I'd like to start out with a request: If you disagree with me on anything I say here, please feel free to speak your mind but be intelligent and respectful about it. The internet seems to have made people lose their ability to disagree while still respecting each other.
Those of you who don't live in a hole (which, seeing as you're reading this on the internet, I'm guessing is all of you) have no doubt heard by now the verdict of the Casey Anthony trial. Based on the reaction I've seen on Facebook and Twitter, people are livid about the verdict and seem to think that justice has not been served.
I'd argue, however, that justice was served. Now before you all lynch me, a common misconception needs to be cleared up. Many people assume that "not guilty" and "innocent" are the same thing when, in fact, they are not. A ruling of not guilty does NOT imply that the jury thinks the defendant is innocent. What it does mean is that the prosecution did not prove their case that the crime in question was committed. In lay terms, these two may mean the same thing but in legal terms, they're not. I liken this to the scientific concept of a theory and the lay conception of a theory. The two are COMPLETELY different and the lay conception of a theory is actually closer to the scientific term "hypothesis."
In this case, the prosecution really only had circumstantial evidence and they could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Casey murdered her daughter. In other words, there are possible other explanations that are not completely out of nowhere ("The devil made her do it!!!!") that cannot be dismissed based on the evidence presented. The burden of proof rested on the prosecution and they failed to prove their case.
Some have accused this as being a flaw in the legal system and, again, I'd argue the opposite as it protects the innocent from being accused of a crime they did not commit and being incarcerated for it (***Special note: I am NOT implying that Casey Anthony is innocent***). This is where the concept of "innocent until guilty" comes into our legal system. If we had the opposite, guilty until proven innocent, people could be accused of any crime that they did not necessarily commit and be thrown into jail.
Believe it or not, we actually had this system at one point in our country. Think back to Salem, MA when people were being accused of being witches and then burned unless they could prove their innocence (which, in most cases, they could not). This is an example of the "guilty until proven innocent" system and it was essentially chaos.
To continue the science metaphor I brought up earlier, in science, you can't just make a claim and expect people to find evidence to disprove it. The opposite is true: You have to find evidence showing that your hypothesis is likely beyond a reasonable doubt and the same holds true in our legal system.
So did Casey Anthony get away with murder? Maybe. But we can't say beyond a reasonable doubt that she's guilty. As upsetting as it may be, the system worked. The prosecution needed to step up their game to prove their case and they didn't. But the way the system is designed, the most functional system we've been able to develop as a species so far, worked.
Am I saying that this is not a tragic situation? No. Regardless of how she died or if she was murdered, it is a tragedy that Caylee's life was cut short and this is a wake up call to all of us to take better care of our children and be wary of suspicious behavior that could put others in danger.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Friday, July 1, 2011
Best of 2011 So Far
Holy moly, it's already July! Where did the time go? The year is already halfway over! It also means that I'm just a few weeks away from turning 21 and I'll be able to taste alcohol for the first time ever!!!!
As I'm sure many other bloggers do, I'm going to take this opportunity to reflect on some of the great music that's been released so far this year by picking a favorite album, song, and live act as well as give some props to some of my favorite new discoveries thus far this year. Obviously these are not final because there's still six months to go which will be including Lollapalooza, a new No Doubt album (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), and many other releases and shows. Who knows, by the end of the year these might seem like complete and utter shit... but I doubt that =)
Best Album (So Far)
The first six months have included releases by two of my favorite artists, the Sounds and Lady Gaga. Needless to say I was pretty much giddy for these albums to come out and when they did... I kinda got blue ballsed a bit. They were decent, don't get me wrong, and they both have some great songs on them (From the Sounds Something to Die For album, I recommend "The No-No Song," "Wish You Were Here," and "Better Off Dead." From Gaga's Born This Way, "Americano," "Marry the Night," "Government Hooker," "You and I," "Shei(weird German symbol that looks like a B)e,"and "Edge of Glory" stand out) but as a whole, neither of them was spectacular as far as I'm concerned. Some stronger releases came from Yelle, Cold War Kids, and the Rural Alberta Advantage. In fact, the Rural Alberta Advantage would probably be my favorite album this year if I hadn't spontaneously gone to see a band known as the Head and the Heart at SXSW and become absolutely obsessed.
Seriously, these guys are AMAZING and their self titled debut is one of those rare albums that I like every song on it. They played an acoustic set at the Electric Fetus in Minneapolis last month and it was incredible. I had the chance to talk with them for a minute after and they were incredibly nice and down to earth.
Best Song (So Far)
This one is a bit harder to choose from because there have been a few songs that I've had on repeat. "The Edge of Glory" by Lady Gaga is just... fucking genius. It's like an 80's throwback and, while she gets criticized for that, I personally really enjoy it. Other favorites that didn't quite make the cut include, "The Bay" by Metronomy, "Louder Than Ever" by Cold War Kids, "Cardiac Arrest" by Teddybears feat. Robyn, "Breaking and Entering" by Tonight Alive and "Muscle Relaxants" by the Rural Alberta Advantage but my favorite, which has found a place as one of the few non-Metric songs on my most played list, is "The No-No Song" by the Sounds. It's. So. Damn. Catchy. And best of all it includes my favorite musical element, angry female vocals! Stick it to whoever hurt you, Maja! You can have me. Seriously. I wouldn't say no.
Best Live Act
As I've mentioned in the past, I went to SXSW and that's where I saw my favorite live act so far... twice. Yes, it's the Sounds! They have so much energy and what's there not to love about a group of sexy, sweaty Swedes with a ton of energy? Nothing. I finally got to see Maja's legs up close and in person and THEY ARE EVEN BETTER THAN I IMAGINED. The other thing Maja is semi-known for is her ability to chain smoke through a whole set and, while I normally find cigarettes incredibly disgusting, I was more than a bit turned on. If that's not enough, I randomly ran into them on the street and got this picture with Maja!
Isn't she gorgeous?! She was incredibly nice, too. I always find that makes me like a band that much more because there are some asshole musicians out there.
Some New Favorites
I'm not going to pick just one for this category because there are so many great ones. This list is far from complete but here's a sample:
The Head and the Heart- But I've already talked about them enough.
The Naked and Famous- I discovered them early in the year and I'm just going to attribute it to Merrijoy because she's one of two people I know who understand how AWESOME they are.
Ellie Goulding- HOLY MOTHER OF SHIVA I LOVE HER. How did I not hear about her before?! She might be my favorite Brit. When she sings, she still maintains her British accent but it's not annoying as accents sometimes can be. She does a cover of "Your Song" by Elton John and the video for it on YouTube... Oh man. She's too cute for words.
Dessa- She's another one who I don't know how I missed her before. She's a rapper from Minneapolis and she's just incredible... and that's coming from someone who generally doesn't enjoy rap.
The Book of Mormon- Okay, so this isn't a band, it's a musical. But it's earned a spot as one of the two musicals I actually like (the other being Avenue Q). Hasa Diga Eebowai is... just glorious. Go look it up.
Aaaaand those are my favorites so far. What have been some of yours? Do share! I'm always looking for new music!
As I'm sure many other bloggers do, I'm going to take this opportunity to reflect on some of the great music that's been released so far this year by picking a favorite album, song, and live act as well as give some props to some of my favorite new discoveries thus far this year. Obviously these are not final because there's still six months to go which will be including Lollapalooza, a new No Doubt album (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), and many other releases and shows. Who knows, by the end of the year these might seem like complete and utter shit... but I doubt that =)
Best Album (So Far)
The first six months have included releases by two of my favorite artists, the Sounds and Lady Gaga. Needless to say I was pretty much giddy for these albums to come out and when they did... I kinda got blue ballsed a bit. They were decent, don't get me wrong, and they both have some great songs on them (From the Sounds Something to Die For album, I recommend "The No-No Song," "Wish You Were Here," and "Better Off Dead." From Gaga's Born This Way, "Americano," "Marry the Night," "Government Hooker," "You and I," "Shei(weird German symbol that looks like a B)e,"and "Edge of Glory" stand out) but as a whole, neither of them was spectacular as far as I'm concerned. Some stronger releases came from Yelle, Cold War Kids, and the Rural Alberta Advantage. In fact, the Rural Alberta Advantage would probably be my favorite album this year if I hadn't spontaneously gone to see a band known as the Head and the Heart at SXSW and become absolutely obsessed.
Seriously, these guys are AMAZING and their self titled debut is one of those rare albums that I like every song on it. They played an acoustic set at the Electric Fetus in Minneapolis last month and it was incredible. I had the chance to talk with them for a minute after and they were incredibly nice and down to earth.
Best Song (So Far)
This one is a bit harder to choose from because there have been a few songs that I've had on repeat. "The Edge of Glory" by Lady Gaga is just... fucking genius. It's like an 80's throwback and, while she gets criticized for that, I personally really enjoy it. Other favorites that didn't quite make the cut include, "The Bay" by Metronomy, "Louder Than Ever" by Cold War Kids, "Cardiac Arrest" by Teddybears feat. Robyn, "Breaking and Entering" by Tonight Alive and "Muscle Relaxants" by the Rural Alberta Advantage but my favorite, which has found a place as one of the few non-Metric songs on my most played list, is "The No-No Song" by the Sounds. It's. So. Damn. Catchy. And best of all it includes my favorite musical element, angry female vocals! Stick it to whoever hurt you, Maja! You can have me. Seriously. I wouldn't say no.
Best Live Act
As I've mentioned in the past, I went to SXSW and that's where I saw my favorite live act so far... twice. Yes, it's the Sounds! They have so much energy and what's there not to love about a group of sexy, sweaty Swedes with a ton of energy? Nothing. I finally got to see Maja's legs up close and in person and THEY ARE EVEN BETTER THAN I IMAGINED. The other thing Maja is semi-known for is her ability to chain smoke through a whole set and, while I normally find cigarettes incredibly disgusting, I was more than a bit turned on. If that's not enough, I randomly ran into them on the street and got this picture with Maja!
Isn't she gorgeous?! She was incredibly nice, too. I always find that makes me like a band that much more because there are some asshole musicians out there.
Some New Favorites
I'm not going to pick just one for this category because there are so many great ones. This list is far from complete but here's a sample:
The Head and the Heart- But I've already talked about them enough.
The Naked and Famous- I discovered them early in the year and I'm just going to attribute it to Merrijoy because she's one of two people I know who understand how AWESOME they are.
Ellie Goulding- HOLY MOTHER OF SHIVA I LOVE HER. How did I not hear about her before?! She might be my favorite Brit. When she sings, she still maintains her British accent but it's not annoying as accents sometimes can be. She does a cover of "Your Song" by Elton John and the video for it on YouTube... Oh man. She's too cute for words.
Dessa- She's another one who I don't know how I missed her before. She's a rapper from Minneapolis and she's just incredible... and that's coming from someone who generally doesn't enjoy rap.
The Book of Mormon- Okay, so this isn't a band, it's a musical. But it's earned a spot as one of the two musicals I actually like (the other being Avenue Q). Hasa Diga Eebowai is... just glorious. Go look it up.
Aaaaand those are my favorites so far. What have been some of yours? Do share! I'm always looking for new music!
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Pride 2011
This weekend was the Twin Cities' Pride festival and I felt heavily pressure by, surprisingly, my straight friends to go. So I did. Yay.
For those of you who don't know me well, I've never really felt much of a connection with the gay community. It's generally because I really don't have many things in common with other gay men aside from my love of Lady Gaga and, honestly, I find them pretty annoying. Gay men are everything I dislike about men (which, granted, is pretty much everything) combined with everything I find unattractive/dislike about women.
Lesbians, on the other hand, I love. Seriously, they rule. They're the few things I like about men combined with the very many things I like about women... and, best of all, there's no physical attraction from either direction so things never get weird! Woo hoo!
Anyway, so I went to Pride this weekend and it was kind of fun I guess. I did some volunteering and met some awesome lesbians. However, if I never see glitter or hear music that could easily serve as the soundtrack for a porno, I'd be completely okay with that. There was one story in particular that I wanted to share because I think it teaches an important lesson.
It's no secret that I'm a pretty hardcore agnostic and am not a fan of religion and especially Christianity as it seems to be obsessed with denying gays rights... or at least that's how many of it's followers choose to interpret it. I was pretty much expecting there to be tons of those crazy religious people with their "Stop sinning!" signs. Surprisingly, I saw none all weekend. What I did see, however, was a ton of Christians handing out free water and just generally being accepting and telling everyone there that they accepted and loved them regardless of their sexual orientation and that they just wanted them to be happy. It's been a while since my Catholic school days and I've been using my Bible as a paper weight, but I feel like that's what Jesus would want, as well as a supposedly all-loving God.
The take home lesson is to just accept others and also to act in (positive) ways that break stereotypes. You might have, at the very least, a slightly less negative opinion of that group.
That's all I wanted to share. Now, I'm going to go back to having nothing to do with the gay community for the rest of the year.
For those of you who don't know me well, I've never really felt much of a connection with the gay community. It's generally because I really don't have many things in common with other gay men aside from my love of Lady Gaga and, honestly, I find them pretty annoying. Gay men are everything I dislike about men (which, granted, is pretty much everything) combined with everything I find unattractive/dislike about women.
Lesbians, on the other hand, I love. Seriously, they rule. They're the few things I like about men combined with the very many things I like about women... and, best of all, there's no physical attraction from either direction so things never get weird! Woo hoo!
Anyway, so I went to Pride this weekend and it was kind of fun I guess. I did some volunteering and met some awesome lesbians. However, if I never see glitter or hear music that could easily serve as the soundtrack for a porno, I'd be completely okay with that. There was one story in particular that I wanted to share because I think it teaches an important lesson.
It's no secret that I'm a pretty hardcore agnostic and am not a fan of religion and especially Christianity as it seems to be obsessed with denying gays rights... or at least that's how many of it's followers choose to interpret it. I was pretty much expecting there to be tons of those crazy religious people with their "Stop sinning!" signs. Surprisingly, I saw none all weekend. What I did see, however, was a ton of Christians handing out free water and just generally being accepting and telling everyone there that they accepted and loved them regardless of their sexual orientation and that they just wanted them to be happy. It's been a while since my Catholic school days and I've been using my Bible as a paper weight, but I feel like that's what Jesus would want, as well as a supposedly all-loving God.
The take home lesson is to just accept others and also to act in (positive) ways that break stereotypes. You might have, at the very least, a slightly less negative opinion of that group.
That's all I wanted to share. Now, I'm going to go back to having nothing to do with the gay community for the rest of the year.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Taco Tuesday!
I meant to post this earlier but, sadly, my life has been once again consumed by school. Why did I think it was a good idea to take organic chemistry in the summer? I must've taken some whacky pills that day. Anyway, I have a test Thursday so I'm really studying hard... as evidenced by me writing this blog post.
Anywho, a few nights ago I found myself having to cook for myself. For someone who's living at home for the summer, I found this quite distressing as I am used to my parents preparing most meals for me. Luckily for me, my mommy and I happened to go on a trip to Whole Foods in the recent past so I knew I had some delicious organic tortillas in my fridge. Perfect for tacos!
And then I remembered I'm a vegetarian. Fuck.
For those of you who have never been underwhelmed by a vegetarian taco they're generally not that exciting and usually consist of cheese, lettuce, and tomatoes. Woo.
Thankfully, the taco is the most versatile fruit so I decided to improvise based on what I happened to have in the fridge. I came up with organic asparagus, red, orange, and yellow peppers, and summer squash. I chopped these up and decided I should probably cook them. (Can you even eat raw asparagus?) I got out a pan and put some olive oil in it and sauteed (or whatever the fancy cooking term is) them for... well, I didn't keep track of the amount of time. You can't rely on me for all the answers, discover things for yourself, man!!! But to give you an idea of when they're done... whenever the fuck you feel like it. I mean... you can just put them in there for two minutes and basically just get a bunch of hot vegetables and, hey, if you're cool with that then I'm cool with that! I accept you for who you are. Otherwise try cooking them until you poke them with a stirring utensil. And you might want to look for them to change appearance a little bit. But not too much!!! If they start to turn brown and smoke then FOR THE LOVE OF GOD STOP COOKING THEM.
So now you have a bunch of vegetables that are somewhere on the moderately warm to singed spectrum. Now, put everything into the taco. That's what she said. To add variety, flavor, and, most importantly, some additional nutrients I think sprinkled some cheese on top. I used sharp cheddar because I like the strong flavor but you can use whichever cheese moves you. I'm not the Cheese Nazi who tells you what kind of cheese to like. I also discovered some organic spinach salad mix in my fridge as I was putting the cheese back and decided to add that as well.
And with that, the tacos were finished!
So I ate them.
And it was like a vegetabley cheesey food sex explosion in my mouth.
I thought of maybe adding beans next time I make them but why fix what's not broken? However, in your taco-ing life feel free to try whatever you would like and share some suggestions with me!
Speaking of sharing, I have one last thing to share with you all. I thought this was appropriate given today's topic.
Enjoy the rest of your week.
Anywho, a few nights ago I found myself having to cook for myself. For someone who's living at home for the summer, I found this quite distressing as I am used to my parents preparing most meals for me. Luckily for me, my mommy and I happened to go on a trip to Whole Foods in the recent past so I knew I had some delicious organic tortillas in my fridge. Perfect for tacos!
And then I remembered I'm a vegetarian. Fuck.
For those of you who have never been underwhelmed by a vegetarian taco they're generally not that exciting and usually consist of cheese, lettuce, and tomatoes. Woo.
Thankfully, the taco is the most versatile fruit so I decided to improvise based on what I happened to have in the fridge. I came up with organic asparagus, red, orange, and yellow peppers, and summer squash. I chopped these up and decided I should probably cook them. (Can you even eat raw asparagus?) I got out a pan and put some olive oil in it and sauteed (or whatever the fancy cooking term is) them for... well, I didn't keep track of the amount of time. You can't rely on me for all the answers, discover things for yourself, man!!! But to give you an idea of when they're done... whenever the fuck you feel like it. I mean... you can just put them in there for two minutes and basically just get a bunch of hot vegetables and, hey, if you're cool with that then I'm cool with that! I accept you for who you are. Otherwise try cooking them until you poke them with a stirring utensil. And you might want to look for them to change appearance a little bit. But not too much!!! If they start to turn brown and smoke then FOR THE LOVE OF GOD STOP COOKING THEM.
So now you have a bunch of vegetables that are somewhere on the moderately warm to singed spectrum. Now, put everything into the taco. That's what she said. To add variety, flavor, and, most importantly, some additional nutrients I think sprinkled some cheese on top. I used sharp cheddar because I like the strong flavor but you can use whichever cheese moves you. I'm not the Cheese Nazi who tells you what kind of cheese to like. I also discovered some organic spinach salad mix in my fridge as I was putting the cheese back and decided to add that as well.
And with that, the tacos were finished!
So I ate them.
And it was like a vegetabley cheesey food sex explosion in my mouth.
I thought of maybe adding beans next time I make them but why fix what's not broken? However, in your taco-ing life feel free to try whatever you would like and share some suggestions with me!
Speaking of sharing, I have one last thing to share with you all. I thought this was appropriate given today's topic.
Enjoy the rest of your week.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
For those of you who are unaware, I've recently developed an obsession with this YouTube show called "My Drunk Kitchen." The premise that this girl gets drunk and cooks things and films it. It's pretty freakin' great. Well, there happens to be a new episode today so I wanted to share it with you before I got into the real meat of today's blog.
Isn't she great?! I love her. I want to keep her in a jar in my room.
Now that I've shared the joy of MDK, it's time to move on to a more serious topic. I know, I know, it's rare that I have serious blogs because I'm so fucking entertaining.
For those of you who don't follow me on Twitter, lately I've been posting a lot of rather depressing statuses (Basically, I've turned into this whiny thirteen year old fat emo girl). I know they're annoying and I know it seems like I'm... well, a whiny thirteen year old fat emo girl. I also realize that lately I've been really irritable lately. I'm snapping at people, I'm making vicious sarcastic comments, I'm not commenting or tweeting or texting back, I'm being really anti-social... Basically, I'm becoming a real asshole.
Well, more of a real asshole than I usually am.
I've also become a tad paranoid and have gotten mad at people for stupid things like not responding to a Facebook event invite or whatever... Stuff that, while annoying, doesn't warrant the kind of reaction I've been having. In addition, I've felt the need to obsessively write on people's walls, comment or like everything, etc. because I feel like everyone is abandoning me for completely irrational reasons.
I guess I just really wanted to apologize for how I've been acting lately. There's been a lot of negative stuff in my life lately that I've been struggling with and it honestly has been getting worse rather than better. I'm trying to work through it but it's a long, difficult process. So if I snap at you or whatever, don't take it personally. It really is my issue more than anything else and you're probably doing nothing wrong. I don't know why I take things out on the people I love, but that's what always ends up happening. I'm trying to stop, I really am.
Life has been a struggle lately for me. I don't want to go into details of what's been going on, and I'm sure most of you probably don't want to hear it, but things are getting bad. Some days, I won't get out of bed until 4 because I just don't see the point or feel like dealing with reality. Hopefully, someday I'll get better. Hopefully.
Isn't she great?! I love her. I want to keep her in a jar in my room.
Now that I've shared the joy of MDK, it's time to move on to a more serious topic. I know, I know, it's rare that I have serious blogs because I'm so fucking entertaining.
For those of you who don't follow me on Twitter, lately I've been posting a lot of rather depressing statuses (Basically, I've turned into this whiny thirteen year old fat emo girl). I know they're annoying and I know it seems like I'm... well, a whiny thirteen year old fat emo girl. I also realize that lately I've been really irritable lately. I'm snapping at people, I'm making vicious sarcastic comments, I'm not commenting or tweeting or texting back, I'm being really anti-social... Basically, I'm becoming a real asshole.
Well, more of a real asshole than I usually am.
I've also become a tad paranoid and have gotten mad at people for stupid things like not responding to a Facebook event invite or whatever... Stuff that, while annoying, doesn't warrant the kind of reaction I've been having. In addition, I've felt the need to obsessively write on people's walls, comment or like everything, etc. because I feel like everyone is abandoning me for completely irrational reasons.
I guess I just really wanted to apologize for how I've been acting lately. There's been a lot of negative stuff in my life lately that I've been struggling with and it honestly has been getting worse rather than better. I'm trying to work through it but it's a long, difficult process. So if I snap at you or whatever, don't take it personally. It really is my issue more than anything else and you're probably doing nothing wrong. I don't know why I take things out on the people I love, but that's what always ends up happening. I'm trying to stop, I really am.
Life has been a struggle lately for me. I don't want to go into details of what's been going on, and I'm sure most of you probably don't want to hear it, but things are getting bad. Some days, I won't get out of bed until 4 because I just don't see the point or feel like dealing with reality. Hopefully, someday I'll get better. Hopefully.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Live fast, die young?
I'd like to start out with some exciting news... I found another purple food!!!! Apparently, one variety of kale is partially purple. Who knew?! Obviously I had to pick up a bunch and now I'm looking for something to do with it because... what the fuck do you do with kale?
Anyway, I read a disturbing article today that the US is WAY behind other developed countries as far as our life expectancies go. I found this a bit shocking because I've always been told that we had one of the highest life expectancies. As I got near the end of the article, it became clear why ours is so low: Obesity (as well as smoking). This leads to today's angry Joey rant.
*clears throat*
GET OFF YOUR LAZY FUCKING ASSES AMERICANS AND STOP EATING SUCH CRAP. Yeah, I know it's a lot more fun to sit around and eat chocolate and ice cream and deep fried shit all day but do you realize what it's doing to your body?! It's disgusting. So suck it the fuck up and MOVE. You can spare half an hour a day for activity. And fuck, you can even take two days off a week and still be fine! And quit bitching about how healthy food tastes like shit. Ever thought that maybe you're not doing it right? DON'T BLAME CARROTS.
What's amazes the fuck out of me is how people still manage to be lard asses even though we have tons of resources for them to loose weight and stay at least relatively healthy. I mean, running is FUCKING FREE. GO DO IT. You can look up yoga videos online FOR FREE. You can get a Jillian Michaels DVD for like $10. You don't need a gym! Just get out there and MOVE. And stop eating at McDonalds. We all know how crappy it is.
This concludes our Joey rant for today. Thank you for your time.
Anyway, I read a disturbing article today that the US is WAY behind other developed countries as far as our life expectancies go. I found this a bit shocking because I've always been told that we had one of the highest life expectancies. As I got near the end of the article, it became clear why ours is so low: Obesity (as well as smoking). This leads to today's angry Joey rant.
*clears throat*
GET OFF YOUR LAZY FUCKING ASSES AMERICANS AND STOP EATING SUCH CRAP. Yeah, I know it's a lot more fun to sit around and eat chocolate and ice cream and deep fried shit all day but do you realize what it's doing to your body?! It's disgusting. So suck it the fuck up and MOVE. You can spare half an hour a day for activity. And fuck, you can even take two days off a week and still be fine! And quit bitching about how healthy food tastes like shit. Ever thought that maybe you're not doing it right? DON'T BLAME CARROTS.
What's amazes the fuck out of me is how people still manage to be lard asses even though we have tons of resources for them to loose weight and stay at least relatively healthy. I mean, running is FUCKING FREE. GO DO IT. You can look up yoga videos online FOR FREE. You can get a Jillian Michaels DVD for like $10. You don't need a gym! Just get out there and MOVE. And stop eating at McDonalds. We all know how crappy it is.
This concludes our Joey rant for today. Thank you for your time.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
The (Facebook) Bystander Effect
It's a Saturday night and so far this evening I ran 8 miles, chased a rabbit around the yard, and learned the medical term for man-boobs. One thing I did not do, however, is have any sort of social contact minus a few texts seeing if some friends were free this evening (Obviously they were not).
I know you're probably thinking, "Oh God, Joey's going to bitch about not having friends again." While most of the time you would be right (Let's be honest: I'm pretty damn good at bitching) bear with me because this is actually going somewhere productive.
Anyway, where was I? Oh right, not having a social life. So here I was, sitting by my lonesome when I got the idea to post something on Facebook seeing if anyone wanted to hang out. Despite posting the most witty, insightful, and though provoking status I could, no one responded. Whomp whomp. This isn't the first time this has happened, nor will it be the last. I was pondering why the fuck this kept happening when two explanations came into my head:
(Actually, quite a few more came into my head. But these seemed the most likely. I don't think all my friends being abducted by aliens and replaced with illiterate sheep who have hacked into their Facebook accounts is very plausible).
The first explanation is that I'm completely unbearable to be around because I'm annoying as all fuck, smell, am ugly as sin, a real asshole, hated by everyone, or some combination there of. While this is definitely a viable theory because no one wants to to spend time with people with those traits, it's more than likely a product of my paranoia because sometimes I convince myself of some pretty ridiculous things.
I decided to think a little more rationally for an explanation. Suddenly, it hit me as I thought back to my social psychology class and something known as the bystander effect.
Those of you who haven't taken social psychology or even introductory psychology are probably thinking, "What the fuck is the bystander effect?" ...or some variant of that. The bystander effect is an interesting phenomena that occurs when people are confronted with an emergency situation in which someone else needs help. If there's just one person there, they will be significantly more likely to attempt to help than if there is a group of people around. This is believed to occur because when more people are around, people feel less personally obligated to help and the sense of responsibility is diffused throughout the group. Unfortunately, this usually results in no one helping. An example of this from my social psych class was this chick named Feline Genwjwthaiothabgtasjgnasg, or something like that, who was murdered in an alley in New York and, despite crying for help, none of her neighbors called the police.
So what the hell does this have to do with my Facebook post? Think about the way Facebook works: We each have a couple hundred (or, for those who are particularly insecure, a couple thousand) friends that all of our status updates, links, etc. get sent out to. Each of those friends has a couple hundred/thousand friends (again, depending on their level of insecurity). Each of these friends acts as a bystander of sorts and thus everyone develops a, "Oh, someone else will respond" attitude and no one responds even if they may be bored and looking for something to do. I am coining this "the Facebook bystander effect."
Another example from my life was back in March when I was looking for someone to see Girl Talk with me. I posted repeatedly on Facebook asking if anyone wanted to go with me because the person I was originally going with was no longer able to go. Bear in mind that GT sold out two back to back shows in Minneapolis. How many people do you think responded? ZERO. Thankfully, I ran into my friend Edwina (isn't her name AWESOME?!) and she told me she wanted to go. I asked why she didn't respond on Facebook and she said, "Oh, I thought someone else would want to go so I figured I'd wait and see." Like in the real life bystander effect, there were many virtual bystanders so she had just assumed that someone else would respond because of a sort of diffusion of responsibility (although in this case there's no responsibility, but to keep in the context of the original bystander effect I'll use that term).
Now, I realize this is quite the stretch to go from a real life emergency to something as silly as Facebook but think about it abstractly and you'll see that the general concept, the more people there are the less likely someone will act, carries over. Of course, there are other problems. My thinking is in no way based on any empirical evidence because I don't have fucking time to do experiments for fun. I do think the anecdotal evidence suggests there may be something there. Also, it is based off of a theory that actually has empirical evidence behind it. So if any of you happen to be a researcher and want to test this theory out, let me know! *wink wink nudge nudge*
There are some other applications of the Facebook bystander effect that, assuming it's actually happening, I'd be interested in exploring as well. For example, does this still happen if the person making the post has few friends? Are people more likely to respond if they themselves have few friends? What factors can increase responsiveness to a request on Facebook (humor, invoking a sense of obligation, etc.)? How many people would respond to an actual emergency request on Facebook ("The baby's coming! Someone take me to the hospital!") and would responsiveness be affected by any of the above listed factors? Does having a picture of a sexy bikini model increase the likelihood of a response?
Finally, how can this effect be countered? Research would need to be done to make a reliable judgment of whether variations in wording or tone could result in more responses. The best way to counter the Facebook bystander effect would be to make very specific requests. In the actual bystander effect, instead of shouting, "Somebody help me!" it would be a better idea to pick one person out and point to them and shout, "Hey asswipe in the red scarf, call the police!" Okay, maybe don't call them asswipe. But you catch my drift, right?
To apply this to Facebook, instead of posting a status saying, "I'm bored. Someone want to go fly fishing?!" it would be more effective to write on one person's wall, send them a message, use the chat feature, tag them in a post, text them, use a carrier pigeon, address them specifically via smoke signals, etc. I can't promise that this will get you results, however, because it seems like people are too lazy/big of assholes to respond to texts and what not... But that's a whole different blog =)
Another way to overcome the bystander effect may to just simply be aware of it so you can consciously make an effort to notice if it is happening and hopefully act against it. So the take home message is that if you see someone who's looking for something to do or someone to go see a show with on Facebook, don't just assume someone else is going to respond and do it yourself. Chances are, everyone else is thinking, "Someone else is going to respond so why bother?" This especially applies if it's something I post. I always love comments and responses, which is why I obsessively do it on other peoples' posts all the time.
If anyone actually decides to put my little theory to the test, let me know how it goes. From a personal standpoint, hopefully by taking a more proactive and direct approach I won't be spending too many more weekends like this holed up at home.
... Or maybe I'm just an asshole.
I know you're probably thinking, "Oh God, Joey's going to bitch about not having friends again." While most of the time you would be right (Let's be honest: I'm pretty damn good at bitching) bear with me because this is actually going somewhere productive.
Anyway, where was I? Oh right, not having a social life. So here I was, sitting by my lonesome when I got the idea to post something on Facebook seeing if anyone wanted to hang out. Despite posting the most witty, insightful, and though provoking status I could, no one responded. Whomp whomp. This isn't the first time this has happened, nor will it be the last. I was pondering why the fuck this kept happening when two explanations came into my head:
(Actually, quite a few more came into my head. But these seemed the most likely. I don't think all my friends being abducted by aliens and replaced with illiterate sheep who have hacked into their Facebook accounts is very plausible).
The first explanation is that I'm completely unbearable to be around because I'm annoying as all fuck, smell, am ugly as sin, a real asshole, hated by everyone, or some combination there of. While this is definitely a viable theory because no one wants to to spend time with people with those traits, it's more than likely a product of my paranoia because sometimes I convince myself of some pretty ridiculous things.
I decided to think a little more rationally for an explanation. Suddenly, it hit me as I thought back to my social psychology class and something known as the bystander effect.
Those of you who haven't taken social psychology or even introductory psychology are probably thinking, "What the fuck is the bystander effect?" ...or some variant of that. The bystander effect is an interesting phenomena that occurs when people are confronted with an emergency situation in which someone else needs help. If there's just one person there, they will be significantly more likely to attempt to help than if there is a group of people around. This is believed to occur because when more people are around, people feel less personally obligated to help and the sense of responsibility is diffused throughout the group. Unfortunately, this usually results in no one helping. An example of this from my social psych class was this chick named Feline Genwjwthaiothabgtasjgnasg, or something like that, who was murdered in an alley in New York and, despite crying for help, none of her neighbors called the police.
So what the hell does this have to do with my Facebook post? Think about the way Facebook works: We each have a couple hundred (or, for those who are particularly insecure, a couple thousand) friends that all of our status updates, links, etc. get sent out to. Each of those friends has a couple hundred/thousand friends (again, depending on their level of insecurity). Each of these friends acts as a bystander of sorts and thus everyone develops a, "Oh, someone else will respond" attitude and no one responds even if they may be bored and looking for something to do. I am coining this "the Facebook bystander effect."
Another example from my life was back in March when I was looking for someone to see Girl Talk with me. I posted repeatedly on Facebook asking if anyone wanted to go with me because the person I was originally going with was no longer able to go. Bear in mind that GT sold out two back to back shows in Minneapolis. How many people do you think responded? ZERO. Thankfully, I ran into my friend Edwina (isn't her name AWESOME?!) and she told me she wanted to go. I asked why she didn't respond on Facebook and she said, "Oh, I thought someone else would want to go so I figured I'd wait and see." Like in the real life bystander effect, there were many virtual bystanders so she had just assumed that someone else would respond because of a sort of diffusion of responsibility (although in this case there's no responsibility, but to keep in the context of the original bystander effect I'll use that term).
Now, I realize this is quite the stretch to go from a real life emergency to something as silly as Facebook but think about it abstractly and you'll see that the general concept, the more people there are the less likely someone will act, carries over. Of course, there are other problems. My thinking is in no way based on any empirical evidence because I don't have fucking time to do experiments for fun. I do think the anecdotal evidence suggests there may be something there. Also, it is based off of a theory that actually has empirical evidence behind it. So if any of you happen to be a researcher and want to test this theory out, let me know! *wink wink nudge nudge*
There are some other applications of the Facebook bystander effect that, assuming it's actually happening, I'd be interested in exploring as well. For example, does this still happen if the person making the post has few friends? Are people more likely to respond if they themselves have few friends? What factors can increase responsiveness to a request on Facebook (humor, invoking a sense of obligation, etc.)? How many people would respond to an actual emergency request on Facebook ("The baby's coming! Someone take me to the hospital!") and would responsiveness be affected by any of the above listed factors? Does having a picture of a sexy bikini model increase the likelihood of a response?
Finally, how can this effect be countered? Research would need to be done to make a reliable judgment of whether variations in wording or tone could result in more responses. The best way to counter the Facebook bystander effect would be to make very specific requests. In the actual bystander effect, instead of shouting, "Somebody help me!" it would be a better idea to pick one person out and point to them and shout, "Hey asswipe in the red scarf, call the police!" Okay, maybe don't call them asswipe. But you catch my drift, right?
To apply this to Facebook, instead of posting a status saying, "I'm bored. Someone want to go fly fishing?!" it would be more effective to write on one person's wall, send them a message, use the chat feature, tag them in a post, text them, use a carrier pigeon, address them specifically via smoke signals, etc. I can't promise that this will get you results, however, because it seems like people are too lazy/big of assholes to respond to texts and what not... But that's a whole different blog =)
Another way to overcome the bystander effect may to just simply be aware of it so you can consciously make an effort to notice if it is happening and hopefully act against it. So the take home message is that if you see someone who's looking for something to do or someone to go see a show with on Facebook, don't just assume someone else is going to respond and do it yourself. Chances are, everyone else is thinking, "Someone else is going to respond so why bother?" This especially applies if it's something I post. I always love comments and responses, which is why I obsessively do it on other peoples' posts all the time.
If anyone actually decides to put my little theory to the test, let me know how it goes. From a personal standpoint, hopefully by taking a more proactive and direct approach I won't be spending too many more weekends like this holed up at home.
... Or maybe I'm just an asshole.
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