New Year Family Fun

Saturday January 1st, In the year of our Lord 2011

Home for the Holidays, Saskatchewan

Celebrating an Epic Victory

Weather = Very Cold, Very Windy, Very White

Some families do fun things for New Years. I am very pleased and so thankful for an awesome family who knows how to make awesome food, tell good stories, play fun games, and look back on the year with gratefulness!

Among this year's family festivities we played a rousing game of Settlers of Catan. I thought I might win, but Grandpa sneaked up on all of us with development cards and in one turn built two cities and revealed two more victory points from the cards. Wow. Excellent game.

Now, for the first time ever, we also played free World of Warcraft. I don't generally play too much, but we found a free server (Ravencrest) and agreed to make characters and run through the first Alliance Instance, Dead Mines. We brought in the New Year by slaying hundreds of Defias miners, overseers, pirates, parrots, and goblin thingamabobs. It was freaking awesome, all of us working together, slaying bandits, getting ganked, ganking the gankers, and tanking the bosses and turning their minions into sheep. There was some pretty epic hysteria going on. We killed all the bosses in Dead Mines and only died about 5 times each (10 times for the priest). Yeah we're definitely not the best, but it was super awesome fun. We emerged from the mines into the sunshine of the Dagger Hills in Westfall and celebrated our victory with an epic dance party.

Pity for Celebrities

Tuesday December 28, In the year of our Lord 2010

Home for Christmas, Saskatchewan

Thinking thoughts, 1:03PM

Weather = Cold, Windy, and White

I feel sorry for celebrities. I would never want to be one. This might be an absurd thing for some people to hear. There are masses of people who absolutely adore their chosen celebrity(ies) and worship the ground they walk on. A discarded used tissue paper may become the centerpiece in a cult-like shrine to a celebrity. There has even been a new word created to accommodate this sort of hyper-fan. 'Groupies' travel with their celebrity and serve them hand and foot offering everything from making coffee to expensive gifts to giving up their

virginity. There are so many people who wish that they could be the celebrity who they worship, or at least be just like them.

I will never ever ever EVAR want to be a celebrity and my heart goes out to them. Our culture selects a person. Maybe she looked really pretty. Maybe he had a good voice. Whatever the reason a pop-culture industry *spit on floor* finds someone who they deem profitable to turn into an icon / idol for young people and curse them with complete popularity and wealth. The pop-culture section being addressed fawns over this individual like a god and puts him / her in concerts, commercials, movies, reality TV shows *spit on floor* etc. When I was in middle school we had the Spice Girls, when I was in High School we had Britney Spears and her slightly less popular doppleganger Christina Aguilera. Today's pop sensation is Justin Bieber, the youngest soul to have this unfortunate thing happen to him.

Why would I not want this? Why would I feel sorry for anyone who had this? Because it seriously messes you up, especially if they get you when you're young. Let me explain.

DISCLAIMER! I am not a sociologist or psychologist. These ideas are strictly my own that come out of my head. I have not done research in this area so it is completely possible that I have no idea what I'm talking about. My appeal is to common sense and history.

It starts off great! The new born celebrity is an authentic person, a personality, with sincere goals, a loving family to look after them, and a heart to change the world. (or something to that effect) Despite getting more money than they know what to do with and achieving godlike status they maintain that it will not change them, that they will always be true to themselves. (or something to that effect)

I suspect that the first compromises are due to their life being broadcast for the entire world to see and the pressure of expectations. After all, once on the top you want to stay on the top. Maybe letting my contractors hire song writers for me to sing isn't the end of the world. This is greatly emphasized if their are contractual obligations to uphold. Ok, so the songs that I sing aren't completely my own, I still get to change the lyrics if I want to and I'm still an authentic person. Everyone cheers them on. So much positive reinforcement! The crowds, cheering, chanting my name. They want me, they love me, I want to make them happy!

I think at this point the authentic person part is still in tact, but it has been melded with the pop-image designed and commercialized by the industry. There is a process that takes place where authentic personality and icon designed by industry inter-mesh and the new celebrity slowly becomes more like the icon designed for them. And why not? Staying popular, meeting all your childhood icons as equals, the money, the fame, the limo rides, the pride of your family, none of these things are bad in and of themselves and they are all very comfortable nice things.

But alas, the reality is that popularity is short lived and a very fickle (nigh pointl

ess) thing that will leave even Justin Bieber in a long list of abandoned pop-culture figures that stretches to the beginning of time to be forgotten about. To the celebrity who has successfully kept their identity in tact they can count their blessings and go on to live a normal life. To those who let their identity become the icon designed for them they can not move on and choose to make sacrifices in order to keep what they have and stay popular.

Now their is nothing more popular than something scandalous. What happens when good girl turns bad and we see the new side of celebrity x. (enter my rant against tabloids *spit on floor*) Sex appeal is a tried and true method of getting attention and making money. Even if it's only provocative and not porn (if there is a difference in your mind) a decision has been made, and it's only a matter of time before that skirt is cut a little lower or the thong underwear makes an outrageous appearance which cause the ratings to rise. This is what happened to Britney Spears, Charlotte Church, and Christina Aguilera to name only three.

Side Note: The hideous thing about this is that pop stars will still maintain that their songs are about abstinence and respect for yourself (or something to that effect) and they actually believe that they are a support for that cause. Meanwhile they wave their scantily covered reproductive organs about and allow the camera crew to draw undue attention to their breasts (which have been highlighted by their costume) and can't figure out why anyone would doubt their intentions. After all, the person behind the icon is all for abstinence and a healthy life style. Well, all the guys see is breasts and their brain stops there. Every time they hear the song they equate it to the sex icon as shown in the music video. (I speak in absolutes, but I'm sure that their are exceptions to my generalizations) I can not speak for the girls, but I doubt this sort of crossed messaging has lessened the female self-esteem issues which lead to unhealthy lifestyle. You see, when you take something intimate about yourself and make it public for everyone to see it's kinda like dragging something precious and sacred through the mud and tossing it out a window into the street for people to look at and misinterpret. You can not continuously do this to something sacred and then go on to explain how it is very important it is to you. However, I saw a Reality TV Show *spit on floor* in which the consensus was that there is nothing wrong with dressing like a slut because that would be judging someone which isn't right. I might make a post someday where I explain why this sort of relativism is stupid.

Anyway, back on track now. Once a celebrity starts to sacrifice themselves for the icon they've melded with there are a host of problems. Attitude, psychological growth, self esteem, physical well being and materialism are a few.

Attitude. I would find it hard not to get spoiled and accustomed to getting copious amounts of attention and stuff that I wanted if I had the same diet of celebrityism. A bad attitude leads to poor choices and a stubborn "I'm right no matter what / it could never happen to me" syndrome.

Psychological Growth. One of the things I fear for these celebrities is that they become addicted to the hype they generate. To live for the crowd, to live for the moment of being in the spotlight. It can seriously mess someone up. I think of Britney's acting like a little child instead of a mom and needing psychologist help. This is an unfortunate thing to go through.

Self Esteem. Once someone takes on the identity of the icon at the expense of themselves then they're identity as a person rises and falls with the icon, which is destined to fall. Popular people are often the ones with the lowest self esteem because they can not help but allow the opinions of others define who they are. Think of the constant fear you would have if this was the case for you! What a pointless and miserable existence if someone got stuck here.

Physical Well Being. It's not uncommon to hear about pop stars getting into drugs and other lifestyle choices that accompany it. This is to say nothing of their emotional and spiritual wellbeing of being a whole person.

Materialism. The whole thing has a distinctly materialist taste to it, and material things can't actually bring you peace or happiness but pretends like it can. If all you see are the material things, then you will look to those things to fill your basic needs, but you can't fill a spiritual or emotional need with a material thing. Materialism seeps in, puts a hook in your nose, and leads you into addiction to one thing or another.

So I pity celebrities. The pressure to conform to the culture they define must be immense. I wouldn't want the stress or the attention. The money might be nice, but then I would not feel like I earned it. A life of excess is unhealthy and unhappy and all that money and popularity would be hard to turn down. I would like to think that the unfortunate celebrity crashes are an exception and that most people have a solid head on their shoulders. I would like to think that the pop industry is run by human beings who care for the people they raise up. But with the pop industry investing in younger and younger teenagers to bear the mantle of pop star I just kinda shake my head at them. Not helping guys... you're really not. So pray for celebrities, especially young ones in the pop industry. They live in a world with very real risks and dangers.

Greg W

Tabloids are Stupid!

Sunday, December 19th, In the year of our Lord 2010

My house, Carponport, Saskatchewan.

Enjoying Sunday Afternoon, 3:32 PM

Weather = very cold, very windy, very white.

So some of you might be thinking to yourself "why is Greg calling something stupid after he wrote an entry about why nobody should call anything stupid?" Well, if you are thinking that right now then you didn't read my last post very carefully. I'm pretty sure I left myself an out when I said that if I "discover that there were lots of mistakes and logical inconsistencies with a healthy dosage of foolishness then I can say legitimately and with gusto 'that's stupid, and here's why...'"

Maybe it would help if we defined Stupid. According to Dictionary.com stupid has the following meanings.

–adjective

1.

lacking ordinary quickness and keenness of mind; dull.

2.

characterized by or proceeding from mental dullness; foolish;senseless: a stupid question.

3.

tediously dull, esp. due to lack of meaning or sense; inane;pointless: a stupid party.

I didn't mention this in my last post, but there is a danger in thinking objectively and logically about the world. The danger is that sometimes you will understand just how profoundly stupid some things really are. Tabloids are one of those things and I am going to declare why... with gusto!

So I'm finishing up some Christmas / grocery shopping when I come to line up at the till and there are stacks of tabloid magazine *things* looking at me. They were attractive to look at. All those colors, interesting looks on their faces, usually a liberal amount of skin on display, and catch phrase titles. Then I began to read what was on each of the covers and discovered, with no shock, that they were all absolutely pointless.

Let us assume that the tabloid magazines were accurate in their information and take the cover stories at face value. The first style of tabloid to grab my attention kinda looked like 'Oprah is with so an so, but she's really with someone else,' 'Jessica's Revenge on Brad,' Britney Betrayed by so an so,' and so on and so on ad nausium. What is this? If we boil this down to algebra this is (celebrity x) (relationship status) (celebrity y.) Now I don't know about you, but I don't personally know any celebrities, and if I did, why would I need to read about their relationship status? In fact, why should I (or anyone else) care about these people and their relationships? Does my knowledge of (celebrity x)'s relationships add one iota to my life? Maybe if I am a shallow pitiful person with shallow pitiful friends who don't have the ability to live a life of their own and need to leech off the life of the person they want to be.

eh... sorry, maybe that was a little extreme. Note, the above statement is more rhetoric than objective thinking. I apologize. And no I will not erase it. Sometimes I like rhetoric and I am not perfect. Moving on.

My point is that this sort of information is pointless and useless. It's female teenage high school drama stretched out to unhealthy and absurd dimensions. It's no different than the highschool girls nattering on in the hall about everyone else's business with no understanding of what's actually going on. Lots of emotion, lots of opinion, all of it backed up by popularity and more emotion and more opinion. Well emotion and opinion do not amount to much except uninformed ignorance. 'Popular' is never the same as 'Important.' It is authentically sad to see people thrive on this sort of drivel. So shallow. So pointless.

Furthermore, the information you get in these tabloids is not accurate. The people who create these things feed the niche of 'gossip' and will phrase things in a certain way and leave out some points (or just create an entirely fictional story) in order to arouse that sense of urgent and shocking scandalous news. I was a bit soft there, many tabloids unashamedly concoct completely fictional stories with absolutely no basis what so ever! So not only is it pointless and shallow, it is also inaccurate pointlessness and shallowness. Completely meaningless.

The second type of tabloid that I spied was the one that appealed to my sex drive. The cover had some woman wearing lingerie in the form of everyday clothing. I thought to myself 'my that shirt looks very much like a tightened corset, and I swear that if those super short blue jean shorts were shaped just slightly differently they would be blue jean panties.' Thank you Cosmopolitan for showing women how to where their undergarments as overgarments. These types of magazines had call outs like "10 ways to find out if you are good in bed," "15 sexy tips to seduce your man," "how to lose those 15 pounds and stay sexy." (and these were the tame ones)

Now I understand that these *advertisements* are addressed to women. I am not a woman. But I can still call these things for what they are. They are shallow and destructive. They are shallow because they appeal to base instincts of sexuality and social acceptance. They all say "You want to be sexy, and in order to be socially accepted (or popular) here's how you become more sexy." There are so many things wrong with this message so I will try to highlight in broad strokes. These types of messages on the cover of the tabloids appeal to the physical side of intense relationship only. Real relationships include actual relationship... beyond physical sex, long before sex, and long after sex. It's one of the most obvious forces of sexualization and objectification of women in society. Be sexy. Sex is your goal. How to have more sex. How to have better sex. How to stay sexy. How to keep your man for more sex. (celebrity x)'s sex life. Sexy stories. Sex tips. How to feel good and sexy.

A very wise man told me once that sex is only a very small part of marriage. Why do these tabloids spend so much time on it then? Because it is a base desire, it is the lowest common denominator. It is scraping the bottom of the barrel. It assumes a world where physical sex is all there is and you try to get enough of it as possible. Now no magazine publisher would ever agree to that (at least I hope not) but that's one of the message that's coming across in the tabloids. As I said before, relationships should include relationship. You know, friendship, mutual respect, agape love, persistence, care, grace, wisdom. To skip to and fixate on sex is extremely immature at best but far more importantly down right destructive to the female psyche. (This issue deserves a dissertation all on it's own) My heart goes out to those who drink this crap in and become distorted in their mind and soul. There are so many broken people craving for meaning that run afoul this false and shallow world view.

So what do these tabloids cultivate?

1. An unhealthy fascination with gossip

2. Immature social popularity contests

3. Outrageous fiction propagating itself as truth

4. Distorted Understanding of Sex

5. How you (a woman) can become a more appealing sex object

All of these things are pointless, meaningless, foolish, and unhealthy. A steady diet of this sort of crap will eventually make you stop thinking and begin acting on instinct alone (which is what these tabloids appeal to the first place).

So after looking at Tabloids objectively and in understanding them I will say with conviction and with gusto that Tabloids are Stupid!

That's Stupid

Tuesday, December 7, In the year of our Lord 2010

Distance Learning Office, Briercrest College and Seminary

Short break, 1:22 PM

Weather = very cold + very white

Over the course of my education I have become increasingly irritated by the saying "that's stupid." It started in high school when my peers would say "x" is stupid, and never bother to understand how "x" works. "x" could have been George Bush, Steven Harper, Taxes, Assignments, Teachers, Homosexuality, 'Homophobia,' Religion, or anything that didn't immediately line up with their very shallow understanding of the world.

I make no apologies. Anyone who resorts to "that's stupid" as a default and never bothers to even imagine why that something is the way it is has a very shallow understanding of the world. "That's Stupid" is usually another way of saying "I don't understand this," or "I don't agree with this," and the thing itself probably isn't stupid at all. One of the things that I will call stupid without much hesitation is the love of ignorance.

Before calling something stupid people need to approach the subject from a disposition of humility. Lots of people assume that the world is run by idiots who can barely tie their own shoes. The educational system is run by morons, the health care system is run by morons, all the political leaders are morons, and this plague of moronry extends to the ends of the earth. This is of course a ridiculous assumption. To think that I (and maybe some of my friends) are the only intelligent people in the world assumes a lot of information that I do not have. It also leads to some seriously unhealthy (and inaccurate) perspectives on the world which tends to trap you inside your own head.

Instead we should assume that there are reasons for why things are the way they are. We should assume that there is a logical and traceable line of cause and effect where people made decisions based on information and motivations. I'm not looking for a purist kind of rigor against calling things stupid, just a common sense effort to understand things the way they are.

If I don't know the reasons or the why behind something I try not to say "that's stupid" I try to say "that doesn't make sense to me." If something makes me angry I try not to say "that's stupid" I try to say "that makes me upset."

Now, if I do research and uncover the why and how behind the offending idea or object and discover that there are legitimate reasons backed up by legitimate information and I still disagree with it. I don't say "that's stupid" I say "I understand why it is the way it is, but I still don't like it."

But if I do research and discover that there were lots of mistakes and logical inconsistencies with a healthy dosage of foolishness then I can say legitimately and with gusto "that's stupid, and here's why..."

So in light of my explanations, people who default to "that's stupid" for everything are themselves stupid, and when people around me defaults to "that's stupid" for too long I kinda feel like this guy.

So please refrain from just relegating things you don't understand or don't like to "that's stupid." There is a good opportunity to learn the reasons behind that thing to either change your opinion with knowledge or truly understand how and why that thing is stupid so that you can actually do something about it besides fume to yourself and with your 'that's stupid' circle of peers.