Call to Action

We recently watched Hotel Rwanda again. The line about people watching the news, saying that it's terrible what's happening in Rwanda, and then going back to their dinners really hit me. They say that the media and the TV news brought about much more awareness about the world (i.e. Vietnam and the footage that was shot there), but I wonder if we have too much information bombarding us now that we have become desensitized to all of it. As with Rwanda, we see pictures and live footage of bombings, starvation, natural disasters, and yet most of us (including myself) tend to just go back to eating our dinners. Kind of sad.

Bones

As I sat in the JKB before class on Thursday, I listened to three freshman girls as they gossiped and related the newest drama from Helaman Halls. I felt like I had nothing in common with them and, listening to them banter, I automatically labeled them as "silly freshman girls." It was wrong of me I know, but sometimes those judgements just pop out of nowhere. No later had I done this than I realized they were talking about the Bones season premier which was later Thursday night. I had been waiting all summer long for that show to return! All of a sudden, I felt a kind of kinship with them...we were united through a common interest in some form of media. After I repented for my judging, I reflected on how cool it is that media has the ability to unite people of all kinds. Maybe I'll remember this next time I'm sitting next to a group of freshman girls. P.S. The Bones season premier was amazing!

Cell Phones

My cell phone can call people and send texts. Not very exciting, but it gets the job done. My husband, however, has a really cool iPhone through work, in which the whole universe is open to him. Because of its capabilities, we have music (iPod), email, internet, and even the scriptures at our fingertips (literally). It's amazing to me that so much media can be contained in such a small device and be so portable. We can even use it to get internet to our computer through internet tethering. One of the downsides, however, is that my husband feels compelled to check it constantly to determine if he has new emails for work, or to look things up online. This has made me realize how dependent we are upon always being connected to the rest of the world. While we have the convenience of connection, I think we should also be willing to take a break and enjoy what's going on around us rather than what's going on online.

Netflix

My husband and I recently renewed our subscription to Netflix. The allure of receiving little red and white packages of movies in the mail was just too tempting to let it lapse. We don't even have to make a trip to the movie store (in which case, Hollywood Video is only a block east and Blockbuster is just a few blocks south) to rent a movie and then veg on the couch as we watch. It's amazing how convenient they make it...straight to your mailbox or even right on your computer with the instant viewing capabilities. Twenty steps or less and we can have the movie from the mailbox in the player and we can be on the couch. Not only have I realized that this new phenomenon has made movie watching even more lazy (you don't even have to walk the long distance to your car), but the flat rate for two movies at a time has made us lazier in our movie choices. We'll watch anything these days. And, I'm sorry to say, Twilight was somehow added to our que (neither my husband or I can remember adding such a movie), and it came last Friday. We didn't have the good sense to send it right back in its little red envelope, we had to tear open the packaging and watch it. Not the best movie I've ever seen. Before I dig myself into an even bigger hole with the myriad Stephenie Meyer fans, let me just end with the hope that I become more particular with the limited free time I have...maybe I should go for a walk instead--to the movie store.