This is a pretty good post

Remember when people paid 15 cents per word for a classified ad in the newspaper?

Does anyone remember when there were classified ads in the newspaper? Anyone?

Remember when Craig's List stepped in and suddenly newspapers were making billions of dollars less than they were before? Remember how everyone figured out selling things online was SO much better than selling it in a newspaper? That was a good idea.

But I'm a little bit afraid that people aren't using online ads' free space to its full effect. Case in point — this ad that Ryan found on BYU-Idaho's Bulletin Board:


Excellent. I think I'll take it.

Still old.

Yesterday, this guy came into the office when I was proofing pages before we sent Scroll to print. This guy came in and was trying to get my attention.

Me: Can I help you?
Guy: I have a question, when you get a minute.
Me: Go ahead.
Guy: But first — how old are you?
Me: (thinking, huh?) Twenty-one.
Guy: Oh, you're only 21? OK.
Me: Why?
Guy: Oh, I'm doing a project on alternative students, and I thought you could help me.

Alternative students? That's the word people use for moms who didn't finish school and come back later. Alternative students are old — though, I admit, my bad hip wasn't helping me out on this one.

Me: You thought I was an alternative student?
Guy: Yeah, well, 24 or 25 at least.
Me: Thanks?
Guy: Yeah. Uh, you're welcome. I'm not sure if that was a compliment. My wife would slap me if I told her that.
Me: Yeah ...

Thus ended the most awkward conversation of the day. And thus I became self-conscious the whole time I was getting ready this morning. "Ryan? Does this make me look old? Do pearl earrings make me look old? Should I put a little bow in my hair?"

Maybe I should skip getting a job and jump straight to retirement.

Disclaimer: I realize that 25 is NOT old. It's just the idea of "You're only 21? You look like you're WELL past that!" that bothers me.

Old.

I feel sort of like this picture today.

Yesterday, my co-worker brought his adorable little girl into the office. As I was getting ready to leave, I bent over and said, "Hi, Ellie!" I tickled her belly and then ...

My back burned. It pinched, it cramped, pain shot all over. I stayed bent and somehow scrapped my way into a chair without using my legs or lower back too much.

Ryan's uncle Jeff, who's a chiropractor, gave it a fancy name for "your hip is rotated too far forward." He popped it around and back into place, gave me some medicine and told Ryan he had to do the dishes today.

My family does have a history of bad hips, but I'm already laying on the couch waiting for my left hip to heal. And I don't turn 22 for another month.

I am officially old.

A little bit obsessed

So I kind of get on "kicks" about things, and I had to share these two little bits of YouTube that I can't get enough of.

First: Michael Bublé's new single. This song has been in my head for 48 hours. And I'm not tired of it. I know it's about waiting for love to come along, and I've already found Ryan, but somehow listening to this song makes me relive it or something. Basically, this song is amazing even if you HAVE "met him yet."

The video is good too. Isn't it refreshing to see a girl wearing jeans on one of these videos? She's, like, normal. Except that she's ridiculously beautiful. But I'm willing to overlook that.



Second: Google's Super Bowl ad. This is the first time Google's EVER advertised in TV (or advertised, period?) and I think it's awesome. Some of the guys in my Media Management class thought it was lame, but I LOVE IT. And, yes, we do watch and discuss Super Bowl ads in my Media Management class. Being a comm major rocks.



I hope you like these as much as I do. :)

Vowels

I've decided every mispronunciation and "hard word" in the English language can be traced back to one part of out lovely English language — vowels. Two epiphanies led to this realization:

1. Our last name is exactly half vowels and half consonants (count: Olaveson).
2. No one can say our name.

If I had a nickel for every time I heard, "What is it? Oh-lay-vuh-son? Oh-love-son? Ah-lay-vuh-son? Lav-en-der?" (Yes, someone really said that) we'd be eating at Applebee's every night. I think everyone likes hard and fast rules, like the sound for "r." They always know what sound it's going to make. People are so crazy about "r" that they toss it haphazardly into our name all the time. "Oh-law-ver-son?"

I learned in my New Testament class that the Hebrews (or Greeks, or someone like that) didn't use vowels, and that's why we're not really sure about what some Bible names are. For example, we call the Old Testament Christ "Jehovah," but all it really translated to was "JHVH," so it's more of a best-guess sort of thing.

I think the Hebrews had it right. Just call me BRNN LVSN from now on.

(Oh, and for the record, you say our name "Oh-LAW-veh-son.")