Music TV

This is from the BC edition of Report/Newsmagazine - not one of my favorite periodicals, mind you, but occassionally everybody makes sense.

"Ask parents about the effects of television on their children, and the answer is easy to predict. Some of the most offensive material is found on channels that are directed specifically at teens--the music channels. Not only are the stations' music videos replete with near-explicit sex acts, violence and other vulgarities, but their regular programming is often offensive too.

In Canada, the worst offender is MuchMusic. In the U.S., it is MTV, the granddaddy of the music video channels. There is no sign that anyone associated with either station has the foggiest idea about the deleterious effects of their sexually charged programming, but at least one prominent 'ex-MTVer has seen the light.

She is Martha Quinn, an original MTV video host. I happened to catch a radio interview with her while I was driving through Washington state over the summer. What she had to say about her old place of employment is worth repeating.

"MTV has introduced sexuality to our children at a much younger age," she observed. "And I regret that...It's very sexualized. And I think that's a shame. I see it in my child's ballet recital. Instead of doing the Nutcracker Suite now, they're all doing Britney Spears. And instead of doing plies, they're shaking their booties. And I'm talking about four-year-olds. And to me, that's a shame."

But isn't it more than a little ironic that she will not let her child watch the channel that made her famous? "It is ironic," she agreed. "But I guess the pull of motherhood is stronger than the pull of hip iconhood. When I was on MTV, I used to think that parents who didn't like MTV were so completely clueless and so completely square, and I would never be like that. And now I am so like that."

Martha Quinn, welcome to adulthood."

warning: the following may not be considered humorous by all

1. Two antennas meet on a roof, fall in love and get married. The ceremony wasn't much, but the reception was excellent.

2. Two hydrogen atoms walk into a bar. One says, "I've lost my electron." The other says, "Are you sure?" The first replies, "Yes, I'm positive..."

3. A jumper cable walks into a bar. The bartender says, "I'll serve you, but don't start anything."

4. Two peanuts walk into a bar, and one was a salted.

5. A sandwich walks into a bar. The bartender says, "Sorry we don't serve food in here."

6. A dyslexic man walks into a bra.

7. A man walks into a bar with a slab of asphalt under his arm and says: "A beer please, and one for the road."

8. Two cannibals are eating a clown. One says to the other: "Does this taste funny to you?"

9. "Doc, I can't stop singing 'The Green, Green Grass of Home.'" "That sounds like Tom Jones Syndrome." "Is it common?" Doc says, "It's Not Unusual."

10. Two cows standing next to each other in a field, Daisy says to Dolly, "I was artificially inseminated this morning." "I don't believe you," said Dolly. "It's true, no bull!" exclaimed Daisy.

11. An invisible man marries an invisible woman. The kids were nothing to look at either.

13. I went to buy some camouflage trousers the other day but I couldn't find any.

13. I went to the butcher's the other day and I bet him 50 bucks that he couldn't reach the meat off the top shelf. He said, "No, the steaks are too high."

14. I went to a seafood disco last week... and pulled a mussel.

15. What do you call a fish with no eyes? A fsh.

16. Two termites walk into a bar. One asks, "Is the bar tender here?"

" We adhere to the philosophy that for every dollar one man gets that he does not earn some other man earns a dollar that he doesn't get.

" We believe that every man should have the fruit of his labour, but we are unwilling through sharp practice or clever manipulation to take advantage of another's ignorance or misfortune to filch his earnings for ourselves"

Everett Baker 1925 "Qualifications We Look for in Co-operative Employees"

(Thanks, AM, for the great quote)

Aye, there's the rub.
But 5% would be nice.
Question for you - what do you take into account with tithing?
Gross income or net income?
Interest and investment?
How about cash gifts?
If you can't read the above strip, it's today's and you can find it at the Dilbert homepage

plain language

A big part of my job is writing, and for most projects I am supposed to write in plain language - in other words, it should be readily understood even by people who may have some trouble reading.

I've heard that some people object to plain language, saying that it "dumbs down" writing and that it's harder to be accurate.

My sister sent this to me. It's an actual email she received from someone. I think it points out why the plain language movement is necessary:

I bridge too many generational paradigms. As a Gideon I solicit financial support to distribute printed copies of the Christian Scriptures. I frequently use http://www.biblegateway.com/ for quick printouts or search on key words or thoughts. A few years ago, while operating bookstores, we would market digital tools that were much more than necessary.

I was just informed that I make far too many assumptions that people know what is good on the Internet. So I create the awareness of this site for wider distribution.

Case closed.

(My sister's plain language translation: "This is a good website for you to use.")

the man I married

Every time I turn around it seems Rob has been up to something.

I have quite a few binders around to arrange papers for work. One is to store the Freedome of Information and Protection of Privacy Act and the Personal Health Information Act.

It has a label on the spine that says:

FIPPA
PHIA

Today I went to grab it. It said:

COPPA
FEELA

Another one says:

Miscellaneous
Articles

Well, it did say that, until it read

Mischievous
Anuses

But now that we have a new computer he's in heaven. He stayed up all night to alter the picture below on the top to the one on the bottom, just slipped it in the frame and said nothing.

Wacky photos

thinking further

I started musing about why I felt like I had to find community and why it's such a big jump to think about creating community. I think I'm very much a product of my environment. North American society avoids responsibility like the plague. We're very good at talking about rights, we all have rights coming out of our ying yang - the UN Rights of the Child, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. But unless someone is responsible to deliver on those rights, they are meaningless. And if people take responsibilities seriously, there is no need to discuss rights.

But we don't like responsibility. Video games manufacturers taking responsibility for the influence of their games on fragile morality? Absolutely not? Clothing designers taking responsiblity for how their advertising promotes eating disorders? Forget it! The most powerful are very quick to say, "It's up to the parents" - while at the same time creating a world where the dollar is all that matters and parents are robbed of their time with their children in order to survive economically. And when it comes to parents, responsiblity in some people's eyes gets very distorted. Parents are not only responsible for what they do for their children, they are considered responsible for the children's actions (e.g. wanting to punish parents for the actions of their children)

We are all affected by our culture. I think a major challenge for Christians is to move past a rights-based way of thinking to a Jesus mindset of serving, giving up ourselves and doing to others what we would have them do to us. We are responsible for our influences, but not others' behaviour. I fear that we do not necessarily critically examine this.

from Sacred Space...

There are very few people
who realise what God would make of them
if they abandoned themselves into his hands,
and let themselves be formed by his grace. (St Ignatius)

community

The topic of community arose again this morning (and thanks, JJ and Andrea for the conversation). This is an ongoing theme (Yes, God, I'm getting it). Dad's passing has so emphasized to me the need for community.

On the way to the funeral I told Rob that I didn't want to go through this process there (meaning the town I grew up in). For me that place was about rejection. Yet I experienced the exact opposite - people surrounded our whole family with love, including me. I realized that the rejection had come from a few people, not everyone. More than that, I realized what community could look like. The exact opposite came about - I didn't want to leave to come back to Winnipeg, because I didn't think I'd find community here and more and more I realize my need for it.

Community is not a category, it's a spectrum. And I have it here - but it seems smaller and harder to achieve. The times of my life that I've felt like I'm really a part of a group are few and far between. I'm usually an individual connected to a few other individuals. Sometimes I've believed I'm not capable of being part of community. Other times I think it must be where I am and I need to leave and find community.

The truth, I think, is that I'm capable of being part of a community. But I won't find it. I feel like God has been telling me lately that I have to create it. Because even if I did find a place that does community well, as long as I'm convinced that it something that happens to me rather than by me, I won't be a part of things.

Dang I love these kids

Read a very interesting article today on economic and social development. The general point was about the need for a society to actively ensure both economic and social development. We are experiencing a lot of economic changes in our society - how well we face these changes depends on the adaptability of our population. I.e. we need skilled, smart, talented people. Those types of people don't just happen - they are made when a society pays attention to social development, especially wealth redistribution. Unfortunately, during this time of economic change there has also been huge slashes in social services and a widening gap between the rich and the poor. No nation can hope to continue to prosper while leaving it's social development floundering (sorry, Fraser Institute).

Here are my thoughts: Canada is starting to get it's act together and reinvest, so we may yet do okay (Manitoba is one of the best provinces, IMHO, for realizing these realities and planning for them). Great Britain is as well. Many European nations never lost it.

The US is on it's way down. It's has the highest incarceration rate of any developed country. It's social services are residual and it's income gap is the largest. It has the most rich people, it also has the most poor people. Because it is not investing in it's own people, it can't sustain itself. It will not remain "the" world power. It will eventually have so many poor, needy people that it will no longer have the capacity to prosper economically.

Here's a quote.

Daniel P. Keating & J. F. Mustard (1993): "we need also to recognize the social necessity of enhancing the development of competence throughout the population. Our future economic prosperity depends on our ability to participate actively in technical innovation, which in turn relies on the diversity of talent the society has available. Failure to invest in families with children thus has potential costs to society in the form of less healthy and more poorly functioning adults. Adequate support, in contrast, not only reduces those burdens but also sharply improves the prospects for future economic growth. "

I need you!

I'm going to use this blog as a small survey tool.

Issue: I'm writing a brochure/one pager on early childhood development.

Problem: I need to write to my audience. As I've been immersed in all sorts of information about early childhood for almost a year now, it's hard to think of what it was like when I didn't know this stuff.

How you can help: You can tell me some of your thoughts and questions about early childhood (from conception to school entry). Do you think it's an important time? Why do you think it's important - or not important? Do you have any questions about how children develop? Do you wonder why some kids struggle and some kids thrive? Do you wonder if what happens to kids makes a difference to them? (Or anything else that occurs to you.)

out of Winnipeg

Went to Rob's uncle and aunt's cabin in Kenora last week.

Went to Altona to visit my newly married friend and go to the water park today.

These people have great houses, huge yards, the communities seem friendly and safe.

It's peaceful.

Why do I live in Winnipeg?

Taryn was looking at some of my clothes and pulled out a chemise that I got at a lingerie shower. She is totally fascinated by it - my mom pjs are significantly different than by just-got-married ones. So she asked me if she can have it, seeing as I don't wear it. And I said no. She kept this up, and then a day later resigned herself: "I guess I can have it when you die." (!!!) I don't know whether to be amused or disturbed!

What a bonehead

I'm still thinking about the stupid game below.

I forgot Adrian Plass. Of course I'd choose to meet him. He would be number 1.

Bad doctors

Watched Fifth Estate on Wednesday. It was about a ob/gyn who had harmed a lot of women. The class action lawsuit currently has about 300 women involved. Unnecessary hysterectomies, infections undiagnosed and the like. The hospital knew what was going on but did little. The complaints that went to the College of Physicians and Surgeons resulted in his retraining, which was a communications course.

Several things occurred to me.

1. You can't just trust someone because s/he's a doctor. This just doesn't occur to many people. A medical degree is somehow seen as proof that the person is close to omniscient and completely ethical. You can teach ethics, but you can't impart them, and medical training does not cover many things that people ask doctors about (e.g. parenting). Some doctors are just bad. Some have beliefs and practices that are out of step with best practice. It's bad enough that some people don't bother to be caretakers of their own health and think instead of just being blindly lead. It's worse when doctors react with righteous indignation when they are questioned. How did it happen that a simple profession is held up to much higher esteem than it deserves?

2. It seems like a lot more women are subject to malpractice than men. I have no stats to back this up, it just seems like a lot more women get bad care, especially gynecological. There seems to be an attitude towards women and their machinery that is cavalier. Why so many hysterectomies in general? Can you imagine them castrating men at the same rate that they yank out women's organs? Medicine tends to be patriarchal, and I think men tend to get more respect from doctors.

3. The public has to be protected from reckless professionals. And here I will incriminate my own profession - social work. Did you know that in Manitoba, anyone can just declare themselves a social worker? If you want to be a registered social worker you must meet certain qualifications. But unlike doctors and nurses, in Manitoba you do not have to be registered to practice. That means that a shoddy social worker cannot be disciplined and have his/her license revoked because there is no license. Considering the power that being a SW can wield, this is inexcusable and needs to change. (And yes, I will be choosing to get registered when we can afford it.)

Gotta love Dogbert

"I believe in Karma. That means I can do bad things to people all day long and I assume they deserve it."

Tagged.

Who thought of this fool game? *&%$@ youngsters...

10 years ago today-> Fairly newly married. Probably having sex. Employed at a group home that totally and completely stressed me out. Living in the apartment not so affectionately known as "The Hole".

5 years ago -> First summer with my first child. Would have recently been dismissed from above group home once I realized that my neck injury had not recovered to the place where I could do the job anymore. Kind of relieved.

1 year ago-> 1st summer with my 3rd child. Quite stressed about having 3 kids, but excited about the idea of starting a practicum in fall doing policy work.

Yesterday -> Went to church. Cried. Went to the in laws. Relaxed except when darting to keep Conor from killing himself. Read some of the stack of papers my FIL keeps around because he knows I like to read them and am too cheap to get my own subscription.

Tomorrow -> Probably will go into the office, then to U of M to look up some articles for the child care paper I'm working on. I also might buy the Handbook on Early Childhood Interventions, 2nd ed.

5 snacks I enjoy -> Loaded nachos, toast and cottage cheese, grilled cheese sandwich, pretzels, cheetos.

5 adult beverages I enjoy -> Wine, silver cloud, dacquiri, margarita, pina colada (and getting caught in the rain)

5 bands I know the lyrics to-> (I know all the lyrics for no bands, so I'll pick ones I might know a few songs) Proclaimers, Petra, Whiteheart, Servant...can't think of anything else (Is that sad, or what? I can't understand most of what people sing and have hardly bought any music since I was into 80s Christian Rock)

5 things I would do with $100 000 000 -> Buy a house, buy a trailer, give money to organizations I believe in, take a fun trip, hire someone to look after my Mom.

5 locations I would like to run away to -> Great Britain, Disneyland, Hawaii, Churchill, Australia

5 bad habits I have -> Eating too much, thinking nobody really cares, speaking without thinking, staying up late, leaving unrinsed dishes in the sink ("to turn into concrete," says Rob)

5 things I love doing -> Eating too much, writing songs, reading, tooling around on the net, cuddling my kids.

5 things I would never wear -> thong underwear, a bikini bathing suit, hooker boots, , velour sweatsuit, the Crown Jewels.

5 tv shows I like -> Gilmore Girls, What Not to Wear, While You Were Out, Mythbusters, Corner Gas.

5 movies I like-> Meet the Parents, Mr. Holland's Opus, Sneakers, What's Eating Gilbert Grape?, Spanglish

5 famous people I would love to meet-> Alton Brown, The Proclaimers (that's 2), Robin Williams, Patricia Heaton

5 biggest joys at the moment -> Being fascinated by the research I'm doing, blogging, teaching Taryn piano, gazing in Ashlin's adoring eyes, making Conor laugh

5 favorite toys-> camera, computer, keyboard, digital TV, The Farming Game.

5 people to tag -> I will tag Collen b/c I'm sure she's lurking and she can anser on Breathe, too, also Bev, Joyska, Sonya, and Yvonne (when she gets back).

Walking

Walking is a theme that keeps reverberating for me in my God-life, in a figurative way (physically would be good too - seems I can barely find time to work, be with my kids and deal with my mom's stuff). The theme is that I think God is saying that I will discover his truth as I walk in his paths. I won't feel faith and deal with doubt just by reading, or praying, but by walking it out. The verse about perfect love casting out fear really hit home. How does that work? Not by getting prayed for, feeling the love of God wash over me and then suddenly having no fear. Rather, by walking in the way of love, fear will disappear (theoretically, I'm not that good at it yet).

When I went back to Saskatchewan to get a handle on taking over most of Mom's life I had an example of this. At the funeral lunch my former neighbour had been talking and said she said that when I was in again she would love to get together for lunch. Normally I ignore such things and just assume the person is saying that to be nice. But this time I felt a certain push to follow up. So I called her and we had lunch.

She is one of those amazingly big hearted people, and she and her husband have 2 biological kids and four adopted kids. The latter came into their lives at varied ages, from eight months old to late teens. A couple of the kids are really struggling. I told her about some of the things I was learning about brain development, that if kids don't get the stimulation and care they need early on it will actually change the way the brain forms. Kids who don't get what they need may always have more difficulty that others. I quoted her from one book I read which said that this aspect of brain development doesn't make a blueprint for life, but it sets a sturdy or fragile stage for what is to come. She got tears in her eyes and said, "I've never heard anyone describe my kids so well."

I read the Sacred Space entry for today, about Jesus feeding thousands of people. What struck me this time was that he was grieving when that happened. I can feel so tempted to draw into myself and feel like this is my time to be ministered to, and I keep feeling the nudge that says you go out and minister to others, even now.

On the way home I suddenly realized a song was going through my head, one that I had not heard for a long time, and I seem to be noticing that when that happens the song is usually significant. It was the one that goes:

You make my joy complete
As I abide in you
You fill my every need
As I abide in you

And I felt like God said that the visit was about walking. I responded to his nudge to follow-up and my friend heard something she really needed to hear at that point. But in the process, joy came to me, too.