I’ve been brewing some ideas on how to better improve the social media world.

Using Last.fm for shopping, band sites, and pausing music , all sound like good applications for what I consider to be my favorite social-media site, and well as one of the largest, most popular, and most diverse sites on the web. Seriously, I’ve spoken very highly of Last.fm for a long time now, and have *personally logged over one hundred thousand plays. But when I look at how many different applications utilize the Twitter API, it makes me realize how grossly underused the Last.fm API is.

* (Check me out here, and don’t be afraid to throw a friend request my way)

One for instance I would find particularly awesome, would be the use of more websites like Amazon or Ebay to access a user’s last.fm charts to show more relevant searches and recommendations. I figure, web ads are already starting to tailor their content to user-specific parameters, so why stop there? Hot Topic’s website -for instance- gives a large dropdown menu displaying the various band apparel available for purchase, but it seems like typing in my Last.fm username would provide a much more efficient and custom shopping experience, all free to the vendor to use.

But why stop there? because Last.fm has also updated their servers to show if you’re listening to a track right now. That means that there is a free, relativity easy to use way to find out if a person is listening to music: which would be wonderfully applied to sites with audio or video, and could be turned on or off conditionally. I mean, few things piss me off more than a band’s Myspace playing music over my music, or trying to find the one tab I opened with the stupid video ad.

It all seems like a complete waste for vendors to ignore the fact the the community of last.fm is doing their work for them, by labeling trends and groups of charts with data tags. If I were to get on a site, they could look at my top ten artists: to which a simple algorithm can determine the predominate genre I listen to is metal. From there, they now know what music I most commonly listen to: which can tell a lot about a person. My recommendations can now be more relevant based on a multitude of information about the artists I like. Where they’re from, how old they are, what genres they fall into, how often I’m listening to music: it’s all there for the taking. Especially what events I’m attending, a list that I keep updated.

Exclusive Tour Content – now everyone knows that these days things are digital. Music fans no longer keep a shelf full of LPs, but instead an external full of FLACs. So now more than ever, people are starting to customize their own playlists and mix their own tracks. Which means even the music industry, which seems to be perpetually ten years behind has to realize that by now, a tracklist is unimportant: everything’s got its own playlist. So if you’re like me, you do keep a lot of playlists around, for different moods and for when you’re jogging: things like that.

My thoughts are, the artists should embrace this way of listening to music, by releasing filler content through their website. If you’ve seen a band live, then you know how much “Hello Cincinnati, we fucking love you guys” kind of stuff goes on. So why not record those small audience interactions, and put ‘em on the web for people to use in a playlist? I would love having a copy of Randy Blythe saying “you might’ve heard this song played by a bunch of HACK musicians on a video game” before introducing Laid to Rest. That would be SO awesome and easy to do. For people who saw that show live, it takes on a whole new level being able to create the playlist of the show you were at: or give people who missed it a chance to hear the in-between stuff.

Zune goes SS?
Originally uploaded by
Claudio Schwarz

For the Zune Social not to suck, would be also be super nice. If you haven’t already been, take a look around, and just wallow in its horrible, horrible lack of application with the data it collects. It requires the downloading of Silverlight, which I’ve never fucking heard of, and offers little other than reaffirmation that yes, that person exists.

What bothers me most, is that the data on Zune’s social goes nowhere. I mean, Zune is already the laughingstock of the mp3 world: so don’t invite even more embarrassment by trying to set your brand up as being ultra-urban, when you have the least compatible site I’ve seen in a long, long time. You’re given the chance to make a profile: which is worthless unless you download the Zune software, which is again worthless, unless you have a Zune.

On top of that, your profile has the option to display a “status” which seems like an easy port to bring in Twitter: and custom information on each artists, including mis-labeled album information, and out-of-date tour information. On top of that, most areas aren’t public run, which means you’re at the mercy of Microsoft to make sure your favorite artists have information.

A sad, sad world we live in, when a multi-billion dollar company can’t label music correctly.

Alright people, hop-to, these ideas aren’t going to materialize into usable programs by themselves.

The way I see it, you have to follow to get followed. Like twitter has taught me, be engaging, and be diverse: and you’ll find yourself in among friends. In fact, Twitter has taught me if you’re diverse, engaging, and just a tad bit humorous, you can find yourself in a bar in Chicago on a Saturday night chatting up old M*A*S*H* episodes with the Twitterverse elite.

I’m pretty sure I’ve already done this, and I know for a fact I’ve done this with podcasts, but I’d like to share a small few blogs (that all happen to deal with Porkopolis) that I subscribe to, for one reason or another. If not to only share great content, but to return the love these sites have shown me.

Yo, cut it.

Union Terminal
Originally uploaded by Rrrrred

Cincinnati Re-Adventure
This is where I start my list: with a blog created by my sister, and her boyfriend to reignite their love for the city of Cincinnati, by visiting the places they never knew where there. They do some awesome posts about all kinds of events, like quest to find all of the flying pigs, review local food, and keep you informed on some of the major political and social events of the season. Plus with regular trips to comic book stores, music venues and museums, they have everything you need to be awesome. And of course, feedback is always appreciated.

Cincy Streetcar Blog
A progressive blog about one of Cincinnati’s biggest hot-button issues right now. The blog is pretty straight forward, and cuts through the bullshit and bureaucracy surrounding things like issue nine, and funding for transportation projects.

(which, you should vote no on)

CAAST
Another forward-thinking, Cincinnati based, no-on-nine blog dedicated to tackling the stupid ideas that threaten Greater Cincinnati by dispelling myths, calling people out on their words, and bringing to light some great content about what goes on in the Queen city. Very political.

One Man Crime Wave
I am totally gay for the guys over at OMCW, ever since I found them on Twitter. They were super nice, very engaging, and really know their stuff about football. Always a step ahead of other Bengals sites, they cover what’s most important: sprinkling on a wealth of statistics, insight, and humor. A total must-read for anyone interested in the orange and black, and a follow you won’t regret.

Ken Broo (with the Broo View)
Not only is there a high amount of Broo puns available (Brooniverse, Broony-Toons, Broost Mobile) this guy serves up local sports news as an anchor for Channel Five. But on top of his news coverage, he delivers a damn fine podcast dedicated to Bengals coverage, regularly dissects college football, and hosts weekly interviews of top sports names. You just can’t go wrong with Ken Broo. (Who, even left a comment on my blog when I mentioned him last time. What an awesome guy.)

Bonus: Mountain Broo, Hawaiian Brooau, Broo-Broo-Broodio, and Oklahoma Brooners

Also, I wanted to make a quick mention of Happn In Cincinnati which delivers local trending topics via Twitter, which is a great way to see what’s popular in the city. And if you’re a fan of local music, vote for your favorite bands. (like Freekbass and Bad Veins) So that’s just a few, and as always, I’d love to hear what everyone’s favorite blogs are: Cincinnati or not.

And maybe Ken Broo will leave us a few links.

For a while now, I’ve been brewing some ideas on how to better improve the social media world. As somebody who’s in the trenches every day using social media tools and sites, and trying to adapt to the habits of ever-changing content integration, I fancy myself a bit of of a guru. After all, I totally ditched Myspace before it was cool.

A Blog Integrated, Feed Reading Plug-In has been something I’ve wanted since the inception of feed readers. Back when NewsGator was the shit, and Google Reader hadn’t yet hit the web, sites were still relativity new to the idea of feeds. That meant having a feed reader wasn’t always ideal from having a folder full of bookmarks, because you still have to visit most sites directly. But now, feeds are almost guaranteed for even the most basic websites. Webcomics, personal blogs, they can all be routed into feed readers making your day a whole-hell-of-a-lot quicker, and more efficient.

But feed readers didn’t kill the need to visit some sites directly, which puts you at odds if you’re reading the content of a site that you’ve subscribed to, on the site, and not in your reader. Which is why I had the idea of developing a plug-in for sites that deliver feed-optional content, that would directly update your feed-reader if you’ve read the content on a site. If I go to BoingBoing and read their articles for two hours,

I want that reflected in my feed reader automatically (I’d even go as far as check-marking a box at the bottom of a website’s post) so I don’t have to click “mark all as read” and throw off my user statistics.

You could even take this one-step further, by having a plug-in to mark each entry on a site’s feed with a code that could be used by multiple sites like Tumblr, Facebook AND Google Reader to mark the content as having already been shared, thus removing it from the streams of the other sites. (ie: If read it on Google Reader, that post doesn’t show up on Tumblr or Facebook, unless noted with the comments of a friend)

One-click Feed Reading would also be super nice to bring feed-readers into a more modern era. I mean, this is a really minor thing, but when I want to subscribe to a site, I have to find the orange icon, usually specify the type of feed I want -RSS or ATOM on old blogs- then which feed reader -Google by default- and finally one more time when I’m actually in my feed reader. It just seems like, if we can make ads that let you make full purchases in a side-bar, then we can make a button that skips all the options, and uses default settings to just make it happen.

Alright web-developers, programmers and designers, getting cracking, these ideas aren’t going to manifest themselves into revolutionary new tools.

(not edited)

I woke up this morning… I woke up this afternoon with a big yawn and a stretch, and after opening my fridge for a Mountain Dew, I crawled over to my computer for my daily fix. First I check Deluge, then move on to Brizzly and Tumblr, all knowing that soon I’ll have to do the dreadful CTL+T over to Google Reader to face some four hundred entries. I casually roll the wheel through the news, roll right through politics, skim the sports, peruse the comics, and end on anything left by del.icio.us.

But the problem I face, is that because I check Tumblr and Twitter first, I’ve already read SMBC, XKCD, The Onion, Zen Habits, The Superficial and anything extremely left or right in the news. So the simple solution was to go on a massive deleting spree, purging SMBC, XKCD, The Onion, Zen Habits, The Superficial and anything extremely left or right in the news. The way I see it, anyone I follow on any of the social networking sites, I follow for a reason: because they post like-minded things, and are usually friends back. So that means I have a network of people I know covering and reading the material I already spend time reading, and who usually end up sharing it to me anyway.

Del.icio.us, Digg, Google Reader, Tumblr, Twitter, Brizzly, Last.fm, Facebook: they all have integrated ways of starring content, so what is the point of following blogs anymore, when Bradley-specific news is already getting piped in through the other sites I belong to. The way I see it, it will eventually come down to each of my friends cover a specific group of sites. Example, maybe Erica will have hockey news, Ryan with football news, while I have baseball news: and with the plethora of options to share that information, I no longer have to follow hockey or football specifically, as it’ll be handed down to me, in exchange for my monitoring of baseball news.

Which leads me to believe a very ‘meta’ site needs to be created, where you subscribe to a specific user’s stream of a website, which in theory, would condense the condensed. If I have a friend who always shares what I believe to be the best of Boing Boing, I could subscribe to their Boing Boing feed to save the trouble of sifting through 90% more content than I care to make time for. It wouldn’t even kill the feed reader, as it wouldn’t eliminate the need to follow certain blogs or the need to keep them organized, but would integrate rather well with the set-up of say, Google Reader. Simple solution people, simple solution.

Some quick thoughts I wanted to get down. Also, I didn’t edit this.

I recently attended a staff meeting of sorts for my church. The heads of all the various committees met for an early Sunday morning breakfast to do some team-building activities, and run through an agenda of various items. Fund raising, stewardship and a lot of other money-based issues came into discussion, but for the duration of the meeting, my mind was wrapped around a concept that I believe is really detrimental to our church’s way of accomplishing tasks. As a member of a Unitarian Universalism congregation, most of our members fear greatly the structure of a typical western-christian church. The idea that decisions are just “handed-down” is a little frightening to me too, as we elect all of our staff (including our reverend) locally and democratically, so we can better assess what works for us in a community-based way. I’m not sure what specific denominations do things differently, but Catholicism was on the tip of my tongue.

But the problem I kept stewing on, and later horribly tried to articulate into words, was that this creates a sense of need to reinvent the wheel. As a church who turns inward to do everything: raise money, solve problems, create events and staff projects, we often don’t acknowledge the existence of other churches struggling to achieve similar goals, or the larger denomination as a means to solve some of our bigger challenges. A good portion of our budget goes to being members of the Unitarian Universalism Association of Congregations (UUA) but I fail to see where we utilize their resources enough to justify the amount we spend being members, if not for title alone. I was told by one member that in a past congregation, fundraisers were treated as though they were denominational, involving the participation of several community churches. I realize the relatively small amount of UU churches in our area, but that seems like a pretty lame excuse for not reaching out to other congregations struggling with the same problems.

So rather than constantly ask our own members for solutions, I greatly feel like we could benefit from turning away from the community of ourselves, but into the larger community established in the city, in the state, and in the country.

This made me laugh so hard, I had to post it here too.

worlds best dj…..the bengal stormtrooper
Originally uploaded by kynoise

As of recent, and especially this season, I’ve very much been getting into the sport of professional football, something that only a few short years ago, I would have scoffed at. But with the Garwood Bowl kicking off its third year, and my Cincinnati Bengals looking to make a rebound, I’m happily diving into the glitz-and-glam of the player’s lives and Twitters, and keeping tabs on how certain teams in the NFL are doing.

In that, certain teams stand out more than others for various reasons, creating a sort or “power ranking” in my head, according to my level of excitement, how they play, and the teams relationship with the other teams. So I’ve taken some time to rank the NFL in what I consider to be my favorites list. This has nothing to do with physical playing ability, or any sort of statistical ranking, but purely superficial observations made on what little I know about them. Here we go.

(Also, I’m not editing this post. So, first draft is what you’re reading)

Cincinnati Bengals
My home team, which apparently I’ve been a fan of since before I could remember. Anyway, the Bengals are no longer just a team I have to like, (being from Cincy) but one I’m happy to follow. I’m legitimately excited to how they fare this year, with several additions to their team through what I considered to be an excellent draft, as well as the return of the God of Golden Arms, Carson Palmer. They bring a lot to the city, and I hope they can perform in line with how they all feel they will. It’s a clutch year, and because of that, I’m cheering them on first.

Chicago Bears
But when the Bengals inevitably get knocked out of playoff contention this year, my fanship has to turn to my second-in-command, the Chicago Bears. They’re a classic team, and a defensive wall: which are two things I absolutely love in a football team. Even despite my love of their style, the Bears have several promising players I’m keeping an eye on as well, including Devin Hester and Jay Cutler.

Houston Texans
I watched a few games they played last year, and was impressed by how they performed. But what really anchored this team in my mind, was that most of the standout players in my fantasy team last year were Texans, so having players like Andre Johnson, Steve Slaton and Kevin Walter made me really get to know the team. Anyway, I’m hoping they’re come out strong this year, because the AFC South is going to be one hell of a competition if they can put together a threat.

New England Patriots
Slowly slipping, but still there, are the New England Patriots. While most people think otherwise, my approval for the team comes from a like of classic teams with great defense, not because I’m some Tom Brady fanboy. I don’t mind the guy, and he’s put up some pretty amazing numbers: but at the same time, Randy Moss.

ah, Randy Moss.

Ed Reed
Originally uploaded by Keith Allison

Baltimore Ravens
My brother gives me a lot of flak for really liking the Baltimore Ravens, considering they’re supposed to be one of our division rivals. I just can’t bring myself to hate a team I respect so much. Ed Reed alone is reason enough to put this team on your good side, because the dude’ll take your head off, after making you throw an interception. And being a division rival works both ways, because that’s one more team that has two chances a year to beat the Steelers and Browns. I love them for their defense, and I like keeping an eye of their offense. I’m jealous, I’ll just say it.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Bucs were another team that I came to respect out of fantasy football. With a beast running game, players like Warrick Dunn (who seems like a pretty awesome guy) put my team in playoff contention. Also, I’m curious to see who will taking the QB position for them this year, with my own opinion leaning toward Byron Leftwich. The Bucs are simply a flashy team that I like to watch.

Especially because their cheerleaders are actually worth looking at.

Atlanta Falcons
Matt Ryan. I’ll say it, Matt Ryan’s the reason I like the Falcons this year. I think it’s because if given the chance, I relate to the skinny white guys. But he put up some serious numbers for a rookie, and I know he’s going to do even better this year. As for the whole Michael Turner thing, I could give two shits, because he’s going to have a bust year. I’m telling you, BUST YEAR.

Denver Broncos
I still haven’t made up my mind on the whole Denver-Chicago QB trade, because I really liked Kyle Orton. Now that he’s in Denver, I suppose I have a reason to watch what kind of chemistry he can create with the players their, but from what I’ve heard, he hasn’t been doing well. Aside from the ‘back situation, I have a feeling the Broncos are going to have a terrible season, so it’ll be fun to watch them fall apart.

Buffalo Bills
The Bengal’s backup QB, Ryan Fitzpatrick really started to gain favor with me towards the end of the year. Because of Carson’s injury, he took most of the snaps, and subsequently earned himself quite the rushing and scrambling resume. So after finally starting to like ‘ol crazy legs, he got traded away and replaced. Happy to see him continue his career in the NFL, I’m sad to see him leave Cincinnati, but I think it’s for the best. In hopes of seeing him play, I’ll be watching for what the Bills can do this year.

Packers Bears Football
Originally uploaded by NicelySighted
See? They’re shaking hands!

Green Bay Packers
As a Bears fan, I’m supposed to have some sort of bitter feud with Green Bay. Well I don’t, because I have nothing but respect for them. With players like Greg Jennings and Donald Driver, I’m looking forward to see them play this year, simply because they’re one of those teams you just can’t hate. I mean, the team had Brett Favre, how can you not love that guy?

I suppose this is the part on my list where I go from “I’ll happily be watching” to “I don’t not like them”

Philadelphia Eagles
So, they were going to be pretty far down on the list this year, with nothing that really stood out to me. But now with the inclusion of Michael Vick of their roster, it’s going to be a hell of a year for Philly. I mean, I can honestly say I’m just going to be watching for Vick and the media circus that’ll ensue no matter how he does. But as for their team, I have no strong opinion of them, for or against.

Oakland Raiders
So, a few people know that I secretly love the Oakland Raiders. It’s true, I really do, but it’s an odd relationship. I don’t like when they win, I like when they stay an angry, bitter group of spiteful people. It’s just awesome to me to see a fanbase of people so enraged by every other team in the league, and build their identity on beer throwing and name-calling. Still though, defensibly, I think they’re going to have a great year. Argue about it all you want, but when you match up their corners against their division’s passing game, I think we’re all in for a surprise.

San Fransisco 49s
You gotta take the good with the bad for this team. On one side, you have players and coaches I like, Mike Singletary, Crabtree, Shaun Hill. On the other side, they’re the San Francisco 49ers.

Seattle Seahawks
While my brother might totally gay for the Seahawks, I’m not to crazy about ‘em, simply because I always forget that they’re a team. A lot of the time, they play a pretty even season that leaves me scratching my head as to which team I’m forgetting on my list. I don’t have any major reasons for paying them any attention, save TJ Houshmandzadeh who moved from Cincinnati. Sorry to see him go, but happy to see him pursue what might be a better place for him.

Arizona Cardinals
I’ve heard nothing but Cardinals love from my mother this year, who’s found Kurt Warner and Larry Fitzgerald to be “hers” in terms of player favorites. Because I’ve been so invested in figuring out how the hell they made it the Super Bowl, as well as my mother’s interest, I’ll being watching solely for same reason as everyone else: to see if Kurt can do it again (he won’t) to watch Larry be overrated (which he is) and see if they can put together a running game.

Detroit Lions Fail
Originally uploaded by a2evomr

Detroit Lions
Hahaha, 0-16.

Kansas City Chiefs
This is another team that I’ll be watching for the sake a traded quarterback: starting player Matt Cassel. Without the Patriot’s precious Randy Moss, Wes Welker and amazing pocket for protection, I’m curious who the hell Cassel will have to throw to, and just what he’ll be able to pull out of this season. I don’t expect him or the team to do well, but you never know.

Tennessee Titans
What the fuck happened last year? Suddenly we were four or five games into the season, and nobody had any clue as to how the Titans could be stopped.

Honestly, I could give two shits about the Titans this year, because I think their division will be a mess of competition, so the mere fact that they’ll have to fight tooth-and-nail for a playoff berth is the only redeeming quality for me.

Well, I guess that, and that some of their players might desecrate a terrible towel or two. That’s always fun.

Indianapolis Colts
What a boring team. You’ve got thumb-headed Payton Manning taking another year as lead-robot, and an array of wide receivers and running backs that I have no interest in following. However, I think they’re in another division that’s worth watching, simply because they’ll be one of the deciding teams. If their TE is as good as he supposed to be, then they can have an interesting effect on the other teams around them.

You’ll notice I’ll start to run out of things to say about the next few teams. I simply don’t care about them.

Miami Dolphins
Is that wiener of a quarterback still there?

Haha, so it looks like we’ll have to put up with another year of hearing about how the wildcat “saved” their team, and how nothing will ever be as good as the ‘72 team. We get it, you won that year, GET A NEW THING.

New York Jets
Brett Favre left, Thomas Jones is being a dick, and going to have a bust year. So, what’s the point?

Tony Romo Fumbles Snap…
Originally uploaded by storyspinn

Dallas Cowboys
Yeah, it looks like I have a few fantasy players from the Cowboys, so my opinion on them might change this year, but I don’t particularly care for Romo, or his collapse-under-pressure style. They’re totally the “ipods” of football, and as we all know, I don’t care for the mainstream.

Sorry Ryan, but taking homeless guys to the movie doesn’t counter-act fucking everything up when your team makes it to the playoffs.

New Orleans Saints
Right, so, Drew Brees is pretty much football throwing machine, with an ever-changing rotation of drama and injuries to throw to. Did I get that right?

That’s right Lance Moore, I’m talking to you, you and that terrible season you’re going to have.

St. Louis Rams
Oh yeah, I forgot about them… They’re still a team right?

Carolina Panthers
Again, a team I forget is a team, all the time. I guess being forgotten is better than being hated.

Jacksonville Jaguars Marice-Jones Drews
Unless he gets drafted to my fantasy football team, I have no reason to care.

Now we get into the teams that I really don’t like.

San Diego Chargers
Every year I have to hear from my friend Cooper how well they’re going to do, or how good they should of been. Ok, so that might be an exaggeration, but I’m still not impressed with nearly anything things these guys have done. I hate their stupid uniforms, I hate their stupid city, and I don’t like that Rivers fellow.

New York Giants
This year will be fun for people who don’t like the Giants, because watching the other Manning run around like a chicken with his head cut off is going to be hilarious. I suppose the whole Plaxico thing will be kinda quiet for a while, but I’m still happy that I they’re going to suck.

Washington Redskins
I have this unshakable feeling that both Santana Moss (the bread) and Clinton Portis (the butter) are going to have a terrible season this year. And as if I didn’t already take this team seriously, Tony Gonzalez, the only Redskin I would consider worth my time, up and left to Atlanta. I don’t think anyone told the Redskins they would be playing this year, because I think they have the intention of maybe sitting this year out?

Minnesota Vikings
I’ve never like the Vikings, but to make matters worse, the person that lived in my condo before I, seemed to think placing a large Vikings sticker on the door would be a good idea. The kind of sticker that still leaves text on your door even after you move away. For that alone I have a reason to dislike them, but their division rivalry of the Packers and Bears is what I’ll stick with.

Pittsburgh Steelers
The Steelers have worked very diligently to become the most hated team in the NFL. Despite their numbers, nobody cares about passing yards when the sight of Hines Ward strikes hatred into the eyes of their opposition. Not even a 100 Troy Polamalus could make me even consider giving them the benefit of the doubt. They play dirty football, they have bad attitudes, and I can’t wait to see them taken down a peg, even if I have to do it myself.

This man just realized he’s a Browns fan

Cleveland Browns
Congratulations Cleveland, you managed to beat out the Steelers for the team I care the least about. You know why? Because the Steelers can at least beat other teams in the NFL, while you continue to rebuild, like you have for the last… thirty years? You can’t pick a quarterback to save your life, your “dawg-pound” is a joke, and I’m pretty sure the coaching staff that’s still around is about to flip a coin to figure out that quarterback situation.

It’s time to fold Cleveland, so have some dignity, and let Ohio have a real football team.

Here’s an interesting turn of events. I just received a message from Reid, the president of my church’s board of directors. His e-mail asked if I would call him up in the next few days to discuss something. This kind of freaked me out a little, because I’m usually pretty “under the radar” around my church. I figured it was something to do with me being the youngest technical member of our church’s congregation, so I called him up.

Heritage
Originally uploaded by Rrrrred

Well, it turns out that one of the members of the board, who was to serve a three year term has to leave Cincinnati, and they wanted myself to fill the missing spot for a year. This was a major shock to me, especially when he told me that it was my Reverend, Reverend Bill, that suggested my name for a person to fill the spot. I was very flattered, and I just responded with a yes.

I guess while I’m a little bit shocked that they asked me, it makes perfect sense why. Our church’s demographics tend to skew a little older, but with a growing youth group and RE committee, it seems that my age group needs better representation in things like the voting process. Cool with me, but I have very little experience managing budgets, going to meetings, and doing any of the things they’ll want me to do. No sweat though, I’m sure I’ll do fine.

So, my stepfather’s a pilot.

I don’t suppose I’ve indulged my readers into too much of my mother’s new marriage, but that’s what he does, he flies commercial airplanes.

So what I never knew before the whole relationship that is my stepfather, Scott, was that pilots are a certain kind of people. They enjoy certain types of things, and problem solve in a very similar fashion. I can see it in my brother, who’s always been fascinated by flight. So when my mother asked me if I’d like to join her, my brother, Scott and his father in attending the annual Dayton Air Show, I felt like I was just tagging along to a spectacle of what was the biggest passion for my brother and my stepfather. They have both tailored their education and career choices to flight, and while I’m pretty sure I know more than I should, they’re simply another mode of transportation for me.

But to say that sounds as if you have to have a pilot to enjoy an airshow, which simply isn’t true. But to attend one with the aforementioned company was like seeing your friend’s favorite band with him, you just know it’s not about you. So taking the journey to Dayton was an adventure in its own to find out that going to an airshow was actually on my brother’s “bucket list”.

Thunderbirds
Originally uploaded by berzerker97

And the airshow in its own was pretty much what I had expected it to be. A lot of sitting and watching monstrous steel birds rip through the sky, in what I consider to be a pretty remarkable spectacle of human achievement. After walking through the belly of a plane bigger than your house, you put to question the very laws of physics that up to this point, you thought you understood. So in that respect, I can really appreciate an airshow, even if I have no burning passion for aviation.

Seeing planes weave in-and-out just feet from each other is pretty cool, and seeing take-off after take-off, comparing what they must be feeling to your worst experience with turbulence. But when you compare that in the view of entertainment value for somebody like me, it’s just another event to go to, another tick on the stat sheet of things I’ve seen. Once you watch a plane buzz by your head cruising almost faster than sound once or twice, the shock wears off, and that’s the entertainment breaking point for people like me, and people like my brother. I’m pretty sure he could have spent the entire day watching those planes twirl around, but me, once you see one, you’ve seen most.

But there are some things I did really enjoy. I got to see two of my favorite aircrafts up close, the V-22 Osprey and Apache helicopter. I also witnessed a flight of the A10 Warthog, which zipped around at a much high speed that I ever imagined a plane so big could. I learned they had fake canopies painted on the bottom, and seeing all the large olive-drab war-machines draped in war-paint really ignited my inner ten-year-old boy, who’s perpetually stuck in an army phase.

But that alone kind of put me in a funk for the whole day. It’s hard to sit down and enjoy and display of pyrotechnics in a WWII style-air raid knowing that at one point in those plane’s history, people were under those balls of smoke and flame, and that the guns mounted on my favorite childhood helicopters were meant to take lives. No ten-year-old-boy can truly comprehend just what loss of life is like, so weapons of battle are still just man made noises. So while I really had a fun time at the air show, and I knew it meant a lot to certain people, the perpetual idea of cheering on and clapping for machines of war really didn’t sit right with me. Family-friendly airshow or not, those machine guns weren’t mounted on the sides of those planes to look cool: they were there to win wars.

It’s not so entertaining to me, when I think about it like that.

Chicken of Fire, originally uploaded by eraut.

My earlier post about Dexter really got me thinking about television in the United States. Now, I don’t do much watching of television these days. I follow a few shows like House and 30 Rock, and I have my Hulu programs, but I don’t watch to the degree of most Americans. I can honestly say that I could live without a TV. But with that in mind, I have a little idea that I think would make the boob-toob exciting again, for me at least.

It seems like we’ve really pidgin-holed ourselves into a corner in terms of suspenseful drama. Television shows now, to my knowledge, follow the basic system of a pilot, then season after season until the series ends. Thanks to our current setup of things, you know when the finales will be, and you usually have a good indication about what to expect from the next episode. I can pop online right now and ruin my appetite for next week’s Burn Notice, but what’s the point? One way or another, I’ll always know I’m watching the last episode of the show before I tune in.

Jack Bauer points his gun
Originally uploaded by
Captain Heather

So what if we didn’t?

You see, it’s our current television’s way of production that kills of shows like Dexter, and House, forcing to jump the shark early: due to the constant need to top themselves, as their comedy or drama must outweigh the lack of suspense in the series. What I talked about in my Dexter post, was that because I’m aware of the show’s progress of episodes, I’m then robbed of any true suspense the show can create. Surely, I’m not the only one who’s ever said out-loud to the screen “well I know he’s not going to die, because they already aired an ad for next week’s episode”.

Imagine a television show, nay, a whole television station that was dedicated to cutting shows off before you even had a chance to know what happened. Characters with a gun to their head might get the trigger pulled. Main characters with a disease might loose the battle, and rampant car accidents and every-day problems rolled the chance dice too. Take a look at our shows now, do you really think Jack Bauer won’t disarm the bomb? Well what if he didn’t, I bet you’d tune in to make sure you find out what happens. What if House finally did overdose on pills and died three episodes into a new season. We could finally watch TV again, not knowing if a characters actions will be his last or not, which finally makes for true suspense.

So I realize the obvious faults in the system as well. This kind of programming wouldn’t have a practical application for every type of show. Children’s programming, for instance, doesn’t rely on suspense like prime-time shows, and must follow regulations on duration and time slots. Reality shows, home makeovers and DIY channels don’t need suspense like prime-time shows do either, because they too air at specific times for specific reasons, and display a different kind of entertainment from shows like Bones and 24. Shows without the limits of season-based planning would never replace the normal either, but could open up a large and different area of the television. More shows would give way to more chances for unknowns to get heard of, for small shows to be planned in their entirety, rather than season to season, to be figured out by the writers later. These types of shows could transcend the schedules of our current media, blowing past “pilot-season” and “sweeps” to have a constant supply of shows for viewers. Imagine, a reason to tune in again.

For all the TV execs that follow this blog, use my idea, you’ll be a revolutionary.