Misrepresented People
Feb. 3rd, 2003 07:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jakebe
Hey there, all...
This weekend was interesting to say the least...it had it's fair share of drama. The local furs here are going through a bit of an identity crisis; mainly, I just think that some of us aren't dealing with natural changes that occur over time very well while others don't recognize that we've changed at all. Given our personalities, we have this tendency to polarize people when we disagree, too...and all of that is factoring in on what's going on. Mainly, though, I think we've gotten so *used* to decrying oversensitivity that we've gone a wee bit overboard on it and we've forgotten to be empathetic to our friends. All of us. This is something I'd like to work on.
Hell Month has started! No talky for me for a month. I'm dealing with it all right; I still have the habit of wanting to get on the computer and browse, or read, or do anything, but I'm slowly breaking myself of that. I think I'll be OK, even if I do miss a lot of people already.
This weekend was interesting to say the least...it had it's fair share of drama. The local furs here are going through a bit of an identity crisis; mainly, I just think that some of us aren't dealing with natural changes that occur over time very well while others don't recognize that we've changed at all. Given our personalities, we have this tendency to polarize people when we disagree, too...and all of that is factoring in on what's going on. Mainly, though, I think we've gotten so *used* to decrying oversensitivity that we've gone a wee bit overboard on it and we've forgotten to be empathetic to our friends. All of us. This is something I'd like to work on.
Hell Month has started! No talky for me for a month. I'm dealing with it all right; I still have the habit of wanting to get on the computer and browse, or read, or do anything, but I'm slowly breaking myself of that. I think I'll be OK, even if I do miss a lot of people already.
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Hey there, all...
This weekend was interesting to say the least...it had it's fair share of drama. The local furs here are going through a bit of an identity crisis; mainly, I just think that some of us aren't dealing with natural changes that occur over time very well while others don't recognize that we've changed at all. Given our personalities, we have this tendency to polarize people when we disagree, too...and all of that is factoring in on what's going on. Mainly, though, I think we've gotten so *used* to decrying oversensitivity that we've gone a wee bit overboard on it and we've forgotten to be empathetic to our friends. All of us. This is something I'd like to work on.
Hell Month has started! No talky for me for a month. I'm dealing with it all right; I still have the habit of wanting to get on the computer and browse, or read, or do anything, but I'm slowly breaking myself of that. I think I'll be OK, even if I do miss a lot of people already. <:)
Certain folks on my friends list may have gotten a (not-so) random person adding them as a friend. Don't worry...erm, it's me. Thanks to <user site="livejournal.com" user="jtskunk"> for the LJ code, I've got a second LJ now! First post'll be coming shortly.
I was awake and channel-surfing very early on Saturday morning, so I was there for the very beginning of the <i>Columbia</i> explosion. My very first, knee-jerk reaction was one of apathy. The media didn't really have much to go on besides NASA's statement of 'We can't find them.' So, for the first few hours they didn't do anything but show the home videos people had taken of the shuttle breaking up on re-entry. Over, and over, and over, and over, and over again. Then, as the day and weekend wore on, they added NASA photos of the seven astronauts, and flags at half-mast, and the first piece of debris, and interviews with the astronauts, all packaged for slow, silent fadeout that really brought home the poignancy and humanity of the awful tragedy.
I couldn't stop from being disgusted at the media. Life is not supposed to be a movie. We're not supposed to have Pavlovian responses to salute or cry every time we see a flag at half-mast, or the ghostly images of a dead astronaut speaking about the mission that killed him. This is the same kind of tactless manipulation that drove the media to show people on fire jumping from the Twin Towers on 9.11. It's disrespectful to the dead, severely disrespectful, and I wish they would learn some kind of decorum for these things. It's really hard to feel empathy for a situation when "Columbia: A Shuttle Tragedy" burns across your screen like you're about to see some kind of movie trailer. I would just love for the media to stop and think about journalistic integrity once before shuffling off into 'tragedy mode'.
I was told on Sunday night that the had begun to find the remains of the astronauts scattered over a town in Texas, and that's what got me to really connect with the situation. Seven people burned and died 39 miles above the planet. That's a horrible, sobering thought. There's not much more I can say about it that hasn't been said already (and better) from other folks, so I'll leave it at that.
I went to see <i>Final Destination 2</i> with a couple folks last night. I don't really know what to think of this movie. It was well done as far as being slippery and sort of tense, but I can't say I liked it. It gave this weird, wry, ironic twist to all of these people dying in horrible ways that left me with a vague sense of unease. I think it was the simple fact that these people in the movie had death become this tangible, malevolent force that terrified them into fulfilling their own prophecies...as a concept it was really fascinating to think about, but you couldn't think about it too much through the explosions and gore. <:) It's not a bad movie for what it is, but it's not really my cup of tea. I would have much rather seen <i>The Hours</i> or <i>Bowling for Columbine</i> or <i>The 25th Hour</i> or <i>Chicago</i> or <i>About Schmidt</i>, but alas, no one's in much of a movie-watching mood these days. Foo.
Changeling game tonight! I still haven't completely written the second part of last week's game, so I'll work on that. I'm gonna have to get rolling with a *lot* of Boomer Express strips (second half of February and March, too) so that Tyrnn can have as many as he knows what to do with before he heads off to Japan in a little while. There's work, and such and such; there's always plenty to do, eh?
This weekend was interesting to say the least...it had it's fair share of drama. The local furs here are going through a bit of an identity crisis; mainly, I just think that some of us aren't dealing with natural changes that occur over time very well while others don't recognize that we've changed at all. Given our personalities, we have this tendency to polarize people when we disagree, too...and all of that is factoring in on what's going on. Mainly, though, I think we've gotten so *used* to decrying oversensitivity that we've gone a wee bit overboard on it and we've forgotten to be empathetic to our friends. All of us. This is something I'd like to work on.
Hell Month has started! No talky for me for a month. I'm dealing with it all right; I still have the habit of wanting to get on the computer and browse, or read, or do anything, but I'm slowly breaking myself of that. I think I'll be OK, even if I do miss a lot of people already. <:)
Certain folks on my friends list may have gotten a (not-so) random person adding them as a friend. Don't worry...erm, it's me. Thanks to <user site="livejournal.com" user="jtskunk"> for the LJ code, I've got a second LJ now! First post'll be coming shortly.
I was awake and channel-surfing very early on Saturday morning, so I was there for the very beginning of the <i>Columbia</i> explosion. My very first, knee-jerk reaction was one of apathy. The media didn't really have much to go on besides NASA's statement of 'We can't find them.' So, for the first few hours they didn't do anything but show the home videos people had taken of the shuttle breaking up on re-entry. Over, and over, and over, and over, and over again. Then, as the day and weekend wore on, they added NASA photos of the seven astronauts, and flags at half-mast, and the first piece of debris, and interviews with the astronauts, all packaged for slow, silent fadeout that really brought home the poignancy and humanity of the awful tragedy.
I couldn't stop from being disgusted at the media. Life is not supposed to be a movie. We're not supposed to have Pavlovian responses to salute or cry every time we see a flag at half-mast, or the ghostly images of a dead astronaut speaking about the mission that killed him. This is the same kind of tactless manipulation that drove the media to show people on fire jumping from the Twin Towers on 9.11. It's disrespectful to the dead, severely disrespectful, and I wish they would learn some kind of decorum for these things. It's really hard to feel empathy for a situation when "Columbia: A Shuttle Tragedy" burns across your screen like you're about to see some kind of movie trailer. I would just love for the media to stop and think about journalistic integrity once before shuffling off into 'tragedy mode'.
I was told on Sunday night that the had begun to find the remains of the astronauts scattered over a town in Texas, and that's what got me to really connect with the situation. Seven people burned and died 39 miles above the planet. That's a horrible, sobering thought. There's not much more I can say about it that hasn't been said already (and better) from other folks, so I'll leave it at that.
I went to see <i>Final Destination 2</i> with a couple folks last night. I don't really know what to think of this movie. It was well done as far as being slippery and sort of tense, but I can't say I liked it. It gave this weird, wry, ironic twist to all of these people dying in horrible ways that left me with a vague sense of unease. I think it was the simple fact that these people in the movie had death become this tangible, malevolent force that terrified them into fulfilling their own prophecies...as a concept it was really fascinating to think about, but you couldn't think about it too much through the explosions and gore. <:) It's not a bad movie for what it is, but it's not really my cup of tea. I would have much rather seen <i>The Hours</i> or <i>Bowling for Columbine</i> or <i>The 25th Hour</i> or <i>Chicago</i> or <i>About Schmidt</i>, but alas, no one's in much of a movie-watching mood these days. Foo.
Changeling game tonight! I still haven't completely written the second part of last week's game, so I'll work on that. I'm gonna have to get rolling with a *lot* of Boomer Express strips (second half of February and March, too) so that Tyrnn can have as many as he knows what to do with before he heads off to Japan in a little while. There's work, and such and such; there's always plenty to do, eh?
