Tuesday, March 29, 2011

A Great Story In An Unlikely Place: Steak N' Shake

My family and I were out shopping recently and decided to stop at Steak N' Shake for lunch. It was a Saturday, and the restaurant was crowded. We waited a few minutes, were politely seated, and then were looking over our menus. I noticed a young man walk in and could tell he was an employee. He clocked in and jumped right into work. His first table of the day turned out to be a very interesting sideshow for anyone within view. This waiter was unsteadily carrying his table's soda-and-milkshake order when...yep...the soda spilled all over the table. No big deal, right? These things happen. Well, these things do happen, but, unfortunately, some people are restaurant snobs and have come to think that "these things" shouldn't happen. Ever.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Smart Phones Don't Make Smart People

"In 2008 almost 6,000 people were killed and a half-million were injured in crashes related to driver distraction."
"Studies have found that texting while driving causes a 400% increase in time spent with eyes off the road."
"A car driver dialing a cell phone is 2.8 times more likely to get into a crash than a non-distracted driver."
It's no surprise that cell phones and smart phones have caused a great sociological phenomenon. Mobile phone subscriptions worldwide hit 4.6 billion about a year ago, and that statistic is only gaining speed. And they can do everything. The world is at our fingertips. What's ironic, though, is that these "smart" phones are causing people everywhere to act, well, stupid.

Every time I am driving (with my little daughter in the car) and I see someone looking at their cell phone instead of looking at the road, it makes me want to scream. Are we so narcissistic that we think we have to talk to someone else all the time? I know the answer to that one.

Cell phones are great, but, unfortunately, we can't handle them. Like a drug, we just can't let go of our addiction to communication. We have to let people know exactly what we're doing all the time. You know the person, right? The guy who gets on his cell phone as the plane is pulling up to the terminal. He's telling the person on the other line every little detail...where the plane is right now...how fast the plane is going...how many minutes he estimates before he's off the plane. Everyone looks at this guy and thinks, "Gee, buddy. Get a life. Everybody on the plane doesn't need to hear your stupid conversation." Here's the kicker: We're that guy. We're all that guy and we don't even know it. We've become so self-absorbed that we can't go through a single stop light without looking at our messages. We know the risks. We've seen the statistics. We don't really care.

Okay, my rant's gone on long enough. My point? Put down your freakin' cell phone and look at the road. If you hit my car, I will grab your phone and stomp it into pieces.

Statistics from: http://www.edgarsnyder.com/car-accident/cell-phone/statistics.html

Saturday, March 5, 2011



I don't have cable and the antenna for my TV isn't working.

Such is the life of a frugal, challenge-the-status-quo hipster like me. And since my antenna isn't working, I've been doing more reading and have been pretty out-of-touch with any current event. I know there's flooding in my state. I know tensions and violence are still rising in the Middle East. I know Glee is still a hit show. Other than that, I'm useless when it comes to casual conversations about current news and pop culture. So when I turned on the TV today and actually got a few channels, I was surprised at my enlightened realization—that I really wasn't missing anything life-shattering and that my time had been better spent between the pages of my books.

What I also realized is how lazy we let ourselves become. With ever-increasing cable channels comes an ever-increasing temptation to surf the days away. It's so easy for me to think, "I just want to watch TV tonight." What if we weren't so connected to every little slice of news that was happening around the world? I'm not trying to bash TV or the news...I enjoy these things. But I simply realized how easy it has become to turn on the TV and check our brains at the door, rather than open a book and really engage our minds. (And yes, I do believe there are many shows that "engage" our minds, but I also think twenty minutes of channeling surfing to find that "show" does not.)

So the thought I'm really wrestling with here is this: What if we didn't have a TV...within a week we'd grab onto any book or magazine we could find...and that would become our new "TV." How might our lives be enriched by that? Just something to think about.

What about other technologies? What if a son and father actually talked while waiting to be seated, rather than the son, or the dad for that matter, playing with the latest app on their phone? What if we "unplugged" more often? Even while typing this blog, I know a better conversation or a better magazine article awaits in the other room. I'm not trying to ba-humbug TV, or smartphone apps, or Facebook, or Twitter, or NetFlix, or video games. I enjoy TV a lot. But again, it's kind of a revelation when you've been away from the tube for a while, only to come back and find how unfulfilling it can be.

So what are your thoughts in this ongoing dilemma? To stay plugged in, or to unplug? To set aside specific times for TV and Internet, or to live without those boundaries? To be ever connected, or to disconnect for a time?

Just so nobody thinks I'm a total TV snob, I'll admit that I'm a Gleek. I also really dig Modern Family.