Can we put the blame on Reality Television?  Think about it, some of the worse behavior seems to be when "Every Day" people find their fifteen minutes in front of the camera! (Think Jersey Shore!) But don't you think our society seems to be getting ruder and ruder?

What about the rude behavior (not to mention bloodshot mugshots) of celebrities like Mel Gibson (remember how he was to that policeman "allegedly"), Britney Spears (lest we forget the un-underwear shot) and Lindsay Lohan (just about everything she's done in the last two years)!

I admit, I watch Reality T.V., so aren't I just as guilty by adding to those psuedo-celeb's fifteen minutes?

Or maybe it takes time to be courteous and we live in a world where we're tapping our feet when it takes longer then 10 seconds to get on our web browsers, and we're rushing around all the time on ten cups of Starbucks! (LOVE their Cafe' Mocha's!)

Think on all the "rages" out there today:  Cellphone rage, checkout rage, road rage, parking lot rage, bank rage, car alarm rage, honking drivers rage, pedestrian rage, parents yelling at coaches at their kids sporting event rage (otherwise known as "sideline rage) just to name a few!

Here's the big question...if it's getting worse, and we're getting meaner and ruder,  can we turn it around?  Is there any way that we, as a society, can get...nicer? 

I have a friend who gives me the nickname "Pollyanna" because I'm always trying to look at the positive side of things.  So having said that, yes, I do believe it's possible.  But it's gonna take a LOT of work! 

I saw an article online at Readers Digest and here are some suggestions on how to rise above Rude Behavior:

Don't meet Rude behavior with Rude behavior.  Just because someone's being a jerk to you doesn't mean you have to do likewise!  (My dad used to always say to me "Two wrongs don't make a right"!)

Remain Calm

Practice Restraint

Teach good manners early on to your kids.  Please, Thank you, Sir and Ma'am can go a LONG way! (As any good country boy or girl know!)  I've attached a great video on tips for teaching how NOT to be rude to your kids!

Presume Goodwill.  That's my favorite because it goes along with my Pollyanna mentality!  We can curb rudeness and make for a happier place for us all to reside! One "Please" and "Thank you" at a time!

I'll start by saying "Thank you" for reading this blog!  :)

Can Octomom get any stranger?  Check out this short snippet from Nadya Suleman on "The View" this week!  Ya GOTTA feel a bit sorry for her kids!

According to Dictionary.com here is the definition of the word SORRY:

SORRY (adj.):  feeling regret, compunction, sympathy or pity.

It took over so many networks, you'd think something really meaningful had taken place in the news!  No.  It was just Tiger Woods saying "I'm sorry" for 14 minutes.  PUHLEESE!  Can we say "rehearsed"?  And who wrote that stuff anyway?  I don't believe it was actually Tiger, do YOU?

He should've really watched this short video on the CORRECT way to apologize!  In one minute he might've had everyone eating out of his hand, and maybe he wouldn't still be eating in the DOG HOUSE!   Perhaps he just wanted peoples pity (see definition, above!)

Make sure if YOU have to say you're sorry, do it the right way!  Watch the video, and don't forget....THE GIFT!  ;)

There's a few of these videos on youtube that someone takes the time to put together.  But I just fell in love with this one.  The photographs are really cool and it was just edited really well with the song I think.

Enjoy!

2009 OSCAR NOMINATIONS:

Actress in a supporting role
Mo'Nique in Precious
Vera Farmiga in Up in the Air
Penélope Cruz in Nine
Anna Kendrick in Up in the Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal in Crazy Heart

Actor in a supporting role
Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds
Christopher Plummer in The Last Station
Matt Damon in Invictus
Stanley Tucci in The Lovely Bones
Woody Harrelson in The Messenger

Actress in a leading role
Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia
Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side
Helen Mirren in The Last Station
Gabourey Sidibe in Precious
Carey Mulligan in An Education

Actor in a leading role
Morgan Freeman in Invictus
Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart
George Clooney in Up in the Air
Colin Firth in A Single Man
Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker

Animated feature film
Up (Pete Docter and Bob Peterson)
The Princess and the Frog (Ron Clements and John Musker)
Coraline (Henry Selick)
Fantastic Mr Fox (Wes Anderson)
The Secret of Kells (Tomm Moore)

Foreign language film
Ajami (Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani, Israel)
A Prophet (Jacques Audiard, France)
The Secret of Her Eyes (Juan Jose Campanella, Argentina)
The White Ribbon (Michael Haneke, Germany)
The Milk of Sorrow (Claudia Llosa, Peru)

Directing
Avatar (James Cameron)
The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow)
Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)
Up in the Air (Jason Reitman)
Precious (Lee Daniels)

Writing (adapted screenplay)
District 9 (Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell)
An Education (Nick Hornby)
Precious (Geoffrey Fletcher)
Up in the Air (Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner)
In the Loop (Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci and Tony Roche)

Writing (original screenplay)
The Hurt Locker (Mark Boal)
Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)
A Serious Man (Joel and Ethan Coen)
Up (Pete Docter and Bob Petersen)
The Messenger (Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman)

Best picture
Avatar (James Cameron and Jon Landau, producers)
District 9 (Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham, producers)
An Education (Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey, producers)
The Hurt Locker (nominees to be determined)
Inglourious Basterds (Lawrence Bender, producer)
Precious (Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness and Gary Magness, producers)
A Serious Man (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, producers)
Up in the Air (Daniel Dubiecki, Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman, producers)
The Blind Side (nominees to be determined)
Up (Jonas Rivera, producer)

Art direction
Avatar (art direction: Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg; set decoration: Kim Sinclair)
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (art direction: Dave Warren and Anastasia Masaro; set decoration: Caroline Smith)
Nine (art direction: John Myhre; set decoration: Gordon Sim)
Sherlock Holmes (art direction: Sarah Greenwood; set decoration: Katie Spencer)
The Young Victoria (art direction: Patrice Vermette; set decoration: Maggie Gray)

Cinematography
Avatar (Mauro Fiore)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Bruno Delbonnel)
The Hurt Locker (Barry Ackroyd)
Inglourious Basterds (Robert Richardson)
The White Ribbon (Christian Berger)

Costume design
Bright Star (Janet Patterson)
Coco Before Chanel (Catherine Leterrier)
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (Monique Prudhomme)
Nine (Colleen Atwood)
The Young Victoria (Sandy Powell)

Documentary (feature)
Burma VJ (Anders Østergaard and Lise Lense-Møller)
The Cove (nominees to be determined)
Food, Inc (Robert Kenner and Elise Pearlstein)
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith)
Which Way Home (Rebecca Cammisa)

Documentary (short subject)
China's Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province (Jon Alpert and Matthew O'Neill)
The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner (Daniel Junge and Henry Ansbacher)
The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant (Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert)
Music by Prudence (Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett)
Rabbit à la Berlin (Bartek Konopka and Anna Wydra)

Film editing
Avatar (Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua and James Cameron)
District 9 (Julian Clarke)
The Hurt Locker (Bob Murawski and Chris Innis)
Inglourious Basterds (Sally Menke)
Precious (Joe Klotz)

Makeup
Il Divo (Aldo Signoretti and Vittorio Sodano)
The Young Victoria (Jon Henry Gordon and Jenny Shircore)
Star Trek (Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow)

Music (original score)
Avatar (James Horner)
Fantastic Mr Fox (Alexandre Desplat)
Up (Michael Giacchino)
The Hurt Locker (Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders)
Sherlock Holmes (Hans Zimmer)

Music (original song)
Almost There, from The Princess and the Frog by Randy Newman
Down in New Orleans, from The Princess and the Frog by Randy Newman
Loin de Paname, from Paris 36 by Reinhardt Wagner and Frank Thomas
Take it All, from Nine by Maury Yeston
The Weary Kind, from Crazy Heart by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett

Short film (animated)
French Roast (Fabrice O Joubert)
Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty (Nicky Phelan and Darragh O'Connell)
Logoramam (Nicolas Schmerkin)
The Lady and the Reaper (Javier Recio Gracia)
A Matter of Loaf and Death (Nick Park)

Short film (live action)
The Door (Juanita Wilson and James Flynn)
Instead of Abracadabra (Patrik Eklund and Mathias Fjellström)
Kavi (Gregg Helvey)
Miracle Fish (Luke Doolan and Drew Bailey)
The New Tenants (Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson)

Sound editing
Avatar (Christopher Boyes and Gwendolyn Yates Whittle)
The Hurt Locker (Paul NJ Ottosson)
Inglourious Basterds (Wylie Stateman)
Star Trek (Mark Stoeckinger and Alan Rankin)
Up (Michael Silvers and Tom Myers)

Sound mixing
Avatar (Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson and Tony Johnson)
The Hurt Locker (Paul NJ Ottosson and Ray Beckett)
Inglourious Basterds (Michael Minkler, Tony Lamberti and Mark Ulano)
Star Trek (Anna Behlmer, Andy Nelson and Peter J Devlin)
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Greg P Russell, Gary Summers and Geoffrey Patterson)

Visual effects
Avatar (Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R Jones)
District 9 (Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros and Matt Aitken)
Star Trek (Roger Guyett, Russell Earl, Paul Kavanagh and Burt Dalton)