Love and Hate

Encarta Dictionary defines love as a feeling of tender affection or desire and the word hate as an intense dislike or distaste for something or someone. It is rather interesting how easy it is for some of us to use these words with so little effort when actually they really do mean a lot. I find it very cute when someone is scared to tell someone they love them or are worried about the repercussions but I also find that to be when the word is actually taken the most seriously. In our everyday lives too many of us use the words love and hate way too much that when we truly do mean them, they have lost their significance. I know that I am at fault here. I never like something I love it and I never dislike something I hate it. I have noticed in recent days that it is not just the words love and hate that are losing their significance due to over usage but all kinds of other words as well. Words that used to be considered derogatory have lost their face value. Some girls I know will start calling you a B&@*? just because you don’t answer a text fast enough and because these words are losing their significance more people are saying them and next thing you know you have little kids calling each other B&@*?s. This presents a problem because the more words are overly used and lose their significance the more new words appear to take their places that are just as bad. It is sad but true. We are using our words insufficiently and for what? So what if you are bored in one class more than another or a girl gave you a weird look, it is time that we just get over it and not use words that once held very strict meanings so quickly because then when you really do mean it how will you express that? Don’t ruin the word love or the word hate for people who do still care about its original significance and are scared to say them too quickly.

Birthday Weekend

Happy Birthday to me! Another year older supposedly means another year wiser but I’m starting to think another year closer to my life. There is only one more year left before I am out of high school and out on my own in the world and that at times can be frightful and at other times it is a giant relief. This weekend seems to have boasted both of these in extreme levels. On Friday I was able to have an amazing party with my friends where we acted like little kids by dressing up, playing with glitter and staying up to unreasonable hours just because we didn’t feel like going to bed. But before all the childish fun commenced I had an argument as to whether my family believed I was responsible enough to have a party and whether my actions from previous parties had been acceptable. In the spirit of acting like a little girl again I threw a tantrum about how ridiculous it was to believe that every ridiculous thing I have ever done at one of my parties was to get the attention of boys. I just couldn’t believe why anyone would think that acting like an idiot and doing crazy stuff like going outside to jump on my trampoline at four in the morning was to attract boys. I decided to ignore what had occurred earlier and just party once my friends arrived and continued on into the early hours of Saturday. After getting about two real hours of sleep I found myself saying goodbye to some of the guests while the rest of us just hung out and played sorority life on facebook and talked about the previous night. Most of the day was pretty boring but I never really managed to get more sleep than the two hours so I was pretty lethargic most of the day. I attended a function with one of my friends that evening and we again acted immature and goofed off just to less extremes because we both were still very tired. Once I get home I had every intention of going straight to bed when my brother starts to annoy me to go out and get him Burger King. I kept pushing it off until at 12:30 I get into the car with him and his friend, after having no more sleep unfortunately and head out to do their errand and return to find myself unable to sleep and back on facebook. Today I was sent back into reality of how I had to think of my responsibilities. I had to get my homework done even though all I wanted to do was sleep and I also had to go out to eat with my family for my birthday and be questioned as to what I planned to do with the rest of my life and then criticized about my said plans. Overall the weekend ended with an exhausted me going through a roller coaster ride of worry about what to do with my life and how to be responsible with just plan goofing off and about 9 hours sleep between the three days.
At least I have some yummy birthday cake to eat:)

3 idiots

"AAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL IZZZZZZZZZ WELLLLLLLL!" These words may not actually be able to bring a baby to life but they are the catch phrase to the movie I am now obsessed with, 3 Idiots. Not many people have seen this movie and few people I know will and that is because most of the movie is not in English. One of my best friends asked me to go see an Indian movie and I thought, “Why not? I was bored and anything could be better than sitting around doing nothing.” It turned out that the movie was absolutely amazing, no doubt the best movie I have seen in some time! I sat in my theater seat in awe of how I could feel such emotion from watching a movie that I had to read subtitles to understand. For three hours, I switched between laughing until I cried and crying because it was sad. The plot was about three guys who were making their way through engineering school by not following the way of the others and worrying about schoolwork at all times. The movie switched back and forth to these men looking back on their college years and searching for their friend who weirdly disappeared right after graduation. Their old rival calls them back to the college and claims that he has found their old friend and plans to go and rub it in the man’s face that he is not successful as his rival who he picked on because of his methods of learning. The three men, two looking for their good friend and the other looking for revenge, embark on their adventure. The movie takes a turn when they find that their friend had lied about his identity and instead of going to college to get the degree which he ended up giving to another man; he did it for the learning. They eventually find their friend and realize that he is far more successful than any of them but that he is also happy and teaching in the way that he believed is correct, in other words more relaxed. Throughout the whole movie there are several themes; for example, love, suicide and the pressure of Indian students to become successful engineers. Another part of the movie that I absolutely loved was that throughout the movie the people would burst out into singing and the whole mood of the moment would change and the whole scene would become a music video with hundreds of dancers singing and creating a lively mood. Even though the movie was rather long and even had a section for an intermission there was not a moment that I felt bored or my attention was not wholly attached to what was happening on the screen. I found this movie in my heart and I am still saying “All Izz Well!”

GO FOR GOLD!!

Start the countdowns. The Winter Olympics will commence in 19 days! As I was flipping through the channels today, avoiding my homework sitting next to me, I saw that very little of anything was on. I decided to settle with watching some figure skating program but soon could not take my eyes away. It was rather interesting to hear that Sasha Cohen that after not competing for FOUR years to return and try and go to the Olympics in Toronto. She managed to come out second after the short program but sadly had a fall that took her out of the competition during the long program. She still received a standing applause after her performance because of her well done job after such a long break. The tickets to Toronto went to two skaters that are still quite new to the skating world and that will definitely be going into challenge at Toronto. Both are still very young, sixteen and seventeen years old, but they both are very talented. I could not take my eyes off the youngest girl, Mirai Nagasu, who skated oh so eloquently.

She held the lead after the short program but somehow dropped to second after the long program. That I didn’t understand at all. Her movements were the most flowing and skilled of all the skaters and even the commentary throughout hers was more splendid than any others. The girl who is seventeen, Rachael Flatt, was said to have been unhappy with the fact that she was ranked third but then she should have been satisfied with her movement to first overall. After a few more errors with jumps than Nagasu it was rather unusual a fact that she moved past her….I understand the movement past Cohen who had had a done right fall but the young girl’s routine was not without its faults. I cannot wait for the competition that is to come with the Olympics in 19 days. I have always been interested in knowing the results of figure skating but this year I will definitely tune in to watch these girls fights for the podium! Good Luck, USA!!!!

Independence!

So things around my house these days have been fairly quiet and I think it is because for the most part I am the only one at home. My mother left last Tuesday for business in Florida and my brother and I have been staying home alone. It has been somewhat of a challenge to manage an entire house, my younger brother and my schoolwork but it is also very pleasing. My mother has to travel quite a bit for her work during this time of the year and will not be home until the first weekend of February. Our mother has learned to trust that we can stay at home and be responsible without the destruction of the house. This was a very hard task to accomplish but one that was very much needed. It was far more difficult to have to stay at my grandparent’s house in past years because I worry of leaving something I would need during the night or the next day so usually I would bring everything imaginable and then I would have to truck it all back. I have always been very independent and after getting my license last year my independence increased immensely. It is not unusual for me to worry about myself in all matters of the day but when my mom is away I also must work to keep my brother satisfied. He has always had someone to look after him so therefore is nowhere near as independent as I am and so therefore I must supply him with meals because he seems to be unable to follow the simplest of cooking directions. It can be rather frustrating but it is worth the fact that for the most part I can do what I want as long as I clean up after myself. I love, absolutely love candles. I like to burn vanilla candles when I just need to be relaxed and my mother hates the smell of any kind of fire or burning in the house so it is pleasing to be able to burn candles at any time and not get bothered about it. It is the little things like the ability to burn candles and have most of the house as my playground that makes the time my mother is a way that makes me the happiest. It is my independence and it gives me this look into my future when I really will be on my own and I am kind of excited for it!

Martin Luther King Jr.

Today was Martin Luther King Jr. Day and therefore this past weekend people across the nation celebrated by participating in community service. I commemorated his work by doing some civil service of my own and on Saturday I spent five hours at a local business painting. It was a very enjoyable process and it really got me thinking about people giving themselves to their community and their world. As I suited up for what obviously going to be a rather difficult day of work, I was feeling a little anxious as to what was ahead of me. When I got to the building I was rather timid in going in because part of me knew I would be the only teenager helping out that day and I would also not know who any of the other people were. We were showed the level that we were to paint and then slowly we all kind of tapered off a section that we would work on by ourselves. It worried me a little that no one was really telling me what to do because I feared that I was going to do something terribly wrong. After getting over my first couple of fears I started to tape off the spot I had been placed in. It was this little lounge that had a balcony that looked over the main level so that I could see the offices below. I liked the position but it involved a lot of taping. As I was taping and working on this room alone I was definitely feeling good about the fact I was helping the community but also the fact that I could sit here and work while still be able to think internally about the thoughts on my mind; that was probably my favorite part of the whole day. I like to go inside myself and just think about anything and everything and it was a good time to do that. We had a small break to eat and get something to drink and this was the first time we had to really conversate as a group. The others talked so much of their work in and around the community and how one’s entire life was put into projects to help poverty at the moment. It was rather an unusual thought to me that someone would put so much of their life into their community. It really gave me something else to think about when I finished up my painting and the five hours. As the time was coming to an end, we all cleaned up and said our farewells but everyone’s efforts and the time there will always be remembered in the newly painted walls of a building hit by the flood just two years ago. It was a good way to remember the work that Martin Luther King Jr. had done himself and think of others who have dedicated their lives to the cause.

The Amazingness that is Facebook

Many high school students spend most of their life on it. It is a way to communicate with people through wall posts and instant chatting. It is a place to post recent pictures that you can share with all you friends. That’s right it is Facebook. There are those who are obsessed with it and there are those who can manage their time on it with their other responsibilities, I will move between groups. Facebook is a social networking site that allows people of all ages to communicate with old and new classmates, family members and any other friends. Though school computers do not allow you to access the site from school because it is said to be a distraction, many will log onto the popular site that was originally made for high school students and talk with their friends via private messaging, public wall posts, or private chatting. I am definitely a fan of the site as it has allowed me to reconnect with kids I went to elementary school with before moving to Iowa, get assignment or just talk with friends, and, as I most recently discovered, communicating with family far away. I have always used the site to communicate with friends old and new but recently my younger cousin set up her own facebook which has allowed us to keep in better contact. Several years ago my uncle who is in the air force was reassigned to be stationed in Kaiserslautern which is in Germany. It made sense for him to be stationed there since he speaks German very fluently but this meant that my four younger cousins would be moving across the Atlantic Ocean and it is very difficult and expensive to communicate with them on a regular basis. Sadly this meant going three years without almost any communication at all until I saw them on my visit to the country with my school last summer. It was very strange to see faces that I hadn’t seen in so long and seen how much they had changed and also what had not changed. I was able to see them again this past November when they took their first trip back to the United States since they left but it was during school and right before finals so unfortunately I had to spend most of my time studying and completing assignments. It is great to know that I now have a site that I can go on and talk to family across the ocean at anytime we both are on for chatting or any time I feel like posting on their wall. This really has increased my appeal in facebook and facebook’s amazingeness!

Pray for Haiti

My heart goes out to the victims in Haiti. For those who haven’t heard of the devastation, where have you been? On Tuesday, Haiti, a country that shares an island with the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean Sea, was hit by an earthquake of the magnitude of 7.0 on the Richter scale. For those of you who do not know, that is bad, like really bad! Haiti has had problems in recent history and is one of the poorest nations in the Western Hemisphere and this devastating earthquake has not only destroyed most of the country but the death total is believed to be as high as 100,000 people or possibly even larger. The Haitian people are asking for aid and many are trying to help but there is so much devastation that it is hard not to get too caught up in their pain. There are still search parties searching through the rubble that was their capital searching furiously for those who may still be alive but all the victims found are without proper place to go for medical treatments. Hospitals and medical equipment and resources are scarce and the people are asking for more aid. The images of Haiti contain piles of bodies in the street with people still searching for either more dead or possible survivors with their bare hands. Port-au Prince, the capital has been hit the hardest and many describe it as totally flattened. It is said that the earthquake was so strong that it was likely even felt in eastern Cuba and it affected approximately one third of the Haitian population. People throughout the world are doing all they can to help the hurt nation in any way possible. Recently, the Red Cross has set up a way for people to donate ten dollars to Haiti recovery by texting HAITI to 9099 or five dollars by texting YELE to 501501 which is associated with the Wyclef Jean’s Haitian yele charity. The amount donated whether ten or five dollars is then added to your next cell phone bill. It is said that over ten million dollars has been raised for relief through just Red Cross text donations. Recovery efforts have even caused people to drop their political aggressions for one another as President Barrack Obama met with both former presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush to work together for the Haitian people. All three along with other leading politicians on both sides of American politics have reached out to the public to pray and donate for the people whose lives were destroyed this last Tuesday.

For more information click here or here.

The Dread Of the Monday

It is the beginning of the second week of the New Year and once again school is in full charge. Around this time of year I just want to stay in bed and sleep and Mondays are the worst. First off, it has been cold and though there is talk of warming up this week that still only puts the high at like 36° Fahrenheit. Yippee! The temperature is going to be above the freezing mark…now if it was going to be like 60°, that would be something I would feel worthy of celebrating over. It kind of shows just how pathetically cold it has been the past couple of weeks. Then we have school on top of it! Like seriously what are we supposed to wear to school mittens and sweats?? Personally, I like to dress up a bit for school and having to worry about whether I am going to get frostbite while walking from my car to the school building when getting ready for school is never fun. Mondays are definitely the worst though. I have spent most of the weekend recovering from the previous school week which means catching up on homework and sleep. For the most part I get like twice as much sleep on the weekends, usually not getting up before like ten of eleven…ok, sometimes noon, but then I am expected to be in class by seven on Monday morning! Like seriously? That means getting up around 5:30 to get ready and do homework that I just could not find the desire to do over the weekend. I mean each weekend is like a mini vacation and every Monday is the end of my dreams and beginning of tests, notes and assignments. It can definitely be a little disheartening to come to school when you know for the next five days you probably will not get more than six hours of sleep each night if you are lucky and are going to be up during the early morning hours for homework. Mondays have become this symbol for work and that is because that is how our society has been run. Most people work Monday through Friday and get the weekends off for time at home or wherever they so choose. The same goes for school classes are Monday through Friday and therefore most people will spend their entire lives with this belief of a work week that is stopped by the weekend and the weekend which is the time for people to relax is then ended by Mondays. It stinks because Mondays, no matter what age you are, are the days that stop the relaxation and remind you of your responsibilities. It is a shame for Mondays that they have been given such a bad name almost in our society but then again someday had to get that chore.

Nine is definitely a Ten out of Ten

So last week I went to go see “Nine” and I am still thinking about it! It was probably the best musical based movie I have ever seen and that is kind of saying a lot since musicals are one of my favorite genres of movies. It was directed by the same person who directed “Chicago” which was hinted throughout the movie. It was amazing to see so much talent. There were soo many songs that were just amazing and very few of the singers sang more than one song! It is ridiculous how much talent was put into this movie. I have always been a fan of Kate Hudson’s work as an actress and so I was even more thrilled when I knew she was part of the task but I was totally shocked when I heard her sing. She, Nicole Kidman, and Penelope Cruz all sounded amazing! Personally, I thought that any actor who could sing well and even those who couldn’t were working on their albums but these ladies have never been in any of those and they were amazing! Not only was the singing amazing but it didn’t disrupt the plotline at all! Like one of the hardest things about musicals, is to pull of going from acting to singing and dancing, a problem that the High School Musicals didn’t handle as well… But in “Nine” the songs were positioned so eloquently in the movie that the plot never stopped or was disrupted and it all was just so perfectly placed that the musical could compete with any type of movie. Also, you cannot talk about this movie without talking about the sex that comes with it. The whole musical is revolved around a man and his disastrous sex life and it affects on his recent screen play writer’s block. It is also impossible to talk about this movie without mentioning the best song/production of the whole movie, “Be Italian” sung by no other than Fergie! There are soo many words to describe this part of the movie: for example, hot, amazing, SEX and OMG!! To start with the singing was absolutely fabulous. Fergie belts the song with such force and power that it is just amazing and just gives you chills. The dancing is a whole other subject, I mean it was probably the sexiest chair dance I have ever seen…not to be taken as I have seen many chair dances. Trust me I haven’t. But seriously I would not be surprised if some guys go several times just to see that scene! But it isn’t the only hot scene! Like let me tell you this is movie is not for those who think “Chicago” was too inappropriate.

Miley Cyrus, The Empire

So before I have blogged about how amazing Miley Cyrus is and it seems that she deserves once again to be spoken about. The last post about Miley was her amazing sense of style but this one is more about her other careers, music and acting. Well I am not about to talk about how amazing the Hannah Montana movie and television series because trust me that would make even me cry of boredom and ridiculousness. No, I am not a fan of her Hannah Montana music either but her career outside of Disney that interests me the most. She really is super talented but unfortunately she has been trapped in Disney patrol, like seriously Disney has trapped so many talented stars like Brenda Song but luckily Miley knows to shot for the stars and pull away from the Disney world and into the real world of music and acting. She has recently gone on tour just under her name, no more Hannah Montana and blonde wigs, and she recently acted in a movie did not have Hannah Montana in the title or the plot. She is finally starting to break free and many may think her methods are not the best but at least she is doing it. Too many stars will likely never get past the Disney Channel but she will. There is a lot of talk about her new movie The Last Song as it is sure to be a brilliant success. Trailers have come out for the movie and my friends and I have already decided it is a must see! I really cannot wait to see her perform in a real movie that doesn’t involve a character from the Disney channel but a movie with other professional actors and her chance to open her career into a new movement. Not only does she have an amazing career in acting but also in singing. Her music has become overly popular and there is not a girl in the country who doesn’t know the lyrics. “Party in the U.S.A” has become an amazing hit that has rocked the radios for weeks and whenever it plays people are still forced to sing along, the rest of her album is just as amazing but little people have heard it because only Wal-Mart has the rights to sell it. Overall, Miley Cyrus has been the biggest of the Disney stars but she is making her way to be one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. Her success will see no boundaries! Let’s just hope the paparazzi don’t screw with her reputation any more.

one of my favorite songs of Miley's from her new album...

Transformation into an Essay

So it’s that time of the term again, we have to start working on our revised essays. The last one was not so great, in fact, it kind of sucked because I was confused as to where to take my idea and so I ended up having a split personality when it came to the tone of writing. I really, really do not want to do that again and so I was really glad to hear that we were going to be working with our tables rather than newly formed groups. I felt that I could take a bigger risk knowing that my friends would be kind and would make me feel more confident in what exactly I could write about. The only problem is that I am stuck. I have no idea what will make a good essay topic. I have had this one concept in my head ever since the first revised essay, in fact I thought of changing the topic to fit it but realized it was way too late into the process to change. I thought this idea would be really good because it in corporate my favorite type of writing poetry, but now that it comes down to writing it I fear that the final product will be more like a story than an essay. I have no idea what I am going to do because I only have one other idea and I am not even that crazy about it. I really feel like the biggest risk is the one that deals with poetry because I think that it would really take some opening up which is not always that easy for me. I super scared that this piece will suck or that I might get a bad grade because the teacher doesn’t think it is an essay or a bad essay at that. It is sad; I have never had any doubt in my writing abilities before this class, but with the doubt comes a greater chance to succeed. I just really hope that is what happens with this essay because I could really use a boost of confidence in my writing abilities. I know that my idea is such a risk that it will either be successful or a miserable failure. I am hoping for this essay to be my own and not someone elses but with Annie Dillard’s “Transfiguration” as my influence. Hopefully it will work out!!

video version of Annie Dillard's "Transfiguration"