Stupid Packaging Labels

In case you needed further proof that the Human Race is doomed through stupidity, here are some actual label instructions on consumer products:

1. On a blanket from Taiwan - NOT TO BE USED AS PROTECTION FROM A TORNADO.

2. On a helmet mounted mirror used by US cyclists - REMEMBER, OBJECTS IN THE MIRROR ARE ACTUALLY BEHIND YOU.

3. On a Taiwanese shampoo - USE REPEATEDLY FOR SEVERE DAMAGE.

4. On the bottle-top of a (UK) flavoured milk drink - AFTER OPENING, KEEP UPRIGHT.

5. On a New Zealand insect spray - THIS PRODUCT NOT TESTED ON ANIMALS.

6. In a US guide to setting up a new computer - TO AVOID CONDENSATION FORMING, ALLOW THE BOXES TO WARM UP TO ROOM TEMPERATURE BEFORE OPENING. (Sensible, but the instruction was INSIDE the box.)

7. On a Japanese product used to relieve painful hemorrhoids - LIE DOWN ON BED AND INSERT POSCOOL SLOWLY UP TO THE PROJECTED PORTION LIKE A SWORD-GUARD INTO ANAL DUCT. WHILE INSERTING POSCOOL FOR APPROXIMATELY 5 MINUTES, KEEP QUIET.

8. In some countries, on the bottom of Coke bottles - OPEN OTHER END.

9. On a packet of Sunmaid raisins - WHY NOT TRY TOSSING OVER YOUR FAVORITE BREAKFAST CEREAL?

10. On a Sears hairdryer - DO NOT USE WHILE SLEEPING.

11. On a bag of Frito's - YOU COULD BE A WINNER! NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. DETAILS INSIDE. (The shoplifter special?!?)

12. On a bar of Dial soap - DIRECTIONS - USE LIKE REGULAR SOAP. (And that would be how?)

13. On Tesco's Tiramisu dessert (printed on bottom of the box) - DO NOT TURN UPSIDE DOWN. (Too late! You lose!)

14. On Marks & Spencer Bread Pudding - PRODUCT WILL BE HOT AFTER HEATING. (Are you sure? Let's experiment.)

15. On a Korean kitchen knife - WARNING: KEEP OUT OF CHILDREN. (Dammit! Who are they to tell me what to do with my kids?)

16. On a string of Chinese-made Christmas lights - FOR INDOOR OR OUTDOOR USE ONLY. (As opposed to what?...use in outer space?)

17. On a Japanese food processor - NOT TO BE USED FOR THE OTHER USE. (Now I'm curious.)

18. On Sainsbury's peanuts - WARNING - CONTAINS NUTS. (Really? Peanuts contain nuts?)

19. On an American Airlines packet of nuts INSTRUCTIONS - OPEN PACKET, EAT NUTS. (I'm glad they cleared that up.)

20. On a Swedish chainsaw - DO NOT ATTEMPT TO STOP CHAIN WITH YOUR HANDS OR GENITALS. (What kind of consumer phone-call led to this warning?)

21. On a child's superman costume - WEARING OF THIS GARMENT DOES NOT ENABLE YOU TO FLY. (That's right, destroy a universal childhood fantasy!)

22. On some frozen dinners: SERVING SUGGESTION: DEFROST. ( OK lets eat it frozen!!!)

23. On a hotel provided shower cap in a box: FITS ONE HEAD.

24. On packaging for a Rowenta iron: DO NOT IRON CLOTHES ON BODY.

25. On Boot's "Children's" cough medicine: DO NOT DRIVE CAR OR OPERATE MACHINERY.(Kids no more driving)

26. On Nightly sleep aid: WARNING: MAY CAUSE DROWSINESS. (Duh!)

So much reading!

I finished Fallout, the final book of Ellen Hopkins' Crank series. I have now started Burned, which is another Ellen Hopkins book written in verse. This book is from the viewpoint of a Latter-Day Saints' girl who lives with her abusive father, submissive mother, and many sisters, of which Pattyn is the oldest. Her father named all of his children after U.S. generals.

"It all started with a dream. Nothing exceptional, just a typical fantasy about a boy, the kind of dream that most teen girls experience. But Pattyn Von Stratten is not like most teen girls. Raised in a religious -- yet abusive -- family, a simple dream may not be exactly a sin, but it could be the first step toward hell and eternal damnation.
This dream is a first step for Pattyn. But is it to hell or to a better life? For the first time Pattyn starts asking questions. Questions seemingly without answers -- about God, a woman's role, sex, love -- mostly love. What is it? Where is it? Will she ever experience it? Is she deserving of it?
It's with a real boy that Pattyn gets into real trouble. After Pattyn's father catches her in a compromising position, events spiral out of control until Pattyn ends up suspended from school and sent to live with an aunt she doesn't know.
Pattyn is supposed to find salvation and redemption during her exile to the wilds of rural Nevada. Yet what she finds instead is love and acceptance. And for the first time she feels worthy of both -- until she realizes her old demons will not let her go. Pattyn begins down a path that will lead her to a hell -- a hell that may not be the one she learned about in sacrament meetings, but it is hell all the same.
In this riveting and masterful novel told in verse, Ellen Hopkins takes readers on an emotional roller-coaster ride. From the highs of true love to the lows of abuse, Pattyn's story will have readers engrossed until the very last word." -Goodreads and the back cover

Fallout by Ellen Hopkins

So I finished Crank, after reading Glass. The ending was really soft. Kristina was talking about her pregnancy and talking in the past tense instead of the present tense the reader got accustomed to.

I just started reading Fallout and it is from a different perspective and 19 years after the conclusions of Glass.

"While this is the end of the series, it serves as a reminder that there really is no end to addiction. Whereas the first two books follow Kristina through her devastating dance with addiction and relapse, this one takes place years later with her eldest children telling their stories. There is Hunter, the child born in Crank and adopted by Kristina's parents (bolstered by the interesting element of dealing with his grandmother's author-celebrity status, which would indicate that he was familiar with her previous semi-autobiographical novels). Then there is Autumn, the "lost" daughter, living with her aunt and grandfather. Also living with OCD and panic attacks and soon to be confronted by a past she knows little about. Finally, there is Summer, jostled in and out of foster care, a notoriously dicey system. She gets a brief reprieve (?) from the system to live with her father and his girlfriend.
Three very different teens, dealing with complex emotional issues all derived from their mother's addiction to the monster meth. Emotionally raw and painfully realistic, the final installment to this tragic trilogy is a satisfying stopping place in one family's on-going saga of addiction and its collateral damage." -Goodreads user

Cooking Day!!

So today was another cooking day.
For lunch I made a croque-monsieur (grilled ham and cheese sandwich) and for dinner I made chicken quesadillas. I thawed the chicken, cut it up, put it in a skillet with Italian dressing, and then stuck it in a tortilla shell with cheese. Bam! Easy meals.

After that, I made Cookies & Cream Cheesecake Cupcakes. Chances are, you have a lot of these ingredients just sitting around in your kitchen! I made 2 dozen cupcakes and an actual cheesecake with the mix. And one container of oreos is not enough! I forgot to count that before leaving the store, but luckily I had some golden oreos in my pantry so I mixed the vanilla oreos in the batter as well.

Ingredients:

42 cream-filled sandwich cookies, such as Oreos, 30 left whole, and 12 coarsely chopped
2 pounds (4 8-oz packages) cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
1 cup sour cream
Pinch of salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 275°F. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Place 1 whole cookie in the bottom of each lined cup.
With an electric mixer on medium high speed, beat cream cheese until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Gradually add sugar, and beat until combined. Beat in vanilla.
Drizzle in eggs, a bit at a time, beating to combine and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in sour cream and salt. Stir in chopped cookies by hand.
Divide batter evenly among cookie-lined cups, filling each almost to the top. Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until filling is set, about 22 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Refrigerate at least 4 hours (or up to overnight). Remove from tins just before serving.

From Martha Stewart's Cupcakes

Crank

Book cover

I ordered more of Ellen Hopkins' books last week (and added more to my birthday wishlist) and Crank just arrived in the mail. I started reading it and read 250 pages in one sitting. I haven't had time to read more of it, but I plan to finish it soon.

Crank is the book prior to Glass in this series. Crank tells about Kristina's initial downfall to "the monster," the highly addictive drug crystal meth also known as crank. We are introduced to Bree, Kristina's sexy alter ego. Bree will do all the things good girl Kristina won't, including attracting the attention of dangerous boys who can provide her with a steady flow of crank. 

Music

For anybody who loves to listen to movie soundtracks, I have found a great YouTube mix! I've been playing it off and on for a week now. Take a listen!!

Equality is Important

Racial Equality is the most recent issue on campus. I'd like to share some links for you to take a look at and think about.
Students demand immediate formal action to combat bigotry
"Purdue Anti-Racism Coalition's Demands to Daniels

1. Public statements by Daniels that address the biased acts that have occurred on campus in print, video and email form.
2. The number of minority faculty and students to double in the next 10 years.
3. A required undergraduate course on race/racism.
4. A required workshop on racial bias for all BGR (Welcome Week) attendees.
5. A strict policy in the Purdue Code of Conduct that results in expulsion from the University for people who commit prejudice acts.
6. Required workshops for faculty and staff regarding racial policies.
7. Immediate reporting of hate crimes via Purdue news and alert systems."

Hate Crime Following Race Equality March

Please watch the video if you aren't interested in reading the news articles. The monkeys are comical, but the study also has significance: equality is important.

Things I'd Like To Do (again)

Finish this 5lbs bag of Gummy Worms.

Make a better 3D hand

Grow more crystal trees. Or rock candy.

Run another 5k!

Attempt to make another giant cookie.

Make this as a gift for a friend

Make more soda can bracelets

Do more beadwork. I haven't had the time or supplies in a while.

Buy this Simon's Cat sticker for my car!

Do something really cute for my friends

At Least He Didn't Try

Favorite page from today's reading: 

 

She is talking to Bree (herself) about a guy she just sold drugs to. Her first time as the dealer.

I feel like I can connect with this character, even though I am not involved with drugs and I'm not a mother. I think I feel connected to her in a way because, like her, when I feel lonely from being cooped up in the same 4-walled room all day for several days, I start to act whiny and desperate to the few people who will actually pay attention to me. I feel slightly crazy when I'm secluded from the world.

As with every great book, the reader needs to feel connected to the characters, even if you only feel sympathy for him/her. Kristina is spiraling out of control. She started using meth again and became addicted again. Her mother kicked her out of the house and won't let her see her baby. She fell in love with a guy who calls infrequently and she lives with his cousin. She lost her job and became a nanny for her boyfriend's cousin's daughters until their mother decided to come home after being away for months. Now Kristina lives in an apartment with her drugged out boyfriend and is a dealer for a Mexican mafia.

I'm nearly done with this 681 page book and I just bought it Monday. It is very engaging.

Reading Today

 Favorite pages from today's reading of Glass by  Ellen Hopkins.

Technology makes us DUMBER

Okay, so I normally post about the books I'm reading, but today I feel like branching out a little bit. Plus, it's not like anybody reads my posts. If you don't want to read this, please click on the video link anyways.

Allons-y:
Today in my social psychology class we talked about how technology is affecting our daily lives. We watched a video about it and the video made me realize how technology is not actually helping us become more efficient, but making us, as a human race, dumber.
Think about it a little: to my fellow students, which website do you go to for quick answers to homework? Probably Google which then leads you to Wikipedia, am I right? (Go ahead, admit it.) By searching on Google for every little answer, you are giving your brain an excuse to not remember as much information.
And how focused are you when you do happen to study? I bet you have your phone next to you and at least one social media site up in case you get a message while studying. I certainly do! I'm so distracted when I have my computer open. And I think I checked my phone at least 3 times while writing this post, and I haven't received a text message.

So please watch this video, I hope it will inspire you to look at technology differently:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzpX0TLKS9Q

This video helped me appreciate having a "dumb phone."

Glass

I have started to read Glass by Ellen Hopkins. It is the second book of the CRANK series, and even though I have not read the first book, I am enjoying this one and it informs you about what you've missed.
The story is told like a series of poems. I like how the lines are shaped on the pages. I have seen the lines spell the word "lie," a dollar symbol ($) and triangles. It is very interesting. I read the book Tweak by Nic Sheff, and this is along the same idea: a personal narrative about drug addictions and how badly one can lose control.

Been too long

This will be a post of random things in no apparent order. Get used to it.

So my first year of college is almost complete and there have been a lot of new things:

• New marching band
• New club lacrosse team
• New friends
• New Boyfriend
• New interests

Other news: My dad became unemployed in August 2012 and was hired end of March by ITT Exelis in California. My family will be moving to California once our house sells. My sister and I will still attend Purdue. We do not know yet what will happen to my two adorable kitties.
I'm also excited for my boyfriend who accepted his grad school offer from Purdue. Yay! I get to keep him around for a few more years!
I am studying Brain and Behavioral Sciences with a minor in French.
This summer I will be working at a Girl Scout camp, teaching young girls how to sail and use other boats.