The Vent and Rant Thread

[brightcrow]

Feeling particularly curmudgeonly tonight, I thought I'd start this thread for those of us who need to vent, complain, rant, and otherwise be miserable. So I'll start with my pent-up frustrations from the last week, and if this thread goes nowhere, oh well, I've just embarrassed myself again (as I do everyday anyway) .

%*$W(*#% #()@)$ #%(
mumblemumblestupidpeoplemumbleevilkidsmumble
nobodylovesmeeverybodyhatesmeguessi'llgoeatworms

Whew, that felt great to get off my chest!

[littlemissattitude]

Actually, brightcrow, a vent and rant thread is a very good idea. We've had a couple around here, I think, but they were very specialized. One in particular had to do with library frustrations. But everyone needs to vent once in awhile, or to go off on a rant - and here is as good a place as any, I guess.

Goodness knows, I vent and rant around here fairly frequently. About the weather (it's always either too hot or too cold here). About my lack of success in finding a job. About stupid drivers. The list could go on and on and on.

My rant today, and I think I already mentioned it over on the Coffee Shoppe thread, is that the idiots who pass for weather forecasters around here just cannot get their stories straight. The local guy on FOX said today that the next two weeks are going to be unbearably hot. But the local guy on CBS in the mornings (he's also on one of the local radio stations) said that after the next day or so, we won't be seeing any triple digits any more for awhile. Sometimes the four local weather reports vary as much as six or seven degrees (sometimes even eight degrees) as to what the next day's high temperatures are gonig to be. And most of them are often quite wrong, especially in the seven-day forecasts.

My position is that, with all the fancy equipment and satellite information and all that they have now, if they can't forecast for the week ahead any more accurately than they otherwise do, then they just shouldn't say anything at all. I'd be perfectly satisfied if they'd stick their head out the door before they go on the weather cast to see if it's raining or not. I mean, really, I've been watching the weather report before and they insist that there isn't going to be any rain at all, anywhere in the valley, yet I'm sitting there listening to it pour rain outside. Granted, I'm about ten or twelve miles from the studios of the station I watch most frequently, but they're supposed to be able to look at the Doppler reports to see if it's raining.

I remember when I was a kid, growing up in southern California, with L.A. tv stations to watch. One guy had a mid-day show that mixed news and features (not a traditional newscast, but not really a talk show either). And he had a dart board on the set, and he used it to forecast the weather. And darn if he wasn't at least as accurate as some of the high-tech forecasting we get these days.

Well, anyway. Like I said, I like the vent and rant thread idea immensely. Although lately, I sometimes use my blog for that, thus sparing all my beloved forum friends from having to read it all the time. I'm sure you all get tired of it.

But, I'll tell you, that rant felt good.

[knivesout]

They hire cute young women as weather reporters here, possibly in an attempt to defocus from the quetionable forecasts. Which reminds me, in a Ken MacLeod sf novel, he envisons the broadcast media hiring only excitable teenagers as reporters, describing it as the most optimum use of underage labour ever. I think it would be a distinct improvement over self-obsessed grown up reporters hoping to make a splash as the next big mediator of opinion and analysis. I find these reporter-focussed news channels highly annoying - these people are so full of themselves, I've noticed they constantly interrupt interviewees just to give their own spin on what is being said. Hey, don't call it an interview then, just hire a dummy to play off and hold forth on your own time! I remember one of our best known newscasters cracking some gag about wishing he could be playing golf right now on the day the results of our recent elections were declared. Gee, thanks for showing us what an elite lifestyle you have, can I be just like you when I grow up? Gah! These days I stick to another channel that just has newscasters reading the reports out. I don't want another stupid tv personality to follow, just the facts, ma'am!

[littlemissattitude]

Facts? Facts? I don't think most of the newsreaders (I refuse to call them anchorpersons) in our local area would know a fact if it jumped up and bit them. They don't actually even read the news, the perform it. Everything, nearly, is reported like a feature story. Apparently the 5 w's and an h (who, what, when, where, why, and how), which I was taught were supposed to appear in the first paragraph of the story, if not the first sentence, have become passe. Now, sometimes, you don't find those things out until the end of the story. If you find all of them out at all - many times some are left out of the story entirely.

Self-absorbed? Well, yes. The newsreaders seem so worried about telling the viewer how he or she is supposed to feel about the story, that the story itself gets lost. The favorite cliche around here right now is, "...and then something went tragically (or horribly) wrong." Is that as opposed to it going wrong in a non-tragically wrong? Or, at the end of the story, chit-chat like, "That's so horrible" or "That's just wrong" or, in the case of a suspected criminal caught, "I sure hope he/she gets what's coming to him/her." I guess they think they've become judge and jury, too.

I remember a time when newsreaders read the news. They didn't comment. They didn't emote. The didn't make funny faces. They knew how to pronounce all the words correctly. They just communciated what was happening in the world, in the nation, in the state, in the community. And if they did do a commentary, which was very rare, it was clearly labeled as such. I guess that makes me officially old. Or old-fashioned, because I expect it to still be that way. Now all that matters is that they have the latest fashions, the latest hairstyles.

I think Don Henley got it right in his song, "Dirty Laundry".

Oh, dear. Two rants in just a few hours. I knew I was feeling cranky. I didn't know I was feeling that out of sorts with the world.

[knivesout]

Did you do a course in journalism too, littlemiss? It was oe of my graduation subjects. The gap between theory and practise has me constantly up in arms. That and the perspective on what journalism should be which I gained by having a journo for a father.


birghtcrow, I nearly forgot to mention: spit them worms out! Surely they can't be good for you!

[littlemissattitude]

Originally Posted by knivesout

Did you do a course in journalism too, littlemiss? It was oe of my graduation subjects. The gap between theory and practise has me constantly up in arms. That and the perspective on what journalism should be which I gained by having a journo for a father.


birghtcrow, I nearly forgot to mention: spit them worms out! Surely they can't be good for you!

I didn't do a major or minor in journalism, but I did do four semesters on the student newspaper in community college. Besides writing, I did three semesters as copy editor/proofreader and one semester as managing editor.

I tend to get a bit exercised (as you saw in that last rant) about the constantly lowering quality of journalism here in the States, both in print and broadcast media. I don't know enough about how journalism is done in the rest of the world to be able to judge, but it's just plain lousy here. I'm sure you've heard the quip, "If it bleeds, it leads." That's really true here, especially on local newscasts, but more and more on the national news as well. The bloodiest, goriest stories go on first. There's also more and more celebrity "news", and some of the local newscasts are taken up mostly by features - cooking, gardening, scare stories about health issues and consumer issues. It leaves little time for serious stories about serious issues.

I get depressed just thinking about it.

[knivesout]

To go off topic, what are majors and minors? In India the educational system goes like this - in between school finals and college we have two years of Pre University, where you choose either Arts, Science or Commerce, and four subjects in each. Then you get to college, where a typical BA or BSc course requires you to choose three primary subjects (I took Journo, Psychology and Eng Lit) apart from mandatory English and Second Language. How does this corellate with your educational system?

[The Master™]

I'd like to complain about the fact that way too many people have too many things to rant and rave about... I don't!!! I need something to complain about...

Oh, and brightcrow??? Stop eating the damned worms!!! Learn to share...

[dwndrgn]

Off topic note: Majors and Minors; at a four year college/university you can choose which subjects you'd like to specialize in and they give you lists of which courses you should take to further that specialization. For example, I Majored in French so took language and literature courses in that language all four years, I Minored in International Affairs (basically global politics) and had to take politics, speech, world history - that type of thing. These courses are in addition to the normal courses in English (literature), maths, sciences and whatever electives you can fit in. See what good my education got me? There's my rant. I was never even pointed in a direction to go, I was unable to find anything that linked with my subjects as far as careers go unless I wanted to be a translator. They don't give you that type of information. Of course, I ended up with those as I was taking French anyway to continue my high school education and went heavy on the sciences because I wanted to do scientific research. When I discovered that my love of science didn't translate into the classroom I had to switch gears and take other stuff that I could actually pass. I'll continue ranting later, gotta get to work.

[Amidala]

Damn it I don't want to enrol!

Its horrible
Its embarassing
I hate it
Plus I am 20 and I am going to be enrolling with a class full of kids and the odd few adults...It better not just be me and it better not be a mean person i have to see
Id rather dunk biccies and watch telly

[littlemissattitude]

Here in the States, when you go to college or university after high school, you do two things, maybe three. First of all, you have to take a certain number of general education classes. These are spread over math, sciences, history, English, humanities, social sciences, physical education. Some courses are required and others can be chosen from a series of alternatives. For example, pretty much everyone must take a basic English class (we called it English 1), everyone must take a political science class (US government), and everyone must take a basic health class. On the other hand, you can fulfill the Critical Thinking requirement by taking any one of a number of courses - at the school where I did my general education, the choices included a particular English course, any one of a number of philosophy courses, Constitutional Law, or several other choices I can't recall right now. These courses comprise about half of the college courses that must be taken for graduation, are called lower division courses, and usually are general survey courses.

Then...deep breath...you choose a subject to major in. You must do a certain number of courses in that subject, again some required and some to be chosen from a number of alternatives. These upper division courses are not all necessarily courses exactly in your major area, but relate to it in some way. They are also more specialized, in-depth courses. For example, as an Intercultural Studies major I had to take a specific economics class - International Business, a political science class that focused on the political culture of a number of different nations, a world geography class, a world religions class. Because it was a Christian university, I had to take a class in the New Testament Book of Acts, because it is the book that shows the early history and expansion of the early church from a small area into different cultural groups. I also had to choose a series of three or four classes that related to my major but had a theme. Since I am interested in the anthropology of religion, I took a class about Christianity in the Non-Western World, a class in the psychology of religion, one in the sociology of religion, and a course in the history of the Protestant Reformation. Oh, and I took a class on the Social History of Japan, and I took Latin.

And the maybe third thing I mentioned above? Some people (usually masochists) choose to minor in another subject. It's like a major, except you don't take as many classes in that subject - usually five or six. And those who are really masochistic (and very, very smart) may choose to do a double major - that just means taking the longer list of classes in two different subjects. My best friend did that, but it wasn't quite so bad - she majored in Social Science and in History, so a few of her courses counted for both majors. I thought for awhile about doing a minor in history, but I had four semesters to do everything (I didn't want to take on the expense of another semester or two), and it took my taking 18 units a semester (or, six courses a semester) to finish up in the time allotted.

Your system sounds a lot less messy and complicated than ours. And, of course, depending on what one's major is, there can be other requirements, such as internships or required study abroad, which I was supposed to do, but couldn't afford, so my work as a tutor with students from a wide range of cultures was substituted for the semester abroad requirement.

Edited to add that when I started typing this, JP had just asked the question about what majors and minors are. I knew I'd written too much.

[polymorphikos]

I hate the modern music industry. It is a machine designed for the production of sachrine crap that will appeal to the lowest common denominator. This has always been the way, but now it is a hellish maelstrom of the faeces of Pongo spp. I actually saw a feature on MTV detailing how producers are so "Overworked" from the back-breaking labour of producing Urban and R&B backing tracks, that they are actually creating single tracks and modifying them slightly for eacjh song. It has become a case of pick the singer, pick the track, pick the lyrics, mix for three and one half minutes and served chilled to gullible young people.

I hate to say it, and it sounds like stereotyping, but the key offenders are young girls. The singles chart determines what is played on commercial radio, and whereas the album charts will often have a reasonable mix of good and bad, original and mass-marketed cooky-cutter, the singles-charts are dominated by inane divas thumping-out monochrome tripe about the horrors of their lives, with far more verbal acrobatics then are needed. And it is the teenage girls who are warped by this and tricked into believing it to be original, quality stuff.

Then there's the whole thing of Afro-American culture being strip-mined to provide directionless young people with an identity. And what does it equal? It equals hip-hop videos and urban music, the twin pillars of evil. "Ooh, look, that man is Black, thus cool, and has many hot chicks with large arses. Let us emulate him". I don't know what the lay afro-american thinks, but it sure as hell ***** me. There is nothing but mass-produced urban, "R&B" and power-pop in the charts these days. Young teenage girls rule the singles charts, and thus the airwaves are dominated by irritating drivel.

The solution is re-education. We must start a process of stopping teenage girls from becoming jerksome, corporate-controlled, walking cliches. They are brain-washed into consumerist obsessions and fixations on physical appearance that are inexplicable. Young men are, too, with their stupid Adidas jackets and hats, but it just sickens me to see millions of young people around the world being turned into tasteless spendthrifts.

We must save our youth, before they are swallowed-up by pop culture. Those with good taste and commonsense of the world, unite!

Next time: The Americanisation of the Universe.

The Culture Reformation Endeavour (CuRE) is currently accepting membership inquiries from all interested parties. Be a part of the CuRE.

[dwndrgn]

I agree somewhat with your rant, Poly - some of it is a tad overstated and overgeneralized but the gist, in my opinion, is right on. Since you ranted so well on that subject, I won't continue it. I've got lots of rants but they're all so petty and I'm so tired from lack of sleep that they'd probably be incoherent.

[Lacedaemonian]

I hate people in general. Most people are thick, and do not deserve to live.

[polymorphikos]

The man of creepy avatar is a mite pessimistic.

The Americanisation of the World:

I feel sorry for Americans. A reasonable, pleasnat race, if the people in this forum and the better TV shows are anything to judge by, and yet their upper echelons suck absolutely. I am refering priciply to their companies. This is mostly because America is a country highly conducive to big buisness, and as a result mega companies have formed that are eating the world. The US government was/is trying to push for a reduction in local content laws in Australia as part of the free trade agreement, and it pisses me off.

I am not a naive demoniser. It isn't just Americans doing this, but many nations, and if America fell someone would quickly fill the void. The blame also shifts to the people in those countries who allow themselves to be swallowed by American culture. The government here had to bring-in local content laws to stop our networks from selling-out entirely and just renting American programming cheap instead of making their own expensively.

I'm not entirely sure that this rant has a definite point, except to say that I am disturbed at the vast influence that one country has over so many aspects of all the other nations, right down to the inexplicability of an American thing being regarded as a status symbol, and even to the point that the standard Australian spelling system is slowly being overtaken by the American form. It is bizzare that so much culture from one country is superceding so many others. An Australian number one film hasn't happened here in ages, and are charts are dominated by foreign acts which sell better.

It is a well-noted and disturbing trend, not inherently bad but perhaps in need of pruning. And I only picked America because it is the wors offendor. I have my eye on you, all you other money-hungry culture-whore nations.

To any Americans that read this: Take no offence. It is incoherent and ill-planned, and not at all direct at the American people. Just your companies, what with their owning the better part of the world and such, and your government to a lesser extent.