This summer I am going 0n a mission trip to South Dakota with my church. I am not exactly sure what we will be doing there but I am pretty sure we are going to be helping at a green house and helping on an indian reservation. It is one of the poorest regions of the United States and we will also be helping build new houses and put roofs on houses etc. I will keep you updated when we actually go to do it :)
Procrastination is a terrible thing, it is what has led me to this, writing a blog post at 9:52 at night...The fact that teachers don't understand the meaning of end of the year also doesn't help when they pile on the assignments and extra work. Seriously I have so many projects going on in classes right now and I just put everything off until the last minute when I am cramming to get things done. Let alone dealing with other things in life let's just say I am ready for school to be over!!! ahha
According to an article by Joe Crawford Facebook and other social networking sites may not be as much of a waste of time as people assume. You always hear oh, you are wasting your time on the internet, the internet is killing your brian cells, you are making yourself dumb by watching those youtube videos. But what about when you are talking on the phone, or when you are emailing a friend those are just as time wasting as facebook is but they do the exact same things, they allow you to connect with people and communicate with them at a more personal level and they help you stay in touch with people.
A team or researchers conducted a study of over 800 individuals and watched them as they interacted on social networking sites such as facebook and myspace. They found that teenagers not only interact with one another on these sites, they also express themselves creatively, flirt, develop relationships, and learn basic technical skills all at the same time. In face this type of stuff isn't rotting their brains at all it is actually necessary for normal brain development. Of course there are some down sides to internet use like child soliciting online, privacy factors, etc etc but from the evidence the benefits far outweigh the costs. So the next time your mom or dad or whatever gets on your case about wasting away online just make sure to tell them hey!!! I need this for normal brian development, get off my back ;P
"It may look like kids are wasting a lot of time online, but they're actually learning a lot of social, technical and also media literacy skills," said Mizuko Ito, a researcher at the University of California, Irvine who led the study."
Initially scientists believed that if a proteins makeup ended up being correct any small glitches in the process leading to its construction could not do a body harm. This was proved wrong eventually though. Point mutations, which are single letter changes to the DNA, can change a codon to one that specifies the wrong amino acid or to a stop signal, which makes the last protein shortened. A single base change can also change a stop codon so that it encodes an amino acid making the protein longer. Yet another change is possible, a mutation that alters a nucleotide but yields a synonymous codon. This is called a “silent mutation”. These silent mutations were called silent mutations because they weren’t known to do any harm or cause any damages to the body or cause any diseases. It wasn’t until the 1980’s that scientists realized that silent mutations could affect protein production in bacteria and yeast. They found out that the genes in the bacteria did not use synonymous codons in equal numbers. They soon found out that cells were using certain codons because those codons enhanced the rate or accuracy of protein synthesis. Scientists then found out that our bodies do show a bias for certain codons. So scientists thought for many years that these findings had nothing to do with silent mutations influence on the human body. When scientists started looking at whether silent sites in genes evolved at the same rate as non coding regions, they found differences, a sign that silent mutations could affect physiology after all. Today scientists have found that 50 genetic disorders are linked to silent mutations. This is very important information and it does affect society in many ways. It shows how you can think something is safe but once explored further is far from it. These silent mutations affect people because if someone is affected by one and they didn’t know what was wrong with them that would be bad. Now we know that if someone has a genetic disorder and it isn’t apparent what it is they can explore further to see if it is caused by a silent mutation. As you can probably deduce by yourself this is fairly bad news considering that we don’t have stable vaccinations or treatments for these types of disorders yet. Eventually with modern medicine we will get there but it will take time. At least people now have some answers to their questions. They can know what is wrong with them and why we just can’t help them that well yet. This was a pretty good article. I think it could have been a little more interesting to keep the reader’s attention but it was very informative. I would recommend this article to people who think they suffer from a genetic disorder caused by a silent mutation and also doctors and scientists who are studying these silent mutations because it has a lot of good information and they would be able to understand it well because they have been around this type of talk. It also explains some of the fuzzy areas that I didn’t quite understand well and helps me understand them better. Particularly people who suffer from a genetic disorder caused by a silent mutation would benefit from this because they could understand exactly what is wrong with them and it might help them out to find out how to get help about it.
Tonight was the year end Band banquet. Last Thursday was the year end Tennis banquet, and Thursday will be the Thespian banquet. Banquets are what groups or events do at the end of the year to celebrate a great season. They are usually filled with heart felt speeches, goofy gifts given to underclassmen by seniors, and a lot of awards. They are a great way of looking back and remembering a great year. For the band banquet we usually watch videos of our marching season and listen to some music, for the tennis banquet the seniors were given gifts and that included a tear filled speech by the top varsity player, and the Thespian banquet is where the new Thespians will be inducted into the Thespian Society? (Not sure if that is what it is called haha) These banquets I feel are a fun way to reflect on the (hopefully successful) year and kick of the next year.
~Mildred
Wow this was a lame post....sorry I am getting desperate here lol
AUGH!!! The dreaded phrase AP EXAMS!!! Yes it is that time of year again where all the students enrolled in AP classes put on their biggest cramming face and try and shove a years worth of hard, confusing material down their throats so they can get a three or better on their ap exams. This year I am taking AP Biology and AP Lang. (I am actually taking a break from studying right now :) heehee) I used to get really stressed out by these exams but I have realized that I have nothing to lose. So what if I get a two on it? That means I will just have to go and take the class over again in college which for most of them I will probably end up having to do anyway because some colleges don't even count ap credits for actual credit and some colleges only take it if it is a five or a four and higher. Anyway my plan for this year is to do my best, study as much as I can just go in there and do my best and not worry about it :)
So I have this weird phobia of falling into the status quo and going along with what everyone else does just because it is a popular thing to do at the time. For instance when Twilight came out and everyone was head over heels obsessed with it I was determined not to like it. But I read the first book and fell in love with it even though I have yet to pick up the third and fourth books. Anyway I was the same way with Glee. My cousin showed me the first episode before it became so big and popular and I liked it but then it started becoming really popular and everyone talks about it all the time and I was like nah, I don't like it that much it is annoying but then one night my sister brought home the whole season one dvds and watched them straight through and I got hooked, mainly because of hottie Fin :D OMG!!! cough cough anyway it is actually a really good show and I like it a lot not just because everyone else likes it but because it is interesting, keeps me captivated and has really good renditions of songs in them. Here are some of my favorites!
"Don't Stand So Close to Me"
"Sweet Caroline"
"I'll Stand By You by Hottie McHothot Fin"
These are my favorite songs so far but all the songs are really good and it is fun seeing them performed by people other than the singers that made the songs in the first place :)
The other day in French class my friend and I were sitting together working on homework. "I'm tired." She said. "I'm not!" I exclaimed. "Give me some of your energy!!" I laughed, "Okay haha." As I made a grabbing motion at my chest I "blew my energy" at her. "You're bad at making energy balls." She said. Still thinking we were joking around I laughed and asked how a proper energy ball was made in which she proceded to show me. She put her hand slightly on top of mine and asked if I could feel the "heat" between our hands. That, she said, was the energy between us. She told me how one day at her church a Wiccan came and taught them how to make energy balls and transfer them from person to person. (Which she tried to do to me.) She also said how this Wiccan taught them how to get answers from the universe by centering themselves and asking yes or no questions. I didn't know much about these people but I thought that they studied witchcraft and stuff like that so I dumbly asked "Don't they worship the devil?" She laughed and said that they had nothing to do witht that. That those were Satanists. I was still unsure so I decided to research a little about Wicca. Wicca is a Neopagan religion which goes back to the Celtic culture in 800 BC. The confusing thing about Wiccans is that they don't have a certain time that they started so there is no set in stone review of their religion. They have no main book or no main rules to their religion so it is hard for people to learn about them. Wiccans can be considered monotheistic, polytheistic, atheist, etc. Because they do believe in a higher god or goddess. Some believe these two are one (monotheistic), some believe they are two (duotheistic), some believe in these two gods along with many others much like the greek gods (polytheistic) and some believe in these gods but they look at them more as symbols not as actual living deities. Witchcraft and Wicca are not the same thing, some Wiccans practice witchcraft but witchcraft is the study of magic and Wicca is a religion. Not all Wiccans do witchcraft. Wicca is the belief in earth like stuff they pay a lot of attention to nature like the wind, rain, earth etc. They have a strong belief in preserving the earth and the environment.
So music of the week :) I thought I would go through the songs I am obsessing over this week or this like month or whatever. I really like Iyaz :) He is amazing!!! He had a song earlier in the week that everyone was obsessed with called Replay and now he has come out with a new song called Solo that I absolutely love :)
"Solo"
I also like Taylor Swifts new song called Today was a Fairytale. I alwasy love Taylor Swift no matter what she sings. She always has good quality music and I really wanted to go to her concert here at the US Cellular center but it was sold out in like October!!! Haha.
"Today Was a Fairytale"
I also really like Heart Breaker? I don't know if that is the name of it I am not sure who sings it I think it is Iyaz also haha it has a really good beat and it is fast and catchy just like all of his songs!!! Haha Okay scratch that I just figured out it is by Taio Cruz featuring Ludacris. I really like these pop type songs with fast techno beats. They are a lot of fun to dance to :) Even though this has a bad message...haha I'm only gonna break break your heart? Story of my life...men!!! haha jk jk
"I'm Only Gonna Break Your Heart"
I also like the new song called Forever Young. It is a remake of an old song and it took me forever to realize why it sounded so familiar to me! Haha I really like remakes for old songs like the Cindy Lauper song Time After Time was remade recently so it was more techno and upbeat and it was amazing! I liked it. Here is the new song remade called Forever Young.
"Forever Young or Young Forever" whatever same thing :p
Well there you go! My random ramblings of the week :)
So I have typed three blog posts and am only up to 700 words and I was just thinking about random stuff. What to write about what to write about. FRIENDS :D My friends mean the world to me so why not write about how much they do mean to me? Without friends where would we all be in life? Lonely awkward losers....( no offense to those lonely awkward losers out there ;) haha) but seriously my friends are the core of all my drama this year and the thing that holds me together too. I have learned so much about friendships this year in school I have learned that your true friends are going to be there no matter what, thick or thin through everything and those are the ones that you really need to hold on to. Those type of friends take a real milestone in your life to figure out who they are. This year at the beginning of the year I went through some really tough stuff that really opened my eyes to see who my true friends were and weren't. I used to think that everyone was always going to be there for me no matter what or not matter how mad people got but I now know that not everything in life turns out like you expect it to but God will put people by you that will help you through it. True friends are those that don't judge you, listen to you and not only hear what you are saying but listen to what you are saying. True friends are willing to forgive you no matter how badly you messed up and no matter how mad you get at them or what horrible things you say to them you know that they are always willing to forgive you and you will always forgive them because deep down you know who they are and they know who you are. I have a bunch of really great friends that I have made so many great memories with and I will never ever forget any of them. Sure we all have had our fights but deep down I know they are always there for me, guys come and go and so does drama but these are the people I am going to look back on and know that this is truly what life is all about :) LOVE YOU GUYS :)
Senior chronic illness day. The mysterious day when all seniors seem to dissapear from the face of the earth...hmmmm. Senior skip day is of course the Monday after prom when all seniors skip school or get called out of school or whatever. Now this raises the question of what to do with these skippers? I mean some teachers tell them that they have tests or quizzes on that day that is worth fifty points and if they don't show up they fail the class, some teachers count the students absent, some teachers offer their students extra credit for coming into class on that day. If I was a teacher I would'nt count kids absent on that day in fact I might not even plan anything for that day I mean they are seniors they have been working hard all year and it is the Monday after prom (they could use their sleep). Why not let them have one day off? Sure it is "against the rules" but most of the students that do it are good students anyway and deserve a little fun. It is their last year, they are almost out of school anyway and I mean come on most classes are watching movies or studying for AP tests anyway so we are really only hurtig ourselves when we skip anyway right? My philosophy is go on like any other day doing whatever and if your students skip like any other absence it is their responsibility to make up what they missed or catch up with everyone else in class. Other than that I say be a nice teacher and don't count them absent ;)
You get the dress, you do your hair, you have your nails done and now you have to actually go to PROM!!! The "biggest night of your highschool life" now althought I dont quite buy into all of that I do agree that prom is a very fun experience that you get to look forward to as a senior (and a junior in some cases and in some schools). Prom consists of pictures, dinner, grand march, the actualy prom, and finally post prom. How did prom get to be such a big deal? The answer is I don't really know I wish I did. I love seeing all the dresses and all the different hair styles. It is fun to see all the girls styles come out in their ensemble for the night. Everyone is dressed up and gorgeous and what I like about it is even the quietes shyest girl can feel gorgeous for the night no matter who they are or who they hang out with. Of course there is a ton of gringing and bumping at prom and that is kind of awkward. It is hard for people who dont do that kind of stuff to fit into the dancing scene but there are spots on the outside that more conservative dancers can get away too. All in all prom is really fun and makes for a great end of the year memory.
Attend the tail of Sweeney Todd, his skin was pale and his eye was odd....Oh yes Sweeney Todd. I went to go see Sweeney Todd over the weekend and I have to say it was overall pretty good. The beginning started off good enough. I was really interested I didn't know what was going to happen. The music sounded creepy, the costumes were interesting and the makeup was great. The singing and the orchestra all was wonderful they all did a great job at that but once the play got going I was a little bored. I thought that there was a lot of uneeded songs by Mrs. Lovett and the only interesting parts were when Sweeney was killing people. I'm not saying the plotline wasn't good it was really interesting but I thought it could have been condensed to a shorter version to get at the good stuff sooner. I thought it wasn't really that innappropriate of a play except for the killing and the parts with the judge. That was so creepy, the judge was like going after Johanna who was his own daughter but not really but it was still gross haha. The singing was all really good and I thought Mr. Yuska did a great job of incorporating a lot of people into the chorus that otherwise could not have participated. Overall I give it 3 1/2 stars :)
The musical this year is Sweeney Todd. Another gruesome scary P-13 show for Mr. Yuska :) But that is what he is good at. Haha This show has a huge cast!! The biggest in Kennedy history I believe? Don't quote me on that though, anyway I am extrememly excited to go see it tomorrow at seven oclock with my three friends :) I will give my review of it but I am sure it will earn five stars because I have heard nothing but great things from it. Everything about the show is over the top, from the costumes, to the vocals, to the characters, to the makeup, even to the set. The set is the most elaborate set that Kennedy has ever had which goes to show that a production like this has a lot going on not only on stage under the lights but behind the scenes as well which is why I am excited to tell you all about it tomorrow!!!
When I was a baby I was baptized in the Catholic church because my dad is Catholic. He was raised as a Catholic and my mom was raised as a Methodist so when they got married my mom didn't want to change religions so she continued going to the Methodist church and my dad continued going to the Catholic church. Anyway as you can tell I get a lot of both religions. I mainly go to the Methodist church with my mom because she was the one willing to take us on Sunday mornings to Sunday School and on Wednesday nights to youth group. My cousins are Catholic though and sometimes when my mom doesn't want to get up in the morning I go to church with my dad so I know a little about Catholicism. Recently (like over the weekend recently) I went to my cousin first communion at St. Judes Catholic church. I had never been to a first communion because although I was baptized catholic I don't consider myself a catholic (although my father would argue otherwise). I didn't really know what to expect. It was the same day as my sisters confirmation so we arrived a little late. When I walked in I saw a bunch of little girls sitting with their parents dressed in pretty little white dresses wearing adorable white veils and little boys wearing cute suits. It was so adorable!!! The Catholics have very many traditions that they keep sacred. They were the original Christianity religion that many other sects branched off into later after Martin Luther. Catholics are kind of known for being more strict. They believe in the holy trinity, father, song and holy spirit. And that is their symbol for when they cross themselves. They go head, father, chest, son, shoulders, holy spirit. Catholics also believe in going to Confession which is when they go and talk to their priests about their sins and ask forgiveness for what they have done. Catholics do not believe in divorce or abortion and they are very conservative. They also believe in holy water and they have it everywhere in their churches. One time while at my great aunts funeral my sister was only about four or five she saw the big bath of holy water and thought "Hey! Looks like a swimming pool cool!" So she went and started splashing around in the holy water which was kind of frowned upon by Catholics....lol And that is Catholicism in a nutshell!!!
I have decided to switch my topics up a bit for my blog. I will continue to do school activities and talk about my opinion on issues but I have recently found out that I am interested in differen't peoples cultures and the different cultures of the world. I will write about a couple of different aspects of cultures including religion, food etc. A little bit of everything. I will continue to write about other things but when I am writing about culture I will title it Catching the Culture: (Insert topic here). Today I am going to talk about Methodism. I myself am Methodist so I thought what better way to start off this new topic than something I know a lot about and am emersed in almost all the time. Methodism is a protestant Christian religion that was started by John Wesley. It was founded in 1739. There are four main points to being a Methodist, Proclamation (proclaim the Gospel); Evangelism (invite people to personal decision for and commitment to Jesus Christ for their salvation); Incorporation (call persons to be incorporated into the Body of Christ); and Servanthood (serve as agents of God’s liberation and reconciling grace among the nations). Methodist are strong believers that you not only have to be a good Christian by praying, going to church etc. but also that you have to SHOW through your actions that you are a good Christian by serving the church, and God. For example my church participates in many different mission trips which are trips that people can go on, youth, adults etc. and we go and help out people or communities that need our help. During spring break the youth group goes on a youth mission trip to Missouri where they help out a family on the "Possibility Alliance". The family had their own farm and lived off of the land and didn't use electricity or indoor plumbing or any kind of petroleum. They didn't drive cars instead they rode bikes. This summer we will be going down to an Indian reservation in South Dakota and we will be helping them roof their house and diffren't things. In the past we have also helped rebuild flood houses in downtown Cedar Rapids etc. Our adults in our church went to Guatamala and helped build a school for the Guatamalan children. In our church we have pastors. Sometime the pastors leave and switch churches when needed. Above the pastors are the bishops which help run the entire Methodist church throughout the United States. For communion Methodists believe that anyone who believes in God can take communion no matter what religion you are or what church you belong to. In the Methodist faith once you reach the age of about 14 (around 8th grade) you have the choice of being confirmed. This is a year long program where you go to classes and learn more about the Methodist faith and what it means to be a Methodist. At the end of the program you are "confirmed" as a member of the Methodist church. John Wesley taught four main points that he believed were fundamental to Methodism;
1. Man is free not only to reject salvation but also to accept it (free salvation) by an act of human will.2. All people who are obedient to the Gospel according to the measure of knowledge given them will be saved (universal salvation).3. The Holy Spirit assures man of his salvation directly, through an inner "experience" (sure salvation).4. Christians in this life are capable of Christian perfection and are commanded by God to pursue it (full salvation). And that is what it means to be a Methodist!! :) I got most of my information that I didn't already know about Methodism from this website, if you want to find more out about Methodism just click on that link!
Last Saturday I took the ACT's for the third time this year. This time they were held at Kennedy and a bunch of people from Kennedy took them. Now I feel that the ACT can either go really great or really bad depending on the proctor. If you have a really good proctor who is good about putting the times up on the board and making sure they are ACCURATE and is good about making sure they hold their noise down to a minimum and they don't distract the test takers I feel like it can actually be a very positive experience. But I was hearing stories about ACT proctors that were messing up the times and typing really loudly on their computers and were just doing a horrible job overall. It may not seem like it but this can affect the examinees immensely. The door in the room was open for a little while because it was getting a little hot in the room and the examinees in the room across the hall were done with their tests and the proctor was giving them instructions on what to do and her voice was really loud and it carried really far away and just her talking and giving instructions was distracting me and I was getting really aggravated and eventually the proctor went and closed the door. It is little things like this that make all the difference. I'm not saying if you have a bad proctor you will get a bad score on your ACT, won't get into college, won't get a job and become a bum loser on the street....well I can't gurantee you won't, but I highly doubt you will :) haha but it really makes a difference in the type of proctor you get.
Today I competed at State music contest at Prairie Highschool. This is a contest for highschool students to compete by preparing solos and ensemble pieces with their instruments and for state there are also vocal solos. A week before this was All City which is for any age. All City is a little easier judging wise than State is. I prepared a solo, and I was in two flute choirs, Mississippi Rag and Salsita. Salsita is an interesting piece because there is one section where we don't use tone at all we simply make a "Sh" noise into our flutes. It is different and has a very interesting sound to it. These two pieces are pretty difficult and at All City Mississippi Rag got a 2 and Salsita got a 1 and my solo got a 1. This week for state my solo got a 2 and I don't know what my two flute choirs got yet. Sometimes we will have larger ensembles like woodwind choirs which include the whole woodwind section. Kennedy usually does really good and I think we did really good this year too. This year All City was held at Jefferson and State was held at Prairie.
Okay so this is an extremely random blog post just so you know :) I am working on my blogs right now and I am listening to my ipod and I was scrolling through my songs and I just clicked on Hello Seattle and I thought I would blog about how much I am in LOVE with Owl City. Owl City is a band obviously but they didn't really get popular until their hit song "Fireflies" came out on July 14 2009.
Now it wasn't a success overnight obviously it took some time to play on the radios and for people to listen to it and spread the word but eventually this song was more popular than Barack Obama on Inaugaration Day. Everybody I knew was listening to it. I remember my friend let me listen to her ipod and she was like listen to this song :) and I was like okay I like it. It isn't one of my favorites but I will listen to it again. And you see with me as I hear a song more and more I like it more and more. I can't listen to a song for the first time and be like oh yeah I like that song! I have to hear it a couple times and get the beat in my head before I can fully judge it. Let me tell you it was not hard with this song! I heard it all the time!!! And eventually people even started to get tired of it but not me. It has like a soft techno type of mood to it and it isn't like other songs that I have heard. I listened to more of Owl City songs and they all have the same type of sound to them so basically all of their songs are amazing and you should listen to them :) This just goes to show you how one song or one little thing can make you big in Hollywood. I had no idea who they were before Fireflies but now I love them!!! These are my other two favorite songs by them :)
Every Tuesday my church has a free lunch that Kennedy students can eat. I love going there because it is a good break from school walking over to church on nice sunny days talking to my pastor and eating delicious food with my friends. Recently they would have little question cards on the table with questions like; "What was your favorite Christmas?" or "Why do you think God made so many different species of beatles?", this week the question was..."There have been a lot of stories about Christian terrorists in the paper lately, can a Christian be a terrorist? Can an Islam be a terrorist?" I started thinking about that question. My answer was no I don't think you can call yourself a Christian and a terrorist, you are either a Christian or a terrorist. You can be a terrorist while practicing the religion of Christianity but everything that terrorism is goes against everything Christianity and Islam is. In the bible and the Quran (sp?) there is talk about peace and loving one another, not fighting at all costs to get your point across. I don't think Jesus or Muhammed would approve of their religion being associated with such terrible things like shootings, suicide bombings and overall violence. I think that the media should stop associating terrorism with religion because the two are not combined into one. They should just keep the term terrorist as one universal term that is used to describe a person inflicting violence or terror on people or buildings and then when they are reporting about it they can say it was because they wanted to defend their religion which happens to be Christianity or something like that. As a Christian I find it offensvie that they are using this term because it is bringing a bad name to us as people and I personally don't agree with any form of terrorism, I am a Christian but I am nothing at all like or I do not agree with Christian terrorism at all, yet they claim to be the same religion as me. I didn't really give this much thought before when they would talk about Islamic terrorists but now I see how hurtful this term is, I didn't realize it but I would associate terrorism with Islam and that isn't how it should be. They should not be called Islamic terrorists, they should simply be called terrorists, because according to Islam you can't be a terrorist and be Islam.
So the other day I was thinking about life in general and the type of person that I wanted to be. I have all these hopes and dreams but I don't know how to accomplish any of them. I was talking to my friend and we were talking about AP classes and advanced classes and what not and how we are forced to take these classes if we want to excel in our school career yet I am beginning to realize this is not the most important thing in life. Going to college. Getting a job. Getting married. Raising a family. Growing old. And dying. This is how us as americans were raised to go through life but we are hardly ever told that there were other options for us. There is more to life than just school. I know that is a shocking statement but there are lives that we need to change, changes that need to happen and they aren't just going to happen by sitting at desks all day learning about random things that don't really matter. We need to get out in the world and experience things for ourselves. I want to make a difference in the world. So I figured I might as well start with baby steps. So here is what I am going to do, each week I am going to do one random nice thing for someone, it could be as simple as saying hi and smiling to someone in the hallway that I wouldn't normally say hi to or something as big as helping someone raise money for a kidney transplant. Whatever it is I am going to tell you and blog about it :) Soooooo wish me luck!!
Okay so for every new movie that I see I am going to put a review of it up on my blog :) Tonight I went to see Date Night with the coolest, hottest date in the world!!!! (Sorry I would tell you who it is but I can't disclose names over blogger lame rule :/) anywho I thought this movie was absolutely hilarious. Tina Fey and Mike Carrell should get married in real life because they are a match made in heaven!!! Tina Fey brings to the plate a sense of innocent humor that compliments Steve Carrells quirky attitude imaculately. The humor was that, that was relatable to older audiences and that could actually make us laugh. I would say some of my favorite quotes but I do not believe they are school appropriate. Lol anyway I hope to be seeing Tina Fey in some more movies in the future, (it was nice to see her in a role other than Sarah Palin). All in all the ending was tied together nicely with a good moral of a husband and wife reconnecting and trying to find their "wild side" again when they ended up finding each other. "If I had it to do all over again I would choose you every time."~Steve Carrell So um yeah four stars go see it it was fabulous :) Too bad you won't have as good a date as me though :p
1.) I am obsessed with getting married. Mainly wedding dresses. I just love wedding dresses, I like looking at them picking them out dressing up in them anything having to do with them I am ecstatic :) I even got my mom to buy me a couple of bridal magazines just so I could look at all the pictures of wedding dresses in them. I love the TLC show Say Yes to the Dress. It is about a store in Klinefelters in New York that sells designer wedding dresses and they have people come in and try on wedding dresses and fit them and everything and it is really fun to see what types of dresses people pick out :)
2.) I have Tachycardia Rythmia. This is a heart defect that I was born with. It basically means I have an irregular and faster heartbeat than a normal person of my build. I have to take Atenylol every morning to slow my heart down which also makes my circulation in my blood go slower so I get cold a lot. This doesn't prevent me from doing normal things like playing tennis, or marching band it just means that I need to be aware of my illness and I have to know my limits. Tachycardia Rythmia is not a rare condition a lot of people have it. :)
3.) I absolutely, whole heartedly am in love with John Travolta!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He is my favorite actor. I have loved him ever since my friend showed me the movie Grease at her house. He was also in "Look Who's Talking", "Hairspray", "Saturday Night Fever", "Urban Cowboy", and most recently "The Taking of Pelham 123", "Wild Hogs", and also "From Paris with Love". He is a Scientologist like Tom Cruise which means he believes that there are like aliens inside of us...I don't really know haha anyway I am in love with him and my dream is to meet him someday :)
Summer Nights
4.) I have been playing the flute since I was in first grade. I started the summer before my first grade year. Funny story I didn't know what a flute was, see I confused the flute with the recorder...so I thought I was going to go get recorder lessons and I thought the recorder was the flute because we played the recorder in school a little so I guess I kind of got more than I bargained for but I stuck with it and have been playing it ever since!!! And now look at me I am a true bandie :) I love marching band and my life would suck without it lol.
5.) I am addicted to facebook. Like I know every highschool student says that but I have taken it to a new level. I literally can't get on the computer without getting on facebook. It is a sickness of mine. I don't know what exactly it is but it is the biggest distraction ever invented by anyone. Nuf said. I have deleted it before and have tried to stay off it but nothing works I always end up going back to it like a sad little puppy.
I am a junior. Here at Kennedy only the Seniors are allowed to go to prom (unless you are invited). Recently I was asked to prom. I had mixed feelings about this I mean obviously prom sounds like a lot of fun and you get to get all dressed up and buy a pretty dress but I am not one for school dances, especially when I am going to be surrounded by a bunch of seniors that I don't even know. The guy that asked me is really nice and I know him and we are just going as friends but I still don't think that will outweigh the awkwardness. This also got me thinking, should I save my prom experience until I am a senior? The thought that I would even get the opportunity to go to prom early never crossed my mind until now and now I am wondering if I want to ruin this experience or save it until next year. My parents said that they went to prom as juniors because their schools had junior senior proms so it isnt really like I'm breaking tradition but I am just weary about this whole situation, I mean I will have to go to grand march and everything and that will be awkward too, mehhhh I don't know what I am going to do!!! Any suggestions? Lol ~Mildred Btw I am going to add random pictures of prom dresses because I am obsessed with dresses :) Mmmmkay :D
Today while driving back from Easter brunch my family and I noticed that a lot of stores were closed. This surprised my mother because it was a religious holiday and she didn't think that any stores would be closed. But it got me thinking that almost everything is closed on Christmas why should Easter be any different? Then I got to thinking should stores be closed on religious holidays? My thinking is yes they should be if they are closed on Muslim religious holidays, or Buddhist religiuos holidays or anything else, I don't see what is wrong with that!
~Mildred
(ps I know this was a really random blog post but I needed 100 more words lol I hope this is enough!)
I haven't gotten my ipod out of my desk for about six months. I have watched it collect dust. I don't know where the headphones are I haven't even thought about it until recently. Why? Well one I tried to put it into a different computer an switch my itunes library and it messed up and would'nt work and I was too lazy to figure it out. A second reason is I had lame songs on my ipod and whenever I went to a computer to buy new songs I would have a brain fart and couldn't think of what to buy until I was like out shopping or something. (This disorder is quite annoying) andyway the other day I decided to change that. I got my sisters ipod hooked it up and downloaded all of her songs onto my ipod and now my ipod is fully charged and has cool songs onto it. I now bring my ipod everywhere listening to songs that I like and dancing to myself and it got me thinking. For me whenever I hear a song I like I just get this feeling, that goes throughout my whole body like I'm not in my world I am living in some other magical place that is happy and I am just alone and there is no school, no drama, no worrying about college and it just makes me happy. Why is this? I figured it out, songs let you be in a different place then where you are. They express feelings that you are scared to speak of out loud, they get down to the deepest parts of you that you didn't even know you had. I like finding songs that describe the mood I am in or that make me feel better about something. Taylor Swift is really good at finding songs like this. For instance, (don't think I am an annoying 16 year old girl when I say this) but when my boyfriend broke up with me (this is so cliche I know lol) I listened to the song Need You Now by Lady Antebellum (sp?) and I would sit there listening to this song thinking, this is exactly how I feel!!! This is my life...and I would sit there and mope and feel sorry for myself.
As life went on and I realized some important things...haha I won't go into detail I began listening to other songs that expressed my other feelings like
I Look So Good Without You by Jessie James
I think this one speaks for itself haha. But you see that these songs helped me through tough times, they expressed how I felt and helped me cope with my feelings. Also I like songs that get me in a peppy upbeat mood for when I am hanging out with my friends. My friends and my favorite songs to party out to are In My Head by Jason Drewlow I Gotta Feeling Black Eyed Peas and I'm On a Boat. Some songs are funny and just make you laugh like I'm Awesome. I heard this song and I knew it was one of my favorites.
I'm Awesome Spose
My friends and I have many songs that we like listening to together or we used to and when they come on the radio we will look at each other and smile or I will think about them and the good times we had listening to that song. You see music can be used in many ways, it isn't just trashy noise that annoys my mother in the car haha. They help people connect, they helps you cope with feelings, they explain your life and bottom line it is just fun listening to them and getting away from your crazy life once in a while :)
Today we had the spring pep assembly. I love pep assemblys, hey an hour away from boring classes and a shortened day, what's not to like??? I love watching the dance team perform, the team captains do humiliating things as we stand by and laugh, and my favorite part is the spirit stick competitions. I have to brag a bit this years junior class was the only one in a long time to get the spirit stick as freshman and we got it last term and probably other terms too but yeah we pretty much rock. These pep assemblies are a lot of fun for classes to bond and cheer together but the thing I hate about it is the pep band. No no I love the music they play, Iam IN the pep band but I don't like the fact that we have to sit there like losers when everyone else is up there on the podiums or with their class cheering. There are freshman through seniors in the band but we have to sit in the band section so when we cheer for our class our cheers dont really count because we are so far away from everyone. The only time it actually matters is if you are a senior and sometimes you can sneak into your side because the seniors are right next to us but what about everyone else? During the winter assembly we have a group caroling contest so me and my friends aimlessly sing "Frosty the Snowman" in the band section while the juniors are blaring away over in their section. Another thing is everyone stands at pep assemblys EXCEPT the band and whenever band members try to stand up and actually get into they get yelled at by students behind them because band kids are a bunch of grumpy people lacking school spirit I guess... :p Anyway the thing is I don't think we need a pep band for pep assemblies it isn't really fair to us I mean I have NEVER gotten to sit with my own section for any of these assemblies, we only play the fight song anyway and let's be honest everyone could care less whether we were playing or not. They play new age pop songs too like "Don't Stop Believing" and "Boom Boom Pow" why can't we just listen to those songs? Let's make a recording of the fight song and just play that so us band kids can get the same experience that everyone else has had. It sounds like a silly little thing but I haven't gotten the true pep assembly experience my whole highschool career and I don't think that is fair.
In less than three hours I will be heading to Missouri with my church. We will be going to the Possibility Alliance for the third year in a row and I am super duper excited!! If only I can get these blog posts finished before I leave!!! Ugh haha. The Possibility Alliance is an organization that is dedicated to reducing their impact on the earth by reducing their carbon footprint. Some ways they do this is by not using petroleum (plastic) they don't drive, they ride bikes everywhere, they don't have electricity or indor plumbing and they grow their own food and only eat organic foods. They also have some animals like goats, and chickens that they use for food. What we do when we go there is help them out wherever needed. We help them on their farm do little things and sometimes we go into the nearby town and help at local charities. Last year and the year before that we helped restore an old community theatre and the year before that we helped at a donation place kinda like a salvation army that was run by a lady called "Grandma" to everyone in the town. This year we are going to be staying there Sunday to Thursday. I am really excited because I am the only one that will have been there all three years :) I will write more about what we did this year on my blog when I get back :)
Last night I was bored out of my mind. So I rented a movie with my sister. I wanted to see the Fourth Kind but they were all out at Family Video so my sister and I rented The Box. I had seen commercials for it and it looked okay so I thought I would give it a try. What was in store for me I would not have ever known. That move was the most confusing complicated creepy movie I have seen in a long time! You would think it would have been a simple plot line, the lady pushes the button a person dies woopdey doo. But the kicker was it didnt just end there. Yes as you have figured out the woman pushed the button and someone DID die. It was the woman before her that had the button before. The man that gave her the button in the first place was not a man at all but well I dont really know what he was but he was struck by lightning, died, and somehow came back to life. The whole time he was very mysterious about his employees and his employer but what I got from it was that the whole button pressing thing was a test of ones humanity. If you pressed the button yeah you got one million dollars but ultimately you were responsible for the death of another human being. Sure you didnt know them but did that really matter? In the end somebody else got the button and was responsible for another death, who died you will have to watch and find out!!!! It was a really good movie but I think I will have tow watch it a couple more times to really understand it all. So if you are bored this spring break go ahead run on down to the movie store and pick it up!!! It has the guy from Enchanted in it I think :) the prince haha I think he is cute :) Also it has Cameran Diez in it so overall it is a good buy!!! I rate it 4 stars **** :)
YAY! It's finally here :) Spring break! What we have been waiting for, for forever!!! Well okay just since Winter break haha. Spring break is not only a fun time to hang out with friends or catch a super cool movie it is a great time to catch up on sleep and relax and rejuvinate for the upcoming trimester and a great way to relax before you have to finish out the year. Breaks I feel are very important for students not only to hang out with friends and party but it gives them a chance to relax and rejuvinate. It lets them do whatever they want so they can go back to school reeling refreshed and new. I feel that breaks are good for students because they need that extra time off of school. We cant be forced to work and work and work and produce the same great results that we did at the beginning of the year, it just isn't realistic. I feel that that is a reason why we shouldnt have homework over spring break. The definition of break is to stop what you are doing and relax! (According to me anyway) and that does not include working on homework. We are given breaks to actually take breaks they are not built in extra times to work on more homework. That is the philosophy some teachers have they look at breaks like they can give us MORE work because we have MORE time to work on the work and do it but this is not fair. We need the breaks not "work time" teachers shouldnt assign anything over spring break. That is what school after spring break is for to work on that. Our spring break should be filled with nothing but fun and good times we as students deserve it. Since the beginning of the year we have worked our butts off with hard work and homework and tests and we need this one week of relaxation so we can work even harder and do even better to finish out the end of the year strong.
Monday was the official start of womens tennis 2010. I had an ACT class to go to so my first practice was yesterday...which didn't really help me that much because we started challenges yesterday so it was the first time on the courts for that year and I had warmed up for about 15 minutes. Nonetheless I actually didn't do that bad, I didn't win the challenge but for most of the games we got to a deuce and she won by one point. This morning i realized how out of shape I am. My legs were very sore and my shoulders hurt like no other. I need to remember to stretch and warm up before I played. I also need to remember to practice outside of practice so I can get back into the swing of things. This year it is my goal to win more than half of my matches. Last year I don't remember how many I won because halfway through I switched partners. I like tennis because it is one of those sports that isn't that time consuming, it isn't too physically involving, it isn't too extrememly competitive unless you are really good and you have to depend on you, not your team to win. I am not that good at tennis but when I go to practice I don't feel like the underdog, of course i don't feel half as good as the varsity players but I feel as if there is an overall sense of comrodery and everyone on the team wants everyone to do good so they all just encourage each other and help them out whenever necessary. I do tennis because it is a fun way to get out in the newly spring weather from winter and get some exercise. I don't do anything else in the spring so this is a good activity for me to do. It is fun and the weather is usually really nice out. Our tennis team is usually really good and we are all expecting another great year!
Text Message from: Best friend Hi Hi. Hi... Hi! HI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hi :) Heyyyyyy Hey :D Hey. HEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hello. helloooooo howdy!!!!! With todays communication and different technologies communicating between people has become faster than ever. With email, facebook, text message etc. people are literally a finger tap away. A downside to this is that it has also made communicating less personal than ever too. It has also made things easily misinterpreted which can not only bring people closer together but create a communication gap as well. Email, facebook, and text messaging has also hurt the postal system aswell. Also, these new forms of communmcations has lead to problems in the school. Students are texting and calling before, during, and after class. These problems have lead schools to band cell phones during school time. In addition, cities have band texting while driving. There have been mutliple car accidents ending in fatalities due to texting while driving. However, these new forms of communication alow you to easily keep in touch with one another. When my cousin found out his lead in his college show, he was able to text right away. Also, I am able to inform my mother that I will late for dinner, when it is inconvient for me to call her. So you decide, has texting hurt communication and society or has it allowed people to reconnect. Here is my Carissa texting dictionary ;)-winky face :)-smiley face :p-toungue sticky outty face lol-laugh out loud lmao-laugh my ass off rofl-roll on the floor laughing brb-be right back <3-heart love-love luv-love lahv-love ily-i love you omg-oh my god!
Friends. We all have them. No matter who you are you have at least one friend. (Nobody is a complete loner in this world except for Alan from the Hangover). Friends are the cement of life that holds everything together. Friends are those that you can go to for help, for advice, through good times, and the bad times. When things are great or when things are tough. No matter what friends are going to be ther for you through thick or thin. There are all sorts of friends. Friends that you can tell anything to, friends you share the deepest darkest secrets with, friends you know for a fact will be there for you no matter what, friends who you argue with like an old married couple, those awkward friends that you sometimes talk to but don't all the time so you don't know if you should say hi to them in the hall or not....(or is that just me? lol) friends that you know will stick up for you even when others won't, friends that you share strong memories with, friends that are your partner in crime, friends that love you unconditionally, and friends that just make you happier when you get the chance to talk to them. Without friends highschool would have been hell for me. I have learned that true friends no matter what will always be able to make you feel better. The thing is this year I have learned a valuable lesson about friends and friendship that I will carry with me forever. This year I have found out that not all "friends" are your true friends. I have also learned that losing a friend is a tough thing to do but makes you a stronger person in the end. I learned the difference between "friend" and "true friend". A friend will tell you everything is going to be okay. A true friend will hug you until you stop crying. A friend will assure you your hair looks fine. A true friend will say , "No that looks crappy" and help you fix it. A friend will say hi to you in the hallway, a true friend will come up to you and give you a big hug in the hallway. A friend will say they missed you when they are gone. A true friend will text you every single day they are gone saying how much they miss you and can't wait to hang out with you again. A friend will talk to you. A true friend will listen to you. A friend will agree with you but a true friend will tell you when you are in the wrong. It is plain and simple friend will fade...they will graduate and you will maybe just remember them as an image, a memory that didnt make that much a difference to you but a true friend will shape who you are as a person and make you all the more better.
So last night I had the strangest dream. I dreamt that my two best friends and me and my best friend were dissecting a fetal pig and a pregnant cat. We were cutting into them and peeling their skin back, it was an overall disgusting image and I woke up with a jolt. Great. I was having nightmares. I knew this would happen eventually. You see me and my friend are dissecting a pregnant cat in AP Biology. Last year I dissected a frog but we were obligated to. Or more we were required to. This year we got to choose our specimens and that is where my nightmares are coming from. My friend wants to be a doctor when she grows up and so she thought it would be cool to do a pregnant cat to see inside it and what not. Our teacher informed us that once we placed our orders these animals would be killed specifically for this reason and that is where I was wondering whether or not this was right. I mean this was'nt probably somebody's pet cat that was just taken out of their home but it was most likely a stray or one that was raised specifically for this reason but still. Was killing a cat for the purpose of learning ethically right? This is the question on my mind. That was a living human creature but it wasn't like it was a human but still where do you draw the line from oh it isn't a human to it is okay to kill it? Not only are we killing one cat but four cats because it is pregnant. So I feel that the answer to this question is up to you to decide and what you feel is right or wrong.
So finally, the snow has melted, the birds are singing and Spring is finally on it's way!!! All the spring sports are starting and you can walk outside without a coat on!! Heaven on earth :) This is my favorite time of the year. The transition between winter and spring when everything is melting and things are changing when it seems like everything is just standing still and nothing bad can happen. The only downside to spring is that it means you are just that much closer to AP exams and the end of the year which means teachers are going to pile on the homework and make you work that much harder. A good thing is there is always spring break :) But after spring break you don't have anything else until the end of the year......sigh pros and cons of everything! Another thing that makes this spring sad for me is that next year I will only have one more left before I go to college. Which is extrememly depressing. Oh well I still love spring and getting to go outdoors and do stuff outside. My favorite time of the year :)
Tonight at 4:10 pm I found out that 8 out of the 19 speech groups that competed at State competition at Linn Mar made it on to All State. The groups that made it were
Dumped-Solo Mime White Water-Group Mime War Memorial-Group Mime Group Improv Worlds Afire-Ensemble Acting Domestic Violence-Ensemble Acting I Love You Your Perfect Now Change-Musical Theatre Almost Maine-Ensemble Acting
This story has a lot of information that is beneficial to science and the study of sexual reassignment. Not only does it show a case that went terribly wrong and ruined not only one person but a whole family’s life it shows how scientists and experts can be terribly wrong in their analysis of things. John Money thought that nurture could override nature but obviously that is not the case in this example. Before this experiment was done; which came to be known as the “Twins Case”, sexual reassignment surgery on infants was not uncommon. In fact it was the answer to a lot of parents’ prayers when their child was either born with an enlarged clitoris or an underdeveloped penis. Instead of growing up with that abnormality they would just switch them and have them grow up in a different sex. Intersexuality, Hermaphroditism, and Transexuality has perplexed many for ages. When a baby is born and that first question arises, “Is it a girl or a boy?” and the answer is you really just don’t know that is a sad and perplexing issue. This is the type of thing that John Money specialized in and committed his life to researching however he went about it in the wrong way. The epic question is sexuality determined by your genetic makeup or does it have something to do with how you are raised and brought up in the world. That is a question that almost everyone is dying to know. Now I can’t sit here and say that this book definitely states that this is in fact not true that sexuality is based on your genetic makeup and that it is because there have been successful cases of gender reassignment surgeries. For example another one of Money’s patients Paula was born as a boy with an underdeveloped nonfunctioning penis so her mother opted to go through with gender reassignment surgery. Although today Paula has a lower voice than usual and her vagina is not like a normal looking vagina she is a happy healthy 27 year old woman who, unlike Brenda, led a mostly happy childhood. This book does however give substantial information on the other side saying that sexuality is in fact based on ones genetic makeup and that a person’s sexuality cannot be forced upon someone. Brenda always knew that there was something different about her, that she was not meant to be a girl. She was never told anything otherwise to make her think that she was at one time actually a boy. She just knew that she was not a girl, she was a boy. This is only the result of her genes and this shows that your genetic makeup does in fact play a major part in deciphering your sexuality. Before this case doctors didn’t think twice about giving gender reassignment surgeries but after this case was publicized doctors were more cautious and not as willing to do them. This is a significant pro to the outcome of this experiment because now doctors are more hesitant to switch a child’s gender and therefore the child can at least try to grow up in the gender which they were meant to and they don’t have to go through all the pain that David went through. The obvious cons to this experiment is the tragic story of David Reimer and his family and what they all had to go through. They underwent a lot of pain and suffering all because of one accident that changed their lives forever. The Reimers didn’t know what was in store. I’m sure if they did they would have never chose to switch over their boy from male to female so easily. Obviously there are still many questions to be answered in this field of medicine. Just because of this experiment there is not one black and white answer whether it is nature or nurture that makes you who you are. There is various evidence supporting the nature side of this issue, but there are cases that show us that nurture also can have a profound effect on someone’s life. You cannot be raised by someone and be totally unaffected by them so there is still a lot of studies to be done and more answers to be found.
Nurture vs. Nature has been a topic of discussion among the scientific community for as long as science has been around. If raised a certain way can people or animals turn out differently than if they were not? Can you raise a person to act a certain way and become that way even if their genes are telling them to do the exact opposite? That is what the fundamental question is at the base of this book, As Nature Made Him; The Boy Who was Raised as a Girl. Both Ron and Janet Reimer were raised in the Mennonite faith/culture. Ron left to live on his own when he was in his late teens and this is when he met Janet. Both Ron and Janet had a lot in common so they got along well right away and not long after dating Ron proposed to Janet. They were happily married and on August 22, 1965 Janet gave birth to two twin boys, Bruce and Brian Reimer. The twins were both healthy and normal but one day Janet observed that they were having trouble peeing. They would cry and appear to be in great discomfort when they urinated and so she took them to the doctor at the Hospital in Winnipeg Canada where the boys were born. The doctor told them that a simple circumcision procedure would fix the problem. The night of the boy’s procedure Janet got a call that said that there had been an accident and she and Ron needed to come to the hospital. Shortly after arriving at the hospital they learned that their son Brian’s penis had been burnt off and was no longer functional. They were told that their son could go through phallic reconstruction. This would mean that extra flesh would be farmed from his thigh and abdomen to create a makeshift penis. The penis would not resemble, look, or function like a normal penis but Brian could still use it to go to the bathroom. A few months after the accident however, Janet saw an interview with John Money, a psychologist who specializes in gender reassignment. He was being interviewed about transvestites and hermaphrodites. After seeing the interview Janet called Dr. Money and he asked to see Brian as soon as possible. Dr. Money gave the Reimers hope that there were other options they had in their son’s future. He talked to them about gender reassignment and perhaps putting their child through surgery to turn his shriveled up penis into a vagina and raise him not as a boy but instead as a girl. Dr. Money believed, “…psychologically, sexuality is undifferentiated at birth and that it becomes differentiated as masculine or feminine in the course of the various experiences of growing up.” (p. 33). Overall nurture could override nature when it came to being male or female. So with great deliberation the Reimers chose to go through with the operation and soon Brian Reimer was Brenda Reimer. Brenda was raised like any other normal girl. She was dressed up in nice, lace covered dresses. She was given dolls and girly things to play with and was surrounded by a mother who would try to teach her girly things like baking and sewing. As Brenda got older though, it soon became apparent that she wanted nothing to do with these things. She was much more interested in playing with her brother’s toy trucks and things and she would always get in fights with boys at school. When she was younger it was easy for her parents to dismiss this as nothing more than tom boyishness. Throughout her school years Brenda was a bit of a social outcast, none of the girls wanted to play with her because she wasn’t like them and none of the boys wanted to play with her because she was a girl. She didn’t fit in anywhere and this isolationism showed in her behavior and her schoolwork. She was not excelling in school at all and in the first grade was even held back. She never got good grades and didn’t get along with anyone, teachers or students alike. She would get in fights with girls and boys. Brenda continued to go to yearly checkups with Dr. Money where he would ask her questions about her genitalia, her sexual fantasies, and her life at school and other things. It was very clear during these sessions that Brenda didn’t “act” or “feel” like a girl in any way. Dr. Money would ask her, “Do you feel like a girl?” Brenda would answer “no”. When asked one day to draw a picture of herself Brenda drew a stick figure. Dr. Money asked if it was a boy or a girl and Brenda answered “It’s a boy, I don’t feel like a girl.” David (who was then Brenda) recalls Dr. Money doing such unorthodox things during these counseling sessions. He would show her pornographic pictures and make her do sexual things with her brother and soon Brenda did not like going on these trips to visit Dr. Money. She would go into such a state of distress whenever the subject of their yearly visits arose that her parents had to bribe her with expensive trips to get her to go. Overall the signs that the procedure was not working were everywhere. Brenda was not happy with who she was inside or out, her mother was clinically depressed and tried to commit suicide, her dad resorted to alcohol to solve his problems and Brenda’s brother Brian was rebelling to try and get the attention from his parents that was being taken up by Brenda. Eventually Brenda was told of the horrible accident and at age 15 she decided to have surgery to become male. How she was originally born.
The other day my dad was driving me to my flute lesson and he told me about an article that he read about the "You are too skinny" comment. He felt like sharing this with me because myself like my mother are both very thin structured. We have always been that way, I have yet to break one hundred pounds (but don't worry! I'm getting there!!). I have a multitude of medical problems mainly I have Cardiac induced asthma and Tachycardia Rythmia which makes my heart beat faster than normal and abnormally. On the list of problems with me eating disorder is NOT one of them! I used to hate it when in middle school people would call me Anorexic or Bulemic just to be funny. Guess what people joking about serious eating disorders like that is not funny at all. Some people are so worried about the way they look that they actually go to these extremes and do these atrocious things to themselves. That however is not the point, the fact that people take the time to demean other people just because they are thinner than you is not acceptable. My dad told me about this article and in it the author said that it isn't uncommon for people to say "Oh you're so skinny! You need to eat more!" When in reality you would'nt go up to an obese person and say, "Oh you're so fat! You need to eat less!" Do you see how those two are related? Yes they are exactly the same! It hurts just as much when someone calls you skinny as when someone calls you fat. Just because I am thin DOES NOT mean I don't eat. Heck I love food! I eat it all the time! It isn't my fault I have a high metabolism and it doesn't show up. You shouldn't comment on somebodys appearance unless it is something nice and worthwhile to say because you don't know what kind of life that person has or how their body works. There are two sides to obesity. So next time you feel the urge to tell someone to eat more, don't it is really annoying and just makes them want to smack you. Oh and use the term "thin" not "skinny" we aren't walking skeletons okay??? :P
At some point in a persons life they are asked a very important question, who is your role model? Thats a popular essay question, your teachers ask you, your parents ask you everyone wants to know who paves the way and leads you to who you want to become when you grow up! When I was young this was an easy question for me to answer my mommy and daddy. When I had to chose only one my mommy because she was a girl like me. But now as I have grown up and changed I realize how generic an answer that is I mean don't get me wrong I have seen all the hard work my parents have put in to raising me and teaching me right from wrong and I will always appreciate that. I look up to them and think about the wonderful sacrifice they put in to make me me everyday but there are other people who help shape you throughout your life too that don't get as much credit as your parents. For me I have only known him for about three or so years. My pastor, Paul Wilcox. When I was in confirmation my pastor at the time Clint told us that he was not going to be with us to finish out our two year program, he was leaving the church to fulfill his mission of working with the Matthew 25 hub where they provide clothes and food for homeless people or people who don't have enough money to buy their own things. I had never really had a close relationship with Clint. I mean I thought he was nice enough and he did a good job of teaching us but some things he did I didn't agree with and I just never really got too close to him. He was my pastor, I didn't interact with him or talk to him anymore than I had to which usually encompassed answering a question or two at confirmation on Sunday nights. I'm not going to lie it hurt me when he said he was leaving because I felt like he was just abandoning us. We didn't know who was going to come and fill his and Brians place and I was rather nervous. It didnt weigh on my mind too much though because like I said they were just my pastors, its not like they were my best friends. The next year Paul and Gale arrived at our church and changed my view on that for good. They were both fun and nice and seemed genuinely interested in me. I soon grew to like them very much. Paul especially because he was the one that finished up our confirmation and I didn't expect to grow so close to him as I did. It seemed like Paul was always there for me and willing to talk to me. Whenever I had questions about my faith or religion he was never judgmental or would tell me what to believe in he simply opened my mind to a whole new realm of possibilities. He is always getting me thinking about God and religion. He is funny too and he brought a new energy to church services that I think Lovely Lane really needed. His talks with me and his insightful answers to my questions and his genuine interest in my life and who I am has really changed me and inspired me to be a better person. I look up to him not only as a pastor who I see on Sundays only but as a best friend, a Grandpa who I can look up to and trust and talk to. It is going to be really hard for me to leave Lovely Lane and Paul but I guess when that time comes I will be able to look at him and say thank you for making me who I am today, I couldn't have done it without you. :) Who is your role model?
LOVE –noun 1. a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person. 2. a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend. 3. sexual passion or desire. 4. a person toward whom love is felt; beloved person; sweetheart. 5. (used in direct address as a term of endearment, affection, or the like): Would you like to see a movie, love? 6. a love affair; an intensely amorous incident; amour. 7. sexual intercourse; copulation. 8. (initial capital letter) a personification of sexual affection, as Eros or Cupid. 9. affectionate concern for the well-being of others: the love of one's neighbor. 10. strong predilection, enthusiasm, or liking for anything: her love of books. 11. the object or thing so liked: The theater was her great love. 12. the benevolent affection of God for His creatures, or the reverent affection due from them to God. 13. Chiefly Tennis. a score of zero; nothing. 14. a word formerly used in communications to represent the letter L. –verb (used with object) 15. to have love or affection for: All her pupils love her. 16. to have a profoundly tender, passionate affection for (another person). 17. to have a strong liking for; take great pleasure in: to love music. 18. to need or require; benefit greatly from: Plants love sunlight. 19. to embrace and kiss (someone), as a lover. 20. to have sexual intercourse with. –verb (used without object) 21. to have love or affection for another person; be in love.—Verb phrase 22. love up, to hug and cuddle: She loves him up every chance she gets. —Idioms 23. for love, a. out of affection or liking; for pleasure. b. without compensation; gratuitously: He took care of the poor for love. 24. for the love of, in consideration of; for the sake of: For the love of mercy, stop that noise. 25. in love, infused with or feeling deep affection or passion: a youth always in love. 26. in love with, feeling deep affection or passion for (a person, idea, occupation, etc.); enamored of: in love with the girl next door; in love with one's work. 27. make love, a. to embrace and kiss as lovers. b. to engage in sexual activity. 28. no love lost, dislike; animosity: There was no love lost between the two brothers.
I just got back from seeing When in Rome. Of course it was a 100% chick flick filled with laughter, sadness, and of course mushy gushy kissing scenes. It was all about love and finding true love and yadda yadda yadda and with Valentines Day on the way I got to thinking what is love really? How do you know your in love? Are teenagers really too young and therefore incapable of loving someone like a wife and husband do? I see people making out in the hallway at school and after they are done sticking their tongues down each others throats they whisk each other away to their classes with a kind "I love you!" My old attitude used to be are you kidding me?!? You don't love each other. First of all you are ninth graders barely old enough to drive anywhere, straight out of middle school you don't even know what love is! Everytime I would walk by something like this and think something like that I would say to myself...boy I sound like my mother! But this is how I honestly felt and then I got to thinking who am I to judge? Maybe they do love each other! We say they don't know what love is. But I love my mother, I love my father, I love my cousin, I love my sister, I love my friends I know what love is! I know what I feel like when I get to spend time with them and I'm sure they have people like that in their lives too so why could these two people not be in love? Of course I am not saying that every couple you see walking through the halls of Kennedy that say they love each other are actually in love but I'm saying that I think we need to cut some of them slack. My middle school art teacher said that in Native American languages there are over twenty different ways of saying the word love because there are so many different types of love. The love you give your friends, the love you give to your parents, the love you give your husband the love you give to well yeah you know so on. But this is true I don't love my parents like I love my friends. Love is a powerful feeling that I feel shouldn't just be thrown around willy nilly it should be said between two people only when they absolutely mean it and only when BOTH are absolutely ready. Have I ever been in love with a guy? Well I guess you will never know? I have a good idea if I have or not but I'm not telling you! Haha So with Valentines Day on the way don't sit around being a Valentines Day scrooge! Go out and have fun with the people you love. NO YOU DON'T NEED A DATE! Go out and party with your friends :) They love you. Stay in and have a dinner with your family :) They love you too. So with that I bid you adieu and I LOVE YOU! :)
Today with our new age of technology we have taken food preparation to a whole new level. We now can print our food by putting ingredients in canisters and with the snap of a button you have a totally new unique food to suit your needs. You can customize your food to flavor, texture, and even nutritional value. While I agree this is a very cool new technology and it shows just how advanced science has gotten over the years it isnt really necessary. It shows just how lazy people are getting. You dont need to put all your favorite flavors into canisters and make a new food to suit you. Just go get the ingredients and make it yourself. People are too lazy to take initiative and make healthy food themselves. Food is a natural thing and it is not meant to be freeze dried, preserved or artificially made to produce new wierd foods through the 3D food printer. On this artical there was a link to some students from MIT that are working on a new invention. They are calling it the "Wear Ur World" and it is basically the internet literally at your finger tips. You wear a projector on your chest and can get any information about anything that you want. You can hold up a book and the projector will recognize what you are looking at and will tell you information about it. You can walk around a city hold up your hands in a square position and take a picture then you just have to find a wall to project them on to and you can edit them and draw on them all with just your fingers. The really creepy thing is you can walk up to someone and the projector will recognize who they are and display information about them on them. CREEPER ALERT!!!! While i also agree this is really cool and an awesome new invention it is extremely not necessary. It just shows even more how lazy people are getting. It showed the person projecting a cell phone keypad onto his hand and using his hand to dial a phone number. This is cool but is it really that hard to pull out your phone and dial it the "old fashioned" way. This product is still in its developmental stage so of course some of the things that they were using it for actually made it more complicated than easier for instance the dialing a number. It took a while for the projector to pick up that he pushed a button so it probably took him twice as long to type in a number. My philosophy is we should be inventing things and using technology to make things better not easier for people. (To a certain extent of course). We should not be going all technology crazy and inventing things that are going to cost producers millions and people millions to buy if they dont really need them.
Blog Plagiarism: A Friendly Reminder
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We haven’t had time to address this yet in the new calendar year, but the
start of January seems like a good time to remind you of the rules of this
bloggi...
Hey there :) Thanks for reading my blog! Im Mildred Reilly and I love marching band as you can tell :) Thats not my only interest though, I also enjoy acting, reading, eating hot wings and best of all John Travolta <3 <3
I don't think Jesus or Muhammed would approve of their religion being associated with such terrible things like shootings, suicide bombings and overall violence. I think that the media should stop associating terrorism with religion because the two are not combined into one. They should just keep the term terrorist as one universal term that is used to describe a person inflicting violence or terror on people or buildings and then when they are reporting about it they can say it was because they wanted to defend their religion which happens to be Christianity or something like that. As a Christian I find it offensvie that they are using this term because it is bringing a bad name to us as people and I personally don't agree with any form of terrorism, I am a Christian but I am nothing at all like or I do not agree with Christian terrorism at all, yet they claim to be the same religion as me. I didn't really give this much thought before when they would talk about Islamic terrorists but now I see how hurtful this term is, I didn't realize it but I would associate terrorism with Islam and that isn't how it should be. They should not be called Islamic terrorists, they should simply be called terrorists, because according to Islam you can't be a terrorist and be Islam. 
y went to prom as juniors because their schools had junior senior proms so it isnt really like I'm breaking tradition but I am just weary about this whole situation, I mean I will have to go to grand march and everything and that will be awkward too, mehhhh I don't know what I am going to do!!! Any suggestions? Lol
