The Social Network of Facebook

After seeing the Social Network this weekend, I have learned a lot more about something that is a routine part of my day-to-day life. Being a college student currently, Facebook came out when I was in high school. Although you had to have a college email to access it at first, it soon became available to high- schoolers, and can now be accessed by anyone who has an email address.

The idea, although seemingly simple, has proven to be revolutionary. A college student (along with the help of some other smart Harvard undergrads, who actually sue him in the film), came up with what has been a multi-billion dollar idea. Not only has Facebook been incredibly profitable, but it is something that will be written about in history books forever. People everywhere access Facebook at all times of the day, me being one of them. The term "Facebook me" has even been coined. This innovative website has been able to connect millions of friends and family all over the world. I really do not know what life would be like without it now. I get so much information from it, regarding activities, parties, and even basic knowledge of what is going on in my friends lives from it. And Facebook seems to be just the beginning. Twitter has recently exploded along with numerous other social websites. This is only the beginning.

The Social Network

Buying something you do not need

Now this is something that I know I do, and not just because it runs in my family, my Dad being the worst about it, but because I have seen this happen to my friends as well. You walk into a store like Sephora (I am not an expert but I find that this happens most often when you are buying something such as makeup) to buy a new mascara, and just as you you find what you are looking for you see all of the other products they carry and suddenly get caught up in the salespersons explanation of a featured product that will make you "look and feel better". All of these factors suck you in, and by the time you sign your credit card receipt at the cash register you have charged $200 and have a bag of things that will supposedly make you look beautiful.

Although I have been put in that situation and I am sure many others like me have found themselves in the same debacle. This past moth though, I got caught up in buying what I didn't need because I was told that I absolutely needed it. That may sound stupid, but when you are at the car dealership getting your car serviced and a mechanic says that you need to replace your tire, or else your car is going to stop working, you listen. Obviously I gave in and told them to whatever they needed to fix it. But when it was all said and done the bill was quite expensive. This is because impulsively I though that if everything was not fixed right that second that my car would never work again. In reality, I could have taken it to another auto shop that would have been much less costly, thus saving me money. So although I technically did buy something I needed, sometimes you need to think over purchases and maybe shop elsewhere to find the best thing. Buying something you don't need is very similar to impulse buying for me I can now see.

How to avoid buying things you do not need

What did that dream tell me?

It seems to me that there are certain periods in my life where I remember dreams, yet then I can go a whole month and think that I do not have any dreams at all. For some reason, a few years ago I kept having one reoccurring dream, and would wake up in the middle of these dreams because naturally I thought they were real! This reoccurring dream involved a series of bad events (changing each time I had the dream), like falling from somewhere and smashing my face, or getting hit and these actions  would inevitably make all of my teeth fall out every time I had the dream. Although the ways in which my teeth fell out changed in each dream, every time I would wake up and grasp my mouth to make sure I had not fallen into the category to buy dentures just yet.

After this dream had occurred so many times I decided to do some research to find out what was causing me to think that I was going to get hurt and inevitably make all of my teeth fall out? I looked at some books, but eventually I stumbled upon this website that I thought made the most sense because most other sources explained my dream to mean the same thing. The Teeth Dream This site claimed that I must have been having a hard time making my voice be heard or was unable to talk about something. At this point in time I really do not remember what I was trying to speak up about, but this explanation seems most plausible because sometimes it is hard to speak my mind to people or tell others something that is important to me. 

Although I do believe this explanation of my dream I feel like those who analyze dreams and make websites such as these ones are able to really generalize and make many people seem like they're dreams can be explained by one overriding factor. In reality I think that there are many unknown factors that cause people to have unexplainable dreams.

The Legitamacy of Mad Men

After taking Survey of Advertising last summer, my teacher got me hooked on the AMC show Mad Men. Although I was being introduced to advertising as a whole, I feel like from the moment I started to watch the show, that I was beginning to learn  about how advertising in America has progressed throughout the years. And after watching the behind the scenes specials, etc. it is clear that creator of the show really has to do his homework to make the show seem realistic to the time he wants to portray. Although this may be true, it seems as though some believe the show to be an inaccurate portrayal of the ad industry. With these mixed reviews arise many questions as well.

But after watching the show for a few seasons and taking more and more advertising classes the other day when we were watching Art & Copy, an ad that was shown actually made me think of Mad Men. A few weeks ago in an episode Don Draper (the creative director) at the firm on the show was brainstorming with a copy writer, Peggy, for ideas for an ad about the Samsonite American Tourister Luggage Collection. The actual TV ad that ran for Samsonite in the 1970's was shown in Art & Copy, depicting a suitcase being thrown into a gorilla cage. Although what Don and Peggy discussed in Mad Men was not the exact same thing as the real commercial that ran, they did overlap in a way. This really made me think that although many may not rely on a show like Mad Men as a historical source of evidence about the progression of advertising in America, it does indeed hold some truth. And for me personally it has helped me to better understand early advertising.

TV Commercial film for American Tourister Luggage 1970

Hot Topic: Drug Testing on College Campuses

When is it OK to randomly drug test? I understand that employers should test their employees if need be, but randomly drug testing on college campuses, how is that fair to the students who are not chosen? When randomly choosing, etc. I think that sometimes people just get screwed. You have heard the stories of administrations hearing suspicions of drug usage and giving the option for students to come forward and turn themselves in, yet the ones who turn themselves in are always the ones who are dismissed, expelled, etc. It is a counter intuitive game that weeds out the weak. The administrations then make an example of those who confessed and then usually take no further measures because they have successfully scared everyone. As well, even if the administration did indeed want to test a whole group, I do not find it just for them to randomly choose, nor pick out a certain group of people who they suspect. That is just unfair targeting because of word of mouth rumors and then people get even angrier about the situation in the first place. If an administration wants to drug test anyone, I believe that they should do it fairly and do it to everyone involved. Drug Testing and Ethics

Am I getting older or are my parents trying to get younger?

It seems if I have entered a time warp these days. Even though everyone is getting older my parents are the ones wanting to be young! My mom is now asking me advice on clothing, etc., and my Dad is wanting to show me how he can out drink me with Tequila. I feel like we are almost switching roles! And it is scary that I am now picking up some of their habits. I have become a neat freak and most week nights I go to bed before 10pm. Who knew that as you got older the people who raised you got younger?

 I guess somewhere we meet in the middle though. These days my generation, Gen Y, is growing accustomed to the past. We listen to music from our parents adolescent times, watch movies that were popular at that time, and even some fashion trends have come back. And I feel like parents think it is so weird that kids like what they used to like, but in the end, this kind of answers my question. We are all getting older but are parent's just feel younger because they are reminded so much of what was going on when they were younger.  It's pretty weird to think about the fact that my kids will think Justin Bieber is old someday. I never want to get old.

Crime Shows: What's all the hype?

Being an avid TV watcher, I find myself getting addicted to one show and then proceeding to watch all episodes of that show on Netflix or anywhere I can find it. Recently I discovered "Criminal Minds". If you don't watch the show I am sure you have heard some mention of it because it seems like everyone I talk to is addicted to it as well these days. It is a CSI like show which has a new case each episode that is solved within the hour long episode. Although the story is usually new each week, the series keeps the same cast from week to week and reveals details of each of their personal lives as well.

When I first heard about the series I was not interested at all because I just thought it would be another CSI or Law and Order type show (which it is). But something about "Criminal Minds" makes it addicting. I have literally watch every episode I could find on TiVo throughout the weekend. After realizing how addicting this show is I began to think about what a huge obsession that American TV watcher's have with crime driven shows that showcase hero's that capture and punish bad guys. Since long before I was born, I know that there were TVs shows like "Tales of Texas Rangers", "Boston Blackie", and now today there are even reality shows revolving around  criminals like "Cops". It seems like this is an addiction to people wanting to seek justice in any way they can. And in these kind of shows, viewers can live in a fantasy where justice is always served. I believe that because of these attitudes, these shows will forever be popular and engaging to viewers.

Over 15 TV Shows about Investigation, Crime, and Punishment can be found on the Top 100 TV Shows List

Football Fall

Denver Broncos Training Camp 2010

Since when did all the football hype begin when I am still thinking about going to baseball games in the heat of the summer? This is a question I asked myself in the end of July when my Broncos crazy mom asked if I wanted to go to Broncos training camp to watch the tram practice. I thought to myself, doesn't this only happen in Texas? Apparently not. For the first time this year I guess I woke up to smell the pigskin and realized that pre-season football is almost as popular as the regular season. Avid fans like to watch the players from the beginning to the end of the season. Growing up I can just remember watching football when it was cold out, like during Thanksgiving and eating Chili in February on Super Bowl Sunday. Never can I remember hearing about fans going to training camps to watch the players merely warm up in the heat of July. 

Football season hit me even harder when I came back to school in Texas though. I was abroad last fall so I missed football season at SMU with the Mustang's comeback. Yet, after finally giving into my mom's pleading, I attended a session of Broncos training camp in Denver with her this summer. After this I was so much more excited to go to my first SMU game of my senior year. I have even begun to notice how big an event high school football is to the people of Highland Park. Seeing Ford Stadium packed on a Friday night almost completely full with Scots fans proves their love for football.

I guess I can now admit that football whether it being high school, NFL or even college is a big deal to not only Texans (I mostly thought this because of what I saw on Friday Night Lights), but to Americans all over the country. Sunday and Monday nights in the fall (end of summer too I guess) is all about football. They even have a theme song that my mom loves to sing over and over again while watching. Football is such a huge part of American culture, and this year I am going to start to embrace it like a true fan. My mom will be proud.

A Little Thing That Drives Me Crazy....

Everyone has their own pet peeves, aka what drives them up the wall. According to the results of my Multiple Intelligences test that I took this weekend I scored highest in the interpersonal and linguistic category.  I am and have always been a people person, yet most of the time I cannot help but blurt out or almost word vomit at people who always think that they are right. Everyone makes mistakes in life, but people who cannot admit to their wrong doing or thinking really make me cringe.
What's worse it seems like those who ALWAYS think they are right usually try and lie after the fact when they figure out they are wrong. This usually just makes everything so much worse in the long run. Although I have only been around a mere 22 years, I have learned that admitting to being wrong can be the best lesson one can learn sometimes. It's OK to take a chance, but everyone is going to be wrong at some point.

Newly Addicted

This past labor day weekend I had the pleasure of visiting the Sin City for the first time. Although I just turned 22 this past Thursday, I was never one who was dying to go to Vegas the minute I became legal. I have to say though, I was blown away from the moment we got of off the plane. The city is complete with mass amounts of alcohol, gambling, and "anything goes" clothing. After a few days of exploring the strip, celebrity watching, and feeling rebellious walking around with a drink EVERYWHERE, on our last night in Vegas we finally started to do some gambling.

Being a bit intimidated we started off with the slots (only 25 cent ones at first). But as the night carried on and the free drinks kept coming we moved on to the craps and blackjack tables. When 3 am hit and we realized that we had basically been sitting at the same blackjack table all night I actually realized how people become addicted to gambling. Even though we were sitting at the lowest buy in table of $15 as we kept collecting chips, it felt like we were playing with monopoly money or something. And fortunately others playing at our table along with the dealer were helping us by telling us when to hit/stay and how much to bet. We did leave the table at about 12:30 for a quick break, but found ourselves back at the same table about 15 minutes later.  It was so addicting! Being first time gamblers we learned that the casino's have a few tricks up their sleeves to keep gamblers wanting more. They pump oxygen into their casino's to keep people awake, they do not have clocks ANYWHERE, and the carpets are crazy patterns so that your eyes are always up on the tables, slot machines, etc.

It seems to make more sense now because I have left Las Vegas, but I now realize how easily a gambling addiction can occur. You think you are doing so well, but as soon as you win a lot you can loose that just as easily. Fortunately we cashed out when we won a lot more than we put in.I plan on going to the Winstar in Oklahoma very soon to try my luck again!