Saturday, February 14, 2009

Bijana, Bijana

Happy Valentine's Day!

My dad shared an interesting article with me about Joshua Bell, violinist extraordinaire, playing as a street performer during a D.C. rush hour. Only a handful of people paid any attention to him. (I think it's interesting that the most consistently interested demographic were the young children). If you've got several minutes this article is worth reading, not only for the content, but for the fact that it has at least these GRE words in it: cupidity, banal, castigating, mendicant, august, coalesced and encomium (I never thought I'd see "encomium" used).

Someone else shared another article (through Google Reader) about alone time. I'm very much guilty of constantly being connected. With my iPod, I can always get my email or chat with people whenever I have Wifi -- and all the places I tend to be have Wifi. With my little EeePc, I can use my computer in class and connect to the ether.

Driving home a day or two ago, I listened on the radio to a discussion about watching TV -- about what people think is okay for kids and adults. The "expert" pointed out that TV viewing has become less of a family activity (as it was decades ago) and is now an individual activity. He refuted the claim that TV-watching habits can be reduced to "hours watched;" the content matters too!

And then I saw this commercial on TV for Dentyne. Yes, I was lazily watching TV after listening to the radio program on bad TV-watching habits.

So... all these combined have given me a desire to interact more and compute less -- to unplug.


And so, today we fixed an old PlayStation (thanks Amanda!) and were playing Grand Tourismo. You'll note that the PlayStation is running sans cap, like an fusty turn table.


(Using "fusty" was a stretch... yes, I know)

6 comments:

Carli Downs said...

Hey Matt!
So, I thought that article about Joshua Bell was fascinating, and heartbreaking. I think that people would be much happier if they were sensitive to the beautiful things going on around them. I hope that we will always have time for beauty. I hope your semester is going well!

Dan said...

Only you would think fixing a playstation means computing less and unplugging. Well, maybe Jason McGee, but he's not really, you know, normal.

Amanda said...

You fixed it! I am proud of you! but not really surprised. :)

Jenna Kae said...

i've been thinking a lot about this lately... i am way too attached to my ipod and computer. but i agree with dan, i don't think fixing the playstation really counts. :)

Barbaloot said...

Do you think maybe some people just weren't able to stop because they had somewhere to be? I mean--I love music, LOVE that song and would've loved to stay and listen...but what if I was on my way to work? I don't think there's an accurate way to do that study.
Still---sad that not many stopped to listen, or show appreciation to that guy.

Unknown said...

Barb, that's ridiculous. People don't have places to be.

Long live idealism!

:)