Today, i've found myself thinking a lot about how entertainment impacts our lives, the consequences of that impact, and what can be learned about people by studying entertainment. Now, this is a rather complicated and difficult subject and there are a variety of perspectives that people have. This post has the potential to be a novel on the subject, but i will attempt to be brief while explaining my observations and conclusions.
I suppose the first thing that needs to be addressed is the question: What is "entertainment"? This is a very hard question. For the purpose of keeping us all on the same page (HEYO!), i refer you to the wiktionary definition: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/entertainment. I have copied and pasted the relevant definition below for the lazy/bandwidth limited among you:
An activity designed to give pleasure or relaxation to an audience, no matter whether the audience participates passively as in watching opera or a movie, or actively as in games.
So now that you understand how i'm choosing to define entertainment, we can move on to more interesting observations. I want to start by posing the question: What qualifies as entertainment? Well shoot, just about everything I do qualifies as entertainment. I mean, i'm a sports fan (check!), i love watching movies (check!), i enjoy listening to music (check!), i like hanging out with friends (check!), playing cards (check!), chatting with my wife (check!), browsing facebook (check!), sex (check!), going to church (hmmm, am i allowed to check this one?), etc. Ok, so maybe listing all of the things that i do that are entertainment isn't the best way to do this. How about the things that are not entertainment? This leaves work (most of the time), commuting, and flossing. I hate flossing, it gives me no pleasure or relaxation whatsoever. That's why i cannot remember the last time i flossed. I'm pretty sure people who work in dentist offices must have side bets going about how many people they can get to lie about flossing. I never lie to them. I proudly announce that I do not recall the last time I flossed. I then promptly get put in my place about proper dental hygiene. Sure... like that's supposed to help. That just prevents me from coming back.
Wow, i just wrote 8 sentences about flossing/dentists. My apologies. But, i feel like i have safely established that flossing is not entertainment. Well, that is unless you're talking about the bets being made by dentists. Sigh... (Girl look at that body!)
Anyway, back to the entertainment deal. I've always been under the impression that entertainment should comprise a small part of my life, as there are better/more productive/holy/wholesome ways to spend my time. And yet, here I am and it seems my life is dominated by what appears to be entertainment. Plus, I really love my job and derive great pleasure from it. Also, I love doing things with/for my church. So really, for me it's commuting and flossing. One of those we've established doesn't occur, so it's just commuting. So, for 7.5 hours per week, i'm not experiencing some form of entertainment. For good measure, I'm going to add 7 hours to that total, because i'm sure i'm forgetting something. So, 14.5 hours/168 hours in the week brings me to 8.6% of my week not spent on entertainment. This leaves 91.4% of my time is spent on what i consider entertainment. WOW!
Now, i feel like i need to qualify this a little bit. I'm obscenely optimistic. Those of you who know me, and that's probly all of you, know I'm an optimist. It's not even like i have a choice in the matter. It has been ingrained in me since i was very little, and i no longer have to try and see the positive in things. Shoot, i had a hard time adding commuting to my list of "non-entertainment activities" because i listen to the radio on my way to work. And quite enjoy it for that matter. So, some of my information might be a bit skewed. But, i think that upon inspection, many of you spend huge amounts of your lives on entertainment.
All right... where am i going with this? The impact of entertainment on our lives. I love reading books, watching movies, browsing facebook, watching sports and listening to music because it takes me away from where i currently am and allows me to experience other perspectives. I love playing cards, hanging out with people, participating in church, chatting with my wife, and working because it broadens my own personal experiences and sphere of influence (both incoming and outgoing). These two lists have very different impacts. One is taking me away from myself and the other is refining myself. Now, certainly the music we listen to and the movies we watch impact our thoughts, opinions and beliefs. Perhaps this is more like research. Anyway, what i'm getting at is there are different types of entertainment.
I'm not going to define what a good "ratio" of entertainment types are. I really don't know, and I'm inclined to think that it is very dependent on stage of life and individual personality. What i would say is that it's important to evaluate the way you spend your time. As a Christian, there are things that scripture says i need to be doing and areas of my life that i need to be working on. This is not preventing me from enjoying entertainment, but instead making sure that i'm choosing entertainment that is healthy. For me, improving my quality of life, depth of faith, and relationships with those around me provides me much pleasure and therefore counts as entertainment in my book.
I'm curious to hear your thoughts on entertainment, so please share in the comment section. I have also decided to continue to add disclaimers to my list, but to do so at the end of current posts.
Disclaimer:
8. I am a sports fan. I can talk moderately intelligently about most mainstream sports (including golf and NASCAR but not including WNBA, fishing, and canadian football). My team allegiances are defined by where I am living at the time in which i become a fan. For example, I have always been a football fan and was born in northwestern PA. This makes me a Steelers fan. I didn't start liking baseball until i lived in Colorado. This makes me a Rockies fan. There are many great things to be learned from sports (team work, self improvement, practice, determination, etc.) and there are many bad things that come with sports in America (idolatry, drunkenness, greed, violence, etc.). I do my best to take advantage of the first set, and avoid the second.
9. I really enjoy plays on words. Puns, pop references, jokes. It will not be unusual to see one or two work their way into a post. Some are better than others, but that has rarely prevented me from sharing them. Enjoy or ignore, whichever is your preference.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Introduction
Well, Hello.
I don't really know what i'll be writing about here, but i've always considered having a blog. I suppose i ought to provide some disclaimers to start things off:
1. As you can see in the above few sentences, i'm extremely lazy with the shift key when typing "i" if it isn't the beginning of the sentence. While i try to be conscientious of other spelling and grammatical mishaps, capitalizing "i" only registers on my list when writing something for work or for public distribution of some manner.
2. I am a Christian. That has extraordinary implications for most people. Some of you have just now decided to stop reading my blog. I'm ok with that. I find that if someone is unwilling to listen to alternative perspectives, they are generally not worth having a conversation with. On that note, i try to be quite receptive to the beliefs and opinions of others. While i strive toward that, being a Christian can at times prevent me from listening without an agenda. One thing that i feel people don't realize is that part of being a Christian is sharing that faith with others. That's part of the deal. If someone claims to be a Christian and doesn't share their faith, they are failing. Perhaps this will clear up some confusion. Rest assured, many future posts will be discussing faith.
3. I am an engineer. I like approaching things analytically. My wife made the comment the other day that i'm curious about everything. I feel like this is a good assessment. While for many, the fact that i'm an engineer is in some conflict with my faith. I suppose in some sense this is true, because many things regarding faith (of any sorts) is seen as being in conflict with faith. I suppose i would argue that whenever you accept two things that are in conflict with each other (one could perhaps use the common physics conundrum of waves vs particles), faith of some sort is required to allow for both to exist.
4. I am a musician. My primary instrument is percussion, and of late drums. I also dabble some with the guitar, bass guitar, and singing. There are few things more relaxing for me than playing music and ignoring the world. I have written half a dozen songs and composed various percussion accompaniments to other music and am fascinated by the process of writing music. For example, how on earth do the popular artists of today compose their music? I mean, when Ke$ha was writing any of her songs, does she start with a rhythm or a tune? Or is it all lyrics, and then adding things to it? And if so, where do those ridiculous lyrics come from? Anyway, i'm always one to get off on a side track of music, so if you're looking for a way to distract me that's a safe bet.
5. I love watching and analyzing people, and i feel like i'm quite good at it. Many future posts will be pondering the thoughts/actions/inactions/statements/portrayals/tendencies of the people around me. Of course, those mentioned will remain nameless. Actually, perhaps not nameless, just not the correct name. Yeah, that will be fun.
6. While i'm normally quite careful not to unintentionally offend someone, this blog is not for that. I fully expect to be discussing the actions/beliefs of the people around me and attempting to prevent any sort of offense when i am unaware of who may be reading is entirely impractical. As such, please do not take things directly personally. This is not a place where i want to be attacking someone unintentionally.
7. That being said, i intend to be pondering the actions of people in general. This may include some sarcasm at some of the less thought through actions of normal people in society.
Hmm, 7 disclaimers seems appropriate. I think i'll stop there. Anyway, feel free to comment and contribute to discussions. Please do so in a fashion that is constructive or at least entertaining.
Blessings,
Mike
I don't really know what i'll be writing about here, but i've always considered having a blog. I suppose i ought to provide some disclaimers to start things off:
1. As you can see in the above few sentences, i'm extremely lazy with the shift key when typing "i" if it isn't the beginning of the sentence. While i try to be conscientious of other spelling and grammatical mishaps, capitalizing "i" only registers on my list when writing something for work or for public distribution of some manner.
2. I am a Christian. That has extraordinary implications for most people. Some of you have just now decided to stop reading my blog. I'm ok with that. I find that if someone is unwilling to listen to alternative perspectives, they are generally not worth having a conversation with. On that note, i try to be quite receptive to the beliefs and opinions of others. While i strive toward that, being a Christian can at times prevent me from listening without an agenda. One thing that i feel people don't realize is that part of being a Christian is sharing that faith with others. That's part of the deal. If someone claims to be a Christian and doesn't share their faith, they are failing. Perhaps this will clear up some confusion. Rest assured, many future posts will be discussing faith.
3. I am an engineer. I like approaching things analytically. My wife made the comment the other day that i'm curious about everything. I feel like this is a good assessment. While for many, the fact that i'm an engineer is in some conflict with my faith. I suppose in some sense this is true, because many things regarding faith (of any sorts) is seen as being in conflict with faith. I suppose i would argue that whenever you accept two things that are in conflict with each other (one could perhaps use the common physics conundrum of waves vs particles), faith of some sort is required to allow for both to exist.
4. I am a musician. My primary instrument is percussion, and of late drums. I also dabble some with the guitar, bass guitar, and singing. There are few things more relaxing for me than playing music and ignoring the world. I have written half a dozen songs and composed various percussion accompaniments to other music and am fascinated by the process of writing music. For example, how on earth do the popular artists of today compose their music? I mean, when Ke$ha was writing any of her songs, does she start with a rhythm or a tune? Or is it all lyrics, and then adding things to it? And if so, where do those ridiculous lyrics come from? Anyway, i'm always one to get off on a side track of music, so if you're looking for a way to distract me that's a safe bet.
5. I love watching and analyzing people, and i feel like i'm quite good at it. Many future posts will be pondering the thoughts/actions/inactions/statements/portrayals/tendencies of the people around me. Of course, those mentioned will remain nameless. Actually, perhaps not nameless, just not the correct name. Yeah, that will be fun.
6. While i'm normally quite careful not to unintentionally offend someone, this blog is not for that. I fully expect to be discussing the actions/beliefs of the people around me and attempting to prevent any sort of offense when i am unaware of who may be reading is entirely impractical. As such, please do not take things directly personally. This is not a place where i want to be attacking someone unintentionally.
7. That being said, i intend to be pondering the actions of people in general. This may include some sarcasm at some of the less thought through actions of normal people in society.
Hmm, 7 disclaimers seems appropriate. I think i'll stop there. Anyway, feel free to comment and contribute to discussions. Please do so in a fashion that is constructive or at least entertaining.
Blessings,
Mike
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