Santa Mail and More
Today was the first time I clicked on a banner ad in a long time. That's not counting all the times I accidentally hit one of the pop up windows or annoying flash animations that have a close button but moves around so you can't catch it. I hate those.
Anyways, I was checking my Yahoo Mail when I noticed in big red letters at the top: "Get a letter from Santa!" linked to www.santamail.org. So of course, how can I resist that? I clicked the banner and found one of the more entertaining websites I've seen in recent days. Basically, it's a company that sends a fake letter to your kids from Santa, incorporating information that you give them like your hometown or the name of his/her best friend. They use Christmas-y looking paper, envelopes, and it's postmarked "North Pole, Alaska". All for a low price of $9.95.
Now, I can understand the concept of giving your kid a personalized message from Santa might be kind of a nice thing to do. I mean, even though my mom and dad are fobs, I remember my dad doing something like that one Christmas. He typed up a short little note, taped it to my gift, and told me it was from Santa. Being about 5 years old at the time, I easily believed every word of it and I thought it was awesome.
The thing is, do you really need/want to pay someone else 10 bucks to do that for you? If you are browsing the internet to a site called www.santamail.org, chances are that you have access to a computer with the capability to write and print a letter. Why wouldn't you just do it yourself, if you wanted it to include personalized information to begin with? What's your kid gonna do, examine the letter and be like "this stationery looks so inauthentic, you really expect me to believe this is from Santa?" No 5-year old is gonna care that the envelope doesn't have Christmas decorations on it, and even if he was smart enough to pick at that kind of detail, what's with the postmarked "North Pole, Alaska" BS? I know that's not fooling anybody.
But oh well, if anyone is bored, go ahead and check out that site. It was worth a good laugh for me.
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I think the movie I was thinking about in the last blog, with the Mexicans trying to cross the border, was called "El Norte".
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Some questions I have:
1. Does "not being unhappy" count as "being happy"? If you're not sad, angry, bitter, or any of those negative emotions, does that make you happy by default? Why or why not?
2. What is the point of "thanks"? When someone says "thanks", what exactly does that word mean? When I let someone merge in front of me on the highway and I don't get the "thanks"-wave, why do I get pissed as if he robbed me or something? I mean, if you do something nice for someone, shouldn't you do it out of genuine kindness, and not for the satisfaction of being thanked? So do we have a right to be pissed about not receiving thanks?
3. Why is it ok for rappers to talk about "chinky eyes"? I used to like that Holidae In song until I noticed the part near the end when Ludacris goes "my eyes are chinky", now it annoys me. I'm not someone who believes in censorship, but considering some of the other stuff they edit out for the radio, it's a matter of respect that they should do the same for something like that.
4. Why did they keep bleeping out Uma Thurman's character's name in Kill Bill? When is Part II coming out?
5. Yesterday at Target I overheard a kid telling his friend that he got a 19 on his ACT. What do you do when you get a 19 on your ACT? It doesn't necessarily mean you're stupid, but you're definitely not "top quartile" either. Do you go to community college, get a minimum wage job, and work your way up? Is your life pretty much a waste from then on, just trying not to become a homeless bum? Or do you end up in a happier state than all the so-called successful students who go on to their middle-class jobs, stress out about saving every penny, and struggle for the next 40 years to climb the corporate ladder?
6. Are there people who buy just part two of a DVD/VHS trilogy but not the rest? I think it would look so weird if my shelf had only Empire Strikes Back, Matrix Reloaded, The Two Towers, Austin Powers 2, etc., and nothing else.
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I saw the video for Linkin Park's "Numb" for the first time yesterday. I've really liked the song a lot since I got the CD when it came out, and I'm glad they made a video for it. The video is pretty good, not groundbreaking or anything, but it goes well with the song and I'd say it's one of the better music videos I've seen lately.
Also, I watched some of the Britney Spears Making the Video the other day. Don't really like that song or video much at all. And since when did she start acting like a stoner? Overall, I was unimpressed and disappointed with this showing. She seems to look a little older/not as hot, and her personality is more annoying. I noticed one of her backup dancers is an Asian girl though, and I think she looked pretty good. Better keep an eye out.
