Thursday, July 31, 2008

July's Theme: Expectations


July has been quite an amazing month. We have ended up with 21 articles, rivaling March's 25 articles. We were really close...but no worries, we can try again next month!

Many debuts and changes were shown on the blog these past weeks. Sendak posted his very first article. The Info-Center (along with the graphics page) had its grand opening. Small graphical changes around the blog were made as well. Along with the changes, we have a couple new readers—and we really enjoy hearing their opinions!

Okay, okay. My rambling is done. Here's the summary for July!

What happens next? – Living up to your life's expectations.
The Unplanned – The joy of having the opposite take place.
House of Mirrors – Introvert? Or extrovert? You decide.
Acquired Minds: Info-Center! – Grand opening of our new informational branch.
Harry Potter: Shortened Down – Harry Potter book one...very much shortened.
Expectations—The Absurd and the Feasible – Common feelings of expectations.
The Day Before Today...Yesterday! – The second entertainment article.
Midnight. – The Twilight movie anxiousness.
A.M. Changes – July 16, 2008 – A few changes that were made to A.M.
The Edge of Safe – Guilty decisions may come your way.
A.M. Graphics Page! – Grand opening of the A.M. Graphics page.
Moving in Circles – Not ever knowing how to get there.
I Hold – Keeping it all bottled up.
A "Tire" Situation – A commonly over-looked epidemic.
A "GAS-ly" Disaster – Gas prices are not going to improve if we don't improve ourselves.
What You'll Be Looking For – A.M.'s most 'controversial' article to date.
housten, please don't have a problem – Darn you, airports.
personally, I find this personal – Some fans just don't know when to stop.
Fam[ily] – Your parents' overwhelming expectations.
Shallow Depth – Are celebrities really super-human?

What a month it has been. So many different topics, so many different opinions, and so many different problems. One way or another, we're going to have to solve it.

Thanks to a tie-breaker vote from Nathaniel, next month's (August's) theme will be: Impressions.

Enjoy the rest of your day.

-the clam.

~~...the hundredth article is coming...~~


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Shallow Depth

Have any of you heard of those satirical news reports? Examples would be The Onion, and the Kensington Report. They basically make fun of random stuff, and it’s hilarious to watch, but one recently caught my attention. It was a Kensington Report one about the subject of, “celebrities are actually super humans.” They basically said celebrities are super humans who are better than us in every way. It seems rather random, but in a way it’s kind of true. What makes a celebrity a celebrity? Fame, power, money, who they know, relationships? Don’t all of us want that? We really don’t know what defines one, if we did, then we all could be one, which would mean that nobody is a celebrity, which is kind of an oxymoron but kind of isn’t.

We think that these celebrities are just amazing, perfect examples of what humans should be. Naturally, because they’re famous, they’re better than everyone else. We envy them, want to be like them, glorify them in magazines, in the media, in the press. It doesn’t mean they’re bad people; this is a thing of the mass audience. We want to see what we think is perfect, we want to know what perfect is, we want to see and know, so we can try and achieve it. Which frankly is impossible, since perfect is dependent on who you ask, and who we are, are who we are, who they are, are who they are. A bit repetitive there, but that’s the best way I could phrase it. So it’s all a fake. Everything is over bloated and exaggerated. Yet still we search, pore for the latest gossip. All of it is to just make you feel good. The magazines tell you, it’s not your fault, and nothing is good enough for you. You always deserve the “best”, even if they, and you, don’t know what that is. But for ***** sake, you go ahead and tell yourself! You don’t need some stupid people writing shit to rip some money off of you to make you feel good.

Isn’t it kind of possible they’re just normal people? They most certainly are. They are what any normal person would do with fame and money. If you had money and fame, would you still live like you do right now?

I’ve always wondered what my ideal life would be. If would ever want to be famous. I guess it would kind of be nice to be perhaps slightly famous, in that indie kind of way where you’re not exactly super famous. I definitely do not want paparazzi hounding me, to live in a huge gigantic mansion, to be super rich, to be all over those damn magazines and t.v., and a bunch of other stuff. In fact, I’m the last person in which all that would happen too. And I really don’t mind, because I really would not care too much about that. Having a good income that keeps you well off is fine with me, having a nice little house that’s big enough, not over-sized, you get the point.

With everything, do we not want more? There will always be something more expensive, fancier, classier, hipper, richer, but is any of that going to make you happy?

The Onion is great. My personal favorite is the one where the Supreme Court ruled the death penalty legal because it was “totally badass”. Except for one judge, who said it wasn’t ruthless enough. (read the bottom headlines too)

-digital delay

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Fam[ily]

Okay, guys. Let's take a quiz. I'm going to ask you a question and you'll answer it.
Number one. My parents are. . . . .
a) strict and too overprotective
b) fun and supportive
c) nonexist or never around
Okay, pencil's down.
It was a trick question...There is no "correct" answer, is there?

Honestly, I answered 'a'. If you did also, then you probably have the type of parents that expect too much from you. Is it overwhelming? Yes, I bet it can be. The overprotective-ness really gets in the way, doesn't it? You might be irritated or angry at the things that they won't allow you to do or have (like go to a sleepover or a concert or something). There's always excuses. I, usually, find it really unfair. But then there's this excuse, I'm sure you all have heard: life IS unfair.

You may look out the window and see other kids with their friends roaming around freely in the world without a care, while you're stuck home doing chores and such. You may even get jealous at that...But your parents are probably doing this for a reason. They're possibly protecting you? Preventing you from getting kidnapped or hurt...I mean, the other kids probably have parents that don't even care, that are never around, that are absorbed in their work (or something else), that are never there....You'd think you're lucky with your strict parents...

But that's not what I get jealous of. Not those kids, no. I've seen others, with parents who are fun and nice. The supportive parents. I've seen kids who tell their parents practically everything. For gawdssake, the parents probably know all the school's gossip! The parents that say, "Hey look, there's that boy you like...Why don't you go talk to him?" Haha, that seems so unreal, because I just can't imagine doing that with my parents...

For kids, the question isn't "What kind of parents would you want to have?", but "What kind of parents do I have?"
And for parents, it's not "What type of parent do I want to be?", but "What type of parent should I be?"

There's always an upside in any of the answers you chose. The thing is, whether you "like" or your parents or not, you still love them...No matter what (Even when they seem to be the most unreasonable of all). And do you know why? It's because they're the probably the only people in the world who won't stop loving you. And that's what's most important of all.

I don't know whether or not this came from the heart,
but whatever.
-my.great.ESCAPE.

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Tuesday, July 29, 2008

personally, I find this personal



What's something that gets you mad? Seriously.


What gets me mad are the fans. Not you fans, but the fans of the bands I love. Why is it that the world has to (just has to) be so close to the ones they admire? Why can't so and so just be happy and not get interrogated for it?

In my opinion, you're a true fan if you love their music. You don't have to give them things, you don't have to know their names, you don't have to cry when they find out they're engaged to someone (not you). The most important thing is to love the band, yet people are misinterpreting the term "love" and "band" in the same sentence. They're getting mad at other fans who "are fat ugly bitches" or "don't even know their names" or "is just a skanky wannabe Audrey kitching". I'm not kidding. Those terms exist.

Some of the things people say on here are nice, while others are just plain sad. Take a look, and be amazed at the words that can come out of teenage girls.

-Karma Police

p.s. I talk about this subject way too much..


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housten, please don't have a problem

You can't help but wonder if you're going to die when you step onto an airplane to fly across the water. You may not notice, but in the dark recesses of your mind, there's a tiny part of you that's going 'will I explode?'. Things you shouldn't do before a long plane ride: NUMBER ONE: Watch Final Destination. NUMBER TWO: Drink milk and eat curry.

When you're on a plane ride you expect a few things:
-the feeling of excitement from getting off the ground
-the feeling of excitement you get when you see a good movie on the t.v.
-the feeling of 'goddamn when will this end' when you get bored
-the feeling of 'what time of day is it right now?'

It seems as if when you're in that plane for those fifteen hours, the world outside has stopped and you're in a world of your own. It's just you, the headphones, the static-y blanket, and microwaved food that you might secretly enjoy.

For me, I always think about the possibility of meeting someone interesting. The possibility of making one of those cliche friendships and writing to each other when the plane ride is over.

I also think about where I'm landing.

Wherever you're going it's probably somewhere drastically different (or at least slightly different) from where you left. A different culture, lifestyle, and etc... Maybe it'll change your life?

Whenever I go somewhere I hope I get to see something amazing that can tug at my heartstrings and such, but then again I'm a girl.

What I love most about airports is that when you're there you can see pretty damn interesting things.

For example: A security guard walking his german shepards. Those dogs are trained well and they walk straight with their noses sniffing for drugs.
Then,
A mother walking her two toddlers who are running wild in circles. You can just tell she needs help with them.

The downside of airports is that the food their is freakin' expensive.

Well either way this is a hint that I'll be out of town for three weeks in destination across the water. I'm sorry for disappearing the past few weeks and I have a very crummy reason why that I'm sure you won't want to hear, so I'm not going to say why my absence is so apparent.

Look for me at the LAX.
Just ask for Karma Police.

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Friday, July 25, 2008

What You'll Be Looking For

I’m just going to mention, perhaps discuss, some of the things that I think are really interesting, and stuff that I’ve been thinking about lately. One is the conformist and non-conformist thing going on. The whole thing where there’s one side that gives in to the pop culture and mainstream “media” (ahem…*c*r*a*p*…most of the time), and those who purposely try to stray away from those. But if you think about it, those two supposed black and white sides aren’t so different at all. If those people who try to be different think those other people are misguided and mislead, well, so are they. Pop culture or whatever thrives on people, solidarity, and collectiveness. Or for example, people going, have you heard about so and so, and so the chaos ensues. So, people do something, because other people do it right? Well if you think about, those who try to be different, only try to be different because of what other people do. They base their beliefs and actions on what other people do, just like the supposed mainstream jackals they so despise. Now the black and whites just become a mixed gray…


So you should just believe in what you believe, like what like. It's ok maybe for others to affect what you like and believe, but completely basing it off of someone else is not something that'll lead to much good. You shouldn't care if what you like is liked or disliked, popular or not, despised or not, but you still have to listen to others, feedback is important, especially if it's constructive.

Who really thinks that most of the new these days isn’t over bloated, exaggerated, and is propaganda anyway?

Another thing I think is interesting is the whole punk/anarchist ideology. No, not the jackass who wanders neighborhoods being a, well, jackass. The ones that actually care about the ideology behind it are the ones. I’m not saying I’m one, I doubt I’m one, not even close, haha, doubt I’d even want to be one. But it’s still interesting to know about and read about. Anarchists believe in no government. They say that any government or authority basically sucks. But there are still several forms of anarchists, of course. One that is really interesting is the non-violence part of these groups. Some believe violence is necessary to achieve radical changes. But I read about one that believed so, until she visited the Soviet Union and saw stuff there that changed her mind. Then there are the punks. One group that is really interesting is the one that believes music and ideology are what define a punk. A guy with a Mohawk and ripped jeans could be some freaky Neo-Nazi who drives a Ferrari for all they care. They’re anti-consumerist too. So apparently some of them hate it when you buy and do stuff that just means you got screwed over so someone far a way could get rich.

Something else too is the feminist movement, which is by the way great, so don’t say anything just wait. But even some feminists today hate the modern feminist movement. It’s interesting also how that has affected men, and it has, which is often overlooked. Now people say there are stereotypes against women, which is true, and cruelly unjust. But, there are also stereotypes for women as well. And sometimes, things don’t always work out the way they should. These issues could get a bit sensitive too. Many women talk about equality, which is great. But at the same time, they go and ask for favors, as if nothing happened. And men are often discriminated against as well. In domestic issues, women are often favored. Custody cases, domestic abuse cases, etc. Now I’m not saying that men have been completely overlooked and women are wrong, it’s really not as black and white as that. It’s confusing and weird. Now, I’m not sure how many would want to read and extremely long article on it, but I did, so it can’t be that long. But it’s really interesting, in my opinion, haha… So here it is, posted by HuntanPeck near the top.

Elections are coming up. Who are you going for, or were? One thing I have to point out, that just pisses me off a lot. When someone says they support them, and the best they can give me, I’d be change, a women in charge, or an African-American. It's like saying you're going to vote for them just because they're a women, an African-American, an Asian, or their last name soudns like one of those badass movie character names (i.e. McClane, etc.) You know, I don’t give a shit what race they are, if they have an odd accent, what gender they are, maybe they used to be a sewage worker (no offense to sewage workers, I’m sure they’re great) and not a lawyer. It doesn’t matter people! Please, the person who is best for the job should be the one. That’s it, doesn’t matter if they’re an inspiration or whatnot. If they make you feel good great, doesn’t mean they’re right for the job though.

To end it, something sad. Randy Pausch has passed away. Don’t know if any of you saw his “last Lecture”. It truly was moving (kinda long, but I'm sure there are shorter versions). It is the saddest, most heart-wrenching, gut-punched, shoved-up-your-___-, happy, inspirational video about dreams (maybe?) ever. It could bring you to tears even when its not sad, or at least shouldn’t be. When I saw that video, I just went ****, I’m screwed, I’m so far behind, I’ve been doing everything wrong. Then I laughed and went, yea I already knew that. Here is a man, who has no regrets he says, who is maybe content with the life he lived, which is something we all try to do. Cheers to you Randy.

^^^

"Brick walls aren't there to keep you out, they're there to prove how badly you want something."


"Don't bail; the best of the gold is at the bottom of the barrel of crap."


(this one i can't remember too well...) "I'd rather see someone who's earnest than hip, hip is short term."


-digital delay


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Thursday, July 24, 2008

A "GAS-ly" Disaster

(sorry for the bad title puns...including my last article...haha)

Did you think paying $4.50 per gallon of gas is expensive (even though it is)?

You obviously haven't seen Oslo, Norway's price per gallon.

For unleaded gas alone, it costs about $2.68.

Oh, hah! I forgot to tell you: that's the price of gas per quarter gallon. The real price per gallon costs about $10.72. Don't worry, your eyes aren’t deceiving you.

For a full, 10-gallon tank, that would cost you about $107.20. I don’t know about you, but that's just insanely mad. For the same 10-gallon tank over here in the U.S., that's more than double the amount you'd have to pay.

Eight years ago, about around this time of year, the price of unleaded gas was only $1.59. People would die for prices like that. We could get 30 gallons of gas today for $45, with that $1.59 price. Imagine what you can do with all that money you could save...

It's sad how this whole gasoline ordeal is affecting us. It's bad enough that the Earth has to suffer for our convenience, but our money and economy has to go through disastrous spending. If we had the technology back then, we could've started our transportation with renewable sources, but now, it's a bit too late. Just imagine—if we were to switch to floating cars (which will probably never happen), the entire world's highways and roads would have to be replaced (if it was required). That would result in even more spending.

But if we simply switch to hydrogen/electricity-powered cars, it would still cause problems. Where will all the people in the world get their gas if they still have a gasoline-powered car? Does that mean the government will have to give out free hydrogen/electricity-powered cars? Think of the costs!

You know, it might well be too late to change our way of transportation, but I still believe that we can change the way we treat the Earth. Personally, I try to recycle any goods that are recyclable. Look at it this way—you're saving the Earth, and you're getting money for recycling. It couldn't get better than that. Besides, you don’t want that CRV tax to haunt you forever.

With all that said, I saw this hilarious depiction of our crisis. Take a look (it's my favorite!):


(thanks to the source written in the corner above for the image!)

-the clam.

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Tuesday, July 22, 2008

A "Tire" Situation

(thanks to rc10.com for the image)

The theme poll is up early this month, by the way!

Thanks to a close friend of mine, I was given a heads up on a dire situation that should be noticed by everyone.

Car tires are usually neglected—unless it somehow popped, or had become too worn, and you had to go replace it. But, have you ever taken into account on how old your tire is?

Don't let appearances deceive you. Although your tire 'appears' to be brand new, it may actually be the oldest tire on your block.

Every year, many car accident deaths have been accounted to these old tires. But you ask yourself: how can an aged tire possibly kill you? Like in many cases, the old tire's tread (the part of the tire that comes into contact with the road—in other words, the outer layer of the tire) actually explodes off of the tire itself, leaving you with a deformed, wrecked tire. But the tire isn't the only one that's going to be wrecked. Soon after the tread is blown off, you will not be able to keep control of the car, and soon, you'll find yourself in a deadly situation.

To watch a more detailed investigation, please see this video:

Watch the video here; thanks to ABC news for the story!

So, what can you do to examine your tire, and determine how old it is? There's actually a small, serial code number imprinted onto the tire (although a majority of these codes are printed on the interior of the wheel--the side facing inwards towards the car, not actually 'inside'). This code will tell you what week (out of the year) it was made in, and what year. For example: 236. This code tells you that the tire was manufactured in the 23rd week of 1996. How do you know if it's 1996 or 2006? If it was made in 2006, the code would've been 2306.

Here is another example: 3104. This tells you that the tire was made in the 31st week of 2004.

Now, keep in mind that the average healthy life-span of a tire is 6 years. The "236" tire was way, way too old. "Alright, I'll just go replace it." Did you think it would be that easy? Some tire retailers might not be selling so-called "new" tires, as you may think. Again, be sure to inspect the tire before buying it (if it's possible).

Keep this information in mind. It's an unfortunate and difficult issue. I thought that I should share this so everyone can be more safe (better be safe than in DANGER).

-the clam.

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Friday, July 18, 2008

I Hold

You know you shouldn’t hold it, you know you should drop it, leave it behind. Forget about it, but you can’t. You hold it in, whatever it is, a loss, a victory, a mistake, a misunderstanding, or humiliation. You hold it, and you feel it. You don’t embrace it, you try to shun it. But you hold onto it anyway. You never let it go, you never let it fade. It haunts you always, maybe not at every second or moment of your life, but it fades back into memory occasionally or perhaps constantly. It could be the littlest thing in the world, but it will build up. It will build, grow, soon enough, it could be this massive object that creeps behind your footsteps, and waits for you to fall. If you fall, and this object has grown enough, then you might not get back up. You could be pinned down, and forced to let it go. You could be forced to do the thing you were so afraid to do, the thing you refused to do, would not do. Finally, it is gone. But the manner it which it left may not be so subtle. Now, a new burden could be placed on you. The eyes all around you see you, watch you, and focus on nothing but you. The pressure builds, the weight becomes unbearable. You know you shouldn’t, you know, especially when you feel it building, but who cares really.


When you sit back, and you look back, you wonder, what were you even looking for in the first place? What were you searching for? What made you do this in the first place?


-digital delay




the dark knight!





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Thursday, July 17, 2008

Moving in Circles

Sometimes you feel so great, proud, and indestructible so to say. Then about five seconds later you realize that just means that you’re arrogant and you’re the prime epitome of jackassery. Even though you tell yourself that really, you’re not the greatest in the world, in this country, in this state/province/region, probably not even in a 50 foot radius of where you sit at this moment, of whatever, you can’t help but have that thought linger in the back of your head. Who could survive without ever thinking gosh, maybe I really am good at something, even if that thought is squashed immediately, it still lingers. Sometimes, those thoughts can creep up on you, and you spin right off course.

Hope keeps you alive, it keeps you running. With no hope, there is no reason, there is no point. There has to be some kind of driving force, something that can move you. With no destination, you wander endlessly on an endless road. Yet all at the same time, the road goes no farther, and yet you still drive on, toward nowhere.

Even when you have a kind of destination, you may not know how to get there. Is this worse than not having a destination at all? That’s debatable. Perhaps, as I’ve stated some long time ago, the point of the journey is to find the destination. But not knowing how to get there, could quite possible be just as frustrating. There is no map, no plan of action, no blueprint, and so, you run on what you carry with you, or inside of you. And sometimes you feel, that that’s not enough, and every time, you fall short.

-digital delay


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Wednesday, July 16, 2008

A.M. Graphics Page!

EDIT: 13 new banners have been added since this last post. They include normal, plain A.M. banners, quote banners, and some funny ones. Here is an example:

As for the more humorous ones...you'll have to go to the page to see for yourself!



-throws confetti-

The hard work on the HTML paid off. Our graphics page was successfully put together, and is now part of the Info-Center:

Acquired Minds: Graphics

Feel free to use the banners however you want, as long as you somehow have a way to get back to us from the banner. The second set of banners were made by Sendak. Thanks for helping us!

-the clam.

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The Edge of Safe

Guilt can be one of several banes and spoils, but is it not just desert? There’s a reason guilt is there in the first place. Guilt doesn’t allow you to focus and look ahead. It grasps you and keeps you put, paralyzed, capsized in a raging storm with no way out. When you stay in that storm, you can’t really expect to fare all too well. But your pride can get in the way. Arrogance keeps you in the storm guilt trapped you in. You’re not willing to admit defeat, even when you know the battle was never winnable in the first place. You don’t change, you don’t plan to, and you don’t see it ever really happening, even though you want to get out of the storm.


Some people need to be taken down. They need to be forced to do something. To be told to. It’s not like they’re slaves or anything, but they don’t trust themselves. They don’t think they’re capable of anything, and they don’t they deserve anything. They know that whatever choice they make is usually crap, as it’s based off of themselves, and their views, which are crap too.


People don’t change. Really, pretty much everyone has their roots firmly planted in the ground. Yes, there are exceptions, but for the most part, people don’t change. You may look at them and tell yourself, “I’d love to eat a donut right now, and what the hell happened to you?”, but maybe, you never really knew that person. Maybe it was all a fake, and you never bothered to see past it, to dig a bit deeper than what was on the surface. I mean, just look at oil, it’s not exactly sitting there in a little puddle waiting to be used now is it?


You only get a few seconds to make a decision, but you have a million hours to regret, applaud, or not give a shoot about that decision. From the smallest thing in the world, to the most gut-wrenching, you could regret it for the rest of your life, which would be terribly unhealthy. Yet you can’t help but look back and say, what a dope I was. I just wasted a few seconds, plus those million hours, of precious time.


With those million hours you used up thinking back, you were probably talking to yourself in the head, or at least imagining yourself talking to...something. Whatever it is, it can be annoying having to listen to yourself for so long (at least for me it is).


When you fall in the dirt face first, who’s there to help you back? Plenty of people, actually. Lifting yourself up all the time can get tiring; I’m not exactly a 10 lbs. dumbbell now am I?


You know the feeling, and you see it coming from miles away, but hey, you stick around anyway. (hehe…rhymes…)

-digital delay


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A.M. Changes - July 16, 2008

Over this past week, subtle changes have been made within the blog. They're not big changes, but just enough to expand the blog and make it more diverse. Here is a small list of things that have/will be changed:




>> Things up on the header look different, right? Well, we're going to change the header banner every month now (just to make it look less repetitive). Along with the change, there will be a small "(month) (year)" next to the header. Occasionally, on holidays, the banner will include a shout-out for the holiday.

>> The counter on the right has now been enlarged, and along with the enlargement, the number of digits have been decreased to 7 (having eight giant sized digits is a bit too much for the time being).

>> Of course, you have seen the Info-Center button to the right. It'll stay there as a link-button to the page. Feel free to check it out!

>> The mood around here can get a bit down when there are too many life lesson articles. Therefore, we're going to write more spontaneous articles that may (or may not) be relevant to the theme (although it never needed to be, to begin with). Examples can be found below (M.G.E.'s Midnight article and my entertainment article).

>> To be safe (and because we don't want to be accused wrongly), a disclaimer is now placed to the right, in the description. This disclaimer is an agreement that we are not using any copyrighted content for profit or any other unconstituted use (nor are we promoting the content). Any articles that have copyrighted content in them will have a note pointing to the disclaimer, from now on.

>> We are still trying to get HTML codes to work in the Info-Center, so we can get the Graphics page up. Those codes can get tedious, and when they don't listen to you, it makes it that much harder. So, if we can get it up, then great. If not, we apologize.




Yup, those are the changes made. I'm sure you want more changes (since the blog itself is pale white), but we'll see what we can do in the future. As for now, we can only enjoy the blog as it is!

-the clam.

P.S. Remember, we always take suggestions at acquired.feedback@gmail.com. Thanks.

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Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Midnight.


(Please see disclaimer on the right sidebar -->)

You know what I'm excited about???
The movie TWILIGHT that will come out this December!!!
...and the fourth book of the series, Breaking Dawn!
You have no idea...

The other day, I thought I could get a headstart at getting the book before it comes out. So I went to my library and requested a book (you can do that nowadays) so that when it comes out (which is August 2nd...*gasp*...the countdown begins), I can be one of the first to borrow it...
Smart right?
Except, it turns out that I'm like, the 348th person on the waiting list.
What luck.

Some people have asked, Will Twilight become the next Harry Potter? That's bold. Personally, I'm a HUGE Harry Potter fan.....But then again, I'm a big Twilight fan, also. The series draws the attention of teenage girls and women of all ages...It's just fantastic. One fictional story can hold only so much imagination. The plot and characteristics of it all is so interesting and intriguing.

But then again, I've felt inspired by many books before.
...Let's just say, I didn't know it was possible to fall in love with a fictional book character ;D *Dreamy sigh**Sa-wooooon*
(J/K!...but not really...in a way...You know what I mean...)

Anyway, back to my point...
I don't really have a point, but since the theme is about expectations, I hope my expectations aren't too high for the upcoming Twilight movie...I've been keeping up with the new updates, watching the trailer (more than once, I might add), and stuff like that...It's rare that a movie is as good as the book, with detail and descriptions, but it's possible that a movie can come close...And I hope it does. (Although I don't expect it to be.)

Expect nothing,
-my.great.ESCAPE.

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Monday, July 14, 2008

The Day Before Today...Yesterday!

(Please see disclaimer on the right sidebar -->)

Mr. Sendak has debuted his very first article here on A.M., below. It tied 'expectations' all into a neat bundle. That being said, I have nothing to blabble about expectations, so, here's my second TV/Entertainment article (appropriately named after my first entertainment article, The Day Before Tomorrow...Today!).

Yesterday night (July 13, 2008), Big Brother 10 premiered on CBS. I missed it, and I had to watch it today on the website. It reverted back to its classic format—13 complete strangers as Houseguests, a live-audience results show, and a house that somehow got tossed back to the seventies (so when they said "classic" format, they really meant it). Congratulations to Jerry—our first father, grandfather, and great-grandfather to become Head of Household. Go Seniors!

Also premiering was High School Musical 3's official movie trailer, on Disney Channel. I'm sure the world is a very diverse opinionated group (in fact, our blog is ran on opinions). Some people like HSM, some don't. As for me, I'm stuck in between. I like most of the music, but the movie's plot can sometimes ooze out too much cheese. A few of the lines are horribly said, and it ruins everything else.

On NBC, showing was Miss Universe 2008, in Vietnam. The women were beautiful, and so were the landscapes of Vietnam. The show went fine, although it was accompanied by the occasional screams in the audience by some overly-excited men. As for the highlight of the show, it was nothing new. Miss USA, once again, tripped and fell in the evening gown round, much like her predecessor last year at Miss Universe 2007. She was a good sport though, clapping on, with a smile.

Cookin' up a stir was The Next Food Network Star. The final four were pitted against in each other in a 'throwdown'. As if that wasn't hard enough, throw in an Extra! reporter. Unfortunately, little Kelsey was eliminated. Mouths can really wreck a situation.

In my first entertainment article, I had talked about Angelina Jolie's newfound pregnancy. Well, she now has newborn twins (a boy and a girl). Their names? Knox Léon and Vivienne Marcheline Jolie-Pitt. Why must they have such long names... Anyways, congrats to them.

Hmm...I can't think of another subject that appeared on TV yesterday...oh well.

It's a wrap.

-the clam.

(Thanks to cbslocal.com and blogs.dallasobserver.com for images)

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Sunday, July 13, 2008

Expectations –The Absurd and the Feasible


Yes. We’re all familiar with expectations. Everyone has them, everyone’s seen them before. For now, let’s look at them a bit more in detail. There are three different kinds – ones that are ridiculously high, ones that are doable, and ones that we could surpass without effort. Out of these three, the ones that give people the most trouble are the ones that stray between the border of reality and chaos.


At least once, you’ll see someone who assumes your capabilities are greater than they truly are. Maybe this is your insane math teacher that gives out impossible tests and expects you to be able to maintain an average of at least 99%. Perhaps it’s your parents, who want you to become a surgeon despite the fact that you have hemophobia. It’s even possible that the one with high standards is none other than yourself, stressing out over your latest 10 point essay.


So, what would most people do if and when this happens to them? Let’s look the situation with the teacher first. If asked, the average person would probably reply “I’d get really mad at that teacher and request a change in classes from my counselor.” Now, consider what you probably would do. Although there would be much whining, not that many people would probably take action. Why? Because most people don’t have the nerve to tell the teacher outright that they couldn’t teach someone how to open a file on Windows XP, let alone teach their class geometry. The idea of a teacher holding a grudge against you is simply too intimidating for most people.


If a teacher holding a grudge against you is that powerful, the thought of having a close person dislike you even slightly is just as, if not even more stressful. Telling your dad “I’m sorry, but there’s no way I can be the perfect prosecutor you’ve always wanted me to be. It’s all just too boring. I’m going to be a stunt person,” is pretty bad, but they’re also your parents. They’ll probably understand, unless they’ve been manipulating you for the past ten years. Not to mention, it would really suck if you were stuck at law school thinking about skydiving.

Thinking about all of this, isn’t it clear why most people hold their tongue and suffer instead of going and doing something about it? Well, if you really need it clarified, let me spell a few out.


A. They’re scared.

As mentioned in the example with the teacher, there are negative side effects to trying that people might not consider worth the risk.


B. They don’t want to hurt the other person’s feelings.

Imagine you had a good girlfriend/boyfriend. Unfortunately, you both disagree on where to live. Do you really want to deny them a life in the city that they’ve grown familiar with?


C. They don’t want to admit that they can’t do it.

Try putting yourself in this situation – You’ve spent your entire summer training to make the cross country team. Guess what, you made it in. Congratulations. The coach announces that you will be training by running 5 miles nonstop every day. Even though you’ve been training all summer, you’re not that great at running. You know you’ll fail and be dropped, but you don’t say anything. Just because you don’t want to admit your entire summer’s been a waste.


D. Other.

What? You can't seriously expect me to list everything here. It's long enough as it is, and I can't think up every situation that exists


Either way, it's time for this old man to end his ranting.


Sendak

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Friday, July 11, 2008

Harry Potter: Shortened Down

Dear world, please watch these videos and smile/laugh.


This first

and then this.


all the best,

Karma Police


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Acquired Minds: Info-Center!

*drumroll*

I have worked tirelessly in the past two days. I have been anticipating to create this site for a very long time now, and I finally got it done. We have managed to create a brand new branch of Acquired Minds--introducing, the:

Acquired Minds: Info-Center

What is it? It's an entire website dedicated to providing you with all the info you will ever need to know about the Acquired Minds. Wondering how we started? Have a question? Want to know more about us? It's all included with the Info-Center.

The button to the site will be located on top of the sidebar, over there -->. We hope you enjoy it, and we hope you find it to your convenience. In celebration of the opening of our YouTube account, my.great.ESCAPE made us a fantastic summary/intro video for us. Thanks, MGE!

(image credits are shown in the video when you view it at YouTube. Thanks to all those websites/people!)

Alright--go check out the Info-Center!

-the clam.

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House of Mirrors

Isolation can manifest in two ways it seems. I guess the way most people would put it would be just being alone. This is simply not having interactions with other people. It seems most people would take such actions in a negative light. Why would someone rather be alone? A bit odd don’t you think? Apparently not at all. Extroverts, introverts right? Social, anti-social, likeable, unlikable. But really, when did such a preposterous hypothesis come about? All that just fits into the general mainstream in what people should be doing. Whatever happened to not everyone’s the same? In a way it’s hypocritical. In a way it all comes down to understanding. That’s hard enough, people don’t have the time to bother with that now do they? Introverts and extroverts are terms that can be often misunderstood or misinterpreted. Can being alone occasionally not be healthy? It can be a chance to calm down, or try to understand yourself. I’m sure people all know that already. Maybe it’s the frequency or tendency of some people to wish to be alone that is misunderstood. Maybe some people enjoy being with others very much, and dislike being alone often. But someone completely different could very much like to be with others as well, maybe just on different terms or less often.


The other form of isolation could be extreme solitary confinement. This is when you’re really alone. Mostly this treatment is confined to prisoners and P.OW.s, but experiments have been carried out. Some were deemed to cruel, and in a way they were. When deprived of senses, you can go quite mad. Feelings of claustrophobia and madness creep up on you. Imagine being stuck in a room in the dark, not hearing anything, not seeing anything, not interacting with anyone, how long could you last, or at very least, keep you mind?


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Monday, July 7, 2008

The Unplanned


(credits to Community 4:12 at typepad.com for the image!)

Thanks for voting in this week's poll. Now, I finally have something to write about :).

Nothing ever goes as planned (at least for me). It's really hard not to get excited about something you really like. But every time I do get hyped up about something, it turns out to be a huge flop—most of the time. I mean, what's the fun in life if we don't have expectations?

But then, when I "least expect it", something drastic happens (in a good way). I don’t know about you, but this always happens to me.

So, is it better to expect things in life, or should you not have any expectations at all? It all depends on the situation. Sometimes, expectations are your motivation to keep on continuing. It's the source of energy that pushes you to carry along. What use is persisting if you have no expectations to work to?

But at times, it's better not to have any expectations. You can't always expect things to work your way. When you expect too much, chances are, the odds of having disappointment are much higher. Think about it—if you weren't expecting anything, and it does turn out to be a flop, you won't be much disappointed at all. Hoorah! if I made any sense

All in all, I try not to expect too much out of anything. If it turns out great, then fantastic. If it turns out terrible, then too bad for me. Not much to lose either way, huh? Oh well, it's not like I'm expecting this blog to become super-uber famous or anything. -smiles innocently-

-the clam.

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Friday, July 4, 2008

What happens next?

Life is so constructed that an event does not, cannot, will not, match the expectation.
-Charlotte Bronte


When an event comes up, I don't know why, but I always expect it to go well. I can picture it going smoothly and great. But when it finally comes, and I am actually there, it suddenly all goes crashing down. Most of the time. Even though it's not a complete disaster, it's absolutely different. It just happens, and it's not at all how I expected. That kind of thing sort of bothers me a bit...not having everything go as planned. But that's how life works, right? I mean, what can you do about it?

Expectations are just...there.
Sometimes, it just sits there in my head. Floating around.
But other times, I just don't care :)

Some expectations are actually important.
Those are different.
Like.....your parents. and what they expect you to get in school.
Or...your friends. and the expectation that you'll be there for them.
And...yourself. how you expect life to be.

Should you live up to your expectations? Your reputation shouts out who you've been, so should you continue down that safe road on a balanced journey?
Or go beyond your expectations? and go on a whole new exciting adventure, that you've never been on before?

Either way, it's not the expectation that counts.
It's always the outcome.

This article didn't go as I expected.
-my.great.ESCAPE.

A thing long expected takes the form of the unexpected when at last it comes.
-Mark Twain

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