sweet dreams are made of these.

Ok maybe it's because it's getting closer to "back-to-school" time that my mind is already racing with dreams of being late and turning in projects...but the past couple of nights has just been nuts. A few days ago I fell asleep in the living room while watching tv and I had a dream of putting on a powder mineral foundation, only to find it being advertised on tv when I woke up. That's the first time I can actually say I've been aware of television affecting my dreams. So after this I've been making sure to fall asleep in my dark and silent room with no subliminal ads playing in my mind. HOWEVER last night my dream was filled with product placement and one in particular; Febreze Noticeables. While I woke up knowing that Febreze was a real product I couldn't seem to remember if Febreze Noticeables was real, or if I made up the Noticeables part. I remember being mad at the ads for it on tv, because I thought they made no sense, so in my dream I made up a better ad. Immediately after waking up I wrote it down and let me tell you I have a new product idea for Febreze.

What does this all mean? Am I watching too much television? Am I being sent messages from a divine force that need to be spread to the world about products that mask odor and eliminate 99.9% of bacteria from the air? Or have advertisements just gone subliminal?
To be continued...

Hello World.

As you may have heard, Randy Pausch of Carnegie Mellon University passed away this Friday of incurable cancer. He gained recent fame and headlines for his now famous last lecture and the book that followed it. While watching his lecture on YouTube it's sometimes easy to forget that this is a dying man, and however morbid that may be to some people, the person that it should be affecting most, Mr. Pausch has completely accepted his fate and is truly living his life in spite of knowing the outcome. I don't think most people, myself included could be given only a few months left to live and come to terms with it. He decided he had to do what he could to spread awareness on pancreatic cancer by meeting with congress, giving a public service announcements, and most importantly leave a lasting image of himself for his young children.

"Wait long enough and people will surprise and impress you"
His lecture is packed with life lessons, how to find your dreams, and how to help others with their own dreams. Most of Pausch's childhood dreams came true for him, such as experiencing zero gravity, winning large stuffed animals, and working with Disney's imagineers, and that was because he was unrelenting.

I believe too that if you know your dreams and recognize opportunities you can achieve great things. I tried my hardest to think about what I longed for as a child. Did I want to be a doctor, an astronaut, a trapeze artist? No. I wanted to fly in a plane, go to disney world, be friends with mary-kate and ashley, swim with dolphins, toss a pizza, learn to juggle, ride in a hot air balloon, drive across the country with my friends, understand my religion, find true love...Most things simple; most easy to accomplish (minus maybe the last two). As a grew I knew I wanted to make things, to use my hands, to help people. I valued friendships, I was a peace-maker among friends and held on tight to those that despite my efforts drifted away from me. I still do. I'm still learning that some things are not within my control, and not everything can be as neat and tidy as I want it to be. Each day is an experience, a lesson, an imprint. I know I have an insatiable desire to succeed, to accomplish my goals, and to always be striving to do better for myself and for others. While I would like to make an impact on the world, I want to still be able to be happy with just making an impact in my own immediate world.

Passion and knowledge are driving forces that when spread create change, and cause a ripple effect. Randy Pausch proved that. He is one example that did not think his message would spread the way it did, did not think he was deserving of such attention. Success for Mr. Pausch was just in being able to dream big, whether or not all of the dreams came true, and to be able to convey that message to his kids. Live your life regardless of your circumstances. Anyone has the power to be successful in their lives; it's all about how you define success.

It's actually pretty disgraceful.

I came across this quote on TV today and was pretty shocked that this is how some young women of today represent themselves and their gender. Way to go Brooke.

“You know what? I am actually not that much into voting. I think it’s kinda crazy that a woman is running, because I think that women deal with a lot of emotions and menopause and PMS and stuff. Like, I’m so moody all the time, I know I couldn’t be able to run a country, ‘cause I’d be crying one day and yelling at people the next day, ya know?”—Brooke Hogan, when asked who she’s voting for by a potential roommate on her series Brooke Knows Best.

I definitely don't approve of all of the exposure they get in order to make themselves look bad. In a few years I'm sure they're going to see themselves on air and feel pretty stupid about the whole thing. Our society loves this stuff though. It's like we can get enough of it, like fast food and eventually we're going to need a detox of television...just like we needed a mandate against trans fat. Reality television is truly cellulite for the brain and you can quote me on that. Even though we know it's bad though we still can't help but watch the train wreck; seeing others crashing and essentially making us feel better about ourselves. And the other motive of tv is to just make us more materialistic and product driven. Whatever the goal it's not something we should be proud of.

I'm not saying that this is representative of all of young Hollywood, but there are certainly quite a few that are outshining the rest—and not in a good way. VH1 recently aired the 40 dumbest celebrity quotes ever and while I enjoy when they poke fun at celebs just as much as the next guy, they air a lot of the shows that produce those quotes...so I don't know what that really says about them considered most of reality tv is scripted. Here's a few of my favs anyway:

Jessica Simpson - "Is this chicken what I have, or is this fish? I know it's tuna but it says Chicken, by the Sea"
Tara Reid - "I make Jessica Simpson look like a rock scientist"
Paris - "What's Walmart, do they sell like wall stuff?"
R.Kelly - "All of a sudden you're like the Bin Laden of America. Osama Bin Laden is the only one who knows what I'm going through."
Brooke Shields - "Smoking kills, and if you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your life."
Britney Spears - "I've never really wanted to go to Japan, simply because I don't really like eating fish, and I know that's very popular out there in Africa."