A song that I have been listening to a fair amount lately, because I like it in general but also for the obvious reason, is "Carmen" by Lana Del Rey. "Carmen" is about a girl that doesn't make the smartest decisions. She drinks and gets high and seems to do a share of sleeping around. Carmen's only seventeen but she's already famous and has all of these problems and addictions. Many lines in the song portray that Carmen doesn't actually enjoy her lifestyle and does not suggest it to others, for she seems to know that what she is doing is bad for her. So why does she do it?
I honestly don't know. Maybe it's all she knows how to do and she already's in this mess and just can't get out. Maybe she tries but trying to escape is much more difficult than just staying the way you are, no matter how bad that way may be. But Lana Del Rey doesn't make it completely clear whether or not Carmen is really conscious of what she is doing to herself. "Lying to herself 'cause her liquor's top shelf." Lana repeats this line a couple of times and maybe it means that she does know in the back of her mind that she's doing bad but she lies to herself because that's easier than trying to change. Lana also says "She [Carmen] says you don't want to be like me, don't want to see all the things I've seen. I'm dying, I'm dying." This shows me that Carmen really is aware of her choices and well being and does not suggest her lifestyle to others. "I'm dying, I'm dying" This part I think adds on to what I was saying about her not being able to escape so it's easier to just let it happen. When you're dying there's no way you can just stop dying, and it's sometimes better if you except it rather than deny it. Maybe she's in too deep to even bother getting out.
But which is better, knowing that you are making bad choices and not being able to do anything about it or not realizing the effect of your choices and not doing anything about it? I know I've made decisions that I didn't realize were bad until after it was too late to really do anything about them. Usually this is just saying something to someone that I didn't realize then, but I shouldn't have. Once I realize my mistake I can apologize and sort of right the wrong, but you can never really go back and undo it, especially if it's something more permanent like drugs, alcohol and sex. If you never did realize what you did was wrong that would be the worse, because you would never be able to fix it at all.s
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Does Your Grandpa Know Who Justin Bieber Is?
I just started reading the book "Slapstick" by Kurt Vonnegut. I find this book to be quite odd but none the less very interesting. In the book Dr. Wilbur Daffodil-11 Swain lives in Manhattan. He does not live in the Manhattan we know today, but in Manhattan in the future, a Manhattan where everyone has names as odd as Dr. Wilbur Daffodil-11s. Everything is crushed and destroyed and it seems as though there are very few people beside himself. Wilbur lives in the empire state building with only two other people, his sixteen year old grand-daughter and her husband.
Even though the book is written with humor and lightheartedness, it is actually pretty sad. Everything that once was is gone, almost all traditions from before are gone, and all the people of Dr. Wilbur Daffodil-11's generation are gone. He is nearly all alone in his old age. I find this really sad because living with people who have been alive for about as long as you have is natural, so you can reminisce about old times and just know that those people know just about as much and what you know. Especially in the time where Wilbur lives all of this would be severely needed. His grand-daughter and her husband don't even know how to read.
Being young, I personally could not imagine only living with my parents and people of their generation. They don't understand very much about pop culture and just how people act. They still think that Glee is an emotion, not a hit TV show on Fox. They still think that if you can move around comfortably in jeans it's okay, no, it's not. They don't know what Gangnam Style is... well maybe that one's for the better. Anyway, no one wants to only live with people of different generations whether you're old and don't want to only live with young people or if you are young and don't want to only live with old people.
Even though the book is written with humor and lightheartedness, it is actually pretty sad. Everything that once was is gone, almost all traditions from before are gone, and all the people of Dr. Wilbur Daffodil-11's generation are gone. He is nearly all alone in his old age. I find this really sad because living with people who have been alive for about as long as you have is natural, so you can reminisce about old times and just know that those people know just about as much and what you know. Especially in the time where Wilbur lives all of this would be severely needed. His grand-daughter and her husband don't even know how to read.
Being young, I personally could not imagine only living with my parents and people of their generation. They don't understand very much about pop culture and just how people act. They still think that Glee is an emotion, not a hit TV show on Fox. They still think that if you can move around comfortably in jeans it's okay, no, it's not. They don't know what Gangnam Style is... well maybe that one's for the better. Anyway, no one wants to only live with people of different generations whether you're old and don't want to only live with young people or if you are young and don't want to only live with old people.
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Why Not To Have A $325,000 Dog House
The Upfront Magazine article "What You Can Learn From Celeb Money Meltdowns" by Cheryl Lock and Rachel Morris, explains how even though they are being payed millions of dollars a year, many celebrities are not saving any of their money for their or their children's future but instead they are spending it right away on things that are unimaginable for any human to ever need. An example of this idiotic spending is that Paris Hilton purchased a $325,000 dog house that is an exact replica of her own (probably very overpriced) mansion. The authors also give us an example of pure stupidity, that Britney Spears makes $737,000 a month, and saves absolutely none of it. Another case of pure stupidity: Lindsay Lohan found herself drowning in half a million dollars of debt in 2010 and asking her own friends for some financial help.
The authors want the reader to know how not to make these financial mistakes that so many celebrities make. They want the reader to know that if you have money to save, save it. And that a doghouse that's over $300,000 is not worth it. Nor is buying a house with a home theater, bowling alley, barber shop, and six car garage like LeBron James did. They want the readers to see the backfire of buying anything that crosses your mind even if you have enough money to buy it, and to not make this mistake.
In this article the authors really want the reader to think about how stupid the celebrities that many of us look up to are when it comes to money. The authors try to get you to think this by saying in bold, facts and statistics about how much money each celebrity spent and on what. They also give specific examples about how each of five celebrities wasted money. Before the section of the article about how you don't make the same mistakes as the celebrities, the authors stated largely in bold "Be smarter than the stars:"
I found the information in this article both very amusing and interesting. Amusing because just reading some of the things that celebrities buy is so stupid it's funny. Interesting because of how the author tries very hard to get the reader not to spend money on dumb things. I mostly agree with the authors, that if you have money you should save it for the future and save it for important and practical things that you mostly need, not a dog mansion. But I know that if I was raking in as much money as LeBron James, I would first save a bunch of it of course, then go right ahead and buy myself the house with the movie theater and bowling alley, why not? If you have enough money that you can save enough and then afford something not very practical but AWESOME, than why would you not buy that? But that' just my opinion.
What's yours? {comment}
The authors want the reader to know how not to make these financial mistakes that so many celebrities make. They want the reader to know that if you have money to save, save it. And that a doghouse that's over $300,000 is not worth it. Nor is buying a house with a home theater, bowling alley, barber shop, and six car garage like LeBron James did. They want the readers to see the backfire of buying anything that crosses your mind even if you have enough money to buy it, and to not make this mistake.
In this article the authors really want the reader to think about how stupid the celebrities that many of us look up to are when it comes to money. The authors try to get you to think this by saying in bold, facts and statistics about how much money each celebrity spent and on what. They also give specific examples about how each of five celebrities wasted money. Before the section of the article about how you don't make the same mistakes as the celebrities, the authors stated largely in bold "Be smarter than the stars:"
I found the information in this article both very amusing and interesting. Amusing because just reading some of the things that celebrities buy is so stupid it's funny. Interesting because of how the author tries very hard to get the reader not to spend money on dumb things. I mostly agree with the authors, that if you have money you should save it for the future and save it for important and practical things that you mostly need, not a dog mansion. But I know that if I was raking in as much money as LeBron James, I would first save a bunch of it of course, then go right ahead and buy myself the house with the movie theater and bowling alley, why not? If you have enough money that you can save enough and then afford something not very practical but AWESOME, than why would you not buy that? But that' just my opinion.
What's yours? {comment}
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