I always wondered about a Brit's perspective of America. And after some searching, here it is...
An article about a man's opinion of the American way of life, the attitude and the culture.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/03/books/review/Dyer-t.html
A list of the top 50 things this writer found excellent about America...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/jun/11/usa.comment
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Craigslist: A place for the everyman who just wants ice cream cargo drops.
Craigslist has gotten a bad reputation. All it wants to do is be a meeting place, a communal online bulletin board for those seeking needs, or those offering them.
Sometimes these offers are for jobs, furniture, actors, models, assistance, etc.
We have needs, people! Needs that need to be fulfilled! Needs like brownies and ice cream!
http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/bal/1589192642.html
He just wants some ice cream and brownies! Is that so much to ask? When you get snowed in and have a dire craving for some snacks and have an excess amount of money to offer for it, WHY THE HELL NOT? People get hungry. Can you just, like, drop off some food for the guy? I mean, however you wanna get it there. Like cargo drops are good. Oh wait, he specifically asked for no cargo drops. So, could you just hand-deliver them?
Or this man, who just wants someone to bedazzle jackets and dance and do non-homoerotic things to the song "Beat It" by Michael Jackson.
http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/phi/1755781713.html
He is NOT GAY. Not gay. I mean, he's gotten with hot chicks as recently as just now. He said so.
So anytime anyone has a very strange need or want, they go to this site. And you can see their awesomeness right here:
http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/all/
Sometimes these offers are for jobs, furniture, actors, models, assistance, etc.
We have needs, people! Needs that need to be fulfilled! Needs like brownies and ice cream!
http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/bal/1589192642.html
He just wants some ice cream and brownies! Is that so much to ask? When you get snowed in and have a dire craving for some snacks and have an excess amount of money to offer for it, WHY THE HELL NOT? People get hungry. Can you just, like, drop off some food for the guy? I mean, however you wanna get it there. Like cargo drops are good. Oh wait, he specifically asked for no cargo drops. So, could you just hand-deliver them?
Or this man, who just wants someone to bedazzle jackets and dance and do non-homoerotic things to the song "Beat It" by Michael Jackson.
http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/phi/1755781713.html
He is NOT GAY. Not gay. I mean, he's gotten with hot chicks as recently as just now. He said so.
So anytime anyone has a very strange need or want, they go to this site. And you can see their awesomeness right here:
http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/all/
No, that's not poorly translated: you just don't know your native language
So I have been applying for some jobs online. Some in Spain, some in the USA.
Of course, when going on a Spanish job site, one expects that the "click here for English" button will inevitably mis-translate a lot of things on the page, or at least make them awkwardly written.
After completing a Spanish online application, (which, by the way, has been the easiest of all applications I have done online, INCLUDING THOSE OF MY HOME COUNTRY), the page read
Please remember that if you are interested in applying for a job, it will not be necessary that you fill in all the fields because once you enter your email address and your password our system will accede to the information.
And I was all "ha! Accede! They translated that from 'access' which is 'acceder' in Spanish...and it resulted in this non-word!"
Then I looked it up on an English dictionary site. And it really IS a word. That means access. So I guess I just don't know my own language very well.
Of course, when going on a Spanish job site, one expects that the "click here for English" button will inevitably mis-translate a lot of things on the page, or at least make them awkwardly written.
After completing a Spanish online application, (which, by the way, has been the easiest of all applications I have done online, INCLUDING THOSE OF MY HOME COUNTRY), the page read
Please remember that if you are interested in applying for a job, it will not be necessary that you fill in all the fields because once you enter your email address and your password our system will accede to the information.
And I was all "ha! Accede! They translated that from 'access' which is 'acceder' in Spanish...and it resulted in this non-word!"
Then I looked it up on an English dictionary site. And it really IS a word. That means access. So I guess I just don't know my own language very well.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Wanna have sex? But not babies? Try birth control!
Current TV, a news channel for the younger generation, has this great show called Infomania. It critiques the online and television media in a hilarious way.
One segment is called Target Women, which is hosted by the very funny Sarah Haskins. In it, she studies commercials and ads made for women, and breaks them apart until the viewer is left to realize that they really are a bunch of rubbish.
Each Target Women has a theme, and this one is on birth control pills (obviously only for women). It really makes you think twice during the commercials, and how much the media dumbs down women.
Check it out...
One segment is called Target Women, which is hosted by the very funny Sarah Haskins. In it, she studies commercials and ads made for women, and breaks them apart until the viewer is left to realize that they really are a bunch of rubbish.
Each Target Women has a theme, and this one is on birth control pills (obviously only for women). It really makes you think twice during the commercials, and how much the media dumbs down women.
Check it out...
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Something new in teen drama...for once
As I have written before, teen drama shows are all the same. They will all say that they are groundbreaking, new, and fresh. They will always say that they "tackle tough issues." But those issues are always the same: divorce, rape, drinking, sex, drugs, being gay, eating disorders, etc.
Degrassi: The Next Generation debuted its 10th season a couple weeks ago, premiering a new episode each night, making it the show to look forward to every single night.
Being a fan from season one of the Next Generation, I have noticed a lot of repeats in this season. They seemed to be running out of story lines. A girl has weight issues, a girl goes from dork to cool, a perfectionist tries for her dream job, etc.
But tonight they showed something I have never seen before in teen shows, and I have seen a lot. A character on the show, Adam, revealed to be a transgender.
Now, it was pretty obvious it was a female actress from the beginning. Especially since it is one I recognized from another Canadian show, "Life with Derek" (Canadians recycle their actors a lot). But the actress played "Adam" who all the other characters seemed to be convinced was a male.
Then in this episode, Adam revealed that he was born in a female's body, but has related to more of a male identity since he was four or five.
I happened to see a documentary on transgenders in one of my communication courses this past year, so I already knew a bit about it, and came to understand this lifestyle a bit more than before.
This is a two-part episode that concludes tomorrow night, and I am excited to see what happens. In part one, the school finds out Adam was born female, and tomorrow night the previews show that Adam dresses and goes as his former self, Gracie, to try to put a stop to the teasing and torture at school. But it looks like Adam is super uncomfortable as a female, and it will be hard on him.
At the end of tonight's episode, the actress who plays Adam does a PSA directing viewers to the PFLAG.org site for more information.
Here is a trailer for all the episodes this week, so it only shows a smidge of the Adam storyline...
Degrassi: The Next Generation debuted its 10th season a couple weeks ago, premiering a new episode each night, making it the show to look forward to every single night.
Being a fan from season one of the Next Generation, I have noticed a lot of repeats in this season. They seemed to be running out of story lines. A girl has weight issues, a girl goes from dork to cool, a perfectionist tries for her dream job, etc.
But tonight they showed something I have never seen before in teen shows, and I have seen a lot. A character on the show, Adam, revealed to be a transgender.
Now, it was pretty obvious it was a female actress from the beginning. Especially since it is one I recognized from another Canadian show, "Life with Derek" (Canadians recycle their actors a lot). But the actress played "Adam" who all the other characters seemed to be convinced was a male.
Then in this episode, Adam revealed that he was born in a female's body, but has related to more of a male identity since he was four or five.
I happened to see a documentary on transgenders in one of my communication courses this past year, so I already knew a bit about it, and came to understand this lifestyle a bit more than before.
This is a two-part episode that concludes tomorrow night, and I am excited to see what happens. In part one, the school finds out Adam was born female, and tomorrow night the previews show that Adam dresses and goes as his former self, Gracie, to try to put a stop to the teasing and torture at school. But it looks like Adam is super uncomfortable as a female, and it will be hard on him.
At the end of tonight's episode, the actress who plays Adam does a PSA directing viewers to the PFLAG.org site for more information.
Here is a trailer for all the episodes this week, so it only shows a smidge of the Adam storyline...
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Taming the PG-13
I am a huge fan of SKINS (a risque British teen drama). When I saw this ad for EckoRed shoes with Vanessa Hudgens, it was verrrry very familiar to a SKINS ad for the first season.
Although, EckoRed is advertising to tweens in the Disney-watching market. And Skins is for high schoolers who watch "real teen shows" with druggies, uncensored swearing, sex, and otherwise scandalous material.
So clearly, if they got their inspiration from SKINS, then they toned down this commercial a bit.
What do you think?
and the SKINS promo I am talking about...
But see what I mean? photos, fun times, DJs, people dressed in animal costumes, dancing, writing on mirrors with lipstick, and outright craziness! So similar!!!
Although, EckoRed is advertising to tweens in the Disney-watching market. And Skins is for high schoolers who watch "real teen shows" with druggies, uncensored swearing, sex, and otherwise scandalous material.
So clearly, if they got their inspiration from SKINS, then they toned down this commercial a bit.
What do you think?
and the SKINS promo I am talking about...
But see what I mean? photos, fun times, DJs, people dressed in animal costumes, dancing, writing on mirrors with lipstick, and outright craziness! So similar!!!
Career vs. Job
I was reading an article on the Matadornetwork.com website about racism in Moscow, (http://matadorabroad.com/should-people-of-color-go-to-russia/) and the author's bio intrigued me.
It says:
In 1992, the guidance counselor at Buster's high school distributed forms to students so they could indicate preferences for Career Day. Buster refused to take part, declaring to the principal, "I don't want a career. The point of education shouldn't be job placement." He has spent the past 17 years avoiding anything resembling a career. He's collected money from the federal government to learn obscure languages of the Caspian littoral. He's taken money to do drugs before being loaded into an MRI machine. He has read over 1,000 surveys filled out by women with breast implants. He's now in 23rd grade and spends most of his time reading library books and begging for money from various institutes, foundations and societies. He still hasn't given in.
This really made me think. That is a very good point the author makes, about education perceived as a means to an end, the end being a career. And I think other generations before us have always seen it as that way: you go to school to go to college to get a job to support your family.
Times have changed.
In one of my communications classes a few years ago, the professor was describing characteristics of our generation. Due to our exposure to technology and the internet, we (our generation) multi-task a ton, and almost can't get by without doing so.
Another characteristic that is new and different from our generation compared to others is that we now look for jobs for pleasure rather than paycheck. Our parents or even their parents used to look for a career to be able to pay for having a family and luxuries or day-to-day needs. They maybe even hated their jobs, but it didn't matter because they had a family to feed. Now, we care about ourselves even more and cannot dedicate our time and efforts into something that doesn't provide us with happiness. We want to do something we like.
Evidence of this is our generation's more "job" oriented idea of work as opposed to "career." Someone working with my dad (a man in his late 20s) had once said that this was definitely not his career. It was his job.
My aunt tells us, frustratingly, that she has to job-train so often with this new crop of people entering the workforce because they come and go once they find something better. No longer are they settling for their first job--they are constantly on a quest to do something better.
Perhaps that is why careerbuilder.com is so successful. If you are unfamiliar, this job-finding website sets itself apart in its advertising campaign by clarifying that they are not for those searching for a new job, but for those wanting to build their resume, and potentially might quit from their new jobs once they find something more fulfilling.
Obviously I am interested in this job vs. career discussion because I do fall into that generation that seeks more. But also, as a recent college graduate, I am looking for a job. Not a career, but a job. I need money and experience at this stage in my life, but I am definitely not looking to do some of these jobs for my entire life. At my grad party, every guest asked me "what do you plan to do eventually" or "what is your ultimate dream career?" There were those who responded to my answer with "that's okay that you don't know, you have time to think" but there were also those who responded with "you better go to grad school to figure that out."
I don't have to figure anything out. I don't care if I don't know what I want yet. I can get a job to collect some money first, and find interests later. I will always love math and writing. I will always love acting goofy while working with kids but also being taken seriously. I want to own a little shop of something, I don't know, maybe antiques, but I hate customer service. I like cooking but don't like dealing with picky customers.
I will do what I want. Right now, that is applying for every job I am qualified for, even if it may not be my future career.
It says:
In 1992, the guidance counselor at Buster's high school distributed forms to students so they could indicate preferences for Career Day. Buster refused to take part, declaring to the principal, "I don't want a career. The point of education shouldn't be job placement." He has spent the past 17 years avoiding anything resembling a career. He's collected money from the federal government to learn obscure languages of the Caspian littoral. He's taken money to do drugs before being loaded into an MRI machine. He has read over 1,000 surveys filled out by women with breast implants. He's now in 23rd grade and spends most of his time reading library books and begging for money from various institutes, foundations and societies. He still hasn't given in.
This really made me think. That is a very good point the author makes, about education perceived as a means to an end, the end being a career. And I think other generations before us have always seen it as that way: you go to school to go to college to get a job to support your family.
Times have changed.
In one of my communications classes a few years ago, the professor was describing characteristics of our generation. Due to our exposure to technology and the internet, we (our generation) multi-task a ton, and almost can't get by without doing so.
Another characteristic that is new and different from our generation compared to others is that we now look for jobs for pleasure rather than paycheck. Our parents or even their parents used to look for a career to be able to pay for having a family and luxuries or day-to-day needs. They maybe even hated their jobs, but it didn't matter because they had a family to feed. Now, we care about ourselves even more and cannot dedicate our time and efforts into something that doesn't provide us with happiness. We want to do something we like.
Evidence of this is our generation's more "job" oriented idea of work as opposed to "career." Someone working with my dad (a man in his late 20s) had once said that this was definitely not his career. It was his job.
My aunt tells us, frustratingly, that she has to job-train so often with this new crop of people entering the workforce because they come and go once they find something better. No longer are they settling for their first job--they are constantly on a quest to do something better.
Perhaps that is why careerbuilder.com is so successful. If you are unfamiliar, this job-finding website sets itself apart in its advertising campaign by clarifying that they are not for those searching for a new job, but for those wanting to build their resume, and potentially might quit from their new jobs once they find something more fulfilling.
Obviously I am interested in this job vs. career discussion because I do fall into that generation that seeks more. But also, as a recent college graduate, I am looking for a job. Not a career, but a job. I need money and experience at this stage in my life, but I am definitely not looking to do some of these jobs for my entire life. At my grad party, every guest asked me "what do you plan to do eventually" or "what is your ultimate dream career?" There were those who responded to my answer with "that's okay that you don't know, you have time to think" but there were also those who responded with "you better go to grad school to figure that out."
I don't have to figure anything out. I don't care if I don't know what I want yet. I can get a job to collect some money first, and find interests later. I will always love math and writing. I will always love acting goofy while working with kids but also being taken seriously. I want to own a little shop of something, I don't know, maybe antiques, but I hate customer service. I like cooking but don't like dealing with picky customers.
I will do what I want. Right now, that is applying for every job I am qualified for, even if it may not be my future career.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Diablo Cody interviews Adam Brody
Diablo Cody (writer and director of Juno, Jennifer's Body) sits down with actor Adam Brody (The OC), and it is a gem.
Some people find Diablo Cody's dialogue (in her movies, that is...I don't think people really talk to her in person) annoying, but I find this interview pretty hilarious. Especially the "Tiki Ten" rapidfire questioning at the end. But the whole interview is great.
Have a look...
Some people find Diablo Cody's dialogue (in her movies, that is...I don't think people really talk to her in person) annoying, but I find this interview pretty hilarious. Especially the "Tiki Ten" rapidfire questioning at the end. But the whole interview is great.
Have a look...
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Not birthday wishes.
Facebook notified me of this on my feed today...
Except, neither are birthday wishes. Can people post on my wall without the yearly obligation of a birthday notification being their motivation? CAN I NOT HAVE FRIENDS, FACEBOOK!?
Except, neither are birthday wishes. Can people post on my wall without the yearly obligation of a birthday notification being their motivation? CAN I NOT HAVE FRIENDS, FACEBOOK!?
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