Television

I just made a works cited entry for an excerpt of John Fiske's Television Culture. It reminded me of two things: I need to buy the book and read the whole thing; and perhaps I really should be watching television, given my cultural studies leanings.

We have a television, but we don't even get the basic channels, so I haven't really watched any television for a year, except for the first two seasons of the X-Files (which Jon owns), Queer as Folk (which Char generously lent to us), a few episodes of Teen Titans (which Jeremiah rented), and a smattering of other owned, borrowed, or rented programs. The problem with these programs is that they're already over and that it's expensive and time consuming to rent a season and watch it before you have to bring it back to That's Entertainment (our alternative video-rental store).

On the one hand, I'm starting to feel left out of the seemingly hilarious conversations people have about the newest stupid reality show. On the other hand, I'm really glad I don't waste time watching television, because I don't have a lot of time to waste and I already spend all of it and then some on the Internet or asleep. However, I'm beginning to think I should be keeping an eye out for shows that might be useful academically. For example, someone told me about The Flavor of Love yesterday, and it sounds like something I'd want to deconstruct (though apparently it almost deconstructs itself). There are also documentaries I know I would want to watch if only I knew about them, on archeology and romance fiction (like "Who's Afraid of Happy Endings"...I had to go over to Jon's parents' house and tape it there, an option that will not be open to me in a few months). I also miss cartoons. However, the deciding factor for me won't be entertainment, but whether I'm actually suffering in my field (cultural studies) because I'm not keeping up with television programming. We'll see.

First Post

With my friend Char, I created Companions of the Write, to discuss reading, writing, and studying romance fiction. However, the rest of me was feeling a bit neglected. This blog is experimental and might disappear at any time. If I stick with it, here are some of the things I would like to discuss:

- Me
- Veganism and animal ethics
- Archeology and Cultural Resource Management
- Traveling
- Music and guitar playing
- Texts not related to romance
- Running
- Cooking and nutrition
- The university experience
- Work (I work at Anonymous Retail Chain)
- Writing (besides romance, I have been known to write poetry and life writing)
- Grammar
- Learning the French language (which relates to grammar)
- Politics and my struggle to learn to be involved in them despite my natural aversion and apathy
- Any silly thing that pops into my head, and many silly things do
- Life, the universe, and everything

I waffle a lot on the issue of personal weblogs and whether they're stupid or brilliant. I feel that Companions of the Write has a legitimate purpose and is of value to others, but Letters to James? Perhaps it's more about self-indulgence and ego than trying to share an interest with the world. Still, a few years ago I spent a great deal of my time scrolling through random Livejournals, trying to...I'm not sure what I was trying to do, exactly. Find an echo of how I thought and felt, perhaps. Get some insight into the lives of other people who would never say how they truly felt if you talked to them in the "real world" but seem to feel okay expressing themselves honestly in the mostly-anonymous world of Internet journals. If I enjoy writing in this blog and feel like I'm getting something out of it, then that's reason enough to do it. If someone reads Letters to James and enjoys it, then that's even better. But I'll try not to expect too much of it, either way.