Scary Movies

Since Halloween is right around corner the topic of scary movies have been coming up in my conversations. I have never really been a huge fan of Halloween, especially the college version of Halloween. I have kind of resigned myself to the fact that I will probably be spending the night with my family. My brother-in-law is set on watching The Ring because my little brother and I have never seen it before. As I was telling my coworkers this today one of the was adamantly telling to never watch it. Like seriously she was freaking out about it. They suggested What Lies Beneath, Frequency, The Sixth Sense, The Grudge or The Skeleton Key, all of which I have never seen. We will see if I can convince my brother-in-law.
My very short list of scary movies viewed up to this point in my life are; When a Stranger Calls, The Poltergeist, The Others, Wait Until Dark, Psycho (original version), Disturbia, and some random movie I watched with my best friend and her brother years back that I can't even remember the name of.

Photos

The more I blog about the media the more I think about the more abstract forms of it. One of my all time favorite forms of media (which I didn't really think of as media until now) is photography. I LOVE pictures. Taking them, viewing them. Of people or nature. Posed or candid. I appreciate a good photbomb, but not every time. Needless to say, my favorite part of having an iPhone is the fact that I can take better pictures, and of course instagram. So take a look at some of my recent favorite photos. Pictures show love, pictures share beauty, pictures keep memories, pictures relate growth and change, pictures help us remember how good life really is and to not forget the little things

Letters

It is interesting to think of letters and notes as a form of media, but I really believe they are. A lot of books are even written in letter form where the entire plot is told through correspondence of letters. One of my favorites that is laid out like is called The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

I absolutely LOVE letters. I write them quite often and when I receive them they are such a special treat. So go brighten someone's day with this form of media.

Favorites

I have many favorite TV shows. This year I have tried to narrow them down as much as I can, so some get left out. As for the fall seasons my favorites include...

Sundays

Once Upon a Time



Wednesdays

Modern Family



Thursdays

Grey's Anatomy




While I would love to be watching The Amazing Race, The Voice, or starting on new shows like Downton Abbey and Prison Break that everyone keeps telling me about, they just don't make the cut for now.

Gender: Dumb Dads

As we were talking about gender and the stereotypes that are presented in the media I thought about a lecture I had almost 2 years ago in Larry Nelson's 210 class. We were talking about gender and family and how roles and stereotypes are presented in the media. He asked us to find an ideal family in the media. The first one I thought of was from Modern Family. Other people came up with examples like Everybody Loves Raymond and Home Improvement. Of course Dr. Nelson shot us down and brought to our attention that all of our shows included "dumb dads." It's a very relevant theme in media today. It's like the gender stereotype from women is trying to overcompensate and switch to men. As much as I love Phil Dunphey he is definitely in the category of a dumb dad. They have jobs and still function in society, but mom seems to be cleaning up their messes. Mom is the competent adult. 

The one more modern example he brought to our attention was The Cosby Show

While Mr. Huxtable is silly and funny, he is also taken seriously as a person and teaches values sternly to his children. He and Claire, his wife, work together to solve issues and teach. Claire is a lawyer and Cliff is a doctor. Both have stable jobs and they try to promote a stable home. They are respectable characters that are taken seriously while still being fun loving and making a good TV show

It's interesting how the media thinks they have to make this humor of the dumb dad and do sort of a role reversal when The Cosby Show is one of the best out there and they maintained the balance. 

Literature Lecture

Yesterday's lecture in class on literature was one of the lectures I have enjoyed the very most. Human Development is my major and English is my minor so it combined two of my fortes and subjects that I have a love for. I went home afterward and talked my roommate's ear off about all the things we had learned and the realizations I had. I can't believe how much literature gets away with compared to TV and movies, but I still absolutely love books more than their movie adaptations. Books have a way of touching me, I cry and laugh out loud way more in books than  in movies.

Book Assignment: To Kill A Mockingbird

 

For my book assignemnt for class I chose To Kill a Mockingbird as my favorite book to write about. I am not sure if it is really my favorite book of all time, but it is one that has extremely impacted my life and views. Here's an excerpt from my paper

Atticus Finch is one of the best and more influential characters ever written. Harper Lee is brilliant to write the story from the point of view of Scout, his daughter and a young girl. By writing the story from the point of view of a child it makes Atticus’ role even more amazing if you really understand it. When you understate something, the reality you can dig up because of that makes it much more impactful. She sees him as her wonderful, loving father, and only gets glimpses of the amazing advocate for human rights and lawyer he is. He is like a symbol of integrity and goodness. He is relatively quiet throughout the novel, he is gentle and wise, but during the last scenes as he argues in court, he is powerful, persuasive and strong. The book teaches the importance of morality and fighting for what you believe in even if you know that you are doomed to fail. Atticus defends Tom Robinson and not only, that believes him too. He knows there is no way they are going to win the case against a white family even if that white family is considered trash, but he know what is morally right and teaches the importance of equality. 

If you haven't read this book. READ IT. 

Power in my Palm

Of course I am still on my iPhone kick. Since I have never had a smart phone, every day I am freaking out about some new feature I discover or new power I find that I have just in the palm of my hand. Here are some of my discoveries.
-I have had an ipod converter in my car for years and never used it. I always have my phone with me so when I hop in the car I can just plug my phone in.
-When I say, "we should Google that" I can do it right then and there
-When I forget something or need to look up certain information from the internet I don't have to wait until class is over and find a computer with limited time.
-Face time. It's awesome.
-I knew I would love instagram. I LOVE pictures and to have that ability right there, always, is the best.

I get more distracted though, I will work on that. I just blame it on the fact that it is still new and I am trying to figure it out.

iPhone

I have finally entered the world of the smart phone. On Friday I got an iPhone. It's definitely been a new experience and taking me a while to get used to, but it's amazing the power you have in the palm of your hand.
Well unfortunately the second day after I got it I got it wet. I know right? It worked just fine but wouldn't charge. So for two days I tried to put it in rice and nothing worked. I didn't have a phone for two days. It was pretty rough. It is amazing how much we rely on our phones., even for me who is not used the the smart phone. While at times I just wanted it I found myself actually NEEDING it too. I am the activities chair in my ward and man was it hard to not be able to get in contact with or be able to be contacted by people.
How did they do it in the days before cell phones?