1905 to... 2008?!

HOLY COW. you know the saying that your grandparents say?... "my, how times have changed..."

Well, yes, they have... tremendously!
Take a look at some of these facts:

The average life expectancy in the U.S. was 47 years.
Only 14 percent of the homes in the U.S. had a bathtub.
Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.
A three-minute call from Denver to New York City cost eleven dollars.
There were only 8,000 cars in the U.S., and only 144 miles of paved roads.
The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.
Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, and Tennessee were each more heavily populated than California.
With a mere 1.4 million people, California was only the 21st most populous state in the Union.
The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower!
The average wage in the U.S. was 22 cents per hour.
The average U.S. worker made between $200 and $400 per year.
A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year,
a dentist $2,500 per year,
a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year, and
a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.
More than 95 percent of all births in the U.S. took place at home.
Ninety percent of all U.S. doctors had no college education.
Instead, they attended so-called medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press and by the government as "substandard."
Sugar cost four cents a pound.
Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.
Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.
Most women only washed their hair once a month, and used borax or egg yolks for shampoo.
Canada passed a law that prohibited poor people from entering into their country for any reason.
Five leading causes of death in the U.S. were:
Pneumonia and influenza
Tuberculosis
Diarrhea
Heart disease
Stroke
The American flag had 45 stars.
Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii, and Alaska hadn't been admitted to the Union yet.
The population of Las Vegas, Nevada, was only 30!!!
Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and ice tea hadn't been invented yet.
There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day.
Two out of every 10 U.S. adults couldn't read or write.
Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.
Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at the local corner drugstores. Back then pharmacist said, "Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health." (Shocking!)
Eighteen percent of households in the U.S. had at least one full-time servant or domestic help.
There were about 230 reported murders in the entire U.S.

Does that just make your jaw drop?! i find facts like this amazing. now, the population should wonder why gas prices have gone up so much... i remember when gas prices were below a whole dollar and i was only born in 1986! what did my grandfather experience when he lived through the great depression? how did it affect his life? i remember back a couple years ago before my grandparents passed away that when i would call them on sundays for our "weekly chat" it would barely even be a chat. it would consist of an exchange of words such as this: "hi grammy and poppop, how are you? ... well good to hear from you, i guess that you need to go... bye" and that was it. they still thought that they were living in the depression and that costs of using the telephone were still astronomical compared to their income level. it amazes me!

Amstetten, Austria

How disturbing can a story be? Have you heard about this? A couple of days ago I woke to my roommate's gasp as she read this story on CNN and ever since i have been amazed by the sickness of the story. In Amstetten, Austria and 73 year old man kept his daughter in a soundproof cellar below his house where he raped her and where she birthed 6 of his children... or his grandchildren. when this enslavement started and people started asking the father where his daughter had gone he claimed that she had run away to be in a religious cult and there was no way he could get into touch with her. after 24 years of being in the basement, this 42 year old woman of his is now able to see the sunlight once again. how? well, three of her children lived above ground while three lived below the ground with her. when one child who lived above ground became sick, the grandfather/father (how should i even address him?!) took him to the hospital. he was extremely ill and when the doctors asked who the mother was, the father/grandfather didn't know how to react. police were called and started questioning this man. when the horrible situation was figured out, the captives were found and released. the daughter wouldn't speak until she was guaranteed that her children and she would be safe from the father/grandfather and that they would never have to see him again. could you imagine? the wife of the 73 year old man (and the daughters mother) claimed to know nothing... seriously? get a better story than that, lady.

here is the bathroom that they four captives used:


here is one of the skinny bedrooms in the cellar:


and here is the entrance/exit to the basement:


DOES IT NOT JUST MAKE YOUR STOMACH TWIST INTO A KNOT?!?!
how could any human being be this sick?!

why obsolete?

why are polaroid cameras and pictures becoming obsolete? i can remember them from my earliest birthday in memory... i would be sitting in front of my cake at my favorite restaurant (probably pizza hut or something) and the waiter would sing happy birthday to me and then snap the picture. he would place it in a fragile, little paper frame and stand the picture right in front of me. we were told to blow on it and shake it to make it develop faster. those were the days. remember how great you thought the pictures were?! what about when you would have the birthday parties as your house and as you were swinging to hit the pinata, your mom would snap a picture of you... and that memorable sound would resound in your head. i can still here it now: snaaap... ehhhrrrr... plllltttt... and all of the sudden a picture would spit out of the front of the camera. i remember i would just rip the picture out of the old-school machine and run around and shake it. then, when it was ready, i would show it to everyone with pride.

now look at today. i was babysitting this past friday night at a party. i was supposed to keep the little kids "contained" while the mothers ate and drank happily. i started taking pictures of the youngest one... about 20 months old. i would take a picture of her and immediately she would run over to me wanting to see the digital image of her photo. it amazed me that she knew what this little machine i was holding actually did. she would then say "no... that one no good" and signal me to take another picture of her due to her limited speech abilities.



even the older girls knew how to place boarders on the digital images and how to zoom and delete. it really shows how technology infiltrates the minds of youth. so, it's not that i don't like the sophistication and ease of the new digital cameras but that i miss the old-school sound and memories that surround the polaroid camera...

www.smu.edu/classgiving

Does anyone know what the Union is on SMU's campus? Unfortunately, the answer is probably a "no". Recently I received an email from one of my friends that is on the Union and his email explained the following: SMU has approximately 13% of it's alumni give back every year. Some may think that is a lot of money but now in the large spectrum of things. Schools that SMU compares itself to, ie. Vanderbilt, Baylor, TCU, all have at least 31% of their alumni give back to the school. Yes, SMU has a substantial endowment but it is nothing compared to the Princetons and Yales.
By only giving back a small amount each year and keeping up with your pledge, SMU's number can grow and it will be us, the students, who benefit from it. Our degrees will be worth more and SMU's reputation will only rise. The high standards set by the school will be even more dignified and our athletics will become stronger.
So, please, if you can just set aside about $20, that is all we, the Union, are asking. For my class of 2009 we are asking each student to pledge $20.09 representing our graduation year. But, please, don't feel obligated to donate that much. To some $20 is a lot and to others it is a great expense so please just reflect on what SMU has done for you.
It has been tough to get these words across to my peers but I feel that if I only get one person to donate, I have made a difference.

ding fries are done

how viral can you get? i think that this video is so awesome and whether or not this was a successful campaign for burger king, it definitely has a jingle that will stay in everyone's minds for a long time. ha! i can't stop laughing! yes, this computer generation is a little old but when it is done so simplistically like this, it only allows someone to laugh at its concept. with almost 2 million views on this one video, it proves the point that this is viral. there are about 50 other versions of this same video on the internet that im sure have received about the same amount of audiences.

in my mind, i think that viral videos are soon going to take over. now that they are able to be sent to cell phones and PDAs, people are obsessed. young kids think that they're funny, young adults think that they are stupidly hilarious and adults get a kick out of them (most of the time as long as they are appropriate)

have any of you seen any other viral videos that you want to share?

Best Wedding First Dance

after reading my previous blog someone might get really freaked out that i am too into my future and that i am throwing my life away but i promise you that i am not. i was sent this video in an email from my dad asking if we could do this at MY wedding as the "father daughter dance". YES! how great! i am such a tomboy and i dont know if i could even keep it together during a dance with my father... i don't want him to "give me away"! i am his baby! i then sent the email to my mom and she loved it too but then she started talking about some of the guests might think... who cares?! she said: well so and so might think that it is really inappropriate but this person might think that its just great! blah blah... it would be my wedding if this happened... and let's meet the actual groom before we start planning the funny "father daughter dance"! but why am i even thinking about my future so much? just the other day i met with someone to talk about my resume. in class today one of my professors told me about how much i would be making in the different jobs within my profession. i was sent this email from my father about MY wedding... which is when, again? ... not any time soon!

Why am i being bombarded with future-related topics and life issues?! is it really time for me to grow up?

wait, eight more days?

so here i am typing this blog on a monday morning when i only have eight days of my junior year of college left. yes, i still have exams to follow but only eight more SCHOOL days! i can't believe it! i remember having to say goodbye to all of my friends when we were all leaving for college like it was yesterday. heck... i remember my first day of kindergarden. okay, i know that i'm not a senior but my five best friends are so i think that i have senioritis due to their lack of interest in school. what's going to be in store for me my senior year? i know where i am going to live but am i going to do well in my classes or am i going to slack off? (i would hope not too much) :) i know that i have all of my classes figured out for my next two semesters of college but what if i missed some credit hours that i have to take and i end up having to stay an extra semester? how is it going to be next year when i am a senior in my sorority? yes, now i hold a vice president position and I am on the executive council but what about when my position concludes in January? What am i going to do with myself for the whole second semester? I know that i'll still have Relay for Life stuff to work on but this is just weird to think about. what am i going to do after i graduate? will i stay in dallas or will i move? chicago? NY? who knows?! this is so intimidating to me! how often will i get to see my parents? when am i going to get married?!

ahh... i am stressing myself out. i guess that this is a good place to splurge all of my thoughts and wonders but now im freaking myself out more. i know that over the next year i am going to mature and grow even more so i feel that i am really prepared but i just need to keep my fingers crossed!

welcome to the best day ever...

right now i am exausted and paying for my long day yesterday but it was the best. yesterday i went and played beach volleyball with all of my best friends from 11-4. we went to this place called the Yucatan Beach club in Coppell, TX. It is off of beltline and as soon as we pulled up i was in shock. the bar and restaurant part of the area was in a huge warehouse and was not very aesthetically appealing. it was a little rough around the edges. between the smell of chlorine from the small pool in the back and the musty old bar smell, i couldn't believe where i was. now, don't get me wrong, i am not a prude but i appreciate my clean surroundings. so, we all walked in and immediately the four men sitting at the bar turned around and just stared at us. we stopped and got two buckets of beer and continued out to the courts. it was great! yes, being from florida i thought that it was weird that i was going to play "beach" volleyball in the center of texas, but oh well... so we started playing and the fun didn't stop. all we did was laugh and have a great time!



at about 4pm we all left Yucatan and came back to campus. we all changed quickly and then had to be at the intramural fields by 4:30. we were going to six flags with my sorority for a date dash! when we all got to the park we went on Superman's Tower of Power:



this was the tallest ride of this kind in the world! it was so scary!... i was freaking out when i went on it but why weren't all the other little kids on the ride totally freaked out, too?
next, we went on Batman The Ride:



we went up to 50 mph and over 11 stoires high! our last roller-coaster that we went on was Mr. Freeze. OH MY GOSH! this one was over 24 stories high, 70mph and the scariest thing i have ever done!



we even got a picture from the park that was taken when we were on the ride. our faces were ridiculous! We didn't leave the park until it closed at 10pm and I came home, showered and immediately went to sleep. my feel were almost black because i wore flip flops to the park (because i thought that we were going to go on the water rides but it was too cold). i wish that we could have gotten to go on more rides but because it was a saturday with beautiful weather it seemed that everyone in the world was at the park. Speaking of everyone in the world being at the park, how much PDA can someone show with their boyfriend? i couldn't believe how couples were just all over each other... even in front of their kids or someone else's kids! it was gross. some people were also so rude between the cussing and stealing things. we even saw two young girls get arrested for trying to steal a "tweety bird stuffed animal" from one of the carnival games. Yesterday was a cultural day for me... between the Yucatan and the beauties of Six Flags, I feel that I present myself quite well.

Ballet Commercial

this commercial just blows my mind! i was shown this commercial in one of my advertising classes and then i was told to critique it. this Casa Isenbeck beer ballet ad objectified women sexually. I felt that although the ad was about a man, his friends, beer and their camaraderie, woman were put into the spotlight in a ballet class inappropriately. Whether than man's face was in a woman's breast, waist or crotch, the whole idea of the ad was about a man and his obsession with the woman body. yes, i understand these commercials are funny and attract viewers, but i think that there are much better ways in which to go about attracting target markets.

SMU Relay For Life 2008

so Friday, the 11th was Relay For Life. I was Chair of the event and my board and i worked so hard to get ready for this big event. our goal this year is to raise over $120,000. Last year the event raised a little under $115,000! Our event here at SMU is the largest collegiate fundraiser for American Cancer Society in the state of Texas. The video above was done by one of my Board members. She, herself, is a cancer survivor and I respect her so much for taking the time to fight cancer. She has been so brave and courageous and I wish that all of the students at SMU could know her story. I know that almost everyone in this day-in-age has been affected by cancer in some way... whether close or far, this cause is one to be noticed and supported. so, if you believe in this fight, i hope you came out to the boulevard to support! if you didn't get the opportunity to, come out to next year's event... it is going to be fantastic! below is a link to the Daily Campus article that was published in the paper on Friday, the 11th.

http://media.www.smudailycampus.com/media/storage/paper949/news/2008/04/11/News/Relay.For.Life.To.Bring.Entertainment.To.The.Boulevard-3319076.shtml

my 2nd spring break

so, as you may or may not know, i am an only child. yes, sometimes i wonder what it would be like to have a sibling, but trust me, i have no regrets about my life... i couldn't ask for anything more! but, to take place of my non-existent siblings, i have always been very close to my friends and cousins and considered them something like brothers and sisters. my cousin, beau, who i am especially close to goes to school in santa barbara, california at UC Santa Barbara. he plays basketball out there and loves where he is. we hadn't seen each other all year so we were trying to figure out a time when he could come to dallas or when i could go to santa barbara but nothing was really settled until i realized that he could come to dallas for his spring break. dont ask me why he wouldn't have wanted to stay in beautiful california for his spring break but he traveled with four of his best friends to smu the week after our spring break. so, to say the least, i had two spring breaks... i had a ball with them when they were here! so before they came by best friend and i sat down and drew just like we did before we went to my house for new years (see earlier post). here is the drawing:



my favorite part is at the bottom of the drawing... notice how they drove, in a 15 passenger van, halfway across the country to get here. seeing that these boys were all pretty good looking, all of my friends here were pretty excited to have them come so therefore we have the "UCSB+SMU="heart"/"love" haha. the boys got here on a tuesday and left that following sunday. the reason for "pottsboro, tx" on there is because thursday, friday, saturday and sunday were spent out at my uncles lake house/ "the cabin" in pottsboro. i dont know if any of you have ever been to pottsboro, but the only thing to do there is drink, swim and have fun. ohhh... and did we have fun!

what about handwriting? what can it tell you?

taking notes while sitting in class the other day i got to thinking... why is my handwriting totally different than the class time before? i couldn't figure out why my handwriting from that monday was so different than that of Wednesday's. monday's was very small and square looking... very neat and put together. all of my bullet points were in an exact line and all of my notes were very succinct. but... wednesday's were a little different. they had a "right slant" to them and they were much more "cursive like"... they had a flow to them that didn't make them as neat as monday's even though they weren't messy at all. i don't remember having to write faster on wednesday than on monday but i might have just been in more of a relaxed mood. i might have been more tired? i did some research and here is what i found (http://www.viewzone.com/handwriting.html) "When analyzing writing style, first look at the handwriting in general, much like you would a painting. Make mental notes of the most outstanding traits and try to get a general feeling of the writer. (After 20 years of experience I can usually put the writer in a category right away.) Then, determine the emotional energy of the writer. This is the most important factor of the personality of the writer. The emotional energy has a direct impact on every other trait displayed in the handwriting. Emotional energy is determined by how much pressure the writer uses when he writes. If you examine the writing you can determine how much pressure was used by how "dark" the writing is. Also, if you turn the page over and feel the underside you can feel how much pressure was used (especially if the sample was written on a soft surface)."



the website then went on to say: "The slant is the second indicator to look for. The slant indicates the writers emotional response to external forces. A right slant (////) signals one who responds strongly to emotional situations. They are caring, warm and outgoing-- their heart rules their mind. A vertical slant (llll) writer tries to keep their emotions in check-- mind rules their heart. A left slant writer (\\\\) will conceal their emotions and is observed as cold and indifferent." I thought that all of this was really interesting because although i noticed the difference a lot, i never really did anything to figure out what caused the difference. does this ever happen to any of you?

missing home

so i was driving in my car the other day and i found myself lost in downtown dallas. i am from a small town in florida and realized that my normal way of navigation was to look at the ocean and the river and i would easily be able to figure out where east and west was. well, there was no water to be found in downtown so i tried to figure out where the "green building" was and where the ball tower/reunion tower was. even though i found those i couldn't navigate very well because of all the one way streets and busy traffic. so when i got aggravated on got on the phone and called one of my best friends from home. when daniel answered the phone by saying "hey" i immediately said this: "hi, i am stuck in downtown dallas and i can't tell where i am and where i need to go because i don't have the ocean and river to tell me where i am. this is so aggravating! what are you doing?" and when he responded my heart was saddened... haha. he said "i am at the beach with whitney and carly" (those are my two best girlfriends from high school). i couldn't believe it. not that i was homesick or didn't want to be in dallas, but i would have loved to be at the beach with them. i could just picture the warm sun and the beating waves and i could smell the salty, fresh air. before i got off the phone with him, i spoke to whitney and i was like well you guys have to draw me in the sand so i am there with you! i told them to draw me laying on a beach towel sunbathing with them. when i got off the phone i got a picture text and this is what they sent me:



this made me so happy! having grown up on the beach it was just a comfort thing i guess. now that summer is right around the corner i can't wait to get home to lay on the beach. i know as soon as i get home i will miss all of my friends here in dallas and smu but right now i think everyone just needs a break. yes, spring break was good but spring break isn't really a break. it is too full of partying and fun (which i am not complaining about) but i am in desperate need of a break... just laying there with a cold drink in my hand listening to some great music.

taking a step back from life

living in dallas and going to smu sometimes takes a toll on you. no, i am not complaining that i am in a bad situation... i am living in such a bubble. being surrounded by so much money, expensive cars, nice houses, etc, a person can get caught up in life and forget what is real. it is really interesting to walk around highland park village, galleria or northpark to see some of the outfits and jewelry some people wear. some of the women are so into themselves and i know i shouldn't be criticizing them but it's true... they pu;; up in their fancy pants car and get out dropping the keys into the valet's hand. they prance into the nearest high-class department store with a swagger that draws attention. i noticed this situation this weekend when i was shopping with my mom. this lady was standing in line behind me while i was paying for a piece of clothing that i bought and she kept shifting her weight, sighing and tapping her foot because she thought i was taking such a long time... hold you horses lady! take a chill pill! finally she asked the clerk: um, excuse me, is there any other place i can check out... these people are taking too long"... IT WAS THE CREDIT CARD MACHINE HOOK UP that was taking too long. Ohhhhhhhh it made me so mad. I wanted to say something so badly but luckily my mom and her good heart was standing right next to me. There is a quote that I thought displayed my opinion on materialism perfectly: Materialism coarsens and petrifies everything, making everything vulgar, and every truth false." -Henri Frederic Amiel