Posts tagged get off my lawn

We were reviewing an article about the statistical analysis done on what ultimately caused the Challenger to explode - cold temperatures that morning, and the O-rings on the external fuel tanks - which presented compelling evidence that, had such analysis been done and different decisions made, the probability of a “catastrophic event” would have dropped from 13% to less than 2%.

It was a very interesting article - and I actually understood what the analysts did, despite the long statistical notations!

But what was really troubling?  Was that about half the class didn’t raise their hands.  Granted, some who didn’t should have - they didn’t because they had to check the date and make sure that they were, in fact, still pooping their diapers.  At least 4 (of 11) were not, though.  They would be born later that year.

I was 2 months shy of SIXTEEN when the Challenger exploded.

I felt old as dirt yesterday in Stats class is what I’m saying.

When I was a child, I loved Sesame Street. It was by far the most popular show among the under-10 set in Trinidad - partly because we had only one channel, and it aired twice a day, at 9am and at 4pm. You were thus guaranteed to see at least one episode a day if you got home from school in time. To this day, grown adults in T&T can recite - verbatim - classic Sesame Street skits. As can I. It’s a skill that really freaks my wife out.

But I digress. Now, I have children of my own - and they sometimes watch this millennium’s version of the classic show. And I can’t stand it.

My abhorrence has little to do with the characters today’s kids love - although I have no love for Elmo, and think Roosevelt Franklin can and should kick Murray’s ass up and down the steps of 123 Sesame Street.

It stems from what I perceive as the laziness of today’s version of the show. More than half of the hour-long show seem to be devoted to animated, pre-packaged, mini episodes of character’s “segments”. ‘Bert and Ernie’s Great Adventures’, ‘Abby’s Flying Fairy School’, and the totally irritating ‘Elmo’s World’ have replaced the hilarious interactions between Muppet characters that I loved - and it kind of pisses me off that my kids know Bert and Ernie through a canned, Claymation-like “great adventure” and not their conversations between 2 distinctly different personalities.

Now I understand that nothing is constant - and a show that’s been in existence for as long as I have (40 years!) is bound to evolve as time goes on. Times change, and tastes change. I’m sure that there is empirical evidence to support the change in format and emphasis - someone probably determined that animated versions of stuffed characters build self-esteem, or something. However, I don’t know if the change in Sesame Street over the years is a result of political correctness run amok, or just changing tastes among the toddler set. My guess is that they had more to do with economics, competition, and marketing than anything else (I’m looking at you, Barney The AntiChrist and spawn-of-Satan Teletubbies). I do know, though, that today’s Street can’t hold a candle to the Street that had me cracking up - and learning stuff from the likes of Oscar, Big Bird, Herbert Birdsfoot, and Super Grover.

I wish my kids could experience that Street.

This is not to say that today’s Street is immune to flashes of old-school-like brilliance. That song by an obviously dark-skinned, Afro’d Muppet singing that she loves her hair? Nothing would please me more than hearing my daughters sing that in a few years. Unfortunately, they’ll likely be able to sing the theme to ‘Elmo’s World’, because the former gets airplay only every so often - while the latter is now a standard that is part of every damn Sesame Street episode.

Which sucks.

For some reason I’ve garnered a bunch of new followers recently, which is cool.  So, I feel the need to repeat some things I’ve said about me and my Tumblr in the past:

• AutoPlay on your Tumblr?  I will never visit your blog again, much less follow you back.  Plus, I hope your blog gets eaten by rabid ferrets.
• I like the connections made here on Tumblr, and the only way to make connections is to show a bit of yourself.  That’s the kind of blog I’m interested in following.  So if all you do is reblog other people’s stuff, or post a bunch of other people’s photographs, I will likely not follow you.  That’s just not that interesting to me.
• This Tumblr is not for kids.  I sometimes drop an obscenity or two, and I post the occasional R rated photograph here (usually my own work).  While I can’t block a person from seeing or following my blog, if you are a child, I definitely won’t follow you back, and I’d prefer if you unfollow me like right now.  
• Despite this grumpy list, I’m pretty laid back and apparently I have a cool accent.  So I have that going for me, which is nice.
• I’ve also been known to use movie quotes.  Like from Caddyshack and stuff.

• Most things

As I get older, I find myself being struck more and more by a thought along the lines of “that’s bullshit” when I encounter something.  It’s weird.  I don’t know if my youthful idealism has left the building, or that I’m growing more cynical, or if it’s just a natural by-product of growing older.  But I’m officially in my mid-ages now (at 40, there’s a good chance I’ve lived half - hopefully, under half - of my life already), and I find that a lot of things that I thought were ‘big deals’ not too long ago, I now think “wow, that’s a lot of bullshit”. 

Among these:

• Politicians
• A lot of business
• Religion (talk about bullshit!)
• “Good to see you”
• “How are you?”
• How people get pissed off when gas prices go up
• Cut taxes and cut spending
• The amount one actually pays for a house over 30 years (man, that is some bullshit)
• Getting drunk
• The outcome of most sports games, especially college football
• Today’s popular music
• Really big SUVs

I mean - sometimes, as I read through Tumblr posts, I want to scream ‘WHY ARE YOU ALL STRESSED OUT OVER THAT BULLSHIT?”  I know everyone needs to go through a period of dramaqueenism in order to get to a point where you can discern bullshit from unbullshit - but still, some things?  Are just bullshit.

On the other hand, I find that a few things stand out as “not bullshit” all the more as I get older: for example;

• Kids
• A true partner
• Pizza
• People I still call ‘friend’ after 25 years…all 4 of them

I hope I’ll always think that some things, at least, are not bullshit.

• Sarah Palin (again - always at the top of any such list)
• Dane Cook
• Katy Perry
• Jersey Shore
• Skiing  (I know many out there - especially in my neck of the woods - are into getting outside in the freezing cold and skating down a mountain on two sticks.  Not me.  Tried it, fell down a lot, was really effing cold the entire time.  Not fun.  But hey, I’m from the Caribbean - what do I know about snow n’ shit?) 
• TWILIGHT!  Oh God - Twilight!