Reality TV - Opium for the masses, or just another facebook page?

You may have heard references in the past from conspiracy theorists about this thing or that thing that have been served up for public consumption by 'the establishment' to keep the masses under control by drip feeding them brain numbing drugs (in the added fluoride don't you know), sub conscious messages or whatever the latest pseudoconspiracy.com site says is the flavour of the month for mind control.
For your consideration, tonights offering from (most likely) your local commercial TV channel which may be centered around any number of the following:

1. Cooking
2. Dancing
3. Singing or other 'entertainment'
4. Some kind of strange matchmaking or dating arrangement
5. Renovating a condemned building or series of rooms
6. Losing weight
7. Locking several people into a remote location or somehow isolated house
8. So called 'celebrities' that you may never have heard of
9. Any combination of the above

For example - you may be about to experience the ultimate in televisual entertainment as a 'celebrity' you have never heard of, in their aim to lose weight, waltzes across your screen on ice (the drug most likely, but possibly frozen water) whilst singing and tossing a pancake, looking for a wife and all presented for your delectation from a remote jungle location.

What has happened to imagination?

I heard a similar phenomenon years ago at the time when commercial radio started to become franchised. A song you hadn't heard before would be played several times during a short period via a number of commercial radio stations, because it appeared on a list that decreed it would sell product X. It was the beginning of marketing overtaking taste.

Now we see this formulaic TV production because it appeals to the masses and of course - the advertisers.

I get to meet a lot of people during my working day, and have exposure to social media in my free time. I get to overhear a lot of conversations within the workplace and via facebook about how someone 'had been so good - I was brought to tears' or how 'so and so was really good, did you see the programme last night - you must see the next episode' (or EP as they are now called as we are all so busy we can't find the time to say the full word any more).

On the odd occasion when I have been sucked in to a colleagues enthusiasm, and actually consented to watch a segment of one of these programmes, I have been totally underwhelmed by the thing or person they referred to, which has often been repeated ad nauseum in the trailers aired in every ad break, for next weeks thrilling installment.

I don't know why this stuff doesn't appeal to me. I feel joy. I cry. I laugh.

I refuse to be manipulated by a programme editted for maximum reaction with a musical soundtrack designed to provoke some kind of emotional response in a world where we are all so numb we have to be spoon fed stuff like this to tell us how to feel.

If reality TV of this kind isn't presented that way, then it's often a modern equivalent of a freakshow.

In a world where we have to respectfully say RIP to every poor bugger that has died whether we've heard of  them or not, and public outpourings of grief have become the current style since the death and subsequent funeral of Princess Diana, I think people should show a bit more respect to themselves and not feel that they have to follow the crowd when it comes to their emotional responses.

Read a book or listen to some mind expanding music, and decide for yourself when to laugh, cry or whatever rather than being manipulated into doing it by some poor 'so called' entertainment. Go to the pub. Get involved in your own life, instead of being told how to think and react by others.

I guess this is yet again an example of my cynical nature. Ben Elton has written a couple of good books based on similar ideas showing how people let themselves get manipulated into the cult of so called celebrity. Often people who are famous for having no apparent talent other than self publicity and so forth.

I don't know if there is a link here or not, but our parents used to deal with problems by tackling them in whichever way they thought would be most effective. Small problems were not blown up out of all proportion because they didn't know the appropriate emotional responses to a situation - they had never been led by media - just peer group and family. A drama would not be turned into a crisis.

While I'm on the subject, how long until the next social media development, where by using our mobile phone with integrated camera we can all be online, all of the time, sharing our highs and lows with others who only really want to show you their highs and lows.

I'll sign off now by quoting one of my facebook friends status updates:  "May your life one day be as awesome as you pretend it is on Facebook....."

2012 - A New Beginning or More of The Same?

Well here we go. Happy New Year to you dear reader.

My inner editor told me that I had to do a few words for this months contribution rather than just pinch and rehash something I had already written, so for your approval and delight (really?) my first efforts for 2012.

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The dust of Christmas and New Year celebrations has well and truly settled and the feeling of impending doom before the first Monday back at work that I have often felt on a Sunday afternoon certainly doesn't feel any different from that of any other year.

How many New Years resolutions lay smashed in pieces on the ground on the eighth day of the new year? How many smokers have returned to the solace of their tobacco habit, how many dieters have thought that "I'll start the new diet tomorrow" and of course as we all know from anonymous quotations 101 that tomorrow never actually comes. How many filled with good intent have started an exercise regime only to find that it's actually not that easy to change your life in one day?

In 2012 I turn forty seven years old. Or as I like to look at it as master of the cliche, forty seven years young.

Whilst the body doesn't necessarily do everything it used to, and hangovers take longer to recover from, my mind doesn't really take these things into consideration and thinks that I can still keep up with twenty somethings in the physical department. So as I've got older, I still feel the same inside, but when I look in the mirror and see the odd extra white hair and new wrinkle, or the effect of the continual pull of gravity (everything starting to sag...), the outside isn't as great as it once was. A good example of this was when I spent a couple of vintages working amongst young lads in a winery. My work ethic and physical efforts were actually greater than most of those around me (with  a few exceptions) yet I don't know of anyone else that came away with a free hernia operation special souvenir and surgery scar to remember "Vintage 2008" by.

I recently spent some time at a party with similarly aged friends who had 'twenty something' offspring, who had in turn invited several other 'twenty something' friends. As a 'forty something' I don't even register on their collective radar. Strange to feel like the invisible man in a crowd of people!

I'm sure that this is all normal.  Now I see elderly people and instead of thinking something clever and dismissive, as only the young can, I think; "That person is going through this too for only their first and last time - they haven't always been old, and it's as new to them as it is to you or me."

With some, it's the body lets you down, with others it's the mind.

It's hard to imagine what someone who loses their memory may be thinking. They may be very happy in their own world whilst it's only others around them that feel the pain and upset of being forgotten or otherwise let down. This of course may not be the case. Alzheimer's is a very sad form of dementia which seems to be on the increase. Whilst we live in a world where we can increasingly live to a ripe old age with medicines and procedures that keep us alive and our bodies reasonably healthy, but we are still waiting for a significant remedy for dementia. Encouraging work has been carried out with stem cell research, but even this has its opponents due to its controversial nature.

I recently carried out some work for a man who was in his nineties, who had been a respected scientist in his field, with at least one technical publication to his name. Sadly, he hadn't got a clue what was going on when I visited him, and once the job was complete I had to contact his daughter to let her know what had been done. Whilst speaking to her she confided that he had been assessed eligible for full time care due to his dementia, but he wouldn't surrender his independent lifestyle and go into care. He lived in a remote location, and apparently often calls tradespeople in for minor or imagined jobs, which was costing them a small fortune. Not to mention the worry that he could end up harming himself accidentally, or become victim to some criminal element living alone and so far away from family or neighbours.

It certainly left me questioning things I had never considered before, and although I felt sorry for the old man and his family, I'm sure they are not alone in this or similar circumstances.

So, I guess the moral to the story if there is one, is to enjoy what you've got while you can. Take good care of yourself, but not to the extent that you deny yourself having a good time, and try and live within your means, both physically and financially. Cliche number 298a fits the bill - "Everything in Moderation"

Dr Deepak Chopra prescribes 10 simple rules for ageing with health and happiness in his book: Ageless Body, Timeless Mind - A Quantum alternative to growing old. 
It's a good read, and I urge you to find a copy and check it out.

I actually believe that the rules are simpler, and that we need a few basics in place and the rest should follow:

1. Something to eat and drink.
2. Sufficient money.
3. Friends to share with. Love. Friendship. Be nice to each other.
4. Something to occupy your time.
5. Something to look forward to.

That's my forty-two I suppose - my answer to the great question of life, the universe and everything.

When I started this topic an hour ago I didn't know it was going to lead here, but that's the nature of blogging

Recycelage and the recycle age

I've discovered a new phenomenon this year - I've always been one for taking up the gauntlet of recycling household waste, checking every little thing over for the recycle logo before consigning it to the appropriate bin, or repairing or adapting old household items that still have life left in them. When we moved to South Australia I was very happy to find that most bottles, drink cans and containers have a compulsory 'deposit' which can be redeemed at certain places in the state - a wonderful by product of this is that it helps to reduce littering as those less fortunate can pick up from public bins and roadsides and make themselves a few dollars which reduces litter and landfill. Even my home-brew bottles have been around for a few years, after I was given them by a friend who runs an RSL some time ago - I've lost count of the number of times I've rewashed and refilled them - my only concession to the modern age is that they are all screw top bottles so when I press on the crown caps 'hey presto' I have bottle tops that don't need a bottle opener. Of course the crown caps are metal and can be recycled too.......

This year I have noticed an unusual phenomenon and embraced it to the full. Being a roadside recycler of long standing (when we lived in the UK I couldn't pass a skip without looking to see what was inside that might be useful to me) I still have trouble meeting the speed limit in an area where there is a hard rubbish collection scheduled, and have been tooted up by many an angry motorist as I drive slowly past someone else’s rubbish pile looking for that little piece of Eldorado. Amongst some of my best wins have included a 'butlers sink' which the local wildlife and our bees love to bathe in, and drink from, and some heavy metal posts ideal for creating retaining walls, other items too numerous to mention have graced our house or garden over the years.

This year I booked our own council hard rubbish collection as I was having a good clear out of items that had been cluttering the garage for several years that we no longer had any use for - for example, when we moved in to this house there was a fake fireplace which we replaced with a real fire - ideal for keeping us warm on cold winter nights and more functional than for just looking at.

Our instructions were clear.

Put the rubbish you want collected out in the morning from 5.00am on the day that it has been scheduled to be collected (5.00am???) and not before otherwise you may be ticketed for tipping offences(!). When I booked the pick-up, I was very specific with the items we would need collecting, as I had recently demolished and built a new home for our chickens. Items would include, perma-pine posts, planks, corrugated iron roofing, fencing and chicken wire, and other more 'household' goods. When the paperwork arrived stating what items were permissible it was a fairly exhaustive list stating that pretty much everything I needed to get rid of couldn't be collected. Luckily, either the guys that carried out the collection either hadn't been informed what was actually on the list, or had enough sense to turn a blind eye, and took everything that was left for collection.

Now, you notice I say - everything that was left for collection. I deliberately flaunted (I live on the EDGE man!) the rules and put the hard rubbish items out a few days early to see what would be taken by others similarly minded to myself, i.e. those dumpster divers, Australian Pickers, or whatever you want to call us.

I was amazed.

A large pile of items had been whittled away to a small pile, and items that had been taken included an old and extremely heavy punch bag (that I saw being dragged into a very small car by a very small lady), some really worn out matchstick blinds, a number of small rolls of carpet, and the said fake fireplace.

I had put this item out first, whilst clearing the garage, and had clearly left it out for someone to take and put to good use. I had been out tidying the garage for over an hour with no apparent interest, but when I went inside to get a glass of water (warm work), and came out again maybe five minutes later, it had gone!

Fantastic!

I'm really happy to see this happening, and items we have no use for starting a new life with someone else, it saves on landfill and makes everyone happy - I was just a little puzzled that items only actually disappeared when no one was apparently watching. It was almost as if this was part of the thrill, and to be caught taking something would be taboo or otherwise unacceptable.

This week we had a clear out of our guest bedroom, and put some old and very used bedside cabinets out for 'free collection'. I put them outside on the pavement, and we had a visitor whose car was obscuring the cabinets from general passers by. Even so, they were gone within two hours. It was odd then to think that cheap items we'd bought from MFI, or Argos, and home assembled, that had made their way from England with us, and been in our care for something approaching twenty five years, were now going on to a new life in a new home with new owners. Maybe a garage, maybe a young person starting up home, who knows. I hope they get as much use as we did from them.

Long live the roadside recycling revolution!!!

Questioning Bad Thoughts

OK - so how is it that I've always considered myself to be a fairly pessimistic kind of person. As long as I can remember I've always been ready to believe the worst of someone regardless of who they are, and in particular I seem to judge somebody almost instantly - not on their appearance, but more on what they say combined with their body language.

It's like a disability for me.

OK - so the chances of me falling for someones bullshit story and giving them my life savings are minimal to say the least, which I guess is a good thing, but it also makes me jump to conclusions and sometimes wrongly.

Today in the news there is a horrible story about a poor girl in Mosman, Sydney Australia, who had been attacked by a home intruder and involved in some kind of extortion plot. The story goes that at around 2pm local time a man broke into her parents house (she's 18) and fitted some kind of explosive device around her neck in an attempt to extort money from her apparently very wealthy parents. Clearly the job didn't go to plan as news reports only a few short hours later - then on into the night, showed a massive presence from the NSW Police force and other emergency services. In the end the explosive device proved to be a hoax and contained nothing threatening but apparently looked convincing - I'm not quite sure what the difference between a genuine looking and non genuine looking device would be, but evidently it had been good enough to fool 'experts' into believing the poor girl was only moments away from a horrible gruesome death for a period of around 10 hours.

So back to my 'disability' and what makes me a 'bad' person.

I can't help but think, even from the first time I heard the story that during the next news report concerning this matter, that there would be a revelation that the whole thing is either made up by an attention seeking spoilt teenager, or a prank gone wrong. Either she's in on a wider prank or maybe isn't but that the 'perpetrator' is possibly someone known to her.

If I'm right, then there's been a massive waste of resources and someone will be charged with wasting police time and rightly so.

If I'm wrong, there's some real sicko out there that hasn't yet been caught who is prepared to put an innocent through what could be 10 hours of hell leading to a lifetime of therapy.

My problem is that I instantly jump to the conclusion that there is a hidden under story. I'm fascinated by so called conspiracy theories so I guess that I'm not the only one that sees things this way. Is it a personality type or are we made this way through living in a perceived untrustworthy society. Or is society in the main OK? I don't know.

Though I'll have the rest of my life to question this glass half empty attitude, I can honestly say that I am actually quite an optimistic and positive person and enjoy life, making the best of situations and seizing lifes opportunities and dealing with difficulties instead of wondering why the world has got it in for me and rolling over, which many others I know seem to think. This is the dilemma - how can I be one way, yet think another?

The truth regarding this crime will hopefully eventually come out, but we just have to wait and see what on earth was to be gained by doing this weird and peculiar act. It's certainly received a lot of news coverage over the last few hours.

_____________________________________________________

Update 08/01/2012

OK - like I said - I could be wrong and in this case I was - though I'll also re quote myself and draw your attention to the paragraph: 

"If I'm wrong, there's some real sicko out there that hasn't yet been caught who is prepared to put an innocent through what could be 10 hours of hell leading to a lifetime of therapy."

Happily Madeleine seems to be a very well adjusted girl and recovered well from becoming a victim of the initial crime and the ensuing media circus.

It will be interesting to see how the accused fairs in March this year when the case comes to court.

Here's a link to the latest story I could find on this which appears to have now ceased to become national news - you may have to copy and paste to your browser as I'm not sure I've figured out how to make the links work yet.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/sydney-nsw/mosman-collar-bomb-victim-madeleine-pulver-makes-hsc-merit-list-in-advanced-english/story-e6freuzi-1226222513156

Further Update 10/07/2012

I was amazed to see how little this article is considered newsworthy now - a shocking story at the time, now seems to have warranted hardly a word (certainly nationally)  and I searched for details of the court case to find out how the accused had been punished - there was a little bit towards the end of this article but as usual - to be newsworthy something has to be sensational and shocking (and most likely negative) and in the NOW. When was the last time you saw a positive headline on the front page of a tabloid?

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/collar-bomb-hoax-victim-madeleine-pulver-hails-brave-officer-karen-lowden/story-e6freuy9-1226406345265
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iStuff

Are you sick of the iMusthave culture?

iAm.

Interesting that all these fantabulous new i based products (mmmm....Apple....Drooooooollllll) are named 'i' something.

Let's look at this - why 'i'

I'm sure that you all know what it's supposed to stand for (actually do you? I'm not sure that I do) but what does it really mean? In these days of consumerism where everyone is encouraged overtly or by stealth to buy buy buy the latest phone/camera/music file player combo, I find it odd that the best selling item starts with an 'i'. Not a 'we' or an 'us'.

This has been on my mind for a while now - 'the man' that runs society, media, government, evil foreign power, intergalatic space aliens or whatever your interpretation, are perpetuating the myth that without the latest product you are really not fulfilling yourplace in life (or at least not filling their pockets) and therefore aren't a worthy person. Strange too that many of these products start with 'i' - you know the old adage - there's no 'i' in team.

There is of course an 'i' in 'family' but with a product that encourages you to indulge yourself with earphones and not share (unless on public transport - yeah - thanks) your brilliant taste in music with your nearest and dearest, automatically start to become isolated, whether you're a moody teenager, or Dad listening to his freeform jazz and thinking that he's really 'with it daddy-O'.

The upside should then be that for these gadgets on a hot summers day we shouldn't HAVE to share someone elses music - in practise however I think that this now means that the iDevice gets connected to their iSuperduper subwoofer enabled iSurround sound system which allows them to iSurround the neighbourhood with their awesome taste in music. Anyway - what was I saying.....oh yes, in these days of consumerism where we are not judged by who we are but by what 'stuff' we've got there certainly seems to be a shift toward individualism. Is this some kind of divide and conquer?

Facebook, mobile phone texting, twitter and all other variations of social networking, rather than promoting social gatherings (with a few notable exceptions, flashmobs, viral party invitations etc) seem to actually be preventing them. For example, we spend so much time telling friends and aquaintances how good a time we are having via our mobile device and what fun they are missing that we actually miss what's really hapenning. This is one of the reasons that many years ago I stopped using a video camera - I was spending so much time worrying about capturing the moment and getting the best shot that I was missing out on the real action and the ability to cram the real life goings on into my brain for recollection later. Whilst I've now got some great videos from that time in my life, I could have also had great memories with or without all the camera worries about sufficent spare tape, batteries and adequate lighting.

A modern example of this occurred to me recently when a friends daughter turned twenty one and her celebrations were held at a local coctail bar venue. Nice place. Nice fishtank. Nice cocktails. Music very loud. For this we were paying a premium price, as being one of 'the places' to be seen, the drinks were really expensive, with a fairly modest round reaching to three figure sums.

It was a struggle to hear what was going on and conversation was extremely limited, with everyone being forced to shout into their neighbours ear to be heard above the noise. This seemed to be encouraging everybody there to retreat back into their own skulls for entertainment as interactions with each other were limited. 

I started to notice a peculiar phenomenon. Each table had two bench seats capable of seating maybe five on either side of the table. Opposite me was a group of young twenty something girls all with long faces and mostly paying attention to whatever was going on in their laps. This was where they were managing to operate their mobile phones - and whether they were all texting each other or just twittering or facebooking away I don't know, but their faces certainly didn't tell a story of having a great time. I don't imagine that they were contacting various aquaintances to tell them how BAD a time they were having.

Social interaction of this type is OK in limited amounts - don't get me wrong - when I was a kid I used to spend hours on the CB radio, talking to friends and people I'd never met in the flesh, but still conversing and developing subtleties of tone and expression.

Face to face conversations are even better though and I worry that modern generations are being conditioned to be insular behaviour and will lose the ability to be able to hold a one on one conversation and pick up on nuances of body language that we have all taken for granted over the generations. How many of us can tell when someone is down or upset just by looking at a facial expression or how they hold their shoulders? Pretty hard to tell if the only interaction you get is via facebook ;-(   (Awww are you OK Hun? <Hugs>)

So there we go. Are we to expect an increasingly disfunctional society with all these communication developments we've been having over the last few decades? A higher suicide rate as social support crumbles and we all become totally isolated within our own heads? More mental health issues in society? Greater crime as the 'have nots' want what 'the haves' have got and decide that they're going to take it regardless of cost?

Look at the newspapers and decide for yourself. Is it just that now we are all wired for communication it's easier to report what's going on, or is it just that there is more crime these days? Perhaps we're all to blame as we are conditioned by the media and even our peers to want more, pay less and live the dream.

I'll sign off now with the final thought that a friend of mine (a fifty something woman) who is in the throes of midlife crisis (recent first tattoo, open top sports car etc) is the most technically savvy person I know. She must be. She has the latest Apple laptop, iPhone, Nintendo something or other, Wii, etc. How much do these items get used? Not much. They are, however proof that she still 'hasn't lost it', is an interesting person, and still very very young.

Confidentially, she is one of the most difficult people I know to talk to, and finds it difficult to hold a conversation with anyone. Still, at least she can tell all her hundreds of twitter followers and facebook friends what a great time she's having.

Old habits die hard

So here we go -

My first blog after years of thinking about it. What shall I say? What is the likelyhood that I'll remember my login details next time I want to think about downloading more of my brain into Blogger for public consumption, and lets be honest - who is likely to want to read my weird musings anyway?

All these questions and more await an answer of sorts.

Of course I won't be revealing anything too personal or contensious just yet as I'm still trying to find my feet and generate enough interest from an as yet unknown audience.

I'll sign off in a mo, but before I do - why the title "Old habits die hard"? Well - my initial reaction to the tool that I'm currently using was 'do it offline and upload it when you're ready and have finished and editted the thing'. Number one - I thought that it should be done offline because I'm one of the old school internet users who still thinks about how long I'm tying up my phoneline and using my data allowance while I'm wasting mine and your time typing rubbish. Secondly editting - Hmm - surely this could defeat the object of a blog as it's designed to show the immediate thoughts and preserve them for all time in cyberspace. How many of us can admit to sending an email and wishing we hadn't with a little hindsight? I know what I'm like and I think that with the luxury of editting this would probably be no more that a ten word sentence instead of the mildly interesting ramble that I've been on for the last five minutes.

That's it for now - but I'm pretty sure I can come up with something much more interesting for next time.

See you then.....

Maximus.