Awesome Commercials

Ok, this has nothing to do with anything - but I just saw one of these and I felt the compulsion to blog about it.

THREE BEST COMMERCIALS EVER

These are not the three funniest commercials ever, or the three coolest looking commercials ever, these are, in my opinion, the three most conceptually genius, perfectly targeted commercials.

3. TIE (Coincidentally the same general product) - Deoderant commercials
Those new commercials where the guys lift up their arms and sweat literally just sprays out in every direction. Also, this newer one I only saw once where the people are walking around with a bubble around them and they won't go closer to people than their bubble. These are both ways I feel when my deodorant just isn't cutting it. And the sweat spray one is disgusting, but effective.

2. Nicorette Gum - Shark Arm
The one with the guy sitting on the pier, and a shark jumps up and bites his arm, and all he's thinking is "cigarette. cigarette. cigarette. cigarette. cigarette." and then he takes a nicorette gum piece and calms down, then notices the shark, and is all like "SHARK! SHARK! SHARK!" I don't smoke, but after watching this commercial I understand exactly what a nicotine addiction feels like.

1. Claritin - Claritin Clear
These commercials are the inspiration for this entire category/blog. I mean seriously, viewing life through that annoying haze. Nothing is easy to focus on, and you don't even want to open your eyes. Do you have allergies? Because during your commercial you do. And they're serious. This is EXACTLY what I feel like when my frickin' nerd-curse seasonal allergies crop up. Then the screen is lifted and... GET ME CLARITIN NOW!

Unfortunately, I couldn't find videos for two of these commercials. Weird, because whenever I don't want to see commercials I have to, and I would think that they'd want youtube to be absolutely swimming with pirated copies of them. Oh well, whatever. You probably know the ones I'm talking about.

Justin Bieber - Baby

I think this guy used to go to our school. Either way I highly recommend you watch the following video. It's pretty awesome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5NZwcSsK8I

in case you were wondering about my summer...

ohhhiii bk4

ok- it's been a while since i last blogged, so my blogging juices and creative flow may not be what they were at the height of the blog-nazi reign, but i'll give it 120%. if that's possible.

right now, i'm just chillin' in HAWAII (unfortunately, i'm not with brennamalaila). kauai is a nice place though. eating so much fish i'm probably due for a bout of mercury poisoning in the coming days and laying out in the sun to tan (burn) from 10-4 is quite the life i must admit. and- only a week and a half until i'm moving into TROY apartymentz for the year. crazy. where did this summer go, people?

here's the gist of how i spent my summer:

month one: (the BK/SC withdrawal phase) wake up in the morning- or around 3pm- feelin' like p. diddy, watch a couple videos on youtube, check facebook, think about working out and opt to lie in bed instead, read a few chapters of a book, make a sandwich, nap, miss USC, facebook stalk some more, meet up with friends and take advantage of all reno has to offer (sit at someone's house or drive around and eat food.) sleep.

month two: (the travels begin, and never end) texas: visit with bk7 people and watch the world cup while eating copious amounts of BBQ and texmex (OMGAH QUESO), get a little tan on, swim, start sayin' "y'all", brief stint with country music, love humidity, deal with mosquitos, etc.

san diego/LA: see USC campus and miss it, want move back right then, cry a little on the inside, collect self and go to URSC conference, dress up and make fool of self, visit tandra le and go peacock hunting, eat crepes, go to a club to see chris brown minus the chris brown, dance anyways, love LA and miss bk4 people to the extreme.

month three: more travels

fourth of july at tahoe: swim in the lake, lie on the beach, swim in a pool at night, play cards, invent new words and phrases, watch amazing fireworks, watch more fireworks, read nonfiction books and get made fun of by friends, DGAF and read on, eat tons of food, continue to avoid exercise, acquire sunglasses tan, download music, live the life.

colorado family reunion: read harry potter and the half blood prince, question how one could go through life without reading harry potter and the half blood prince, half-sprint to barnes & noble to buy the seventh book, wonder how/why it took so long for me to read these books, devour seventh book, love it, drive around denver, people watch, catch up with my cousins, make awkward small talk with distant relatives, dodge questions about girlfriends and marriage, defend political science as a practical major, force self laugh at familial jokes, spite family, eat food, more food, no exercise, read another book, miss reno and reno friends...

and now ~da i$l@Ndz~.

so i guess that's where it went- to people watching in the airport, more humid climates, and revisiting the best things about home in the space between. it has been a great summer, and i'm so happy it's almost over.

bk4 love. happy summer,

ale-alejandro

Yeah

Last night I had a dream about BK4.
It was the best dream...

Somehow we all got a night to be reunited over our long stint apart over summer. But just for one night. So we all behaved as if it were out last night on BK4. I mean, that's how much fun we had--as much fun as we all had on our last night of BK4. It was without the sadness of that last night, though because we all knew, just like in real life, that we're gonna be back at home in just about a month!

So if I had woken up right after this dream and decided to write it all down, I would remember and have more to write about it. I did wake up, but just to pee and I was so tired that I thought about writing it down but thought that was stupid so I just went back to bed.

So Jon, Will, Tandra and I had a deep conversation sitting on the grass in the night.
There was dancing and ipods covered with brown paper so they wouldn't get wet (?).
We were jumping on mattresses that covered the floor. (Sound familiar?)
There were tackles/hugs.
There was a candle.
There was some chicken I think.
Sandra was wearing blue eye-shadow.

Everything was really really good.




...Yeah that's nice.

Aroha

I'm glad to see a resurgence in blog posts! I figured I'd help keep it alive.

My Summer Vacation 2010 consists of a loooooooot of work. I work monday through friday from nine to five for the Department of Defense at Pearl Harbor as a lowly intern. woo woooooo Valuable Life Lessons. 40 hour works weeks are.. different. After work, I usually ride my dolphin back to my grass shack for a couple hours of hula. Jahst kidding. I do normal people stuff, like drive for an hour to the other side of the island to find an animal shelter where I can pet kittens. :)

In otherrrr news, I've been exercising more than I would've thought possible.



I kayaked a few miles (yes miles plural) to these islands (called the Mokuluas) for my friends birthday a couple weekends ago. She works at a kayak shop and gets free rentals.


For father's day my dad took our family stand-up paddleboarding. More exercise. WTF. (Note: none of the buff lookin' honey girls in the picture are me)

And my boyfriend keeps wanting to make me go on arduous hikes. I've promised myself NEVER to do Koko Head Crater (Tandra/Tawnda and Laila know what I'm talkin bout here - hours of straight vertical hot climbing hell) but I'm sure there are other hiking tortures for me to endure soon.

Next time you see me I'll be approximately 175 pounds of muscle.

Love yooh All,
Malia

PS I know some BK4-ians like Major Lazer. I saw diplo last night and it was AMAZING. He is sexy.

PPS BLACK. DOUCHE BLACK. Amirite?

"You Look Like You're 40!"

No joke, I actually got that line during one of the classes I teach for my job. (These ARE 8th-grade kids we're talking about, though...)

So after meeting up with Carlo in his neck of the woods for a little surprise visit, I made my way back home to New Orleans for my summer job at Breakthrough, a summer school program for middle-schoolers that's run out of my old high school. I had worked for the program during the school year in years past, and figured that this would give me an excuse to come home for the summer.

Well, one week into the program I already established myself as the asshole of a teacher that nobody ever wanted. (But really, if you think about it, some of these kids need to have the law laid down on them. More on that later.)

I teach 8th grade English as my regular class, and right now we're working on Romeo and Juliet. Next week we're going to begin doing some stage combat routines, a little something I learned here (can you find me in this scene?):

I also taught what little Korean I knew for the first three weeks of the program. Here I was thinking these kids would be struggling with the alphabet for a good while. I was partially right--some were, but most picked it up really, really fast. I was pleasantly surprised.

But back to these rowdy kids that make me want to rip their heads off. I've got two with attitudes that scream bloody murder, one who's totally disinterested in anything I say, and one who just doesn't care about anything at all. (This one can pretty much barely read as it is.) I honestly don't know what to do with these guys, but a couple of them have driven me to that point where I just want to knock some sense into their heads (read: borderline corporal punishment). It might actually do them some better good than the "detention" we're supposed to give them, but I'm at the point where I think that some of them are just beyond any help. I think they just need to grow up...but even that may be an impossibility.

That's not to say, however, that all of them are monsters. The kids in my Korean class were fantastic, and I've got some really good people in my English class who are quick to respond to my questions. Although I really think they want me to do things for them that they have to earn...but they clearly haven't.

This job, however, has barely left me any time for myself. I get to work at 7:15 am (yuck), and don't get home until about 5 (sometimes later, like today--I got back at 5:30). Makes me wonder if I'll ever hang out with my friends from home again...

All that said, though, it's still a rewarding experience. I'll see if I can post some pictures later.

--JW

Counting Crows

So glad everybody is still checking the blog (or is the following thing actually a thing? It never does anything for me...)

Anyway, I went to another night of summerfest, so you get another concert review (probably still few to no pictures, I hate looking for good ones, but I'll keep it shorter :D)

So let me start off with the fact that I'm a bigger counting crows fan than I am an Offspring fan, and have seen Counting Crows in concert 3 times now (the last two times I paid, this time it was free, which is the only reason I went, so that should give you a preview of my thoughts...)

I like Augustana enough, they are almost the same band as counting crows, and with the amount/frequency that they tour together, I'm starting to think they basically are.

Augustana was supposed to start at 9:30. They didn't. Instead we just watched the fireworks over the lake while we waited.

At 10 they started together with a fun song that nobody had ever heard of (see previous blog post), but it was STILL pretty cool/fun. It was just an upbeat throwaway song for fun. Ok. I can dig that.

Then they played "Mrs. Potter's Lullaby" and I almost died of happy. Best CC song ever.

Brief note about Adam, the lead singer of CC - at the last two concerts I was at, he was so messed up on stage that he forgot the lyrics/key and basically just started "artistically freestyling" (read: mumbling) through the songs for like 10 extra minutes... This time he didn't do that. It was cool. He totally remembered all the words (and it's a long song, so kudos). He did still freestyle, but in a cool way where it was just a little twist on the song.

Anyway, then he played "omaha" and "Mr. Jones" and the stage was set for a FAWESOME concert. Sooo close.

For the next hour they played a mix of:
a. random covers
b. a frickin rapper (Notar) came out on stage - wtf? Honestly, he was good, but not what I came to a CC/Augustana concert for
c. Augustana's non-hits.
d. Boston - Augustana's hit.

Seriously? Covers? Not even good covers? Ugh. And the rapper, like I said, was good. But he went for like 20 minutes per song...

People were leaving so fast that we started out standing right next to the concession stand at the back of the stage area (we got there late...) and by the time we left (spoiler alert) we were like 50 feet from the stage. No small move, and we didn't even have to fight for it.

So ya, we left. And I'll never see Counting Crows in concert ever again. That's three strikes guys. Three strikes. I <3>

Note - Crowd interaction score: very good out of 10. Much better than offspring who just yelled Beer all the time because it's milwaukee. We get it. These guys joked around with the audience and made sure we had fun, but they failed I guess? I dunno, not for lack of trying at least.

Sorry for another tl:dr

Can't wait for Lollapalooza! (GAGA!)

After we left we went to check out Modest Mouse finish up their set, it was fine, but I feel like going to see Modest Mouse knowing only "Float On" is what going to a green day concert knowing only "good riddance" would be like...

C4L1F0RN14

People I've seen this summer:

Quin - 4x Venice Beach, Spontaneous road trip road trip road trip WALNUT CREEEEEEEK, SF!!!!! , random trips to USC

Christina - Venice Beach :)

JT - 2x Venice Beach, BAY TRIP!

Drew - Walnut CreeeeEEEEk

Fishman - I took fishman's Panera virginity awaaaay. We had a pleasant dinner, where Tara ditched us because she doesnt love us

Alex - Long Beach CluuuUUUBBBBINNN & Sleepover! Yummy yogurt, Chipotle, Peacock hunting! :)

Laila, Malia, Brennan - HAWAII (which feels like 13809128 years ago)

People I haven't seen:

Tara - 3 miles away (YOU SUCK)

W00p W0000p.

Bk4 twitter was such a good idea........

The Offspring

Dearest BK4,

Anish recently brought it to my attention that the blog has not been posted to in quite a long time. I decided to do something about it. However, since none of you probably check it anymore, this may be just for fun/anish.

The 0nly thing I could think to blog about would be the Offspring concert that I went to last night at Summerfest (The World's Largest Music Festival). Ok, honestly, summerfest is a big music festival that we have in milwaukee every year, and it really is big, as in big enough for most headliner bands to include it on their summer tours year after year, and big enough that the Offspring, Modest Mouse, OAR, and Counting Crows are all on side stages that are free after admission to the event ($15), but I seriously don't know where they get off calling themselves "the world's largest"... Maybe it's geographic area (pretty stretched out along the lake)? Maybe it's length of time (11 days), maybe it's number of stages (a shit ton), or maybe it's the size of the people at it... :(

EDIT: I looked it up, and apparently like 1,000,000 people go each year and it is verified by Guinness book of records to be the largest physical music venue. We also made number 5 on this list, and ladies/Alex: Justin Beiber was here.

So on to the review:

Overall: It was actually a pretty sweet concert. Very fun, very enjoyable.

Details: Ok, let's start with the crowd, which was first of all THE biggest crowd I've ever seen at a summerfest side stage, which was a frickin' nightmare when we had to leave. My friends and I kept noticing the huuge variety of people there. You had everything from your obligatory trailer trashers to your bikers, from your 12 year old awkward middle schooler who totally relates to the angst, to your loser 40 year old who still totally gets it. Then of course you had all the super mainstream regular old college/high school people. It was cool.

Also, the crowd was surprisingly non-rowdy (things steve values at a concert...) everyone was cheering and standing the whole time (obviously) and it was cool except for random pockets of assholes, i mean slamdancers... no wait, assholes was definitely right. My sister and friend basically got decimated by this 200lb idiot who thought it would be awesome to take a running start and run into other like-minded idiots, but missed, and ended up just tackling her (100ish lbs). Dumbasses. Plus this one guy kept like going to the edge of the circle making his serious face and shaking to loosen up all intense like, and then he would pick his next slammer, make eye-contact, and the contract was made. He probably had a concussion.

The band itself came out and it was one of those moments where seeing that the offspring is like 40 years old after always picturing like 24 year old punk kids (even though you always knew deep down that they were old because they've been around so long...) totally ruins your image of the band. Luckily that lasted about 10 seconds until they started singing and I accepted it and moved on. He may be old, but he sounds the same and has good enough energy and nobody can stay disappointed while they're rockin out "You're gonna go far kid" (The opener). They played out a solid string of hits that everone knew, and then pulled out their two slow songs "christie are you doing ok" and "other song whose name I can't remember right now". Then they played a song that obviously nobody in the audience knew (awkward crowd silence), but when that was out of their system they only did it a few more times.

I dunno about you guys, but i feel like bands should mostly, if not exclusively, play hits at a concert. I realize like 30% of BK4 is hipsters and/or music snobs (I mean connoisseurs) who will probably be mad at me for that, but really, we go to concerts to sing along and enjoy songs we love live with thousands of other people who love them. Let's face it, the song really won't sound better live than when it's recorded and re-recorded and edited in studio (at least not with this kind of band), so if you can't sing along or at least enjoy it anyway because you know what it SHOULD sound like, then what's the point? New music at concerts should be limited to like 1 song if they have a new album coming out, and maybe like 5% obscure songs from albums that they personally like for some reason.

Anyway, they got through most of their greatest hits CD, and it was all awesome and sounded great and the audience had a great energy the whole time (some legit chicks right in front of me knew every word to every song ever and whenever I knew part of a verse I'd sing it and they'd notice and then be all like "you're awesome too!" --- well at least they said it with their approving glances...)

They did do awkward pauses with the lights off and nothing going on between like every single song, which was weird, and there was almost no crowd interaction (except for the obligatory "look how many people there are" "I love MILWAUKEE!!!!" and "BEEERRRR"), but whatever, that's cool.

They did a three song encore, which was nice of them (obviously planned, but who doesn't plan their encores these days), and then everybody tried to leave and not die at the same time.

Well that's that, I know you guys are all going to concerts this summer, let's have some thoughts?

Other ideas for blog posts
1. How your job is going
2. What you did so far this summer (or summer wrap up blogs later)
3. Any time you visit with other bk4 people (I know those of you still in cali have been hella active lately - maybe I'll post about k-factor even though she left, and when Pheep comes later this summer, we shall blog about that, and MIDWEST REUNION Sonal and Will, let's make this happen)