Addicted to Veed

Asher Sarlin: remember kids...

I think I’m going to regularly post a random Asher Sarlin comic since it’s so brilliant, and a lot funnier than I can ever hope to be.

Extended Thoughts: Newspapers are useless

Completely, utterly useless. Yes, maybe that’s a bit of a bold statement, but I truly believe it. I am sick and tired of supposed “intellectual” people reading the New York Times in the morning just because they feel they have to keep up their “image.” Here’s a real newsflash for you: reading a bloated, advert infested, tiny texted, ultra-wide piece of cheap paper does not make you cool. Nor does it make you smarter, or more respectable. Okay, maybe that’s taking it a little too far. Newspapers do serve their purpose, and if you want to read, you have every right to. What I’m trying to say is, in our modern internet age, it doesn’t make you less of a person if you do not read newspapers.

I cannot even count the number of times someone has told me that I should read the paper to be more knowledeable about the world around me. Yes, maybe the intentions behind the suggestion are good, but there’s always this condescending tone that accompanies it. How do I respond? “No, thanks, I’m fine.”

I am a product of the internet age.

If you are reading this post (I know so many of you are) then you, too, are most likely products of the internet age. I refuse to read newspapers not because I’m ignorant to the state of our world, no, much the opposite. I refuse to read newspapers because as a product of the internet age, there is no reason for me to do so. That mess that we call a newspaper has, in my mind, become obselete. Replaced by the streamlined convenience of technology, the internet.

An endless wealth of information, at our fingertips. Why carry around the massive Sunday edition of the Times when you can carry around a thousand times the information in a smaller, more convienient device? Whether it be your laptop, palm pilot, or sexy new iPhone, everything you need is in your hands. Now, just to clarify, when I say newspapers are useless, I’m only referring to the print editions of newspapers. News is essential, especially written news. No doubt about that, but printed news is yesterday’s news.

This article from the BBC’s Click does a nice job of summarizing the competition between print and internet news sources. The internet is already hitting publishers hard enough for them to pay attention, but the war is hardly over. In fact, newspaper circulation has actually significantly risen worldwide over the past five years, according to the World Association of Newspapers. Even so, in North America, circulation has declined and as the earlier BBC article indicated, profits for publishers are also declining. What has been the publishers’ response? Exactly what it should be: put their print content online. Not only does this increase their advertisement revenue, but it also opens their content up to a much wider audience, as well as allowing them to stay completely up-to-date with ongoing events. 

With all this in mind, I ask again, “why should I read a newspaper?” They used to be the only source of information. For centuries, media was synonymous with newspapers. But with the advent of radio, television, and the internet, that monopoly collapsed. Print newspapers are no longer necessary. Perhaps it’s a little too early for them to call it quits and stop printing. In fact, it is definitely too early. They still have an audience. Most of our world’s population are not products of the internet age. But in one generation, they will be, and newspapers will no doubt meet their natural death when that happens. Until then, however, I’m going to vehemently avoid reading one. Not because I’m stubborn, not because I don’t know how to read (I swear, I know how to read), not because I’m not an “intellectual,” no, I will refuse to read newspapers because I simply do not need to. If that’s not a good enough reason, then I just don’t care what is.

Plus, as the hippies (idiots) would say, newspapers are mass-murderers. The dying out of the rainforests are all their fault. So do our planet a favor, skip the morning paper, and just read whatever you have to read on the ‘net.

-Veed.

Mad Men

I started watching Mad Men last night, and I have to say I love it. Revolving around a Madison Avenue advertising agency in the 1950s, the show does a fantastic job of giving the modern viewer a taste of the decade. Filled to the brim with common misconceptions of the day, as well as rampant sexism and racism, it is truly a joy to watch how much has changed in the past sixty years. However, what’s more interesting is noticing what has remained the same. I don’t really want to provide examples since I’d prefer you watched and saw for yourself, but trust me, you’ll definitely enjoy it.

The DVD for Season 1 won’t be released for a few months, so for those of you don’t mind a little bit of harmless piracy, you can find the show here. Just something for you to watch while you wait for Lost to come back from hiatus.

-Veed. 

Waking Thoughts: 4/2/2008

Woke up at two o’clock in the afternoon, tired, dizzy, probably ill. Not really in a blogging mood.

Until next time,

-Veed. 

Waking Thoughts: 4/1/2008

“It’s time to get up, the time is eleven o’clock.” I was just woken up by my phone’s robotic voice saying these words. Pretty eerie, I’m gonna have to remember to change the alarm setting or that thing is going to scare the shit out of me every morning. Kind of like having a robotic mother on an endless loop.

Anyway, no real thoughts this morning. College was on my mind before I slept, and still is as I wake. What a brutal process. Of course, I’m still a junior so I won’t be dealing with it until next year, but it is truly difficult to see your friends get rejections. Then again, witnessing your friends get acceptances is quite wonderful. Either way, I’m truly not looking forward to the prospect of college applications. Having to reduce myself to a five hundred word essay. How is that even possible? Regurgitating my accomplishments into a neat, organized list. Why does some institution’s application suddenly have all the authority over what’s important to me? It’s ridiculous. But that’s the way it goes, unfortunately.

Speaking of college, I’m going to begin some proper SAT preparation today. Lovely. Endless math problems, that are both simple and difficult at the same time. Question after question about some irrelevant paragraph I was forced to read. But again, that’s the way it goes. I just have to do it, and be done with it.

Time to get out of bed now, and start the day. Off I go.

-Veed.

P.S. HAPPY APRIL FOOLS DAY! I’m too tired to think of anything to fool you about, but I’m sure other sites on the net certainly will.

Waking Thoughts: 3/31/2008

Is it sad that the first thing I do when I wake up is pick up my laptop and browse around the net for a little while? Is it normal? Do other people do this? Maybe. I really don’t see the harm in it, but sometimes I get the feeling I’m becoming far too dependent on my laptop, and the internet by extension. What if I just threw the thing out of my window right now? Could I survive? Most likely, yes, but some major lifestyle changes would probably accompany it. No more waking up and going straight to the net, now I’d have to do things normal people do, like getting out of bed and washing my face or something.

It could be worth a try, but I don’t think I could last very long.
No. I don’t think I’m quite ready for an experiment like that. Plus it’s one o’clock in the afternoon now and if I don’t get out of bed soon, I’m gonna find a nice pile of doggy shit in my living room. So, off I go.

 -Veed.

Extended Thoughts: Weed within different cultures

Contrary to what may be apparent from my name, Veed, I have never once smoked weed. However, I do find it quite fascinating (and so fucking tempting too, I don’t know why I won’t just try…). I will say flat out though, that I have absolutely nothing against weed, and support those that use it, while also supporting those that don’t. Without rambling too much, this post’s topic is weed, and its relationship with different cultures. We’ll focus on American and Turkish as the two subject cultures and at the end I’ll also post the results of an impromptu survey I carried out on the matter.

So last night I was chilling at a sweet Bar Mitzvah (mazel tov Y.), talking about college and whatnot with my friend of many years, C-Date. One thing led to another and somehow we ended on the topic of the almighty marijuana. Now I had been curious about the Turkish views on weed for years. You see, it’s something that’s rarely spoken of, which adds an element of mystery to the whole thing, and we all know how Veed loves a good mystery. This was my chance to finally find out and I took it. Right off the bat, “What’s the general Turkish view toward weed?” C-Date was a little confused about how he could answer the question. It seems that the topic is such a taboo, that even answering a direct question on it presents a problem. I probed though, and here’s what I discovered:

Weed is, in fact, used in Turkey (yes, I know, not really the biggest shock ever). However, those that smoke, are generally looked down upon. There is a view that doing drugs, even mild ones like marijuana, is somewhat morally questionable. We’re not talking about a parental view here either, we’re talking about 17-19 year olds. For these young adults, weed, is generally a taboo, and remains something that is not widely done. Let’s not downplay the Turkish scene though, drinking remains heavy, and is widely approved, while cigarettes are smoked constantly with no likelihood of ever going out of style.

This was quite interesting to me. I spent my teen years mostly in NYC, and the general view toward marijuana is dramatically different. From 8th grade onward, the drug quickly penetrates the social workings of NYC teens. The outcome? A lot of really happy stoners. Sure not everyone is a stoner, there are those that have tried it once or twice, or those that smoke fairly regularly, there are even those that have never tried. There’s always a pie-chart of sorts to be made with such an issue, but the fact is, if I were to make that pie-chart (again, lazy) then it would be clear that an overwhelming majority of NYC teens would very much be in favor of weed.

So why the huge divide? Your first answer to that would probably be something along the lines of, “Turkey is a more religious, conservative country. That’s why.” That’s false and irrelevant, as far as I’m concerned. First of all, when I speak of Turkish culture, I am speaking specifically to that which relates to the Turkish-Jewish community, a largely secular and liberal group. But more importantly, it’s too simple to disregard the issue simply on ideology. The fact is, Turkish teens are constantly becoming increasingly americanized, so you would think that a major feature of American culture, weed, would also seep into the changing Turkish mindset. Well, to a point, it has. Although the topic is very taboo, I have heard many Turkish friends saying that if they went to college in the US, or ever went to Amsterdam, they’d try weed without a second thought. This shows that the roots of an acceptance of marijuana is beginning in Turkey, but only time will tell whether those roots will ever sprout into a full-blown marijuana plant.

Let’s dig a little deeper though. One of the fundamental questions of this topic is, “Why has marijuana become such an integral component of teen life in the United States?” That’s a pretty broad question, one suited more for a research paper than ATV (that stands for the blog’s name Addicted to Veed, fyi). But I’ll try and take a crack at it anyway.

The drug grew to prominence in the 1960s, as hippie culture (fucking hippies, you’ll see my hate of hippies come up quite often, I’m sure of it) exploded within the United States. Weed was essentially the shit at this point. Everyone was doing it. However, as the liberal energy of that decade died down, opening the way for a more consersavite era, the “War on Drugs” was declared. With this, came a crackdown on recreational drug-use, leaving marijuana with a lasting stain on its name. Suddenly what used to be cool was now illegal, what used to be fun was now immoral. What a change! Weed was preiviously seen as rebellious in the hippie-era but now that it was illegal as well, with a nationwide smear campaign, the drug became even more of a symbol of rebellion. With this in mind, if we fast-forward to my generation, the first teens of the 21st Century, we can see at least one reason for the remaining prominence of weed. Teens like to rebel, what better way to rebel than to do exactly what their parents were told to condemn right around the time our generation was born. Of course, this is one only one man’s opinion (a devillishly handsome young man, I might add, I’m talking about myself, yes, me) but it’s what I believe and that’s what this blog thingy is for.

Going back to Turkey now, we can see at least one major reason for marijuana being a taboo. It’s essentially a regurgitation of view of weed during the conservatice war-on-drugs era. Drugs are bad, they will kill you, you’ll become stupid, infertile, aggressive, violent, depressed, ugly blah blah blah. The list goes on forever. The fact is though, this is a very real view that many Turks share. Add that to the fact that the requirement for teen rebellion is dramatically decreased, as parenting styles are a lot less restrictive in Turkey, leaving teens less angry, and generally more sensible. Personally, however, I do suspect that that full-blown marijuana plant will be sprouting up all around Turkey much more quickly than most would expect.

This is a fantastic issue, and one that I’ll surely keep in mind whenever I come across someone with a foreign culture. Here are some of the results of my survey asking for a one-sentence opinion on marijuana (i’ll add more as I get them):

Special K, 18, from NYC says:

“As weed continues to saturate all facets of our modern culture, the stigma that surrounds it has dramatically decreased.”

J-Mc, 18, from PA says:

“idk i’ve never smoked it b/c i’ve never been w/people when they do it lol? also it smells kind of bad”

E-Mel, 18, from NYC says:

“it changed my life”

E-Specs, 15, from Long Island says:

“it makes you feel good for a little while”

S-Feld, 18, from NJ says:

“weed is a gateway drug.”

K-Hawk, 19, from CA says:

“Never has something so harmless been so needlessly controversial: legalize it.”

Dotsy, 17, from MO says:

“I disapprove of its usage, mainly due to the sheer amount of teenagers who overuse it(or any drugs, alcohol, etc), especially in my area.”

RickyDubbs, ?, from ??? says:

” Everything Reefer Madness espoused is 100% truth.”

Eagle, 19, from Saudi Arabia says:

“Psychoactive Masturbation.”

Well those are some very powerful words, especially from J-Mc, she really brought down the house with her insight. That’s all for this topic, folks. Hopefully you’ll be with us again real soon. Until then, goodnight and god bless =P

-Veed.

Introduce yourself to Veed.

Hello, I guess. I’m Veed. Yeah, I’m being all mysterious with my name, trying to get Gossip Girl type thing going (yes, I watch Gossip Girl, shut up). Moving on, this represents my first foray into the magical blogosphere I’ve heard so much about. Barring the very likely scenario that I get bored of this rather quickly, my posts shall be frequent, and interesting (sometimes stupid).

Anyway, just a brief background of me so you can get an idea of the context my blogging will be in. I’m Turkish by birth, I am also Jewish. I spent seven years of my precious life in the United Kingdom (specifically, Scotland), and the remaining six on the east coast of the US (mostly New York, also some Western Mass.).

There’s probably plenty more I should say here, but frankly I’m lazy and don’t care. So, enjoy!

-Veed.