I'll add to this whenever I think of something
- Seeing the huge trucks on the road that are carrying cars. Cars on a truck just cracks me up for some reason.
- Any facial expression that shouldn't be possible (a moment where you find out that it's possible to make that face).
- Jokes that make no sense
- Weird words like "chimichanga"
- Irony
- When people call the Comics section of the newspaper the Funnies
- Knowing what song is playing from the first few seconds of it and running through the entire song in your head (okay not funny but cool)
- When I can't close my car door no matter how many times I try to (it's also pretty sad)
- Anything pronounced in a weird accent
- Pretty much every line on 30 Rock
- When a radio station insists on calling themself "new" and they're not new at all(eg "You're listening to "The New 93 Rock")
- Flipping through radio stations and you hear one song and the one on the next station is almost the complete opposite of the other
- Pulling a push door and vice versa
-The Rick Roll
"Excuse me while I go to Chinatown and pick up some human growth hormones so that Mr Jordan's tigers don't realize that he's aging."
12/29/10
12/23/10
I Don’t Have a Title for This
A lot of times I get angry for seemingly no reason. Or I have a reason to be angry, but not as angry as I get. Maybe it's because I'm a redhead have flowing blonde locks of hair, but certain things especially make me mad. When it's something that keeps happening, I increasingly get mad about it. And it particularly bothers me when I’ve tried to keep it from happening, yet it still happens. With certain circumstances, I get annoyed even though I attempt not to. I’m not sure where I’m going with this blog post, but I get frustrated easily at simple things. And that bothers me. But maybe I just get mad about things a lot because people can’t seem to see what their actions are doing to other people or even sometimes to themselves. No, I don’t have an example of this that I’d like to share, but I’m sure you can think of one yourself since it happens so often. When people think only of what will happen to them, it gets me mad. And because a lot of people have this narrow-minded view, it makes me mad a lot. I know a lot of times even I fall prey to the easy mind trick that my actions only affect me, but at least I’m conscious of this. Even the little things someone does can affect someone, and it seems like they never see it. This bothers me to no end. Sure you may say “Hey why don’t you talk to the person about it”, but I’m pretty sure that type of person wouldn’t be able to understand. Narrow focus doesn’t let them think about things in a full perspective. So I don’t have a title for this post or a cool quote. Or anything funny. This is bad. Anyway, the end.
12/5/10
Warning: Imminent Ranting Nonsense
She's always there. She's my worst enemy and I've never been able to shake her. She's gone with me through my entire life and will forever be there and will always be the person that most holds me back. No matter what I do, she doesn't leave, and she's the person I've felt more hatred towards than anyone else. Yet I have to keep her close, because she is my worst enemy and I must keep her closer than my friends. She is me and I am her. My worst enemy is myself.
I hate that I always beat myself down into the ground, bury myself under everything; so deep that no one can dig me out and that I can't even help myself. And when my friends try to help, I feel bad because I know that I’m not prepared to get back to the surface no matter what they do. Keeping everything inside is just my coping method even though it sucks. I’ve never had the person you can tell everything to and even if I ever did I know I wouldn’t tell that person everything. When people tell me they’re there for me and I can talk to them, I appreciate it although I know that I’ll never take them up on the offer. I’m more of a listener; I like listening to people’s problems and trying to help them sort things out. Dealing with my own problems scares me. My happiest realizations are that a problem I’ve put off dealing with solves itself so I no longer have to deal with it.
Even when I attempt to make a compromise to myself that I won't make everything into a big deal, I find myself not being able to, and then I hate myself even more for not being able to keep a promise to myself. I'm big about keeping promises, and when I break my own promises it just hurts that much more. Maybe I do overreact to everything; my problems aren’t as bad as other people’s which is another thing I remind myself of only to feel worse because I seem to make everything into a bigger deal than it is. Even now everything I’m saying here is just a rant and I’m probably over-exaggerating as it is.
It feels like I’m a car with the keys inside of it. There’s no way to get in and no way to get out. Everything that’s locked in stays in, and the dust inside builds up making things heavier and heavier with time. Only extreme action can get inside the car like breaking the windows, but doing so would harm the very thing you’re trying to use when you get the key. Or maybe you could smash the windows in only to realize that the key was never inside the car and that you left it somewhere you can’t remember. The car alarm may go off as the car tries to help itself, but in the end, the car can’t really do anything to help the predicament except warn that there is one to anyone who might be around. But if the car's not willing to help itself and the alarm doesn't go off, nobody will know of the trouble.
"The hardest thing to change in life is yourself"
Anyway; happy end to post. All I have is a squiggle but I can use that well if it's placed correctly --> ~
I hate that I always beat myself down into the ground, bury myself under everything; so deep that no one can dig me out and that I can't even help myself. And when my friends try to help, I feel bad because I know that I’m not prepared to get back to the surface no matter what they do. Keeping everything inside is just my coping method even though it sucks. I’ve never had the person you can tell everything to and even if I ever did I know I wouldn’t tell that person everything. When people tell me they’re there for me and I can talk to them, I appreciate it although I know that I’ll never take them up on the offer. I’m more of a listener; I like listening to people’s problems and trying to help them sort things out. Dealing with my own problems scares me. My happiest realizations are that a problem I’ve put off dealing with solves itself so I no longer have to deal with it.
Even when I attempt to make a compromise to myself that I won't make everything into a big deal, I find myself not being able to, and then I hate myself even more for not being able to keep a promise to myself. I'm big about keeping promises, and when I break my own promises it just hurts that much more. Maybe I do overreact to everything; my problems aren’t as bad as other people’s which is another thing I remind myself of only to feel worse because I seem to make everything into a bigger deal than it is. Even now everything I’m saying here is just a rant and I’m probably over-exaggerating as it is.
It feels like I’m a car with the keys inside of it. There’s no way to get in and no way to get out. Everything that’s locked in stays in, and the dust inside builds up making things heavier and heavier with time. Only extreme action can get inside the car like breaking the windows, but doing so would harm the very thing you’re trying to use when you get the key. Or maybe you could smash the windows in only to realize that the key was never inside the car and that you left it somewhere you can’t remember. The car alarm may go off as the car tries to help itself, but in the end, the car can’t really do anything to help the predicament except warn that there is one to anyone who might be around. But if the car's not willing to help itself and the alarm doesn't go off, nobody will know of the trouble.
"The hardest thing to change in life is yourself"
Anyway; happy end to post. All I have is a squiggle but I can use that well if it's placed correctly --> ~
12/4/10
That Came From Where?
Seeing as it's nearing Christmas and I need a happy post on here; I decided to look up the origins of some of the most famous Christmas songs which is something I always wondered about.
A Holly Jolly Christmas
This song was first heard in 1964 and was written by Johnny Marks who was a captain in World War II. Interestingly, Marks is Jewish, however he specialized in writing Christmas songs. He also wrote "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day," among others. The song premiered on CBS during the Christmas special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. The original singer of this song was Burl Ives and his recording sold more than 2 million copies.
Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)
This one was made in 1946 by vocalist Mel Tormé and songwriter Bob Wells and originally was not intended to be about Christmas at all. It was written in an attempt to cool off on a hot day, so they wrote down some lyrics to a song that would make them feel colder.
Deck the Halls
The tune to "Deck the Halls" dates all the way back to the 16th century. Originally popular as a dance tune in Wales, it was celebrated as a winter carol. It became widely known in the 18th century. The repeated "fa la la la la" comes from medieval ballads and was originally played on the harp; the other lyrics are American in origin and were written during the 19th century. During the Victorian era, Christmas was "re-invented," and "Deck the Halls" became a traditional English Christmas song, celebrating the custom of lavishly decorating homes for the holidays. The first English version appeared in 1881 in The Franklin Square Song Collection.
Away in a Manger
The author of "Away in a Manger" is actually unknown, but many people believe the words were written by Martin Luther. In "Dainty Songs for Little Lads and Lasses," published in 1887, it is titled "Luther's Cradle Hymn" and bears the note, "Composed by Martin Luther for his children, and still sung by German mothers to their little ones." The music, while written by William J. Kirkpatrick, is based on a waltz Johann Strauss Jr. wrote nine years earlier.
The First Noel
We also don't know who wrote "The First Noel," but we do know it originated in England as early as the 13th or 14th century and that its origins were not in France. The carol was first published in 1833 in "Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern," a compilation of seasonal carols. While the carol originated in England, its melody is unusual among English folk melodies. The tune we use today is believed to be a corruption of an earlier melody sung in a church gallery setting.
Frosty the Snowman
"Frosty the Snowman" was written by Walter "Jack" Rollins and Steve Nelson. The most popular recording of "Frosty the Snowman" was done by Gene Autry in 1951 — a version that sold more than a million copies.
I'll Be Home For Christmas
A product of the combined talents of Buck Ram, Kim Gannon and Walter Kent, the lyrics to this song were originally written by Ram in 1943. Its lyrics were inspired by World War I and the soldiers who thought the conflict would be short enough that they would be home for Christmas. Recorded by Bing Crosby, it became an instant holiday tradition. It was also the first song broadcast into space: In December 1965, astronauts Frank Borman and Jim Lovell were returning to earth aboard their Gemini 7 spacecraft after setting a record for the longest flight in the U.S. space program, consisting of 206 orbits. As they approached earth, they asked NASA communications personnel to pipe up to them Crosby's recording of "I'll Be Home for Christmas."
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
During the early 1900s, Montgomery Ward department store owners bought and gave away coloring books for Christmas every year. In 1939, they determined they could save money by creating their own coloring book — and they assigned one of their employees, Robert L. May, to come up with a coloring book design. As part of the coloring book, May — who had graduated from Dartmouth College more than a decade earlier — created Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. His story, subsequently put to music, graced the pages of the coloring book, which was distributed to 2.4 million children in its first year of publication. The song has sold more than 160 million recordings done by more than 500 different performers, in addition to 7 million copies of sheet music.
Santa Claus is Coming to Town
When this song was first presented to publishers, no one was interested because it was a "kiddie" song and they were notoriously uncommercial. Eddie Cantor's wife, Ida, persuaded him to take a risk on it and the first time it was sung on Cantor's radio show in November 1934, "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" became an instant hit. More than 100,000 orders for sheet music flooded in the next day, and more than 400,000 copies were sold by that Christmas. The song was written by American songwriter John Frederick Coots, who wrote more than 700 songs, and Tin Pan Alley lyricist and composer James Lamont "Haven" Gillespie.
A Holly Jolly Christmas
This song was first heard in 1964 and was written by Johnny Marks who was a captain in World War II. Interestingly, Marks is Jewish, however he specialized in writing Christmas songs. He also wrote "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day," among others. The song premiered on CBS during the Christmas special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. The original singer of this song was Burl Ives and his recording sold more than 2 million copies.
Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)
This one was made in 1946 by vocalist Mel Tormé and songwriter Bob Wells and originally was not intended to be about Christmas at all. It was written in an attempt to cool off on a hot day, so they wrote down some lyrics to a song that would make them feel colder.
Deck the Halls
The tune to "Deck the Halls" dates all the way back to the 16th century. Originally popular as a dance tune in Wales, it was celebrated as a winter carol. It became widely known in the 18th century. The repeated "fa la la la la" comes from medieval ballads and was originally played on the harp; the other lyrics are American in origin and were written during the 19th century. During the Victorian era, Christmas was "re-invented," and "Deck the Halls" became a traditional English Christmas song, celebrating the custom of lavishly decorating homes for the holidays. The first English version appeared in 1881 in The Franklin Square Song Collection.
Away in a Manger
The author of "Away in a Manger" is actually unknown, but many people believe the words were written by Martin Luther. In "Dainty Songs for Little Lads and Lasses," published in 1887, it is titled "Luther's Cradle Hymn" and bears the note, "Composed by Martin Luther for his children, and still sung by German mothers to their little ones." The music, while written by William J. Kirkpatrick, is based on a waltz Johann Strauss Jr. wrote nine years earlier.
The First Noel
We also don't know who wrote "The First Noel," but we do know it originated in England as early as the 13th or 14th century and that its origins were not in France. The carol was first published in 1833 in "Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern," a compilation of seasonal carols. While the carol originated in England, its melody is unusual among English folk melodies. The tune we use today is believed to be a corruption of an earlier melody sung in a church gallery setting.
Frosty the Snowman
"Frosty the Snowman" was written by Walter "Jack" Rollins and Steve Nelson. The most popular recording of "Frosty the Snowman" was done by Gene Autry in 1951 — a version that sold more than a million copies.
I'll Be Home For Christmas
A product of the combined talents of Buck Ram, Kim Gannon and Walter Kent, the lyrics to this song were originally written by Ram in 1943. Its lyrics were inspired by World War I and the soldiers who thought the conflict would be short enough that they would be home for Christmas. Recorded by Bing Crosby, it became an instant holiday tradition. It was also the first song broadcast into space: In December 1965, astronauts Frank Borman and Jim Lovell were returning to earth aboard their Gemini 7 spacecraft after setting a record for the longest flight in the U.S. space program, consisting of 206 orbits. As they approached earth, they asked NASA communications personnel to pipe up to them Crosby's recording of "I'll Be Home for Christmas."
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
During the early 1900s, Montgomery Ward department store owners bought and gave away coloring books for Christmas every year. In 1939, they determined they could save money by creating their own coloring book — and they assigned one of their employees, Robert L. May, to come up with a coloring book design. As part of the coloring book, May — who had graduated from Dartmouth College more than a decade earlier — created Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. His story, subsequently put to music, graced the pages of the coloring book, which was distributed to 2.4 million children in its first year of publication. The song has sold more than 160 million recordings done by more than 500 different performers, in addition to 7 million copies of sheet music.
Santa Claus is Coming to Town
When this song was first presented to publishers, no one was interested because it was a "kiddie" song and they were notoriously uncommercial. Eddie Cantor's wife, Ida, persuaded him to take a risk on it and the first time it was sung on Cantor's radio show in November 1934, "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" became an instant hit. More than 100,000 orders for sheet music flooded in the next day, and more than 400,000 copies were sold by that Christmas. The song was written by American songwriter John Frederick Coots, who wrote more than 700 songs, and Tin Pan Alley lyricist and composer James Lamont "Haven" Gillespie.
12/2/10
Police Line Do Not Cross
Lately I've been having more trouble than usual concentrating on things I need to do. Normally I'd enjoy this because it'd mean that I would be thinking less and I would be able to sleep more. But no, trying to concentrate on concentrating has just given me more headaches than usual with the extra effort I have to put into thinking. Half the time my brain can't process words anymore and I have to read things several times over. Other times I just zone out and don't even try to understand what's going on. I can't figure out what it is.
It seems like I've just put up some mental "keep out" tape. The bright yellow colors keep me away yet just like when there is caution tape somewhere, I want to investigate why it's there. Thing is, there's no evidence as to what has happened, and trying to put things together has led nowhere. But the investigation goes on trying to get anything at all but to no avail. After a week has elapsed, I've given up. Every day I hope that it will solve itself, even though I know it won't. Because I don't know how to give myself motivation to do work anymore when there's just more to take it's place. Even now, I should be finishing my TOK oral work and going to bed. But I'm not. I'm sitting here rambling about my problems that I'm most likely just overreacting to anyways. And since I can never end posts. The end.
It seems like I've just put up some mental "keep out" tape. The bright yellow colors keep me away yet just like when there is caution tape somewhere, I want to investigate why it's there. Thing is, there's no evidence as to what has happened, and trying to put things together has led nowhere. But the investigation goes on trying to get anything at all but to no avail. After a week has elapsed, I've given up. Every day I hope that it will solve itself, even though I know it won't. Because I don't know how to give myself motivation to do work anymore when there's just more to take it's place. Even now, I should be finishing my TOK oral work and going to bed. But I'm not. I'm sitting here rambling about my problems that I'm most likely just overreacting to anyways. And since I can never end posts. The end.
11/29/10
What's Up?
How funny would life be if we translated everything we said literally? Every time someone asks "What's up" we reply with what we see when we look up. Never tell a Literal to "Break a leg" because they actually will do it and they could choose yours to break. You saw how viciously Amanda Bynes broke her friend's finger. Be afraid. Anyways, if you think about all the ridiculous sayings we have that would be completely off-the-wall when said to someone who takes everything literally, it would get pretty confusing. I don't have much to say about this, I just thought the clip was funny. And by the way, I'm hotter than Timmy Bishop: you don't have to feel me to know I'm hot. Sorry, I had to say that one. ;D
11/22/10
Turkey Day
To put it bluntly: I'm not a fan of Thanksgiving. To me it's essentially trying to force families to get together and eat a lot of food; something that should happen without having to make a holiday for it. Don't get me wrong, I love that we get days off of school, but the whole idea of Thanksgiving seems ridiculous. Wikipedia aka the most trustworthy source ever says that "Thanksgiving was a holiday to express thankfulness, gratitude, and appreciation to God, family and friends for which all have been blessed of material possessions and relationships". Shouldn't we do this already? Do we really need a holiday for it? Is it just something businesses like to make into something it's not to get money? It's just like Mother's Day, Father's Day, etc where it seems like it should be something that's always celebrated; not to the extent of getting your mom/dad a present every day, but the same idea of appreciating them every day. Nothing is really special on the day itself that those holidays are on, but everyone makes a big deal about them.
And where did the idea of having a huge amount of food and having to eat leftovers for weeks afterwards come from? I think it's just businesses trying to exploit consumers: "celebrate stuff by buying a bunch of food from us". Plus the whole concept of forcing family together is just stupid. If families don't want to do stuff together any other time and only meet up for Thanksgiving then it doesn't seem genuine. On the other hand, if there was no Thanksgiving, a lot of families probably wouldn't organize anything and there would be less of a... family feeling. Putting an entire family together doesn't even seem like it's a good idea. There's always some sort of argument between at least two people in the family. And if it's bad enough there's the decision on who to invite and if you should take the chance in inviting both of them and hope they can hold off their fighting for just one day.
Also, according to the highly-accurate Answers.com, "Thanksgiving was established as a National Holiday by President Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War. In the proclamation President Lincoln specified that the last Thursday of each November should be set aside as a day to give thanks for the founding of our nation". Why does Thanksgiving always have to be on a Thursday? I'm not so sure what's special about Thursday or November, but there’s no way of knowing (at least not now because my brain can’t handle any more research right now). When you word it like the way Answers.com does, it seems like Lincoln just used Thanksgiving as a way to increase nationality at the time of war, and since then it's been warped into celebrating family, not the nation.
So my idea of Thanksgiving: Be super nice to your family on every Thanksgiving and leave them with the impression that you’re awesome. And when you only see them on Thanksgiving every year, it’s just a one day façade you have to put up once a year. Try to forget for one day that most of them couldn't bother to even send a birthday card to you to let you know they still care and after that you can drop the act.
I'm getting worse and worse with these posts and trying to make them coherent.
11/18/10
Flawless
Y'know those times where you hate yourself? I have those a lot but I'm not exactly sure why. I know I can't be perfect nor do I want to be (because what's the fun in that), but I have this habit of pointing out my own flaws to myself. Probably too often. Then I recognize that one of my flaws is that I think about my flaws too much. Kinda ironic.
It started about two years ago. My best friend had left me for her boyfriend and I had one friend at school (don't get me wrong, she's a great friend), but anyways I was trying to methodologically find out why it seemed like nobody liked me. Naturally I focused on everything I thought was wrong with me. Pouring out all my emotions and frustration onto paper because I had nobody to talk to, I started to make a list of things popular people have in common. There was nothing to put on the list. There are no lists of qualities and requirements you have to have to be ‘popular’.
I realized that it's our flaws that make us who we are. An entire group of people can't be categorized into a specific list. Just like not every home in one community is the same: even if they have the same architecture, every single one has something personal to it. Everyone has something that makes them different from a group. People have different definitions of "perfect" and a lot of times these include those flaws that we think are bad but others may think are okay. I also know now that I don’t really want to be popular. It bothers me that I haven’t talked to half of the people in my grade and it makes me sad that not many people know who I am; but even so I enjoy having my close group of friends, it’s like we’re a family (a dysfunctional one but that’s why I love it). With too many friends to try and keep track of, it’s hard to get close to people. And here’s where I completely contradict myself. I’ve always wanted to be able to be close to people and have someone I can tell everything to, but at the same time I have these trust issues and don’t like to confide. I want to be able to be close to someone, but I also don’t want to get too close just to lose them. I tell my friends all the time I'm there for them to talk to if they ever need it because it's important to talk things out, and they tell me the same is true the other way around, but even when something is bothering me I have trouble talking about it.
I’ve lost too many (two is too many for me) “best friends forever” to even think that the whole concept is even possible anymore. (I'm not even really sure about what exactly a best friend is. Is it your confidante? Your partner in crime? I guess it's just whoever you feel closest to. Can you say "Oh such and such is my best friend" if they don't say the same about you? Does that even make it a whole best friend thing? Does the feeling have to be mutual? Is it awkward if someone says "You're my best friend" and they're not yours?) I know part of that is growing up and moving on, but at the same time it seems like I’m always the one that wants to keep up the friendship and the other person no longer cares. They’ve already moved on to being best friends with someone else. Even when I do occasionally talk to them, it seems like we have nothing to talk about and it just gets awkward. Things keep happening to make me think that the middle school experience I thought was fun and genuine at the time was not really that way. Experiences at the time were important to me, and I thought to my friends too, but maybe that was my own ignorance. Maybe I just didn't realize until now that my middle school experience (or what I remember of it) could have just been full of me lying to myself and not facing reality. It’s not right of me to make assumptions, but judging by the fact that I only was able to keep semi-contact with about two people from middle school, they don’t care anymore. Now when I look back at notes I have from then, I wonder if the words on the paper were even true or even if the words those people spoke to me were true. Could I have constructed my own idea of middle school? It's possible, but thinking about it won't solve anything, all I can do is move on and enjoy the company I'm with now; because if I regret the past too much, I won't see what I already have.
It started about two years ago. My best friend had left me for her boyfriend and I had one friend at school (don't get me wrong, she's a great friend), but anyways I was trying to methodologically find out why it seemed like nobody liked me. Naturally I focused on everything I thought was wrong with me. Pouring out all my emotions and frustration onto paper because I had nobody to talk to, I started to make a list of things popular people have in common. There was nothing to put on the list. There are no lists of qualities and requirements you have to have to be ‘popular’.
I realized that it's our flaws that make us who we are. An entire group of people can't be categorized into a specific list. Just like not every home in one community is the same: even if they have the same architecture, every single one has something personal to it. Everyone has something that makes them different from a group. People have different definitions of "perfect" and a lot of times these include those flaws that we think are bad but others may think are okay. I also know now that I don’t really want to be popular. It bothers me that I haven’t talked to half of the people in my grade and it makes me sad that not many people know who I am; but even so I enjoy having my close group of friends, it’s like we’re a family (a dysfunctional one but that’s why I love it). With too many friends to try and keep track of, it’s hard to get close to people. And here’s where I completely contradict myself. I’ve always wanted to be able to be close to people and have someone I can tell everything to, but at the same time I have these trust issues and don’t like to confide. I want to be able to be close to someone, but I also don’t want to get too close just to lose them. I tell my friends all the time I'm there for them to talk to if they ever need it because it's important to talk things out, and they tell me the same is true the other way around, but even when something is bothering me I have trouble talking about it.
I’ve lost too many (two is too many for me) “best friends forever” to even think that the whole concept is even possible anymore. (I'm not even really sure about what exactly a best friend is. Is it your confidante? Your partner in crime? I guess it's just whoever you feel closest to. Can you say "Oh such and such is my best friend" if they don't say the same about you? Does that even make it a whole best friend thing? Does the feeling have to be mutual? Is it awkward if someone says "You're my best friend" and they're not yours?) I know part of that is growing up and moving on, but at the same time it seems like I’m always the one that wants to keep up the friendship and the other person no longer cares. They’ve already moved on to being best friends with someone else. Even when I do occasionally talk to them, it seems like we have nothing to talk about and it just gets awkward. Things keep happening to make me think that the middle school experience I thought was fun and genuine at the time was not really that way. Experiences at the time were important to me, and I thought to my friends too, but maybe that was my own ignorance. Maybe I just didn't realize until now that my middle school experience (or what I remember of it) could have just been full of me lying to myself and not facing reality. It’s not right of me to make assumptions, but judging by the fact that I only was able to keep semi-contact with about two people from middle school, they don’t care anymore. Now when I look back at notes I have from then, I wonder if the words on the paper were even true or even if the words those people spoke to me were true. Could I have constructed my own idea of middle school? It's possible, but thinking about it won't solve anything, all I can do is move on and enjoy the company I'm with now; because if I regret the past too much, I won't see what I already have.
11/10/10
Choices
In an extremely boring article for history class I had to read recently, the author wrote that: "Every human being has a choice how to behave". This got me thinking: is this really true? Sure, we do have a choice in things, but our choices are greatly influenced by outside forces so does this even make the decision ours in the end?
In the case of the history reading, it was about Nazi Germany and the author is saying that everyone at the time had a choice of what to do and that people could have resisted the Third Reich because of their ability to make their own decisions. In that period of time, if your choice didn't reflect the commonly accepted views of society, you were persecuted. In a time where the government would and could easily take you away with nobody knowing where you went, it would be frightening to go against them. With the possible consequences in mind, people knew what they could and couldn't do. So if they made the choice to go along with the regime instead of speaking out against it, is it really in the end their decision with so many outside factors affecting the choice? Some people did make the choice to go against the Nazis, but those resistance leaders ended up dead; other people did not want to do what the others had already tried and therefore their decisions were affected.
In today's society this is also true, but not to the extremity as during the rule of the Nazis. When you stand out and make a choice that is uncommon, you are thought of to be brave, but can't this also be plain stupidity? When people know something is hopeless, they still try which is admirable but at the same time it's not smart. People that make choices against the government or any body of people that have some sort of power don't typically get away with it. Whenever we have to make hard choices what do we do? We find out the opinions of others and what they think you should do. Doesn't that defeat the purpose of it being your choice? The idea of kids not having to make their own choices until a certain age is somewhat good because decisions come from experience which you don't have much of as a child, but it can also be bad. By not letting people make the bad decisions earlier in life they can make them later on when the decision is more important.
We always have to take responsibility for the choices we make, because although people can plant ideas in your head as to what you should do, it's still your decision in the end. Nobody can completely force you to do something, unless you are put in a situation where there is no other option and even then can that be considered a choice? I definitely think it is important to get input from people that you trust would give you good advice, but that doesn't mean their opinion should be the decisive factor in a choice. Ultimately you will have to take responsibility, and you can't just say "my friend said I should choose that so I did" because you carried out the making of the decision itself.
In the case of the history reading, it was about Nazi Germany and the author is saying that everyone at the time had a choice of what to do and that people could have resisted the Third Reich because of their ability to make their own decisions. In that period of time, if your choice didn't reflect the commonly accepted views of society, you were persecuted. In a time where the government would and could easily take you away with nobody knowing where you went, it would be frightening to go against them. With the possible consequences in mind, people knew what they could and couldn't do. So if they made the choice to go along with the regime instead of speaking out against it, is it really in the end their decision with so many outside factors affecting the choice? Some people did make the choice to go against the Nazis, but those resistance leaders ended up dead; other people did not want to do what the others had already tried and therefore their decisions were affected.
In today's society this is also true, but not to the extremity as during the rule of the Nazis. When you stand out and make a choice that is uncommon, you are thought of to be brave, but can't this also be plain stupidity? When people know something is hopeless, they still try which is admirable but at the same time it's not smart. People that make choices against the government or any body of people that have some sort of power don't typically get away with it. Whenever we have to make hard choices what do we do? We find out the opinions of others and what they think you should do. Doesn't that defeat the purpose of it being your choice? The idea of kids not having to make their own choices until a certain age is somewhat good because decisions come from experience which you don't have much of as a child, but it can also be bad. By not letting people make the bad decisions earlier in life they can make them later on when the decision is more important.
We always have to take responsibility for the choices we make, because although people can plant ideas in your head as to what you should do, it's still your decision in the end. Nobody can completely force you to do something, unless you are put in a situation where there is no other option and even then can that be considered a choice? I definitely think it is important to get input from people that you trust would give you good advice, but that doesn't mean their opinion should be the decisive factor in a choice. Ultimately you will have to take responsibility, and you can't just say "my friend said I should choose that so I did" because you carried out the making of the decision itself.
“While we are free to choose our actions, we are not free to choose the consequences of our actions.”
11/5/10
Happystances
I wish life was simple enough that my goal could just be to make people laugh. I’d never make it as a comedian because that requires standing in front of people. Lots of people. Plus a lot of the jokes I make are about a previous joke with someone so the audience wouldn’t get it. I love making people laugh because when they laugh I get in a better mood too and laughter is the best medicine. There's hardly anything that laughter can't cure. Everyone has some sort of sense of humor and once you find it you can use it to make people happy. I've always had this desire that it was possible to bottle up laughs and store them away. I'd make a top-secret lair and collect the laughs of people around the world. It would have to be a pretty big top-secret lair so that "secret" part probably wouldn't work. Then, the lair could be made into a museum where people could just walk in and instantly feel better being surrounded by laughter. Laughter is contagious just like yawning and it spreads like a disease. But the good kind of disease. A lot of times I’m put in a better mood just by someone else laughing, even if I don’t really know them. The moments when you laugh until you cry and your ribs hurt from laughing so much are memorable ones; at least for me.
This is my biggest problem with internet communications: people can say “Haha I’m laughing” but I can’t see them so it’s not as satisfying. It may seem sort of self-centered but I want to make someone else laugh so that I feel better too. But that’s the Trufax (like Carfax but for truth instead of cars) about how I feel about that. Too often my mom can tell when I’m talking to people online because I smile when I am; talking to my friends makes me happy and I guess it’s a subconscious thing that I do. Even (heck especially) when I’m sad I still try to make other people laugh as much as I can because I feel like if I go one day without making at least one person laugh then the day was pretty much a waste. Plus laughing at someone laughing is pretty fun too. One thing I wish I could know how to do is keep a straight face. When someone says something really funny with a straight face it makes it even funnier because they look completely serious. My old soccer coach tried to teach me how to keep a straight face (we pretended it was some sort of class) and I failed miserably.
The greatest thing about laughing is that no matter how much you do it, it doesn’t get old; you can’t get bored of laughing unless your laughs are faked. Every time there’s the rush of happiness and laughing too often doesn’t diminish that feeling. It’s like a bar of chocolate that never runs out. You can never get tired of eating chocolate and even if you do get a little tired of it you can always give it to other people. I’m starting to realize a lot of my analogies are food-related. I feel like Liz Lemon. And I know my title is stupid as usual, I can never think of good ones. It's like the word "happenstance" but with "happy" instead of "happen"...
This is my biggest problem with internet communications: people can say “Haha I’m laughing” but I can’t see them so it’s not as satisfying. It may seem sort of self-centered but I want to make someone else laugh so that I feel better too. But that’s the Trufax (like Carfax but for truth instead of cars) about how I feel about that. Too often my mom can tell when I’m talking to people online because I smile when I am; talking to my friends makes me happy and I guess it’s a subconscious thing that I do. Even (heck especially) when I’m sad I still try to make other people laugh as much as I can because I feel like if I go one day without making at least one person laugh then the day was pretty much a waste. Plus laughing at someone laughing is pretty fun too. One thing I wish I could know how to do is keep a straight face. When someone says something really funny with a straight face it makes it even funnier because they look completely serious. My old soccer coach tried to teach me how to keep a straight face (we pretended it was some sort of class) and I failed miserably.
The greatest thing about laughing is that no matter how much you do it, it doesn’t get old; you can’t get bored of laughing unless your laughs are faked. Every time there’s the rush of happiness and laughing too often doesn’t diminish that feeling. It’s like a bar of chocolate that never runs out. You can never get tired of eating chocolate and even if you do get a little tired of it you can always give it to other people. I’m starting to realize a lot of my analogies are food-related. I feel like Liz Lemon. And I know my title is stupid as usual, I can never think of good ones. It's like the word "happenstance" but with "happy" instead of "happen"...
11/3/10
The "What If" Universe
The "What If" universe is one of the most explored universes and yet we still don't even remotely understand it or why it exists. When we settle in the “What If” world, pull out a foldy chair and take a sip of a piña colada, it doesn’t help the situation at all. It’s just like watching your life go by living in the what could have happeneds. A lot of times we think about how things should have gone or how they could have gone in afterthought of an event or series of events. The "What If" universe is really intriguing. Sometimes we use it to make ourselves feel better about a decision and sometimes we use it to make ourselves feel worse. It's a sort of subconscious universe that surfaces when we think about something. Especially when something bad happens, the "What If" universe comes out and you start pondering if you could have done something another way to avoid the outcome. It can lead to us blaming ourselves for what happened which isn’t something you would want to do, but it just happens. This also may show the innate desire of humans to be able to control every occurence when not everything can be controlled(at least I think this).
This is a good segway (I was gonna put a picture of a segway here but Blogger won't let me for some reason) into another discussion: why do we invite pain unto ourselves? Frequently, our mental pain is from something we construct and why would we create something that pains us? Too often I get paranoid about when people are vague about things they say to me because it makes me think that they're trying to hint that they're talking about me. Since these things are hardly ever about me, by over thinking everything I'm just hurting myself. It's not something I can control, it's just something I do and it causes me a lot of incessant worrying. When we think of these types of “What if”s, it could cause you to act differently towards people because by spending too much time in the foldy chair you haven’t realized the world moving on without you. Living in the “What If” universe is just like living in the past; you can’t change what has already happened, yet you spend your time wishing you could have changed something you did. By the time you’ve taken the last sip of the piña colada, you’ve constructed a whole other reality around these let’s call them “probabilities” (for lack of a better word).
While we can learn from our time spent in the “What If” universe it seems to usually end up hurting more than helping. Sure, we can learn what we should do if we ever face that situation again, but if you spend too much time thinking about a one-time situation, regret comes to the surface. Spending too much time in the “What If” universe is a lot like a NASCAR race: you just go in 8,000 circles (possible exaggeration here) trying to predict when you should go to the pit stop for a break while still wanting to win the race. When you keep thinking about what could have happened and go in circles back to points where you could have changed something you did, you go further to think about what the results of changing your actions could have been; which is a pointless thing to think about because you can never know the consequences of taking the other road (Frost reference; be proud, very proud). Yet when you tell yourself to make that pit stop and take a break from thinking about it, you don’t want to because you’re curious as to what you think the results may have been.
This quote doesn't make complete sense to the rest of the post but it's funny: "The future is like a Japanese game show: you never know what's going on"
This is a good segway (I was gonna put a picture of a segway here but Blogger won't let me for some reason) into another discussion: why do we invite pain unto ourselves? Frequently, our mental pain is from something we construct and why would we create something that pains us? Too often I get paranoid about when people are vague about things they say to me because it makes me think that they're trying to hint that they're talking about me. Since these things are hardly ever about me, by over thinking everything I'm just hurting myself. It's not something I can control, it's just something I do and it causes me a lot of incessant worrying. When we think of these types of “What if”s, it could cause you to act differently towards people because by spending too much time in the foldy chair you haven’t realized the world moving on without you. Living in the “What If” universe is just like living in the past; you can’t change what has already happened, yet you spend your time wishing you could have changed something you did. By the time you’ve taken the last sip of the piña colada, you’ve constructed a whole other reality around these let’s call them “probabilities” (for lack of a better word).
While we can learn from our time spent in the “What If” universe it seems to usually end up hurting more than helping. Sure, we can learn what we should do if we ever face that situation again, but if you spend too much time thinking about a one-time situation, regret comes to the surface. Spending too much time in the “What If” universe is a lot like a NASCAR race: you just go in 8,000 circles (possible exaggeration here) trying to predict when you should go to the pit stop for a break while still wanting to win the race. When you keep thinking about what could have happened and go in circles back to points where you could have changed something you did, you go further to think about what the results of changing your actions could have been; which is a pointless thing to think about because you can never know the consequences of taking the other road (Frost reference; be proud, very proud). Yet when you tell yourself to make that pit stop and take a break from thinking about it, you don’t want to because you’re curious as to what you think the results may have been.
This quote doesn't make complete sense to the rest of the post but it's funny: "The future is like a Japanese game show: you never know what's going on"
11/1/10
Buffy Quotes~~
I like this quote from Buffy and wanted to share it:
"Humans have no purpose that unites them, so they just drift around, blundering through life until they die, which they know is coming, yet every single one of them is surprised when it happens to them. They're incapable of thinking about what they want beyond the moment. They kill each other, which is clearly insane... and yet here's the thing. When it's something that really matters, they fight. I mean, they're lame morons for fighting, but they do!"This is spoken by Anya who is a former vengeance demon who would rip out men's hearts for doing something wrong to a woman. She doesn't really understand human feelings or humans in general, especially mortality because as a vengeance demon she was immortal. I like a lot of the lines she says and a few times in the series she says some really profound things like the quote above. Just about everything she says is very blunt and straightforward: "I don't talk to people much. I mean, I talk to them, but they don't talk to me. Except to say that "your questions are irksome," or "perhaps you should take your furs and your literal interpretations to the other side of the river." Anya is one of my favorite characters; she takes the literal interpretation of everything and just puts it out there like it's normal. In one episode, Anya is playing the game Life and the conversation is as follows:
Anya: Crap! Look at this. I'm burdened with a husband, and several tiny pink children, and more cash than I can reasonably manage…As someone struggling to accept the concept of death and mortality, I find it interesting as to her views on it. And yes I do know that it's a TV show and it's not possible in real life to know about a previously immortal being's thoughts on mortality. After the death of Buffy's mom (Joyce), Anya says:
Xander: That means you're winning.
Anya: Really?
Xander: Yes. Cash equals good.
Anya: Oh! I'm so pleased! Can I trade in the children for more cash?
"I don't understand how this all happens. How we go through this. I mean, I knew her, and then she's, there's just a body, and I don't understand why she just can't get back in it and not be dead anymore! It's stupid! It's mortal and stupid! And, and Xander's crying and not talking, and, and I was having fruit punch, and I thought, well Joyce will never have any more fruit punch, ever, and she'll never have eggs, or yawn or brush her hair, not ever, and no one will explain to me why."There are just way too many good Anya quotes
Anya: I think we died in this car on the way to the airport, and now we're stuck in hell.
Xander: The radio said no traffic.
Anya: It's a hell radio, of course it said that
--
Anya: Thank you for making time in your busy life to come in here and get in the way of mine
--Anya also has a weird obsession with money. Later on in Buffy, she gets to co-own a magic shop and she is always talking about her money. This is a pretty random post. But I like it. Because it's random.
Anya: I can just hear you in private. 'I dislike that Anya. She's newly human and strangely literal.'
10/31/10
-Insert Title Here-
I don't think I ever realized how far one person's death can reach until now. Before a few months ago, whenever I thought of death I would always think about wars and how so many people die every day in them. But when it's someone you know it's completely different. Sure, it's a fact that over 100 people die per minute globally, but when it's just a fact and it's just there it doesn't hit you about how many people that affects. Ironically, by taking someone away from the world, death brings people closer to each other. When you have emotions that you can share with other people in times of vulnerability, it makes you that much closer to them. Even if you aren't particularly close to someone when they are taken by death, it still affects you. And just like a cobweb, it's not easy to shake off.
Dealing with death is never easy and it doesn’t get easier with experience. There's no "right" way and no "easy" way. A coping mechanism isn't hardwired into humans and everyone deals with it differently. I listen to music and watch TV to distract me. I hate thinking about anything sad because I really don't deal with emotions well at all. I actually cry pretty easily. I've developed this thing where I just think about not thinking.
Death isn't introduced into our lives, it's always there. You can't just start dancing to "Can't Touch This" and expect death to leave. You can't try to Rick Roll death to try to make him leave either. Death, unlike Saw, does not want to play a game. Death doesn't just take humans; animals and plants are affected too. Wherever there is life, there is death. Please excuse this post's scatteredness (I don't care if that's not a word), I honestly don't even know how it ended up with "Can't Touch This" and Saw.
“We all die. The goal isn't to live forever; the goal is to create something that will.”
Dealing with death is never easy and it doesn’t get easier with experience. There's no "right" way and no "easy" way. A coping mechanism isn't hardwired into humans and everyone deals with it differently. I listen to music and watch TV to distract me. I hate thinking about anything sad because I really don't deal with emotions well at all. I actually cry pretty easily. I've developed this thing where I just think about not thinking.
Death isn't introduced into our lives, it's always there. You can't just start dancing to "Can't Touch This" and expect death to leave. You can't try to Rick Roll death to try to make him leave either. Death, unlike Saw, does not want to play a game. Death doesn't just take humans; animals and plants are affected too. Wherever there is life, there is death. Please excuse this post's scatteredness (I don't care if that's not a word), I honestly don't even know how it ended up with "Can't Touch This" and Saw.
“We all die. The goal isn't to live forever; the goal is to create something that will.”
10/25/10
(R)Evolutionary
Has humanity really evolved? It seems like even though we have all this great technology which advances so quickly, people in general have absolutely no common sense. Humans are why we need warning labels not to put our blow dryers in a tub full of water and try to use them. And why we need warnings to not try to pick up and use a lawnmower.
As technology moves to the forefront of society and we gradually rely on it more and more, people don't feel the need to do things that technology can do. Want to contact someone? Use e-mail/texting/facebook. Want to play a game? The computer has games. But don't these things isolate us as well? Will there be a point where there will be basically no actual contact with people outside of technology? People hardly talk to each other on the phone any more, instead they text empty words. I don't like the idea of living in a world where there is no talking and there are just words on a screen. Going back to my post about words, it's much easier to convey messages in person.
When someone that could talk to me in person decides that they want to talk to me online I don't like that. At all. I don't like that I feel like this because I feel like I have no grounds to, but I can't help it. Last year I wanted to talk to someone all the time, but whenever that person sent me a message online I didn't respond. I do feel bad about that, but if that person didn't even try to find me to talk to me when it wouldn't take much effort, then do they really even care? I know it's partially my fault, but I felt like I put forth the effort to try and talk to that person but it seemed like they didn't care. Maybe that person just felt like it was enough to talk online, but that just isn't enough to me. That's another one of my unfounded things I don't like.
Empty words in a text box can be very misleading. How do you know that right now I'm not extremely angry? You don't. And you would never know because you have to surmise everything you can from the text that's here to try and figure out how I feel. I can put a smiley face right here -> :] and you just assume that I'm happy.
This is my dilemma: I love talking to people online, but at the same time I despise it. Anybody can reply "I'm great" when asked "How are you?", but there is no way of knowing if they're lying. Maybe that seems trivial to you, but to me it's important. I hate the open interpretations a block of text can present. You can't see the person's reaction to what you've said, so you don't know if they understood what you meant. If they didn't understand, chances are they don't say anything about it, but if you were having that conversation in real life, you would be able to tell if they understood you or not. I like online chat for the reason that I can talk to people when I want to, but at the same time it feels impersonal.
What really bugs me is the textspeak that's being formed. It wouldn't surprise me much if it were made into its own language. "hi how r u" seems pathetic and lame. I admit that sometimes I do type like that, but that's when I either don't really feel like putting in the effort to hit a few extra keys or if I just don't really want to talk. Do we really need spelling classes if we're just going to end up spelling only half or less than half of each word and inserting random numbers as substitutes for letters?
This turned out more to be a rant on technology. But now back to 'evolution'. Common sense just seems to fail us. We take all the new technology for granted and it seems like we are getting so lazy that we don't want to think anymore. We rely on technology more than ever and continue to try and take the easy way out of everything. Want to know something? Google it. Books themselves could become obsolete in a not so far future. As technology develops are we moving away from traditions and the foundation of society?
As technology moves to the forefront of society and we gradually rely on it more and more, people don't feel the need to do things that technology can do. Want to contact someone? Use e-mail/texting/facebook. Want to play a game? The computer has games. But don't these things isolate us as well? Will there be a point where there will be basically no actual contact with people outside of technology? People hardly talk to each other on the phone any more, instead they text empty words. I don't like the idea of living in a world where there is no talking and there are just words on a screen. Going back to my post about words, it's much easier to convey messages in person.
When someone that could talk to me in person decides that they want to talk to me online I don't like that. At all. I don't like that I feel like this because I feel like I have no grounds to, but I can't help it. Last year I wanted to talk to someone all the time, but whenever that person sent me a message online I didn't respond. I do feel bad about that, but if that person didn't even try to find me to talk to me when it wouldn't take much effort, then do they really even care? I know it's partially my fault, but I felt like I put forth the effort to try and talk to that person but it seemed like they didn't care. Maybe that person just felt like it was enough to talk online, but that just isn't enough to me. That's another one of my unfounded things I don't like.
Empty words in a text box can be very misleading. How do you know that right now I'm not extremely angry? You don't. And you would never know because you have to surmise everything you can from the text that's here to try and figure out how I feel. I can put a smiley face right here -> :] and you just assume that I'm happy.
This is my dilemma: I love talking to people online, but at the same time I despise it. Anybody can reply "I'm great" when asked "How are you?", but there is no way of knowing if they're lying. Maybe that seems trivial to you, but to me it's important. I hate the open interpretations a block of text can present. You can't see the person's reaction to what you've said, so you don't know if they understood what you meant. If they didn't understand, chances are they don't say anything about it, but if you were having that conversation in real life, you would be able to tell if they understood you or not. I like online chat for the reason that I can talk to people when I want to, but at the same time it feels impersonal.
What really bugs me is the textspeak that's being formed. It wouldn't surprise me much if it were made into its own language. "hi how r u" seems pathetic and lame. I admit that sometimes I do type like that, but that's when I either don't really feel like putting in the effort to hit a few extra keys or if I just don't really want to talk. Do we really need spelling classes if we're just going to end up spelling only half or less than half of each word and inserting random numbers as substitutes for letters?
This turned out more to be a rant on technology. But now back to 'evolution'. Common sense just seems to fail us. We take all the new technology for granted and it seems like we are getting so lazy that we don't want to think anymore. We rely on technology more than ever and continue to try and take the easy way out of everything. Want to know something? Google it. Books themselves could become obsolete in a not so far future. As technology develops are we moving away from traditions and the foundation of society?
10/21/10
Baa Baa Fad Sheep
I don't expect you to be able to read this all at one time; it's a lot of stuff XD
How funny/sad/ironic is it that people are constantly going on about how they want to be themselves and express themselves how they want to while they're essentially fad following sheep? How much can you really be yourself if you're doing what everyone else is doing to fit in? Being independent is about doing things differently than other people; doesn't seem like such a difficult concept to me. "I think most people are fad-following sheep waiting for their televisions to show them the next great logo to plaster on their chests."
It's pretty hard not to become drawn in to the fads because then it's almost like you aren't part of the 'evolving' culture/society (I put quotes around the word 'evolving' because I think it's debatable whether humans are getting smarter or stupider which could be another post topic soon). A great example of this is Twilight: You either love it or hate it. It's almost like there can be no "in between" for this. When the Twilight parade passes by you either jump on the "Lovers" bandwagon or the "Haters" one; if you don't, you get left behind to get trampled on by society. With the majority of the popular things that are out there, if you don't know what they are or you do but say you have no opinion on it, it's almost like people don't know how to think of you. You can't determine someone's entire character by knowing whether they love Twilight or hate it, but some people feel that you can.
Rabid haters are just as intolerable, if not more, as the people that love it. If you don't like something, why don't you just disregard it? If you want it to go away, stop fueling all these debates which gets what you don't like more publicity? Is there really a purpose in always having to interpose into conversations with "WOW that is so dumb how could you like that"? No. There really isn't. If you don't like something, just leave it alone.
What I think is really stupid are the arguments people get in over certain things; particularly on YouTube. I bet you almost every single music video has at least one comment about "this is so much better than Justin Beiber" or any other celebrity that people like to hate on recently. Why is it so hard to just listen to the music? Does it really matter if you love Justin Beiber or hate him? Someday he'll just be another has-been while people have moved on to hate some other kid who's just trying to make it big. That also reminds me of the "Where's the Chapstick" video on YouTube. This comment "I puked after I saw her 300 pound chin, I hate over weighted people they are so gross" is just completely uncalled for. If you hate something, don't watch it and if you watch it and hate it, you don't need to pronounce it to the world; personally I don't care if someone hates something, but when you hate a person for their looks and for genuinely trying to do something funny, that's just wrong. Even though I don't really like Justin Beiber, I think that hating on Beebs' baby face is not cool, is it really his fault for how he looks? You can jokingly make fun of someone or something, but if you do so too much it gets on people's nerves. People are allowed to have opinions on what they like; there will never be a day in the world where everyone likes the same thing. It's just not possible. There will never be one music genre that everyone in the world listens to, just as there will never be a movie that the entire world likes.
Sometimes it's just the fact that something is popular that makes people automatically hate it. That's just stupid because the popularity level of something shouldn't be a factor in how you feel about it. Just because Twilight is cool doesn't give enough grounds to hate it. Nothing really gives enough grounds to hate it. Personally, I don't like the movies, but I did like the books. Seriously though, what could Twilight possibly have done to someone? It can't ruin your life and if that somehow happens, it's probably healthy to stop letting movies run your life.
Another stupid thing is when people hear about something from their friends and if their friends didn't like it, they don't give it a chance. Sure, friends are influential, but that doesn't mean you should listen to everything they say. No matter how many similarities you have with someone, they can't possibly like every single thing you do. If you don't see a movie when it comes out because your friends tell you they didn't like it and then you see it later and love it, you missed out until then. You may not want to feel like the odd one out, but if someone really is your friend, they don't care if you like something they don't. Having to fake that you hate something that you really like and your friends don't isn't a good thing for your relationships with them. It's not that I'm saying telling them that you like something they hate is going to make them is going to completely change your friendship, but having to put up a pretense is not good.
Kinda off-topic but here's something else that irritates me. When you go clothes shopping and just about every single store has the same styles of clothes. When scarves are in, they have them everywhere. The worst thing is when a certain style of clothes is just everywhere. When clothes with frilly stuff on them are cool, that's what they have at the store. And when you don't want frilly clothes, you can hardly find anything different. Even stores focus on trends and fads, they pretty much have to or they won't get business. If there was a store in 10 years or so that only sold those "Silly/Crazy Bandz" they probably wouldn't sell very many. Those things are cool now, but how long can something really be considered cool? Every fad has its few years of being cool, but after that it basically drops off the face of the earth only to be heard about when the old people talk about them and how they were cool when they were a kid. Some people do have a fascination with older trends, but if you aren't up with the times it's hard.
I love 90s music, but that's something that will always be there just like music from before then. Even the type of music people like is somewhat becoming a fad although it seems like you can't influence the type of music that people like. The Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, etc were cool in the 90s, but play that music to kids of today and most of them will say the music is bad because it's not the "cool genre". It kinda upsets me to see that most of the top billboard songs are from the rap/hip hop genres because although I don't despise rap/hip hop, they aren't exactly on my list of favorite things.
I also wanted to reference back to a previous ramble post. "If people just do and act like everyone else does or as they are told to, then what does their existence mean? We don't need 2 million people that have the same hair and clothes and act the same in the world. We need people that think like their own individual self and have their own unique ways to do things." How much can society really advance with people who do what people tell them to? Imitating what other people do isn’t conducive to the advancement of anything. People don’t like when they’re forced to wear uniforms, but then they go out and buy the same style of clothes as ‘everyone else’ to fit in.
People get way too worked up about things that really don't affect their lives at all. If I see something that makes fun of, say Buffy, I don't care that someone doesn't like it; it's their opinion. If I see a parody of Buffy and it's funny even though it makes fun of the show, I'll laugh. I won't get worked up about how someone could possibly not like the show. Any parody type things I can find funny because truthfully it doesn't matter how people feel about it, I like it and that's really all that matters. If someone doesn't like me because I like it, then that's their problem because they can't see from anyone else's point of view.
This isn't random at all, but I also wanted to note that Justin Beiber is coming out with his own nail polish line (and yes Ken this was in my post before yours; mine was just in a draft so you copied me). This isn’t random either, but I really like the word vernacular. It starts with a ‘v’. Anyways, there are always going to be the Justin Beibers and Twilights of each generation, and hopefully someday humans as a whole will realize the stupidity of fighting over things that have no solution and are subjective. This is a really long post xD I hope I’ll still have stuff to talk about in my posts after this. Oh and a btw if you're still reading: The title's a play on the nursery rhyme of "Baa Baa Black Sheep".
"Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new" - Henry David Thoreau
How funny/sad/ironic is it that people are constantly going on about how they want to be themselves and express themselves how they want to while they're essentially fad following sheep? How much can you really be yourself if you're doing what everyone else is doing to fit in? Being independent is about doing things differently than other people; doesn't seem like such a difficult concept to me. "I think most people are fad-following sheep waiting for their televisions to show them the next great logo to plaster on their chests."
It's pretty hard not to become drawn in to the fads because then it's almost like you aren't part of the 'evolving' culture/society (I put quotes around the word 'evolving' because I think it's debatable whether humans are getting smarter or stupider which could be another post topic soon). A great example of this is Twilight: You either love it or hate it. It's almost like there can be no "in between" for this. When the Twilight parade passes by you either jump on the "Lovers" bandwagon or the "Haters" one; if you don't, you get left behind to get trampled on by society. With the majority of the popular things that are out there, if you don't know what they are or you do but say you have no opinion on it, it's almost like people don't know how to think of you. You can't determine someone's entire character by knowing whether they love Twilight or hate it, but some people feel that you can.
Rabid haters are just as intolerable, if not more, as the people that love it. If you don't like something, why don't you just disregard it? If you want it to go away, stop fueling all these debates which gets what you don't like more publicity? Is there really a purpose in always having to interpose into conversations with "WOW that is so dumb how could you like that"? No. There really isn't. If you don't like something, just leave it alone.
What I think is really stupid are the arguments people get in over certain things; particularly on YouTube. I bet you almost every single music video has at least one comment about "this is so much better than Justin Beiber" or any other celebrity that people like to hate on recently. Why is it so hard to just listen to the music? Does it really matter if you love Justin Beiber or hate him? Someday he'll just be another has-been while people have moved on to hate some other kid who's just trying to make it big. That also reminds me of the "Where's the Chapstick" video on YouTube. This comment "I puked after I saw her 300 pound chin, I hate over weighted people they are so gross" is just completely uncalled for. If you hate something, don't watch it and if you watch it and hate it, you don't need to pronounce it to the world; personally I don't care if someone hates something, but when you hate a person for their looks and for genuinely trying to do something funny, that's just wrong. Even though I don't really like Justin Beiber, I think that hating on Beebs' baby face is not cool, is it really his fault for how he looks? You can jokingly make fun of someone or something, but if you do so too much it gets on people's nerves. People are allowed to have opinions on what they like; there will never be a day in the world where everyone likes the same thing. It's just not possible. There will never be one music genre that everyone in the world listens to, just as there will never be a movie that the entire world likes.
Sometimes it's just the fact that something is popular that makes people automatically hate it. That's just stupid because the popularity level of something shouldn't be a factor in how you feel about it. Just because Twilight is cool doesn't give enough grounds to hate it. Nothing really gives enough grounds to hate it. Personally, I don't like the movies, but I did like the books. Seriously though, what could Twilight possibly have done to someone? It can't ruin your life and if that somehow happens, it's probably healthy to stop letting movies run your life.
Another stupid thing is when people hear about something from their friends and if their friends didn't like it, they don't give it a chance. Sure, friends are influential, but that doesn't mean you should listen to everything they say. No matter how many similarities you have with someone, they can't possibly like every single thing you do. If you don't see a movie when it comes out because your friends tell you they didn't like it and then you see it later and love it, you missed out until then. You may not want to feel like the odd one out, but if someone really is your friend, they don't care if you like something they don't. Having to fake that you hate something that you really like and your friends don't isn't a good thing for your relationships with them. It's not that I'm saying telling them that you like something they hate is going to make them is going to completely change your friendship, but having to put up a pretense is not good.
Kinda off-topic but here's something else that irritates me. When you go clothes shopping and just about every single store has the same styles of clothes. When scarves are in, they have them everywhere. The worst thing is when a certain style of clothes is just everywhere. When clothes with frilly stuff on them are cool, that's what they have at the store. And when you don't want frilly clothes, you can hardly find anything different. Even stores focus on trends and fads, they pretty much have to or they won't get business. If there was a store in 10 years or so that only sold those "Silly/Crazy Bandz" they probably wouldn't sell very many. Those things are cool now, but how long can something really be considered cool? Every fad has its few years of being cool, but after that it basically drops off the face of the earth only to be heard about when the old people talk about them and how they were cool when they were a kid. Some people do have a fascination with older trends, but if you aren't up with the times it's hard.
I love 90s music, but that's something that will always be there just like music from before then. Even the type of music people like is somewhat becoming a fad although it seems like you can't influence the type of music that people like. The Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, etc were cool in the 90s, but play that music to kids of today and most of them will say the music is bad because it's not the "cool genre". It kinda upsets me to see that most of the top billboard songs are from the rap/hip hop genres because although I don't despise rap/hip hop, they aren't exactly on my list of favorite things.
I also wanted to reference back to a previous ramble post. "If people just do and act like everyone else does or as they are told to, then what does their existence mean? We don't need 2 million people that have the same hair and clothes and act the same in the world. We need people that think like their own individual self and have their own unique ways to do things." How much can society really advance with people who do what people tell them to? Imitating what other people do isn’t conducive to the advancement of anything. People don’t like when they’re forced to wear uniforms, but then they go out and buy the same style of clothes as ‘everyone else’ to fit in.
People get way too worked up about things that really don't affect their lives at all. If I see something that makes fun of, say Buffy, I don't care that someone doesn't like it; it's their opinion. If I see a parody of Buffy and it's funny even though it makes fun of the show, I'll laugh. I won't get worked up about how someone could possibly not like the show. Any parody type things I can find funny because truthfully it doesn't matter how people feel about it, I like it and that's really all that matters. If someone doesn't like me because I like it, then that's their problem because they can't see from anyone else's point of view.
This isn't random at all, but I also wanted to note that Justin Beiber is coming out with his own nail polish line (and yes Ken this was in my post before yours; mine was just in a draft so you copied me). This isn’t random either, but I really like the word vernacular. It starts with a ‘v’. Anyways, there are always going to be the Justin Beibers and Twilights of each generation, and hopefully someday humans as a whole will realize the stupidity of fighting over things that have no solution and are subjective. This is a really long post xD I hope I’ll still have stuff to talk about in my posts after this. Oh and a btw if you're still reading: The title's a play on the nursery rhyme of "Baa Baa Black Sheep".
"Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new" - Henry David Thoreau
Weird Ice Cream Flavors
I kinda feel like making cheesy commercial lines for these...
Olive Oil Gelato: Ever wanted to drink an entire bottle of olive oil? Well now you can eat olive oil in the convenient form of gelato!
Bacon Topped Ice Cream: Would you like some pig with your ice cream?
Mushroom Ice Cream: Plant it in the ground and you can grow your very own fungus ice cream!
Chicken Fried Steak Ice Cream: Since ice cream is a dairy product, you might as well throw in some meat.
Dracula Cool Garlic Mint Ice Cream: Now you can defend yourself against vampires with a cold and delicious treat! Now with extra mint to cover up the horrible smell!
Charcoal Ice Cream: It's not ironic at all that something that provides heat is an ice cream flavor.
Spinach Ice Cream: If you don't like spinach, go ruin ice cream with it!
Shrimp Ice Cream: This kind of ice cream rhymes with 'heaven'
Ox Tongue Ice Cream: Have fun licking a tongue
Sweet Corn Ice Cream: It's sweet, cold, and corny!
Lobster Ice Cream: Make some ice cream and throw in some lobster. Makes eating fun; eat around the thrashing claws!
Olive Oil Gelato: Ever wanted to drink an entire bottle of olive oil? Well now you can eat olive oil in the convenient form of gelato!
Bacon Topped Ice Cream: Would you like some pig with your ice cream?
Mushroom Ice Cream: Plant it in the ground and you can grow your very own fungus ice cream!
Chicken Fried Steak Ice Cream: Since ice cream is a dairy product, you might as well throw in some meat.
Dracula Cool Garlic Mint Ice Cream: Now you can defend yourself against vampires with a cold and delicious treat! Now with extra mint to cover up the horrible smell!
Charcoal Ice Cream: It's not ironic at all that something that provides heat is an ice cream flavor.
Spinach Ice Cream: If you don't like spinach, go ruin ice cream with it!
Shrimp Ice Cream: This kind of ice cream rhymes with 'heaven'
Ox Tongue Ice Cream: Have fun licking a tongue
Sweet Corn Ice Cream: It's sweet, cold, and corny!
Lobster Ice Cream: Make some ice cream and throw in some lobster. Makes eating fun; eat around the thrashing claws!
10/18/10
The Skeleton in the Closet
I've been posting a lot on here lately so when I run out of the already limited supply of topics don't be upset. And this also links to 30 Rock because Jack is up for a promotion and hires a private investigator to investigate his own life. Then the p.i. finds out Jack has a cookie jar collection which is his 'skeleton in the closet'.
We all have things we don't like to talk about. Maybe it's because we don't want people to know about it, because it doesn't really come up, or maybe because it would be something awkward to share. I think it's bad if you hide something that's created a major part of your character from the people that think they know you best. I can't really say anything about this because I don't really have anything super important that's changed who I am or made me the way I am. If I were to find something out about someone I felt close to and they took a long time to tell me about it; I would understand, but it's still hurtful to know that they waited so long to tell you. It's not like I'm saying you should tell everyone something important right when you meet them; I mean you could but that's not usually how it goes. This is somewhat like the debate about when to tell a kid they were adopted or any situation like that. At what point do you feel someone can handle the truth?
I try my hardest not to hide things from people. If someone I trust asks me about something I'll either say that I don't feel comfortable talking about it or I will answer. My problem is just trust issues; it takes a lot to earn my trust and I'm not really sure why. It's not that I think everyone is a jerk and will get to know me, ask me about a secret I have and I answer, and then run off to tell everyone they know. Although I think that sort of thing is a kind of innate fear that most people have. If someone I don't really talk to asks me something personal it gets pretty awkward because I don't know how to tell them that I don't want to answer(not that I'm in that situation a lot). I don't tell people my problems because that's what they are: my problems, not theirs. I know people have their own things to worry about, they shouldn't have to worry about someone else's problems too.
On another note, I did manage to find dancing penguins which I hope you appreciate. If I were President I would make it a law for everyone to find time in their days to appreciate dancing penguins. It's important to a healthy lifestyle.
We all have things we don't like to talk about. Maybe it's because we don't want people to know about it, because it doesn't really come up, or maybe because it would be something awkward to share. I think it's bad if you hide something that's created a major part of your character from the people that think they know you best. I can't really say anything about this because I don't really have anything super important that's changed who I am or made me the way I am. If I were to find something out about someone I felt close to and they took a long time to tell me about it; I would understand, but it's still hurtful to know that they waited so long to tell you. It's not like I'm saying you should tell everyone something important right when you meet them; I mean you could but that's not usually how it goes. This is somewhat like the debate about when to tell a kid they were adopted or any situation like that. At what point do you feel someone can handle the truth?
I try my hardest not to hide things from people. If someone I trust asks me about something I'll either say that I don't feel comfortable talking about it or I will answer. My problem is just trust issues; it takes a lot to earn my trust and I'm not really sure why. It's not that I think everyone is a jerk and will get to know me, ask me about a secret I have and I answer, and then run off to tell everyone they know. Although I think that sort of thing is a kind of innate fear that most people have. If someone I don't really talk to asks me something personal it gets pretty awkward because I don't know how to tell them that I don't want to answer(not that I'm in that situation a lot). I don't tell people my problems because that's what they are: my problems, not theirs. I know people have their own things to worry about, they shouldn't have to worry about someone else's problems too.
On another note, I did manage to find dancing penguins which I hope you appreciate. If I were President I would make it a law for everyone to find time in their days to appreciate dancing penguins. It's important to a healthy lifestyle.
10/17/10
Sealing Our Thoughts in a Cookie Jar
Look a non-super-lame post title; I know you're surprised. I'm referring to 30 Rock with the title. Jack was trying to get rid of his cookie jar collection and Kenneth told a story about when he was little and he would imagine putting all of his thoughts into a cookie jar.
So this made me think; would you want to do that? Seal away thoughts I mean. For me the answer would be sometimes. A lot of times I don't want to think about anything especially when I have the mentality that thinking about it would end up with no conclusion. But other times it's important to think about something because the conclusion you arrive at could tell you something about yourself that you might not have known before. Pointless thinking always bothers me. When there isn't an answer to something, sure it's entertaining to think of all the possibilities; but if there's no answer then what was really the point of thinking about it?
Thoughts are actually kind of like the cookies in a cookie jar. You may think that you'll pull out something sweet, but there might be a stale cookie at the bottom that you don't want to eat. And when only crumbs are left, it's really upsetting just as when you believe that you can't have your own thoughts in fear of being judged for it. Sometimes you reach into a cookie jar and you don't know what kind of cookie you'll get from the jar. You just reach in and pull one out. If you take one out that you're allergic to you'll try to throw it away, but you don't really want to. Because you really want that cookie.
Our thoughts do make us who we are which also means that people can never know who we truly are unless we broadcast all of our thoughts to the world which I don’t think anyone would volunteer to do. I try pretty hard not to think about pointless things, because I tend to see things pessimistically for some reason, but sometimes I feel like I need to think about those things to get my mind off of other stuff I don’t want to think about. Those are the times when I go sit outside and try to get in that peaceful state of mind. Which never really lasts but I try to pretend it does.
I need some sort of snazzy sign-off line. Too bad I don't have an image of breakdancing penguins cuz that would be pretty awesome.☮
So this made me think; would you want to do that? Seal away thoughts I mean. For me the answer would be sometimes. A lot of times I don't want to think about anything especially when I have the mentality that thinking about it would end up with no conclusion. But other times it's important to think about something because the conclusion you arrive at could tell you something about yourself that you might not have known before. Pointless thinking always bothers me. When there isn't an answer to something, sure it's entertaining to think of all the possibilities; but if there's no answer then what was really the point of thinking about it?
Thoughts are actually kind of like the cookies in a cookie jar. You may think that you'll pull out something sweet, but there might be a stale cookie at the bottom that you don't want to eat. And when only crumbs are left, it's really upsetting just as when you believe that you can't have your own thoughts in fear of being judged for it. Sometimes you reach into a cookie jar and you don't know what kind of cookie you'll get from the jar. You just reach in and pull one out. If you take one out that you're allergic to you'll try to throw it away, but you don't really want to. Because you really want that cookie.
Our thoughts do make us who we are which also means that people can never know who we truly are unless we broadcast all of our thoughts to the world which I don’t think anyone would volunteer to do. I try pretty hard not to think about pointless things, because I tend to see things pessimistically for some reason, but sometimes I feel like I need to think about those things to get my mind off of other stuff I don’t want to think about. Those are the times when I go sit outside and try to get in that peaceful state of mind. Which never really lasts but I try to pretend it does.
I need some sort of snazzy sign-off line. Too bad I don't have an image of breakdancing penguins cuz that would be pretty awesome.☮
10/15/10
Really Need Good Titles...
I'm not sure where this is coming from, but it's just more random stuff that's been on my mind.
Why do people who find out they're dying always say their life has changed so much? Everyone is dying and everyone will. So when people get diagnosed with a terminal disease, is it really that much different? They always say they appreciate life more now that they've been diagnosed and try to live every day to its fullest. But shouldn't we already do that? Someone that hasn't been diagnosed with anything could easily die some other way, just not by disease. Maybe even knowing that you might die sooner than you expected you'll get more out of your life instead of wasting it away like people do. I don't have any experience with people I know getting a disease that could just take someone away from me at any given moment, but I just can't understand this. At least if you know someone has a disease, you are more prepared for when they pass away; if they end up in some freak accident it must be worse.
I wonder if some day death itself will become some sort of disease. If medicine advances so much that you could be diagnosed with death. Kinda weird to think about. I doubt that will ever happen, but it's possible. Personally I wouldn't want to live to be extremely old. An existence that's just "wake up, eat food, sit around all day, go back to sleep" is a life without purpose. And at that point you can't accomplish much and I would spend most of my time reflecting on my past experiences. Wishing I could go back to when I was young and free to do whatever I wanted to. Sitting in a nursing home would not be the place for me. I know I'd think about all the time I spent sitting around at home wishing I was doing something interesting and be upset that I never really did much with my life. That's just pointless pondering and would make for cranky old lady syndrome.
This is a pretty scattered post so I hope it's somewhat understandable. My thoughts seem kinda everywhere as I re-read this.
Why do people who find out they're dying always say their life has changed so much? Everyone is dying and everyone will. So when people get diagnosed with a terminal disease, is it really that much different? They always say they appreciate life more now that they've been diagnosed and try to live every day to its fullest. But shouldn't we already do that? Someone that hasn't been diagnosed with anything could easily die some other way, just not by disease. Maybe even knowing that you might die sooner than you expected you'll get more out of your life instead of wasting it away like people do. I don't have any experience with people I know getting a disease that could just take someone away from me at any given moment, but I just can't understand this. At least if you know someone has a disease, you are more prepared for when they pass away; if they end up in some freak accident it must be worse.
I wonder if some day death itself will become some sort of disease. If medicine advances so much that you could be diagnosed with death. Kinda weird to think about. I doubt that will ever happen, but it's possible. Personally I wouldn't want to live to be extremely old. An existence that's just "wake up, eat food, sit around all day, go back to sleep" is a life without purpose. And at that point you can't accomplish much and I would spend most of my time reflecting on my past experiences. Wishing I could go back to when I was young and free to do whatever I wanted to. Sitting in a nursing home would not be the place for me. I know I'd think about all the time I spent sitting around at home wishing I was doing something interesting and be upset that I never really did much with my life. That's just pointless pondering and would make for cranky old lady syndrome.
This is a pretty scattered post so I hope it's somewhat understandable. My thoughts seem kinda everywhere as I re-read this.
10/10/10
Yetis
Words are the most powerful tool in the universe. With them we can make someone laugh or make them cry; we can speak the truth or we can lie. We can fabricate a universe of our own and share it with others or we can use them to cause hurt and pain. Words can be daggers or blankets, can cover true feelings or put them in the open. They say actions speak louder than words but most actions result from what's spoken. With one wrong use or how the words are said they could lose all the meaning you hoped they would have.
Sometimes I wonder if we would be able to get our feelings across to people with a few simple words. It seems like we always have to explain ourselves to be sure people understand what we mean by what we say. Is there any way to just plainly say what we want to without getting a misinterpretation? Probably not because it's human nature to read into what someone says and not base what we hear on just the facts. The saying that "Sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me" is a lie. There are some lyrics from a song that describe how I feel about this: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, your words they surely kill.” How often do you see someone upset because they got hurt physically? Sure, there’s physical pain, but not so much mental. On the other hand, almost every time someone is sad or depressed it’s from what someone said to them. To me mental pain is worse than physical pain and studies have repeatedly shown that physical pain can result from mental pain. Most physical pain has a cure or treatment; the only treatment for mental pain is to just deal with it and try to move on.
Being told something to my face is much better to me than having to find out some other way. Things that are spoken aloud have just as much impact as those that aren’t. Sure at first it might be hard to accept what someone tells you, but in the end it leaves you as a better person. The fewer amount of things that people don't tell you, the better off your relationship with them is. Personally, if one of my friends had an issue with me of any kind, I'd want them to tell me what it is. If it was a behavior issue, people should get the chance to explain it. If someone is your true friend, they'll hear what you say and seriously reflect on it; otherwise they overreact and hate you. Sadly, this is what a lot of people get for giving their thoughts; blatant honesty is mostly rejected in our society.
I hope you weren't expecting a post about yetis. Cuz obviously this isn't one. I wanted to trick you. Make this post seem like it's mythical and original. When obviously it's not a giant polar bear-looking thing.
Sometimes I wonder if we would be able to get our feelings across to people with a few simple words. It seems like we always have to explain ourselves to be sure people understand what we mean by what we say. Is there any way to just plainly say what we want to without getting a misinterpretation? Probably not because it's human nature to read into what someone says and not base what we hear on just the facts. The saying that "Sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me" is a lie. There are some lyrics from a song that describe how I feel about this: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, your words they surely kill.” How often do you see someone upset because they got hurt physically? Sure, there’s physical pain, but not so much mental. On the other hand, almost every time someone is sad or depressed it’s from what someone said to them. To me mental pain is worse than physical pain and studies have repeatedly shown that physical pain can result from mental pain. Most physical pain has a cure or treatment; the only treatment for mental pain is to just deal with it and try to move on.
Being told something to my face is much better to me than having to find out some other way. Things that are spoken aloud have just as much impact as those that aren’t. Sure at first it might be hard to accept what someone tells you, but in the end it leaves you as a better person. The fewer amount of things that people don't tell you, the better off your relationship with them is. Personally, if one of my friends had an issue with me of any kind, I'd want them to tell me what it is. If it was a behavior issue, people should get the chance to explain it. If someone is your true friend, they'll hear what you say and seriously reflect on it; otherwise they overreact and hate you. Sadly, this is what a lot of people get for giving their thoughts; blatant honesty is mostly rejected in our society.
I hope you weren't expecting a post about yetis. Cuz obviously this isn't one. I wanted to trick you. Make this post seem like it's mythical and original. When obviously it's not a giant polar bear-looking thing.
10/7/10
Wacky Animal Stuff
Randomly surfing the internet as I do when I am bored out of my mind; which means I was somewhere besides my mind or something however that's possible; I found an article about having hedgehogs as pets. Which obviously fascinated me because even though I can't remember my dreams I'm sure I've had one involving a pet hedgehog. Europe and Africa has mainly been home to hedgehogs, although they are also found in Asia and New Zealand. I thought New Zealand only had enough room for sheep? So I saw this on the site "Shelter: Hedgehogs can be kept in cages as well as aquariums". I didn't know hedgehogs could live in aquariums; can they breathe under water? Also they say a few times that exercise is important. It's too bad my local Petsupermarket doesn't sell hedgehog leashes or I'd take mine for a walk every day to show it off to neighbors. "When in danger, hedgehogs roll into a ball"... so then you can use them for bowling. Okay I'll stop bashing hedgehogs now although I really love their name because I think of a bush shaped like a hog.
Now for Unusual Animal Facts with Jessica. "All polar bears are left-handed and their livers are extremely poisonous as they contain too much of Vitamin C." So if you ever need a liver transplant don't ask Aunt Tabitha the polar bear for
hers. "Sharks are immune to every known disease including cancer" which I take to mean that we should all evolve into being sharks. "Slugs have four noses, but none of them are visible" maybe because they're really small animals? You can hardly see their body in the first place! "Duck quacks do not echo" which is actually really weird. Because that means that the sound waves they make don't reflect off of walls. "A cow can be led upstairs, but it can't be brought downstairs" which I totally needed to know to further enhance my knowledge of cows. Those were the weirdest ones that I saw because I only skimmed the article.
And no post about animals would be complete without something dealing with llamas so here ya go: "In the United States and Canada there is an estimated 65,000 llamas"
I leave you with a Fun Fact: The bat and the blue whale are both taxonomically related to monkeys.
Now for Unusual Animal Facts with Jessica. "All polar bears are left-handed and their livers are extremely poisonous as they contain too much of Vitamin C." So if you ever need a liver transplant don't ask Aunt Tabitha the polar bear for
hers. "Sharks are immune to every known disease including cancer" which I take to mean that we should all evolve into being sharks. "Slugs have four noses, but none of them are visible" maybe because they're really small animals? You can hardly see their body in the first place! "Duck quacks do not echo" which is actually really weird. Because that means that the sound waves they make don't reflect off of walls. "A cow can be led upstairs, but it can't be brought downstairs" which I totally needed to know to further enhance my knowledge of cows. Those were the weirdest ones that I saw because I only skimmed the article.And no post about animals would be complete without something dealing with llamas so here ya go: "In the United States and Canada there is an estimated 65,000 llamas"
I leave you with a Fun Fact: The bat and the blue whale are both taxonomically related to monkeys.
10/2/10
₮Ӊξ ҎѦЯѦΝѺЯӍѦζ
I feel like this post should be dramatic, but it probably won't be. I guess it’s kinda Halloween related.
Supernatural, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dracula, etc; there are so many shows about the paranormal and things that shouldn't exist and are considered to be anomalies in science (whoa TOK where did you come from and why didn’t you appear during the test). The general public seems to love these kinds of shows and movies because they deal with unknowns with infinite possibilities. I know if I ever went into the movie business (which I probably won't) I would want to make something regarding the paranormal or at least dealing with something that is otherworldly, because there are no limitations with that. Anyways, now to continue with the actual post.
The prefix "para-" means a lot of things and it's kind of weird to see that prefix attached to "normal". It can mean "resembling" which makes absolutely no sense because the paranormal has nothing to do with normality except that it’s the opposite. Which brings us to another denotation of “para-“which is “beyond” and actually makes sense. Another meaning is “abnormal” which would make “paranormal” into an oxymoron because an abnormal normal is just weird.
Most people say that paranormal things are just too far-fetched to be believable, however there was a belief poll held in 2005 which concluded that around 73% of Americans believe in paranormal phenomenon. So first I want to point out this means people are liars (don’t know why I wanted to point that out) and also, people may be gullible or just want something like that to exist. Personally, I don’t believe in supernatural things, but not in the sense that they can’t possibly exist; to me there’s a slight possibility and I would need a lot of convincing to change my mind. I once visited Saint Augustine and we went to a house that was supposedly “haunted” but even though those things scare some people it didn’t scare me. Who knows where ghost stories came from, but I think they’re just to scare people into buying lucky charms (not the cereal; I know you were thinking that). I think it would be really cool if solid proof was found to show that paranormal things exist but it would also be weird.
When it comes to what you believe and what you don’t, that’s just a matter of your own disposition towards these possibilities. I know people claim they have proof, but who’s to say that this so called “proof” isn’t fake? There are shows like Ghost Hunters that claim to have proof, but to what extent can you believe what they get? When the camera isn’t facing the direction of where the “ghost” is at all and the people on the show freak out like “what the #%^ was that?” it’s pretty suspicious. With all the technology we have nowadays it’s easy to just use Photoshop and put a “ghost” into a picture. I could do it pretty easily. Paranormal activities are probably at the pinnacle of the “I have to see it to believe it” mentality. I’m horrible at ending these posts.
Supernatural, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dracula, etc; there are so many shows about the paranormal and things that shouldn't exist and are considered to be anomalies in science (whoa TOK where did you come from and why didn’t you appear during the test). The general public seems to love these kinds of shows and movies because they deal with unknowns with infinite possibilities. I know if I ever went into the movie business (which I probably won't) I would want to make something regarding the paranormal or at least dealing with something that is otherworldly, because there are no limitations with that. Anyways, now to continue with the actual post.
The prefix "para-" means a lot of things and it's kind of weird to see that prefix attached to "normal". It can mean "resembling" which makes absolutely no sense because the paranormal has nothing to do with normality except that it’s the opposite. Which brings us to another denotation of “para-“which is “beyond” and actually makes sense. Another meaning is “abnormal” which would make “paranormal” into an oxymoron because an abnormal normal is just weird.
Most people say that paranormal things are just too far-fetched to be believable, however there was a belief poll held in 2005 which concluded that around 73% of Americans believe in paranormal phenomenon. So first I want to point out this means people are liars (don’t know why I wanted to point that out) and also, people may be gullible or just want something like that to exist. Personally, I don’t believe in supernatural things, but not in the sense that they can’t possibly exist; to me there’s a slight possibility and I would need a lot of convincing to change my mind. I once visited Saint Augustine and we went to a house that was supposedly “haunted” but even though those things scare some people it didn’t scare me. Who knows where ghost stories came from, but I think they’re just to scare people into buying lucky charms (not the cereal; I know you were thinking that). I think it would be really cool if solid proof was found to show that paranormal things exist but it would also be weird.
When it comes to what you believe and what you don’t, that’s just a matter of your own disposition towards these possibilities. I know people claim they have proof, but who’s to say that this so called “proof” isn’t fake? There are shows like Ghost Hunters that claim to have proof, but to what extent can you believe what they get? When the camera isn’t facing the direction of where the “ghost” is at all and the people on the show freak out like “what the #%^ was that?” it’s pretty suspicious. With all the technology we have nowadays it’s easy to just use Photoshop and put a “ghost” into a picture. I could do it pretty easily. Paranormal activities are probably at the pinnacle of the “I have to see it to believe it” mentality. I’m horrible at ending these posts.
9/29/10
Self-Criticism
I'm one of those people that often criticize myself for things I do. Sure this does sometimes lead to a slightly depressing state of mind, because knowing that you have flaws doesn’t make you feel in any way better. In my opinion, this actually helps improve character because if you at least acknowledge the flaws you have (and everyone, despite what they may say) has them, you can try to adjust for it. Some people don't like to criticize themselves and think about what they've done wrong because this makes them sad or hate themselves. To me, it’s essential to learn to hate yourself for the certain parts of you that need to be fixed or can be bettered and before you can go and criticize someone else for something, it’s imperative to criticize yourself. I agree that it's not necessarily important to everyone that they spend time to reflect on the past and criticize yourself, because what's past is past, but if we don't learn from our mistakes, then we keep making them. The only way we can learn from this is if we first acknowledge that we have that flaw and learn to compensate for it.
I also tend to think very pessimistically about things when I take time to think about certain situations. This way, I can always be prepared for what, to me, is the worst outcome that could happen, although I do know that this mentality is also bad. When I go into a test thinking that I won’t do well or try to do homework that I think I can’t do, it makes it more difficult than it really is. The mentality you have towards things really affects how you perform which is a downside to thinking the worst. But when you think the best and when it doesn’t happen, you’re disappointed. And one of my least favorite things is disappointment. We’ve all been faced with it and when it happens it just crushes us; especially if it was important or if you were really looking forward to it. This is the worst for me regarding my opinions on people. No matter how much I say I hate when people pre-judge, I do it myself and typically think the worst of them when I know I shouldn't. Thinking of how that person annoys me or affects me in some way. I know people have the tendency to be selfish, and I know even I am no matter how hard I try not to, I do it too. There are some flaws that are just human nature and that can't be fixed no matter how hard you try to change it, and thinking about these definitely isn't something that makes you want to get up and dance in joy.
I also tend to think very pessimistically about things when I take time to think about certain situations. This way, I can always be prepared for what, to me, is the worst outcome that could happen, although I do know that this mentality is also bad. When I go into a test thinking that I won’t do well or try to do homework that I think I can’t do, it makes it more difficult than it really is. The mentality you have towards things really affects how you perform which is a downside to thinking the worst. But when you think the best and when it doesn’t happen, you’re disappointed. And one of my least favorite things is disappointment. We’ve all been faced with it and when it happens it just crushes us; especially if it was important or if you were really looking forward to it. This is the worst for me regarding my opinions on people. No matter how much I say I hate when people pre-judge, I do it myself and typically think the worst of them when I know I shouldn't. Thinking of how that person annoys me or affects me in some way. I know people have the tendency to be selfish, and I know even I am no matter how hard I try not to, I do it too. There are some flaws that are just human nature and that can't be fixed no matter how hard you try to change it, and thinking about these definitely isn't something that makes you want to get up and dance in joy.
9/27/10
Off-Topic Babble Nonsense
I have such a descriptive title for this post, I know. You really don't need to read this if you're looking for something interesting. If you want something to laugh at, I'm basically volunteering myself with this post. Otherwise, go back to your lives.
Lately I've been having really random urges to do things that aren't normal for me. I know some things I do aren't normal for 'normal' people, but these urges are way out there. How can someone be normal anyways? There is no such thing as 'normal' everyone has something weird about them even if people don't necessarily know what it is. Being 'normal' would also be extremely boring. For some reason that just reminded me of a Buffy episode where Buffy can read people's minds. Oz (Seth Green ♥) says that by Buffy being able to read his mind, he ceases to exist because that makes his thoughts available to someone else and in this way it doesn't matter if he exists or not. Same with all the fad following people out there. If they just do and act like everyone else does or as they are told to, then what does their existence mean? We don't need 2 million people that have the same hair and clothes and act the same in the world. We need people that think like their own individual self and have their own unique ways to do things.
On a completely unrelated note I just read on Twitter a tweet that says "Exclusive First Look: BONES love triangle gets complicated". This is confusing because maybe I'm wrong here but love triangles are always complicated, duh. How can they get even more complicated?! Also, why is it a triangle? Three people could also form a circle if they wanted to. If there's more than three people in a 'love triangle' how is it a triangle?
I'm already running out of things today I'm very boring. There's a song I've been listening to on repeat since Saturday. If I was in a sad mood, this song would be really depressing, but thankfully I'm not so I just like it because it's pretty sounding. And I don't know how something can sound 'pretty' because 'pretty' is generally a word you use to describe the visual appearance of something. Adjectives are really annoying, people use them a lot in the wrong way and for some reason that bothers me even though I do the same thing. I also realized this weekend as I went through a large number of instrumental songs, that songs without words can speak a message even clearer and more passionate than ones that actually have words. With instrumental songs, you make your own meaning about it and that meaning can change every day. Don't get me wrong, I love lyrics, they're easy to quote when I don't know how to say something myself, and put things in a lyrcistic (is that a word?) way which makes things seem nicer. Or really mean. Anyway I didn't want to ignore my blog for too long and felt like writing something although obviously I didn't know what to talk about which means I decided to make a random post of stupid things for fun.
EDIT: I was also thinking about something else on a related note of listening to the same song over and over again. Why do we do that when in the end, we get so sick of listening to it that we hate it? Do things lose meaning when we repeat them; or do they gain extra layers to them every time? Just some things to think about.
Lately I've been having really random urges to do things that aren't normal for me. I know some things I do aren't normal for 'normal' people, but these urges are way out there. How can someone be normal anyways? There is no such thing as 'normal' everyone has something weird about them even if people don't necessarily know what it is. Being 'normal' would also be extremely boring. For some reason that just reminded me of a Buffy episode where Buffy can read people's minds. Oz (Seth Green ♥) says that by Buffy being able to read his mind, he ceases to exist because that makes his thoughts available to someone else and in this way it doesn't matter if he exists or not. Same with all the fad following people out there. If they just do and act like everyone else does or as they are told to, then what does their existence mean? We don't need 2 million people that have the same hair and clothes and act the same in the world. We need people that think like their own individual self and have their own unique ways to do things.
On a completely unrelated note I just read on Twitter a tweet that says "Exclusive First Look: BONES love triangle gets complicated". This is confusing because maybe I'm wrong here but love triangles are always complicated, duh. How can they get even more complicated?! Also, why is it a triangle? Three people could also form a circle if they wanted to. If there's more than three people in a 'love triangle' how is it a triangle?
I'm already running out of things today I'm very boring. There's a song I've been listening to on repeat since Saturday. If I was in a sad mood, this song would be really depressing, but thankfully I'm not so I just like it because it's pretty sounding. And I don't know how something can sound 'pretty' because 'pretty' is generally a word you use to describe the visual appearance of something. Adjectives are really annoying, people use them a lot in the wrong way and for some reason that bothers me even though I do the same thing. I also realized this weekend as I went through a large number of instrumental songs, that songs without words can speak a message even clearer and more passionate than ones that actually have words. With instrumental songs, you make your own meaning about it and that meaning can change every day. Don't get me wrong, I love lyrics, they're easy to quote when I don't know how to say something myself, and put things in a lyrcistic (is that a word?) way which makes things seem nicer. Or really mean. Anyway I didn't want to ignore my blog for too long and felt like writing something although obviously I didn't know what to talk about which means I decided to make a random post of stupid things for fun.
EDIT: I was also thinking about something else on a related note of listening to the same song over and over again. Why do we do that when in the end, we get so sick of listening to it that we hate it? Do things lose meaning when we repeat them; or do they gain extra layers to them every time? Just some things to think about.
9/17/10
Idioms (Part 2)
Since I'm really bad at thinking of things to write on my blog and feel bad if I ignore it even though not many people read it, I'll continue my idioms post. By the way, most of the posts in the middle between the phrase and my thoughts are copied from a website and kudos to them for doing all that research about these phrases so I can make sarcastic remarks about them (which is what everything is made for, yes?).
Phrase: "Raining Cats and Dogs"
One possible origin is that the phrase derives from mythology. Dogs and wolves were attendants to Odin, the god of storms, and sailors associated them with rain. Witches, who often took the form of their familiars - cats, are supposed to have ridden the wind. Well, some evidence would be nice. There doesn't appear to be any to support this idea. It has also been suggested that cats and dogs were washed from roofs during heavy weather; which obviously doesn't make sense. Another suggestion is that 'raining cats and dogs' comes from a version of the French word 'catadoupe', meaning waterfall but there's no evidence for this either.
Thoughts: I always had the inane hope that there was a case where it actually rained literal cats and dogs. Then I'd get to go swimming in a sea of (hopefully) cute and fluffy animals and that's one of my life goals (obviously).
Phrase: "Take the Cake"
It is widely supposed that this phrase originated with cake-walk strutting competitions, which were commonplace in the black community of the southern USA in the 19th and early 20th centuries. In those, couples would be judged on their style in the 'cake-walk'. The winners were said to have 'taken the cake', which was often the prize. As early as the 5th century BC the Greeks used 'take the cake' as symbolic of a prize for a victory.
Thoughts: This is disappointing. I was hoping for a story about how someone literally stole a cake and ate it or something. Is the 'cake-walk' like the 'cat-walk'? 'Cake' and 'cat' do both start with the same two letters.
Phrase: "Make A Bee-Line For"
The phrase derives from the behavior of bees. When a forager bee finds a source of nectar it returns to the hive and communicates its location to the other bees, using a display called the Waggle Dance. The other bees are then able to fly directly to the source of the nectar, i.e. 'make a beeline' for it.
Thoughts: I cracked up when I read the 'Waggle Dance' part. Did you? If you didn't, try saying it aloud and not laughing. If you still don't laugh you have issues and should be committed to a mental institution (just kidding but seriously it's funny).
Phrase: "Saved By the Bell"
This is boxing slang that came into being in the latter half of the 19th century. A boxer who is in danger of losing a bout can be 'saved' from defeat by the bell that marks the end of a round. There is a widespread notion that the phrase is from the 17th century and that it describes people being saved from being buried alive by using a coffin with a bell attached. The idea being that, if they were buried but later revived, they could ring the bell and be saved from an unpleasant death. The idea is certainly plausible as the fear of burial alive was and is real.
Thoughts: Kinda makes me feel bad for saying I was saved by the bell because I got to leave school/class. Apparently the bell saved some people from impending death. Gotta hand it to that bell; it's a lifesaver. Should get some sort of award or something awesome like that.
Phrase: "Son of a Gun"
There are a few theories about this one. (1) The phrase originated as 'son of a military man' (i.e. a gun). The most commonly repeated version in this strand is that the British Navy used to allow women to live on naval ships. Any child born on board who had uncertain paternity would be listed in the ship's log as 'son of a gun'. (2) The term is euphemistic and derived as a conveniently rhyming alternative to 'son of a bitch/whore'.
Thoughts: How does 'gun' rhyme with 'bitch' or 'whore'? Am I missing something here? The first explanation seems to make more sense to me. Although now I'm picturing a baby gun with a little wig on it's head...
Phrase: "Peeping Tom"
The name comes from the legend of Lady Godiva's naked ride through the streets of Coventry, in order to persuade her husband to alleviate the harsh taxes on the town's poor. The story goes that the townsfolk agreed not to observe Godiva as she passed by, but that Peeping Tom broke that trust and spied on her.
Thoughts: Bad Tom! No watching a naked woman ride through the streets on a horse! How do they even know 'Tom' saw her? What if someone named 'Yuggle' (yeah whatever weird name I'm horrible at naming stuff don't hate) had seen her? Would we have the phrase 'Peeping Yuggle'?
Phrase: "Going to Hell in a Handbasket"
It isn't at all obvious why 'handbasket' was chosen as the preferred vehicle to convey people to hell. One theory on the origin of the phrase is that derives from the use of handbaskets in the guillotining method of capital punishment. 'Going to hell in a handbasket' seems to be just a colorful version of 'going to hell', in the same sense as 'going to the dogs'. 'In a handbasket' is an alliterative intensifier which gives the expression a catchy ring. There doesn't appear to be any particular significance to 'handbasket' apart from the alliteration.
Thoughts: What exactly is a handbasket? A basket for your hand? Great now I have an image of someone's hand being a basket. That would be pretty obnoxious, although, it would be pretty easy to carry a lot of stuff that way.
Okay so another long post here, but oh well. These idioms are fun although it's kind of hard to find good ones I can make comments on. I probably could do at least one more post of a few more eventually when I feel like my blog needs some attention. It's so demanding. If you have any recommendations as to what I should blog about, I need them; apparently I'm very unimaginative when it comes to these things. Anyways, thanks so much for reading I appreciate it! :]
Phrase: "Raining Cats and Dogs"
One possible origin is that the phrase derives from mythology. Dogs and wolves were attendants to Odin, the god of storms, and sailors associated them with rain. Witches, who often took the form of their familiars - cats, are supposed to have ridden the wind. Well, some evidence would be nice. There doesn't appear to be any to support this idea. It has also been suggested that cats and dogs were washed from roofs during heavy weather; which obviously doesn't make sense. Another suggestion is that 'raining cats and dogs' comes from a version of the French word 'catadoupe', meaning waterfall but there's no evidence for this either.
Thoughts: I always had the inane hope that there was a case where it actually rained literal cats and dogs. Then I'd get to go swimming in a sea of (hopefully) cute and fluffy animals and that's one of my life goals (obviously).
Phrase: "Take the Cake"
It is widely supposed that this phrase originated with cake-walk strutting competitions, which were commonplace in the black community of the southern USA in the 19th and early 20th centuries. In those, couples would be judged on their style in the 'cake-walk'. The winners were said to have 'taken the cake', which was often the prize. As early as the 5th century BC the Greeks used 'take the cake' as symbolic of a prize for a victory.
Thoughts: This is disappointing. I was hoping for a story about how someone literally stole a cake and ate it or something. Is the 'cake-walk' like the 'cat-walk'? 'Cake' and 'cat' do both start with the same two letters.
Phrase: "Make A Bee-Line For"
The phrase derives from the behavior of bees. When a forager bee finds a source of nectar it returns to the hive and communicates its location to the other bees, using a display called the Waggle Dance. The other bees are then able to fly directly to the source of the nectar, i.e. 'make a beeline' for it.
Thoughts: I cracked up when I read the 'Waggle Dance' part. Did you? If you didn't, try saying it aloud and not laughing. If you still don't laugh you have issues and should be committed to a mental institution (just kidding but seriously it's funny).
Phrase: "Saved By the Bell"
This is boxing slang that came into being in the latter half of the 19th century. A boxer who is in danger of losing a bout can be 'saved' from defeat by the bell that marks the end of a round. There is a widespread notion that the phrase is from the 17th century and that it describes people being saved from being buried alive by using a coffin with a bell attached. The idea being that, if they were buried but later revived, they could ring the bell and be saved from an unpleasant death. The idea is certainly plausible as the fear of burial alive was and is real.
Thoughts: Kinda makes me feel bad for saying I was saved by the bell because I got to leave school/class. Apparently the bell saved some people from impending death. Gotta hand it to that bell; it's a lifesaver. Should get some sort of award or something awesome like that.
Phrase: "Son of a Gun"
There are a few theories about this one. (1) The phrase originated as 'son of a military man' (i.e. a gun). The most commonly repeated version in this strand is that the British Navy used to allow women to live on naval ships. Any child born on board who had uncertain paternity would be listed in the ship's log as 'son of a gun'. (2) The term is euphemistic and derived as a conveniently rhyming alternative to 'son of a bitch/whore'.
Thoughts: How does 'gun' rhyme with 'bitch' or 'whore'? Am I missing something here? The first explanation seems to make more sense to me. Although now I'm picturing a baby gun with a little wig on it's head...
Phrase: "Peeping Tom"
The name comes from the legend of Lady Godiva's naked ride through the streets of Coventry, in order to persuade her husband to alleviate the harsh taxes on the town's poor. The story goes that the townsfolk agreed not to observe Godiva as she passed by, but that Peeping Tom broke that trust and spied on her.
Thoughts: Bad Tom! No watching a naked woman ride through the streets on a horse! How do they even know 'Tom' saw her? What if someone named 'Yuggle' (yeah whatever weird name I'm horrible at naming stuff don't hate) had seen her? Would we have the phrase 'Peeping Yuggle'?
Phrase: "Going to Hell in a Handbasket"
It isn't at all obvious why 'handbasket' was chosen as the preferred vehicle to convey people to hell. One theory on the origin of the phrase is that derives from the use of handbaskets in the guillotining method of capital punishment. 'Going to hell in a handbasket' seems to be just a colorful version of 'going to hell', in the same sense as 'going to the dogs'. 'In a handbasket' is an alliterative intensifier which gives the expression a catchy ring. There doesn't appear to be any particular significance to 'handbasket' apart from the alliteration.
Thoughts: What exactly is a handbasket? A basket for your hand? Great now I have an image of someone's hand being a basket. That would be pretty obnoxious, although, it would be pretty easy to carry a lot of stuff that way.
Okay so another long post here, but oh well. These idioms are fun although it's kind of hard to find good ones I can make comments on. I probably could do at least one more post of a few more eventually when I feel like my blog needs some attention. It's so demanding. If you have any recommendations as to what I should blog about, I need them; apparently I'm very unimaginative when it comes to these things. Anyways, thanks so much for reading I appreciate it! :]
9/13/10
Reflections
Recently I was inspired to take out my old diary. I was never really consistent with the entries and wrote sporadically. I'm obviously not going to use this post to explain my life story or anything because if I haven't told you then you shouldn't know. And only I need to know the stuff I wrote in my diary. I can tell where I started developing sarcasm from my diary entries which is pretty amusing. My first attempts at sarcasm were pretty fail. I drew things once in a while and they were really bad but looking back at them makes me laugh. Most of my diary entries are in pencil, and I can see the spots that I went back and corrected my past self's grammar the last time I looked at it. I think I was a pretty dull person when I was younger, I have an entry two sentences long saying that I played video games all day and finished a report or something. I was also very vague in a lot of my entries for some reason which I now regret. I saw where my aunt and uncle gave me CDs for my birthday and I don't know which ones they were even though I would really like to know. The two most recent entries I have in my diary were pretty strange to look back on. Things have changed a lot in a little less than a year. Those entries were pretty angry, but almost everything I was angry about at the time don't make me mad anymore. With 33 sentences that start with "I hate that" I sure ranted a lot. I don't recall any memories, but the emotions at that time I do remember. I know at the time what was happening sucked, but I made it through and I feel like I emerged victorious over my old perspective on life.
So during this post I had this song in my head from Mulan. It is relevant because it's called "Reflection" so don't go thinking this is totally ADD. It's only a little ADD.
So during this post I had this song in my head from Mulan. It is relevant because it's called "Reflection" so don't go thinking this is totally ADD. It's only a little ADD.
9/6/10
Dear N00b Brother
This post is to you, younger but not so little brother. You who enjoys making fun of someone named 'Ken' at red lights with me. You who call everything I do 'illegal'. And you who makes me so frustrated that I would like to throw a pie at you but don't because you would like it. Our bonding experiences have included: lightsaber duels, dance-offs, and the game of "who can get to the car first to ride shotgun". Maybe you don't wish me a happy birthday until the day after, but it's fun because now I can reciprocate that. Which reminds me of a few years ago when you had a birthday party and your friends were all 20 minutes late and I, being the evil older sister, went outside around the house, rang the doorbell, and ran away from the door. You went to the door excited to see a friend but was disappointed to see that it was in fact nobody (unless your friend was wearing an invisibility cloak at the time). Even though you never let me play video games with you anymore (probably because I win too much), I know you want to preserve your dignity so I let it slide. But then, I tell everyone how bad you are anyways. Proclamations of “You’re so cheap” do not help with your reputation and you should learn this. And in our recent trip back to childhood via Neopets, I have already beat you so many times in Beach Volleyball that I would need another chalkboard to continue the tally marks. At every chance you can you mock me, but it's okay because according to Rachel from Big Brother, "The highest form of flattery is being mocked". Or something like that I don't remember the quote. And now I end this post. I have rightfully called you a n00b and you deserve this highest title as my brother.
8/30/10
Idioms
Today I had this strange thing in the back of my head making me think: Where do all the wacky phrases we use nowadays come from? So I decided to look some up when I got home about 20 minutes ago. Read on for strange phrases, even stranger origins, and some nice sarcastic comments.
Phrase: "I have a beef with you"
Apparently the phrase "I have a beef with you" originated in the old west among sheep farmers who were competing for grazing land with cattle farmers. The sheep farmers used the term with each other to refer to a conflict, which was what they had with the cattle farmers, or "beef" farmers.
Thoughts: Now that's weird. We don't really fight about beef anymore or maybe we do... ("Gimme a Big Mac!")
Phrase: "Until the cows come home"
This one I like because there's a funny quote from Buffy that uses this phrase: 'I can beat up the demons until the cows come home... and then I can beat up the cows.' So this means that you can keep going for a long time because supposedly cows take a long time to come home. I wouldn't know from personal experience though because no matter how many people suggest it, I am not a cowgirl. The precise time and place of the coining of this phrase isn't known. It was definitely before 1829 though, and may well have been in Scotland. The phrase appeared in print in The Times in January that year, when the paper reported a suggestion of what the Duke of Wellington should do if he wanted to maintain a place as a minister in Peel's cabinet.
Thoughts: This phrase is cool. How could it not be cool if it's about cows?
Phrase: "It is as clear as a bell"
Back in the 1910's, many companies were trying to get into the manufacturing and selling one of the hottest items around, the phonograph. One of those companies was the Sonora Chime Company. This company started the Sonora Phonograph Company and used "Clear as a Bell" as their slogan, touting the fidelity of their machine's sound reproduction.
Thoughts: Now I want a clear bell; that would be pretty cool
Phrase: "That was a piece of cake(or pie)"
This phrase is of American origin. At least, the earliest citation of it that I can find is from the American poet and humorist Ogden Nash's Primrose Path, 1936: "Her picture's in the papers now, And life's a piece of cake."
Thoughts: That's a really old phrase so the piece of cake we're figuratively referring to here must be really old. Ew.
Phrase: "The big cheese"
In earlier times the cheese didn't have to be big - 'the cheese' alone was a synonym for quality. We now use cheesy to describe anything second-rate, artificial or even smelly. Going back to the 19th century the meaning was just the opposite. 'Cheese' or 'cheesy' is listed in John Camden Hotten's The Slang Dictionary, 1863 as: "Anything good, first-rate in quality, genuine, pleasant or advantageous". Early in the 20th century the cheese crossed the Atlantic to the USA, and there it got big. The first reference there to 'big cheese' meaning wealth or fame comes from 'O. Henry' (William Sydney Porter), in Unprofessional Servant, 1910: "Del had crawled from some Tenth Avenue basement like a lean rat and had bitten his way into the Big Cheese... He had danced his way into fame in sixteen minutes."
Thoughts: The meaning of cheese has changed a lot. It's kinda weird to try and think of something labeled "cheesy" as being good because being cheesy is usually a bad thing.
Phrase: "A load of codswallop"
I just wanted to put this here because I love the word 'codswallop'. Although I searched and it doesn't mean anything or could mean several things.
Thoughts: I really like that word
Phrase: "Beat about the bush"
The figurative meaning we have for this phrase has evolved from the earlier meaning, which was more literal. In bird hunting some participants roused the birds by beating the bushes while others caught them in nets. So, 'beating about the bush' was the preamble to the actual capture. Of course, grouse hunting and other forms of hunt still use beaters today.
Thoughts: So if I want to find a bird I should physically assault a bush? Sounds fun!
Phrase: "Hasta la vista!"
It was used in the popular song Looking for a New Love, which was taken from Jody Watley's first album and released as a single in 1987:
My love was true
Still you threw it all away
But now you’re like the rest
Unworthy of my best
Hasta la vista, baby
'Hasta la vista, baby' came to the wider attention of the English-speaking world via the 1991 film Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
Thoughts: I wanted to know where this came from because I used to use this phrase a lot although I don't much anymore.
Phrase: "Bring home the bacon"
The origin of the phrase 'bring home the bacon' is sometimes suggested to be the story of the Dunmow Flitch. This tradition, which still continues every four years in Great Dunmow, Essex, is based on the story of a local couple who, in 1104, impressed the Prior of Little Dunmow with their marital devotion to the point that he awarded them bacon.
Thoughts: I feel like the Prior of Little Dunmow was a crazy man. "Wow you guys are devoted to each other! Here's some bacon!" Wack job.
Phrase: "My better half"
This term wasn't originally restricted to referring to one's spouse as we use it now, but to a dear friend. It was used that way by the Roman poet Horace and later by Statius. The allusion then was to a friend so dear that he/she was more than half of a person's being. That meaning persists, although these days, if the term is used seriously rather than sarcastically, it is generally considered to mean 'the superior half of a married couple'. That is, better in quality rather than in quantity. Sir Philip Sidney was the first to put into print the use of this phrase to mean spouse, in The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia, 1580: "My deare, my better halfe (sayd hee) I find I must now leaue thee."
Thoughts: If there's a better half of you that isn't you does that mean you're only half? Just wondering. And yes, that's rhetorical. I don't want to know if you're sliced in half that would be tmi.
Phrase: "Wild goose chase"
This phrase is old and appears to be one of the many phrases introduced to the language by Shakespeare. The first recorded citation is from Romeo and Juliet, 1592:
Romeo: Switch and spurs, switch and spurs; or I'll cry a match.
Mercutio: Nay, if thy wits run the wild-goose chase, I have done, for thou hast more of the wild-goose in one of thy wits than, I am sure, I have in my whole five.
Our current use of the phrase alludes to an undertaking which will probably prove to be fruitless - and it's hard to imagine anything more doomed to failure than an attempt to catch a wild goos by chasing after it. Our understanding of the term differs from that in use in Shakespeare's day. The earlier meaning related not to hunting but to horse racing. A 'wild goose chase' was a chase in which horses followed a lead horse at a set distance, mimicking wild geese flying in formation.
Thoughts: I wonder if horses had identity crisises back then. Person: "It's a wild goose chase!"; Horse: "Where the heck is the goose?!" Did people back then get their animals confused? As far as I know horse does not equal goose.
Well I think I'm done with sarcastic comments for the day. I know there are a lot more phrases, but I'll leave them to another post because this one is really long and I don't think people will actually read all this. So look forward to more of these (eventually) and I hope this was at least somewhat interesting. And if it wasn't, why did you read all the way to this sentence?!
Phrase: "I have a beef with you"
Apparently the phrase "I have a beef with you" originated in the old west among sheep farmers who were competing for grazing land with cattle farmers. The sheep farmers used the term with each other to refer to a conflict, which was what they had with the cattle farmers, or "beef" farmers.
Thoughts: Now that's weird. We don't really fight about beef anymore or maybe we do... ("Gimme a Big Mac!")
Phrase: "Until the cows come home"
This one I like because there's a funny quote from Buffy that uses this phrase: 'I can beat up the demons until the cows come home... and then I can beat up the cows.' So this means that you can keep going for a long time because supposedly cows take a long time to come home. I wouldn't know from personal experience though because no matter how many people suggest it, I am not a cowgirl. The precise time and place of the coining of this phrase isn't known. It was definitely before 1829 though, and may well have been in Scotland. The phrase appeared in print in The Times in January that year, when the paper reported a suggestion of what the Duke of Wellington should do if he wanted to maintain a place as a minister in Peel's cabinet.
Thoughts: This phrase is cool. How could it not be cool if it's about cows?
Phrase: "It is as clear as a bell"
Back in the 1910's, many companies were trying to get into the manufacturing and selling one of the hottest items around, the phonograph. One of those companies was the Sonora Chime Company. This company started the Sonora Phonograph Company and used "Clear as a Bell" as their slogan, touting the fidelity of their machine's sound reproduction.
Thoughts: Now I want a clear bell; that would be pretty cool
Phrase: "That was a piece of cake(or pie)"
This phrase is of American origin. At least, the earliest citation of it that I can find is from the American poet and humorist Ogden Nash's Primrose Path, 1936: "Her picture's in the papers now, And life's a piece of cake."
Thoughts: That's a really old phrase so the piece of cake we're figuratively referring to here must be really old. Ew.
Phrase: "The big cheese"
In earlier times the cheese didn't have to be big - 'the cheese' alone was a synonym for quality. We now use cheesy to describe anything second-rate, artificial or even smelly. Going back to the 19th century the meaning was just the opposite. 'Cheese' or 'cheesy' is listed in John Camden Hotten's The Slang Dictionary, 1863 as: "Anything good, first-rate in quality, genuine, pleasant or advantageous". Early in the 20th century the cheese crossed the Atlantic to the USA, and there it got big. The first reference there to 'big cheese' meaning wealth or fame comes from 'O. Henry' (William Sydney Porter), in Unprofessional Servant, 1910: "Del had crawled from some Tenth Avenue basement like a lean rat and had bitten his way into the Big Cheese... He had danced his way into fame in sixteen minutes."
Thoughts: The meaning of cheese has changed a lot. It's kinda weird to try and think of something labeled "cheesy" as being good because being cheesy is usually a bad thing.
Phrase: "A load of codswallop"
I just wanted to put this here because I love the word 'codswallop'. Although I searched and it doesn't mean anything or could mean several things.
Thoughts: I really like that word
Phrase: "Beat about the bush"
The figurative meaning we have for this phrase has evolved from the earlier meaning, which was more literal. In bird hunting some participants roused the birds by beating the bushes while others caught them in nets. So, 'beating about the bush' was the preamble to the actual capture. Of course, grouse hunting and other forms of hunt still use beaters today.
Thoughts: So if I want to find a bird I should physically assault a bush? Sounds fun!
Phrase: "Hasta la vista!"
It was used in the popular song Looking for a New Love, which was taken from Jody Watley's first album and released as a single in 1987:
My love was true
Still you threw it all away
But now you’re like the rest
Unworthy of my best
Hasta la vista, baby
'Hasta la vista, baby' came to the wider attention of the English-speaking world via the 1991 film Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
Thoughts: I wanted to know where this came from because I used to use this phrase a lot although I don't much anymore.
Phrase: "Bring home the bacon"
The origin of the phrase 'bring home the bacon' is sometimes suggested to be the story of the Dunmow Flitch. This tradition, which still continues every four years in Great Dunmow, Essex, is based on the story of a local couple who, in 1104, impressed the Prior of Little Dunmow with their marital devotion to the point that he awarded them bacon.
Thoughts: I feel like the Prior of Little Dunmow was a crazy man. "Wow you guys are devoted to each other! Here's some bacon!" Wack job.
Phrase: "My better half"
This term wasn't originally restricted to referring to one's spouse as we use it now, but to a dear friend. It was used that way by the Roman poet Horace and later by Statius. The allusion then was to a friend so dear that he/she was more than half of a person's being. That meaning persists, although these days, if the term is used seriously rather than sarcastically, it is generally considered to mean 'the superior half of a married couple'. That is, better in quality rather than in quantity. Sir Philip Sidney was the first to put into print the use of this phrase to mean spouse, in The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia, 1580: "My deare, my better halfe (sayd hee) I find I must now leaue thee."
Thoughts: If there's a better half of you that isn't you does that mean you're only half? Just wondering. And yes, that's rhetorical. I don't want to know if you're sliced in half that would be tmi.
Phrase: "Wild goose chase"
This phrase is old and appears to be one of the many phrases introduced to the language by Shakespeare. The first recorded citation is from Romeo and Juliet, 1592:
Romeo: Switch and spurs, switch and spurs; or I'll cry a match.
Mercutio: Nay, if thy wits run the wild-goose chase, I have done, for thou hast more of the wild-goose in one of thy wits than, I am sure, I have in my whole five.
Our current use of the phrase alludes to an undertaking which will probably prove to be fruitless - and it's hard to imagine anything more doomed to failure than an attempt to catch a wild goos by chasing after it. Our understanding of the term differs from that in use in Shakespeare's day. The earlier meaning related not to hunting but to horse racing. A 'wild goose chase' was a chase in which horses followed a lead horse at a set distance, mimicking wild geese flying in formation.
Thoughts: I wonder if horses had identity crisises back then. Person: "It's a wild goose chase!"; Horse: "Where the heck is the goose?!" Did people back then get their animals confused? As far as I know horse does not equal goose.
Well I think I'm done with sarcastic comments for the day. I know there are a lot more phrases, but I'll leave them to another post because this one is really long and I don't think people will actually read all this. So look forward to more of these (eventually) and I hope this was at least somewhat interesting. And if it wasn't, why did you read all the way to this sentence?!
8/15/10
My Other Blog
So just today I decided to make another blog. It's not one I made to replace this one, it's just one where I can post different things instead of my thoughts as I do here. So my new blog (I really need a name for it; right now it's titled "Around the Web") is where I will be posting interesting links and shorter posts because as you can see, the posts on this blog are usually pretty long and I ramble. In "Around the Web" you can look around to see if anything I've linked to looks interesting. I won't be writing much on that blog, mostly just taking a quote from the page I link to and then linking it, but I will still pay attention to it. I'll mostly be linking any type of entertainment news or just normal news that interests me. Most of the sites I get are from Twitter because I follow people that post interesting sites. Enough of my rambling right? If you have any ideas about a possible title for my other blog instead of the obvious flavorless title of "Around the Web" suggest it in the comments; I'm open to any suggestions. Link to blog is right below this; I hope you go check it out!
☛"Around the Web"☚
☛"Around the Web"☚
7/26/10
Dishwalla
On my somewhat recent obsession with 90's music, I found one of the best bands ever. If you haven't heard of Dishwalla (apparently the name comes from a Hindi term for a person providing cable television to a neighborhood), you've missed out until now (and I will be trying to convince you to give them a try). I lament not having found them before now. I first heard Dishwalla on Charmed in Season 2 
and since then I've loved their music, but it wasn’t until lately that I’ve really gotten into it. The lyrics, the beat, the lead singer's entrancing voice, everything about them is just amazing. Many people compare them to the likes of the rock greats, The Goo Goo Dolls. Dishwalla is best known for their hit song ‘Counting Blue Cars’ released in 1996 on the album Pet Your Friends which was frequently played on the radio. The track earned them a Billboard Award for "Best Rock Song" for 1996 and two ASCAP Awards for "Rock Track of the Year" in both 1996 and 1997. Several of their songs have been in movies and on TV shows such as NCIS, Smallville, and The OC. I love all their songs, but my favorites are ‘Angels or Devils’,‘Give’ , and 'Until I Wake Up'. (Click on the links to listen to the songs or else)
See how I just made a new paragraph? That was to give you a chance to listen to the songs (and hopefully like them) before I continue. Or you could read and listen at the same time; that works too. So on another note, I got a Twitter recently and J.R. Richards (lead singer of Dishwalla) himself followed me! (He's the one on the far right of the picture) I was so excited and obviously I followed him back. This also made me curious as to what he’s
been doing lately, so I went to do what I always do when I’m curious: research. And to do this the obvious place you can go is Google. So when I Googled him, I found out that he just released a solo album titled “A Beautiful End”. So next I went to YouTube and typed this in to find his songs. Once I listened to them, I instantly fell in love with his music all over again. Now I’m obsessed (Thanks a lot J.R.! XD) and I can’t stop listening to all his songs on repeat. His songs are filled with passion and the lyrics are also very deep and catchy. Hopefully through all this, you’ve listened to the songs and liked them. If not, I’m sad about that, but at least you gave them a try and that’s all I can ask. And if you did like the music, listen to more of it just by searching Dishwalla on YouTube or another site you listen to music on (such as Playlist.com), and spread the word!
and since then I've loved their music, but it wasn’t until lately that I’ve really gotten into it. The lyrics, the beat, the lead singer's entrancing voice, everything about them is just amazing. Many people compare them to the likes of the rock greats, The Goo Goo Dolls. Dishwalla is best known for their hit song ‘Counting Blue Cars’ released in 1996 on the album Pet Your Friends which was frequently played on the radio. The track earned them a Billboard Award for "Best Rock Song" for 1996 and two ASCAP Awards for "Rock Track of the Year" in both 1996 and 1997. Several of their songs have been in movies and on TV shows such as NCIS, Smallville, and The OC. I love all their songs, but my favorites are ‘Angels or Devils’,‘Give’ , and 'Until I Wake Up'. (Click on the links to listen to the songs See how I just made a new paragraph? That was to give you a chance to listen to the songs (and hopefully like them) before I continue. Or you could read and listen at the same time; that works too. So on another note, I got a Twitter recently and J.R. Richards (lead singer of Dishwalla) himself followed me! (He's the one on the far right of the picture) I was so excited and obviously I followed him back. This also made me curious as to what he’s
been doing lately, so I went to do what I always do when I’m curious: research. And to do this the obvious place you can go is Google. So when I Googled him, I found out that he just released a solo album titled “A Beautiful End”. So next I went to YouTube and typed this in to find his songs. Once I listened to them, I instantly fell in love with his music all over again. Now I’m obsessed (Thanks a lot J.R.! XD) and I can’t stop listening to all his songs on repeat. His songs are filled with passion and the lyrics are also very deep and catchy. Hopefully through all this, you’ve listened to the songs and liked them. If not, I’m sad about that, but at least you gave them a try and that’s all I can ask. And if you did like the music, listen to more of it just by searching Dishwalla on YouTube or another site you listen to music on (such as Playlist.com), and spread the word!
7/25/10
Cover Songs
Whether we love 'em or hate 'em, they're out there. Whether they completely ruin something great or make it even better, they've always been there and will keep on being made. That's right: cover songs.
Recently on YouTube I found this cover by 30 Seconds to Mars of Lady Gaga's song, Bad Romance. Personally I didn't like it at first, but as the song kept going, I started to like it and now I listen to it a lot. Everyone has their opinions on cover songs, but it varies from cover to cover. I also listened to a cover of the Transformers theme song by Black Lab (link once I find it again) and I didn't like it at all. It just sounded wrong. There are also tons of covers of songs on YouTube by random people; some of them are great and others make you wish you were deaf.
Usually people complain about cover songs because they are done in a different key or a different style, which can completely change the song. This is so in the above cover by 30 Seconds to Mars where they take Lady Gaga's pop, crazy, fast Bad Romance and change it into their own slow, acoustic-type song. To some people this ruins the song, but I think it's interesting that a song can sound so different yet the same just based on someone else's take on it.
Recently on YouTube I found this cover by 30 Seconds to Mars of Lady Gaga's song, Bad Romance. Personally I didn't like it at first, but as the song kept going, I started to like it and now I listen to it a lot. Everyone has their opinions on cover songs, but it varies from cover to cover. I also listened to a cover of the Transformers theme song by Black Lab (link once I find it again) and I didn't like it at all. It just sounded wrong. There are also tons of covers of songs on YouTube by random people; some of them are great and others make you wish you were deaf.
Usually people complain about cover songs because they are done in a different key or a different style, which can completely change the song. This is so in the above cover by 30 Seconds to Mars where they take Lady Gaga's pop, crazy, fast Bad Romance and change it into their own slow, acoustic-type song. To some people this ruins the song, but I think it's interesting that a song can sound so different yet the same just based on someone else's take on it.
7/23/10
“ρяεττy ʟιττʟε ʟιαяʂ”
When I first saw the name of this TV show, I instantaneously thought "Oh great another girly gossip show", but I still gave it a shot solely because I saw that Holly Marie Combs (Piper from Charmed) would be on it. I'm glad I watched it and now I'm hooked.
Pretty Little Liars is based on a series by the same name by Sara Shepard (which I am now impatiently awaiting to come in at the library so I can read it). In regards to how accurate the show is to the books, I really don’t know because I (sadly) have not read the books. The show is based on a group of girls whose friend Alyson recently died. But not very long after Alyson's death, the girls begin
receiving messages all from the notorious "A" which makes them think it is Alyson. "A" knows all their secrets and sets out to ruin the girls' lives. This sets up the series’ premise of finding out just who “A” really is. After the first episode, I became immersed in the series and can't wait until Tuesdays for the new episodes (8pm Eastern on ABC Family). Originally, I lamented over another great show that would never get the respectability it deserves. That was until last Tuesday when Pretty Little Liars was trending worldwide on Twitter in three different ways! This made me happy that people actually are paying attention to this great show.
Holly plays one of the girls' mothers and her character's name is Ella. In the more recent episodes, she's been having a hard time dealing with the fact that her husband cheated on her. It was because of "A" that Ella found out, and since then in the newest episode SPOILER ALERT Ella left her husband and kids to go live somewhere else. I hope this doesn't limit her screen time; I already feel like she isn't on there enough! Holly is very good at portraying emotional scenes and her acting makes it seem like her emotions are very real.
So if you wrote off this show because of the cheesy-sounding name, remember that saying everyone rolls their eyes at; "Don't judge a book by its cover". Give the show a chance and you may be surprised at how good it actually is.
Pretty Little Liars is based on a series by the same name by Sara Shepard (which I am now impatiently awaiting to come in at the library so I can read it). In regards to how accurate the show is to the books, I really don’t know because I (sadly) have not read the books. The show is based on a group of girls whose friend Alyson recently died. But not very long after Alyson's death, the girls begin
receiving messages all from the notorious "A" which makes them think it is Alyson. "A" knows all their secrets and sets out to ruin the girls' lives. This sets up the series’ premise of finding out just who “A” really is. After the first episode, I became immersed in the series and can't wait until Tuesdays for the new episodes (8pm Eastern on ABC Family). Originally, I lamented over another great show that would never get the respectability it deserves. That was until last Tuesday when Pretty Little Liars was trending worldwide on Twitter in three different ways! This made me happy that people actually are paying attention to this great show.Holly plays one of the girls' mothers and her character's name is Ella. In the more recent episodes, she's been having a hard time dealing with the fact that her husband cheated on her. It was because of "A" that Ella found out, and since then in the newest episode SPOILER ALERT Ella left her husband and kids to go live somewhere else. I hope this doesn't limit her screen time; I already feel like she isn't on there enough! Holly is very good at portraying emotional scenes and her acting makes it seem like her emotions are very real.
So if you wrote off this show because of the cheesy-sounding name, remember that saying everyone rolls their eyes at; "Don't judge a book by its cover". Give the show a chance and you may be surprised at how good it actually is.
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