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Jamie Lee Curtis on Parental Guidance

June 1, 2023 By J. Angelo Racoma

We’ve had fairly adequate coverage of the recent Paris Hilton goes to jail saga. The skinny: Paris Hilton violates probation, is sent to jail, is let out under house arrest instead, and is ordered back to jail. I know it’s only a 45-day sentence (commutable to 23, with good behavior), but prison/jail changes a man, they say. Or in this case, perhaps, a woman.

Frankly, jail is one place I wouldn’t want my children to get into, ever. When Paris Hilton was ordered back into jail, though, she pleaded with her mother to help her. And surely, her mum and dad felt bad about her having to endure this. But come to think of it, Ms. Hilton is being jailed so she can face the consequences of her actions. In short, she is responsible for her current predicament. And guess what, her parents are–to some extent–also responsible.

This is what Jamie Lee Curtis says, in a recent commentary on the Huffington Post.

What we need to do is look long and hard at our part in all this. Where did our children get the message that the rules don’t apply to them? And where did we, the Mothers, get the message that if we abdicate our responsibilities as Mothers, the Universe will do our job for us? And it does, but without any of the love and tenderness and compassion that we could have given, along with the lessons.

Ms. Curtis says our children have turned omnipotent, “running amok or sitting amok as they watch TV and play electronic games and shop on eBay.” It’s an epidemic, she says. The basic message: parents may not be doing enough to educate children and teach them right from wrong.

This is especially worse, when three of the more popular young celebrities today–Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears, and Paris Hilton–whom the youth might tend to idolize, are turning into miscreants.

Now it’s just the cold hard facts of a jail cell or the emptiness of a rehab room.

Being a parent myself–to significantly younger kids–I’m hoping that through the years I do a good job at building up their character to be mature, responsible individuals who do know right from wrong. It’s a changing world we’re living in, and unfortunately, our kids are increasingly being exposed to media–including celebrities and known personalities–in a moral decline.

Maybe we can change this by focusing on how to make new media more morals-friendly.

Thoughts on Community Blogging

June 1, 2023 By J. Angelo Racoma

Blogging has been defined many times, many ways. It’s mostly about personal publishing, and most would agree. A person starts a blog, and he or she writes about his/her interests, daily musings, and would usually link to interesting things elsewhere. Some would move on to write about more non-personal items, treating their blogs like magazine or newspaper columns of some sort. Some even move on to blogging for income. I should know, I blog for a living, myself.

But in most of these cases, blogging is done as a one-man (or one-woman) thing. When the SplashPress team conceptualized Froodee, our first thought was to bring blogging to a higher level. Sure, team blogs are also quite abundant, and I’ve been part of team blogs since I started problogging (there’s the Blog Herald, for instance, but I also started out with other team blogs like Pinoy.tech.blog, Forever Geek, and Blogging Pro. But here on Froodee, we prefer to call ourselves a community blog.

We are a community of like-minded people with different interests. Froodee is not a niche blog, as you may have noticed. Our topics are varied–these include entertainment, business, family life, science, healtyh, leisure, and even science. Each one of the contributors has his or her own interests and passions, and we give them the opportunity to share their thoughts on these. We are like-minded in that we love writing about our passions, and sharing our thoughts with the rest of the world through blogs.

And then of course, a community will not be complete without the participation of you, our dear readers. So please feel free to leave a comment and be part of the discussion. You’re always welcome to share your thoughts. Hey, soon enough we’ll be welcoming guest bloggers, too.

Froodee has been online for just a couple of weeks now, and we can expect a formal launch/announcement soon!

Coffee, Tea or Me?

June 1, 2023 By J. Angelo Racoma

Coffee

Where I come from, people are mostly drinkers of coffee, rather than tea. Coffee is for just about anyone–from blue-collar workers who need a zing to start their day, to yuppies who hang out at cafĂ©s, and of course us writers who need to stay up through nights just to meet deadlines and jack up creativity.

Tea, meanwhile, is for health buffs, and for those who have been influenced by other cultures into adopting tea drinking as a habit, instead of the good ol’ coffee. Or at least that’s the prevailing belief.

There are those that warn of the evils of coffee drinking. It’s bad for you, they say–the caffeine, the acidity, the addiction. But studies have proven that they’re the same banana (or drink, rather?). Coffee and tea are both stimulants and both are caffeine-based. They can both kill you, if you take in too much. But then again both have health benefits, when taken in moderation.

Reading up on the topic, I’ve come across an enjoyable read from Malcolm Gladwell about the cultural implications of coffee: Java Man. The article is a bit long, but it would interest you if you’re into world history, and how seemingly mundane objects can influence the turn of events.

Some quips.

One of the things that have always made drugs so powerful is their cultural adaptability, their way of acquiring meanings beyond their pharmacology. We think of marijuana, for example, as a drug of lethargy, of disaffection. But in Colombia, the historian David T. Courtwright points out in “Forces of Habit” (Harvard; $24.95), “peasants boast that cannabis helps them to quita el cansancio or reduce fatigue; increase their fuerza and ánimo, force and spirit; and become incansable, tireless.”

…

[A]s Bennett Alan Weinberg and Bonnie K. Bealer remind us in their marvellous new book “The World of Caffeine” (Routledge; $27.50), there is no drug quite as effortlessly adaptable as caffeine, the Zelig of chemical stimulants.

At one moment, in one form, it is the drug of choice of café intellectuals and artists; in another, of housewives; in another, of Zen monks; and, in yet another, of children enthralled by a fat man who slides down chimneys.

Hey, apparently, coffee is not only enjoyed for its taste, and for its stimulating factor, but it might have even helped spark wars, overthrows, and other major historical events our world has known.

Caffeine is the best and most useful of our drugs because in every one of its forms it can answer that question precisely. It is a stimulant that blocks the action of adenosine, and comes in a multitude of guises, each with a ready-made story attached, a mixture of history and superstition and whimsy which infuses the daily ritual of adenosine blocking with meaning and purpose. Put caffeine in a red can and it becomes refreshing fun. Brew it in a teapot and it becomes romantic and decorous. Extract it from little brown beans and, magically, it is hardheaded and potent. “There was a little known Russian Ă©migrĂ©, Trotsky by name, who during World War I was in the habit of playing chess in Vienna’s CafĂ© Central every evening,” Bealer and Weinberg write, in one of the book’s many fascinating cafĂ© yarns:

A typical Russian refugee, who talked too much but seemed utterly harmless, indeed, a pathetic figure in the eyes of the Viennese. One day in 1917 an official of the Austrian Foreign Ministry rushed into the minister’s room, panting and excited, and told his chief, “Your excellency . . . Your excellency . . . Revolution has broken out in Russia.” The minister, less excitable and less credulous than his official, rejected such a wild claim and retorted calmly, “Go away . . . Russia is not a land where revolutions break out. Besides, who on earth would make a revolution in Russia? Perhaps Herr Trotsky from the CafĂ© Central?”

The minister should have known better. Give a man enough coffee and he’s capable of anything.

So are you a coffee drinker, or a tea drinker? Or perhaps you prefer something else? Whatever your favorites are, keep in mind that there might be a deep history behind that particular item (beverage, food, or whatever), and that the world might not be the same today without it.

Image source

Paris To Spend Time in Jail

June 1, 2023 By J. Angelo Racoma

Looks like our favorite celebrity Paris Hilton will be spending some jail time these next few weeks over a driving-related violation. People.com reports.

Paris Hilton on Friday was sentenced to 45 days in jail for violating the terms of her probation by repeatedly driving with a suspended license.

“[Hilton] disregarded everything … and didn’t care and kept driving,” said Superior Court Judge Michael Sauer.

Paris had been pulled over and arrested for several driving offenses starting September of 2006, first of which was DUI (driving under influence) related. Her license was suspended, and she was then asked to enroll in alcohol education programs by February this year. The charges were brought forth with Paris’ having failed to enroll in such a program and still driving even with a suspended license.

Meanwhile, Paris’ attorney was blaming the system for singling out Paris because of her celebrity status.

“I’m shocked and disappointed at the sentence by the judge,” the hotel heiress’s attorney, Howard Weitzman, said afterwards. “To sentence Paris Hilton to jail is uncalled for, inappropriate and ludicrous. She was singled out for who she is. She’s been selectively targeted. Paris was honest in her testimony. We plan to appeal. Shame on the system.”

New Media: Leveling the Playing Field in Politics

June 1, 2023 By J. Angelo Racoma

In the realm of politics, the players have to make use of all available resources in order to reach their goals. And in this case, it’s to win. In the upcoming presidential elections in the US, the hopeful candidates are making use of new media. 901am has this excellent example of how new media is slowly leveling the playing field.

It goes without argument that the Internet will play a big role in the 2008 presidential election, but I don’t think anyone expected that an Internet based grassroots campaign could effectively level the playing field for unknown candidates like former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel. But that’s exactly what is happening. Over the course of a few days, a candidate unbeknown to virtually everyone has generated buzz on the Internet like we’ve never seen before.

As the graph above shows, Mike Gravel’s website now rivals that of the top tiered candidates in the race in reach, traffic and page views. What’s even more amazing is that this happened in just under a week’s time, and shows no signs of stopping anytime soon. Now of course this is only representative of Internet popularity, but with the new media on the Internet beginning to rival and even influencing old media mediums like television, this news is significant.

Update: As of May 3rd there has been a significant pitfall in traffic to Mike Gravel’s website, which would normally indicate that he’s lost all momentum, but in actuality the traffic is merely diverting to Students For Gravel, a new website that is devoted to building a grassroots campaign of students supporting Mike Gravel. Here’s an image of the graph as it appears today.

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