everybody has their routine

we all have routines.  routines for just about everything.  From getting ready in the morning to how we eat our dinner-- whether its clockwise around the plate or a specific order of meat, vegetable, bread, fruit.  One routine every single person has is how we write.  It might not be something you think about, and it might not be an OCD routine, but it's there alright.  For me, I can never write at a table, desk, or basically anything solid.  I can't write well on a regular computer either.  My best writing is done on my laptop, while I slouch comfortably on the couch in our living room.  Sure, it's possible for me to type out a conveyor belt piece of writing on a school computer, but it won't be close to my best work.  One more must is music.  It doesn't matter what kind of music, classical or rap, but it's gotta be there.  When I first turn it on, I immediately start belting out the song, be it "My Heart Will Go On" or "Smack That", creating an almost impossible place to work.  But as the second or third song ends, my singing turns to writing.  I only hear the background music, not the words.  Then, I write until the paper is done.  After I'm done, there is NO recollection of any song that played while I was working.  Most of the time, I hit "back" on my iPod about twenty times to see what songs played, most of them being one of those songs I always skip, when my iPod is on shuffle.  I then pause my music, and print out my paper.  Now I gotta edit.  I yell for my dad (actually scream), and ask him to go through.  He always is better at editing the ideas and comprehensibility of my sentences and paragraphs.  After that, I go through and merge those ideas, along with my new ideas, into my essay, and reprint.  This time, it goes to my mom.  Grammar and spelling edits are what she does best.  Those are an easy fix.  Now, "play" is tapped on my iPod, and I sing...again.  The whole process gets to start over.  I do this about twenty billion times before I'm done.  yeah...I actually might seem OCD about these things, but oh well.  It's my OCD, and no body is gunna take it away. (Just to let you know..I'm not crazy enough to edit my blogs like that.  But some out of tune singing did happen.)

It's about that time again

I was actually annoyed when we got an open blog post this weekend.  I had actually no idea what to write about.  I sat down in a comfy chair and blanket and began to write about stresses of life-- the only thing on my mind.  But no sooner did I finish that piece, did I highlight every word of it, and tapped the delete key.  That was not what I wanted to write about.  There I sat for a good ten minutes staring out the window at the picturesque day outside.  It was so sunny; not a cloud in the sky.  I could be the perfect summer day.  However, a closer look would reveal the brown, leafless trees and wilting grasses.  The transition is almost complete.  Minnesota would soon turn into that bleached wonderland once again.  Grass will no longer be visible, along with most of the world, and not to mention the temperature will divebomb about eighty degrees.  As I watched this I pondered the banal question, what's your favorite season?. Whenever this is asked, my answer is never solid.  Usually, I teeter between spring and summer, but the word winter is never far to follow.  I think living in Minnesota creates a soft spot for winter, no matter how much you hate the two-inch think, pain-in-the-ass ice on your windshield at 6:40 in the morning, or the six months without seeing ground, or even the occasional month without going above zero degrees, winter still has a place in our hearts.  I know I could never live in a place that doesn't get snow or doesn't even get below freezing.  As much as I love to think of myself as a summer girl, there is no doubt that winter is my season.  It's in my blood.  For now, fall is here, but not for long.  In no time at all, Minnesota will be that white wonderland once again.

I sometimes really hate people.

Everyday, wandering through the world, I begin to hate people more and more.  Or maybe it's just because of some things they do or say.  I have some really weird pet peeves, but here they go.

• People who walk like .0000001 spm (steps per minute)
• Updating your facebook statii about every two seconds. GET A TWITTER ALREADY.
• One word(or letter) answers to a very long text
• When someone asks you a question and when you try to answer they totally ignore it
• fancy names of colors. ex) fuchsia... it's pink for goodness sake.
• long nails.  They just gross me out.
• the expression "no offense, but..." Face it, it is offensive so get over it.
• loud breathing. so creepyyy.
• that person who always blinks or sneezes in the perfect picture
• not using your blinker when you're gunna turn.  honestly, its one finger click. just do it. do it.
• mirror pictures. by yourself.  really? just really?

Am I Really To Blame?

A finger always has to be pointed when something goes wrong.  So, who's to blame for the bad grades of students? Actually, just students in the United States. Basically, the other countries are perfects, right.  It's only us that need help.  Wait...is that true?  Can students of different nationalities really be fairly compared to every single student in the US? Yeah...no. 
At first glance, "For Once Blame The Students", really pissed me off. How dare they blame everything on the kids?  I'm pretty sure that reaction comes just because I am one of those students.  After a closer read through, my opinion changed.  Not totally, but it did change. If you think about it, not every kid is one of the students called out in the essay. As we kind of talked about in class, students in AP classes are not exactly the kinds of kids that the reading is talking about.  Other kids, even some of us, don't try as hard as we could.  Actually, I know for sure, that in my American Lit class, I really do not try as hard as possible.  If a lot is not expected of us, we aren't going to work as hard.  It's simple, really.  That is the part I decided I agreed with.  But. As I said, I didn't agree with every single part of it.  I really think that some of the blame should be put onto the teachers. (If a blame NEEDS to be placed, I guess.) In my experience, if I have a teacher that can't really explain what to do(especially in math or sciency things) or they just aren't excited about what they are teaching, I don't get it.  So. Then I stop trying.  It doesn't seem worth it.  If the teacher is not into the subject, why should I be? I guess, if i need to blame someone, putting it on one group of people doesn't seem right.  I'd have to say it'd be on both the students and teachers.
Once we watched "Two Million Minutes", my opinion changed again.  Well, not really.  I just kind of added to it.  Now, I think that family style is to blame also.  The kids in India were really influenced by their parents and what they did.  They didn't really have a choice of what to be, so they were focused on that because they're parents told them to be.  It was basically just what happened, no questions asked.  This was also the case in China.  But at the end, the only ones that really achieved their goals were the Americans.  Hmmmm. Seems a little weird considering the entire movie portrayed the kids from the US as bad.  That they didn't really care.  But they did.  They cared about what they wanted to do.  Not what their parents or peers wanted them to do.  I guess high school grades can be influenced differently if you are forced into when to and how much to study.  If that's the case, you'll get better grades in high school.  But what about in the real world.  If everyone is like that, who is really going to stand out to get that job.  
I've mentioned blame throughout.  But if students, teachers, and family are to be blamed, is there really anyone being blamed?  Or.  Is it even worth blaming everyone? 

"Boys? ewww." to "Boys? yumm."

So, in our class book club groups, we're reading "The Female Mind".  It sounds weird and sciency, doesn't it? well, it's not. And actually I've been thinking about it a whole lot. Like every emotion that I've experienced in the last few weeks goes back to what I read about in that book. And it makes sense.  Seriously.  If you don't believe me, go read it, you'll love it.  But even more than emotions it makes me think about the transition in a girls life that revolves around boys.

Little Emily is three years old, and her best friend is Ben.  Ben is her next door neighbor, and there is never a time where they are both home and not outside making sand castles or plummeting down the seemingly giant yellow slide.  The two are inseparable.  One day a promise was made that they will always be best friends.  Always.


Now seven, Emily is prancing around the playground with her best friend Caroline, playing double dutch and singing rhymes.  Wait, her best friend? What about Ben? Where's he? Well, of course he's off bouncing around a basketball with his buddies, Tommy, Eric and Bobby.  Ben and Emily act as if they don't even know each other because, obviously, "Ben has cooooooties!"


Ben and Emily are now in middle school.  They ride the same bus and have almost all of the same classes, yet there is still no clue that they were best friends.  However, as the year goes on, Emily starts to crush on Ben.  Of course, she tries to keep it quiet and between friends, but he finds out. (Pstt, people really don't keep secrets Em.) He acts as if this is the worst, most embarrassing thing ever! Emily is absolutely mortified.  Soon, she gets over Ben and moves on to another boy that actually likes her.

Jump another two years, and Ben is finally into girls.  He realizes Emily is the perfect girl for him, but he blew his chances.  She won't talk to him because of how horrible he was to her.  She hates him.  He is almost in love with her.  Being and immature 13 year old boy, Ben makes fun of Emily, even though he really likes her.  His friends embarrass him, to no end, about Emily, and this just makes her hate him more.

Now, they are juniors in high school.  Both maturing and nearing the end of puberty.  Ben finally gets up enough courage to ask her out.  And guess what? She says yes, knowing this is right.  They still live next to each other, drive to school together, have classes together, and talk constantly.  But one thing has changed, Ben and Emily no longer "have cooties". 

Okay, that may have been like a mini fairy tale, but oh well --  it's cute! (and totally true -- to a point) I think it's actually funny how much feelings towards the other gender change in so little time.  I know I definitely have that "ew, cooties" boy, that now is a total "yummm" boy.

Obama: Master of speeches?

You might expect every presidential speech to be the same.  The same huge words, professional tone, and standard topics that most of the world doesn't fully understand.  Well, that definitely was not the case with Obama's "Back to School" speech, on September 28, 2011.  No, in this particular speech, he used the opposite of all those. 

Looking back at his speech, it's hard to forget that smile he flashed at the audience, and the 'down to earth' "hey", that he greeted his audience with.  Although the speech was being broad casted all over, he created a trusting environment for the school in which he was delivering his speech.  From the minute Obama walked onto the stand, you could tell people felt comfortable with him.  He began to make connections with his audience right away by complimenting the girl that made the introduction, along with their principal.  You could say he was trying to flatter the school, along with every student, teacher, and guest that attended.  Later in his speech, he brought up his ethics class, in high school. With this, he related himself with the students that aren't good at a certain subject, or that just don't like their classes.  All of this was done on purpose to tap into the emotions of his listeners.  Those tactics didn't seem to hurt his credibility either! Mentioning the mayor of Washington, D,C, and other administrators created a good image of him (although he already has a pretty good image...he IS the president). Later in his speech, Obama mentions facebook and twitter, in attempt to create a stronger relationship and higher credibility with his audience.  Oh, that doesn't help his credibility? Well, yes it does, because his immediate audience is, after all, high school students.  And face it, we are all obsessed with tweeting, facebook stalking, and status updates.  Pretty good trick he used there, eh?

Overall, Obama's voice is always clear and loud.  It is accompanied by a tall, straight-backed stature.  This makes him appear confident, and a confident person is way easier to trust, in my experience.  They seem to know exactly what they are talking about, and seem to be proud to talk about it.  By doing this, the president is making it a whole lot easier to persuade his audience.  In this case, his argument is about continuing school.  He explains why this generation needs to keep going through high school and college.  He sneaks in a little logos in there, by telling the students that 60% of jobs will need a college degree or higher.  In dropping that statistic, Obama is making the kids realize they need to go to school in order to get a job and survive.  This is precisely what he wants.  It may be that Obama is only good at picking when to splice in facts, not just a master manipulator.  That's probably a good thing, though. 

This exact speech, along with all of Obama's other speeches are packed with gestures and different tones, depending on the topic at hand.  A common theme in Obama's speeches is talking about now.  Now is the time for... We need to do this now.  When he says the word 'now' his voice gets a noticeable amount louder, and he points.  He does this every time.  This puts emphasis on that word, and makes his audience pay attention.  "Now" seems important, urgent, and even life changing; creating that feeling of purpose in the students, and others he is talking to.  

All of this put together created a very comfortable, honest and understandable address.  Everyone could understand it.  Everyone could relate to it.  And everyone could feel the need to do what he said.  I guess that's a pretty accomplished speech, huh?