The View From Here

What does one do with a long weekend provided by Labor Day?  Finish off the first season of Heroes with friends!  So at this point we sit on the edge of finding out if this show will turn into another Lost or if it will keep our attention through the second season.

Let me talk a little about Season 1 (as vaguely as possible to avoid spoiling it for anyone who has not seen it).  I really enjoyed the characters of this show.  Just a few episodes in all the actors seemed to own their characters and the watcher was able to get attached to them.  Most of them are deep and have an intriguing past to find out about  I felt like the story was very well done.  It move at a quick pace only faltering a couple times with plot lines that seemed to be filler.    One of the problems I had with Lost was it was very melodramatic.  Heroes didn’t seem to have a big problem with this.  The characters actions seemed true to the characters and most of their actions were based on some driving force and not just drama for the sake of drama.  There was a little less action than I would have liked to see but I am hoping that as our heroes progress we will see more of this.  Overall this is probably the best show of its kind that I have watched and I am really looking forward to season 2.

If you are planning on watching this show based on my recommendation please know that there is some fast-forward-able content at the beginning of the show and in a couple other places.

Let me talk a little about TV shows in general and what I think would make them better.  The biggest difference to me between movies and TV shows like Heroes is time.  Movies pack a lot into a short time period and TV shows pack a lot into a much longer time period.  There are many positives and negatives to this but I think the main ones for TV are these:

• Positive:  There is much more time for character development and story telling.
• Negative: There is much more time for the show to lose itself.

Many shows lose themselves.  They don’t develop enough ideas to fill the time they have so they end up stretching the ones they do have too thin.  They drag things out and don’t resolve them so the viewer ends up frustrated but they enjoy the ideas that were present enough to come back and see if the show does it better the next season, usually to be disappointed.

Another problem TV shows seem to force on themselves is the idea that they are like a drug.  The makers seem to think that the more people get of something the more they are going to want.  They think they have to up the ante until the show is not fun to watch because it is so ridiculous.

I don’t know if my solutions would be doable because I don’t know the money or time constraints on developing a TV show but here they are nonetheless.  First, don’t stretch ideas too thin.  Some plot ideas are worth more time than others.  When you don’t resolve one for longer than it is worth you frustrate the audience.  Spend more time developing ideas to make sure you have enough to fill the time you have.  Second, don’t get lazy with characters for the sake of drama.  Let the drama occur on it’s own, don’t force it.  If you don’t have it then maybe you don’t have characters that are good enough.  Third, show people what they want to see.  In Heroes I want to see some more action.  I want to see what the heroes can do when they have to.  We were teased with this in an episode late in the first season so hopefully the second season will deliver.  And if you do tease then deliver soon.  I remember in Smallville how long it took after the tease for something to occur and it wasn’t good.  That is why I quit watching.  Cliff hangers are OK just don’t drag them out over five episodes (or multiple seasons in the case of Lost).  Lastly, TV shows need to take a page from movies and resolve some things quicker.  Dragging things out causes tension which is good but too much tension immediately kills what you were trying to create.  Don’t let it get to that.  Timely resolution will create a content audience.  There may need to be a few more ideas present if you resolve them quicker but that is well worth it.  A content audience is much better than a frustrated one.

So far Heroes has done these things mostly well and because of that I am really looking forward to watching season 2.  Leave me a comment and let me know what your favorite TV shows are and why.

Brian

“Thanks to TV and for the convenience of TV, you can only be one of two kinds of human beings, either a liberal or a conservative.”
- Kurt Vonnegut

Think with me for a moment.  Before the television there was radio.  Before the radio there was the newspaper.  Before that how were we told what to think?  Probably the clergy.

Recently I have had a large aversion to the TV news media.  Most of it is because I can’t stand what they think is newsworthy.  Many things that are discussed at length on most news stations will not be something that will impact you or me in one year much less ten.  I get most of my news from multiple Internet sources which (hopefully) provides me with a little broader perspective than I would get watch CNN or Fox News.

The real point of this post is to remind you and me not to be lazy about our participation in the world.  In order to participate effectively  you need to know what is going on.  There is a very limited view presented to us that can be almost summed up in the quote at the beginning of this post.  Either you on this side or that. There are far more than two sides of a debate but all we get to see is right and left, conservative and liberal.  Everything is reduced to sound bites.  They cut away the meat and leave us the fat.  No wonder many people are informationally malnourished.  They get more about celebrities than things that will impact the world their children will live in.

The fewer people in control of the dissemination of information, the fewer viewpoints we get and the fewer choices seem evident.  The more people a media like this can reach, I fear the fewer people will think for themselves.  Don’t stop thinking critically.  Challenge what you hear with what you know.  If you don’t know, do a little research.  Take the time to be informed.

It is said that knowledge is power, so it would seem that the more we know the better off we would be.  A more accurate statement would be knowledge gained for yourself (not fed to you) is power.

How do you get your information?

Brian

Big news today!  Exxon has reported a huge profit numbers for the reporting period.  It is somewhere around 11 billion.  That is a lot of money.  So bring out all of the people who don’t like the big oil companies.  The questions are flying.  “Is this too much?”  Here is another number for you.  That 11 billion is only an 8.47% profit margin.  That is correct.  For every dollar the company brings in 91.53% is spent to bring in the product they sell.  They make a little over 8 cents on every dollar.  Just so you know, 8.47% is on the low side of profit margins made by corporations in the United States or anywhere in the world.

On a side note, I do support finding more efficient alternative fuels and even ways of making oil more efficient.  I just don’t like the way we are going about it.  We don’t need a shove from the government.  When there is a need in the market it will be filled.  I am confident of that.  Government needs to keep their fingers out of economics and let it work.  They tend only to mess it up anyway.  Ethanol is a great example.  Prices of corn are sky high and they are now finding that this alternative fuel is less efficient and more polluting than gas.  But our government got behind it because it was “alternative”.  Sorry, back to the show.

Now 11 billion is a huge sum of money but their revenue of over 138 billion is an astronomical number.  Consider with me where that other 127 billion goes.  It is paid to contracting companies, to employees, to manufactures, and spent all kinds of ways to produce their product.  In other words it goes into the economy.  This is not a bad thing.  Consider also with me why their revenues are so high.  Maybe it is because the produce a product that everyone uses multiple times a day.  From the gas in your car to the plastic bags you use to put your sandwich in and everywhere else in between, we use petroleum products all the time.  Since their product is so widely used it would make sense that they have large numbers to show for it.

People all across the globe use petroleum products so it makes sense that they have large revenue and profit numbers.  What else factors into this?  Sure the high price of oil factors into it but we will get to that in a second.  The business side also plays a large role.  The way they run their business is key.  How efficient a business are they?  Do they make efforts to cut out the fat?  Even with oil prices high if they ran their business inefficiently they could easily lose that 8.47% profit margin.

Now to the high oil prices which there is someone new to blame everyday for.  Is it the oil company’s fault?  Is it the speculators?  Is it the Saudi’s?  The list goes on.  If oil companies are controlling the level of production then it could be their fault.  But who put the restrictions on building new refineries?  Congress.  From the numbers I have seen our domestic refineries are running at capacity.  Who is keeping the oil companies from drilling in places that would produce more supply?  Congress maybe?

Now to the speculators.  Very simply, speculators are like gamblers in a casino with slightly better odds because they have information to base the gambles they make on.  Speculators look at the conditions around them and guess if a commodity will go up or down based on market conditions, supply, demand, laws.  Right now, the congresses general treatment of oil companies has been hostile (one of the reasons we are even discussing this.  Windfall profit tax anyone?)  If the government is being hostile towards any industry I would say that it would be harder to produce this commodity so supply shrinks and prices go up.  Basic economics.  The speculators are not to blame.

Are other countries holding back on us to keep the prices high.  Probably so which points to the fact that we need to be as energy independent as we can be (and not just in petroleum products by the way)  In a free market  prices will fluctuate based on  market conditions.  If the oil companies were controlling the price of oil don’t you think their profit margin would be a little better than 8.47%?  I do.

Next topic: the windfall profits tax that is being discussed.  This is ridiculous, plain and simple.  Have we really swung that far toward socialism that we need to take from one (who earned the profit) and give to another (who did not)?  I hope not.  This scares me a bit.  Why are we not talking like this when it comes to our entertainment industry?  The Dark Knight (one of my favorite movies by the way) has pulled in close to 400 million while it only cost around 180 million to make.  How high a profit margin is that?  What about the millions we pay our professional athletes?  Oh, and another news topic of the day.  Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have pictures of their new born to be featured in People magazine, that they sold for 14 million dollars. Why are we not talking about these items as well?  Why do these people make so much money?  Because that is what the market says that they be paid no matter what I think of it (I don’t like it, if you were wondering.  I think good teachers should be paid more.).

If people are willing to pay 14 million for baby pictures that is their business.  All of the profit margins mentioned above are all much higher than 8.47%.  If Exxon cheated to make their meager profit percentage then take it away.  That just means that they are bad cheaters and don’t deserve it anyway.   But at least the oil companies are providing us with a product other than being distracted from real life long enough that we start criticizing blindly those who provide a large part of said life it to us.  And they are making a much lower profit margin than the rest so maybe, just to be fair, we should give them some of The Dark Knights profits. (Please read the sarcasm in that last statement)  I know that energy is a large topic these days and it needs to be talked about, so why can’t we talk about something that will actually make a difference?  Finding new and inventive ways to sink the oil companies will not solve our problem.

In closing, I don’t think the government has a problem with people making money.  I just think government has a problem if they aren’t in some kind of control of that money.  So they do their best to be in control.  Just a thought, and a scary one to boot. (Oh, and I don’t apologize for ranting.  It felt good.)

Brian

The Earth is warming, isn’t it? Our carbon emissions are causing this warming, right?  As much as some would want us to think that there is a consensus on this topic there is not.  More and more we see dissenters rise up only to be labeled and dismissed.  There is no room for debate when that is exactly what should be happening.  I am no scientist so I do not claim to have any definitive answers on this topic but what I would like to see is some actual debate.  If you don’t agree with human caused global warming then you are labeled a world-hater.  How about instead of labels we let people debate what is actually going on here.  I don’t think anyone in their right mind would think or say, ” You know, I really don’t like this planet I live on.  I want to destroy it.”  No.  I think everyone can agree with responsible conservation.  The question then is what does that look like?  Well, let the two sides talk about it, give us research and then we will go from there.  Instead, people act like there is only one side despite growing opposition and research that doesn’t agree with the status quo.

If you are interested, here is an article that gives a view of the other side of the debate.  I find news items like this one that would seem important to knowing the truth on this topic but it is largely ignored. Why?

Why is this important?  It is important because world leaders are using information (that has never been verified and is now being taken apart) to base policies on.  The two sides won’t even talk mostly because one side simply ignores the others existence.  Let the debate begin!  Take down the smoke and mirrors and give us a bit of truth.

Brian

“In all affairs it’s a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.”  -Bertrand Russell

I suppose most of us don’t truly understand the depth of meaning in the celebrations that are generations removed from the event that is celebrated.  How do you keep it relevant to the people celebrating it years from when it happened?  I can’t think of a way to do this.  I don’t believe we are guilty of anything just because we didn’t experience the same things our fore fathers did, but it would make us negligent and unappreciative if we don’t try to at least attempt to understand what we are celebrating instead of just using it as an excuse to party and blow things up.  On the Fourth of July we celebrate our independence from a government that would impose it’s will upon the people it governs without allowing them any real form of appeal.  We celebrate the ability to make our own decisions about the laws of the land we inhabit.  We celebrate our ability to disagree on certain issues while holding up the freedom of the individual.

These things we celebrate were deemed important enough by our founders that they were willing to shed their own blood to secure them.  We are now some two hundred plus years away from the events that placed us where we are today.  Do we understand the freedom that we have?  Do I?  If we don’t we will soon loose it to the powerful few, who history has shown to corrupt quickly and easily if not held to account. Take the time to consider the freedoms you have, at what price they were bought, and what we are still paying today for them.  Marvel at the ability we have to voice our opinions without fear of retribution from those in power.  Consider intently the freedoms we enjoy so that we do not forget where they came from.

Thinking on the freedoms I have as a citizen of the United States also made me start thinking about the freedoms I have in Christ.  It is amazing to me how even though human events seem to loose their depth of meaning the further you get away from them, the importance of Christ’s death and resurrection seem to gain even more meaning the as time goes by.  I am free from the sin that separated me from the God who created me.  This is not because of something I did, but because of unmerited favor that was poured out on me by God.  I deserve this as much as anyone else does: not at all.  How much more should I not forget the freedom God has given me and how much more should I share it with those around me?

Brian