out to succeed. Instead of studying hard to get into the university, they will think that just by joining a reality TV show, they can make their first million, as well as gain fame and popularity. Many of the female participants of shows like Survivor have gone on to become models and have even been offered roles in movies and other TV shows, young teenage girls longing for people to admire their beauty will definitely be attracted to these shows. Young teenage boys dying to show off their bravery and how macho they are will do just about anything to get on a reality TV show and show the whole world, on national TV just how big their biceps and how daring they are. Of the people we surveyed, 35% said they would like to be on a reality TV show and the majority of them said that they would join these shows mainly for the money, thrill, fame and experience.
Reality TV shows are somewhat like television serials, they continue, week after week. Teenagers are mostly students, and have homework and school. Reality TV shows enrapture the students so much that they sometimes even skip school and neglect their homework just to religiously follow the shows. When it is time for the final episode of each season, where they decide upon the winner, students have been known to skip school in order to watch the finale! This obviously shows what values matter more to the youth of today. The popular culture of Reality TV shows.
Thus, we can see how reality TV shows play a huge role in the lives of the youth today, and one that has few, if any good points. Reality TV has taken the world by storm, the entire irony lying in the fact, that reality TV is not real at all! What the viewers see on TV is actually very different from what was actually filmed at first. Some common misconceptions like survivors walking to tribal council and there being no doctor on hand, have since been cleared up. Perhaps, the name of the entire genre of shows should be changed to “highly edited reality TV”. These shows not only influence to youth of today very much, but they also create a bogus world for the youth to immerse themselves in, this encourages voyeurism. These shows greatly distort the moral values that most youth have been taught by their parents, to put kindness and honesty above all else, etc. Reality TV shows exhibit the need for survival of the fittest, the competitors often choose winning the game and money over things like honesty and friendships. The youth enjoy watching other people suffer and this gives them a sadistic kick, which keeps them hooked on the shows. “The reason reality TV is so popular is because to observe human behavior is fascinating (Stanford University (2001), Betsy Mason, Psychologist puts the ‘real’ into reality TV).” Of the people we surveyed, almost 10% said they watch reality TV shows because they like the backstabbing and cheating in the shows, and another 15% said they like to watch the participants embarrass themselves. Comparing their own safe and comfortable lives to those that the contestants of these shows seem to be living, it makes the viewers feel very good. However, these shows create a fool’s paradise, they make people think that whatever is happening on the television is real, but as the producers themselves said, due to the heavy editing of the ‘boring’ parts of the original video, the outcome is all just “entertainment”, basically reality TV shows are just “storytelling”.
Friday, September 10, 2004
Masks...
Masks
We all hide under a layer of covering,
Not wanting to get hurt,
Looking for love.
Some advice us to strip right down,
Show ourselves to the world,
Not to be afraid.
People should either love us as we are,
Or not at all,
Love is unconditional.
But few of us have the guts to let it all go,
Just be ourselves,
No matter what the cost.
So afraid to lose, to have nobody,
We cling on to our many selves,
But we'll get it someday.
All of us.
Ratna Tiwary
Copyright ©2004 Ratna Tiwary
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I wrote that at the grand old age of fifteen, must've been one depressed teenager! Anyway, just had an interesting thought, (inspired by Amit)... when ur depressed/sad/negative mood... you generally create a facade of happiness/optimism/positive mood... and somehow on some level it actually makes us feel a little better, why? Well, probably because we are such good actors that we fool ourselves with out 'acting'! We know how to act so as to con ourselves into believing our own show/facade! amazing!
We all hide under a layer of covering,
Not wanting to get hurt,
Looking for love.
Some advice us to strip right down,
Show ourselves to the world,
Not to be afraid.
People should either love us as we are,
Or not at all,
Love is unconditional.
But few of us have the guts to let it all go,
Just be ourselves,
No matter what the cost.
So afraid to lose, to have nobody,
We cling on to our many selves,
But we'll get it someday.
All of us.
Ratna Tiwary
Copyright ©2004 Ratna Tiwary
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I wrote that at the grand old age of fifteen, must've been one depressed teenager! Anyway, just had an interesting thought, (inspired by Amit)... when ur depressed/sad/negative mood... you generally create a facade of happiness/optimism/positive mood... and somehow on some level it actually makes us feel a little better, why? Well, probably because we are such good actors that we fool ourselves with out 'acting'! We know how to act so as to con ourselves into believing our own show/facade! amazing!
The article regarding which i wrote to Today about...
Apple's control-freak tendencies could crush iPod:
The past couple of years, Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs has gotten nothing but roses and kisses from the public and the media.
But a feud between Apple and RealNetworks over music downloads is exposing Jobs' tragic flaw. Amazingly, he seems to be making the same devastating mistakes with the iPod that he made with the Mac 20 years ago.
Given the subject, it's only fitting to put the situation to music, so here's part of the story to the tune of the old hit American Pie:
Long, long time ago/ I can still remember how Steve Jobs made us smile
He knew the Mac was truly great;/ it trumped that DOS made by Bill Gates
And dominated PCs for a while.
But '85 in retrospect/ looks like a case of gross neglect
Bad news of a crisis;/ the Mac, Jobs wouldn't license
I can't remember if I cried/ as I watched Apple's business slide
Too bad those lessons weren't applied/ The day the iPod died
So bye, bye to the Pod with an i
We'll use Real or just steal, swapping files on the fly
The Apple faithful might continue to buy
Singing, iPod has such elegant lines.
But iPod has such elegant lines.
The iPod has half the digital music player market, and iTunes sells 70% of all legitimate music downloads. Jobs practically willed the digital music business into being. (Jobs, by the way, just had cancer surgery. He says he is OK and expects to fully recover. He also says he'll be back to work in September.)
But Jobs has blown it before — and, boy, does it look like he's blowing it again. It's like some Shakespearean drama where the lead character both triumphs and is undone by the same powerful characteristic — in Jobs' case, his evangelical fervor about his technology.
Go back, for a moment, to 1984. While hard to imagine now, Jobs was so powerful, he could call Gates and order him to come to Apple's headquarters so Jobs could yell at the Microsoft co-founder — and Gates would go! Apple had the best technology in personal computing and a major market share.
But around 1985, Jobs and his executives decided not to license Apple's technology or operating system to any other company. Apple wanted total control. It wanted to sell all the products itself. It wanted no competitors.
This was a yawning opening for Microsoft, Intel and the PC. Since anyone could buy the licenses and components to make a Windows-based PC, that technology took wing.
"Apple could have reaped the benefits of having dozens, even hundreds of imitators all adding their own unique value to the Mac," wrote Jim Carlton in his 1997 book, Apple: The Inside Story of Intrigue, Egomania, and Business Blunders. "Legions of suppliers would have sprung up all around the world to furnish components such as disk drives and memory. And since the software was light-years ahead of everybody else's, the Mac's, not Windows, might have come to dominate the personal computer market."
Instead, the opposite happened for Apple, and the PC crowd took advantage of those kinds of economics. This year, Apple is left with less than 4% of the market for personal computers — basically a cult following.
More recently, Jobs has done for digital music what he once did for personal computing: He's made it appealing to non-techies. Once again, his design sets the pace. No device is as good as the iPod; no software solution works better than iTunes.
But like the Mac of 1985, it's a closed system. Other than open-source MP3 files, only music downloaded through iTunes will play on iPods, and iTunes music won't play on any portable device except an iPod. Apple refuses to license the technology to third parties. Instead of setting a standard for all, Apple wants to own it all. When Microsoft behaves that way, everybody screams antitrust.
Last week, Real publicly exposed Apple's obduracy. Real announced that it has a way for people to legally download and play songs that work on both Apple's products and Windows-based products. It's the kind of flexibility consumers want. But Apple doesn't seem to care.
"Consumers are not in the end going to put up with being locked in," says Josh Bernoff, consumer tech analyst at Forrester Research.
Music has a long history of competing standards in new technology, but the split never lasts. In 1950, it was RCA Victor's 45 rpm record vs. Columbia's 33, and eventually all record players accommodated both. In 1970, it was Philips' audio cassette vs. the eight-track — invented by William Powell Lear, who also created the Learjet. The eight-track soon disappeared.
Apple can't win by keeping its music technology to itself.
"Apple is behaving stupidly as usual with regard to allowing other companies to add value to its products," says Avram Miller, a tech investor and former vice president at Intel, which benefited greatly from Jobs' past mistakes. "It can only lead to reducing (Apple's) share of the market it helped create."
Just as it happened with PCs, other digital music products will narrow Apple's technology lead. Maybe those products will never be as good as Apple's, but they'll become good enough — and they'll be based on broader standards that don't lock in users, and they'll probably be cheaper.
If history is any guide, when that happens Apple's share of digital music will leach away.
Miller, also an accomplished musician, goes on to call Apple "the Singapore of computing."
You know Singapore: autocratic, insular, elegantly engineered, repressively controlled — and destined to never amount to more than a small but interesting dot on the world map.
Kevin Maney has covered technology for USA TODAY since 1985. His column appears Wednesdays. Click here for an index of Technology columns. E-mail him at: kmaney@usatoday.com.
The past couple of years, Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs has gotten nothing but roses and kisses from the public and the media.
But a feud between Apple and RealNetworks over music downloads is exposing Jobs' tragic flaw. Amazingly, he seems to be making the same devastating mistakes with the iPod that he made with the Mac 20 years ago.
Given the subject, it's only fitting to put the situation to music, so here's part of the story to the tune of the old hit American Pie:
Long, long time ago/ I can still remember how Steve Jobs made us smile
He knew the Mac was truly great;/ it trumped that DOS made by Bill Gates
And dominated PCs for a while.
But '85 in retrospect/ looks like a case of gross neglect
Bad news of a crisis;/ the Mac, Jobs wouldn't license
I can't remember if I cried/ as I watched Apple's business slide
Too bad those lessons weren't applied/ The day the iPod died
So bye, bye to the Pod with an i
We'll use Real or just steal, swapping files on the fly
The Apple faithful might continue to buy
Singing, iPod has such elegant lines.
But iPod has such elegant lines.
The iPod has half the digital music player market, and iTunes sells 70% of all legitimate music downloads. Jobs practically willed the digital music business into being. (Jobs, by the way, just had cancer surgery. He says he is OK and expects to fully recover. He also says he'll be back to work in September.)
But Jobs has blown it before — and, boy, does it look like he's blowing it again. It's like some Shakespearean drama where the lead character both triumphs and is undone by the same powerful characteristic — in Jobs' case, his evangelical fervor about his technology.
Go back, for a moment, to 1984. While hard to imagine now, Jobs was so powerful, he could call Gates and order him to come to Apple's headquarters so Jobs could yell at the Microsoft co-founder — and Gates would go! Apple had the best technology in personal computing and a major market share.
But around 1985, Jobs and his executives decided not to license Apple's technology or operating system to any other company. Apple wanted total control. It wanted to sell all the products itself. It wanted no competitors.
This was a yawning opening for Microsoft, Intel and the PC. Since anyone could buy the licenses and components to make a Windows-based PC, that technology took wing.
"Apple could have reaped the benefits of having dozens, even hundreds of imitators all adding their own unique value to the Mac," wrote Jim Carlton in his 1997 book, Apple: The Inside Story of Intrigue, Egomania, and Business Blunders. "Legions of suppliers would have sprung up all around the world to furnish components such as disk drives and memory. And since the software was light-years ahead of everybody else's, the Mac's, not Windows, might have come to dominate the personal computer market."
Instead, the opposite happened for Apple, and the PC crowd took advantage of those kinds of economics. This year, Apple is left with less than 4% of the market for personal computers — basically a cult following.
More recently, Jobs has done for digital music what he once did for personal computing: He's made it appealing to non-techies. Once again, his design sets the pace. No device is as good as the iPod; no software solution works better than iTunes.
But like the Mac of 1985, it's a closed system. Other than open-source MP3 files, only music downloaded through iTunes will play on iPods, and iTunes music won't play on any portable device except an iPod. Apple refuses to license the technology to third parties. Instead of setting a standard for all, Apple wants to own it all. When Microsoft behaves that way, everybody screams antitrust.
Last week, Real publicly exposed Apple's obduracy. Real announced that it has a way for people to legally download and play songs that work on both Apple's products and Windows-based products. It's the kind of flexibility consumers want. But Apple doesn't seem to care.
"Consumers are not in the end going to put up with being locked in," says Josh Bernoff, consumer tech analyst at Forrester Research.
Music has a long history of competing standards in new technology, but the split never lasts. In 1950, it was RCA Victor's 45 rpm record vs. Columbia's 33, and eventually all record players accommodated both. In 1970, it was Philips' audio cassette vs. the eight-track — invented by William Powell Lear, who also created the Learjet. The eight-track soon disappeared.
Apple can't win by keeping its music technology to itself.
"Apple is behaving stupidly as usual with regard to allowing other companies to add value to its products," says Avram Miller, a tech investor and former vice president at Intel, which benefited greatly from Jobs' past mistakes. "It can only lead to reducing (Apple's) share of the market it helped create."
Just as it happened with PCs, other digital music products will narrow Apple's technology lead. Maybe those products will never be as good as Apple's, but they'll become good enough — and they'll be based on broader standards that don't lock in users, and they'll probably be cheaper.
If history is any guide, when that happens Apple's share of digital music will leach away.
Miller, also an accomplished musician, goes on to call Apple "the Singapore of computing."
You know Singapore: autocratic, insular, elegantly engineered, repressively controlled — and destined to never amount to more than a small but interesting dot on the world map.
Kevin Maney has covered technology for USA TODAY since 1985. His column appears Wednesdays. Click here for an index of Technology columns. E-mail him at: kmaney@usatoday.com.
Saturday, September 04, 2004
The namelessly wonderful date
Random searches,
a chance email sent.
Quick repsonses,
thats how it all began.
First date,
both safely clad in black.
Dressed up,
an intrinsic need to impress.
Fancy dining,
"but no wine tonight".
Slow stroll,
"have you been on a bumboat"?
Salt-scented air,
the lingering stench of petrol.
Flying hair,
"the moon is made of cheese".
Special arrangements,
to pander a 'chai-ish' whim.
Proffered hand,
for support up wet stairs.
Warm drinks,
life, politics, jokes and love.
Laughter and chatter,
a carefree evening.
Taxi queues,
sharing a cab ride.
Sweet ending,
to a pretty perfectg evening.
Myraid Smses,
a lingering conversation.
Wide spanning,
'cabbages, kings and sealing wax'.
Complete strangers,
similar backgrounds and ideas.
Wildly different,
yet on the same wavelength...
... For now.
a chance email sent.
Quick repsonses,
thats how it all began.
First date,
both safely clad in black.
Dressed up,
an intrinsic need to impress.
Fancy dining,
"but no wine tonight".
Slow stroll,
"have you been on a bumboat"?
Salt-scented air,
the lingering stench of petrol.
Flying hair,
"the moon is made of cheese".
Special arrangements,
to pander a 'chai-ish' whim.
Proffered hand,
for support up wet stairs.
Warm drinks,
life, politics, jokes and love.
Laughter and chatter,
a carefree evening.
Taxi queues,
sharing a cab ride.
Sweet ending,
to a pretty perfectg evening.
Myraid Smses,
a lingering conversation.
Wide spanning,
'cabbages, kings and sealing wax'.
Complete strangers,
similar backgrounds and ideas.
Wildly different,
yet on the same wavelength...
... For now.
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