First Dates

Lol. Ok. So, I couldn’t think of anything to blog about so I looked for some conversation starters that people use on dates. So yes, this is going to be like an awkward 1st date. Hope you enjoy! By the way, I don’t understand why people use talking points in real life. Conversation should be natural, I feel like these kind of make it more awkward. And these come from all different website such as askmen.com, Facebook, & Yahoo answers. I just picked some of the ones that were pretty simple.
The first question is: “Ask your date what they did that day & if it was a good day.” Yes, I had a wonderful day. My dad, brother, & grandma drove 5 hours from Hampton just to be here for family day. I enjoyed spending time with them since I haven’t seen them in awhile. Them coming to campus means a few more dollars in my bank account, new clothes, & more food in my food container. But I really did enjoy seeing them. It’s hard to be trapped away from your family & the only way to get home is a $110 ticket. So it was exciting to see the people that I grew up with for 18 years again. I wish my mom could’ve made the trip but she does not like to spend time with my dad so they can’t be together (actually I wouldn’t say that on a first date because that’s a little too much information, but I need the words).
The next question is: “Ask your date what the last movie they saw was.” The last movie I saw was fame. It was okay, nothing special. I may be the wrong person to ask because in general, I hate musicals. Nobody bursts into random song in the real world. It would be pretty amazing if they did though. The only musical I liked was hairspray. The songs were so darn catch and the story line was really appealing. It was something to which I could relate. It wasn’t just some bubbly musical, it was life! I’m really excited to see paranormal activity though. I’ll be going home next weekend & seeing the movie with one of my close guy friends. He claims that he is not going to get scared so we’ve made a little bet. If he gets scared, he has to buy me a cheeseburger. He has yet to decide what he would want if he wins. But I don’t think it really matters; I’ve heard that this movie is super scary. Like, people come out of the movie theater shaking & they can’t look at the screen. Apparently the last 30 minutes are really bad. (This is also something that I wouldn’t talk about on a 1st date. I don’t think the new guy wants to hear about one of my “guy friends.” I wouldn’t want to hear that my date has tons of friends who are girls. Something just doesn’t sit right about it. But maybe that’s just me.)
Next question, “Where has your date traveled & where they like would to go some day.” I have never left the east coast of the United States. I go to Boston & Martha’s Vineyard most every summer; my family has a house there & are originally from Beantown. But more exciting is where I would like to go. I would love to go to the Mediterranean. The pictures online look so pretty. Specifically, I would like to go to Greece. The water looks so blue. Not this murky blue that even the cleanest spots on the Atlantic look. I would love to spend one summer in Greece, just relaxing on the beach. I also love the history of the area. Learning about ancient Greek & Rome was always my favorite part of world history class.
“Ask your date about music.” My favorite song right now is sweet dreams by beyonce. I mean it is stuck in my head constantly. I randomly start singing it & the people on my hall are really starting to get tired of me blasting it all the time. Oh well, I love it!
But enough of this awkwardness. I would never actually ask any of these questions on a 1st date. They’re pretty awkward & weird. And if somebody asked me these questions, there may be a chance that there is not a 2nd date. I mean really, what if somebody asked you these questions on a date? It should be natural; nobody should try & force the conversation. If a conversation is forced, you are not really getting to know the person; you’re getting to know the website that they got their talking points from. I’ve never gone on a really bad date so I don’t really have a funny story to insert here. But I can tell you some things that I would hate to happen. It would drive me crazy if the guy was a sloppy eater or not a gentleman. It annoys me to no end when guys do not hold doors or when they see me carrying something heavy & don’t at least offer to help me. That reminds me, the other day I sneezed & my roommate didn’t even say bless you! It’s just 2 words that are common courtesy to say. I just don’t know where some people’s manners have gone. I don’t know if their parents never taught them or if they just don’t deem it necessary but I find it kind of rude. Just say bless you, it’s the right thing to do. I wish everybody on the planet had more manners. I bet it'd be a much better place. This is what I love about Christmastime; everybody is so nice & friendly. But for some reason, this type of spirit seems to wane down gradually during the year. And I just wish it wasn’t. I wish people acted like it was Christmas every day. Hopefully this will happen :)

P.S.-Thats a pic of my family! I <3 them!

Childhood Dreams

So I’m going to talk about balloon boy like everybody else in the world. It’s kind of cool to think about. Not really anymore because we all know it’s a hoax & now his parents are going to jail. But if you just look at the idea, I think it’s pretty darn cool. The movie up just came out (which I wish I could’ve seen) and it kind of ads to this storyline. That also makes me wonder if that’s where his dad got the idea from. But anyways, it’s kind of like a childhood fantasy, to just float away in a balloon. I think it was a few years ago that a man actually did float away in his lawn chair. He was middle aged & just decided one day that he wanted to float away. I think everybody feels like that sometimes. You’re having problems with school or the significant other or your friends and you just sometimes want to float away. And it would be amazing to be up there amongst the clouds, your mind just completely free from worries. It seems like you could just lay back, relax, & stare at the clouds. But now I’m thinking about the practical side. You are however many feet up in the air & if a bird comes along & pops all of your balloons, you’re a goner. So it’s pretty dangerous. I am too scared to get on a roller coaster so I know I could never actually do this. If there were some safer way to, I guess I would. But I guess the safer way is called an airplane. And people still die if that crashes. Maybe people just aren’t destined to be up in the air. If we were I think we would have wings. That kind of shows that people are always trying to do things that maybe they just weren’t meant to do. For example, tear down the rainforest. How selfish of a human being do you have to be to tear down what little of the rain forests that we have left? I mean seriously, is your money worth killing hundreds of animals & trees? I think not. Nothing that you are going to do with that land is that important, especially if you’re going to build some polluting the factory that’s just going to kill the environment even more. Some people fail to understand that they are harming the world around them, that they have to live in. Some people say it doesn’t affect them personally but yeah, it does. But nobody realizes it until they get some lung disease or some other bad disease from all the toxins that they breathe in. Nobody ever cares until it’s too late, which is so sad. Can you imagine getting all the way up to the sky in your ballooncopter & then not being able to see anything because of all the air pollution? Or coming back down to earth & not having fresh drinking water because it’s filled with toxins? These are the realities that we face now because a select group of people do not care about their impact on the world. They think that the only way that they can have an impact is if they build thousands of factories or have lots of buildings with their names on it. But that’s not the type of impact that I would want to have on the world. I would not want to be responsible for ruining the world. Oh no, I don’t want that on my shoulders. I am comfortable just knowing that I’m making an impact by making simple changes in my life. I always recycle, try to take shorter showers, & turn the water off when brushing my teeth. These things are so small but just imagine if everybody did them? The world would be such a different place. Heck, I’m paying thousands of dollars to go to school just so I’ll learn how to make an impact on the environment. I’m paying all this money just to work for the EPA or some other government agency. Sorry, I really didn’t mean to go off on some environmental tangent!
Anyways, what the up story reminded me of was what my childhood dreams were. At first I wanted to be an orthodontist. This is very weird, I know. But I got braces when I was like 7 so that’s practically the only job I knew. That lasted for a little while but the real thing that I spent most of my childhood wanting to do is to be a storm chaser! I have always wanted to chase tornados! It just seems like so much fun to me! The thrill of trying to find the storm & then watching it develop sound absolutely amazing to me. And I was so serious about this up until second semester of my senior year in high school. I applied to the University of Oklahoma, the best meteorological school in the country. I was even accepted into their meteorological school. My mom paid for us to go & visit the campus since I was seriously considering going out there. The only reason I am at Virginia Tech is because Oklahoma was too far away & out of state tuition is way too much! I am currently researching summer internships where I could get some exposure to storms! And I didn’t want to be one of those fake weather people like on television. No, I wanted to be one of the real ones out in the field. But this was a blessing in disguise, because while at Virginia Tech, I have discovered that I absolutely hate science. I hate science so much that I am switching out of a science major for something I enjoy more, the policy & politics side of saving the environment. This just goes to show you that what you want when you’re little is not necessarily what you want now. And what you want now is probably not what you’re going to want when you’re 45. That’s all folks!

Cool Advertisements

I’m going to do something obvious & do the Mac vs. pc ads. They’re something easy to recognize & funny. I mean, if you don’t know what a Mac vs. pc ad is then you must live in a box. But even then, you’d still know-id bet your box was made out of a Mac or pc box. These ads are everywhere, print, TV billboards, and any other advertising medium. And they are highly effective. They are sponsored by Apple so the argument being made is to buy a Mac for various reasons. The 1st noticeable thing is the outfits that the 2 guys are wearing. The PC guy is wearing a suit & does not appear to be “cool.” He is kind of stuffy & uptight looking. While on the other hand, the Mac guy seems to be pretty laid back & cool. The PC man seems pretty old school while the Mac guy seems young & hip, which is the way Apple markets its products. They are primarily for the younger generation. Seriously, how many old people have you seen with Mac’s? Apple’s target population is young people. The Mac vs. PC ads mix both facts & humor, which is why I think that they’re so popular. They’ve even spawned spoofs that are relevant to us here at Virginia Tech. If you look on YouTube, there is a VT vs.UVA spoof of the ads. They are made by UVA, so they’re making fun tech. But they’re still really funny. And as a Hokie, I know that these ads are just to make UVA feel better about themselves, I know Tech is the better sports school (not sure about the minority part though, they may have gotten us there). The other argument that the Apple people are making is that even though PCs are cheaper, they are unreliable & must be replaced quicker than comparable Mac’s. This is important because price is the big deterrent for people looking to buy a Mac. These ads are trying to convince people that they are worth the money. That is the main argument being made by these ads.
The next advertisement that I find really cool is an ad I saw for WWF. It’s a giraffe pieced together with pennies. I thought that was so cool! I got the argument right away. The argument is that a simple donation of pennies could save a giraffe. That is just a genius way to represent this concept. I chose this ad because saving wild animals & the natural environment is something close to my heart. This ad is sponsored by the WWF, which works to achieve these goals. Their main advertisement means is on clothing & through mailings. They send out free stamps and their apparel is easily found in any department store. In fact, I am using their tote bag right now. Their logo is a panda with the letters WWF underneath. I like this argument because it is pretty simple. The advertisement is trying to get people to just make even a small donation o their cause. Advertisements should be simple so that people can understand them. Nobody wants to sit down & comprehend an advertisement. It’s not like its English or anything. They should be able to look at it & immediately understand the message. The argument being made by this advertisement is very simple, donate a penny and you could be saving a giraffe. Think about if everybody in the world donated just 1 penny to a cause? That’s billions of dollars! Very cool….very cool.
The third advertisement that I liked is this one for a hand sanitizer brand where the lady is holding random hands on the subway bars. The argument here is that you don’t know who touched something before you did. So when you touch it, you’re getting all the germs that they did. When you put it like that, it’s a really disgusting thought. I mean, you have no idea where that person went or what they did. They could’ve gone to the bathroom & not washed their hands after. They could have been extremely sick with Tuberculosis or Swine flu. That’s so gross. It’s really not something that people pay attention to but it’s a real problem. I think this advertisement is effective because it opens up people’s eyes. On the other hand, I don’t think that it makes an effective argument for the product. Their product is only seen in the bottom right hand corner. Somebody might decide to buy a more reliable and recognizable brand, such as Purell. I for one have never head of Dettol. And if my health is in somebody else’s hands, I’d want to pick a nationally recognized brand (yes, I’m a brand shopper, shoot me!). I think this is a good shot at advertising but not quite there yet. They should make the product bigger. But it makes a good argument. Overall, the argument behind this advertisement is pretty cool & obvious. Always carry hand sanitizer!
Hopefully I did this blog right!

Relationships

Soooo these blogs are getting harder & harder to write because I run out of stuff to talk about. But I’ll just go with whatever I suppose. Right now I’m watching this thing on true life about transgender people. And all I’ve seen so far is this guy who wants to get chest reconstructive surgery. But his family is not on board with this surgery simply because it’s elective. That’s a very good point, why would somebody choose to do something that can kill them (but people drink & smoke too)? His/her point on true life is that it is life or death for them, which I also agree with. It would feel so weird to be in somebody else’s body. Like I couldn’t imagine my personality but with a different body. I can’t imagine how hard it is to look in the mirror and not feel comfortable with who you are. Its one thing not to like the weight you are or to think your nose is too big. But to feel like you are supposed to be a completely different sex is so crazy. I just cannot fathom that feeling. Everyday waking up & you’re not where you’re supposed to be. I really feel bad for these people! Their families don’t support them for the most part. The one guy/girl does have a wife. And she stayed with him even after he told her that he was born a woman, which shows true love. I know for a fact that I would definitely not have the strength to do that. If some guy I had been dating for months all of a sudden told me he was born a woman, I would not be happy. I would probably yell & scream & never talk to him again. And it’s not the fact that I don’t understand their situation because I do. I really do sympathize with people who are in that situation. But why not just be honest with your partner upfront? Why hide the truth? That’s the same thing I would ask for in a regular relationship.
Speaking of relationship problems, I guess I’ll but mine out there for the 4 people who read this to see! Before I came to college I was in a pretty intense relationship. And then right around orientation, we broke up because there were so many extra people in our relationship that it was hard for us to keep an eye on what was really important-each other. For example, his mom absolutely HATED me. I mean HATED! If there is something stronger than hate, then she felt that for me. I have no doubt that if she could run me over, she would. The main issue with that was that she was super protective of him & I was always telling him to break free of that because she can’t do that for the rest of his life. So I think he was kind of conflicted between me & his mother and the relationship ended. But then we decided to try it again, we would just keep it a secret & not tell his mother. That seemed like the right thing to do? Nope. She found out & got really mad. She took away his car & his phone & everything a teenage boy could possibly want. And even after all that, we still decided we shouldn’t give up something good, so we tried it once again. We were forced to talk on facebook chat & e-mail, which is really hard, especially with me being 5 hours away from him. And I just kind of gave up on the relationship. I didn’t think it would work if we kept up the way that we were going. Now I’m thinking that I made the wrong decision (as my facebook status states…friend me!). I’m really regretting not letting it run its course. But now I’m stuck with consequences. He’s definitely moved on & his new girl seems like a really good person. And they seem like they don’t have any of the problems that we had. I am wishing that they do well but at the same time I’m hoping that they don’t. I kind of want another chance and I can’t figure out why. We’ve tried it 3 times and it has yet to work out! So why would this fourth time be any different? I just feel differently about him now. And it may very well be because I can’t have him. I can’t even bring myself to throw away the letters he sent me when I first got to tech! I know its so cliché but it’s the truth! They’re still very important to me! I feel like if I’m throwing them away then I’m throwing away a whole entire part of my life & that our relationship was a complete waste. And he says some really sweet things in there so they always make me smile & make me feel better when I’m sad about something. I watched the mail everyday for a straight week waiting for the letter to come. It was kind of ridiculous but I just couldn’t wait to hear from him. And the hard part is that I’ve been dating other guys but I haven’t like them nearly as much as I liked him. I don’t expect it to be right off the back, but there doesn’t seem to be any at all. The bottom line is that I want him back. But in reality, I highly doubt that it’s going to happen. So I guess the only choice I have is to move on. And that’s easier said than done. My friends have taken it upon themselves to set me up on a series of dates, no luck yet though. In my mind I feel like I’m replacing him. And one of his friends told me he’s dating this girl to try to get over me. And in the back of my mind I’m kind of hoping he’ll see this….


That's a pic of us right before I left.