oh the irony

...so i was thinking recently...

about the irony in this class. i knew that after taking this media class i would probably have somewhat strong desires to cut back on the different aspects of media in my life...if not completely cut them out entirely. and yet here i am consuming more media that i would regularly...quite a bit more in fact. now i have a blog. and for the sexual content assignment i had to watch three tv shows in one week?! i never watch tv and as i've been watching it this week for that assignment i've fallen asleep a few times haha. its SUCH a waste of time :/ everything on tv is honestly...hardly worth watching at all haha. and for our content analysis, i'm watching two extra movies that i would probably not have watched on my own.

just a clarification: i am NOT complaining whatsoever. this is not a realization that has made me upset or anything. in fact i find it quite entertaining and chuckled about it when discovered earlier today. haha. interesting that in order to be aware of what we consume, and in order to realize the power it has over us, we have to consume more first. weird isn't it?

music memories

...so i've been thinking recently...

about music. and how i can hardly hear a song more than once without having it remind me of something from my past. a place. a person. a moment. usually a person. and if i've known you for any amount of time...there's probably a song that reminds me of you. sometimes it catches me off guard. like i'll hear something and then realize that my thoughts went to something or someone and i'm all...hmmm i guess this song reminds me of you! its weird. but i love it. good memories. good songs. for the most part...its annoying how sometimes this can ruin a song too. but for the most part my song memories are decent....wow this brings back so many memories. haha try it- put itunes on shuffle and just let yourself reminisce for a bit. bittersweet that's for sure.

songs on my mind right now:

ps you don't have to read this it won't mean anything to yall haha

grillz- christian
kiss the sky- christian again :/
eet- andrea
welcome to the black parade- brock...random haha
anything reliant k- hanna
be be your love- megan
everything- rusty
fireflies- jake
lips of an angel- nick
anything jason mrazz- dev dev
teardrops on my guitar- stu
rockstar- bryce
me and beckie- beks
lean like a cholo- kate, dee dee, and kels--my mexis :D
almost lover- elisabeth
brand new- kenton
paramore- justin
mae- isaac fergieferg
elephant love song- beki and bryce
make a man out of you- all my centenn peeps
the great escape..five minutes to midnight...anything boys like girls- nathan
you- brady
ingrid michaelson- val val and andrea
enya- jake haha
michael buble- mom
william joseph- mom, andrea, jake, rusty's family.... :/

ok i need to stop...this is making me kinda sad :/

...so i was thinking recently...

ok. wow. so as i was posting my last entry about telletubbies my roommate came home. and guess what she was singing. no, not telletubbies. but close haha she was singing arthur. y'know the cartoon little aardvark character with glasses? y'know i never knew he was an aardvark until i googled it a few years back. i always thought he was a mouse with tiny ears. but turns out he's an aardvark because it sounds better to say "arthur the aardvark" than "arthur the mouse with tiny ears." anyway, that was a random tangent but what i was getting at was this: wait i think i need to backtrack real quick.

so the first month of this sememster we didn't have a working tv. well actually we had two, but neither was really working per se. one tv played dvds only. and the other was connected to the cable...but only got like four channels with terribly fuzzy connection and so really we never watched tv. both were like those old looking wooden panneled tv, super deep and wide and heavy...we didnt have anywhere to put either, so our front room was pretty empty, but it was nice. then about a month ago, we found a random wooden entertainment set just up the street sitting on someones lawn. so we took it. and then one of our roommates borrowed a tv. and then we had three different guys try to fix the cable connection. so finally we have somewhat decent cable channels and needless to say the tv is on more than before. i am proud to say that still it's hardly ever on, but i guess that's still more than before haha

anyway, the other night my roommate and i were cooking dinner or something, and the tv was on. and we ended up settling down to watch arthur on pbs. it felt like i had just ridden the bus home from third grade. it was awesome. ever since then we've randomly been bursting out into the arthur theme song. surprising enough we know all the words to this one too. which i will say is more impressive, because there are quite a bit more words to this than the telletubbies.


ps--i just wanted to note that the entertainment set was FREE we didn't steal it. we had permission to just walk off with it. just sayin'

lullaby for college kids

...so i was thinking recently...

about my roommate's sleeping habits. ok, well not only hers but mine too i guess. we've been trying to get to bed earlier than 10:30 the last few weeks and i think we've succeeded maybe...twice? wow, sad huh. haha what's up with goals if you can never reach em. :/ anyway, one of the problems is that we're really really really not used to going to bed that early..anytime before midnight is usually crazy over here haha. so the problem is that when we get into bed before 10 we kinda just lay there for a few minutes wondering why we can't even get our eyes to close. i mean it's dark right? and we're so exhausted that at any other moment during the day if we had a chance to shut our eyes for more than a second, we would be out, whether or not we were laying down...or even sitting. seriously. but for some reason laying in bed at night...i'm awake more than ever ugh.

so on this certain evening, after our token "i'm trying to sleep so let's not talk for two whole minutes," we of course started chatting, talking about the day, laughing about...nothing usually and postponing sleeping time for a few more hours. but for some reason, instead of talking, we were like "hey, lets try singing each other to sleep." so guess what song popped into our heads? honestly. the first song that came to us after a long day of college life... telletubbies. really? hahaha

and for some reason, we both knew the whole tune and whatever rediculous words are in the song and the NAMES OF THE FREAKING TELLETUBBIES. wow. who knew that we were so educated on our children's entertainment. hahaha

all i can say, is props to whoever comes up with the catchy, irritating, but incredibly memorable children's shows music. and how the heck does it stay in your head years and years and years after you watched the show that ONE time...?!?!?!?! because i know i didn't watch that more than once...or twice...ok ok maybe a few times.....

facebook fast

...so i was thinking recently...

in class today actually. the whole topic of video games (as you can see in one of my previous posts) kinda hits home for me and i was getting a little frustrated in class today. basically video games is my least favorite of all types of media, and honestly i have a hard time finding any good in them...at all. maybe i'm judgemental or maybe i'm right, but either way i have these crazy ultimatums in my mind that i hope i never break. things like...i'm never gonna let my children play video games, at least under my roof....we're never going to own a wii or playstation or x.box or....i WILL NOT marry a gamer, or anyone even remotely close to a gamer...or maybe i will never even marry a man who's even touched the game halo...haha maybe i'm an idealist. who knows.

but then someone raised a good point. ok, so we say that addiction to video games is a terrible thing...what about those of us who are addicted to other types of media....i'm pretty sure facebook was specifically called out at that moment. ouch. ok...take a step back, kass and look at yourself. honestly tell me that you're not a fb addict....i don't think i can say that and look myself in the eye...

not that i think facebook is ANYWHERE NEAR the same level of video gaming...but as far as the time wasted on it, in my life...wow. not ok. not ok at all. :/ when i think of all the things i could be doing instead of those hours wasted doing completely POINTLESS things on fb it kinda makes me sick. honestly...how many books could i have read in the same amount of time per day...week...month...? how many paintings could i have painted? how many people could i actually have spoken to face to face, and been able to laugh with, and touch, and hugg...? too many to count...i don't wanna do the math i think i might cry.

so because of this realization...i'm going to facebook rehab. starting with a week long fast. then after that i will maybe do another week. or at least set some rules for myself like...how about we try only getting on fb ONCE a day. hah sadly i think that's gonna be hard for me. how sad is that? but here i go...ready to conquer the world...ready to actually be with people- have virtuous friends instead of virtual ones...i'm gonna read some books. i'm gonna paint some pictures...i'm gonna kiss a boy.

ok. what the random...? where did that come from? haha but i guess that's another thing i couldn't do on facebook right?

magazine overload

...so i was thinking recently...

actually it was yesterday. we went to walmart to buy pumpkins for our festive pre-halloween carving festival. and in the checkout line, after excitedly telling the cashier about my incredibly awesome halloween costume, and while waiting for the rest of my pumpkin shopping friends, i browsed the magazines. yuck. wow. incredibly trashy, disgusting, and provacative. no wonder i don't ever read magazines. what is there to read? honestly nothing worth my time...basically ever. so...that's all i have to say about that.

The Wee Mouse Who Was Afraid of the Dark

...so i was thinking recently...

About childhood and as a child, my favorite book was definitely The Wee Mouse Who Was Afraid of the Dark by Margo Lundell. This is a short picture book, probably for children between the ages of three to six, about a little mouse girl who suddenly becomes afraid of the dark. The story takes place in a tiny animal village, built along a small river, with really detailed and vibrant pictures. The story shows her parents getting advice from various animal friends of different ways to help their daughter overcome her fear and sleep through the night.

I think the reason that this book was my favorite was because I could very directly relate to it. As a child I was very afraid of the dark and I always had a nightlight on in my bedroom. Not only could I relate to the wee mouse’s problem, but she resembled me too, as she is pictured on the front cover of the novel carrying her blanket—something that seems to be present in many of my own childhood pictures and memories. There are so many details that I remember so clearly about this book, whether it is because the book was my favorite, or because the details attributed to my liking of the book so much. I do know that the pictures were incredible and detailed, depicting little animals with people-like qualities, and outfits, perfectly balanced with a natural, but somewhat magical environment—boats made of leaves, and homes carved out of tree roots. I just remember reading this book and feeling like I was a part of this tiny, magical life, and knowing that the character in the book knew exactly how I felt. This was my first beginning in realizing that my struggles and feeling could be expressed in books in ways that would help me face and learn from them in my own life.

...so i was thinking recently...

about this experiment we had to do back in high school my...senior year i think? i actually hadn't thought about it for awhile but i went home last weekend and my mom had me share it in her young womens class because they were talking about media and it's influence in our lives.

anyway, for the month of december my seminary class went on our own personal "exodus." every student chose something important to them that they would leave behind for a month. some kids took it as a joke and said they would give up homework. other people took it as...a joke and said they would give up chocolate. i took it...as a joke and said i would give up music. ya right. like i could live without it.

but honestly i tried it...just to see what it would be like. to be daring. y'know. and guess what...i didn't die.

i know weird right?

seriously tho, i made some guidelines so that i didn't completely give it all up...i just wanted to be more...selective. so instead of listening to all my music, i gave up all worldly music. meaning that for the whole month i listened to hymns, classical music, and...efy soundtracks. one. whole. month. and because my selection of this music is somewhat..limited (we're talking like ten cds tops..haha) i did essentially give up music for most of the time. and instead i listened to silence. to clocks ticking. to the voices in my head. to cars driving past me as i went on my nightly runs. to crickets outside my window as i fell asleep. to the rumbling of my dying truck on my way to school....

and as i listened to these strange sorts of silences i discovered something else...that there was a kind of music i had been missing out on, because i always drowned it out with my other tunes. the music of the soul. the music of service. the music of silence and peace.

i found that i had more time to pray- to talk to God. i had more time to sit and reflect on things that i had learned or heard or read or felt during the day. i had more time to be aware of what was going on around me. i had more time to focus on what was important. i noticed other people more. i wanted to love them more, serve them more, i was...nicer. (if you can imagine that)

when the month was over i did get back into my music, not gonna lie. but i have tried to keep the moral of the story with me. i can't let music be everywhere all the time. i can't let it replace the thoughts in my head, the promptings in my heart. i have to be careful to not drown out what really matters.