Over-exaggerated Bullshit

This movie brought to attention, all the different issues in todays advertising and the way the majority of our culture supposedly views women as an item. We exploit women and use them to sell and promote such a wide variety of different things, from alcohol to blue jeans.

I agreed with the points the author made, to an extent. I agree that todays view on the female body structure is far-fetched and has set an ridiculously high standard. The women in the ads she spoke about were all very thin and tall with perfect complexions. Most of them had these feature along with unnaturally large breasts and were placed in provocative poses. Its disgusting. The girls were all very young.

Ok, the rest of her speech really just pissed me off. I feel that 80% of it was bullshit and very misleading. First of all, I understand that those women have to make a living, but they obviously agreed to do the ad. If these ads are so wrong, then why in the hell did they do them in the first place? I felt like she was directing a lot of her focus toward men. The thing that I find so odd about that is the fact that my aunt works in advertising and the majority of the staff and the owner of the company is female. This goes for many of the other companies she works with.

She set me off when she said that the image of these ads lead to violence toward women. Yes, a few of the were disturbing. The ad with the little girl and the little boy was disgusting, at least her view on it was. She manipulated it to look like a possibly abusive situation, when really, its harmless. I guess she didn't notice that typically, boys are taller than girls and that boys tend to be more masculine, and girls, more feminine. The picture she showed with the girl standing over the black boy was just dumb, I wont even get into that because it's bullshit. Ah! Ok, I'm done. That had a few good points and did open my eyes on a new perspective, but was for the most part, over-exaggerated crap.

Is that natural?

I'm starting to think that my younger brother has an eating disorder. At first I thought that he was just trying to get himself into better shape, but I think he's taking it a little too far. He thinks that he needs to run a mile for every potato chip he eats. I believe in taking care f yourself because your stuck with yourself until you die, hey, may as well make the best of it, right? I also believe in splurging and keeping a healthy balance in between the both.

When he,(Zack) was younger, he was 'the cute fat little boy'. His friends all made fun of him and I think the poor kid honestly took it all to heart. Around sixth grade my dad started getting us into motocross and go-kart racing. He made us change our diets and start working out. Ever since then, my brothers lost weight and toned up. He looked great when he started high school.

So, I saw him yesterday, for the first time in about 3 weeks, and he looks like shit. I bet he only weighs 140lbs......HE'S FREAKIN 6'2"!!! You can see his ribs and the bones in his back. Its so gross. He stayed with me for the day and I had to practically shove food down his throat to get him to eat anything. After I made him eat, he wanted to ride his bike 4 miles. So, what do I do now? I can't watch him destroy himself and I don't think my dads even caught on yet...somehow. I really scares me! Should I go to my parents or take the heart to heart talk approach? Will a heart to heart even do anything? I think its past that point.

Police? Yeah, their ok I guess

Ok, first of all, don't get me wrong, I understand that cops play a huge role in having a society that actually functions and if we didn't have them....what a mess.

I seem to have shit luck with them though, for the most part. I used to live down off of Colorado and Mississippi in a kinda cracked-out neighborhood and I always got into these ridiculous fights with the damn Denver cops. They suck.

There was this one time.......my ex and I got into a fight and he locked me out of my house. So I said fine, I'll just go hang out with the neighbors. I went next door and told them my situation and we all decided to go get something to eat and play pool.

We we're pulling out of the parking lot and all of the sudden we have two cop cars behind us. None of us really thought they were actually fallowing us, we we're just concentrating on doing the speed limit. After about 10 blocks we thought it seemed a little suspicious and decided to turn onto a side street.

Flashing lights everywhere. It was like a freakin carnival. There was 2 Durangos, 3 cop cars, and 2 police bikes. None of us had a clue what was going on, we just knew that it wasn't good.

The kid that was driving made the mistake of getting out of the car to talk to the lady officer. She pulled her gun, he flipped out and started running his mouth off to her. Idiot. Great.

Ok, so now I'm laying on the sidewalk on my stomach, handcuffed, and still have no clue whats going on. I'm getting pissed. A cop took my drivers license out of my back pocket(luckily he was really hot of I would have kicked him) and put me in the back of the car. Keep in mind, the back of those things are black plastic with no ventilation and its almost 100 degrees out.

I'm stuck in the back of the car for almost an hour.....and I STILL have no idea what is happening or why. I'm dieing from the heat, my hands hurt from the cuffs, and I'm furious. It gets even better.

Finally, they let me out of the car and take off my cuffs. Turns out, my neighbors had about six grand in stoled car stereo equipment in the trunk. Awesome. They seemed like innocent people, you never would have know! Dumb crappy luck.

I'm a Mind Reader.

This is really ironic. In my last blog, I actually wrote about how much I love October, the fall, and Halloween. Have you ever done that? I'm not really a mind reader of course, but that was a damn good call on my part.

The topic of todays blog really made me think about more about why I love this time of year, especially Halloween. I think that a large part of it has something to do with my childhood and the neighborhood I grew up in. I tie most of my trick-or-treating memories to this neighborhood because I lived there from the age of 5 until the age of 11. That seems to be the potential age that you learn about the Halloween tradition. I remember the first time I went out trick-or-treating with my dad and my younger brother. It was freezing out and my mother finally let me get that stupid shiny Little Mermaid costume. It even had the bright red wig to match it. Blah. I wore that thing for 3 years in a row and would have continued to do so I hadn't of thankfully out grown it.

I guess it could have been worse, I could have been my younger brother. Haha poor kid. My mother used to wrap a string of purple balloons around him and send him on his way as 'grapes'. He had this cute little green beanie to go with it. The really sad but funny thing about that is the fact that my brother is terrified of balloons. Gee, I wonder why. Thanks mom,you scared your kid for life. Haha, I love it!

I'm in Love

October. Finally. I have been waiting since last November for this and it's finally here. Fall is my favorite time of year. The changing leaves, weather, and feeling. You know that vibe you get when your completely at one with everything? I feel like that all month. It's awesome. Ah! I don't even know how to explain how much I love it. I remember growing up and watching the aspens in our back yard change from green to that warm golden color. I love that sweet musky smell of decaying leaves and the noise they make when you walk on them. It's weird. I'm not a big fan of winter, spring, or summer. This is it for me.

Another great thing about this amazing month is......guess what guys?! Thats right! HALLOWEEN! Costumes, parties, scary movies, and candy. I 'm not much of a 'holiday' person. I hate Christmas and I'm not really excited about the rest of them either, but Halloween....yeah buddy! I have this thing, well, it's kind of a fetish actually, I really enjoy horror movies. Especially the old corny ones. I watch them all year long. During this time of year, I can find them in abundance. Yes, I'm one of those people who will still be dressing up in a silly costume when I'm 40, and I'm quite excited about it. Which brings me to the question of....what should I be this year? Any ideas are more than welcome!

Suburban and Exurban experiance

I think that one of the main points that Cathleen tries to focus on is the differences and similarities between Suburban and Exurban living, both today and in the past. She talked about how they both have the same general layout, a kitchen, living room, bathroom, and a master bedroom. Both housing styles serve the same purpose, they give people a place to live and call home. At the same time, they are both very different. She talked about how in the past few years the size of houses have grown tremendously, yet the average family size is smaller. Because the homes are so much larger, there is less time and money put into the actual architecture, leaving a community of cookie-cutter homes. When she talked about exurban living, she gave her readers a better sense of originality, as opposed to suburban life. I got the idea that suburban living is very plan and simple, maybe even boring.

I got the feeling that her article could relate to a several different crowds. It gives you information about what to expect in these two different communities, leading me to think of the simple life in the suburban-related examples. First of all, this article may appeal to the type of person with an easy(or BORING) black and white lifestyle in mind.It used to be that you'd have to go downtown to go to work, but now days, jobs are spread out among suburban areas making the commute to and from work shorter. She talks about the similar simplicity amongst all of the homes and how Traders Joe's is right up the block. I can also see this article relating to home developers. She talks about how people are starting to turn to pre-fab houses because its cheap and convenient, laying out the lines for the trend in the housing market and giving developers an idea of what to expect. I remember when my mother moved. We drove all over looking at these prefabricated homes. They were great. The majority of them were actually very intricate looking on the inside, with vaulted ceilings, skylights, and cute random shelves all over the house. These skeletal homes were surprisingly cheaper in comparison to the typical home, appealing to the buyers market.