That Time Again!

It's that time of year again when the city of Provo goes empty and apartments seem to be dark at night before bed time. You all probably know what I'm talking about. If you don't than maybe someday you will experience it yourself. It's that time when school is out and people have gone home for the summer or just for the weekend before school starts again. I've never liked it. You would think that after going through this so many times that I could handle it. You would think that having to do it a lot on my mission that I could handle it. But it's not true. I get to a point where I become so comfortable with my friends and everyone around and the routine I get in. Then things change and life throws you a little twist. I tend to usually handle it pretty quick, but for some reason this last departure of friends has shaken things up a bit. It was quite the interesting semester, but it was a good one. It was my second semester back at school in a while and I'm so ready to be done. Only three more finals left and I'm free to work my summer away. I've made some good friends this past semester and I hope they have enjoyed my company. I hope that we stay friends for a long time and learn to continue to grow and laugh with one another. I think this past year I saw more friends leave and that's always hard to get used to. But I know that I'm strong and that the Lord is there to help me make it through. My friends will always be my friends. I love my parents and what they have done for me. They have helped me out so much in my life. They have supported me in my times of trial and I can always count on them. My hope is that some day I can repay them for there generous and unconditional love towards me. To my parents I owe so much. I owe so much to my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ who have blessed me with such great friends and family.

Let me know what you think about this time of year. Thank you all for being my friends and being there for me when I have needed you. Please enjoy this summer for those of you who are away and are coming back. For those of you who have left because of graduation or other life choices: good luck and I'm glad I got to know you and be your friend. Enjoy life and I hope to see you soon.

You have got to be Kidding ME!

So for those of you who didn't know this already, Disney owns its own city. Well not so much that it owns the city, but it established it in 1994. Celebration, Florida, the name of the city, was built as a new way of life that takes you back to the old way of a good simple life. Talk about a company that has enough money to start its own town. After watching the movie "No Logo" you really do realize what Naomi Klein was saying about how Disney has reached "Brand Nirvana". For those of you who don't know what that means, it pretty much says that Disney is so well known that you will know their brand so well. I mean, they do have their own town. Can you imagine having so much money that you establish a city? Crazy stuff! What's also amazing about the town is the fact that there are no other major brand icons there. Disney has pretty much said that all other brands/franchises need to stay out of our town. It must be killing other companies to be rejected like this.

Here is a link to the cities website for anyone who wants to check it out:
http://www.celebration.fl.us/
And here is what Wikipedia has to say:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebration,_Florida

As much as brands are everywhere, who cares? I think it annoys me more that people are bothered by brands everywhere. Yeah product placement in shows and other media outlets can get annoying but there are ways around avoiding them. And just because I know a products logo well enough doesn't mean i care enough to do anything about it or buy there clothes. I buy stuff because I like it. And if I bought it and don't like it then I'm not going to go out and buy it again. Brands may be everywhere, but brands don't control me.

When I watch my TV shows I usually notice the product placements that are in the show. I've noticed them more as I've taken this Comms class. It's kinda weird when you look at shows from 10 years ago and notice that the products they used on TV shows were no name brands. You never saw a Coca-Cola or Pepsi can. You never heard people talk about Ikea or Bed Bath and Beyond. Show were just shows and you watched it for the content it supplied. I guarantee that a lot of shows would lose money if they didn't use product placement. You gotta wonder how much companies are paying to put there products on American Idol or The Office.

Web What?

It's crazy the society we live in. It's unbelievable to think how attached to the Internet and electronics we have become. I wonder if I will be able to participate in the class electronic fast we may have. I don't know which one of my electronics I would give up for a weekend. It's so hard to decide.

Web 2.0 is an interesting concept to think about. The fact the everything is beginning to revolve around the Internet. Will we ever be able to live without it? Like I mentioned in class, it seemed hard for my friend to go a few days without Facebook when we went to his families farm. It's not that he was suffering but I think he just wanted to know what was going on. He even used dial up Internet access. Has anyone used dial up lately? It's like pulling out bad teeth. You don't want to have to do it, but it needs to be done. You don't want to have to always use the Internet, but sometimes you just make the sacrifices needed to access it. And if that means using dial up, than so be it. I myself don't have a smart phone yet and I don't know how long it will be before I get one and that's mainly because they are expensive and cost more than I can handle right now to get all the cool features that come with them.

I love my computer. It probably does so many things and I don't even know. I use it for four things mainly. 1) to surf the Internet 2) watch movies and TV shows 3) look at my pictures and videos 4) do school work. How could I even exist without it? You can't even do your school work these days without using a computer. Everyone wants your assignments typed. And I don't own a typewriter. I might be able to find one if I really needed to use it, but finding a computer these days is so much easier.

Who Knows?

I'll be honest. I can say that I've never really that all that much about where my clothes are being made. I suppose that the problem is is that I should be more concerned. I suppose that's part of how we live in our society. We tend to just live our lives day to day and not worry about all the mundane things that are going on around us. I know for sure that I sometimes look at the tags on my clothing or other peoples clothing to see what country they are made in, but I hardly ever think about what the conditions are like in the factories the clothes are made. I guess I've never taken the time to really think about it. And that's probably a horrible thing to say. I guess my hope is that the companies I buy my clothes from are being morally right and not treating their employees horrible.

I do think sometimes about the music I buy and listen to. I'll sometimes buy a whole CD and not listen to all the songs on it because of some of the lyrics or meanings within the songs I choose not to listen to. But the problem arises that, am I still supporting them in those songs even though I am not listening to them? I'm pretty sure I've had this discussion with my mom before. I had a friend tell me once the Michael Buble is not a very nice guy and I wasn't to happy to hear that because I like listening to him and hearing something like that kinda disturbs me. My hope is that it's not true and he is a nice guy.

I feel sorry for the people who do suffer because of the businesses and marketer's who choose to exploit those suffering for their own profit and good. Why does anyone feel the right to treat other humans as less than them and abuse them. Whether you believe in God or not you should always see someone as being your equal as a human being. It's just not fair to see people treated like animals. If you watch the show "Dirty Jobs" on the Discovery channel you will see that without those people who are willing to work the working class jobs than there wouldn't be sky scrapers that have nice comfy offices for some others to work in. We tend to forget that every human is important and plays a vital role in our societies existence. When we forget this principle that's when racism, sexism, or any other type of hatred fall's into play.