Ms. Smarty Pants Know It All

My Dad told me the other day that he checks out YouTube regularly.

My world froze before it tilted on its axis.

What?

It turns out that my dad uses YouTube to watch programs, especially news stories, from his homeland. It’s a way to stay connected. He even knows work arounds and alternative sites for when YouTube is blocked.

After my brain finally managed to process the thought successfully, I realized that I was just reminded of the fact that the internet is a tool. We tend to think of it as entertainment or as a way to prove how cool we are, but there is a functionality and a usefulness to its features.

YouTube is not just a place for awesome skateboarding dogs. It’s also a place for ideas, creativity, communication, and news. Thanks, dad, for reminding me of something I never should have forgotten.

But still, the Battle at Kruger remains my favorite.

Tags: Computers by Ms. SP
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Previously, I wrote about the high regard in which I hold the television series The Wire. This week, I finished watching its final season.

Until the last episode, the season was almost unbearably depressing. Everyone was on a downward trajectory where everything was going to fall apart.

It speaks to the heart and just how much substance there is in this series that the final episode made me smile and uplifted my spirit. I realize that I am twisted for feeling this way.

Give me this ending at the end of a previous season, and it would be a punch in the gut. Have I become so immersed in the world painted by this series that I would rather see it cycle rather than see it crash and burn?

The ending makes me feel that I’m not really going to lose the characters I’ve come to know. It’s comforting but it’s also somehow wrong. I feel unsettled about my satisfaction.

But I know that I am better for having watched this show. I’ve learned a lot and thought about issues in completely new ways. The Wire has challenged me as an artistic creation and as social commentary. I know I’ll be thinking and referencing this series for years to come.

Tags: TV by Ms. SP
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I tend to get recommended things with the words “It has a dark humor. I think you’ll like it.” That’s how Running with Scissors came to my attention.

I know many people really love this book. It’s easy to see why. Augusten Burroughs certainly has a storytelling knack. His writing style is pleasantly quick and clean.

The subject matter aside, Running with Scissors is not a chore at all to read. Even with all these things though, I didn’t enjoy it that much.

The cover and all the reviewers’ blurbs say how funny the book is. I didn’t find it to be so until the later half. It was easier to relax then because the memoir Augusten was no longer so young. I was able to connect this older teen with the eventual writing adult author. Only then did I manage to laugh out loud a couple of times.

The first half of the book had me tense and uncomfortable. His experiences are not pleasant ones to think about as happening to a child. I got mad at all the stupid adults around him. It this was a work of fiction, I may have felt differently. For me, it was difficult to fully engage because I knew that the core of this story actually happened.

Tags: Books by Ms. SP
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