~Whimsical Reasoning~

Whenever discussing the police of Worthington with a teenager from a different city, I tell them that since Worthington is a relatively crime-free area, of cop's favorite pass times involve catching people for speeding and interrogating teens out even a second after midnight. Sometimes I wonder if they get a curfew violator bonus, like the more teens they catch the higher they are paid, you know? If you couldn't tell by now, I have been the unfortunate victim the headlights of a cop car at 4 am. Now I know its the law, and apparently these laws are designed to keep us 'safe', but I find it impractical and annoying. Now, when I was caught, I was on public property, a sidewalk in fact, was not harming anyone or anything, had not been drinking or smoking, nor was I doing anything illegal other than being out too late. I can understand the need to catch 'delinquents' to stop them from destroying property and the like, but when a cop doesn't believe that you just didn't wear shoes out and in fact ditched them somewhere as if you got them soaked in blood or something, now that's what I have a problem with.

Now enough about me, this post is supposed to be about the new policy our bright Mayor Coleman has instated. To read the whole article, click here. Basically, if caught out past midnight, teens under 17 will be taken to the YMCA, and held until picked up by their parents. Now okay, that doesn't sound too bad right? I mean its better than being taken down to the station. Well, that's not all. If your parents do not come and pick you up, in the morning, you will be handed over to the Franklin County Children's Services. A bit extreme, yes?

Posted in: on Saturday, May 24, 2008 at at 2:05 PM 0 comments    

Ah yes, we all love reality TV, don't we? A somewhat recent phenomenon, it has evolved immensely over the past couple of years. As I have noticed thought, each show comes from the same general formula. Reality shows prey on our emotions, take for example, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. At first this show started our largely a decorating show for families in need, now the whole show revolves around the people, not the house. America likes stuff that will touch their hearts, or inspire them. Its so heart warming for viewers to watch the show, its one of those feel good shows, you just can't stop watching. Now another emotion commonly expoilted by the media, is fear. Take fear factor for example, watching people face their fears is somehow interesting to us humans

Posted in: on Sunday, May 18, 2008 at at 11:43 PM 0 comments    

Ah yes, the nostalga of our treasured childhood shows. Growing up, I didn't get cable until I was in middle school, so I spent the majority of my time watching far more educational shows that know I would have watched, as the only real time I could watch cartoons was early saturday morning. I watched pretty much every children's show that aired on PBS between the years of 1992 and 2000, including ZOOM, Puzzle Place, Sesame Street, Barney, Arthur, The Krat Brothers, Zaboomafo, and one of my favorites, Bill Nye the Science Guy. I remember them all vividly, I mean I watched them every day for like 8 years. One of the shows I have never really stopped watching is Sesame Street, as I babysit very frequently. It still has the same general outline, same main characters, but there are a lot of things that have changed and added. The most notable in my mind is a segment called Elmo's World. This segment seemed to be aimed especially at the youngest viewers of the show. Featuring a silly man called Mr. Noodle that would always twist the directions Elmo gave him in a funny way as well as a TV that had every available channel Elmo happened to need, like the Joke channel or the Dance channel. Like the predictability of Blues Clues, Elmo's World was a daily segment, running the exact same way every day.Although childrens shows have remained somewhat the same over the years, there are still new shows popping up. Most of them remind me of an acid trip, so many colors, strange shapes, and 'magical machines'. Take for example the Doodle Bops. For those of you not familiar, they are three colored alien looking people who are on a constant concert tour, which they actually do in real life around the country. Now I know the creativity so to say of the shows is nothing new, but now, even childrens shows seem to have so much going on in them. Not so much as to lose the child, but its a vast amount of information overload for a little kid. Is this just a sign of our changing world? With email, computer, and TV, most teens are used to multitasking, is this just a way to get our children prepared for life? Hmm.....

Posted in: on at at 11:42 PM 0 comments