Saturday, October 07, 2006
Ever wonder why...
...when you're dehydrated, your head feels bloated instead of shrunken?
Friday, October 06, 2006
Top O' The Mornin' To Ya, Lassie!
To-may-to, to-ma-to. Say it however you like the meaning is the same and just about everyone will get the message. Ameri-ca, Ameri-ker: one of my pet peeves from this summer's So You Think You Can Dance host Cat Deeley.
Accents have long been considered sexy and exotic, and they are anything but uncommon in the melting pot of the United States (I'd guess they're slightly more uncommon in The Melting Pot of Irvine). Born from immigrant parents, I've learned to understand most accents and to me, it's not so exotic because I hear it all the time.
American television commercials, however, have now, more than ever, latched on to a sexy voice to sell their wares. Most grating to me is the Optimum Online commercials here in New York, where the European scientist is so happy to be able to call "Argentiner" whenever he wants. Most recent (to come to my attention) is the pretty woman with the Spanish accent hawking Macy's newest sale.
What is our obsession with accents? It's not like our pronounciation of English is even the most common (or that English is even the most spoken language in the world). If you think about it, our English is accented English (we certainly don't speak England English). Are we not exotic enough for ourselves? How can America, the land that is arguably the least homogenous in population, be yearning for more diversity in speech and inflection?
But let's look at it this way: Isn't it great that we're using models and actors despite English not being their first language? Don't they reflect a large portion of the American population? Yes!
At first I was in this first camp, and slowly I'm coming to be in the second camp. Moving straight into non-urban Texas, my parents were assimilated into the English language at a pace quicker than newer immigrants who move into existing enclaves. As a result, they have always felt comfortable getting involved in our community's civic activities, and can communicate freely and comfortably with my non-Chinese speaking friends (and most importantly - Kevin). There are plenty of people (including some of my friends' parents and my parents' friends) who were not that fortunate (depending on the viewpoint). They've lived in America for years without learning to communicate fluently in the tongue of their adopted land. Even my grandfathers (both born and raised in Asia - China & Taiwan) would try to speak English whenever they came to visit (needless to say, they were very confident men, and even back then, rudimentary English was taught in schools).
I hope these commercials will continue to use more diverse accents. Maybe it'll show our immigrants and guests that, even if they don't speak the language without a hitch, they can still be heard and we will still listen.
Accents have long been considered sexy and exotic, and they are anything but uncommon in the melting pot of the United States (I'd guess they're slightly more uncommon in The Melting Pot of Irvine). Born from immigrant parents, I've learned to understand most accents and to me, it's not so exotic because I hear it all the time.
American television commercials, however, have now, more than ever, latched on to a sexy voice to sell their wares. Most grating to me is the Optimum Online commercials here in New York, where the European scientist is so happy to be able to call "Argentiner" whenever he wants. Most recent (to come to my attention) is the pretty woman with the Spanish accent hawking Macy's newest sale.
What is our obsession with accents? It's not like our pronounciation of English is even the most common (or that English is even the most spoken language in the world). If you think about it, our English is accented English (we certainly don't speak England English). Are we not exotic enough for ourselves? How can America, the land that is arguably the least homogenous in population, be yearning for more diversity in speech and inflection?
But let's look at it this way: Isn't it great that we're using models and actors despite English not being their first language? Don't they reflect a large portion of the American population? Yes!
At first I was in this first camp, and slowly I'm coming to be in the second camp. Moving straight into non-urban Texas, my parents were assimilated into the English language at a pace quicker than newer immigrants who move into existing enclaves. As a result, they have always felt comfortable getting involved in our community's civic activities, and can communicate freely and comfortably with my non-Chinese speaking friends (and most importantly - Kevin). There are plenty of people (including some of my friends' parents and my parents' friends) who were not that fortunate (depending on the viewpoint). They've lived in America for years without learning to communicate fluently in the tongue of their adopted land. Even my grandfathers (both born and raised in Asia - China & Taiwan) would try to speak English whenever they came to visit (needless to say, they were very confident men, and even back then, rudimentary English was taught in schools).
I hope these commercials will continue to use more diverse accents. Maybe it'll show our immigrants and guests that, even if they don't speak the language without a hitch, they can still be heard and we will still listen.
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Who's Teaching Your Kids?
I'm sure y'all have heard: Madonna is an author. Bono is an author, as is Whoopi Goldberg, Carly Simon, Ll Cool J, Billy Crystal, LeAnn Rimes and Jerry Seinfeld. After a failed marraige and much-publicized weight loss, Sarah "The Duchess of York" Ferguson is also an author.
The connecting thread? They all write children's books. What is with this trend? True, Bill Cosby and Jimmy Carter are known for being family men, but Jerry Garcia (The Grateful Dead)? Not unexpectedly, Garcia wrote about bears.
A listing of others: Roma Downey (Touched By an Angel), Prince Charles, Spike Lee, John Travolta, John Lithgow, Jane Seymour, Jamie Lee Curtis, Maria Shriver, Larry King, Katie Couric, former New York Mayor Ed Koch, Julie Andrews, NFL players Tiki and Ronde Barber, Mia Hamm, James Carville, Ally Sheedy, Will Smith, Jay Leno, Jimmy Buffett, Mario Cuomo, Bette Midler, Della Reese, Ricky Gervais, Dolly Parton, Pete Seeger, Naomi Judd, Deborah Norville and Dr. Laura Schlessinger.
This isn't a new trend, however. As far back as the 30s and 40s, Shirley Temple, practically a child herself, wrote a series of childrens storybooks. Elizabeth Taylor even gave it a try, as did Frank Sinatra and Roy Rogers.
For the most part, celebrity authors have been criticized, as much for their off-page antics as on (do they really need to add "author" to an actor-singer-dancer-athlete profile?). But in an age of cult celebrity worship, perhaps this is the only way to get children to read? Should writers be taking a cue and adopting famous-sounding pseudonyms? If so, call me Lucy Liu.
The connecting thread? They all write children's books. What is with this trend? True, Bill Cosby and Jimmy Carter are known for being family men, but Jerry Garcia (The Grateful Dead)? Not unexpectedly, Garcia wrote about bears.
A listing of others: Roma Downey (Touched By an Angel), Prince Charles, Spike Lee, John Travolta, John Lithgow, Jane Seymour, Jamie Lee Curtis, Maria Shriver, Larry King, Katie Couric, former New York Mayor Ed Koch, Julie Andrews, NFL players Tiki and Ronde Barber, Mia Hamm, James Carville, Ally Sheedy, Will Smith, Jay Leno, Jimmy Buffett, Mario Cuomo, Bette Midler, Della Reese, Ricky Gervais, Dolly Parton, Pete Seeger, Naomi Judd, Deborah Norville and Dr. Laura Schlessinger.
This isn't a new trend, however. As far back as the 30s and 40s, Shirley Temple, practically a child herself, wrote a series of childrens storybooks. Elizabeth Taylor even gave it a try, as did Frank Sinatra and Roy Rogers.
For the most part, celebrity authors have been criticized, as much for their off-page antics as on (do they really need to add "author" to an actor-singer-dancer-athlete profile?). But in an age of cult celebrity worship, perhaps this is the only way to get children to read? Should writers be taking a cue and adopting famous-sounding pseudonyms? If so, call me Lucy Liu.
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
A Craving for some Color
Quick, what do you think when you think "Asian woman?"
Chances are, either a fob, bookish sort, dragon lady or exotic beauty. Not so bad, you say? Now quick, think of all the Asian women you actually know. Do they fit your sterotype? If they do, you've got problems. If they don't, congrats, your eyes have been opened.
My eyes were reopened last night when I received a spam e-mail from Allure magazine advertising something at Sephora. The message had this banner at the top:
Now, usually when you see an ad with a photo depicting the range of women (see Prescriptives ads circa late 2005), there's only three: white, black, and middle. Whatever happened to yellow? Those of us that actually have to buy...er, I mean search for...make-up that actually looks natural know that there are more than just three colors. There are more than just three families of colors.
At last estimate (the U.S. Census Bureau's 2004 American Communities Survey), a little over 5 percent of the American Population identifies at least partly with Asian or Pacific Islander heritage. That's a lot of people when you consider the size of this country. And the number is growing steadily.
Last semester I did a case study on images of women in a year's worth of Allure magazines (because they claim to be "the beauty expert"). I'll give you a rundown briefly (the real deal is 20 pages long).
In twelve issues, I logged 3,645 women portrayed in photographs. Aspects of each photo logged: location in magazine, size of photograph, apparent ethnicity of the model (named if known), approximate skin tone, hair color, eye color, pose (face only, half-body, full-body), and purpose (ad or edit).
In total, 103 of the 3,645 women were of Asian or mixed Asian descent (let's call them APIs). That's only 2.8 percent of total photos.
Other findings:
-Of all API portrayals, over 60 percent were in advertisorial content. Compare that to the overall ratio of 32 percent advertisement, the rest editorial.
-Of all advertisements, API women made up about 5.5 percent. That's just about equal to the actual representation.
-Of all editorial photos, API women made up only 1.5 percent.
-As a comparison, black models made up 8.5 percent of advertisements photos and almost 11 percent of editorial photos. The actual representation of the black population in America is about 12.2 percent.
-Only two of twelve issues had an API woman portrayed within the first 10 percent of issue pages. A third of the issues had no APIs within even the first 20 percent of pages. By comparison, all issues had a black model within the first 20 percent of pages, with the majority (9 of 12) featuring a black model within the first 10 percent.
-API models were more likely to have only their faces shown rather than a half-body or full-body.
-The sizes of the photos were relatively equal in distribution between the total and API only.
If you want to see the full report or get a bibliography of resources (it has been written about before), just let me know.
Chances are, either a fob, bookish sort, dragon lady or exotic beauty. Not so bad, you say? Now quick, think of all the Asian women you actually know. Do they fit your sterotype? If they do, you've got problems. If they don't, congrats, your eyes have been opened.
My eyes were reopened last night when I received a spam e-mail from Allure magazine advertising something at Sephora. The message had this banner at the top:
Now, usually when you see an ad with a photo depicting the range of women (see Prescriptives ads circa late 2005), there's only three: white, black, and middle. Whatever happened to yellow? Those of us that actually have to buy...er, I mean search for...make-up that actually looks natural know that there are more than just three colors. There are more than just three families of colors.
At last estimate (the U.S. Census Bureau's 2004 American Communities Survey), a little over 5 percent of the American Population identifies at least partly with Asian or Pacific Islander heritage. That's a lot of people when you consider the size of this country. And the number is growing steadily.
Last semester I did a case study on images of women in a year's worth of Allure magazines (because they claim to be "the beauty expert"). I'll give you a rundown briefly (the real deal is 20 pages long).
In twelve issues, I logged 3,645 women portrayed in photographs. Aspects of each photo logged: location in magazine, size of photograph, apparent ethnicity of the model (named if known), approximate skin tone, hair color, eye color, pose (face only, half-body, full-body), and purpose (ad or edit).
In total, 103 of the 3,645 women were of Asian or mixed Asian descent (let's call them APIs). That's only 2.8 percent of total photos.
Other findings:
-Of all API portrayals, over 60 percent were in advertisorial content. Compare that to the overall ratio of 32 percent advertisement, the rest editorial.
-Of all advertisements, API women made up about 5.5 percent. That's just about equal to the actual representation.
-Of all editorial photos, API women made up only 1.5 percent.
-As a comparison, black models made up 8.5 percent of advertisements photos and almost 11 percent of editorial photos. The actual representation of the black population in America is about 12.2 percent.
-Only two of twelve issues had an API woman portrayed within the first 10 percent of issue pages. A third of the issues had no APIs within even the first 20 percent of pages. By comparison, all issues had a black model within the first 20 percent of pages, with the majority (9 of 12) featuring a black model within the first 10 percent.
-API models were more likely to have only their faces shown rather than a half-body or full-body.
-The sizes of the photos were relatively equal in distribution between the total and API only.
If you want to see the full report or get a bibliography of resources (it has been written about before), just let me know.
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Wake up! Fire! Do your homework!
So Forbes came out today saying that the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio has done a study that shows smoke alarms that play a precorded message from a kid's mother works better than your usual loud beep.
Apparently, children don't respond to the conventional alarms most houses are equipped with. Perhaps because it's so loud and annoying you forget everything when it goes off. And then again when it goes off a few seconds later, and again and again.
In the study, published in the journal Pediatrics, they tested 24 children (age 6-12) in their deepest sleep with two different smoke alarms. 96 percent of children woke up to their parents voice, a giant leap from the only 58 percent who woke up to the regular alarm (apparently one child didn't wake up to either). On average, it took 20 seconds for a child to awake to their parents voice, and 3 minutes to awake to the beeping tone.
The mothers voices were recorded separately for each child, and were universally in an urgent tone and used the child's first name. No studies have been done as to whether any woman's voice sounding urgent would work, or if it has to be the mother, nor have any studies been done without the use of the child's first name.
Could this signal an onslaught of new recordable smoke alarms? The findings here (although this is just one study) will probably prompt at least one company to offer the option. I wonder, also, if the way the children are usually awoken affects the findings. For example, did the children who woke up to the tone alarm regularly use an alarm clock tone to wake up in the morning or do their parents wake them up every morning?
These smoke alarms would have shorter lives, as well, since voice alarms have been shown to be less effective for older people. Smoke alarms (at my age) are almost an annoyance, what with candles and learning to cook etc., but they can really be a lifesaver (remember to put the batteries back in after you finish cooking).
But lookout, because these new alarms may be more in use by the time we have kids. Wake up!
Apparently, children don't respond to the conventional alarms most houses are equipped with. Perhaps because it's so loud and annoying you forget everything when it goes off. And then again when it goes off a few seconds later, and again and again.
In the study, published in the journal Pediatrics, they tested 24 children (age 6-12) in their deepest sleep with two different smoke alarms. 96 percent of children woke up to their parents voice, a giant leap from the only 58 percent who woke up to the regular alarm (apparently one child didn't wake up to either). On average, it took 20 seconds for a child to awake to their parents voice, and 3 minutes to awake to the beeping tone.
The mothers voices were recorded separately for each child, and were universally in an urgent tone and used the child's first name. No studies have been done as to whether any woman's voice sounding urgent would work, or if it has to be the mother, nor have any studies been done without the use of the child's first name.
Could this signal an onslaught of new recordable smoke alarms? The findings here (although this is just one study) will probably prompt at least one company to offer the option. I wonder, also, if the way the children are usually awoken affects the findings. For example, did the children who woke up to the tone alarm regularly use an alarm clock tone to wake up in the morning or do their parents wake them up every morning?
These smoke alarms would have shorter lives, as well, since voice alarms have been shown to be less effective for older people. Smoke alarms (at my age) are almost an annoyance, what with candles and learning to cook etc., but they can really be a lifesaver (remember to put the batteries back in after you finish cooking).
But lookout, because these new alarms may be more in use by the time we have kids. Wake up!
Monday, October 02, 2006
Weekending has ended
Back to Monday. Why do people villify Mondays so much? It's a chance to brush the cookie crumbs off your chin, put on a nice pair of shoes and march back into the world after a lazy weekend. Oh wait, or is that just me?
I've got mixed feelings here. Monday means I'm one day closer to Thursday - one day in which I'm at work and not out reporting (or in my apartment freaking out just thinking about reporting). One day closer to Tuesday, which is my day off and the day in which I do all my reporting. And, at least for this week, one day closer to seeing Kevin for the first time in over a month.
This time next week I know exactly where I'll be and I have a good idea on what exactly I will be doing. Drinking a cup of Cinnamon Apple herbal tea at work. Prepping for our weekly 11:30 meeting, and wrapping up my Sunday summary for my football blog, the Armchair Companion. This time next week I should also be much less stressed.
How do I know I will be less stressed? Let me tell you (after you wipe the cheese off your screen). By this Thursday, I need to have five possible profile subjects. One for my feature writing class, one for my profile due next thursday, and three options for my final project in my profile writing class. I don't even know five New Yorkers (well, maybe I do).
Here's where y'all come in. Know anyone interesting in NY that I could talk to and profile? Some things to think about:
-Interesting occupation (or an oddity in their field)
-Odd hobbies/life goals
-Overcoming difficult life events
-Been through something most people haven't
-Or just plain interesting (I'd love to meet new people out here nonetheless).
-Someone willing to talk to a grad student and let them hang out for a bit.
If you do, let me know. agh233@nyu.edu. If you let me know by Wednesday night, I will be contacting them Thursday morning (the earlier you let me know the better!). Yes, this is a little desperate, but that's what I am right now. Hopefully my interesting rants on life will come back soon, but until then, help!
I've got mixed feelings here. Monday means I'm one day closer to Thursday - one day in which I'm at work and not out reporting (or in my apartment freaking out just thinking about reporting). One day closer to Tuesday, which is my day off and the day in which I do all my reporting. And, at least for this week, one day closer to seeing Kevin for the first time in over a month.
This time next week I know exactly where I'll be and I have a good idea on what exactly I will be doing. Drinking a cup of Cinnamon Apple herbal tea at work. Prepping for our weekly 11:30 meeting, and wrapping up my Sunday summary for my football blog, the Armchair Companion. This time next week I should also be much less stressed.
How do I know I will be less stressed? Let me tell you (after you wipe the cheese off your screen). By this Thursday, I need to have five possible profile subjects. One for my feature writing class, one for my profile due next thursday, and three options for my final project in my profile writing class. I don't even know five New Yorkers (well, maybe I do).
Here's where y'all come in. Know anyone interesting in NY that I could talk to and profile? Some things to think about:
-Interesting occupation (or an oddity in their field)
-Odd hobbies/life goals
-Overcoming difficult life events
-Been through something most people haven't
-Or just plain interesting (I'd love to meet new people out here nonetheless).
-Someone willing to talk to a grad student and let them hang out for a bit.
If you do, let me know. agh233@nyu.edu. If you let me know by Wednesday night, I will be contacting them Thursday morning (the earlier you let me know the better!). Yes, this is a little desperate, but that's what I am right now. Hopefully my interesting rants on life will come back soon, but until then, help!
Sunday, October 01, 2006
A night in the life of Angeline & Amisha
So my buddy buddy (since elementary school) Amisha came and became my first houseguest last night. Here's how it went:
SNL (Dane Cook rocks)
Myspace
Iron Chef
Sunday morning news on ABC
Okay, you say. TV shows and a website. Guess which one doesn't belong?
So Amisha doesn't have a MySpace, so to be a good host, we signed on mine to start browsing. Looking for people we haven't seen in a while. And oh, what we found.
An old friend from elementary school (name withheld because it's absolutely hilarious. Los Coyotes alums can ask and we will tell). So we messaged him (yes, it's a boy, Amisha thinks he's cute, and we told him that).
His response: add me to your friends. :)
Even the happy face could not hide the fact that he had no idea who we were. Six years we were all in elementary school together, and I doubt he's met many Angelines or Amishas since then. But smart me, I have my profile on private, so he couldn't figure it out from photos and such (hence the unofficial friend request). But is that really less work than clicking "Add to friends" himself?
But we are big girls, and we called him on it. We'll see what happens.
Just another chapter in "Adventures on MySpace." Don't you wish you were in NYC?
SNL (Dane Cook rocks)
Myspace
Iron Chef
Sunday morning news on ABC
Okay, you say. TV shows and a website. Guess which one doesn't belong?
So Amisha doesn't have a MySpace, so to be a good host, we signed on mine to start browsing. Looking for people we haven't seen in a while. And oh, what we found.
An old friend from elementary school (name withheld because it's absolutely hilarious. Los Coyotes alums can ask and we will tell). So we messaged him (yes, it's a boy, Amisha thinks he's cute, and we told him that).
His response: add me to your friends. :)
Even the happy face could not hide the fact that he had no idea who we were. Six years we were all in elementary school together, and I doubt he's met many Angelines or Amishas since then. But smart me, I have my profile on private, so he couldn't figure it out from photos and such (hence the unofficial friend request). But is that really less work than clicking "Add to friends" himself?
But we are big girls, and we called him on it. We'll see what happens.
Just another chapter in "Adventures on MySpace." Don't you wish you were in NYC?
