Celebrity TV

So my mom likes to just put on the TV, then either not watch it by playing on her computer, or not watch it by talking on the phone in another room for hours. Well this leads to me background watching whatever is on. Today I experienced Ice Loves Coco.

This was a greatly baffling experience, how can people watch this? Why do people care about what random celebrities are doing in their personal life? Oh man, Ice T needs some "me" time, and his nephews are annoying him, this is sooo interesting! Now the dog is swimming, OMG I never could have seen that coming, what a TWIST!

Ok, time for random baseless conjecture. People who watch this are thinking, "oh, those people are just like us, but with more money, I could totally be them. They are real people with real problems". Now that only explains why they would watch one episode, because after that, they have already made this realization, and are no longer learning anything. So there must be something in the first episode they watch that hooks them. Something that makes them think, "I want to watch this again, I want to see more of their lives.

For some people, it is probably the hot chicks that inevitably show up. For others it might be a sick sort of pleasure from watching the pain of people better off than they are, they might think "it's nice to see that life isn't perfect for anyone, so my problems don't seem to unjustified". Another group might be reveling in just how stupid the people in the show are.

Well I know one thing for sure, I will never watch one of these shows by choice.

Treadmill

I was running on the treadmill in my apartment gym, and it started lightning-ing out. It then occurs to me, "what would happen if the power went out while I was running 8 mph?" Would I just barrel into the front of the treadmill as it suddenly stops moving from under me?

Perhaps.

How to misconstrue

When I say (type) "What's up with you?", how do you read it?

There are two main ways, the first is "What new things are happening in your life?"(usually as a follow up to the received what's up question) , and the second is "Why are you acting unusually?"

Now I usually assume that the person I type it to knows which one I'm talking about, but there is always that little hesitation where I think, what if they interpret it wrong, I'm gonna look weird and get a confused response. So I think about rephrasing, but then the rephrase doesn't sound natural and cool, so I leave it, and hope.

Now its been done to death, but I will again mention sarcasm. It's SOOO easy to misconstrue sarcasm in typed form. It's AWESOME! You can say anything, and have it NOT understood! It is my LEAST favorite part of the internet! I try to use it ALL the time, in every possible way just to exacerbate the AWESOMENESS!!!

Apartment Gym

I have recently started going to the gym in my apartment complex. This is a very strange situation, because the social interactions are very hindered.

First, a lot of people(including me) tend to use the treadmill heavily. While on the treadmill, there is no real way to talk to anyone, or for anyone to talk to you. Even if you are not listening to headphones, the sound of your running plus the aura of concentration make you unapproachable. The only chance for a real interaction is if two people happen to exit the treadmill at about the same time, or perhaps if they are using adjacent machines. But in the latter situation, there is still the aura of concentration.

So even in a room filled with people, there is almost no social interaction.

There do seem to be a few exceptions, first is the occasional 2 friends that came in together. They tend to chat a bit while using adjacent machines, or treadmills. Or once in a while, there is the dude who will talk to himself while working out...I tend to avoid that guy.

Reading vs Hearing

Reading a person's text, or email, or IM is very different from hearing their voice say the words. The first difference is that they tend to use different words in text form, because it is either easier to type it that way, or they have had time to look over what they are saying, and they edited it to make it sound better, and more like what they actually meant. I love the latter reason, because it means the person is really saying what they mean to say, not just talking as a quick response.
But that also puts some pressure on what you type, because once you send it, it can never be taken back, and there is evidence of its existence. When you say something really dumb online, you can be punished more for it, because you cannot just quickly change the subject, or re-iterate as easily as you can in verbal communication.
Another great reason text is different from talking is that you can choose to read the text any way you want. While the person might have meant the connotation to be one way, or not meant for something to sound a certain way, they really have no control over it. I can choose to make an incoherent text coherent by adding what I want to see, while its very hard to not hear a drunken slurr in face to face talking.