More media

So my weekend was less than glamorous-I think I was probably getting over some bug this weekend, or maybe my college lifestyle was just catching up to me, because I slept almost all day Sunday. On Saturday, I didn't so much notice any media influences-part of my day was spent trying to puzzle out some financial conundrums, and another small part of it was spent looking at upcoming theater productions. I suppose those are in essence media, but when it's family homework to research such things, it doesn't feel like an intrusive media. But perhaps that's part of what I should realize, is that I generally view media as something intrusive, like how obnoxious commercials seem when they blast their volume louder than whatever show you've been watching, or the annoying pre-movie ads that seem like they are trying to brainwash you into everything pop culture. I guess there are other sources of advertising too, but the Mustard's Last Stand van in the parking lot on my way to class makes me smile, and I've been taking a quieter back route to classes, as I've started to appreciate the quiet and also the added speed that the crosswalks give me over stoplights. (Plus, there are less people to dodge while biking)

Today, I didn't really feel intruded upon by any media sources, either. I have been browsing tourist webpages in order to learn more about a set of islands that Charles Darwin once visited, but idyllic beach scenes and marine life are not very hard on the eyes, and advertise themselves well enough. I suppose all the webcomics and blogs I visit are media, too, but again, since I choose to visit them, is it media in the same sense? This project is rather open ended, I'm afraid. But I suppose that one webcomic is showing an idealized lifestyle revolving around music and relationship dramatics (although that's a terrible description of it), and I think idealization might be the wrong word for it, because it would defeat the point for a comic to reflect life exactly as it is back at me, because sometimes I find life depressing or sad and that's when a silly webcomic would come in handy. So, the webcomic might not be showing life exactly as it is, but I'm pretty okay with that, and I think this particular one I am thinking of, being a serialized drama, does a good job showing realistic cause and effects-mostly, at least. I don't believe the one about the girl chucking the guy across the room so much, but the characters do seem to get hangovers, and they have realistic issues.

As for the blogs I visit, mostly they are authors that I enjoy. The authors tend to blog mostly about their writing, their family, or sometimes their craft projects. I don't mind a little merch thrown in, too, but sometimes, politics can really scare me off. I was kind of surprised to find, a week or two ago, that one of my favorite authors had blogged about some recent news items. The tone was very vehement, very up-in-arms, and it seemed to me that some of the things the author was stating as facts or as very self-evident conclusions were, in my view, great leaps of reasoning with little explanation as to what the reasoning was. Maybe I wouldn't have noticed it at all had the author been endorsing the side I agree with, but this seemed to be really extremely biased, not something encouraging people to consider this side, but rallying those among the blog reader who already agreed with this side to take action. Some of the commentators seemed to be encouraging, and asking for, a cooler-headed view, a more open view, and I found myself echoing some of their sentiments. (As one on the opposite side of the argument, I almost felt demonized by some aspects of the blog post-I promise my political views are not founded in hatred.) I found that blog post very upsetting, and have tried not to return there. I'm not sure how this will influence my view of this author's works, but I don't imagine it will make it all shiny and happy-golden.