Tag Archive for 'miss_maine'

Impending Doom of Miss America.

Published by -MiKe- on December 21, 2007 in Personal. 1 Comment

I’ve got this problem/gift that haunts me to this very day.

Historically, when it came to intimate relationships with a certain gender, that isn’t mine, I’ve been able to see the future.

I know, I know, “impossible, no one can see the future!” You say. But I insist. Give me one, maybe two months, at the longest half a year, and I can tell you the very quality of the relationship that will have it ripping at the seams, given time. And thus far, I’ve never been wrong. Take Jen and I. I’ve got nothing… And you know what? Still strong after a year and a half.

But I’m not talking about certain significant others here. I’m talking about the Miss America Pageant.

A few days ago I blogged about a certain Reality TV show Miss America lowered themselves into recently, Miss America: Reality Check. Now, my gut instinct is to toss you a link to the show’s website, and I’m going to (you can find it here), but that’s not without a cacophony of protest from my better judgment.

By now you already know I am not a fan of the idea.

Take a piece of America’s history, an icon, if you will, and exploit it. Great idea. One of the toughest stereotypes for the Miss America Organization to overcome has been the idea that we are nothing more than a “Beauty Pageant,” it’s a struggle as old as time, and now TLC wants turn MAO into a reality TV show. So now, not only is it still a Beauty Pageant to most, but now it’s cliche.

But its not just that. Over the years the Miss America Pageant has remained primarily unchanged, largely unmolested by time. Timeless.

So what do we do? We take something that is Timeless and we make it better, we make it Modern. Brilliant.

One of the wonderful things about tradition, about “timelessness,” is if something is timeless, it can’t truly die. Something that is timeless exists in it’s own little world, it’s own bubble of protection. It’s the reason why nothing will beat the original Dracula. It can be remade and remade to high heavens, but we will always look back to the original for the inspiration, while remakes come and go with the wind.

Remakes, remasters, remixes can be forgotten. Sure, they can be popular for a time, but because they are “modern,” tailored to a generation, they are a fad, and fads fade when modern moves on.

Yet it gets worse. If Reality Check were one of a kind, without competition, it would at least thrive for a short time, a season or two in the lime-light. But we aren’t so lucky. Sure, we have the “original” thing going for us, but now we have to compete again (as if competing against Miss USA wasn’t bad enough), now we have Crowned pushing in on us.

So now we not only have to fight the stereotype of the Beauty Pageant, but heads with Miss USA, and conform to the Modern appeal, but now we have to bend over backwards to struggle for network TV ratings against a free form “pageant” that, unlike us, doesn’t have traditions or morals to consider in it’s programming.

Mark my words, this is the beginning of the end of the Miss America of old. This is the end.

Miss America: Reality Check. Oh GOD…

Published by -MiKe- on December 17, 2007 in Work. 3 Comments

Ok, I shoot for Miss Maine, sure. This, in and of it’s self, doesn’t mean I actually LIKE pageantry, or the pageantry world. Well, the stereotypes anyway. Because, anyone who’s had words with me on the subject knows very well that I actually DO like pageantry, and will defend it tooth and nail if I have to. Provided that by “pageantry” you talking about Miss America, and not Miss USA, Donald Trump’s… ish…

Enough with the sentence fragments; I like pageantry. That said, I just about shit myself when the executive director of Miss Maine asked me to post the following video on the Miss Maine front page.

“Audrey,” I said, after I got over my slack-jawed terror, “um… this doesn’t really… I don’t… get it.”

“Haha,” comes the voice of reason, “yeah, it’s a joke, they’re trying to make fun of-”

“US!” I exclaimed. “They did a good job, what is this all about?” I inquired, even more confused now than before I had called.

Continue reading ‘Miss America: Reality Check. Oh GOD…’

So, hows school, Mike?

Published by -MiKe- on October 27, 2007 in College. 1 Comment

Wow, I am so glad you asked.

It’s hot and cold actually.

In one corner you have Intro to Algebra, which is a crap course. As a matter of fact, its SU’s fault I’m even in a math course (mine for what I chose…). Basically, NESCom needed me to get another Math credit, and I wasn’t about putting a whole lot of effort into something I didn’t really need to, plus, it fit with my schedule…

In the world of bad choices… Yeah. For those of you out there looking to head into college in the relatively near future, don’t simply pick easy courses. They lead you down the wonderful roads of self-mutilation, and earnest quests towards suicide…

Then you’ve got Copywriting, which, unlike Copyrighting, has a “W” in it, and falls in the “writing intensive” category.

Actually, for all its faults, it’s actually a great class (when I decide to write). Much better than Marketing, which falls dead betwixt the two (primarily the fault of the teacher IMHO). The class I can put hours into, and fail in comparison to those who bullshit moments before class…

So you have got those three on one side, with and Graphic Design I, Web Design I, and Scene Study one the other end, doing all they can to maintain the very foundation of my sanity. Continue reading ‘So, hows school, Mike?’

2 + 3 = 5, right?

Published by -MiKe- on September 19, 2007 in College. 1 Comment

So, yeah. Third week into school and we’re still alive. That’s some thing to be proud of, right?

All the incoming students came in on the first, which was an image straight out of hell if there ever was one. Figure, there are 9 floors, 37 students per floor, with an average of 10 of them being incoming students. Thats not to say that only incoming students came in on the first either… That said, about 130 students arrived in Bell Hall (thats right, I’m only talking about one of three dorms) from 7am to about 11am on the first of September. Now, consider that each student is traditionally accompanied by Mom and Dad and you have tripled the foot traffic. Add another 80 or so for the odd brother, sister, aunt or uncle, and your looking at 400 pairs of feet, accounting for over 1000 trips trough the lobby, and nearly 45 personal attempts at suicide. Per RA. (in case you didn’t get that, that was a joke)

Moving on.

Continue reading ‘2 + 3 = 5, right?’

So the bed’s made…

Published by -MiKe- on August 30, 2007 in College. 0 Comments

Guess that means its official. I’m an RA!

I have been on campus for almost two weeks now, and I was sleeping on the futon up until last night. Why, I’m not sure. At first it was because I wasn’t sure I liked the way the room was set up. Then it was because I didn’t want to raise the bed (too lazy) by myself (too lazy to get help). Then, conveniently, once it was raised and everything was ready, I found that my sheets smelt like… well, crap, and I needed to get detergent, a laundry card, etc… and wash them. And now it’s done, and school is in session.

Well, not yet. The freshmen haven’t even arrived yet, not to mention I am still Jen-less, but for me, the ball is rolling. Fun fun.

So summer didn’t go exactly as planned, on the bloging front anyway. Personally this was one of the better summers I have had. Continue reading ‘So the bed’s made…’

Past few weeks

Published by -MiKe- on July 10, 2007 in General. 1 Comment

Well it’s been a bit, again, and now summer is in full swing.

Quite a bit has happened since we last spoke. It’s hard to wrap my mind around just how fast this summer is going by.

Tara AllainThe Miss Maine pageant went off pretty well. You know, back in June. Karissa Staples passed on the title of Miss Maine to Tara Allain and the controversy began.

Tara is a good looking young lady, and smart, and talented. You know, just general Miss “Some State Here” material. However, usually “Some State” is the contestant’s home state, and when it’s not, people get pissy… In this case, Tara meets all the criteria to run for, and take home, the Miss Maine title, by residing in the state of Maine for such and such number of months out of the year. Unfortunately, as Tara hails from Worcester, Mass, the finicky folks in the crowd decided to put up a fuss…

And being the webmaster (and in turn, receiving all mail sent to missmaine.org, but not a real mail account) I get the mother-load of complaints. To top it off, administration refuses to make a public statement about it, so I am liable to keep receiving them as word gets out… I feel like saying “I don’t get paid enough for this,” but bitching like that requires that you get paid for it in the first place… Which I don’t…

[2008-01-07 Update: I noticed some links coming in regarding this post (particularly this topic in this post), and I thought I would elaborate. Things have been officially cleared up. It wasn’t long after this post that the head of the board started explaining things to those who were concerned, and there is no longer (hasn’t been for months) confusion about Tara’s legitimacy. She meets all the criteria to run for Miss Maine, and she has turned out to be a wonderful representative for our state. We’re all quite proud of her, and feel she’ll do quite well at the 2008 Miss America Pageant in Vegas in two weeks. See you there!]

Whats a good pageant without a little controversy. Donald knows what I’m talking about. Continue reading ‘Past few weeks’

I WIN!

Published by -MiKe- on June 7, 2007 in asides. 1 Comment

A-HA! I win!

After contacting technical support at that jack asses ISP it seems I got his attention. The NAMASP website has now fallen into obscurity and no longer has anything to do with the organization we once held so dear…

Tick that as a win for the little-guy.

The little things.

Published by -MiKe- on June 1, 2007 in asides. 1 Comment

Yeah, so this stuff might not be of much consequence to you, but I just registered a new domain:
http://www.coverthisphotography.com/
Which is a pretty big deal for me. :-D

I also just launched the new Miss Maine Scholarship Pageant Forums here, and I just got all this seasons episodes of House, so I will be catching up on that over the next few nights. So, yeah… Geek stuff, I know, but it’s my life.

Fucking people.

Published by -MiKe- on May 31, 2007 in Work. 2 Comments

As you may or may not know, when it comes to tech-things, I am pretty much the “man with the plan,” if you will. The go-to guy.

I’m no good at explaining things, or teaching for that matter, but tell me what you want and let me be. Usually I can get it done.

As such, when something goes wrong with a site I oversee, I get the brunt of it, and right now, I am hurting…

namasp/porn

I am taking a break from witch-hunting right now to rest my brain a bit…

What you have here is what happens when you let a domain expire in todays world. It gets hijacked and turned into a portal for porn.

Continue reading ‘Fucking people.’