Today's major declaration: No more listening to/watching/reading the news this week. It is depressing and horrible and anxiety inducing, and I am done with it!
After last week's election rush, and the Phillies' World Series rush the week before that, it seems like everything on the local and world news is back to the sky-is-falling focus: giant companies failing, jobless rates rising, more suicide bombings in the Middle East. It's all just sucktastic.
So instead I'll stick to Curious George and the Food Network on TV and crappy pop stations on the radio. Bring on the Beyonce and the mindless call-ins from girls who don't like their Gap store coworkers! As for online, I'll continue to read my favorite blogs, because these are all written by sensible people whom I like, but I'll just skim past any news headlines for a little while, if that's OK with you.
And I just might start sticking my fingers in my ears during any work meeting or conversation in which someone wants to cite some shockingly bad economic news that has no direct bearing on my job or life, like for instance HarperCollins publishers dropping from Q1 profits of $36 million last year to $3 million this year (is this even possible? I'm no math wiz, but isn't this a 90-somthing-percent loss?) or that 6 out of 10 people cannot secure auto loans (I haven't actually verified this tidbit because, well, that would require reading news). Why do folks feel the need to one-up each other on bad news that they hear/see/read? If you report it to people around you, does that make you less likely to fall victim to it? Or is it more the "talk it out" phenomenon, like when you have a nightmare and it always helps you to feel less frightened if you just tell someone about it?
Yeah, nightmare...lately the news makes me want to hide under my bed, which is really no way to live, let alone raise a child. Life in my little nook of the world is OK right now, thank you, and I'd like to just bask in that for a while. So, at least for this week, I choose ignorance. Which is, as we all know, bliss.
After last week's election rush, and the Phillies' World Series rush the week before that, it seems like everything on the local and world news is back to the sky-is-falling focus: giant companies failing, jobless rates rising, more suicide bombings in the Middle East. It's all just sucktastic.
So instead I'll stick to Curious George and the Food Network on TV and crappy pop stations on the radio. Bring on the Beyonce and the mindless call-ins from girls who don't like their Gap store coworkers! As for online, I'll continue to read my favorite blogs, because these are all written by sensible people whom I like, but I'll just skim past any news headlines for a little while, if that's OK with you.
And I just might start sticking my fingers in my ears during any work meeting or conversation in which someone wants to cite some shockingly bad economic news that has no direct bearing on my job or life, like for instance HarperCollins publishers dropping from Q1 profits of $36 million last year to $3 million this year (is this even possible? I'm no math wiz, but isn't this a 90-somthing-percent loss?) or that 6 out of 10 people cannot secure auto loans (I haven't actually verified this tidbit because, well, that would require reading news). Why do folks feel the need to one-up each other on bad news that they hear/see/read? If you report it to people around you, does that make you less likely to fall victim to it? Or is it more the "talk it out" phenomenon, like when you have a nightmare and it always helps you to feel less frightened if you just tell someone about it?
Yeah, nightmare...lately the news makes me want to hide under my bed, which is really no way to live, let alone raise a child. Life in my little nook of the world is OK right now, thank you, and I'd like to just bask in that for a while. So, at least for this week, I choose ignorance. Which is, as we all know, bliss.
You could also do what I've been doing, which is indulge in all of the articles describing the total awesomeness of the Obama campaign and the complete disarray that was McCain's! Sources include the New Yorker and Newsweek.
ReplyDeleteOr you could just not worry about it. Which is really OK. No one will judge. They're too busy reading E! online. Or watching Top Chef.
And BTW, how do I get in on all of this friending and wine drinking and lunching? :)
I only want news about pirates. Fortunately we're in a bull market of pirate news.
ReplyDeleteBTW, it's me, Matt. Just a shout-out to the gulag denizens over at the IR of A there. :)
I'm not doing so well with the no-news thing. I'm finding that I'm even more anxious when I don't know what's going on in the world. My best compromise has been listening to the 5-minute hourly NPR news update on XPN. Which is mostly just headlines, and just enough for me to know, yeah, it's still bad but the world's still turning, now let's focus on some good music instead.
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