* Children of Divorce * Latchkey Kids * Freedom Lovers * Creative * Pragmatic * Low Key * Innovative * Open Minded * Independent * Realistic * Adaptable * Fun * Tolerant * Taking Over the World * A blog by Alex Reagan
One of my favorite child stars--Candace Cameron Bure (A.K.A. DJ Tanner)--had a tough gig. She had to go through puberty in front of the whole nation. Being the same age as her, I can remember the weight gain, the acne, the bad hair of the early 90's...and can't imagine there being video documentation of that time in my life being re-run every day somewhere in the world.
Luckily, this beautiful Gen X'er made her way through those times. However, she reveals in her new book Reshaping It All that she didn't make it through without any scars. She ended up battling bulimia in her late teens. The book is available now, and People Magazine will be featuring her story in their January 17th issue...available next week.
Candace Cameron as DJ Tanner on Full House circa 1992
I enjoyed this story today on CBS Sunday Morning. Instead of identifying with any religion, I try to live by the golden rule. Ironically, it seems that is the stated goal of most faiths.
I came across this old episode of Frontline from back in 1985. It was a fascinating look at teaching children (and even adults) about discrimination. If you have a few minutes...check out an amazing 3rd grade teacher, Jane Elliott in "A Class Divided". I love stuff like this. Does it make me a geek? Yes. Do I care? No.
This one of the best videos I have seen in a while, even though I seem to be the last person to see it. My favorite parts: Keynes' Book as the Bible in the hotel room and the bartenders named Tim & Ben. Hayek's argument is so superior to Keynes...I don't see how anyone could support Keynesian economics after they've been proven so WRONG.
Great show from Judge Andrew Napolitano and the Freedom Watch crew last night. Ron Paul, Jim Rogers, FED rap videos... Who could ask for more!!! Please disregard the fact that this appears on Fox News. Even a broken clock is right twice a day...
I think I just agreed with Pat Robertson. No joke. Let me repeat that...I think I just agreed with Pat Robertson. If I understand correctly, he wants to legalize the weed...You know, I always say, its 4:20 somewhere!
I am not a fan of President Obama, I didn't vote for the man. I have nothing against him personally, I just don't agree with his ideas and philosophy of government. However, I will give credit when credit is due.
Today, he signed legislation repealling Don't Ask Don't Tell. This finally allows gay men and women to openly serve in the military. Bravo, Mr. President. It is honestly ridiculous that it took us this long to get rid of this absurd discrimination in our military.
"OOOHHHH! Fragile! Must be Italian!" I can't tell you how many times I say that phrase in the course of a given year. People from many generations have loved "A Christmas Story" since we first saw it back in 1983. Now, 27 years later, ABC News' Nightline shows us a sign of the times. Ralphie is all grown up...and I was quite surprised what this Gen X'er was doing now. Enjoy!
I posted earlier in the week about Generation X and finances...mostly focusing on our generation's dirty little secret...student loan debt. I have received a few e-mails, and will be including them in my upcoming series on the subject. However, CNBC has noticed the same problem. Last night, they aired “Price of Admission: America’s College Debt Crisis” and it will re-air on Sunday, December 26th at 10PM ET. As soon as the video is available online, I will post it here. In the meantime, check out this story...Put That Pizza on My Studen Loan.
I am currently doing research for a new series of posts I am writing about Generation X and money. Times are changing before our eyes, and the way we handle money must change with it. The way our parents and grandparents approached finances is obsolete. But, this is not just going to focus on personal finance. I am also writing a piece about Gen X's dirty little economic secret: student loan debt. If you think the housing bubble bursting was bad...just wait until the student loan defaults begin. If you have any personal stories you would like to share, please e-mail me at generationalex77@yahoo.com, and I will include them in my posts.
I can't believe that it has been 10 years since Will Ferrell & Christopher Walken gave us one of the most memorable sketches in Saturday Night Live history. I love how Jimmy Fallon just can't keep it together.
It's videos like this that make me love my generation. This is from students at Columbia Business School. I believe they made it around the time Ben Bernanke became FED Chairman...so circa 2006. It's great in a variety of ways...it includes a Police song parody, it intelligently makes fun of the FED & Ben Bernanke, and they obviously knew things were getting bad way before the rest of the world.
My all time favorite song is Queen and David Bowie's Under Pressure. Everything about it, to me, is perfection. I went back and watched the video they made for it back in 1981. It's nearly 30 years old, but is so very relevant for today. Please watch.
Sometimes, I just wonder what has to go through your head to come up with stuff like this. Whatever it is...I wish I had that gift. This is just freakin' hilarious. Love the Lonely Island.
I saw this recently, a one-woman show from Julia Sweeney (yes, it's Pat from SNL). This is called "Letting Go of God" and it is about her journey from Catholic to Atheist. It is entertaining and insightful into her personal spiritual journey. I identified with it, and thought many others would. Enjoy!
You may think you know...but you have no idea...
Do you love Google? iPads? Coke? Pepsi? Honda? Ford? Ikea? Starbucks?
I challenge you to watch all 4 episodes of this series. Get ready to have your mind blown. I'd love to hear your thoughts and reaction to this.
He played two different characters in two different episodes...I was so jealous of Carol in the first clip! But, I could have never cheated on the love of my life, Mike Seaver.
UPDATE **Totally called it. Ryan Reynolds & Scarlett Johanssen have announced their divorce**
Generation X can lay claim to this year's People Magazine "Sexiest Man Alive"...the honor goes to Ryan Reynolds. I must admit, I think he is smokin' hot. He's come along way since his days on Nickelodeon's soap opera "15". Honestly, I can't believe he married Scarlett Johanssen. I don't see that lasting very long.
A couple of years ago, a music video was shot in my hometown in Missouri. It was for the song Worn (and of plastic) by a musician named Dannel Vonn
Dillon. When you are in a town that small, things like this are kind of a big deal. I just wanted to post the video...because I came across it the other day. It made me miss home. And...it's a really great song! Enjoy.
Ok. Two How I Met Your Mother posts in a row. I couldn't help it. Tonight's episode was just that good. At the end of tonight's episode Barney Stinson did a "PSA" about having sex with someone who needs it this holiday season. He ended his message with a phrase any Gen X kid knows. Can you imagine if teen stars today did these kind of commercials? How the world has changed.
Tonight, on How I Met Your Mother, Neil Patrick Harris (AKA Barney Stinson) did his best Oprah impression. This clip is an example of the show at it's finest. One of the best on TV.
"Republicans stashed him (Ron Paul) in this job because they don't want him making more important decisions. He cares passionately about monetary policy, which most Republicans don't care about. But when you look at his speeches, he doesn't understand anything about monetary policy. He might actually understand it less than the average member of Congress. My personal opinion is that he wastes all of his time on the House Financial Services Committee ranting crazily."
Megan McArdle, libertarian blogger and economics editor of the Atlantic
This quote appeared in a recent Slate.com article about Congressman Ron Paul. The "libertarian" source for their story said the above quote.
There is no possible way this woman is a libertarian...or, she has no eyes or ears. I take issue with her absolute disrespect. Watch this video from CNBC today and tell me this man doesn't know about monetary policy. I challenge you to find one other person in Congress that could talk in this much depth about monetary issues. Also, you may want to take a look at a post I wrote a few days ago The Great Recession Was Not a Surprise. My personal opinion is that you, Ms. McArdle, waste your time ranting crazily about someone you apparently know nothing about.
A Sunday New York Times piece called Rep. Ron Paul, G.O.P. Loner, Comes In From Cold highlighted the progress the Ron Paul movement has made in this country over the past 3 years. From being largely ignored by the media in his last presidential run to Tea Party Godfather and new Chairman of the House Subcomittee on Domestic Monetary Policy...Dr. Paul and his Campaign for Liberty have come a long way. It feels good to know the hard work is paying off. I've only been working for liberty for 3 years. Dr. Paul has been at it for nearly 40 years. His commitment to the Constitution is inspiring.
ESPN is turning 30 this year. I can honestly remember the day we got the cable box on our TV for Christmas in 1983. My parents told their sports obsessed daughter about the "all sports" channel. I was the happiest little girl in the world. Of course, back then it was mostly Bowling, World's Strongest Man competitions, and the occasional NBA game. How things have changed.
Over the past year, ESPN has been celebrating their 30th anniversary with a series of films called 30 for 30. Each of these films focused on different sports "events" that have happened in the past 30 years-from the SMU football program death sentence to the Wayne Gretzky LA Kings trade. It has been a fascinating and sobering look at the world of sports. If you haven't seen these films, look for them to air on ESPN, ESPN2, or ESPN Classic over the next few weeks.
While these documentaries took a serious look at the world of sports, ESPN has also been famous for their fantastic SportsCenter commercials that have aired over the years. I found some of my favorites, and a compilation of various spots that have aired throughout the years.
Last night, after 17 seasons, an all-female team finally won the Amazing Race. Dr. Nat Strand and Dr. Kat Chang were the first duo to cross the finish line after they raced 10 other teams around the world. Amazingly, the team to come in second was also an all female duo...home shopping hosts Brooke Roberts and Claire Champlin.
Nat & Kat-Amazing Race Winners
Brooke & Claire, 2nd place
If you have never watched the Amazing Race, you are missing out. It is, by far, the best reality show on television. Teams have to be smart and get a little lucky to win the million dollar prize. This show isn't about being the most outrageous personality or using it as a launching pad to D-list celebrity stardom. This is a true race, forcing the team who wins to use every skill they have, face their fears, and test their relationships as they travel thousands of miles to foreign countries. They faced challenges that may have caused some embarrasment, but ultimately their perserverance paid off. But, you ask, why is this a big deal?
Generation X entrepreneurs are making their mark in the business world...and learning from the mistakes of those that came before them. LivingSocial CEO Tim O'Shaugnessy and Groupon CEO Andrew Mason tell how they created two of the fastest growing businesses EVER.
Back in 1995 I graduated from high school, went to college, and received my first viral e-mail. Of course, back then we didn't call it that, but I knew it was something that I wanted my friends to see, so I forwarded it on to everyone I knew that had an e-mail address.
Well, it is now 2010, and I have decided to celebrate the 15th anniversary of my first viral e-mail, by posting it on my blog. This could probably be re-written and updated...the term Generation X stuck and the 90's ended up being better than we thought. But, all things considered, it brings back great memories...Especially from something that was reflecting on a decade that had ended just 5 years prior. So, here it is, the first viral e-mail I ever received and passed on.
Don't call me "Generation X," call me a child of the eighties
by Bryant Adkins
published in The Reflector, Jan.1995
I am a child of the eighties. That is what I prefer to be called. The nineties can do without me. Grunge isn't here to stay, fashion is fickle and "Generation X" is a myth created by some over-40 writer trying to figure out why people wear flannel in the summer.
When I got home from school, I played with my Atari 2600. I spent hours playing Pitfall or Combat or Breakout or Dodge'em Cars or Frogger. I never did beat Asteroids. Then I watched "Scooby-Doo." Daphne was a Goddess, and I thought Shaggy was smoking something synthetic in the back of their psychedelic van. I hated Scrappy.
I would sleep over at friends' houses on the weekends. We played army with G.I. Joe figures, and I set up galactic wars between Autobots and Decepticons. We stayed up half the night throwing marshmallows and Velveeta at one another. We never beat the Rubik's Cube.
I got up on Saturday mornings at 6 a.m. to watch bad Hanna-Barbera cartoons like "Snorks," "Jabberjaw," "Captain Caveman," and "Space Ghost." In between I would watch "School House Rock." ("Conjunction junction, what's your function?")
As I watched Paul Rudd and Bill Hader make out last night in a Saturday Night Live Christmas sketch, It got me thinking back to some other classic SNL holiday moments. Enjoy!
Blue Valentine, a new movie starring Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams, originally received an NC-17 rating due to a scene featuring a blow job. Well, it turns out the MPAA (which is the organization that rates movies) has decided to change the rating to "R".
This whole situation reminded me of a movie I saw a couple of years ago. It was called This Film Is Not Yet Rated. Frankly, this movie is fascinating. It focuses on the history of the MPAA, the secrecy of the organization, and the censorship it consistently participates in. The MPAA and it's ratings system may be quite the violation of the first amendment. Their power to censor is ridiculous.
The entire film isn't available free online...you will have to rent it...but here are a couple clips.
Many Gen X females fell in love with Johnny Depp when we saw him on 21 Jump Street, back in the early days of Fox. He instantly graced the covers of Teen Beat, Bop, and a plethora of other magazines...and those pics found their way to the bedroom walls of teenage girls across the country. However, a post on greencelebrity.net asks the question: Is Johnny Depp really a Gen X'er, or is he (gasp) a Baby Boomer?
He was born in 1963, a year many see as a "generational cusp". However, it's difficult to accept the fact that he's not really one of us...Anyone who was alive when Kennedy was shot (no matter how young they were) can't really be defined as Gen X...at least not in my opinion. In the grand scheme of things it doesn't really matter. I think I just needed a reason to post the pilot episode of 21 Jump Street.
This is my first attempt at making an Xtranormal video. It's pretty fun creating your own cartoons with robot voices. In this video, President Barack Obama & former President George W. Bush come to the conclusion that maybe the FED isn't such a good idea. All feedback is welcome! (Just don't be too harsh)
Statistics show that less than 10% of people who claim to be Christians have actually read the entire Bible. Conversely, the majority of Atheists say they have read the religious text. My question is: How can someone base their life and entire belief system on something they've never read? How do they even know what the Bible says if they haven't actually read it?
As it turns out, Jews seem to read the Bible more than Christians, too. At least, in the case of Alan Dershowitz and Mike Huckabee. I don't know if Huckabee has read the entire Bible or not...but judging by this clip, I would say the answer is "no".
It was 30 years ago today...this modern day prophet , John Lennon, was gunned down. Now, all of these years later, another theory has emerged about the day the music died. The UK's Daily Mail has written a piece that will surely be blog fodder for those like myself who love a good conspiracy theory...but, how far-fetched is it? Did the CIA really order a hit on John Lennon? It wouldn't surprise me at all...
Autograph hunter Mark Chapman gets a signature from John Lennon outside his elegant Dakota apartment building in New York where hours later he gunned down the former Beatle
A good opening with a memorable theme song was a staple of TV shows I watched growing up. Nowadays, we get cold opens with credits running over the first scene. I guess the networks wanted those 60 seconds to sell to advertisers.
So, let's take a walk down memory lane with a few of the best and most memorable TV theme songs/show opens from our Generation X childhood. If I missed one of your favorites, let me know!
Mika's Grace Kelly is a song that I listen to on a regular basis, while singing it at the top of my lungs and dancing around my apartment. Last night, on NBC's The Sing Off, the Whiffenpoofs from Yale University put quite a unique spin on it. What do you think?
Forget President Obama, the most powerful man in the free world is FED Chairman Ben Bernanke. And, if you watched his interview tonight on 60 Minutes (which of course, you didn't because you're not over the age of 65), it's apparent that he knows how powerful he is...and he wants you to know just how smart he is. He's going to make all of your troubles go away. He knows EXACTLY how to control this economic downturn. Yeah, his record so far makes me have complete faith in his decision making skills.
Question from CBS' Scott Pelley: "You have what degree of confidence in your ability to control this?"
What really gave the United States the power to prosper?
John Stossel shows us "The Tragedy of The Commons"
I have argued this for a long time. Things that are "publicly owned" or "government provided" do not result in success. No one takes care of anything. There is no incentive to maximize productivity or control budgets.
I always use this example when it comes to welfare, government education, and government healthcare:
When I pay for my own lunch, I take the price of the item into consideration when I make my purchase, I am using my own money...I think about what my budget is and what I can afford. When I go to lunch that is paid for by my company expense account (a "3rd party" or "the public money"), I order what I want, with no consideration for price.
When you are dealing with your own property and your own money, it breeds prosperity and wise decision making. Private ownership of roads, hospitals, schools, wildlife, emergency services, etc...would only make those things better. For Generation X to have a chance, we have to fight for our private property rights.
OK, I admit it. I'm a Gleek. I love the show Glee. I was in Choraliers in high school...which would have been our equivalent of the Glee Club. Being in that group also meant we were in A Capella Choir...so it was great to burn two hours of each school day singing random songs...everything from the Beatles to Church Hymns (you could still actually sing those back then in a public school and not get in trouble for it...a lot of them had complicated harmonies!)
So, predictably, when something is hugely successful, other networks try to come up with their own version...a different twist. Glee has spawned NBC's "The Sing Off". This show is a competition between actual "glee clubs" from all over the country. It's first season was semi-successful...It was just a short 3 episodes in the spring. Now, they are giving it another shot this winter, and it looks like the competition is going to be even tougher.
So, the pros to this show are:
Incredibly talented performers
Ben Folds is a judge
This is Glee in real life
However, the cons appear to be:
Nick Lachey is still hosting
The cheesey factor (if not done right)
If you didn't see it last spring, here is my favorite performance of the entire season. It featured all of the groups competing...and they were singing my all time favorite song. Because of this, I will give it a shot this upcoming season.
Ok, so Dora the Explorer, Handy Manny, Bob the Builder, and Spongebob Squarepants are pretty cool. But, everything else out there in the world of so-called "kids entertainment" often quite scares me. It's just weird. Some of the stuff is so strange, Joel McHale on The Soup has a segment called "What the Kids are Watching"...hint: it's never good. In fact, the clips are so odd, The Soup staff has quite a good time making fun of them. So, I will pass on "Yo Gabba Whatever" and "XuXu this and that" when it comes to entertainment for the little ones in my life.
This is what the great "Aunt Sissy" has to share with the niece and nephew. To this day, I time things out by singing the Ladybugs Picnic song. It's a perfect minute.
First off, full disclosure: I'm not married and I don't have kids. But, this story really hit home for me. I was raised in a church all of my life. By the time I was 30, I was agnostic and determined never to step foot in a church again. Let me tell you, if that logical decision of mine prevented me from having custody of my children, I would go guano crazy.
According to a survey at the beginning of this video clip, 80% of young people raised in a church, will be "disengaged" by the age of 30. I am such a statistic.
On the CNN Money/Fortune website today, fellow Gen X'er and contributor Alexandra Levit pens a great article titled Scared Straight: How Gen Y Has Benefited From the Recession. She talks about how this demanding, all-knowing, super special generation has received quite the reality check in the wake of the great recession.
I talked about this in one of my very first blog posts back in August "This Is My Gen X Confession". My generation grew up with the ideas that independence, hard work, and paying your dues would eventually get you ahead in life. Unfortunately, we started to realize about 10 years ago, Gen X may have been sold a bill of goods.
Now, the "entitled" Gen Y is starting to figure out the world doesn't revolve around them, despite what their parents told them.
This is a video made by a 20-year old millenial and submitted into a contest titled "u @ 50", sponsored by the AARP. This is the best use of a palindrome I have seen in a while.
I will admit, I jumped in to the #why90srocked trend happening yesterday on twitter. So did millions of others. The Huffington Post compiled the most popular reasons people thought the 90's rocked. Why do you love the 90's? I look forward to your comments.
