Things I Don’t Like About Television, Episode 25: Cartoon Network

I never had the chance to watch Cartoon Network at its inception, but I was somewhat intrigued by the original series it offered. When I got to finally view the network, shows like Johnny Bravo, Dexter’s Laboratory, and Powerpuff Girls. I think I liked the third show most of all. The story was simple but there was solid humor. The other two shows lost something in their later seasons.

There was more to see on Cartoon network beyond its initial offerings. Classic shows like The Flintstones and The Jetsons were occasionally shown. However, some of these would be moved to Boomerang (which would ultimately suffer from network decay itself). Despite that, the network would also feature more original shows that would come to be beloved. I still love Operation: Kids Next Door to this day and I respect much of the writing behind Teen Titans.

I also grew to love Adult Swim. I will talk about that later in this post.

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What’s Wrong with Cartoon Network Proper Today

The lineup would suffer a sharp change in 2010. As I mentioned in Episode 1, Cartoon Network was sharply showing signs of network decay as its top executive wanted to move away from showing cartoons (!) and show original, live action programming. Former President and Chief Operating Officer of Turner Animation Stuart Snyder spearheaded this shift in 2009. There was a huge backlash from viewers and Snyder had to quickly change course. He finally left the company in March 2014 and would ultimately be replaced by Christina Miller.

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Truth Translator (WAW)

It’s Wednesday, so you know what that means. Time for another Write Anything Wednesday post! Yea!

I honestly love it.

Anyway, this week, I wanted to talk about something I think about a lot.

This might be showing my age, but does anyone remember a Nickelodeon show called Welcome Freshmen? It was on in the early 1990s.

(That’s not the original cast, but that’s the theme song.)

I still remember it. I still remember the names of the original cast members. (Don’t ask me about the actors’ names, though.) There was Merv, Alex, Tara, Kevin, and Walter. Mr. Lippman was the Vice-Principal. (“Freshmen. What a curse!”)

One episode I think about was one that had a fake advertisement segment with a truth translator, or whatever it was called. In the faux commercial, Kevin would use the truth translator whenever another person talked.

Things I Don’t Like About Television, Episode 24: Seth MacFarlane

…Comedies.

As many of us know, Seth MacFarlane was behind three animated comedies on FOX that all had varied levels of success: Family Guy, American Dad! and The Cleveland Show. Of the three, The Cleveland Show was canceled, but the other two have been on for at least five seasons. At one point, these three shows were all featured on FOX’s “Animation Domination” lineup, making for a mini MacFarlane takeover.

For this post, I will give a general rundown of each show. And although I haven’t seen all the episodes, I have seen enough to know what I do and don’t like about each program. I especially wanted to revisit this topic because of Family Guy’s rapid and rough decline.

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Family Guy

I’m gonna be honest here. I never caught the original airings of Family Guy in the first two seasons. I can faintly remember hearing about it, but the animation never really attracted me to the show.

I began to take interest in the show when it began airing on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim. However, I did not like most of the characters at first. I hated Stewie as the evil baby, I did not think much of Peter, Lois, or Chris, and I hated how Meg whined. Brian may have emerged as my easy favorite due to how grounded he seemed. My opinions would change over time.

Famous Sayings: #3 — ‘A Fool and His Money Soon Part’

March 27, 2016

A fool and his money soon part.

Photo credit: 401kcalculator.org via Flickr

Staying on the topic of money…

This is a saying I first heard as a little girl. I was told this by my mother and it was pretty easy to see it play out in real time.

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What Is the Origin of This Saying?

My first stop when looking at this saying was the Phrases.org website. There’s a section called The Phrase Finder that is headed by a Gary Martin. While looking for various phrases, I finally decided to search for this one and found that this site serves as good referencing material.

On the page in question, I was lead to a reference. An Olde English book of rhymes, Five Hendreth Pointes of Good Hubandrie (1573) by Thomas Tusser, is apparently the oldest known source of the saying. A certain passage can be found in Chapter 10 (“Good husbandlie lessons), at Verse (or line?) 11:

Did You Know Easter Is on March 27 This Year?

Of course you do.

Here we are. I’m finally done with my Commenting Bootcamp assignments. For fifth and final task, I responded to a couple of comments left on another one of GeorgieMoon’s posts, “Here’s an Easter rant from me…..” The two users were foguth and syllabubsea.

To be quite honest, I had already did what was asked on Assignment 5 in the first two assignments. For Assignment 1, I responded to r_prab on Majka’s post, “COLOR YOUR WORLD – RADICAL RED.” While working on Assignment 2, I responded to a comment left by anne on a post called “Blog social” by sable. That inspired me to write that post about my Twitter woes.

All in all, it was fun and enlightening to do the Commenting Bootcamp. I’m kinda glad it was for one week, though. In a way it was harder to make comments than it was to personalize my blog. Many bloggers prefer substantive comments and I’m the same. One can’t simply jump into a conversation. We must bring something that others can respond to or think about.

Polite Disagreement: Hillary Clinton for President?

For Assignment 4 in the Commenting Bootcamp, I had to find a post that I disagreed with, whether it was the premise or specific sections of it. I would then politely state my point of view.

It’s not easy finding a random post in this regard, so I decided to go by a tag: politics. That sped up the process and I immediately saw some posts concerning the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election. One post really stood out to me: konigludwig, who runs The Progressive Democrat, wrote “How Can The Democrats Fight The Entrenched Powers?” I read that post.

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What Was the Post About?

In the post, konigludwig pointed to two editorials from two liberal — oh, excuse me, Progressive (yuck!) — publicans. The first was “Hillary Clinton for President” by Jann Wenner (Rolling Stone) and the second was “Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Nomination” from The New York Times’ Editorial Board. There was also a complaint about these two posts: konigludwig found them to be condescending.

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On What Grounds Did I Disagree?

As I write this post, my comment is in moderation, but here is what I wrote:

It’s Fun to Ask Questions

This is funny. I fell behind in a one-week Commenting Bootcamp, but I had already done everything asked of me in Assignments 3-5 before I started the bootcamp.

Regardless, it was my goal to work on the assignments as promised. That way, I could discover even more blogs and link my fine readers to some posts.

For Assignment 3, I visited Pawful living🐾🐾doggiebloggie’s blog and commented on a post called “The Disagreement Talkophobia.” In this post, she(?) — I’ll correct that if I’m wrong — shared some posts she left comments on and left some advice for proper disagreement.

I agreed with the list, especially the part about being respectful. In my agreement, I talked about how there is so much disrespect online and offline by people who argue, even over trivial things.

It’s true, though. Sports and politics in particular will bring the worst out of some people. So does any type of fandom, especially online.

“We like this game/show/movie/pairing/person. Why don’t you?”

“Oh, he doesn’t like it? BURN HIM AT THE STAKE!”

And then when one group is called out for their BS, they want to deny they do anything wrong and deflect blame.

This is why one time, I reflected on why people might just hate something or someone because of that person or thing’s fans. Originally, I thought that was a pretty weak argument, but now…

On the other hand, I have had some nice discussions with people I thoroughly disagreed with. I respect people who can keep their emotions in check when there are disagreements. And it’s better to see it reciprocated.

Oh, what did I ask Pawful living🐾🐾doggiebloggie? Basically, if she has any arguments online and whether those arguments were more intense than those IRL.

How about you?

Things I Don’t Like About Television, Episode 23: Iconoclasm

Before we begin, let’s look at some definitions.

Iconoclasm (noun icon·o·clasm \ī-ˈkä-nə-ˌkla-zəm\):  the doctrine, practice, or attitude of an iconoclast

(Don’t you just hate it when a definition contains the root or original word?)

Iconoclast (noun icon·o·clast \-ˌklast\):  a person who criticizes or opposes beliefs and practices that are widely accepted

1:  a person who destroys religious images or opposes their veneration

2:  a person who attacks settled beliefs or institutions

Source: Merriam-Webster Online [1],[2]

As you can see from one of the above definitions, the term iconoclast was created to describe a person who would literally destroy religious images (icons). Nowadays, we defer to the simple definition of the word iconoclast.

Wherever you look, iconoclasm is everywhere. And on TV, it comes up in many instances. You will definitely see people stick closely to the original definition of iconoclasm as they deride religion. You will see people going out of their way to make fun of celebrities. That, too, can become annoying. Another form of iconoclasm is straight-up character assassination.

I Really Suck at Twitter (WAW)

For this Write Anything Wednesday (screw you, Greenwich Mean Time!), I thought I would talk about one problem I have online.

As the title says, I really such at Twitter, bros. It’s true. I’m horrible at it.

While I do have an online presence in plenty of other avenues, Twitter is the one I’m most uncomfortable with. And I’ve tried my best to avoid it for the longest time.

I was aware of Twitter’s presence since 2009, as even Claire McCaskill (@clairecmc) — a Democratic Senator from Missouri — was seen using it to post during the State of the Union address. While this might help people like her get in touch with constituents and other U.S. citizens with the touch of a finger, I felt no need to get involved. I got a new computer a year later but felt no need to join Twitter. And I went 5 more years and another computer later but never felt the need to join.

I scoffed at Twitter. When I heard that it was a platform where users could use up to 140 characters, I scoffed at the notion. “Only 140 characters?! That’s not enough for me. Surely only inconsequential thoughts could come from strictly limited characters.”

I scoffed at Sen. McCaskill using Twitter during that State of the Union Address. “Why don’t you pay attention to your president, instead of tweeting? You were there!”

Personal Stories? I Got Nothing.

But you clicked the link to read this anyway, huh?

Ok.

Assignment 2 for the Commenting Bootcamp called for me to leave a comment on a blog where I never commented before…but relate a personal story with the post I had just read. While I’m not really comfortable enough to talk openly online about my life, there are stories I’m willing to share.

To be perfectly honest, this assignment was the most difficult for me. Why, you ask? Really, the hard part was finding a post to comment on. I went through a number of posts, and while I could leave comments on them, I didn’t think I could leave any substantive feedback on them. Finally, I came across MaggieMayQ’s post on her blog, Balloons and Popcorn.

What Was That Post About?

In “They say it’s personal,” MaggieMayQ talked about her decision to have her hair cut short. She hated having to deal with long hair and just took a leap. In the post, she also shared some images of herself before and after a haircut.

On the whole, I like the cut. I have seen more women take chances and shave even the sides of their heads and pull it off. In MaggieMayQ’s case, more was taken off in the back. This allows her to wear her hair down or put it up in a ponytail.