Jar of hearts

            The song “jar of hearts” by Christina Perri has been one of my favorite songs for a very long time. I love this song because I think the words can connect with anyone. I also love the lower range of the song because a lot of songs sung by girls these days are in a very high range but this one is a lot deeper. This song can definitely carry a lot of different meanings depending on who is connecting to the lyrics.

 

And I've learned to live half alive
And now you want me one more time

And who do you think you are
Running around leaving scars
Collecting your jar of hearts,
And tearing love apart
You're gonna catch a cold
From the ice inside your soul
Don't come back for me
Who do you think you are?

 

         Most of the song is composed of these lyrics (the chorus). It is very simple because these are mainly the only lyrics she sings but they have so much depth that it really is all that the song needs. Her song really does get through to you and within the first few seconds of the song you understand the pain she is going through, almost as you are seeing it through her eyes. I could definitely see this song being really good as a duet between a man and women, it would sound beautiful. The acoustic version is also very beautiful, and it has a very different feel to it. I think there could be a lot of different versions that could be done using this song. (267)

Do you realize were your food is coming from?

The last two days in class we watched a film called “Food Inc.”. This film is so persuading that I have not been able to eat any type of meat for three days know. The topic about where food comes from and the harms it can have on you really interests me. I have grown up in a home with nothing but nutritional food. I thought I knew close to everything I could about the food that we eat, but this film showed me that there was still a lot to learn. I had an idea that our meat is not as fresh as they claim it is, and that animals are not treated like they should be, but what surprised me is to what extent the food we eat really is contaminated and how it’s received in cruel ways.

 

I started to think, what disgusted me more, the unsanitary conditions of the animals and packing plants, or how the people and the animals were treated. And honestly I found myself more disgusted at how the people and animals were treated. The chickens never saw light and they were injected with grow hormones, so that even with the short life they did have it made it a miserable one. And the people working in the meat packing plants were treated exactly like slaves. Their conditions were horrible and their jobs were restless because of doing the same thing over and over again for days upon days. And all of this work was done with very little pay.

 

Something that really interested me was that a large reason people have very unhealthy diets is because since unhealthy food is cheaper it is what is bough by those with less money, therefore the poor people don’t have much of a chance to be healthier. It should not be this way, if unhealthy food was more expensive and healthy food was cheaper it would be a whole lot easier to be a healthy person. But because unhealthy meat is made so rapidly, it is what most of the population eats, and in return the companies make a huge profit. 

 

It’s amazing how fooled we are into believing what they say about how our food comes from a nice farm, where really our food comes from machines. It also comes from hormones, and torture.

 

I believe every person and animal should be treated with respect, I get that we need the animals to be eventually killed for food, but I don’t think we need to give them such a cruel life before we kill them. If we just expanded the land that the animals lived on and let them grow up naturally without hormones then the animals would be way heather, which would be less cruel to them and heather for us to eat. We need to start caring about our heath, and these mass corporations are not helping us by feeding us what could be considered fake meat.

 

If we all started getting our meat from farms that we knew treated the animals correctly and didn’t add fake crap to the food then the world would be changed for the better, the mass producers of meat would realize that we want the real stuff, and they would met our demands.  The companies don’t control us, we control them. Like they said in the film, if we show what we want they will do what will make them money, even if that’s treating the animals, our food, better. As well as treating the employees better.  

 

I have learned how important it is to read labels and to know about what I’m eating because I care enough to know what is right and wrong for me. I will continue to eat what I believe in, not what has a chance of harming me. (638)

A little change can be good for anyone

Does anyone else just absolutely love it when your parents go on vacation and you go a few days or maybe even a week if you’re lucky without parental supervision to watch you’re every move? When my parents go on vacation most of the time I stay at my grandmas but everyone and a while I just stay at home. I actually prefer staying at my grandparents because they are like a whole different species than my parents. I’m pretty sure the word “no” is not in there vocabulary. Living in a different place for a week is so fun, I am the kind of person that doesn’t really get home sick so it is so fun for me to stay somewhere else than I am used to for a week or so because it’s just a fun change things up. I like experiencing new things and I love change in most ways. While my parents were somewhere else experiencing new things I was too! Of course it was smaller things like seeing how much ice cream I could eat within in an hours’ time. I guess my point is, to me life shouldn’t be falling into a normal routines.  Normal routines are boring. If you eat a sandwich every day for lunch aren’t you going to get bored, try something new for god’s sake! Little changes can make your life just a little more exiting. Try small things like changing up your clothes or your hair. Try eating some new things, playing some new games. It’s awesome to keep the things that work well for you like your best friends or your favorite toothpaste, but don’t be afraid to keep these good things and add new things on top. Meet some new people, try something new. (279)

"Follow me"

        Do you have something that when you eat it, or see it, or feel it then it remind you of times when you were younger? Well for me when I hear the song “follow me” by Uncle Kracker I think of so many good times from when I was young.

This song was constantly playing when I was younger. My neighbors and I used to know every word of the song by heart. To this day someone can sing a phrase and the rest of us will join in. It automatically gives the feeling of joy and being young and free again.

You don't know how you met me
You don't know why
You can't turn around and say goodbye
All you know is when I'm with you
I make you free
And swim through your veins like a fish in the sea
I'm singin'

These lyrics bonded all of us together. These words gave us all away to say what we couldn’t to each other. I think it’s important to have something like a song to bond together a group of people because if anyone starts to lose touch you can play the song and it will almost “replay” all of the great memories they had together in their head as the music goes on. And they will realize how much they would be missing if they left these people. I guess that could be taken as a weird way of bonding a group together but I think music really has the power of holding those memories and reconnecting people. To some people the song may not be anything special but because we conditioned it to mean something important it is special to us. (285)

Netflix faves

I know there are a lot of Netflix lovers out there and I am dedicating this blog to telling you a few of my favorite shows that you can find on Netflix, along with a summary of these awesome shows.

1.      Malcolm in the middle

This show is perfect for any age range and any gender. This is because it is about a family, (a mom, dad, and 4 kids) so anyone can relate, weather you relate with the kids or the parents. The main reason I love this show is because of the creativity that is involved in it. Each show makes me laugh so hard.

        This show is pretty much all about the ups and downs of growing up and raising kids. The parents end up having 4 boys and they get in mounds of trouble and each episode there is something new for them to blow up, or burn, or jump off of. (They get very creative). The relationship between the mom, Lois, and the dad, Hal, is just absolutely hilarious because even through all of their struggles they love each other through it all. Out of all of the shows I am going to talk about I really think this show will make anybody laugh or at least crack a smile because it is very unique from the normal “kids growing up” kind of shows like modern family or the middle. I looked forward to watching this show because I could never wait to see what trouble the boys were going to get into each time.

 

2.      Ugly betty

I think this show is mainly aimed for teenage girls because it is about a young woman that is trying to work at a fashion magazine and she doesn’t really fit in, but each episode she gets closer and closer to meeting her dreams of owning a magazine about what she believes are more important things than fashion. This show is also very funny at parts.

               This show is just an easy show to watch because it’s about a woman just trying to get through life. As I watched it I was just always routing for her (Betty) because she was the underdog and she seemed to change everyone for the better. This show is very inspiring. It makes you want to get out in the world and do something you love. Betty has to make a lot of big decisions in her life and she usually does the best with what she has. She really portrays that you don’t have to have the “looks” and money to change the world; you just have to have confidence, patients, and be a good soul to get where you want in life.

 

3.      How I met your mother

This show has many good characters and they all bounce off of each other super well. You have a few goofballs, a player, some love birds, a more reserved type, and then you have Ted who just can’t seem to find his way. Each episode is narrated by ted telling the story to his kids about how he met their mother. I also really enjoy this show because it is hilarious and you never know what misfortune is going to happen next. I think many people can relate to this show too, but I think its mostly older people that can relate. I think older people can relate better because it is a lot about the ups and downs or relationships and people who are already married can say “yup I can honestly say something like that has happened to me when I met your father/ mother”. Who knows maybe this will lead to your parents telling you how they met each other.

Give these shows a try; they are all very entertaining and funny! If you have other shows that you love watching on Netflix please comment on this post saying which ones they are! Thanks and happy Netflixing! (659)

Road trips

Road trips can either be really fun, or one of the most boring things you have every gone through. To make the trips more fun here are 10 things that make the 3 hours seem like 30 minutes.

1. Have plenty of food and water. Being really thirsty and hungry can make a few minutes seem like a few hours.

2. Bring a notepad and take turns drawing a combined picture with the person next to you.

3. Have an iPod and headphones so you can listen to music. When in doubt jam it out!

4. Play 20 questions with a person in the car

5. Ask someone to name 5 random things, then draw a scene including all of the things that were said into the picture.

6. Write a song, short story, or poem.

7. Do homework, (you will be glad to have it done once you get to your destination)

8. Sing, if you have multiple people in the car that can sing try forming melodies to well-known songs

9. Create “car dance moves” with the people around you. Try to come up with the dorkiest looking dance

10. Ask questions that you have always been wondering about. This is a good time to catch up with your friends or family, or whoever is in the car with you. Share your life stories and your darkest secrets. (230)

Media's role in the strive for perfection.

The documentary “miss representation” states that 53% of 13 year olds are unhappy with their bodies and by age 17 that number increases to 78%. My question is: is media making these numbers so high?

 

In a survey of nine to 10 year old girls 40% said that they have tried to lose weight before. (Funded by the national heart, lung, and blood institute). Has media been a big part of these kids believing they should lose weight? Well in a study on fifth graders, 10 year old girls and boys told researchers they were dissatisfied with their own bodies after watching a music video by Britney Spears or a clip from the TV show "Friends". This shows how media does affect children’s view of themselves, by watching these things they learn that that is the desirable way to look. These guys and girls are reaching for perfection, which is impossible. The only way that the music videos, along with the pictures in the magazines look so perfect is because of a little thing called computer touch ups. Media is such a big part of many teens’ lives and some are taking extreme measures to lose weight to look as “good” as those seen on TV by smoking, or skipping meals. Read more about this issue here.

 

58% of female characters in movies had comments made about their appearance. This is significantly more than males were which only 24% was. These days the appearance of the people in the movies and commercials is so much more important than what the movie or commercial has to say. Women are judges so harshly about their looks in the media, even the tallest, skinniest, sexiest girls are pounded to the ground because they don’t look stunning every minute of every day. These awful words that are said about some of  the prettiest, most well-known actresses makes just the everyday girl feel bad because “If  Katy Perry can’t even look good enough for the medias eyes then I won’t ever be good enough.”- Is repeatedly thought in many young girls’ eyes. Celebs are always striving for perfection; this is what makes girls strive for it as well. “If Taylor Swift got breast implants, then I need to as well”. When is personality and talent going to be enough? Why is there a constant need to change yourself for perfection?

           

Ask yourself if there has ever been a time when you wanted to look like someone in a movie, commercial, or magazine. The answer most likely will be yes. And if it is no then you are lying to yourself. If there was no media we would only have the “normal” person to strive to be. Therefore we would want to be more successful rather than prettier because there would be no magazine that we can compare ourselves to, it would be only the natural beauty that is not photo shopped. If there was no media we could reach to a certain extent of beauty and be proud of whom we are, but because of the fake pictures of women we are always trying to get what we literally cannot have. Next time you strive to look like someone in the media remember, even they don’t look that good. Read more about how photo shopping has taken over the media here. (556)