Aladdin. There is a little monkey in it. What more needs to be said?
I picture is worth a thousand words... so this post is over 1000 words long! Yay! :)
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Monday, June 6, 2011
Disney Movie Analysis #3: The Little Mermaid
The Little Mermaid. The movie with the famous and singable song "Under the Sea". ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgA2xo0HYrE )
To me, the Little Mermaid represented always following your dreams despite the obstacles present. For Ariel, she desired to walk on dry land. She even made a deal with Ursula, in order to follow her dreams. Trued dedication is seen, with a slight bit of stupidity. However, she really wanted to see her dream come true. Once walking on dry land, and directly disobeying her father, she meets her true love. This then leads to Ariel starting to feel more comfortable with where she is. One song, expresses Ariel's longing to go up on dry land because she wants to feel a part of that world:
With finding her love, she finds that comfortability. She is truly able to fit in, which is part of the message that Disney is trying to convey. That there is a place for everyone in the world, and that it might take time or it might be hard to understand, but as long as you are yourself, then you will fit in.
Disney Movie Analysis #4: Cinderella
When my sisters and I were younger, my parents convinced us each to chose one princess that we felt the closest bond with...or in other terms, our favorite. Mine was Cinderella. As I grew older too, I started to think more and more how parallel our lives were, despite that it is only a story. I always felt like I was doing a majority of the work around the house, and was even nicknamed for a time " 'Ella" as a reference to Cinderella. Yet again though, the theme behind Cinderella proves to be deep as well. When looking at it, you just see a happy fairy tale ending for a poor girl. Which okay, yes it is. However, it is also displaying how good things occur to those that work hard for what they want. That is what I always try to do now in my everyday life. I work hard, and then that way, when good things occur, I know that I can appreciate them more then if I was originally just handed the good thing or what I desired. Plus, who could not love the little mice in the movie!? They were just adorable! Plus, what girl has never wanted to find her Prince Charming at some ball, fall in love, and then have the perfect ending of going off and marrying him? It's almost everyone's fantasy!
Disney Movie Analysis #2: The Lion King
The Lion King is a movie, that I know when I saw it as a little kid, I started to cry about. It was so very sad when Simba's father died from the antelope. As a little kid, to watch that movie, and the emotional trauma involved and felt by Simba, it definitely effects how children perceive death. In case you haven't seen it or don't remember:
However, the rest of the movie portrays Simba's life as he grows up and matures into an adult lion who then desires to become king. The message of Hakuna Matata (No worries) is a great message to reveal throughout the movie. It helps to say to not let life get you down, and that things will work themselves out in the end.
However, the rest of the movie portrays Simba's life as he grows up and matures into an adult lion who then desires to become king. The message of Hakuna Matata (No worries) is a great message to reveal throughout the movie. It helps to say to not let life get you down, and that things will work themselves out in the end.
Another message that is seen mostly in the beginning of the movie, is through the song, Circle of Life:
At a young age, Disney is teaching kids that we are all connected. That the Earth is not just ours, but the whole ecosystems. We are not alone, and all of our actions will have an equal and opposite reaction (Go Newton's 3rd Law!). The deep meaning and lessons shown throughout Disney movies, are not fully realized until you are older and then by then you have already learnt the lesson partially because of the movies.
Disney Movie Analysis #1: Mulan
I love the movie Mulan! It has got to be one of my absolute favorite movies! I watched it over the weekend, and since then I have a hard time not humming or listening to the songs. They are contagious. However, as a little kid, I remember loving the movie for what it represents as it shows a girl kicking butt in the imperial guard for China. Now though, as I look at it, I realize the deeper meaning behind the movie. Mulan, is surprisingly more feminist in how it pushed women's rights through China, which is normally more centered around tradition. So, a lot of the songs on it, mention how women are supposed to marry the right guy and then have sons which will then grow up and protect China. The message that Mulan portrays is really enriching...and I like the different culture displayed in the movie. Here is a song that is pretty big around the culture and tradition:
Honor to Us All:
Until of course, Mulan joins the army and she becomes more like this:
I like her when she joins the army...lots of meaning! :)
Similar Ways of Communicating!
Okay, so we discussed a similar topic to this in Biology class, involving dolphins, and then some friends were talking about it as well. But how similar animals are to humans in how they interact with one another. I personally believe that in many ways animals communicate in the same ways humans do henceforth they are very similar.
For some bacteria that can create their own light, when they are in a group together, they are able to illuminate at the same time or in different patters by using different chemicals. When the concentration of the chemical they release is high enough they illuminate. High school students do something very similar in high school cafeterias. When it is getting close to the time to leave the noise increases until it reaches a point where someone thinks that it is time to go. Then the sound of a few chairs sliding as people stand up. Once a few people start to stand up, everyone follows to continue with conforming and following someone else's lead. So then, everyone stands up.
Animals also communicate though body language. Animals know when other animals are afraid. Plus, animals (similar to humans) are able to know the leader of a group by using body language. Humans also use body language to communicate as well. You can tell when someone feels afraid or uncomfortable. You also know who is the leader of group. You can tell this easily by posture and other body language, as well as the body language of those around the leader. That one personality has proven to be the most dominant of them all, and the other people surrounding them will display that. In a pride of lions the alpha male walks around with more comfort and stature than the others. The lions around the alpha will walk with much more fear. In humans the leader has pride and an ego. However, there are occasions when a leader is the quiet, reserved, intellectual one, but it is not always obvious immediately. The people usually flock around the leader to ask questions and they might be slightly afraid like a student walking past a principal. You can even think of the lunch room as a bee hive. It's always busy and rowdy with everything that is going on, and there are multiple instances where you can see that one person who would represent the queen bee. In a way, Mean Girls was right by referring high school to a jungle! :)
For some bacteria that can create their own light, when they are in a group together, they are able to illuminate at the same time or in different patters by using different chemicals. When the concentration of the chemical they release is high enough they illuminate. High school students do something very similar in high school cafeterias. When it is getting close to the time to leave the noise increases until it reaches a point where someone thinks that it is time to go. Then the sound of a few chairs sliding as people stand up. Once a few people start to stand up, everyone follows to continue with conforming and following someone else's lead. So then, everyone stands up.
Animals also communicate though body language. Animals know when other animals are afraid. Plus, animals (similar to humans) are able to know the leader of a group by using body language. Humans also use body language to communicate as well. You can tell when someone feels afraid or uncomfortable. You also know who is the leader of group. You can tell this easily by posture and other body language, as well as the body language of those around the leader. That one personality has proven to be the most dominant of them all, and the other people surrounding them will display that. In a pride of lions the alpha male walks around with more comfort and stature than the others. The lions around the alpha will walk with much more fear. In humans the leader has pride and an ego. However, there are occasions when a leader is the quiet, reserved, intellectual one, but it is not always obvious immediately. The people usually flock around the leader to ask questions and they might be slightly afraid like a student walking past a principal. You can even think of the lunch room as a bee hive. It's always busy and rowdy with everything that is going on, and there are multiple instances where you can see that one person who would represent the queen bee. In a way, Mean Girls was right by referring high school to a jungle! :)
What Is Art?
Okay, so I know that we discussed this in class (a while ago, but I found this old post and wanted to post it officially), but I kind of wanted to write about art as well.
I mean, what is art? If you think of an idea of a piece of art, but don't actually create, could that be considered art? Would you have the right to call it your own? A well known artist can create a drawing of a distorted person that looks like it was drawn by an elementary schooler, and yet they would be able to sell it for thousands of dollars. In high school, when you study art, you are given a bunch of guide lines and rules that you are required to follow. Yet they tell you to "Be creative" and to "Think outside of the box"...it's hypocritical. I know it's why I have personally always had a hard time with art. However for that class, you must follow all the guidelines in order to create a successful piece of art. Nevertheless, professional artists follow their own rules and create very successful pieces of art. A paradox, right? In a way, high school is forcing us to conform to someone's own individual opinion of what would be considered art, while telling us that that is still subjective. After high school, whatever a majority of the people like, they like. Then it sells. Also in high school, they tell you that abstract art is the hardest form of art. Abstract art consists of basically an idea that is displayed with distorted objects and little to no details. Most of the art will look like something drawn by an elementary student. Yet most abstract art is revered by society as genius pieces of art work. This could be symbolic of how society is so conformed that anything similar to or that revokes memories of the past and of their own personal individualism, will be loved by others. What do you see in this abstract painting? Symbolically and literally?
I mean, what is art? If you think of an idea of a piece of art, but don't actually create, could that be considered art? Would you have the right to call it your own? A well known artist can create a drawing of a distorted person that looks like it was drawn by an elementary schooler, and yet they would be able to sell it for thousands of dollars. In high school, when you study art, you are given a bunch of guide lines and rules that you are required to follow. Yet they tell you to "Be creative" and to "Think outside of the box"...it's hypocritical. I know it's why I have personally always had a hard time with art. However for that class, you must follow all the guidelines in order to create a successful piece of art. Nevertheless, professional artists follow their own rules and create very successful pieces of art. A paradox, right? In a way, high school is forcing us to conform to someone's own individual opinion of what would be considered art, while telling us that that is still subjective. After high school, whatever a majority of the people like, they like. Then it sells. Also in high school, they tell you that abstract art is the hardest form of art. Abstract art consists of basically an idea that is displayed with distorted objects and little to no details. Most of the art will look like something drawn by an elementary student. Yet most abstract art is revered by society as genius pieces of art work. This could be symbolic of how society is so conformed that anything similar to or that revokes memories of the past and of their own personal individualism, will be loved by others. What do you see in this abstract painting? Symbolically and literally?
Monday, May 30, 2011
Slang Words
Slang words are often used in high schools and are popular throughout the world. However they are most commonly used with teenagers. Many of the slang words, an average high schooler starts off not knowing. If I were to create a new slang word which has a meaning with nothing to do with what it actually means and then started to use it in casual conversations, what do you think would happen? Would people pretend they know what it means and start using it? I believe that this would happen because it would seem possible since no one wants to be the person that is not up to date with their slang words/phrases. This would mean that people would just play "Follow the leader" and they would just go along with what other people say. No one wants to be the person that has to awkwardly ask their friends what somethings means (Which is usually me, unfortunately). Sometimes the person who doesn't know the word would look the word up on the Internet after hearing it (Urban Dictionary, I think people use...) and they would try to avoid asking a friend. By asking a friend, it means that you are not 'cool' or it could just be that your friends are trying to trick you into using it because you don't know the real meaning. Plus for all you know it could be a) not a universal slang word or b) a made up word used to mock you if you use it without knowing what it really is, and since you don't ask someone you embarrass yourself...so the lesson gathered from all of this, would be to not degrade the English language any further by using slang terms, or to at least find out what the actual meaning of the word is, before you start using it.
100 Books that Everyone Should Read
I found this list online, so I was curious as to how many I have read. I have read 32 books out of the 100. I know that that is not good odds, but hey, it’s not bad for being only 17 years old. Plus, I definitely plan on reading more. Apparently though, The BBC believes that most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here. Despite that it shows my nerdiness, I am extremely proud of my 32 books that I have read! The books in bold, represent the books that I have read.
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible (Most of it, from all the times that I’ve gone to Church and had to study it)
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy (Next year! Woot! J )
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (Most of them, so I guess I can count it?)
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger (Unfortunately…I appreciate this novel though)
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams (When I was younger, my dad would read to me out of this book)
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma -Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis (Wasn’t this part of #33?)
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden (I heard that this was really good though,…I have been meaning to for a while)
40 Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown ( I started it but never finished it)
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding (Not a favorite at all)
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac/
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett (I own it but never read it)
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Inferno - Dante (Here you go, Noah…I guess reading it counted for something)
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens (Bits and pieces but not the whole thing)
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White (Read this in middle school or elementary school! Yay for us! Look at how we read such literature at a young age!)
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (I've read bits and pieces of different stories)
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad (Almost read it, but never got around to it…)
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas (Again, I meant to read it, but have never quite done so…)
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare (Wasn’t this mentioned up above previously?)
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo (Okay, I saw this in London! It was amazing! But I haven’t read the novel…so no matter how badly I want to bold this, I can’t…darn it… L )
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible (Most of it, from all the times that I’ve gone to Church and had to study it)
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy (Next year! Woot! J )
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (Most of them, so I guess I can count it?)
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger (Unfortunately…I appreciate this novel though)
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams (When I was younger, my dad would read to me out of this book)
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma -Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis (Wasn’t this part of #33?)
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden (I heard that this was really good though,…I have been meaning to for a while)
40 Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown ( I started it but never finished it)
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding (Not a favorite at all)
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac/
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett (I own it but never read it)
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Inferno - Dante (Here you go, Noah…I guess reading it counted for something)
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens (Bits and pieces but not the whole thing)
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White (Read this in middle school or elementary school! Yay for us! Look at how we read such literature at a young age!)
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (I've read bits and pieces of different stories)
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad (Almost read it, but never got around to it…)
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas (Again, I meant to read it, but have never quite done so…)
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare (Wasn’t this mentioned up above previously?)
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo (Okay, I saw this in London! It was amazing! But I haven’t read the novel…so no matter how badly I want to bold this, I can’t…darn it… L )
Monday, May 23, 2011
Light Pollution
So I was talking with one of my friends, Isabel, and she brought up an article about a major type of pollution affecting us as of right now:
Light Pollution
I had never thought about it that way before...I mean is it really a type of pollution? Her reasoning was as followed:
- That it makes sense, since with technology and growing cities (and a growing population) that more of the Earth stays lit even after the sun has set.
- Cities don't even get to see the stars because of all the excess light. It's kinda scary to think that some people never get to see a starry night. Even in Aurora, both of us feel that we still don't get to see as many stars as we could, if we weren't in a higher populated area.
- The article apparently mentions the effects of near constant light. It's not just astronomers who need dark-sky in order to observe the stars that are affected-it's animals as well whose biological clocks are affected by light. Back before the light bulb ever existed, and gas lamps, it was still possible to see plenty of stars in cities. It's no wonder how scientists were able to map out the path of planets, and determine that the Earth orbited the sun (and not vice versa). They could see all the stars and planets clearly, because of there was little (if any at all) light pollution to affect their view of the nighttime sky.
Flowers
One sure sign of Spring is when all the flowers begin to bloom. I love flowers because they are usually so pretty and beautiful, and because there are just so many types. I like a lot, and I suppose my favorite flower depends on my mood, but I really like roses and daisies. I also really like orchids, which are much more exotic. Flowers are very meaningful, and each have their own meaning and symbolize something. Another thing I like about flowers is how they often have a nice fragrance to them. Sometimes, it can be strong or unpleasant, but I find that many flowers smell sweet and nice. Plus, with the ones that don't smell as pleasant, it's still a new sensation of smell that I get to experience, and for that alone I enjoy it because it is broadening my senses.
One downside to flowers is that they don't always last. Most flowers die after a week or so, and unless you dry them and press them, they won't last. Some people don't really care for flowers, and I can see why, because they die after awhile. But, I think that just adds to their beauty. You have to appreciate them while they are still alive, and you only have so much time before they do die. However dead flowers should also be appreciated, because each organism is precious in it's own way. It's similar to how to look at life, as you have to appreciate things that come and go and the things in the present, instead of looking towards the future or always looking at the past. I always feel like flowers are a quick fix to a bad day, as long as they are alive of course!
One downside to flowers is that they don't always last. Most flowers die after a week or so, and unless you dry them and press them, they won't last. Some people don't really care for flowers, and I can see why, because they die after awhile. But, I think that just adds to their beauty. You have to appreciate them while they are still alive, and you only have so much time before they do die. However dead flowers should also be appreciated, because each organism is precious in it's own way. It's similar to how to look at life, as you have to appreciate things that come and go and the things in the present, instead of looking towards the future or always looking at the past. I always feel like flowers are a quick fix to a bad day, as long as they are alive of course!
Thursday, March 24, 2011
If I was an EVIL PERSON!!!
If I was a villain in every day life, I wonder how that would go over. I would probably make the worst villain in the whole world! I would try to do something bad and then fail because my conscience would eat away at my soul or I would feel too horribly guilty just thinking about it, that I would be unable to go through with the plan. Unless sarcasm is counted as meanness which would then count towards being a villain. Sarcasm though, has become a really popular thing these days, so it's probably not looked down upon or really counted as being mean. Beyond that though I would have a hard time being truly mean. Although, have you realized that in most movies, when a person dies the audience has no real reaction, but when a animal dies, everybody is feeling more sentimental and sad about it. Society is just desensitized to the deaths of it's own species because it's considered to be normal.
However, because talking about me being evil is really hard because it would be virtually impossible for me to even try to, Tori sent me this interesting article that proves the falseness of FOX news. Mr. Wilcox, you mentioned this in class, so I thought that it was pretty interesting. Basically, it discusses how the University of Maryland did a study of how those who watched the news were better informed but those who watched too much were negatively affected by it. Plus they discovered that FOX viewers were more likely to believe the false information. Here's the website if interested in checking it out (I would! It was pretty entertaining!):
However, because talking about me being evil is really hard because it would be virtually impossible for me to even try to, Tori sent me this interesting article that proves the falseness of FOX news. Mr. Wilcox, you mentioned this in class, so I thought that it was pretty interesting. Basically, it discusses how the University of Maryland did a study of how those who watched the news were better informed but those who watched too much were negatively affected by it. Plus they discovered that FOX viewers were more likely to believe the false information. Here's the website if interested in checking it out (I would! It was pretty entertaining!):
Testing...1,2,3!
I feel like I am like most kids in the world. I dislike testing. I dislike it usually with a passion, because I get really nervous beforehand and stress out majorly and then I still end up doing poorly on the test. Although this year I have a new policy. I am trying not to stress to much about each individual test, because about every day we have at least one test. However, I do study but with things like the SATs (which I just took for the first time the previous weekend), and I didn't really feel too worried about the test. I don't know if I did well or not yet, but I hoping that I did well. Testing is such a big deal to everyone these days and in the long run it helps to decide our future. I don't like that. We are not based off of our qualities but off of our test scores. Nobody bothers to see who that person is beneath the test scores, it is just based off of pure intelligence and memory. I wish that people spent more time getting to know other people, before making decisions that will affect the future of others. Plus I wish that not everything was based off of testing, because even if websites might claim that "You are not your test score", we all know that in the long run, it all comes down to the test scores and they are a major factor into the decision.
The Specialness that is the People in IB
Well everyone seems to be doing blogs about each other, and I kind of wanted to do one too. We all have such interesting opinions and things to say about one another, so I wanted to add my own two sense in! So as long as you, the reader, don't mind:
1. Noah- Okay so for me, I guess it makes sense to start off with Noah, just because I have literally EVERY CLASS WITH HIM!! But I love the kid to death. Noah, we have been friends since freshman year and I definitely believe that our friendship has grown and that we have become closer since then! We have also had our ups and downs with plenty of good memories. Plus, you give me loads of homework help when I need it and I don't know how well I could do everything without your sarcastic and negative attitude! =D But, I don't need to tell you how much I appreciate you and our friendship because you already know,...plus it would inflate your ego too much! ^.^
2. Katie- Katie, you and I have always been like friends but the closeness between us has seemed to change depending on the year and what classes we had together. But this year, we have been stronger then ever! I am proud to call you my friend!! You always have something interesting to say due to the random and obscure facts that you can recall. Plus we have the bond of SIBLINGS! Yay us! But I feel like we have definitely grown closer together as friends as we understand more and more about each other. Also, we both have similar woes when it comes to school and I am so happy that we are doing this program together because "misery loves company". Also, you broaden my musical and movie horizons which can always use the help, and for that alone I give you my sincerest thanks!!
3. Tori-No offense meant all towards you Tori, but since I never really knew you I did slightly judge you. I never realized how much you tried at things. I just kind of assumed that you were slightly snooty. But now that I know you, I realize that I was wrong. In fact I think I really started to see who you were when I went to your sixteenth birthday party as Lexi's date. It was the first time that I had really talked with you and I felt bad for you because you had seemed so stressed. But Tori, without you in IB I would probably be procrastinating more so, or worrying about everything much more. I feel that you seem to stress out enough for the both of us, so it kind of calms me down knowing that somebody else is just as busy. But thanks so much, for being so over analytical and organized!!
4. Ashleigh- Honestly Ashleigh, I remember you from freshman year's gym class and then health and APUSH sophomore year. I REALLY admired you. I loved the way that you dressed (and still do!). Plus I really admired how you were so different from everyone else, yet you always seemed so popular to me. You were cool in my eyes. Plus you are so smart! You always seemed to recall the most random facts off of the top of you head. I remember during health, how Mr. Ricketts always thought that we were cheating off of each other, because we got the same test scores but missed different questions. I just loved being friends with you then and now and thanks for being you!! =D
5. Leah- Leah, I remember always seeing you around the theater and talking to you on occasion, but I never really started to get to know you till this year. Your dedication to theater, costuming, highlights, and school is just astounding to me!! You try so hard in all of it, and you do well too, without being spread thin!! I have no idea how on earth you find the time to fit it all in and still have time to yourself and to hang out with friends! I wish that I had your multi-tasking ability! Plus you are always so happy, perky, and awake! You think positively about everything and you never seemed worried about much unless it is Hell Week!! Also I feel like I see more and more of whom you are as time goes by...starting with today for example, and how you ran downstairs wearing a gorilla costume! Your daring blew my mind! Thanks for doing so! Everyone was wondering what was going on!! ^.^
6. Sam-Sam, I never really knew you at all. I mean, we had classes together but we had never really talked before IB. However you turned out to be so different then I had originally thought that you would be. I thought that it would be awkward, but when you started talking about Harry Potter and cats, I immediately liked you!! I had no idea that you were such a nerd!! It made me happy (not to be rude at all!)!! But you are always so excited to learn new stuff in class, and you have a really good attitude towards things. You seem to just take things as they come and have fun with it, which I really admire! Plus between you, Sarah, Ben, Kevin, and Blake, history class is that much more fun! Oh yeah, your dedication towards Duke is amazing! You love that school so much, and you are not even in it yet! And if you don't get in, then the school is crazy for not taking you in as a student!!
7. Sarah- Sarah, you have no idea how much I admire you and your sarcastic attitude! As weird as that may sound, I really like how you always have a witty comment to come back with! You always seem to make me laugh, and it immediately brightens my day! Plus, you and Sam have such a great friendship and I really admire that between the two of you. Your closeness as friends is something that I would hope to have someday with someone...besides Noah (Love you Noah! ;) ) Plus you didn't seem to mind talking to me, when you barely at first knew me, which was very adventurous of you. You, Sam, and Ben though, are like the comic relief of IB!
8. Ben- Ben, we rode the same bus together. For a couple of years. And we never talked. I am sorely disappointed. I don't know why we didn't...okay that's a lie, I do know why I at least didn't talk with you. I used to get really shy when it came to meeting new people, plus you seemed like if I were to talk to you, you would just stare at me like I was stupid and then turn away (not to be judgmental, I was just really shy and nervous back then). And I did not want to embarrass myself back then. But now, even though we have only talked a couple of times, just from spending most classes with you, I realize how funny and how much of a good sport you are. You are really interesting and random, which is not a bad thing. Plus I am jealous of your memory!! You and Katie both never take notes and yet you can remember EVERYTHING!! But you seem like a really cool person, and I am happy that I can claim to hopefully be your friend (If you would allow me to do so), or to at least be acquaintances.
1. Noah- Okay so for me, I guess it makes sense to start off with Noah, just because I have literally EVERY CLASS WITH HIM!! But I love the kid to death. Noah, we have been friends since freshman year and I definitely believe that our friendship has grown and that we have become closer since then! We have also had our ups and downs with plenty of good memories. Plus, you give me loads of homework help when I need it and I don't know how well I could do everything without your sarcastic and negative attitude! =D But, I don't need to tell you how much I appreciate you and our friendship because you already know,...plus it would inflate your ego too much! ^.^
2. Katie- Katie, you and I have always been like friends but the closeness between us has seemed to change depending on the year and what classes we had together. But this year, we have been stronger then ever! I am proud to call you my friend!! You always have something interesting to say due to the random and obscure facts that you can recall. Plus we have the bond of SIBLINGS! Yay us! But I feel like we have definitely grown closer together as friends as we understand more and more about each other. Also, we both have similar woes when it comes to school and I am so happy that we are doing this program together because "misery loves company". Also, you broaden my musical and movie horizons which can always use the help, and for that alone I give you my sincerest thanks!!
3. Tori-No offense meant all towards you Tori, but since I never really knew you I did slightly judge you. I never realized how much you tried at things. I just kind of assumed that you were slightly snooty. But now that I know you, I realize that I was wrong. In fact I think I really started to see who you were when I went to your sixteenth birthday party as Lexi's date. It was the first time that I had really talked with you and I felt bad for you because you had seemed so stressed. But Tori, without you in IB I would probably be procrastinating more so, or worrying about everything much more. I feel that you seem to stress out enough for the both of us, so it kind of calms me down knowing that somebody else is just as busy. But thanks so much, for being so over analytical and organized!!
4. Ashleigh- Honestly Ashleigh, I remember you from freshman year's gym class and then health and APUSH sophomore year. I REALLY admired you. I loved the way that you dressed (and still do!). Plus I really admired how you were so different from everyone else, yet you always seemed so popular to me. You were cool in my eyes. Plus you are so smart! You always seemed to recall the most random facts off of the top of you head. I remember during health, how Mr. Ricketts always thought that we were cheating off of each other, because we got the same test scores but missed different questions. I just loved being friends with you then and now and thanks for being you!! =D
5. Leah- Leah, I remember always seeing you around the theater and talking to you on occasion, but I never really started to get to know you till this year. Your dedication to theater, costuming, highlights, and school is just astounding to me!! You try so hard in all of it, and you do well too, without being spread thin!! I have no idea how on earth you find the time to fit it all in and still have time to yourself and to hang out with friends! I wish that I had your multi-tasking ability! Plus you are always so happy, perky, and awake! You think positively about everything and you never seemed worried about much unless it is Hell Week!! Also I feel like I see more and more of whom you are as time goes by...starting with today for example, and how you ran downstairs wearing a gorilla costume! Your daring blew my mind! Thanks for doing so! Everyone was wondering what was going on!! ^.^
6. Sam-Sam, I never really knew you at all. I mean, we had classes together but we had never really talked before IB. However you turned out to be so different then I had originally thought that you would be. I thought that it would be awkward, but when you started talking about Harry Potter and cats, I immediately liked you!! I had no idea that you were such a nerd!! It made me happy (not to be rude at all!)!! But you are always so excited to learn new stuff in class, and you have a really good attitude towards things. You seem to just take things as they come and have fun with it, which I really admire! Plus between you, Sarah, Ben, Kevin, and Blake, history class is that much more fun! Oh yeah, your dedication towards Duke is amazing! You love that school so much, and you are not even in it yet! And if you don't get in, then the school is crazy for not taking you in as a student!!
7. Sarah- Sarah, you have no idea how much I admire you and your sarcastic attitude! As weird as that may sound, I really like how you always have a witty comment to come back with! You always seem to make me laugh, and it immediately brightens my day! Plus, you and Sam have such a great friendship and I really admire that between the two of you. Your closeness as friends is something that I would hope to have someday with someone...besides Noah (Love you Noah! ;) ) Plus you didn't seem to mind talking to me, when you barely at first knew me, which was very adventurous of you. You, Sam, and Ben though, are like the comic relief of IB!
8. Ben- Ben, we rode the same bus together. For a couple of years. And we never talked. I am sorely disappointed. I don't know why we didn't...okay that's a lie, I do know why I at least didn't talk with you. I used to get really shy when it came to meeting new people, plus you seemed like if I were to talk to you, you would just stare at me like I was stupid and then turn away (not to be judgmental, I was just really shy and nervous back then). And I did not want to embarrass myself back then. But now, even though we have only talked a couple of times, just from spending most classes with you, I realize how funny and how much of a good sport you are. You are really interesting and random, which is not a bad thing. Plus I am jealous of your memory!! You and Katie both never take notes and yet you can remember EVERYTHING!! But you seem like a really cool person, and I am happy that I can claim to hopefully be your friend (If you would allow me to do so), or to at least be acquaintances.
Fight Club #6
"What do you wish before you die? You have to know the answer to this question. If you died right now, how would you feel about your life?"
Well if I died right now, how would I feel about my life? I would feel like I died too young. Like I didn't accomplish everything that I wanted to do in my life. I mean, I have done some great stuff and I feel like I have accomplished something, but I also feel that I myself have not reached my full potential in life yet. I can do more. So if I were to die I would feel pretty unaccomplished as of right now. I would want to graduate high school and go into a university and then become a doctor. Plus meet many more new people and get to know them better! Maybe my reason for living is not as concise as others, butt I know that I want to make a difference in the world (as cliche as that may sound!), and that I will try my hardest to do so!!
I'm not really quite sure, how else to add to my response just because it's slightly repetitive and I don't want to go into too much detail about my future, because my future changes constantly so why would I want to set myself up for disappointment?
I'm not really quite sure, how else to add to my response just because it's slightly repetitive and I don't want to go into too much detail about my future, because my future changes constantly so why would I want to set myself up for disappointment?
Fight Club #5
"Forget what you know"
I know for me personally there has been those moments in life where I have wondered if it would be just easier to not know the knowledge that I know. As tricky as that may sound, it's true. If we never knew anything from the beginning then how would we feel stupid or if we were missing out on something. We would never know that what we would be doing is wrong. Or that we shouldn't do it based off of morals. The world would be a pretty destructive place, because how could someone stop someone from doing something stupid because their would be no reasoning to get them to stop.
But then again, how would we know how to do stuff. How would we know how to properly do daily things in life. If we don't know how to do stuff, how would...Noah for example, know that soup should be warmed up and not eaten cold because it's gross. He will eat anything, yet the knowledge that he has tells him that he can't eat the soup cold because it will get him sick. (He was next to me while I was writing this, so he asked me to thread him in). We would probably end up reverting back to our instincts. Then what would make us better then animals? We would be beasts. Not different from the rest of the species except for the slim possibility that we might be able to talk. So forgetting what we know in the long run, would hurt us all. Maybe if we could forget little things that hurt us and prevent us from growing as a person then it might be best, but beyond that, remember and knowing how to do things is how us, as humans, evolve as a species.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
How to Help a Friend
If a friend was in trouble, most people would do anything possible to help that friend. I know that for me, I would help my friend as much as I possibly could. I would do anything within my abilities. However, what happens if the friend changes? How do you know if it's positive? One of my friends is going through a really hard time right now. This person has just gotten out of a relationship and due to that, has been triggered into a depression. I see so much of my little sister in my friend as of right now. It is scary. To have this person that I love like family to suffer through similar things that my sister herself suffered through, and to feel powerless is something new. With my sister, I was able to help by helping to deal with situations and by being strong to help my family. However I don't want to intrude into the personal life of my friend.
My other friends feel that confrontation previously, was the best way to go about this situation. After taking classes on illnesses and how to deal with the people who undergo them, I strongly objected. I tried to explain that the person was like a whole new different person, and I don't think that they completely understood. It is a hard concept to understand. In our heads , we still want that person who is suffering to take the punishment for the actions of hurting the people that they did, however the people who did the hurting do not really realize what they are doing beforehand. They change and for some it becomes harder to remember that period of time. The best way to show our support is to just remain friends with the person until they get better and to display our support for them. That's what they truly need.
I am going to see if over spring break, I can go and visit this person. Maybe try to help out more at various hospitals that deal with people whom have similar types of problems. I just hope that my friend gets better and gets the help that this person needs.
And hey, if this person that I am talking about is reading this, then please feel better and realize that we all miss you so much!!!
My other friends feel that confrontation previously, was the best way to go about this situation. After taking classes on illnesses and how to deal with the people who undergo them, I strongly objected. I tried to explain that the person was like a whole new different person, and I don't think that they completely understood. It is a hard concept to understand. In our heads , we still want that person who is suffering to take the punishment for the actions of hurting the people that they did, however the people who did the hurting do not really realize what they are doing beforehand. They change and for some it becomes harder to remember that period of time. The best way to show our support is to just remain friends with the person until they get better and to display our support for them. That's what they truly need.
I am going to see if over spring break, I can go and visit this person. Maybe try to help out more at various hospitals that deal with people whom have similar types of problems. I just hope that my friend gets better and gets the help that this person needs.
And hey, if this person that I am talking about is reading this, then please feel better and realize that we all miss you so much!!!
Fight Club #3
Holding a gun up to someone and threaten to change their lives, is it worth it? To scare them into chasing their dreams?
Although this is not a direct quote, this concept was portrayed in a major part of the movie. The main character holds a gun up to the head of a convenience store owner and threatens his life unless the owner follows his dreams of becoming a veterinarian. I think that the concept behind the idea is a little bit harsh, however the actual products of his actions are astounding. Dreams come true due to the threat of death. It's giving him a that little bit of a push towards fulfilling things that he might have been to scared to have previously done. It's a reason to do what you desire to do without having to blame oneself for the rising consequences of actions. Despite that you would be scarring that person for life, it is worth it in the long run due to the outcomes that would arise from the situation and it's actions.
Fight Club #2
"Our generation is one without a Great War or a Great Depression. But our Great War is a spiritual war and our Great Depression is our lives"
In a couple of ways, I agree with this quote from Fight Club. I mean, yes, there is the war in Iraq and the recession, but I feel that as a society we are battling more so with ourselves then with other people. More and more people are being diagnosed with mental illnesses, and it is not quite uncommon to know friends or family who may suffer from illnesses like depression. All of theses things are causing us to look more so into our lives today and realize who we are. I also feel that as a society, we are starting to open up so much more. For example, younger and younger generations do not consider it strange at all if you have ADD or other similar illnesses. They just accept it as a part of you, and that it is irrelevant in the long run. That is proof alone that the world is changing, and changing for the better as we are able to better identify ourselves and who we are. Many people are slowly being diagnosed with depression, as well as many more people then previously are becoming more so upset when it comes to their jobs, as it seems that they can never be happy with their lives. This leads to the Great Depression being compared to our lives and the spiritual war is due to figuring out who we are as we struggle in society.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Fight Club #4
"Your not your job, you are not how much money you have in the bank, you are not the car you drive, you are not the contents of your wallet, you are not your khakis."
You are you. Moral of the story. Don't try to be stereotyped by what others may physically see, but rather by what's on the inside. How you live and what you have should not be how you are looked as. A garbage man should not be looked down upon because he's a garbage man, but rather he should be seen as himself. A rich person should not be stereotyped into one category because he is rich, because he might be completely different then that. The material goods that you own or have should not matter. It should be how you act in your everyday life and the morals that you live by. How you portray yourself. It's all up to the person who is being judged, not the people who judge you to make the decision about who you are. However people in society don't do this. Society becomes biased off of the material goods and appearance of others. For example: if someone dressed poorly with died hair and facial piercings and was applying for the same job as someone who dressed like the perfect image of society's perfection, people would trust the perfect person more so then the one with the piercings when in reality the person with the piercings might be more intelligent or better suited for the job. Some companies would probably be biased against the person with piercings right from the beginning. All in all, just be yourself and don't judge others by their appearance.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Fight Club #1
"It's only when you have lost everything, can you do anything"
So while watching Fight Club with Noah, there were so many good TOK quotes that I started forcing Noah to stop the movie and repeat the quote at me so that I could write it down and do a blog about it. So this is the first quote of a mini-series of quotes from Fight Club, that I kind of wanted to write about. The narrator stated that once you have lost everything, everything in the world that means something to you and everything in the world that binds you and limits you, only then is it possible to do anything. To fully do anything, without feeling limited or scared by what you are doing because of a set boundary of emotions or morals, you need to have let them go. I agree with this. I think that despite that we feel already that we are invincible, as human beings, feeling that we are able to do anything, we fully do not grasp those occurrences by the reins and do so. We usually feel that something is stopping us from reaching our full potential, and it's usually more of an internal conflict then an external or physical conflict. However by losing everything that means something to you, then how do you technically have something that you still aspire to do. It's kind of a paradox in a way. I figure, as long as you live life the way you want too, then you shouldn't regret anything that would cause you to need to lose everything in order to do the anything.
How Awesome Zach Is...
So my friend Zach Wells and I were talking, and I mentioned that for our TOK class we have to write blogs. And honestly, I had no idea what I wanted to talk about, so Zach was like "Talk about how awesome I am!". I thought that it would be fun, so about Zach Wells. Well to start off with the basics he is a senior and is dating Stephanie. They are really adorable together, and are always there for one another. Oh yeah, and he is really conservative (politics is always a discussion that occurs upstairs in the tech booth). To me though, Zach is like an older brother. We spend a lot of time together due to stage crew, and I enjoy being around him and the atmosphere and other people who participate and help out with backstage stuff. But Zach does so much for the theater department. He basically lives at the school, and we always joke around with him about it.
When he graduates this year, what will happen to the department is a question with the answer still unknown. Zach, despite being there for the theater department and running it, is also there for the people who volunteer their own time. I know that for me, he is always willing to listen to me rant about one thing or another that is occurring in my life, which I hate doing because I feel like I am complaining to others, but he always is there to help. And he does this for everyone else too. Plus, the atmosphere in the tech booth is fun while still being productive. Everyone is friends, and we all help out with everyone.
Zach is always willing to help out with anything situation that each of us might be in. I know that for me, several times he has given me great advice, tried to help me out of awkward situations, and has just been a great friend and older brother to me. When I think that he will be going off to college soon, I wonder how much my life will change with his disappearance. I feel like a lot of things will change, so lately I have been focusing more so on the present, and just having a great time so that later on the memories of all of the time together will just bring so much joy and happiness.
And hey Zach, if you are reading this, I am sorry that this kind of veered off of the original topic. I apologize, but you must understand how hard it is to condense all of your greatness into words...people actually have to know you to fully understand you and your dedication to everything! ^.^ So I am sorry that I didn't do you justice through my writing!!
When he graduates this year, what will happen to the department is a question with the answer still unknown. Zach, despite being there for the theater department and running it, is also there for the people who volunteer their own time. I know that for me, he is always willing to listen to me rant about one thing or another that is occurring in my life, which I hate doing because I feel like I am complaining to others, but he always is there to help. And he does this for everyone else too. Plus, the atmosphere in the tech booth is fun while still being productive. Everyone is friends, and we all help out with everyone.
Zach is always willing to help out with anything situation that each of us might be in. I know that for me, several times he has given me great advice, tried to help me out of awkward situations, and has just been a great friend and older brother to me. When I think that he will be going off to college soon, I wonder how much my life will change with his disappearance. I feel like a lot of things will change, so lately I have been focusing more so on the present, and just having a great time so that later on the memories of all of the time together will just bring so much joy and happiness.
And hey Zach, if you are reading this, I am sorry that this kind of veered off of the original topic. I apologize, but you must understand how hard it is to condense all of your greatness into words...people actually have to know you to fully understand you and your dedication to everything! ^.^ So I am sorry that I didn't do you justice through my writing!!
Sunday, March 13, 2011
The Wonderful Surprise of a Snow Day!
I am always so delayed when it comes to blogging. I have a habit of coming on here and posting a new idea for a blog in my new posts tab and then not coming back in and writing the actual blogs till a couple days later. So the snow day that happened yesterday (and by yesterday, I mean a while ago!) was great!!! I was sleeping, and then unfortunately my alarm clock went off at 5am, because I was going to work on some stuff before school, however me being me I didn't actually get up because I felt so exhausted. So I went back to sleep, my clock on my phone went off at 5:45am to get up. All that my mind was thinking was "BLARGH!, I NEED MORE SLEEP!". So I had ignored it and went back to a dazed sleep. The next time that I looked at my clock it was 6am, and I finally realized that I had to get up in fear of running late, when..........................................................THE PHONE RANG!!! My sweet savior!!! I picked it up hoping that it was a call about a snow day and not some medical emergency for my sister, and it was like a sweet miracle!! As soon as it was over, I went back to sleep, to wake up at noon, and do really nothing that whole day. It was one of the best days that I have spent in a long time. Although unfortunately, the message learned from this little incident, would be that more sleep is needed. However it's so difficult to get more sleep because there is just so much to do...unless I was able to stop time! Like in Harry Potter, Hermione has a time turner that gives her the ability to be in two places at once. Then I would be able to sleep! I wish that there were more hours in the day or that we don't have to sleep as much or that we could be fully functional on less hours of sleep. At least that is my dream...maybe if I become some sort of scientist I can create one! =D
Monday, February 21, 2011
Continuous Blogging
Another past draft, rediscovered, and posted:
It's been so long since I was last on here and blogged...I'm not sure how I feel about that. Personally I feel like it was a nice vacation because I don't like the added work, however at the same time I feel like blogging my feelings out is a nice break. Anyways Valentine's Day is tomorrow. Yay. I am so controversial when it comes to holidays. I mean, Valentine's Day is a great Hallmark holiday, meaning it was created with the purpose of making more money for chocolate and flower companies. People usually make such a big deal about it. I think that it is a cute holiday, especially for those that celebrate it, but I always feel bad for the people who don't have the special person to celebrate it with.
I am not hating on Valentine's Day simply because I don't have anyone, either. I just always see the people without someone suffering because of the irritating "love" feeling floating around. Plus, some people make such a big deal about Valentine's Day. For example, one of my dad's past girlfriends made such a big deal over the holiday, when he didn't do EXACTLY what she wanted. I felt that she was completely overreacting. I mean, at that time, he didn't know that she wanted a specific type of flowers/chocolates/necklace. To me, it's a sweet holiday that can unfortunately, easily turn some couples sour.
It's been so long since I was last on here and blogged...I'm not sure how I feel about that. Personally I feel like it was a nice vacation because I don't like the added work, however at the same time I feel like blogging my feelings out is a nice break. Anyways Valentine's Day is tomorrow. Yay. I am so controversial when it comes to holidays. I mean, Valentine's Day is a great Hallmark holiday, meaning it was created with the purpose of making more money for chocolate and flower companies. People usually make such a big deal about it. I think that it is a cute holiday, especially for those that celebrate it, but I always feel bad for the people who don't have the special person to celebrate it with.
I am not hating on Valentine's Day simply because I don't have anyone, either. I just always see the people without someone suffering because of the irritating "love" feeling floating around. Plus, some people make such a big deal about Valentine's Day. For example, one of my dad's past girlfriends made such a big deal over the holiday, when he didn't do EXACTLY what she wanted. I felt that she was completely overreacting. I mean, at that time, he didn't know that she wanted a specific type of flowers/chocolates/necklace. To me, it's a sweet holiday that can unfortunately, easily turn some couples sour.
A Pet Peeve
I really don't mind a lot of things. Whatever seems to annoy people really fast usually doesn't get to me, however there is one thing that I can't stand. It is being told that I can't do something, or that I should change my mind about a decision. For me, once I start something, I finish it out to the very end. I dedicate myself more to whatever it is, until I am good at it. It's partially the reason why I haven't dropped IB Physics. Maybe it's my pride speaking that won't allow me, but I don't like people thinking that since I can't do something then I should not and I should just give up. I have always felt like giving up is a sign of defeat, and I dislike defeat because ever since I have been little, I have been a fighter. I have always enjoyed and still do, causing people to be surprised or fighting against society's prejudices and conformist values. So, I guess the moral of this story would be to never tell me that I can not do something, because in the end I will work just as much harder then ever to prove you wrong and show you that I can do it!
Family Hurdles
Okay, so I was flipping through the drafts that I had of previous topics/ideas and I realized that this one is personal, but I still want to post it, partially because I already have it written, so that means one less of a blog that I have to write later on in this quarter so here it goes, I guess:
Supposedly when life throws hurdles at you, you are supposed to overcome them, correct? It's like the saying, when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade, right? I mean, at least that's what I have always thought. I have always felt that when you encounter hurdles and then overcome them, it adds to your character and your definition of yourself. I have always felt a sense of accomplishment when I had overcome something because I wanted to feel special, because maybe not everyone would have been able to handle or get past the situation. I just want to believe that I am bettering myself. My family has provided me tons of hurdles and I have felt that I have always cleared them successfully. Now might be different though. My little sister might be moving back in with my mom, my sister, and I. Which you would think would be great, but somehow I feel almost more worried and frustrated because I don't want the past to repeat itself. I love my sister, but I feel like we are making the same mistake again. Although, she has basically no where else to go because staying with my dad is not healthy for her in many ways. She has to stay with us. But I don't want my other sister to suffer from this decision, and likewise with my mom. Our whole way of living will have to change to accommodate her again in our household, and it's going to be challenging.
She claims to have changed, and I really want to believe her. But in the back of my head, I am constantly now thinking of new precautions I will have to take and resort to, to try and make it easier for everyone and her so that she won't resort back to her old ways. But when she does, I want to be prepared. Every time that she has stayed with us for an extended period of time, it starts off alright until she doesn't get what she wants and then it backfires. I don't know if she realizes that by coming back here, the things that she will be giving up that my dad gave her, like money and freedom. Here she won't be spoiled. Instead she will have to constantly be with one of us, and either my sister and I have to quit some after school activities to baby sit her, or she has to be incorporated into those activities. I'm not sure if I want her incorporated that much into my time away from her, which means school and extra curriculars. But what else is there to do? All we have to do is learn to cope and grow in our situation.
Ending Note: So since this is an old draft that I decided to post anyway, my thoughts and feeling have changed slightly. Even though she will be coming back to live with my family and I, she has changed and I believe that we will not be repeating the same mistake. I love my little sister a lot and I feel prepared and excited to have her fully back in our lives!! =D
Supposedly when life throws hurdles at you, you are supposed to overcome them, correct? It's like the saying, when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade, right? I mean, at least that's what I have always thought. I have always felt that when you encounter hurdles and then overcome them, it adds to your character and your definition of yourself. I have always felt a sense of accomplishment when I had overcome something because I wanted to feel special, because maybe not everyone would have been able to handle or get past the situation. I just want to believe that I am bettering myself. My family has provided me tons of hurdles and I have felt that I have always cleared them successfully. Now might be different though. My little sister might be moving back in with my mom, my sister, and I. Which you would think would be great, but somehow I feel almost more worried and frustrated because I don't want the past to repeat itself. I love my sister, but I feel like we are making the same mistake again. Although, she has basically no where else to go because staying with my dad is not healthy for her in many ways. She has to stay with us. But I don't want my other sister to suffer from this decision, and likewise with my mom. Our whole way of living will have to change to accommodate her again in our household, and it's going to be challenging.
She claims to have changed, and I really want to believe her. But in the back of my head, I am constantly now thinking of new precautions I will have to take and resort to, to try and make it easier for everyone and her so that she won't resort back to her old ways. But when she does, I want to be prepared. Every time that she has stayed with us for an extended period of time, it starts off alright until she doesn't get what she wants and then it backfires. I don't know if she realizes that by coming back here, the things that she will be giving up that my dad gave her, like money and freedom. Here she won't be spoiled. Instead she will have to constantly be with one of us, and either my sister and I have to quit some after school activities to baby sit her, or she has to be incorporated into those activities. I'm not sure if I want her incorporated that much into my time away from her, which means school and extra curriculars. But what else is there to do? All we have to do is learn to cope and grow in our situation.
Ending Note: So since this is an old draft that I decided to post anyway, my thoughts and feeling have changed slightly. Even though she will be coming back to live with my family and I, she has changed and I believe that we will not be repeating the same mistake. I love my little sister a lot and I feel prepared and excited to have her fully back in our lives!! =D
Thursday, January 13, 2011
The U.S. Postal Service
No, I don't mean the band The Postal Service, but the actual physical letters that we get every day. Personally, I love getting mail. However, is the mail really necessary in this day and age with all of the great technology that we have? I mean, the mail is killing more and more trees because that is what is used to make the paper necessary to have mail, however I know at our house, maybe 50% of the mail received is spam mail that we don't even look at, but instead just toss into the trash can. It's a HUGE waste of trees, ink, and time.
I know that I for one enjoy mail, but I only get fun mail and college stuff, and no bills yet. Once I get bills then I will probably be dreading the mail, but until then I have always thought of getting mail as a big and exciting deal. It was like Christmas to my sisters and I when we received letters from friends and family. I wonder why though we don't just do everything electronically? Is it because some of the world does not have computers and can't afford them? Or are the companies sending the spam mail worried that they will lose profit or that the changeover is way too expensive? I feel that by switching over to electronic mail, it just won’t be the same and by doing so will signal the beginning of a LARGE technological advancement, and I feel comfortable where we are. Plus, if the advancement continues then the machines could take over!! *gasp* I don’t know if I would go that far yet, but it’s not impossible. I want to keep using the postal service though, and if my previous reasons were not good enough then just for the sentimental values of getting mail from a mail box.
My Cliché Hero
I remember back when I was in middle school and elementary school, we would always have to write those really awful essays about our personal heroes and why they were our heroes. To me, I always disliked them because I felt that it was just too personal and it was always hard for me to find someone to look up to that I wouldn't mind talking about in an essay that the teacher would read. However, I can now honestly say that my true hero is my mom. Granted that is a little bit cliché, because a lot of kids always look up to their parents but I feel more than pure admiration for my mom. My mom does a lot for my sisters and I in different situations that often end up humiliating her. I feel like she has been through hell and back because of how my family is, yet she still keeps on moving forward. No matter the opposition, she is still standing and fighting for the rights that should be automatically given. I feel that she does way too much at times, but I am happy that she believes in my sisters and I enough to fight for us. I guess I just feel really proud of her and I hope that someday I can be someone that she can be proud to call her daughter as well as someone who can pay her back and make her happy to make up for the lost time.
Monday, January 10, 2011
The Jonas Brothers Rant (Yep, Unfortunately, You Read This Right!)
Okay, I was typing my previous blog out because this is a form of procrastination. For example instead of writing blogs I should be typing either my English or TOK essay/final thing. Nope. Here I am instead. I’m not sure why, but anyway let’s get to the point. I was typing my previous blog (almost done with it!), and my stereo was playing random songs off of my iPod. The song “Year 3000” by The Jonas Brothers comes on. I am not a fan of the Jonas Brothers, but since in my household we don’t download songs illegally, meaning all of the music on my iPod come from my sisters because they always have money for ITunes. Obviously my iPod has not been updated. I think I still have Hannah Montana on it, from when they were obsessed with her. But the fact that I chose not to get up and change the Jonas Brothers song nor the country one after it displays I think, my laziness or how hypocritical human nature is. I mean, I am not a fan of them at all, but the fact that I don’t get up to change the song shows that I guess that they are not as bad as I / society portray them to be.
I thought that I would share this moment with the couple of people who read these blogs, because I thought that it was interesting that I refused to get up. I thought that it would be interesting to share because the fact that all of this dreadful music is on my iPod is embarrassing, but Katie’s blog was really sweet. It was sweet because it mentioned how these blogs are personal but only really personal between the nine of us and Mr.Wilcox, so if we tell each other anything it stays within our group. So I guess, it’s a good time to tell you guys that I have the Jonas Brothers and Hannah Montana on my iPod, along with Innerpartysystem, Florence and The Machines, The Wombats, Two Door Cinema Club, Disturbed, and bunches of other stuff. Now that I think about it though, I don’t know how the good bands (the bands mentioned last) could possibly stand to be on the same device as the Jonas Brothers and Hannah Montana. It’s actually quite like the fact that my Aeropostle gift card of five years was incapable of sitting next to my Hot Topic membership card any longer so I got rid of the Aeropostle one. I guess it’s time to grow up and seize control of my own iPod and get rid of the disliked bands.
Languages
Okay, so today in TOK we were discussing different languages and whether or not it would be better to have one major language (Esperanto, correct?) or the bunches of little languages that we have now. I can definitely see the advantages to having one major language, like for example English. If everyone in the whole world knew English, everything could just be translated into English for products and their labels and everyone would know what everyone was talking about. I don't know how I feel about that. I like the concept that everyone would be able to know what everyone is talking about; however I feel like things just would not be the same and not in a good way. I feel that without different languages we would miss out on a whole bunch of culture. I mean, yes the pieces of literature and what not could be translated into English, but it wouldn't be the same thing. I know that with learning Spanish, I feel excited that I can now understand more people around the world because I can speak their language now. I feel happy that I have become the progressed as a human to learn multiple languages.
Without all of the languages that identity as that type of person I feel would slip away too. I mean, if all the people in Spain were to convert to just English, then first off the translations from their language to ours would be different, plus they would become more "American" and think more "American-like". By doing so, I kind feel that that would be a bad thing because they lose their history, culture, and traditions, as well as their "Spain" way of thinking. The advantages are great, but right now I think that it is interesting in how different everyone is, even if it means harder work for us to figure it out. Now everyone gets to be themselves throughout the world.
Monday, January 3, 2011
A Late Personal Christmas Blog
Alright, I wrote this blog a little bit ago, but I was scared of posting it because it's really critical and kind of personal but I was convinced to do so, so here it is, and I'm sorry if you don't like it:
Christmas has come and past. What little kid would not enjoy Christmas, Santa Claus, and getting presents, right? Yet, I’m not a big fan of it. I like that we get time off from school because of it and New Year’s, but I feel like Christmas hurts more then it helps. What Christmas stands for is great because of how it is supposed to unite families and bring friends and family closer, but I feel like I don’t see that as much in the present. I know that it brings joy to a lot of people all over the world, but it brings stress to the parents that can’t afford what their kids would like, or stress in what to get people like different friends or boyfriend/girlfriend. Kids just seem to expect more from Christmas, like more and more gifts each year that cost more. It’s not as much of a religious holiday because I’m not religious nor is my two families and we celebrate it, and we can’t be the only ones that do so.
For me, Christmas brings back memories of my parents arguing, because on Christmas Eve in the house that we were at before we moved here, I remember my mom and dad fighting about us and whether or not we should wear coats to our dad’s house. The police ended up getting involved and I just remember that memory on Christmas Eve, because I was shocked that it was possible to have problems on Christmas Eve, because it was such a sacred thing to my young eyes. Even now, when someone that I know got something that she wanted, and ended up not liking after opening it, she complained about it enough to return it, when it in turn was a great gift but she just wanted the money. I guess I am just really pessimistic when it comes to Christmas. I like the holiday, but drama always seems to unfold because of it, so I try to avoid it. It seems to be human nature to avoid things that we don’t want to confront, which I guess it is what I’m doing because I’m not comfortable with my past, possibly? I don’t know. More dwelling on the subject is probably needed to realize everything.
A Review of 2010
So I was looking at Tori's blog and I saw her recap of 2010 blog and thought that it was so cool that she and Leah had done one. I talked with her and she told me that I should do one so that we can all better get to know each other. I thought it was a great concept and hear it is now. It took me forever to find pictures (I am a VERY visual person so I LOVE PICTURES!), but it was actually really hard at first to remember what took place in the year 2010. I mean there were things that stood out immediately and other important things that I had forgotten. I wonder if that means that I am getting old? I hope not...it probably means that I just get too busy. I tried to take some of the most important events, but I actually really enjoyed this post so it's slightly lengthier. Well here is my version of the year 2010 (it's not in any order, because it was really hard to organize and I added more stuff as I remembered things)...
1. I started off getting my braces off!!! (Finally!)
2. In January, I went to Ohayocon. For all you non geeks out there, it's basically an anime convention (similar to a Star Trek probably, but Japanese culture). I was pretty into it for a while, so we went down to Columbus and cosplayed (meaning dressed up like characters from an anime, for us it was Death Note), hung around the Convention Center, met some new people, hugged and took pictures with everyone, and PARTIED!
4. I went to California over the summer to visit my relatives with my dad and my two sisters
5. I volunteered at Aurora Manor (Rehabilitation and Elderly home). I love it because they are always so happy to see kids there and they are really interesting to talk to!
6. Started IB! Lost any chance that I had at a normal high school experience and instead gained a lot of homework!
7. Started looking at colleges. Case Western Reserve University is my dream school! Other than that I am not sure where to go for Pre-Med/Forensics. I am excited though for college, but the task of finding the perfect one is daunting!
8. Went through the summer math program to get into IB. That was a major pain in the butt, but at least we all suffered together! =D
9. I worked on ACT's Zombie Prom over the summer, and it was definitely one of the best experiences of my life! The people were great! Although by the time school came back around, I felt like I had never left!
Wow! That was a lot longer then I thought that it would be! Sorry, just there was so many things that I had to include! I guess it's just a looksie on my life. I have high hopes for this year, but I am worried because of college stuff, SAT/ACT testing, and our Extended Essays. I do regret last year that I didn't get my temps...time passes to fast! I hope that this year will be just as great as last year and everyone who reads this enjoyed some of the embarrassing pictures!
1. I started off getting my braces off!!! (Finally!)
2. In January, I went to Ohayocon. For all you non geeks out there, it's basically an anime convention (similar to a Star Trek probably, but Japanese culture). I was pretty into it for a while, so we went down to Columbus and cosplayed (meaning dressed up like characters from an anime, for us it was Death Note), hung around the Convention Center, met some new people, hugged and took pictures with everyone, and PARTIED!
I was Light! It wasn't that bad of a cosplay...
We were all dressed up for this rave, with our characters on our t-shirts!
This was the last day and it was rainbow day, so we were each a color! And a random dude....
3. My family survived my little sister and her episodes, surprisingly enough. I even joined NAMI to help and learn more, took some classes, and did NAMI Walk with a lot of my friends (Meaning Kandi, Noah, Katie, Tori, Lexi, Sam, and my family)
5. I volunteered at Aurora Manor (Rehabilitation and Elderly home). I love it because they are always so happy to see kids there and they are really interesting to talk to!
6. Started IB! Lost any chance that I had at a normal high school experience and instead gained a lot of homework!
7. Started looking at colleges. Case Western Reserve University is my dream school! Other than that I am not sure where to go for Pre-Med/Forensics. I am excited though for college, but the task of finding the perfect one is daunting!
8. Went through the summer math program to get into IB. That was a major pain in the butt, but at least we all suffered together! =D
9. I worked on ACT's Zombie Prom over the summer, and it was definitely one of the best experiences of my life! The people were great! Although by the time school came back around, I felt like I had never left!
10. I took the APUSH exam in May...it sucked! I loved the subject and aced the class, but I got a 3 on the exam! I blame the Puritans and the irritating multiple choice question involving the Campbell's soup can!
11. For my sixteenth birthday, over the summer, my mom somehow scrounged up enough money for the two of us to go to London! It was the best trip ever! I loved visiting England!
Waiting for the Tube at Charing Cross Station (There was so much cool artwork in the Tube)
YAY CASTLE!!
You can't go to London without participating in tea time!
Noah, I don't know if you read these...but I found a picture of the food and thought of you so it's up here now! =D
And of course the classic guards that are so entertaining! ^.^
12. I joined a bunch of school clubs this year, like SADD club (Haven't gone to a meeting in a while though...), French Club, Science Olympiad (2nd year), Drama Club, Improv Club, Quizbowl, Stage Crew (My favorite!), officially a Tech Crew member, FMP, and I think that's it...yay business!
13. I worked on the fall play Noises Off as the Assistant Stage Manager.
14. Harry Potter came out!! I was so excited! Go Gryfindor!
15. Went to some awesome parties, saw some old buddies that graduated, and stayed out late! Yay for getting older! =D
16. Dealt with some legal stuff between my family.
17. Played some epic PSP games, but I'm scared to finish Final Fantasy's Crisis Core, because of the INEVITABLE TEARS! ='(
HE'S GOING TO DIE!
18. I worked on Crazy for You, in March...here's a pretty good picture of Noah. Suffer Noah! :-P
Here's Noah...Tee-Hee-Hee
19. Went to my first real concert, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus's concert with some friends and it was great!!! The crowd was really into the music and rhythm, and I wanted to go into the mosh pit, but I didn't want to risk getting hurt by the crowd. =(
20. I was the Props Mistress and Crew Manager for the Wizard of Oz play for Harmon Middle Schoolers. It was definitely an experience...little kids are hyperactive and destructive.
21. I had fun modeling for different friend's art projects and this one company...
22. I went to homecoming and had muchos amount of fun!
23. I went to Tori's Sweet Sixteen Party as Lexi's date! (Shout out to Tori!)
24. We all lost Kara to Georgia because she had to move! =(
25. I learned how to belly dance (thanks Suz!) and how to shoot a gun (thanks Nancy!). Both are great and belly dancing is a surprising workout, and shooting a gun is actually pretty exciting!
26. Many funny epic moments occurred and I grew so much closer to all of my friends! It was a great year!
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Hallmark Holidays
While I was at my dad’s house, his girlfriend Catherine and I went out shopping at a Pat Catan’s with my little sister Colleen, and Catherine’s ten year old daughter Maddy. As soon as we entered the store, we were bombarded by all of the Christmas clearance items. However in the far corner, you could see that the takeover of the stuff for the next holiday was occurring. I personally had no idea that there was another holiday until Easter, but Colleen so nicely pointed out, “Look Emma, Valentine’s Day stuff are already out!”. My first thought was “Oh poo I might have to celebrate that holiday this year”. I don’t mind holidays, and for right now I have a boyfriend but its Valentine’s Day. I mean, come on, it’s so cliché and definitely one of the most awkward holidays out there.
Most girls LOVE Valentine’s Day, while I on the other hand usually forget about it. I mean it’s a Hallmark Cards created holiday created for people to spend more money on the people that they like and love, when in reality ever y moment should just be cherished, every day. I’m not saying that every day girls and guys should give each other chocolates and what not, but isn’t it better to celebrate the fact that you have every day together, and those memories that you have with that person, then to celebrate one specific day. Plus, guys, at least all of the guys that I know, stress over what to get their girlfriends. If it’s stressful, then how is it fun commemoration of your relationship? To me, it’s just another day, and should not be obsessed over.
Being Impersonal and Private
Supposedly my blogs aren’t personal enough, which I hadn’t realized as much as before. I always have hated writing assignments given by teachers that involved telling a personal story from my past, and so I tend to avoid doing them when I don’t have to. I’m a pretty logical and analytical person, because I feel that a lot of the time emotions just end up in the way a lot of the time. So what I had decided to do for these blogs was to find random subjects and write about them. I would rather do that then try to dramatize my life to make the blogs interesting, or make myself seem pathetic. I apologize for the dryness and the harshness in my blogs, but I can think like that a lot. Even though nobody reads these but occasionally Tori and Katie, and then Mr.Wilcox when he grades them, I still feel bad. However unlike Facebook and Myspace, I would rather keep my personal issues and problems private. It’s not to be rude, but a lot of people already interfere with my family and I’s daily life enough that I don’t need others doing so as well. Although, then again, in this day and age the popularly accepted normal IS to interfere in everyone’s personal life, via media connections. Yet, I don’t understand why people should because they usually seem to do more harming than helping.
I remember when I was little I used to think that I was being spied on by some other people that would then inform my parents and others about what I was doing. I used to get a little freaked out by it because I felt like my privacy was being violated. Which is what is called normal today. Yet, if we call that normal, then how do we classify stalking because they are both so similar and it’s hard to differentiate. Both involve knowing a lot about someone, but they use slightly different ways to figure out the knowledge, I guess? I don’t like it. Especially because we are so technologically savvy, but I wonder if there’s a limit to how technological we can be before we get set all the way back to the beginning.
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