Media Consumption part 2.

I believe that over the past several months I have developed a much more critical view of media. From that I think my tastes have also evolved. I still enjoy the things I used to but I love at it deeper then I would have before.

In the end I think I will keep this blog going. I have a personal blog that I am really bad about updating regularly but I think that I want to make an effort to keep this one alive.

PSE, DXM, The Alphabet Soup of Cold Medication

I understand that people are frustrated with the new drug laws. In order to purchase products containing PSE, Pseudoephedrine (Sudafed namely), You have to go to a pharmacy and present your ID. This information is logged. You may not buy more then a certain amount per day or per month hence the reason your information is logged. You have a problem with it? Don't but Sudafed. You can not purchase the product with out an ID. This is the law. The employees are also legally responsible to follow this procedure.

This brings me to DXM, Dextromethorphan, found in cough medicine like Robitussin. Laws are in the works to make these illegal to sell to minors. Many retail giants have already complied and have made it company law not to sell these products to minors (some states have passed laws.) Anngiely wrote about this very situation.

I'd like to point out that before PSE was legally required to be placed behind Pharmacy Counters, retailers did the same thing that is currently being done with DXM.

That being said the cashier selling you Robitussin is not asking for your ID because they want to. They are asking because they have to. If they see you are over 18 they aren't going to card you. When they do check it is because their company has deemed it so and they will face consequences if they do not check, like being fired. This information is not stored like with PSE. At most the register asked for a birth date to be entered to verify the customer is over 18 (just like when cigarettes are sold).

That's life.

James Kim

San Fransisco man James Kim was found dead today in the Oregan woods. If you have heard the news over the past couple days you probably have heard about the Kim family. He was a Cnet employee. His wife and two kids were found alive Monday but he had gone off to look for help so he was not rescued. Searchers were hopeful but Kim did not make it. It's very sad. My heart goes out to the Kim family.

Meez

I heard about website a few weeks ago and I decided to go check it out. Meez is a website where you can create a little personal animated...person. You have to register to save your meez but not to check it out. When you register your Meez you can then do all kings of stuff with it including placing in on blogs, downloading it to email, instant messanger, etc. You can dress it up, change it's look, put it in different animations, and recently they added it boyfriends and girlfriend. Your Meez can date Brad Pitt. They also have extra that you can purchase. It's kind of a nifty site. I wanted to see how it worked so I created a simple Meez as shown below.

Removal of Channels can mess up routines

Desperate Housewives first aired on October 3rd 2004. For the past several years we have recieved a New York feed of prime time channels which gave us the options of catching shows at two different times, or watching 2 shows that we would have had to choose between otherwise. On that particular Sunday my family sat down to check out Desperate Housewives at 6 on the New York feed instead of waiting until 9. We were hooked and a Sunday tradition was born. My family (I know this is silly) gathers to watch Desperate Housewives at 6 pm on Sundays. This Sunday our Tradition was ruffled.

A court order, effective midnight on December 1st, required Dish Network to shut off these feeds. Some might say that it doesn't matter because we still have all those channels 3 hours later. After years of this though, routines have been established. My parents used to get up and get ready to work while watching Regis and Kelly. This is no longer possible and frankly it really sucks.

Though we will continue our ritual as best we can, it has really changed the whole Sunday night dynamic, and It's quite unfortunate.

Iraq is now in a state of Civil War...Just now though

Over Thanksgiving I was talking to my Grandpa about the War in Iraq. We were watching the news and he ask "Why don't they just call it a civil war?" I didn't really have much of an answer other then the Bush Administration were reluctant to do so for whatever reason. Consequently when I was perusing Google News the morning a USA Today article caught my attention. I read two that were very interesting.

The first said that yesterday (Monday) Matt Lauer announced on the Today show that NBC has decided to use the term "civil war" to describe the ongoings in Iraq. They say it was a decision that took much deliberation and they will use the term despite the White House's objections.

The second article was a follow up that was released this morning. It explained the debate further. Apparently on Sunday the New York Times wrote an article that defined Civil war: " "The first says that the warring groups must be from the same country and fighting for control of the political center, control over a separatist state or to force a major change in policy. The second says that at least 1,000 people must have been killed in total, with at least 100 from each side.""

That sounds like a civil war to me.

Kramer Makes Racist Remarks

Comedian Michael Richards, best known as Cosmo Kramer, Jerry Seinfeld's wacky neighbor in "Seinfeld" apologized on Monday for a Racist Rant at a Comedy Club Friday night.

Richards was doing a stand up routine at Laugh Factory in Hollywood. After an African American Man began to heckle Richards he had an angry outburst, using racial slurs directed toward the man in the audience.

He appeared, unscheduled, via Satellite, on The Late Show With David Letterman last night to issue an apology. Jerry Seinfeld, who was scheduled, requested the appearance. Seinfeld had previously issued a statement saying he was sick over Richard's comments. He also said that Richards must have been as well.

The Washington Post article said:

Seinfeld, who had previously been booked to promote the DVD release of "Seinfeld's" seventh season, had earlier issued a statement saying he was "sick" over Richard's remarks.
"I'm sure Michael is also sick over this horrible, horrible mistake," Seinfeld said in his statement. "It is so extremely offensive. I feel terrible for all the people who have been hurt."

This all seems reminiscent of Mel Gibson's drunken incident not to long ago. Though Richards doesn't have the same celebrity as Gibson, I imagine it is going to hurt his career just the same. What a jackass. Both of them. I don't care if they apologized, there's no excuse for it in this day and age. It disgusts me.