Man's Bestfriend All Grown Up While Teachers Receive Failing Grades

I know these two stories aren't exactly cohesive, but they both interest me:

I must say I have always loved dogs. I still beg my boyfriend for a puppy every chance I get... And he refuses every chance he gets. I do intend on winning that argument, which hopefully ends with me having a brand new puppy and tiny lizard. I do love large dogs like Akitas and Huskies, but never would I imagine owning a dog that's over 3 feet (not standing on hind legs). However, such a dog exists:

And in a more unfortunate story, students at a public school in Rhode Island continue to perform at lack luster rates which causes the superintendent to threaten to fire every teacher:

Are You Experiencing Withdrawals? LifeWatch Can Help!

This may make me sound like a hype (however, I believe I'm not alone) but just the thought of not having access to my cell phone gives me separation anxiety! I'm pretty sure that's the typical human being in 2010, but our addiction is still astounding.

This photo is an actual screenshot I took on my iPhone, which is by far my favorite of all the phones I have ever had. If you noticed, my iPhone is also jailbroken and unlocked with the T-Mobile service in the left corner and a picture of my boyfriend as my background. Both things are something not typical of an iPhone that's operating on factory settings.

I had actually thought of changing the background from his picture for the purposes of posting that on my blog, but then I thought, "What the heck? I'll just keep it 100."

Back to the point, according to Gizmodo (I love them) there are approximately 6.8 billion people in the world and there exists 4.6 billion cell phone service contracts. Though I know for a fact many people have more than one phone for just themselves, so the statistic doesn't suggest that 5 billion people of the world have cell phones (I wouldn't be shocked though).

In the article, Gizmodo suggests that the reason cell phones are prominent in even developing countries is because of the benefits they provide to the health industry as well as it's patients. The devices are often used to send patients messages reminding them of appointments and checkups, which got me thinking about my own experiences.

The picture above is a portable heart monitor (specifically a LifeWatch ACT Monitor), it's the exact one my cardiologist instructed me to wear for 3 weeks in October last year. It's basically a walking EKG and tracks abnormalities in my heart's activity in which case it would send messages to the company's center back in Chicago. I also had the option to send manual messages listing my symptoms if I felt an episode (palpitations, lightheadedness, chest pain, etc.) coming on. If it were anything critical, they would contact 911 for services to help me, but what they don't show in that photo is the five electrodes I had to attach to my body everyday that left cords hanging out of my shirts (thus, I wore baggy clothes to cover them) but that's another story.

LifeWatch's website: http://www.lifewatch.com/CardiacEventMonitoring

Anyway, the cell phone acted as a receiver of the information for my heart and because of this new technology my doctor was able to determine at least part of the source that had been causing me to nearly black out (among other things) several times.

None of this excuses why I have a bad habit of sleeping with my iPhone under my pillow or having full phone or texting conversations in my sleep but, it is at least one instance where I really was appreciative of the way technology has continued to expand. So while these pesky little devices usually serve as distractions, one may have very well saved my life.

All My Fragile Strength Is Gone

So Valentine's Day is upon us, tomorrow in fact huh? That's great. I should be excited shouldn't I? Well, guess what? I'm not (shocker!).

Anyway, now that we've established I don't give a fuck about Valentine's Day... This brings me to my next point: I wanted to write at least one post about V Day, but I wanted it to be be more interesting than the average post about such terrible day. So what to write about? To be honest with you I still don't know. I never REALLY know what I'm gonna write about until I'm writing it. I only have a mere spec of an idea and perhaps a theme in mind and everything else expands naturally as my main point develops out of no where.

So I suggest you tag along with me on this journey of uncertainty....

I titled this post "All My Fragile Strength Is Gone" because it's lyrics to a song called Gravity by Sara Bareilles. Most of you probably know her for the hit "Love Song." I honestly love both songs, but Gravity was never released as a single so I didn't hear it every five seconds wherever I went. And the fact that most people don't know about it, makes it feel much more personal to me. Like Gravity is my little secret. And it was.

Until recently, that song meant a lot to me. It just triggered such strong and uncontrollable emotions of saddens and sorrow. It's funny how music has that effect. It's both a grand and scary feeling to know that something created by a complete stranger could have such a hold on you.

It's probably my fault for listening to the song so much during a specific point in my life and because of that, each time I heard it... I was taken right back to that place in my mind. I mean, the song even went so far as to make me feel like I was physically somewhere else.

A few days ago... I was busy downloading music and I remembered to download Gravity because it's such a gorgeous song and my iTunes simply cannot be complete without it. As I listen to it, I'm again so impressed with the melody but something is missing. I don't know what it is, but something is different. Something sounds... Off.

It took me a moment to figure it out, but it certainly was not the song. It was me. While the song was just as beautiful as it's always been... I just didn't feel anything anymore. Now, I'm not for certain why. I've drawn no other conclusion than I'm simply past that point of my life. Past the place Gravity always brought me back to. So far past it, that nothing can take me back there. It's amazing, the affect just a few lyrics, a melody, and some instruments can have on us. But it's honestly more awing when they help you realize something you were to busy to notice.

Well... I guess this had nothing to do with Valentine's Day afterall (in someways that are less obvious, it did). Oh well. I did enjoy the freeflow of writing this post. I feel sort of refreshed so I do believe it served its purpose particularly well.

But my point is, music is amazingly strong and I will always have a special appreciation for the art in my heart (sorry, I didn't mean to rhyme). But I'll also always have a special appreciation for this song in particular... And several others that have a similar impact. Perhaps this post makes you think of songs that mean just as much to you. I hope so.

And I'll probably listen to this song tomorrow.

Shouldn't You Be Married, Though? -_-

Aaahhh love :o) It's a beautiful thing isn't it?

So my oldest sister is engaged to be married this October. I'm pretty damn excited for her, especially since she and her fiance have been together for 10 years now. He's like a brother to me of course.

Oddly enough I signed up to take a Christian marriage class for this semester during registration last fall... It's a requirement, okay? It's not like I was looking for marriage courses, people. Believe me this is the last class I wanna take.

So, whatever, I figured I could get something out of the class. Talks of marriage and relationships always spark really interesting conversations amongst people... Or so I thought.

I should actually be doing the homework I have due for that class right now... But that's neither here nor there and I digress... Back to the point. I thought the class would be entertaining at the very least. Boy, could I not have been wronger. Not only is everyone always half-sleep in that class but a few classes ago, the professor drops a BOMB on us!

In the mist of some lecture he was giving about something or another that I couldn't care less about, I hear him say,"Well, I've never been married myself."

Yeahhhh.... Things got pretty awkward after that. It sure did explain his choice of style in teaching the course though. Which consists mainly of repetition (which irks me) and reading quotes from Socrates, Plato, and the Bible... No real life experiences or stories. And no real attempt to even relate it to real life, except for stories of random strangers helping him after his car broke down.

I'm sure you can see my frustration. I really just wanna sit him down and ask him... Shouldn't you be married though? Or at least have been married? Perhaps he wasn't originally supposed to teach the course and is doing so by a mere fluke. I don't know. I just know that his lack of experience in marriage and what appears to be a lack of experience in love, based on the things he's shared, makes this class one real huge gigantic riDONKulous SNORE.

Look Out... Here Come the Green Police!

I'm not a football fan at all... I actually despise it. It's long and boring to me. Ironically (not really), my boyfriend absolutely LOVES the game. Because I don't know when the Super Bowl airs, I was shocked to hear one of my friends mention that it would be on this past Sunday. "Greattttt.... Of course it would come on during the weekend I'm supposed to spend with him," I thought. Not that I had the idea of him not paying attention to me because of the game, honestly just because I hate watching football.

So, I hoped he'd forget come Sunday... And he did for a while, then suddenly at the end whatever program we were already watching, he goes, "Is the game on?!"

"Damn," I thought.

We ended up watching some of it anyway (I was mostly distracted by other things) and I did happen to see a FEW Super Bowl commercials that genuinely amused me. I would definitely say the T-Pain/autotone one caught my attention, the Google one was ADORABLE (A-DOOR-A-BLUH), but the Audi's green police was absolutely hilarious!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq58zS4_jvM (watch Audi's commercial here)

I think it was a brilliant idea to be honest, and the funniest part was the ending with the green police stopping the real police. Not only did Audi bring light to an important cause, but they successfully showed the benefit of buying that particular car while still maintaining viewers' interests.

Youtube is currently holding a contest for the best Super Bowl commercial, where people can view dozens of commercials that aired the big night and cast their votes for the ones they find deserving of the award. Obviously, I casted my vote for Audi :o)

VOTE HERE:

http://www.youtube.com/user/adblitz?feature=ticker