Letter to a Senator

Senator Hatch:

I am a graduating senior at Brigham Young University and expecting my first child this October.  As I contemplate my future, I realize that media plays a large part in my life and will play a large part in the life of my child.  In gaining an education, I have learned a lot about the media and especially the confusing nature of our rating system.  I feel the need to work to clarify these issues in order to create a safer world for my growing baby.

Media ratings are extremely confusing.  There is a different system for every type of media.  This creates confusion and difficulty in understanding what it is that the viewer will actually see or hear when the media is viewed.  Because of this, it is extremely difficult for parents to monitor the media that their children view.  Due to the difficulty in deciphering media ratings, parents often will simply not monitor their children’s media intake because they don’t know where to start.  If we were able to clarify this, parents could be much more confident and effective in monitoring the media that their children view.

We need a universal rating system that can be used for all types of media.  We need a system that allows parents to read the rating and understand immediately what it is that they or their children are going to view.  It needs to be content based instead of letters and numbers that are hard to understand.  It should be widely publicized so that parents can easily find the information on the ratings and make more informed choices.  These changes can change the lives of parents and children in America.

As a U.S. Senator you are in a position to start the discussion and to lobby for a change in our rating system.  You can help make a clear and easy way for parents to protect their children from harmful media through creating a universal rating system. Any effort on your part to accomplish this would be much appreciated.

Sincerely,

Maddie Bills

Graduation is coming!!

Graduation is coming and I am so ready.  So when I found this, it made me really happy.

I am so ready for this feeling of no more essays ever! Yay for graduation!

Ultrasounds are the coolest things ever!!

So as some of you may know,  I'M PREGNANT!!!  Yayayayayayay!!!  This is my first baby so everything is new and super exciting and all sorts of emotions!  I had my first ultrasound yesterday and it was one of the coolest things that I have ever experienced.  They put this stick thing on your uterus and then a video of your little baby shows up on the screen.  It's so cool.  This was the first time I had seen my baby and I can't even describe how happy it made me to see it move around and wiggle in my belly.  It was so amazing.  I am just super grateful for the technology that makes this possible and that I could watch it on a television screen.

Because I am so excited I thought I'd share with you what the inside of my uterus looks like right now.

Zombie Apocalypse

So my husband has been super into zombie apocalypse stuff lately so when I found this, it made me laugh a bit.

http://blog.estately.com/2014/03/u-s-states-ranked-from-most-to-least-prepared-for-the-zombie-apocalypse/

It's a list of the states and it ranks them on how well they'd survive a zombie apocalypse.  Utah is #11 so we'd probably live! Yay!  The reasoning is pretty funny too so give it a look!

Arrow and Hamlet

So recently, my husband and I have been watching the TV show Arrow on Netflix.

For those of you who have never seen it, it is the story of a rich playboy millionaire named Oliver Queen that survived a shipwreck that killed his father and his girlfriend's sister and got marooned on an island.  While he was on the island, he learned some awesome bow and arrow skills.  He was rescued and now he's back in Starlight City and ridding it of corruption spurred on by the memory of his father.  Super cool superhero story.  It's pretty interesting actually.  Anyway, as I've been watching, I've noticed a lot of similarities to Shakespeare stories especially that of Hamlet.  For example, Oliver plays a Hamlet character who is trying to get justice and redemption for his dead father.  He even had hallucinations on the island of his father asking him to rid the city of corruption, which is very similar to Hamlet's chats with his ghostly father.  

Another example is that while Oliver was shipwrecked, his mother marries the CEO of his father's company.  This is all very Claudius and Gertrude esque.  Also, one of them may have had something to do with Oliver's father's death but I'm not far enough into the series to know which one yet.  

Another similarity is that Oliver has a friend named Digs who knows that he is the vigilante and helps him stay true to himself much like the character of Horatio in Hamlet.  

There is even an Ophelia character.  Luckily, she's not crazy but she does exhibit many Ophelia like characteristics.  The Ophelia is Oliver's old girlfriend Laurel.  When Laurel's sister is killed in the shipwreck, she goes crazy in the way that she throws herself into finding justice through becoming a lawyer who is unafraid to attack the corrupt rich in her city, much like that of Ophelia upon hearing of her father's death.  In addition, she has a father who counsels her not spend any time with Oliver like Polonius tells Ophelia of Hamlet.  

I found all these similarities fascinating and I hope to discover a lot more as the show continues!

Psych is Ending.

Psych has been a favorite TV show of mine for a while now.  I love watching Shawn and Gus figure out the case and solve the mystery every time.  I have loved watching Shawn and Juliet fall in love and become a couple.  Psych is ending very soon.  It has 2 more episodes.  And I really don't know how they're going to wrap everything up in just 2 more episodes.  I really hope they can do it.  I just am not ready to say goodbye to this show yet.  Psych is ending and I am really sad about it.

The Bachelor Finale: Es Okay

Warning: this contains spoilers so if you don't know what happened and don't want me to ruin it for you, don't read this post.

As I have previously mentioned, I watch The Bachelor as my guilty pleasure and this season has been quite a disappointment. Mostly, it has been super confusing.  I'm sure the finale made sense to Juan Pablo and maybe to the lucky lady he chose but to the audience, it was simply confusing.

Here's what happened.  Juan Pablo chose Nikki (that was exciting for me because despite all the hate hype, I was rooting for her) but he didn't get engaged to her or even tell her that he loved her.

While, I think it's awesome to not jump into marriage quicker than you are ready for it, to not even tell the girl who has just poured her heart out to you and told you that she loves you that you love her is just rude.  One of the basic rules of the show is that the bachelor/bachelorette can't tell the contestants how they truly feel about them (for example, say I love you) before the "final rose."  Usually the bachelor/bachelorette is dying to say it by the time we get there and they just get all excited that they can finally tell that one person their feelings.  It's a beautiful moment.  But we didn't get that this season.  

Also, maybe it's a culture thing but Juan Pablo's constant "es okay" was super irritating.  It was especially so because he said it in moments where he should have said something else.  

Overall, The Bachelor this season was a little disappointing but don't worry because as Juan Pablo says, "es okay." And his season is over so it truly is okay.