Fall

i LOVE fall. i love cardigans. and pumpkin spice lattes. and fall festival. and halloween. and stepping on crunchy leaves. and my fuzzy blue slippers.

fall festival is this friday :) i cannot wait to eat all the yummy food, and watch the teachers get dunked, and the asl performance, and the teacher band, and just the entire atmosphere. if you don't go to maggie walker, it probably isn't very fun... its just a small school festival. but i look forward to it every year, which means a lot if I'M looking forward to a school function. last year, i bought a fish. i tried to win him but that didnt go so well so i bought him for like 50 cents or something instead. he died within like a week though.... sorry, freddie or eddie or whatever your name was haha. so i probably wont be buying any animals this year... but there is still lots of food and activities to spend my money on!!

i also can not wait for halloween! even though i never have a sweet halloween party or anything,caitie, my bff, and i have fun watching stupid scary movies and being awesome. im already thinking about the halloween cookies im going to make :) and i can't wait to see what all the little kids dress up as! i also love halloween because it kicks off holiday season. i love holiday season. it starts with halloween. then thanksgiving. then christmas. then new years. and then my birthday!  the weather gets cold enough to make fires at night, my family stays in and watches movies or plays board games (really its me trying to get them to do things, my mom reading a book and pretending to participate, my dad probably participating, and if my brother is over, hes just being obnoxious and adhd) but the idea is nice. my mom hates halloween. and she isnt american so she doesnt understand thanksgiving (not that it makes much sense). im not religious but i still love the commercialized christmas. and new years is pretty chill no matter who you are. but anna and i will probably do the halloween decorations, mom will still make the thanksgiving dinner-although ill be at the beach with caitie so i wont be here for that-dad and i always pick out the christmas tree, and my parents will most likely fall asleep before midnight on new years.  and this birthday is the best yet because 1) ill be eighteen!! and 2) i dont have school the next day so i can have a party with my friends :)
i am so happy the weather finally got cold and we can actually have fall this year. holiday season starts soon, and we are 1/8th of the way through senior year :)

Other People...

I think it is part of human nature to care too much about what other people think about you. No matter how hard you try, or think that you don't care, on some level you do. It's impossible not to. We are constantly subjected to society's ideal features, or this seasons styles, or the popular music. I could sit here and say that I don't care if you like the color of my hair, or that I wear converse with everyyythinggg, but I'd be lying. Even if I don't really like you, what you say will still effect me. I will second guess myself in the morning when I get dressed because I don't want people to talk about me behind my back. Even the most self confident and secure person will feel a sense of insecurity when criticized. There are, of course, ways to deal with the effect other people have on you, but you can't say that they don't effect you. This sounds so cheesy and cliche but I've been thinking a lot about it because for the last year especially, most of my emotions have been shaped by certain people and events. I don't want them to be. I wish that they weren't. But you can't tell yourself how to feel. Certain things I believe are mind over matter, but the brain is a hard thing to overcome with itself. The only way I have yet found to cope with this is to find role models that are great at being themselves, and try to follow their lead. It doesn't help in every situation, but it has helped me get a little bit closer to not being as effected. This is really wordy and rambly, and to anyone who read this I'm sorry but thank you. I just needed to vent. 

school web security

suckkkss. if you click log out you can go where ever you please. like to your blog. currently I'm in American pop culture working on a fantastically awesome group project... not. now I get to go to latin... yay

Invisible Children

Today the non-profit organization Invisible Children came to speak at our school. It was started by three young guys who went to Uganda because they liked making movies and wanted to see what they could find there. They ended up meeting adorable young children who had been forced to become child soldiers, and these men decided that action needed to be taken to help the soldiers. They made a wonderfully moving and heartfelt documentary that they brought back to America. Since this movie was made, they have started their organization and have raised a bunch of money to rehabilitate the schools in Uganda and thus, the children and society as well. Two native Ugandan women came to tell us their stories as well. This was the best done assembly I have been to in all thirteen years of my education. The stories were moving and personal, and they weren't trying to make up support their cause, but simply show us that one voice CAN make a difference, and whatever it is, we need to be passionate about something. Sitting in the auditorium, watching these guys, not much older than I am, being a part of historical peace movements, I have never felt more insignificant. What have I done? I complain about the school work I have when kids much younger than me are taken from their homes and forced to kill. And other children are dying. Or being forced to sell themselves to support families. This isn't just a Ugandan problem. So many children living in 2nd and 3rd world countries would give anything to be able to go to school. Or just to sleep in their own beds. Even some children in 1st world countries face these problems. During that assembly all I wanted to do was run out of the school, jump in my car, go to the airport and take off to some desperate country and make a difference. I had been thinking about taking a year off before college to travel europe, or roadtrip across america; but that time and money could be spent in a much better way. I feel like the most spoiled person in the world when my biggest problem is that all my cute clothes are dirty. Or I have "no" money. When we study events in History like the Holocaust, or the Rwandan genocide, we often say immediately "Why didn't someone stop them?!" the answer is because they are exactly like us. They saw pictures or heard reports, felt sad for a moment, and then went about their lives. It is smply human nature to assume that someone else will do it. Someone else will call the police, or breakup the fight or whatever it is. But someone has to be that someone else. I'm not saying I'm going to take a year off and fix the whole world. We all know thats not going to happen. And saving one child soldier, out of thousands, maybe didn't seem like it was that significant. But, after meeting Grace, who had to raise her sister's three children, and her own daughter, and her sick mother, in a war ridden country, and seeing that this organization was able to send her back to school and she will be going to college when she gets back from this tour, really opened my eyes to how significant it really is to save one person. Without the help of Invisible Children, Grace most likely would never have been able to afford schooling. Now Grace is going to study to be a teacher, to teach children how important it is to be passionate and active about something. This post is kind of rambling, but I just couldn't stop feeling incredibly insignificant and spoiled when I saw the danger those three guys put themselves in to help out others. Everyone could learn a lesson from this organization and the movie they showed us today, The Rescue of Joseph Kony's Child Soldiers. Thinking is easy. Acting, is a completely different matter. And from this point forth I hope to keep these thoughts in the front of my brain, and start taking action for things I believe in.

School

Nothing very interesting has happened recently... going to school, doing hw, etc. I went to another Clover Hill football game which was super exciting cause they kicked Cosby's butt!! And last night Anna and her friend and I went to get Vietnamese food which was freaking delicious. I can't believe I'd never had it before! I'm currently trying to get my homework done because it's premiere week! How I Met Your Mother tonight, Glee tomorrow, and Law and Order: SVU on Wednesday! It's gonna be a good week. I really cannot wait for Fall Festival though! It's gonna be so much fun! And Kenz is coming home that weekend :) yay yay yay! Too bad I have SATs that weekend as well... which reminds me that I should really start the whole college application process.. but oh well. I have lots of years ahead of me for college. For now I'll just focus on getting through each day, one at a time.

My Manifesto- American Pop Culture Assignment

American popular culture, to me, is everything that helps distinguish America from other countries in the world. It is the music, television, movies, and celebrities that shape America and its citizens; and I love it. I love that I could have a conversation with someone 3000 miles away in California about a TV show that I love, or a tabloid story that I’ve heard. And I love that when I’m bored I can turn on the TV and know that there will be episodes of mindless reality shows like Jersey Shore or Dr. Phil to entertain me. As I recently listened to a medley of TV show theme songs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8i7u3fl-hP8, I was flooded with memories of watching those shows or singing the theme songs myself, and, how I have seen every episode of Friends, How I Met Your Mother, True Blood, and many others. I know every word to the Fresh Prince of Bel Air theme, and have many times been in a group where everyone busted out singing the whole thing. When I hear the Cheers theme I really do want to go where everybody knows my name. And I want to live in New York with my five closest friends that will be there for me through everything. Watching these shows, or watching movies, allows me to feel like I am experiencing these things from the comfort of my home. I could easily be best friends with Monica and Rachel and Phoebe if they were real. And sometimes it’s nice to pretend that they are.



Without popular culture how would people really get to know each other? One of the first questions people generally ask when they meet someone new is “what’s your favorite type of music/movies?” and your answer allows the other person to gauge what you have in common and what kind of person you might be. Without pop culture as a reference, people would have to ask questions about your view on a political issue, or something much less personal than your favorite band. Pop culture allows us to easily build new friendships or maybe “frenemies.” I love that “frenemies” has become an acceptable term for an enemy disguised as a friend. Thank you, Hills screenwriters. And that “oh yea I saw that on Facebook” is an acceptable reason to know something about someone you don’t even know. Some of these things, like our obsession with reality TV and the untalented people documented on it, Real Housewives anyone?, might gives us a bad reputation with other countries for being lazy, but we are who we are and this is what makes us stand out.


Certainly, there are things about our obsession with Pop Culture that are unhealthy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHmvkRoEowc; people seem to think that celebrities are God-like humans, who do no wrong, and are much “better” than we could ever be, when, in all honesty, they are simply people, sometimes talented, who got a lucky break. And when these celebrities do something wrong, they are criticized much more than the average person; Jesse James and Tiger Woods were plastered on magazines when their affairs were made public, but people have affairs every day, so why do they get in more trouble? And why do we get so invested in their lives? I couldn’t begin to tell you how many conversations I have had with friends about the girls on Teen Mom, or the newest tabloid story that came out, but our obsessions with pop culture provide a relief from the hectic lives we live. We can relax after a hard day of work by going to the movie theatre to watch our celebrity crush in action, or turn on the radio and dance around the house like a lunatic.


Music has always been my favorite part of pop culture. I have vivid memories of playing “teenagers” with my friends and my boyfriend was always Kevin from the Backstreet Boys http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fndeDfaWCg&ob=av2e. And when we weren’t playing “teenagers” we were choreographing dances to “Genie in a Bottle” by Christina Aguilera http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIDWgqDBNXA&ob=av2n. Now, I try to keep my fake boyfriends in my head, but I will rock out to Backstreet Boys just as hard as I always did, and dance in my room to Lady Gaga or Katy Perry. And I will always remember the first real concert I went to, Justin Timberlake, when I was in seventh or eighth grade. Pop culture can be trashy and embarrassing but it is always there for us when we need it, and it enables us to relive old memories and take a break from the “real world”.

Tom Deluca!

If you ever have the opportunity to watch people get hypnotized and make a fool out of themselves, take it. This the second time I have seen one of Tom Deluca's shows, and they are amazing. Watching people being hypnotized is cool and somewhat strange; they are completely oblivious to everything that happened under the hypnotism. There were a few people who stood out of the group, including, "mike the spy", the "UR cheerleader" (who at one point decided the schools mascot was a goose and proceeded to run around the room squaking), the "stone-cold fox" and the "banana mother". It was honestly one of the funniest events I have ever attended. I think that being hypnotized would be so cool, and I want to know what it feels like, but I also want to see what happens because it is so freaking hilarious. My sister has promised that if he comes again next year she will do it. And I will make sure she lives up to that!!
After the show, we hit up Galaxy Diner for some deliciousss food! I am soo full.
Of course I didn't start my hw yet like I was supposed to. So I definitely have a somewhat busy day ahead of me... but... ONE WEEK OF SENIOR YEAR IS FINISHED!!!