Willow's Consumption Log

For University of Minnesota class GDES 2399W: Design and Its Discontents

[willowbg-consumption]

Day 30: February 14th, 2018

Happy Valentine’s Day and also last day of posting, kids. Here’s some exciting stuff that I consumed today.

Just as a preface, I was extremely depressed today, so feel free to judge away.

For food and beverage, I started my morning with a banana and a can of diet coke. Super healthy, right? I also took my Zoloft and also some Tylenol because I don’t think I drank enough water yesterday at the concert, causing me to be dehydrated. I bought some Cheezits, some Peachie-os, a bottle of Diet Coke, and a Powerade (in the hopes that it would hydrate me) after class. It cost me $8. Eventually I’ll stop spending so much money at work. I ate the Peachie-os and drank some Powerade in my next class, which is also where I had an anxiety turned panic attack. Fun times. So yeah, I was feeling extremely bad after that, so I went back to work and bought a Snickers bar, and also talked in my coworkers to making me chicken tenders and tater tots for free, which I ate most of. For “dinner” I had some tortilla chips followed by various candy consisting of Reese’s PB cups and Candy hearts because it’s valentine’s day. So, like my past posts, I would say that this consumption of food and beverage would fall under economy, due to me buying the food today and also within the past week. 

Also, I would like to comment on the phrases that are on the candy hearts. Honestly, what happened? Why are they trying too hard to be hip and relatable to kids nowadays? Like kids don’t even like candy hearts, except for the minimal few like me. I mean honestly, look at them:

A mustache? #Love? Sweet Tweet? Too much. Not to mention some of them are a little creepy. Specifically the “wink wink” one as well as the “be my GF” one. Just seems a little too weird and demanding to me. The messages on the candy hearts can be labelled under society, because I think they really showcase how companies are trying to fit in with society and societal trends. 

While walking to my first class, I was able to listen to music, unlike yesterday, because I remembered my headphones (thank god). I decided I wanted to listen to some of the openers from yesterday, which were the band Seaway and Speak Low if You Speak Love. Conveniently the singer of Speak Low if You Speak Love is the bassist for one of my favorite band, State Champs. I just found that out today. It’s pretty cool. I also listened to some more Neck Deep, because those songs have been stuck in my head ever since last night. While I was doing homework I listened to the song “Contrasting Colors” on repeat by Speak Low if You Speak Love, mostly. I did listen to other acoustic songs by As It Is, Neck Deep, and State Champs. Like in the past, this music consumption would be labelled as culture due to it being music I enjoy listening to.

That’s a wrap on the 30 day blog consumption as well as the 4 week collection, but before you start crying, I will leave you with one last Snapple Fact. The Snapple Fact for today is Fact #1397 “Gorillas burp when they are happy.” Well, I guess that would explain why guys like to randomly burp and then laugh at it (it’s cause we’re closely related to monkeys, get it?) 

Yeah, that was bad. Ending off on a good note. Alright guys, see ya later. Bye!

[willowbg-consumption]

Day 29: February 13th, 2018

Today was such an interesting day, like I don’t even know where to start. I guess I’ll start like I always do. With food and beverage consumption.

I started today off with a banana. Crazy, right? But yeah, had a banana to start my day, followed by an iced cherry mocha from Starbucks. which was pretty meh. Next, at work, I had a grilled cheese sandwich from work because my boss wanted me to be a guinea pig to see if they were still fresh. It was free food, so of course I wasn’t going to say no. I had a bit of Root Beer from the soda fountain with that as well. When I got back from class I had a few starbursts and also two Nutrigrain bars while I was on the bus because I was in a rush to get back to St. Paul. I’ll explain more later. Upon coming home the second time, I had more starbursts, some pizza rolls, a cookie dough pop-tart, water, and some Powerade for dinner. I went from healthy to somewhat unhealthy. As always, my food consumption can be considered economy because I either got the food for free or paid for it at some point in time. 

Okay, so big news. I decided last minute to go to the Neck Deep concert after deciding not to go as of Sunday. So, what changed is that I was listening to my punk rock music at work and one of my coworkers asked who the band was. Conveniently it was Neck Deep, and also conveniently she likes the band. So, last minute we decided we were going to go to the concert together and bought the tickets right there at work. This was why I was in a rush to get back to St. Paul after class. It’s because I had to meet up with her. Now, this concert was pretty costly. The tickets were $30, the uber there and back totaled about $30, and I also bought a shirt for $25, but the show was so worth it. I mean, we were shoved against the sound booth barrier for pretty much four hours, but it was so nice to be in a room surrounded by people with a similar interest to you. This concert can be classified as culture, because it is a band I like, as well as economy due to the amount the concert experience cost. 

(This was the stage, notice how far back I was)

(My coworker and I after the concert!!!)

The last exciting thing I guess, was that at work, someone’s card kept declining. He literally had taken things things out of what he was going to buy to make it in the limit. I felt really bad, so I ended up buying his lunch for him. It ended up being $14 (ouch), but it was really worth it and it made me feel like a good person. After work, he tracked me down and tried to pay me back, but I told him it was fine and to not worry about it (many times) before he let it go. I would consider this act of kindness economy as well as maybe society, because it’s not something that people do often, but there are instances where people pay for others’ meals. 

I don’t really have a fact or a word of the day because that concert has me EXHAUSTED. Also, I didn’t do any homework today, so I’ll have to do that tomorrow too. Let the sleep begin!

[willowbg-consumption]

Day 28: February 12th, 2018

My anxiety is like super high today and I have no clue why. I just keep thinking of all the mistakes I made today and even in the past, even if they happened like months ago. It’s kind of frustrating that I can’t stop it. But yeah, anyway here goes my day.

As per always, let’s start with food. I tried to be pretty healthy today and I think I’ve been pretty successful. At least better than the past. It all started off by spending $4 at work. Technically, it was $9 but I had a coupon. I bought a bagel, a peanut butter cup, a can of Monster, Lemonade Vitamin Water, Goldfish crackers, and a banana. The first thing I ate was the banana and drank the Monster because I was super tired. I got 4 hours of sleep last night so it was rough. This is also when I took my Zoloft. I drank the Monster during work and into my first class. After class was time for lunch. I toasted the bagel and grabbed some jelly, which we have for free at my work, and made kind of a peanut butter and jelly bagel sandwich. It was pretty good actually. Along with that, I had the Goldfish crackers and drank the Vitamin Water. When I got home from my last class of the night I had a granola bar before running. After my run, I had some water and made myself pasta, which I topped with salt & pepper, garlic powder, adobo, and cheese. That’s pretty much what I usually top my pasta with. I also had some candy hearts that I bought at target the other day, along with some Grape Powerade Zero. Like my other food and beverage consumption posts, I would classify this consumption as economy, due to most of the food I ate being purchased by me in the beginning of the day.

I didn’t really get to listen to a lot of music today. In fact, I think the only time I actively listened to music was when I was running (I ran 2 miles and walked an additional 1 mile again). Like yesterday, I listened to rap music. There’s a playlist on Spotify called “Rap Workout” that I use to workout because most of the songs’ bpm matches the speed I want to run at. Anyway, there was a lot of classic and good rap songs that came up in today’s shuffle of music that I even forgot about.

Additionally, I was able to read a chapter in my book. Hopefully, I’ll be able to finish it soon, but homework is making it difficult for me to that. I’m trying to balance out me-time vs. school time and work time. I’m taking seventeen credits and working 20 hours a week, so it’s really difficult. Especially being a design student because those projects can go on for hours.

As far as media, I haven’t really consumed a lot of it. With trying to balance things I enjoy with the already limited amount of time I have, it means one thing has to be sacrificed, and apparently that’s media. Adding more time for reading and for running, has decreased my media consumption by the least 2 hours per day. I still haven’t figured out if that is a good thing or not. Anyway, I watched a few Youtube videos today. They were mostly just vlogs by Shane Dawson and CTFxC, which I’ve watched for awhile. I also was able to find the latest season of Doctor Who on Amazon Prime video, which my friend has and is letting me use (praise), so I was able to watch an episode of that. I’d like to catch up with Doctor Who, but there’s no new season coming out soon, so there’s no rush.

All of the above posts can be considered as culture, due to them all being things I enjoy doing, as well as some of the specific rappers and Doctor Who being liked in pop culture.

Today’s Snapple Fact is Fact #40 “It is possible to lead a cow up stairs but not down stairs”. I have a few questions regarding this fact. One: how was this found? And two: Why? So if a cow is led up the stairs, it can’t go down? Is that some kind of cow torture? How cruel.

[willowbg-consumption]

Day 27: February 11th, 2018

I had to go to work AGAIN today for a (very boring) meeting. It’s almost like I live there or something now. Yeah, so with that, I didn’t really do a whole lot today but here we go.

I feel like I’m starting every post with food, but It’s a good way to get an idea into my day. The first thing I consumed when I went to the meeting was coffee from work. I swear I’m going to develop a caffeine addiction, which will be hell for my anxiety. I didn’t really eat anything until lunch, which the building catered DeVanni’s for (I don’t know how to spell that). It was pasta, which I’m super picky about, but I still had a little bit of chicken alfredo. I also had two pieces of garlic bread, as well as a salad. There was also ice cream for dessert, from my work, so I had some of that too. After the meeting, I walked on over to Tim Horton’s to meet one of my roommates, who was working. I bought a donut and a small caramel macchicato, which cost me $5, but it was worth it. When I got home, I had a granola bar, as well as some Cheez-its. For “dinner” I had two nutrigrain bars (I wasn’t all that hungry), some Vitamin Water, and a few tropical flavored Starbursts. As you can probably guess, I would label this food and beverage consumption as economy, because most of it was food I had bought previously, but I also spent money on a donut and coffee from Tim Horton’s.

For media consumption, I watched about two episodes of Catfish through my cable streaming app on my laptop. I also watch about 3 different vine compilations on Youtube, because apparently I wanted to watch vines. I’d have to say, one of my favorites is when a couple is posting, and a guy in a giraffe onesie goes by on skis and screams “I’m a giraffe!!!”. I’ll link it at the end of the post. I also listened to some music. Mostly rap again. I’ll let the next portion of my post explain why. This media consumption can be considered culture, as I consumed things that I enjoy. 

So yeah. I listened to a lot of rap today. This is mostly because I decided I wanted to go running today (inside on a treadmill). I used to run a lot in high school, and I wanted to pick it back up, especially because it’s a good way for me to relieve stress. Rap music is really nice for me to run to because somehow the bpm of a majority of the songs match the speed that I like to run at. I was able to run 2 miles and walk 1 mile today in 40 minutes. It’s pretty weak, but it’s also a pretty good start. I’m hoping that I can keep on with the exercise. Hopefully it will be good for me. I would consider this “energy consumption” society, because exercise is kind of something that we are expected to do in order to stay healthy. 

To end the night, I’m going to read for about an hour or so (culture). There’s no word of the day or Snapple Fact of the day because it’s a weekend, but here’s the vine I mentioned earlier. 

[willowbg-consumption]

Week 4 Collection

Last (official) collection post. I’ll probably continue to collect some of the things I have collected for this project, but I don’t think I’ll post them here. I’ll just keep them for my own personal collection I guess.

Starting at the top is my collection of notebook doodles. This week has a total of eight doodles, with seven of the eight being drawn in discontents. The doodles are composed of flying money, Saturn, a rain cloud, a gingerbread man who skipped leg day, a cube, a female figure with no face, a poor attempt at drawing fire, and one of those tattoo-esque stars. With this addition to my collection, I have a total of 34 doodles for the entirety of the doodle collection. This part of my collection can be labelled as culture, as it being something I do to pass my time, as well as design, because they are in fact drawings. 

On the right hand side going down, is the collection of unfinished beverages. There’s only 2 unfinished beverages in this week’s collection, consisting of a Vitamin Water and a half drank Caramel Macchiato from Starbucks. With the addition of the two unfinished beverages, there would technically be fourteen unfinished beverages, except I poured them out because keeping them for this long would be gross. I would label this part of my collection economy, because I am literally pouring money down the drain by not finishing these beverages. 

Below that is this week’s collection of finished water bottles. There’s only 3 this week, which means I’m drinking less water at night than I used to. I wonder why. When added to all the bottles of my collection, I have 19 empty water bottles in total. This part of the collection would be labelled as economy, because I have to pay for these bottles of water, as well as it costing fuel and energy to recycle the bottles into something else. 

Lastly, on the bottom left is this week’s collection of my most listened to songs. There’s lots of rap as well as Neck Deep, which is what I mostly listened to. As always, if you would like to listen to the playlist, you can do so here. This playlist totals 71 songs, which is almost 4.5 hours of music. I would label this portion of my consumption as culture, due to this music and these artists being something I enjoy listening to. 

[willowbg-consumption]

Day 26: February 10th, 2018

Blah. We’re almost there. Only a few more posts. I probably won’t miss posting these updates, just saying. I’m sorry.

So, I guess we will start with my food and beverage consumption. I first had a donut that my roommate brought home from work for me yesterday from Tim Horton’s. I also ate the last two cookies that I bought a few days ago while drinking a pink lemonade I bought from work a few weeks ago. A great breakfast, I know. I’m feeling kind of depressed today, leave me alone. For lunch I finished off the bag of tortilla chips I got from work, as well as a caramel macchiato from Starbucks. At work, I had some tater tots and some sprite, because I was getting dehydrated from all of the running around and fixing bowling problems I was doing. I also snuck some ice cream too because I was super warm. When I got back to my apartment I realized I didn’t eat dinner, so I had two nutrigrain bars and the rest of some trail mix that I bought from work when I bought the pink lemonade.  As per usual, this consumption can be labelled as economy because everything that I ate was something that was free or that I paid for at some point.

I spent a lot of time today working on homework, which was mostly all on the computer. I also spent some time on social media. Mostly Tumblr, Instagram, and Snapchat. Lots of people don’t like the new Snapchat update, but I’m pretty impartial. It might be because I don’t use it a lot, or maybe as much as other people. So, I guess I would say I consumed a lot of screen time, which can maybe be considered society, as I think screen time is becoming something that society is using more and more on a daily basis. 

As far as music consumption, I was only able to listen to the music I actually wanted when I was working on homework at my apartment. There technically was music on at work, but it was mostly pop music for the atmosphere of the store. When I did listen to my own music, It was mostly Childish Gambino, Post Malone, and artists like them because I was listening to Childish Gambino Radio on Spotify. I think I’m starting to like more chill rap music like Gambino, not heavy rap music, but yeah. As usual, my music consumption can be considered culture because it’s something I enjoy doing as well as artists that I like. 

Because it’s the weekend, there’s no Snapple Fact or Word of the Day. I’m sorry.

[willowbg-consumption]

Day 25: February 9th, 2018

Ugggggghhhhh I really don’t want to write this post. Only five more days and then I don’t have to keep track of everything I consume.  We’re almost done. (Yay).

Food and beverage consumption time! I started my day off at work with a cup of Diet Coke. Since I was working, I didn’t have to pay for it so yay me. I didn’t really eat anything until I got off of work at 11:30. Technically I didn’t even leave work because one of my coworkers gave me ice cream from work. It was peppermint ice cream, and mint ice cream is always great. Upon coming home to my apartment I had a few peanut m&ms from my candy bag as well as tortilla chips I got from work on Thursday. While I worked on homework, I ate a package of cookie dough pop tarts and drank some water. I had a slump midday, so I decided to walk over to Starbucks and get a Soy Caramel Macchiato. (I’m not addicted, I swear). I also had two cookies from Insomnia Cookies with the coffee. The last thing I had for dinner was a pepperoni Hot Pocket with some strawberry almond milk. I think the Hot Pocket might have been my roommates, but she said that I could have it. So, as you can probably guess, my food and beverage consumption can be considered as economy. I’ve been eating really poorly lately, and I think part of that has to do with my depression acting up. It’s weird.

I’ve been really into rap today for some reason. I mostly listened to it while I was working on homework, and a little bit on my walk home from work. The artist that I listened to the most today was Childish Gambino, who really isn’t a new artist to me. However, I found another song I like by him. It’s called “Sweatpants”, and no, it’s not a new release by him. I just found it while listening to my Logic radio on Spotify. It’s pretty addicting. I really like the beats and rhythms to it. I think that’s what I like the most about rap is the beat, not necessarily the lyrics. 

I was also able to watch the last two episodes that I needed to watch of season 8 of The Walking Dead. Let me just say that I am PIIIIISSSSSEEEEDDDD. If you watch the show, you can probably guess why. I’m not going to spoil it for anyone, but chances are, you’ll see something about it soon in your news feed when the second half of the season comes out later this month. But yeah, I wasn’t happy at all. With all the homework I had to do, that’s about all the television I could watch today. This consumption and the music consumption above can both be considered culture due to their popularity and following, as well as them being certain artists or shows that I enjoy. 

So, to end the night, I would like to provide today’s Snapple Fact. It is Fact #1027 “The soil on Mars is rust color because it’s full of rust.” Yeah, that’s pretty much self-explanatory...However it got me thinking. You know how Coke technically gets rid of rust on like nails and stuff? What if, and hear me out here, what if we just douse the surface of Mars with Coke? I wonder what color the soil would be then...

[willowbg-consumption]

Day 24: February 8th, 2018

Welcome to another exciting day in my life. Let’s dive right in, shall we?

Food and beverage are required to live, so it’s pretty obvious that I ate and drank things today. The first thing I drank, as per my usual Tuesday and Thursday routine was a soy Caramel Macchiato from Starbucks, which I drank in my first class. Next, I had work, which meant I could have soda from the soda fountain for freeeeeee...so I had some Diet Coke during my shift. Before I left for my next class, I bought an Odwalla smoothie and a Peace Tea for my friend in the class, which cost me $5. I drank the smoothie in class, which probably wasn’t a good idea because I really had to pee half way through class. When class was done I went back to my apartment, where I ate tortilla chips that I had gotten from work because they were expired as of yesterday. After that, I had some Reese’s Peanut Butter cups from my bag of candy followed by two cookies from Insomnia Cookies. Super healthy, I know. As per always, the food consumption can be labelled as economy because it was food or beverage that I paid for or got for free. 

Music, music, music. I listened to the playlist I made two years ago called “All the Good Songs”. It pretty much has all of the angsty music I used to listen to as a high schooler. Also, I randomly got a song stuck in my head from my high school days that wasn’t on my playlist somehow. I don’t really know how it got stuck in my head. The song is called “Chelsea” by The Summer Set. It’s a pretty good song and actually isn’t all that angsty. It’s more pop-y. Yeah, so anyway I listened to that, and also twenty one pilots. Additionally, I really want to go see a concert next Tuesday for the band Neck Deep. I still haven’t bought the tickets yet, but I was pumping myself up with some of their songs. 

I really didn’t have a lot of time to watch or do things that I wanted to because I had a lot of homework to work on. However, I was able to watch a few episodes of The Walking Dead. I watched 2 episodes, which means I only have to watch 2 more episodes until I am caught up to the current episode, which airs late February. Thank goodness the show takes a few month break in between its two half seasons. This media consumption, as well as the music consumption can be considered culture, due to both of them being activities I enjoy doing and both of them being things I like. 

Here’s a meme from The Walking Dead, because I haven’t posted a picture in awhile...

This is probably the only one I can find that doesn’t have spoilers. Plus, it has Carl, and he’s my favorite character on the show. 

Today’s Snapple Fact is fact #1281 “In Venus, it snows metal.” Pardon my pun, but that’s metal as frick. (See what I did there?)

[willowbg-consumption]

Day 23: February 7th, 2018

Uuuhhhh yeah, today was pretty boring. Not going to lie. I don’t even want to write this post but I guess I have to. Welp, here we go I guess. 

Food. So I did something out of the ordinary today and got Starbucks. I was originally wanted to get a caramel macchiato, but I saw a sign for the new Cherry Mocha drink, and new I had to try it. Except I had to get almond milk because they ran out of soy milk. I went to the St. Paul campus and bought a bagel, Vitamin Water Zero, Chex mix, and various other snacks for my friend in my next class. It cost me about $8. I ate the bagel and drank the Vitamin Water Zero before heading to class. For “lunch”, I had the bag of Chex mix I had bought earlier. Great lunch, I know. For dinner, I decided to splurge and go to Qdoba with my roommate. I got a Chicken Quesadilla, which cost me $8.50, but it was delicious. I also went to Insomnia Cookies and got six cookies, but I didn’t eat any of them. As usual, my food and beverage consumption can be considered economy because all of the food I ate today was food I bought today.  

I listened to a lot of angsty music today. When I say angsty, I mean really angsty music that I used to listen to in high school. Knuckle Puck, Fall Out Boy, Real Friends and of course Twenty One Pilots. It kind of felt empowering to listen to this kind of music at a really loud volume and not really care what people around you think. My anxiety eventually kicked in and I eventually did care what people thought of me, but it was nice while it lasted. 

I also was able to read a few more chapters in my book, Armada. I’ve kinda come to the decision that I won’t necessarily recommend it. hat happens is really kinda cheesy and expected, which is a shame because I really like the author.  Ernest Cline, who is the author, wrote Ready Player One which was really good. It’s kind of a shame that this book couldn’t live up to the same expectations of that book though.

The above music consumption and reading consumption can be considered culture because they are both things that I enjoy doing and are artists and genres that I like. 

Today’s Snapple Fact is Fact #306 “In the Middle Ages, chicken soup was considered an aphrodisiac.” You know, there’s very few things in life that I could go without knowing. This fact is one of them. Like, ew. Thanks Snapple. 

[willowbg-consumption]

Day 22: February 6th, 2018

Last night was a bad night, so this is being written on the next day. It’s not ideally what I wanted to do, but sometimes life throws s*** at you and you have to roll with the punches. 

I kind of really don’t like talking about my food consumption. When I was in middle school, I developed an eating disorder, and it’s still kind of there. I mean I don’t actively starve myself everyday, but there are days where I think about it and I’m pretty much trying to track my calories everyday even though I don’t want to be doing so. Logging everything I eat and drink has not only made me conscious of how much I’m spending, but also what I am eating which I don’t really like. But here we go. My day started with a soy caramel macchiato from Starbucks. I drank about 3/4ths of it in class and at work, but I think I should really start buying a smaller size so that it doesn’t go to waste and I’m not wasting money ($5). I didn’t really eat anything until about 3pm, when I made myself a quesadilla at work, which I ate about half of in class and then took my Zoloft. Additionally, I had bought Caffeine free Diet Coke, a Milky Way bar, and various snacks for my friend ($8). I drank some of the Diet Coke in class, and drank a bit more of it when I got to my apartment. So, I currently have half a bottle of Caffeine Free Diet Coke sitting on my apartment floor at home. I ate the Milky Way when I got home too, but that was one thing I finished. A few hours later, I had two small bags of popcorn I bought from CVS last semester, and finished the gatorade I started on Sunday. For my “dinner”, I had two Nutrigrain bars (blueberry and strawberry) and the last two cheddar cheese sticks along with the last of the Snapple Apple juice I started on Sunday. So yeah, you can probably guess what this consumption falls under. Economy, due to the food and beverage I consumed being things I spent money on at some point in the past few weeks. 

I didn’t really listen to a lot of music today. I wasn’t able to put on music at work, so the only time I heard music was to class, and to work. Jon Bellion was who I listened to at those times,  but I think it was just because I wanted something to listen to. When I managed to take a shower, I for some reason put on Justin Timberlake. His half-time show must have made my mind subconsciously want to listen to some of his older songs. I also listened to “Sugar We’re Going Down” by Fall out Boy and “This is Gospel” by Panic! at the Disco, mostly because those are two of my favorite songs to sing in general. 

I did a bit of homework, as well as having classes and work today, so I didn’t get to watch a lot of television. The first thing I did watch was This is Us because there was a new episode, even though there was a new episode on Sunday. It was a pretty meh episode. Moved the storyline along a bit, but was also really sad. The show in general is sad. I also had the intention of watching the last 4 episodes of The Walking Dead, so that I could catch up for the new season, but my brain had other plans. 

The above two paragraphs would be considered Culture, due to them containing things that I enjoy doing, as well as them having some sort of pop-culture following.

As I stated, my brain had other plans instead of watching the episodes of The Walking Dead like I had been planning. About midway through the first episode of the show I fell into a deep depression. Depression is really weird. You can feel it coming, but you can’t really stop it. It’s like you’re on a rollercoaster that only goes down. You know you’re going down, but you can’t really stop the ride. Anyway, this depression turned into another panic attack, which consisted of me thinking that everyone hated me, which turned into me thinking I would die alone, which turned into me thinking that no one would come to my funeral. That’s the thing about panic attacks. You’re thoughts just keep spiraling down with one thought after another, even though you know you’re being irrational. You can’t really stop it either. You just have to let it run it’s hour and a half course. After the attack, I put on Youtube and blankly stared at it until I fell asleep. Depression is not a fun experience. Neither are panic attacks. They ruin your entire day.

We will do a word of the day today instead of the Snapple Fact of the day. The word is “whilom”. It kind of sounds like my name, which is pretty fun. The word can be used as an adjective or an adverb, but generally refers to something having to do with the past or a former version of something. For example, “Whilom Willow’s life was a lot easier than it is now”. I don’t know if that’s used properly, but I’ll give myself an A for effort. 

[willowbg-consumption]

Splurchase

Hello all you cool kids, it’s time for you to know what I spent my $2 on...it was actually $2.75, but shhhh don’t tell anyone. 

Here it is, in all of its glory.

That’s right, Strawberry Milkshake Pop Tarts. I originally did not want to get a food item, but when I saw these on the target shelf I audibly gasped and knew I had to get it. They stopped making this wonderful Pop Tart flavor five years ago, but I didn’t realize it until more recently. As I grew older, I stopped eating Pop Tarts (and more recently started eating them again), which meant that the last time I had this flavor Pop Tart was sometime in my early years of middle school. Seeing these on the shelf flooded my mind with memories of my childhood when life was good and nothing was as difficult as it seems now. It was honestly something that turned my day around a bit. I’m sure once I bite into one of them, I’ll get mad at myself for buying more sugary crap, but just knowing that they exist makes me happy. (Also, this is one of the few Pop Tarts that taste amazing frozen, so I can’t wait to eat these things cold in the dead of winter).

[willowbg-consumption]

Day 21: February 5th, 2018

Hey kids, welcome to another exciting day in my life. It was totally exciting (not).

It’s Monday, which meant that I had to wake up early and go to work (ugh). Usually, when I wake up early, I don’t like to listen to music. It’s just too loud for my “just waking up” ears. I actually didn’t listen to a lot of music today at all because I didn’t really have the chance to until I got home from class. However, when I did get home from class, I made sure to play my “All the Musicals” playlist. It’s got basically all the musicals, (including ANNIE!!!!!) so I made sure to sing along to the songs for about an hour. 

I used most of my free time today, where I wasn’t in class, to read more of my book, Armada. I managed to make it through another three chapters today. It’s kinda picking up, but it’s also pretty much what I expected it to be from this author that I have read before. I don’t know for sure how much I would recommend it, I just know that it feels good to be reading again.

As far as TV shows, now that I’m done binging This Is Us, I’ve decided that I wanted to catch up to the other shows that I used to watch. First up on my list is The Walking Dead, which I have to start the new season on in order to catch up with the second half of the season, airing later this month. I was able to watch 2 episodes tonight (out of 8). Next on my list is Doctor Who. I didn’t get to watch the most recent season of Doctor Who which kind of saddens me, because I was OBSESSED with the show up until about last year when I realized I didn’t have the time to watch it anymore. So, I have a whole season of that to watch plus the Christmas episode. No big rush on that though because the new season doesn’t come out for another year. Lastly, I need to watch season 4 of Sherlock. It’s only 3 episodes, but each is an hour and a half long (I KNOW CRAZY RIGHT?).  Again, not really a rush on that one either, because the guess right now is that season 5 won’t come out for another 2 years (ugh).

All of the above consumption, including my music consumption, reading consumption, and television consumption can all be considered as culture, because they are things that I enjoy doing, and are also things with somewhat of a pop culture following. 

I guess we will end this day’s post with what I ate for food. (I didn’t do much today. I’m sorry). First, I bought a muffin and a Diet Coke from work ($4). I drank the Diet Coke right away, but wasn’t able to eat the muffin for another few hours until I was in class. After I ate the muffin I took my Zoloft, even though I’m pretty sure I need to find a new medication. For lunch, I got tater tots from work, which I just recently discovered that I loved. My coworker that rang me up didn’t charge me for them and for that, I am forever grateful to him. I ate the tots and continued to drink my Diet Coke, which I ended up finishing (woah, that’s a rarity.) My dinner is kind of messed up. I had two cheddar cheese sticks, chewy Sweettarts that I bought from work awhile ago, and Lay’s Barbecue chips that I bought from Target last week. I also ate more Mint chocolate chip ice cream. My stomach will surely hate me later tonight or tomorrow morning. Anyway, this food and beverage consumption can be labelled as economy because I did have to spend money on the food and beverages I consumed at some point, rather that be today or sometime in the past. 

Don’t worry, kids, I do have a Snapple fact of the day. It is Snapple Fact #12 “Emus cannot walk backward”. But what about if you reverse a video of them walking forward? I guess the world will never know. 

[willowbg-consumption]

Day 20: February 4th, 2018

I was super extremely depressed today, and I don’t really know why. I slept until 1pm which is really not a good thing because I end up staying up late in order to fall asleep at night. You can probably tell how depressed I was through my consumption habits today.

For “breakfast” I ate mint chocolate chip ice cream right out of the container with a plastic spoon and took my Zoloft. When I decided that I was finished with the ice cream, I immediately went to eat my tortilla chips, which I finished the bag of (there was about half the bag left). I didn’t eat again until about 7pm. I had about 16 pepperoni Pizza rolls and two sticks of cheddar cheese sticks. Additionally, I drank about half a bottle of Snapple apple juice. About an hour after that, I decided I wanted more ice cream, so I ate more ice cream from the container. I ended the night by drinking half a bottle of Glacier Cherry Gatorade, because I needed to be more hydrated. I tend to find that when I’m depressed, I either eat recklessly or don’t eat at all. This is one of those instances where I ate recklessly. I don’t really know why I eat recklessly, but it’s just what I decided to do. This consumption could be considered economy, because I didn’t spend any money on food, but I did at some point to get the food. Additionally, leaving two half bottles of beverages is probably wasteful. 

There wasn’t really a lot of active media consumption today, however there was media that I had on. I did do a few items of homework. While I worked on it I had music on in the background. I couldn’t tell you what I listened to, but upon opening my Spotify app on my computer, I was apparently “listening” to the Red Hot Chili Peppers radio. I don’t listen to them a lot so it’s pretty weird that that was what I had on. Additionally, I, like most people, had on the Super Bowl. I intended to just watch the game for the commercials, while reading during the actual game (I had to watch the commercials for a class). However, I found myself “watching” (or what I would call blankly staring) the game. The whole entire reason I was watching the channel, besides my assignment for class, was because there was a new episode of This Is Us on after the Super Bowl. It was supposed to be a really sad episode that explains a characters death, but I thought they took a cop out approach to it. It also might have just been the mindset I was in, so I might watch it again when I’m in a better mindset. As per always, my media consumption can be considered culture because it is something I watch and listen to for enjoyment. 

Yesterday, I mentioned how I started reading a book. I did manage to read a little bit of the book during the game, however I was only able to read about a chapter of it. I think I might start reading before bed like I did when I was younger. We’ll see how that ends up, though. Like the above consumption, this minimal book reading can be labelled as culture, due to it being something that I enjoy doing.

To end my night, I had a really bad panic attack. One of the worst I’ve had in awhile. The main thought I had during that panic attack was that everyone hated me. Even my closest friends. It’s kind of irrational, but that’s what a panic attack does. It makes you think irrationally in never ending circles, it takes control of your breathing so that every breath you manage to take feels like the last one you ever will take and it makes you cry more than you ever have before. It’s really a tiresome event that lasts anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour and a half, but it feels like forever. Like it will never end. It really is one of the worst things you can ever go through. I would never wish that on my mortal enemy. When I managed to pull myself out of the attack an hour later I was extremely tired and dehydrated. I chugged a half bottle of Gatorade (mentioned above) and went to sleep, even though I had gotten up at 1pm that day. Even though this isn’t really a normal “consumption” I would still like to label this event as society. The location of this panic attack- my bedroom, is important to this label, as an attack like this would not be accepted well by society if it happened in a public place. Therefore, I would say that having my panic attack at my home, in my space was somewhat of an expectation of society. 

I do have a Snapple fact, courtesy of the Snapple cap from my drink today. It is Snapple Fact #183 “The Capitol building in Washington, D.C. has 365 steps to represent every day of the year”. What happens if it’s a leap year? Do you have to leap an extra fake step every time you go up the stairs? I need answers.

[willowbg-consumption]

Week 3 Collection

There’s not as many things in this weeks collection as past weeks, and I have a feeling it’s because this week went by so fast. Regardless, here are the three things in this week’s collection.

Starting in the upper right is this week’s collection of water bottles. I think I’m averaging about four water bottles drank per week. Therefore I have four additional empty water bottles this week. When combined with the prior weeks’ water bottles, I have 16 water bottles in total. The empty water bottles can be labelled as economy because I have to pay for the bottles of water when I could just be getting water from the tap. Also, since they are plastic, there is a cost to recycling them in the long run.

Below the water bottles are this week’s doodles. There are quite a lot of them this week. I think all but two of them are from the Design and Discontents portion of my notebook because the professor likes to talk a lot and I get kinda bored (Sorry!). The doodles this week consist of two flowers, a sun with sunglasses (I don’t know why I drew him with sunglasses, is he trying to protect himself from himself?), a bird-esque thing, a mini sea-monster (?) in a water droplet (I really have no clue what this was supposed to be), half of a target, a pencil, music notes, a heart, an ice cream cone (because I have been eating a lot of ice cream lately), a shooting star, and water droplets. Quite a variety there. This week’s number of doodles is 12, so when added to the previous weeks’ doodles there is a total of 26 total doodles in my collection. Due to the doodles all being drawings, they fall under the category of design. 

Lastly, I have my collection of my most listened to songs this week. It’s mostly songs from musicals, but there’s also some rap and slower songs thrown in there too. I think the slower songs were because I was depressed a few days out of the week, and the rap songs that are on there are somewhat slow too for the same reason. The musical songs are on there from my singing extravaganza on Saturday, which helped release some built up stress I had. In total, I have 53 songs on the playlist, that you can listen to here if you would like. As always, my music consumption can be considered culture because it is something that makes me unique and is also something that I enjoy doing. 

[willowbg-consumption]

Day 19: February 3rd, 2018

Not a super exciting day today, I’m not going to lie, but I did get a lot of stuff done today, which makes me happy. 

The first thing I did today was clean my room because it was A MESS. It’s a good thing that I decided to do this first thing in the morning because it took me 4 hours. I think this is partially because when I clean, I don’t mess around. Everything that can be cleaned, will be cleaned. While I cleaned my room for the lovely 4 hours, I had the perfect opportunity to listen to TONS of music and you know what I listened to? Show tunes. TONS of them. I listened to the entire Hamilton soundtrack (about 2.5 hours), the entire Dear Evan Hansen soundtrack, and a few songs from RENT. Those are some of my favorite musicals, so I of course had to sing along to them at the top of my lungs. This was a good way for me to relieve some tension and stress I had from the past few weeks. That is, until I ran into one of my roommates (who was randomly assigned to me and my other two roommates), to whom I profusely apologized to for singing so loud. She was totally understanding and cool about it though, thank goodness. This musical filled music consumption of today can be labelled as culture because it’s something I enjoy listening to, not to mention that they each are extremely popular in the musical realm. 

My food consumption really isn’t all that interesting, but I guess I will share it just to share it. I think my most notable achievement of today is drinking half of a two liter of Diet Coke. In my defense, it technically was expired by a few days so I was trying to get rid of it ASAP, but still a liter of Diet Coke can’t be healthy. I also had a cookie dough Pop Tart before I started to clean my room. Cookie Dough Pop Tarts are the best kind of Pop Tarts, just saying. I also took my Zoloft after eating the Pop Tarts. For lunch, I had two Target brand Nutrigrain bars and more tortilla chips. I really like tortilla chips. They’re very underrated as a chip. Like, they don’t even need Salsa or anything. For dinner, I had the other half of my pizza from yesterday. It was soggy and gross, but I feel bad wasting it. In addition, I had a can of Target brand Mandarin Oranges. I love canned Mandarin Oranges. They are like the best canned fruit out there. What’s even better is when you can have a banana with them. It’s perfection. With my dinner, I had some Silk brand almond milk that I mixed with strawberry syrup to make strawberry almond milk, because strawberry milk is the best milk ever. I’m surprised I didn’t have any candy or ice cream today. It’s definitely an accomplishment. I guess I would label this food consumption economy, mostly because I didn’t spend any money today, but also because I didn’t want to waste the leftover pizza or expired Diet Coke. 

I didn’t really watch a lot of things today. I started off the morning watching a video on Youtube that my friend sent me about the motifs in Hamilton. This ultimately inspired my wanting to listen to musicals while I cleaned my room. I also half watched some Live PD via my cable streaming app while I ate dinner. Most of the free time I had left after cleaning my room ended up with me reading. An hour or so was dedicated to reading things for Design and its Discontents. I found the I Want That! reading more interesting than the other reading, to be honest. The other time was spent reading a book I’ve been meaning to read for months. It’s called Armada by Ernest Cline. I LOVE reading for fun. It’s just so relaxing and it gives me a sense of accomplishment. Unfortunately, with classes and homework, I haven’t had much time to actually sit down and read a book. Yes, I had time to sit down and binge hours of television shows, but I could do that while working on something else or some other homework, which is what I usually did. Reading kind of requires my undivided attention and I took the opportunity of having most of my homework done to read the first hundred pages of the book. It’s really good, especially if you like sci-fi, which is my favorite genre, so I like it so far. The minimal media consumption and the reading I have done today can be labelled as culture, as it is something that I enjoy watching or reading and something that I find fun to do.

There’s no word of the day or Snapple Fact today because it’s a weekend. Sorry kids.

[willowbg-consumption]

Day 18: February 2nd, 2018

I am extreeeeeemely tired. So tired. It’s only 9:15 at night and I am exhausted. This post might not be as in depth as I would like it to be, so that’s why. I only consumed 3.5 hours of sleep. So tired, so tired.

Food consumption today was honestly really a mess. I bought Little Debbie Donuts and a banana from work for breakfast and at them at work around 8am. Honestly not super horrible, but not great and it cost me $3. I also drank about 12 oz of diet coke from the soda fountain at work. Before I left work, I grabbed some ice cream (red raspberry truffle) because I honestly have no self control. It was really good though. In my apartment, I ate Tortilla chips, cheddar cheese snack sticks, and 2 Reese’s Peanut butter cups. Also not super healthy, but what are you going to do? For dinner, I made a Jack’s frozen pepperoni pizza and ate half of it. Pizza is the best thing ever. I love pizza. I also ate more ice cream, by finishing off my pint of Ben and Jerry’s Half-Baked that I’ve had since last semester. I’ve had quite a lot of dairy today, and being lactose intolerant, that will mean trouble for the rest of tonight and tomorrow. As always, my food intake can be labelled as economy, because I did buy food this morning, but the remainder of the food I ate was food I had bought previously.

My consumption of music has been pretty meh lately. I use Spotify to li sten to all of my music. I don’t know if I’ve made that clear in the last couple posts, but now you know. I think I listened to the Dear Evan Hansen soundtrack at least 3 times through today...It’s been a rough day. I also decided that I wanted to listen to more rap today, but slower rap. So I carefully picked out slower rap songs by Logic, Gambino, and Chance the Rapper, which is mainly what I listened to today during my walk to and from my apartment, at work, and in the shower. As per always, my music can be labelled as culture, due to it being something I enjoy listening too.

I decided that once I got home from work, I wanted to work on homework for my web design class, I thought it would take maybe 1 hour, 2 hours tops but boy was I wrong. While doing that web design homework, I decided to catch up on the trashy reality shows I started watching, such as America’s Next Top Model and Intervention through my cable streaming app. I finished the last episode of This Is Us last night, so there won’t be any posts about that in the next couple of posts. However, there is a special episode after the Super Bowl on Sunday, and then a new episode on Tuesday, so prepare yourself for that if you need. I’ve also watched quite a few things on Youtube due to the lots of web design work. It’s mostly been Shane Dawson, Threadbanger, and Good Mythical Morning. They’re kind of entertaining. Upon finishing my homework, I thought I would try to start on more homework: A reading for my design and discontents class. I tried to read it and understand it, but I just wasn’t getting it at all. It all sounded like gibberish in my head. So, I retired homework for the night and decided to do it tomorrow. I technically have the rest of the night off, but I’m probably going to fall asleep soon...while watching Live PD...what a great way to end the night. The TV shows and Youtube videos I watch can be labelled as culture, as it is something I enjoy. However, since I am watching Live PD where people break laws, I think I can slip in the society label as well.\

I don’t really have the energy to look at my texts for a Snapple fact or word of the day. However, I do have a photoshop image of a Party Giraffe that I made last year during finals. So, enjoy and have a good night!

[willowbg-consumption]

Day 17: February 1st, 2018

I am really depressed right now, and I’m honestly surprised I managed to force myself to write this, so bear with me.

My day didn’t start out like this at all actually. I was in a pretty good mood until about 7pm. I guess I’ll start off with what I ate and drank today. Per my usual Tuesday and Thursday routine, I bought a soy caramel latte from Starbucks through the Starbucks app on my way to class. I drank most of it in my morning class, but ended finishing it at work. At work, I was extremely hungry. I bought a bagel, and a Snickers bar (mostly because I saw someone buying one and I instantly wanted one) this totaled about $3.75. I ended up eating the bagel right away, but saved the Snickers bar for later. Before I left work I took my Zoloft,  grabbed some ice cream (red raspberry truffle, my favorite kind of ice cream from work) and a cup of diet coke which I ate in my second and last class of the day. When I got back from class and into my apartment, I ate the Snickers bar. Additionally, a few hours later, I ate some Tostitos tortilla chips (I had to open a new bag because I finished one of the bags I bought from Target the other day.) In addition, I also ate two Target brand cheddar cheese sticks, which I bought tonight (more on that later). Overall, I would categorize my food consumption as economy, due to it being things that I spent money on either today or at some point during the week.

As far as music and media, I didn’t really get to do a lot of it. I listened to a lot of Rap music today. Mostly Timeflies, Logic, Childish Gambino, and the song “Sunday Candy”. I honestly couldn’t tell you why I listened to a lot of rap today.  It might have been because I was feeling a little more confident earlier in the day. Now, as I write this post in my depressed state, I find myself listening to more slower, sadder songs like “Dark Blue” by Jack’s Mannequin and “I Will Follow You into the Dark” by Death Cab For Cutie. I “watched” about an hour of Youtube. By “watch” I mean staring at the screen blankly, barely even paying attention to what was going on in what I was watching. I know that I watched an episode of Good Mythical Morning and something with Dan and Phil, but couldn’t tell you what I was watching for the other half hour. I honestly don’t remember. I also watched a few episodes of This is Us, but I’ve talked enough about that show, so I’ll just leave it at that. I would categorize this music and media as culture, because this music and media are things I enjoy reading/watching. It also expresses my emotions pretty well, especially the music and it’s change with the shift in today’s feelings.

Time for my least favorite part of writing this blog: the spending money portion. As you know, I did go to Starbucks and bought a latte as well as spent money at work. Today, I also had to put a two month deposit down for the apartment I am living in next year. Goodbye $1,500. I also decided that I needed to go grocery shopping before the Super Bowl, because I do not want to go out this weekend if I don’t have to. It’s just going to be a madhouse. So, I took a trip to target. Originally, I had a list of things I needed to buy, and also a list of what my roommate wanted me to get for her. That went out the window when I walked into the store. Let me just preface this by saying I like the idea of shopping, but after I spend 15 minutes shopping by myself I get really anxious and want to get out. I must look like a madwoman as I walk through the store talking to myself saying things mostly consisting of “I hate myself”. I swear shopping alone just vamps up my anxiety. Anyway, I am also really, really attracted to things that are on clearance. You can probably see where this is going. So, the first thing you see when you walk into Target is the clothes sections and of course there was a clearance shelf with shirts on it. Earlier in the week I had thought about buying more shirts, due to mine shrinking in the wash or having holes in them. So, I picked out 3 Target brand shirts (one long sleeve, two short sleeve) and plop them in my cart. That’s an extra $13 that I just added to my tab that I didn’t plan on spending. Of course, they put the makeup right next to the clothes, so of course I go look at it because there is so much makeup on clearance. I immediately go to the Covergirl section, because that is the kind of makeup I wear when I decided to wear makeup. The lipstick that I wear is on clearance for about $3, when it’s usually $10. And, they have it in different colors. I’ve always wanted to experiment with different lipstick colors, and with these being a brand I know and it only being $3, I figured why not. I picked out 5 different lipstick colors and added them to my cart. I don’t even wear that much makeup, but I apparently decided that I needed them. There goes another $15 that I hadn’t planned on spending onto my tab. It was at this point that I started to get anxious and wanted to get out. I started talking to myself a lot at that point and tried to ignore the fact that I felt like everyone was staring at me. I quickly grabbed the other things on my list, my roommates list, and other various snacks and headed to the checkout line as fast as I could. Bagging all of my stuff was just a disaster. It was a self-checkout, so I had to bag them myself, and I had the pressure of people waiting to use the register after me and it felt like they were breathing down my neck. It wasn’t a fun experience, but it was made even worse when I saw my total to be $76. Ugh. These groceries, clothing and apparently lipstick better be worth it. I would classify this spending experience overall as economy, due to me spending money. Also, I would like to argue that my purchasing of clothing and lipstick can be labelled as society due to the societal pressure placed on us to look good.

Today’s Snapple Fact is fact #1396: “The word ‘aegilops is the longest word in the English language to have all of its letters in alphabetical order.” In case you were wondering what ‘aegilops is, it is a scientific genus of plants in the grass family AKA“goatgrass” You’re welcome.