Plural and Singular clothes

Why are pants plural, but shirt is singular.  Everything that is below the waste is plural but above the wast is singular.

Simple Child Thoughts

Why do people continue to strive for more and more in life?  Some of the wealthiest people in the world want more money, objects, and fame.  I just as guilty as anyone else and I wish I could think like I did as a child.  Children find the simplest things incredible, which in a sense most of them are.  In "Knocked Up" one of the guys was watching his child play with bubbles.  He was amazed that his son could love bubbles as much as he did.  He wished that he could love anything as much as his son loved bubbles.  As simple as bubbles sound, they are pretty amazing.  The fact that liquid traps air inside of it and can float in the air is remarkable.  It took us hundreds of years to finally understand the way an air balloon could work, but imagine trying to make an air balloon with liquid.  There are so many things like bubbles that adults don't appreciate anymore.  Our society is so persistent on erasing our child like behavior and thoughts, but to really appreciate life some people need to start acting like a child.  A child could watch an ant pick up food for hours, but an adult would most likely kill it with bug spray.  The Ant picking up that food can be really incredible considering they can carry 10-20 times their own body weight.  So adults, stop popping the bubble and stop killing the ants.  Start thinking like a child.

Like Pulling teeth

Usually when people bring up places they hate to go to or people they hate to see it involves Dental or Doctor offices.  Yesterday I realized what trumps both of those, and that is phone stores.  I went into Verizon Wireless yesterday to buy a new phone and I left 2 hours later.  All I wanted was to buy a new phone and leave, but they had to make it far more complicated from what their job entails.  First off there were more employees then customers and I waited for 20 minutes to get help.  Maybe its because I am younger, I feel like older people get helped first because the employee thinks they will make more money off the older person.  Anyways, I finally got some help from a goofy looking man who barely spoke english.  I told him what I wanted, he asked me for my number etc.  Since I was linked to my fathers account I had to call him before I could make a purchase.  Of course he was out of town so i had to wait for 20 minutes for him to call back.  When he finally did, but the man helping me already moved on to someone else.  So once again I had to wait for help.  I finally received help from another interesting character.  I told him what I wanted and then he tried to sell me on 10 different accessories which i didn't need.   After i told him no for the 9th time, we began the buying process.  Since my father was paying for it, I called him and asked for the credit card #, the guy then told me that they dont take credit cards over the phone... this is when i kinda went crazy because i had to wait another 10 minutes for my father to wire over money into my account.  Long story short I was there for another 45 minutes signing papers and receipts.  The best part about this story is that when I got home the phone didnt even work properly.  They probably do that so that you buy more accessories.  At least at the dentist they are doing a service for you, at the phone store they waste your time trying to sell you unnecessary items. 

Drop the "neighbor" and keep the "Hood"

When you think about a stereotypical neighborhood, you think of nice families greeting each other outside of their home and white picket fences.  To be a good neighbor people are usually friendly towards each other and from time to time help each other out.  That all sounds pleasant, but what about the "Hood", sometimes referred to as "ghetto"?  I guess that the people living in the "Hood" decided to erase the neighbor from "neighborhood".  Is it because people in the hood are not friendly towards the people next door.  There isn't as much friendly hide and go seek in the hood compared to the neighborhood.  I just found it ironic that people living in lower class neighborhoods call it a "hood" and no one really wants to know what is going on in the house next door.  Who knows maybe im all wrong and the reason is because they always where their hood on their head.

Non profit organization..... 

Putting the "Neighbor" back in "NeighborHOOD"

Timeline of Mercedez (Intertextual)

This Commercial for Mercedez Benz is a great example of inter-textual material used to sell a well known product.  The beginning of the commercial starts with a black and white film of a classic film with Frank Sinatra playing.  The music it switches over to is more up beat and new school rather than old school.  The rest of the commercial is fantastic at showing the timeline of Mercedes Benz and how it has evolved but kept its same dependability.  The commercial covers all angles from safety, speed, and looks. The phrase it uses is "Fascination".  People were fascinated then and they still are.  

Into the Wild

One of my favorite movies "Into the Wild" is an incredible story of a man stretching his limits with nature and really appreciate how beautiful the earth is.  Iv probably seen this movie 10 times and every time I watch it I have more of a need to literally get into the wild.  There is something therapeutic about appreciating the beauty of our natural surroundings.  Most of the world today is wrapped in a suit and worried about wealth and what comes with it.  The older I get the more appreciating I have for nature and respect I have to not destroy it.  Im not a complete hippy, but I feel that our world has lost its connection to nature and made it a means to our end.  We use the earth for ourselves and fail to protect it.  In my eyes there is no difference between a man that hunts day and night for his family and grows crops in his back yard, from a man that is an entrepreneur for a fortune 500 hunting company.  The reason I say this is because everyone is dealt a difference hand in life, but persistence and work ethic is what matters.  When people spend time in nature and respect it, rather than take it for granted, it can help you appreciate life and give people happiness.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlXRengzZoc

One of the coolest Nike commercials I have seen.  

It leaves me and the consumer thinking that Nike makes you "leave nothing" on the field, in the class room, in your house etc.  

They used NIke their whole life and look how far they have gotten.  

I think my favorite part is when it shows one of the babies kicking in his mom's stomach as if he is even training for his future career then.

The Wheel

One of the simplest, but most important inventions in our society is the wheel.  It must have started by people moving heavy objects over multiple tree logs and evolved into the tool that has remarkably  speeded our industrial culture.  Anything that you do tonight or tomorrow would take exceptionally longer without the wheel.  To get to class tomorrow it would probably take me 30 minutes compared to 5 driving.  All of our transportation on land requires multiple wheels.  Even traveling on Planes, the wheel is what gives the airplane enough speed to take off.  Anything you bought in your house, at least once a wheel was used in order to get that item where it is.  Even homemade products like a painting, fruit from your yard, etc. all depend on wheels.  A painting needs paint, which was shipped from some manufacturer.  The fruit grown in your back yard had to have seeds, soil, water, which could all be connected to a shipment.  Cargo ships move mass amounts of product, but for the people or manufacturers who aren't next to the water need a vehicle to distribute the product.  Without the wheel the largest buildings in the world could not be built.  Our lives could not be the same without the wheel.

Enforcers reflect the enforced.

The other day I was pulled over by a Highland Park police officer for going 10 mph over the speed limit at midnight.  I found this a little ridiculous since I wasnt putting anyone in danger and wasnt going excessively fast.  After this happened I began to think about what other reasons he would have stopped me.  I came to the conclusion that he was bored and he just wanted to write me a ticket.  Highland Park police really have nothing to do besides write tickets all day and be over suspicious about old ugly cars driven by someone other than a white caucasian.  This then lead me to pondering about how police men, enforcers of the neighborhood, reflect the enforced, us.  When you travel to a lower class neighborhood there are not brand new Chevrolet Tahoes patrolling the neighborhood, but old beat up Town and Countries.  The policemen in the beat up Town and Countries have more important crimes to regulate than me going 10 mph over the speed limit.  I am sure that the quality of the police stations also illustrate what kind of crime is present in that neighborhood.  Old ford= Burglary.... Brand New Tahoe= J walking.

Drinking age

The decision to make the drinking age 21 has always been disputed between our country and even the world.  To me it always comes back to the point that, if an 18 year old can go off and risk his life for his country then he should have the freedom to drink when he pleases.  To my knowledge, the only thing that a person below the age of 21 can not do is gamble (depending on the state) and drink alcohol.  By giving 18 year olds the responsibilities of an adult, then there shouldn't be any restrictions at all.  I have never been a crazy drinker, but based on logic it makes perfect sense for an 18 year old to drink when and what they want.  In one of my favorite movies, "Thank you for Smoking" they talk about how bad cigarettes are for the body.  The main character defends it by saying that distributing cheese and other unhealthy foods are just as harmful as cigarettes because of the nutrition factors.  I love this part because it really puts in perspective that it isn't always the product thats harming people, but the consumer and his/her choices.  I saw a bumper sticker that said "if guns kill people, then pencils misspell words"  Once again it shows that it isnt the product its the consumer.  So if an 18 year old, who is considered to be an adult, wants to drink alcohol then he should be able to.

America is weird

America, at least in the rest of the worlds eyes, is really weird.  Dont get me wrong, we do some wonderful thing for the world, but we have some strange aspects of our country.  First off, why are we the only nation that uses a different measurement system.  We use inches and feet instead of centimeters, meters, and kilometers.  We also use Fahrenheit instead of Celsius.  Celsius is so much easier.  Freezing is 0, not random 32, and boiling point is 100 instead of 270.  We make it so much harder on ourselves.  America also has an obsession with over sized everything.  Texas is sometimes referred to as the American state and we even say "everything is bigger in Texas".  America has bigger cars, happy meals, houses, candy bars, etc.  Everyone in America wants everything king sized or super sized.  The new Cowboys stadium is over 1 billion dollars, when they already have a wonderful stadium.  That seems a little ridiculous.  The rest of the world is laughing at us as we burn gas, waste energy, and get fatter.  I guess our self indulging lifestyle leads to us to always want to "one up" each other.  You always hear that in America.  "I heard he just got that thing, so im gonna get something better".  Even with the war in Iraq, we have this need to be the world police.  Although i have mixed views on the war, we still dont have to solve every problem.  Even if we feel like we are solving problems, we might just be interfering with their culture.  What if someone invaded our country and took away our capitalism, our religion, happy meals, Hummers, and basically our freedom?  We might understand where other countries are coming from.  My opinions might be a little extreme, but I say this to identify the problem we have in America and that is that we are too selfish to understand another person's or countries perspective

Rasta'

Today one of my friends decided he wanted to be spontaneous and style his hair in Dreadlocks.  So I probably wasted 4 hours of my day styling his dread locks, which by the way is a grueling process.  You have to section off the hair into squares of 1 inch and then put rubber bands around the clump of hair.  Once the hair is all sectioned off, you have to put wax in each clump, roll it in your hand, and then top it off with another rubber band.  It must be the hardest hair style to produce as well as the most painful.  My question is why would someone who isnt of the Rastafarian religion want to make their hair that way.  Apart from the look of it it is very unsanitary and just seems uncomfortable.  If you are Rastafarian there is much pride in their dreads.  The dreads are an expression of their inner spirit to emphasize their identity.  Their dreads symbolize their life as being "whole".   Bob Marley died because he wouldnt take medicine for his infected toe.  He felt that would be wrong as a Rastafarian.  It is very interesting the different hair, cloths, speech, etc that cultures form.  I guess people are laughing at us too.  We have woman wearing belts around their stomach and Men driving tanks we call hummers, but thats for a different blog.

Scent tied to Memory

When I went home this fall break the weather was beautiful.  The sun was shining, mid 80's, and still the california flowers were blooming.  I smelled our neighbors fresh cut grass coming home one day and instantly thought about playing football.  I just quit football the month before so it made me get sentimental and I just thought about the memories iv had playing.  Its funny the way a certain smell can put a image or a memory in your head.  One of my aunts who lives in Michigan has worn the same perfume since the day I was born.  Its a some what popular perfume so sometimes I will smell it on someone else and again I will instantly think of memories Iv had while visiting Michigan.  Almost every smell that I come across I have an image or a memory behind it.  When I smell something salty I think about some of my favorite beaches back home.  One of my favorite smells that brings the most memories the smell of a campfire.  It isn't necessarily a good smell but it is something that makes me happy because camping is one of my favorite things to do.  Once again, my obsession with that smell began in Michigan, listening to my uncles tell scary stories and roasting marsh mellows.  Even away from Michigan when i go camping in Texas, I have memories of all our best friends playing drinking games and telling stories around the fire.  The smells that I have encountered help me remember some of my favorite times.

Throw Pillows

I went through my normal routine today of picking up clothes, cleaning my desk, and making my bed and began to wonder why I have "throw pillows" or decorative pillows.  Every day they take up about half of my room space because i am always too lazy to make my bed right when i get up.  The only purpose these pillows have is when I occasionally sit and watch a movie and to make my bed look like it isnt owned by a child.  I feel like the older people get the more pillows they get.  For example, when your a child you usually have one single pillow, if a pillow at all.  My grand mother must have 15 pillows on her gold victorian masterpiece.  Probably 13 of those pillows have some type of sequence, jewelry, or uncomfortable fabric on them.  A bed is used for sleeping and serves for comfort, why would you put a daily chore on your bed that doesn't even serve the original purpose of a bed?  In 20 years we might even have velcro on our comforters so that it will be more convenient to attach the ugly pillows... Im gonna invent it! Haha.  Although people take much pride in their ugly decorative beds these pillows will soon take the place of beds.  Isn't that basically what the Temper Pedic is.  It is inevitable that we will all be laying on itchy pillows when we are old.  I will read this in my old age and laugh because of how proud I am of my itchy, ugly, large, old fashion pillow bed

Music, and the effect on people

Music is an amazing thing.  It is the language of the world.  No matter what language you speak music can affect people the same.  The light piano can sooth people, drums can tap peoples feet, electric guitar can slam people's heads from front to back.  Music provides a type of freedom from reality.  I can be stressed out, but with the right music I can turn my mood upside down.  With out music our lives would be a lot more boring.  Artists use their music as a form of expression.  Artist can say what they want in their music.  If I could have one talent in the world it would be to play some instrument to perfection.  I would love to write songs on the guitar and write lyrics about every aspect of my life.  Music can be a reminder of how things once were, an indication of how things are, and a view of where society is headed. Music can illustrate how our culture is. Music can deliver a message to a person or a group.  It can bring hidden emotions out, bring out secrets no one knows.  It is a truth everyone can relate to.  It is a kind of poetry, art, and provides entertainment.  Music is an amazing art form that can bring people together and reflect on their lives.  I love music!

OCD

Obsessive compulsive disorder is one of the most interesting disorders and it can be different for every person.  Many people over use the term and will refer to it as someone who is a perfectionist, clean freak, or very organized, but it is more than that.  It is more of an obsession that the person has to do when in a state of mind or position.  I have a really strange OCD that I do with angles.  Every time i pass a angled line or a wall I see an imaginary line.  Sometimes I will step on it or make sure not to step on it.  Another way is if i see a wall I will imagine if I threw a ball at that specific spot, I picture where the ball would bounce to... I know im strange, but i cant help it some times.  It could be from geometry classes or from all the sports i play, but its something that i cant break.  One of my friends has an OCD in which he has to have his toilet paper folded after he is done using it.... I think its hilarious.  He literally stops using the paper and folds it every single time.  I feel like that is a very spoiled SMU rich kid thing to do, so i always give him a hard time.  Another one that many people have is an obsession with scrambling numbers.  Like 37 59, people will think the pattern is 3+4=7 and 5+4=9... the common number between the pair is the first digit plus 4 equals the second digit.  Its so weird the way the brain automatically will do these kinds of thing without consciously knowing it.

Fastest Slugs

This Adidas Ad really caught my eye and im sure most of the viewers.  The firm that made this commercial did a great job of presenting the idea to the consumer that adidas running shoes practically does the work for you.  Not everyone truly loves running but these shoes present the idea that you can do less work with these shoes.  If slugs can make them move like that, then runners will excel.  Slugs are the perfect creature to use for this ad because everyone know they are one of the slowest, but adidas make them fast.