Guitar Lessons 3: A-chord-ing to My Records...

...I am very bad at making puns.

I started becoming less motivated recently, which caused my complete calluses on my middle and ring fingers to start peeling. So I figured I'd try it again. Eventually. Then my dad bought me some books on guitar playing, including one of just chords. I was already trying to play Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" but it was somewhat a hassle because I could only search how to play the chords via YouTube. Now there's a book I can look at. Books FTW!

However, I am finding that transitioning from a G to a C multiple times throughout the song is quite difficult. First off, the G chord is a hard chord in general. You have to keep your ring finger on the sixth string and your pinky on the first on the same fret. If I do play it semi-right, my pinky finger gets sore fast. I'm hoping it also develops a callus soon.

I am finally getting the rhythm of the song down. While that may be true, transitioning is vital when you want the song to sound well like the song you're trying to cover.

Also, after I get this Ring of Fire down, I can start playing several other songs too. Did you know a lot of songs use pretty much the same chords? I know, right? Who knew? So after Ring of Fire comes Mad World. Mad World's difficulty I think will come in strumming, since it is originally a piano song. The chords are simple, and most I know already, but I think the strumming won't just be all six strings at one. I'll probably have to fiddle with it to get it right. That, or look up covers on YouTube to see how their rhythm is. I'll probably do that latter.

In other news, I can pretty much play Whole Wide World without pausing now. I'm not sure how good it sounds, but it's better than when I first started. That's all that matters, right?

Goals for Next Blog Post:

• Getting a callus on my pinky finger
• Progressing at Ring of Fire 
• Playing the G Chord better

Guitar Lessons 2: Doctor, I Can't Feel My Fingers!

Well, two of them. Yes, day four is upon us and I am happy to announce I have an official callus forming on my middle fingertip. The ring fingertip's getting there, don't worry. I realized today while practicing that when I notice "fret buzz" (which is when the guitar string buzzes from not being pushed hard enough) I tend to push my middle finger down harder. Then when I played each string individually, I noticed it was the ring finger I wasn't pushing down hard enough, explaining the smaller callus.
Because of these calluses, I am also proud to announce that I can transition from the E chord to the A chord without it hurting as much. It still hurts occasionally when I hit the wrong spot, but it's certainly an improvement.
Speaking of transitions, I was also able to successfully transition today. Yesterday, I had to pause almost every switch to the A chord. Now I can do it more successfully. Certainly not perfect, but it is progression. Mostly today I tried to get through the song without pausing, ignoring any mistakes I will make. And while I can go from E to A easier now, I still need to pause more frequently when going from A to E. Not sure why. But sometimes when I did so, I hit the wrong spot on my fingertip so it hurt.
I tried to focus more on singing today as well. I have noticed this: Guitars hide voices well. Too well. I'm worried that when I get the nerve to sing in front of people I won't be able to hear my voice well enough to know if I'm singing on-key. I guess that's what microphones are for.
Oh yeah, about Open Mic. I'm having second thoughts. See, I have this thing where I'm really really excited to do something until about two minutes before I do it, then I chicken out, but do it anyway. And then when I do, I'm incredibly nervous and don't do as well as I could. My dad reminded me of this yesterday. Then I talked to my friend this morning who is also learning to play the guitar (about four months ahead of me) and he said singing and playing is way harder than it looks and I shouldn't do it.
Now, even though the whole reason I'm doing this is for Open Mic, I might not do it. I probably won't do it. I'm not going to do it. Not unless I can find someone to play the guitar onstage with me. Or maybe a group of five friends just stand behind me. Would that look weird? Yes. Ok, I'm not doing it.
I love speaking in front of people, though it does make me nervous. But when my voice gets shaky, I just cover it up by cracking more jokes, making my audience laugh which calms me down. If my audience doesn't laugh, or if I'm not playing a character (not in a play or anything really, but if I'm pretending to sell something or something like that) I do get really nervous. But I've never broken down or anything. And I do love presenting to people. Maybe I just love talking.
Anyway though, I'm not going to stop playing the guitar. I'm interested to see where it takes me. I'll probably do it for six months or a year or so, and see where I'm at. If I like it. It's better since so many people play the guitar, I can talk about it with a lot of different people at school and Sno-Isle.
Maybe next time I post I'll be able to play the song without pausing at all. Maybe.

Guitar Lessons 1: Let Us Make Beautiful Music Together!

By "us" I mean, me. By "beautiful" I mean mediocre. And by "together" I mean you get to watch me stumble through one song over and over again. Sound fun? All right.
So apparently school is starting this new thing called "Open Mic" in which students sign up for it, get up on this stage thingy in the cafeteria during lunch and pretty much do whatever. Because of Sno-Isle, I don't get to hear the morning bulletin, so I had no idea this was happening last Friday (when it was last Friday). After hearing a couple people play guitar, watching two students "rap", and listening to one kid reciting part of The Odyssey, a friend of mine was very excited and wanted to be in the next Open Mic.
I volunteered to sing with her, because I have zero self-confidence in my singing voice, and singing with someone that was playing the guitar would certainly be better than just me by myself....right? We were thinking of what songs to do, when lunch ended. This is when friend number 2 let me in on some news, friend number 1 couldn't sing very well. Now, I've never heard her sing, and I'm sure she's not terrible. But when friend number 2 told me this, I started thinking.
I told my dilemma to friend number 3 in history class, who promptly told me he could play this song I knew on the ukulele. This got me all excited, and I was thinking of doing that instead of doing a duet with friend number 1. Or I could possibly do both. Friend number 3 told me he couldn't play that song very well, and we started discussing other songs we could do while walking to our next classes. He said that if we could find a song he could play and I could sing, he'd do it. Then we departed.
When evening rolled around I told my dad this whole story (or at least the last part) and he told me I could easily play a song on the guitar on my own. I was skeptical, then he told me about the song "Whole Wide World" which was literally two chords. E and A. So I said ok, and here we are.
Currently, I'm at day three of guitar playing and I can't really feel the tips of my ring and middle finger. Hopefully they become calluses soon. I try to practice for an hour, but yesterday I could only do half an hour because my fingers hurt too much. I'm still working on transitioning from E to A. The pick keeps slipping out of my hand too. But, I mean, come on, it's only day three.
But hey, the next Open Mic is January 6. I have 3 1/2 weeks and during that time I have winter break. I'm sure I'll progress.
And since this whole guitar playing this is different from the "funny-things-I-notice-in-life" part of my blog, I'm making it a separate string of blog posts. By this I mean if "Guitar Lessons" is put in front of the title, then it's about me playing guitar. Get it? No? Your loss then, buddy.
Anyway, I'm going to go practice a little more for today. Maybe next time I'll have calluses and won't feel the guitar strings much. At least, for the E and A chord.

2 Inches of Snow?? Life=Complete

As many of us Washingtonians know, winter time mostly consists of gray days and rain. However, I am happy to announce that Washington has been rewarded with early snow! Did you hear me? Early snow! Of course, I'm sure people who live on the West Coast or Alaska think this is nothing, but don't ruin this for us rain-dwellers! This is a big deal!
So, after many conflicting weather reports, I was still skeptical about any snow this year. The days were growing colder, but the ground remained bare. I finally decided to bring out the Puffy Coat. That's right, Washingtonians keep note on when the Puffy Coat is brought out. It's kind of a momentous occasion. Well, maybe that's just me. But anyway, a light dusting of snow precipitated the previous day, so I decided it was time.
When I got to school, there was no snow at all. I was starting to wonder if Sunday's light dusting was just to make us all have false hope. But alas! On the bus ride to Sno-Isle, the snow started trickling down from the clouds of gray. Fortunately, my classroom  has a big window in front of me with no blinds, so I could watch it fall throughout the day. It was mesmerizing. At one point, while looking out the window, someone started talking to me and I totally missed it because I was in awe. Or maybe I just decided not to listen to her. Either way, I blamed the snow.
After the snow started sticking and accumulating, one guy in the class told our instructor to go out and make a snow angel. She laughed and told him there wasn't enough snow yet. He kept asking. When it started snowing harder, he asked if we could go outside and make snow angels. Of course, only a few would do it, but we would all watch. Our instructor sighed and told him to wait until after 10. We refused that because some of us were to be bused back to school after ten. So we agreed on 10 sharp. Several people were watching the clock. The snow continued to come down. At 10, about three people announced it was time for snow angels and went outside the back door in our classroom. Our instructor followed them out. Other people were watching, including the people in our class. The door they went out of locked from the outside, but we made sure they all got back in. Eventually.

Sno-Isle Snow Angels

I took a picture with my cellphone of this day. I have to say, Sno-Isle is the highlight of my day, but this was the highlight of my highlight. I mean, come on. Sno-Isle? Snow? It's the perfect combination! It maybe be even better than chocolate and peanut butter! Well, I shouldn't say that. Certain people reading this will have a fit and send me angry messages.
Anyway, when I got back to school, the snow was falling there as well. It was exciting. It took as a lot longer to get back because all the buses had to drive at practically 20 mph so they didn't slide. It stopped eventually, then during 5th period someone look out the window and gasped, "It's snowing!" And so it was. Even harder this time.
During lunch my friend decided to throw snow at me. There was barely enough to make a snowball, but she did it. And I did too. Oh, what a fun day.
When I got home, the snow still wasn't sticking to the roads. It probably started sticking later that night. That evening we got a call from school saying school was canceled the next day. Seconds later I received a call from my friend who then repeated the news. While talking with this friend I got a text from someone I knew saying school was canceled. Word travels fast if it involves schools being canceled.
It froze that night, so not only was there snow, there was ice. And it was only getting colder. So the school called that evening saying school was canceled Wednesday too. Thanksgiving Break was after that.
So basically, we went to school one day this week and have a six-day weekend. Plus, two inches of snow. Don't judge. This is twice the snow we got last year!
The downside to this is all my friends have cabin fever and caused me to go over my texts and minutes in four days. Thanks guys. Haha, just kidding. I love talking to all of you. :-)

Anyway, the snow is gone now, aside from the few patches. It rained yesterday. The magical moments are gone. Oh well, hopefully this means more snow for Winter Break!

...Right?

To Be Continued....never...

Writing has always been a big passion of mine. Hence, a blog. But I've found I've always been terrible at satisfying suspense. At least to me. No one has told me either way. But I do know how an ending can ruin the whole book.
There is a certain author I read for a period of time. She was excellent at producing cliffhangers and the "edge-of-your-seat" kind of format. But she wrote preteen kids books. So her books had impossibly happy endings. This ruined the whole experience for me. Ever since I read her books I wanted to make sure I was never like that.
Recently I wrote a dark story. This is pretty normal for me, but this one I tried to make more realistic instead of morbid. I think it's ok, and the two people I showed it to said it was ok, but I hated the ending. I ruined my story with the ending. It was intended to be a story about someone who no one cared about. So the first half or so is pretty depressing and sad. This is the part of the story I like the most. It sounds like my usual voice of writing. Then I wanted the story to have a happy ending. So I made an incredibly happy ending. Like, too good to be true happy ending. I hate it.
This is exactly why I don't normally "end" my stories. The words cease to continue but the story still goes on in the reader's mind. That's how I want my audience to experience my stories. Those stories always get the best feedback. So I don't let myself learn how to end a good book properly. Then I'm not able to progress in my writing, it just stays the same. Of course, I don't write like a five-year old, but I'm not positive I'll be able to get past my teen writings, which become less and less good the older you get and the higher everyone's standards get.
I'd like to think after a couple years of doing a blog or something of that nature, I'll look back and wonder if it's really me, if I really used to write like that. There's no way that I can progress unless I make mistakes first. Mistakes help you learn, it's a fact of life. But how can I possibly know the mistake I make unless someone tells me? I know there are writers better than me, there always will be, at least in my opinion. This doesn't mean I want people to sugar coat their feedback. Yet, I still want them to be tactful. Is that too much to ask?
Anyway, if you want an example of how I usually end my stories, have a link to my favorite video I've done. I'd show you from here, but the file's gone. So here, have a link:

Sara Bareilles-Gravity Music Video (sims 2)

So now you know how I hate ending things...

*ahem*

Um...I'm...just gonna go...then...bye..

*leaves awkwardly*

Oh The Horror!! *om nom nom nom*

Why is it that certain times of the year make ads change its tactic on selling? In the colder (and apparently scarier) months approaching, the packaging colors have turned to orange, black, and green. As a person who does not celebrate holidays, I am not particularly excited for the changes going on. I do, however, sit back and observe. This is what I have seen so far in the ways of advertising.
For one, the scarier the commercial, the better the product. Now, I'm not really sure why this is. The last thing I relate to hunger is fear, though I suppose gummy brains and teeth are gross enough to try, but only once a year. I actually have eaten some of the more obscure gummy candy, and I think the taste itself is pretty disgusting. I would assume more people taste the same way I do because I never see kids voluntarily eating that stuff after this time of year. Nor is it sold in the first place unless it's October.
This doesn't only apply to food though. The commercials for upcoming TV specials and movies get scarier every year. Sometimes, the movie itself isn't even really Halloween related at all, or not even that scary. And yet, they flash ghoulish images at the child's TV screen, hoping to actually get some views this year.

"And the little girl decided to GO TO THE CANDY STORE!! Mwahahaha! *flash of goblin's face for no reason* Will she ever find her way home, or will she be too TERRIFIED!?! Mwahahaha!" *flash of ghost for no reason*

Uhh...I think I've seen that...isn't it a comedy?
But I guess these ads have to be as ridiculously scary as possible, because if it's realistic scary, parents complain and the show is taken off the air only to be seen on YouTube for twenty million people to see. Which is so much better for kids anyway.
Another thing I find amusing, is that the really obscure things are sold around this time. The kind of stuff kids only want to buy if it's October. Because this month is not only "ask for candy" month, it's also "scare the daylights out of our closest friends and family" month, which is another thing I don't really understand. Amongst the TV specials and weird foods are little contraptions that are not only cool looking, they scare the pants off your five year old sister and make her cry. I don't really know why this is so appealing to kids as well as adults. I guess I just have never really been that into scaring people.

Finally, the packaging. Big Shopping Day was a couple days ago, which means my mom has acquired the snack foods for the month (which invariably only last two weeks). Amongst the other delicious snack treats I found these (left). I find so many things wrong with this tactic. First of all, it's Flash themed. Flash isn't scary. At all. I am really confused as to why this superhero is representing Hostess's Halloween based packaging.
Second (as noted in the lower picture), these cakes are marked as "scary." I don't know about you, but I wouldn't consider
any kind of food scary. Especially food that is Flash themed. I mean, really. But just like I said in the previous post, imagine how boring life would be without ads to make us laugh?
Before I leave you to go on to bigger and better things, I do have one question regarding this time of year. Maybe someone could fill me in on the origin of this:

Why are pumpkins associated with Halloween?

I am kind of intrigued by the concept of how certain traditions came to be so common. I'm wondering if anyone can fill me in because I'm clearly too lazy to look it up, but inspired enough to write down all this.
Humor me.

Which is worse? The Cereal or Commercial?

 FORTIFIED WITH VITAMINS*

*vitamins are made of your imagination

Because 3 grams makes so much difference.

Yes, yes of course advertisements can’t straight out lie, but they certainly exaggerate. Just the other day I was eating carrot chips. Then my mom noticed that the package says is loaded with fiber. However, when you look at the package it had 2 grams of dietary fiber per serving. I don’t know about you, but when words like “fortified” and “loaded” are used, I expect at least 10 grams of the advertised substance.

Of course, we all love those sugary our mothers always scorned us about. So those commercials basically put words into the kids’ mouth to persuade the parent’s purchase.

“But Mommm! Fruit Loops is fortified with 3 grams of fiber per serving! They’re good for me!”

“Honey, do you know what fortified means?”

“Ummm…no…”

“It technically means it’s added in increase strength.”

“See? Fruit Loops will make me strong!”

“Do you know how much three grams is?”

“…No…”

“Very little. Now be quiet and eat your Coco Puffs. At least those have eight 

essential vitamins and minerals.”

In this day and age, this false advertising nonsense would be classified as a FAIL. An epic one at that.

The solution? Well, there isn’t really one. Because this is all for money, and when you try to take money from a big company, things get complicated and controversial. Besides, everything has a loophole and I don’t think there’s anyone intelligent/bold enough to ban or terminate all loopholes. Because when you get rid of loopholes, there’s always one you missed. Your loophole might have a loophole. Then you’d just get angry. See how silly this is becoming?

What’s that you say? You think I’m against sugary cereals? Ha! Don’t be ridiculous! I’d buy them if I could. I think the cereal choice for children, however, should be up to the parents until the child can regularly buy their own food. So what I think is funny is the ads. But imagine how boring life would be without ads to make us laugh?

Things I'll Never Get: This is Why I Don't Date Yet

I love this xkcd comic. Totally true.

I walk into my school, and one my friends runs up to me, happy and beaming. I smile too, just because she is. She opens her mouth and shrieks, "I have the most exciting news!"


"What is it?" I ask excitedly.


"[Boy #6] asked me out! We're a couple now! I'm, like, so excited."


My face falls. Here we go again, I think.

Yes, though I have never dated before, I'm starting to pick up a pattern on how this whole "teen love" thingy works. Fortunately, most of my friends don't go on about the boys they like, but those who do I only pretend to care. I'm not about to say, "He has a girlfriend, he'll never like you!" or "Him? Really? He's ignorant and stupid!"

They usually find out for themselves.

I certainly have nothing against guys or anything. It's just that the girls I know tend to go for guys they won't ever get. I am not able to grasp this concept without having frustration boil through me. I would be less angry about it if the situation tended to work out more, but it usually doesn't. I think my face is permanently scarred from all the facepalms I have done over the years, even before high school.

This whole "love" thing leads to many mistakes that I have observed. These mistakes usually involve something along the lines of heartbreak, betrayal, pain, suffering, all those wonderful things. One of the biggest blunders I've seen is them going back to the same person who hurt them before. Let's make one thing clear: People lie. A lot.

I'm not saying everybody who says they've changed is lying, but sometimes they think they've changed, but they haven't really at all.

Now, this mostly applies to girls. I'm wondering how guys act in the ways of high school dating. Girls tend to be more dramatic when it comes to heartbreak. What do supposedly "tough guys" do who are "supposed" to hide their feelings all the time? Do they feel pain this way? Please let me know...

Before I go, I just wanted to make sure you were clear on my thinking of how this whole dating thing ends up a lot of the time, at least when I'm around. So here, have a chart:

Am I missing anything?

Let me know if this seems inaccurate. I'd believe you more if you are single at the moment and not going through Phase 1 at the moment.

I've lost sleep over this concept. I just don't understand it.