quick update

I know I know I am horrible at updating this. Sorry. This semester has been killer. Next semester is going to be worse. I graduate in the Spring. Full course load and!!!! an Ad club to run. Fortunately I have an awesome VP helping me this year he is completely capable.

and it seems that everyone is getting married. I've been to more wedding this year than I have in my life. All of them have been beautiful.

Working a lot. Almost always 40 hrs a week. It's killer and I am not happy at all with some things the company is doing. 70 cents for a shot of espresso? particularly when we HAVE to pull two shots and waste so much? if you want to minimize your cost per use for that maybe you should fix the machines so we can pull single shots. But despite the idiot things they are doing I still love my store an the people i work with. so that's that.

Being home this weekend was great. I love seeing my family it is always refreshing.

And being at Bellevue is always refreshing. I love it so much.

ok time to go to work maybe I'll write more later.

Wedding Dresses.

Every girl (well almost every girl) dreams of the dress she will wear on the day she gets married.

Having had several friends who have gotten married recently, an more who are going to be getting married and my own personal quest for the "perfect" dress has led me to the conclusion that Brides today are factory made and boring.

Sure there are variations within the wedding dress world, color, embelishiments, et cetera, but when you get down to it most dresses are the same. Starpless. Spaghetti strap, cap sleeved, or if your lucky you might be able to find a jacket with sleeves that just isn't what you are looking for.

Or if it does come with sleeves to make it "temple" ready, they are plain and boring and look like they are stuck in the ninties. (sorry LDS girls's times like these I'm very glad I"m not mormon)

It just strikes me as odd, that girls clamour and sigh and pine for that one of a kind dress and one of a kind wedding and then end up buying something, that while no doubt perfect for them and looks great et cetera, no less than 20 people have probably worn the exact same dress.

And then for those that want to do a specific influence on their dresses, but still have a classy wedding are left up a creek with out a paddle as we say in the South. Say a couple or bride is really into the Southern Belle, or Old Victorian, Celtic, French, Nautical theme or what not. With out having a ridiculous "themed wedding" where you look like crazies playin dress up, (think a Star Trek fan's wedding *shudders *) it's virtually impossible to find a dress to fit what you want and still have it seem like a real wedding, not a reenactment piece.

Confession time again. I have read Twilight. yup. I have. And when I was reading the first three I was quite a fan. After the forth one, I was still a fanish. Having had some time to come down off the crack and fluff high, not such a fan. For several reasons. The first being, Meyers really isn't that great of a writer. Period. Argue all you want, but she isn't. She had a debatably origional idea with a debateably interesting storyline that appealed to the romantic side of every preteen (and adult) female.

I am a big fan however of the "supernatural" stories. (Hey my favorite show is Supernatural) I love vampires, werewolves, banshees, faeries, et cetera. . .Which is probably one reason I did read Twilight.

Looking back over it, i began to wonder why anyone would really HONESTLY be looking for an "Edward" (said with fangirl longing and sighing.) I mean, dude is creepy. rawling in her window everynight BEFORE she even knows he likes her, to watch her sleep? Creepy. I don't care who you are or how romantic you think it is. (?but but he LOVED her! ) Loved her my right butt cheek. That is possesive. In the creepy. Why didn't you answer my every phone call, now i'm stalking you kinda way. Oh yeah and then there is the whole stalkerish following her everywhere, that's creepy to.

If Bela hand't liked him back, (which can we really trust that she did? i mean it's already stated that vampires are built to attract humans, easier prey and all) then she would have thought he was creepy. We all would have.

But have no fear, Meyer's remedied this creeptastic and mentally unstable behavior, by a)making the main characters actually like each other, and more importantly b) making Edward Cullen virtually perfect.

I mean there is no downside to this guy. Good looking, smart, loving, talented, and filthy stinking rich. (which by the way, thank you Meyers for making vampires pansies. Now they aren't cool at all. I mean the only think that even links your vamps to the traditional andpreviously known vampires is the fact they drink blood)

So i'm watching this and sitting here thinkin about why would anyone want that kind of Edward/Bela relationship, i mean there are some definite warning signs about controlling relationships. (Seperatin them from their families and loved ones, makng them think they are totally dependant on you/life isn't worth it with out them, et cetera.)'

And it sorta started to make sense why this is so attractive to so many people.

No matter what we here about how women should be more independant/feminist, deep down we all want to be loved so completely as to feel completed when we are around the other person.

Which makes me laugh even more at Twilight. Because girls hold up relationships like that as the ultimate and use it as a measuring stick, when real love isn't like that at all. Real love takes work, and it's not all happily ever after. When it comes down to it, life is still gonna suck, and your not going to live forever with money to roll in. Life is pretty much going to be the same as it was before you met your "true love", except for now you have someone to love and be loved by walking beside you.

And to all the girls out there who are measuring their guys to Edward. Eddie's fictional. He's not real, you arne't going to find someone like Ed. Nor should you want to, because then your missing out on the individual who is probably perfect for you. But hey if you insist on finding you Edward, give that creepy stalker guy who wob't leave you alone a chance, maybe instead of telling him to hit the road you should give him a chance, after all, he just loves you.

So before I continue to write this, i have a confession. I'm a horrible person for it, but it happens. Here goes: sometimes when I'm listening to sermons on Sunday mornings, my mind wanders to life. Particularly how something the pastor just said applies to life or helps explain life.

Today was one of those days. It was a very good sermon about America and the Seven gifts it needs for this 233 birthday.

I think he was talking about diligent workers, and how we shouldn't pass students who can't preform the skills and things like that.

And I was thinking, you know that 1)yes it breeds negligent workers but 2) it doesn't prepare them well at all for college of real life.

If you can't hack it at college you get failed. If you can't hack it at work you get fired.

This thought hopscotched through around till it hit equal opportunity and how that breeds workers who don't work or strive to do well at their job. I mean they are hired to fill a quota so (some not all making generalizations here, I know it's not one size fits all so bear with me ) they don't feel that they have to work so hard, after all they are filling a quota, therefore their job is pretty secure and they can't be fired with out being racists. (no matter what the ethnicity) This also leads to resentment by other workers who actually DO a good job, but have to pick up the slack for other people, when really they should be fired.

However the implications of not having equal opportunity leads to employees discriminating against ethnicities that they don't like.

Which lead to America is turning more legalistic everyday. Because we can't prosecute on the spirit of the law, we have to create more law that define how everyting is supposed to be done. Like equal oppurtinity. it's spirit is to eradicate sexual, and ethnocentric discrimination, but since the "letter" of the law is such that if you don't hire some one they can rant and rail about how you didn't hire them becuse of ther gender, or their race, costing you money.

By creating more laws that are supposed to uphold the spirit of a law creates more legality, because you aren't taking into account the heart behind an action.

But then that sums up the problems with the Law of Man. we can't know the heart, only God can.

This all leads back to: Your life is your ow. RIse up and live it. We can't fix the problems with our nation (without God first and foremost) with out taking pride in our humanity and putting pride into what we do, and realizing that the world doesn't owe you anything. That you have to make your own choices and live with those consequences.

And Now i'm hungry. So i'm goin to choose to get something to eat.

UPDATE ON THE POST BELOW:

After having watched a few shows on hulu, I've decided the nifty button needs work. First you can't use it if you have it full screen (makes sense, except I am not going to exit out to like or dislike an ad.)

Second, it doesn't stay up for the commercial long enough for you to really see the commercial and decide if you liked it or not.

overall, great idea, just needs some work.

So I was getting ready to watch a show on hulu and I got a phone call so I paused it during a commercial.

Now I haven't watched Hulu in quiet some time and I noticed this nifty little button.

Being in advertising I thought ths was an ingenious move personally. It is a great way for a company to get feed back on their ads, when neilson ratings can't work, And in a time when Neilson ratings mean jack, i think this is even better. Now you can get real data on how many people like an ad or don't. The next step would obviously be to be able to follow up with osmeone and find out how old they are, why they didn't like the ad, income bracket, lifestyle et cetera

Any way i'm off to swim with a friend. But I had to write a little bit about that while it was on my mind. I may writ emore about it later but there are no promises.

Today Has not been a fantastic day.

I wake up to mom still at home dressed in church/work cloths at 940ish I ask her what is up. And she say's there has been some drama. ( My little brother's girlfriend was having family issues ) which is fine, but heartbreaking because she is a sweetie. I go to work, where people are just down right rude all day, and my manager at the store I am at for the summer is crazy and chooses to harp on the STUPIDEST things. Sorry dear, but the middle of a rush is not the best time to micro clean all the things and get in peoples ways, also, sometimes people make the best decisions with what they have at the time meaning there is not any OTHER way to react and still keep a good image.

My boyfriend didn't answer his phone or text because he was at a church picnic (apparently baptisms were going on ) I'm assuming this picnic was outside, which means he could have walked to a quiet place away from al the people to talk to me.

There's a lot more that has just rubbed me wrong today but I can't get into it here. I'm hoping tomorrow is better, or something with katie is definetely in the works.Caw caw rawr.

People in general suck.  I'm sorry get outsider your freaking selfs and think about others. As in people cause "going green" and doing "what you can" to "save " the earth means jack if you don't care about people. 

Also don't be surprised if people wont be there to help you out of a tight spot if you arent there to help them out.

So Tornado's hit Murfreesboro yesterday. Yes i was there, no I wasn't hurt. Actually I was at school and called dad to tell him i was being irresponsible and watching the storms. Campus wasn't hit at all, some hail, that's it. However roughly two to three miles away, my cousins house and neighbor hood was demolished pretty much, as well as some homes near where I live. Amazingly our house was untouched. Thank the Lord.
[ to see pictures of it check out the DNJ, The Tennessean, and MTSU Sidelines)

This only furthers the belief i have in a very silly superstition. Things like this never happen directly to me (thankfully) they might and often happen all around me, but rarely happen to me. I know it's silly and I don't really believe it. I know it's just the hand of God protecting me from my own idiotic and irresponsible tendencies.

I am very saddened by all the lives that were lost, hurt, or affected by this. But I would be lying if I said that seeing the sky and the pictures and hearing the tornado hit a few miles down the road was beautiful. In a completely damaging slightly sadistic way.

Tornado's fascinate me. I would love to take a vacation with my dad and go tornado chasing out in Oklahoma. There is just something Majestically beautiful about the power and form of Tornado's. Not to mention it's ability to completely miss one house but devastate the rest of the neighborhood. I mean just looking at the aerial veiw (http://tinyurl.com/dzbcx3 ) a ten mile path through a city. Demolishing everything in it's path. But leaving places just a few feet from it's path virtually untouched.

It's like it has more precision and destructive power than most bombs. ( i knw i know not neccesarily more destructive, and the military as very precise smart bombs and such, but don't get caught up in semantics and miss the point.)

My prayers are definitely with all of the families (and people) affected by this weather.

ETA: this is the path it took http://www.tennessean.com/assets/gif/DN132629411.GIF My cousin's house is right around the hayne's drive area. They are very luckily and thank the Lord Safe and sound.

I'm a year from graduating college (give or take a month) and it's completely scary, but at the same time I'm really looking forward to it. A new chapter of life to embark on.

At the same time it's also a time of reflection and reconsidering a lot of things in my life. We'll see how those work out.

I'm really excited about internships and finding one. The question is which why i want to go. Do i do a political one for advertising, or one for a larger Ad company, non-profit, out of the country or what!? either way the possibilities are exciting and i can hardly wait for it.

You cannot love that which you do not understand. Or put another way that which you love you will understand.

Let the discussion begin.

In Public Opinion we talked about Health Care, a lot. About how it would be so great to have a health care system like Canada or France. And the more they talked the more this idea came to be fleshed out: People deserve this. They can't help themselves. They aren't responsible for their troubles and the Government should provide for them.

And the entire time I kept thinking about Faith of the Fallen, a Terry Goodkind book. The Imperial Order preached just this thing. Only about everything not just health care. Richard, the Seeker of Truth, and sworn enemy of the Order is taken to the heart of the Order, its city of birth, by a woman who is seeking something more from the life she has. This woman ardently believes that the Order is Good and Nobel and that its cause is right; that people are wretched and can't help themselves, that it is everyone's duty to go without or to give up what they can't keep anyways for the good of someone else, who, while they didn't do anything to earn it, deserves what someone else worked hard to get.

Richard is immersed in a land where excuses abound as to why they can't work, where people take no pride in what they do because the Government (the Order) tells them what they can work at, when, and that you can't work harder than someone else because in doing so you are evil and prideful in abilities you don't posses because you can't do anything for yourself. You are miserable wretched people. Scum of the earth, since your life doesn't mean anything, you should give what you can to make those less fortunate than you (ironically no one is less fortunate, because they are all equal. . . )because you can't do anything for yourself.

The people who lived in this town were miserable and stuck in perpetual poverty. Slaves to the Orders bidding. Alive and making it only by the grace of the Order.

With Richards coming things begin to change. Richard takes pride in his work and does everything with a sense of nobility and pride. It starts small , but soon all those around him are living life, enjoying living instead of merely surviving.

I can see this happening to the American people and it saddens me greatly. We expect the Government to take care of us. But we still want to keep our freedoms. We shouldn't have to work for what we want, it should be given to us.

We gripe against hose who have the inclination, drive, and talent to achieve great things. Instead of finding the drive and talent that we have that will allow us to do great things too. We flock to jobs that we think will make us rich, instead of doing what we have a passion for.

We pass the buck instead of saying, the buck stops here with me. I am going to take responsibility for my life, for my decisions. Things will not get better until people learn to understand this.

"Your life is yours alone. Rise up and live it"

More ad stuff

Just finished and turned in my latest ad Project, in which we had to write a full page ad (commenting on illustrations was optional) for Tide and their new attempt at going green, by using recycled paper for their boxes of powdered detergent.

I was happy with it. It was actually fun to write, but how my professor felt about it is a another story. Of course I cant say he didnt like it as he didn't offer feedback.

I feel though that it is a bit insane to be picky and belligerent about the way body copy should be done and then in the same breath continue on to tell us that nobody reads body copy anymore.

If nobody reads it, why are people bothering to write it?

The more i thought about it the more it makes sense, people don't want to read body copy, not unless the visual element catches their eye, and the headline is intriguing enough to them, and even then they don't want to read about why a company thinks they should buy the product.

With then internet people are actually going to research major purchases before they buy. And often they are checking out third party sources for what they think of the product.

That being said, it seems to me that print advertising is becoming the appetizer of the ad world, just enough to interest and intrigue a consumer into going on line and finding that commercial or third party review to satisfy their need to know about the product.

So I'm working on my Advertising Copywriting project. Or not really since I'm busy writing this. But since I'm stuck on the "thesis" statement so to speak, I figured it was time to take a break. Or another one really .... * sheepish grin *

I have to write up a Creative strategy for a product. I chose Dr Pepper, shocking to anyone? i think not.

However my problem becomes, writing for who their Target audience is. Those that the company wishes to reach, and those I think it SHOULD be. I mean i understand why the T.A. is who it is, and that makes sense to me, but sometimes it just feels like, "hey if you'd just reach out to this group a little bit more your profit and sales would increase."

But then I'm just a student, and so I'll finish the project, and it'll be good. Damn good. (better be after all the numbers i poured over just trying to make sure we are advertising correctly)

Ok I feel much better now that I've had sleep. MUCH.

Today was school. All day. Which is bleh, but I do enjoy the majority of my classes. My folklore class is to die for I love it a lot. Public opinion is interesting. And markets and media is.... LONG but i enjoy the teacher and he wants to do what he can to make it interesting so that helps.

What was I supposed to blog about.....

oh there was this.

Our public opinion teacher was talking about polls (since that is how you measure public opinion, pretty good topic of discussion i suppose) and how the census is the biggest one, and why the States have on every ten years.

It's to gauge how accurate the seats in the House of Representatives is. Which is good, if an area has grown or shrunk in size enough to warrant either a gain or loss of a seat and/or electoral vote then by all means we should do so.

And then she started talking about how the census misses 2-3% of the population. The top three list of people it misses?
1. Inmates
2.illegal immigrants
3. Homeless people.

Granted apparently people in dormitories are apparently also overlooked heavily (which i guess I can see, but as they can vote probably shouldn't be)

Our teacher acted like this was a great travesty. I looked at the girl next to me and with a look of slight disbelief mouthed/said "but they can't vote" she gave a little laugh and agreed.

Seriously? I mean... Inmates can't vote, so really? they shouldn't BE included the count for the number of house seats or electoral votes. (also they know how many people are in jail so they don't need to censi? them)

And as for illegal immigrants. Same thing. They aren't citizens of our country. therefore they can't vote, therefore they should not be included into that count either.

the only iffy hmmm not so sure about that one is the homeless people. They can't vote either cause they don't have an address but then, as citizens they should be able to, but at the same time they don't pay taxes, so the argument could go either way.


As to college students and dormitory livers, the trouble becomes where you count them. For a OSU student who is from and lives in Kansas where do you count their residence? and which state gets to claim them?

I hate being tired. And I hate being exhausted.

Mostly because sometimes (particularly now that i don't have mom around to run to when I want) it feels like i"m the only one that cares about me, and honestly sometimes I don't even know if I know how to truly take care of me instead of other people first.

But I feel that telling people Hey listen Think about ME for a minute! Me who sacrifices so much that your not even aware of. Is completely selfish and utterly negates any sacrifices I do make (which in turn makes them not sacrifices but bargaining chips.)

I know that seems random. But today was very much a "oh grow up" day with most people I encountered. Meaning work was not fun whilst struggling with sleep deprivation.

Job Musings.

For those of you who personally know me, you know where I work.

For those who don't, it's probably in my profile, or I've blogged about it before.

I work in a job that deals with the public. A coffee shop really. Needless to say, we get quite a few characters.

To start, work is fun mostly, but with labor cuts (hey i don't know why don't you STOP printing all the worthless 'learning' crap you send us quite sending special promotional cups and sleeves and NEW signboards every time we floor set, instead of cutting labor so that wait times go up and customers start getting peeved.) it's always quite busy and people sometimes get really pissy.

Tonight, with it's frigid temperatures, falling snow, (snizzle, aka snow flurries, as my friend calls it.) and first real day of school was one of the day's where it seems like more than half the customers you really just want to give them decaf and whole milk or what not. (not that we do, but it's nice to think about on occasion) The customers who were pleasant, were more than pleasant, they were a joy to serve. The ones who weren't.... well punched in the face could have happened.

And then you just have the odd ones. They don't fit into the "they were really nice, and sweet and this is what is going on in their lives!" or the "give the witch decaf." categories, the ones that are just awkward socially, not quiet mentally stable or worse.... SCREAMING for attention.

The Customer of the night falls into the screaming for attention category.

I searched long and hard for a picture to best illustrate this for the readers, but a search turned up nothing that came close. The closest was a Christina Aguilera picture, but this chick made even that photo seem like the good religious girl next door.

It starts with a slightly on the more snippy side ordering at drive through. (strike number one. When we have to work drive through, it's a loooong day, we have to deal with most of the jerks. Why is it that most of them come through DT? so starting out with a chip on your shoulder is just going to make us hate you and make your experience less than enjoyable.) So I answer, though I'm not at the DT station as I'm busy making prep or stocking or something else since we don't have enough labor and multitasking is an ABSOLUTE must, she states her order just as I get around to the input computer and just in time for me to glance at the camera to see whose on the other end. (advance warning of snippy customers is always a good thing) All I can see clearly since it's dark outside is this vomitous pink and black sweater thing and black holes where eyes should be. Obviously... the black wholes isn't true... entirely.

She pulls up and I greet her with a smile on my face (I'm a great actress what can I say) that is the exact opposite of the scowl on hers.

Her eyes finally meet mine, and I have to say people, I didn't know that you could get that much mascara on fake eyelashes with out them dropping off into your lap. Nor was I aware that anyone seriously though that putting that much black eye shadow on your eyes was prudent.

I kid you not. She was (i think) going for that smokey cat-eyes thing. It only served to swallow her eyes like a cat eating a canary.

Not to mention she was falling (almost) out of her pink and black striped two sizes to small sweater.

To put it best, I wouldn't be surprised to see hooker boots or to hear she was off to her night job.

No on should ever TRY to like a nickel and dime whore. Seriously. it's not a good idea

So I was cruising around the net last night


The first two are a set. And the last one is just, me for lack of a better word. Although the first is too. I love Claddagh rings I love what the symbolize and I love that they are part of my heritage. Which is why I have one for my Purity ring.

I would actually love to find out more aabout thier origins. I've heard the cutesy lovey dovey tale of how it's design arose, but I've also heard that there is a darker tale filled with lots more tragedy. I haven't been able to find it, but knowing the Irish, it doesn't really surprise me if the darker tale was more true.


Crap I have to go get ready for work. Time and half though... so YAY for that!

So Long 2008

2008 is officially gone.

Lots of good things happened in 2008, but I can't say i'm sorry to see it go.

Mostly just cause i'm looking forward to 2009. I'm two/three semesters away from graduating. And while immensly scary I'm looking forward to it.

there's actually a lot rolling around in my head and i did have a topic I was going to write about but i'm really tired and it's not so conducive for coherent writing.

Also being tired, contemplative, and a bit on the pissy side also doesn't help the writing.