In submitting my first assignment, a critical reflection of my own learning history, reality TV did not make it into my paper. So why then is it so engaging for me to watch people week after week and why is it so hard for me to give them up? Simple. It is an escape for me, as are the trashy magazines I continue to read. While I have given up much TV, I caved this week and watched Flipping Out. The show is so unlike my life and the characters so funny to me that I find myself completely engaged in the silliness of it all and I truly take a break from my studies.
Maybe I will be able to intertwine my attraction to reality TV into my studies surrounding the field of interdisciplinary learning........is reality TV a discipline? I don't think so but it is a discipline of TV as a whole. This is definitely a stretch.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Sunday, August 8, 2010
I caved in...
Project Runway started it's eight season?!? When did that happen? I missed being introduced to the crazy cast of characters?! OH NO!!!!
The good news is that you can catch all of the episodes (sans ads) on demand! After I trooped off the to the library to pick up the books that I had to have sent over from other libraries (a result of my study partner taking all of the Lesley library books out already..and did I say not sharing), I sat down for just a minute and flipped on the tv...
...almost two hours later, I had caught up with the season, but not with my reading.
So, here we are on Sunday morning and I am faced with a stack of books that I have not even flipped through. But, I do know who the first two whacka-doo designers are that got the boot. I promise that I will finish my case study and my ISP today...really...I will...I won't go near the remote...really
The good news is that you can catch all of the episodes (sans ads) on demand! After I trooped off the to the library to pick up the books that I had to have sent over from other libraries (a result of my study partner taking all of the Lesley library books out already..and did I say not sharing), I sat down for just a minute and flipped on the tv...
...almost two hours later, I had caught up with the season, but not with my reading.
So, here we are on Sunday morning and I am faced with a stack of books that I have not even flipped through. But, I do know who the first two whacka-doo designers are that got the boot. I promise that I will finish my case study and my ISP today...really...I will...I won't go near the remote...really
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Does Half an Episode Count?
After a grueling drive through the pouring rain and maneuvering through bad directions, it was thrilling to reach the hotel but not so thrilling to be far from campus and the city streets I was desperate to walk. In the months since my acceptance, I had visions of spending my first PhD residency in class during the day and out in the city at night. I was to be carefree, away from my work and family responsibilities for 7 nights and within a subway ride away from old friends and familiar haunts.
Reality hit quickly the following morning when I met my first classmate at breakfast who reminded me that I forgot to write the first paper for our program....off to less than a stellar start. After reviewing the schedule for the week to come, it became quite clear that I would not be taking many subway trips nor would I have much time to even call friends. As the 8th hour of our first day of class drew to an end, we were released and much to my pleasure, there was one fellow classmate who appeared to need a walk and a beverage (you decide the order of need) as much as I. We hadn't been able to meet earlier in the day but neither of us cared as we knew that we were in this program together for the next three years and were in much need of that beverage.
I immediately knew I found someone to revel in the ups, and talk each other through the downs we would encounter on our way to our doctorates when I was able to reveal my dirty little secret; reality TV and tabloid magazines. Christin made what should have been the obvious connection to me as well; to give up reality TV for the PhD. It has been just over a week since I broke from the bubble of our sequestered studies and returned to reality and I can proudly say I have only watched half an episode of a reality TV show......but I'm dying to know what happened in the second half!
Reality hit quickly the following morning when I met my first classmate at breakfast who reminded me that I forgot to write the first paper for our program....off to less than a stellar start. After reviewing the schedule for the week to come, it became quite clear that I would not be taking many subway trips nor would I have much time to even call friends. As the 8th hour of our first day of class drew to an end, we were released and much to my pleasure, there was one fellow classmate who appeared to need a walk and a beverage (you decide the order of need) as much as I. We hadn't been able to meet earlier in the day but neither of us cared as we knew that we were in this program together for the next three years and were in much need of that beverage.
I immediately knew I found someone to revel in the ups, and talk each other through the downs we would encounter on our way to our doctorates when I was able to reveal my dirty little secret; reality TV and tabloid magazines. Christin made what should have been the obvious connection to me as well; to give up reality TV for the PhD. It has been just over a week since I broke from the bubble of our sequestered studies and returned to reality and I can proudly say I have only watched half an episode of a reality TV show......but I'm dying to know what happened in the second half!
...and so it begins
Jill and I made a pact on the first day of our PhD residency (naturally over a cocktail or two) that we should start a blog to document the highs and lows of this three year journey that we are taking together. It came about because we were both wondering how in the heck we were going to find the time to do all of the work in an accelerated program. We both admited to spending far too much time on reality tv! So, that's the beginning....
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