Summertime is Everything

So over the summer, I got bored. My job at the outlet mall wasn't cutting it for me.

But really, I love doing artsy-crafty things. They give me a creative outlet and are relaxing...yet stressful. Complicated relationship.

This summer I painted, tye-died t-shirts, made bracelets, baked my first homemade pie and attempted to learn how to sew. Yes, I even bought a Sewing for Dummys book. So me and my mom went to the store and bought a pattern for a skirt and material/thread to make it with. That was an adventure - to say the least. Two different patterns later, and about 3 yards of fabric later, I had nothing to show for it.

I was discouraged. I wanted to learn the basics of sewing, without sewing something lame...like a pillow. But with only my mom's knowledge to feed off of...the projects I was starting were not turing out too good. So I had this brilliant idea to buy clothes already made, and hem/take them in/make them cute. Long story short, me and my mom went to GoodWill and I bought two skirts for like $5.

I took them home and got to work. Both skirts desperately needed to be chopped off and made short. If I've learned anything from Stacy London (What Not to Wear), it's that you should show some leg (modestly, of course). Skirts that come far below the knee, make you look shorter. So that was my first step. And I learned to measure, pin, iron, and sew. The second skirt needed to be taken in at the waist and hemmed as well.

Here is the result:

Eh? Pretty good right? My favorite part was accessorizing the skirts to give them both very different feels.

Tumbling Gym

Me, Lindsay, and Krysta went to the tumbling gym the other night and had a blast. And guess what? I did an aerial (basically a cartwheel with no hands). Needless to say, I felt like a rockstar the rest of the night.

Lindsay is an awesome gymnast, she was tearing the place up. So she was the one who taught me, and I'm so glad she did. It's one of those things that makes you feel like 'if you can do that, you can do anything.' I know it's kind of lame, and not that big of a deal, but it made me feel on top of the world.

Unfortunately I'm sore pretty much everywhere and I think I threw out my back. kidding, but not really.

Ah, the joys of growing old.

Miley Cyrus

Miley Cyrus never ceases to disappoint me.

On my Yahoo! feed yesterday I saw an article about Miley Cyrus and her recent interview with TeenVogue. So of course, I was bored and read it.

In the article Miley talks about her beau, Liam Helmsworth (who is delicious by the way) and how they have so many similarities and such a natural chemistry. Yeah, that's fine, they're both actors who starred in a Nicholas Sparks movie together, who wouldn't feel chemistry?

The point of the matter is what she actually says to the magazine. And I quote:

"I think we're both deeper than normal people — what they think and how they feel," Cyrus says about Liam.

Deeper? Really? Yes Miley, I believe you. You're practically swimming in a sea of Socrates and Shakespeare.

And as for us 'normal people,' us 'common folk,' who lie around in ignorance and filth all day, we wouldn't even be able to comprehend your deepness. Party in the USA? 7 Things? Way over our heads.

Changing the subject, Miley later says about Liam:

"It's refreshing to work with an actor who isn't also a singer and dancer and musician and artist and this and that...I'm sick of quadruple threats who do everything when they should stick to one thing."

Anyone else confused? Isn't that what you are doing Miley? Singing? Dancing? Acting? Maybe it doesn't count if you're not good at any of them...

Like I said before, she never disappoints. Nothing like a little Miley Cyrus to bring some purpose back into your life.

Winter 2010

So this is my first semester in the BYU Advertising Program and I love it. It was a ridiculously extensive application process, but will worth the effort. My teachers are all awesome and all my classmates are great.

Here are my classes:
1. Comms 317: Media Research Methods (or something to that effect). The class is team-taught by Kelly and Callister and they are great professors. Callister makes me nervous with his whole "be a scholar speech," but it is inspiring and motivating at the same time.
2. Comms 300 - Media Law. One of my favorite classes...surprisingly. Professor Brown is easily one of my favorite professors I've had at BYU. Here is why:

• He tells the coolest stories (e.g. finding a dead body)
• Is crazily good at the piano. No joke. And I'm pretty sure he can play any song in the world if you ask or give him the tune
• He brought the whole class pizza and soda one night.
  
• He said, "No kids cause the school trouble, except for those Brown kids..."
  
• Referring to the above statement, our lecture was about education and speech and he told a story about how his son brought a pocketknife to class and was sent to the principle's office. And he decided to make a joke about how his kids were the trouble makers, but just made the class get really silent and feel a bit awkward for a minute until he realized what he had said, and how we had interpreted it.
  
• I believe he also said "classy strip club" once.
• He commonly uses Lady Gaga, K-Fed, Brittney Spears, and Courtney Love examples on tests and as in-class examples.
  

3. Comms 330 - Creative Concepts. This class is good, McKinnley is funny and isn't afraid to offend others (aka diss them), all in good fun of course. Some people in the class don't take criticism well. And when I say some people, I mean one in particular.
4. BusM 340 - Marketing. Eh, it's a business class. It's good to know. But I feel like a lot of it is a review from my Intro to Advertising class. He shows some pretty good video clips though. Like a documentary about social classes in America or about how Levi miserably failed when they tried to make and market suits. I just wonder who thought of the idea, and who thought it would actually be successful. I'm still baffled.
5. Rel C - LDS Marriage and Family. The class is bomb. Richardson knows what he's talking about and has a gift for teaching these gospel principles. His class is never boring because he's so animated. But despite how funny he can be, I always leave feeling spiritually uplifted, fortified, and with goals of what I need to work on in my life.

All in all, a great semester.

Yes, you do need deodorant.

"Advertising is the art of convincing people to spend money they don't have for something they don't need." - Will Rogers

Now, before you get out your pitchforks and torches to drive out advertisers in some twisted, chivalrous act to save humanity from the corruption thrust upon us by the ad industry, let us look at the good that advertising can do.

In the early 1900's "Odorono" (what an awful name, right?) became the leading deodorant brand for that time period. However, in a study conducted in 1916, researchers found that 59% of women did not use deodorant, and 47% of those non-users insisted that they didn't need it (though this was obviously far from the truth). So advertising stepped in. Odorono used advertising to create a 'powerful appeal' in order to show women that they actually did need something to conteract their body odor. The Odorono advertising efforts resulted in an 112% increase in sales. Thank goodness.

So is it such a bad thing that Odorono and its advertisements created a need for deodorant?

Well, some may say it is, not necessarily to the argument for the need of deodorant, but what other needs advertising could establish. One may continue to argue that advertising has the power to tell you what to think and what to buy, and is therefore immoral.

But are we really that gullible and fragile as a society? We have brains of our own and can decide what we do or don't need. Let's not forget, our generation is ad-savvy. We know when we're being tricked or gimmicked and we also know how to do our own research. Advertising merely presents a product, what it does, and how you can get it. It is an effective way to show us, as consumers, what is out there on the market.

So now when you go on your first dates, when you are nervous and sweating, you can put your arm around her, or snuggle up close to him, and smile and thank advertising for letting you both stay dry and fresh.