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Archive for April, 2008
April 24, 2008 at 8:52 pm · Filed under Uncategorized and tagged: Drama, overexaggeration
How many kinds of drama can you think of? I can think of multiple kinds, kinds that have different meanings. Acting, ‘girl drama’, celebrity drama, overexaggeration, plays, etc. The thing is, I feel they all relate in some sort of way. I cannot exactly put my finger on it, but I notice that all the kinds of drama have this connection, a connection of acting, if that makes sense. I mean, when you fight with someone the way girls do (girl drama, see below!), you do not generally act. At the same time, you could be. So why do we call it ‘drama’? What’s the definition? I honestly do not feel like looking it up in a dictionary, not because I am lazy (which I am…) but because I have the determination to think and make up my own definition, while writing this. Maybe some thoughts will come to my mind, but only maybe. If drama means acting and playing a role that you do not usually.. or never play, then how is this ‘girl fighting’ drama? Is it something we do not usually do? Uh.. no. It’s so frequent, so consistent, but that’s not the point.Overexaggeration: it’s everywhere! I am almost 100% positive everyone has overexaggerated sometime in their life, whether it was changing a story or just plain.. lying. During plays, during presentations, is it always overexaggerated? I believe so, but not always. To get the point across, to get ANY point across, sometimes it is necessary to overexaggerate. With me, for example, I have stopped overexaggerating. I tell things like they are, nothing more. Why? I believe the question is more.. why not? Looking back, I’ve stopped talking. Not completely, but that way I don’t always find something to say. Leading to attention, does overexaggeration grab attention? Well, yeah! You wont find yourself watching a movie or reading a book about how Sally walks to the grocery store everyday for four months straight. (Pretty lame book, but still.) You need a twist, you need a HOOK to grab your reader’s or viewer’s attention. How about a drama presentation? If it is not somewhat overexaggerated, then it might be lame and boring.To be continued… 
April 17, 2008 at 7:45 pm · Filed under Uncategorized and tagged: mood, Music, noise
I can’t ‘put my finger’ on what it is about music, but it can change everything. I was watching American Idol ‘Idol Gives Back’ and videos were shown of people in Africa, people in poverty. I could have cried, honestly. Not only because of what was shown, but because of the music. It can change the mood, it can change how a person feels. As an example, when you’re mad/upset/annoyed, what do you do? For me, I will honestly go into my room, lock my door, open my window, and then turn on my music… really loud. Loud music is good. Within five minutes of listening to, for example, Jack Johnson, I am perfectly fine and ready to face the world again.I don’t know how else to say this, but it can honestly change the mood. You wont find yourself watching the end of Titanic with a techno song. If you think about it, that would change the whole meaning of the end of Titanic. Instead, there is a sad, romantic song playing- to set the mood, to make the viewer feel something.I will go into an action movie with some friends, and when the most intense part comes along I will say, “Where’s the music?” If there is a song playing, and depending on the song, I might say, “Imagine this with a techno song.” Then, we start laughing. Seriously! I know, it kind of does ruin the movie at the time, or when I watch it for a second time. It is funny, though. The exact definition (from my science textbook): Music is created using specific pitches and sound quality and by following a pattern. Below, it reads: The most common kind of sound is noise, which has no set pattern and no definite pitch.My sister had this band last year, on her iTunes library, called The New Noise (or something similar.) She put on a song and both of our jaws dropped. “Isn’t it… sad? That this is how music has become.” I replied, “Are you kidding me?” It sounded like a bunch of noises from aliens, I am not kidding. The funny part to me was that they actually considered it music. So, in science when we were reading, I was silently laughing. Considering the definition, this ‘noise’ was not even remotely music. Then, a few days ago, she randomly said “I’m so glad the music these days has become a lot… better.” Then we reminded ourselves about the band she showed me last year, we laughed. She surprisingly still had it in her iTunes library, so we re-played it.Where was I? Oh! Yeah, so music can change everything. I know it has changed the way I have thought about certain topics. Also, considering all the genres there are, I have discovered a new respect (if that is the right word) for some. For example, rap. I used to dislike rap so strongly, I thought it was not even considered as ‘music’ but more as speaking. Until I found a few alright rap songs, then I kind of unfolded the paper.I am really not sure how I would live without music. Maybe I listen to too much of it, but maybe that is a good thing. I suppose it all depends on personal preferance. But at the same time, so does everything these days.
April 10, 2008 at 6:52 pm · Filed under Uncategorized and tagged: , failure, giving up, impossibility, success, Talent
Everyone’s got one, the world is full of it. People say “I have no talent whatsoever.” And I truly feel this is… impossible? Why? I don’t understand how you could be ‘talent-less.’ Everyone’s got one, and maybe it’s hard to find. For me, it’s hard to find. Everything I do, everything I try I either give up or I’m just honestly no good at. And I don’t know what it is, but although the world is full of talent, there’s another thing we are all good at. Giving up. My grandmother told me something the other day, I know she meant it because Iknow that whatever she says, it comes from the heart. “You’ll be good at what you love. Don’t give up.. or I’ll be disappointed in you.” So now, I’m afraid of giving up. I’m afriad of not completely something fully, not being… successful. Maybe it’s not something I should be afraid of, but it’s more of a fear of failure. I was playing a children’s game over ‘winter’ break, it is called Apples to Apples. You have seven cards in your hand and they are all nouns. The ‘judge’ picks an adjective card and then you need to pick a noun that the adjective describes. Then, the judge decides which card is best-described. We had been playing for hours and hours, I was on the verge of stopping. The kids all wanted to play for a little longer, so I stayed. I picked up the noun card that had ‘failure’ written on it. On the bottom of each noun card, there is a little saying or description. Almost every single card has something funny or amusing written on the bottom, but failure, on the other hand, had a quote. ‘What we call failure is not the falling down, but the staying down’ has been stuck in my head forever. It is… impossible to forget. Maybe what I am afraid of is not failing, but not being successful.I keep asking myself, how does failure relate to the world? Until just a second ago, I clued in. I feel most of us want peace, we also say we do at least. And the thing is, we don’t really try. And if we do, we ‘fail.’ I don’t see anyone trying, trying, and trying. “One person can’t make a difference.” But one person can. I could be that one person, and I’m determined to be. Right now, my ‘resources’ are cut off, I guess you could say. The opportunity isn’t a flashing sign at my nose. At the same time, does it need to be? Does everything need to have the PERFECT chance? Nothing is perfect, so my answer is no. No need to wait for everything to be laid out in front of you, I feel that it might never happen like that. Maybe that is why no one truly succeeds. We wait and wait, we think and think, but never act. If we do, is the world so ignorant that we take a few moments out of our so-called busy lives to think about it and then move on, not paying attention?
April 10, 2008 at 6:43 pm · Filed under Uncategorized and tagged: 'girl fight', boys, girls, Mean Girls, revenge
Mean Girls was an over-exaggerated movie (and pretty funny), but did somewhat portray how and why girls fight. Even for a girl, it’s all a mystery.. at least for me. What’s the point? I realized the way us girls fight never gets anywhere, never really has an end. I was talking with one of my teachers one morning and she said, “The problem with girls is that we forgive but never forget. So once two or more girls start fighting, they will drag things from the past, saying things like, ‘Three years and two months ago, you blah blah blah!!’” I realized this is so, incredibly true. After reading Diana’s blog, I got super inspired to write about this, she did such a great job. She mentioned that girls are confusing. I never really realized why, until I dug deep into my own thoughts (which believe me, took a while). I never understood why guys keep saying “girls are so confusing!!” But now I do. Girls think thouroughly, we actually think things through. But at the same time, we think TOO much. I guess I can relate, I’ve been in a couple too many ‘girl-fights’, but I can honestly say I’ve grown from them, I’ve learned. As much as we, well, maybe I should speak for myself instead because I suppose all girls are different. As much as I think about it, as much as I ‘prepare’ and plan, the same result always comes out. Someone ends up getting hurt. But you know, whenever anyone fights, someone gets hurt. And everything is in secret. We fight behind eachother’s backs; we are not usually always mean and cruel infront of the person, to their face. For example, my best friend (let’s call her Becky) was getting annoyed by me, so she told one of my enemies my ‘darkest’ secret. (This has never happened, but seems pretty typical, eh?) I have a few options here.a) I can go up to her and confront her, tell her I don’t like what she did. <– In a peaceful way, of course.b) I can go up to her and confront her, start yelling at her. Then, shut her down and don’t let her talk.. walk away. (Very peaceful..)c) Ignore her.d) Ignore the situation.e) Revenge.I cannot really think of any of any more solutions, but I am sure there are some. The most common, in my point of view, is option e) revenge. “Don’t get mad, get even.” It seems so right, it seems fair. If I could have just ignored Becky, or ignored what she had done, that wouldn’t seem like the right thing to do. Yeah, Becky should not have gone and told something I said to her in confidence to someone she knows I do not like, but it is so typical of girls. I asked a friend (a guy) what he thought of revenge. “It’s sweet,” he replied. So of course, to get more information, I asked why. “Just the rules of life. Make me suffer and you die.” Fair enough. The I asked a girl of the same age what she thought of revenge. “Mmm.. I guess it could be acceptable, but it depends on the situation.” Again, why? “It depends on the situation. I mean, it could be something positive if you’re trying to teach someone a lesson. If it’s only to be mean, then I think it is useless and it leads to nowhere, because the other person if just gonna get more revenge and it’s never going to end. And if it does, it’s not gonna end in something good.”From this, I realized not only girls like revenge, but guys aswell. The only difference I see is that boys will become friends shortly after, they will forgive and forget. Girls, on the other hand, will forigve but never forget (like I stated before). Maybe, only maybe will they become friends after, if one makes an effort. But if not, then so be it. When I asked my friend (the girl) what she thought of revenge, her answer striked me as.. very true. I agree. If you’re using revenge of something that happened years ago, and decided to deal with it now because you don’t like that person, then that is pointless. If you are trying to ‘teach someone a lesson’, the I suppose revenge is somewhat acceptable, though I believe it is riduculous and childish. Like she said, it depends on the situation. If there was conflict between countries and then five years later, one of the countries decides to get revenge, that can be very harmful and unreasonable. This leads into the topic of ‘war’. So… what I just realized, about a split-second ago, was that girl-fighting is similar to war. It’s a war between minds, a war between who can get back at eachother better. Doing little things you know really, really just gets the other person going. It’s like a cycle, a wheel. A wheel that turns and turns, but never rolls. What is the point of fighting, anyways? To resolve conflict. Yeah, sure, I’m sure there are other reasons. But in general, it is to resolve conflict. With the way girls fight, the conflict never gets resolved, not much ever changes. Feelings get hurt, opinions change, new friends are made. That’s the way I see it, the cycle of ‘girl fighting.’
April 10, 2008 at 6:42 pm · Filed under Uncategorized and tagged: Freedom, freedom of speech, Rosa Parks, U.S. Constitution
What does ‘freedom’ mean to you? How does this relate to you as a blogger?“Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.” -Abraham Lincoln“Freedom is not worth having if it does not include to freedom to make mistakes.” -Mahatma Ghandi“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” -Martin Luther King, Jr. Freedom: it’s a word with multiple meanings. A word that can mean something different to everyone, with different situations. Similar to the words ‘effort’ and ‘peace’, having different meanings depending on the person. These three quotes I found on different websites were very… influential. I didn’t even bother to look at who they were written or stated by, I just found a few quotes I liked and then found the author. The interesting part was the quotes were all from three very important people in history, three very influential people. So… how does this all relate? The quotes were all different, but on the other hand they were all similarly about freedom. Moving on, to the point, freedom to me means the ability to have power over your own actions, to have the ability to control yourself. Maybe not exactly having the power to do whatever you want to; there are boundaries you must stay within the guidelines. For example, in school. Students are technically able to run around, skip class, break the rules, etc. But we, as students, consciously make the decision to not. Right now, writing this blog, I could be surfing the web. And maybe I am writing it because I want to, but on the other hand, I could not obey the class orders if I wanted to. The thing is, I know the consequences that follow. I suppose that’s why we choose to follow rules, because if we do not, there are consequences. This reminds me of Rosa Parks. She wanted the freedom to be able to sit wherever she wanted on the bus. So that one day, she decided to make her point, to rub it in their faces that no, they could not discriminate, they could not tell her where to sit. She couldn’t stand taking no for an answer, she wouldn’t let her freedom and her freedom of speech being taken away. And that one day, when she sat in the “wrong area” of the bus, she broke the rules set on her. I feel that she gained freedom; maybe she even earned it, by the simplest thing that became a huge deal. (I really…. admire Rosa Parks, by the way.) She wouldn’t let her right to do what she wanted, within boundaries of course, be abused against her will because of the colour of her skin. Linked with freedom in general is freedom of speech. I have noticed that in many situations, freedom of speech gets abused. What do I mean by abused? For example, the situations we have been talking about in U.S. History, about how the students’ right to freedom of speech was denied. What does freedom of speech mean? The ability to say, with words and/or actions, what you believe. It’s completely, 100% unfair if your freedom of speech is denied. But on the other hand, it depends on the situation. Similar to freedom in general, there are guidelines.. there are boundaries. If, out of school, someone causes harm to another person or group of people, then I believe their freedom of speech should be denied. But not completely, not to the point where they can’t say anything. This happens often to me, and I honestly cannot stand it.. when people completely deny my freedom of speech. You know, when you’re talking to your parents and you say something that really sets them off. It happens tome quite often, and then they shut me down and don’t let me say a word when a million are running through my mind. It’s not fair, it’s almost ridiculous and is extremelyfrustrating. It’s the same in, say, school. But inside school, my view of the rules is more strict. If a student disrupts a class or the entire school, then yes, their freedom of speech should be denied. There is a line that the school should not cross, though, they should not deny the students freedom of speech to the point where they cannot defend themselves.In the very first amendment of the U.S. Constitution, it states that all people (on American territory) have freedom of expression and have political and religious freedom. This has nothing to do with me whatsoever, although I am in an American school. Not being an American citizen, having never lived there does not give me this ‘security’ everyone says it provides. But I honestly believe you do not need written rules to have security, it should automatically be given, like a package deal.This all affects me as a blogger. How? Well, I know if I say something offensive or disruptive, there are consequences. Maybe even serious consequences, but honestly, I don’t really want to find out the hard way. Checking my work helps, I guess, to clear up any confusion of what can be posted. Better be safe than sorry, eh?
April 10, 2008 at 6:42 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
I know, this is really off-topic. It has nothing whatsoever to do with my passion, but I really have nothing else to write about. I’ll save writing about my passion[s] for when school starts up again.
I honestly never realized how pointless and boring Semana Santa can really be when you don’t have a trip to go on. I was so excited to be out of school for a week, but now I think about it, I have absolutely nothing to do. Realizing I have technically have only been out of school for two days now, how will I survive the rest of the week? Watching movies I have already watched a countless number of times, visiting my new second home: Multi! Unfortunately, half the time I’ve been to the mall in the past five days have been obligated, required, forced onto me. I have to be completely, 100% honest with you, and myself, by saying that I miss want to go back to school. The only reason being that school actually gives me something to do during the day! Not to mention I see everyone who completes my life, students and teachers. But everyone keeps saying they ‘hate school’. I have to admit, I have a lot of times. But really, what would we do and who would we be without it? Yes, it helps us in life, and I appreciate that, I suppose. But how can you possibly LIVE without having SOMETHING to do everyday? Maybe it’s just me. Maybe I’m just used to having something to do all the time, and that’s the problem. But school is not really an option. I’ve noticed it takes over our lives, but really benefits in the end!
So.. I guess the point is, there’s no reason to wish this week could just end. Not only that. There is no point in even thinking about how great it would be if this week could just be over already. It’s only Tuesday; six days more to go. What would you call that? Thinking about not thinking? Which seems to be all I have done lately. So.. maybe I should just go back to watching movies, cleaning my room for the hundredth time in the past four days, and going back to my second home two days from now. If anyone feels the same way, I wouldn’t actually be too surprised.. not to be pessimistic or anything. (:
April 10, 2008 at 6:42 pm · Filed under Uncategorized and tagged: , Art, expression, photography
I don’t have one solid passion, but I have found one activity in particular to be very… appealing, if that is the right word. It is something that has come very easy to me, something that I can express myself with. That ‘one particular activity’ is photography. Photography is not just getting a camera and taking random pictures. To me, it is a form of art. And art, it’s a way of expressing yourself maybe without words, maybe without sounds, without a visual aid. Photography for me is expression; a way to attempt to put forth thought and emotion through one single photograph. The problem is, when a person sees a photograph, they never really see anything but some colours, shapes, forms. At least this happens to me. It, honestly, is kind of disappointing because no expression is shown, you cannot see or hear thoughts through a single photograph. But if someone looks hard enough, or even relates themselves to the picture, I realized that there is more meaning. What is art? The dictionary definiton. (From Collins English Dictionary)Art n. creation of works of beauty, esp. paintings or sculptures; works of art collectively; skill.I do not completely agree with this definition. I mean, the definition is supposedly exactly what art is, which is what it stated. I believe that art is putting emotion, creativity, and expression into these creations of work. Yes, I did take the picture I put as my header, just incase you’re wondering and I’m actually pretty proud of it:) The only problem is that now, it’s blurry. The reason being I had to crop it to approximately three-quarters the original size. I will put up more pictures though, ones that are in their original form.
