The 22nd of November
I pulled myself out of bed at around 9:30, and made my first move towards the cell phone resting on my dresser. Stretching, I brought up the screen. One new text message from my younger brother, who was asleep in the next room. I laughed, reading. "So, today's that day, Stef. Good luck. I call the Xbox. And the computer. And the TV." I sighed, and held on to the power button. "Alright," I thought to myself, "Let's see how this turns out."
The morning wasn't really much of an issue. I spent most all of it in the kitchen with my Mom and cousins visiting from Italy. And may I just say, thank God they were in town. If it wasn't for them, I would have probably blatantly failed in my efforts of deprivation.
For example, my first big obstacle hit while in the car driving to Thanksgiving dinner at my Aunt's house. Normally, the radio is blasting, and everyone is enjoying the music during the car ride. But due to the fact that my cousins were in town, no one touched the radio. It was all conversation. And that conversation continued for most of the night. Before dinner, I just had to make an effort to avoid the football my uncles were watching. Thank God it wasn't soccer. Because to an Italian family, ignoring an important Italia soccer game could be punishable by excommunication, or a deprivation of food. And to an Italian, both are unthinkable.
Now, to the exciting portion of my story: My failure. May I point out that it was completely unintentional, but nevertheless, happened. In my defense, it was late, and since the tryptophan in turkey is known to have a tiring effect, I'm basically innocent... Ok, so, I watched my cousin play "Assassin's Creed" on his PS3 after dinner. And I didn't realize I had broken until the next morning. I woke up, quite refreshed. I rolled over, and turned on my phone thinking I had triumphed. "That wasn't too bad," I said to myself with another stretch. My phone powered up, and immediately buzzed with a new text message. It was from my cousin. "Hey, Stefan! What'd you think of Assassin's Creed?!"
Great.
So, I came close. Thinking about some of the students mentioned in "The Longest Day," from the Washington Post, I can relate to how some enjoyed the break, but at the same time had difficulty maintaining it for a full 24 hour period. I agree that we have "over-media medicated ourselves." My main source of news is the Internet, not newspapers. Yet on a counter point, my main source of entertainment is my guitar, not TV, gaming, or Internet.
As long as I consciously avoided media, it wasn't too hard. But the fact that I broke the fast and didn't even notice until the following day shows how much modern media is intertwined into our everyday lives.
We're media junkies. And we love it.
2 comments:
OH OH Assains Creed!! DAM YOU!! Such a great game making you fail the longest day ever! You did a hell of alot better then i did with this assignment. I did't know that radio and TV was breakin the rules...I really lost.
We all tried, some of us were able to make it, and others couldn't, but it was definitely an experience for all of us. I liked how you set it up like a short story, it made your blog entry really easy to read.
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