Beach Time

Today at the beach was AMAZING!! It felt so wonderful outside and I am planning to go out there everyday this week since it is going to be 80 and sunny all week long. ;) I'm fixing to go to a cook-out right now, which is going to be really good. It's always nice not to have to eat at wag again and again. I want to a nap, but I don't know if I will get my work done tonight. I tend to get in a sleepy mood and do not come back out of it very easily. I need to do laundry this week and we've got to clean our room and start packing up. It's sad to think that my first year of college is over. I'll kind of miss living in the dorm. It's like a huge hotel party all the time here I feel like.

Beautiful Weekend

What a beautiful weekend it is. I just got in from the beach, and it felt absolutely amazing out there. I am definitely going to be out there all day tomorrow too. I love when it gets warm outside and everybody wants to stay out in the sun and lay out instead of staying inside all day long. I am trying to decide if I want to go downtown tonight or not. I love going downtown and haven't been in quite a while but I haven't decided if on a Saturday night I would enjoy it or if I'd rather wait until Thursday night to go out. I have alot of work to do this week. Papers to write and notes to catch up on for finals which are this week unfortunately. It'll be such a stressful time and then I've gotta start packing up and moving out to my apartment in between studying and taking my finals.

Wednesday

So today is hump day, which I find a very strange name for Wednesday. I wonder why we call it that? Anyways, I am currently studying for my chemistry lab practical tomorrow and trying to catch up on some chemistry and biology notes. I fear that our exams will be upon us in no time. I got a call from my apartment today and I am going next week to pick out the one that I want. I am quite excited about that, though I can't decide if I want the first or third floor. First would be wonderful for moving furniture, but there have been a lot of break-ins in my friends apartment complexes and I'm not sure if that would be the best idea. Third floor always seems like the best floor to live on, it just has the most stairs, which kind of sucks that I would have to walk up and down them everyday, course the exercise could never hurt me.

Ugh...

This week is going to be a really busy week for me. I have so much work to do. I have a rough draft due, a poster for an inquiry project due, I have 4 quizzes this week, and two lab finals. I sure will be glad when this week is over, of course next week begins exams which isn't much better, but it does mean that school is almost over, thank god. I can not wait for summer. I have pretty much decided that I am going to stay in Wilms for the summer, which will be amazing to live at the beach for the summer, especially without parents. I have this stupid cough that will not go away, it's my sinuses acting up but it is getting on my nerves and I want it to leave me alone. I feel like I always have an annoying cough that just stays with me. I don't feel sick, but I have a bit of a runny nose and cough. Which only makes the week worse.

Sunday Feelings

Sundays are such a strange day. I love them because they seem to be the best day to catch up on sleep but it also means it's the beginning of a new week and that tomorrow is Monday and I have work to do. Blah. Well this weekend was absolutely insane. I went home for Shakori which is a grassroots festival and probably one of my favorite events of the year. It occurs twice near my hometown in Silk Hope. It's a really free-spirited place. Everyone out there is very earthy and usually a hippie and the music is amazing!! We went out there on Friday and Saturday night. You will see the strangest people and it makes me wonder what exactly they do for a living during the week. I had some guy come up to me as I was passing him and he looks at me and says, "It's all for shits and giggles, right?" Of course, I had no idea who he was and I just started laughing and said, "Hell yea it is buddy." We also had some girl come up to us, who we had no idea who she was but she had a 30 minute conversation with us and it took her all of those 30 minutes to try to remember our names, after she was laying her head all over the dirty picnic table that had pizza sauce all over it, haha. Hope she made it back to her tent okay. We decided this fall we are going to camp for the entire weekend. Usually I stay out there both nights, but this time we decided to go back home that night. It was an amazing time and I can not wait for this fall!

Easter Break

So I came home for Easter break and it has been the most relaxing time. I have done absolutely nothing but see friends that I don't get to see that often which is always a blast to sit down and catch up. I loved having a three-day week last week, and it's going to be horrible to go back to a full week, but we only have 3 weeks left of school so that isn't too bad. It's been a pretty weekend too. Today was gorgeous!! It felt so good outside, I actually wish I would've been back at the beach to go lay out on the beach. Hopefully it'll stay pretty this week so that I can make it there at least two days this week. I watched a new show this past Thursday. It's called Harper's Island. I am not quite sure what to think of it quite yet, but the first episode was definitely quite interesting. I am definitely going to watch it again this Thursday to find out more of what happens. Another new show, College Life, comes on this Monday on MTV. I think it'll be pretty good, but I also think it's kind of stupid that they are filming four freshman. I just wish they would film me so that I could show them what a real good time is like.

Crazy Weekend

So this weekend was quite out of control. Friday night there was some crazy partying going on so we went to all of them and got back real late. Saturday night I was excited about watching the UNC game but got rear ended on my way to a friends house and had to spend an hour giving out my information to different policemen and being accused of drinking and driving. I did get a breathalizer, which was pretty sweet cause I've always wanted to take a breathalizer sober, so that was a pretty cool thing I got to do this weekend. I have an inquiry project due today, which I am currently typing up at the moment and I also have a music test this week, which I have to do really well on. Thank gosh it's only a three day week though, that makes me more than excited. I'm gonna go home this weekend since it is Easter break and everyone else will be coming home too.

Friday

So today we didn't have class, which is the most amazing news that can possibly come right now because I have been so overwhelmed with tests and papers this week. I can't believe we only have a month of school left and then we're done. In a way I am glad because it means no more school, but jesus where did my freshman year go. I feel like I've barely gotten here and now it's time to become a sophomore and start taking upper level courses. Time sure does fly by fast. I am pretty excited about the weekend. Hopefully it is going to be beautiful and warm outside so that maybe I can make it to the beach. The Azaela Festival is this weekend, which is always a good time to go downtown and be near the waterfront and enjoy all the activities and concerts that are going on. I haven't been in like 2 years so it'll be nice to go back and have fun with that this weekend. Other than that, I am glad the week is coming to close. Next week will be a little hectic at the end but it's only a 3-day week which is amazing news! I do have a project due and a test and then I'm pretty much done until finals.

A Doll's House

My favorite character of the story has to be Dr. Rank. I think that it is very odd that he is so pessimistic on life. He wasn't too much of a main character in Act 1 but you do learn that he comes to visit them everyday and he is a dear friend of the family and obviously one of Nora's closest friends. In Act 2 though we learn that he has a secret love for Nora, which makes me like him because I did not like the always "down" side of him and it was nice to see that he wasn't so worried about his health. You would think that knowing about your death would prepare you more for it and you would enjoy life to the fullest, but he seems to take it the opposite way and constantly complains about how he will soon die. Knowing that he has a secret love to Nora, which I thought he did all along, makes me feel better about the story. Nora, I believe, used to be in love with her husband, but somewhere along the way it has become more of a childish love, where we would view Torvald as the father and her as the child. Dr. Rank seems to be the most probable person that she is in love with now because she seems to disclose her secrets with him and you would think she would not tell him more than she does her own husband.

Paper Outline

So I decided to switch my paper topic to number one which involves comparing and contrasting the two traditions from "In the Penal Colony" and "The Lottery".

Introduction:
First I want to inroduce the two stories and create a thesis pertaining to traditions in not just the stories but also in all societies around the world. I want to relate them vaguely to the differences in language and imagery in each story and discuss them further in detail with textual examples from the stories.

Body:
I want to have two or three paragraphs in my body. One would pertain to the comparison of the two tradition discussed and how they seem outrageous to us, as a civilized society, but if you had never known any different, would you have other feelings on the matter. I might even relate it to some tradition of our society or other societies that we think as normal, but are in fact a little strange to others. My second paragraph would be a contrasting one in which I would contrast the differences in the two traditions discussed. I would contrast them against the imagery each one portrays and the language the author used to write the story with.

Conclusion:
I would sum my body up and restate my thesis while providing a sound ending to my paper.

Illustration Meets Imagination

So as I was stumbling through the internet, I found this cool artist. His name is Tebe Interesno. Here is his website if you want to go check him out. His artwork is amazing. Each piece of work has a song that goes with it, so I assuming that the song relates to the artwork in some form or another. It would take some time to go through each piece but it is cool to listen to a little bit of it as you view the art. The website is done in another language so you can't really read any of it. His artwork is taken of real photos and he has put in graphics of other designs of his from a computer. It's really cool because they are so vivid and real, yet the characters all favor one another. He adds an element of magic to the pictures, even though it is an unusual magic. But they are nonetheless quite interesting.

Side Note
Haha I was reading my T.A.'s e-mail to me a minute ago about my lab report due tomorrow and he spelt section....sextion. Wonder what's on is mind.

Essay Topic

I chose the prompt with Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" and Ursula Le Guin's "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" because I really like both of these stories. I think that I can provide a good essay on the overall topic question. I also realize that both of these stories are different in certain ways yet seem to be connected by certain themes in others.

Library Time

So right now, I am sitting in the library studying for biology. Which it is sad to say I have been here for four hours and the subjects are starting to blur together. It isn't making much sense to me anymore so I decided that I would write a blog to get my mind off the matter. It's getting late but for some reason tonight I am not that tired. So I was just reading Newsweek, which I read quite constantly because I find their articles very interesting and I think that everyone should check up on the news and stay updated with what is going on around the world. They were saying that the United States could soon become greener than Europe and Japan. As a whole, we don't look that well but individual states are making quite an impact. California is definitely the leader. California contains the world's largest solar-power plant, the largest wind farm, and the most powerful geothermal installation. If you would like to check out the article, it's quite interesting.

Third Person

Rhett is currently watching the Oscars. He thinks that the pairing up of the presenters is quite strange this year. While watching the Oscars, Rhett is also stumbling around the internet. He does not know if some of you know what Stumble is, but it's one of the most amazing things invented. Rhett finds all kinds of interesting websites and weird things that people put up on the web. He finds it very entertaining. Rhett is hoping that The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Twilight win many awards this year for the Oscars. Rhett has a busy week coming up. He has two tests, a quiz, and his lab practical. Good news is, next week he won't have much at all to do. Rhett is very excited that spring break is coming up because then he will get a break from school. While watching the Oscars, Rhett is also trying to design a desk to put in his apartment next year. It's not really going that well, but he'll figure something out.

Television: Our Fake Reality

It makes me so mad to watch television and how they portray a normal person's life. It is nothing like an average person's life. They make love out to be something spectacular (which it is). They make high school seem like everyone is over 21 years old and how the popular kids rule the school. College on television is seen as a crazy experience for everyone. It's just odd to me how television puts out this fake reality that we all try to live, yet in the end, we all end up failing at making that reality into our own life. It almost sets us up for a disappointment later on in life. All the shows on TV picture high school kids who look 21 years old and who fall madly in love, yet in an average teenager's life, this does not happen the way TV makes it out to be. All the reality shows are so ridiculous too. All they contain is a bunch of drama. You never see academics on TV. All you see is the partying and the going out, which is a big part, but you have to balance your workload with your social life which is not as easy as TV seems to make it. I just think that television should portray our actual lives instead of a make-believe life that it does portray because it sets us up as teenagers to false expectations.

The World

I've always kept up with the news, but I feel like nobody wants to read the news with such depressing headlines. All the headlines read, "Recession." Most of us as teenagers have no idea the extent that our economy has failed and may never fully realize it. Sometimes I feel like I live in another world and we just hear news from this greater world out there. It's hard to relate myself to all these people in our government who seem to only care about themselves or the greedy CEO's of companies who only want more and more money. It's even hard for me to understand the stock market and how our entire financial system even works. When did it become so complicated? Not only is our headlines full of recession but what about the Michael Phelps case. I am very angry about it. It makes me so mad that they suspended him from swimming for three months for a picture of smoking a bong with marijuana. Please. It isn't like he was doing performance enhancing drugs. He is even a great person, who helps out with many youth programs. Then, of course, let's not forget that Kellogg has now dropped his sponsorship because "they feel he doesn't present the image they want to portray." Well to me, I say he doesn't even need Kellogg. I think Michael Phelps is an American hero and a great swimmer and he has made many differences in this world and to me that is all that matters and should matter to everyone else.

PostSecret

I have this secret obsession with going to PostSecret.com. Which for those of you who do not know what it is, it is a website that a guy named Frank Warren put up that allows for people to send in their secrets to be posted on the Internet for the world to read. I think it's a really cool idea. It allows for people to get their secrets off their chest while still remaining anonymous. Getting them off their chest, could save some of their lives. Some of the secrets are funny and some of them are quite serious. Some of them are sad and some of them add meaning to our own individual lifes. I've always wanted to send one in but I haven't thought of the secret that I want to tell the world. Course I don't really like to keep many secrets bottled up inside of me. I consider myself to be a pretty open person. Frank came to speak on campus last semester and I wish that I would've gone to see him but I didn't so hopefully he'll come back again soon. He has four books out now that are compiled full of secrets. If his website and books help to make someone feel better by letting them get their secrets out, then I am all for it.

Home

I find it strange that no matter how far and wide one can travel, there is still no place like home. As a child you spend the majority of your time at home, and then as a teenager you go out and spend time at other people's homes. Then you graduate from high school and find yourself leaving your real home. You must go to a new city and create a home of your own, even though there is no place like your home. When you come back and visit you realize how much you miss your own bed and your own shower. The ones that you've had since forever, well at least I have. I have lived in my same house all nineteen years of my life. I have never moved and I can't imagine what it would be like to move out of the house that I grew up in. Not much has changed in my house in all the years that I have lived here and that makes me feel comfortable, of course I do not find myself afraid of change. I like change alot, I just like to come back to th same house that I grew up in as a child. It has always served as the concept of home in my mind and if it were to change, I don't know if I would like that. My home has a distinct smell. It smells fresh and clean. I always think of all the windows we have and how the sun comes beaming through on sunny days. It's a usually a comfortable 65 degrees in my house, which is a nice temperature that I have grown used to. What is your concept of home like?

Fire and Ice

I think Robert Frost was an interesting poet and it wasn't until today that I fully began to understand some of his poems. I especially find the poem, "Fire and Ice", very interesting. It catches my attention because fire and ice are two humanly characteristics. The fire would represent our burning desire for material wants, while the ice represents how cold and uncaring we can be towards one another. Usually his poems connect in some way to his life, maybe this poem was meant for his wife. He had a burning desire for her while she was alive, and now feels cold and lonely with her gone. Course it could also mean in a historical context, the battle between religion and science. Religion sees the world ending in a great war with fire and brimstone, while science contends that a great ice age will come and slowly freeze us over again.

Fire and Ice

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I've tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if I had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

Frost is one of America's greatest poets. One thing that really stuck out to me, was that he got to speak at Kennedy's inauguration. I can not imagine having the President want me to speak at his inauguration in front of millions of people. He must have been real nervous! His poems are quite unique, you can catch glimpses of his life through his poetry but they can also be related to a much larger context. I think his poems were meant for the reader to decide what they think about it. Some of them it even depends upon what mood you are in to how you will feel about the poem.

Here is a website containing Robert Frost's biography and works of poetry.

Music and Stereotypes

When someone tells me they like country music, I'll be honest, it surprises me when they look like someone that has their own rock band. On the same level, if someone says they prefer heavy metal music, I have a hard time believing them if they are the CEO of a huge oil company. Music preferences is one of the most common "icebreakers" for a conversation. We have our iPods that can carry whole musical libraries and our MySpaces that display information about us while also allowing us to put up music we like at the time. We use music as an "icebreaker" because we think we can key in on certain personality traits or preferences that a person might have. It's something to think about. Another interesting concept with music and stereotypes is have you ever noticed that when someone says they like music from the '50s or '60s, we don't picture someone our own age, we picture someone who was young during that time period? At some point during our lives, we stop listening to the trend-setting music and keep listening to the music that was hip during our adolescent years. There has been some studies done on this topic by Peter Rentfrow and Samuel Gosling. They have found that certain music preferences do correlate with certain personality traits. They did these tests on random college students and then on fans of the actual genre of music. So do you think that by knowing what kind of music a person listens to, you will be able to form an identity for that person without even knowing them personally?

Censorship

Today I was thinking about censorship and banned books. As far as I am concerned, I think any kind of censorship or act of banning people (of all ages) from knowlege is wrong. First of all, when people ban books, movies, music, certain behaviors, etc---it does nothing but make the person to whom you are banning these things from make them want to do it or learn more. Instead of "banning" it from them, why not be open and tell them the truth about wordly things that happen everyday, instead of letting them find them out themselves in ways that may not be true?
Also, who says who gets to decide what people should know about what they should not know about? For instance, perhaps there is a committee who decides which books shall be banned and which books children are eligibile to read. Or, in the situation where the government decides not to tell the public or media what is actually happening in the war or even the world! I mean, maybe I'm being ridiculous but I do not think anybody has a right to decide if certain people are allowed to be knowledgable of things whether it's regarding books or what's actually happening in the world we live in. Why not tell us the truth and let us decide how to handle the knowledge that's being handed to us? I believe any human being that shares their part of the earth has the right to acquire as much knowledge as they see fit and no one has the right to tell them otherwise. As far as I know, knowledge is power and I think it's a shame to deny anyone that right in the world we live in today where it seems getting an education and learning is essential for survival.

Blogging

The two blogs I chose to look at were:

themovieblog.com
freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com

The movie blog wasa blog mainly about new and upcoming movies or plots of movies revealed. It is for anyone to write and put their own opinion on. Most of it is updates or secrets that are leaked out about TV series or new movies and even people have put their opinions on certain movies about whether it was worth watching or not. My other blog I found quite interesting. It is a blog by the New York Times on various subjects. It's about the other side of things, giving people another perspective on certain subjects. They have all sorts of topics such as Guitar Hero and even politics. One person writes a blog on certain subjects and then people are allowed to comment underneath their reactions or feelings on that topic. With these two blogs, I learned a good deal about blogging and how it sort of works, of course I am still learning and with me starting my own blog, I am sure I will learn even more.