My alarm clock
7:30 AM: I woke up by the sound of my RADIO. I like the way I get carried from my dreams into real life. Music and local gossip surrounded me while I got dressed. I'm very glad that James Maxwell noticed the existence of radio waves in the mid 1860s (see p. 109 in MEDIA & CULTURE). Otherwise my limbic brain couldn't be that stimulated in the morning. Nevertheless the advertisements are very annoying by trying to bribe me with a little something extra.
Song out of the soundtrack of Forrest Gump
At 8:40 AM I sat in my car ready to go. On my ride to college I listened to the soundtrack of Forrest Gump. I like the music from the 1050's and 60's and this CD gave me exactly the right Rock'n'Roll that I needed this morning to get ready for the day. “As with the term jazz, rock and roll was a blues slang term for “sex”, lending it instant controversy.” (See p. 81 in MEDIA & CULTURE) Considering this sentence you might get the wrong impression of my ride to school, I just enjoyed the music.... nothing else.
Do iPhone users really have more sex?
I arrived in my classroom around 9:15 AM and prepared myself for my MAGAZINE presentation. The magazine Glamour represents the lifestyle of a young female audience with interests in fashion, sex, health and glamor. Among other things, I talked about the poll that iPhone users have more sex than any other smartphone-users. In the 1950's and 1960's women became a target group for the magazine industry. Garden and household magazines were published (differently from today's topics). In the late 1960's and 1970's “women's magazines grew more contemporary and sophisticated” (See p.297 MEDIA & CULTURE).
My father and my rabbit via Skype
On my way home I thought about my last couple days and what I will tell my parents via Skype. I prepared my lunch and launched in my Skype-account. Then I could eat with my parents, although they were thousands of miles away. We chat about my class presentation and about my life as an Au Pair. It is so easy to stay in touch by using the INTERNET. There is Skype, MSN-Messenger, Facebook, Twitter and some German networks. I have a blog and a homepage, which I always update with the recent events and pictures. “A 2006 study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that more than twelve million U.S. adults have created blogs, and 39 percent on Internet users report that they read blogs.” (See p. 52 MEDIA & CULTURE).
I finished my chat with my parents and checked my emails. I received an email from my teacher from Germany. I was in a Columbia-group, where we supported a town in Columbia with a variety of projects. My old school has it's 100 years anniversary and prints a special edition of our school-NEWSPAPER. I felt so connected to those Columbia-projects that I started writing an article for the newspaper that afternoon. “Throughout the mid-1800's, the more a newspaper appeared not to take sides on its front page, the more its readership base could be extended.” I think, that objectivity is good for an uneducated audiences. As long as the readers are aware of the subjectivity, I think that's a great way for journalists to express themselves. I wrote my article with feeling and how I experienced the time in this group. It was a personal article and that wasn't a secret.
About the language of The Sims
After such a busy day I deserved a little playtime. I started my favorite GAME: The Sims 3. But I had to beware of the time, because this game is time-consuming! You think that you played only for an half an hour, but you played for 3 hours!! Luckily this time I put my watch directly next to my desktop so that I had an eye at the time. I admit that some people can't control themselves, but I can't say that the following statement is true: “[T]here seems to be a fear that video games are somehow nudging out other art forms, and that we're encouraging a generation of screenglazed androids with no social skills, poetical sensitivity, or entrepreneurial ambition.” (See p. 40 MEDIA & CULTURE) A few of my friends are playing video games very intensely, but their social lives are not different from mine.
Scene from Harry Potter 7: screencrave.com
Right after I shut down my computer my hostkids came into my room and picked me up for our ride to the movie theater. Today's MOVIE: Harry Potter And The Deathly Hollows Part 1. By the way my hostchildren are 5, 9 and 11 and this movie is rated PG-13. This code was invented because of “concerns that the movie business was lowering the moral standards of America”. (See p. 236 MEDIA & CULTURE) Unfortunately I haven't read the books, YET. But this film was amazing! I could have cried so many times in these 2 hours, but I was strong. When we were outside of the theater, I just wanted to go back and watch it again. I think I will shorten the time to the second part by reading the books.
TV trailer for the next episode of The Vampire Diaries
When I got home I was still overwhelmed by the movie. We don't have a television set, so I missed the TV show The Vampire Diaries. So I started my laptop again and went online to the webpage of the CW. There I could watch the newest episode of my favorite show. It was great and thrilling like always. I think it is a great opportunity for people without a television set or those who just missed their show. You can watch the latest episodes whenever and wherever you like to. “Shows are available through iPods and cell phones – for fees ranging from 99 cents to $ 1,99 per episode. Or, on some sites like NBC and Fox's Hulu.com, you can watch full episodes for free (with advertisements)”. (See p. 169 MEDIA & CULTURE)
Book cover of The Secret Life Of Bees: amazon.com
After so much watching on screen, my eyes needed something stable. So I took my BOOK, The Secret Life Of Bees, and snuggled up in my cozy bed. It's fantastic how you can be captivated by a book, which becomes a part of your daily life. Sometimes when I stop reading, I feel like the room became so quiet, although I was alone all the time and nothing had changed. The new generation uses those e-books. I can't warm towards them. “The publishing industry sees a future for e-books, but that market will develop slowly as engineers try to figure out how to make digital books an improvement on printed books.” (See p. 329 MEDIA & CULTURE)
This was my day. I hope you enjoyed to spend time with me and to travel through the depths of the media.
