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"Only in America" a poem (I guess you could call it that) about the contents of my pantry.

My glamorous pantry.

Only in America will you find two three cans of the exact same chicken noodle soup, but different brands.

Only in America will you find a 64 oz soda cup from a gas station that we will absolutely never use again because the fact it is sitting in the pantry and not the cup cabinet. Only in America is that unsanitary,

Only in America will you find Pop tarts, even though nobody in my family likes Pop tarts. Seriously, does someone want these? My Dad keeps buying them because he thinks someone will eat them but nobody ever does.

Only in America will you be able to buy a 2 lb cylinder of oatmeal.

Only in America will you find 3 half eaten bags of Tostitos chips.

Only in America will you find four boxes of granola bars, when again, no one in my family eats granola bars.

Only in America will you find a box of breadcrumbs. Seriously, my family bought a box of bread crumbs. "Why?" is all I can think to say. Only in America will you find three jars of peanut butter, two jars of Prego tomato sauce, and two jars of Nutella. These jars of paste/sauces have enough calories to feed my family by themselves, but yet we have them for no other purpose.



Okay "poem" over that was really awful. But my point is that in America every family has a pantry full of food that they don't need and hardly ever eat. In my household, we probably go out to eat twice a week, which makes less use for the food in my pantry. Personally, there is nothing in there I find worthy of eating right now. Most of what I eat is microwaved and eaten out of a box or prepared for me by a restaurant. I know that this is wasteful. Unfortunately, I'm not the only one who does this. America has become such a large consumer that consuming is basically all we know how to do. Since birth we have been conditioned to love material goods. When we decorate a room of our houses we consume more products like lamps and pictures and clocks and drapes simply so that the room is aesthetically pleasing. 

Only in America.

f.

I give my unwanted opinion about the iPhone 5!

I figured this was a good topic so I could finally have a blog post with a real idea. So for the past few months I've been wishing I had a smart phone. I currently have the LG Banter Touch. I mean I'm going to be casually using my phone in class anyway so why not use the internet at the same time! PLUS if I had a smartphone I could probably procure some sort of blogger app so I can be all high-tech about my blog posts in this class. Posting from my phone would probably reduce the chore-like feeling of writing. My current carrier (US Celluar) does have smartphones, mostly just the blackberry and a few models of the droid. My Dad and his wife Kathy currently use Verizon, which carries the iPhone. I would be willing to switch providers to get this phone. (which says something about the power and popularity of Apple) If I'm going to get a smartphone, I want THE MOTHER OF ALL SMARTPHONES. I want the iPhone 5.

this is what popped up when I carelessly google searched iPhone 5

I heard that such a thing would soon be coming into existence one morning on the news, with the added info it would go to Sprint, offering unlimited data. I didn't really care if Sprint was getting the iPhone 5, but the news of the iPhone 5 arriving conveniently fits in with my plans to acquire a smartphone. Probably the most interesting part about the iPhone 5 is not the actual phone itself, but rather the cult following Apple products have. A simple google search of the word "iPhone 5" leads to obsession blogs, which are all pretty much the exact same blog over and over.


Notable examples include: 


http://iphone5release.org/
http://www.iphone5talk.com/
http://www.iphone5specs.org/
http://iphone5world.net/
http://iphone5features.net/
http://newiphone5.net/


Depressingly, there are many more. Also, I found the hilariously named http://www.macrumors.com/ which shows the kind of cult following Apple products have. To throw another link at you, there is a derogatory term for those obsessed with Apple.










So yeah, the iPhone 5 guys.

This is a second awkward post.

Okay, this post is just going to be three awkwardly short sub-posts because I have a few things I can write about. Unfortunately, none of these things are solid enough to write about for the duration of an entire blog post.

SO FIRST ONE.
I am awful at naming things. I over-think things far too often and felt that whatever I named my blog would immediately cause second thoughts. I'm lucky I've never been bestowed the honor of naming a pet or baby (they're totally the same thing) because I would probably awkwardly run names through in my head and then change my mind right away. So I dubbed this blog "My Awkward Blog" or for the actual link "Kelsey's Awkward Blog" (someone already had the name :( ) (oh wow smiley/frowny faces don't work in parenthesis ) because I assumed that the idea of a school affiliated blog written by me would produce hilariously awkward results.


ALSO
I feel like even though my mild interest in the business world is a mature topic to base my blog off of, I'm already anticipating writers block/boredom. So sometimes I'll write about nothing (which you are either reading now or maybe you just saw a large enough block of text and then entered a grade. either way....yeah) or sometimes I'll go read a book and tell you stuff about it or watch some movie and tell you stuff about it or go do something fun/quirky and tell you stuff about it or try a new restaurant and tell you stuff about it.

I guess this is my first post.

I already have written a decently vague description in the ABOUT THIS BLOG section. To reiterate what I wrote there, I basically have a really strange fascination with advertising, media, and marketing.
I think the best topic for my first blog post is to explain exactly why I think thats a good topic to write about.


To start off, I dont go home and obsessively watch commercials. I dont read blogs about new products or subscribe to business magazines or even read the newspaper. The way companies market products to consumers has always been kind of fascinating. Its very easy for me to observe living in America where products and logos are all around us. I think my first memory of admiring a company's marketing strategy (although I didn't think of it in that way at the time) was how McDonalds added toys to kids meals as an incentive for buying one. I would see commericals for the cheap plastic toys that went with whatever Disney movie I was obsessed with at the time and subconciously I would crave chicken mcnuggets and (what an American would consider) a small portion of french fries. Actually, I'm really hungry now and that sounds delicious. McDonalds is so successful at what it does I can crave it from writing about early memories of its marketing strategies.


I thought my interest for products and consumers would be an appropriate topic for my blog because I thought it would be a mature enough topic that I could learn a lot about it. I realized that since I am now at the beginning of my junior year I should probably have some of an idea what I'm interested in. Don't get me wrong, I have plenty of other interests! I love to sing. I've taken private voice lessons for a long time and I practice mostly classical pieces. I don't doubt my abilities, but I know there is a slim chance I would be able to support myself as an opera singer. Products and advertising and consumerism in America will always exist, and it always expanding. I figured that would be an excellent field to take an interest in and that this would be a good place to learn what I really enjoy.