National Boss Day

Tomorrow (Oct. 16th), is national boss day. I am making my roommate call me boss and she is making me call her master. Who ever thought of all these random "national holidays"... they are all really silly and I wonder if any of them are true, either way I think they are fun here are some that I have found: 

1.   Jan. 25th- OFFICIAL Opposite Day

2.  Jan. 27th- Thomas Crapper Day (The man who invented the toliet)

3.  Feb. 10th- National Umbrella Day

4.  March 5th- Multiple Personalities Day

5.  March 22nd- National Goof-off Day

 

6.  May 10th- Clean up your room Day

7.  July 1st- National Television Heritage Day, also Build a Scarecrow Day

8.  Aug. 11th- Presidential Joke Day

Fall in love

When I was home for Fall break I suddenly was aware of one thing that has been missing from my life—AUTUMN! In Dallas, it is still hot (which I am not complaining about, believe me) but there is minimal sign of any season change. There is something about the vibrant colors of Fall that just soothe me. Waking up in the morning, to look out my window and see what colors the trees had changed into the previous evening is something I always looked forward to. The habitual changes of season are more of a constant; a sign of stability, then it is a change for me because it is how I grew up. There are some things we will always leave behind in life and change is inevitable. I try to embrace change but a little taste of what I have been missing was really a nice feeling.

bed bugs

I received some horrible bug bites while I was home for fall break in Chicago. It seemed kind of strange to me that I would be getting mosquito bites in Chicago in the middle of October but I did not really  think anything of it. However, when I showed my parents the freaked out and decided to go to the trustworthy and all-knowing GOOGLE for a diagnosis.  With help from Google and equally all-knowing, WebMd, my parents were convinced there were bugs in my room. This was just not okay with me. Within the next ten minutes my parents, like monsters, were ripping apart every inch of my room. I was a little too freaked out at the notion I may have been sleeping with bugs to join in on what seemed to be funny to them. They laughed as they searched my mattress with a magnifying glass, I cried and asked myself how such a traumatic situation could possible be funny? Eventually, I joined in on the laughter. Every time we thought we saw a bug in my room (which usually wound up being dust) my mom and I would scream and run out of the room while my dad would lean in with his magnifying glass. If someone was watching us or just listening to us, they would have probably thought we were nuts with all the laughing and screaming going on. At the end of the total gutting of my belongings, we had found two possible suspects to my bug bites: 

1.) A dead ladybug. 

 2.) A dead really scary looking bug. 

So far, no more suspects have been found but the situation is being investigated. As for me, even after the exterminator comes and I get new sheets and a new mattress, I do not know if I will ever be able to sleep soundly in my room at home. I am not even convinced that there ever were bugs in my bed but the idea that there could have been rocks me to the core. I am a very clean person and my house is pretty immaculate as well so I just have to ask myself how such horrible things can happen to a good person?

cigarette ads

In today's world of political correctness it kind of surprises me that the advertisement of cigarettes is still considered ethical. Clearly, cigarette ads have been regulated much more than they were in the old days when cigarette ads did not have to convince consumers that smoking was cool, but convince them why smoking "x" brand will make you even cooler than "y" brand. 

I started thinking about this when I started watching the T.V. series Mad Men. This show is about an ad firm in the early sixties. One of their clients, Lucky Strike Cigarettes, is in a panic to keep their image away from the newly discovered research of "cigarettes will kill you".  The creative exec, Don Draper, comes up with his solution to the cigarette problem: Advertising is based on one thing," Don says. "Happiness." Everyone else's tobacco is poisonous, but Lucky Strike's is "toasted." Within moments, the Lucky Strike folk are sold. The show is portraying how much cigarettes were glorified in those days. The ads really did make consumers believe if they smoked, they would be cool.

 

It seems like in the year 2008, after all we know of the dangers of tobacco use, this kind of 

tobacco advertising as portrayed in Mad Men would have come to an end because of ethics. A couple days ago I came across a cigarette ad for Davidoff Cigarettes. This ad particularly bothered me because of how much it reminded me of the ads from Mad Men. It had an old fashion styling to it, appealing to those who want to believe smoking is cool. I do not know why I was so negatively affected by this ad. I think part of it is because I wear Davidoff perfume. I do not like the fact that the fragrance brand I wear also manufactures tobacco products.