Just An Ordinary Day...

The Fault in Our Stars: Not Your Average “Teen Book”

2012-02-23T20:28:00.002-08:00

First Impressions: Well, now you all know my secret. I don’t only read Classic Literature. I went through a phase where I read “chick books.” It was all love and romance and, frankly, boring. I am familiar with John Green as a youtuber, but I also knew he was a novelist. When he read the first chapter of The Fault in Our Stars (TFiOS), I was blown away. After pre-ordering the book, I anxiously waited for my package to arrive. When it did, I promptly read the book in two days. It does not even compare to the “chick books” I read in middle school. Hazel is no Emma Bovary.

Quick Synopsis: Hazel is a sixteen-year-old with “lungs that suck at being lungs.” She has cancer. She meets Augustus (or Gus), a teenager who fears oblivion and has a prosthetic leg from a previous meeting with cancer. They end up...well...to quote Avril Lavigne: “Can I make it any more obvious?” It is somewhat of a love story...but not the love stories that Justin Bieber and Edward Cullen portray.

Deeper Meanings: There was one thing that many of the young adult novels I read was missing. That thing was substance. The entire novel was composed of words that a hopeless romantic thirteen-year-old would find deep and meaningful. TFiOS is completely different. For me, it is the type of book you could enjoy if you simply read it or analyzed it. This type is rare: a young adult novel that can be analyzed. Perhaps I am making generalizations, but the books that are discussed at my school the most often are the types of books that have pretend deeper meaning. In other words, the romantic relationships are not realistic, therefore, any “symbols” and “poetry” is all for naught, because the relationship itself is nothing more than Cuddle Time. TFiOS puts young love in a whole new perspective for me. For one thing, Hazel and Augustus have a friend Issac, who is dating a girl. He and his girlfriend whisper “always” to each other all the time. It’s their word. Frankly, if Hazel’s and Augustus’s word was “always” then I would have stopped reading. But that is not the case. Their word is “okay.” This makes so much more sense to me. Love can’t currently last forever. There, I said it. Unless there’s a scientific breakthrough or some other miracle, forever is not possible. So I’m slightly annoyed when I see my peers tell their significant other that they’ll always be together. Especially because they said the same thing to another person a month ago. Hazel and Gus have “okay.” I love it because it isn’t used to remind the reader Hazel could die soon because she has cancer, but instead to portray their love as being real. Realistically, the relationship may not work out. After reading this, I want my word with my future boyfriend to be “okay.” But since that’s taken, we’ll probably use something stupid, like “chicken.” But we’ll think it’s funny or something even though none of our friends get the joke. Kids these days...

Allusions: Another important thing to note is that there are allusions to other books that teens commonly read in school, which I loved. The title itself is a Shakespeare reference.There’s a Great Gatsby reference, which I didn’t even get until I read a forum about the book. Augustus also likes to hang an unlit cigarette out of his mouth. It’s a metaphor. He’s refusing to let the cancer kill him. However, he puts the cigarette in his mouth when he’s feeling somewhat insecure. Insecure? Catcher in the Rye? Anyone? So this is another reason why I think teens that enjoy analyzing books (and English class) should read TFiOS. There’s probably more references I’m missing. I’ve only read the book once, so I wasn’t really looking for any. Now...if John Green decides to reference Crime and Punishment in his new book, I will love him forever. I mean...until I die. Yeah, that’s sounds more realistic.

Bottom Line: Okay, to those of you who know me personally, or have read my first blog post, you know that I will never date in high school. But keep in mind that that is my personal preference. The majority of high school relationships I see end very quickly. That’s not always the case. Another thing I love about TFiOS is that, although it’s about a relationship, it doesn’t promote nor demote dating. There’s nothing about how amazing dating is, and there’s no “big fight” scene where they almost break up and a tearful reunion. It did not try and change my views on dating. Overall, it is an amazing book and John Green is an extremely talented author, and I am very happy that I got a signed copy.

To all nerdfighters: It was Hanklerfished too! DFTBA!

1984: A New Type of Bro Code

2012-02-10T23:29:00.000-08:00

First Impressions: I’ve heard about this book a lot, so I thought it was finally time to settle down and read it. It did not disappoint. Now when someone mentions Bro Code, I think, "Big Bro is watching you. Dude."

Short Synopsis: The Party is the government. Big Brother is how it watches everything. If you try and rebel, you are vaporized. If you even think about rebelling, you are vaporized. Winston hates The Party. He starts a love affair with Julia, who also hates The Party. They eventually are tortured to the point where they both are forced to believe the government is always right.

Realism: The main thing that struck me the most about this novel is the realistic aspect. Now that I think about it, a lot of the books I enjoy have a realistic aspect. I think I like Realism. Anyway, 1984 is known for how realistic it is. It is completely possible that the government could become like this sometime in future. Although the book didn’t turn me into a conspiracy theorist, it did make me think. The children are complete savages, which is totally plausible if they are taught from an early age that going against the government is bad. There’s one part in the book where a guy is brought to prison because he said “down with Big Brother” in his sleep and his daughter caught him. The guy commended his daughter for catching him before it was too late! Winston comments that most parents are terrified of their children.

Another realistic concept is the people’s stupidity. Winston’s job is to make The Party always right. This means deleting or altering articles that would ever hint they are wrong. If anyone questions it, they are killed or tortured to the point of obedience. This makes sense because if there are only people left who wouldn’t rebel against The Party, why wouldn’t everyone believe the altered past. No one is allowed to have friendships or any sort of relationships. The only people left are the emotionless, dreary ones. Sex is only used for procreation, not pleasure. When O’Brien was speaking to Winston, he said that The Party wanted to make sex an annual event that would not be enjoyable, but necessary in order to create more humans.

Despite the extremeness of The Party, I can see this happening if the government took enough control and promised enough reward. This book is written realistically enough to be downright scary.

Julia: She played a big part in the story, but honestly, I didn’t notice her all that much. She was interesting, but she was essentially a second Winston (minus the rat phobia). I, personally, was much more interested in the acts of The Party, not the interaction of Winston and Julia, although it is an important aspect to the story and should not be overlooked.

Final Thoughts: I believe that 1984 is a novel that everyone should try reading. It was written in the fifties so the language is simple, and the plot itself is very digestible. But it gives a very interesting perspective on life and how controlling the government could hypothetically become. Even if you’re not necessarily interested in classic literature, I highly recommend it.

Madame Bovary: It's All in Your Head

2012-01-24T16:56:00.000-08:00

First Impressions: The main character, Emma Bovary, reminds me of the a lot of teen girls that go to my high school. They're so focused on obtaining that warm and fuzzy feeling that comes with infatuation, they forget that real love (past the honeymoon phase) doesn't feel like that at all.

Short Synopsis (I'm going to try and make these as short as possible from now on): Emma marries a man names Charles Bovary, but gets tried of him due to lack of sophistication. This results in her having two love affairs. Later, she begins splurging so much that she and Charles have no way of repaying the debt she (and partially Charles) caused. The only way to solve her problems is to kill herself, which she accomplishes by consuming arsenic.

Emma's Fantasy: Emma Bovary grew up reading romantic books with no one to tell her that those books didn't accurately describe how real love works. As a result, she became obsessed with finding "love," which wasn't really love at all. Charles is clumsy and undignified. Emma becomes repulsed by him. Leon leaves her because he doesn't think he can have a physical relationship with Emma (until later when he comes back and it starts all over again) and Rodolphe ends up being a ladies man who has had several mistresses and leaves her when she becomes boring. Charles is a genuinely good husband for her. He views her as flawless and would do anything to make sure she gets what she wants. But Emma doesn't want a husband. She wants a fling. At one point the book mentions how Leon was more of a mistress to her than vise versa. I agree, because she was the seducer and manipulator in the relationship. Not so much with Rodolphe, but he had had practice with plenty of women.

Modern Day Emmas: The reason I chose to read this book was because Emma reminds me of a lot of teen girls today. You know that whole theory that Nice Guys get stuck in the "friend zone" while the girls go and date jerks? I am now calling those girls "EBs" or "Emma Bovarys". Those girls don't want a relationship, they want the warm and fuzzy feeling. The Bad Boys are dangerous and cool.They are sometimes more attractive than Nice Guys. An EB would want to go on motorcycle rides and sneak out and feel dangerous. A non-EB would look for a boy that her parents would like (hopefully) and would treat her with respect. She would want a boy that could be a potential husband. Of course, EBs are confused as to why there are no nice guys out there. Emma was the same way. She was devastated when Rodolphe left her. In her mind, no one could beat him. She had forgotten about Leon completely. Then when he came back, she told him she was going to kill her self if she didn't get to see him again. Usually I am angered by EBs. But Madame Bovary was hilarious because Emma's thinking was exaggerated just enough to make it a little ridiculous, but still realistic.

Complete Failure: She failed, and failed hard. Everything she did went wrong because she was so stuck in her fantasy. Emma's marriage with Charles went horribly in her mind (Charles was too oblivious to know about either love affair until after she died so he thought their marriage was fine). Both love affairs ended. Being a mother wasn't all it was cracked up to be so she left her daughter with a wet nurse almost all the time and rarely mentioned her at all. She used splurging to make herself feel better and to buy gifts for Rodolphe, but that just launched her into debt. And finally, Emma tried to die with dignity by eating arsenic. She ended up having convulsions and vomiting blood, so even that didn't go the way she wanted to. But it was all her fault. She completely failed at life.

Humor: This book is really funny. My favorite quote is "Isn't it a man's job to know everything?" Anything that emphasizes Emma's ridiculousness made me laugh. And also the part about Leon basically stalking Emma and no one seems to care. And anything about how Charles is repulsive to Emma. She is even repulsed by his teeth at one point! But then when there's the possibility of Charles doing a breakthrough surgery that could make them a lot of money, she changes her mind and says he isn't as bad as she thought he was. Then the surgery doesn't work and she goes back to hating him. I thought I'd be so irritated with Emma's behavior, but I couldn't stop cracking up!

Final Thoughts: This book was heavily criticized for the realistic aspect when it was first published. It's interesting how the most controversial books are usually the best ones to read. I don't think Catcher in the Rye would be nearly as famous if it wasn't one of the most banned books in schools. If this is the case, I think there should be more controversy in books. Maybe then kids would read more.

Frankenstein: No, Not the Green Guy

2012-01-11T18:41:00.000-08:00

First impressions: I predicted that I would finish this book and begin hating how Frankenstein’s monster is portrayed in pop culture. I was right.

Short(ish) Synopsis: Although the story is familiar to a lot of people, there are some details that are in the movies only, and not the books. But I’ll start from the beginning. Victor Frankenstein discovers the secret to life, but he will not tell you (the reader) what it is. He creates a monster, but is immediately sickened by it, so he makes the monster leave. Shortly thereafter, Victor receives news that his youngest brother, William, has been murdered (guess who?). He rushes home and catches sight of his creation, and becomes convinced that the monster did it (Spoiler: He’s right). Justine Moritz, a girl who had been adopted into the Frankenstein household, is accused of murdering William. Victor realizes that if he tells everyone a monster did it, people won’t believe him. Justine is executed and Victor feels guilty so he goes to the mountains for a getaway, to which the monster approaches him and admits to the murder. The monster begs for a companion as grotesque as he is. Victor refuses at first, but the monster tells him what he’s been doing after Victor banished him. He found a family and began to watch their interactions with one another. From them, he learned to speak and learned what love is. He was sure that this family would accept him for who he is. But they don’t. They are mortified and immediately move out once the monster reveals himself. The monster knows that no one will ever love him, so he wants a companion who is as grotesque as he is so he will be loved. Victor is persuaded and begins work on his monster’s “bride.” One night, though, Victor catches his monster grinning at him, and is overwhelm by doubts and destroys his work. The monster is furious, and vows to be with Victor on his wedding night. The monster kills Victor’s traveling companion, Henry. Victor is accused for the crime, but is acquitted later. Eventually, Victor marries a girl named Elizabeth and, true to his word, the monster kills her. Victor vows to find the monster and get revenge. He is found by Walton, a sea captain (who has been narrating the story the whole time). Victor becomes ill while on the ship, and one day Walton finds the monster weeping over the body. The monster assumes that his creator has died (he has) and says that because his creator has died, he can also end his suffering. After he says that, he departs to the ice to die.

Differences From Movies: There are symbols and motifs in this book, but I didn’t find them as interesting as how different this story is from how the movies portray the monster. After finishing this book, I’m always careful to note the difference between Frankenstein and Frankenstein’s monster. There’s quite a list I made mentally of all the differences I made between the book and the supposedly “accurate” movie Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein. Alas, I have forgotten some, but here is a list of the more obvious differences between the book and movies/TV shows (in general).

Monster’s Qualities in the Book Monster’s Qualities in Movies

Articulate
Yellow Skin
Looked more ugly than scary
Committed murders on purpose
Never acquired a bride
Made out of several dead people’s body parts
Very sad and hurt, and eventually kills himself
People never accept him
Kills with purpose
He’s a sad creation who wants to be accepted

Can only speak in grunts and moans
Green skin
Looked like scary monster (with bolts?)
Killed on accident (depends on movie)
Eventually had a bride
Made out of one guy (depends on the movie)
More angry, but lives “happily ever after” (or is killed)
People eventually accept him
Attacks random people
He’s just a zombie. Big whoop.

Victor Frankenstein is different too. He actually has a story. He isn’t some crazy scientist. He has a love interest and does not have an assistant named Igor. He actually has no assistant at all. Igor wasn’t introduced until 1931.

Final Thoughts: Frankly, if Mary Shelly were alive today, I think she wouldn’t be very happy with what her beautiful novel has become. I thoroughly enjoyed the story. Well, I didn’t like the beginning because I had no idea who Walton was and thought I would immediately start out in Frankenstein’s narrative. Overall though, this is an amazing story. To think that such a young person could produce something so original is awesome. No, not “totally rad” awesome. Like, I’m-actually-in-awe-awesome.

If you come across any other differences between the “real” and “modern” Frankenstein story, let me know. I was literally yelling at the screen as I watched the movie. I strongly hope I’m not the only one.

Crime and Punishment: Not All Humans Suck

2012-01-07T22:59:00.000-08:00

First Impressions: The book is written frankly and simply. The vocabulary, though, isn’t written as eloquently as, say, Madame Bovary. However, the reason is probably because Crime and Punishment was translated from Russian while Madame Bovary was translated from French. Still, I appreciated that I didn’t have to grab a dictionary every five seconds while trying to enjoy the book.

Simple Synopsis (Note- If you just read the synopsis and refuse to read the book itself, the analysis will not make any sense): Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov murders and old pawnbroker and her innocent sister. He is immediately struck with an illness because he feels so guilty. During recovery he runs into an old acquaintance, Razumikhin, who is eager to help out his sick friend. He also meets his sister’s fiance, Luzhin, who only wants to marry her so she can be forever submissive to him. Raskolnikov witnesses the death of Marmeladov, who spent all his family’s money on alcohol. Marmeladov’s daughter, Sonya, is the most innocent character in the entire book, but has to prostitute herself to support her family. Raskolnikov eventually takes quite a liking to Sonya, and promises to tell her who the murderer of the pawnbroker and pawnbroker’s sister is. By this time, Raskolnikov has almost confessed to Porfiry, the police inspector, twice. Meanwhile, another guy named Svidrigailov is watching him. Raskolnikov confesses to Sonya, and Svidrigailov overhears them and tries to sleep with Sonya. He fails and commits suicide. Sonya encourages Raskolnikov to confess to the police, which he eventually does and is sentenced to eight years in a Siberian prison. Sonya follows him there, and patiently waits for him so they can go off and rebuild their life. Of course, there’s much more too it than that, but you’re going to have to read the book for the details.

Raskolnikov’s Repentance: Currently, this is my favorite book. Period. I especially love the ending. While I was reading the book, I was positive that Raskolnikov was going to either go crazy or commit suicide, but he didn’t. He genuinely repented. I found that utterly fascinating. It’s like Dostoevsky was trying to tell people that humans are capable of doing terrible things and then repenting. Take King David, for instance. He committed adultery and murder, but God still forgave him. To me, Sonya is the god-like character in this book. She is willing to sacrifice everything to help her family, including her own body. She also sees the good in Raskolnikov. When he confesses, she doesn’t freak out and leave. She wants him to do the right thing, because somehow she knows that he isn’t a monster. Sonya is the one who gets Raskolnikov to confess, and she helps him realize that he can work past this.

Raskolnikov’s “Extraordinary Man” Theory: Throughout the book the reader is introduced to Raskolnikov’s theory that an “extraordinary man” can commit a crime without feeling any guilt. Of course, Raskolnikov feels massive amounts of guilt for murdering two people. Although this is a big part of the book, this wasn’t my favorite aspect of it. I understand the irony mentioned several times. Personally, I like Raskolnikov’s interaction with the characters which helps him ultimately discover who he really is.

Svidrigailov: This character is the perfect foil for Raskolnikov. It is implied that he has killed several people (including poisoning his wife to be with Raskolnikov’s sister!) without feeling any guilt. In fact, he is the “extraordinary man” that Raskolnikov aims to be. But, Svidrigailov commits suicide when he can’t seduce Sonya. I think this is how Raskolnikov would have ended up if Sonya hadn’t been there to remind him that he’s a good person within.

Luzhin: This character wanted to marry Raskolnikov’s sister, Dunya, but didn’t (thank God!). I believe this kind of person is what girls at my school would call “a pig.” All he cares about is himself. He only wants to marry Dunya so he has someone who will be in submission to him the rest of his life. However, the line in the book that made me laugh the most was the one that says Luzhin spends a good amount of his time examining himself in the mirror. So, he had some use. He’s the guy that every “nice guy” thinks that all the girls pursue. I know that’s true in a lot of cases, but in Crime and Punishment, Luzhin does not get the girl. Razumikhin does. Razumikhin is the nice guy. That’s right folks! In this book, the nice guy gets the girl without being stuck in the friend zone first! I know! I was shocked too!

My Favorite Theme: The “alienation from society” is the most interesting theme in the book that I had the most fun researching. Pretty much, Raskolnikov thought several different times that he needed to be away from people. At one point he even told Razhumikhin to watch over his mother and sister while he was having a breakdown. But those times were when Raskolnikov needed people the most. Gradually he came to realize that. I love this theme because there’s so many people on this earth that feel like the only way they can fix their problems is by isolating themselves. Raskolnikov is the perfect example showing why that doesn’t work. He became confused and irrational when he wasn’t around people, but when he is with Sonya, she is able to help him work through the guilt. Dostoevsky makes it clear that he strongly believes that all humans need love and compassion to function properly, even if they won’t admit it themselves.

My Favorite Motif: Almost every character in the book is poor. Take the Marmeladov’s (Sonya’s family) for instance. Sonya herself is compassionate enough, but her family is the happiest in the book overall. Of course, they are deeply upset when Marmeladov dies, but the whole family has compassion toward one another. Raskolnikov’s mother and sister have also accepted that they are poor and have grown from it. The book brings out that although they are poor, they make their best efforts to dress in nice clothes. They aren’t doing so to give the impression they’re rich, rather they want to look as lady-like as they can with what they have. Dostoevsky uses poverty to bring families together and help people use what they have to their highest advantage. Once again, it is shown that money isn’t everything.

My Favorite Symbol: Any Bible references in books make me giddy. When I discovered that the story of Lazarus is used to describe Raskolnikov, I was ecstatic. It completely makes sense. When Raskolnikov commits the murders he, in a sense, “dies.” Over the course of the novel, Sonya helps “resurrect” him by getting him to confess and come back to humanity. I absolutely love it when authors subtly use the Bible to foreshadow their book. It also characterizes Sonya by giving her the role of Jesus, showing how innocent and good-hearted she is.

Overall: I definitely want to read this book again, because I’m sure I’ve missed some symbol that the research I’ve done hasn’t already uncovered. Crime and Punishment gives the point that not all humans are bad through and through. Some of them are repentant and try to do good in their lives after committing a terrible crime. After I was done reading the book I no longer thought that all humans are terrible. Some have good hearts.

Of course, further discussion of this book in the comments is strongly encouraged, as I love discussing literature with anyone. As long as you’ve read the book. All the way through.

Senior Year: Caring Does Not Equal Missing

2011-12-01T22:24:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty proud of myself for coming to terms with graduation before it actually happens. Some time ago, although I don't know say when exactly, I realized that most people I talk to at school now I'm not going to care about after I graduate. Some of my schoolmates get it. People change and friends come and go. That's how life is. Others think that since I'm not going to miss them three years from now then I don't care about them at all.

Seriously?

If you know me at all, you'll know I love people. More than one person should, I think. It's gotten me in trouble more than once. So it's obvious that the last day of school is going to be sad. There's an assembly where the seniors watch a slideshow and it's all very sweet. I'm looking forward to it. But I'm realistic. There's only one person I can think of that I'll probably keep it touch with for a while after graduation. Probably. Everyone else will drift, acquire new interests, and high school will only be a distant memory. That's normal. Realistic.

Am I going to miss my friends? Of course! But not for very long. Maybe a year or two. I'm thinking that some might keep in touch for a while, and then slowly forget. I used to to be that person that attempted to keep in touch, but I'm don't do that anymore because 98% of the time it's not mutual and I'm just being annoying. If they text me randomly, then I'll text them randomly too. But if it's only one or the other, the contact is few and far between. And by that I mean we see each other at the supermarket fifteen years from now.

Obviously I'll remember some people better than others. Memories will last a lot longer than just a couple years. But they'll only be memories. It's sad that so many of my schoolmates haven't come to terms that most of their friends in high school won't last after graduation. Close friends sometimes do, but even that's only probable. People change a lot from the ages of eighteen to twenty-five.

I brought this up with one of my friends a month ago, and he implied that I was acting as if we weren't friends and that I didn't care. This irritated me, but I couldn't explain it this extensively within the few seconds I had to think of a response. So I pretty much blurted out the first paragraph of this blog in a less coherent manner. The conversation ended awkwardly and I felt guilty for bringing it up. Then I realized that the end of the year is going to be a lot sadder than it needs to be. And every day I leave school in the month of June, I'm probably going to feel depressed. All my friends are going to go on about how much they'll miss me and I will go on about how I'll miss them. And I'll be sad because all the guys I hang out with won't be as emotional and I'll question whether they really ever cared. I know that's pathetic and stupid, but it's one of my girl-minded tendencies that I hate. I have brought it up before.

Anyway, the end of the semester is coming up and I'm already nervous about that. Only once of my classes is changing. It happens to be Modern Fiction, the best class to end my day. Why? The people, of course. I always laugh in that class. Every. Single. Day. Even on the day of the stabbing I laughed. I didn't want to because I felt horrible beyond words that entire week, but I did anyway. The teacher hates all of us, but that's the fun of it. Ok, not all of the fun. When she gets mad, she gets really mad. I'm sorry we're so terrible to you Ms. Short.

The point is that the class is awesome, and I'm really going to miss it. Another reason is that I have friends in that class that I wouldn't talk to if we didn't have Modern Fiction together. They're going to go away. I'll miss them terribly because I grown to care way too much about them over the past three months. But I'll get over it.

Just like how I'll get over high school. Physically and emotionally. I really wish people would see that, but I don't blame them. My first blog post about senior year was me freaking out about how I'm not going to be able to handle this. But I'll be fine. We'll all be fine.

This'll be a good year.

OMG I'm FULL of Smartzzzz!

2011-10-09T22:05:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty sure we all have that friend that is smarter than us. No? Just me? Well ok then.

Anyway, I have a lot of friends who are smarter than me, and I've realized that intelligence falls into two personality traits: show-off or ignorance (whether it be known to them or not).

The show-off personality is that guy that you know that's incredibly smart, but he (or she) has to remind you every five seconds how smart they are. They are completely aware of their intelligence, and they enjoy every minute of it. Spouting off random facts is second nature. When I meet these people, I usually humor them. I'm drawn to people smarter than me. But after listening to them talk for ten minutes, I feel remarkably stupid. There are rare cases when they actually explain what they're talking about, so then I feel less stupid. That tends to help a little bit.

Unfortunately, there's always that show-off who question why you don't know about whatever they're blathering about.

"It was in the news. Don't you watch the news?!"

"Yes..."

"Well...you must watch the stupid news. The news I watch is FULL of IMPORTANT information that YOU should know. Is there something WRONG with you?"

"Apparently."

"Well, anyway...where was I?"

"If I shoot you, would it be considered self-defense?"

Yeah, that type of show-off. Those people drive me crazy. Fortunately, I haven't met very many. If I have, I usually end the conversation as quickly as possible before they start ranting. Because ranting is my thing.

Then there's those lovely ignorant people who don't realize they're smart. I know they are a lot of smart people who know they're smart, but they still fall in the ignorance category because they act ignorant a lot. I know it's a stretch, but this is me we're talking about. If you don't remind me you're smart all the time, then you're ignorant. Let's humor the unintelligent girl and move on, ok? These people will spout off information that relates to the subject or something random that is actually interesting. Despite this, I usually end up feeling stupid around those people, even if they're also really good at explaining things.

<Side-note>Is it weird that I love certain people's talking voices? Like, they could be explaining something that's going completely over my head, but if they're talking then it's all ok. I feel odd for being drawn to certain types of voices. It's not accents, it's voices. Intelligence higher than mine is optional.</Side-note>

I know a lot of people that fall into my ignorant category. So you could say that I feel stupid a lot. Especially at Sno-Isle. I'm supposed to be (one of) the tech-y girl(s) that pwns all the boys with her amazing knowledge of computers. HA! Yeah, right. The only thing that impresses the boys at my school is my chocolate-chip cookies. Oh, they like my niceness and sarcasm, but that doesn't matter as much because girls like those characteristics as well.

I remind myself quite often that I'm still learning and that I know more about computers than a lot of people my age. But when you surround yourself with people smarter than you unintentionally, those reminders disintegrate and you're stuck making cookies. And correcting spelling. Those boys cannot spell.

I still feel mildly stupid around them. A lot. But don't tell them I said anything because I'm afraid they'll take pity and I really don't want that.

"That's right Michaela! That's where the power supply is! You are so good with computers! Isn't she?"

"Yes she is! She is very smart!"

"...You guys read my blog didn't you?"

"...Yes..."

So, in conclusion, I am good at making cookies, and spelling. How invigorating.

And to think I have a blog to feel better about myself. Oh well. I always have common sense to fall back on. Don't even get me started on the lack of that in teenagers.

It's Been A Good Run

2011-10-09T20:30:00.000-07:00

Our family is taking a break from Arabic. We're going back to a close-by English Kingdom Hall now. It's just been getting to expensive. Taking a forty minute drive three times a week was too much. But it's been a good four years.

Our last meeting in our previous hall was on Tuesday. We didn't make a big announcement or anything, we just went around and told our friends. News spread quickly. It wasn't announced from the platform and there was no party by request. It's better that way. Everyone said they would miss us, and the feeling was very mutual. In the car on the drive to the meeting, I was actually excited to be going back to English. But as soon as my dad said our last meeting was that night, that changed. I still believe this is the best decision, as do our friends and the rest of the family. My excitement, though, turned to sadness. I didn't cry, but there was a tightness in my chest the whole meeting. I was eager to spread the news, but at the same time I didn't want to. I just wanted to hug all my friends without them knowing I wasn't coming back for awhile and let them know how well they were doing. Then vanish.

That, of course, didn't happen. I only told three people directly, I was approached by most everyone else in the group. I think there's a couple people that weren't told because they weren't at the meeting that night or they left too early. Hopefully those people got the goodbye email my dad sent out. I'm sure they'll figure it out. Any people missing from the Arabic group is noticed.

Anyway, it was an interesting goodbye. It was sad, but it was also full of smiles. People understood why we were taking a break from Arabic. I'm trying really hard not to say "leaving" because we aren't leaving at all. If we can afford to go to the conventions in the summer, then we will. We'll definitely visit. And we could come back, we just don't know. Finally, we had to walk out the door. I walked extra slow, trying to take it all in. We were at that hall for a year, and it was an amazing year. The door closed. We left the parking lot. And that was that.

Taking Arabic was so good for us. We've met friends that we'll forever have. We've expanded our ministry. We were able to travel more as a family. Those accomplishments will never be regretted. It's amazing how learning this language has changed all of us. I've been slowly (very slowly) maturing around adults who care enough to tell me when to shut up, and when I've said the wrong thing. There's too many people that are my age who literally have no one to guide them through life. I know that my parents are excellent at guiding me, but you can never have too many role models, right? Hopefully when I visit, they'll be able to see the "Adult Me." Because, let's face it, everyone's seen enough of "Teen Me."

Our first English meeting was today. My two closest friends are there, and it was glorious knowing that I'll see them on a regular basis once again. Also, there's girls my age in this hall, which will be nice considering I spend a lot of time with guys at school. I mean, sometimes I just want to talk about hair. It was a happy new beginning.

Learning Arabic was the best decision our family has ever made. It's just time to move on for now. The group will never leave our hearts or minds, and we will keep in touch. We love them after all.

May Jehovah continue to bless them.

Rain, rain, don't go away!

2011-10-02T19:44:00.000-07:00

Since I am a person who just brought groceries in the house from the pouring rain, I have every right to say I love the rain.

So very much.

Thus brings us to the "rain" post. Rain is just one of those things that you can't describe unless you've been in it. It's not just a form of precipitation. It's an experience.

Water adds drama/romance to everything. Why are all fight/make out scenes in the rain? When you think about it, fighting and kissing are opposite actions. You can't do one while thinking about the other. Could you imagine?

"All right. Time to fight Daredevil. Hmm...maybe we should kiss later..."

Was the Kingpin thinking that? I don't think so. If he was...well...let's move on.

Rain is depressing sometimes. A lot of the time in movies, it's raining during the funeral scenes. It represents sadness for the most part. Water droplets make everything look dramatic. Then again, that's why people kiss in it.

I suppose rain is the movie's natural irony. Kissing in the rain seems silly, but almost every girl I know dreams of doing just that. Yeah right. Girls, the movies are fake, you know that right? It seems like a cute idea, then you do it and you're freezing because you've been in the rain too long. Then your hair gets frizzy and you can't see if you have glasses. If it's cold enough your nose will start running. Also, no relationship should be based on the girl's fantasies. Or the boy's for that matter. But I digress. If you're reading this, though, you should be used to that.

As I was saying, I think having happy occurrences in the rain is supposed to be ironic. It's like the movie is saying, "See? Rain doesn't have to make things so sad after all!" I love how rain looks (I could watch the rain fall for a long time) but what's even better is how it feels.

When I was outside just now, I had my Sno-Isle sweatshirt on because it was warm and had a hood. I love the rain, but not the cold. I flipped the hood up, stepped outside, and immediately took my hood down. The feel of rain is the best experience. Besides, if I had my hood on, I couldn't hear it well enough.


Ok, these are dewdrops on my mom's rose. But the principle is the same!

There's too many people I know that despise the rain. This one girl I knew last year would remind me how much she hated the rain, every time it rained. In Washington, it's a common occurrence. But that didn't stop us from having a puddle-splashing fight. By the end, we were soaked and laughing our heads off. She literally had to wring her socks out. I think I was wearing my boots that day, so my socks were dry.

Speaking of boots, rain means I get to wear my boots! My jean cuffs get soaked but who cares? I have cute shoes on!

Most people I know that hate the rain don't like it because of the wetness aspect. They don't like the feeling of their hair getting wetter every time a droplet falls on their head. I don't see what the problem is. That's my favorite part.

Watch this gorgeous girl lip-syncing in the "rain." You'll understand the quotation marks if you watch it. I'm not giving anything away. I will say that it is not a scare video. I hate those. I've watched this four times already in the last hour. I love it.

Nanalew - SAIL Music Video

But I've said too much already. Talking about rain tends to ruin the experience.

Enjoy the rain! You better not stay inside!

Senior Year: First Month-ish

2011-09-30T20:05:00.000-07:00

All right, I admit. The only reason I've been blogging for three days in a row is because I'm sick and have nothing else to do. Surprisingly, TV does get boring after awhile. But here is an update on school so far (stuff I didn't mention on my other post).

First of all, I got an A- on my summer assignment!! Woot! I am so proud of myself because I worked really hard on it. I love AP Lit so much. It's my favorite class this year. Sorry, Sno-Isle. It's been a good run, but constantly working in groups is not really my thing. We can still be friends though, right? Sno-Isle?

Oh well. Today I learned that our project in Sno-Isle is due Monday, which is a huge relief. My group didn't make much progress today. In all honesty though, it's not like I'm the shining beacon of responsibility and I always get things done. Today would have been a slack-off day, especially since Snohomish leaves early. An hour early to be exact. The important thing is that we finish, and I'm fairly certain we will. Come on, though, it's only the second project of the year, I'm sure we'll get better. No, my teacher (Tory) is not the type to force us to stay in one group all year, I choose to stay with them. Why? Well, it's definitely not their work ethic. Haha. I stay with them because I would get bored rather quickly if all we did was work. When I get a real job, sarcasm will probably be scarce, so I'm savoring it while I can. If you ask them why they're staying in the group, though, I honestly have no idea what they'll say. It's not because of me, I know that. Actually, if any one of us left the group, none of us would stop them. I mean, they're a bunch of guys and that means it's all logic and no emotion. I might miss them if they leave the group, but I'm the emotion. Just ask, they'll tell you. So I think it's the whole group that makes everyone stick together. Wow, that sounds incredibly cheesy, but what other reason is there? None of them are reading this (probably) and they aren't about to stop me randomly and say "Let me tell you all the things that make this group so amazing and why we haven't abandoned you." That's my job. I constantly tell them how great they're doing. Or how not so great they're doing. I don't know why, because it's not like it helps them any. But as team leader I'd feel weird if I was "that team leader" who constantly told everyone how bad they were doing and that all the work they did wasn't good enough. But I also don't want to be "that team leader" who literally sits there silently without giving any instruction. Wait...I've actually done that. But that was because of my cold and I was incredibly exhausted. I know, I know, I'm making excuses, but I seriously don't want to do that again. I've discovered that if I'm not working, they don't progress as well, just because it is a group effort after all.

The nice thing about working with guys in this age group is that none of them start bugging me about not working unless they're teasing me. Trust me, I've heard some girls (including me) get really mad about that one person on their group who didn't do anything. Heck, I've ranted about this group to my friends. But after working with them for a little bit, I realized that none of them actually want to fail. None of them actually like seeing me flip out on them either (which I have done three or four times. Not recently though). There have been people who enjoy seeing me flip out. If these guys were like that, I would dislike them all. Me being mad is amusing (because it's so unlike me), but they aren't trying to make me mad, which I appreciate. It's not just any group after all. It's my group.

Ok, now I'm sounding to much like a mom (that happens quite often, no joke) so I'm going try not to think about the last day of senior year when it hits me I'll never see them again. I'm dreading that day. I'm not going to cry, that's a fact. First of all, I've never cried at school before (except in 4th grade when I had a really bad ear infection). Secondly, a lot of my friends are guys, and not only do none of them want to see me get emotional, but they aren't going to be emotional. Nothing. Zilch. I'm starting to see why so many romantic relationships don't work out in high school because girls don't realize that just because guys don't act as happy as the girl does in the relationship, it doesn't mean the guy doesn't care. Boys and girls are different. But I have girlish tendencies too. Somewhere in the back of my head are my emotions telling me that if a guy friend doesn't scream "I'll miss you!" on the brink of tears directly to me, then maybe he doesn't actually care. Of course that isn't true. But those are consistent thoughts that go through my head on the last day of school. "Are they going to miss me at all?" And if they say they'll miss me, that never works because they have to be all emotional about, like we're dating or something. Realistically, if one of them did do that to me, it'd be weird and awkward and I'd question our relationship throughout the year (we were just friends, right?).

Sometimes I hate being a girl that loves people so much. It takes me longer to get over things. So I'll have to force myself to not keep in contact with any of my friends (except Hayley and a couple exceptions) because if I don't the "drifting apart" will take too long, which always makes it worse. It's high school. You're supposed to make friends you'll never see again. But imagine if we were launched into a workplace right away and had never had a close friend before. We would either make the wrong ones because we don't know what we like, or isolate ourselves and be lonely the rest of our lives. I'm pathetic, I know. I've already started planning out what I want to say in other people's yearbooks. It's the first month of school.

"And here on the left, you'll see First Street, the home of our popular antique shops and shows. Wait...what's that? Oh, it's Michaela being nostalgic again. GO HOME!"

"But...but I don't want to! I'll never see them again!"

"You graduated twenty years ago! Get off the street corner! You look ridiculous."

"I want to go back! Let me go back!"

"Oh no. Quick! Someone grab the time machine before she gets to it first!"

See, it's funny because we don't have tour guides in Snohomish. The town is much too small and boring. But I still love this town, and this state for that matter. What can I say, I'm a sucker for rain. But I'll blog about rain later. That post will be much shorter, I promise.

Wait..I just realized this was supposed to be about school. I get on the topic of Sno-Isle and it all goes haywire. Great.

"Hello. My name is Michaela...and I am nostalgic..."

"Hi Michaela..."

I should consider joining NA (Nostalgics Anonymous). There's quite a confusion because NA already stands for Not Applicable. Not many people know about it.

Anyway, I need to leave before I become a hot nostalgic mess and this blog post becomes really long.

Oh wait...

Sick Boredom

2011-09-29T22:41:00.000-07:00

Being sick is never fun, but the thing that kills me most is all the free time. I've decided not to go to school or work tomorrow, so I have the entire day to do whatever. But, because I'm sick with this cold, everything is tedious and/or painful.

Messing around on my phone for a long time is fun for awhile, but the light makes my sinus headache worse, and I put it down. Then I may decide to sleep. Sleep only works if I'm "throw-up" sick though. Then you're sick enough to be exhausted all day. I would know. I got that virus in June and did nothing but sleep (and get up maybe once or twice) all day. I actually didn't even sleep on my bed. Getting up to go to bed was too much work.

Colds are different. After awhile my body says, "Hey, you're not tired! Get out of bed!" But as soon as I stand up I get a really bad head rush. Since my head hurts I want to sleep, but my body is stubborn. So what am I supposed to do for 18 hours? Last time I got a cold I texted all day, but I don't really text a lot anymore. I am this year, though, because there's a lot to talk about when it comes to Sno-Isle projects. I will text a little to see if my group is actually working. And our project is due tomorrow and we have a lot to do. So I need to check in on my group mates to see if they did anything. Besides, if we get a good grade on the project, I'm buying them all donuts. Or make cookies. Whichever they want. Why? Because I'm team leader! That's what we do!

Anyway, I hate the days where you literally have nothing to do because the things you would normally be able to do is too hard. Wow, I sound so lazy.

Fortunately, tomorrow's Friday. So now I'll have all weekend to recover. Also, I'm missing a quiz tomorrow. Did I plan this on purpose? Hmm?? Mwahahaha!

No, I actually did not. It just happened to be that way. However, in the back of my head I thought "I really don't want to do a quiz in this condition."

I realized that after I pushed myself through school that no one would really want to sit around me in this condition. I wouldn't. My friends jokingly leaned away from me last period, but I thought about it and decided it would be best to take a day off.

Commencing boredom!

If you have suggestions, please let me know. I'll be checking comments quite often tomorrow because I probably won't be leaving my laptop for more than a few minutes.

Tomorrow would be a good time to continue reading Frankenstein. It's quite difficult to follow, but I get the idea. I'm on Chapter four, and the name "Frankenstein" was finally revealed as being the name of the current narrator (I say "current" because technically there's two narrators, but anyway...). And it was mentioned in passing! I think I'm finally getting to the more interesting parts. It was revealed that Frankenstein knew the "secret" to animation (no, not cartoon animation. Like, bringing people to life and stuff.). But he'll never tell what it is. Ooohhhh.

Ok, bedtime. Then boredom. Yay.

Guitar Lessons: Progress Has Been Made!

2011-09-28T19:25:00.000-07:00

My guitar and I have a complicated relationship. Sometimes I give it all the attention it needs, sometimes I leave it alone for weeks at a time. Sounds like some relationships at my high school. Speaking of school, since school started, I need something to relax every once in awhile. Don't worry, I'm getting my homework done. But I've come crawling back to my guitar. Fortunately, it accepted me back willingly. My calluses are coming back.

Oh, and I learned how to strum upward. What's that? That's right. An accomplishment. No, it's not a very big one, but I think it's pretty awesome I can play "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz all by myself because of this newly acquired skill. And the song that I wrote a little while ago called "Beautiful Girl" sounds a lot better when I strum upwards. Wait...did I tell you I wrote a song (of course I did. Right here.)? I've written two, but one was for my friend because she needed one to put in her story. She'll probably post it at some point. She's Rugphan's Fiction. The other song I wrote, though, actually has some meaning to how I was feeling at time. I'll have to record it sometime and post it.

But alas, I still know no barre chords. I'm so disappointed because this song called "Rhythm of Love" is an amazing, and it's really easy to play. As long as you can play chord B7. B7 is a barre chord. A relatively easy one, but a barre chord nonetheless. Curse you barre chords!

I don't really share my "accomplishments" to my fellow guitar players at school, because they're way ahead of me. One of them is learning similar songs that I'm learning, and he's encouraging. But when I told him I can strum up now, he laughed as he pictured me simply strumming downward. It's not like he hurt my feelings, but I realized he didn't share my enthusiasm. The other guy already knows guitar really well, but he plays metal. He's shocked whenever I tell him I don't know a band he's really familiar with. We clearly didn't learn guitar for the same reasons. I never want to play metal. I mean, if I have the capability at some point, that's fine. But I'd rather write beautiful music that can warm people's hearts or make them cry. Now that I think about it, he took the "guy" approach to music and I took the "girl" approach. Yes, I know I'm generalizing. You don't have to remind me. I know there are girls who play metal songs, and guys that write songs like "I'm Yours."

Anyway, I'm sticking to sharing my accomplishments with my blog. Because half the people who read this don't play guitar. So I sound like a genius. The same thing happens when I speak Arabic to people. I don't know that much, but I'm better than them, so I'm awesome at it. It's all relative. I'm happy with people being impressed by my writing, Arabic, and niceness. Guitar is optional. I'm already good at other stuff, so this is just for fun. Professionalism is not what I'm aiming for. My future career will hopefully involve computers. See? That will be another thing I want to be good at and can impress people with. Why bother with guitar when I'm good at so many other things? I'm just kidding. If I have kids, I'm writing their lullabies.

On another note, school is going well. I've never laughed so much at school. Sno-Isle is always funny when I'm not stressed. AP Lit always makes me laugh. It's hilarious because my teacher will tell a joke and start laughing. Then we're laughing because of the joke and because of his laugh. His laugh is the best bit. The jokes you wouldn't really get unless you've read Crime and Punishment. So, if you have, you can contact me and I'll let you in on some of my classes jokes. And modern fiction is funny because of the people I sit next to. They make me laugh constantly, even if I don't want to. They're just the kind of people who always make me laugh without trying at all. If I tried to explain those jokes, you wouldn't laugh. Trust me. The jokes we tell are usually only funny for a day. Except for "Blame it on the a-a-a-a-a-apple juice!" See, it's funny because the song goes "Blame it on the a-a-a-a-a-alcohol!" Get it? I told you that you wouldn't laugh.

To conclude, I have my first cold of the year. So yay for that. This is the first cold I've had with glasses. Sinus pressure in your nose + Glasses resting on your nose = not good. My head throbs when I stand up, but whatever. This is probably my cold's worse day. I'm only wearing my glasses at school. There's no real reason to wear them at home. When I think about it, if I take my glasses off for whatever reason at home, I don't usually put them back on. They're a nuisance. It's so much work to pick them up, put them on, all that stuff. What am I, active? Yeah right!

That is all for today. I'm going to back to grabbing tissues, complaining, and listening to my music collection. When I don't listen to my "favorites" playlist, me listening to music usually goes like this.

"Oh! Coldplay!" *listens* "Ok, no more ColdPlay." *skip skip skip skip* "Come on! Where's Basshunter!" *skip skip skip skip skip* "There he is!" *listens* "Ok, no more Basshunter." *skip skip skip skip*

Does anybody else skip a lot of songs when they're listening to music? Or do I have to delete a lot of songs?

So long for now. Stay healthy! Colds are no fun.

What's the Deal With Eyes?

2011-09-21T16:38:00.000-07:00

If someone compliments my eyes (which hardly happens), what exactly are they complimenting? The color, the emotion it brings them, the emotion it projects?

What makes eyes emotional anyway? I have never understood that. I am not a very good analyzer of eyes, but with that being said, I still see some emotion in them. Where does that come from? Is it in the eyes or our own mind.

Someone I know has very unique eyes, and it's not because of their color. One minute, his eyes are friendly and the next they are extremely off-putting and creepy. How does he do that?! But he is a unique person on his own. He's the type of guy that you never really know is serious or not if he tells you something really weird. You hope he's kidding, but you don't know for sure. Actually, that isn't very unique because a lot of boys in my high school are like that.

Eyes are a strange phenomena. They do wonderful things like help us see. But they also do interesting things like lie. In my opinion, eyes are the most devious part of the body. There are some eyes I've come across that are rather enjoyable to look at. Sometimes it's because of their color, but other times it's because they look so inviting. It's all very strange. I don't know how people can make their eyes look friendly when they're lying to you. They hold so much emotion behind them, and I can't comprehend how someone puts on fake eye-emotion. Most of us have acted happy when we're not, but how do you make your eyes look happy when you're not?

Clearly, I have no idea what I'm talking about because I keep asking so many questions. What do you think about eyes? Do you think about eyes? If not, I apologize for being so strange.

I'm going to go back to looking up people on FaceBook that graduated last year. Of course, I can't go to their wall, but I can see what their interests are. I've only found a couple, and I can't think of very many. This is not going well.

Oh, and school is well (but stressful) and my knee (I scraped it last week) is healing. And I haven't been playing guitar as much because I've been too busy. Thanks for asking.

Senior Year: First day

2011-09-08T17:56:00.000-07:00

No, I'm not going to do a day by day analysis of senior year. But I think that one day I might want to look back on this and wonder what I did on the first day of senior year. So here it goes.

First of all, I strained my throat before I even got on the bus to go to Sno-Isle. I had coffee that morning, which doesn't affect me as much as it used to, but with all the excitement added to the caffeine, I was really hyper. The morning was full of hugs and story-telling. I don't think there's a single person I said hi to that I didn't hug. I was screaming so many people's names, I was so excited. Another reason I was happy was because I had switched buses. My old bus changed routes, so now I ride a much less crowded bus. There's someone I know too, so I found someone to sit next to.

Unfortunately, my Sno-Isle bus driver changed. I liked my old one, and I really wanted to know how her summer was. But that's ok. Anyway, everyone piled onto the first bus, which was crammed and really hot due to all the body heat. One of the people who make sure everyone gets to Sno-Isle told us that the second bus was on its way. Me and several other people I knew got off and all sat together on the second bus.

The bus ride was more nostalgic than anything. The conversation was mostly video-game related, and since I only play Portal 2 (and I haven't in a long time because I've been so busy) I was uninterested. I did talk a little bit though. It's unlike a caffeinated me to be quiet for two seconds.

Then we reached Sno-Isle. Ahh, Sno-Isle. My old classroom was transferred into the DigiPen class, and the DigiPen classroom was turned into the math support room. I thought it would be saddening, but it wasn't really. I have some regrets about taking Computer and Web Programming. I have nothing against the people in my class who might be reading this (all three of you), but I didn't learn anything in that class at all. It was all pointless field trips and talking about nothing. If I hadn't taken Sno-Isle at all, I probably would have learned more. Anyway, that's a whole other rant that I shouldn't get into while my former Sno-Isle classmates are reading.

One benefit of taking CWP, I guess, was the fact that I already knew someone in the class from last year. Well, I knew three in total, but the other two people were from my school, so of course I'd know them. So I sat next to the former classmate, who immediately began helping everyone. If someone turns around and asks aloud, "How do you do this?" then he will usually jump on it. Unless he's listening to music. Or talking to someone he likes better.

CSN (Computer Servers/Networking) sounds like it will be very beneficial. We took a pre-test to see how much we know. I failed miserably (35%), which is good, because I want to learn all that terminology. I'm really looking forward to it. I was the only girl in the class, but there's supposed to be two more. I hope so. Even though I enjoy talking with guys, I occasionally desire some estrogen. Sometimes I want to talk about my hair, or someone's cute outfit. I'm hoping the girls aren't complete nerds who don't care about anything girly. I'd miss talking about that eventually.

By lunchtime my throat was dry and strained, and I was really hot. My friends ate outside but everyone was kinda uncomfortable from the heat. But I discovered something. I make good pumpkin cheesecake. The two people (and me) that tried it really liked it. I wanted to share it with more people, but I think it will be hard to transfer. I'm thinking I'll made it and bring a few slices worth, and then give it to some friends. So that was a success. Now I want to open a bake shop. Ha, ha. Yeah right. Computers before cookies. And writing before w-...um...what's a dessert that starts with W? Whipped cream? Ok, writing before whipping. Wait...that doesn't sound like a reference to baking.

Let's move on. Government was fine. My teacher is one that most kids don't like, but if you get on his good side, then you'll be fine. I'm not so sure about me. This is a political class (the one I didn't want). I'm politically neutral. This might cause problems with assignments later. But I'll just bring it to his attention ASAP and hopefully I won't fail.

AP Literature and Composition was really funny, mostly because of the Alpacas in the hallway. That's right, alpacas. Don't ask. Animal science needed them for some reason. The entire hallway of E building (the newest extension to D building) smelled like a barn. The two fluffy Alpacas were literally five feet or so from my English classroom. My teacher had the door open, and when he started introducing himself, one of them would go "Mehhh." It was hilarious. The funniest part was that they kept making that noise every time my teacher finished his sentence. The Alpacas were like punctuation.

Modern Fiction was the only class with my friend Hayley (see other blog posts for references to her), but she decided to switch out after today. We read books with adult content, and she didn't feel comfortable reading a book with a child rape in it. That's ok though. I'll see her in the mornings (if her bus isn't late like it was today) and at Friday lunch. And I'll call her all the time.

And then came the assembly. The "Class of 2012" in uncovered (literally) and all the seniors scream their hearts out. That was fun too. But I still did not do the dance the cheerleaders did. But the guys in the first three rows of our section took care of that. I should have filmed it, but my phone had gum on it (don't ask about that either). Then there was the unnecessary school spirit stuff. And the principal told everyone to vote so our class wins the "Most School Spirit" award. Yeah..I'm not doing that. I will gladly scream because I am proud to be a senior. But I will not act like my school is better than everyone elses, because it isn't. That's my least favorite thing about school.

Anyway, overall I had a really good day and I'm glad to be back in school. I probably won't be saying that for long, but as of right now, I don't care.

SENIORS FTW!

Could someone please stop time? I'd like to get off.

2011-09-01T00:02:00.000-07:00

As people ask me what grade I'm going to be in next year, I consistently tell them I'm going to be a senior. Then it just suddenly hit me that I'm going to be a senior.

Excuse me? Wasn't I just entering middle school a week ago? Wasn't I a 13-year-old who thought everything revolved around her and that she was so awesome just yesterday? Wait, wait. Slow down!! I'm in the prime in life! Adults constantly tell me to savor it because it won't last forever, and I tried. But I failed. Mostly because I thought "savoring" meant to spend endless hours on YouTube and not do homework until the morning it was due.

How am I supposed to savor life when time passes so quickly?

We've all heard this story. Every time we hear it, we might think "Yeah, you're right. I'm going to live life to the fullest and be all I can be! I'm going to learn an instrument, a foriegn language, and make more friends!" But then, of course, we have other things to think about. Everyone, even the guy with no arms and legs who gives speeches at schools, takes life for granted. No matter how often we're told not to, it's impossible to constantly think about every blessing we have. If we did that, we'd never get anything done.

So, what can we do? I say, take time to "count your blessings" every once in awhile. It's good to think about how good we have it. Try not to think about how people who are starving think we have it worse off because they talk to their families every day and appreciate life more. Try not to think about how no matter how good you are at something, there's always someone better than you. Try not to..ok, maybe this isn't the best thing to do.

Maybe we should focus on making good memories instead. Because everyone smiles sometimes, no matter the circumstances. Even emos smile, or did smile, at one point. Just, um, try not to get Alzheimer's Disease and forget it all. Wait..ok...this isn't working.

Never mind, forget it. No matter what I say, you'll complain. You'll complain a lot. You know what? I will too. I feel like it's my responsibility to complain, especially being a woman and all. This won't make time move any slower, but it's better than crying over how good I have it.

So let's do it! Let's all complain our hearts out and procrastinate like there's always a tomorrow! Time will thank us! Maybe.

Road Trip: California - Everything Else

2011-08-28T20:39:00.000-07:00

This summer has been incredibly busy this year. I'm just going to mush everything into one blog. I know, I know, you're clearly disappointed since you care so much about the trip I've taken. The following isn't in order because I've lost track on what stuff I saw on the drive down and drive back. And some days we didn't do any sightseeing, which no one wants to read about.

This is a Sea Lion

The ocean was breathtaking, as always. It's my new desktop background. I saw elk for the first time, and let me tell you, they're huge! I mean, I wasn't even that close to them, but they were huge! They were just standing around while people took pictures of them. Not only were the animals fascinating, but the people were as well. The "clicks" are cameras, just in case you didn't know.

"Honey, look! The elk just moved his left hoof!" *click* *click*
"Oh, that one's walking!!" *click* *click* *click*
"Dear God! The two elk are WALKING TOWARD EACH OTHER!" *clickclick* *clickclickclick* *click*

Just think, those reactions are when the elk don't have babies.

Anyway, the elk were nice. We also went to the Trees of Mystery. It's rather hard to explain without sounding boring. It's big trees on this long trail. Talking about it to others, they just look at you like "That's it? No explosions or hot chicks? Count me out!" But trees have never been more extraordinary. Let me tell you, if you ever want to feel insignificant, walk around some redwoods. That should do it for you.

Ocean World was fun as always. They have this little show with a seal. This time is was their newest seal, Cora. Cora is also the name of a baby I know of. Interesting. Now every time I see Baby Cora, I wonder why she doesn't have a ball on her nose.

I recorded a video of the whole thing, but I realized that day that my phone's video recorder has terrible sound quality. So, you won't see it. After seeing the show, however, I started to question whether Charlie was actually a sea lion. He looks more like Cora. Not Baby Cora, because that'd just be silly.

The last place we stopped at before reaching the convention was the Mystery Spot. Basically, it's one big optical illusion. Complete with a tilted house. It was interesting to say the least. It would have been cooler if everyone hadn't been really out of it. Or at least I was. I was still recovering from watching two elk walk toward each other.

Finally, we reached the convention. We mostly go there for the association, because we can't understand hardly anything. It was reassuring to know that most people were in the same boat as you. If someone said a joke during one of the talks, I heard about ten people laugh. And I think half of them were faking.

Arabic drama

But we did break an attendance record for Friday!
It's nice to see Arabic groups forming so quickly and growing so rapidly. Want to hear some Arabic? This is during the "half and half" talk. A member of the Governing Body came to give the last talk of every day. What you hear first is English, and then the translator says it in Arabic. Don't ask me what they're talking about, I don't know the context at all.

I recorded some of the baptism too. But it didn't turn out very well, so I'll leave it out. One of the people getting baptized was a converted Muslim, and they didn't want any pictures or videos taken of him because he could be seriously hurt or killed if Muslims from his country found out. I thought it was cool that they took that into consideration.

On they way home we went to Universal Studios. I won't explain what's there if you've never been, but I will write about the Stalker Frankenstein's Monster.

So, no one in a costume that walks around is allowed to touch you. But Frankenstein's Monster would walk around like a zombie and act like he would grab you, but then "miss." He would walk up behind group of people, and then when someone would say "Turn around!" he would walk the other direction like nothing happened. It was so funny.

Mystery Spot tilting house

One day while we were eating lunch, we were near the room where the people would change costumes. It was really a room, more like a wooden fence around a small space. Someone tall enough could just peak his eyes over and see all the tables. Frakenstein's Monster took advantage of that. We were eating when I look up and see him staring at me. Well, not at me, really, but at us. I started laughing because it was so funny to look up and see this black pair of fake eyes staring at you. I look down to get my camera(phone) and when I look up, he's gone. In that room, all you have to do is step to the side and you're out of sight. Eventually, my whole family had seen him, because after a couple minutes he would come back and stare. We tried multiple times to get a picture, but he'd always disappear as soon as we get the camera out. It was the funniest thing!

Oh, I also got a caricature of me done. It's a little odd looking. But I guess that's the point.

On the way home, we saw a gorgeous mountain whose name I forget, and get the car washed. Yay for road trips!

And to think, I saw two elk walk toward each other.

Road Trip: California - Day 2

2011-07-22T15:47:00.000-07:00

Did I say tomorrow? Here's the thing. When we reached a hotel, I entered the SS stage of exhaustion (Sleepy and Stupid) as you could tell from my previous post in which I said a lobster was 8200 years old. He was not. He was 80 to 100 years old. I have changed it, but really, what was I thinking?


At the wax museum, there was a figure on Johnny Depp. Apparently people love touching his face. So control yourself...Anna. ;)

Anyway, I'm going to do the day by day breakdown as planned because there's too much for one blog post. I'd lose you. If I haven't already.

Day two was Newport, Oregon to Crescent City, California. This was mostly sightseeing. First thing to note about Newport is that there is a lot of fishing going on. I am not a fisher, so the smell of fish and ocean makes me want to gag. So the first step out of the car was pretty brutal for me. We got tickets to see three things: Ripley's Believe it Or Not Museum, Wax Works Museum, and Undersea Gardens. All were cool, and pretty dark so not many pictures.
Undersea Gardens isn't all that interesting. And it's hard to capture fish in the dark.

Next, though, we went to the Sea Lion Caves in Florence, Oregon. Totally awesome. And I mean awesome as in I was practically in awe. It was miraculous! All these sea lions in their completely natural habitat. The cave was there naturally and people just built an elevator and little fence-thing so we could see the sea lions without slipping on the rocks or charging toward the Sea Lions, attempting to kill them all.

Double-Eyed Guy. Sounds like a superhero...or a tongue
twister.

Another cool thing about the Sea Lion Caves is that I saw my first whale. A whale. Now, I don't want to hear it from those people who see whales every day. Just let me gush. It wasn't even up close. We were up really high, walking to the elevator. Beside us was a majestic, vast ocean view. Then my mom, a fan of whales, looks out and sees a gush of air spew out of the ocean. She says, "Is that a whale??" And it was. True, all we could see was the spouting, and it never breached or anything like that, but it was breathtaking nonetheless. Keep your bragging to yourself. If you're reading this, I've probably heard it before anyway.

After the elevator ride, there were two things I noticed. One, it's almost chilly when you're this for underground. And two, sea lions are not a pleasant thing to smell. I'm not even sure what I was expecting to smell. Cool, brisk air I suppose. But no, I smelled sea lion manure. And a lot of it. But after that initial "yuck" the next thing that overtook me was the sound. Sea lions are quite loud. Not so loud that you can't hear yourself think, but loud enough. They were chatting, bickering, shouting, all that good stuff. Reminded me of high school. Only, not as smelly. But only slightly.

Here's what it sounded like:

That was pretty much all that happened that day. Oh, but while we strolled through the gift shop of the Ripley's Believe it Or Not/Wax Works gift shop, we stumbled upon Charlie (left). Charlie is a very cute stuffed sea lion. I'm sure he would have loved to sea his family members, but we had to leave him in the car. At least, I think he's a sea lion. That's what the tag said. But after visiting Ocean World (next post) I'm not positive. But let's just call him a sea lion and spare his feelings. Oh, and that's a Swedish Fish in his mouth. No, he did not come with it. Naming him Charlie was actually my brother, Finn's, idea. I don't normally name my many stuffed animals (anymore) but Finn looked at him and said, "He looks like a Charlie." And so he be named Charlie. Later I found out Finn actually named him Charlie after Charlie the Unicorn. Nice.

Road Trip: California - Day 1

2011-07-09T20:21:00.000-07:00

One day of driving accomplished. We are settling in a hotel in Newport right now, listening to the ocean. But let me start from the beginning.

Ok, we were all up at 4:30 AM, left around 5:30 AM, ate breakfast at McDonald's and went on our way. The road trip has begun!

The funny thing is, is that road trips always result in me looking at the world differently for a short time. I always forget what Washington really looks like. I always forget about the pretty parts. Here are a few pictures of the drive before we reached Oregon.


That little white thing in the distance is Mt. Rainer. My cell phone doesn't do it justice.

Then we reached the part of Washington that no one likes to talk about. The clear cut parts. The land that used to be beautiful, but was torn down to build more houses for people. All stumps and saplings. It's sad to look at really. I mean, sure the loggers plant new trees. But they aren't going to wait fifty years for the tree to get as tall as the original one was.

As we drove past all those cleared areas, I started to wonder how many animals were there originally, and where they are now. Probably roaming through people's yards, looking for a decent garbage can. Then everyone freaks out and shoots the animal, not understanding why it was there in the first place. Car conversations revolved around that for awhile.

But then we reached Oregon and forgot about all that.


At the border!

Seaside (kinda looks like 1st street, doesn't it? For my
Snohomishians.)

Since it was nice out, Seaside was very touristy. We stopped at Pig N' Pancake for some food, and then went to this little aquarium that was nearby. Seal pups were born just last month. And they filled my heart with adorableness.There was this gate around them and they wouldn't stop moving, so pictures were difficult, but I snapped a few. I'm not sure if it's pictures of the babies or not, but it's cute nonetheless.

The rest of the aquarium was interesting.

Wolf eel: The most depressed sea creature

"Mommy, I found a star fish!"

"Maybe if I remain perfectly still...they won't see me...."

This is (was) Victor the Lobster. Someone tried to kidnap
him, and when they tried to catch the guy he dropped Victor
and left. Victor died later. He was about 80 to 100 years old!!

More driving, and driving. This mostly consisted of passenger-sleeping and/or music listening. My music of choice was Basshunter (obviously), The White Stripes, Sara Bareilles, and then one song each from various other artists. This went one for a couple more hours. We got out occasionally to stretch and whatnot, but this part of the journey consisted mostly of space-out time.

Then we got to the ocean! I always forget how gorgeous the ocean is. Always.

This is the view from our hotel. U jelly ;)

Now, we're all just resting in Newport. That's all for today. Everyone's kinda zonked out right now. Although it'd be nice to go swimming, I don't want to be falling asleep in the pool. I think I'll just crash for now.

More tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Things I'll Never Get: Why Communication is Such a Problem

2011-07-07T12:01:00.000-07:00

<disclaimer>I'm not trying to give really sound advice here. There is a reason this is titled "Things I'll Never Get" and not "What You All Should Do." This is a rant, mixed with common sense, opinions, and probably illogicality and flaws. If you base your parenting or teenager-ing around this post, then you are not allowed to sue me. So there.
Oh, and no this did not all come from my head. The following comes from several years of advice from people and other sources and watching relationships fall apart.</disclaimer>

<preface> This post could easily turn into another post about romantic relationships, which will only leave me tense and irritated with life. I'm going to try and keep romance out of this as much as possible, because writing is supposed to help me release feelings, not create new ones. </preface>

To me, unless logic comes in to prove me wrong again, the biggest problem with any kind of relationship is communication. Lack thereof always ends badly. Which is probably why distance causes problems so often. Phone calls is not the kind of communication I'm talking about. It's face-to-face. And although I am a huge fan of technology, this is one of the biggest downsides to it. Talking to people face-to-face is the most difficult and inconvenient way of communicating. So as soon as there is a barrier of any kind, people bounce on it. I mean, why would you go through all the trouble to get in the car, waste all that gas, and see your friend when you could just text them? The same reason you use a remote instead of getting up to change the channel manually. Convenience. And when you use optimum convenience to try and maintain a relationship with someone, things can turn sour easily.

Next to romance, I believe that the relationships that lack the most communication are between parent and child. While romantic relationships simply end when they don't work out (physically anyway), you can't "break up" with your parent, so the relationship with them becomes worse and worse to the point where the child doesn't consider that person they live with their parent anymore. Besides their failed romances, the thing I hate teens talking about is how "horrible" their parents are. That is a generalization, I know. There are some parents who really are terrible people, but teenage offspring often talk about actual bad parents in a different way. That is, they don't. Not usually anyway. Real problems remain hidden most of the time. The people that I've met that have bad parents will hardly ever bring them up until I talk to them for a long time about things totally unrelated.

<additional information>There are those teens that as soon as you talk to them they'll say stuff like, "You know, I'm, like, totally abused by my parents, like, all the time." Then you find out the "abuse" they're discussing is how their parents got angry and yelled at them once or they took away their cell phone last week. I'm not talking about those teens.

Or those teens that, once you get them talking, go on and on about how horribly their parents treat them and how depressed they are because of it. Then you find out they aren't depressed at all and just want sympathy and that they really didn't consider you a friend in the first place. I'm not talking about those teens either.

The teens (or any person at all, really) I'm talking about are the ones that seem perfectly content. All the time. Not super-duper happy to the point where you're suspicious, but just content. Then suddenly you find out that their parents are alcoholics and this teen has to care for their four siblings all the time, leaving them emotionally drained. Or something like that. That was not an example of someone I know or anything, although I have met people that as soon as I start asking about their family, or their struggles with parents, they immediately put up a wall of "I don't want to talk about it" and/or "I don't want to worry you." Then when I try and ease it out of them somehow, I get very little information. It's their right not to talk about it and I don't want to get too pushy. But those experiences have led me to the conclusion that when people have actual problems with parents, a lot of times, they don't want to talk about it, and if they do, they talk to the wrong people about them (i.e. someone their age who can't do anything). Those people I cannot help, and it bothers me when they view me as someone who can, and then get offended when I bring up professional help like therapy or something. But to the rest of people who rant about their parents who aren't actually bad people at all I can give sound advice to.</additional information>

Let me just get this out here right now. I wholeheartedly believe this, but just so someone doesn't smash me down, I need to word this properly. In my own experiences, I have found that good communication is the key to every type of relationship. Period. If you think you are doing well in the relationship, talking about it can enforce that. If not, talking about it can help fix the problem. In romance's case, if you think the relationship isn't going to work out, talking about it will give a greater chance of both parties to end on good terms.

Now, I mention good communication because, technically, arguing counts as a form of communication. Especially if you're going to break up with someone, never raise your voice when having a serious talk. There is a greater chance of this not happening if you avoid the Deadly Phrases like "You always" or "You never" in a negative way. Blame is never good. The last thing you want the person to think is that the relationship is falling apart because of something they did (even if you think it's true). Why? Because they may think they can completely change (which normally they can't) and fix everything. Even when it's between a parent and a child, you can't expect complete change (especially from the parent). Think about it: The parent definitely isn't going to change, and by the time the child reaches eighteen or so, they probably aren't either because their personality is pretty much set. Both parties can try and get the other to change, but they probably won't get far. But, not all hope is lost.

Before you go and bash me, saying that you were a brat and you had a complete turnaround or something like that, let me make something clear. To me, there is a difference between changing and improving. Change is simply an alter or modify, while improve is to bring about a more desirable condition. This is what makes all the difference, and where communication comes in. I don't think having a conversation with your child about changing will have as much as an effect on the child's mind as a conversation about improvement will. This does not mean, however, to walk up to your kid and say "I want improvement" and walk away. Remember: Good communication is the key to every type of relationship. This means to be specific and at the same time avoid the Deadly Phrases. I have found this gets your child (or parent) in the right mindset.

Of course, there is one more vital ingredient in order for this to work out. That is maturity. If the parent has a mature conversation about the improvement needed from the child to go on with life in the best manner possible, and the child gets up and leaves in a huff, that isn't going to bring about the wanted results for either party. If the child does find a problem in the said needed improvements, they need to communicate that with their parents in a mature manner. If not, this will only lead to bad communication: arguing. In turn, the parents need to take what the child said into consideration and respond in a likewise mature manner. Then both parties can negotiate, compromise and settle the issue on good terms.

<the point of the blog post>The thing I don't get is why more people don't do this in platonic, romantic, and parental relationships. People shouldn't be as terrified by the words, "We need to talk." I can't say communication is incredibly easy for me and you should be learning from my example. Because texting someone to say I was offended by something they said (which I have done multiple times, sadly) is much easier than talking to them about it face-to-face. So all of the previous words I typed I need to keep in mind as well.</the point of the blog post>

<conclusion>So, really, this isn't one of those "Things I'll Never Get" that doesn't apply to me at all. Let's face it, everyone gets shy. This wasn't supposed to be a rant about "people with no common sense." It applies to everyone, at least some of the time.

It's always the most important things that are the hardest to accomplish. Like, communication and respect. And healthiness. But, the reason I type all these coherent and incoherent sentences was to put this in your mind at least for a little while. Even if you don't do anything about it.

That's what this is here for. </conclusion>

Summer Boredom

2011-06-27T14:36:00.000-07:00

You can't spell "summer" without "umm..." (you're saying "umm" because you're bored and are trying to decide what to do. Get it? Aren't I clever? -_-)

I suppose this is how life is. Either looking forward to what's in front of you or wishing you had what's behind you, and not enjoying what you already have. Take summer for instance. It's the subject that crosses the conversations of teens all over the school all throughout the school year (that, and relationships). Summer always seems just out of reach. It's especially hard after exams are over and there's really no reason to go in school in the first place. But now that it's here, I keep getting told from friends via phone (if they're cool like that) and text message (if they're stereotypical like that) that they're bored out of their mind. Even for seniors that seems to be the case. Although I love when my senior friends visited my school after graduation, they were really only there because they had nothing better to do.

School is something that is constantly dissed by kids (yes, that includes teens). But when it isn't there, you realize how much you needed it to keep a routine in your life. Extra free time means extra wasted time. I actually have summer plans this year. I'm going to California to go to an Arabic convention with my family. Quite soon actually. I'm taking an AP class next year so I actually have homework this summer, so I'll be doing that. Eventually. I also plan on practicing guitar more, and finishing some incomplete stories. Posting blog posts, maybe. But when I'm not doing those things, all I really end up doing is sitting in my room with my laptop on listening to Bassunter songs on loop for hours. School is stressful and time consuming, but as long as you a good time and stress manger (which I am not) you can make school quite effective.

Adults tell me to enjoy summer because you can only wish for it when you have a job (yes, I have a job, but it's not really a regular one). When I do decide to reach adulthood, I'm sure I'll look back on these times and wish for the sweet taste of summer vacation once again. I'll be wishing I had what's behind me. But in reality, if I did have summer vacation, I'm sure a lot of it would be wasted. When summer rolls around, it's almost treated like a second New Years. Everyone makes mental plans and goals ("resolutions" if you will), but rarely ever accomplishes those things. On the first day of school when I ask people how their summer went, most of them will probably say "good," and when I ask what they did, they'll probably say "nothing" with a big smile on their face. And I guess that's good for them. Another summer wasted. It's interesting how so many kids will sit around and not do anything interesting and consider a "good" summer.

So here's what summer boils down to: Two months of boredom, wishing there was something to do, followed by ten months of boredom, wishing summer would come back.

Let's just say, if summer was a relationship, it'd be an extremely unstable one that all the other seasons are jealous of. Sure, summer is really hot, but only fun and wild sometimes. Sometimes summer lingers on too long, and when you want summer to stay, she never does. And yet, everyone talks about her like she's the new season on the calender. But under the looks, it's all wasted dates and lost love.

Let's Redecorate!

2011-06-24T12:22:00.000-07:00

Before Sno-Isle ended, my instructor, Karen, was getting rid of all her posters. I was thrilled when I laid eyes on a Portal poster. After I put it on my wall, I realized my room was in need of an "update." Posters of kittens still splattered the wall and my name was on my wall six times, all on different posters. My friend Hayley was coming over and we were originally planning on watching Disney movies as part of our summer Disney movie marathon, but I told her to drop that and redecorate the walls of my room instead. She was all for it.

You can never have too much Portal stuff in your room, so I decided to dedicate one wall for Portal memorabilia. Hayley suggested I use the wall behind my bed so I didn't have to stare at GLaDOS while I was trying to sleep. I wholeheartedly agreed. The wall next to my bed would be my cartoon wall. Right now it's mostly Calvin and Hobbes (the best comic ever), but over time I'll add some more cartoonish things. Hayley also drew a picture just for my wall, with characters from a fanfiction we're writing. She drew Tommy and Chuckie from Rugrats, Danny from Danny Phantom (a cartoon she's obsessed with), and two characters of my own from a book I'm (still) working on.

I was looking for something to put on the empty space when my dad told me I could have this X-Men poster I bought for him years ago. He couldn't put it anywhere.

So, after a couple hours work, here are the main results. I say "main" because my room doesn't have only three walls, but the others aren't that interesting.

Calvin and Hobbes comic strips, fan art, and Hayley's drawings.

My Portal poster, fan art, and GLaDOS quotes

X-Men poster

Guitar Lessons 6: Minimal Progress

2011-06-23T21:45:00.000-07:00

I'm still working on making titles interesting.

So, there is yet to be a callus on my index finger from playing my first barre chord. There is another progressive guitar that I talk to sometimes and he said I wasn't pushing hard enough on the strings. I took advice and pushed my thumb into the neck so I would squeeze my finger harder into the strings. And alas, my finger hurt and this weird muscle in my thumb started getting sore. Well if there's one thing I've learned from guitar playing it's if it hurts, you're doing it right.

It's still a work in progress.

But I brought my guitar to school today so I could show my other guitar playing friend how terrible I am. The conclusion we've reached is that he's more of a finger strumming person and I'm more of a chord and pick person. And I can sing. After my hands stopped shaking I started playing "You Belong With Me" for practicing purposes. My friend was getting much more attention because finger strumming sounds way better than regular strumming even if you suck at both. I started getting more comfortable and sang the chorus to the song. It's not like anyone was watching me in particular so it wasn't as nerve racking. Then the person I knew that was sitting next to me turns and says, "I've never heard you sing before!" Then my guitar playing friend says, "I told you she was good."

Little things like that boost my self confidence. At this rate I'll be able to sing in front of small crowds by the age of..what...twenty?

Progress is minimal, but it's still progress.

On another note my eyes itch from allergies and summer started. Woot. Ok, I'm going back to Basshunter now.

I'm Not Getting One

2011-06-22T22:46:00.000-07:00

There's one question I get on a regular basis, almost. No, it's not "Wow, I love that shirt, where did you get it?" or "Do you realize how cool you are?" or anything like that. It's always, "Do you have a FaceBook?" And when I promptly answer no, I am then commanded/begged to get one. The answer is always the same. No. So, let's take a break from our lives and take a moment to find out why Michaela is not opening a FaceBook account.

I Don't Want One
This is the most obvious and biggest reason I don't haven't opened a FaceBook account. I don't want one. See, the problem is, is that the person who tells me I should open a FaceBook account is someone I probably wouldn't friend anyway. So I say I don't want one, and then they say, "But you could keep in touch with me." I really don't want to have this conversation with a person because there's no way I can word it without sounding like a jerk. But, to put it simply and bluntly: Just because we were friends in school, doesn't mean I want to know what you're doing after we lose touch. Got it? You think I'm being rude? Wait five years and then try to remember who I am. 80% of the people I am "friends" with now, won't know who I am. All FaceBook does is hinder the letting go process that is supposed to take place after high school. There are the few friends you keep in touch with, but everyone else you're supposed to forget. You shouldn't need to read about what that guy you sat next to in English three years ago is having for breakfast. Simple as that. I don't want to be in the position to tell people I don't care about what they do every second.

I Have Few People to Keep in Touch With
Ok, so if you're reading this, you might be a person I would like to keep in touch with after high school, at least for a little while. Or for as long as possible if you're a family member. Here's the thing, I love how FaceBook helps people keep in touch with family they hardly ever see and that sort of thing. It's not like I hate FaceBook, although I have said that in the past. It's the misuse of it (i.e. updating statues way too much, posting things no one cares about, etc.) and all the stupid people on it that I hate. There are family members I have that live far away, and it would be great to keep in touch with them. But since I hardly see them, I don't really have this close bond with them, and don't feel really motivated to know what they're doing every minute. I can always call or write to them, which seems much more affectionate anyway. A family member who only talked to me through FaceBook would never really have a real relationship with me. That, and if someone from high school found me on FaceBook and sends me a request, they might be upset if I didn't accept. Some of these people have my phone number and may explicitly ask me why I won't accept their request. I don't want to have this conversation with them, as discussed above. Why? Because this is my answer: If I did open a FaceBook account, I would only be friends with family members, or people I know. So pretty much, if I've only known you for a school year, and/or never associated with you outside of school, I'm not accepting your friend request. Since very few people use FaceBook for people they really know (apparently, considering how many people have asked me to get one), they might take this as that I don't like them or don't care about them. Whether or not that's true doesn't matter. And if I don't accept these people as friends, me having a FaceBook account would be pointless to them anyway because they only wanted me to get one so they could friend me. So what's the point?

Teens Have Their Own Stereotype On FaceBook
This is a pretty small reason, but it's almost a stereotype for teens to open a FaceBook account. And the reputation we have is not good. If a teen tells an adult they have a FaceBook account it's more like "Oh you're one of those teens." But if an adult tells another adult they have a FaceBook account, it's more likely they use it in a professional way (although not always) and so it is more "accepted." I don't really want to be cast as one of those teens. I tried Twitter, and it didn't end well, because I became that stereotype. Even though I'm not thirteen anymore, I still don't want that to happen again.

Conclusion: What? You missed the entire rant and skipped to the conclusion? You ruined the experience. Well, fine, I'll humor you. I'd open a FaceBook account to keep in touch with people I really know, which does not include people I only knew in school. Since the only people that want me to get one are people I know in school, I see no point because I wouldn't friend them anyway.

Questions? Comments? Fine, you can comment on this post if you want and go on and on about how I need a FaceBook account. But you probably won't change my mind. Once I'm set on something, only undying logic can change me. And I see few things logical about me opening a FaceBook account. I have a place for my thoughts. That's what this is.

Ok, if I sent you here because you won't stop asking me about opening a FaceBook account, then I really don't want to have this discussion again. Now that we're on the same page, we can move on.

Right?

Look Squidward, Money!

2011-06-17T23:25:00.000-07:00

All I think about at a time like this is Spongebob. How sad is that?

This week I started my first real job. Minus the tax deduction. I still think it counts because it isn't for family or anything. It's for my parents' massage therapist. What I have to do is record financial information in a program called Quickbook...or Quicknote. Something like that. It's pretty simple, I only work a couple times a wekk for about an hour or so, and I get paid eight bucks an hour. And when you're my age without a car, that's a lot. I mean, I feel like I'll start bragging after awhile.

"No please, allow me to pay for your coffee."

On the first real day of the job, I had a pretty good day. Despite the fact people seem to never look for pedestrians anymore. It's really irritating. But, I walked down to this little coffee place that's connected to Snohomish Fitness and ordered an Italian Soda. If you've never had one, they are amazing. So I started talking to the cashier about my job. Hey, cut me some slack, I was bursting with excitement. It's like when you find out you're pregnant and you want to tell everyone you see that you're going to have a baby. Not that I've been pregnant before. I'm starting to regret this analogy. Anyway.

I'm going on about my job and when the cashier hands me my drink she says, "It's on me, congrats on your new job." Double score for that. I mean, first day on my first real job and I don't have to pay for my Italian Soda?? What's next? Raining chocolate?

"Chocolate is falling from the sky! It is getting in my eye! Time for some more chocolate pie! My oh my oh my oh...my...."

After a long week (not really, I started on Tuesday and only worked for five minutes on Thursday) I arrive at my job to get my paycheck. My paycheck. Paycheck. This is all new to me. I didn't think I'd be saying these things until I was at least eighteen. Actually, I thought I was going to get paid in cash, but then she prints a check and signs it.

"This is a real check? That I deposit? And I can spend? What do I do?!"

With the lovely features on the internet I was able to deposit it online.

"That's the total in my checking account? Really? What do I do now?!"

This means I have even more things to ramble on about. I can't ramble on about how much I hate work, but these things are, but are not limited to:

Things I See Walking to Work
How Much I HATE it When People Don't Look Before I Cross the Street
Interesting Coffee Shop Experiences
How Many Times I Almost Get Hit By a Car
Paychecks
How Stupid People Are for Not Looking for Pedestrians
How Many Hours I Worked That Week
People That Have to Slam on Their Breaks in the Middle of the Intersection Because They Didn't See Me and How Much I Hate That

And so it goes. You may see a recurring theme here. We all make mistakes, yes. But seriously, watch for people crossing the street.

Because how can I try to sound more important than I am by saying I have a job when you hit me with your car? Now, that would just ruin everyone's weekend.

Congratulations! Your Nerdy Points Have Been Increased by 10%

2011-05-25T15:37:00.000-07:00

When I tell people I'm a geek and/or nerd (yes, there is a difference), they won't believe me unless I was previously talking about something computer or Star Wars related. Now I have a badge of nerdiness plastered on my face: glasses.

Most teenagers I encountered when I announced when I was getting glasses were pretty happy for me, like I was. Glasses are cool, and now I'll finally be able to see properly. However, most adults I told felt sorry for me. When I told them I was excited to get them, they looked at me and said, "Why?" And to that I answer, "Why not?"

I tend to like physical change. Not bad change, like getting leprosy or having a giant burn on my face. Just interesting change. Like, if my eye color decided to change on me or if I were to get my hair chopped off, I'd be pretty excited. The only exception is braces, because braces cause much physical pain and get in the way more often than not. And though I really like my long hair, if it were to get cut short again like it is in my current profile picture, I wouldn't be that upset. It's kind of hard to explain why I was so excited to get glasses, but I was. Trying to explain this is like explaining why I watched the entire game of Portal 2 on YouTube before actually playing the whole thing myself. I just like things that way. Don't judge. ;)

Anyway, first impressions are good. They are bent way over my ears, like at a ninety-degree angle pretty much, which is a little weird, but whatever. They aren't supposed to come off easy anyway. I still can't get over how I look in them, but considering it's only been about twenty minutes since I got them, that feeling should pass soon. It's almost overwhelming how everything looks now. When I first put them on I thought, "So this is what everything's supposed to look like!" I was pretty giddy. Until I saw myself in the mirror, then I thought "Wow...I look...different." I think they look good, just different.

So far so good. Want to see what I look like in them? No? Then don't scroll down.


I look more like a librarian. Or a geek. Both are good things.

There I am. The new me. Or something like that.

Things I'll Never Get: "Coolness" Points

2011-05-23T20:22:00.000-07:00

It's a common dilemma I'm sure we've all been through before. There's an unknown band/singer we love because they're "edgy" and "real." What comments do we give this band? We all want them to become popular so it gets the attention it deserves. It's almost funny how you have your own little "club" of people that know about this unknown band.

Then the long wait is over. This unknown band signs the contract and has a hit song.

Suddenly, all your friends know about this band. Unknown Band no longer writes their own music, they have someone do that for them. To reach a higher audience, the songs are about love and breakups; things they never wrote about before. The songs are no longer "edgy" or "real." Unknown Band has become just like the others. Popular.

What comments do we have to say now? Do we commend them on their success? Possibly. But in this more likely scenario, we do the exact opposite. We bash them for losing their "edge" and becoming famous. We become angry because our little "club" is non-existent. Why? Because they did exactly what we told them to do.

The usual epilogue is that this band lurks back into the unknown, but not because it became edgy again. Because another band took its place with younger, more attractive stars. True, most of these bands rarely hit zero people who like them. There's always those few that still think the songs are cool. But the cooler songs were the ones they wrote before they were famous.

This is something us humans have been doing for quite sometime that quite irritates me. Then again, many things that humans do irritates me.

Things such as bands, books, songs, movies, etc. are much much cooler when they are in the unknown. But not the bad kind of unknown. The kind of "indie" unknown where they record songs in their basement and write "real" music and the entertainment they bring to others is "original." This is not wrong in any way, and is a correct statement. Something that only you and your friends can rave about is much better than something everyone raves about. It's like someone invaded in your own personal club.

But it only makes sense in the band's perspective. Who has time to write their own music when your fans are expecting a new album every year? Writing songs is not easy, even for someone who gets paid to do so. Besides, these bands want one thing: money. So they don't really care if their original fan base who thought they were edgy hates them, because they have a bigger, much broader fan base now.

This isn't what angers me. What angers me is when these few fans of this band go on and on about how they should expand and sign a contract so they get the attention they deserve. Because they should. Right? Someone once told me that once you start getting paid to do a hobby, it stops becoming a hobby. Then you only start doing it for money. I agree with this analysis. Nothing takes the fun out of something more than putting a deadline and rules on it. Instead of writing songs when you want and how you want, you need to write songs by this time, and since you don't have time for that, someone gets hired to do that for you.

So how do these original fans react? Apparently, none of them know how bands change when they become well-known. All the fans have to say is complaints about how the band isn't "cool" anymore. There's that word. Cool. Its meaning is way too broad in my opinion, yet probably the worst thing a band can be called is "uncool." That, and "sucky." You know, as a side note, I would really appreciate if people (teens especially) expended they're vocabulary a little bit more. I am guilty of saying words such as "like" and "awesome" much too often. But learning new words is interesting to me, and I wouldn't mind expanding it more. But I digress. Again. I've been doing that quite a bit in recent blog posts.

Anyway, after the band has had their hit songs they slowly fade into oblivion once more, just as they came. No one remembers them, except the few that were there all along. But even then, those fans only listen to the "cool" songs.

This is why I admire people like Johnathan Coulton, who has never signed a contract, and writes songs as he pleases. Sure he wrote both of the credit songs for Portal and Portal 2, which will bring in some money for him. But he does all of his songs himself. He isn't super popular either, so he still has that "edgy" feel to his music I suppose.

Fans begging for more and then complaining when you do what they want is a concept I will never understand. Even if I go through that myself, I won't understand it. I'm keeping my hobbies, hobbies. Future careers will involve technology. I'm not about to go design a website for fun. Because it's a job for me still.

Ok, now that that's out of the way, let's discuss things I need to work on in this blog:

Conclusions

That is all.

Summer Time! ...Almost

2011-05-18T20:00:00.000-07:00

I am having a hard time believing that the school year is coming to its end. Usually, this wouldn't be a big deal, but the fact that so many of my friends are seniors and that I'm graduating next year kind of makes it a deal of the big kind.

But first on the agenda of summer related activities is: Sun! Yes, the sun is out! The big yellow ball in the sky is paying Washington a visit. For how long? About four days. That's about as good as it gets over here. Lack of sun pretty much ruins any summer plans I have. True, many of my summer plans involve TV, the Internet, and talking on the phone, but it'd be much nicer to look out the window and comment on the gorgeous day outside while I'm browsing YouTube. Although, I wouldn't mind sitting outside reading once in awhile.

It's actually interesting to sit and remember how I viewed summer when I was still in elementary school. Back then, school lacked much homework, and I actually had fun there. Summer was always viewed with high hopes because it involved spending time with good friends of mine. A couple weeks before school ended, I'd be spending my free-time calling up these friends, making plans to spend the night at their house or something along those lines. I would think "How many sleepovers can I go to this year?" about every June.

Then things changed, as they always do, around middle school. My mindset didn't change, but my friends did. They became busier with life and didn't have time to have me over as much. I used to think that I was the one left behind, but I realize that I had become busy too. It was around this time I took up learning another language and had dedicated more and more time to that. There was still a desire to spend time with friends burning in my head, and I would sometimes. There may be one sleepover. That should have been enough. But I was disappointed, nonetheless.

High school is where my viewpoint on life changes the most. And even though this happened early in high school, I'll be lectured if I write in past tense, so I won't. These are the years that actually matter. These are the years that actually will help me acquire skills for future jobs. This means a lot of work. Hence, summer is always too far away. Even at the end of the year, when summer is less than a month away, all people can talk about is how it should start tomorrow. The end of the year is when all the final projects and exams are, so even though summer gets closer by the day, so does stress. Everyone (well, seniors mostly) are concerned about getting their grades up. I've even seen people concerned about grades when they have straight A's, because they're so worried they'll bomb the exam and no longer have their straight A's. Actually, the only students I've seen that aren't concerned about their final grades are the ones who are failing and don't care anymore. I've always found that funny. I'm not particularly pressured about constantly having all A's, but I still want to graduate. I still want good grades. I've never really been able to understand people who don't care about their grades at all. Like, they are literally failing every class and they act like that doesn't matter. But I digress.

Although summer is viewed with much happiness, there's always the sad part that people cling to as well. I know plenty of seniors this year, more than I've known any other year, so I'm going to be a little sad they're leaving. But, really, it's not like I have no way of contacting anyone I would want to keep in touch with. Despite this, I'll no doubt feel some sadness after the seniors are gone. It's going to be strangely quiet without the seven or so seniors in my Sno-Isle class. It's going to be even quieter on the bus since pretty much everyone I talk to there is a senior. Then, of course, I'll be going on and on with my friends about how quickly time passes and how excited we all are to be seniors next year. It all seems so silly now, but that's exactly what's going to happen.

I've never been a big fan of recollecting things, because it always makes me so sad. But summer seems to be known for just that. Even in elementary school, kids always say stuff like, "Remember that funny thing that happened at the beginning of the year?" or "Remember how shy I was the first day of school?" Then, in middle school, the buzz around the halls is things like, "Remember that super creepy guy that, like, was, like, obviously hitting on me on, like, the first day of school? Yeah, that was, like, so weird." or "OMG remember how long your hair was at the beginning of the year? It's, like, so weird now because I can't even picture you with it anymore!" Finally, in high school, it seems people are slightly more sentimental so they stay stuff such as, "I'm going to miss you so much! I remember when we met at lunch and you did that thing and I knew we were going to be friends forever!" or "Oh my gosh! Text me every day, ok? We totally need to hang out next month or whatever. I'll see you later! *hugs*"

This usually results in me becoming down at the start of summer. Not really down, because I'm still pumped by the fact I have no homework or anything. But in the back of my head I still miss all the friends I made. Then one of them calls me or texts me and I'm all right. Then, slowly, I get used to the summer routine. I start getting used to sleeping in, not having homework, and the sunshine (hopefully. I've stopped trusting Washington).

Then, right around that time, school starts again.

Those are my thoughts on summer. Even though summer has yet to come, I wanted to get this down now before my mind becomes nostalgic and sentimental. Then I'd just keep going. "And then in sixth grade...don't even get me started..." Yeah. I doubt anyone would read that. So, let's name this my summer post and call it good.

Guitar Lessons 5: Burst of Inspiration?

2011-05-16T21:40:00.000-07:00

So, I'm not really sure if this happens to all great artists or just the weird ones, but when I was playing my guitar a line of a song popped in my head. An original line. It came out of nowhere, it just hit me.

I've always been the type of person who would stare at a blank sheet of paper until I would get too frustrated to think. I wanted to write a song, but all I could come up with is a poem. Poems are nice and all that, but only a few can actually be turned into songs.

So anyway, I started forming this song in my head. It was actually a pretty common theme. It was about a girl (spoken of in third person) who was never told she was beautiful, so she feels worthless. This person isn't supposed to be me, but I get mad at the fact that the media has screwed everyone up. Lots of girls and guys alike feel worthless. I hate that. So this is a subject that has been on my mind a long time.

The lines to the song came really easy to me. Which was exciting, but also kind of freaked me out. I mean, would I feel the same about this song in twenty-four hours? I've also been the type of person to write songs in a couple hours and then hate it the next day. So when the lines just started flowing (and rhyming), all I could think was, "Is this going to sound really stupid tomorrow?" However, I wrote everything down anyway, tweaked it a little, and added simple chords to make a tune. Then I went to sleep.

The next morning I woke up and immediately looked at these lyrics I wrote down in a frenzy. Surprisingly, they still looked decent. I redid the tune of the bridge (which I still think sounds...off) and played through it a couple of times. The song didn't sound terrible. It wasn't the best song because I can barely play guitar, but it was better than other songs I wrote as a twelve/thirteen year old (don't ask...those are terrible). I kept playing through it, making minor changes until I was totally happy with it, for the most part.

So then at school on Monday, these lyrics were still circling my brain because I wasn't sure if I wanted to tell people or not. I'm not sure why, it's not like it was a secret. But not all reactions I would get would really motivate me to have them listen to it. So I kept quiet until sixth period. Then I just told this friend of mine randomly that I wrote a song in ten minutes. He asked what it was about, so I told him. He knows my style of writing, so he said, "Why does everything you write have to be so depressing?" For some reason, I laughed, and talked with him about how girls felt worthless even though they shouldn't be. He totally agreed with me, and talking with him made fury toward that attitude of girls rise again. Then I wanted to record it.

So I did.

It took me a good fifteen tries before I got it right. Twice I dropped the pick. That was embarrassing. And the final recording is in two parts because I ad to redo the ending and I did not want to start over. Again.

Anywho, I emailed the sound file to myself and am going to show it to a girl in my Sno-Isle class who also plays guitar and complimented me on my voice when I had her listen to my Jar of Hearts cover. For the record, I didn't tell her I was singing before she listened to it, so I'm assuming the compliment was genuine.

I wish I could post sound files on here, but alas! I cannot. So to all five of you who read this thing, I'll have to force you to listen to my sucky guitar playing individually. Wait...I think I just proved the theme of the song I just wrote. Well, what do you expect?

This is me we're talking about.

Guitar Lessons 4: A Change of Tactics

2011-03-20T22:21:00.000-07:00

Oh hi, didn't see you there. Wondering where I've been? No, didn't think so, considering that only five people read this thing, and half those people are my parents. Apparently, I have some weird half-parent that makes up the .5 in my 2.5 parents. (See...because half of 5 isn't a whole number and...yeah....) Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, no one reads my blog.

Despite that being the case, I would say I've been making progress in this hobby I call "guitar playing." I do have a callus on my pinky, so that's one goal done.

Also, the G chord is a breeze now. I'm not perfect at it, but at least I'm as mediocre playing the G chord as I am playing all the other chords. So another goal is checked off.

And, the Ring of Fire? I'm..OK at it.... Actually my "Songs I Can Kind of Play" list has changed. These songs include and are limited to:

You Belong With Me by Taylor Swift
Mad World by Gary Jules
You Can Do Better Than Me by Death Cab for Cutie
Whole Wide World by Wreckless Eric
Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash (it's last for a reason)

I've noticed the transitions between G and C are much easier, considering You Can Do Better Than Me is pretty much G and C over and over again. There's an A minor in there too.

Songs I've been working on:

Hallelujah by Rufus Wainwright
I Don't Believe You by P!nk (again, last for a reason)

Hallelujah is teaching me not only how to spell "Hallelujah" but also the much dreaded F chord. Yes ladies and gentleman, I am taking on my first barre chord. I'll hold for applause.**

Oh yeah, barre chords. They're difficult. I now question my right to call the G chord difficult now that I'm attempting the F chord. It's almost humorous. Haha. Yeah, so humorous. Tell that to my fingertips that still turn purple when I'm on the guitar for more than ten minutes.

Goals for next blog post? Um..how about:

Don't sound so terrible when playing F chord
Oh, and progress on those songs will be good too...

All right, it's signing out time. See my blog post below if you want to hear me ranting. Two blog posts in one night? Yeah..I went there. *high fives self*

I really need to get out more.

That's all I have to say. Peace out.

EDIT (3/29/11): OK, the song "Hallelujah" had too many F chords so I have switched to playing "Jar of Hearts" which has five or so F sharp chords, which is the same as F chords, only a fret higher. I'm progressing at it. Also, I've been playing the G chord with the wrong fingers this whole time. That wouldn't be a big deal except in "Jar of Hearts" the transition from G to G minor would be way easier if I was using the right fingers to play. So I'm working on that now too.

**Hey, have you ever noticed how the word "applause" looks really similar to the word "applesauce?" I confused the two words once and now every time I'm reading and I come to the work "applause" I think "applesauce." Anyway, what was I saying?

Things I'll Never Get: What is Success?

2011-03-20T21:58:00.000-07:00

In order to fully understand this, you need to have an idea of what success is to you. When someone says, "He is a very successful man," what images or ideas is fill you mind? It depends on how you were raised, I suppose. It also depends on what country you live in. But in order to think about this, you need to already have an idea of success in your mind.

When the typical American thinks of a successful person, what usually comes to mind is a financially stable person with a good home and loving family. What I wonder is how many of those people actually exist. I know they're out there, but it seems like a lot of families has one of those aspects but lacks others. For example, financial stability usually requires long working hours for one or both parents. So this could easily mean that the child doesn't get the attention they require. Of course, if the child is older, that required attention goes unnoticed by them. If this older child grows without attention, they grow independently. This would be a good thing, except this child doesn't know it needs attention. Then when the parents want to have a "family day out," they dread it and are miserable the whole time. The parents may or may not know about this feeling the child has. They may try to hard to "make up for lost time," pushing the child further from them in the process, or they could let the child do what he or she wants. This makes the child happy, but now it doesn't have parental guidance because the child no longer wants it. When that is missing, the child goes to other sources for advice. Maybe they are reliable sources. Maybe not. Would this be considered a loving family? Is success reached?

Of course, you can't take the above scenario completely seriously. It is hypothetical. I know for a fact that not all children are totally unstable and are neglected by their parents. The point is, there are fewer and fewer instances of a typical "successful" American family. Looks are deceiving.

But the ultimate question is: What is success?

All throughout my years in school, the first thing teachers tell you to do is follow your dreams, stand up for what you believe, etc. The funny thing is, is that as I got older, I realized my teachers had already picked my dreams and beliefs out for me.

Belief Number One: Money is essential.
Dream Number One: I want money.

Belief Number Two: A well-paying job is essential.
Dream Number Two: I must use my money to go through years of college to get this job.

Belief Number Three: Owning a nice house is essential.
Dream Number Three: I must save lots of my money from my well-paying job to get this nice house.

I didn't really see what the big deal was. Was any of it wrong? No. But I had different goals for myself. I was raised to think that what I want to do with my life is my decision. I never really understood why anything different than the above beliefs and dreams was considered a "waste of life" by some people. Is it so wrong?

This comes to the part that I don't get. Society is so hypocritical. Why in the world would you tell children to follow their dreams and do what they believe is right when you clearly already have the idea of "right" in your mind? And if these children decide to go against what you think is right, then it is suddenly wrong, which completely goes against what you just told them.

Perhaps I'm being too judgmental, I probably am. Usually what happens when I get worked up over something is I start venting to a person who thinks logically (pretty much anyone) and they find a hole in my logic and my rant fizzles out into oblivion, and I am left looking stupid. Still, I'd rather be stupid and informed later than being stupid and ignorant my entire life. I've met people who are like that. It's not a pretty sight. Especially since I occasionally meet the ignorant guy who thinks he is so much more right than you and spends his time debating something he clearly doesn't know anything about. Then when you prove him wrong, he refuses to believe it. Yeah, I really don't want to be that person.

Hypocrisy gets me all riled up I suppose. Although I would think I'd be used to it by now.

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

2010-12-31T17:41:00.000-08:00

...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!

2010-12-13T21:39:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-12-12T10:06:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-26T16:43:00.000-08:00

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...

2010-11-05T13:13:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-30T11:07:00.000-07:00

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?

2010-10-22T18:30:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-18T19:59:00.000-07:00


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.