OFF BRAND UGGS

Today in English we discussed advertisements, and how they appeal to us rhetorically. We looked into why we, as consumers, are drawn and are loyal to certain products or brands. The girl next tot me eventually raised her hand and said, "This is going to sound really stupid, and I know it, I mean it is going to sound so dumb, but, like I know this is stupid, like..., like...," and in my head I am thinking well you can't possibly sound any more ignorant than you already do tripping over your words like a holiday drunk, but I like to go by the rule of their is no stupid question or stupid answer. Lot's of times I sit in class and want to say something, but don't because I feel like people will just look at me, and I don't need that negative attention. Anyway, about a minute later, the dumb girl started to explain to the class that, "If I see a product like boots, I have to have the name brand. That is why for Christmas I asked my dad for UGGS. When I have really expensive name brands, I feel happy inside, and I feel like, if I had like, non name-brands, I would be sad." At that point I looked down at my half price  Target boots and I swear I could almost see a tear drop from one of the eyelets. Then she proceeded to explain some thing about G-Brand watches and how there are cheap ones at Walmart for twenty-five dollars, but unless she has the real expensive name brand watch, she won't be happy. Then, funny enough, they started talking about the North Face fleece brand and sure enough I had a black off-brand North Face that cost all of $15.95 tied around my waste.

I really don't have a problem with name brand clothes, or people who wear them. I have a few, nothing is ever really by choice. I do like fashion and different types of clothing but honestly, as a college student, I'd rather eat dinner. The point of today's lesson in English was to try and figure out why we buy these clothes, and what people perceive about people who have these clothes. I raised my hand and explained that I think it is a status thing, and a money issue. If you walk around wearing UGG boots, a North Face, and a pair of Hollister Co. destroyed denim, [even though that is the only outfit you own ;)], you yourself will think, "Oh, look at me at least people think I am rich," and the people who see you will think you have money as well. When I raised my hand and explained this to the class, they all claim that they do not buy these things for status, or money, and it is just that they are comfortable, sooooo comfortable, so blah blah blah. But what they don't realize, is that there might be a slight to no difference from those damn UGG boots they were wearing, to these just as fashionable, fifty-dollar-less Target boots my mama bought me. The reason they believe all of these things, is because of how the products are advertised, and obviously advertisements are doing their jobs, because it they have effected about 85-90% of the girls, and guys  I have seen around campus. It was funny to sit and watch as their minds all spaced out when asked why they prefer name brands to non names brands, and they couldn't think of anything. All they could think of was the commercials they saw that made them buy the product. So, hats off to all of the advertising and designing commercial industries, you've duped the majority of us.

All you need is Gags

Haha.

I just remembered my senior year lunch table.

Me

Sam

Carley

Ellie

Nick

The Lovely Bones

In the middle of my hectic winter break my mother managed to stop me in between going out with my friends, and running to work, and asked me what I wanted for Christmas. I hadn't thought about this question since I was about eleven or twelve. I never really wanted anything anymore, besides money, because I need money for the things I need, rather than want. Regardless, I told her I wanted the oh so controversial book written by Tucker Max entitled, I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell. She said that sounds retarded and asked me what else I wanted. I told her sweat pants, and then I thought of a book everyone had been talking about lately and telling me how amazing it was, and that book was entitled, The Lovely Bones.

Sure enough Christmas Eve comes along and I open one of my presents and there is the precious book itself. I was so excited to start reading again, sometimes I get so busy I forget that I can do things like read. I started the book that evening and right off the bat it was extremely interesting, and included a rape and murder scene within the first fifteen minutes. After that, I became extremely busy with work and did not really have time to keep up with the book but even when I did pick it back up I could never remember where I left off and it was all so confusing about this fantasy heaven world she lives in. I just have some advice for writers, I feel if you open up a book with the sentence, "I was fourteen years old when I was murdered," and obviously the book is written from someone from the other side, you have to keep up that suspicion and intensity through out the entire book. That is why I stopped reading Twilight after the first book, I don't feel like reading three hundred pages to find out something that could have taken a chapter and a half-if that- to explain!

Maybe I should have given the book another chance, but I was at Target and was looking in the memoirs section seeing familiar titles such as Smashed, which if I remember correctly is about a girl who drinks away her adolescent years. Among the titles was a book called, Please Stop Laughing At Me, by Jodee Blanco. I turned the book over to find out it was about a woman who was bullied all the way from kindergarten through high school. She talked about being bullied, and what lasting effects it really leaves on children and teens. I am in the middle of it now and so far am impressed with the writing, but I think I know why she was bullied...