Shall the Youth of Zion Falter?

NO!

I love the story told in this post, as well as the beautiful stories in the comments. It reminds me that, even though I'm just a few years out of being a youth myself, I need to step it up. The media wants us to believe that teens are just causing problems, but there is so much good that they do. Stories like these give me so much hope for the future and push me to do and be better myself. I need to be prepared to parent youth like these one day!

The church is true.

Thin-ideal media...and parenting

I haven't blogged in forever since I'm not in the media class or TAing for it anymore, which kind of makes me sad. So I think I may still post something occasionally so that can remember things I've found that I think are cool. I mean, I am still bombarded by media daily. I should still be an active consumer. :-)

I stumbled across this blog post a week ago, when it was linked from the Operation Beautiful website. I subscribe to the Operation Beautiful blog just because seeing those notes each day makes me smile. I loved this post because we had talked some in class about how hard it is being surrounded by thin-ideal media and how we could handle it as parents. During that discussion, I really had no idea how I would handle it as a mother when my girls feel like they are fat and ugly. This post really has some good suggestions, though. I may just have to use them one day...

Article by Orson Scott Card

I know we're pretty much done posting blogs, but I was on Faceboook today and one of my friends posted a link to an article Orson Scott Card wrote for Mormon Times. It was too beautiful to not share. I'm grateful she posted it because I never would have found it on my own. I also thought that by posting it here, I can look back on it later and not lose it. This article really makes me feel better about my life, in a way. I move so much (I've moved 6 times since I've been at college, and I moved plenty with my family before that) and this reminded me that it's okay to let people drift in and out of our lives. It's not reason to feel guilty. It's actually a cause for celebration. I've made so many amazing friends throughout my life and even though I don't keep in touch with all of them, they have helped to make me who I am today.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy the article as much as I did.

Thanks, Steve Jobs!

My aunt posted this link on Facebook. I'm not really an Apple user, but I really appreciate what Apple is doing. I think more companies should follow suit, especially knowing what we know about how pornography affects people.

Freedom from Porn

Media at the Gym

So, for those of you who didn't hear me complaining in class last week about how sore I was (sorry about that, by the way...I got better!), I joined a gym last week. I've never been one for a traditional gym experience. I swam all during high school, but I've never been super into cardio machines or weights. However, I know that I need to work out, so I joined a gym. It's not my favorite thing, but one thing that really helps me during my workouts is having music.

I think I'm one of the last people who doesn't own any sort of iPod. However, my phone is able to store music on it (super grateful for that). It also has this really cool feature called "SensMe" where it plots all the songs on a graph of fast to slow and happy to sad. You can then use that to create a playlist of upbeat or slower songs as you feel like it. It's not always super accurate, but it's been good to have. I find myself working out longer than I planned on if I am listening to upbeat music. The music is able to distract me from any pain I may be feeling and keep my energy levels up. It's also fun to watch the TVs that are set up in front of the cardio machines. I may not know what's going on, since I don't plug in to listen, but it's fun imagining what may be happening. Thank you media, for making my workouts (at least slightly) more enjoyable.

Virtual Choir

I love music. I love going to concerts and am almost always listening to music on my computer while on the web or doing homework. I can't really picture my life without using Windows Media Player/iTunes, Pandora, and YouTube. But one thing that really amazes me is how technology has made music even cooler. In this post, I talked briefly about some awesome mash-ups I love. This sort of music wouldn't have been possible that long ago. And I just heard about another use of technology to create music that also wouldn't have been possible until recently.

From what I understand, people sang a certain song and then posted themselves singing it on YouTube. Then, all of these videos were put together and made into one song. Suddenly, you have a virtual choir with people from all over the world. Awesome! Technology is amazing!

The Photoshop Effect

I found this video interesting, especially in light of our upcoming health concerns lecture. So many people try to look like the celebrities on TV and in magazines and it's impossible. I wish more girls would understand that and stop stressing about their weight and body and just worry about healthy. (I know, I know...easier said than done!)

Story of My Life

Thank you, Pearls Before Swine. I think we can all relate...

Another Facebook in Real Life

After Dr. Coyne showed the "If Facebook were real" clip in class today, I thought I'd post another one. I especially like the MySpace jab at the end. :-)

Bloglines

I discovered bloglines.com relatively recently and I LOVE it. I read a ton of different blogs, but it's hard to remember to check them all individually. I used to have them all on Internet Explorer, because if you subscribe to them, it's easy to see them all at once and see which ones have new entries. However, I really dislike Internet Explorer because it's terribly slow. Firefox doesn't have the same subscription system and so I couldn't see as easily which blog had new entries. Enter Bloglines. I set up an account, added the blogs I wanted to read, and now I just go to the website whenever I feel like checking up on blogs. Blogs that have new entries are bolded and when I click on them, they take me to the reader and I can read it instantly. Love it!

(Sorry... After reading back over this, I don't think I explained it very well. But if you tend to read a lot of blogs, I highly recommended that you check out Bloglines and see if it works for you.)

AT&T Ad

I absolutely LOVE this AT&T ad for some reason:



I think it might be because it made me think about how life is like that. Little moments can totally transform your life projectory without you really realizing it at the time. But then, when you look back, those small moments meant everything.

Time to Read!

I love reading, but I don't do it as often as I should while I'm in school because I feel guilty if I'm reading anything besides textbooks. Well, that and the fact that I'd never get anything school-related done because I'd be reading instead.

But I am changing that now that I'm just hanging out and working for the summer. I checked out a bunch of books from the Provo library and have been ripping through them. I'm excited to read a bunch of fun young adult novels, as well as some classics I've been meaning to read for a while. Plus, as even more of an incentive, the Provo library is offering a summer reading program for adults, complete with prizes. Score!

Pearls Before Swine

I love comic strips. (Not comic books...I don't think I've ever even picked one of those up.) But when I'm at home, I immediately grab the section of the newspaper that has the advice columns and comics and enjoy. Since I don't get a newspaper at school, I've subscribed to some of my favorite comic strips on my igoogle homepage. One of these comic strips is called Pearls Before Swine. I don't know why, but it really strikes my funny bone. Here was the one today:

Taking Care of the Ladies

How absolutely adorable is this little boy? Say it with me, "Awwwwww!"

Seat Belt Ad

As I was procrastinating homework (I seriously have NO motivation for school right now), I saw that one of my friends had posted this ad on Facebook. I think it's quite well done. Used many of the facets of advertising. Enjoy... and buckle up!

After Conference...

Wasn't General Conference amazing? I could do a whole post just on that, but I'll refrain because many of you will probably blog about it, as well. And because most of you probably watched it.

But I kept the TV on after the last session yesterday and there was an incredible movie about Emma Smith. I think too often people judge her for staying in Nauvoo. But after seeing that movie, I don't think I can. She went through SO much. So many trials and difficulties. I don't know if I could have made it through all that she did. She truly was an incredible woman.

Then, right after that, they showed a performance by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. The music is so uplifting. I just feel happy thinking about it.

Yay for uplifting media!

Indexing

I'm currently in a family history class in my ward that meets during the Sunday School hour. It's been so cool for me to be able to use technology and the media to learn more about my ancestors, as well as help others to find their ancestors. One of my favorite things I've learned from that class is indexing. It's basically where you see a scanned document (like a census record) and you type in what it says, so that people can more easily find their ancestors. It's pretty easy to do (as long as the handwriting is legible) and rather addicting. But I suppose that if I had to get addicted to something, this is probably a good choice. :P

This commercial...

...makes me happy.

Normal people in commercials

After the discussion we had in class last week about all the beautiful people on TV, it made me think more about maybe how we only WANT to see beautiful people on TV. We see enough normal people in regular life, right? So the thing that stood out to me was one guy that is especially normal looking (see seconds 24-26), and that's the main thing I remember for the commercial. I'm actually almost turned off from this commercial because of it. Is that bad of me for being so conditioned that I want to see only beautiful people on TV?

Ponderings

Last night, like most Thursday nights, I went to the temple. It's always a nice, needed boost in my crazy life. To prepare, as I drive there, I like to turn off the radio that's pretty much always on in my car and just have it be silent. And then, since I go so late, the person playing the organ isn't there anymore, so it's also quiet in the baptistery. It's so nice to just sit and be still for a while. I am able to feel so much more peace when I'm not constantly surrounded by noise from music, TV, and people talking, like I am pretty much everywhere else.

But what really got me thinking is that last night was a bit different. Normally I feel so uplifted and feel so much peace as I sit there pondering. But last night I started feeling a bit down as I thought about different things going on in my life. A lot of it probably has to do with how crazy this week has been and how tired I am. But I couldn't help but wonder if maybe I unconsciously use music and other media to turn out things I don't really want to think about. I almost felt uncomfortable having it be so quiet. I know that's really bad of me. But it really made me think of how important it is to really stop and decompress in silence. It may be uncomfortable every once in a while, but it really is necessary. And I really do feel better about life now that I worked out those feelings instead of just tuning them out through media.