[Merry Christmas 2009!]

Noticed that I was being reflected in the ornaments while trying to take photos of them, so I gathered the siblings around and took a photo of the 4 of us in an ornament. I think I may give my Mom a high-res print of this for Christmas next year? Shhh!

Merry Christmas everyone!

[Weekly Pick-Me-Up: Border Patrol?]

This video made me LOL [aka slightly chuckle] when I first saw it. Hope you find it a light amusement during this time of holiday insanity.

[Weekly Pick-Me-Up: Hey Ya]

I've decided to start doing a weekly pick-me-up post that contains something meant to cheer one up. I'll aim to do this on Wednesday, since who really likes Wednesday? However, since I just thought of this, I'm posting this one now. Enjoy!

I wish my high school were this awesome... One high school's video production class' interpretation of the Outkast song "Hey Ya".

[Concert Review: Paramore]

Semesters over! More details about that in an upcoming post, but now I am posting things that have been sitting around as drafts for a while... >.>

Talk about a late concert review; better late than never? I saw Paramore at the House of Blues Orlando on Monday, October 26. The Swellers and Paper Route were the opening bands. They were okay, but enough about them.

This was my second time seeing Paramore in concert, the first time being back during freshman year at the Hard Rock Live. This was also my...7th(?) House of Blues show. [I'll figure out the actual number sometime.] Without a doubt though, this was the most packed I have EVER seen the House of Blues. I knew the show was sold-out, but there was NO maneuvering possible on the pit floor because there were just so many bodies packed onto it. It was insane! No worries, I still managed to get front and center =D

Paramore blew me away. Hayley [lead singer] has a fantastic stage presence and still managed to hit her ridiculous high notes while jumping around and rocking out on stage. I highly recommend that everyone see them in concert, but even more so if you are a fan. Below are some of the photos I took on my phone. Personally, I cannot wait until the day when camera phones make banning real cameras from concerts obsolete. But that's another post...

Songs Played that I Remember:

Careful
Ignorance
Playing God
Brick by Boring Brick
Turn It Off
Looking Up

Where the Lines Overlap
Misguided Ghosts [acoustic]
Conspiracy
Decode
I Caught Myself
Misery Business


They played most of the songs from their newly released album "Brand New Eyes", but that was expected and perfectly fine with me, as I believe it to be the best of the three albums they currently have out. I definitely plan on seeing them in concert again and hope you do too! What an amazing concert.

[texting tirade]

Clarification: this post is a tirade about texting, not a tirade via texting.

Now, I love to text. Sometimes you are in a situation where information is needed but you cannot talk on the phone, so you text. Maybe you need to share a quick tidbit of information, but its not so overly important that you need a response immediately, so you text. Sometimes you just feel like texting, so you text. I am perfectly fine with that. What I am not okay with though is the current trend I see in my fellow college-aged peers of using texting as an excuse for good manners. For instance, that image on the left is one of the top shared bumper stickers on Facebook at the moment. Since when has an awkward situation ever been alleviated by texting? Not only does it make it more awkward since one person is now actively ignoring the other, but the situation will still be there once you're done texting. The beauty and the curse of texting: it usually takes a short amount of time.

Another example of this, the one that really bugs me and I try my best to not ever do myself, is when you are having a face-to-face conversation with someone and they start texting mid-convo. This usually results in the texter not paying attention to the person in front of them and having to ask for whatever was said while they answered their life-or-death important text message to be repeated. I understand that texts are important and should be checked as soon as they can upon arrival, but at least excuse yourself from any live conversations you may currently be involved in so that you don't appear like a self-absorbed jerk.

Maybe its just me, but I think that my generation, THE texting generation, needs to figure out how to balance real life interactions with those fed through their QWERTY keyboards...

[a peck of characters]

Halloween this year was one of my favorites to date. I personally love dressing up as much as I can, whether its in business attire for the copious number of job/graduate fairs at UCF, fancy attire for the random nice night out with my friends or costume, which is unfortunately basically limited to fan conventions or Halloween. So I tend to go all out costume-wise around this time of year.

Conveniently, Halloween fell on a Saturday this year - which means parties were being held starting on Wednesday [welcome to college]. I attended 3 parties: my job's annual  Halloween party on Friday and two parties different parties held by friends, one Friday, one Saturday. Over the course of the weekend, I was a Slytherin student [my fall-back, fall-back costume that I where any time I possibly can], a geisha [my fall-back costume from 2007] and a jester! My jester costume was made from scratch [bar the leotard] by my lovely roommate Christine and yours truly. To the right is the only full-length photo of me in my costume with the face paint on; my friend Stephanie went as a PETA poster, haha.

The best part of the weekend though? Gaining an extra hour of sleep Saturday night. YESSS! I'm already staying up late and wasting the few days I have of actually feeling the effects of that extra hour, but alas.

Nothing specific in that entry title, other that I like the unit of measurement known as a peck and the world is full of characters, but more so on Halloween. And there it is.

[Book Review: The Time Traveler's Wife]

Being that I spend an unhealthy amount of time in bookstores and libraries, I had seen the novel 'The Time Traveler's Wife' around plenty of times since it was published back in 2004, but I never thought to pick it up and check it out because it didn't seem like my kind of book. Then I saw the preview for the movie being made of it back during the Spring and it seemed like a very interesting premise of a story.

Which brings us to now, with me just finishing the book [borrowed from the library] and immediately buying my own copy so I can reread it at leisure in the future. I was very pleased with the book overall: it had a unique narrative style, literally jumping through time to slowly reveal the intertwined stories of Henry and Claire, the two main characters of the novel, and their interactions at various points in each others lives. The supporting characters are just as interesting as the main ones, but the main captivating concept that truly had me absorbed in this book throughout and even now was the author's concept of time travel and all the philosophical, physical, scientific, and even genetic aspects of her created 'affliction.' At first it seemed intimidating that the story would be jumping around through time, but the reader quickly catches on and is quickly taken for one of the most thrilling novel rides I've had in a while. I highly recommend this book and give it 4.5 stars out of 5.

Now I'm afraid to read anything else, having read two ridiculously good novels [The Book Thief, now this] in such proximity of each other, haha. Just kidding, I'm always reading - ever on a quest for that next great novel!

[Happy Autumn!]

I feel like I can actually say this now that Florida has experienced some cooler weather these past few days. Its been lovely and I hope it continues for a good long while.





I'm considering starting another project 365, where I take a photo a day for a year. I haven't decided on a start date yet, but I'll make sure to post here when I do and post my favorites here as well. Hope everyone is having a great week so far!

[Book Review: My Soul to Take]

In an effort to level out my book reviews by including books I've read and disliked, I am including this review of the book "My Soul to Take" by Rachel Vincent. Based around the concept of banshees [or bean sidhes] in modern day society, this book is the first in Vincent's 'Soul Screamers' series. Protagonist Kaylee appears to be a normal high school junior - except for the fact that she starts having premonitions about people around her who are going to die in the immediate future and has the uncontrollable urge to scream when the premonition occurs.

Sounds like an interesting concept, right? It is... but the book is poorly written, with cardboard characters, unnecessary implied sexual tension [its published by Harlequin Teen - enough said], and a desperate out-of-nowhere ending that is meant to hook you into wanting to read the sequel [My Soul to Save, out Jan 2010], but failing miserably. I only finished the book because it was relatively short and because I have been happily surprised by books before. Unfortunately, not this one.

[Book Review: The Book Thief]

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

This book first caught my attention a few years ago when I saw it was on the Barnes & Noble Top 10 list for weeks at a time. I didn't really look into it, but added it to my ongoing list [located in Gmail drafts =D] of books to check out. Fast forward to about 2 months ago when my roommate Jamie offered her copy of 'The Book Theif' to me to read when I asked for reading suggestions. It sat on my shelf for a few weeks, but I finally got around to it about 3 weeks ago - and haven't been able to stop thinking about it until just a few moments ago when I finished it and I know it will be mind fodder for quite a while.

Without giving too much away, the novel is narrated by Death and he is telling the story of Liesel, a young German girl during World War 2. It follows her life during this historical period, giving a unique view of life in Germany at this time and introducing the reader to her unforgettable foster parents, her ever-present neighborhood friend Rudy, Isla Hermann and her vast library and to the reason why Liesel becomes known as the book thief. I'm not sure how to explain the draw of the book, other than that Death is a fascinatingly quirky narrator and your find yourself being drawn into the story and into the various characters' stories in such a way that you're actually sad when the book has to end.

I highly recommend this book to everybody who likes a compelling and unforgettable story, even if you don't like reading as much as I do.

Noteworthy Quotes:

--Like most misery, it started with apparent happiness.
--Whispering adults hardly inspire(d) confidence.
--Humans like to watch a little destruction. Sand castles, houses of cards, that's where they begin. Their great skill is their capacity to escalate.
--Proof again of the contradictory human being. So much good, so much evil. Just add water.
--Competence was attractive.

[seasons]

I miss having seasons. Especially right now when autumn, my favorite season of all, is in full swing all over the country EXCEPT Florida. We need a permanent cold front to just park itself over the state until May - seriously.



"And I could replace you with older pictures of you, from back when you looked happy."

[Concert Review: Flyleaf]

I was part of a lucky group of people who got to see Flyleaf perform in the WJRR AT&T Listening Lounge on Monday. It wasn't officially a concert since there were only like 30 people in the lounge, but there was live music being performed and people listening to it, so its close enough to warrant a review.



When I first heard about Flyleaf, it was relation to their song "I'm So Sick", which I was not initially impressed with. It was screamy and got irritating by the 2nd rendition of the chorus. But then I heard more of their music, particularly "All Around Me", "Cassie", "Fully Alive" and "Breathe Today". These are hands down my favorite songs by them and quickly turned me into a fan.



At the WJRR session on Monday, they were sharing about their sophomore album, Memento Mori, which is set to be released on November 10. They (lead singer Lacey and guitarist Jared) played two songs from the album: "Again" and "Arise". They also shared the music videos for the songs "Again" and "Beautiful Bride". All were fantastic, though 'Again' was my hand-down favorite. They answered a few questions from the audience and the radio DJs, then hung around for an autograph/photo session.

Overall, it was a great afternoon event. I am really looking forward to Flyleaf's second studio album and I cannot wait to actually see them in concert sometime!

[hardly inspired confidence]

Greetings! I know its Wednesday, but better a late weekly blog post than a non-existent one. Basically I just wanted to post that I got a 'new' camera, a Canon Rebel XTi, the type of camera I have been dreaming about owning since I learned what pretty photography looked like (!!!!) I'm trying very hard not to type in all caps to reflect my excitement right now.

So basically, be prepared for lots more photos in my blog =D

The title of this post comes from this quote: "Whispering adults hardly inspire(d) confidence." Its from the novel "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak, which I am currently reading and currently very, very pleased with. I have lots of other favorite quotes which I will share when I finish the book. Check it out if you're looking for something good to read!

[Concert Review: Blink-182]

My good friend Jen Loglia [her blog] won tickets from a radio station to go see Blink-182 in concert in Tampa and I was the lucky person she chose to go with her!

It took place yesterday [Sunday, September 27, 2009] at the Ford Amphitheater in Tampa, Florida. [Just a side note, I hate Ford Amphitheater. I had always thought that I would forever dislike outdoor venues and that they all sucked - until I went to Bayfront Park in Miami, which is an intimate outdoor venue, if that's possible to believe.]

Playing that day was Asher Roth, All-American Rejects, Fall Out Boy and Blink-182. I did not see Asher Roth and will consider myself better for it.

All-American Rejects were just okay: Tyson Ritter [the lead singer] had recently suffered a leg injury of sorts that rendered him in a full-length leg cast and wheeled around in a wheelchair for parts of the performance. He was also clearly doped up on pain meds; he had joked about it at the beginning of his performance, but I didn't realize he was serious until he held the mic up at various times to his wheelchair girl to sing and had the audience sing about 70% of "Gives You Hell" (their latest single). Overall, I think it could have been better, but I will forgive them this time...

Fall Out Boy was just okay, as well. Note: this was the FOURTH time I have seen Fall Out Boy in concert (them being my very first concert for UCF's Homecoming back in Nov. 2007). This was also my least favorite time seeing Fall Out Boy, though I will say that the venue may have had something to do with that, with its obnoxiously distorting speakers and literally blinding LCD screens. FOB played their big hits (Dance Dance, Thanks for the Memories, Sugar We're Going Down, etc), as well as various songs from across their 3 albums. Overall, they were a good runner-up band to Blink-182.

Finally, Blink-182 came on stage - and they made the entire 3-hour roundtrip drive, 90+ degree heat and crappy venue worth it. They were everything you'd expect from Blink-182 in concert: crazy, funny, potty-mouthed, goofing off with on-stage antics [drinking contest on stage, anyone?] - and seriously rocking out. The guys put on a great show, playing many of their popular radio hits [What's My Age Again, I Miss You, The Rock Show, All the Small Things, etc] as well as some other songs from their older albums. The camera loved panning over Travis Barker (drummer) and rightfully so: he's one of the most talented drummers in the music industry at the moment, further showcased by an insane drum solo on an aerial stage that was suspended in mid-air during their encore. Overall, I would highly recommend seeing them to anyone who loves even one Blink-182 song or just loves being at a good rock show. Here's to hoping they stick together and come out with a new album soon!

[september, where'd you go]

Its junior year of college and I think I've finally got it down! So far this semester, I've been keeping up with my classwork [abnormal psychology, developmental psychology, perception, and spanish 1], working [campus job + research], balancing my extracurricular activities [Honors Congress and club ultimate frisbee] and actually having time to socialize with friends and such. The new apartment is great; my roommates and I took a bunch of black & white photos of us and our friends to decorate and that was loads of fun [link to album]. I'm loving it.

Weekend Wrap-Up:

This past weekend was one of the most epic I have had in a while. If its any indication, it basically started on Thursday night.

Thursday
>Chevelle Concert at House of Blues. Went with Concert Buddy Robert, had an excellent time, would hihgly recommend seeing them live if you like their music. Nothing like a hard rock concert, a good mosh pit, and excellent music to make everything feel great! (Link to my concert review) A few fights broke out, but no pit-poopers!

Friday
>Apartment pics with the roommates. Lots of fun.

Saturday
>Went to Gainesville, went kayaking at Cedar Key, spent the night at UF

Sunday
>Back to UCF for 3 hours, then went to the Ford Amphitheater in Tampa for the Blink-182/Fall Out Boy/All-American Rejects/Asher Roth concert, back to UCF to pass out for 5 hours for class today.

Most-insane-but-awesome-weekend-ever.


This week I Recommend

>Concerts: 1) Find a band/artist you like that is touring. 2) Buy tickets. 3) Go to concert. 4) Rock out/jazz out/rap out/country out/all of the above? 5) Rinse and repeat. Nothing beats seeing a band live. Especially at a cool venue like the House of Blues [Chevelle was my 6th(!) concert there].

>Stretching: I don't do it enough, case in point that my shoulders are still ridiculously sore from kayaking on Saturday. Hopefully I don't forget this crucial step next time.

This Week I Don't Recommend

>Rocks: Rocks are boring, unless your a geologist or referring to the music genre. This weekend I gashed my foot on an underwater rock while exploring Cedar Key. It didn't even give the satisfaction of showing itself to me so that I could glare at it. Stupid rock.

[Concert Review: Chevelle]

I have been listening to Chevelle music for years and not even realizing it; their songs 'The Red', 'Send the Pain Below', and 'The Clincher' are rock radio station staples. However, I did not truly start listening to them until about a year and a half ago when I got some of their music from a friend [JoeK] who really likes them. I've been in love ever since.

My concert buddy for Chevelle was my good friend RobertL and the concert took place at the House of Blues Orlando [best venue ever, in my opinion, which I would like to note allows moshing - basically a requirement for a hard rock concert to be worthwhile.] The opening acts were After Midnight Project and Halestorm. After Midnight Project was a decent band; not bad but nothing memorable. Halestorm, however, was a great surprise. With a female lead singer who truly knows how to rock out, Halestorm put on a great performance, even coming out and doing an all-band drum jam session at one point. I will definitely be looking out for more of their music in the near future. [Another note: look how close we got to the stage; Robert and I have this making-our-way-to-the-front-of-the-pit thing DOWN!]

Then Chevelle came on. And rocked out. Hard. It was a fantastic concert. They played all of their radio hits ['The Red', 'The Clincher', 'Send the Pain Below', 'Closure', 'I Get It'], some songs off their new album, and even played a crowd request ['Get Some', one of my 2 all-time favorite Chevelle songs - the other one is 'Forfeit']. The photo to the left was the only one I managed to snap on my phone before I put it away for safe keeping; the pit got pretty intense at that point.

Overall, I would rank this as my second favorite House of Blues concert [first being Say Anything], in my top 4 favorite concerts, and definitely a band to see again!

[Concert Review: Incubus]

I've never written a [true] concert review before, but I go to enough concerts that I feel I should start. And what better one to start with than with my all-time favorite band Incubus? Though realistically, there are few bands that I can recognize every song they play, as well as sing along with every song at the concert - like I can with Incubus. So we'll see how that goes...

Anyway, I attended the Incubus show on Sunday, August 16 at Bayfront Park in Miami. The weather was perfect [not humid, not raining, not hot - unreal for South Florida actually], the amphitheater is small so even my lawn seats had a relatively good view and the atmosphere was great.

A band from London called The Duke Spirits opened; they were alright for an opening band - nothing spectacular, nothing horrible. They were the only band before Incubus though, so I think that made me able to tolerate them more.

After the break between bands, Incubus comes out - and opens with my all-time favorite Incubus song 'Pardon Me'. I about cried I was so happy. [/mindless babble]. Overall they played 18 songs:

-Pardon Me
-Nice to Know You
-Stellar
-Anna Molly
-Megalomaniac
-Circles
-Love Hurts
-Just a Phase
-Drive (acoustic)
-Talk Show on Mute (acoustic)
-Dig (acoustic)
-Redefine
-Look Alive
-Oil and Water
-Quicksand
-A Kiss to Send Us Off
-Wish You Were Here
-Aqueous Transmission

Encore:
-Are You In?
-Cover of the Prince song "Let's Go Crazy"

It was an amazing setlist, in my opinion, with 6 songs coming from "Morning View", arguably their best album. The best part was they played the songs we know and love, but added enough flavor to each song so it wasn't like listening to a live version of a CD. For instance, they inserted an extended break in the middle of the song 'Drive', even stopping to talk with the audience for a bit before finishing the song; they played the song 'Dig' with a kind of latin rhythm that really sounded great, and they played 'Are You In?' in a jazzy style, that contrasted nicely with the other encore song 'Let's Go Crazy'.

I took some video clips of some of the performances; depending on if you can hear anything worthwhile, I'll make a compilation video of some of them.

Overall, this was an excellent concert and I would highly recommend that anyone who likes anything by Incubus go see them live - its a concert experience you don't want to miss.

[Summer of Reading]

I've been slacking blog-wise this summer, but I've been making up for it by baking and reading a lot, so that has to count for something! I'll post about my summer baking adventures another time, but this post is about the lovely books I have read throughout this summer. [Click on the images of the book covers to visit the book's Barnes and Noble page.]


Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
-This is the first book by Gladwell I have read, but I will definitely be on the lok out for his other works. This book is about outliers: people who have risen above and beyond "normal people" to achieve great successes due to their intelligence and skills. However, Gladwell makes the argument, using many facts, statistics, and easily identified examples, that all these people started out with a very tiny advantage that increased exponentially as they grew as people and within their respective fields. He also explains the 10,000 hour phenomenon, in which a person has to basically put in 10,000 hours [~10 years] of hard-working practice/devotion toward something [be it composing music or computer programming] to become a master at it. These are just two of many things Gladwell talks about in his book, and I highly recommend this fascinating read to everyone.



Fragile Eternity by Melissa Marr
-This is book three in the Wicked Lovely series by Melissa Marr, the first two books being Wicked Lovely and Ink Exchange. The premise of the books is that high-schooler Aislynn has been able to see faeries (ever-present and ever-mischevious) since she was born, but was always warned never to let them know that she could see them. They find out and chaos ensures, including her becoming a faerie queen herself (and hence immortal) and having to deal with normal life mixed with faerie court intrigues. I loved Wicked Lovely and rushed to buy Ink Exchange when it was released; however, I greatly disliked Ink Exchange, so I was hesitant to read this third one. I did though and I'm happy I did, as I've regained hope in the series. Book 4, Radiant Shadows, is announced to come out, but a release date hasn't been given yet. It will be interesting to see how Marr continues her faerie saga.


Identical by Ellen Hopkins
-I have seen people reading books by Ellen Hopkins from as far back as early high school, but the stories [usually dealing with teenagers on drugs] never seemed to interest me - until this one. Identical sisters Kaeleigh and Reanne appear to have an awesome life: politician mother, court judge father, successful high schools lives. However, that's all on the surface, since their lives are anything but perfect, including abuse of varying types, an oblivious mother, and varying secrets that reveal themselves throughout the book with hints along the way to the really big one. I would recommend this book, as it is definitely one of the most interesting twists I have read in a book in a long time, but I will also say that it is one of the most intense books I have ever read and that I personally felt emotionally drained by the end of it...


-The Mortal Instruments Trilogy by Cassandra Clare
City of Bones/City of Ashes/City of Glass
-I borrowed the first book [City of Bones] from the library as I had heard multiple people recommend the series to me. I started reading it and was bored: the story was predictable, the characters very boring, and basically uninteresting overall. I even removed by bookmark at one point, giving up on the books. But I remembered those recommendations and kept at it - and WOW am I glad I did. The story picked up the story sucked me in and I finished the book at 3:45am the morning of one of my summer class finals; I was hooked enough to go out and buy all three books that evening and finished the second and third books within 2 days of buying them [these are not short books, by the way, averaging 400 pages each]. This fantasy trilogy centers around the world of the Shadowhunters, a race of people given the job by an angel to rid the earth of demons, who travel here from other dimensions. The story centers around Clary, a girl whose just enjoying life. but quickly gets sucked into this world, finding out she is descended from the Shadowhunter line and that she needs to stop a very powerful Shadowhunter-gone-bad in order to save her mother. This series was definitely my favorite reads of the summer and I'm glad I stuck it out.

[sisterly love]

A conversation I had on Facebook with my little sister Jennifer. Note: she's 12, insisted on getting a Facebook despite me telling her not to, has no idea how to use it, and swears everything my brothers tell her [ages 17 and 14] is correct. She's great =D

(10:06am) Melissa: hi

(10:07am) Jennifer: hello

(10:07am) Melissa: what smiley? i didn't send you a smiley

i sent you a bumper sticker

(10:07am) Jennifer: a bumper sticker

yes

(10:08am) Melissa:you click on it and then add the bumper sticker application

then you'll see the sticker i sent you

(10:08am) Jennifer: where do u go 2 find it?

(10:09am) Melissa: gah, never mind

i'll show you when you come up next week

(10:09am) Jennifer: ok

(10:09am) Melissa: there is no transformers 3

(10:09am) Jennifer: yes there is

came out yesterday

newton saw it wit oneal

(10:09am) Melissa: .....................................

that's transformers 2

idiot

(10:10am) Jennifer: its called revenge of the fallen

3

(10:10am) Melissa: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transformers_2

read that article

see the link? it says 'transformers 2'

what is the title of the article that it leads to?

(10:11am) Jennifer: y do always have to look into stuff like that?

(10:11am) Melissa: YOU

ARE

STUPID

AND

CAN'T

ADMIT

IT

(10:11am) Jennifer: shutup u tard

(10:11am) Melissa: ummm, i repeat:

YOU

ARE

STUPID

AND

CAN'T

ADMIT

IT

(10:12am) Jennifer: they said it wuz 3 cuz they saw 1 and 2 already

(10:12am) Melissa: THERE. IS. NO. TRANSFORMERS. 3.

they played you baddddd

and you fell for it

hahahahahah

(10:12am) Jennifer: then wat came out yesterday?

(10:12am) Melissa: transformers 2. are you not listening to me?

(10:13am) Jennifer: cuz i saw 1 and 2

(10:13am) Melissa: no you didn't

gah, stop talking to me

(10:14am) Jennifer: watever u liar

wats gah?

(10:14am) Melissa: "It is the sequel to 2007's Transformers, which was the first live action Transformers film. "

(10:14am) Jennifer: is it rainin up there like everyday?

(10:14am) Melissa: what does that say?

(10:14am) Jennifer: wat does wat say

(10:14am) Melissa: no, its not raining, its just unnaturally hot

'gah' is a sound of frustration made by people when other people are being stupid

(10:15am) Jennifer: u dont write it!

(10:15am) Melissa: i can write what i want

(10:15am) Jennifer: yur tellin me:(

(10:18am) Jennifer: were r u?

jk

no seriously

(10:22am) Melissa: ok ttyl

(10:22am) Jennifer: bye

wers my bumper?

sticker?

(10:22am) Melissa: btw, read my blog; i'm about to post our conversation and let people know how awesomely dumb you can be <3

(10:22am) Jennifer: nooooooooo!

dont u dare!

(10:23am) Melissa: :)

(10:24am) Jennifer: dont post it!

(10:24am) Melissa: peace

(10:24am) Jennifer: melissa!

I love my sister <3

Chinpokofacebook

I do not watch the show South Park very often, mainly because I just don't watch television that often*. Of the episodes I have seen, many of them sucked - like "The China Problem" where Indiana Jones gets violated by Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, or "Hell on Earth 2006" in which, among other stupid things, Steve Irwin gets parodied in hell literally weeks after his death.

However, there have been some very good ones. Some of my personal favorites are:
> Canada on Strike, in which Canada goes on a strike to gain the respect of the world. Its not particularly philosphically inspiring, but it has some very funny and quotable moments.

> Go God Go, part 1 and part 2. Hands down my favorite South Park episodes ever. Richard Dawkins, famed atheist and evolutionary biologist, is brought in to teach the kids about evolution, while Cartman cannot wait three weeks to get his Wii and cryogenically freezes himself [by accident] for a few thousand years. Chaos and philosophical battles [gasp!] ensue.

> Chinpokomon, an episode telling about the fickle nature of society and fad toys, like Pokemon. In the episode, the Japanese are using Chinpokomon to brainwash America's children in a plot to destroy Pearl Harbor. It all seems to be going according to plan until the parents realize that the only way to get their kids to stop liking Chinpokomon is to start liking it themselves; it works and the Japanese plot is foiled.


And that brings me to the point of this post: Facebook is rapidly becoming undesirable due to the fact that more and more parents are joining it and gaining access to their children's Facebook lives. [My Parents Joined Facebook is a funny site to visit if you are ever bored.] Now, I am not saying that older people getting cyber-savvy is a bad thing; in fact, I applaud it and am working on getting my mother more comfortable with texting and emailing me.

However, I constantly see when friends will update their statuses or post a link to a funny article and their parents will berate them or annoy them about it - ON FACEBOOK! It drives me nuts and I'm not even the one getting the parental talkdown. Of course, one should always follow the rule of never posting anything on Facebook your mother or grandmother would disapprove of, but that would vastly limit your content, seeing as they are from a different time and generation.

This brings to mind another point though: one day WE are going to be the parents and our kids will be joining Facebook. That will definitely be an interesting dilemma, but we'll cross that bridge when [if] we get to it.

Now I will still be an avid user of Facebook [as long as it stays free] and I would probably add my mother if she ever got around to learning about the addiction that is Facebook. However, she would definitely be seeing a limited version of my profile and I definitely see an long-term Chinpokomon-like dissatisfaction brewing among us college-aged users with the introduction of more parents to Facebook.