Cribs

**Music courtesy of freeplaymusic.com.

This was the Cribs assignment, and in it, we created our own version of an MTV Cribs episode. My partner was Josh Chilson, and he came up with the idea to pretend to be me. He also wanted to include areas that obviously were not rooms in his house, The Campanile. Hopefully, that created a humorous tone.

In this assignment, I got to use my photoshop skills. I created the cutout for the opening sequence, and I created the SPECS box in photoshop. Josh also did some really great things on the editing side. He played with speeding things up and down, and he worked to sync the video up perfectly with the music. I thought he did a great job timing the pictures on the screen with the beats of the music.

I learned several things with this video. I personally tried to effectively mix flashes of images on the screen with strong beats in the music, but despite my best attempts, Josh is definitely more proficient in this area. I also made a freezeframe shot of the video for one of the first times. That was extremely easy, and I thought it added a lot to our video.

Monologue 5

**I got the inspiration for this monologue when I found a couple of news stories about disc golf. The one featured in the video can be found at BYU NewsNet. Then, once I saw that there is a PDGA, I knew I had to do this video. The rules page for the PDGA that I featured during the video can also be found here.

Two Journalists being held in North Korea

When I decided to be a journalist, I thought I'd chosen a relatively safe career. I wasn't going to be a cop or soldier, which both ask you to risk your life on a daily basis. I wasn't even going to be a fisherman, who face the prospect of drowning every day. (Click here for a link to a list of some of the most dangerous jobs.)

No, I was going to be a journalist. A safe journalist. WRONG! In the last couple of years, I've realized that a journalist is not always safe. If you write about something that upsets someone, then you make risk physical or property repercussions. Or if you are a foreign correspondent, you may be asked to enter war-zone, which were traditionally scary for journalists but now the conditions in war are becoming increasingly unsafe for journalists (see my post Life of a foreign correspondent or the BBC article on the topic for more information.)

Even if you are researching a controversial topic, you can be at risk. Just ask two journalists who are now being detained in North Korea. The two were apparently researching North Korean refugees when they were arrested in China, according to an article on the BBC. The two will most likely be charged for entering North Korea illegally from China, though the word espionage was thrown around a couple of times in the BBC article.

I have to say that I'm pretty scared for those two journalists. Though the BBC article said they were being treated well, I don't North Korea has the best record in terms of human rights.

Plus, I'm scared about how these cases could chill some journalistic activities. If journalists are threatened with imprisonment, they are probably not going to be as excited about investigative stories. In this case, the women (Euna Lee and Laura Ling) allegedly did something illegal, so yes, they will probably need to face some consequences. But if they get five years for entering North Korea illegally (as the AP is reporting), I think that will be pretty unfair. You get five years in the U.S. for stealing cars. If you ask me, if those journalists get five years, the North Korean government will just be trying to get back at them for researching an unflattering topic about North Korea.

To me, that is just wrong and scary. Maybe I didn't pick such a safe career after all!

Tough Love

It had been awhile since I'd checked in with Sarah Haskins, so I thought a Saturday would be a good day for a laugh. Today's featured video: Tough Love.

According to the video, VH1 has a new series called Tough Love. On the show, one man "who knows single woman better than anyone else" tries to teach his participants how to be or at least pretend to be perfect women when dating.

The host, Steve Ward, uses some pretty interesting tactics to make the women on his show more "dateable." According to Haskin's video, he has them pose for sexy photo shoots, have lingerie parties and participate in a game show called Cute or Crazy. During the game show, secrets are revealed about the women, and the men in the audience get to rate the girls as cute or crazy based on these secrets. I personally would rate that exercise as crazy.

I liked how Haskins looked at the show Tough Love to demostrate something that is prevalent in our culture -- people think that there is something wrong with single women. I think Haskins said it best when she compared singleness in our culture to a deadly illness. "Worse than leprosy you ask?" she said. "Yes, because lepers live in colonies and single women live alone."

Along with that, I think it's funny that it's terrible to be a single woman but it's cool to be a swinging bachelor that is afraid of commitment. That type of man is glorified in many movies and in our culture, and yet, whenever there is a show about a single woman, she is desperately trying to find a men 'to make her life complete.' BARF!

And so, due to all the 'chick-flicks' in which a woman seems lonely and unhappy without a man and also due to prevailing degrading thoughts about single women in our culture, I have to say that I've felt the pressure to find a man more than once. Some of my friends and members of my family ask me if I'm dating anyone before they'll even ask about school and my future career. Many of my family members and friends realize that school and my future are tremendously important to me, yet some of them are more curious if I've found a man or not.

However, I can't blame them for being more concerned about me finding a man than finding an amazing career. That's what our culture tells us is important through movies and also old stereotypes of women.

But to me, singleness isn't horrible. I can devote myself more to school and my work on the paper, and I have more time to cultivate life-long friendships. And yes, sometimes I do wish I could find my perfect man, but overall, I think I join Haskins when I say, I'd rather be single than be a leper.

**Photo taken from Time Out Chicago.

Mom gets plastic surgery to look like daughter

I often look at the BBC for interesting stories from around the world. Today, I was not disappointed.

According to the story "I just wanted to look like her," Janet Cunliffe had plastic surgery to look like her daughter Jane. She had a boob job to go from a 34A/B to a 34DD, had her upper and lower eyes lifted, got a nose job and had her lips plumped.

"I decided to do it because I was feeling low at the time, I'd just come out of a long-term relationship, so just to boost my confidence," she said in the BBC story.

(The pair is pictured above. From left to right: Daughter Jane and
Mom Janet as shown in the BBC article.)

In the end, all the adjustments cost her 12,000 pounds (British currency). But for her, it might be worth it because she often fools people about her age. People often mistake Janet Cunliffe for Jane's sister or some relative, but they never guess Janet is Jane's mother. I have to say looking at them I would probably guess Janet was a sister or an older cousin. I probably wouldn't guess Janet was the mother based at least on the un-motherish clothes she wears.

But was it worth it for Jane Cunliffe, the daughter? I know I would extremely creeped out if my mom had surgery to look like me or even started dressing like me. Actually, I would be shocked because my mother and I have different tastes in clothes selections. We both dress more to our age, and I have to say that I'll dress more motherly when I become a mother.

According to the article, the daughter was mad at first but mostly because she was scared of the dangers of surgery. Nowadays, the daughter is okay with the change.

"She looks like my sister and I'm happy for her," the daughter said in the article.

I really don't even know what to say about this. I was completely stunned when I first saw it, but I don't really feel like passing judgment right now. Instead, I will say that I'm not sure that changing your appearance is the best way to deal with difficulties facing a relationship. I personally would talk to a therapist first, because it's cheaper and probably less painful (though I can't say that for sure since I've never been to therapist. I can verify that surgery is painful.) But, then again that's just me. I've done some odd things in my life, too.

Slumdog cash: What's the lowdown on the slowdown?

When I was looking over the BBC site the other day, I found an interesting story "Slumdog makers pledge Mumbai cash."

The story in itself seems like it would be a feel-good story, and in a way, it is. The makers of the hit film Slumdog Millionaire are donating $745,000 to a charity that will help children living in the slums of Mumbai.

That all sounds good, right? But, I thought the makers of Slumdog promised to rehouse their child stars (pictured at right) when they won their Oscar. I can't find any story that confirms that thought, but I know a friend mentioned their Oscar promise shortly after the awards show.

So, I really could be crazy about the Oscar donation promise, but the BBC story did confirm that two of the film's star were recently rehoused after criticism that they were still living in the slums even after the film's tremendous success. So, to me that says that it took other people's scorn to finally convince the film's makers to donate or at least to spur them into action. That's not incredibly impressing to me.

In the film makers' defense, though, it seems like their hearts may be in the right place now. In the BBC article Director Danny Boyle was reported as saying, "It is only right that some of the success of the movie be ploughed back into the city."

I totally agreed. I just wish it hadn't taken so long from the movie's Oscar success to the present time for the makers to donate.

**Photo taken from the BBC article. It looks like it was originally from the AP.

More celebrities on my homepage? I don't think so.

I have admitted from time to time that I do succumb to the evils of Jen v. Angelina articles whenever I see them. I should also admit that I do enjoy looking at MSN's Wonderwall, which provides celeb gossip and tidbits.

However, I do not want more celebrities on my home page.

This was a question posed to me on MSN. (Want more celebrity news?) My initial answer was no because I am not celebrity obsessed and I can think of a lot better use of my MSN home page space.

Once I actually clicked on the celebrity-obsessed MSN beta home page, I was doubly convinced. One of the page's top stories was: Gossip: Kristen and Robert hold hands. Gasp! Sinners! How dare they! Oh, wait; who are Kristen and Robert?

Turns out Kristen and Robert are the stars of Twilight (oh, how I love Twilight fans; see the Fangirls video for more information), and apparently they have some budding romance. Okay, I guess that's important. But is it really more important than the fact that the Taliban is seizing control of strategically important territory in Pakistan?

Yes, or at least for the makers of the celeb-obsessed MSN home page. They would rather have you read about Daring and Dull Dos than current world events. Because having people read about hair instead of international crises will create a more-informed and intelligent public.

Obviously, I feel pretty passionate about this topic. I enjoy an occasional bit of celebrity gossip as much as the next person. But I am definitely not obsessed and am not in favor of creating entire home pages dedicated to celeb gossip. My advice to anyone who decides to turn their home page into a celeb-crazed site: stop monitoring their lives and start living your own.

**Photo from MSN's new celeb/entertainment beta home page.