Author: Katelynn Kennedy

TW: mention of death/loss of a loved one. 

This year, my favorite holiday doesn’t excite me like it used to. Everyone is getting in the Christmas spirit and decorating, while I’m cooped up in my room. Christmas was once a holiday of joy and taking time to spend with your family. 2024 has been a rollercoaster of events and emotions. My mom passed away earlier this year and my brothers and I became separated across the coast. The time I’m supposed to be spending with family feels nearly impossible. Many changes and separations have happened before, but this Christmas will be the hardest. I have an amazing new family I can spend the holiday with, although it’ll never be the same. I put up my Christmas tree in my room at home and started to feel this emptiness come over me.

When my family was together, we listened to Christmas music and decorated the tree. It would take all of us since we used to get a huge tree to go in front of the living room window. I used to have a special task to water and feed the tree every day before Christmas. While my brothers and I decorated the tree, my mom would start on our decorations outside. Our neighborhood had a decorating contest and it was always fun to try and win.

My mom used to bake sugar cookies and make edible paint so we could decorate them. She would also make Christmas candies to give out to friends and loved ones, we used to help by putting sprinkles on them. On Christmas Eve each year, we would always watch the same movie: The Polar Express. My mom would make us each a box for this night. It included pajamas, a body wash/shampoo set, perfume/cologne, a hot chocolate packet, a mug, and a bag of popcorn. All of us kids would put our Christmas pajamas on and make the hot cocoa and popcorn before starting the movie.

On Christmas day, we would wait for my mom to wake up. My little brothers would try to open the presents without her, but my older brother and I would stop them. My mom always needed coffee before we opened anything, my little brothers were bursting with anticipation and excitement. Finally, when we opened presents, the youngest would go first. After presents, all of us kids would take our new items to our rooms. My mom would then start on the mouthwatering food. She would take hours to prepare dinner because the food always needed to be slow-cooked for the flavors to meld. I used to go into the kitchen and help in any way I could. I always loved cooking with her. This year, none of that will be happening. Hopefully, we can continue some of our old traditions but also create new ones to better fit my and my brothers’ situations. While my mom isn’t physically here to make the candies, put together our boxes, or cook dinner, I could always continue in her place to keep her Christmas spirit alive. 

I remember going on a boat for the first time. The sun was barely over the horizon when we got all packed up to leave for the adventure, my eyes still crusted shut from the lack of sleep I had received the night before. My dad handed me an ice-cold chocolate milk which woke up my vocal cords, allowing me to speak and ask a million questions—bad choice on his part. My 4-year-old brain was scattered as I was concerned about how fast the boat would go or how deep the water would be. My brother, who is not much older than me, was not worried. He asked me to be quiet many times, and I happily told him no. I waited for my dad to answer all the questions that kept pouring out of my mouth rapidly. It was just us three in the car since my mom was at work like usual. We met up with my godparents who had the boat and they surprised my brother and me with our fishing poles. Mine was pink with princesses on it and my brother’s was red with Lightning Mcqueen. I was secretly jealous of him because I was not a fan of princesses, instead, I loved Cars and Toy Story just like he did. 

We eventually made it to the boat launch where we had to carefully back the boat into the water.  My dad and godfather loaded the boat with ice chests and supplies while my godmother put lifejackets on my brother and me to ensure our safety. I was terrified at first, but I soon got used to the rocking of the boat. That was until my godfather started driving. I remember screaming because we went “too fast” for me. I was taught how to cast a line and the basics of fishing. I never caught anything but the feeling of throwing the line over my head was so exhilarating. By the time lunch rolled around, my small stomach began to roar with hunger. I remember eating ham and cheese sandwiches while sitting toward the back of the small boat with my dad. We relaxed while my older brother was pretending to be the captain. While I had not caught anything that fishing trip, my godfather did catch some trout that we took home and he fried for dinner. When we eventually did get back home that night and the adults were cooking, my older brother and I took our fishing poles to the small dinghy in the yard. We practiced casting our lines and fishing until dinner time.

This year, Halloween is very different for me. Usually on this spooky holiday, I am surrounded by loved ones. We typically decorate cookies and gather around to watch horror movies. My favorite part is taking my younger brothers (4 & 7) Trick or Treating, all dressed in our costumes. Unfortunately this year, my family is spread apart. My older brother is 45 minutes away from my younger brothers and I am 2 hours and 52 minutes away from all of them. Instead of being upset about the distance, I’d rather reminisce on the times we were together for this holiday. 

When I was younger, I remember always wanting to match my older brother. Whether it was in first grade with the neon Nike shoes or our Halloween costumes, I always wanted to be like him. I eventually grew out of that because now I’m his biggest hater, yet his biggest supporter. We would have our costumes correlate so they weren’t exactly alike. One year we were both vampires, but we used different makeup and cloaks so we weren’t identical. Another year, we were Woody and Jessie from Toy Story. I remember wanting to be Woody, but that did not work in my favor. In the picture, I look a tad demonic. I was young and I had just thrown my purple glow stick, so cut young me some slack. I’ve noticed that matching is a common aspect among siblings who are close in age just by watching my younger brothers grow up. They do it as well when it comes to clothes and costumes. 

During Halloween time, we would bake cookies and decorate them. My mom had a collection of cookie cutters for all holidays. She also had a recipe for edible paint that we would use to color and decorate the cookies. I remember vividly one year watching Spookley the Square Pumpkin/other seasonal children’s movies and decorating these cookies. 

We had one neighborhood we would go to for Trick or Treating. It was very big and gave out tons of candy. The walking always wore me out by the end of the night but I always had fun with it. I remember getting scared by the inanimate decorations outside of people’s homes. A couple of years back, I got scared half to death by a man simply sitting in his chair handing out candy. I refused to walk up to him like a toddler (in my defense, he had terrifying makeup on that made him look like he was straight out of a horror film). Although I was 13, it was still embarrassingly frightening.

 I love Halloween (spooky season) and cannot wait for October 31st. This was a new type of blogging style, getting more personal. I enjoyed it a lot more than the other kinds that I have been doing, so expect a lot more 🙂

Getting away from ruining and picking apart children’s shows, I’m going to analyze my favorite songs. I enjoy various artists ranging from The Foundations, Chappell Roan, and even Incubus. This causes the genres I listen to, to also be all over the place. You will see that as I go through the songs today. 

According to stats.fm for Spotify, my top genres for the past 6 months have been Rock, Pop, Alternative, Classic Rock, and Mellow Gold.

    The 3-minute song, “Build Me Up Buttercup” by The Foundations is truly magical. It is in the C key and 4/4 time signature. The song is a story told by a lover who feels he is not getting enough reciprocation in his relationship/situationship. His lover never calls him when they say they will but he will love them still. This cycle continues throughout the song of the man’s lover continuing to not do right by him. Although the song is upbeat and fun, the lyrics depict a one-sided relationship that is mainly over the phone. This can be very relatable to current long-distance relationships who only ever talk through texting or phone calls. Many relationships develop and work that way. I enjoy this song because of the upbeat rhythm and the relatable lyrics.

    The nearly 4-minute song “Kaleidoscope” by Chappell Roan is a ballad that is in the B Major key and has a tempo of 77BPM. The song travels through a relationship that has just ended. The two were originally friends but ended up as more, we see this in the lyrics: “I guess we could pretend/ We didn’t cross the line” Roan still admires the other member of this relationship as she sings throughout the song. In the last of the lyrics, Chappell sings “Don’t be afraid to hold it close”, this makes sense because she still loves her ex-partner as a friend. It is still love but it is not the same kind of love, this follows the “Love is a kaleidoscope” metaphor throughout the song. I like this song because it shows how confusing love truly can be.

    The 3-and-a-half-minute song “Wish You Were Here” by Incubus is one of my personal favorites off of the morning view album. The song is about feeling free from yourself to enjoy life for a moment. The lyrics “The world’s a rollercoaster/ And I am not strapped in/ Well, maybe I should hold with care/But my hands are busy in the air..” are very interesting for me because they show how free the singer feels. Being on a rollercoaster without being strapped in and not holding on sounds pretty free… it also sounds like many injuries (although it’s only a metaphor). Relating to the title, the singer wants to feel this freedom with a certain person. Throughout the song, he repeats the lyrics “I wish you were here” to emphasize that. I love this song because it allows me to relax and imagine a place where I can be with someone I miss. This band is also very special to me as it was one of my late mother’s favorites. 

After a short intermission, we’re back to the regularly scheduled program of ruining your childhood television shows and movies. In this installment we will discuss the TV show Blue’s Clues. 

If you have not seen this TV show (how in the world have you not?), here is a brief explanation of it for you: Blue is a dog that loves to leave clues around the house for her owner, Steve, for what she wants to do that day or what she is feeling. There are talking inanimate objects in the show, like other kid’s shows. Steve writes all of these clues in his “handy dandy notebook” as the objects around the home help him figure out what Blue is hinting at. This goes on for around the entirety of the 30-minute episode as Blue puts a blue paw print on an object in the house or in the front/backyard to hint towards what she wants or is feeling. Around halfway through the episode, our adventure is interrupted by the mailbox flying into the house to deliver a letter. Steve sings the “we just got a letter” song and opens the message. We are greeted by children somewhere in the world who ask Steve an educational question. He usually answers it in 2 minutes, and we go back to our scavenger hunt.

One thing that I have learned from this show is to not tell someone what you want up front, to string them along with clues and make them figure it out themselves. Or at least that’s what Blue does throughout the entire series. She makes Steve and the other characters involved speculate what she actually wants instead of voicing it. If the inanimate objects like the salt and pepper shakers can talk, so can the neon blue dog.

Another thing that didn’t sit well with me was the mailbox… how in the world did he get into Steve’s house every episode with a letter from children, does he go in through the door or window? How did the children have Steve’s address? Why are these kids mailing a grown man a letter? There are so many questions I have that could lead into categories that might get out of hand.

Another question I have is, why does Steve own so many child-like things. A pail and shovel for his backyard, a tire swing in the front? It just concerns me considering that he is a full-grown man. Maybe a family owned the house before and that explains the swing, but not the toys.

Also, why doesn’t Steve have a job? He spends every day figuring out what his dog wants and talking to inanimate objects instead of being a regular adult. Why does he make conversation with his dog, spices, soap, shovel, bucket, ducks, mailbox, and other objects every single day? How has no one questioned this man’s mental state or even had him evaluated? He’s at least in his mid-twenties and all he does is sit at home and talk to objects. Anyone know if Steve is actually ok?

Continuing on ruining childhood movies and shows, this installment is going to be centered around the Mickey Mouse franchise. This includes all of his friends in the universe of which they live in.

If you are unfamiliar with Mickey Mouse or the characters I will discuss, here is a quick overview: Mickey Mouse is a mouse who is friends with Donald Duck, Daisey, Goofy, Minnie Mouse, Pluto and other animals and in the universe. They all went on quests and adventures similar to many other children’s TV/movies in the 2000’s. I will mostly be referring to the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse show throughout this installment. 

All of these characters are made up animals that in the first place shouldn’t be speaking. Somehow, they all have personalities and their own ways of lives. This does tie into the children’s show aspect of it, but why can’t there be real children that the kids can connect with in it? 

Pictured above are Mickey, Goofy, and Pluto. They are all the best of buds, but there are many questions revolving around their friendship dynamic. Goofy and Pluto are both in the canine family, meaning that they are similar in species. Why does Goofy wear clothes and speak articulately while Pluto wears a collar and is portrayed more as a pet to the friend group? There are many different reddit theories out there including one stating that Pluto was actually once like Goofy. He had a brain tumor and underwent surgery. The surgery left him in the state that the viewers now know him as. This is just a theory and is not canonically true, but I would like to know Disney’s answer to it. 

Another question that sits with me is the clothing situation with the characters. Back to the original picture, we see that some of the characters are wearing only tops, only bottoms, or a full set of clothing. The only characters that are wearing a full set of clothing are Goofy which makes me wonder if it goes back to the Pluto-Goofy situation and Minnie Mouse. Mickey is the only one not wearing a top while Donald and Daisy Duck wear tops and no bottoms although their bottom feathers are supposed to suggest bottoms. The clothing situation confused me as a child considering that this was a children’s show, and that half of the characters appeared to be half naked. 

One of my questions that actually have an answer is the gloves. The characters that have paws wear gloves instead of having bare paws. When Disney was questioned about this, they answered that they wanted to humanize the characters. Which brings me to my next series of questions. Why are we humanizing animals? Why are we wanting the children to feel as though these animals are just like them? What lessons will they learn from humanized animals going on quests throughout their made-up universe to solve nonhuman problems? 

As a continuation of my previous blog, I wanted to dive deeper on the questions that I had about my favorite children’s movies growing up. This installment is about the infamous Toy Story saga. There are 4 movies (and counting) in the Toy Story franchise and there are so many unanswered questions. 

If you are unfamiliar with the Toy Story movies, allow me to summarize them: Andy, a boy who grows up over the course of the movies, has toys that speak and come to life behind his back. These toys go on adventures, go through real life situations and collect more friends along the way. They even switch owners and become separated at parts. It’s all an exhilarating rollercoaster of events for children watching the movies. 

The toys begin to move and talk on their own. This is when the viewers are able to realize something is up. How are these toys talking and moving? Do they have brains that allow them to come to consciousness? The main plot of this first movie is that there is a new toy in the bedroom, a spaceman. His name is Buzz Lightyear, and Andy got him for his birthday. This toy quickly replaces Woody as the favorite toy. This sparks jealousy among the toys. How do toys have feelings such as jealousy? Aren’t they piles of plastic and fluff molded into dolls for children to play with? How do they have the ability to know that they are not the favorite anymore? This is continuously shown throughout the other 3 movies. Woody and Buzz soon become friends once they are launched on a firework at the end of the movie. How do they form friendships? They are toys?

The second movie is based around Woody getting stolen by a vintage toy collector. This sends Woody into panic. How does a toy feel panic? He meets 3 other toys in his kidnapper’s apartment: Bullseye (a horse), Jessie, and The Prospector. Apparently, they were all a part of a show called Woody’s Round-Up where Woody was the main character. The other toys from Andy’s room save Woody, Jessie, and Bullseye. It is revealed that The Prospector was an evil toy, so he is left behind.  How can toys save other toys? How can toys be evil? How did they find Woody? There are so many questions. 

For the last two movies, the toys are off to find a new home. Andy is growing up and is going off to college. Andy mistakenly puts the wrong bag into his mother’s donation pile which contains the toys. The toys are panicking. Once again, how do toys panic? How in the world do toys feel emotions or even know what is going on around them? The toys soon end up going off to a preschool where they are mistreated. They are played with in a rough manner which they don’t enjoy. Back to the questions about emotions… They soon find themselves in a landfill at the end of the movie. They are scared(how??) but manage to get out before being incinerated and then find their way back to Andy. When back to Andy, he hands the toys off to a young girl named Bonnie who takes them to a carnival in the fourth and final movie. They are all loved and cared for. At the carnival, Woody is reunited with his love interest from the first two movies. How do toys have love interests? No clue. The movie is centered around this love interest and their reunification. It’s all super confusing with the toys having human qualities but my questions never get answered throughout the movies. How do they become conscious and unconscious depending on when their owner is around? There is even a game based on the events of this called “Andy is coming” that I’m sure most of us played when we were in around 3rd-5th grade. 

The Cars movies have been famous for the entirety of my childhood. But I’ve got some questions…

Before I get into my questions, I should do a brief recap and overview of the movies. The first and third movie focused more on the racing aspect more than anything. They were all about beating the competition and getting to the checkered flag first. The second movie involved spies, poisonous petrol, and required a high IQ to understand all of the components together. 

These innocent smiles don’t fool me as I am curious as to what secrets are hiding under the hoods of these cars. In my notes app for over a year, I have had the questions “Is car insurance just life insurance for cars in the Cars Movie franchise?” “In their will, do they put their spare tire in their will?”. These are the questions I have that I want answered. Also, where are their engines if their mouths are in the front of the body of the car? And if in the first movie, why do they only eat/drink gas and then in the second movie why does Mater eat pistachio ice cream (wasabi)? 

The questions I have for movies like this one are endless. How are the cars produced? Are they produced in factories? How are cars in this universe considered older than others? Why is Mater not getting older and weaker like the other cars? 

Under the Hood

In the second movie, we are shown under the hood of a “lemon” car.

This is the bit that confuses me. Where are their mouths? If the oil they consume goes into their mouths, where is the tubing/”esophagus” required to perform the action that they are appearing to be doing? Another thing that I have a question about would be what do they do with cars that can no longer function? How do they decide that? One day they can just no longer run? Could Doc one day no longer start his engine and drive out of his shop? Did they scrap his body for parts? Who are they? I have so many questions and no answers.

How are the buildings in the Cars universe built? Who is cooking the food seen throughout the movies? What currency are the cars using? Who maintains the roads? Why didn’t Radiator Springs already have a department for that if they were so busy before? Why do the cars have doors? Where are the engine noises for half of the movie? Why do the cars need a school bus (as seen in Cars 3)? Are there humans that are purposefully not shown to the viewers to keep the simplicity of the importance of racing? I believe there are humans who work to keep the cars running and created. Maybe this world is like the Toy Story of Cars. Don’t get me started on planes.