Tony Chestnut

I work at an elementary school right now, with the after school program, and today I was talking with my supervisor about some more fun activities we can do with the kids. She showed me this cute song called Tony Chestnut. It's like a Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes kinda deal. The song says things like "Tony Chestnut knows I love you" and talks about his sister Eileen and the man she loves Neal and on and on. The actions go along and you touch your toes, then knees (Toe-Knee aka Tony) then your chest, then your head (Chest-nut) knows (touch your nose) then cross your arms over you chest for the "I love you" part. When it talks about his sister Eileen then you lean to one side and kneel down when they talk about Neal, etc. It's a very creative idea that is really fun for kids. Just a little creativity by putting the media (the music) with some actions can make such a fun activity for kids.

Pillsbury Persuasion

As I was watching TV the other night a commercial came for Pillsbury chocolate chip cookies and boy do they ever look de-licious when they bake in the oven! They make them look so appetizing, the way they start in a ball and smooth out into the cookie...mmmmm...:) The perception factor, for me, was watching them "bake" in 3 seconds into the perfect cookie. Definitely memorable. Log that one away in my memory!

I really, really wanted to go out and buy some because I didn't have any chocolate chips to make my own cookies, but I resisted the temptation. I was pretty proud of myself. Persuasion facet was very good, in my opinion. Even when the commercial came on for a second and third time during the show I was tempted each time without the success of the Behavior Facet. The association facet was also well implemented because they show the kids coming home so they can eat these cookies with their mom, so the association with family and the home.

So I didn't buy the cookies...but I did eventually make my own because I wanted some so bad. Overall, an effective commercial for making me want chocolate chip cookies...but not bad enough to buy the Pillsbury brand.

The Wonderful World of Blogging

I love blogging! I think it is so fun to read blogs and find out what is going on in people's lives. My aunt and I were talking about it the other day and she said how she is terrible at calling people and talking to them, and she really hates doing it anyway so she loves blogs. She never has to talk to anyone and she can still know what is going on in their life, and if she wants to communicate in some way then she can leave her comment. While I don't agree that we don't need to call people (I do enjoy talking to people on the phone as well) I think it is so fun how we can be so connected with blogging - pictures and words, and in some cases people put up videos and music on their blogs as well.

For me, I love being able to "watch" my nieces and nephew grow up even though we live in different states. My sister is an avid blogger and I love reading her blog of all their activities and different things they are saying/doing and their cute pictures as well :)

Football and Rootbeer

I went to the football game tonight (ouch!) and afterwards my husband and I stayed to help clean up the stadium because my friend's supervisor in his major (landscape management or something) will pay for this huge conference type thing they go to on the east coast that my friend has never been able to afford if he gets a certain amount of people to volunteer to help clean the stadium for an hour and a half after the game. So, we wanted to help our friend, so after the game we went to the West bleachers, put on latex gloves, grabbed a huge garbage bag and started picking up bottles. Has no one been taught to pick up or clean up after themselves?! Seriously! I couldn't believe how much garbage there was (not to mention recycling...you could make a fortune off the recycling left behind after the games). I knew there would be a lot, but not that much. Anyway, after about 45 minutes I picked up a bottle of half drank (drunk, dranken?) rootbeer, and was going to empty it out (anything not empty we just dump out because then we hose down the entire stadium). So I unscrewed the cap just a tiny bit and got a shower of rootbeer. Drenched. Completely soaked from head to toe - not an exaggeration. Hair soaked, clothing too, and everything was super sticky - even when I blinked I could feel the stickiness. So I screwed the cap on, and drop kicked the bottle down to the next set of bleachers. I was pretty ticked.

So how does this relate in any way, shape, or form to the media? Well, the only things that kept popping into my head were songs, or titles of songs. First were ones that reflected my frustration such as It's Just My Luck, Ironic, etc. and then I kept thinking about Bring On The Rain, trying to have somewhat of a positive attitude. I tried to sing some hymns...but being worked up after the football game and just having been drenched in some unknown person's rootbeer, I wasn't ready for hymns yet. :) After I had been singing some songs in my head for a while I actually felt a lot better. Music has a very therapeutic effect on me, as I'm sure it does for most people. I think it's interesting how in most, if not all, situations I am in I can relate some song to it, or have an idea to write a song about it.

I love technology...

This might sound really cheesy, but today I was thinking about how grateful I am for technology - cell phones in particular. My husband and I both have pretty crazy schedules this semester and we never really get to see each other. We'll send each other text messages throughout the day to say hi, thinking about you, love you, etc. I also thought about all the times that he travels, which is every weekend from January-June. And I'm just grateful I have those text messages/phone calls, because I'm not so sure I could survive without them! Kind of crazy that our relationships can rely so much on technology sometimes.

9/11

Yesterday I watched the video clip that the Church put out about Finding Hope (on the main lds.org webpage). The clip is about a survivor of the 9/11 attacks. At the end of the video there are words that appear on the screen saying that we honor the victims of 9.11 - those who died and those who lived. I had never really thought about the people that survived that before and how traumatic that must be. The man in the video talked about feeling guilty sometimes for surviving while so many others had died, and also his feelings of gratitude for being able to spend more time with his family.

It amazes me how much the media can influence our thinking and our emotions. I had never thought about the survivors until that video, and if I hadn't seen that video, I probably still wouldn't think about them.