Baby toys with iPad holders?

Okay, so I was on Amazon, looking at dumb toys for infants, and I came across this one, and my heart literally sank into my stomach. An activity table with an iPad holder smack dab in the middle!? Are you kidding me... babies/toddlers do not need to have iPads in front of their faces all hours of the day. These toys are only developmentally appropriate when they cater to infants' needs! Needs like fine motor skills and exploring sounds and learning to control their fingers and hands... 

This makes me so mad. It sucks that parents are so uninformed about the effects of media on infant brains, and that dumb toy makers make crap like this. 

Also, this description is my favorite: "The iDiscover App Activity Table encourages first words with playful phrases and sing-along songs. Downloadable activities teach letters, shapes and more to build vocabulary. The table rewards curiosity and encourages discovery with fun sound effects and lights."

TVs CAN'T TEACH INFANTS ANYTHING!!!

http://www.amazon.com/VTech-iDiscover-App-Activity-Table/dp/B00CMNX3Q6/ref=pd_sbs_t_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0QQZAR4NEXGTB5CXVFX3 

36%!?

The other day my husband and I watched The Giver. We really, really liked it. It was super uplifting and beautiful and made you really appreciate life and all that we are blessed with here on earth. But we went home and saw that on Rotten Tomatoes the "critics" had given it a 36% ! I usually like looking at Rotten Tomatoes, and a lot of times, after I watch stuuupid movies, I see that I could have avoided wasting 2 hours of my life by checking it first. But sometimes, there are wonderful movies that don't get very good reviews from the so-called critics.

This got us thinking about how so often, the movies that win Best Picture and things like that are obscure, R rated films that are full of violence, sex and profanity. Sometimes I wonder if "the critics" just loved to be shocked, and love to see awful things put on screen because it's "artistic" or "innovative." Well, I disagree. I think that movies can lack the shock factor, lack nudity and profanity and still be great movies.

P.S. I have no idea why they put Taylor Swift in this movie - it's nothing but distracting. I also think it's probably just for the publicity. Which is ridiculous. Also, every time I see a poster for The Giver with Taylor's face on it it drives me crazy because she was literally in it for like 2 minutes!

Anyways, yay for beautiful movies that make you feel good about life!! (And for posters that actually show the main characters in a movie). 

TJ Maxx

The other day I saw a TJ Maxx commercial and I really liked it. It showed people living their lives - with family, friends, kids, romance and fun. It was just so positive and highlighted the simple, but beautiful moments in life.

The Science Behind Happiness

For the last few days I've been pretty tired and I've found myself having negative thoughts about my day and about the people around me. I'm in the habit of going to lds.org randomly when I find myself with a free moment or feel like I need some inspiration. Today I clicked on an article named
The Surprising Science Behind “Supremely Happy” People. I clicked on it and immediately realized that the reason I hadn't been happy the last few days was because I hadn't been WORKING AT IT! Happiness doesn't just knock on your door, you have to snatch it and put it into your life! I prayed and kept this in my mind all day and I've felt sooo much better because of it. I found myself smiling at random people and just being positive about everything!



https://www.lds.org/church/news/the-surprising-science-behind-supremely-happy-people?cid=HPFR102414513&lang=eng

The Invasion

The other day my husband and I wanted to watch a scary movie and ended up watching The Invasion. It's like a remake of The Invasion of the Body Snatchers. We really liked it!! It wasn't too scary and was more of a thriller which I like. You should check it out! The BYU Bookstore has it for rent.

Pass me the MALK!

Julian Smith

This is one of my favoritest videos on youtube. It makes me laugh so much!! If you've never heard of Julian Smith, you should totally check him out. Something I love about him is that he stays away from profanity and inappropriateness! It's so hard to find funny videos these days without worrying about the content so I really admire him. 

#CuttheCarls

Today I was thinking about sex in the media and what it does to our brains, our self-esteem and our beliefs. I started reading about the Carls Jr. campaigns and what people are doing to combat their effects. There are two sisters who started the campaign to #CuttheCarls because women are #MoreThanMeat. One of the sister's husband added this to their blog post:

 “They [Carl’s Jr.] took what all the other advertisers had done, then they went a little further, and then they deep fried it,” Travis says in the post. “And it makes me sick. And if it doesn’t make you sick, then you should probably turn off your internet machine, think really hard about how numb you are to stuff that is doing a lot of harm, and just have a conversation with a real woman. And just maybe think for one second about what it means for women to turn on the TV and see basically every woman stripped down to sell you things.”

I love that people are out there trying to educate the world on the sad effects of pornography and the sexualization of women. Women deserve to be treated as real humans and not as things to look at. And, like the sisters mention on their site, "Viewing someone as an object is almost always the first step toward justifying violence against that person." I hope that more people will begin to believe the truth about the evils of pornography and how destructive it is. Thank goodness for social science research, for good people and for the ability of social media to share the truth.

http://www.beautyredefined.net/cut-the-carls/