Holiday Fun Time

Every Christmas, for some reason, my family always puts up the tree closer and closer to Christmas. Since I've gone away to college, my mom wants me to be there for the annual tradition of hanging our ornaments, some that we have been using for years, onto our pre-lit tree (which is so much easier than trying to string regular lights around it).  Finals week usually lasts until the 17th or 18th of December, so you can see how close that is.

Of course, that means my mother is in full out decoration mode, which can be a little scary at times.  The entire house is transformed.  Entire containers out in the shed hold every little knickknack that is used, from garland to stockings and figurines.  

While the spirit of the holidays is obviously everywhere, one thing I really can't stand is the local radio stations choice of music.  I love radio stations most of the time, because of the eclectic array of songs, from the 70s onward, you can hear at different times of day.  But right after Thanksgiving, they start playing their Christmas songs.  

For a little while, I sing right along with them, until you hear about ten different versions of Silent Night.  At that point, I wanted to throw something at the DJs who were choosing to play those songs.  Why can't they choose one version of the song to play?  It is really that hard for them?  

Not to mention all the different singers who come out with their own Christmas songs.  I heard Celine Dion, N*Sync, Britney Spears, and The Beach Boys.  I'm not going to lie when I say that at points, I have liked some of the aforementioned (I actually do like The Beach Boys song.  It's really catchy).  I just hate listening to the classical gospel songs and then hearing a normal Christmas song, and then hearing one of those.  It gets to a person after awhile.  I get it.  Christmas is here.

With that in mind, I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas (or Chanukkah, whichever you celebrate, or nothing, if you don't)!  Sorry I don't post as much, it's just hard to think of things to write.  

Life

A couple of days ago, I visited, once again, one of my favorite movie sites I've discovered so far.  I've proclaimed numerous times about my fascination with the site and how much I respect and admire the writers behind the reviews and other articles.

Well, I was looking through their articles after not going there for a while (and boy, was there a lot of articles to look at) and I noticed one named PICTORIAL: Life's insight into geek movie history, which for some reason I passed by at first.  When I finally looked at it, I was pleasantly surprised at what I found.

"On the 18th November Google announced that it had secured an agreement to make available online about 10 million photos from the Life magazine archive. It's a collection of staggering breadth and depth, dating back in certain p arts to the 18th century, and comfortably covering the entire history not only of cinema but of photography."

Then below, many photos were available to look at.  It was mesmerizing really.  The photos were amazing and behind the scenes shots for some of the most celebrated movies out there could be seen.

If you want to try it out for yourself, type in a word (be it a movie, director, actor, etc.) and then after it type "source:life".  You'll like what you see.

Tattoo Excursion

Last Friday, I did something that is usually out of character for me.  It was all my friends' faults really, because I wouldn't have done it if they had stopped nagging me about it.  After they told me they'd pay for it, I was totally willing.  So I went ahead and I did it.  I got a tattoo.

Now there are those people out there who are really against tattoos.  When I was looking for an idea, I remembered seeing a comment by someone saying that "all tattoos on women are trashy," which is completely ridiculous in my opinion.  It's a simple way of expressing oneself.  My sister has a bunch of tattoos, as well as one of my best friends, and neither of them appear trashy at all.  

For one brief moment of my life, I didn't care what anyone else thought.  I, with the help of my sister mostly, picked out something that would be cool.  I wanted words, even though  I wasn't sure what they were.  I found so many, but then I was reminded that it had to be short in order to be less money.  After much brain raking, I finally settled on three little words, Burn to Shine, a song by Ben Lee (and Ben Harper, too, but I didn't refer to that one).  

Everyone always asks me what they mean, and I always have to tell them.  It's kind of annoying because I didn't think they were that hard to understand.   I wanted to have some kind of inspiration on me, sort of like a reference point to when I'm feeling down.  I figure that you need to be burned in order to shine, so even on my worst days, I will know that everything will turn out fine.  

So that's my explanation, to all those that care.  Now, if anyone asks, I will just tell them to go online.

Lexulous...the end of a Scrabble clone?

My sister and I love to play scrabble.  It's so much fun, and even though I'm not the most amazing at it (she always beats me!), it gives us something to do.  It's really hard to do that with someone who's all the way across the country and three hours behind.  

We always played through the site Scrabulous, which eventually became named Lexulous after Scrabble brought up a lawsuit, which was fine.  It had the same layout, the same number of letters, and the same point values.  But then, a few days ago, we went onto the website just like normal, only it had been awhile since I've been so busy.  

It was totally normal.  I logged in, I went to our favorite room (Tiles Lagoon), and then I waited for her to make a room.  But then, as I looked at the screen, my eyes started freaking out.  Everything was different!  The layout of the triple letters, triple words, double letters, and double words was made to resemble some sort of pretty pattern.  The letters were worth more than they previously were, and we received eight letters instead of seven!  I had no idea what was going on.

I just thought to myself, Ok, just play like usual.  I can totally kick her butt this time.  But after time went on, I realized I was losing.  By an enormous amount.  There was a 200 point gap between our scores!  Why was this happening?  

Because she managed to get both a triple word AND a double word at the same time!   How on earth is anyone supposed to compete with that?  There was no way I was winning the game.  

So today, we attempted again.  And of course, the first letter she put down earned her 65 points! 65!  I get happy when I get above thirteen for a word, and right away, she was killing me.

One day I will beat her.  I don't know when.  I don't know how.  But I'm going to, and it will be at a time she will least expect.

Finally, a new post! :)

So after a grueling weekend full of three papers, I am finally done with my fall semester.  It was fun while it lasted and I'm going to be sad to let it go.  I think it has been one of my favorites so far.  Not that any of the others will be less amazing, but for once I discovered things about myself.

Number one, next time my brain decides to think about a fantastic journey to take an upper level English class for no reason, I am going to fight back and say no.  I didn't expect the amount of reading that came along with it.  I had to read for my Intro to Journalism class every Monday and Wednesday, besides reading entire halves of books, and blogging, and writing, and after awhile, it really started taking a toll on me.  I made really good friends in that class though, so I guess in the end, it wasn't that bad.

Number two, I am good at some things.  I always considered myself average.  I always have, it's who I am.  I have never gotten an A in a science class.  I've always gotten a B.  Have I ever sat there questioning why I wasn't an A student? Of course not.  That would be silly, because I know, science is just one of those things that isn't me at all.  I don't understand it half the time.  Same goes with math.  Except statistics.  Somehow, I managed to get an A in that class, but that was mostly because of the small number of students (there were six of us) and the leniency of the professor (seriously, we painted a chart on the wall for extra credit).  But somehow, when I started blogging and writing (in both journalism classes, and my English class, too), I started to feel good about it.  I hope it will lead me somewhere. If not, at least I enjoyed it.

Number three, cinema is good in small doses.  I love movies, obviously.  I have for awhile now, but studying film is a lengthy process.  It was good to have a film class just once a week so I managed to get a taste of it besides the extra work of everything else.  This class required no homework or papers, and none of the four tests were cumulative.  How awesome is that?

Number four, I love learning from classes!  My globalization class taught me so much about our world and our culture that I am starting to tell people about it.  I mean, how crazy is it that corporations are ruling our world?  Is that right at all? They could possibly be the reason for global warming too.  Think about all the delivery trucks that go everywhere full of goods, and the airplanes and the ships, too.  It's insane.  And it scares me.

Number five, I procrastinate way too much. I learned this a lot about myself this semester, not that I didn't know this beforehand. I have done this in high school, too.  I think it might be human nature or something.  My friends kind of look at me funny when I do it, but I really haven't changed that much.  I've just been very lucky with time frames.  One of these days it's going to bite me in the butt, but I'm not worried just yet.

Now I'm going to relax and do nothing.  At all.  Because now that I'm all done with these papers, I feel this incredible wave of relief.  And it feels good.  I hope that I'll want to spend more time on this, because, as you can see, I've been neglecting it, save a few posts from class.  But now that class is over, and I'm going to have to depend on just me from now on..once again.  

Internet Sites

Over the break, my journalism class was instructed to look at several different websites and read them...and then write about it on the blog.  Of course, all these websites have to deal with the future of the media world, and writing on a blog surely shows that the world of the media is definitely going in a new direction.

Every single one of these sites has their own different stance about this issue.  In my other journalism class, I learned pretty much the same thing (I even had to watch one of the same videos, believe it or not).  Some people are definitely all for the internet and what it has to offer, such as the GoogleTechTalks video on youtube.com, and some are definitely questioning it, such as Jimmy Leach in Here to Stay. 

For one thing, I am definitely all for the internet revolution, especially since life without the internet would be totally pointless (and somewhat horrifying, also).  How else am I supposed to listen to music, play games, and work on a paper all at the same time?  It's impossible.

But so many people are so strongly against it, saying that it's given more freedom to people who definitely don't deserve it, undermining truthful journalism.  They can write what they want and destroy someone, like a politician or celebrity in less than 24 hours.

However, what about all the good it offers?  Paul Colligan highlighted everything that new technology gives to people.  Cheaper television, books, and music are all on the rise (rather, they are here right now).  

So yes, sometimes the internet seems like just "noise" as Leach stated, with mindless people spewing horrific things everywhere, but at the same time, it's definitely a step forward in our world.  Information is given to us at such a faster rate, and many credible sites for journalists are out there.  

While most of the articles online showed the future of the trade in relation with the internet, one definitely scared me.  The Chauncey Bailey Project showed how a journalist, namely Chauncey Bailey was killed after doing a story.  A ton of other journalists came together to help finish his story.

Now I'm really considering straying into another field of study.