hooked on the "book"

i am currently a member of a variety of social network platforms, from the ever-popular facebook, to hypemachine and twitter.  recently, my workload for my courses picked up due to midterms and i found myself with not enough time in the day to complete all my assignments and study for upcoming tests.  i began thinking about where i allocate my free time and the biggest time sucking leech i could think of was facebook.  i realized that i usually spend hours on facebook simply looking at pictures people put up or "creeping" on people by seeing who wrote what on who's wall.  i decided to see how long i could go without logging into facebook and, to my surprise, i have lasted two whole weeks.  intially, i was not sure what i was going to do with my newly found free time, but i quickly realized that what i considered free time before was actually time that could be spent completing the monstrous laundry list of assignments and studying i needed to do.  i  knew i spent a lot of time on facebook, but i never realized how much valuable time i was actually wasting.  over these past two weeks i have found that i am more productive and i actually go to bed earlier because i'm not worried about missing something "important" on my news feed.  i was originally going to end this little experiment when my week of midterms is over on friday, but now i think i'll keep pushing through and see just how long i can go.  i never thought life without facebook would be this much easier, but then again i almost forgot that there was life before facebook when i was still addicted to it.  i honestly think everyone should try this at some point, you'll be surprised how much time you waste "liking" things and "poking" people.

mother knows best

have your parents ever confronted you about something that you were sure they didn't know anything about?  did you wonder how they could possibly know anything about it since you obviously didn't tell them? my sophomore year of high school my friends and i were bored so we were driving around town trying to figure out something to do.  as teenagers, naturally, the first thing that came to mind was to toilet paper my best friend's house because we knew she was going to be out of town all weekend.  for quite some time we had been wanting to try "vaselining" and saran-wrapping someone's car, so this was the perfect opportunity.  "vaselining" consists of smearing vaseline under the car's door handles so the owner is greeted with a slimy surprise when they try to open the door.  so we gathered all of the supplies and put the plan into action. we bought the biggest package of toilet paper we could find,  a jar of vaseline and 2 rolls of saran wrap for the car.  just as we were about to finish, several cars drive by so we hit the deck and continued after they passed by.  the vaseline was in place and the car was saran wrapped shut.  all of a sudden we hear sirens and panic, because toilet papering is illegal, so we make a run for the cars and get the hell out of there, even though the sirens were definitely not because of us.  we left the crime scene completely satisfied and couldn't wait until our friend came home to see our excellent job.  the next day, i woke up to 3 or 4 missed calls and a voicemail from the friend that was driving the getaway car.  all the message said was, "dana, we've got trouble.  call me back." my heart finally worked its way out of my stomach and back to my chest and i call him back and he tells me the bad news.  apparently, what we thought was my friend's white acura just so happened to be her next door neighbor's white lexus.  did i mention the next door neighbor and the owner of the lexus just happened to be the assistant to the headmaster of my high school?  needless to say, she had quite a bit of power at our school.  she had parked her car in my friend's driveway to avoid the debris from her roof that was currently getting worked on (oh the irony) and to make it look like someone was home at my friend's house.  i guess she caught us in the act and recognized our driver's car and our high school's required parking lot sticker and traced it back to him.  however, she didn't know who all assisted in the vandalism so naturally i was not going to come clean if i didn't have to.  i guess this idea wasn't shared with the group because before i knew it i was in the dean's office discussing the events that took place.  all this time i hadn't told either of my parents about the incident because i figured i could handle it on my own and avoid extra punishment from them. well the owner of the lexus, aka the assistant to the headmaster, was not a happy camper.  she was doing everything in her power to get my friends and i in the biggest amount of trouble possible, even though there was no permanent damage to her car.  the next thing i knew, parents were being called.  once again, so much for my plan.  but to my surprise, when i overheard my mother on the phone, she knew all about the incident.  i mean every single, minute detail.  when i asked her how she knew all of the information she simply said, "i have my ways.  i'm a mom."  this was not the first time, nor certainly not the last time, i have heard or will hear these words come out of my mother's mouth.  either my mother has esp or she is an even better parent than i could ever imagine...

butt of the joke

one of my favorite qualities in people is the ability to make fun of one's self, especially when these people happen to be celebrities.  we have all done something dumb in our lives at least once or twice.  i think the ability to laugh off these mistakes and not take things so seriously is one of the key factors in living an enjoyable life.  above is a hyundai commercial featuring brett favre.  he is poking fun at himself and all of the criticism he receives for being one of the oldest football players still currently playing in the nfl.  he is aware that many of the criticisms are true and he can't help that.  i just love that he agreed to star in a commercial that makes fun of himself for the majority of the spot.  the same goes for saturday night live where the celebrity hosts are constantly seen making fun of themselves for something that the media has recently gotten light of.  as much as lindsay lohan has messed up in her life, i still give her credit for being able to make fun of her self.  she was recently seen on the mtv video music awards in a skit making fun of her recent troubles with alcohol abuse and her infamous scram ankle bracelet.  although i don't condone what they may have done, i do admire this ability to laugh things off and i am glad i am able to incorporate this into my life also.  i can't even imagine how stressed i would be all of the time if i couldn't laugh at myself every once and a while.

"you grow up the day you have your first real laugh -- at yourself" -ethel barrymore

book of revelations

ever since i took my first advertising class freshman year, survey of advertising, i fell in love with the major.  now i am a junior and i am still just as in love with it as i was at the start.  from advertising media, to intro to creativity, to advertising ethics, i haven't taken an advertising class that i haven't enjoyed.  how can i not love a subject that allows me to "study" by simply turning on the tv and recognize and apply what i have learned.  this semester i am in intro to creativity and it has shown me a whole new side of advertising, as before i wasn't as aware of what all went on on the creative side.  before this class, i always thought the creative side wasn't for me.  i was definitely one of those people that thought that creative people were simply born and that i would never be one of them.  so far, this course is proving me to be horribly wrong in that belief.  before the semester even started, when i picked up my books i knew that i was definitely going to enjoy my advertising classes this semester.  it took one quick look at the cover and flip through the book for me too remember exactly why i liked advertising, the freedom.  not many other majors can get away with having a textbook of this style, but this book reminds me of the core of advertising, which is creativity.  whether its on the management side or the creative side, creativity is used throughout the whole industry.  recognizing this, i've actually used a few of the techniques and suggestions in the book and i truly feel my creative juices flowing and i am finding myself working harder and harder to become more creative, since it does, in fact, take practice.  this course has simply reminded me of why i was drawn to advertising in the first place.

*i realize this blog is for my intro to creativity class, and i am not trying to suck up in anyway, but if a certain teacher happened to read this post, a few brownie points wouldn't hurt...just kidding...but really...

frenemies

tonight i have a volleyball match against the university of tulsa and it made me think about the term "frenemies."  playing volleyball, or any sport for that matter, you meet a lot people and make a lot of friends, whether it is the people you are playing with or the people you are playing against.  i have been playing sports since the second grade so you can imagine how many people i have met and how many friends i have made over the years.  on tulsa's volleyball team alone, i played club and high school volleyball with and against three of the girls on the team, as they are also from oklahoma (mugshots above).  what i find interesting about the friendships one often makes through playing sports is the friends you make that are your competition.  off the court you could be the best of friends and get along very well, but on the court, these are the people that i find i am most competitive with.  it's almost like i know who they are as a person, whether it be good or bad, and that somehow motivates me to want to play better so i can outplay them.  i guess it's just due to my long history of sports, but for some reason when there is a familiar face on the other side of the net i get even more competitive than usual.  frenemies is the best and only term i can think of for this situation.  i'm friends with all three of these girls until the stats come out for the weekend and then that competitive spirit comes out.  although i've made many friends through sports, they often remain competitors, first and foremost.

procrastinate now, don't put it off until later.

it's almost 2:30am and where am i? in the library of course.  coming into this week i had one quiz, two exams, one midterm, and a very important volleyball match in four consecutive days.  did i study last week in anticipation of the crazy work load i would have to deal with? of course i didn't.  did i wait until the night before to prepare for all my quizzes, exams and midterms? absolutely.  last week consisted of me sitting in front of the tv and watching all my favorite shows and going to bed before midnight.  now i find myself in the library and unsure of when i'll even be leaving, let alone going to bed.  hindsight is 20/20, but i now see my blaring mistake.  although i am complaining about all the stressful events occurring my life this week, i brought this stress upon myself.  for some reason, i have never been able to do anything productive until right around the last minute.  it's almost as if i thrive under the pressure of the deadline and that is when i produce my best work, or so it has proved true thus far in my life.  i recall beginning to read a 400+ page novel 4 days before the final over the entire novel for my freshman year english course, and finishing right on time, might i add.  countless papers crammed out at the last minute, only to receive high marks.  the list goes on and on.  this may seem extreme, but this type of procrastination has always been present in my life.  papers, studying, homework assignments, etc; all involve devastating amounts of procrastination.  i always tell myself that i will change this semester, that i will study days in advance and actually produce rough drafts and the like.  does it ever happen? take a wild guess...

"if it's not broken, don't fix it." - anonymous

filled to the brim

i went to lunch at chipotle the other day, as you can see by the picture, and when i opened up my burrito i was amazed by the sheer size of the thing.  i thought to myself, "how can any one person possibly eat all of this food in one sitting?" i barely made it through half of it before feeling like i was going to pop at any second.  this led me to start thinking about portion size and how much it has changed over the years and how this must be part of the cause of today's obesity problems. i did some searching and i came across an article on the centers for disease control and prevention website. (http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/nutrition/pdf/portion_size_research.pdf)  in the article, it states that portion sizes have, in fact, grown over the past two decades.  the article states that, "americans are surrounded by larger portion sizes at relatively low prices, appealing to the consumer's economic sensibilities."  i continued reading the article and one particular part basically jumped off the page at me and left me dumbfounded.  the article states, "there are no empirical studies to show a causal relationship between increased portion sizes and obesity, but there are short-term studies showing that controlling portion sizes helps limit calorie intake, particularly when eating high-calorie foods."  it took me awhile to pick my jaw up off the floor and wipe up the drool, but then i started thinking about how there is absolutely no way that the increasing portion size isn't a direct in obesity.  it just seems like plain common sense that people are going to tend to overeat when they are presented with a portion size that is much greater than the suggested serving size.  i just know that if i had the stomach for it, i would have finished my whole chipotle burrito bowl in one sitting because it tastes that good.  i guess it just baffles my mind that to this day, there is only short-term evidence, as stated in the article, that shows that people eat more when they are confronted with larger portion sizes.  i understand that other factors contribute to obesity, but i do not understand how a direct causation between the two has not been found.  i can't be the only one that thinks this is common sense and pretty much on the level of a high school biology paper, can i?