Switched-On :: Blog

Summer gives teenagers the time to do anything they please, which lends itself to periods of time where they just do nothing. Its normal to just be lazy some days, not shower, and lounge around the house in pjs watching “Jersey Shore” reruns all day. (By the way, how boring was the season premiere?) Anyway, besides just sitting on one’s behind doing nothing, why not let the creative juices flow (while sitting on one’s behind)? I’m talking about writing a blog. It can be just about anything, such as a favorite sport/hobby, the daily happenings of everyday life, or a fan site dedicated to Justin Bieber. A blog is a good way to exercise the brain during the summer and express any feeling in a new millennium journal. It can be a way to express your thoughts or a fun activity to pass the time. So, instead of just reading blogs all day, try putting in your own input in an already vibrant online community.

- Ruben

Car go boom

If you Chicagoans have ventured outside in the past couple weeks, you’ve most likely heard, seen, or been delayed by the filming of the new Transformers movie. The helicopter, with the strange orb structure on its nose, flies endlessly around downtown. There’s rubble and mashed-up cars on the streets, and if you get lucky you’ll spot Shia LaBeouf doing something or other. It’s incredible to me the effort that goes into making a movie. Granted, Transformers is especially difficult to make, given the explosions, massive machine battles, and what not, but the fact that they spend massive amounts of money to make a one minute scene that will be forgotten an hour after the movie is watched seems, well, pointless, if not counterproductive. I’m definitely aware that this stance is pretty party-poop-esque, and that movie producers only spend this money because they think they’ll make it back. At the same time, nobody thinks Transformers 3 will be some legendary film. Rather, the thought is that it may make a lot of money in a short period of time. If they think destroying an extra few cars will fill seats, that’s up to them. But in my view, that wastefulness is counterproductive for everyone.

- Will

photo courtesy flickr user wherever i roam

Now that it’s over, can I get this off my chest? Are fireworks really that great? Does watching the same thing again and again for 18 minutes, followed by the same thing really fast for 2 more minutes, equate with happiness? I guess I can see the allure of light shows, but at a certain point marvel morphs into monotony. On Sunday, biking home from work, there was a massive traffic jam filled with people returning from the beach after having watched the firework show. I know, I know- to each his own, but really, it seemed like way too much trouble for a loud and repetitive phenomenon. Plus, does anyone have trouble justifying the spending of millions of taxed dollars on something that could hardly be more trivial? People complain about their taxes all the time, but when stared in the face with a waste of money on explosive entertainment, they seem pretty mute.

- Will