"Hakuna Matata"

So I watched the Lion King today.  It's amazing all the different lessons you can glean from that film.  I feel like every time I watch it I walk away with something else.  (It also doesn't matter how many times I watch that film, I still always tear up when Mufasa dies...at least now I can blame it on being pregnant).  There's a part when the hyena's come in to talk to Scar after Scar has taken over Pride Rock and it has fallen to bits, and they are complaining about there being no food.  After some grumbling with Scar, one of the hyena's mumbles about how they thought things were tough when Mufasa was king.  And it may be just because I was watching it on a Sunday, but my mind immediately compared Scar to Satan.  He'll try and persuade us and promise us all these great things to get us to back him and come to his side, but once we're over there we realize it was all a lie and that things become a lot tougher than had we just done the seemingly "tough" stuff (i.e-keeping the commandments) before.

"That's nothing, once I waited a whole year for September!"

So, my husband loves the Muppets.  And I think his affection for it started with the movie "Muppet Treasure Island".  When he and his best friend were younger, they wanted to go see that movie so bad, so they asked/begged to go see it.  Their parents told them that if they washed the car they could earn enough money to go.  So they went out and washed the car, came back in, and their parents said "Well, we actually can't take you so you'll have to bike to the theater if you want to go".  So they biked all the way to the theater just to watch the movie.  I think after putting in all the hard work they were just determined to make the movie a good one, and he's had a love for it ever since.  Well this past weekend we got a huge group of people together who had yet to see the new muppets movie "The Muppets" (because of course we have it, on Bluray) mainly because my husband looks for any opportunity he has to share this movie with anyone.  We were a little scared because it is a little bit the kind of movie that could either be hilarious, or just flop depending on the crowd.  Luckily, our crowd happened to be stacked with some other secret muppet fans, and so people who were raised by their parents to hate the muppets (yes, we had some of those in the crowd) still ending up thoroughly enjoying the movie because the group was laughing.  It's interesting the effect a crowd can have on how you perceive the media you are taking in.

Sshhh, I stole a balloon

So, once upon a time I was walking out of the Wilk with Brice in the evening.  We came out the west side and were cutting through Brigham Square, which was still decorated from some afternoon activity.  I have no idea what the activity was, but I could tell it included balloons because there were some of the awesome, perfectly circular balloons still tied to the hand rails and floating all around.  Well we happened to walk right by one, and it was orange (which I think is just a really fun color), and I thought to myself "Self, you are going to grab this balloon as you walk by it, and if it comes off easily from the hand rail without you having to fight with it and look ridiculous, it's yours". 

In my mind I thought there was going to be a lot of resistance (or at least enough resistance to make me look ridiculous, because it wouldn't take a lot to do that and it seemed like a pretty secure knot) and so I wasn't actually going to take it...but I grabbed it as we passed by (which is a fairly rash thing for me to do to begin with) and that sucker popped off without even hesitating! And I'm not going to lie, I was so happy! (Well, after I convinced myself that it was okay, and that it popped off so easily because it was meant for me...and after my husband reassured me saying that all the balloons would be deflated by the next day anyways and that they'd just have to throw them out...after all that I was so happy!) That balloon could have very easily made my night. 

When I got a closer look at it I realized it was for Student Wellness and it informed me that I could text "wellness" to some number to get something or other (be it some freebie, or just some new found knowledge about wellness).  And then it hit me again how much the media is everywhere and how many different forms it could take!  By the first definition in class about media (about it being a phenomenon of communication between a sender and a receiver), the media can entail so much, and it is always around us.   Even in perfectly circular orange balloons.

"The cake is a lie"

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to play Portal 2.  For those of you who don't know what Portal is, it's a video game.  It was one of the first video games my husband introduced me to, (only after Starcraft of course, because that's his favorite), and I actually liked it a lot.  It's a puzzle game so each level you have to accomplish some sort of task in order to progress, and as you go along each level becomes a little more complex and involved. Portal 2 is even cooler because it has a 2 player mode and so each task you accomplish requires teamwork.  I know video games kinda get slammed and are stereotypically associated with anti-social behavior, but I think that there are a wide variety of games out there, as well as a wide variety of people who play the games.  Video games can also promote social behavior and be a fun pastime.  If you are ever somewhere and someone suggests playing Portal, I wouldn't dismiss it right away; give it a try.  It's a unique idea and a lot of fun.

"I belong with you..."

"you belong with me you're my sweetheart"

 My husband introduced me to this song a couple weeks ago and I've been listening to it possibly at least once a day since.  I remember back in the day when you heard a song on the radio and you pretty much had to wait until the next time you heard it on the radio to listen to it again.  Now even if you just hear a snippet of the song you can search for the lyrics (based on the lyrics you know), find out the song, search for it, and listen to it essentially whenever you want to.  It's also nice because I feel like newer bands can popularize their music faster than they might have been able to before.  

I'm sorry, but it's about politics.

So growing up my family never talked about politics, or voting, or anything related to pretty much anything along those line.  Since then I have never really gotten into elections or debates or things of that nature, that is until recently.  With this election coming up, I decided I wanted to be a whole lot more informed and involved with everything this year and find out what each candidate stands for and such.  So just yesterday Paul Ryan came to Provo for a speech. (If you don't know who Paul Ryan is, he's Mitt Romney's running mate.  If you don't know who Mitt Romney is he's the Republican candidate chosen to run against Barack Obama this election.  If you don't know who Barack Obama is...well...you should probably look him up.)  It was interesting to hear him speaking in light of the fact that the Democratic party has decided to remove God from their platform. (Update: They have moved to put God back into their platform, but did so in a quite unconventional way.  If you want to watch the three minute video of the unconventional way just click the following: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cncbOEoQbOg&feature=player_embedded ) I liked how Paul Ryan specified that we should not try and change our country but rather to try and instill the principles that our nation was founded upon.  He also mentioned that families were the nucleus of the nation, which I also thought was good.  His speech was short and a little generic but I didn't mind.

SFL 358

Since I failed to use this as a "keep everyone updated about the Lovelands" blog, I am temporarily hijacking it for my SFL 358 class.  It's a media, family, and human development class and as a part of the class we need to post twice a week about our encounters with the media. So stay tuned...it should be exciting.