This is why my post is weak-sauce:

I must have jinxed myself on Thursday. I wrote a quite unexpected post for everyone involved. I wasn’t even sure I was going to post it, but I’m glad I did because apparently a lot of people were feeling the same way. Well trying to come back from a post like that is almost impossible. So here’s a GIF of Craig Ferguson I made of him dancing because it was funny and he’s my favorite late night talk show host/ comedian/ actor/ Scottish person. 

 The only other thing I have to add is my commentary on the Olympics. Specifically the US women’s gymnastics. Specifically their eyebrows: they scare me. There is something about all of the girls that is just frightening. They seem like they would’ve been the popular girls in high school; not the nice ones, either. They look like they were the ones that started the rumors about the girls from China in 2008 who were almost disqualified from competing because officials weren’t sure what their ages were. I’m sure they’re sweet and they just have their game faces on but Shawn Johnson never looked that scary.

 

But I obviously hope they win.

This is why people need to truly be tolerant

Congratulations! You just found the Easter egg of bonus blog writing. Not that I’m hiding this post; but, if you’ve read my blog before then you know that I usually post on Tuesdays. This is obviously a Thursday. I decided to do a random post talking about some issues that have come up as of late. This issue is more serious in nature, not my usual writing, and some people might not want to read it. Thus, I’m giving you an out right now to go do fun things on the internet like look at cats; however, if you choose to stay and read this, just know you might disagree strongly or get upset with some of the things I’m about to say.

I’ve mentioned this before, but thanks to my mom choosing journalism as her career, I’ve always been encouraged to keep up with the news. I am very aware of all the events that have transpired in the last week or so. While much of the news has been sad, even heartbreaking, there’s been the regular news. In this regular news, a story broke about Chick-fil-A and their funding of organizations that are very anti-gay. As to be expected, the people of the internet were shocked and outraged. Businesses, such as the Jim Henson Company, severed ties and caused the internet backlash even more.

My views about all of this don’t matter because neither party is right or wrong. The great thing about America is that you can have whatever view you want, and it isn’t wrong. Lately there’s been this movement to be more tolerant. People have been preaching that we as a society need to accept people for who they are. The problem is that most people, as always, have taken it to the extreme. It’s no longer that people need to accept the choices another person makes; it’s become “if you don’t wholeheartedly support gay people, you’re wrong because you aren’t tolerant.” That just seems so odd to me. If we are truly to be so tolerant of people, then that includes the stance Chick-fil-A took. It also includes the decision the Jim Henson Company made. You may disagree with it, but we are supposed to be accepting people.

This is where it starts to gets tricky. The next headline was about the mayor of Boston and his letter to Chick-fil-A stating that they are not welcome in that city. From what I can see, the reaction has been completely mixed. Some people applaud what the mayor said, while others are citing First Amendment rights. Again, my actual views on Chick-fil-A don’t matter right now. However, correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think it’s in the jurisdiction of the mayor of a city to deny a company the right to build establishments in that city. While legally Chick-fil-A can ignore the letter and choose to set up shop, it’s understood that doing so will harvest animosity in the community.

(Yahoo headline)

So what does this all mean? It means that as always, we are a hypocritical culture. We say everyone needs to have an open mind. Instead, people take that as an invitation to attack those that are different. So I invite you to do some inside reflection to determine whether or not you have an open mind, or you’re just shutting people out. This world can be a cruel place, but only if we let it turn into that. Then again, you can totally choose to ignore what I just said because it is your opinion and you are allowed to have it.   

This is why I wasn't deep as a 13 year old

This Day in the Life of Marie begins with me cleaning my room. I’ve discovered that if you clean your room it looks really nice and you can remember where things go. I typically try and go through old magazines or old school stuff every few months. For some reason, I thought it would benefit me greatly to hold on to every single piece of work from kindergarten through junior year of high school—because everyone knows you don’t do anything your senior year, or at least I didn’t. A few months ago I realized a college student wouldn’t need basic math worksheets with Mickey Mouse on them from when I was 5. Who knew? This began a long cleaning spree that took weeks to throw away all the useless hoarder junk I had. 

That was sometime back in November and last week I decided it was time to clean again. Apparently something compelled me in my first huge haul to hold on to a notebook from when I was in 8^th grade. I obviously thought it contained my deepest darkest secrets because that would be the only reason to hold on to any evidence I was ever in middle school. Turns out this notebook was one of those required journals we had to keep with assigned topics for each entry. 

Silly me thought that I would have written something of meaning and depth. Nope. Not even close. The entries I found are vapid and blunt with no enthusiasm or need to express anything. I’m not surprised; they were assigned and probably had a 100 word minimum per entry. To an 8^th grader, that seems like the longest assignment ever. But they gave me a good laugh so here are some of my favorites. You get a treat because you get to see un-excited 13 year old Marie:

October 20, 2005
Journal 1

“A funny thing happened to me on the way to…”

My mother knocked on my door to get my dirty clothes. I told her to come in even though I was on my way to the kitchen. When I came back my room was clean and we were having company over. My mother told me not to mess up my room anymore. So I tried my hardest not to.

Then, I ran in my room to relax. I did the dumbest thing I could have. I ran in to my room and jumped up and missed my bed and fell on the ground. I laughed so hard. My mom still won’t let me live that down.

November 1, 2005
Journal 8

“Create your ideal place.”

Imagine a big Barbie Dream House, except not pink. I would have cute guards guarding my house and big pool. Inside each room there would be a container for those green mints by Icebreaker. To…”

December, 2005
Journal 19

“Valentine’s Day”

This holiday is when couples express their infatuation for each other. They buy little Hallmark products such as notes and balloons. I personally thing this is a pointless holiday. It is just another excuse to buy things that you can buy any other time. However, I still buy cute little Valentines and pass them out.

Later in December, 2005
Journal 20

“What do you do on a rainy day?”

I love the rain.

Apparently that was enough description and I cut myself off. Please note that I have not changed anything in any of those entries. That is word for word what I wrote. Glad to know I’ve always been a writer. It should also be noted that these notebooks were given to us. They were leftover from other students, or something. Luckily, mine was from Yu-Gi-Oh! so despite the green lame quote we had to have on the front, it had some character.  

I’m a proponent in somehow eliminating middle school all together. I may write about that some time in the future because middle school is just an evil and wicked place. But for now, you can rest knowing that some of us tried to rebel any way we could. Mine just happened to be by acting like a complete shallow idiot, but I guess anything works.

This why old people aren't necessarily the old ones

Ideally, this post would’ve been written for last week, but I was lazy and it was written for this week instead. It was ideal in the sense that it would’ve correlated well with my birthday, and all. I was lazy in the sense that it was the day after my birthday and I just didn’t feel like it. So I was talking to my brother, Aaron, last week about people that aren’t “our age” just can’t seem to find the right thing to talk about for extended periods of time with someone that is “our age.”  What I mean by “our age” is someone who is in their young adult life. And I’m not talking about moms or close relatives; I’m talking about people you occasionally see and people you tend to not speak to all the time. So really, without saying it, I’m saying older people. But of course, if I label it as such, I will most definitely hear about this from some relatives. Also, I was just talking about this to my mom right now and she told me to make this post politically correct, to which I said no because it loses all comedic value. See what I mean about older people?

All joking aside, I do not consider my mom to be old. So you can take that as you will about what I consider to be of old age. Please, please, please do not message me, contact me, comment, or whatever trying to stick up for your age group. I do not care. And just to make you feel better, I think the whole “Like this if you’re a 90s’ baby!” has gotten way out of hand and really stupid on my generation’s behalf, so now the playing ground is even. Happy?

Aaron and I were conversing about how uncomfortable situations can get with a generation gap. It shouldn’t be that way, and it isn’t always, but it’s most definitely there at times. So we came up with a list of things different age groups will do to try to relate to one another:

They use lame sayings that seem to be hip or current. The best example I can give for this is when people use phrases that were probably really witty 15 years ago. “Why be normal?” and “You don’t have to go home, but you have to get the heck out of here,” are two of the main ones I could think of. 

They try to dress a certain way. I made Aaron show his work with this one, seeing as how a lot of people tend to try to dress inappropriately or in a way that doesn’t suit them. 

 

(Zubaz and mullet, anyone?)

 They try to quote “pop culture.” At a recent gathering, someone tried to talk to me about the popularity of the Kardashians. I verbatim said, “I don’t know what that is or what you’re talking about.” Of course I know what that is, I just don’t want that kind of talk encouraged anywhere! 

They use Comic Sans MS. And they do so un-ironically! That was a hipster reference and this is what Comic Sans MS looks like. I just can’t take this very seriously. 

Okay, so maybe I was unfair before. It’s not just different ages that do this. Young people do this stuff too. Just maybe with a little bit more awareness.  And if you are genuinely stuck in a conversation try using something like the Olympics. You could ask if the other person is going to watch. You can always segue to “What was your first memory?” This really should just be made into a PSA about not having awkward conversations.  

I guess it doesn’t really have to do with only people who are old. So in summation, anyone, young or old, can try to be hip in weird ways. That’s not really what I started with at all.

This is why I don't know how to be 20

I’m going to take a moment to write about something so cheesy that you’re probably going to want to vomit. My birthday was yesterday and it was perhaps the best birthday I’ve had in years. I didn’t do anything spectacular. I didn’t get some huge gift that would make everyone jealous. I just spent a day at home with my family and had friends come over to eat pizza and swim (okay and there was a massive water balloon fight whilst a thunder-storm was happening and it was pretty epic). Some people would call that really lame and an average day; but it wasn’t.  

Birthdays are supposed to be about celebrating the day you were given life. People like to turn it into something it’s not by making it not about the birthday person. In the past I’ve tried to get away from celebrating my birthday because it’s no fun having people tell you how you have to have fun. And this year I did everything in my power to keep it low-key and to not let it be about other people. Some people were really upset, and I’m sorry if I offended anyone in trying to keep it small. But really, I’m not sorry, because I had so much fun doing what I wanted to do. 

And the second part of this post is that now that I’m 20, I don’t know what to do with myself as apparent here:

So to keep this short and sweet, thanks everyone who made my birthday amazing. Even if you didn’t do anything, you helped by not doing anything. I’ll be back to regular fun nonsensical blogs next week when I’m not too stuffed on pizza to care. 

P.S. If you were bored and felt like this blog was a waste of your time and I should give you your time back, I can't do that. But I can introduce you a web-series that you should check out if you're into parodies and dating shows.

http://screen.yahoo.com/burning-love-episode-1-29519689.html

More on that later.

This is why Facebook is the new MySpace

Let’s take this moment to all applaud Facebook. Facebook is achieving what its predecessors could not: it is able to hang on to a substantial amount of users. I mean, I guess it helps that it had a huge Oscar-winning (which I still maintain is bogus) movie made about it. Even though that movie is supposedly ridiculously inaccurate or whatever Zuckerberg said. Remember when MySpace was a thing? You’re probably trying to forget about those days. Well for the sake of my blog post, remember them for a second. 

I just Googled the amount of MySpace users’ activity since the beginning of the year and it’s down to something like 24.9 million views a month. Before you go thinking that’s a lot, think about how many times you get on Facebook or Twitter a day. Facebook gets 166 million a month. Also, poor MySpace lost about 10 million users a month in 2011. I remember talking to some younger girls in 2010 and they said something about how much they loved MySpace over Facebook. I bet they’re still the only users there. 2010 was still pretty late in the game to be using MySpace. 

I’m not sure why people decided to hate MySpace so much. Besides the weird layouts, lack of sharing pictures and updates, and awkward way of connecting to people, I don’t think it was that bad. The only reason I even stopped using mine (it’s still up there in the darkest crevice of the internet somewhere) is because everyone else stopped and I was the only one of my friends to ever get on. But it became a joke to everyone. 

Facebook is definitely headed that way…maybe. Facebook was smart. It was entangled and used with everything and every website that it’s kind of impossible for everyone to abandon Facebook the way they left MySpace. I’ve known individual people that have deleted their accounts but more often than not people just stop using it. It’s kind of hard to do anything else but just walk away with it still on the table.  With MySpace, there were hardly any negative consequences for deletion. If I cancel my Facebook, I’ll lose pictures I’m too lazy to re-save. I won’t have a way to get this blog really out there. I won’t get promotions or deals by liking someone’s page. Well played, Zuckerberg. Well played. 

I got on MySpace recently and it is so different. To give you an idea I took a screen shot and decided to save you the trouble, although MySpace stats could really use the user activity. 

(Sorry, I anticipated that you'd be able to click it to make it bigger, guess you're going to either not care or go log in for yourself)

Yeah, everything’s changed. And I’m not going to mention names, but from what I could read some people were still using it to listen to music and some people had it linked to their Twitters. I decided I didn’t want any of my old stuff shown, so I signed in with an old fake account I had. Well now that that awkward run in with your past is over, feel free to forget MySpace every existed again.