I Love Breaking Bad So Much.

 This has nothing to do with my dogs but I need to rant about how great Breaking Bad is. I just finished the series a couple of days ago and this is the first time I have ever been sad to see a television series go. In particular, the sheer amount of literary techniques that went into this show is something that I really appreciate.

 I was in AP Literature in high school so I studied a lot of literary techniques that authors use to demonstrate themes, and I loved doing that. So when I saw Breaking Bad and how much thought went into each scene I was in love. I love the use of symbolism throughout the show to convey different traits of characters becoming more prevalent. Some of my favorites were Walter’s “Heisenberg” hat, Gus’s suits which represented his temperament at any moment, the use of shadows in the show to represent deceit and confliction and my personal favorite: Walter’s pool.

Walter’s pool was possibly my favorite part of this whole series. Any time Walt would contemplate his own actions he would stare into the light blue glow of his pool. I don’t want to spoil this series, but the pool’s color is very important and represents a key component of Walt’s life. Whenever things are going awry Walt stares into his pool and just thinks in silence. I love the tranquility of these scenes which parallel the chaos elsewhere, and I love what these scenes lead to.

Anyway, this was my favorite show of all time. Easily.

Pinterest Has Blown My Mind

 

I’ve used Pinterest before. I like Pinterest. In my time I’ve found it to be a great platform to find memes on, and to find a nice recipe or two to try cooking. Never would I ever consider before this class that there would be legitimate marketing potential on this platform. This is just due to my own experience on the app when I was a kid. I loved memes, and Pinterest was full of them. I downloaded them and showed my friends for a laugh, and never once did I take notice of an ad or go onto the platform for any sort of corporate exchange.

 

So when I say that I was shocked at the statistics in the textbook concerning the spending habits of Pinterest users, I am understating the world-shaking shift in view I undertook. This is just one that I found absolutely crazy, the textbook states that “93% of Pinners use Pinterest to plan purchases.” I have never once viewed Pinterest as a platform that would ever get even remotely close to my wallet, but there is a whole 93% of users of the platform that would heavily disagree with me. This is mind-blowing to me. I think a large part of my shock comes from the fact that I don’t think I’m exactly the target audience. I have little to be interested in on Pinterest anymore, so chances are that they got heavier on marketing over the years, but still that shift is completely unprecedented in my brain. Yet after reflection I guess it does make sense. My mom uses Pinterest for many different clothing purchases and such so I suppose I have experienced a real world example of that marketing working. After all, Pinterest is marketed heavily towards fashion and health and beauty products, so it adds up after all. Regardless, I am just completely flabbergasted at the effectiveness of marketing on Pinterest, and cannot wait to learn more about it.

Khloe is Sick

 Of all the tribulations of being the owner of two active dogs, them being sick is probably the most difficult. I do not mean this from an actual work perspective as much as I do from an emotional perspective. Seeing them not feeling well absolutely breaks my heart, because I want to help them but I do not know how. This past weekend was one of those instances.

 I woke up Saturday morning at about eight in the morning to find that my bed had been surrounded by a moat of vomit. I then looked up from the puddles to find Khloe looking directly at me as if to say, “my tummy hurts.” While I remain adamant that this is more emotionally tiresome than physically, the vomit still was quite a hassle to clean up. Even with my heavy duty carpet-cleaner, it took a solid hour to make my carpet look as though there wasn’t a bomb that went off on it.

 After a very fun hour of cleaning vomit, I then tended to Khloe’s needs. I made her drink water, tried to get her to eat (albeit unfruitfully) and tried to lighten her spirits with some pets. While she did drink water, it did not help her attitude about the day. Khloe spent the entirety of Saturday laying on the couch with her head in her paws huffing, and seemed to have the mentality that nothing was going to deter her from doing so. All that time Apollo was the equal and opposite. He was bounding with youthful energy, constantly wanting to play and to interact with his grumpy sister. Once I knew Khloe was going to be okay, I gave Apollo the time of day and played with him for a good hour or so. Then my mom got home and was able to sit with Khloe and form a covalent bond on the couch with her.

 At the end of the day Khloe finally got up from her spot on the couch and ate. This was a relief to me and my family who had been worrying that she would not until the next day. Then she briefly took a drink of water and receded into my bedroom to call an end to her bad day. The next morning Khloe was the same Khloe I always knew. She was energetic, hungry and her normal self. Yet that still did not take away from the bad day that was yesterday, as well as the trauma of cleaning up those oceans of vomit.