11.17ish.2010

Westboro Baptist Church


McKenzie and I went down to New Orleans for a morning in order to do our project on the picketers of Westboro Baptist Church. They were picketing St. Stephen's Catholic Church at just a regular church service. The four members that came to stand in the no press zone held up signs reading various sayings that they said were to warn the catholics that they were going to hell and God would continue to "kick their ass." They believe that all catholics are guilty by association because a lot of priests have been caught raping children. They say that every person who walks into the catholic church is guilty, and they are simply warning them so they can go to heaven instead of hell and do what God wants them to do in the long run.

While we were down there they sang many protests songs that called catholics filthy perverts and rapists. Some of the songs were to the tune of more popular pop songs, while others were older chants and songs. When approached, the members of the church had rehearsed answers and were very knowledgeable of both sides and seemed to think they proved their side to be true very well. People passing by managed to boo and flick them off because of their offensive signs, chants and songs. The Westboro members did not seem to notice them and when asked about violence, said they ran when people tried to attack because they were a nonviolent group.

Overall the trip and experience opened my eyes to the different religions and laws of free speech. I felt like a real journalist going down to a different city to cover a controversial topic. My multimedia project was fun to make so that I could give people a glimpse of what I saw while I was in New Orleans. I recommend you stepping outside of your comfort zone with as many assignments as possible because it prepares you for the real, exciting journalism world.

11.10ish.2010

Demi Lovato left her European tour with the Jonas Brothers early and checked herself in to rehab. Ever since then, the rumors have been flying on twitter, E! Online and People. Some of the magazines claim it is pregnancy others drug and alcohol abuse. The first accusation was eating disorders because she has recently lost quite a bit of weight.

If Lovato is a foreign name to you, she is a Disney channel star and many tabloids are claiming that she has the Disney curse and because she is already in rehab she is following in the footsteps of Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears.

Defenders of Lovato say that she has done the right thing by checking herself in to rehab and proving that she wants to take care of her problem, what ever it may be. There are many other rumors but no sure reason for why Lovato joined the facility. Hopefully the confirmed reasoning for checking in to rehab will be displayed soon, otherwise rumors will be passed around and never proven true or false, a very devastating thing for a rising star.

Check back soon for an update on Lovato's rehab experience.

11.3ish.2010

Organization: a blog for Ben Corda

So you walk into your office with a little pink binder with everything you need to graduate strategically placed inside of it, loose leaf pages bigger than the notebook itself and millions of crumpled post it notes. How do you expect to be on top of things if all of the crucial information in your life is in a notebook the size of your hand? It is plain and simple, you can't. You're going to try to tell me next that everything that you have organized is in your intelligent smart phone. That is the thing about the present, technology is taking over present day teens and adults. Physically writing things down helps your brain remember what you have done and what you have to do for the day or week. If you type it in your phone and miss the memo or break your phone, the lunch date with that pretty girl could be thrown out the window in a seconds time. Do not get sucked into the new technology of organizing things, try it out if you are content with the old fashioned way and become a basic master. Get a binder, a date book, a bulletin board and a pad of paper or two. Plan things out the night before, on Sunday organize everything you can for the upcoming week. Always leave reminders for yourself, it makes you feel accomplished to have to check something off, cross it out or throw away a post it note. Bottom line is to train yourself to plan ahead and think of things days possibly weeks before they happen, easier said than done but everyone has to start somewhere!

10.27ish.2010

Ever since Woodstock, music festivals have been most popular with the collegiate generation. People set up tents and campers to prepare for a few straight days of the complete musical experience. Hundreds of bands line up to play all hours of the day and night. 


Next weekend is the last weekend for festivals this year and  Voodoo Fest in New Orleans was the closest one to Ruston. It will feature around 450 artists over Halloween weekend. The uniqueness of this event was the variety of artists, instead of just college aged kids it attracted an audience that was young and old. Since 1999 this festival has taken place and is growing in size of performers and fans over its 10 year course, taking one year off for hurricane Katrina. After Katrina it was the first full scale entertainment event set up in New Orleans. The fans this year will dress up in Halloween costumes as advised by the festival committee in different press releases. 


This  year Ozzy Osbourne will make his first appearance since 2001, brining in Ozzy fans from all generations. There are also a lot of Louisiania musicians including The Original Meters and Dr. John. Local musicians increase the local fan base as well. Fans far and wide are excited for the upcoming weekend to roll around and if you have time, you should stop by and experience one of Louisiana's best festivals of the year.

10.20ish.2010

The social networking topic of the last five years has been without a doubt, Facebook. This interactive website has become more and more like a friend to some of the 500 million(USATODAY) users. Features and items are constantly being updated and improved to make Facebook a better experience overall. Now Facebook is catering to people's feelings as well, in the Photo Memories section at the top right of your home screen, all pictures of your ex (recent or from a long time ago) will not be shown. In my opinion, this is ridiculous. If you do not want to see a picture of your ex boyfriend or girlfriend, then delete them as a friend. Hey Facebook, you don't know my life! Maybe I am still good friends with my ex and I want to have a photo memory with them in my corner. What if I had a fake relationship? Now that friend is excluded as well? Pretty soon Facebook is going to take over your life and  use your profile to post endless drunk pictures and create bitchy comments about your ex best friend. The human qualities that this website already holds is terrifying, it suggests friends and events for us to go to as well as alerts us what people are doing. Now it allows us to update and tell everyone where we are when we are doing that activity. One of my greatest fears is that computers are going to become too powerful in our world today, even more than they have now. Soon enough we will be obeying computers and computers will subconsciously run our lives. Have you ever taken a picture and thought to yourself, "Facebook needs to see that?" SEE!!!!! You are thinking about your friend, Facebook, and what you want to share with him. That is the problem with the world today, our dependence on technology is so great that we leave no room for our brains. If a computer approves it, it must be true. I am guilty of this as well, especially as a journalist it is hard to avoid. I know all of this seems a little far fetched, but is it really? I know I catch myself thinking "you know what computer or Facebook, you are right." Some of the things Facebook suggests actually broadens my horizons. It displays events that I would have never thought to go experience, which is good but also very terrifying. How does Facebook know so much about me that not even some of my closest friends would guess? What I am trying to get at is, do not let Face-book control your emotions and the way you think about your life. Sure, use it as an informational tool or fun network, but not as an advisor or pal. I believe adding Facebook as a friend on your real life list of friends might take it too far.

10.13ish.2010

I think HELL has frozen over, Justin Bieber has his own nail polish line coming out in January. Yes you heard me correctly, this teenage boy has six different colors that will soon be on the fingernails of girls throughout Canada and the US. The selling point of this polish is; they are named after each one of his songs. But wait, it gets better. The name of the nail polish is Nicole. Girlfriend? Mother? Sister? Grandma? Nope, none are named Nicole, he just chose a random girly name with no significance or meaning to him whatsoever. I guess the guy, I mean little boy, is trying to make some extra cash on the side of his millions he has now. (Reminding me of Travie McCoy, the millionaire singing about wanting to be a billionaire "So Freakin Bad"Click here if you have no idea what I'm talking about.) Normally I would support someone just trying to make an extra buck, but Bieber has taken it too far. Bieber Fever is out of control, it has to stop. Maybe when he hits puberty all the 12-year-olds will stop screaming "Baby Baby Baby."

Now I know a bunch of people think that Ashton Kutcher's Twitter is a big waste of time and a terrible excuse for you to tell everyone that you have to go to the bathroom or shave your legs. It is actually a website that you can use to your advantage. Besides the usual news or friend site, you can subscribe to any pop culture figurine or celebrity you can find. I found out about Bieber's polish from a tweet by E!Online. Something else I read on Twitter was about our favorite brother band, the Jonas Brothers.

Did you know that the Jonas Brother's show got cancelled because of Mexican drug violence? Apparently they are on their Mexico tour and the show in Monterrey was skipped because more than 400 drug related killings have taken place this year alone in the state of Nuevo Leon, where Monterrey is located. That is a massive amount of killings, and frankly I applaud the JoBros for even setting foot into Mexico. Although I wonder, do people in Mexico like them enough for the brothers to hold life threatening concerts for their fans in this country? Maybe Disney should think twice before sending their singers to different countries and putting them in potential danger.

10.6ish.2010

www.Gap.com

Fall has arrived and the weather is beginning to feel just right. Maybe its even time to whip out those perfect curve hugging Gap jeans from last year. As you begin to slide them on, your face goes from excitement to determination as you try to shove the zipper up and barely fasten the button. If this happens to you, you are actually IN luck because you are qualified to get a brand new pair of Gap jeans for 30 percent off by trading in your old, slightly smaller pair. Want to score an extra 10 percent off? Add Gap as your friend on Facebook, after such a deal why wouldn't you want to be Gap's friend? So with colder weather ahead, take full advantage of this great deal for some of the best fitting jeans on the market. 

hollywoodreporter.com

Speaking of jeans, there is a new show in the making on ABC called "Awkward Family Photos." The picture to the left is just a little taste of what you might find on this show. How the producers are planning on making a show out of cheesy pictures like this is beyond me. I do not understand how you could do anything besides a slideshow type setup with an America's Funniest Home Videos type host. If they do set up something like that, then I guarantee it will not run longer than one season. What a boring show to watch, the web was created for a reason, an hour of TV would not pass up 30 minutes of channel space for a bunch of weird pictures of people you don't know.


Family can be awkward, but it can also be loving. Love is one of the key ingredients in order for the family to stay connected. Parents give advice because they love you, not to torment you. Moms really do have the best advice and sometimes when you are sitting in your apartment or dorm in college you feel an ounce of homesickness. This homesickness has a cure, staying busy. Keep yourself busy with school work and extracurriculars, this way you don't have as much time to dwell on the fact that your parents aren't there to cook you breakfast in the morning or wake you up for school. 


So next time you go shopping check out Gap, then think about awkward family photos and if you start missing your family, stay busy with your school work or extra curricular...its a simple cycle!

9.27ish.2010.

Fabulous websites.

It occurred to me this week that people do not usually go outside of their comfort zone when it comes to new websites and places to surf on the web. Most people just stay within their top 10 bubble, some only using websites for something useful,never to just look around at. So I did the liberty of sharing with you some awesome sites that I visit whenever I'm feeling like an adventure.

For music fanatics there is an actual website that connects your favorite artists. For example, I connected Avril Lavigne and The Beatles, in 5 steps it took me from Avril to Johnny Rzezik to The Yardbirds to Eric Clapton to The Beatles. Each one is connected through some album or show in some kooky way. I have yet to find two artists that do not match up eventually. It's a pretty interesting site to bring back some of your favorite artists and concert tours! It's also interesting to see how people find a way to match up with the opposite type of music groups. Match away! http://labs.echonest.com/SixDegrees/

Film buffs alike know zillions of movies like the back of their hand, but what about the movie's counterpart, trailers? Sometimes a trailer does a fantastic job of making the movie look like it is going to be AWESOME, months later the actual movie is THE worst in theaters or on DVD. So why does no one recognize the trailers? They are like mini- movies in themselves aren't they? Celebrate the two and a half minutes it takes to make a simply great trailer with the IFC's Top 50 Trailers list. This website gets addicting, you want to just keep watching trailers connected to your favorite movies, and even movies you haven't heard of if they are rated high enough. Celebrate the introductions!  http://www.ifc.com/news/2009/06/50-greatest-trailers.php

"Baby, Baby, Baby OHHH" some form of that song always seems to jump into my head at the most unpractical times. Now there is a website that helps you get rid of that annoying song by Justin Beiber that always seems to pop into your head. www.Unhearit.com uses its "reverse-auditory-melodic-unstickification technology" to get rid of even the most catchy songs, no matter how long they have been in your head. This really works, I'm serious, you need to try it right now.

Lastly but not least, www.spreeder.com . This site is amazing, it literally trains your mind to read not with your inner voice but solely with your brain. It allows you to read a passage and adjust the amount of words you think you might read per minute, and then it spits them out like no tomorrow. I think I will have this website open with every news site I read from now on.  Think about all the passages you could get through if you did not have to read everything out loud inside your head. If you are freaked out by this, at least try the intro passage on the site and train your brain to read at its highest speed, for optimal spreeding!

So those are just a few websites that I searched around and discovered. I understand the irony of this being a website about finding websites, I get that. But who says they weren't interested in these fabulous websites to cure boredom or spark curiosity? Happy surfing!

9.20ish.2010

To hell with the sections!


Autumn is here! September 22, 2010 marks the first day of this most colorful season and fashion labels everywhere are freaking out about the transition from hot to cold. To give you an idea, my copy of Vogue was 727 pages long and filled with ads all still for the very cheap price of $4.99. Chanel's newest lookbook items could have been based off circus clowns or tigers, maybe a mixture of both? The caption under this photo is "Ready to Wear". To what? What event besides the circus would require you to wear an outfit like this? Chanel Ad Campaign Fall 2010  Something that makes me giddy inside about Chanel though is the fact that we are seeing more and more of Lady GaGa's fashion influences on the runway this year. More designers are willing to take the risk to do something insane because insane is hip, thanks to GaGa. Once a meat dress is even found in your closet, there are no expectations for you to dress normal ever again. This meat dress she wore to the 2010 VMAs was according to Us Magazine "However, it has many interpretations, but for me this evening, if we don't stand up for what we believe in and if we don't fight for our rights, pretty soon we're going to have as much rights as the meat on our bones. And, I am not a piece of meat."Meat Dress. Lady GaGa is also following her trend of activism in the states by posting Youtube videos and begging the repeal of "Don't Ask Don't Tell" in the military, which is being debated by the Senate this week. It was not passed, so the Don't Ask Don't Tell clause is still in effect for now.GaGa's Plea

My week has been extremely busy, I had a bunch of ideas for my stories, but I have nothing to write them for at the moment, so I am just working on that!


 So to sum everything up, Chanel's line is whack, GaGa wears meat dresses and Don't Ask Don't Tell is still in effect.
                                                                                                  -rebeccaelise!

9.10ish.2010

9/11 September 11th Koran Burning | Somewhat Topical Ecard | someecards.com

Every new journal entry I ever make is always somewhat of an introduction to my crazed set up. I tend to make different sections so you can skip around and read just what you want to of my post.  In the News: so original, I know...this is a section about headlines and things I read about or see in the news.  Life: this section is about me and whats going on in my life at the moment, or things that I feel like talking about in my life. Zines: This is about things I read in magazines, I LOVE MAGAZINES...there are always millions of interesting things in magazines so this will be about things in there.   Just as a forewarning I  will probably write a random blog about one subject here and there too, no sections! Trust me there are more sections to come, this is just an intro :]


LIFE: First of all I love someecards, I could scroll through them for hours. Having said that there will be one on each of my blogs, I can guarantee that.  I put the SEC(someecard) up in honor of our first 101 class, which I was way too excited for today by the way. 
Right now I am also going through rush, it has been one of the most hectic weeks of my life...so tiring, but also interesting. As a journalist (Beth always says this) I love being nosy about people and where they come from and what they are up to in their lives. My mother also visited me this weekend and brought me some cute things for my new apartment!


 In the News:On that note, I believe that this  "International Burn a Quran Day"(AP Stylebook says "Use Quran in all references except when preferred by an organization or in a specific title or name") is completely ridiculous. Sure, freedom of speech here in the states but as a reminder there are people who worship and read the Quran here in our country and they are as much a  part of  America as you are. If we want to be portrayed as the most diverse nation, we need to remember that diversity is actually a part of this portrait we are painting here. But hey, back in 2001 people were trying to burn Harry Potter because it promoted witchcraft which proves the point that there are some mentally insane people out there. Insane.
Another thing that caught my eye was the 85 prisoners that escaped in Mexico.{ Story } This took place on 9/11, and this is the first I have heard of it, so hopefully they find the inmates soon. Thats a ridiculous amount to escape by ladder over a wall in the prison. Mexico needs some help with keeping their prisoners in line, not to mention they were housing 1,700 instead of the 400 it was built for.


Zines: You will come to find out my favorite magazines are Nylon and TIME, most of this section will be about things that come from there, occasionally ill venture off...but not usually :] Seeing that I got a new TIME magazine in the mail today, I'll cover that. James Ellroy answers 10 questions about himself and his new memoir The Hilliker Curse. According to the most reliable source on the internet, wikipedia, Ellroy loves staccato sentences, something I do not know if I could handle for a whole book. I did admire his answer to the question "Are people born good writers?" to which he replied " No. You have to read read read read read read read read and read. As you read you unconsciously assimilate the rudiments of style and technique. And when it comes time for a person to begin to seriously write, they either have it or they don't." 
Did you know that the annual household income needed to make Americans happy is 75,000? Anything above that does not increase level of contentment. Isn't that something? Not even six figures, maybe Americans aren't as shallow as we thought they were.
Raw milk war is going on and the FDA outlawed the harsh drink in most states. Only 30 states is it legal to be sold on certain farms and posts, FDA members are saying that it does more harm than good, the good bacteria and wholesome taste does not outweigh the diseases carried and unhealthy bacteria in this creamy drink. 


Welp, thats all for now folks...you can leave comments (nice or mean, I can take it)
Hopefully as time goes on, my posts will get better and I will figure out what you guys like to read and what voice to use on these posts.


Until next time,
    Rebecca