4 Reason I Don't Have Cable

1. Productivity - I turn into a zombie the minute I make eye contact with a moving screen. All thoughts go out the window and hours will go by before I can pull myself away.

2. Return on Investment - Speed, Discovery, and The Learning Channel are not worth paying $50+ a month. Sure some of the shows are good, but I can download those off the internets without having to sift through garbage to get there. I admit, there is garbage on the internets, but thanks to iTunes and such, I only have to pay for what I want to see.

3. Unrealistic - Beach MTV is not the norm. Survivor, while not scripted, is heavily edited. The Real World is not real. If they sold fictitious shows as fiction, I wouldn't complain as much. Displaying these mock ups as "real" raises expectations about how we should look, behave, react, etc. Widespread self-esteem issues follow. Want to be happy again? Enjoy Coke! Which brings me to...

4. Commercials - Why would I pay TV companies money to sell me a bunch of crap I don't need? No matter how happy be people in the commercial look, it isn't because they're drinking a soda or playing with a toy. Will the super deluxe Ginsu knock-off 120 piece set for $59.95 make my homemade meals look like world class cuisine? No, and don't waste time trying to tell me how easy my life will be. I can almost guarantee they are crap. Bratz lipstick dolls to teach me how to look like a prostitot? Not for me or my daughters.
Want more complaining?
Gary Cross wrote a great article exposing these things for the manipulative child brainwashing consumerism that it is: Toys for Saps

Strategy Conference Videos

I'm a sucker for conference videos. As a matter of fact, I'm going to start a link list for these things. Look for it on the right side.

The IIT Institute of Design "Strategy Conference" has released many of it's speakers on video for our viewing pleasure.

I've only watched the first one so far (George Cascio), who explains some of the amazing things that ETS is doing with educational software and how parents can track what their children are learning. I only wished the video showed the slides so I could see the products he talks about.

Edit: Another great video about Spore

How do you sell Spore to to upper-class intellectuals?

This is how you would explain Spore to the kind of people who wouldn't be caught dead playing a video game, and yet, Will Wright hangs in there.

Am I the only one that sees a "culture gap" so wide that the interviewer is almost clueless?

Will Wright at the New Yorker Conference 2007

Great Speeches about all kinds of things...

The Internets allow us to learn anything we want to learn. Don't squander all your tubes on eBay and Myspace. Take a shot at listening to a speech that doesn't involve a grade.

TED

Pop!Tech

LIFT

Edit: The New Yorker Conference 2007

How much beauty do we ignore every day?

I read an article today from the Washington Post about Josh Bell, a world class violinist, playing for change during rush hour. Out of the thousands of people who walked by him only seven stopped to appreciate his playing.

The author talks about how beauty seems to be appreciated only when we expect to see something beautiful, when we are receptive to being "moved" emotionally. It makes me wonder how often our "tunnel vision" causes us to ignore beautiful things.

Journal - Mar 20

I read an article that really made me consider home schooling my children, or at least private school.

The title: Why Nerds Are Unpopular.

Really the article is only half about the nerds and more a reflection of the culture that seems to spring up in most larger schools across the US. I think it's a good read for everyone, especially parents of teenagers. It might help them catch a glimpse of what their child is going through...