Three Minutes

Have you ever walked into a store and gotten into the checkout lane, readied your credit card or cash, and politely said hello to the cashier who simply responded with a slight glare, which only functions as a means to let you know you've been recognized?

I hate that.

When this first started happening to me, when I was very young, I decided to label these people as "dicks." It was easy to do considering the applicable nature of the statement in coordination with my situation; these people were rude for no reason. This realization stayed the same until today. I discovered something: I am in no position to judge a person if I've only known them for three minutes.

I came to this conclusion because of what happened to me at work tonight. I work at Blockbuster, which gives me the incredible opportunity to deal with all sorts of interesting individuals. Because of this incredible opportunity, I sometimes get an absolute waste of life standing in front of me, arguing about the dollar amount on their account that only exists because they lack the ability to understand what a fucking "due date" means. Tonight was one of those nights. This irritating mixture of skin, puss, and evil -- a stupid, arrogant lady -- came in tonight and decided to piss me off. She was holding eight movies when she approached the counter and said to me the following statement: "I only want one of these." (Let me give you a tip about shopping at Blockbuster: don't be a dick and do things like that. If you decide against a movie, put it back. The store is not that big, and, if it is, God forbid you walk an extra two minutes to put a DVD back on the shelf. Speaking of which, put the movies back where they belong. If you fail to adhere to these overly simplistic requirements of avoiding Dickland then shame on you.) I simply took her one choice, which was Prom Night instead of both Wayne's World and Fight Club, just to name a couple. I instantly hated this woman when she asked the next question:

"Why are your movies 4.99? That's ridiculous."

"Well ma'am, before work every day, me and my colleagues get to choose how much the movies are. Too bad you missed ten dollar movie day, it sounds like it would have been right up your ass...I mean alley. "

I don't make the prices of things, I get paid almost minimum wage to scan things, alphabetize things, and put things away. I deal with "things" people, things that are as useless as this woman was to me. I tried to explain this to her in a very nice way, which was incredibly difficult, and she wasn't having it:

"Well, I'm not paying 4.99 for a movie."

Okay, bye? What does she hope to prove by saying this? It affects me in no way, other than the fact that I have now created a blog in which she has become a central part. She eventually left with three movies, which is awesome considering I got to take fifteen dollars from her, making her a victim of today's marketing genius (it is stupid that movies are five dollars).

Anyway, the next part of the story is what I'm getting at. I was now pissed off and it was showing through my motions; I was immaturely placing things in a violent way, you know what I mean; when you kind of throw your shirt in the laundry out of frustration rather than placing it softly. This was me with DVD cases. Then a customer came up to the counter. I didn't care about their existence at all, they were empty vessels of consumer bullshit and I wanted them to leave. The transaction was smooth though, and they were out of there in about two minutes.

I then stopped and realized I was that person I described at the beginning of this blog. I was a "dick" all because that stupid woman pissed me off.

The message is simple: don't judge someone you don't even know, you never know what they could have gone through to become the way they are. This especially stands true when you are dealing with cashiers. Sometimes we have a bad moment, and you get caught in the middle of the anger-storm.

Three minutes isn't enough time to decide who a person is. So don't try to judge, just hand them your money, receive your reward and walk out the door.

That sentence in no way promotes the profession of prostitution.

( ^ Greatest ending to a blog I've ever witnessed)

Media

Today I feel sick. When I feel this way I do the following: sit, eat, and watch television. Other than on these days, television is something that I avoid. I hate being exposed to media on television. Yes I know I'm exposed to the media like 200% of my day or some stupid statistic like that, but I think broad casted shows are the worst. Today is the first day I have watched television, outside of the exception that includes That 70' Show and Family guy, in probably three years. This is not an exaggeration.

I had no clue things had gotten this bad.

First I tuned into a show that I use to be very familiar with, Total Request Live. The variety of music was astounding; the show consisted of groups that portrayed beauty as a practical requirement. I was watching a battle between the ugly and the beautiful, where the beautiful always won. Every song was speaking about affluence and superiority over something else. I felt inadequate just sitting there watching this nonsense, and I'm not poor or ugly (I'm humble by the way). It disgusted me, but I kept watching out of curiosity. The show that came on after TRL absolutely blew my mind. Apparently it is popular among some demographics today, all of which I would love to destroy, and I consistently wondered the entire time if MTV was serious. I see now that this question is ludicrous; MTV is the most lucrative television network because it constantly hones it's focus on the groups that need something to consume, high schoolers. This holds true within the show "Parental Control." Let me give you a synopsis of this show. hoping with all my soul that you aren't instantly familiar with it. At the beginning of the show, a couple is introduced. One of these two people have parents that are unhappy because of who they are dating. The show then proceeds to introduce the parents, who in turn explain why they hate the person their child is dating. The show provides for them an opportunity to quell this terrible relationship their child is in; they will let the parents pick two people for their child to go on a date with. Once the dates are finished, the child will then decide whether they will stay in their relationship, or end it and be with one of the people their parents like.

Shoot me.

This show raised so many flags for me, I almost screamed. First of all, the entire show is scripted. I mean right down to the lines they speak when on the actual date. This whole scripted problem becomes overly apparent when the parents speak. I came to two conclusions about who the parents actually were: teenagers in fat suits trying to look old while consistently sounding like jackasses, or aliens.

There is no way these people are real. If I were a father, I wouldn't decide to whore my daughter out for a day so I could be satisfied about her relationship, and I wouldn't say the following line if I witnessed a man grabbing her ass, "See? He likes her junk in dat trunk!" What the hell?

Even worse than that is the fact that the boyfriend says things to the parents that are borderline prison-worthy. One of the people were talking to their significant other's parents and said this, "I'll f*** you up. Just shut up, damn you f***in chubby b****." Charming, definitely something I would love to have my teenager exposed to.

Let me get this straight: anyone on earth with cable can turn this on, it appeals to a demographic that isn't fully developed, the show entices and teases about sexual occurrences that are supported by parents, and the worth of a relationship can be deciphered by going on two dates, with two different people, in an hour, that involve ass-grabbing and scripted jokes?

I hate the media.

If I was fourteen and I watched this, I would feel like one day I would become bad ass, "Man, I can't wait to be buff like that and sleep with bitches." Some might say I'm being dramatic, but I'm not. I remember high school, I remember how influential everything was. Why do you think teens in my school got pregnant? Why do you think drugs were always a problem, coupled with violence, depression, and notoriety by way of sports integrity? If you could throw a football, you win. If you could drop that three pointer four out of ten tries, you're the victor. Now if you can find a women that replaces your current one, drop her like she's old news. It's all a part of this superiority complex we have as citizens; if we aren't winning then we have to be losing, and everyone who loses is basically a nobody. I sincerely blame this, at this in some way, on the negative media today.

I hate this; why can't we have positive media? Why does everything revolve around sexual enticement and marketed wealth? The media makes you feel poor, unloved, inferior, weak, empty, incomplete, and everything in between. I see no positive media, not even in commercials that try to send a positive message or work for a positive outcome. Take the Truth commercials for example, what are they proving? I'm pretty sure that everyone knows about Tobacco at this point; people with holes in theirs necks, talking likes machines, aren't going to stop your daddy from smoking a pack a day. It'll be stopped when your father says, "I'm done." Stop wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars on commercials that tell the same recycled tale when you could be feeding the hungry, funding missionary work, or even building an extra school in an area that needs one. I'm just sick of the negativity.

I guess it all comes down to that American Dream idea. My friend came up to me the other day and said this,

"I just saw Fifty Cents' movie, "Get Rich or Die Tryin" and it just made me think about America's mindset. People don't want a career, they want that one big break so they don't have to worry about working or anything else. It's messed up."

It is messed up, but in a lot of cases it is true. We are surrounded by the idea of being the strongest. If you're poor, get rich. If you're rich, get richer. We've all heard this, we all realize that it is the way things are. This doesn't mean that I have to accept it though, and I won't. I hate this mindset, I hate this set of ideals. But I suppose it all fits into the same big, conglomerate mess of a societal puzzle; America is a diverse place, but it amazes me how a diverse place can be so single-minded.

I suppose, then, the media has to be successful. It can only be successful by portraying what sells. The things that sell are determined by the people, who are inherently affected by this media. This means the media sets the tone, hoping that the people never end up biting the hand that feeds them. I'm not biting, I'm shooting. I'm bursting at the seems and sending it to hell.

I'll always be influenced by the media, but I can mediate the exposure. I hope you can too.

I hate the media.