Life

So my good friend Chandini inspired me to start blogging again.  I have thought about it a couple times before when I was really emotional or just had a really strong opinion about something.  The last time I blogged was when I was a junior for my AP Lang class.  That brings back memories.  It seems like everything now brings back memories.  Now that I am in college and everything is new there is so much to look back on and reminisce about.  I miss so much here.  I miss my best friends who could make me laugh when I was crying, who I could get the best advice from at all hours of the night, who knew me almost better than I knew myself.  I miss my family, although I hate to say it not as much s I thought I would, I'm enjoying my freedom a bit more.  I miss the activities I was in, like band and speech.  I'm on the speech team here at Wartburg but it is not the same as high school speech.  The same goes for band.  I have to do band to get scholarship money but it is so much different than high school band.  I'm realizing though that's the way things are supposed to be, it's college, it isn't high school.  If things weren't any different what would be the point of graduating?  We would just get our degrees from high school and nothing would change and life would be amazing right?  Don't get me wrong.  I am ecstatic to be at college. I am loving meeting new people and starting new relationships, trying new things and figuring out who I am and what works best for me.  I love having my freedom but every now and then I get a wave of sadness.  I feel like I'm the only one still having these issues too.  Like I should be moved on by now.  My biggest fear is that I will be forgotten by all the old people I care most about.  They will move on and have happy lives but I will still be thriving to hang out with them and...I don't know.  This whole college thing sure is a roller coaster of emotions.  I am having a lot of fun though.  My roommate and I recently had a sentimental bonding moment and it's safe to say we know A LOT about each other now.  I'm glad I can actually relate to my roommate though and she is more than just the girl I room with.  I can see her being a good friend too.  There is also this boy....which is terrifying.  I mean yeah, I'm not going to lie, finding a boy was definitely on the top of my college to do list but now that I have found someone who reciprocates the feelings the commitment thing kind of gives me the chills.  I guess I just don't want to get my heart broken YET again.  So I have decided to take it slow...and let things happen, ON MY TERMS.  I'll keep you posted.  Also this is dedicated to Chandini who has become a new good friend of mine this summer.  Her blog post made me decide to do this...I'm not copying you I promise!!!!  Thanks for the inspiration.  She is a beautiful person inside and out and I hope she is one of the people that doesn't forget about little old me.

South Dakota Mission Trip

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 :)


~Mildred

Procrastination

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

~Mildred

Facebook...a mindless waste of time? I THINK NOT!

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."

~Mildred

Silent Mutations

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.

~Mildred

Banquets Banquests Banquets

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

AP Exams

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 :)

~Mildred

Glee

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 :)

~Mildred

Catching the Culture: Wiccan Religion

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.

~Mildred

Music

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 :)

~Mildred

Friends

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 :)

~Mildred

Senior Skip Day

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 ;)

~Mildred

Prom

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.

~Mildred

Sweeney Todd

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 :)

~Mildred

Sweeney Todd

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!!!

~Mildred

Catching the Culture: Catholocism

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!!!

~Mildred

Catching the Culture: Methodism

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!

~Mildred

ACT

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.

~Mildred

State and All City Music Contest :)

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.

~Mildred

Owl City

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 :)

Hello Seattle :)

Vanilla Twilight


~Mildred