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A few words about Elmo

Jan24

Recently I had heard that the man who has been the voice of Sesame Street’s Elmo has gotten into legal trouble. And that he has left the show. That really is disturbing, and sad, but that is not the reason that I decided to write this post. A few minutes ago my son and I were watching some videos on YouTube about the “Bad Lip Reading” videos, and somehow or another I ended up watching a video titled something along the lines of “Caleb’s reaction to Elmo and I know it.” Well, I am always a sucker for cute and funny babies, so I decided to watch it. The video was three minutes long, and the video was a full frontal view of a baby sitting on the floor watching television.

Although I could not see what was showing on the television, I could hear that it was Elmo singing a song. I expected the baby to start bouncing, or waving, or laughing, or SOMETHING! For the most part the baby simply stared at the television. A vacant stare. The kind of stare that I would expect a hypnotized, mindless person to have. At one point the baby smiled briefly, and shifted positions, but never was any “cuteness reward” for watching the video. I did not leave a comment on the YouTube page; I’m thinking that the parents posting the video don’t need to hear from strangers how boring the video was. I’m not a mean-spirited person.

But what I really wanted to say about this video was that if I were inclined to watch that particular video and “judge” if watching television was “good” or “bad” for young children to watch, that this vacant stare from this child really made me feel that television could very easily be used for evil brainwashing purposes. Some would argue that it already IS used for that. And I would argue that Sesame Street is a great program for children to watch. But this video really disturbed me.

Late Night TV

Dec21

Couldn’t sleep last night, so I turned the TV onto CBS and watched some late night TV. Usually I fall asleep sometime during the Letterman Show, but last night I watched all of Craig Ferguson, too. I really like the Craig Ferguson show, I just can’t stay awake that late to watch it.

Yeah, I’m a wimp. Actually, the Craig Ferguson show comes on here at 11:30 and I have to get up every morning at 5:00, so do the math – that’s just not enough sleep. But last night – or this morning if you want to get technical – it’s after midnight and I can’t fall asleep. So this gawd-awful show comes on starring that snotty ex-model, Tyra Banks. OMG! What a crap show, no way could I even consider watching more than 5 minutes of that! I had to change the channel and listen to CNN for about 20 minutes until I fell asleep out of total boredom.

I don’t have very many channels on the TV in my bedroom. In an effort to cut back on some of the monthly expenses, so the TV set out in the living room has the DVR and gets the most channels of all, which still isn’t all that much

What Period I Would Visit if I Could Travel in Time

Nov21

When I was a kid, the idea of time travel was fascinating to me. I fantasized about going back in history and living through historic events or going into the future to see what happens. The use and possible of a time machine has always confounded me. If you go back in history, will you change things by being there that have a catastrophic effect on events that lead back to present day? If you go into the future, will you find out things that you can change when you come back, thereby preventing a possible disaster or is there a possibility of profiting from having advance knowledge that no one else would have – like the winning lottery number?

There were a couple of movies about that idea, like Back to the Future and there is a new one out starring Bruce Willis called, “Looper.” I was surprised to find a list online with over 200 time travel movies. I will have to look at that list and see how many I have watched over the years.

If I had the ability to travel through time, I’m not sure if I would rather go back into an historical period or event, or go into the future. Part of me would love to go ahead in time about 20 years just to see how different life will be and what new inventions have come along to make life easier. How far will medicine have advanced with cures for diseases and new ways to diagnose and treat different illnesses?

On the other hand, if I had to go back in time, I think that I would like to just relive the year of my childhood right before my parents split up and divorced. I was so young I barely remember much of that time. But I would have liked to have seen my parents married and happy together. I realize that there was nothing that I could have done to change the divorce, but I don’t even remember seeing my parents kiss. I have always regretted that.

 

The lines are busy

Nov2

One of the things that has been most disconcerting to the people who were spared the physical pain and devastation about dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy is the feeling of helplessness and the inability to reach loved ones by telephone to determine who is safe or injured.  Even trying to use the telephones to conduct business is difficult because more often then not when trying to call out of the local area, a pre-recorded message indicating that all lines are busy ends up being the only voice heard on the other end of the line. Watching the televised news of all of the areas that have been damaged just makes my heart break for those people. At the same time I count my blessings that as far as I know my family has been spared – which is amazing since the weather forecasters had predicted that the weather at their locations would be worse than what actually happened. So I am very grateful for that.

What happened to Pam Ewing?

Jun14

Did you watch the season’s two hour (plus) showing of Dallas last night? I did, and I have to say that I enjoyed it quite a bit. There were a few parts, however, that I missed because other people in the house were interrupting me and I had to leave the room for a few minutes here and there. But what I did manage to see I enjoyed. All of those devious people in the show! Twists and turns and back-stabbing! Reminds me of my own family sometimes! (Just kidding!)

But the biggest question that I wanted answered, was not answered. At least to my knowledge. What is the “official” excuse for not having Pam Ewing? Did she die? Did she divorce? What in the world happened? I need to know!