American food

Hello everyone!

Today, I want to tell you about an American peculiarity that fascinated me during my trip to the United States, last year.

I guess this is going to seem ridiculous to you or even foolish, but when I travel, I like to discover every "aspects" of the country, even the most inprobable. In this way, I gone at Target, an American supermarket.

You will be taken me for crazy but I found these supermarkets fascinating!

Everything is excessively large (big)! Our supermarkets have a pale figure compared to these enormous American shops. The section which impressed me the most is the one of ice cream! The ice traies are huge, they are three times more than those found here. In addition, there is a totally amazing choice of flavors and brands!

What I also liked was discovering all the "mythical" products such as mac and cheese (macaroni with cheddar) or cupcakes by the truckload but while a lot of other extremely original products than others (such as a hamburger in cannedfood).

I was like a kid in a toy store.

So, you can imagine that I tested a few products: Some excellent (like the reeses') and others straight atrocious as twizzler (sweets that we often see in American films).

Anyway, I brought a few of my favorite products in France.

Unfortunately, the stock was quickly out and I quickly running out of treats ... to my great despair.

Until one day, a grocery store, L’épicerie de Maud  selling products from the United Kingdom, Canada AND the US opened in Grenoble.

It was a bit of a revelation to me and even an extreme joy!

So, if you too like peanut butter and cinnamon in all their forms, I invite you to go as fast as possible at this store because many natives supply there !

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lépicerie-de-Maud/415764578564877?ref=ts&fref=ts

Orphan Black: a brilliant TV show!

Hi everybody!

I comeback today to talk to you about a great TV show! I must admit that I don’t watch very often this kind of videos

The only one I watched completely is The Mentalist. I don’t know why but all of these seasons loosing me and wait more than one year between each season boring me because I forget plots. It was the case for Pretty Little Liars and Lost.

For the first one, the story is always the same and for the second one, a lot of secrets aren’t resolved.

But the TV show that I will present you is simply addictive! This is Orphan Black, a story take place in a near future with a major scientific breakthrough: human cloning.

Here’s the synopsis: Marginal and orphan, Sarah is the witness of a woman’ suicide.

After considering, she decided to take on the identity of this woman, which looks like her remarkably. She discovers that they are in fact two clones, other exist and are the target of a killer who tries to eliminate them one by one.

We might think that, this seen and reviewed, however, this TV show of science fiction is very good put together and works very well.

First, the plot is absolutely crazy! More we advanced in the seasons (only two came out for the moment) more we discover the extent of the “problem”. Each episode adds mystery to the main plot and never gets bored.

Then the characters are amazing! All have a unique personality, which gives relief to the series. But it’s especially the actress playing the main character Sarah Manning who has more merit because she also plays the other clones. I was afraid of behing embarrassed by it but in reality, we don’t even realize that this is the same actress as the games are different and well thought out.

Finally, what I like also is that this series is both frightening and full of suspense that funny! Dosage is perfect.

I can only encourage you to look this TV show but I warn you, you will not be able to detach! Plan a day to watch the entire season if you are as impatient as me!

Disney and its remakes

Today, I’m going to present you an article from the online Guardian newspaper. It deals with the Disney industry and especially its film industry.

Indeed, we learn that for the past few years, the Disney company focused its business strategy on remaking its old cartoons that had great success, but adapted into live action fantasy. Some movies have already come out as Alice in Wonderland, directed by Tim Burton in 2010, which was a phenomenal success and generated 1.02 bn $ to the recipe of Office boxing.

More recently, Maleficent and Cinderella were also adapted and they both experienced a great success, despite lower realization costs.

Disney takes advantages to renew his old cartoons.

On one hand, they know that this kind of films will appeal to a wide audience: the youngsters but also adults, former followers of the old Disney, where the live action seems more appropriate for them. Thus, producers do not take risks because there is a real fan base around these films.

On the other hand, the work seems less substantial since the stories are already written and most of these fairies tales are not submitted to any copyright.

So they are planning to release in the coming years the remake of Beauty and the Beast, Pinocchio, Mulan, Winnie the Pooh and Dumbo.

However, as declared Steven Gaydos, executive editor of Hollywood trade magazine Variety: "Hollywood used to be the dream factory, now it's the duty factory. " Then, We understand that by recycling its films, Disney brings nothing new and contents itself to make profit.

In my view, I cannot say that movie remakes displease me because I do not get bored of these stories that have cradled my childhood. However, I am afraid that Disney struggles if it continues on this way. The public needs to have novelty!

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/apr/11/disney-transforms-animated-classics-into-live-action-films

The SacconeJoly's

 Today I want to talk to you about YouTube videos. According to me, I must say that YouTube replaced TV. Except watching the news, I don’t turn it on anymore and I definitly won't miss it.

After all, it is true that we can find everything that we want on YouTube: funny videos, documentaries, rebroadcast programs, and there is also a new enthusiasm around YouTubers and podcasters.

It is precisely this side of YouTube that I'll talk to you and especially a YouTube channel: SACCONEJOLYs.  https://www.youtube.com/user/LeFloofTV

The concept is simple: shoot every day of daily life. That’s why it’s called " daily vlog " (“vlog” is the contraction between video and blog). Each video is published every day at regular time and lasts around 15 minutes.

We discover the life of an almost normal family: a young couple with two children Emilia, a little girl of 3 years-old and Eduardo a boy of 1 years-old... Not to mention the six dogs of the family.

So every day, we follow the new adventures of this family.

One wonders whether what is the interest of this kind of videos? I honestly do not know! I only know that it distracts me for a few minutes and I often smile because the children are funny.

Furthermore, since this is an English family, I like thinking that I do not lose my time and I progress in English. Moreover, they use informal language that is more common for us than the one of Dr.House, for example.

In a way, we can say that it is a new kind of reality show, less mind numbing than the one on the TV. But I understand that some people remain quite sceptical about these videos. In the end, this family gives a lot of its private life on all the Internet. We may also ask ourselves if exhibiting children, so young, on the web can be harmful for them? They certainly did not realize that the whole world can see them and especially judging them. They probably did not have a choice either to be film everyday and I wonder if this will have consequences for their future.

I'll ask you one last question, which seems to be essential to me: Do you think that this family really enjoy every moment? Filming every moment of life seems invasive, gruelling and above all out of touch with the real world.

Study drugs

!! WARNING !! This content is for a well-informed public.

Have you ever seen the movie Limitless ? The story is about a man who manages to develop cognitive faculties in few minutes by taking simple pills. Then it  improves his perceptions, his memory and his reasoning capacity. It seems to me too good to be true! And yet ...

... What if reality catches up fiction!

It is by loosing myself  in the maze of youtube that I find out a serious documentary  about drugs which may increase mental skills among students. My curiosity pushed me to press the play button and that is what I discovered:

The "study drug" is a phenomenon that affects the United States for some years. Indeed, taking drugs in American universities is becoming ordinary and common, even more a "necessity" sometimes. A study lead by The New York Times revealed that 1.5 % to 35 % of students use medecines to improve their academic performance.

Usually these "drugs" are  prescribed by psychiatrists to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Thus , there are many drugs on the market such as Ritalin , Adderall or Vyvanse , which are amphetamines and other psychotropic drugs.

So why do "healthy students "  consume drugs they are not supposed to ?

In theory, these « smart »  drugs would  improve focus, to work more than 20 hours in a row without tiredness, stimulate memory and consequently to optimize learning process, by staying awake and fighting against distractions. Therefore, it is a usefull and effective solution to get better grades.

Mostly, this practice is widespread in the most prestigious and competitive universities. Acutally, 1 student out of 5 would consume these drugs on a regular basis to stand out and be amongthe best.

We can understand that these drugs are commonplace and are compared to energizing drinks or coffee. Moreover, since these drugs are producted by pharmacists they look like they are safe for health.

However, there are many side effects that can be devastating . For example, there are physical addiction, headaches , nervousness, insomnia , anxiety, depression , confusion, memory trouble, important mood swings.

So do you think taking these drugs is worth a try?