for the love of the game?

As the roommate and ladyfriend of a true sports fanatic, I know a bit about sports. I spend most Sundays these days watching being in the room while Brian watches the NFL, I know what a "spread" is, I often inquire about how Brian's fantasy teams are doing... I even read sports blogs now and again.

And I get the allure of sports, I really do. Before any sports-crazed readers (do I have any of those?) come after me, let me say that I absolutely think sports is a worthy and valuable part of society* and I don't think that should be diminished.

But two things I will never get, or be able to support, are the money and the egos.

I don't understand how someone can make tens of millions of dollars a year and still say they "need" more. They "deserve" more.

People say that players should get paid that much because they bring in that much. I don't believe that. I think it's an insanely greedy catch-22. People are willing to pay, so owners and companies and players and everyone else involved get greedy and charge more and more. But people are willing to pay, so...

So $10 million stadiums are built and ticket prices skyrocket to pay it off. Let's not even get into how much a beer and a hot dog will run you these days. Before you know it, you've spent easily over $400 - and that's for nosebleed seats.

It makes me kind of sick, actually. And sad.

I'm sad that in another generation or so, only the extremely wealthy will even be able to consider going to see a professional game live. I'm sad that a kid who can kick, throw or dunk a ball well makes many times as much money as the researchers out there working every day to cure disease or work towards peace or help the homeless/impoverishes/sick/underprivileged. I'm sad that the real spirit of sports is increasingly being lost in personal drama (OMG Tiger Woods), fan anger drama (OMG Lebron James), ego-the-size-of-the-moon-drama (OMG Cam Newton), steroid abuse drama (OMG every baseball player out there today), and all the other ridiculous drama "news" surrounding the players, the teams, the owners, etc.

Where's the love, people?

* Particularly when compared with pop culture tidbits such as Bridalplasty.

we are living in a technological world and I am a technological girl

I've been thinking a lot about the crossover - and in many ways, takeover - of the communication world lately.

For example, I use and/or consume books, magazines, tv, newspapers, smartphones, facebook, twitter, blogs, etc - and most of them all in one day! I am clearly a social media guru.

(Brian lovingly suggested that social media whore might be more precise, but that's neither here nor there).

But in this time of too much information becoming the only acceptable amount of information, where is the line? When do you cross it? Does it even exist?

Fellow (former) BU journalist and one of Brian's favorite sports guys, Bill Simmons, recently wrote a great article about a potential side effect of all this communication crossover for professional journalists.*

I think we live in a cool time. Cool, but scary. Things are changing and fast. I remember a time when people didn't have cell phones. I remember when we got our first family computer and when the Internet entered (and changed) our lives. I remember when facebook was founded (and only for college students), and every permutation it has undergone since.

The scary part, besides the whole "big brother is watching" element (a post for another day), is that kids five years and especially ten years younger than me don't have any idea what life is like without their own personal phone attached to their hand and their own personal computer attached to their lap (see two posts ago). They don't know what life is like without the immediate gratification of the Internet or the constant social feedback of facebook, twitter, etc.

When I was little, if I wanted to interact with my best friend, I called her house phone from my house phone and make plans to meet up for the afternoon or a sleepover. Then I'd go to her house, or she'd come to mine, and we'd play. In person. I hardly ever call my friends on the phone anymore. It's all texting and email and gchat and heytell and the occasional skype. Do kids today play the same way I did? I can't imagine they do.

In Communication 101 lecture today we conducted an experiment to see how many televisions people have. Out of 425 + freshman students, almost all of them had at least four tvs at home. Three students had 9, 10 and 11 tvs in their homes - all for families of four people or less. I find this terrifying.

I also read an article today in the New York Times about toddlers essentially becoming addicted to their parents' iPhones, which are used as entertainment, teaching tools and an easy way to pacify a fussy baby. I find this terrifying too.

Now, I am guilty of all the sins of technology - taking it for granted, being a little too attached to my computer and smart phone, checking my twitter compulsively even in company (it's so rude, I know, but I can't stop!), and of course the aforementioned social media overload.

And I think its awesome that I can blog and tweet and put my pictures on facebook. I enjoy sharing my thoughts with my friends. That I can keep up with people in Mississippi, New York, Oregon and more (even across the sea in Ireland) through technology. My career will more likely than not depend on me using multiple media in this way.

But I can't help but think there is a trade off somewhere along the line. Can't help but think these changing times are cool... but scary.

* So should I tweet about this post? A tweet about a blog post inspired by a different blog post about a tweet. How meta. 

20-something (if only I could remember what)

Someone asked my age the other day and I sort of stuttered around before blurting out "22?" I legitimately forgot how old I was.

I've often said in the past few years that I still feel 18 years old. And I do. Except I don't. I mean, I just moved 1,200+ miles all by myself (well, not really, I moved with a MAN which is even more of a scandal) to a big city where I have to pay rent and bills and grocery shop and stick to a budget and do lots of grown-up, scary/boring stuff. Yet, I still don't feel really grown up.

Luckily, people much smarter than me have researched and validated this feeling.
Read more here!:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/magazine/22Adulthood-t.html?_r=2

(Seriously, read it. It is super interesting.)

I am in awe of articles like this. I can't believe I will soon start classes that presumably will teach me the mechanics behind writing this great, although I live in secret terror that I will never have the pure talent to back up any amount of booklearning. Regardless of those feelings, validated or not, I know I need to work on my writing. Millsaps showed me that I can crank out a paper or news article quickly and fairly well, but what about storytelling? Humor? Writing about the things I really care about? That is what this blog experiment is all about. I’m not going to pretend I will write every day, although I wish I would/could. But I will try to make writing and thinking about writing a constant part of my life.

Shall we?