Kobe

So I'm a fan of the Lakers and I was watching the game last weekend where Kobe makes the winning shot again Miami Heat. It's crazy how good he is to be falling back, one leg on the ground, and still makes it in. It was very exciting, but how can he really be that good?! Ridiculous!

If you haven't seen it, look it up on Youtube. It's amazing!

Media Knowledge

So my email is with Yahoo so I'm on that website a lot! One of my favorite things is Yahoo News! I get to know what's going on all the time with random things around the world and I feel so educated from it. I tell people random facts and stories about certain events and they always ask, "where do you find out all this information?" My reply: Yahoo News. So good! Use it!

Tis the Season to be Jolly

It's officially Christmas season and that means Christmas music and movies! I put NSYNC Christmas in my car and I love it! I was driving home from Salt Lake and I was rockin out by myself in the car and it was awesome! It brings back so many memories from my childhood with my siblings listening to it while decorating the tree and putting up lights. I love the season and all the positive media that surrounds this holiday. I mean who doesn't love everything about Christmas?!

Boo AMA's

So I was watching the American Music Awards on Sunday while doing homework and I only saw the last hour or so, but the final performance of the night was ridiculous! All I have to say is oh my! Adam Lambert's performance was so incredibly inappropriate. I can't even describe what happened because it was so sexual. It was crude and wild and so unnecessary. His dancing and lyrics and actions throughout the entire song were so explicit that I think I was more offended by this than by Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake at the Superbowl! It was so bad. My roommate and I dropped our jaws and were completely surprised that this was aired and that people enjoy this kind of stuff! I don't know if anyone else saw it, but it was just so inappropriate in every way.

Tree of Life

So in talking about home videos in class yesterday, it reminded me of a classic home video our family made when I was little. Haha it makes me laugh just thinking about it! Our family acted out the story of "The Tree of Life" from the scriptures and man is it embarrassing! We watch it from time to time for family night and it makes us laugh so hard! Despite how humiliating it is, I am so glad our family has that video to look back on because there are so many memories that stem from those great times :)

Driving with Honey

So I'm with my best friend Josh all the time and he always listens to country stations when we're driving in the car. He introduced me to this new band named Lady Antebellum and I love them! I especially like this song called "Need You Now." It's so good and it's such a great song to belt to. It gives me the greatest feeling to listen to it because it reminds me of him and being happy. I love what music can do to you :)

Christmas Is Coming, The Goose Is Getting Fat...

My family has a tradition to go see the Christmas Carol play at the Glendale Theater every year. We have been going for 14 years now! I absolutely love it! To go along with this, I went and saw the Christmas Carol movie with my cousins. It was okay, but I was disappointed. If I was a little kid, I would have been terrified! I thought it was a very negative view of Scrooge and the whole story itself. It was dark and focused on entertainment aspects rather than the moral of the story, which I think is the best part. It had awesome detail and I was impressed with a lot of things, but I related it to the play that I have seen my whole life and it doesn't even compare. The play is lighthearted, funny and positive, and I will always be the biggest fan of that play. I look forward to seeing it this year and continuing one of my favorite traditions :)

Family Facebook

Yesterday I was in Salt Lake with my extended family for my cousin's birthday dinner and a huge topic of conversation was facebook! They told stories of wall posts and talked about how certain people are judged because of their facebook page. All my aunts and uncles were in on it too! I think it's crazy how big it has become and how prevalent it is, even among adults! I think a lot of adults join to monitor their kids and it's so weird to me. It's almost like it's not for them. I sometimes feel it's a generational thing and older adults shouldn't ever join, but I think adults are the fastest growing group on facebook these days. I remember how fast it became the new fad and how much it grows and constantly changes and even when an adult added me for the first time and I completely ignored their request cause it was weird to me! Don't get me wrong, I love facebook, but I joined cause it was an easy way to keep an intimate social network, with close friends, from a distance. But has it gone too far? Are too many people on it just trying to get as many friends as they can because it's the "cool" thing to do?

Television: Sexual Content

I knew there was a lot of sexual content on TV these days, but somehow I was still surprised at how much I found for our in-class assignment. I think I never really paid attention to the little inuendos or the slight kisses on screen, I was always only shocked by the bigger, more obvious sex scenes. It's funny how in elementary school, the word "sex" was almost a bad word and no one talked about it ever and now it has consumed the media in all forms. I already pay more attention to the content of shows I watch and will now be even more conscious of it as an active participant of the media.

CES Fireside

I bet a lot of people would agree that President Uchtdorf's talk in the CES fireside last night was amazing. I absolutely loved it! He is such an incredible and powerful speaker. I love listening to his words of encouragement. I thought his talk was way funny too, I laughed so much! I especially liked the part about Shakespeare's Hamlet: "to be or not to be." So good!

I find it such a privilege to have the opportunity to hear from the apostles on a regular basis. My dad always tells me, "Never skip an opportunity to be taught by the spirit." I have always taken that advice to heart and have never been disappointed. I was touched by President Uchtdorfs words at the end when he expressed his love for us individually and collectively. You can really tell that the apostles of the Lord truly love each of the members of the church. I love hearing from him and all the other apostles and I am blessed to have the gospel in my life.

Can't Stop The Beat

I've been a runner my entire life and one of my favorite things to do is go on a run with my ipod. Music has been a huge part of my running routine and now I can't run without it. It motivates me to run faster, to keep up with the beat. It clears my mind and just lets me run to the rhythm. It has become therapy to me; whenever I'm down or mad or sad or stressed, I go for a run with my music and it relieves all my frustrations and emotions. I absolutely love it!

Today's selection of music for my run: Taking Back Sunday

World Series

So I am totally bummed out that both my teams, Los Angeles Dodgers and Los Angeles Angels, didn't make it to the World Series :( They both put up a fight and sadly it wasn't enough. I grew up going to those baseball games. They bring back so many memories of my childhood and I will always love those teams! My best friend Josh loves baseball more than anything. He's played it all his life and Dodgers are his team. When they lost to the Phillies, man, he was so upset! I made fun of him for being so angry about a game and he called it "sports anger" not real anger. Haha that totally gets me that boys get so upset with sports and yet they can't admit that it's "real anger." It's crazy what sports can do to diehard fans!

Halo

Okay so to compliment our video game lecture the other day, I have a story....there were some guys in my ward a couple years ago who loved playing Halo so one time I joined in and played the game "King of the Hill." I wasn't sure how to play and these guys were like pros. So I hid the entire game and guess who was the last one standing!? O yeah, ME! Man, those guys freaked out that they got beat out by a girl! It was pretty much awesome! :)

The Invention of Lying

So I went and saw the movie "The Invention of Lying" last night and I have to admit I was disappointed. It looked so funny, but it was one of those where all the funny parts are in the preview. It had a weird story line and yes there were some way funny parts that I was laughing out loud on, but overall, not so good. I say if you wanna go see it, wait for the dollar. The thing that made it good though was the people I was with. I went with my cousin Logan and my best friend Josh and that made it all worth it cause I had great company the whole time. It's ironic how no matter what you think of a movie, if you have great people with you, it seems to even it out and still make the night great. I love my friends and I love movies and I love the ability I have to experience this kind of media :)

LDS General Conference

So I'm pretty sure most people are going to blog about this for their week's post, but I just have to say that I love conference! You get to spend the entire day in your sweats in the comfort of your own home, and get spiritually fed. It's incredible how far technology has come so that we can have the opportunity to hear from our leaders twice a year. I think it's such an amazing event for our church to have so that we can continually be taught through the ongoing revelation of our prophet and apostles. I was also very excited to hear of the announcement of the new temple in Concepcion, Chile! My boyfriend is serving as a missionary there right now and his entire mission is so stoked. Now members can have the chance to attend the temple and take out endowments and perform ordinances they otherwise couldn't. Conference is awesome and definitely gives me those warm fuzzies President Monson talked about :)

Music for the Heart

So on a personal note, yesterday's class was a tender mercy for me. I want to thank both Sarah and her sister Laura for that beautiful rendition of "More Holiness Give Me." It really was beautiful. This week has been a tough week for my family and me and hearing that song gave me so much peace. I felt the spirit so strong and I am so blessed to know that simple songs such as this one can bring comfort. I am so grateful for positive music in the media that can help us through hard times and provide uplifting experiences :)

House M.D.

So I finally saw the House season premiere and I loved it! It had everything great entertainment needs. I even got emotional with it. The whole episode transformed the character of House and I was so entranced by it. He had his normal quirks and deceptive strategies, but his heart was changing and it showed. He was no longer a miserable jerk with leg pain on vicadin, he was a man trying to overcome his weakness and find happiness. It's awesome how there is still great TV on these days. It seems like all television series aren't family oriented, but House is one show I love to watch, especially with my family :)

As House would say, "It's never Lupus" :)

Trilingual

So I have a really good friend who actually was my freshman math teacher in high school! We have kept in touch ever since and she has become an important part of my life. She has a 3 year old and a brand new baby and their whole family is absolutely adorable! She has a Persian background and because of this, she teaches her daughter Farsi. However, this is not the only language she is teaching her. There is also French and English. I have spent a lot of time with that family and I always find Iman reading talking books and listening to musical tapes that teach her these different languages. She hears the words spoken from the book and then reads them herself as she flips the pages. On the musical tape, she learns songs in French and can sing them back with the translation (Her parents mostly teach her Farsi). It's amazing to me how such simple sources of media can be such an effective tool for a 3 year old! She is extremely smart already and her parents have been great influences on her. Iman is on her way to having a trilingual life. If only all of us could take advantage of the media the way this family has :)

Sunday Night Movies

So my family has developed this tradition over the years of watching movies on Sunday nights together. It kinda just happened every week or so and then it became something we wanted to do regularly. We typically watch new releases, classics, and our family favorites. We have popcorn, soda, M & M's, and my personal favorite chocolate raisins. It's probably the best day of the week for me. Being at school away from my family, I miss Sunday movie nights so much. It's not ever about what movie I'm watching though, it's all about the experience of being there with my family. We got to laugh all the time and quote lines and bond in a totally different way. The point is, it was the rare day in the week where our whole family got to be TOGETHER. I cannot wait to continue this tradition one day with my family! :)

...PSYCH you out in the end!

Okay so my family and I love the show Psych on USA Network cuz it's HILARIOUS! And I watched an episode from this season recently and I think I have a new all time favorite TV quote:

(Talking to Gus...)

"You're wrong! Wrong wrong wrong. Wrong wrong wrong. Finger guns. Pow! Wrong pow! Wrong in your weenie! Pow!"

Hahahaha makes my sister and I crack up every single time! :) Gotta love Shawn Spencer!

Dear Elder

I just wanna say thank goodness for email and postal services! I have both a brother and a boyfriend on a mission right now and I don't know what I would do if I didn't have the ability to communicate with them. Snail mail takes forever, but it's still fun to do things the old ways sometimes. Technology has come so far in just the past few years and email has become so efficient that talking to people is so easy! You can chat online, send pictures, and even keep an updated status. So whenever I just wanna say "I love you" to those around the world, I can with the click of a button :) Gotta appreciate the media!

Up, Up, and Away

So this last weekend I went and saw the movie Up with my roommates and I loved it! I'm a sucker for dollar movies because even when they sound ridiculous, most of them turn out to be decent movies and worth the money. I hadn't really heard much about it, but it had everything that a great movie needs. It was romantic, hilarious in so many different parts, adventurous, a little bit sad, clean, and quite imaginative. I recommended it to all my friends and family and I quote it all the time! I love a good movie and the entertainment it brings. I have to admit, the movies I like the most are the ones that make me laugh out loud and this for sure is one of them! :)