Bill State Journal of Crap

The Internet scares me.  Last summer a woman in Minneapolis was killed after she answered a Craig’s List personal looking for a baby sitter.  The poster used the personal ad, to lure a woman to his house, and then shot her.  A few days ago, a man in an outlying suburb ordered an “erotic escort” on Craig’s List.  He called to cancel it and ended up getting shot, not because he tried to cancel but because the posting was a scam to rob somebody to begin with.

Last week a bunch of morons in Florida beat the hell out of a girl and recorded it so they could post it on YouTube.  I’ve always said, and studies have backed me up, that TV, Movie and Video Game violence is not a significant factor in our society’s violent tendencies.  Yes, some people are affected by those things quite negatively but they are such a stunning minority that punishing the media creators would be irresponsible.

The problem I have now is that the Internet, and sites like Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, etc are more pervasive and widespread.  The same people play most video games, the same people watch certain movie genres.  These days it seems like everybody is on some social networking site, or video sharing site, exposing their entire lives for the rest of the world to see.

I don’t like it.  It makes me uncomfortable.  There is a reason suicides don’t get to be front page news.  There is a reason streakers aren’t shown on TV during sporting events.  Showing these actions promotes further actions of the same type.  The people who commit these actions generally want attention more than anything else.  The same can be said for the three examples of Internet-based, real-life violence above.

I realize that I’m rambling with no coherent thought or argument, but I don’t care.  This is a cycle that can’t be fixed until we fix the shit that is going on in our society.  The murderer in the first example will get his prison term.  So will the attackers in the second example.  Personally, I’d like to see the victim face solicitation charges as well, since he was soliciting a hooker.  In the third, those kids should be charged as adults.

Americans live in one of the most violent societies in the world and the Internet is becoming an increasingly popular outlet for crazy people to do crazy things and hurt other people.  Given that I spend at least 50% of my day on the Internet (8 hours at work, 4 at home) everyday, I’m going to go hide under my desk. (on the plus side I don’t need a baby sitter, I don’t need a hooker, and I don’t have any friends or enemies who would consider beating me for an Internet video)

I want to define my purpose of writing here. This will not be a blog about how great I am. Asking any reader to partake in my blathering about how great my life is, how boring my life is, or how sad my life is seems masturbatory. I am writing to the vacuum of the internet. I am writing to the abyss until the abyss writes back. Which it does, how do you explain spam emails?

I will write about random things which strike me. I am currently work on three things to post here all in various stages of writing, (some stuff written, one sentences written, just talked about). Part of what will be my issue with writing here is my struggle with the writing process. I still believe amazing works of writing, art, music, anything comes fully formed out of a person’s brain. This is a frustration for my husband and my thesis adviser. I want my function here to be more of a cultural criticism, because that is what I truly adore.

Things which strike me today.

1. I got to spend three hours today eating cheese and getting paid for it. I love faculty development.

2. I finished Diablo Cody’s Memoir. I learned many things about stripping/strippers/sex work ad nauseum. The most intriguing thing is Cody argues she was a lost privileged princess looking for a purpose. I feel that way, but I don’t think stripping is the answer for me. So far all I have found is knitting. Which is why I am going to install one of those knitting trackers I see on all of those fancy knitting blogs. As soon as I find out where I can download one and convince Bill to install it.
P.S. I find this hilarious, see it is just that easy!

3. I have awesome purple shoes.

4. Don’t buy Haagen Daaz Green Tea Ice Cream. Seriously don’t.

5. The premiere of Battlestar Galactica can’t come soon enough.

6. Why didn’t someone tell me about Death Cab for Cutie when Transatlantism came out? That album is amazing. It makes me sad over all of the years I have not listened to Death Cab. I feel I misused my ears.