Blues Clues was sort of the replacement for Sesame Street and it was heavily researched with actual preschoolers to see what worked. They broadcast the same episode once a day for five days in a row, Monday through Friday.
The kids loved it and by Thursday or Friday they would be shouting the answer to the questions asked, having learned those answers over the course of seeing the show repeatedly on previous days. What would have bored adults enthralled small children eager to learn cool new things.
When HGTV started, it had like three hours a day of original programming in the evening modeled after This Old House. They played that three hours of original programming twice a day and then a few shows also repeated on Saturday.
I was on the West Coast and a homemaker, so I was usually able to watch both or all three time slots of shows I liked. I was in an apartment at the time, not a home I owned, so I began doing a lot of small craft projects rather than serious remodeling, but I treated it like Blues Clues for grownups.
Over time, HGTV got successful and it stopped being Blues Clues for grownups. It became Scenery Porn. It became Lifestyles of the Rich and Shameless.
The internet is cool and gamechanging because it gives ordinary people the power to broadcast to the world, though I sometimes don't know how much that really changes the game because it also gets used by people who are already heavy hitters and "Them that has gets."
Like with HGTV, if anything is really good and starts to rake in the dough, it tends to lose a lot of what made it wonderful for an ordinary person trying to meet their own needs.
People don't think that matters too much. They think it's vapid and boring -- until it all comes apart at the seams due to natural disaster or war.
I don't find it vapid and boring. My father fought in the front lines of two wars and my mother grew up in Germany during World War II and it's aftermath, so I was raised by people who cherished good food, good clothes, good conversation and not having bombs falling the backyard.
But we do have this problem that too much success can lead to a top-heavy, unstable economy because success creates new conditions for the creators of the product and this fact alters what they create. It also creates a role model problem where ordinary people look to millionaires as role models for how to dress, how to talk etc and it fails to be relevant to their own lives.
We need someone leading the way and setting the example for what works for ordinary people who don't have boundless energy, endless money, etc. We need small is beautiful style solutions that can proliferate in spite of the creator becoming successful.
Perhaps I am completely deluded, but I like to imagine I am well positioned to be that person. My genetic disorder compells me to eschew the Rich and Shameless lifestyles.
I need a walkable, bikable community. I will need that even if I get rich because I can no longer drive.
I need comfortable clothes that I can live in daily and look decent in for my pedestrian lifestyle, not clothes suitable for magazine covers, award ceremonies and fashion runways. I can't afford to put beauty above comfort as that will ruin my health and make me less beautiful.
I need to eat well to stay out of the ER and off the drugs I am supposed to be on. I like healthy homecooked meals and doing takeout but I'm not so crazy about actually eating in restaurants. Crowds make me ill and there is always someone doing something assinine like blowing their nose at the table.
I don't know how to get traction but I feel like the world needs such things and the internet makes it possible -- IF one can find a way to avoid the drag of the undercurrent of the existence of nearly eight billion people pressuring you to sell out, go big, go glossy, etc. for the money.
I need money. I certainly need more money than I've got currently.
But I don't need tons of money. I've been able to support three people on well under $20k annually for a lot of years because avoiding the high expenses of car ownership and the medical costs for the genetic disorder that two members of my little family have has avoided potentially millions of dollars in expenses.
If I suddenly have money, I will not be buying a car or going on a cruise. Those things simply do not work for me because of my health.
I would be trying to figure out how to dress in something other than men's t-shirts and men's sweatpants. I would buy a house. I would explore the possibility of starting a clothing line, making various apps and/or games that have been on the backburner for years and doing more community development work.
And I would continue to blog, if only because I like to write. And because I think blogging can be Blues Clues for grownups for a long list of topics that interest me.
And because I need an occupation -- literally a means to occupy myself in a way that works for me.
The kids loved it and by Thursday or Friday they would be shouting the answer to the questions asked, having learned those answers over the course of seeing the show repeatedly on previous days. What would have bored adults enthralled small children eager to learn cool new things.
When HGTV started, it had like three hours a day of original programming in the evening modeled after This Old House. They played that three hours of original programming twice a day and then a few shows also repeated on Saturday.
I was on the West Coast and a homemaker, so I was usually able to watch both or all three time slots of shows I liked. I was in an apartment at the time, not a home I owned, so I began doing a lot of small craft projects rather than serious remodeling, but I treated it like Blues Clues for grownups.
Over time, HGTV got successful and it stopped being Blues Clues for grownups. It became Scenery Porn. It became Lifestyles of the Rich and Shameless.
The internet is cool and gamechanging because it gives ordinary people the power to broadcast to the world, though I sometimes don't know how much that really changes the game because it also gets used by people who are already heavy hitters and "Them that has gets."
Like with HGTV, if anything is really good and starts to rake in the dough, it tends to lose a lot of what made it wonderful for an ordinary person trying to meet their own needs.
When elephants fight, it's the grass that gets trampled.I am interested in a lot of different things -- fostering "gig" work or casual income, housing issues, clothes, nutrition, community development work, parenting and education, among other things. To my nind, it all falls under the heading of fostering civilization.
-- Africa proverb
People don't think that matters too much. They think it's vapid and boring -- until it all comes apart at the seams due to natural disaster or war.
I don't find it vapid and boring. My father fought in the front lines of two wars and my mother grew up in Germany during World War II and it's aftermath, so I was raised by people who cherished good food, good clothes, good conversation and not having bombs falling the backyard.
But we do have this problem that too much success can lead to a top-heavy, unstable economy because success creates new conditions for the creators of the product and this fact alters what they create. It also creates a role model problem where ordinary people look to millionaires as role models for how to dress, how to talk etc and it fails to be relevant to their own lives.
We need someone leading the way and setting the example for what works for ordinary people who don't have boundless energy, endless money, etc. We need small is beautiful style solutions that can proliferate in spite of the creator becoming successful.
Perhaps I am completely deluded, but I like to imagine I am well positioned to be that person. My genetic disorder compells me to eschew the Rich and Shameless lifestyles.
I need a walkable, bikable community. I will need that even if I get rich because I can no longer drive.
I need comfortable clothes that I can live in daily and look decent in for my pedestrian lifestyle, not clothes suitable for magazine covers, award ceremonies and fashion runways. I can't afford to put beauty above comfort as that will ruin my health and make me less beautiful.
I need to eat well to stay out of the ER and off the drugs I am supposed to be on. I like healthy homecooked meals and doing takeout but I'm not so crazy about actually eating in restaurants. Crowds make me ill and there is always someone doing something assinine like blowing their nose at the table.
I don't know how to get traction but I feel like the world needs such things and the internet makes it possible -- IF one can find a way to avoid the drag of the undercurrent of the existence of nearly eight billion people pressuring you to sell out, go big, go glossy, etc. for the money.
I need money. I certainly need more money than I've got currently.
But I don't need tons of money. I've been able to support three people on well under $20k annually for a lot of years because avoiding the high expenses of car ownership and the medical costs for the genetic disorder that two members of my little family have has avoided potentially millions of dollars in expenses.
If I suddenly have money, I will not be buying a car or going on a cruise. Those things simply do not work for me because of my health.
I would be trying to figure out how to dress in something other than men's t-shirts and men's sweatpants. I would buy a house. I would explore the possibility of starting a clothing line, making various apps and/or games that have been on the backburner for years and doing more community development work.
And I would continue to blog, if only because I like to write. And because I think blogging can be Blues Clues for grownups for a long list of topics that interest me.
And because I need an occupation -- literally a means to occupy myself in a way that works for me.