A Misunderstanding…

Why are movie theaters so expensive? To pay $8 to stare at a screen for typically less than 2 hours at a MATINEE price too?! I never remember paying that much for a matinee. I understand $8 for an evening price because it’s just a way to make money, keep people happy, etc. But no, $8 isn’t enough for a regular viewing time ticket. my local theater has gone up to $10. The other day, I spent $7.50 on a matinee ticket at a theater very far away from me, so it’s obviously not just by region. The price of movie tickets is becoming absurd. Sure, it is a lot of work to make a movie, but it’s not as difficult to send multiple versions around the world to be seen by more than just the actors’ families and friends. It will be seen by everybody. There isn’t really a limit to the number of people who will see it. Putting a higher price of tickets has discouraged me from going to theaters more often. Before this, the movies were as easy way to spend a couple bucks on something that will keep you and a friend busy for at least an hour. But now, I’d rather not go to the movies and have been consistently renting movies pretty much every week. It’s a much better way to spend money. The maximum I pay per rental is $4.99 which is typically a new release, or on a special display. Even with that, the fact that I do rent often, I end up with coupons that I can use to reduce this, so even then the $4.99 movie goes down to $1.99 (typically). It may not be the same effect of going to a theater, but you only pay once, for multiple people to watch, and the availability to watch the video as many times as desired before it is due back to its store and there is delayed gratification, but it’s just a movie.

U.C.A.

Ugly Coffee Addict. When the need for coffee turns ugly… So, call me crazy, but I don’t understand where this addiction comes from. Coffee is not my cup of tea (haha bad pun, I know). When you think of all the money that goes into the coffee industry from creamers, to artificial sugar, it’s crazy. Sure, these things are used for other things also, but it’s crazy how much the industry consumes people. Many of my friends would kill to be ble to go to Starbucks everyday to get their multi-syllabicle fix, but it’s a little insane. Why do people let the power of sugar combined with a little bean eat up their hard earned money or time waiting in line behind all of the other people waiting for their fix. Personally, I don’t like coffee (obviously), but I drink tea. Tea, is easily made at home compared to the over sugared, calorie filled, caffeinated drinks. Because of this, I’m not as controlled by the people controlled by the bean. People shouldn’t pay so much for such a ridiculous industry. It’s gotten to the point that every place pretty much sells coffee because they know people will buy it! It’s crazy when you think about it! When you think McDonald’s do you honestly think coffee? Well even if you do, it’s probably because it’s so heavily advertized and people continue to buy it. Sure, it makes sense, since they do serve breakfast until 10 or 11, but really? serving coffee all night long? It’s not such an impulse concept for me…

Passivity

Honestly, passivity works for me. Even when I think something is dumb, I still either do it or just let it go. The only time I actually fight for something is when I believe enough in it to step on someone else’s toes. Otherwise it’s completely rude to start fights with people just because you don’t like something they said. Last time I checked I wasn’t 9 years old wanting a lion cake for my birthday anymore. Sometimes people just have to let things go. I can understand why people would find debating fun, because of the whole sport-type aspect, but other than that it’s immature and ridiculous. Honestly, I might just be saying this because I stink at debating things I really don’t feel that strongly about, but at the same time, I also just have a hard time getting my point accross. Typically, I get shut down during fights, because I really don’t care enough to cause a dumb, worthless conflict to fight back. I only fight back when it’s worth putting energy into it. I grew up with an incredibly stubborn dad that stopped playing tic-tac-toe with me when i was 5 because I beat him. Sorry that I don’t want to be that person. I learn from the times other people make me feel inferior to them and CHOOSE to not do that to others. I’ve gotten into this cycle, and therefore end up not fighting back most of the time because it’s really not worth causing an arguement. I believe that everybody is entitled to their own opinion, and if they disagree with me WHO CARES? It’s a free country… I’m happy to give my opnion, but I’m not going to fight yours. I disagree with people all of the time and sometimes tell them, but then usually follow it up with “but that’s just my opinion”. It’s a weird automatic response that I say because I really don’t want to belittle people or make them feel like they have to agree with me. I’m not planning on running for president, so therefore I don’t need the entire world to see my opinion. Compromise is one of my favorite things. This also seems to be a curse in society’s eyes because people always want final decisions, but don’t realize how much of a friggin grey area everything is. There’s no way to make things a yes or no answer ALL OF THE TIME. While it is necessary to make a solid decision, that’s when people make them. Probably the most interesting thing about the Constitution and many laws, is that they are written as a solid rule, but there is still so much wiggle room because of the different interpretations of the law. Which brings up another point: how can lawyers defend guilty people? Honestly I have no idea. More about money than morals? who the hell knows? I can understand when a client seems innocent, but in cases where people are guilty and lawyers are supposed to work their hardest to win the case for them? How does that work? At one point when I was little, I wanted to be a lawyer and eventually a judge. Couple months later I was trying to figure out what kind of crazy pills made me want to do that? Especially since: I hate arguing, I don’t like history very much, and the fact that I realized that if I wanted to be successful I’d probably have to defend people I really didn’t want to.

Free Antibiotics?

So I got a sinus infection this week. I needed some antibiotics. It turns out that Giant Eagle’s pharmacy has free antibiotics if perscribed as a generic brand. I thought this was interesting. It also made me think about the fact that so many companies give fancy attention grabbing names to medicine that has a generic name also, but can sell the fancy name for so much more. For example, I was supposed to get a face cream under a specific name, when I went to the drugstore, the name I was given was $30 MORE than the generic cream. The $30 more price was also with health insurance. Little ridiculous right? I know. Sometimes I can understand price levels when the medicine is put into fancy caplets or liquid-gel type capsules & etc., but otherwise, CVS brand acetaminophen is cheaper than “original” version Tylenol. It’s interesting, but also just weird. Personally,  ibuprofen has been my choice of anti-inflammatory lately and it’s the same as advil and motrin. I know that I go for advil, but that’s just because I prefer the slightly sweet coating they put. I’m perfectly fine with paying extra for that. In other forms, it seems really obnoxious for them to all have different rates.

The College Process

It stinks. I’ve been going through it. It’s completely terrifying. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like if it was more of a regulated thing. Like if the government controlled admittance, and tuition would be free. I really don’t think it would work, but it would probably be about 900 times less stressful. If college admittance was controlled by the government, it would probably take the excitement out of school too, and then it would probably remove the ability to go to school in different states. One of the things that is completely ridiculous is SAT/ACT testing. They are both dumb tests and really don’t show how much anybody is worth accomplishing. They basically just show who has money and who doesn’t (typically/ a lot of the time) because it’s the people that can afford to have a personal tutor for a standardized test or take a class. Sometimes this truly isn’t always the case though. I know  a lot of people that do well without any assistance but, they did also have previous experience with it. ANOTHER thing that is completely outrageous, is how expensive it is to take these stupid tests! seriously?! it costs over 20 bucks to print up an answer sheet that’s going to be graded by a computer and booklet? wow. maybe we they should invest in somebody to fix this problem… if they can fit it into their budget. Jeez it’s crazy. If you factor in the people that want to go to college (this being a lot higher than it used to be) times the cost of the test, plus the cost of practice materials…. you see where I’m going. Ridiculous! Yes, because it cost SOOOO much to pay people to run sheets of paper through a computer and take excerpts from things previously written in published works, and to re-use questions. Yes, I see the dilemma now big standardized testing companies… I’m starting to wonder whether these companies are being hit by the recession… part of me thinks not, but you never know….