Take a second

In today’s episode of The Simpsons Homer learns how valuable listening can be. This episode begins with Mayor Quimby unveiling the new statue dedicated to the boxer Drederick Tatum, we then see Homer run into the fist of the statue and breaks his jaw. In order to let the bone heal in the right spot Dr. Hibbert has to immobilize his jaw and thus wires it shut. For Homer this is a big deal because of his loud personality, he likes to talk a lot and be heard but with his jaw wired shut he is forced to be quiet and listen to everyone else for a change. In the beginning it was rough for him he couldn’t eat all the foods he wanted because he can’t open his mouth and he cant even talk, so he finally realizes that there is no way out of this and he should make the best out of the situation. He begins to listen to people and learn new things about people. While building a model airplane with Bart tells his father that in class today they had a substitute teacher who’s name was Mrs. Duty and everyone in the class looked for him to make fun of the name Bart said he then realized that he became the class clown and he didn’t really like that. Homer then learned though listening that Bart does have feelings like everyone else in the family. For a while everyone is happier with Homer listening but eventually Marge gets so bored of Homer listing she does enters a demolition derby, and losses. So The Simpsons have once again taught you a valuable lesson, this one being that talking too much is bad but also talking to little can be bad too, so talk in moderation and take the time to listen to someone else every once and a while, it will be good for you and them.

Class and Virtue

In class this week we read an essay entitled Class and Virtue written by Michael Parenti. In this essay Michael talks about how movies reinforce different classes in America. If you were to watch a movie you would definitely see the rich or upper class and the middle or working class. In order to notice things like this you need to pay attention to the main ideas in the movie but the little details as well. If you were to watch a movie the working class person always seems to have bad or old looking clothes, while the upper class character always has the superior clothes. For example in George A. Romero’s Land of the Dead there wasn’t a subtle class distinction, there were totally two different worlds. In the lower/working class area they were literally living in the streets, people were all over the place and most had dirty old clothes. Now in the other hand all rich/upper class people lived in a beautiful gated community with nice up to date building and electric fences to keep all the zombies out. It seems to me that the people in the movie industry seem to think that people who are in the lower/working class are not as good as somebody who is wealthy, well it doesn’t matter how much money you have all that matters is what kind of person you are. Oh, and remember no matter how much money you have you will leave it behind for good one day.

A Good Friend

In this weeks episode of the Simpsons they aired an old Christmas episode for some reason, but it doesn’t matter it still has family/life values in it. Well in this episode Homer decides to go out to the auto show and check out some cars. While he was there he saw this big pickup truck with a plow attached really liked it but couldn’t afford it. So the slick salesman told Homer that if he was to purchase it he would be able to make the payments by plowing snow around the city. So Homer came home with that pickup truck that same night. Marge was upset, so Homer went out and made a commercial that would air on television. After people saw the commercial the calls started to come in, and he stared to make some good money. Later on Barney one of Homer’s friends also decides to buy a plow truck, before you know if Barney starts to put Homer out of business. Since Homer lost all his customer’s to Barney he decided to play a trick on Barney so he would no longer be any competition. Homer calls Barney and pretends to be a customer asking him to plow the snow at his house at the top of a mountain, so Barney gets up there and his truck almost falls off the side of the mountain, and he is hanging there for dear life. Later on Homer feels bad and decides to got to mountain and ends up saving Barney’s life. This shows that a good friend in life is not something to play around with, they are hard to come by and you should enjoy there company as long as you can.

Batman!

In class this week we had to read an essay entitled Holy Homosexuality Batman! This essay discussed how Batman was portrayed as gay in the film Batman Forever. This was shocking to me because since I was a little kid I always watched Batman. I watched the cartoons on Saturday mornings and the movies when they cam out on VHS at the time, but even though I am an adult I still watched the movie Batman Beyond when it came out on DVD. Now I can honestly say that through watching a lot of Batman in my lifetime I still don’t think that Batman and Robin are gay. Different people get different things out of a movie but I never thought that anybody was gay in the movie, but according to Freya Johnson the author of the essay I read, it was not only Batman and Robin the Riddler was also a character that was portrayed with homosexual qualities. I think essays that dig so deep into a movie like Batman put ideas in the viewers head, and changes the way they view the movie. I believe that most people who watch this movie wouldn’t notice any homosexuality, but if they were to read that essay and then watch the movie they would have a very different sense of what orientation Batman is. Even though the author had some good points like Robin was rubbing Batman after he got hurt, I still feel that this movie is being take for more than it was written for, movies like this should just be an enjoyable experience.

It's Almost Playoff Time

I am a big basketball fan so I will write about the National Basketball Association for this blog since we were allowed to write about anything we want. Soon the playoffs will start in the NBA and that’s my favorite time of the year because that is when the players take their game to the highest level, all the teams play to their best. Also, the playoffs are a sad times for some times because there are teams that don’t make they playoffs and thus their season ends at the end of the regular season. Now for most people this isn’t a big deal if you don’t make the playoffs you don’t, but you have to think like you are in the players shoes. You work your whole life dreaming about winning the championship and now their chances for this year has come to an end. My favorite team is the Detroit Pistons and I think they have a good chance to win the championship, but in recent news Gilbert Arenas the best player on the Washington Wizards has injured his knee and will be out for the rest of the season. So basically they will still make the playoffs but will probably not make it too far in the post season. Now as an NBA fan I am sad to see such a great player go down so late in the season but as a Detroit Pistons fan I am also relieved because this means that their journey to the championship will be a little easier. So we will see how everything turns out but hopefully the Pistons will come out on top and be champions once again.

Family Stays Together

On this weeks episode of The Simpsons the whole family decides to go and take a vacation to Itchy and Scratchy Land, and use family team work to overcome a obstacle. The episode starts out with Bart and Lisa bugging Marge and Homer to go to Itchy and Scratchy land, but they kept on saying no. So Bart and Lisa devised a plan that would surely make them say yes. So in the middle of the night Lisa bursts in their room with Bart lying in a buggy and shouts “Mom Dad Bart is Dead.” Immediately after that Bart springs up and says “That’s right dead tired of high prices on family vacations” Marge and Homer reply by saying No and go to bed. So tomorrow morning Bart and Lisa took a different approach and showed their parents the brochure for the park, after looking over it Homer and Marge decide to go. At the park the family see’s a parade of robots that have axes that are programmed to hit each other but not hurt humans, well somebody take a picture and the flash from the camera breads the robot, and Lisa notices what happens. It turns out that all the robots have went crazy and are going to kill all the humans, so everyone evacuates the park but the Simpson family are left behind. So the robots are coming and Lisa recalls seeing the robots go die after the seeing the flash from the camera. So the entire family works together to kills all the robots. So this episode is not different than any of the other episodes it teaches good and wholesome values to all that watch it, this weeks is that a family that works together can accomplish anything.

Fall down and get right back up

In today’s episode of The Simpsons Marge gets mugged right outside of the Kwik E Mart and then becomes very scared to leave the house. Marge stays locked in the house for a very long time just because she is that scared, so she heads to the basement and finds an old set of weights. So she begins pumping iron the whole time she locks herself in the house. After a while she becomes very strong and buff and eventually gets enough strength to get out of the house. Well after she left the house she runs into her robber and chases him down. This particular episode of the Simpsons teaches a very good lesson, this lesson is that once you fall down you always must get up again no matter how hard. By Marge being locked in her house she missed out on many things, just because of a little thing called fear. Many people have a bad experience in their life time usually in their childhood and become scarred for life and tend to stay away from whatever caused them harm. Many times it can be a little thing like riding a bike, as bad as this is many people often get hit by a car riding their bikes and then become scared too scared to ride a bike again. Many people often maintain their fear of them bikes into adult hood until somebody makes them realize that it’s nothing and they can overcome it. This show does a good job of showing people that it’s okay that they had a bad experience but they shouldn’t let that hold them back from having many good experiences.

Shallow

In class this week we have been watching Land of the Dead, so I will not be writing about my readings since we didn’t have any. I never saw this movie before this class, and I don’t even think I’ve ever saw any zombie movie before. To be honest I don’t really watch horror movies, not because I’m scared or anything it’s just because I don’t really like them. I would rather sit back and laugh at a comedy film of just get tied up in the suspense of an action film. So since this is new to me I have to admit it’s not to bad, the movie is not scary but it can be gory at times, like when they show all the zombies eating all the peoples skin. Besides the horror and the gore the movie also critiques the American society. When Cholo tells Kauffman that he wants to buy a house in the nicest part of town and Kauffman then tells him that it’s not the right place for him. This is just like the United States right now, many people have the impression that poor and low income/class people are worse then them. This is not true, just because somebody doesn’t have as much money as someone else doesn’t make them better. Although the rich person can afford the nice clothes and things on the outside the poorer person often has the nicer interior. They are the ones with the warm heart that would be willing to help anyone and everyone even though they could use help themselves. It’s things like this that make me realize how shallow people can really be.

Team Work

On today’s episode of the Simpsons learned about the importance of team work. Mr. Burns was very energetic in the morning after he drank his coffee so he decided to have a good old fashioned fire drill. Well it turns out that it took the entire nuclear plant of ten minutes to get out of the building, so Mr. Burns was mad and decided to have a company workshop weekend to build on their team working skills. So they all met up in the mountains and were randomly assigned a partner so that they could climb up this mountain to get to the cabin the quickest because the last team to arrive would get fired. Well all the teams worked pretty good they all managed to work together and make it to the spot where the cabin should have been. The reason the cabin wasn’t there was because Homer and Mr. Burns were on the same team and cheated by riding a motorized sled, when they got inside they caused a number of avalanches which buried the house under tons of snow. This episode is a great episode because it teaches the importance of good team work, and it teaches that cheating is never the answer. The reason I feel that this is such a important topic is because many of my professors keep stressing the importance of team work in and out of school. They constantly remind us that study groups work very good and that even after school you will most likely work in some sort of team at your future career. In the end if you look past all the humor the Simpsons really teach good lessons.

I Robot

For this week’s reading for class we were to read an essay called Deciphering I, Robot. This essay talks about the recent film I Robot starring Will Smith and a book called I, Robot written by Isaac Asimov. In this essay the author shows us how to break apart a movie and see what it brings to the table, and some of the elements that may snuck past us. For example, the fact that Will Smith is the main character in this film didn’t strike me as weird until after I read the essay. After reading the essay I started to remember the film a little better and just know realized that this is an entirely knew role for Smith, considering the fact that he is most famous for his comical role in the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, it was really different to see him take on such a serious role. Before I read this essay I wasn’t aware of the book I, Robot by Isaac Asimov and after reading this essay I found it interesting that this move was loosely based on a book. I say loosely because I’m almost positive that they didn’t stick to the entire storyline of the book. Still the fact that this book was written before major computers and now it is being used in a Hollywood movie is cool. Besides that the author of the essay did a good job on helping you analyze the elements of the movie such as the graphics. Most of the movie was computer animated but I really didn’t pay too much attention to that, I guess it goes to show you that if you really look into a move and try to analyze it you will see some things that you wouldn’t catch by just watching it.

Essay # 2

Today I turned in my second essay for my English class; it was called Comedy Equals Reality. I this essay I wrote an argumentative essay stating that comedy television is reality based because of the issues that they tackle in their shows. By comedy shows addressing these issues it makes the show more appealing to the viewers because they can relate to the characters because they themselves have been in that same situation. Anyways I feel that this essay went much smoother than the first. I don’t know why maybe it was because I had to knock off the dust or what, but I definitely feel much better about this one. It hasn’t been a very long time since I wrote an essay but I guess I just had to really get into the topic and into the writing mood. Besides that I never really wrote anything on television before it was always about the literature in out textbooks. Personally, that stuff never interested me, so now when I got a chance to write and essay about television I became interested in the subject and was able to just flow when I wrote my essay. Even when I went to write the rough draft for peer conferences I ended up writing two and a half pages unintentionally, not to say that I didn’t want to write I lot. I mean the way it came out I expected to sit there and stare at a blank page for a long time trying to figure out what I wanted to write about, but I didn’t it just completely flowed. So I feel pretty good about this essay so I will see how good I did after spring break.

Cheaters

In yesterday’s episode of The Simpsons, Homer and Bart learned a very valuable lesson in life; they learned that cheating doesn’t get you too far. In the episode Homer is driving and a huge fish lands on the hood of his car and messes it up bad. So he took the car to the body shop to get an estimate, the guy takes a look at the car and then the fish and says “yup it’s foreign, it’s gonna cost ya” so now Homer needs a lot of money to fix his car, so he decides to cheat people out of their money. So Homer then teams up with Bart to get the money to fix the car. In this episode they execute many schemes but my favorite is when Bart is looking for his lost dog, Dr. Hibbert asks him what the dog looked Bart replies by saying the dog was brown with a white spot shaped like a heart on it and it was wearing a red collar with bells on it. After Bart’s description Dr. Hibbert sees a newly caught shark being weighed with the red collar on it’s teeth. Feeling bad for the Bart he said that he would buy him a new dog so luckily Homer was walking by with a dog that looked exactly like he described earlier so Dr. Hibbert bought it. Now after a few schemes they got enough money and fixed the car, but decided to keeping cheating people for their money because it’s easy. Well it turns out that Grandpa used to be a big cheater so they use his help to try and pull off the biggest scheme of them all, to scam money from the old folk’s home. They pretend Grandpa won ten thousand dollars, so because of the shock he dies. So they tell the rest of the people that if they give him money he will be able to cash the large check and let them split the check. Well some was pretending to be and old person but really was a cop and arrested Homer and Bart. When they arrive to the police station he tells them that he will let them turn themselves in, in order to receive a lighter punishment. So Homer tells Wiggum that he wants to scare Bart straight so they go inside the cell. Once the cop sees that there in jail he steals their car, it turns out he wasn’t a cop he was trying to cheat people the same way they were. In the end the guy didn’t really steal their car Marge used him to teach them a lesson, so they would stop. So it goes to show you that cheating really doesn’t get you anyway, you may be ahead at first but not for too long your luck will catch up with you.

Family Values

In yesterday’s episode of the Simpsons, the whole family attended a renaissance festival. Well during the festival Lisa is chasing an animal from the petting zoo in the forest and finds a tent with a fortune teller inside. So Lisa decides to gets her fortune told, in the future she finds her true love and is going to get married. Lisa’s new fiancé is English and is trying to be nice to her family mainly Homer and Bart because of their stupidity. People say that you get wiser as you get older, but this is definitely not true in Homer’s case. He decides to make Lisa’s new fiancé feel at home by driving on the opposite side of the road. So now let’s skip to the wedding day, Homer wanted Lisa’s future husband to wear these pig cufflinks but he didn’t want to so Lisa went to go talk to him. Well he says that their just a joke he didn’t think that he actually had to wear them but since Lisa insisted he did. After he put them he made a comment saying that after the wedding we can go to England and never see her family again. Lisa couldn’t believe that he actually said that so the wedding was off because she said that can’t be with someone who can’t respect her family. Now you wouldn’t expect things like this from the Simpsons but in most of the episodes they have a good moral and instill family values, in this case it is to stick with your family even thought they might not be perfect, and sometimes aggravate you.

Mellow Out

In the reading assignment for Monday’s class we were supposed to read an essay about the queer in Seinfeld. Now let me start off by saying that I like watching Seinfeld because it is very funny, well in this essay the author shows how they have a few episodes about queers. These episodes try to show Jerry and George gay, now in the show they do this in a comical way not meant to hurt any body, but some people take it offensive. While reading the essay I began to remember watching these episodes on television and thought nothing wrong of it, I just simply saw it as another episode of Seinfeld. Well other people may have not and were offended by it, well I fell that many times people go looking for ways to say they were offended or discriminated against when they should just mellow out and realize it’s all in good fun. For example in the essay the author talks about when Jerry, George, and Kramer are in the locker room after some sort of activity (sports) and how Jerry saw his baseball idol. Well Jerry approaches his idol and tells him that he is a big fan, well it turns out that his idol is a big fan of Jerry’s comedy, so they hit it off. Later in the show they show Jerry talking to Elaine about how his idol wasn’t returning any of his calls and how men always do that sort of thing, wait a very long time to call you back. Well this scene makes it seem like Jerry and his idol have a relationship, but all they want is to be good friends. I guess what I’m trying to say is that in television nobody is safe and somebody will always be made fun of, so just take it and try not to dig so deep into it to intentionally find something that offends you.

Daddy's Little Girl

In today’s episode of the Simpsons Lisa’s birthday is coming up and there is this new diary that every little girl wants, so she’s been dropping hints. So Marge sends Homer to go and buy the diary at the toy store for her but when Homer gets there Mr. Burns buys the last one. So Homer hits the mall to find her another diary or at least something that is really cool. Well he bumps into Ned Flanders and sees him buying a personal move for one of his sons, so homer to decides to do that for Lisa’s birthday. Well it her birthday and she opens the book shaped package to see that it is a tape, so she them plays it. It turns out that Homer knows nothing about her in the video he said that her favorite food was chicken McNuggets but she’s a vegetarian. After watching this tape Lisa becomes very upset because her father doesn’t care about her and doesn’t know anything about her. Now the Simpsons always has a way of taking a serious issue and making I humorous while still getting the message out. The hidden message in this episode is that in the United States there are many fathers that don’t take interest in their children, and it’s very sad. The worst part about their father not having any interest in them is because they tend to put the blame on themselves saying that its their fault that their dad doesn’t care. This may not seem like a big deal but after feeling like that the child will have self-esteem issues when growing up which can lead to many serious problems.

The Real World

In the reading for class on Tuesday we were to read an essay entitled Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs. In this essay the author talks about the characters on the reality television program called The Real World. Now the only problem with this show is because its supposed to be regular people living in one house with a bunch of strangers. Now the way they choose these roommates is kind of weird to me, they interview tons of people to only pick people that will completely that they know will have problems with other people after a while. By them doing this it brings a lot of drama to the show thus they have high ratings and make lots and lots of money. This is not what reality television is to me for this to be complete reality television for me they should select all the roommates at random, just pull name out of a hat or something. Now this would be very interesting to me because it is really reality, you may have a cast that likes each other or you might have a cast that can’t stand each other. The randomness of the show is the X factor to me that will make it stand out from the others. If the producers of MTV’s The Real world were to actually do this they could then truly claim it as a reality television show. Otherwise to me it is almost like a regular old scripted drama that have been around for years.

Battle Royale

In today’s episode of the Simpsons Bart and Lisa sign up for a hockey team and fight for their parents love. In the beginning of the episode Bart joined an ice hockey team and was getting a lot of attention and love from Homer, because since Bart was winning in sports Homer loved him more. Well after one of Bart’s games Bart was shooting pop cans at Lisa and she blocked them all, well the other teams coach Apu saw that she could stop all the pop cans and the additional puck he shot at here to make sure it wasn’t a fluke, so he convinced her to be the goalie for his team. So now Lisa and Bart were on opposing teams and were always fighing for their fathers love because when one of them wone he rewared them and showed some love for them, they were going back and forth to keep getting affection from their dad. So it was the night before the final game it was Lisa’s team versus Bart’s team, so naturally they were arguing. Well Marge came in and told them that they should fight because they don’t care which one wins they love them both the same, well Homer comes in and starts flicking the lights and yelling fight, fight fight! So at the game they were tied and it came down to penalty shots, well it was Bart versus Lisa one on one, so who one, nobody it was a tie the both hugged each other at center ice and called a quits. Although this episode was very funny it brought up a serious issue in America today, this often happens in real life and many people will go all out to get affection from their parents. I belive that its not the childs fault in a situation like that they parent should be the grown up a treat each kid evenly, over an argument due to this situation we have brothers and sister that haven’t even spoken to each other for years. This is sad because you family is all you have in this world.

Movie Authors

After reading Mondays reading assignment, I found out something new. According to the reading, if you really looked at a movie it was a like a novel but what I didn’t know was that if you tried to give the movie an author you couldn’t. Think about it for a second think of the credits rolling after you favorite movie do you see all those names, there is the director, the background person, the clothing person, the cameraman, the special effects person, the actors, the stunt doubles, and the writers, in their own way they affected the movie. By them affecting the move the partly become the author of the movie. Each and everyone of the of the writers make the plot and the story line for the movies but it is all the other people that make this come to life. The director makes sure everyone stays in their role perfectly and makes sure the scenes go perfect, while the cameraman is the one who makes all this visible and gets the best angle for every shot. But don’t forget the actors they are the ones that bring the writers characters to life. In a scary movie in most mugging or murder scenes the background is usually a dark ally late at night, why because it sets the mood making everything better, the camera angle, the actors feel and emotion for the scene, it has a big effect. I mean it was just amazing to me to see all those peoples name run down that screen at the end of a move, but I guess that if you had to give a movie an author it may well be 200 people, everyone involved had an impact on it so in a way they all were the authors. I guess you see something different and learn something new everyday.

My First English 1020 Essay

Well I just got done writing my first English 1020 essay not too long ago, and it wasn’t too bad. It was pretty rough in the beginning because I wasn’t really sure what to write about or what I should be looking for in a ad for this essay. After we had class that one day and you gave us the example of the Special K, the lotion, and the other ad I can’t seem to remember right now, everything started to clear up. So I went to the store and bought a magazine so I could pick advertisements for the essay. I ended up with three I liked they were an advertisement for Diesel Clothing Co, L’Oreal Thickening Two in One Shampoo Plus Conditioner, and Hennessey Cognac. I like these ads because they showed me the mind frame of an advertiser, and how they view us young men. They perceive us as very insecure and gullible men that may easily persuaded into buying their products very easily. So, after I had my ad I needed to get started and I got to say it was hard, but I am used to it because starting an essay is the hardest part for me. So after a lot of time I finally stared and was on my way. Once I got started it wasn’t too bad, in some parts it just flowed. After I wrote it I proof read it and realized that when I was flowing I was so caught up in the moment that I skipped some words here and there. Now I finished proof reading it and I think it came out good.

The Incredible Homer?

This weeks episode of The Simpsons was about Homer severe anger problem. In this episode we see how too much anger is bad for you, but we also see how some anger is good for you. It all starts with Career Day at Springfield Elementary School, in the beginning most of the people are boring like Millhouse’s Dad but there is one last guy who turns out to be cool. Jeff Jenkins is a comic writer, he writes a comic called Danger Dog, in his interview for career day he talks about how much fun he has everyday at work. He then says that the best part about it is that all he did during school was doodle drawings of the teachers. So since everybody like the fact that he has fun at work they all decide to make their own comics. Bart’s comic is called Angry Dad, which is based on all the stupid things that Homer does and his extreme aggression after. Bart’s comic becomes a hit and it gets put on the internet by some new company. Well Homer finds out at work and gets very mad so when he got home he decided not to get mad anymore. Since Homer didn’t get mad anymore Bart had no more material so he set up a big trap that would surely make Homer raging. After he finishes setting up the trap he finds out that the company is closed so he doesn’t need the trap but its too late Homer was already half way through. At the end of the trap homer gets dumped in a pool of green paint, and then rips off his shirt and begins taking his anger out on the city by punching parking meters and light poles. The police settle him down then take him to the hospital where doctor Hibbert tells Marge that Bart saved Homer’s life by allowing him to release his anger. This lesson is true in real life because too much anger can also make you sick, it just goes to show you watching cartoons pays off.

Hamlet Simpsons Style

Today I had some spare time and guess what happened to be on the T.V.,The Simpsons so I just had watch it. The episode I saw today was about storytelling, Homer was telling them stories and one of them was Hamlet. Now The Simpsons are famous for their allusions to other famous works of art, the unique thing about there allusions is that they maintain the story like keeping it relatively accurate while still putting their comical spin on it. I don’t know if you have read Hamlet by William Shakespeare but since I had to read it in high school I will give you a quick rundown. Hamlet’s father died, and his father’s ghost comes to tell Hamlet that his uncle Claudius killed him in order to marry his Mother and become king. So Hamlet finds a way to see if what the ghost told him was for real, so he sets up a play that makes his uncle get uncomfortable because it was supposed to be a reenactment of the murder. In the end of the story Hamlet kills his Uncle Claudius but everyone else dies including Hamlet. Well in the Simpsons version this all still happens it’s just they way it does. In the end of the story Hamlet has a duel with Laertes, now the one of the swords is covered with poison and hamlet gets sliced with it, but then in a scuffle they switch swords and Laertes also get sliced with the poison sword. Since they will both die Laertes tells Hamlet what has happened, will it also turns out that Claudius poisoned some wine to kill Hamlet but his Mother drinks this instead so she dies accidentally. So now finally Hamlet kills Claudius, and then sadly Laertes and Hamlet both die. Well in the Simpsons version in the duel Claudius says that according to the rules Laertes is allowed one practice stab, but Laertes stabs himself instead of Hamlet. So then Hamlet proceeds to get his vengeance by killing Claudius, after that he was untouched but slips on the blood on the floor and dies, then his Mother kills herself because she doesn’t want to clean up the room. So although the Simpsons version their own comical twist they stayed pretty accurate, thus the writers of the Simpsons keep a great story alive and going strong.

Richer Becuase Of The Poorer

In the readings for class Monday we read about cool hunters. This was interesting to me because I never knew there was such a thing. It turns out that cool hunters are people that work for retail companies in order to find out what the consumers like. You know those annoying people in the middle of the mall that ask you if you would like to take a survey. The funny thing is that after you turn down their offer then they tell you that you will get paid five dollars or so. But besides that these people do some crazy thing to get the next fashion trend. They will literally stalk people, they will spend their days watching them and seeing what new styles their wear each day for a period of time. The people that they watch are people that live in lower class areas, this is because they stretch every dollar they have and customize their outfits. Personally I find it kind of funny that the latest and greatest trends come from people that have a very low income. What’s even more ironic is that the trends that are started in poorer areas will become the high sellers for a very expensive company such as Dolce & Gabanna or Gucci, and all the rich and famous will now be wearing that same style of clothes but with a bigger price tag. Now the rich can make money off the lower income people even if they don’t buy their clothing.

Unique Whips

Today I didn’t have a chance to watch The Simpsons but I did catch this show called Unique Whips. This show is all about the custom car shop called Unique Autosports, they will take care of customizing your whip also known as your car. They customize cars for their regular clients as well as a long list of celebrity customers. In the shop they do a number of things including all kinds of electronics, dashboards, carpet, seats, window tints, rims, tires, and boxes for the subwoofers and amplifiers for you sound systeme. I have watched this show before but never really noticed all the advertising that goes on during the show. I never really paid attention to how many banners and signs that they have around their shop so that in the background of the show you see all the brands they use on the show to customize the cars. Besides all the signs there is a lot of name dropping in the show, the whole time they are talking about the brands of the components that they use in the cars. Every time they show a finished car they say we hooked this car up with the Motorola Bluetooth and an ipod port for their music. But it’s not only those they talk about the Pirelli tires, and the Strut Grills. I always complained about how many commercials that there are but I never really realized how many advertisements that are on during the show. No don’t get me wrong this isn’t a bad show, this happens in many shows it is just hard to notice.

Dr.Who?

Now everyone knows that advertisers use many ways to get you to buy their product sometimes they use sneaky weasel words but other times they use another way, they use doctor’s and actual consumers. How many times have you seen a commercial where they used an actual consumer to support their claim. If you watch daytime television there are many weight loss commercials, in these commercials they show before and after pictures to show you that their pills work. Now to me those pictures don’t look that convincing so the advertisers give you something else to prove their product, they interview somebody who supposedly used the product and had a successful out come. Now if your still not satisfied with the before and after pictures as well as the consumer testimonial, they now interview doctors. These doctors are here to tell you that the product that is being advertised is safe and effective, now since there is an actual doctor many people will be convinced and actually go and buy the product because they now feel safe with it. The only problem is that the doctors that they are interviewing are not doctors in that particular field, they may be asking a dentist what they think about a particular diet pill. Now what does a dentist know about the effects of the diet pill on your body, the only thing he would check was to see if it would rot your teeth. Now you know that everything you see may seem to be true but on a technicality it may not be, so read all the labels for everything you buy very carefully.

Hurricane Neddy

I can easily say that The Simpsons is my favorite show of all time, so I recently bought a Simpsons DVD. On this DVD there is the episode with the hurricane, in the episode we find out some things about Ned Flanders you would have never thought of before. In case you don’t watch the show Ned Flanders is the neighbor to Homer Simpson and he is the most uptight and plain person you can find on the show, but he is also the most polite person in the city. Ned is also most known for his faith, he is the person that you will see in church come rain of shine. Well in this episode a hurricane comes ripping through the town destroying Ned’s house but leaving Homer’s untouched. Ned then later finds out that his store the Leftorium is currently being looted. Since he is such a nice guy all the towns people decide to rebuild his hous, and they actually built it, it looked almost the same it was before. So they get Ned and show him his new home, after the tour he shuts the door and the whole house fall to pieces. After all this drama Ned is furious and goes off on all the townspeople. Later in the episode we find out that Ned was a very bad kid, and they tried a procedure that would stop his rage. This procedure worked great but there was on side effect it worked too good and Ned was no longer able to express his anger. That procedure turned out to be the reason why he exploded, so he was told to express his anger from now on. Now, this episode was hilarious but I can’t get over the irony that the nicest, happiest, and most religious guy in the town was the one hit with all the hardships and exploded. The part that puts the icing on the top is that the most stupid person in the town Homer Simpson didn’t suffer any hardships through the hurricane; his house was left untouched. Anyway if you don’t watch The Simpsons I suggest you do at least once because it is very entertaining.

Weasel Words

Have you ever went to a drug store to buy a product, but you can’t decide between two brands. Then you see one has something written on it that will make you choose that one over the competitors. Well this same scenario happened to me yesterday, I went to Rite Aid to buy some after shave for my face because I have sensitive skin. So I was trying to decide between Nivea after shave and Gillette after shave, so I picked up the boxes and to see which one was better. After I read the boxes they both were equally good and almost the same price, but the Gillette box said 30% more free! So, I bought the Gillette brand. The next morning after I shaved I went to use the after shave and guess what happened, at first the after shave was coming out then all I heard was the sound of air being squeezed out of the tube. Then I learned truly what weasel words were, they are tricky words that advertisers use in their slogans and on their products in order use to get your attention and ultimately to buy their product. Now here is the tricky part, the tube said 33% more free and indeed I received 33% more free but it turned out to be air not after shave lotion. Now that I know what weasel words are I can try to watch for them and try not to get burned again, but as you and I know the advertising companies are so good at it we often to see it and pay the price.