what an interactive world we live in

I know that people always say that nowadays, everyone is really remote from each other. You don't know your neighbors, blah and all that. But I think that in many ways we are much more interactive than we used to be. There is much more of a global culture, in that I can speak to someone in, New Zealand, for instance, and we can discuss the same shows and movies that we like. I can talk about a video I've seen, and most people I know will have seen it too, even if its just an under a minute clip. I can read a news article online, and comment, and read what other people all over have to think about this same occurrence. In fact, I can comment on almost any article, blog, photo, movie, anything, any time. Not since the beginning of books, when scholars studied by writing important things in the margins, then learning from those notes, have people been so very able to learn from each other. Maybe you think it's not great. Maybe the fact that paper consumption has fallen for the first time in so long signifies to you that we are losing a higher culture. Maybe all the popular culture means that things are dumbed down. I don't think so. I LIKE knowing what others are thinking, what's going on in their minds. It was the absence of this freedom that really got me thinking about it. When I read an article, and went to put in my silly two cents on it, and realized there was no comment section. No comment section!?! Oh no! How will I express myself? LOL. I doubt the world will miss my unimportant one sentence remark. But it definitely made me appreciate how connected I can generally be with everyone else. I may have decided to abandon anthropology after college, but the interest in what makes human culture tick is still there.

movie review: i am legend

I am legend is kind of a vampire movie, but more zombie ish. Or maybe zombies are just like vampires with no brains anyway. Imagine being the very last one you can find that's alive. Partially fun, in that you can shop anywhere. But then they stop making the stuff anyway. Plus, who's there to notice? Sometimes I WISH I could be all alone, but Id never really want it. The dog, sam, was super cute though.

Delicious and reader

Here is a quick little blog entry that seems boring but could end up being really interesting. Recently, i discovered the whole social bookmarking thing, and started up, in two forms. One is Del.iciou.us. Here, i can bookmark any website i want, and then i'm able to go back to it, from any computer i'm on, and find the sites by my tags. but, even better, i can share my delicious page. that way, my friends can see what pages i found interesting, and they can go to them too... My page is http://del.icio.us/merrij
. You can go there, and you can even add yourself as a friend, so we can always see each other's links when we go to delicious.
The other thing is google reader. This lets me subscribe to feeds and then read them whenever i want, even on my phone. When i like a story, i hit share, and that gets shared with my google reader friends. You can see my shared things here. Or, if you have google reader, you can just add me into your friends from my gmail address.
Anyone looking at my real Tantalizing Tidbits blog, instead of my myspace one, will be able to see the latest shared stories from both of these on the lower right hand side of my blog, and read or subscribe from there. I wish some people would friend me on there, so i can read different stories from you... c'mon... embrace technology!

movie review: cloverfield

Cloverfield is blair witch project, but with a monster. I really did not like the character of beth, the one they went to save. The whole time, she was all snively wah wah save me. Lilly had a lot worse happen to her, and she wasn't like that. I just found the whole premise of the movie kinda dumb… not the monster attack (although that was never explained) but that they were going to save this woman. The video camera perspective was an interesting idea though.

Check out Jaxx Attack!

My best friend and i have been friends for a number of years, back in boston and now here. We are very alike in many ways (so that people call us twins, the same person, or him my brother) and like many friends, have worn off on each other even more over time. Further proof that i am wearing off on him is that he has recently started writing blogs. Most people who like me like him, and vice versa, so it follows that most people who like my blog will like his. So... check it out! It's called Jaxx Attack! (a tribute to our late cat Jax, and a reference to his porn persona, Tristan Jaxx). So subscribe to Jaxx Attack! (www.tristanjaxx.com) and of course Tantalizing Tidbits, add links to them on your pages, and of course, comment. We love comments. Enjoy reading!

movie review: guys and dolls

Guys and dolls is a documentary about real dolls. Id vagely heard of these somewhere, but the other day n heard about this whole documentary about it, so we had to watch it. Here are these men who are lonely, and since most of them cannot or do not prefer an actual human being, they get a 100 lb lifesize, lifelike doll. It seems they are only in women so far, but male dolls can't be far behind. To get these dolls they spend $10,000 ish, and they take care of them, dress them, etc (like many of us did with our dolls as kids, only they have sex too). One guy did have a girlfriend, but when she found out he was totally obsessed with the dolls and had 8, well I won't give away the ending. I can kind of relate to these guys a little bit. My whole thing about being single… it goes along with the blog about being in a relationship you're not really feeling that sexual towards. They've gone one step further, and are in a relationship with something that has no personality at all. To them, its better than being alone. I don't think id go that far… not ordering my doll yet…

Notes

What is it about notes? Some notes are good. once, my friend m put a card in my suitcase when she drove me to the airport. I opened it and found a note. My mother has done that too. Those are warm, fuzzy notes. Most notes aren't like that. 90% of the time that I see a note, it's mean. Even if it's not spelled out mean, it's meant to be mean. Passive-aggressive. A note is such a dead end way of communicating. If you talk to someone in person or the phone, even if you email or text, they have a way of responding. How do you respond to a note? You could scribble one of your own. You could find a pen and write on the bottom of the note. But they may never see it. of course, it's possible to write an email or text in note style. the kind where you know they won't listen and you don't care. Whenever I see a piece of paper sticking to a door, a light switch, a table, a trash can, I cringe. If you wanna say something mean or condescending, say it to my face. Maybe the reason you can't is because you know you're not in the right. Just don't leave me a note.

movie review: sweeney todd the demon barber of fleet street

the sweeney todd movie could have gone either way... i love sondheim. so dark... i saw sweeney todd a few years ago as a play, back when i was trying to be cultured. i liked it a lot, and i give it a lot of credit that i didnt fall asleep. tim burton could have done a lot with this story, but he didnt. watching the movie was like they had just stood in front of a play with a video camera, and what works in a play won't neccesarily work for a movie. it was too long, it took too long for things to happen, and there were too many songs. i also thought the little boy was a bad actor. if you like musicals, you'll want to check this out, but don't go expecting anything spectacular. j fell asleep a few times, i did other stuff while it stayed in the background... the ending i had forgotten but was very good; the same ending from the play. i think you're better off going to the theatre theatre where you can feel the music and emotions in you, but if you don't have that option, you can watch this pale substitute.