Month: July 2011

2 things about Chris Brown that GOTTA GO

Published on by Paige DoltonLeave a comment

Alright, so I have a bone to pick with a mister Chris Brown.

I’ve been a fan of his since day one. Ever since the days of ‘Run It’, I have been listening to Chris Brown on repeat on my iPod (well, now iPhone). I’ve downloaded the mixtapes, I’ve watched the music videos, and I’ve sung along to all of the songs. I even admitted to myself, and all of the other people that were obsessed with him, that this poor child had an innocent lisp to his voice. Hell, I was even one of the people who tuned into Sesame Street to watch him sing with Elmo and then proceeded to download the song immediately afterwards. And yes, I still listen to Chris Brown after all of the Rihanna nonsense. Alright, he beat her up. That happens every day all over the country. He served his time and he apologized to her (publicly, I might add). But he still has an incredible voice and the dance moves of a breakdancing angel. And don’t even get me started on Rihanna. Princess Ri-Ri can disappear for all I care. She used her domestic violence attack for her own benefit by becoming more edgy and provocative, knowing that she wouldn’t get criticized because she was still playing the victim card.

Lately, however, Mr. Brown has just been pissing me off. It’s one of those things that I just want to keep on ignoring what I’m thinking, but I can’t help it. So without further ado, here are the 2 things about Chris Brown that I am not okay with:

  1. His God-awful blonde hair. Whoever told him that the Sisqo look was back in has some serious issues. I mean, honestly, he just looks like a douche-bag. Am I right, or am I right? Also, what’s the deal with the excessive amount of tattoos he’s gotten recently. Maybe its just me, but it looks like he’s pulling a Lil’ Wayne and is trying to cover his entire body. Um….not necessary.

    Who are you, Dennis Rodman?
  2. The unnecessary cursing & sex talk. So I’m no stranger to cuss words, I actually cuss a lot more than I probably should. But for someone who is still trying to bring up their reputation and still has some younger fans out there, is it really necessary to be cussing his way through his songs? And what’s the deal with all of the songs explicitly about physical sex? Personally, I’m offended that a decent amount of his songs are that inappropriate. It’s just kind of awkward to listen to something like that when you’re casually driving down the road.
Just a random post. I still love Chris Brown and I have been playing ‘Next 2 You’ on repeat for the last week. But still, I’d like the music video a whole lot better if his hair wasn’t bleached in it.
And just for kicks, here’s Chris’ epic video with Elmo on Sesame Street. Ahhh, good times.

Drive until the map turns blue.

Published on by Paige Dolton1 Comment

I think I actually might have a problem. I mean, everyone loves going to the beach, right? Okay, well multiply that by about 50 and you have my feelings for any body of water. Except for a bathtub, I hate baths. I’m talking ocean, lake, river, pond, creek, stream, and even puddles. My name is Paige and I am addicted to water.

It started off at a young age. Living 2 miles away from the Lake Michigan shore put me at the beach at least 4 times a week. I still remember my favorite swimsuit: it was from Disney World and had a huge Mickey slapped on the front of it. But being that I lived in Chicago growing up, it was not always swimsuit weather. Yet, my adoration for the water would not keep me away. Even when it was below freezing, my mom would take my brother and I to Gilson Beach every week, and you better believe we were bundled up head to toe running around in the sand.

Another early sign of water addiction is that it runs in my family. When I was born, my parents decided to send out Christmas cards every year to all of their family and friends. It just so happened that the first 3 pictures had some sort of water setting in the background. Thus, a tradition was born. To this day, all of our Christmas card pictures have had water in the background. One December, we even had to put a water bottle in the corner of the photograph because we didn’t have time to travel anywhere that year. It’s one of the weirder family traditions, but I know that’s something that I will always remember and hopefully carry on to my family in the future.

Spring break was no longer just about getting away from school, it was about getting as close to the water as possible and staying there. My parents always wanted to change up where we went for Spring break each year, but year after year I convinced them to continue to go back to the same beach. As I write about it, I can see it so vividly in my head even though I haven’t been back to Sanibel Island in 5 years. I remember walking along the beach collecting shells that I would get to use later to make into different shell animals at Shelly’s Shell School (I completely bought it that her name was Shelly).

Flash forward to high school and college, and I am always the one begging my friends to take a trip somewhere near the water. Being this age, its not about getting to the water and then playing around in it for hours. It’s about just being there with no agenda and soaking it all in (pun intended). As I grow older, I realize how much more I really need the water. Being by the water just puts my soul at ease; it literally feels like everything that I ever worried about is floating away. Now, I realize how much of a luxury it is to sit at the water’s edge and just take it all in. That feeling is something I think about every day that I can’t be by the ocean or on the dock of a lake.

Technology Sucks

Published on by Paige Dolton1 Comment

…as I write a blog post on my own personal laptop…

I have a serious love/hate relationship with technology. Daily, I preach about how I detest every single thing about technology and consumerism, but then I get on my iPhone and tweet about it…doesn’t make much sense. For a while, I’ve been trying to sort out what exactly I was thinking, but I think I might have finally put my finger on it.

Tonight, instead of going out with friends or sitting in my basement watching criminal minds, my mom, my brother and I decided we would watch Glee together. My brothers both have a social life that rivals that of Paris Hilton, so this was kind of a big deal to get the three of us together. We put some pizzas in the oven and got situated on the couch and I put the DVD in. All was well until about halfway through the first episode when my mom grabbed her iPad. Upon hearing the ‘ding’ from both her iPhone and the technological slab made when she received an e-mail, she immediately had to retrieve it and divert her attention from Rachel Berry and Quinn Fabray. Seeing that it was okay to include our technological life in our family evening, my brother immediately reached for his phone and began texting at the speed of light. Prior to settling down on the couch for the night, I made a point to put my phone and laptop upstairs so I wouldn’t even have to be tempted. But that’s the thing, doing something like watching TV with my family, especially Glee, I don’t even want to touch my phone. I just think it’s rude and annoying. After both my mother and my brother were consumed in their technological lives, I left the room to come up to my bedroom where I have since been writing this post. Neither blinked an eye.

On more than one occasion, my boyfriend has called me to make sure I wasn’t dead because I hadn’t responded to a text message for over 4 hours. This being said, I hate texting. It’s something I’ve gotten used to because, unfortunately, it is most people’s primary form of communication. To me, that is just pitiful. Call the damn person if you want to talk to them! Don’t just casually text them or write on their Facebook wall to form a relationship with someone. I’m genuinely worried about this technological generation, my brother included. They don’t seem to get it. My brother and his friends talk about Facebook like it’s so much more than just a social networking site. I kid you not, this is an exact quote from one of his friends “Yo dude, did you see Johnny Bravo’s status yesterday? It got like 30 ‘likes’ man. Nahhh that kid’s statuses always get a ton of likes.” DO YOU HEAR YOURSELF?!

All I’m saying is that people need to get out more. Bottom line. Keep your phone at home for the day and see what happens. Delete your Facebook and see who your real friends are. Don’t have full conversations over text; use it for what it was meant to be used for- brief, short messages to relay simple information across. Have real relationships with people. Read books! Get outside and spend time with other people, not just chatting with them online. If you know me, you know how much I hate consumerism, which is clearly where my hatred for technology stems from. I genuinely fear for a day when people forget how to communicate with another person. This generation is being provided with all the technology they need to allow them to hide behind their computer screens and their phone keypads. I have enough confidence in myself to speak out-loud everything that I type here on my blog, but I know that that is most definitely not the case with everyone. With our growing technology, people will become more and more dependent on the written word and, frankly, I feel as though our generation is completely abusing this. When you think of the word ‘word’, you automatically think of the written out, full of letters, word. But try and imagine the ‘vocal word’. Why were we taught to speak if we were only going to grow up to write everything down? The power of someone voicing out a word is so much more incredible than their ability to type it out.

Bottom line: don’t abuse or depend on your technology, someday your kids might not even know how to hold a real conversation. Also, no one really gives a damn what you had for breakfast this morning so don’t put that crap on Facebook.