The Little Things

          I find it fascinating how the smallest things can make us so happy.  A great song, a simple memory, a sweet treat, or the fact that someone is there for you can brighten up any day.  Tomorrow I leave for a trip with my church, similar to one I took last year.  After last year's trip, I made it a point to write everything down.  I read it all last night and remembering the times the group had gave me that wonderful, nostalgic, happy feeling in the bottom of my heart.  Now I'm even more excited for this year, and determined to give the newbies similar great memories.  I'm so young and have so many more great experiences to live, that I bet my memories and the feelings they bring can't hold a candle to the ones to come.  Until they do, I'll just keep enjoying the little things. :D  

Get Your Head in the Clouds!

All my life people have talked about dreams. Not the dreams you get when asleep, but aspirations and goals in life. Everywhere I went it was "Follow your dreams!", "Dream big!", "Let you dreams take you places!" And for a while, I was worried. I didn't have dreams, I didn't know what I was going to do in life. I had a general idea, but nothing to "chase." All I was concerned about was getting through a cruddy fifth grade year, which only shot down the little dream-lettes sprouting in my brain. It felt like having a dream got you in a special club, and being excluded was strange and uncertain. But when I was given oppurtunities to discover and practice my strengths and passions, ideas and goals began to take shape. See if you truly want to chase your dreams, they must be firmly rooted in some type of strength or talent. So if you don't have a dream, start living life to the fullest, find your passion and dream on.

This Made Me Happy

He likes to put the cute little flowers in his cute little mouth!  Thanks http://squee.icanhascheezburger.com/ for this awesome picture!

Beautiful Evening

Have you ever noticed how the clouds seem to shift to one side of the sky when the sun sets? It's like they know the day is ending and need to drag their sleepy-eyed cloud toddlers home to bed. Some clouds are slower than others. Maybe their cloud child had a temper tantrum and refused to leave the bright blue sky for the warm dark night. Some are faster, possibly quickly yanking their nine year old cloud kid by the ear straight home to wash his mouth out. But some mozy along at a steady pace, holding their child's hands and swinging them in the air as they walk, or ,rather, float. Tired mama clouds carry the early sleepers towards the melting sun's warmth, and daddy clouds lovingly listen to their daughters' elaborate decriptions of the events of the day. Across the sky the scene unfolds, painting a spectacular view for the mortals below. With the sun and the sky and the harmony of the earth, how can God be absent?

Remember When...

Remember the days before Facebook, or when you weren't allowed to do anything cool on the Internet? What did we do? We played games. And used email. Back then, email was the coolest thing ever, and we were all introduced to the forward message. I hate forward messages, the irk me. I can think of a hundred better things you could be doing than sending, or creating, a forward message. Anyway, the days when people under 20 communicate through email are over. No one ever asks for you email, now all you need to do in order to connect with them is to remember their name and look them up on Facebook. It seems strange looking back and rmembering the days when no one needed social networking. They simply put themselves around people they wanted to talk to and avoided ones they didn't.b now it's so much more complicated. Social networking and other tools are good, but only until they create more problems than they solve. I would not be surprised if that day ever came.

The Art of the Swear

          Ahh the swear, the cuss, the profanity.  So powerful, yet so often over-used.  The variety of frowned-upon words is astounding, each one with its own special meaning.  Yet these meanings are often overlooked, and most swears are put under the category of "uttered under breath, but sometimes louder, when something undesirable happens".  Those poor cuss words, they must get sad when they ponder their lost individuality.  The also must get tired from being thrown around willy-nilly all day, some speakings not even worth the smallest word's time.  But when used correctly, and sparingly, I find that the swear word can add a lot to a piece of writing.  Depending on the situation, when a character speaks a profanity, and which profanity he proclaims, can reveal some in depth information on the characters thoughts.  If the character Johny curses like a sailor at the drop of a china plate, you can assume he is very short tempered, impulsive, and probably struggling with something other than a broken piece of dinnerware.  See? Insightful.  The well placed cuss word can also add some humor to your writing. The unexpected splash in the middle of a sentence can keep the reader entertained and excited.  This is by no means encouraging course language, but if you're going to do it, do it right.  

An Observation

Has anyone else noticed how many times Spongebob has appeared to have lost his mind? There's the time when he couldn't remember how to make a crabby patty, the time he would only stay indoors, the time he threw the peanut at the giant clam, the time when "Musical Doodle" took over his life, and I'm pretty sure there's a coulple others. This either shows that there's something seriously wrong with the writers of Spongebob, or that I watch too much of the show. I think it's a little of both.

Life Lessons from Tetris

          If you've never heard of Tetris, click here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetris because it's annoying to explain.  If you want to play Tetris, click here http://www.tetrisfriends.com/games/Marathon/game.php?ref=from-homepage-ad because it's fun.
          Okay, so now that you're educated, let me tell you some things about Tetris.  I love to play Tetris, and the iTunes app is definitely worth the money.  Placing the colorful blocks in order to gain the most points is surprisingly addictive.  I've been playing Tetris on car rides since I was like seven, (the blocks were not always colorful) so it's pretty familiar to me.  What I've noticed, especially when playing the app, is that they tell you the pieces you're getting next on the side.   But who the heck uses that!?!?!  It could probably be extremely useful but, you're so concentrated on putting your current piece in the right spot, that you could care less about knowing what's ahead.  And yup, you guessed it, them there's the analogy.  I know that I definitely get caught up in the present and forget to look towards the future.  Then the future pops up on the top of your screen and you're like, "Woah, how the heck do I deal with that?!", and you wish you would have planned for it before.  Planning for, and looking towards, the future can be highly beneficial, so although I'll probably never use it in Tetris, I'll try to look ahead in life.

Video Games: Bitter Sweet

          Video games are great.  I love to play video games, like most people, but I would not call myself a gamer.  Part of that is because I have a Wii, nothing more, and the most violent game we own is Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Which I rock at, Pit owns).  And while I'm sure the video game industry creates jobs and all that, I think that an immense amount of talent, especially in young people, is wasted because of them.  I can almost guarantee you that half the guys in my school could raise their grades if they spent a little less time gaming and a little more time concentrating on homework.  Great, now I just sound like a crabby mother nagging at her brain-washed child.  But imagine the art, science discoveries, real-life friendships, and even exercise that could occur if we put, not just our controllers down, but our laptops, Ipods and phones down too.  Now I have done yet another transformation, now turning into a hypocrite.  Hey, old habits are hard to break, especially when technology makes more and more advances to keep us coming back.  Well, with any luck they'll find some unrealistic reason to keep off technology, like trans fats or something, and we can make the jump back from virtual to actual life.   

Things Remembered (Not the Store) and Dirty Laundry

Have you ever looked back on an event and were surprised at the bizarre part that your mind chose to remember? I know I have. I'm completely blanking on some examples now, but I know I've thought that to myself before. I wonder what process the brain goes through when selecting a memory. And imagine the power we would hold if we mastered it! But one thing about what an entire culture chooses to "remember" by passing it down to the next generation is that it is more often then not positive. I mean really, I am just entering high school and you would think that by now I would have had a proper lesson on the Holocaust, or the Vietnam War. And wasn't there a Korean war too? Now I know we shouldn't go around giving little children nightmares about Hitler, but it seems society is trying to block the memories out, to forget these failures or tradgedies ever occured. All that's left of them are bad airs to the words "communist" and even "Germany" "North Korea", and "Vietnam". I didn't even know what communism was until seventh grade, but some how the negetive vibe of the word had been with me, it seemed, since birth. And communism as a philosophy wasn't even the enemy! Our cultures attemps to cover up history's mistakes are skewing the understood facts. Please, just give everything to me straight up, it's saves you alot of trouble including future chewing outs like this one. Never doubt the cunning of the next generation, dirty laundy can only sit so long before it starts to stink.

A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words

          Everyone has heard that expression, and I think most people agree.  The statement seems the most prevalent when talking about history.  Now, I am most certainly not a history buff, so my opinions expressed on this topic may be pretty skewed.  But, when focusing on a time period, especially one in the 20th century, I identify it by famous photographs of that time and derive my own mental picture and understanding of the culture from there.  But that gets a little more difficult the farther you go back in time.  Then you look for other visual representations of the time.  These could include theatrical works (Shakespeare and the Elizabethan Era come to mind), faces, such as Caesar's, on various forms of money, or works of art made in the time period.  I believe that the clearer the visual representation of the time period, the clearer the general public's understanding of that age is.  Not much art or anything came out of the Dark Ages, so perhaps that is why it is hard for me to picture it.  We have a very clear understanding of times in Egyptian history, and I think the sculpture and painting of the time period are one of it's central contributors.  I wonder what people generations from now will think of our representations.  I think we better start cleaning up our act before we send the wrong message to our grandchildren.  

The Office

          Yes, The Office as in the show on American cable.  I love that show, especially the character Micheal Scott.  He makes me laugh.  I wish I could write his script and storyline.  He's so socially oblivious that making up his various charades would be hilarious.  You would just have to go down the list of "don'ts" in life and make a story about them.  Everything you wish you could do, or say, that you know would be completely unacceptable, you could just have Micheal do it for you.  Feeling angry about the state of the government?  Have Micheal write a letter to his Congressman about his lack of recognition in the work place.  Infuriated at the rude comments that come from peoples' mouths?  Micheal will happily take your anger out on Toby.  Disappointed that an appropriate time for your dirty joke hasn't arisen?  Simply write in a classic "that's what she said" for Micheal to blurt.  Oh yes, the episode when Micheal left was VERY emotional, as many are sad to see him go.  He is truly a character that cannot be matched, but I'm sure the producers will think of something to keep us crawling back for more.
   

Get Real!

By the way, HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY EVERYONE (American)!!!!
         
          You know what really bugs me, and probably allot of others?  Fake people.  You know what I'm talking about, those people who parade around for attention, acting in a completely different way then their true selves, just to get that extra look, even if its an angry glare?  Yeah, that irritates me.  And if you know me, you know it takes allot to get completely on my nerves (unless you're a sibling).  And I don't think its the actual people themselves that annoy me, but the way they chose to act.  I mean really, just because you can afford Ambercrombie and Fitch doesn't mean you need to fit the "rich mean-girl (or boy)" stereotype and start shooting people down left and right.  But the most obnoxious thing that these people do for attention is disrespect authority or an adult.  I know if I did that in front of my parents, my dad would throw a fit, and I'm sure theirs would too.  Would someone please explain to me the benefit of disrespect?  Although getting yelled at is attention, I doubt its the kind most people crave.  Oh well, people will be people.  I'm just glad I don't have to worry about living a double life.

The First Ever Poetry Special!

          Here's a poem I wrote about a year ago that I felt like sharing.  I love to write poems, and although this one's pretty simple, it's one of my favorites.  I like to think of it as a motto for this blog.

Thanks

I wonder who will read this poem.

Who would read my work if I didn't even know em'?

Sometimes I wonder who will care

About my views, the things I share.

But I'm glad you care enough to have read

This collection of words my mind has shed.

So before you let this slip your mind,

Remember my thanks for being so kind

Listen Up!

          Have you ever noticed how incredibly hard it is to listen? Sure, we can hear and remember things, but when was the last time that something you were listening to took your ENTIRE focus?  And especially when you're in a conversation, you're always thinking of your response, never fully engulfed in what the other person is saying.  This habit is particularly noticeable when listening to a friend preform.  No matter what, you always intently listen for a mistake, and don't even try to deny it.  And that's terrible! Why do we look for the bad, but glance over the good?  Why do we care more about what we say instead of what we can learn from others?  Chances are the person you're talking to isn't fully listening either.  Sometimes I can't even fully enjoy an experience, such as a concert or party etc., because I think too much about how I might respond.  FaceBook has made this even worse for everyone, because now all we think about is a clever status to post about the experience instead of living the moment.  But,  I will tell a funny story about a time I was trying to listen really well.  So, I was sitting in math class, you know how that is, listening very intently to the directions for a standardized test we were taking, because I didn't want to screw anything up.  Our teacher finishes by saying, "And then, when you're finished, you may s*** quietly."  Obviously he meant to say sit, so I was the only one to hear his mistake, and I burst out laughing.  This man is one of the most obnoxious people on the planet, so he turns to me with the strangest look and says "Are you okay?", and I stumble on my words trying to answer.  Needless to say I was smiling through most of the test.  Maybe it wasn't that funny, but it goes to show listening can be rewarding.