"Be Independent from Acne"

So, I don't get spurred into writing things too often these days, but I just saw an advertisement online that I need to comment on.

Everyone's seen the Jessica Simpson, Lindsey Lohann Proactive soap commercials. Well I just saw an ad telling me to "be independent from acne". Now that really doesn't seem so bad, until you pick this stupid sales pitch away.

Now, the goal of any advertisement is the same (that is, for the consumer to buy (meaning purchasing, believing, etc.) whatever is being advertised). However, the means by which an advertisement attempts to obtain that goal varies greatly. We all remember taking D.A.R.E. in elementary school and we all remember learning about the different types of advertisements. Sex appeal: Use this cologne and you will be hot ripped and a rock star. Fun appeal: Drink this cola and a band of Jamaican steel drummers with throw a toga party at your house. I however, can't remember (although I'm sure I'll notice more of them now) ever seeing or realizing that I had seen an advertisement of a product that not only would meet the use immediately associated with the product, but also indirectly defines the norms of a society all the while handing you a supposition explaining how you can meet those norms. "Be independent from acne." The Proactive solution does just that.

The idea of independence has been one of, if not the biggest subconscious normality of Americans since our country was founded. Revolutionary soldiers, Hippies of the 60's and 70's or immigrant workers all share(d) goals of independence. Be it political, social or economic, all have worked or work for goals of independence.

"Be independent from acne."

Many companies have realized this underlying feeling among Americans and like any good businessman would, they have capitalized on it. I can imagine a board meeting for the advertising department of Proactive with some asshole pitching his new slogan for the company, "Be independent from acne. The key word here is independence. Independence leaves one with the sense of empowerment and confidence, with the gumption to say, "Hey, I stand out from the crowd and I'm not ashamed!" A recent survey we took said that 80% of people rate independence as...."

Blah, blah, blah, bullshit right? But it isn't! People buy into this crap and I'm sure that Proactive sales are as high as ever! So what exactly am I trying to say with all of this? How did this advertisement get me so worked up? It's not because I have anything against the Proactive solution (it's really just overpriced soap). I do have a problem with people trying to sell me something they can't give me for 30 dollars for a month's supply. I mean, something thousands upon thousands of people have died for, something that hardly anyone cares about and everyone takes for granted: Independence! Freedom! Call it what you will because you can't have one without the other. And the fact that companies get away with it all just makes it so much worse! Why can't they just make an ad that says "We make really good soap and it will help your acne problem"? Oh right, because it wouldn't sell well! People are like that dog with the keys to the prison door in stupid action movies and the businesses are like the inmates trying to coax the dog to bring them the keys. The inmates are screwed if they can't get the keys so they try and get the dog to come with a big juicy bone that they pull out of nowhere. The only difference is bones aren't good enough nowadays. People would rather break there teeth chewing on the keys then go for just the bone, which is why they have to be coaxed with bullshit as well, in Proactive's case, promising the dog a distinguishing and valuable characteristic that is impossible provide.

Conclusion: People are stupid. Big businesses are big assholes.

Questions:

1) When people take for granted what they have, can they really enjoy it?
2) Can and will someone take that from them?
3) Is that happening now?
4) Would they fight for something they don't hold dear?

Suppositions:

1) No
2) Yes
3) Yes
4) No


I don't go on tangents very often. Thanks for indulging me.

So, I can still count the days I have worked this summer on two hands, but that is going to change in a few days. I got hired the other day working for food service at Waldorf. I've worked one day and my job entailed cleaning off the leftover food on peoples plates and putting it in a "gutter" and and running it down the drain with water. I have to say, all the food mixing together in the "gutter" was among the more disgusting things I've seen in my life, but whatever, at six dollars an hour with a free meal every time I work, it's not bad at all...

Summer is drawing to a close and as always, I'm wondering where it all went. It's definately been a good one, but it seemes like it started winding down a little early this year. Maybe it's just me, but it seemed like the begining of the summer we were doing something fun every day. I don't think I had gone home before 1:00am the whole first month after I got back from Ecuador, but now we do stuff just every couple days. I don't know, I don't want to sound like I'm complaining, I just want to have a blast with everyone these last few days we'll be together. However, I do take pleasure to know that there are at least a few things to look forward to before this summer's done:

1)Snakes on a Plane- For the most part, I've been disapointed with the summer movies this year, but I think that this movie will fill the void that has been missing this last month and a half.

2)Signe's going away party-Adieu,Adieu!

3)Dork night-It probably won't be that dorkie, but it should be a good time...

4)Camping(?)-It's been talked about for well over a month now, but I'm not sure whether or not it will happen...

5)This isn't part of summer at all, but, I think that my seeing Tool this September will more then make up for any lay time I've had this summer, so word up to that...

Monster Intense Demolition Techno Truck Derby Dream

So, quite a few things have happened with me since I wrote my last entry. I am however not going to write about some of the more important ones. Instead I'm going to talk about a now two day reoccuring dream I've had.

It takes place just to the right of my bed which apparently is also a wormhole leading to oblivion and the Britt County Fair Grounds. Here's what happened:

At around 3:30am the past two nights, I've slipped out of complete unconsciousness to a point where I was only half awake. At this point I shift my attention, with my eyes closed mind you, to what I know is the right side of my bed. It's here where I can look down on a monster truck running over a line of cars and hear the roar of its engine as well as intense blaring techno music. Why a monster truck? Well I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the demolition derby I went to the other day. Although there were no monster trucks, I remember expressing that seeing a monster truck ralley would have probably been more entertaining (I was in fact a little disappointed in the demolition derby as a whole). Why intense blaring techno? I really can't say why. However, I can say that shortly after this point in the dream I get really anxious and scared, kick and flail around for a moment in my bed and finally wake myself up.

That's pretty much it, but kinda weird eh?

Hot Pics!

So I'm trying to put some photos of my Ecuador experiance online for everyone to see. I hope it works out.... By the way, I am back home, and happy to be so. I'll write some more stuff later, but in the meantime take a look at these nice pics....

Adiós y Hola!

Well, this is it. My final blog in my stay here in Ecuador. I´ve had a good time here, but like they say, all good things must come to an end. And that end will come for me in less than seven days. I started packing my suitcase yesterday. Sadly it seems as though I will return without my bongos, but I should be coming home with my guitar and charango. My flight leaves 6:00am and I should be getting to Minneapolis about 5:00pm. I´m not sure what I´ll be doing that first day, or night rather, that I get back, but I know after that, I´ll be spending some quality time with my drum set (among other things/people). For the past few weeks I´ve been trying to order drum heads so I won´t have to play with my old crappy ones when I get back. The thing is, I have horrible luck with ordering things on the internet, so that hasn´t gone through yet. However, I have been informed that Robby Gilberson will be ordering me some since my luck sucks, so yeah!

Anyway, I´d like to say thank you again for everyone who has sent me mail, e-mail, messages, boxes and phone calls while I´ve been here. I really appriciated all of it. I´m looking forward so much to seeing everyone, I don´t think it´s really kicked in yet. It´s going to be weird seeing everything and everyone I´ve I haven´t seen in nine months, as it will also be weird not seeing everything I´ve gotten used to seeing in the last nine months. I´m sort of blabbering on right now, but I think I have the right to do so as this is in fact my last Ecuadorian blog.

But ok, as I´m drawing this to a close I´d like to say uber-mega props to my brother dear brother Jared for...well I´ll tell what for:

1) Rocking my world

2) Going to college for ten years

3) Not only for going to college for ten years, but going to college for ten years and graduating from a city college, university, and seminary.

4) Dedicating those ten years to a profession that won´t pay much but will instead, help a lot of people

5) I think that saying rocking my world again is only appropiate with the amount of world rockedge being done here

Among other things, those are some of the biggies, so yeah, that´s it, take care and I´ll see most of you very soon! Adiós!

Super Pumped!

Hey everybody! So I´ve got some more stuff to say so listen up. First off, I think it should be said that I will be coming home in less than 15 days, and that I am super pumped to.... well, I think a small list is in order for the things that I am super pumped to do (note* when one is super pumped to do somthing, the thing he or she is super pumped to do needs to be followed by at least fifteen explanation marks):

1)See my beloved family and friends for the first time in over nine months!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2)Play my own drums....with my band!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
3)Eat at least three consecutive bowls of Cinnimon Life Cereal every day for at least a week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
4)Flush my toilet paper!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
5)Take an hour long shower with water that will stay at a constant temperature!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
6)Not be forced to listen to Regetón!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well I think that´s about everything I´m super pumped for when I get home. There are plenty of other things I´m pumped for, but I think those are all of the super ones.

Anyway, I´ve been up to some other stuff lately. First off, my week long visit to Quito was quite a good time. I´m not going to go into much detail but I will say that my host family was great, I climbed up higher than I´ve ever been on a mountain (and again was quite scared of falling down and dying), and I was situated between a car full of singing, laughing, screaming Germans (and yes they were singing, laughing, and screaming in German and I understood nothing).

Also I went to the Galapagos Islands. I must say, that that was worth every penny. I went for four days and five nights and was able to see and do quite a bit. I actually think another list with some highlights is in order here.

1) I saw all types of animals there whih include: Tortises, iguanas, blue-footed boobies, tons of fish, wierd birds, sea lions (which I totally swam with), and sharks.

2) I went snorkeling for the first time in my life and I loved every minute of it. That was by far my favorite part.

3) I got into a giant empty tortise shell and danced around for a while.

4) I visited a bunch of islands and got to eat lunch on a boat.....twice!

5) I suprised myself with how much I´ve improved my spanish after talking about quite a few dificult topics with the other exchange students.

6) I learned some nice German phrases that will be sure to make Lennart Knuttson laugh when he comes back this summer.

Well I think that that´s about it. I´m going to have about 4 going away parties for me in the next two weeks, so the time should go pretty darn fast. But OK, that´s all, so I´ll see you soon, and I´ll be sure to post a going away blog before I come home! See ya soon!

Jive

Hey everybody! Before I start with the little I have to say, I want to give a big pre-emptive birthday strike to Siri Johnson. Siri, I hope your birthday is wicked awesome and that all of your wildest dreams come true on this special day. Also to my dear Uncle Noel, I don´t believe that your birthday is anytime soon, but seeing as I keep misplacing your e-mail address I think it´s better to just say thank you for your most recent package that you sent me and if you didn´t get any of my earlier e-mails, thanks a ton for the package you sent for Christmas too. And while I´m at this, I´d like to say a special thank you for everyone who has sent me real mail, e-mails as well as those who leave comments on this blog. It´s really nice to know that I have friends and family who care enough to check up on me and send me letters, messages, ninjas, etc.

Anyway, now that that´s out of the way, here´s the stuff that´s on my agenda for the next couple weeks. This coming Monday, I´ll be going to Quito to spend a week there for a mini-exchange program. We´ll see how that goes. After that I´ll be coming back to Riobamba for two days, and then I´ll be off to the Galopagos Islands. That will be extreamly awesome. For me, this month is going to fly. I´ve contemplated whether or not this is a good thing, and I´ve concluded that it definately is. First of all, it won´t seem like long before I can see everyone again. Also, when the time goes fast here, I know I´m having a good time.

Anyway, I think that´ll be all for now. Take it easy all of you and I´ll be seeing you soon! (34 days until my glorious return!)