Champlain in 60 Seconds - Save Yourselves!

Check out this awesome video by the BusyBeavers - Ally Russo, Samuel Curry and me.

Media and Me: A Day in My Life

After silencing the alarm clocks, the first thing I do is reach over to the side and turn my MacBook Pro on. With blurred vision and a desire to return to sleep, I go through my morning laptop ritual: the Internet. Once I open Google Chrome, I surf through skysports.com for soccer news, nytimes.com for the headlines, gmail.com and xkcd.com, my favorite web comic. It is my way of jump-starting the day - introducing external information to stimulate my interest and eliminate the slumber. In fact, “by 2008, 75 percent of American adults used the Internet” (Media and Culture). What better way is there to find a trove of fresh, new information instantly than the Internet?

Recent XKCD comic

(Source: XKCD Comic 829)

On my way to class, I pick up a copy of the New York Times. If I forget to pick one up, or do not pass by a newspaper rack, I use my laptop to read the online version of the New York Times (during the boring classes mostly). After skimming through the newspaper and reading through the interesting articles (while looking up and pretending to listen to the professor), I continue news-sniffing by going to yahoo.com.hk, where I read news regarding Hong Kong, and gizmodo.com to read up on the articles they have, which are always interesting and surprising. The change in the reading habits of people creates competition that “challenges newspapers, forcing their traditional role to change” (Media and Culture 262).

An introduction to Gizmodo

Once I get back from class, I turn my iPod and iHome on, blasting my play list (aptly named ‘GOOD MUSIC’). I generally do work accompanied with music, although there are moments where ‘GOOD MUSIC’ is so good that it needs to be paused in order for me to actually be productive. Recently, I’ve been listening to various forms of dubstep, electro and house music. I have taken a general disliking of commercial music. Today, there are “fewer major labels” that “control more music”, and a global reach “gives these firms enormous influence over what types of music gain worldwide distribution and popular acceptance” (Media and Culture 96).

Yukar by Michita, a pretty sick song in my opinion.

When my work is done, or when I get bored of it, I naturally switch my attention to TV. The first channel I check is FOX Soccer. I love watching football, especially the Premier League. If FOX Soccer channel, being an American channel, does not broadcast the good games, I resort to surfing the Internet for live streams instead. Recently a friend of mine told me about ESPN3, a channel that offers live matches on the Internet. I watched Barcelona’s 5-0 thrashing of Real Madrid using ESPN3 and was thoroughly satisfied with the video quality, speed and match result. “ESPN earned more than $4 billion in revenue in 2007”, and is “one of the success stories of narrowcasting on cable television” (Media and Culture 196).

Barcelona vs Real Madrid on November 29th, 2010

Final score 5-0 to Barcelona

After the match is over, I decide to head over to my friends’ place. I hop into my white Prius (named ‘Snowflake’, unchangeable due to my threatening sister), and of course, turn the radio on for the short drive. I have yet to discover a radio station that I like, but for the time being, 96.7, 90.1 or 95.5 will do. 96.7 and 95.5 are both “top 40 format” stations, with lots of ads. These stations play the same popular songs endlessly. ”Pay-for-play is a promotional strategy that typically involves up-front payments from record companies to radio stations that play a song a specific number of times” (Media and Culture 137). One can only wonder how much record labels pay for such promotion.

My friends’ place is endowed with various consoles for media enjoyment. In addition to a projector, they have two laptops, an XBOX 360 and a PS3. Unless it’s a party, one of those machines is most likely turned on to offer us entertainment. They have been hooked on HALO: Reach recently. I, on the other hand, like to play FIFA 11 or Call of Duty. In this house, losing in a game will swiftly yield humiliating insults, the strict requirement to follow orders from the victor, and constant reminders that you indeed lost in a game for the rest of the day, although sometimes this phenomenon may extend up to a week. The winner earns the privilege to, in short, terrorize you while in the premises. In terms of games, we are amongst the statistics – “some of the best-selling video game genres in 2007 include: Action (22.3%)” and “Sports (14.1 percent)” (Media and Culture 38).

Trailer for FIFA 11

After losing repeatedly, one of my friends decide that enough is enough, and puts on a movie from Netflix instead. Both the XBOX 360 and PS3 have Netflix installed, allowing us to stream movies and various TV shows instantly. In 2008, “Netflix began offering “instant viewing” of movies and videos by streaming some rentals to customers’ computer screens” (Media and Culture 241). The most popular shows on our screen so far have been Family Guy and South Park.

Typical Family Guy moment - hilarious and crude.

Once I’m ready for bed, I prop up the pillow and grab a book to read before I sleep – it’s been a habit of mine over the years. Right now, I am reading through the Wheel of Time series, starting from the first book. Personally I dislike e-books and audio books. I am simply more comfortable with the book as a medium, especially paperbacks. “Mass market paperbacks… represent the largest segment of the industry in terms of units sold” (Media and Culture 325). Although, I feel that there has been a recent surge of trade books.

UK Cover for Towers of Midnight

(Found on Amazon)

I read until I get tired or when it is too late, usually the latter. And finally, I enter a moment in my day where I am not interacting with technology.