"If they had've said that I wouldn't be having an existential meltdown!"

I love watching TV. I mean, what patriotic red-blooded American doesn't? Well I am being quite facetious because I myself don't even like watching the boob-tube all of the time. I am so tired of these Geico Cavemen commercials. I love the Geico Gecko, don't get me wrong, but Geico is going in the wrong direction for their commercials. Yes I know that good marketing strategies indicate that a good commercial makes you remember the commercial days after you have had the misfortune of watching it. Even though have of the time you have no idea what the commercial was selling, but you remember the cute little squirrells high fiving in the middle of the street after a man wrecks his station wagon. Or you remember that beer bottle that just happened to be sitting on a table to appear to have the moon (in its quarter status) placed inside of it (to appear to be a 'lime'). I just think these Cavemen commercials are getting dumb.

I will say that the first time I saw the original "Cavemen" commercial, that it was quite comedic but they should have left it at that. We saw, we laughed, and we moved on. We don't want to see a whole sitcom about these ugly guys. Commercials are supposed to be fun. And I know that I am over analyzing things here, but there are some people that take it a step further than I do. Some people view commercials as a way to incooperate ignorance into the minds of Americans. People see commercials, and media as a whole, as a way for the corporate criminals to polute our minds, and earth, without us even knowing. They see mainstream media networks not interested in educating the public, but they instead are trying to "dumb down" society as a whole.

To some extent, I do think that they have succeeded. If you believe in all that "government ignorance conspiracy theory mumbo jumbo". But seriously, what educational learning can kids have from watching Spongebob Square Pants? What can that father learn from watching Sandford and Son re-runs on TV Land? And I am not saying that I continuously watch the Discovery Channel so I can learn as much as I can about the sexual proBasically we as a society are dumbing down. A lot of Americans would rather sit down on the sofa and watch some new reality show (I think our next reality show will be a reality show about the impact watching reality shows has on people who have been on reality shows. I think it could work.) No longer do we read. What happened to the book? Did the book suddenly become too long of a thing to undertake? Did the short story get replaced by watching Wheel of Fortune? Did the magazine get repaced by looking up some video on YouTube? Since when did the flickering lights of a TV set replace the pressed pulp of trees?

No longer is society sitting down and having discussions about their day, because they are sitting up little trays in the living room so they can watch tv while eating. No longer does America have the long time norm of dinner time discussions. We have replaced disciplinary actions towards our children with time out. I will not divulge myself into that topic quite yet, but I will say that I don't think my ignorance level has lowered itself into the metaphorical realm of laughing at fake "Cavemen" and I hope that it never does. Ignorance is such a commonplace thing now a days, and I just hope I don't fall accustomed to it. But if commercials would just say what they mean...."I wouldn't be having an existential meltdown!"

Planning period rant

I usually don't have butterflies in my stomach. I'm usually pretty calm when it comes to the first day of a new semester. Today was different though. I'm not exactly sure what it was that makes this day so different from all the other ones. I've been a teacher for three years now, and it is supposed to get easier, right?
I teach at an alternative school, which is basically a safe haven for students (and their former teachers) who usually cause a lot of trouble at their regular schools to come and learn. They come here and we 'fix' their problems to an extent that they can function properly at a regular school. Most of them have been getting in trouble for gang affiliation, fights, skipping too many days of school, and having long hair. Okay, well I made the long hair part up, but they come here for serious reasons. When you get these students get into a class you do quickly start to realize that they have negative stigmas put on them by society which sometimes are valid, but most of the time these kids are just that, kids.
Some students come from broken homes. They come from homes where "I love you" is a statement that has been long forgotten. Drug abuse and physical abuses are a norm. Some students just have behavioral problems stemming from things like ADD or ADHD. But they have these accouterments following them throughout their lives.
I feel sorry for them sometimes. You want to just hug them and tell them that everything is gonna be alright. You want to tell them that the world loves them and accepts them for who they are. You want to tell them that their parents erroneous regnancy will not be held over their heads any longer. But I would be lying to them, now wouldn't I?
So I just continue doing my job and hopefully reach the ones that don't want to be taught, and help the ones that want to bring themselves out of the place that they are in.

This is a test of the emergency blogging system.