Saturday, May 2, 2009
Manda d2 part 1
day won
day 1 harold peavy
With the time reaching seven a.m., myself still in blissful slumber, how could I know that would break the rules in my first moments of the day? With work at eight my alarm goes off at seven, simultaneously startling me and exposing my weaknesses. Of course I’m referring to the three six mafia banger we stay high that I have used on my phone as an alarm for years. This is going to be harder than I thought.
I lay in bed until seven forty, pondering what surprises are to follow; I was exposed within seconds of waking. Am I going to be that exposed to media all day? Luckily I will be at work most of the day, my schedule on Fridays and Saturdays is torturous, 8 a.m. to 3:45pm then back at 5:30 until 10:30. Hopefully being contained will give me an edge on following the guidelines. As I make my way to the shower I have to laugh, this is going to be impossible. My brother is asleep on the living room couch,
I take a quick shower, change, and off to work. It is seven fifty-nine; luckily work is right down the street and I will probably be the first one there anyway. As I get into my car I remember to turn off my stereo before I can hear any audible noise. A two minute ride to work in silence, and I have survived the morning and even enjoyed my tranquil cruise.
Work is work! Music plays all day and luckily I can’t hear it in the kitchen. Not because I am too concerned with the rules, but rather the music isn’t usually of my taste. 3:45, Survived the front end of work, no slip ups, now it’s time to go to the bank. Haven’t even made a phone call or text, look at received messages, don’t care.
The bank is only ten minutes away, but I now know why as soon as cars were invented people figured out how to put stereos in them. With friends in the car I often opt to chat, turning down or off the radio to converse. Alone, hot, and tired I have been in the car twenty minutes and just pulled up to a teller. As my account is replenished all I want to do is listen to It’s the First of the Month, a payday staple. I refrain and make it home without turning the dial. Don’t know if I could have done it without smokes.
The rest of the day is a breeze, back at home I only have time to change and head back into work. 10:30p.m., sneak out of work early and head home. I had taken a phone call and made plans to go to the bar with a friend. After I quick shower I’m out of the house and with the guys for a long night. About now things gets fuzzy, hope I wasn’t the one driving. One day down, two to go.
Freedumb - Day 1 - Angelo Reyes
My day started off as usual. I awoke at ten a.m., meditated for half an hour, took a refreshing shower, and headed off to work. My first media encounter of the day usually occurs wheni first leave my house. I blast music and sing along, though yesterday, I did no such thing. I cruised with my windows down and just thought about everything that’s going on in my life. I realized that the music was basically just a distraction, keeping me from doing so.
At work, there’s a television which usually has either sports or movies playing. I made it a point to not care what was on, so I wasted no time watching it. I found myself doing actual work to keep me busy instead of wasting time watching the tube. I also tend to surf the web on my phone, or watch youtube videos, which I also did neither of. I paid more attention to my job more than I think I ever had. Even my boss noticed the effort. Of course, after explaining why, he laughed and stated that he knew it was too good to be true.
I worked from twelve noon till eleven at night, and I had a curfew of twelve midnight, so buy the time I got out, I had no choice but to go home. Again on the ride home I sat in silence, focused intently on depriving myself of distraction. I came to realize the truth in the age-old saying “silence is golden”.
At home, I found myself getting a little bit bored, so I played with my cat and taught him how to give me five. I realized that I hadn’t been spending much time with him, due to playing video games, reading, or watching movies. I made him a promise that I’d teach him how to say hello, which if some of you think is impossible, is actually possible, just maybe not probable, and it doesn’t sound as articulated as we humans make it. It sounds more like an Asian person choking on a hot wing say hello, Anyways, after that I meditated again for half an hour and went to bed.
DAY ONE-MELISSA METZ
Day one...
Day One - Christina Gomez
Everyday for almost 4 years of my life have been spent in front of a television, cell phone, or iPod. Normally, my daily routine consisted of sleeping, texting and surfing the web in school, and of course eating. Especially this past semester, I have been in media overload mode. When I wake up, in between classes, during lunch, and then throughout the time I spend at home.
For the first day, I thought everything was going great until the onset shock of exactly how much I was missing out on hit me. It feels like I’m an addict going through withdrawals. Even being on my laptop to post this is tempting enough to look on Facebook or to get my daily fill of celebrity gossip.
During the day I was constantly reminded that I was missing out on seeing Wolverine, listening to music, and watching Real Time with Bill Maher. For the rest of the day I was left to listen to the sound of my own thoughts. Which I realized I either have a busy mind or A.D.D., but I prefer the former.
So instead of contemplating what to do all day, I made up my own to do list. Among my “to do’s” was baking something that was time consuming, attempting to groom my dogs, and doing something productive in the yard. There was the occasional thought about exercising for a while, which I only am fond of when it’s over. For the most part, my day was quite enjoyable.
Jaz Hernandez Day 1
Okay so yesterday was pretty hard if you ask me. I was at home for a long time yesterday so I could do my homework for finals and stay on track but there were so many opportunities to watch television or surf the web. This media deprivation helps me to stay focused though because we aren’t allowed to do the things that usually distract me. Yet on the other hand it sucked because I wanted to take breaks from my writing and when I did I just basically have to sit there. It doesn’t help when your entire family is at home with you watching TV and I can hear the noise so I just had to get even further away. Then I finally finished my paper so I had time on my hands and didn’t know what to do. Luckily I got a sweet set of friends that were down to help me pass time away. We met up at the mall to get away from all the easy access media in the house but the car ride was horrible. It would have been okay if I had someone to talk to but I drove by myself and it was know fun. It was the longest fifteen-minute drive ever. It was just nothing but the noise of my tires on the road. Without the tunes on I was bored out of my mind so I just started trying to talk to the girls next to me at a stop light but they were to far behind to see what they were saying. I finally got to the mall and the boredom was over. My friends and I hung out and did a little shopping before we went to Sultans. Chilling at sultans was pretty fun luckily there was music playing so I got to hear something even though it was some kind of music I didn’t understand. After sultans we went to my friends house and chilled. Everyone started to play video games, which was not cool at all, so I just went into the other room and fell asleep. Overall this helped me out because I did a lot of work that I would have procrastinated on it I could have. So even though it was hard I thin it was worth getting one of my papers done.
Deanna Briones-Hassuni Day #1 cont.
Eric Garza - Day 1
Day Uno
Wow! This is an experience that I never thought would be as hard as it sounds. I would never imagine the emptiness that I felt on this media deprived day. It first started with me coming home from work at 6:30am because I work overnight. I had a brief thought before I turned on my radio in my car that reminded me of this project. So I went along with it and rode home for 30 minutes without the radio. This was the worst experience of deprivation. Every 5 minutes I wanted to turn the music on, but I kept trying to hold myself back from giving in. I started to realize that the music that I listened to filled up a certain silence that can make the world feel as if it were moving slower. This is how I felt throughout the whole day. It was like an extreme lent participation that took away many aspects of my life.
As I sat around my house with nothing to do, I felt more lazy and bored than ever. It’s funny that with such a hectic schedule and with the forms of media in my life that time goes by fast; however, when there’s no media to fill in the gaps of entertainment, time ceased to never go forward. I longed for something to do or someone to talk to. But there was no one home and all my friends were in school. So when I was faced with such adversity as this, I found it best to go to sleep and try to kill some hours like that. This was a constant throughout the day, which was pretty boring. I found myself catching up on all my sleep that I have been missing out on from the whole semester.
With all this non media, however, I was able to accomplish things that I had more time for. I had urges to clean my room, wash my car, and do some erands that I have been postponing for years. This media deprivation allowed me to have more time to do more things in my life. But, there's a downfall to that, which is running out of things to do. I hope that I can occupy myself for day two without any media.
Josh Aldama [Day 1]
Orlando Day 1
Taylor Lieber - Day 1
Dominic Fridays media deprivation
It has been an interesting day. I fell like I am in grade school again, playing dodge ball but instead of balls I'm dodging forms of mass media! It seems like no matter what I do or where I go I find myself faced with some form of media,this is making my day very complicated. When I woke up I was woken up by my cell phone, which has a music alarm on it, so i had to remove the song and put the plain alarm sound. *sigh* There is not fun in the plain alarm sound. I would rather hear a song that I love rather then some annoying sound.
Another hurtle that I faced was the alerts on my cell phone. I am sent several text messages telling me weather updates and breaking news, so I had put my phone on silent because I kept getting alerts.
I finally had relief when I went shopping today because i got to hear music! Music is a big part of my life because I always have it on.Today was interesting because I had to take a shower in silence! To be honest it was so weird.While at the store i got to hear music even if it was not the type i wanted to hear it was nice to have something playing in the background. Embarrasingly enough, while shopping i swear that I could hear my cell ringing and vibrating in my pocket! But it was at my house.
I'm finding that I really depend on my phone for because it has everything I need. A great example was when me and my mom where looking for a restaurant we could not find it because we didnt have directions. So we were lost for 45 min so we gave up. If i had my phone i would have been able to get turn-by-turn directions. Me and my mom had to much pride to pull over and ask for directions.
I'm very interested in seeing how the rest of my day goes. Suprisingly I cant wait for work tomorrow!
Mr. Lopez couldnt have selected a worse weekend to conduct this experiment, because there are plenty of good games going on this weekend; game 7 of the Boston/Chicago basketball game is coming on tonight, game 7 of the Miami/Atlanta series is tomorrow night, and the fight between "Pac-man" Pacquiao and Hatton that ive been anticipating for the past 3 months is being showed on Pay Per View tonight. I originally planned on watching it with my frat brothers at buffalo wild wings, but i guess ill indulge my mind with a nice healthy book. My excitement is clearly overwhelming.
Adrian Coe- Friday Deprivation
Friday, the beginning of the weekend and a gosh awful day to go without Media of any sort. No movies and no music, but the really hard part was getting home from work late in the evening and fighting the urge to flick on the television and start watching Law and Order before hitting the sack. Driving in the car wasn’t too horrendous, it was actually nice in the silence to be able to think and have a conversation with Adam without having the white noise of some song playing in the background. I read a lot from a novel I have been reading from time to time, but I hit it hard on Friday. My mom offered to leave the television on and walk away, but I told her that that would only be temptation to break a rule and I personally do have a sense of honor and am trying hard to complete this project in its entirety. At work music is playing, and because it is a restaurant and a public place I didn’t have a hard time ignoring my phone and other would-be distractions from focusing solely on my job. There were a few times when I did have to send a text message, but no conversations, just making plans for later on and informing them of the project I am working through. Another tough trial I had to see myself put through was video games. I play video games on Fridays before I go into work and it was tough pushing through and working on something else instead. I had a hard time when I really wanted to look up some information and couldn’t use my computer and instead ask my parents if they knew, they didn’t… More or less it wasn’t too bad, would I choose to do this for a week? Hell no. But for the weekend and for a grade I can stand it. I will have to work on my History final, A 4 page essay that I have started but will need to finish before Tuesday; all in all I think it will be relatively easy focusing on the project and not turning on windows media player or jumping onto Google or Myspace.
Deanna Briones-Hassuni Day #1
Let me start by waking up! I usually wake up to the radio, and as soon as I heard it on Friday morning I instantly remembered that I was not supposed to listen to any media. I turned it off as if I was scared that my professor would know I heard some music the first minute of the media deprivation project. I did pretty good at not turning on the television. I usually don't have time to watch t.v. anyways. I went over to my boyfriends house to see if he was up for class. I couldn't have called him even if I wanted to. My phone was dead. This was a great thing for the project. The drive to his house was the most tempting considering I just purchased one of my favorite country artists album. I wanted to instantly sing to Sugarland's songs. I asked myself, "Why cant I sing without the cd? I song all the time anyways." Before you know it I was making up my own songs. I started to drive slow as I enjoyed hearing myself. I then became my favorite artist. Who would have known. There came the moment... Walking into my boyfriends house. I heard nothing but media blaring from every corner of the appartment. The money market was on the television. He had country music coming from his alarm clock that he did not even hear. His laptop was on the dining table with internet tabs on music, news, stock markets, and videos. Just when I thought I could get away
LaQuinta - Day 1
May 2
The hardest things for me to give up were my cell phone, and the radio. I wake up with my cell phone alarm, so thankfully I didn't have to be up at a certain time today. Driving was like a foreign experience without the radio. Not just that but I admitt that I talk and text while driving, so it was a little refreshing to ignore the urge to be on my phone constantly. I also listen to my myspace playlist while showering and getting ready, but that too was a silent experience today. It was kind of errie at first but I honestly got ready a lot faster than usual because I wasn't constantly stopping to change the song. I also just talked to my friend instead while I was getting ready, which was a refreshing change. The hardest part is going to be getting to sleep! I have to have a radio or the television on when I go to sleep, so falling asleep should be interesting.
What I have learned so far is that without the media I am far less distracted. I'm much more focused and observant when I'm driving because I'm not checking my cell every two seconds, or switching radio stations every other song. Getting ready for the day went by faster without texting and checking my facebook. Usually I would sit on facebook for about thirty minutes, and be on the phone for another twenty. Even writing this blog is going by faster without searching for what song I want to listen to next. Thankfully I will get to listen to some music at the Eli Young band concert that I'm going to tonight! Life can't be silent all the time!
Deandra Parks
Edgar R. Day 1
Jonathan Swayne blog for Friday May 1, 2009
Jonathan Swayne blog for Friday May 1, 2009
The first day of this project was not as bad as I thought that it was going to be since I already had allot of things to do that did not involve me using any mass media. I will admit that I did have to use my cell phone twice because I had to call my choir director to see where he had dropped off his keys for me as he was going to be late for rehearsal but other than that I stayed clear of all media on Friday. The hardest part of the deprivation I would have to say was right after I first got up got up around 10:30am I don’t get a news paper or any other print publications so I really had nothing to do until 2:00 in the afternoon when we had scheduled a quartet practice, so I decided to practice my piano playing which I guess was a good thing because I could defiantly use the practice. After thinking about this it kind of made me realize how TV and the internet can get in the way of doing more productive things and I never thought of it as such a time waster before. Another part of the day that was defiantly hard was the two hour drive in rush hour traffic to San Marcos with no radio on I never realized how stressful driving in 5:00 traffic was until yesterday. Lucky me and my quartet all carpool to rehearsal so we could at least sing some songs for part of the way but we only know about 7 songs so after the first 30 minutes it got really boring really fast. Going to sleep was another things I almost never go to sleep before 3:00 in the morning so after all of my friends had gone home and I could not watch the TV it was just so quiet I never realized how much TV that I watch every night but I noticed that I usually watch it for about 2-3 hours before I go to bed and I watch allot less TV than anyone else I know. Not looking forward to Saturday I have nothing to do all day so it’s defiantly going to be a boring one.
Day 1, Julio Ladron "Apesta"
Neysa Day1
day 1 antoine
Lisa Lozano-Day 1
Danielle-Day 1
Friday mornings, I usually work at American Eagle, and on my way to work, I usually listen to the 96.1 morning show. Well it just so happened that I was off on Friday morning, so I got to sleep in. I was really bored at my house, without watching any tv or surfing the web, so I had my brother order a pizza for me. After I ate, I took a shower, and got ready to go to my other job, at an elementary school. I have to be honest, not listening to the radio on my drive to and from work was hard, but I had recently had my stereo in my car stolen, and was without radio for about 2 weeks, so I was sort of used to not having a radio. Without the radio on, I was singing songs to myself, but mostly, I was thinking and analyzing everything going on in my life right now.
At work, not listening to the radio was easy, because I take care of a bunch of 4 and 5 year olds, however, we do have a music and movement time, where we sing songs and dance to a cd, so I guess I broke the rules in that sense.
When I got home, I heard the tv on, and my family was there, just watching tv like a bunch of normal people. Well I immediately went to my room, and as my sister was watching the recording of Ugly Betty, I was in my room, doing laundry. How fun.
I play volleyball in a league at Fatso's on Friday nights, and I knew there was going to be music and TV. When I walked in, I tried to give myself blinders so I wouldn't be tempted to just watch a little bit of the Atlanta and Miami game. While we play, there's music in the background, so I couldn't really help that. But on the drive home, it just so happened that 410 was closed, so I had to sit in traffic for about 35 minutes with nothing to listen to, but the crazy thoughts in my head!
Overall, it wasn't too bad, but then again, I had alot of distractions.
Bring on Saturday.
What a start to an odd weekend Burak Day 1
Day 1 - Alina Martinez
Day 1 MichaelPetit
Will this discontent breed progression or insanity - Abigail, Day 1
Friday morning came to quickly. Luckily I had made plans with my best friend to go out in the morning before either of us went into work. Which helped to an easy start. We drove around and headed to a bookstore to explore some divert reading. Options are limited when you’re not allowed to embrace the world of media and you only have one working leg. On our way out, at the check out counter, flashing at me was a copy of Time magazine, on the cover, Obama’s first 100 days. If I couldn't watch CNN this was the next best thing. After eating we headed back home. I’m a sucker for sleep deprivation, so I took advantage of the silence and slept. I woke soon to leave for work. As I get ready I usually have my television or mp3 player on in the background so as fill the silence. Turns out I can get ready a lot faster without stopping to look at a screen or skip to a fast song on my play list. I avoided the living room were the television blared as my father watched Spanish talk shows. I became anxious and ended up at work a half hour early. The drive there was no help as I’m usually the one to turn on the radio, instead I rolled down the windows and listened to the wind and traffic. I work at a retail store behind a desk, answering customer phone calls and being the store secretary. When its slow and I have little to no extra work, I usually have Pandora open as I work on paperwork. I’m not in a closed room and my desk is completely open to traffic and sounds from around the store, but it was a slow day. The music we play for our customers comes from one area that is far from my concentration and the television screens are blocked from my view (and even if they weren't they display only demos approved by company policy and played in reiteration). So the seven hours past and on the drive home I was imprisoned by the sounds of my father’s favorite radio station 92.9 Esterio Latino. Don’t get me wrong, I love Spanish music, but there’s a clear difference between that station and 95.1.
And so the day passed, not to my liking but not as bad as I fear Sunday, my day off, will be. Anticipation once again takes over.
Arseny Day 1
easy day at work, i'm off by 11:30. i get home, have a ridiculously quiet lunch and start trying to find things to do instead of watching iron man like i was planning on. the grass needed to be cut so i fired up the mower. i always do stuff outside with my iPod on but this time all i had to entertain me was the engine sound. when i got finished, i realized it's only been an hour so i went and mowed the neighbor's yard as well just to kill more time. let me just say that while i was waiting on my friends to get off work and girlfriend to get out of class to kick off the wonderful friday night, everything around the house was done. finally. but in complete silence. the TV and radio are a big part of my life so i never thought that doing what i'm doing without them in the background would be so dull. the dishes got washed, laundry got done, floors vacumed, and it wasn't even 5 o'clock yet. that's when i almost decided to pick up quilting but thank god my friend called about a tubing trip down guadalupe (voicemail was for some reason marked urgent).
finally, about 8pm i got my break when i went to Eli Young Band concert at floores. let me tell you, after just one day of not being able to listen to music, it had to have been the sweetest sound my ears have ever heard. it's always the little things we take for granted.
earlier this week i was planning on finding a tool box for my truck, but how in the world can you find a good used one without the internet?? now, going to brace myself for day 2.
Day One and 1800 rounds.
Moreover, I have not had a cell phone since the beginning of the semester, so living without one has not phased me at all. Although trying to occupy myself in silence without music was a trivial event. On my days off I like to play xbox-live because I barely ever get play on it anymore even though I still pay for the membership. Since I couldn't shoot any digital-guns; I figured shooting my real guns always puts a smile on my face and also leaves a ringing in my ear. So I went to my uncle's private shoot-range in Kerrville, and let me tell you the car ride on the way there was silent and not peaceful since, I get road rage easily. Sure enough, on the way there some douche-bag decides he needs to examine the hell out my license plate and wanted to tailgate me. Which is not a very good idea since, I was already irritable from no music and I was armed.
Once I got to Kerrville I greeted my Tio and Tia. Went out on the range and had some fun killing empty bottles, three watermelons I bought on the side of the road, and a old-junk car thats out on the range. After shooting off a few hundreds rounds with my cousin Albert, and recieving a cartrigde burn on my hand; I called it a day and headed back to San Antonio for first-friday!
The car ride back is always shorter with the lack of anticipation, so the second silent car ride of the day was not that bad. Since I could enjoy any of the exspensive electronics I have, the next best thing was to go out and ROCK!ROCK!ROCK!. So my buddy Frank and I hit up Kona and met up with some more people for reverse happy-hour. (I rode in his car because I wanted to listen to some music,which felt good to hear some tunes.)
Well the rest of the was night exacltly PG-13 so this is where I stop.
Nick Ibarra Day 1 =/
So basically my Friday day part was over and done with and it wasn’t really the hardest part. When I get home, I get on Xbox live. I play halo, but I don’t do it for fun really, I play competitively, I have a team, we practice, we get flown out to different cities and participate in a gaming community called MLG, Major League Gaming and get paid, its crazy. We go to Columbus, Ohio next month for a tournament and they weren’t too happy when I said I couldn’t practice, for about 3 nights. Especially as the event gets closer, you have to practice more but due to this project (and I’m not trashing this project, I think it’s interesting) I wont be allowed to do so. But we finally agreed that 3 days off might do us some good.
Day 1 is over with, it was hard for me, I wont lie, but Saturday shouldn’t be so hard for I work most of the day and when I get home, I’ll try some different stuff to help pass the time.