Manda d2 part 1

part one:

thank whatever im lazy.

my phone died earlier last night and i couldnt find a good enough reason to walk to the other side of the room to plug it in

manda - 1    technology - 0

its so strange how much we rely on something we don't even notice. that is, until we remove it from our daily routine. TV and Internet havent been issues just yet. Music, however, i feel sad and bored without it. I'm trying to find loopholes with the music portion but i dont really feel like having a party or a gathering of some sort to get my marley fix. at night, i don't have any lullabies to sing me to sleep. no telefon tel aviv, mogwai, no radiohead, pink floyd, the grateful dead, nothing. just that piercing high pitched noise in your ears reminding you youre going deaf. even cavemen made sound mr. lopez. 

luckily i have a guitar, piano, violin, and a decent voice to keep myself in one piece.  

peace.

peace & quiet.

peace & quiet & eggos.

it feels good to not watch tv. i dont have to hear about the swine flu and how it could be the end of the human race. it feels good to not get hyped up by the media since it seems to hype everything else up. i feel individualized. revitalized. 

I dont have to hear about arian get kicked off  Tough love.

or how big a mistake Ray Jay made picking the wrong girl.

i do however miss watching Current. Documentaries. The Royal Tenembaums.

Movies took the edge off my day. but i guess i can switch it to books.

I'm reading Rant and dipping into columns in the current newspaper.

so far i've been to work, took a shower, my feet got eaten by my puppies and i thought there was an alligator in my house. but i was half asleep.

i read a book about an artist who was insane but was so much more alive than anyone he had ever met. when he didnt have paper, he had arms. when he didnt have anything to manipulate, he had his hair to mold and form into lines or mounds. i feel alot like him. 

I'll be right back after this short break.

reflection period. 

2 hours.

continue:

steven and i are writing songs today. so far, we've got a melody and something that we can hum. its a start. go team.

part 2 at midnight. or around then.

day won

day 1

manda

ug. first day and im already behind. 

well, let's play catch up.

it's taken an hour to find somewhere to use internet since mines out for a good while.

so far, it hasnt been hard. i worked for 12 hours yesterday and fell asleep faster than i could take off my shoes. 

okay i take it back.

this is hard. at the moment im flying solo so its always good to have some noise in the background to give this house some life. last night i walked over to the DVD player to put on Fear and Loathing but then i remembered. 

"this is ridiculous." then i laughed. then i got sad.

this project is making me feel disconnected. maybe a little sad.

in my house, the only thing that worked was my laptop and speakers. 

i did however, take the time to notice how comfortable my couch was. I even cleaned the floor.

i just made up a haiku.

cold linoleum. 

must be like, fifty degrees.

good thing i have socks.

there are so many things i think i could be doing right now.

making a sculpture

riding my bike to james's

taking my dogs on a walk

clean out my rat cage (anybody want some pet rats?)

write a new paragraph to my book.

style my hair.

wreck a car

wash my clothes

be a hippie. 

night.

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, Sports Center blaring, we even watch Television in our sleep at my house. This is sad; my big screen has become my mother’s nursery rhymes, rocking my brother to sleep. I never knew how soothing Chris Berman’s voice could be. Still needing to shower I quickly asses the situation; computers, televisions and gaming systems in every room, even the garage. Living In a house with five guys, there is limitless technological entertainment.

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

Firstly, I must say that life with no media influence sounds quite boring at first, though after going through an entire day with no media whatsoever, it must be said that it can be quite fulfilling. I had expectations of a boring and dreadful experience, filled with daydreaming and silence, I realized yesterday that they were completely wrong.
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

This has been the hardest thing I have to do in a while. I am in the car 95% of the day! I usually do the whole "text" thing...ALOT, so that I think has been the biggest struggle with this little project. As for the music part, it is hard following that one but it's not too too bad. But, there was the fun car ride to Houston with nothing to listen too! Another thing that makes this project so tough is seeing others enoying and the things that I can't. It's hard finding things to do when all your house work is done. That's the time when I normally park it right on that couch and turn on that television. I pretty much knew how much we use those things but going without them makes me realize even more. Well, lets see how much longer I can hang. Until next time....Adios!

Day one...

This is Adam Coe with his first blog on the Media Deprivation Project. So far so Good. My cell phone is turned off most of the day. At Quiznoes, where I work, music is playing all day, the only music I can listen to. I worked on Friday night and on Saturday morning, so my music deprivation is not as strong as some of yours I bet. It was very difficult falling asleep without my usual 101.1 Kono oldies going, but I got to sleep with the help of a couple loud fans. The experiance is pretty enlightening. It is a lot like my camping trips, but with temptation everywhere. I realized today that media is a constant thing in my life and without it I feel very, very bored. I am going through videogame and television withdrawls, no Law and Order, or Final Fantasy is killing me slowly. Chris Schieber, on of my friends at Quiznoes, is also in one of Professor Lopez's classes and is doing the project as well, so I am not alone in my struggle. Adrian made it a point to turn my car radio off as soon as we got in my car Friday afternoon for work. I hid the remotes for my television in my parent's room, and have left my cell phone in one position when I am not home. I find myself being very productive around my house, cleaning and doing yard work for lack of something to do. I love the way this project is affecting me. I am very conscious of the Media all around my environment, and how it affects me so much in my day to day life. I am still wondering how the next few days will be, since I did indeed missed the first day of Wolverine! That was tough, I want to see that so bad I would grow claws and fight Professor Lopez to the death to win an opportunity to see it now! Yes, right now! I guess, all I have to say about the first day is that "it sucked", but I am looking forward to tomorrow and seeing how this whole thing will end. I hope the rest of the class is holding on as much as Adrian, Professor Lopez and I are. For the second day, I hope everyone is going strong. Tune in tomorrow to read about my struggle, as I am looking forward to reading about everyone elses. Good night and good luck.

Day One - Christina Gomez

I had strict guidelines to follow for the next three days. Down some Tylenol PM and sleep all weekend. Instead I find this project might actually be worth a shot at doing.

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.

Well... now I am a little upset with media. Particularly laptops and the internet. I am currently at my best friends apartment trying to turn in this blog before 5pm. The computer had some sort of error, and I thought I lost my whole blog. Thank God this website automatically saves the drafts. Anyways... as far as day one goes, my boyfriend did not want to help me out by turning off all media. He turned everything back on and said to just pretend that I went without media. I told him that it was a requirement and I wanted to see if I could really do it. I left because he couldn't deal with it. I had an induction ceremony at school at 6pm. The only music I had to listen to was the National Anthem. After the ceremony my friend Sara and I got into the car, and immediately she wanted to turn up the radio. I yelled at her and told her I could not listen to the radio. We ended up talking as if we had never talked before. We went over to I Hop to study for finals. I got lucky there. They played a lot of great songs over the intercom. After studying, we got back into the car again. Sara kept forgetting to not turn on the radio. To end the night, we played the question game. We asked each other several questions trying to guess particular people and celebrities that we were thinking of. That was the only option since we didn't have anything else to blab about and the car was silent. I feel as though going without media for the first day was not very challenging for me, but it certainly was with my friends. I kept myself busy with many activities to do leaving no time for media. Day two is becoming difficult. I miss music!

Eric Garza - Day 1

Well considering i just flew in from out of town on friday morning, it would have been hard not to use my phone to call for a ride home from the airport and an additional call to let my mom know i arrived home safely. She worries a lot. Once i do turn my phone on Im sure half of the voice messages are going to be from here asking why i have'nt called because i forgot to tell her about this project. Maybe i'll swing by her house to let her know, but Im gonna be so pissed if i get there and shes not home. She live so far from where i do. Anyhow, besides those two phone calls early friday morning i swear i havent used my phone since and its been kinda boring, but quiet i can add. I have no idea what my friends are doing tonight or what they are doing right now. Like i said before, i guess i could drive to their houses and see whats poppin but i would be so upset man if i get to someones house and they're not home. Thats wasting gas and the time it takes to drive over there. My sister and I were talking about this project the other day and she asked me, "What did you do before you had a cell phone?" I said, I couldn't remember. Isn't that wierd. I dont smoke marijuana, so i feel like i have a great memory for the most part, but i can't remember what I use to do to stay in touch with my friends. I know when i was in high school those big brick phones were around but i didnt know anybody who had one. I think i use to just use the house phone mostly to talk to my friends, but my mom wouldnt let me talk for too long cause it would run up the phone bill. Anyway, i really think the hardest part of this project for me is not being in contact with friends and being able to make plans. I hardly watch tv, and use the internet but when it comes to my phone, well i think Im averaging about 1,000 text messages a month, just from texting friends. I do have a couple of papers that are due on monday for my humanities class and due to the fact that i cant watch tv or surf the internet or use my cell, Ill probably be able to finish those up in no time. Geez, this is gonna be rough!

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]

So Friday with out any type of media was kinda... weird. I never realized how much I use any type of media in my life. I didn't have work on Friday, nor did I have anything else to do. It was just one of those days to relax and do nothing but watch a movie, get on the internet, etc. But oh how could I forget about this experiment. I wanted to go watch TV so bad, get online, surf the internet, but I couldn't do any of those. As the day went by, I managed to do a lot of house cleaning, car cleaning, and sit down with my guitar and write some music. The thing I noticed the most, was the fact that turning on the TV, getting on my computer when I wake up, listening to music in the car, using my phone, were simply a bunch of habits in my every day life. Even though I knew I wasn't supposed to do all of these things, I would automatically do them, and minutes later I would stop, think, and realize that I did it based on pure impulse. Of course I would then stop it and go do something else. 

On Friday nights, my friend and I usually play some video games before we hit up the night life. All I can say, is that my friend was pretty bummed out when I told him that I couldn't play any video games this weekend due to a school project. He looked at me like if were some kinda joke. I explained to him about the whole ordeal, and he absolutely understood. So the little prick figured out that you can play video games on your own, and not necessarily with another person. You have no idea how fun it is to watch someone play video games. 

Now it's Saturday, and it's been much easier compared to Friday. All I had to do is not listen to music in the car. But I do have to admit that I listened to music at work, oh yea, I listened to the same songs over and over again. That's what happens when you work at Sea World.  

Orlando Day 1

May 1 day one of media deprivation project. The media deprivation project is what it sounds like no intentional media use. There is no cell phone use, no computer use, no radio, no TV DVD or Movie Theater use, and finally no magazine use. So this projects starts on Friday when you wake up. That is one loop pole that I took advantage of so instead of turning off the TV at twelve am on Friday I just happened to stay awake a little longer on that Friday. In actually a typical night of the week is this. I wake up on a Monday morning around nine am leave for school at ten am to arrive at my first class at ten thirty am. I recently moved further away from the school so there is a thirty min drive that I cannot avoid. Now that I think about it on a typical day I’m driving about two hours and forty five min every day that’s a lot of driving that’s an earful of radio. So on Friday I woke up around two and what I would usually do is watch TV and just wake up a bit before making breakfast or before getting ready and on Friday that was not an option for me. So instead I just started getting ready for work which was at five. Work is a restaurant on the north side an upscale place where a lot of rich people go and try to feel better about themselevs whether consciously or not. So I had to drive downtown and the first thing that I remembered was no radio and downtown is a twenty min drive. The first thing that happened when I started my car was a radio blasting country music. So I jumped to turn it off man that was a close one. It was quite funny driving down the road cause every once in a while my arm would jump to turn up the radio which was not even on. The more I drove the less my arm moved but the mental idea was there every twenty min I felt it an arm movement towards the radio.

Taylor Lieber - Day 1

I was not looking forward to this project at all! I'm in between jobs at the moment, so I am at home pretty often, surrounded by temptation. I stayed up late on Thursday night watching a lot of tv and texting friends. I had to try and get my fill in, to hold me over! I woke up a little later than usual on Friday, at about 10:30, but I stayed in bed until about 11:00. My first thought after waking up was, "I have no reason to get up!". Haha, I'm kidding. That's a little extreme. Usually the first thing I do in the morning is turn on either my tv or radio. Since that is off limits, I checked my email real quick and found a reminder for this wonderful project. Grrr! It took me about twenty minutes longer than usual to get ready for the day, because I felt so thrown off without my music playing in the background. I felt sluggish; music really helps wake me up and gets me going in the morning. After that, I read for about an hour and a half. Luckily, I do love to read. Unfortunately, I have read all of my books already, at least once. I guess now would probably be a good time to head to Barnes and Noble to pick up a new book. I went to pick up lunch because I wanted to get out of the house for a little while. The only problem with this, is the whole driving without music thing. My roommate suggested I drive with the windows down, so that maybe I could hear bits and pieces of songs from other cars! I haven't resorted to that yet, but we'll see how I feel come Sunday. With no music playing in the car, of course that left me alone with my thoughts. I found myself thinking about friends I haven't talked to in a while and reminding myself about upcoming things that I need to take care of. Every once in a while, a song I like would pop into my head, and I would sing it as best as I could. It was sort of nice, but not nearly as enjoyable as the real thing! I went to have dinner at a friend's house, and her husband had the radio on. It was the first time all day I heard any music, and I loved it! I listened to a few songs while we had dinner. I left when we were done, and I was very sad on the long ride home. When I started getting ready to go to bed, I was a little upset because I fall asleep to my tv every night. It took me longer than usual to get to sleep, because once again I was left alone with my thoughts in the complete silence. Today wasn't horrible, but it certainly wasn't how I wanted to spend it....maybe tomorrow will be better.

Dominic Fridays media deprivation

Well....
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!

Day two of the project has proven to be a challenge already. I went to work this morning as always, and decided to stay true to the experiment by turning off the radio i normally listen to while im working in the back of the store. It made work go by alot slower, but gave me plenty of time to map out the rest of my day and also clear ALL of my thoughts.
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

Wow!
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

Day 1 was not as hard for me as it was for my family, because I am not a media junkie. Since they had medial withdraws and breakdowns, I just ask of them to keep the main family room free of any and all forms of media. I had a busy busy day. My ex mother-in-law came in town on Thursday. So i had company to keep me occupied. On Friday(day 1) i got up in the morning to gather my paper work that had to be fax to my employers in New Orleans by yesterday which was the deadline. I was cutting it close, because the other papers i need were not ready until Thursday. My kids missed the school bus so i had to drop them off at school, one at middle school and two at the high school. I drop the middle one at school first, then off two the high school. Before i made it to the high school, I was feeling like some Micky D's breakfast. Since the kids were already late, they agreed to go get breakfast too. Then i remember i needed one of the kids to stay home to let at&t technician repair the Internet problem, while i go to office max and send off a fax. On the way to the school my youngest volunteered to go back home. When i got back home my youngest son, ex mother-in-law and i ate breakfast. Then my ex mother-in-law ask me to do her hair and nails. After that I showered and left to drop of class work for a final project at Blue Star for First Friday and then went to drop my ex-in-law at the airport. After leaving the airport, was running about 20 minutes late picking my daughter up from school. I dropped her off home and headed back to participate with my class in First Friday. On my way back i stopped off for chips and dip to add to the event. I parked on the side street, because the Blue star lot was full. After hanging my picture up for display, I chilled out after a non stop day. around 8 o'clock i went to check on my truck to make sure it was okay. Fortunately, i was just in time to keep it from being towed. Apparently after a certain time that side of the street that i parked on becomes a no parking zone only on First Friday. I did not know and there were no signs. I also received a parking ticket. This was my first First Friday and last. Over all i use my cell phone about 4 times to communicate with family for those tight spots. no computer, the radio in the truck is out so no radio while driving in the truck all day. They did have music at First Friday. I did have to use a fax, but it was imperative.That is it other than writing this blog . i have not use the computer.

May 2

I never realized how much the media affects every aspect of my daily life. From the moment that I wake up to the moment I fall asleep I'm never to far from my cell phone, t.v, radio, or a computer. I felt like I had gone back to the dark times, before there was any technology! Well that's a bit of an exaggeration but it is very hard to do.
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