90's Toys

I’ve compiled a little list for all of you soppy, sentimental chaps out there.

Do you remember what it was like to grow up in the 90’s?

Before all of the drama and complication of being young adults.

Let’s take a stroll down memory lane… shall we?

Do you remember these specific toys:

Pretty Pretty Princess- I was a tomboy. Didn’t get into it much.

Furby- Loved them so much, I named my cat after them.

Super Soakers- Got my dogs real good with these!

Bop It- Gave me reflexes.

Legos- For the win! Always had fun with these… whether they were the classical kind (primary colored) or Harry Potter ones.

Britney Spears dolls- Hit me baby one more time! Every girl wanted to be like Britney… except me.

Virtual Pets- Waste. Too boring.

Troll Dolls- Tried to bring them in the bath with me (because they were naked), and their gorgeous hair got ruined! #sadday

Talkboys- Never got one like Home Alone. L Ya filthy animal.

Sky Dancers- Commercials aired for a decade I swear…

Beanie Babies- Had a bajillion of them!

Laughing Elmo- So apparently these were really expensive, and there was a high demand for them? Too bad I never got to have one. L

Water Snakes- Still baffle me. Gel inside of them… or?

Pokemon cards- One kid tried to make $5 off of me for a dud Pokemon.

Skip It- Tripped myself to death with these!

Hit Clips- The iPod before the iPod.

Maybe I will do another list of other things from the 90’s or maybe I will try another decade! (267)

22- T-Swift

I don’t know about you… but Taylor Swift hasn’t always fascinated me like she has with other girls. (Not to mention the sweetheart guys that listen to her.)

Yes, it is true. I am not the typical American girl teenager. My tastes in music can best be described in another blog about EVERYTHING with sound, but for now we will stick with Tay Tay.

Her taste has recently changed. It isn’t so “Tim McGraw” (quite literally) country now, but more of a rocky-poppy-country. She has branched out with her voice, dance, videos, and clothing. She isn’t a little innocent blue eyed, curly blonde girl anymore, but rather a 22 year old that has had numerous dates with numerous amounts of famous or well known boys/men. She is currently showing Harry Styles off, and maybe he is inspiring her to branch off into new cultures with her music and clothing choices.

Sitting in her room singing about make ups, breakups, and the ins and outs of relationships didn’t always appeal to me, and, honestly, still doesn’t. Her guitar and country twang came out in her acoustic guitars, music videos, and small town lyrics such as “back porch,” “mama don’t know,” “truck.”

My absolute favorite song EVER from her is from her newest album, Red (pick it up at Target, holla!). The name is “22.” At first, I was wondering why she was “feeling 22” until I found out that she was in fact 22 years of age. Whaa? T-Swift’s grown up and FAST! She seems a lot younger and it wasn’t too long ago that she was singing about Drew.

I think we assume her to be younger because she has been known as a cougar. Rawr. She has dated lots of guys younger than her. Recently she broke up with Conor Kennedy (tote gorgi, btw) that is still in high school! Maybe her style in her clothing came from the beloved Jackie Kennedy?

Anyway, the song “22” is about living carefree with your best friend/boyfriend. Carefree experiences like eating breakfast at midnight, falling in love with strangers, and dressing up like hipsters. Having fun, I’d say, is her main focus in the song. Of course it might seem fun to be 22 just because you are of legal age to vote, drink, smoke, and other stuff. (Which isn’t fun in my opinion, but detrimental to your health!)

The song has a catchy tune to it, and the lyrics are splendid… if they came from a 16 year old American Idol winner. To me, Taylor Swift must start (and I mean… like… NOW!) growing up and having more substance in her lyrics. Talk about something other than relationship problems that you seem to always be having. And the same goes for Ms. Carly Rae Jepsen. (Who is like 27, btw!) Bet you didn’t know that, huh? (475)

Rant Sesh. #youknow

                Just some ranting going on here. Nothing too special.

I wanted to address some things that were going on and I had taken notice in. Please refrain from the following:

1)      Bragging- Do you really feel the need to brag about your accomplishments? Why must you have to tell people about your feats? People already know, or should know, how great of a (insert occupation here) you are. No need to try to “sell” people like your cheap uncle sells cars. My momma always said, “Let your walking do the talking.” “Lead by example.” “Actions speak louder than words.” And… any other cliché you can think of.

 

2)      Stealing- I had to pay for a t-shirt (for a sporting event or occasion of some sort), and guess what happened? Someone stole my t-shirt? Nah. Worse. Someone stole the $5 I was planning on giving the coordinator of the event for my expected t-shirt. It is pretty lowlife and trashy of someone to steal… let alone $5. I have never stolen and don’t plan on it in my life time, but, if I was going to break my moral boundaries, I would steal A LOT bigger dollar than a Lincoln. A Benjamin maybe? If you have to steal for $5… just ask. You must really be in need of it, so I will be willing to give it to you! Just don’t take what is not yours!

 

 

3)      Cheating- Yes, this can go with stealing to some extent. You are taking what is not yours. Like answers on a test or homework. You didn’t find the time to do it, so now you are cheating someone out of their work, effort, AND time. Why should you have the easy way out of this? They didn’t take it, and you should have either. No one should get a free pass in this life. NO ONE! Tests are designed to analyze your brain and where you are intellectually. No need to have the exact same answers as someone else who is sitting right BESIDE YOU! Not obvious to the teacher or anything. #commonsense

 

4)      Being fake- I’m really surprised this doesn’t have a name for it in the form of a gerund. (How you like that Mizzay? ;) It should be called “tooling” or “two facing!” No! I got it… “tweekin’!” Whatever it is called you should not do it. People have a hard enough time being nice to EVERYONE, trying to get friends, without you turning around and calling them out. It’s not what Jesus would want us to do, is it?

 

 

I’m sure I haven’t even skimmed the top of my list on what bugs me more than these four that I have listed, but I might return to it in the near future. Stay tuned for more of these… COMING YOUR WAY! (472)

Zero Dark Thirty (4/7)

                Zero Dark Thirty (2012) is a movie about an essential time frame in our American History. It centers the decade long hunt for Osama bin Laden, leader of the al-Qaeda terrorist organization that is most famous for being involved in the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

                The movie starts out with torture scenes committed by the CIA against suspects linked to bin Laden and the al-Qaeda group. From soaking their faces with soaked rags to starving them, they eventually get what they want. Names. They get names and background information on people that eventually lead them to the big guy.

                Someone that is new to the CIA, fresh out of high school, is a woman by the name of Maya. Though I’m not entirely sure if the person who found bin Laden was named Maya, I am positive that it was in fact a female! For a few months short of a decade from the 9/11 attack, she worked hard to find the man behind it all.

                The movie shows her frustration and others’ frustration as no one seemed to believe that she had a reliable lead on the case. Sometimes they failed. For example, she was following up on a name she had found, and the squad leader didn’t send enough men to carry out the exploration. Or the woman working beside her was trying to spark a deal with bin Laden’s supposed doctor, and, through called off security, the base got blown up.

                Maya tried to use all of her resources. She made frequent calls into her mentor that went back to Washington. She eventually had to threaten her boss to let her keep going in her investigation. She also sent her mentor to buy off the Kuwaiti prince with a Lamborghini just to get a bin Laden deliverer’s mother’s telephone number… with CIA funds, mind you.

                Often times the American people have tended to complain about how long it has taken us to seek out hated terrorists like Hussein and bin Laden, but they aren’t aware of the extent that people have had to go and the amount of time it takes to locate such a well-hidden individual.

                It is safe to say that for a year we knew where bin Laden was. Why didn’t we strike immediately, then? This fueled Maya’s frustration, as in the movie she writes on her boss’s window the number of days that they knowingly did not take action to capture bin Laden. Almost a year passes, and they finally get together the best qualified team to carry out the mission: the U.S. Navy SEAL team.

                After reassurance that the mission will have a 100% success rate, Maya flies back to the U.S. to help inform and train the SEALS for the capture. And on May 2, 2011 the raid is executed. It isn’t so smooth, though. A few of the helicopters crashed on the compound, and women and children (supposedly kin to bin Laden himself) were fatally shot accidently.

                Going through every floor of every building on the site, they finally find him and shoot him on the spot. With nearby neighbors and concerned Afghanis coming, they must quickly flee with his body and all the technology (computers and files) and intelligence they can fit into a duffel bag. Once they get back to the military base where Maya is, she then gets the opportunity to identify the body. It was in fact bin Laden.

Maya was truly an inspiration. She was a female, and I think this gives the movie more of an appeal. The film shows how the generations have changed. Women are capable of much more. They are able to help protect the United States of America and its safety. She did it with pride and courage. Coming straight out of high school, she may not have been the most experienced, but she persevered and came out on top. She found the head honcho terrorist in the September 11, 2001 attacks.

The team celebrates, and Maya, on her plane ride back to the U.S., weeps into the camera tears of joy, I assume. This was a perfect ending for such a powerful movie on such a riveting component of our history. (706)

Nike Ad Presentation

I'm doing a presentation on this tomorrow!

I'm considering the following:

Nike ad

Inner Drive= play on words for “driving car” vs. “motivation to run/walk from within”

For Sale sign on window of car

Nasty weather in clouds and wet leaves vs. bright colored workout gear

Dirty car vs. clean shoes and bright colored workout gear

Lazy cat vs. motivated woman

Stretching= running/walking NOT driving/riding

Using car TO stretch= blatantly NOT using car

Car faces West vs. woman facing East= drawing eye to differences

Nike’s purpose: Get people to become more active and buy their products to assist the active movement! (101)

Argo was real or fake?

In the movie Argo (2012), Ben Affleck plays a CIA agent that comes up with a clever plan to rescue the six hostages held by Iran from 1979 to 1981.

The movie title Argo is the title of the movie that Affleck and a Hollywood producer friend come up with. They come up with a fake movie requiring dessert space shooting scenes: Iran. After he convinces all of the CIA that the plan will work, he gets a script, film crew, and someone to put their name on it. But they can't go in as Americans. They are in disguise as Canadians.

The Iran people aren't in conflict with Canadians, and the hostages found refuge at the Canadian embassy with the ambassador and his family. Affleck and his crew show up and, though have Canadian identities, still have to be careful. Once they get to the Canadian embassy, he meets the six people. He describes the plan to them, but they aren't fully convinced that it will work. They believe that they will die if they try it, but Affleck assures them that if they don't try it they will die anyway.

I was able to connect with some of the happenings in the movie because we had just learned about OPEC and the Iranian Revolution and bad feelings against the United States in class, but now that I'm researching the hostage, there are a lot of things left out, changed, and inserted. I believe that they did this just to make it more interesting; as movie makers usually do.

First off, the Canadian role in the rescue was downplayed in the movie. This part of the movie was probably upsetting to some Canadians, as they had a lot to do with it. The movie exposed that the CIA actually rescued the hostages. The CIA didn't want their name to be involved so they let the Canadians take all the credit at the time. Yes, the hostages were housed by the Canadians, and the Canadians scoped out the town and how safe and secure the airport was while teaching the hostages to speak like someone from Canada.

Secondly, the ride to the airport and the boarding of the plane was quite easy. In the movie, it displays that the Jimmy Carter and the government shuts down the plan "Argo," but then quickly reinstates it and sends the tickets for the hostages just in the nick of time, conveniently. The tickets were historically ordered in advance by the Canadian ambassador's wife. (How's that for Canadian involvement?) Also, the movie captures the paper weaving children piecing together a photo of one of the hostages just in time to discover one of the hostages at the airport, and they just barely take off in a plane without getting shot down. None of this happened. The escape was a lot easier than displayed, but with movies, you have to have some tension and a climax.

While the film fails to mention that Argo was originally Lord of Light, it was a great movie that really made the history lesson about it come to life. It over dramatized the encounter of the Iranian hostage, but what do you expect from a movie? (537)

How many boyfriends did you really have?- Social Media

                You remember all of us back in middle school, right? We thought we were such the hot stuff. We knew the ins and outs of dating… well kind of. It was the kind of relationship where you only hung out at school (only for some), and if you saw them at the grocery store with your mom, it was an awkward situation. Like… you ran to a different isle in hopes that they wouldn’t see you.

                Thank God for Bebo. Bebo was the social networking for preteens back in my day; the junior Facebook, if you will. It was neat to go to someone’s profile and see their Skin (background) and read a little about them in their About Me. They had a certain number of Top Friends that they could list out of their whole Friends List, and usually you could tell who was dating who by their Other Half. The Other Half was decided by an Other Half Request, and, if accepted, would show up with a little description in the main part of your profile, right under your About Me. If you didn’t have a boyfriend or girlfriend, it was mostly your best friend.

                The funny thing looking back on it is that my first ever “boyfriend” (NOT a steady relationship… AT ALL) asked me to be his Other Half in the 7^th grade, and I accepted thinking that we would get to know each other better over Bebo.

                First you have to know a little background: I was new to his school. I knew hardly anyone, and the friends that I did have decided to set me up with a jersey to wear for that Friday night’s football game. This jersey thing was crucial back then. If you didn’t have it you were committing social suicide. A boy by the name of Aaron had just finished his off and on (drama filled) courtship with another girl for the last time I was told to believe. So naturally my friend got his jersey and gave it to me, with no communication between Aaron and me. At the time, I thought this was politically and socially correct. Dumb me.

                So later that week at lunch, I got asked out by him through another friend. With my gained maturity I would have thought, “Who does that?” But looking for social acceptance at the new school, I eagerly accepted. The maturity that I did have at the time pushed me to walk over there and sit down at his table and eat the special lunch that I packed for myself due to my braces that I had just gotten. Talk about growing up.

                Starved for peer existence in my life, I would get on Bebo almost every night. Only that night I was surprised to see Aaron’s profile. Under it said that he “loved me.” Shock to the system. What did love mean? And if he truly did (which he MOST definitely did NOT), why couldn’t he have told that to me? I was also stunned to notice his Hobbies column. Under it said the usual “sports, hunting, fishing, music,” but at the end he added “spending time with Morgan.” What? When had we ever spent time out together? We hadn’t and we never would.

                The only thing that we managed to do, other than right silly immature notes in the hall, was write on each other’s Bebo profiles. It made it really easy and safe to express who I really was (not like he knew) to him through an electronic outlet. Like a star struck little girl, I would carefully plan my replies with clever jokes and uses of the (annoying) smiley face and @hearts; symbol. Barf?

                Let’s just say that I’m completely ashamed and embarrassed of this situation. It was a relationship that might as well not have been at all. Nothing was gained, and a lot was lost. My pride was a factor. But then again, wasn’t everyone else doing it? Breaking up, making up, dating everyone in their class. I was just trying to fit in, and, by the looks of everyone else’s profile, I was doing or saying nothing wrong. The only difference between me and them was I never sought out more relationships or tried to get him back. While other girls kept dating, I refused to stoop to something so pointless. What is the purpose of being in a “relationship” if you can’t talk to them while in school, go to movies, or go skating together? In the stages where dating was the “thing” to be doing, we set ourselves up for trouble when we actually wanted to find that someone special and settle down.

                How are we supposed to meet new people and attract our future spouses when we relied on the Internet and texting so much? Adults don’t off the cuff start dating without ever seeing that person in actual person. So here come the problems: talking, eye contact, interacting, and expressions.

                Too many people nowadays are antisocial, awkward, and introverted. I know there are every levels of the outgoing spectrum, but God created Adam and Eve… not Adam, Eve, and a Dixie cup with string. He meant for us to be in each other’s presence.

                Our people skills are skidding downhill and will continue to do so, if we don’t extend ourselves socially and step outside to reality. We are too afraid of being judged and ridiculed. All we can see are the bad things that will come from personal interaction: What if they don’t think I’m attractive? What if I don’t act right? They’ll probably think I’m not buff enough. Most are appearance related, which leads to “cat fishing,” fake profile pictures, and Photoshop. Virtual relationships simply aren’t healthy; because you aren’t dating that person… you’re dating the person’s photo and typed words. (974)