Wow! Subjects that weren't conceived while I was driving! These different topics were accumulated over the past two weeks.

I'm going to discuss androgyny first. According to my Psychology of Adolescence textbook, androgynous people are considered attractive. I don't have any opinion on that, but I have noticed that there are lots of androgynous people at UH. It's often very difficult to tell who's male and who's female. I was trying to figure out why this bugged me, and I realized that the human brain is preoccupied with gender and classification. Even though we try not to judge people on first impressions and appearances, we do it nonetheless. Our minds want to know if someone's a guy or a girl so we can begin forming an impression of him or her. When we can't determine someone's gender, it annoys us because our brains are confused and don't know what to do. Our brains nag us when they can't form subconscious snap judgments. What's the purpose of this paragraph? I don't know.

I was watching Maybe It's Me on WB Friday. That show is very clique-conscious. In fact, lots of teen shows are really focused on school status. There's always the propagation of the cool cheerleader/football player stereotype and the dorky nerd/freak stereotype. I was wondering if any high schools are like this in real life. Maybe I was just lucky, but Dulles High School didn't seem to have all this emphasis on status. Sure, we had cliques, but the different groups didn't hassle each other. In fact, there was usually a great deal of crossover. Probably the only time I ever personally experienced any "in-crowd" antagonism was when I was in elementary school. That was when we were still brainwashed by those TV/movie/book stereotypes. I dunno. Anyone have a comment?

What's up with Roswell this season? They're lighting it so differently now. It used to be really dark and shadowy, even in their school. Now, it's ridiculously bright! It doesn't fit in with the whole concept of the show. It's a little disturbing that I can watch TV and notice these things.

Today, as I was working on the Darryl and Bob Story, I realized why humans will never get along. Basically, it's because we can keep secrets. Even though we try to be understanding of other people's situations and motivations, there's no way we can totally understand. We can't see the whole picture. Of course, the 'whole picture' is different for every person, too, which compounds all the problems. Since we must base our actions and thoughts on an incomplete/inadequate view, they become skewed themselves. It becomes one giant chain reaction, pulling down civilized structure, and eventually, this will be the undoing of the human race. So much of what we do and think is based on misunderstanding, but we don't realize it's misunderstanding. We don't realize how much is left unknown outside the scope of the known, and we forge forward, adamantly believing we are doing the right thing.

Now for something a little less heavy. One of my coworkers and I were imagining what it would be like if some drink company made drinks that were packed in containers that look like motor oil containers. We figured the outcome might involve a series of extremely cheesy commercials. There might be one of a child drinking what appears to be motor oil (because of the container), and a screaming mother drags the kid off to the doctor. At the doctor's office, the kid gets inspected (with no opportunity to explain it was a drink), and the doctor can't find anything wrong. Finally, the kid is like, "It's not motor oil; it's a drink!" Scenario two: A big family reunion is taking place. One guy stands up and proclaims he is ending it all, taking a swig of the drink. In front of his relatives' shocked faces, he pretends to die. He dies so well, in fact, that the next scene is of a funeral. The minister reads the last rites, and suddenly, the coffin opens. The guy holds up a bottle of the drink. "It was just a drink! Gotcha!" And the whole family has a good laugh. Can you believe this whole conversation was triggered by the fact that I thought my coworker's bottle of motor oil was a drink?

Well, all I can say is, foreign countries have much stranger commercials.

Must have 5 to reach Hash Brown Goal: (five)
I did it! I earned some McDonald's hash browns! Woo-hoo!

Helen