Excellent Day

Yesterday was an awful day for weather…I was stuck in both snow, freezing rain and rain at various times yesterday. It felt good to get home at night and do the running man in my bed.

Woke up in a nice toasty house. That’s what life is all about. Waking up with some socks on your feet because it was freaking cold and then getting up to warm heat waves hitting your body.

Going to see Aerosmith and Lenny Kravitz tonight which should be great! Also, I picked up the U2 tix the other day, and even though they are the worst seats in the world (aka nosebleed section), I cannot knock free tix. Actually, Joelle and I are thinking of going to a scalper and upgrading to floor tix. Heck, why not?

Random things that are keeping me having an excellent day so far:
– James creating a survey on Holly-isms
– Getting paid
– Reading my Dune book
– Thinking about Christmas holidays coming up
– Not looking at my credit card statement

I like to think it’s the little things in life that make me happy. ACTUALLY, this brings up an excellent lecture I was at last night on Advertising.

Supposedly, a survey was made on what people cherish most (aka material items vs. immaterial items) and of course, the immaterial items won out (aka, love, companionship, healthy lifestyle, good friends, yada yada yada) but then it goes to talk about how there are so many advertisements out there than ever before and how this has become a very material world.

My favourite part of the night was when they were talking about DeBeers and how they started the slogan for diamonds – “Diamonds are Forever.”. Well, during the 30s, people were selling off their diamonds for cash so they had to think of a way for that not to happen anymore. So they started the Diamonds are Forever campaign. Essentially, never sell your diamonds because you can pass them on to family members. Hence, they can sell a whole lot more original stock since no one resells them.

This was an interesting point brought up because a) No one in the class could admit that they would ever part with their diamonds and b) It shows how advertising has influenced us.

In reality, diamonds are just another material possession. I buy a car for $25K and then I try and sell it years later. Why? Why not keep it? Cars are forever? Alright, bad example, cars break down.

What about all the junk which is in your house right now, but at the moment, you just HAD to have it? It was interesting for the teacher to imply that diamonds are just another material object that people implant thoughts into your brain about.

One woman even said that for her, diamonds represent a good, solid, healthy relationship between your partner. Well, the diamond companies really did their work on that one! (at this point in my rant, I’m not knocking anyone who have bought diamond rings for their loved ones for a marriage. Heck, I’ll be doing it also.) Shouldn’t our emotions and actions show that we have a good, solid, healthy relationship and not a rock? I guess a diamond is to represent this bond between two people.

That’s great and all, but what if I chose to get my wife a necklace, or a colour bracelet (like everyone has nowadays) to show my love for her, and she wore it until the day she died? Is there anything wrong with that? Sure there is…people would look at us like we were freaks!

Why?

Because advertising tells us so.

I find the lecture on advertising an interesting one because a) I think a LOT of us realize what advertising does (or attempts to do) to us and b) There is no B.