I am in supposedly the "Friendliest Airport on Earth," ready to depart for Washington D.C. and the People to People World Leadership (founded by Dwight D. Eisenhower, and led by all presidents since, as all delegates will proudly tell you).
Well, this very friendly airport also conveniently offers free WiFi, so, here I am, talking to you.
One of the best parts of this week long program (admittedly, I can't know too much about the best parts, since it hasn't even started yet) is the fact that this trip involves no parents whatsoever. I was dropped off at security this morning, my parents spied on me through the glass doors up through until security was over, and then I was free of them. I won't see them until Saturday. Of course, this isn't all good. I will miss them a lot, but it IS nice to get away from the hustle and bustle and angriness and yelling and screaming and stuff for at least a week. I'm sure I'll have my own adventures and excitement, but all in all, i think it'll be fairly relaxing compared to my daily life.
For example, my uncle is in town, and has been for the past few months. In fact, he'll probably be staying here permanently. He's been sleeping alternatively on our couch and in my grandma's garage. He used to live in a different state, and rarely visited, but he's back, now, and draining even more money than ever. For what seems like decades we have been supporting him, but now it's gotten even better! He apparently has Hepatitis C, and it's probably going to kill him. And his girlfriend is literally insane- she hears voices and stuff like that. And he eats up money like cottage cheese.
So, I'm not thinking very happy thoughts in the Happiest Airport on Earth.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Saturday, March 27, 2010
UGHH.
Well, i just wrote a beautiful, eloquent, wonderful post, and then accidently selected the whole thing with my laptop mouse and deleted it all. And there's no way to get it back. So, you don't get a beautiful eloquent post today.
Spring Break!
Well, today didn't amount to much. I woke up late (11 am), went back to bed, stayed in my pajamas until 2 pm., and didn't leave the house all afternoon, nor did I brush my teeth all day. But it's all ok, because it's the first day of Spring Break!
Friday, March 26, 2010
Read or die.
Shout out to only and favorite follower CJ. Hi and thanks CJ!
Anyways.
I guess I'll talk about another aspect of my personality, a part that figures prominintly in my life- reading. I absolutely love to read. Many of the people my age despise reading; that's what too much school does for you- they think of books and they think of hard work and boring and homework. Alternatively, I think of books and I think of happiness and learning and knowledge and inspiration.
Reading is such an important part of my life. My parents read to me ever since I was very young, and I have been reading since I was very young. Actually, when I was in first grade, I read the Lord of the Rings (by myself). Books and reading are such a great way to learn; no studying, no homework, just learning through experience. The more you read, the better you write. And you learn information through reading, especially if you read nonfic or historical fic. I do well in school mainly because I have plenty of background information on Social Studies, art, Language Arts...
As far as types of books, I love fantasy. I have always loved fantasy. My favorite authors are Tamora Pierce, J.R.R. Tolkien, J.K. Rowling, and Esther Friesner.
Tamora Pierce wrote books like Alanna: The First Adventure, The Woman Who Rode Like A Man, Lioness Rampant, Trickster's Choice, etc. She is probably my favorite. I absolutely love everything by her. Her characters, especially the protagonists (courageous, independent heroines) are really inspirational, and the writing style is fantastic.
J.R.R. Tolkien wrote The Lord of the Rings trilogy, obviously. These are one of the first books I can actually remember reading, and I still love them years later. Whenever I'm feeling down, I just read a chapter of the Return of the King and I feel much better. I always carry my worn, dirty, written on, covered in stickers copy whenever I travel. I have the One Ring Poem and the Hobbit's Walking Song both memorized. And Tom Bombadil and Legolas are amazing.
J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter FTW.
Esther Freisner wrote Nobody's Princess, Nobody's Prize, and Sphinx's Princess, all historical fiction novels. The first two are written about Helen of Troy, and the last one is written about Nefertiti. I absolutely loved them both. Helen of Troy AND Nefertiti are always thought of as rather uninteresting, not very admirable people, but these books really put the characters in a whole new light. All three books are written in first person. Of the two on Helen of Troy, Nobody's Princess comes first.
Read the books. Support the authors. Support literature. Read to someone, even an adult. I read to my parents all the time. I enjoyed The Book Thief so much, I'm reading it to my mom now.
Read.
Anyways.
I guess I'll talk about another aspect of my personality, a part that figures prominintly in my life- reading. I absolutely love to read. Many of the people my age despise reading; that's what too much school does for you- they think of books and they think of hard work and boring and homework. Alternatively, I think of books and I think of happiness and learning and knowledge and inspiration.
Reading is such an important part of my life. My parents read to me ever since I was very young, and I have been reading since I was very young. Actually, when I was in first grade, I read the Lord of the Rings (by myself). Books and reading are such a great way to learn; no studying, no homework, just learning through experience. The more you read, the better you write. And you learn information through reading, especially if you read nonfic or historical fic. I do well in school mainly because I have plenty of background information on Social Studies, art, Language Arts...
As far as types of books, I love fantasy. I have always loved fantasy. My favorite authors are Tamora Pierce, J.R.R. Tolkien, J.K. Rowling, and Esther Friesner.
Tamora Pierce wrote books like Alanna: The First Adventure, The Woman Who Rode Like A Man, Lioness Rampant, Trickster's Choice, etc. She is probably my favorite. I absolutely love everything by her. Her characters, especially the protagonists (courageous, independent heroines) are really inspirational, and the writing style is fantastic.
J.R.R. Tolkien wrote The Lord of the Rings trilogy, obviously. These are one of the first books I can actually remember reading, and I still love them years later. Whenever I'm feeling down, I just read a chapter of the Return of the King and I feel much better. I always carry my worn, dirty, written on, covered in stickers copy whenever I travel. I have the One Ring Poem and the Hobbit's Walking Song both memorized. And Tom Bombadil and Legolas are amazing.
J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter FTW.
Esther Freisner wrote Nobody's Princess, Nobody's Prize, and Sphinx's Princess, all historical fiction novels. The first two are written about Helen of Troy, and the last one is written about Nefertiti. I absolutely loved them both. Helen of Troy AND Nefertiti are always thought of as rather uninteresting, not very admirable people, but these books really put the characters in a whole new light. All three books are written in first person. Of the two on Helen of Troy, Nobody's Princess comes first.
Read the books. Support the authors. Support literature. Read to someone, even an adult. I read to my parents all the time. I enjoyed The Book Thief so much, I'm reading it to my mom now.
Read.
Flamenco. Ole.
Well, I suppose I will continue to talk about different parts of my description because you all have certainly seen enough of the moody teenage girl for a bit. Who wants to read a blog about me complaining constantly?
(By the way, as far as complaining goes, my mom called me a b**ch today and told me that she hated me and everyone else. I told her that if she hated everyone, they probably felt the same way about her.)
Today I'll talk about flamenco. As you may be able to tell from my profile picture, I love flamenco. Flamenco is a dance form that comes from Spain. It's basically a mix of Spanish classical dance (which involves castanets) and gypsy dance. And it's amazingly awesome. It's native to the region of Andalusia, Spain, and is accompanied by live guitar and a drum like instrument called the cajon.
Other instruments involved are castanets (which are technically Spanish classical, not flamenco) and the shoes the dancers wear, which have nails in the toe and heel so as to make a clicking noise. This noise is achieved by performing on a wooden floor with a scalloped bottom so as to allow the sound to vibrate. There are a couple of different sounds and ways to "stomp" the floor with the shoes- the golpe, using the whole foot, the planta, with just the toe, and the tacon, with just the heel.
An interesting part of flamenco is that the guitarist follows the dancer, not the other way round. The dancer chooses whether to speed up or slow down the music, and when the dance is over. All real flamenco is done solo and entirely improvised, although most (beginning) students will have some set choreographies they know, and might dance these with other people at certain events.
The hair and makeup for flamenco involves huge hoop earrings, lots of stage makeup, hair in a low bun covered with a snood (like a hairnet but prettier), and a large flower, usually a rose. Traditional clothing involves a polka dot dress with a double/triple ruffled skirt, and a sash. More relaxed or modern clothing involves leggings, a red or black practice skirt that is about ankle length and has two/three ruffles, and a sash (or not), as well as something like a tank top or leotard.
As far as the actual dance goes, it mainly consists of footwork and armwork. Traditionally, girls do mostly armwork and guys do mainly footwork, but I really prefer footwork. Armwork is graceful, slow, and painful. To truly do flamenco, you must be passionate about it and make every.... move.... slow.... deliberate..... aching..... painful..... In Spain, arm classes last for a few hours, but I only do arm work for about 20 minutes per class. Footwork is really a lot of fun, but there's not much I can do to explain it without showing you.
FLAMENCO IS NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH FLAMINGOS. Flamenco is dance, flamingos are birds.
(By the way, as far as complaining goes, my mom called me a b**ch today and told me that she hated me and everyone else. I told her that if she hated everyone, they probably felt the same way about her.)
Today I'll talk about flamenco. As you may be able to tell from my profile picture, I love flamenco. Flamenco is a dance form that comes from Spain. It's basically a mix of Spanish classical dance (which involves castanets) and gypsy dance. And it's amazingly awesome. It's native to the region of Andalusia, Spain, and is accompanied by live guitar and a drum like instrument called the cajon.
Other instruments involved are castanets (which are technically Spanish classical, not flamenco) and the shoes the dancers wear, which have nails in the toe and heel so as to make a clicking noise. This noise is achieved by performing on a wooden floor with a scalloped bottom so as to allow the sound to vibrate. There are a couple of different sounds and ways to "stomp" the floor with the shoes- the golpe, using the whole foot, the planta, with just the toe, and the tacon, with just the heel.
An interesting part of flamenco is that the guitarist follows the dancer, not the other way round. The dancer chooses whether to speed up or slow down the music, and when the dance is over. All real flamenco is done solo and entirely improvised, although most (beginning) students will have some set choreographies they know, and might dance these with other people at certain events.
The hair and makeup for flamenco involves huge hoop earrings, lots of stage makeup, hair in a low bun covered with a snood (like a hairnet but prettier), and a large flower, usually a rose. Traditional clothing involves a polka dot dress with a double/triple ruffled skirt, and a sash. More relaxed or modern clothing involves leggings, a red or black practice skirt that is about ankle length and has two/three ruffles, and a sash (or not), as well as something like a tank top or leotard.
As far as the actual dance goes, it mainly consists of footwork and armwork. Traditionally, girls do mostly armwork and guys do mainly footwork, but I really prefer footwork. Armwork is graceful, slow, and painful. To truly do flamenco, you must be passionate about it and make every.... move.... slow.... deliberate..... aching..... painful..... In Spain, arm classes last for a few hours, but I only do arm work for about 20 minutes per class. Footwork is really a lot of fun, but there's not much I can do to explain it without showing you.
FLAMENCO IS NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH FLAMINGOS. Flamenco is dance, flamingos are birds.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Vegetarianism.
Now, I know this is mentioned in my "About Me" section, but I think I will elaborate a little more about some aspects of that. Like vegetarianism, for example.
I am a vegetarian. I have been for almost five years now. I was a pescatarian for the first few years- I would eat fish and shrimp and some other (responsible and non-threatened) seafood. For the -past- few years, though, I have been a just plain simple vegetarian. I suppose if you want to make it confusing, I'm an ovo-lacto vegetarian, because I eat eggs and dairy, but isn't that still included in vegetarianism? Vegans don't eat eggs, dairy, or any animal products at all, but most other vegetarians besides vegans eat honey and eggs and milk and stuff. (Well, not eat milk, but still....)
People always ask me why I became a vegetarian. The answer is pretty complicated, actually, and it changes depending on the audience and the time available. There really isn't just one reason why I became a veggie; it's more of a mix between a couple of reasons.
1) Environmental aspects- This should be clear. It just plain takes less energy and less steps to process vegetable matter compared to meat matter. And there's the whole grazing thing- the rainforest is partly being chopped down to make room for cows, which then turn into someone's hamburger.
2) It's just plain gross- you're eating that thing. It's dead. Someone killed it. EW. I mean, I understand it if you are in a situation as humans have faced throughout our evolution, but nowadays, in my society, I don't need to eat meat to survive (clearly). So, I don't really want to. If I'm not willing to stab and gut it, I'm not willing to eat it.
3) Overpopulation and overuse- Most of us know that over-fishing is a serious issue, if not as important as some other more pressing things. The same goes for certain meats- buffalo, etc. Not neccesarily steak, but others. And the area in which they are raised is overused; I think I have already mentioned some of the rainforest problems. People ate meat for thousands of years, yes, and it was entirely sustainable (for the most part), yes. But there were much fewer people then, and overpopulation was not such a problem.
4) Health- For the most part, it's healthier not to eat meat.
5) Religious- My religion teaches me to be in harmony and appreciate all other inhabitants of this earth. That includes animals. That means (to me) don't kill and eat them.
*TO MAKE SOMETHING VERY CLEAR*
I do my best not to be one of those snooty, self-righteous, better-than-thou vegetarians. I sometimes seem like I'm getting that way, but I assure you that that isn't my intention. I was just trying to explain why I'm veggie, not that it is the right choice for you, or that just becuase you aren't veggie you are a worse person than me. I DO NOT THINK THAT VEGETARIANS ARE BETTER PEOPLE THAN MEAT-EATERS.
I actually have no vegetarian friends, so there you go.
I am a vegetarian. I have been for almost five years now. I was a pescatarian for the first few years- I would eat fish and shrimp and some other (responsible and non-threatened) seafood. For the -past- few years, though, I have been a just plain simple vegetarian. I suppose if you want to make it confusing, I'm an ovo-lacto vegetarian, because I eat eggs and dairy, but isn't that still included in vegetarianism? Vegans don't eat eggs, dairy, or any animal products at all, but most other vegetarians besides vegans eat honey and eggs and milk and stuff. (Well, not eat milk, but still....)
People always ask me why I became a vegetarian. The answer is pretty complicated, actually, and it changes depending on the audience and the time available. There really isn't just one reason why I became a veggie; it's more of a mix between a couple of reasons.
1) Environmental aspects- This should be clear. It just plain takes less energy and less steps to process vegetable matter compared to meat matter. And there's the whole grazing thing- the rainforest is partly being chopped down to make room for cows, which then turn into someone's hamburger.
2) It's just plain gross- you're eating that thing. It's dead. Someone killed it. EW. I mean, I understand it if you are in a situation as humans have faced throughout our evolution, but nowadays, in my society, I don't need to eat meat to survive (clearly). So, I don't really want to. If I'm not willing to stab and gut it, I'm not willing to eat it.
3) Overpopulation and overuse- Most of us know that over-fishing is a serious issue, if not as important as some other more pressing things. The same goes for certain meats- buffalo, etc. Not neccesarily steak, but others. And the area in which they are raised is overused; I think I have already mentioned some of the rainforest problems. People ate meat for thousands of years, yes, and it was entirely sustainable (for the most part), yes. But there were much fewer people then, and overpopulation was not such a problem.
4) Health- For the most part, it's healthier not to eat meat.
5) Religious- My religion teaches me to be in harmony and appreciate all other inhabitants of this earth. That includes animals. That means (to me) don't kill and eat them.
*TO MAKE SOMETHING VERY CLEAR*
I do my best not to be one of those snooty, self-righteous, better-than-thou vegetarians. I sometimes seem like I'm getting that way, but I assure you that that isn't my intention. I was just trying to explain why I'm veggie, not that it is the right choice for you, or that just becuase you aren't veggie you are a worse person than me. I DO NOT THINK THAT VEGETARIANS ARE BETTER PEOPLE THAN MEAT-EATERS.
I actually have no vegetarian friends, so there you go.
Free Day, Field Day.
It's late at night. I'm typing on my laptop by the light of my new headlamp. Harry Potter and the click of the computer keys and the faint snores from my parent's room are the only sounds in the house. The pink background on my laptop is blinding. I simply cannot fall asleep.
Tomorrow is Field Day. Each advisory is assigned a country, and each country consists of an advisory from each grade level. My advisory is Spain. Go Spain. Spain is live Gryffindor; the same colors (red, gold) and the same symbol (the lion). I get to wear free dress (in red and gold) tomorrow, and we have the entire last half of the day to just play games.
The first half of the day, the upper school members of our school's section of the Kiwanis Club (Builder's Club) gets to go to a food bank and help out in the morning, therefore missing all of our morning classes. So, basically, tomorrow is a freebie. And I get 2+ more hours for NJHS, meaning I will have reached my requirement for the month.
I suppose I will write another post in a minute if I can. I wouldn't want to mix categories.
Tomorrow is Field Day. Each advisory is assigned a country, and each country consists of an advisory from each grade level. My advisory is Spain. Go Spain. Spain is live Gryffindor; the same colors (red, gold) and the same symbol (the lion). I get to wear free dress (in red and gold) tomorrow, and we have the entire last half of the day to just play games.
The first half of the day, the upper school members of our school's section of the Kiwanis Club (Builder's Club) gets to go to a food bank and help out in the morning, therefore missing all of our morning classes. So, basically, tomorrow is a freebie. And I get 2+ more hours for NJHS, meaning I will have reached my requirement for the month.
I suppose I will write another post in a minute if I can. I wouldn't want to mix categories.
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