Disney Store Tsum Tsum! The Japanese Phenomenon

I became familier with Tsum Tsums a few weeks ago when my brother Steven bought me this really cute Winnie the Pooh tsum tsum from the Burbank CA Disney Store.

These cute stack-able tsum tsums are a Japanese hit, and thanks to this popularity they've come to the USA.  I haven't seen them yet in Utah (I've recently visited both the Disney Store at the Orem University Mall and City Creek in Salt Lake.)

But isn't Pooh adorable!!??

And no sooner then Steven giving me this plush I saw a commercial on the Disney Channel all about them!  (Haven't seen this commercial before or sense, ironically.) ( . . . and yes, I'm 32, and I watch Dog with a Blog and Girl Meets World . . . ) But in the commercial they showed many more tsum tsums that can be purchased.

If you can't buy them in your area, the Online Disney Store has tsum tsums for sale.

The Online Japan Disney Store has other tsum tsum varieties not available yet in the USA.

Check out the cuteness!

I don't mind the occasional cuteness overload:0)

(The commercial I saw.  Yes, I took a picture with my cell.)

Below is a video of YouTuber LorienSpree opening an order from Japan.

And here's a commercial advertising the Line Tsum Tsum phone app game.

I downloaded it for free from the app store, but I guess you need a Line account to fully get it going, which I haven't done yet.  Not sure where to go for that, but it looks like fun.

This is the game opener.

More cuteness abounds!

And if you don't feel like buying them, but would rather make a tsum tsum, I found a great tutorial from YouTuber BudgetHobby.

Really creative.

Though for $4.95 I would rather buy one :0)

So if you don't like all things cute, you may not like tsum tsums.

As for me, I'm embarrassing the adorable!

David McCullough at Utah Valley University

This week marked the opening of Utah Valley Universities Center for Constitutional Studies.  To celebrate the event UVU kicked off Constitution week with the guest speaker David McCullough. 

David McCullough is best known for his work on 1776 and John Adams, and he's a two time Pulitzer Prize winner, two time winner of the National Book Award, and has a Presidential Medal of Freedom.   

His talk was amazing.  He said we're raising a generation of spectators, which is true!  We spend our days on Facebook and watching television, watching others live while we sit back, listening to the sound of time whoosh by.  We need to get out and live!  Experience!  Learn!

And we need to remember how Human history is.  These are real people, living, making history in their present with no clue how things were going to work out.  When the Founders of the United States of America signed the Declaration of Independence, each one of them knew they were committing treason with England; As far as they knew, they were going to their death with this action.      

One thing I love about our founders is that each of them were lovers of knowledge and learning, many of them collecting books (it was Benjamin Franklin who invented the Library).  And they knew their history!  Classical history (much to our benefit).

And one final thought that McCullough said that I loved: "I don't know what I think until I write."   

I first developed my love of the Constitution through my Grandpa A.  He received his Juris Doctorate in Constitutional Studies.  He loved this country, deeply, and it's a love he's passed on to my family. 

Sarah