Selectivity--What we choose to acknowledge

I've always been told that I'm a selective listener. Since I was a kid, my mother has been telling me I just hear what I want to hear, like "Sure, you can go to your friend's house" and *insert muffled sounds of her saying* "but not until you clean your room." I experienced numerous situations like this as I was growing up where I would hear what I wanted to hear and completely blanked on chores or other things expected of me. Luckily, this is is no longer a task-related problem.

As an adult, I recognized that I tend to see what I want to see. This isn't the case in obvious circumstances, like when I look outside I don't see sun when its raining. I'm not delusional. But in more subjective situations when I'm supposed to pick up on cues, I find myself taking into consideration what I want to see happen, rather than looking at what's really happening in front of me. A past case for myself, and possibly other females (I will make no assumptions here), is the decision of what actions to take seriously from the object of my affection. What is more important to take into consideration: The fact that he tells you that being with you "feels right" or should you take more notice of the fact he notices and expresses a lot of appreciation for all other females? Selective vision is dangerous and should be used with caution, and medication if at all possible.

I find the way we edit what we acknowledge to be the most frightening. Do we actually pick and choose our experiences unconsciously based on our wants? Won't the choices we make to get our desired outcomes potentially make a bigger messes and cause more errors?

The Power of Words

I felt as though this video summed up the way words can affect people and alter their behaviours.
Unfortunately, I couldn't help but notice the woman did not give the blind man any money.

The Makeover- how we can edit our looks

Editing our appearances has become easier and more popular due to shows on HGTV("Double Take"), Women's Network, and magazine articles telling you "How to Get Stephanie Pratt's Hair."These television shows and magazine articles teach us how to edit the way other people see us and our belongings. 

I think this is more of a problem for women who have a rather inexpensive option of giving themself a new, fresh face. One visit to the MAC store and $50 later, a girl can walk away with more defined cheekbones, smokier eyes, darker eyebrows, plumper lips. All of these products alter the appearance of our faces, giving us a new look, and satisfying that bored feeling we get when looking in the mirror. 

Women also tend to dye their hair when looking for a change or to liven up their appearances. Whenever I feel like my look is starting to seem dull, I book an appointment to brighten up my hair, which will then directly brighten up my life. The last time I went, my hair dresser tried to convince me to dye my eyebrows a really light blonde. I was a little hesitant to make such a large change to myself without sleeping on it for a while. Its been a couple of months now and I still haven't grown used to the idea of dying my eyebrows, though I'm not ruling it out completely.

Some women resort to plastic surgery to change the way their bodies look, if they have the money to spend on it. A lot of women I know would gladly turn their B-cups into D's, given the money to spend on that option. I recently downloaded an App for my iPod Touch, called iSurgeon, which allows its users to perform different kinds of surgery on an uploaded photo of themselves to see how they would look with a nose job, tummy tuck, or breast implants. 

What makes women want to change the way they look? Is it the way celebrities are constantly changing their appearances for different roles in movies or different interviews on TV? Could it be wanting to look similar to another female they know? Women have a sincere appreciation about how other females look and often take pointers or rip off certain styles from their friends. I think editing our appearances satisfies our superficial mentalities, making us look more like a celebrity and less like regular people we are supposed to be, though it doesn't quench any 

I used to be disgusted at the thought of increasing the size of my bust or unnaturally changing my nose, but enough exposure to it via Apps, TV, magazine articles, or people around me doing it has sensitized the way I look at editing my appearance. 

This is the original picture with my Grandma.

Going online to TAAZ virtual makeovers, I was able to achieve the way Stephanie Pratt does her hair, and change how I do my make up. The first photo is the original, followed by the one with Pratt's hair, and two other alternatives to how I look. 

This is the results with Stephanie Pratt's hair style.

I always wondered what I would look like with red hair. I don't like it.

Editing Ourselves

Editing doesn’t always require a red pen. It doesn’t mean that the results will always be an error-free product. Editing, to me, doesn’t always mean marked up paper, spelling mistakes, and grammatical errors.

In the past, former classmates have edited outside the norm, like motion pictures with Neil Babaluk, entire countries with Stacia Franz, and our management of time with Kim Lawson.

I thought about how we edit ourselves, whether it is biting our tongues instead of lashing out on our mothers, sisters, or brothers during an argument, erasing and re-writing one sentence in our emails or IMs multiple times before sending something completely different, or backpedaling and attempting to change the meaning of something we said, after we said it.

Our job as editors (of print and online media) is to fix mistakes, avoid portraying information incorrectly, and fairly represent our stories. On a larger scale, we also edit ourselves before offending, before saying something we probably shouldn’t, or after, we try to make a correction to our previous statements.  

Will making these changes to ourselves make us better, more perfect drafts of people? I don't think that stopping ourselves from saying something rude when we really want to say it, is a bad thing. But I think there is a time and a place for these edits, which is something that I think I have always struggled with. I tend to think that a lot things are better left unsaid and am always amazed and almost in awe of people who can say whatever they want, whenever they want.

I can't speak for those people and whether they experience an inner battle, like I often do. But it reminds me of a scene in You've Got Mail, when Tom Hanks is confessing to Meg Ryan that he often wished he could edit the words that come out of his mouth, whereas she said she wished she could have the courage and proper timing to say exactly what she was thinking to people.

Joe Fox: [talking via email to "Shopgirl"] Do you ever feel you've become the worst version of yourself? That a Pandora's box of all the secret, hateful parts - your arrogance, your spite, your condescension - has sprung open? Someone upsets you and instead of smiling and walking away, you zing them? "Hello, it's Mr Nasty." I'm sure you have no idea what I'm talking about. 

Kathleen Kelly: [talking via email to "NY152"] No, I know exactly what you mean, and I'm completely jealous. What happens to me when I'm provoked is that I get tongue-tied and my mind goes blank. Then I spend all night tossing and turning trying to figure out what I should have said. What should I have said, for example, to a bottom dweller who recently belittled my existence? 

[stops and thinks] 

Kathleen Kelly: Nothing. Even now, days later, I can't figure it out. 

Joe Fox: Wouldn't it be wonderful if I could pass all my zingers to you? And then I would never behave badly and you could behave badly all the time, and we'd both be happy. But then, on the other hand, I must warn you that when you finally have the pleasure of saying the thing you mean to say at the moment you mean to say it, remorse inevitably follows.