February 28, 2012

Greg's Top Ten Things Society Should Re-Embrace (1-5 Yesterday, 6-10 Today):

6. Websites Without Intrusive Ads: Once upon a time I could visit Yahoo! without an advertisement for a movie taking up the entire page, covering nearly every clickable link except for that tiny little box that says "close ad" hiding ever so covertly in the upper right corner of the page. It's bad enough that advertisements are everywhere on the net but now they actually have the gall to have the advertisements intrude our browsing process. I understand that these sites offer free services to us and can afford to do so by having ads on their pages. I don't have a problem with the ads, but please spare me the one that covers the entire page when I accidentally place my mouse on it. The advertisement actually dissuades me from wanting to purchase the product it is promoting because it's pissing me off. In fact, I will likely go out of my way to avoid that product as a result of it being such a pain in my ass when I go to check my e-mail.

7. Actresses Who Don't Look Like Twigs: Last night the Oscars were on and I had a moment of angst. When Angelina Jolie walked out to present an award at the ceremonies I could have sworn she had been starving herself. It was sickening. If you saw her arms you know exactly what I'm talking about. I wanted to hand her a sandwich or at least offer her one of my french fries. I love celebrities like Pink and Kate Winslet who refuse to conform to the stereotypical thin celebrity look flaunted by people like Jolie. There was actually a time in Hollywood when actresses didn't look like skeletons but those days have been long gone for too long. I hope this kind of garbage eventually becomes a thing of the past but I doubt very seriously it ever will.

8.Tuition Free College: In 1847, Baruch College, opened in New York and was noted as being the first free college in the United States. In 1862, the first Morrill Act created established free universities through federal grants. That’s right, free quality education at the university level. Today you have to barter your firstborn child and sacrifice your pets to get through college without foreclosing on your home because your university is run by Dr. Evil. Seriously, I can just see some rich jerk sitting in a mahogany chair stroking a cat while he smokes cigars made of $100 bills in a mansion that overlooks your school, laughing as starving students eat ramen and supply his fortune with their outrageous tuition. Isn’t having an intelligent society full of hard working people who are good at what they do something that could help foster a productive society? Instead lets overcharge for an education, pay teachers jack squat and leave most of the country without an education so they can become gas station attendants. How are we supposed to excel as a country when the country denies its people the education it needs to thrive?

9. Quality Journalism: First off, before people start cracking jokes, I do NOT consider myself a journalist. This is just my fun way of getting my creative juices flowing. However, ESPN, Fox News, Yahoo! and the like all consider themselves “news” sources and their brand of journalism would make Walter Cronkite turn in his grave. I could write an entire top ten list dedicated to the crap news stories that make the front page of Yahoo or ESPN - stories that have weak sources, lack credibility, have erroneous content and are generally fail to “inform” us of anything interesting. No joke, Yahoo’s front page yesterday boasted articles about a player falling while running the 40-yard dash in the NFL combine, Brad Pitt being excited about meeting Lea Thompson at the Oscars, tattoos the panel of “The Voice” regret getting and Sean Young getting arrested at an Oscar party. Now, to be fair, there are some well written and interesting stories on Yahoo, but they are few and far between when compared to the TMZ fronted drivel they boast on their homepage.

10. Mom & Pop Stores: I couldn’t leave this off the list. I think there are some people out there who really do their best to conduct their shopping experiences in small independently run shops as opposed to large department stores. I’ll be the first to admit that the convenience of a Target or Barnes & Noble sometimes wins out when I shop, but I’m not particularly happy about it. I need to make a conscious effort to keep “mom & pop” stores in business as opposed to spending my hard earned money in places where most employees couldn’t care less if I’m enjoying my shopping experience. I’m always going to enjoy going to a place that has the “Cheers” experience where everybody knows your name over a place where I’m just another walking dollar sign to some bigwig billionaire counting their fortune.