Make Them Mine

DISCLAIMER: Despite today's date, this "song" is meant in all seriousness; enjoy!

MAKE THEM MINE

To the tune of "Make it Shine" by Victoria Justice

It's so fun, bargainin'!
I see somethin' I want, and then
I take the price to a big low!
No, I don't know what I'll find now,
Or what deals I will make!
But, I surely will make a great deal!
I see something now; decided I want it!
Let's make a deal!

CHORUS:
Yard sales are the only way I get my entertainment!
Find the most random things, all at such costs convenient!
So much fun for me; I find everything!
What is not to like?
Yes, I know yard sales are nothing but secondhand things!
But, the deals I find there always make me want to sing!
I see awesome things!
I start bargaining!
Then, I make them mine!

People, why don't you know
That yard sales are the place to go?
Why keep buying
Everything new?

I am here to show you all how
Things could be much cheaper
If only to yard sales you'd go!
There's one going on now!
If you would just give it a try, you'd know!

REPEAT CHORUS

Everyone, I'll tell you that yard sales are so much fun! (Whoa!)
But, some don't do a thing except peddle and sell junk!
Still, all of 'em are not like that; assuming that is unfair!
Oh, you doubt it? Well, believe it, 'cause there's tons of good yard sales!

REPEAT CHORUS

No more; I'm done!

If you know me, you no doubt know that I am a big fan of various celebrities, especially Victoria Justice and Jennifer Stone.  I've talked about those two to pretty much everyone I've communicated with over the past year.  However, I think it's time to call it quits.  Victorious stinks; it never really has been funny, and the songs are ridiculous, especially "Freak the Freak Out".  Seriously, what does that even mean?  Wizards of Waverly Place is just as bad, especially now that it's come to an end.
So, then, if Victoria and Jennifer are no longer my top two famous people, then, who will replace them? I'm not sure just yet; I've been considering Rebecca Black, Carrie Fisher, Justine Bateman, Jennifer Lopez, Jessica Alba, and Lea Thompson, just to name a few.  Some of those are older actresses, I know; I started out crushing on classic stars, so, maybe I should return to my roots.  You may not like that, but it's not up to you; it's solely up to me.
By the way, do you know what today is?

Why I Love Yard Sales

Before I start, let me say this: Whether I say "yard sales" or "garage sales," I'm referring to the same thing. Library sales are also included in that term; it would just be repetitive and annoying referring to them as "yard/garage sales and library sales" as many times as I'm going to mention them in my post. Still with me? Then, here we go. Over the years, I've noticed that people that have something in common (whether it be those of certain faiths, those within certain occupations and/or organizations, or just those who are big fans of something) tend to be misunderstood by those who don't share that same association. For example, most people think all male figure skaters are homosexuals, but my mom adores figure skating, and she knows very well that they're not. Even when I was younger, I thought that all Scouts (that is, Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, and Girl Scouts) did nothing but camp and hike. When I joined a Cub Scout pack, I was shocked to see that they met inside a church; prior to that, I had thought that they met in campground picnic shelters or humongous tents. Whatever they are, such misunderstandings tend to be judgmental, which also makes them sinful (Matthew 7:1-2) as well as not very becoming.
Such is true of us "yard salers"; those people who don't go to garage sales don't get why those of us who insanely enjoy them. I've heard plenty of criticism of garage sales over the years. One of my childhood friends didn't want to play with a Velcro dartboard just because it had come from a yard sale; he informed me that he had been to a garage sale that was nothing but baby items--and I've seen tons of such sales for as far back as I can remember--so he just assumed that yard sales sold nothing but baby gear. Years later, a high school friend claimed that he had bought some roller skates from a garage sale that broke the first time he used them, and that made him not like yard sales.  Others just don't get the appeal of them, or think that they have nothing but junk, which isn't the case.  I could apply Stein Mart's slogan--"Once you go, you get it"--to yard sales, but I feel there's more advantages to them than will fit in a short motto.
First off: It isn't just the purchasing; it's the hunting.  Millions of people, including me, use web sites such as eBay or Amazon Marketplace to find good deals online.  If you're looking for a specific item, such as a certain book or DVD, then such sites are the place to go.  However, garage sales aren't quite like that.  An article in AARP: The Magazine summed it up like this: "Stores are for things that you know you want or need.  Yard sales are for things that you didn't know you wanted."  Many times, the sheer surprise of the things I find at garage sales is half the fun.  I've found things that I didn't know existed (i.e., a DVD of obscure Amy Adams film Moonlight Serenade, or a Star Trek board game) or hadn't thought about in a long time (e.g., some FoxTrot compilations, a CD by a cappella group Naturally 7, or the entire five-cassette A.D. set).  Sometimes, the shock is that the items are so cheap; I recently purchased the entire Visual Bible DVD set, which consists of three different movies, still in the shrink wrap for only three bucks.  Even things I haven't purchased were still fun to see; at a yard sale last year, I saw a book and audio tape set featuring Putt-Putt--my favorite computer game character as a kid, for those who don't know--that I didn't know of previously.  I didn't buy it, since I am much too old for that sort of thing, but it was still good to see.  Even better is the interaction I get; when I wear shirts with words and/or pictures on them to garage sales, people often ask me about or comment on them.
Second off: At yard sales, you can get deals that you can't find anywhere else.  I'm known as a bargain hunter; as much as I love entertainment, I rarely pay full price for it.  I buy literature at used bookstores and purchase used DVDs at MovieStop, both with trade-in credit.  Although the deals at those places are good, they rarely even come close to garage sales, where you can usually find a book for no more than a buck and a DVD for under three dollars.  People often want to buy new instead of used, but, as someone who came from a household that wasn't always affluent, I know that getting items used is sometimes the only way you're going to get them.
Lastly: Buying items new is way too expensive these days.  I'm not going to divulge my weekly pay here, but I will say that my current job doesn't pay enough to cover living expenses, even monthly rent for an apartment.  At some point, I hope to advance to a better-paying job, hopefully in a library setting, and then move into some sort of apartment or townhouse; still, for now, I'm living with my parents.  Some of you may know that, as part of a deal with my folks, I recently purchased a new Mac, which, as most of you know, was a bit pricey.  It was thanks to all the money I had saved up in my bank account that I was able to buy that new Apple; had I purchased all the books, CDs, DVDs, etc., I've recently gotten new, I probably wouldn't have had even close to enough to do that.  Prices of almost everything have skyrocketed in recent years; paperback novels cost at least six dollars, new DVDs are no less than fifteen or twenty bucks, and just one album usually will set you back no less than ten smackaroos...yet, you can find those same items in great condition at yard sales for much less.
In conclusion, I will say this: If I were to make a list (which I won't) of all the media I've obtained over the past half-decade or so, I think right many of you would be surprised at how much I did get, especially on such a limited budget.  Only a small percentage of those books, CDs, DVDs, and other media have been Christmas and birthday gifts; almost 97% of it was bought with trade-in credit and/or my own cold, hard cash.  It may sound odd, but I consider hunting for bargains (at garage sales or anywhere else, including online) to be fun.  As the song says, "You'll never know if you don't go."
Any comments?

Goodbye, Old Friend and Faithful Companion

I think most of you reading this know how much I have always loved my technology. Between computers, printers, Nintendo consoles, CD players, VCRs, DVD players/recorders, CD players, MP3 players/iPods, television sets, flash drives, cell phones...yeah, I've had countless electronic devices over the years, and I've loved every one. Some may think it's stupid for technology to be so important to me, but those people don't realize that, without it, I never would have graduated high school. One of the symptoms of my disorder is having bad coordination, which meant my handwriting was terrible. For that reason, I was given a device to type my work on by the school system in fifth grade, and I had one until I graduated from high school. Some people decried it and felt it was hurting me and that I actually could write legibly with practice, but what they have always failed to grasp is that I did practice more than one summer, and still got the exact same complaints at the beginning of every school year. So, I fully believe that, without digital assistance, I would not be where I am today.
What does that have to do with the titular statement? Simply this: Yesterday, the Epson printer I've had since 2000 bit the dust. I had thought its death was imminent; over the past few months, it had produced one shoddy printout after another, even though I replaced the cartridges and cleaned the print heads. It even failed to let me know the black ink was out a month or two ago, and it had never done that previously. Throughout its lifetime, it had helped me print countless documents: greeting cards, CD booklets, bookmarks, various school assignments and projects, pictures of everything from Pokémon to Victoria Justice, binder covers, and probably others I'm not thinking of at the moment. The Epson's death came at a rather bad time; not only do I not have a replacement printer, but I was going to increase my sending out of cards made on Print Shop to my friends and family for birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas, and other such occasions. I can still do it; what I'll have to do is save them to my flash drive as PDFs via the Mac OS X Print dialog box, and then take them to the library to print them out. It'll cost to print each page, but it'll still be more heartfelt than a pre-printed Hallmark card.
Friends, let me be honest: I know that my late Epson printer was not a living thing. It didn't have a soul, nor did it ever feel any emotion. Still, when anything--a car, a video game console, a piece of furniture, etc.--has been with someone for that long, it's hard for that person to not feel a sense of attachment to it, especially when it's served him/her faithfully for several years, only to fall to pieces in mere months. I plan on getting a new printer one of these days; maybe I can find a good deal on one at a yard sale or Best Buy. It'll probably be another Epson; not only is twelve years a good lifespan for pretty much any piece of technology, but, the one that just died was actually a replacement for a defective same-model printer that my mom bought from CompUSA in 1999. I'm pretty sure it was replaced quickly and free of charge; since we'd had it less than a year, it was most likely under warranty. So, with such a good reputation, how could I not get another Epson? However, no matter what printer I get, it won't be that Epson. That old blue printer will always hold a special place in my heart, just like my Commodore 64, my Game Boy Color, and my first Mac. That may be hard for some of you to understand, but I think some of my tech-loving friends will get it.
Any comments?

As It Has Never Been Seen Before

The above phrase has been somewhat overused, especially in the entertainment world. Over the years, countless movies and television shows, and even a few video games and books, have promised to show you something (or, in some cases, someone) "as you have never seen it [or him/her] before." Whether or not said media delivered on that guarantee is a matter of one's opinion and life experience. When something is that way, though, it usually isn't easily forgotten.
Most of you reading this know that I have always liked to do things my way, which has caused friction between me and some authority figures, usually teachers. A perfect example is elementary and middle school art class, where the kind of art I wanted to do was not the kind of art I was supposed to do. All of the art I grew up with either moved and made noise, such as CD-ROM games and animatronic dinosaurs, or had printed words that went with it, such as comic strips and picture books. For that reason, I did not know how to make art that was simply a picture. Additional problems were caused because I couldn't refrain from putting an allusion to one of my favorite things, which ranged from Scooby-Doo to Pokémon/Nintendo to computer games to dc Talk to Hoyle Board Games even Weakest Link, in my artwork. Very little of the other students' artwork I saw had such allusions. You can imagine that my art teachers and I regularly clashed over all that, and that's part of why I never took any sort of art class, even computer art, after seventh grade. That, combined with my lack of artistic ability, was probably why my artwork was never once hung up on the schools' walls. (Yes, my training in Web Design did require some making some pictures, but those weren't "art classes," in my opinion.)
Throughout my school years, most of the projects I got good grades on were ones that allowed for freedom. I didn't mind a few rules, but ones that had a bazillion strict requirements drove me nuts. For example, I've always liked science, but the science fair projects all us middle and high schoolers had to do were mostly nothing more than a thorn in my side, if only because of strange rules, such as having to refer to yourself as "the student" instead of using a personal pronoun such as "I" or "me". Yet, in sixth grade, when I had to make a model of an atom using whatever materials I wanted, I got an A-plus. Yes, that project did have rules; the model needed to be labeled, and ignorance of that requirement caused many of my classmates to get grades as low as C's, even when their model was well-constructed.
Nowadays, when I do or make something, unless it's something someone else has asked me to do/make, it's pretty much up to me how it ends up. When I have that freedom, I usually buck tradition in a way that most people have never seen. One such example is last Christmas, when I made cards via PrintMaster on my laptop to give/send to my friends. Most people don't give computer-generated printed cards to others in the first place; I've only known four people, two of which were my parents, who have ever done that, and three of those people, including my folks, only did it sparingly, yet I've been doing it at least somewhat regularly since 1995. However, the biggest difference was the picture on the front. Most Christmas cards have Nativity scenes, wintry landscapes, family portraits, elaborately decorated trees, Santa Clauses, cutesy cartoons, etc., on them...but mine had a picture of Victoria Justice holding a Christmas present. At least some of the friends who I gave the cards to said that they had never received one quite like it, and I was proud of that. In fact, I prefer making cards for any occasion on Print Shop and/or PrintMaster than buying them from Hallmark, just because a card lovingly crafted on a computer feels more heartfelt than just purchasing one at Hallmark and scribbling a signature on it. I'm sure some of my friends who do paper crafting (are you reading this, Lorie?) feel the same way about the cards they make.
It isn't just greeting cards, though; I always have done things like no one else, which is why this blog is called "Siobhan Thinks Differently". Everyone who has known me, no matter their opinion of me, has known me for being an original in pretty much every way. Yes, that has made certain people very critical of me; many people have taken society's rules about what someone of my age, gender, and/or heritage "should" be doing so seriously, you'd think they were Biblical commandments or federal laws. They wanted me to, as the High School Musical tune says, "stick to the status quo," but I almost always refused; I was not going to subscribe to the mob mentality, usually because such thinking and/or actions didn't work for me. Some people went entirely too far in their attempts to get me to do what "everyone else" was supposedly doing; I remember one inescapable individual who made unkind remarks about others we both knew that I won't even begin to repeat on here just to get me to take swimming lessons or do something else that went completely against my tastes. Such talk, even when I think of it now, smacked way too much of manipulation, and that's why I refused to give in to that person's demands. An older friend once told me, "This world doesn't know what to do with originals, [Siobhan]." That's very true; I honestly wonder if the denizens of this planet will ever know what to do with people like me.
Apparently, being the way I am has made me rather unforgettable; I remember an instance some years ago when I was in my local shopping mall with my brother-in-law and saw a guy who was a summer school classmate months prior to that, but whom I hadn't seen since until that moment. That classmate didn't say much to me, so I told my brother-in-law that he must have forgotten me. My brother-in-law immediately replied, "[Siobhan], how could anyone forget you?" Several others have said essentially the same thing, and I'm actually proud of that; if being an original makes me hard to forget, then, I say, that's great. It's their choice whether or not they accept me; those who chose to have said that those who haven't are seriously missing out.
Any comments?

Are You Frustrated, Football Fans? Well, So Am I!

Probably everyone reading this knows that I've loved parodies for years.  I'm not just talking about music parodies, such as what "Weird Al" Yankovic does, although his work is included.  Movie parodies are also enjoyable; I remember having some Big Dogs shirts that spoofed popular movies such as Spider-Man ("Peter Barker is Spider-Dog!") or Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones ("Dog Wars: Attack of the Bones").  Even a clip I saw at MovieStop from Scary Movie 4 that poked fun at the Tom Cruise "jumping the couch" incident made me laugh.  However, one thing about parodies--at least, ones that are intended to be funny--is that, if someone is unfamiliar with the work being spoofed, he/she won't find it the least bit humorous.  I remember seeing Galaxy Quest and not liking it one bit.  When I found out from a movie-fanatic friend that it was full of Star Trek allusions, I understood why I didn't appreciate it: I knew next to nothing about Gene Roddenberry's space opera at the time.
Still, what happened last night was even worse. That was when the second season premiere of Victorious, "The Breakfast Bunch," aired on Nickelodeon.  Prior to its airing, I was quite excited; I absolutely loved last December's Christmas episode and the "You're the Reason" video.  However, "The Breakfast Bunch" ended up being a terrible disappointment.  As you probably guessed from its title, said episode was a spoof of the classic 80's film The Breakfast Club.  However, what I saw last night wasn't the least bit funny to me, because I've never seen that film and have no intention of doing so.  I'd imagine that the vast majority of the target audience--ages eight to fourteen--was just as clueless throughout the episode as I was. The implications were even worse; the characters used the word "vegan" Meet the Parents-style to suggest another "V" word, and a willingness (or lack thereof) to eat tacos implied whether or not they would do the according act. I may be somewhat naïve, but even I got what they were suggesting. "The Breakfast Bunch" may have been rated "TV-G," but the suggestiveness brought it very close to "PG-13" territory.
By now, you're probably wondering what on earth all that has to do with you football fans. Well, I'll tell you: I may be a layperson when it comes to football, but I do know that the Super Bowl is widely considered to be the biggest sporting event in the United States. Advertisers pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for their commercials to air during the game, and people who normally don't pay much attention to the NFL willingly plop down on their couches to watch it. Yet, many of my sports-loving friends feel totally indifferent about this year's "big game". Either they don't care for the New England Patriots nor the New York Giants, or they just want one team to win because they absolutely despise the other team and/or one of its players. For such a widely celebrated sporting event, it seems like most NFL fans won't be watching, simply because they're disappointed by which teams were this year's NFC and AFC champions.
I've mentioned before on here that I used to despise all sports and all sports fans. One thing I didn't get was why people were so devoted to their team(s), and got upset when the game didn't go as they'd hoped. Of course, I eventually realized (on my own, mind you) that I didn't have any right to bash others' irrational devotion, since I've been guilty of that my entire life. I later understood the concept of "wounded pride" after seeing Siobhan Magnus get unfairly eliminated from American Idol, not to mention that abysmal Love and Other Drugs preview featuring none other than my then-Hollywood sweetheart Anne Hathaway. Well, now, not only am I experiencing wounded pride again, but I'm also sharing most football fans' frustration. Entertainment is to me what sports is to most of you; while you have at least one favorite team whom you always want to win, I have favorite celebrities whom I always want to see succeed in whatever they do: acting, singing, writing, etc. So, when I see something such as "The Breakfast Bunch," it's as upsetting to me as that alleged epic fail of a field goal during the Forty-Niners/Giants game last Sunday is to you.
What's my point? At the risk of sounding like a certain former President, I feel your pain. You're frustrated with the current state of the NFL; I'm equally frustrated by the fact that my favorite show, which stars my favorite actress, potentially "jumped the shark" last night. That's why God gives us friends: to support us during trying times. My only hope is that these upsetting events (that is, the latest Victorious episode as well as who is playing in this year's Super Bowl) don't become a trend.

"Why?" Well, Why Not?

Throughout my life, I have been criticized by, well...pretty much everyone for the things that I do/don't do or have/haven't done.  "Why don't you watch [or play] sports? All the other guys do!" "Why do you listen to [or watch, or play] that stuff? No one else does!" "Why are you so vocal about your celebrity crushes? They're just silly, rootless fantasies!" "What do you need [insert item(s) I want or just obtained here] for?" "Why do you want to work at a library?" You know, I've been hearing it for so long that I've become used to it.  I get that most people aren't going to understand why I do or like the things I do, and why I rarely do/like the things the general public seems to thoroughly enjoy.
Many times, whether they realize it or not, people get too bogged down in tradition.  I'm not talking about religious traditions; I'm talking about society's unwritten rules for what each person should like and/or do, not just during everyday life, but also for special occasions: Christmas, birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, engagements, Thanksgiving, etc.  I've seen that quite a bit over the years; between unnecessary holiday celebrations and things that no one really wanted to do during special occasions but were done anyway due to tradition, it seems like it happens way too much.
I've mentioned before on here that I enjoy bucking tradition; part of it is because my life has always been nontraditional.  Most people grow up with both a mother figure and a father figure; I essentially had two moms (my mom and my eleven-year-older sister) and no paternal figure to speak of.  Most oldest siblings look out for their younger brothers and/or sisters; my oldest sibling (that is, not the eleven-year-older one I just mentioned) was severely disabled and never really could do much of anything.  Most kids have to book a flight or take a long car trip to visit any of their grandparents, aunts, and/or uncles; my maternal grandmother, as well as all of my aunts and uncles and most of my first cousins on my mom's side of the family, lived (and, for the most part, still do live) no more than forty-five minutes from our house.
Sounds completely unlike what you're used to, doesn't it? Well, then, you can see why I don't mind defying tradition.  That may seem weird to you, but I'm reminded of a scene from the sitcom-based Disney movie My Favorite Martian. When Tim (the film's Earthling protagonist) says, "I don't believe in aliens," his "Uncle Martin" (who, in reality, is not his uncle, but a Martian visiting Earth) says, "To us, you are the alien."  I could make a similar statement: To me, you are the weird ones.  True, tradition works for some people; as long as it does, there's nothing wrong with sticking to it.  However, when doing things just because that's the way "everybody else" does them, you have to ask yourself Dr. Phil's question: "How's that working for you?" If the answer is, "Not very well," then maybe you should rethink what you're doing.  Frankly, I see no point in sticking to tradition when all it's doing is throwing a wrench into the works.
You may wonder: If I don't use tradition as my standard for why I do or like the things I do, then what do I use? First off, I use a moral standard: If anything goes against my morals, then I don't do it, and if I have been engaging in an activity, then realize such a thing is sinful, such as using illegally copied software, then I wash my hands of it as soon as possible.  Other than that, it's pretty much whatever I enjoy, whether it's popular or not.  My tastes don't completely go against popular opinion; most people (guys and girls) like Apple technology as well as superhero/science fiction/fantasy movies, and so do I.  Still, just because society says that I have to watch this and shouldn't have that doesn't mean I'll follow their rules.
I often think of Tim Taylor's classic line from Home Improvement: "Some tool men say, 'Why?'  This tool man says, 'Why not?'" I could make a similar statement: Everyone else asks, "Why?" Why do I need six calendars? Why do I listen to artists such as Josh Groban, Michael Bublé, or American Idol contestants? Why do I watch Nickelodeon shows and Disney Channel Original Movies? To all of them, I say, "Why not?" Seriously, as long as I'm not doing anything immoral or illegal, then what's the problem?  Similar statements have been expressed in songs by multiple artists/bands, from Hilary Duff ("Why not take a crazy chance? Why not do a crazy dance? If you lose the moment, you may lose a lot, so why not?") to Bon Jovi ("It's my life! It's now or never! I ain't gonna live forever! I just wanna live while I'm alive! It's my life!") to Smash Mouth ("So much to do, so much to see, so what's wrong with taking the back streets?") to even Frank Sinatra ("Regrets? I've had a few, but, then again, too few to mention! I did what I had to do, and saw it through without exemption! I planned each charted course, each careful step along the byway, and more, much more than this: I did it my way!") Even the classic poet Robert Frost had something to say about it: "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference."  I know that what I do probably doesn't fit your definition of normal.  However, I'm reminded of the quotation from the classic George Orwell novel Animal Farm: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." I have a similar feeling about people: Everyone is unique, but some people are more unique than others.  I should know; I fall into that latter category.  If you know me, can you honestly disagree with that statement? Didn't think so.
Any comments?