The Wife's Outburst: Mind set of this year's college freshmen

Are you wondering how Michael Alisa, Ron Best, O'Neill Chambers, Mark Freeman, and the other freshman on the BYU football team see the world? Students entering college for the first time this fall were generally born in 1990. For these students, Sammy Davis Jr., Jim Henson, Ryan White, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Freddy Krueger have always been dead.

(To see your mindset, go to: http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/2012.php and click on the yellow drop down menu at the top.)

1. Harry Potter could be a classmate, playing on their Quidditch team.
2. Since they were in diapers, karaoke machines have been annoying people at parties.
3. They have always been looking for Carmen Sandiego.
4. GPS satellite navigation systems have always been available.
5. Coke and Pepsi have always used recycled plastic bottles.
6. Shampoo and conditioner have always been available in the same bottle.
7. Gas stations have never fixed flats, but most serve cappuccino.
8. Their parents may have dropped them in shock when they heard George Bush announce “tax revenue increases.”
9. Electronic filing of tax returns has always been an option.
10. Girls in head scarves have always been part of the school fashion scene.
11. All have had a relative--or known about a friend's relative--who died comfortably at home with Hospice.
12. As a precursor to “whatever,” they have recognized that some people “just don’t get it.”
13. Universal Studios has always offered an alternative to Mickey in Orlando.
14. Grandma has always had wheels on her walker.
15. Martha Stewart Living has always been setting the style.
16. Haagen-Dazs ice cream has always come in quarts.
17. Club Med resorts have always been places to take the whole family.
18. WWW has never stood for World Wide Wrestling.
19. Films have never been X rated, only NC-17.
20. The Warsaw Pact is as hazy for them as the League of Nations was for their parents.
21. Students have always been "Rocking the Vote.”
22. Clarence Thomas has always sat on the Supreme Court.
23. Schools have always been concerned about multiculturalism.
24. We have always known that “All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.”
25. There have always been gay rabbis.
26. Wayne Newton has never had a mustache.
27. College grads have always been able to Teach for America.
28. IBM has never made typewriters.
29. Roseanne Barr has never been invited to sing the National Anthem again.
30. McDonald’s and Burger King have always used vegetable oil for cooking french fries.
31. They have never been able to color a tree using a raw umber Crayola.
32. There has always been Pearl Jam.
33. The Tonight Show has always been hosted by Jay Leno and started at 11:35 EST.
34. Pee-Wee has never been in his playhouse during the day.
35. They never tasted Benefit Cereal with psyllium.
36. They may have been given a Nintendo Game Boy to play with in the crib.
37. Authorities have always been building a wall across the Mexican border.
38. Lenin’s name has never been on a major city in Russia.
39. Employers have always been able to do credit checks on employees.
40. Balsamic vinegar has always been available in the U.S.
41. Macaulay Culkin has always been Home Alone.
42. Their parents may have watched The American Gladiators on TV the day they were born.
43. Personal privacy has always been threatened.
44. Caller ID has always been available on phones.
45. Living wills have always been asked for at hospital check-ins.
46. The Green Bay Packers (almost) always had the same starting quarterback.
47. They never heard an attendant ask “Want me to check under the hood?”
48. Iced tea has always come in cans and bottles.
49. Soft drink refills have always been free.
50. They have never known life without Seinfeld references from a show about “nothing.”
51. Windows 3.0 operating system made IBM PCs user-friendly the year they were born.
52. Muscovites have always been able to buy Big Macs.
53. The Royal New Zealand Navy has never been permitted a daily ration of rum.
54. The Hubble Space Telescope has always been eavesdropping on the heavens.
55. 98.6 F or otherwise has always been confirmed in the ear.
56. Michael Millken has always been a philanthropist promoting prostate cancer research.
57. Off-shore oil drilling in the United States has always been prohibited.
58. Radio stations have never been required to present both sides of public issues.
59. There have always been charter schools.
60. Students always had Goosebumps.

(Source: http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/2012.php)

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Quick Hits:Utah Jazz, Agent Zero's Blog, and American Gladiators

Quick thoughts before game six tonight...

Utah Jazz: Fans step away from the panic button.
Tonight's game is big. There is no need to panic if you are a Jazz fan...yet. After the butt kicking that Houston laid on the Jazz Tuesday, the panic bug started. Yet, there is no reason to worry. The Jazz have put themselves into a position to advance to the next round of the playoffs on their home court. That is why they went to Houston and won the first two games. Thanks to that effort at the beginning of the playoff series the Jazz had a mulligan that they could play on their home court. Sure it would have been easier for the Jazz just to show up and win game three and sweep the series. Sure the Jazz could have at least made the game respectable on Tuesday. Even with that in mind, the Jazz are a force when they play on their home court. Also the blowout loss should have refocused the Jazz for tonight's game.

Other reasons for Jazz fans to be optimistic about tonight's game. Boozer. The lone bright spot about the end of game five was the recognition of Boozer that he is a low post beast. He took the ball to the basket, and their wasn't a single person on Houston that could stop him. Hopefully, the break between games five and six doesn't cause Boozer to forget this fact. There is no reason to panic...although if the Jazz drop the game tonight save me a spot on the ledge.

Agent Zero's Blog
I was late coming to this party, but Gilbert's blog is AWESOME. I read over three month's worth of entries yesterday, and was pleasantly surprised about the quality that Arenas puts into all of his blog entries. What also shocked me was all of the negative criticism that comes from the media in relation to the Blog. It is a little understandable for the local media to be upset, because Arenas openly bashes the media in his post. Saying he will not talk to media members after games, and breaking news on his own, bi-passing the need to talk to the media.

This is especially interesting after watching Costas Now. On the program Bob Costas had town hall style panel discuss the merits of media coverage of sports. It was interesting to see all of the negative feelings towards Blogs that media members have. They openly wondered how a person without any formal training could think to write information about sports. Well...it is called an opinion. Speaking for myself I don't try and break news, or get close to knowing about players. I don't always agree with what the news media says about a certain situation.

A good example of the media bias was the Wallace situation in Portland. The media in Portland black listed Sheed, and called him a head case and a thug, why? He wouldn't do any interviews with the media after games. That is right, he was helping in the community and was a positive influence in the locker room, but the media painted him as Mr Hyde. Did Sheed lead the league in technicals? Yes. Yet, they never talked about his passion for playing the game. You could never say that Sheed didn't do everything he could to win a game when he was on the court.

I don't think that the print media should be done away with. That is just dumb! There needs to be someone there covering the stories, and interacting with the players. Someone that can try to be unbiased. Yet, to turn their backs on blogging make absolutely no sense. Welcome to the Internet my friends...and guess what, I think it is going to be a big deal.

American Gladiators
It looks like the producers of the show on NBC have made some changes for the second season that is coming later this month. Hopefully, they have made the changes for the better which I already went over in my first piece about the program. I also like that they are coming up with new events that are completely original. This is the make or break season for the show. I am pulling for this show to work out.

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Mark's Thoughts: American Gladiators Needs Some Work

American Gladiators has returned. No longer banished to ESPN classic, there are new gladiators with new events. Yet, the new version of the show is missing many key elements that made the original so much fun to watch. They are trying to tell us the life story of the competitors, and the Gladiators. They are trying also to make the Gladiators out to be amazing athletes, and all athletes try to be gladiators. They also try to add suspense where none is needed, cutting to commercials when an event is about to begin to try and keep the audience in suspense. The producers are trying to make the show into something that it is not, a reality show.
Reality TV has taken a firm place in the standard diet of any TV watcher, and this is no surprise seeing the enormous success of numerous reality shows. Yet, American Gladiators is not a reality show, it is a game show. There are contestants that are competing for a prize. They need to treat it as such. They don’t need to jazz it up also they can let the competitions stand on their own. The additions of theatrical elements just add a cheesy factor to the show.
The show has potential to be good; here are some suggestions for making this show better:

• Stop getting to know the Gladiators. Every time that Titan opens his mouth and speaks into the microphone is a bad moment for American Gladiators. They come off dumb and cheesy both bad things unless you are trying to get a target market of 10 year olds. They either need to take the gladiators in one of two directions; one make them into comically villainous people, much like pro wrestling, or two make them into mysterious mute characters, that might each have a tag line or special trait. (Much like the Gladiator Wolf, who I am actually okay with in terms of his howling before events. It is cheesy, but in a good funny way and is something that is short and distinctive.)
  
• Cut out the interviews. The little introduction that is given at the beginning of the show is all the information that we need to know about the competitors. We DO NOT need to be introduced to the family in the crowd, reminded later on about a certain trial the person had to overcome as a child, or to hear an interview before each event, in which the competitor tells us, “I will do my best to win.” Of course they are going to be trying to win the event, why else would someone be on this show? It really does go without saying the motivation the competitors have.
  
• STOP FORCING US TO LISTEN TO THE HEAD (and only so I assume he is the head) REFEREE ASK IF THE COMPETITORS AND GLADIATOR ARE READY AND WAIT FOR A RESPONSE. This can be resolved easily, and the guy can still say the line. Ask the question quickly and if nobody objects start the event. Also in the eliminator don’t show him tell the two competitors that they will have two whistles, one for the one in the lead and the other for the one starting late. They don’t show all the instructions given between Pro athletes and officials and we still get it, what make you think that all of America will be lost if we don’t see that scene?
  
• Following the first three points should allow for an additional event, which are really the bread and butter of this show. Keeping the events going keeps people watching the show. The events need some tweaking. Little things like the Barrel role part of the eliminator, the containers being too wide in the Powerball event, the weapons given to the competitors in the Assault game being poorly designed, the course giving to many hiding spots to the competitors, and so on. Also they need to scrap some of the events. The event of crossing the bridge with the huge weights coming across is really dumb, you can duck under the balls. The gauntlet was taken away from the original show for a reason; take it away from this one. Also the artificial surface used in the Powerball event is a law suit waiting to happen. That is an ACL killer; did they get a sweet deal on old NFL Astro Turf?

Making these moves should take care of all the other smaller problems on the show. (Hulk Hogan, Ali’s daughter, and creepy voice over guy) If not talent can always be found.

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