Buzzworthy?

Last Tuesday was the last day for Free Agency in the NHL. I skipped my classes on tuesday so that I could watch the trade deadline talks on NHL.com in its entirety. Talks swirled all day as I waited to see my favorite Penguins player, Erik Christensen, get traded away in a blockbuster deal. I ended up being wrong, as the Penguins traded EC Colby Armstrong Angelo Espesito and a 2nd round draft pick for Marian Hossa and Pasqual Dupruis. I'm crushed of course, because now my #16 jersey is worthless. This trade made the Penguins better, and as I look back on that day...all of the talks were buzz marketing for players.

As Agents cell phones blew up with GMs trying to acquire the biggest free agents in the NHL...it's all buzz marketing. The agents talk up their players and their ability trying to convince the General Managers to buy them. And the agents are not the only one's talking up players...ESPN is just as guilty of trying to market players. With as many "experts" on SportsCenter all had different opinions as to where Marian Hossa, Hal Gill, and Brad Richards would all end up. I guess there was something wrong with the offers and credentials of the Ottawa Senators because Marian Hossa ended up signing with the Penguins.

Thursday was Hossa's first game with the Penguins. Penguins Nation almost shut down as FSN did not report on Hossa's injury, while my dorm room knew all about it. Thanks to TSN.com. Bob Errey (Penguins announcer) drives us crazy anyway...but he did a horrible job of buzz marketing Hossa's injury by saying his "flu like symptoms were just carried over from the plane ride".

Sports is a never ending barrage of Buzz Marketing except we pay millions of dollars for people instead of merchandise.

2008 Dating Service

The evolution of the dating world has evolved from SWF seeking SWM posting in a newspaper to websites such as Eharmony.com and Matchmaker.com. We have progressed from words, to pictures and words, and now we're reverting back to just words, in the form of txt messages. As was the case in R We D8ting, a whole relationship occurred in a few days because of the availability of the couple (cellphones). Txt messages give people the option of being formally informal. A technologically advanced way for people to talk/flirt but not actually have to see each other, which is sometimes just what we want. Txt messages also throw out the feelings of the dreaded uncomfortable silence, because there is that grace period we give people to txt us back.

Sites like EHarmony and MatchMaker "match" people "according to compatibility" with variables such as zodiac sign income life goals and other questions that try to determine what kind of person you are. My dating service only asks one question: What cellphone company do you use and what is your txt messaging plan. For instance, my profile would contain my name "Steve Brenner" age "19" a picture and my cell phone provider "Verizon unlimited messaging" and my phone number (xxx-xxx-xxxx) and allow other users to get a hold of me rather then the people at a website telling me who i would like to talk to or be in a relationship with.

Txt messages are the easiest way to communicate with people and takes out all the awkwardness of "blind dates" and the possibilities of hanging out with someone you have no chemistry with...your cellphone always looks the same to you.

Who does Patricia Hyjer Dyk think she is

ok this is going to be fun. I started to read "complexity of Family Life among the Low-Income and Working Poor" by Patricia Hyjer Dyk, and had to put the book down 3 pages in, because I simply felt terrible. Reading her bash on people who have to work for a living really made me sick. "Those of you who started the day......This would not be the beginning of a typical day for most low-income and working-poor families" who the hell gives her the right to say we are better then the working poor because we see our kids in the morning before work/school. I had to put the book down when she said in black and white "Low-income and working-poor families are different from middle and upper-income families".

Dyk uses too many big words and statistics to hide behind her opinion that people are different based on their income and living conditions. "Findings from their three waves of in-depth interviews with single Black women revealed vulnerability to numerous persistent barriers to self-sufficiency and that their well-being rests largely within their support networks"? She might as well of said "EVERY SINGLE black woman comes from a broken family and is a single parent because her baby's father left, and will be forever emotionally scared and held down because she can not afford to live in a nice house and current racism will not allow her to get a job".

Now I am in no ways at all a racist nor I support what Dyk is writing about. I am a college student who is being taught to read between the lines, and the only thing I am getting from this article is a load of racist bullshit coming from a woman who thinks she is better then everyone because she lives in a mansion.

Am I a minority?

Being a teenager in America is hard enough these days. I am in no way a rebellious kid nor do I walk around cutting myself because I dont fit it, but it is human nature to wonder: "do I fit in?" "is there something different about me?" After a week in class and reading these essays I never thought that my family is what would make me different.

I live in a house with a mom a dad a brother and a dog. But that's not the amazing part...this is: we all love each other. My parents dropped out of college and decided to get married and raise a family together after meeting in band in high school. My mom went to Geneva and my dad attended Westminster both coming from Riverside High School. After moving to Tennessee for a year they moved back to Beaver Falls because they were expecting their first child (me). 19 years later the whole Brenner family lives within 30 minutes of each other. My mom was adopted and never met her birth parents, but has a great relationship with the man that adopted her.

I guess that is how I'm weird. I love to hang out with my family, especially my immediate family (mom and dad). I've dated girls who have single mothers and single fathers, girls who spend the weekends an hour away because their parents couldn't make it work. My room mate has two families also: his father remarried and his mom lives alone. Reading these essays and talking to these people the same argument always arises "you wouldn't understand". Actually, I'm glad I don't understand. I say I do but when it comes down to it, both my parents love me and I love them too.

I have one set of parents, who have been together for the better part of 25 years. They've never been divorced they never fight, my dad doesn't spend the weekend away just to get away, and I don't understand why some kids don't love their parents.