Tide Dad

As I was watching TV afterschool the other day, this commercial came on and it somewhat piqued my interest.  Instead of the usual mom-like character talking about her favorite laundry detergent, a man is displayed folding little girl clothes.  He boasts about how he got freezer pop out of his daughter’s white dress in the first wash thanks to Tide Boost, and can have a little more “me time” as he puts it.  It’s funny because it’s usually the stay at home mom that rejoices when she get’s to have that extra bit of “me time.”

The reason I found this commercial a bit peculiar is because I’m really not used to anyone but a mom doing laundry.  Especially in commercials, I feel like everyone has this automatic stereotype embedded into their minds that it has to be a mom in a commercial about anything laundry related.  That’s exactly why this commercial really stood out to me.  It’s not necessarily a bad thing, it’s just an indication that the times truly are changing.  I’m sure something like this on TV in the 50′s would have been unheard of.

I really don’t think it’s such a bad thing that they had a man advertising a laundry product because it just goes to show that there are more women out there who are the breadwinners in the family.  There are so many more women who are taking charge and leaving their husbands at home to take care of the kids.  While the fact that males and females are progressively taking a role reversal, I think dads in laundry commercials are going to take a little getting used to.  There’s nothing weirder than a dad that knows the difference between a herringbone and a fishtail braid.

Gears of War 3

This past Tuesday, September 20th was the release of the much anticipated game Gears of War 3, the final addition to the trilogy.  Needless to say, it did not disappoint.  Seeing as though I am a die-hard fan of the game, I attended the midnight release at my local Gamestop because I simply could not take the wait.  There are many new additions to the game such as four player co-op.  Aside from that, there are a bunch of new characters including three playable female characters.

As far as multiplayer goes, there is a new mode called Beast mode which is very similar to the Horde, except you’re in the reverse role.  You actually get to play as the Locusts and kill COGS.  Horde Mode has been tweaked a bit as well in the sense that it has a taken a more strategic approach.  Instead of the usual “find a random spot and camp,” you now have the option to build fences and decoys that help block off the Locusts and keep them where you want them (away from you).

The one thing I was pretty disappointed about is that the online multiplayer variant option of Guardian and Submission have been removed.  They have been replaced with Capture the Leader which is essentially a combination of the both, but still really isn’t the same.  All in all, I have been quite please with the game and will definitely be spending more sleepless nights playing it in the future.

Paper or Plastic? I say neither.

I recently read an article in The Corsair, Santa Monica College’s very own newspaper, entitled “Plastic bags gone with the wind.” It says that as of September 1st, Santa Monica has joined San Francisco, San Jose, and the county of Santa Clara in the banning of distribution of single-use handled plastic bags.  Although it’s not many, hopefully more and more Californian cities will hop on board with the banning of plastic bags and we can start getting our Earth cleaned up already.  Assemblywoman Julia Brownley stated, “Californians throw away an estimated 16 billion plastic bags a year – more than 400 bags per person.”  That’s 16 billion plastic bags that are not only wasted, but that pollute our oceans and pose a threat to marine life.

My personal opinion is that it’s about effing time.  I’m no environmentalist freak or anything, but frankly I don’t think it takes one to realize the kinds of damage that we’re doing to our Earth.  I read another article that stated that congress didn’t approve of the ban on plastic bags because people should have a choice in how they bag their groceries.  I feel like like people have abused the right to even have a choice, and once that right is abused it should be taken away.  It’s everyone’s own damn fault for being so wasteful.  It really isn’t that hard to leave reusable bags in your car.  Some places even make it super easy on you by selling bags that fold up really small so you can just stick them your purse.  I feel like there is absolutely no excuse for someone to not use reusable bags other than pure laziness.  And if anyone begs to differ, please, enlighten me.

Ashton Kutcher Has a Secret Twin Brother?

While checking my emails on Yahoo, one of the featured stories on the main page caught my eye.  It went into detail about how established actor Ashton Kutcher has a secret fraternal twin brother, Michael Kutcher.  To be quite frank, I don’t really care for him as an actor.  In fact, I’ve always thought of him as rather annoying.  However, after further reading this article, it shed a little bit of light on his personal life and has in turn earned him a few points in my book.

Michael was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at a young age and even states that he was was the nerdy kid in school complete with Coke-bottle glasses and a hearing aid.  In a situation such as his, teasing from other kids is a given.  Although this would have proved to be a tough time for any child, Michael said Ashton defended him against the bullying from other kids.  In addition to his health condition and aesthetic deficiencies, Michael also suffered from a heart muscle disease causing his heart to stop at the early age of thirteen.  This resulted in him having to undergo a heart transplant in which he says Ashton stayed by his side the entire time.  This was rather heartwarming.

As I mentioned earlier, seeing this side of Ashton Kutcher has caused me to think a bit more favorably of him, but I still can’t say that I actually like him.  I still find it hard to think of him as anyone other than Kelso, from That 70′s Show.  At any rate, with season nine of Two and a Half Men quickly approaching, hopefully Ashton can earn some more brownies point as the role of Walden Shmidt, the replacement for Charlie Harper (Charlie Sheen).  However, that’s another blog post for another time.