Music and Our Fellow Man

Yesterday, while scrolling down my tumblr dashboard, I saw an interesting post about a new website. The website is: http://emotionalbagcheck.com/ . Upon entering this website you will be asked what you wish to do with your emotional bagage. You can either "check it"or "carry it". When you check your bagage in, you write a few sentences in a box provided about what is currently bothering you; really any problems that you find yourself having in your life at the moment. Then, you leave your email (which remains anonymous). If you decide to carry your bagage, you view someone else's emotional baggage and then you suggest them a song to listen to, to help them through this rough patch in their life. The site partners with grooveshark (a free online internet radio), so you type in the song you want to send to them in a search bar on the side of their post and grooveshark provides a list of songs that match your search and you just click the one you want to send! It's really simple. You also have the option to write a small note of helpful words. The owner of the emotional baggage then receives an email with the song suggestion and the note.

Home Page to the Website 

I think this website is genius. Personally, when I'm going through a tough time, music always helps. How better to cope with your problems than with a personalized music suggestion and inspirational words from a sympathetic stranger. This website will not erase all of your problems, but it can sure help you deal with the hand you've been given.


Bob Marley once said, "One good thing about music, when it hits you fell no pain". Ever since I heard this quote I have carried it with me, remembering it each time music affects me on a personal level. Emotionalbagcheck.com does an extraordinary job of utilizing the power of music and bringing this quote to life.

I appreciate the fact that this is an American made website whose purpose is to help not only our fellow American, but our fellow man. It shows that we can all unite through one powerful medium, music. I have yet to drop off any bagage, but when I do I'm confident that this website will help me through any headache I'll be enduring.  You've got to check this website out!

-Chrisanthy

Extreme Couponing: Extremely Crazy

I find that TLC is highly skilled at consistently producing shows that end up on my guilty pleasures list. It actually sort of freaks me out. Shows like Toddlers and Tiaras, My Strange Addiction, and 19 Kids and Counting never fail to leave me less than completely captivated. My new obsession: Extreme Couponing. Normally, grocery stores and discount vouchers do not fascinate me too much, but you have to see these coupon clippers!

The pilot episode of the show featured young mom Jamie who took up extreme couponing after her husband lost his job. She did this so she could maintain her lavish lifestyle while there wasn't any income coming in. TV crews followed her as she embarked on her priciest haul ever, retail valued at $1200. Though, Jamie did not pay $1200 for her purchases, she paid $103. Why you may ask? Because Jamie is a coupon freak! But it's not just Jamie, it is every single woman (or man) on the show!

Other extreme couponing ventures on the show include a $600 haul  ending in a $3 bill and a $144.33 haul costing only a penny after coupons. Everyone who is featured on the show spends countless hours a week collecting, clipping, and organizing coupons for her hauls. They even plan out their massive shopping list in advance, calculating the grand total before and after their coupons are added. Then, they preceed to go home and stash their new booty in organized "stock piles". These stock piles look like mini grocery stores, click this LINK TO SEE REBECCA'S STUNNING STOCKPILE. Absolutely mind blowing

At this point, many guests on the show admit that they get a certain high from this couponing. Basically, they make it sound like some sort of drug addiction. They say they feel as if they are "robbing stores" because they are taking so much of the stores' product at little to no cost. It just seems to me that all of this is madness. Would you really want your main activity in life to be couponing? These peoples' lives have been taken over by the call of the clip and it is most likely that they will never end up using even half of the products that they accumulate! And imagine how much money a grocery store loses from one extreme coupon-er! What if everyone became extreme coupon-ers, would the grocery store market (no pun intended) be ruined?  Even though I find this couponing craze psychotic and bizarre, it is still extremely amusing to watch. Plus, there are some extreme coupon-ers that donate their purchases to the military and to food shelters and I find that very admirable. But all in all this show is crazy, and I highly recommend it.

-Chrisanthy S

Irene: America's Inside Joke?

Before I begin this blog post, there are a couple things that you, the reader, should know about me:
1. This summer I participated in a service trip on the US virgin island, St. Croix. It was the highlight of my summer and a once in a lifetime experience. The best part was probably the friendships I formed. The only problem is everyone else that went on my trip is from the east coast, and I mean EVERYONE. All 12 of them. But their East Coast insight will tie into this blog post soon enough I promise!
2. I am an avid Tumblr user. For those of you who do not know what Tumblr is, it is a blogging website that is mainly focused on pictures. I am proud to say that my blog is followed by 760 people daily and has accumulated 18,400 hits since march. Okay so it's not that impressive but that was my only mark on the blogging world...until now.

So back to my blog post! Recently my east coast friends from my trip cannot stop talking about Hurricane Irene, and rightfully so because it's causing quite the panic. I mean look at how much terror it has done;1.5 billion estimated federal cost, at least 44 death toll, tens of thousands of people without power, etc. it deserves to be talked about, alot! But what I find odd is the number of Irene jokes I have been seeing everywhere! Like the picture you see to the left. This picture has accumulated almost 14,300 notes on tumblr. Which means that 14,300 people have either reposted this on their own blogs or have "liked" it. 14,300. That's close the number of people that still don't even have electricity from the hurricane!

Or how about this youtube video of the famous "Weather Channel Streaker" (DON'T WORRY IT'S CENSORED!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkAaDcDFopU
It's pretty sad to watch this weather man rant about all the people joking around behind him, isn't it? Mr. Eric Fisher is clearly outnumbered. Those east coasters sure do love their storm humor. But we have not even reached yet my favorite form of Irene humor: The Hurricane Irene twitter account! 

Just like the inflatable boat photo above, this screenshot (of one of its best tweets if I should add) is also famous of Tumblr. Racking in about 18,700 notes may I present to you @Hurriicaneirene !! Pretty funny, huh? Now I'm sure you are loving these jokes as much as I am, but doesn't something seem kind of weird about them? For example, have we as a country ever had such quality hurricane jokes before? Or any hurricane jokes for that matter? I think the answer to these questions is no. When hurricanes hit parts of the US like the south, in areas such as Louisiana or Texas (who know serious storm devastation too well), joke twitter accounts are not being made. No anonymous (wo)man sits behind their computer desk thinking of new jokes to pour out for internet fame. No one blows up an inflatable boat to sail in a whopping 1 cm of water. And no one takes off their pants on national television. Though, I have heard a few Katrina jokes before, but it is my understanding that these jokes are taboo in American society, and are hurtful to the millions who have suffered.

Now I don't think all these Irene jokes are necessarily a bad thing, I'm just not quite sure about how they reflect onto us Americans in general. Are east coasters simply the jokesters, or are they just able to take this situation lightly because they do not know the terror that the southerners do? I'd really like to hear others insight on this oddity basically because I'm not so sure that I even have a solid opinion on this. Thanks for reading!

-Chrisanthy S