Thursday, November 19, 2009

Musical Memory

Tonight I went to an enrichment activity and we were making Christmas crafts and listening to Christmas music and just had a blast. As I was singing along to all the different songs I was kind of amazed at how many lyrics I know. It's amazing how many lyrics to songs are just bouncing around in my brain somewhere. Something with music helps us to remember the lyrics much differently than we would a lecture or a conversation with someone. When we put some sort of tune to it, it's much easier to remember and lasts a lot longer than something that is just spoken. I think it's pretty amazing the way music aids our learning and memory.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Media Saturation

I was thinking about the term media saturation and an experience I had. Yesterday as I was driving to my internship I turned off my music and just tried to listen to the spirit. I received some impressions and thoughts that brought a lot of peace and I am very grateful that I took some time to "unplug" from the world of media to listen to the spirit. I know it makes a big difference when we show the Lord that He is important to us.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Kanine Krunchies

Last week I watched 101 Dalmatians as part of our Content Analysis project and I've had a song stuck in my head ever since. The part where the puppies are watching the TV right before they go to bed there's a commercial for Kanine Krunchies, and the little jingle goes "Kanine krunchies can't be beat! They make each meal a special treat....." Well, I eat a bowl of cereal every morning for breakfast, and recently I have been eating Cocoa Crunchies (knock-off of Cocoa Puffs) and every day I sing to myself...and sometimes out loud..."Cocoa Crunchies can't be beat! They make each meal a special treat!" Ridiculous, I know. But pretty funny. Media definitely affects us :)

Saturday, November 7, 2009

The Proposal

This weekend I watched The Proposal with my husband and I really liked it. It has a really cute love story, and it's even funnier for me because I'm from Canada and know how crappy it is to deal with immigration stuff.

However....I feel there were quite a few scenes, and language, probably about half the movie....that they could have done without. Most of the scenes/comments etc. were of a sexual nature, which I did not appreciate, and I hate profanity, it just drives me nuts. If you can say the same thing without swearing, what's the point of swearing? It just makes you sound unintelligent, in my opinion. It's kind of sad, but that's pretty much what movies are like these days. I did like the movie, it was totally cute, and maybe I was more aware of sexual content since we just talked about it in class.........:)

Thursday, November 5, 2009

World's Strictest Parents

As I was watching some TV for our sexual content assignment I came across this show called World's Strictest Parents and found it interesting so I watched it. It's like those shows where there are "troubled or problem teens" and they send 'em to boot camp, but in this show they send them to live with this family with strict parents to help shape up their attitudes and behaviors. This family they sent them to was ridiculous! The mom and dad were addressed as sir and maam out of respect. I'm not so sure that kind of respect is what I would want in my household. One of the kids that was sent to the house rebelled against the rule and said that "normal" people don't do that! And the parents were very firm in their belief that normal people said yes sir and no sir to the parents. WHAT?! Did I miss the boat, or do you really call your parents sir and maam? Mom and Dad work pretty well for me. Another thing they did was spy on their children to make sure they were exactly where they said they would be. They would literally hide in the trees and peek around. Another thing they did was rummage through all of their belongings so they would know exactly what they have, making it easy for them to tell if they would lie to them or not. What ever happened to granting kids some autonomy and trusting them a bit? If I lived in this household I would have been pushed SO far from those rules and also far from my parents. I will say that the family were very hard workers, the parents did display some love for their children sometimes, and they did have good values. I would definitely agree with most of their values, but they take it to the extreme in most of their behaviors. Very nice people, just a little crazy. I just wonder if that is reeeeally the best idea for shaping their attitudes and behaviors......and what people think when they watch this show! Are we promoting super strict parenting?! I hope people watch it and realize they need to do what works for their family and also see how these people are pretty extreme in a lot of behaviors.