Summer Goals

The first week of summer vacation is already gone (!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and I must say, I have been exceedingly successful in keeping up with my goals:

1. Pewn my little sister at our reading "competition" (I find it vastly amusing that she thinks it's a "competition" at all)

2. Run twice a week so that I can run in the Halloween 5k and pant around in my Harry Potter costume next October, looking like a freak.

3. Update twice a week on this blog (becuase I have been a little... ahem, inconsistent in past posting)

My Summer Reading List

Today, at approximately 2:00 p.m., when senior graduation takes place, summer officially begins (even though we got out of school last friday).

When did "You're so skinny; you look like a stick" become a compliment?

Part of me understands why the fashion industry has come to idolize stick figures. Women were sick of being objectified for their bodies, so the voluptous, curvy form that men were so attracted to became moot, and women with no form at all were introduced, considered to be the new symbol for "women's power." I can understand that. But now we've come to a point where it's us women beating ourselves up about our bodies, not men.

When did this become appealing to us? Who decided that the "ideal" body should contain visible ribs and hip bones???

We don't have to be anorexic to look powerful. To me, a powerful woman is a woman who is strong and curvy and nourished. A powerful woman looks like my beautiful mom, or Marilyn Monroe, or Oprah. Powerful women can be happy with their bodies no matter how sizist the fashion industry gets. Call me a freak (:D) but that's what I believe.

Holy crap, I just realized this!!! RECURRING THEME in my POSTS, MUCH!?!?!?!?!? HELLO, FREAKY

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Guys, this book made me cry. I know this seems to happen a lot with the books I review, but seriously. It's so... I guess "ironically prophetic" as my english teacher would say. It kind of depressed me how right-on Ray Bradybury was in guessing where our society was going fifty-seven years ago. Because it's not exactly a happy guess. seeing as it's this futuristic society where people burn books, because they OFFEND people, and it started out because people didn't WANT to read (Sound FAMILIAR, idiots in my sixth period class?)!!! And just the way people would rather watch their plotlesss non-offensive TV shows and listen to their "seashells" (basically earbuds, except Ray Bradbury didn't have those in 1953, he just happened to take a GUESS at their existence - I know, FREAKY - and he had to come up with a name for them) was so true to what I see today, walking through the halls of my school. What's really wierd to me is that I really do think that Ray Bradbury understood what he was saying - I don't think he just took a lucky guess; I think he was really just perceptive enough to anticipate this kind of evolution within our soceity. Ray Bradbury, if you just HAPPEN to SOMEHOW be reading this blog among the billions of other ones that exist at SOMEHOW the right time to come across this post,

YOU ARE A FREAKIN' GENIUS!!

(Oh and please please please don't be mad at me for my improper use of the English language, kaythanks)

Deep Cheese

It's exam time right now, and there's only THREE AND A HALF DAYS OF SCHOOL LEFT. Isn't it kind of crazy to believe that my very first post ever on this blog was about exams? Except they were winter exams, and I published a picture of Harvard's Primal Scream that apparently came up as 100% pornography on my friend's website blogger - isn't that lovely? Anyways, It's wierd to believe that my freshman year has completely passed me by, and with only like five posts for the entire school year? Crazy, huh? I keep seeing this quote by Mark Twain, I believe, something like "Twenty years from now, you'll be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did." As the year is wrapping up for me right now, and I'm thinking of all the opportunities that I didn't take, this quote is totally striking a tune. I know that fear of taking risks is something all generations as teenagers probably experienced, but to me, this trait seems magnified in our generation, because of the environment in which we are being raised. Experiencing life through escapism is the driver for our society right now, when you think about it. Television, video games, social networking, texting, the internet - all methods of escapism we use to experience things without having to take real-life risks or deal with their real consequences. For so long, people in support of all these forms of technology have claimed that they support and promote our social skills, but aren't they really hindering them?
JUST SOME FOOD FOR THOUGHT

They are the trees outside my window - he is the far one - tall and thick with dark foliage, angled branches, and a straight and typical trunk and frame. She is the close one - it curves, drapes and weaves elegantly, pink rosebuds clustered on the ends of its branches, rustling each time the wind blows. It's a foreign shape among the trees in the neighborhood, its curvy,estranged branches looking almost deformed when compared to nearby trees.

I went to a psychologist today... I'm going to get tested this weekend to see if I have a mental disorder. I'm not sure what I think about all of this. I don't know if I should be relieved, glad, sad, or freaked out. If I do have a mental disorder, it means I have a problem and I'll have to take medication and it confirms this underlyng suspicion that I've always had that I am seriously NOT NORMAL. On the otherhand, it gives a reason for my inability to do my homework and my constant procrastination and disorganization and the social awkwardness I'm only starting to overcome. I think it might be relieving to know that there's (sort of) a solution to my problems.

In which I give you an in-depth analysis of my weekly schedule..

Okay, Okay, before you get crazy out there in your rolly chairs, let me just fill you in on my insanely hectic schedule right now, okay? Mondays I have art club right after school, an hour to eat dinner and do my homework and softball 'til 8. Tuesdays I have percussion ensemble until freaking FIVE O' CLOCK and then I have to go to my sister's softball games (where there is no internet connection!), wednesdays I have writers' club 'til five and then a meeting with my organizational tutor (because I'm a lazy ass not only in updating my blog, but also in homework - make you feel any better?) and thursdays I have figure skating and then double header softball games, and then on Friday's, somehow I manage to have a social life, and I actually do stuff that's more important than your viewing needs, so HAH. Yeah... anybody else out there got schedule that hectic??? That's right.. I think NOT.

Anyways, I've got some reviews of Wicked by Gregory Magure and one you probably haven't heard of, How to Say Goodbye in Robot by Natalie Standiford, which made me cry like CRAZY, so... fun.

How To Stay Goodbye In Robot by Natalie Standiford

was more bitter than sweet. Persuaded by the hot pink cover and bubble-gummy sounding description into thinking this was chick-lit, I was looking forward to two hundred fifty-some-odd pages of irreverant bliss. BUT NO. That is NOT what I got. I just wanted the book to end, because my heart kept breaking OVER and OVER again.

I kept thinking of this guy-friend of mine from elementary school, whose name was Greg. He was my BFF for FOUR WHOLE YEARS (this was record-breaking at the time for me, because I had lived in about eleven houses in eight years). We both fantasized about medieval times and narwhals and neopets and pentominoes and we played jump rope and hopscotch at recess all by our lonesome selves, because we were pretty much outcasts. We were gonna to go to the Renaissance fair together the last day before the summer (in which I was moving for yet another house). But I was STUPID. And I REALLY wanted to be popular. And two days before the fair, I still hadn't told my mom about the renaissance fair. At lunch, a popular girl invited me to a sleepover....

... When I got home, I told my mom about the sleepover instead of the renaissance fair. And Greg never spoke to me again.

THAT is what this book made me think of. It made me cry out of grief and guilt and regret and heartbreak and it WASN'T CHICK LIT!!!!

(edt: BTW, this isn't the official review)

pppiiiiiiiiiiiiiissssssssssseeeeddddddddd (This was from a long time ago and I never published it :D)

As you can imagine, from my last post (I know, I know, it was forever ago, whatever, you'll live) I am NOT HAPPY with the results the judges gave Johnny Weir for his long program at the Olympics.

For those of you who live under a rock, and don't know what's going on, I'm referring to Olympic Men's Figure Skating, and secifically the fact that the best skater EVERwho gave the performance of his LIFE at the Olympics was totally and completely UNDERSCORED.

J-J-Johnny Weir!

So, the Winter Olympics are coming up on February 12th, and I am TOTALLY STOKED. I have to admit, the 2006 Olympics in Torino were rather disappointing... Sasha didn't win the gold, Kimmie Meissner made SIXTH place and Johnny Weir didn't even make the freakin PODIUM!It was an outrage! A Scandal! (Lily and James Potter killed in a car accident!?)

But this year... Ohhh, THIS year... Things shall be very different. I've pretty much completely given up on Sasha Cohen and Kimmie Meissner - I was really only mad about Kimmie Meissner, because she's not normally a very strong skater and she skated a completely EMACULATE program at Torino, but she hasn't really had a good performance since, so... bah. And Sasha just fell off the face of the planet after Torino. ANYWAYS, this year we've got this like whole new GENERATION of figure skaters... Rachel Hamlett, who came outta NOWHERE, let me tell you, and snatched up the US championships, Mirai Nagasu, who was fourteen when she won Nationals in 2008, and there's...

... J O H N N Y W E I R

I have nothing to say to you creepers

21st century soap box lectures...

You know what really pisses me off? When teenage girls spend a bunch of time taking pictures of themselves.... You know, like when they purse their lips, do funky things with their arms, and aim the camera down their cleavage? yeah... those pictures... It's like, you're not fooling anyone, girls, no matter what your subtitles may say, we all know you're self-posessed and care way too much about your physical appearance. Why don't you guys take all that time you spend taking pictures of yourself and instead spend it doing things to better yourself - I think you're more likely to get a boyfriend that way, and he's probably going to treat you a lot better than any boy who'd date you because of the cleavage shots you have on your facebook page. Okay?

Side Effects by Amy Goldman Koss

gets 3 out of 5 stars... Although it wasn't any great piece of literary art to rave home about, it was cute, funny, and refreshing. The grave topic of fatal diseases has been in the media a lot lately, with movies like "Extraordinary Measures" and "My Sister's Keeper" topping the box office chart, but what's refreshing about this book is the stubborn, irreverant, humorous voice of Izzy, a sharp contrast to the tearjerker dramas we're used to. Izzy is an 8th grader who's used to the low of her day being P.E. - not chemo. When she's diagnosed with Lymphoma, she fights it with the fierceness that is typically Izzy. She knows very well that the Lymphoma is not going to kill her - but why doesn't anyone else seem to believe that? And why don't they have any joke books about cancer? Or at least ones that don't make you cry?
Yeah, so good book... I'd recommend it.

In other news, it's snowing like crazy here, and I'm stuck inside with nothing better to do than blog, play guitar, and eat chocolate, because the snow is like, all screwed up, and you can't have a snowball fight, because it would be like throwing rocks... so..whatever.

In which I randomly list things I enjoy

Harry Potter (It's just so... AAAGGGH... and I mean... AAAGGGHHH... And the writing is just... AAAGGGHHH)
Doc Martens (The most beautiful and comfortable combat boots on the face of the planet, which happen to go with everything I wear)
Rainy Days (Because you have a viable excuse to stay inside and sit on your ass all day, making random lists of things you like)
yellow (It's just the best color ever... and the title of a decent Coldplay song)
Tutus (I mean, seriously. Why don't more people wear tutus - they are the BEST CLOTHING ITEM EVER!)
Leo Tolstoy (ANNA KARENINA!!!!!!)
Gay People (I went out to dinner with my friend last night, and there was like this gay people sitting at the table next to us.. and they were wearing matching square-framed glasses and one of them had this giant hot pink scarf thing wrapped around his neck and spoken in the most feminine voice I have ever heard a male manage... and they were just SO ADORABLE!)
The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Every person on the face of the planet should read this book! I read it, and I cried the whole time - not because it was sad, but becase everything Charlie felt was just so...... TRUE.... and maybe I was PMSing, too, but it was a freaking GOOD book!)
Manhattan (Ah, Ah AAAAHHHH!! I wanna go there right now, and buy cupcakes at Jefferson Market and go the Alice in Wonderland statue in central park, and stare at the adorable gay couples walking around in Chelsea and eat a giant piece of pizza folded in half....)
G-2 pilot pens (I used to despise pens, because I just couldn't draw with them the way I could pencils.. but now... Oh NOW....)
Eleanor Roosevelt ("Do something every day that scares you")

Quoting Toy Story

Hey, kiddos! I don't know if any of you knew this, but I've had another blog, devoted to reviewing books I've reqad, called "Book a Day from the Bookworm" (lame name, I know, but shut up), and I post on it about as oftten as I post on this blog (basically, not often)... ANYWAYS, I've decided to combine the blogs, so that maybe out of the two of them, my blog postings will be just slightly more frequent.

So, for my first, Book a Day-type posting, I am reviewing James Patterson's Breakfast at Tiffany's, which gets 2 out of 5 stars. SO....Cute concept, although mostly formalic, unfulfilling, and rather Twilight-esque. Jane is a thirty-year-old woman, still hung up over her childhood imaginary friend, and allowing her boyfriend and controlling mother to boss her around. She really wasn't much of a likable character, with her constant self-depricating narration and her general patheticness. The only original concept was the whole "imaginary friend" thing - other than that, it felt like Twilight all over again, what with the whole I-don't-deserve-you-because-I'm-a-fat-clutz-and-you're-perfect and the oh-my-gosh-you're-finally-mortal-I-can-love-you-now crap. It also had that lovey-dovey stuff about how they'll never love anyone else even if they life forever. I don't think I would recommend it. This was my first James Patterson (seeing as I'm lazy and have yet to get around to reading the Maximum Ride series like all my friends have told me to), and I was rather disappointed.

In other news, I am totally and completetly addicted to the blog Style Rookie (tavi-thenewgirlintown.blogspot.com). It is a totally and completely amazing style blog, but I would most certainly recommend it to EVERYONE, because it's just THAT amazing, and I know that you'll enjoy it even if you don't know who the hell Chanel is (in which case you are an UNCULTURED SWINE!) So... yeah :D

Reasons Our Educational System Suck:

1. They don't pay teachers enough. Seriously. My teachers should get paid MILLIONS of dollars for having to deal with being responsible for educating a bunch of adolescent punks who don't care about their grades, but instead, they get paid something around twenty bucks an hour. That's what people who work at the GROCERY STORE get paid!

2. The kids who are barely holding on to the course curriculum are in the same classes as people who are pulling their hair out from boredom. This is SO wrong! The students who are behind continuously build up a massive inferiority complex, and the advanced students have to wait five years to learn anything! It's a no-win situation!

3. You don't have any variety. If you want to do something (like band, for instance), then that's ALL you get to do, and you have to stick with it for the rest of your public school career. So, since I'M in band, I can't just decide to do Art next year, because I would have had to do it as a prerequisite.

I would love for America to just go towards the whole European school system, where they start sorting kids into the "college" and "vocational" tracks at an early age, because it seems to work for them, but it's just kind of sad, you know? What about those kids who are put on the vocational track at eleven, and then they decide later when their sense of self has increased, that they want to college - well they can't! They're stuck! It's just a no-win situation, you know?

My new addiction... Polyvore

Catalina Summer by Hermionebookworm featuring Lanvin shoes