Random Ramblings

Rebecca, I can't say I've ever been in a similar situation, but it sure doesn't sound fun. Try to remember that things will get better over time. =)

Susie, I definitely agree with your views on feminism and facebook, especially about women getting education. It's getting a lot better, at least in the US. The college I'm going to next year, which has a heavy focus on science, math, and engineering, had a VERY heavy male majority. However, this year there are more females admitted than males. It makes me happy to see that women are making so much progress. I just hope it keeps going in this direction until there's equality.

Jonathan, I really love that Morgan Freeman video you posted. Also, Portal 2 is epic. I still have yet to finish it because I'm a terribly slow video game player, but I feel like I'm getting pretty close. Sometimes I've felt like the puzzles were a bit too simple, but most of the time there's enough complex puzzles, interesting dialogue, and tidbits of storyline and action to make me absolutely love this game. If I weren't writing this blog post right now, I'd probably be playing Portal.

Simone, the faces of the Silence definitely creep me out too. Their power creeps me out too because everyone is up against something they will never really know about. And now whenever I walk into a room and forget what I was going to do and walk back out, I'm like, "OH GOD, I MUST BE RUNNING FROM THE SILENCE." And then I remember they're fictional and I'm okay. As for River, I have no idea. I think anything we come up with will most likely be wrong. I think she's the astronaut at the beginning, though, but that's because I made a random bet with my dad about it. He thinks it's the Doctor, which is a bit too timey-wimey for me.
And Portal is sort of a tough game to explain. You're in this strange science lab that has a bunch of test chambers that are like puzzle mazes for people, and you have to get through each room by using your portal gun, which can shoot a blue hole and an orange hole in the walls, and when you go through one hole you come out the other, no matter where it is in the room. And the computer running the whole thing is crazy, evil, and hilarious. That was probably the worst description ever, but I swear it's a fun game! You might want to check here for a better explanation.

Well, I don't think I really have any new topics to bring up. Prom is coming up and that's all I can think of and you guys probably wouldn't want to hear about my struggles and it would make this post way too long. Anyway, my recommendation for this week is Reefer Madness: the Movie Musical. If you're up for a hilarious, ridiculous satire based on an anti-marijuana propaganda film from the 1930s, this is the movie for you. And it's a musical, which just makes it even better.

Growing up with Harry Potter

Hey guys! It's so good to see you all posting again! (:

As you can tell from the title, I can't manage to talk about anything else (and sorry, non-Harry Potter fans in advance!) - 'cause I've just seen the trailer.

And I CRIED. I tried not to, because I made fun of my mum for crying at the end of the trailer to Mao's Last Dancer - so that she wouldn't make fun of me. But I failed miserably. I love Harry Potter, and I remember watching the movie for the first time; where in the scene with the giant chessboard, running to the kitchen and peek through the door and secretly watch what happened. I scribbled "Simone, 7" in my second book, and I remember getting the sixth book for either my eleventh or twelth birthday. I literally grew up with HP and I have trouble imagining myself be able to love another series as much as HP. I wouldn't say it changed my life, I'd rather say it helped me become how I am now. Maybe, if I hadn't had something nice and fiction to enter, I'd be insane, because I had a hard time growing up. I didn't like being a child, and I started reading YA books when I was 9 or 10, to feel more grown-up.

I actually imagined I'd be writing something about Doctor Who for this week, because of the series opener last saturday, so I'll just squeeze in something. Emily, I really liked your Silence gif. But I am a bit scared of the Silence. Not really because - and this is unusual - because of their powers (I mean, not very scary that you forget about it), but their appearance. (Oh, and sorry non-Doctor Who fans as well) - oh the fandoms! - anyway, I was so scared when it attacked that poor, random woman!

I can't wait for the next episode - and this series in its entire.

And I have one message: Steven Moffat, if you even consider putting Rory in more danger than usual, I will hunt you down and make you rewrite the script, and make him hero of the day (I mean, the Doctor is always the dashing hero, but I'm sure he can live with Rory saving the day once in a while) - Oh, and any good theories on who River Song is?

I see this is getting kind of short.. And sentimental.

Rebecca, I liked how your recommendation crossed with my thoughts. I added that exact book last week to my Amazon wishlist, and I've been thinking about getting it a lot since then. Oh, and anyone care to explain Portal? I know it's a videogame, and there's recently been released number 2. But ehm, being a noob videogame-wise I have no idea what Portal is or .. anything, really.

DFTBA till next week :D

Hello Everybody!

Sorry for my leave of absence. A combination of sparse access to the internets and the fact tht I have ap exams to study for sucked up what time I had to post stuff. I will make sure to post from now on though, so sorry bout that.

I dont have anything interesting to bring up, so I'll just add to the other two topics that are floating around.

first, Feminism. I feel that Feminists, like racial activists, feel that we live in a world made to dominate and oppress them. This is pretty true, and I dont like it when people just dismiss their causes as trivial or crazy, but at the same time I agree with what Susie said in that they can get carried away.

Ultimately, I think that the big catch 22 with problems like these is that by solving the problem, we inadvertanly make it worse. By having affirmative action towards gender or race, we in fact serve to distance each other even more. It seems that the only thing to really do is just drop it entirely.

I think Morgan Freeman says it best

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeixtYS-P3s

Also, Rebecca I totally can relate to caring about what people who youve been close to think about you. I went out with this girl once and even though it ended on what I think were pretty good terms, I still wonder every once in a while whether she thinks badly about me. and then I realize I shouldn't care.

Time heals all wounds I guess....

my reccomendation is also portal 2. THE MOOOOOOOOON

Feminism and Everything Else

Sorry I missed last week! I completely spaced, so I guess I can cover everything this week.

I agree that feminism shouldn't undermine men, but that women need to stand up and win their rights. Women's rights have improved a lot in the last century, but there is a lot of things that could be done to improve it. Another part of it is education. The world would be so much better if all women were educated. Have you seen the Girls, Inc. videos? I think it's totally true that empowering women would have a huge, positive effect on the world. But, if feminism is taken to extreme heights, we would just have a lot of crazies running around.

I also think that Facebook can be a great way to have fun, spread ideas, and voice your opinions, but people will say things that they wouldn't say face to face. Arguments can get can get out of hand and be misunderstood online. For example, a band that recently broke up, You Me and Everyone We Know, is currently having a huge argument online, with everyone else to see. It's getting really crazy and I don't know who to believe. It's really sad to see a band that I love break-up and then there is all this drama going on, as well. I don't think that the band members have talked personally, either, they are just reading posts on a website to see what the other side is saying.

My recommendation is the band, You Me and Everyone We Know. Hopefully you won't pay attention to the argument going on.

Anyway, I hope everyone had a good Easter (or if you don't celebrate it, a good Sunday).

Emily, that picture was hilarious! I loved the new Doctor Who! The creepy alien is freaking me out, though. :)

DFTBA

When Self Esteem Fails

Do any of you guys have one person whose opinion you care about the most?  I've spent a lot of the past few years learning how to ignore what other people thought about me, and it's worked mostly.  Of course, it's not foolproof.  If you poke at the same sore spots repeatedly, it hurts, but ultimately I care very little about what most people think about me.  And then there's my ex-boyfriend.

I suppose he can be considered my ex-ex-ex-boyfriend since I dated him twice (that makes sense, honest).  I suppose it's not really a surprise that the first (and only, as it happens) person I dated (and loved) would be the person whose opinion affected me the most, but it's still bloody annoying.  The first time we broke up I was heart-broken, and went through a really horrid period of time where I was constantly trying to convince myself that I was over him, which only ever worked for brief periods of time.  Eventually I got to the point where I could be friends with him, and that friendship obviously grew into a second relationship.

But in between that first break up and our second attempt at a relationship we had both grown in different ways.  I had become more independent in those two years, and less naïve, but that didn't mix so well with his hopeless romantic side.  We broke up again after two months.  At the end of our second relationship I was pretty sad at first, but the end of our relationship had been filled with arguments and fights and with a lot of unhappiness on both sides, and I've largely come to accept that.  I don't think we're good together, but I also don't think I'm ever going to really get over him.

This was definitely proved by the fact that he very recently started dating someone again.  Partly, this news was very weird, because the person he's dating happens to be a friend, but also because I didn't expect to feel anything resembling jealousy when he started dating someone (mind, it's not raging jealousy, but it's still there). Then, his facebook status today proclaimed that his current girlfriend is one of the top three people he knows, which somehow made me feel really sad, probably because both times we were dating he never said anything close to the same about me.  And then I felt silly for feeling bad about that.

It's really aggravating, knowing that someone isn't good for you, but not being able to let go of them, and having their opinion of you constantly matter.  But so far I've been handling this break-up loads better than how I handled the first one, these past few days have just proved that it's going to be harder than it originally seemed.

So I'm not completely down for the count, but sometimes the little things have the most insidious ways at getting under your skin.

Anyway, I feel slightly embarrassed from having shared all that, so I'm going to end here with a recommendation to read Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver.

Feminism, Activism, and Other -Isms (except that's a lie; I only have 2 -isms)

I'm so sorry I missed last week! I left for Science Olympiad in the middle of the school day, and by the time I remembered that I needed to blog, I was already in a hotel across the state from my house. XP

I have a brief comment on the make-up topic. I definitely agree that make-up should be used in moderation. One thing that happened at my school recently is that a friend of mine started an event on Facebook for "No Make-Up Friday". The idea behind it was that although make-up can be fun, girls should be able to feel good about themselves just the way they are and not feel the need to hide behind make-up. I'm not sure how much it really helped any of the girls or whether other people actually participated, but I still really like the idea of it.

Rebecca, that sounds like quite the Facebook conversation! I would also like to commend you on being very eloquent and rational about your opinions. I agree that the image is not too agressive, but perhaps that's just because I'm female too. I feel like although a lot of progress has been made in women's rights, there's still quite a bit of inequality between the genders in our society today. And nothing is going to change if people are going to be passive and not do anything about the problem. I think that all of the things listed in the picture are very real issues, and the only way anything is going to happen about them is if women stand up and fight for what is right, not in a violent way, but in a supporting equality way. It's more like it's saying that even though society tends to put women through more crap just for being women, we're going to be tough, stay strong, and push through.

It seems that some feminists do take it a bit too far; they seem to be trying to make men feel as inferior as possible. I don't think that's what feminism should be about. It should be about striving for equality. We are all human beings, so we should all be treated the same way.

As far as Facebook activism, I agree with what Simone said. In a perfect world, people would be able to discuss politics rationally, even when they have a computer screen between each other. People are very opinionated and very stubborn. Discussions turn into arguments and the arguments never go anywhere because few people are willing to listen to the other side. Another problem with political discussions/arguments is that it always seems to me that nobody actually knows what they're talking about, so the opinions they're so passionate about are often based on misinformation, which doesn't help anyone. I think a lot of those problems with political discussions happen with other touchy subjects, like evolution or feminism or abortion.

So Facebook and other social media sites tend to be pretty bad for discussing social activism. On the other hand, I think it can be very good at spreading the word of problems going on in the world. There are many issues I probably would have never known much about had it not been for activism on social media. Facebook may not be the best place to discuss issues, but it can definitely be beneficial for letting people know about problems in the world and what they can do about them.

My recommendation for this week is Portal and Portal 2. They're both amazing video games. Probably my favorite video games ever. Portal 2 came out on Tuesday and I've been playing it quite a lot. If you haven't played it, I highly suggest you play it ASAP.

Also, for all the Whovians here, I'm pretty pumped for tomorrow. :)

It's already been a week?

[Insert cheesy way to express astonishment]

It's already thursday again?? These weeks seems to become shorter. Or maybe, I've been actually busy. Hopefully the last - that makes me sound sophisticated.

So, Rebecca - that was one Facebook conversation!

Now, I'm all up for equality, but not feminism in particular. I mean, sure women should be appreciated and they should be acknowledged, and it's so good to see female bosses, etc.

But, we must remember that without men, we wouldn't be able to create life. Human life, at least. In decades, maybe lifetimes, scientists may have found a way to produce life without the male genes, and so the women will rule the world? And would that be a good thing? I don't hope so personally. Both genders were made for a reason, and the "balance" in nature would just go wild if anything was changed. (btw, nothing is scientifically proven, and whatever I say may not happen - I'm guessing)

Enough about equality and my opinion on that; now about making activism on Facebook. It's a good place, if you want to be heard. I see the point in standing up to your own gender, but I don't think that politics really belong to social medias. Don't get me wrong, all I'm saying is, that it wouldn't be nice to be looking at political parties discuss online, right?

it's kinda the same when you let the public talk about politics as well. We're all just so different, and what one may think is right, is dead wrong to another.

I thought the picture aggresive, sure, but for men. Men doesn't feel the need to show who's in power with signs and posters, they just feel confident enough to just say "I feel superior to your gender" which is 1. wrong, and 2. making the female gender inferior.

I think it's wrong to prejudice, a subject I'm sensitive about. In all sorts of ways - hating people before even caring to know them is wrong. Judging by looks and never wanting to see anything but hate - the things one might hate about a person - is so wrong.

I'll finish off in a lighter note; I hope you have a good easter (mine is great) and I hope you enjoy the holidays! (At least, Denmark has easter break now)

Uh! My recommendation this week will be this: put on light clothes, get out in the sun and read and listen to your iPods. The weather is so splendid!

DFTBA (:

Facebook Activism?

So, on Thursday one of my (feminist) friends posted this picture on facebook:

She tagged the people she thought would appreciate the picture, and those people were duly appreciative. But between the combative tone of the picture, and one of the comments my friend made to someone else (my friend to a male feminist/supporter that he could "attack" from the inside), things went awry.  Essentially, one of my friends (let's refer to him as 'N'), posted a comment on the picture which essentially said "ooh, let's play girls against boys".  For some reason no one really recognized this as sarcasm, and the misunderstanding devolved into an argument, which probably could have been avoided with a simple apology, or explanation.  In the end 'N' got blocked from the conversation as the person who posted the picture (let's call her 'K') didn't want to continue with an argument that would only frustrate her.

Of course, after 'N' got banned, he posted a status saying "Blocked by [K]. Achievement? I think so. For having a legitimate argument? I think so." (For the record, 'K' is "infamous" in my school for being a "feminazi" who calls bullsh*t when she sees it [the latter is most definitely true, the former, not at all]).  Now, 'N's comment frankly seemed a bit petulant to me, but I wanted to focus on his "legitimate argument", and I did in fact address this on the comments.  The 'argument' he had first carried out on the picture didn't seem well formulated or coherent, but essentially boiled down to him believeing the picture was "inappropriately aggressive". When 'K's sister 'S' asked why he thought the picture was too aggressive, 'N' responded by saying:

[S], I say the picture is inappropriately aggressive because of the choice of words and the initial comments below the picture. I can't view the picture anymore, but I remember it using the word "fight" or something to that effect, which... may convey violent action. That, coupled with the comments below, such as your own -- "You can destroy them from the inside" (or whatever) were the cause of my disapproval, and as a result I sarcastically made my first comment. Which may have been distasteful, and/or taken seriously by others.

Another commenter 'M' added that "i completely agree with [N]. "you should be very, very afraid of me"... seriously? that's a threat that completely demeans the entire concept to be no better than what the cause is against." I posted a response in response to both of these posts, as well as my personal interpretation of the picture and the inciting incidence:

1) The top of the picture said "I fight back." and then listed things that the woman in the picture fight back against, some of which included violence, or a system that blames the victim, others which were simply gender biases. Between the two, I personally got the impression that The word "fight" was not necessarily meant in the violent sense, but rather in the protest sense of the word.  [This point was mainly a clarification for 'N', who could no longer view the picture/comments].

2) [K] said "attack" (just to correct your quotation), but I believe (hope) that she also meant this in a non-violent way, and what the substance of her comment was that [the male feminist commenter on the picture] (as a guy) can refute a misogynistic mindset.

3) The caption under the picture can seem over the top, but I took more of a "don't mess with me, because I can defend myself" rather than a threat to "attack" unprovoked. The unfortunate truth is that American society has some sort of perverse glee in victim-blaming and slut-shaming, which makes it a very dangerous world for women, because sometimes the victims are blamed to the extent that the perpetrator is not rebuked.

I think a lot of how both sides of this "argument" view the picture has a lot to do with the respective party's genders. Whereas you [N] and [M] viewed it as threatening or combative, I viewed as defensive. Why shouldn't men be afraid of me, when I'm supposed to be afraid of them? Of course the picture is abrasive, and it also seems to be divisive (as displayed in the comments here and the picture), which may be counter-productive. But it opened up a conversation, which, while full of misunderstandings, took place between people that *usually* respect one another. Anyway, that's my perspective. I commend whoever read through the whole thing. (Here's a cookie, and a smile :) [You can have a cookie as well, but I'm afraid I only have imaginary ones :/, the smile is real though :)]

The conversation continued beyond this, but I'm not going to regale you with the whole thing (at the moment its about 50 comments long...).  Though I believe I've always been a feminist, lately I've been doing a lot more reading, and talking to my friend 'S' a lot.  I think I'm still forming some of my opinions, but I appreciated this conversation, as mentioned above, because unlike most facebook conversations about sexism I've encountered, people were being civil and intelligent, something I strive to accomplish whenever I am engaged in a debate or argument, even if I feel passionately about the subject (maybe even especially).

So is this facebook activism?  I don't know, but I certainly hope that what I was saying made sense to the people on the opposite side of the argument, and that they accepted it.  The people engaged in the conversation weren't close-minded for the most part, and so I hope that my perspective may have helped to have them view the picture in a different way.  Their perspective certainly forced me to analyze how I felt about the picture, and how I responded to it, but everyone interprets things differently.

So, what issues (if any) are you passionate about?  What did you think of the picture?  Did you find you find it too aggressive (if so, why?) Or did it seem like a good message (again, if so, why?)? To the people following the blog please feel free to respond in the comments, but I ask that everyone remain civil and respectful of one another.

Recommendation: In keeping with the theme of this post, I recommend the blog Feministe, it's normally sharp, intelligent and sarcastic and is frequently witty and funny (in my opinion, I suppose)

P.S.  Hopefully the use of initials wasn't too confusing in the post, although, knowing me, I probably slipped up once and revealed someone's name. I was also wondering what people thought of the idea of me addressing the rest of the conversation next week (the "theme" could certainly be different from everyone else, though I would love to hear what you all think of the picture)?

Make-up Part 3

I have to agree with the two others aspect on make-up, but with slight changes along the way.

Well, sometimes I wear a bit of black mascara in the every day, and when I go to parties, I wear most on my eyes - especially smokey eyes, which is a look I support, if you know how to do it properly. Not looking like a panda is the goal, and a lot of people don't really get that.

The school I'm at, wears loads of make-up, and you can tell. You can especially tell if they don't. They look all pale and human.

Most of the girls wear black mascara - and loads of it. Concealer/foundation/blush (whatever it is, obviously I'm not a fan/user) - I mean, sure, it's fine wearing some to cover scars, moles, pimples, etc. But if you don't need it, what's the point? That's just waste of money.

And I think this is universally acknowledged as well: girls who uses foundation or build-your-own-tan, or what it's called (not a fan of that either) and forgets their necks. I had a friend who forgot to do that, and she got a bit upset when I told her. But she did remember to use it on her neck and forehead as well. Unfortunately, that made her look even worse; being very pale and then forget her arms. She didn't like short sleeves, but she liked to pull up her sleeves half up her arms, so they'd show anyways. But you know, she kept on doing that, but she wasn't very popular, so no one really noticed. Or care to tell that they noticed. In the end I don't think I did, either.

I think eyeshadow is too much for daytime. It makes the eyes mysterious, like covering them up. And it doesn't match to the daylight colours, unless it's very subtle.

I know girls who wears eyeshadow in the daytime, and it doesn't exactly make me cringe, but I do shrug, and wonder if they aren't aware how they look. But, they much definitely does. Otherwise, they wouldn't bother with the make-up in the first place.

I think, just to walk a bit away from the make-up, I'll talk about hair a little bit. I'm part danish and part korean, so my hair is both scandinavian thick, and korean .. glossy.

Since it's very dark, with both my parents having dark hair, it's been a mess to dye. It's dyed red, and it's been a while since. So it's a bit faded. People says it looks nice, and I tend to agree. I really like it, and I've been a redhead for a little under a year now, and I do think I'll keep it that way. It's also quite long, and six months ago, I decided I wanted bangs. Now, I've forgotten to cut them, and now the hair has grown way over my eyes. And yes, I think about cutting it everyday, I've just gotten around to it (and besides, last time I did that, it wasn't equally long).

And, now I've run out of aspects of my hair, so I'll end here.

Anyone excited for the new series of Doctor Who? I can't wait, which is totally ironic, since Denmark never gets Doctor Who ):

And for a recommendation, I'll say Ministry Of Magic. Awesome wrock (wizard rock), and if you don't know them - they make music about Harry Potter, and even if you do know them, listen to Old Enough To Die. And I May Lose Everything. But beware, they contain awesome!

Oh, this bit contains stupid self-advertisement (and sorry about that!) - I'm part of a newly started collab vlog on Youtube, and we're called TheQuirkTastics, and you're all very welcome to check us out. If you don't want to, that's fine. And once again sorry for the shameless promotion. :3

Make-up

This might be a little short. I'm really tired. Sorry! :)

Make-up, I think, is fun and can be really useful for accentuating your good features and trying to keep attention away from features you don't exactly want to flaunt. I really don't wear make-up too often, though. I had a habit of wearing a little foundation a few months ago because I was kind of self-conscious of my skin. Recently, I've only been wearing make-up for special occasions or going out.

I go to an all-girls high school, so not many people wear make-up everyday. Most of the girls in my class are too tired or don't care enough to try. Some girls do wear make-up everyday, and it kind of stuns me when I see them without it.

As for my own make-up (when I do wear it), I like to wear some brown eyeliner and foundation. I avoid wearing mascara and black eyeliner because I always seem to get mascara on my eyelids and the black eyeliner does not come off entirely, giving me a sickly look. I occasionally wear lip gloss, but I keep a tube of Chapstick with me at all times.

To me, too much make-up is the really thick, dark raccoon eyes that some girls sport. I think that it makes their eyes look tiny, and the eyes are the best feature, in my opinion. Also, layers and layers of foundation makes me cringe.

I agree with Rebecca when she says that make-up shouldn't make you feel prettier. It should be fun and something that you want to do, not just have to do in order to be beautiful.

Recommendation: BLTs. If you don't know what they are (I'm sure most of you do), it's a bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich with or without mayo. I had one for dinner and it was delicious. :)

Umm...Oops?

So, after getting home two hours after school gets out, accidentally conking out and taking a ridiculously long nap, doing physics homework, eating, doing the dishes and reading two chapters of Beloved for English, i completely forgot to write a blog post. Though, in hindsight, if I had remembered, I probably would have just gone to sleep anyway, as by the time i did get to sleep last night it was past 2 am. Which is why I'm posting an entry today rather than yesterday.

Anyway, so Jonathan proposed the topic of make-up in his post last week, and so that's what I'm gonna talk about

I personally don't wear makeup, because it takes too long (even if it's only ten minutes -- in the morning every extra minute of sleep is a plus) and I don't find it necessary. I do own makeup, from years when I used to wear mascara to school, and also because I wear makeup to dances most of the time. On the rare chance that I do wear makeup it's usually eyeshadow, mascara, and eyeliner, possible foundation and concealer. The only thing I ever put on my lips is chapstick (or any other product whose sole function is to un-chap your lips). I generally use more eye makeup than anything else, because I like my eyes, and like drawing attention to them, but I tend to keep the makeup less dramatic.

In terms of what I find, aesthetically to be too much? When people are wearing makeup and I can't tell, it normally is helping in subtler way than fanciful makeup, such as brightening the skin, covering pimples, of lightening bags under the eyes. There's one girl in my grade who wears her makeup for essentially this purpose, so when she doesn't wear makeup it is really noticeable and she looks tired and sometimes sickly (though, this is also probably why she didn't putting it on to begin with). So I think that's a potential problem of wearing makeup consistently. When someone's makeup is dramatic to the point that it looks costume-y (like looking at someone wearing stage makeup up close) or like they're a different person, I generally find it unattractive. I also think that "too much" makeup can often look haphazard or cheap sometimes. But, ultimately, it's not my face and I don't really care.

Really, what I hate is the idea that people feel as though makeup is going to make them "prettier", or that people feel like they need to feel prettier period.  Even though makeup can often look really cool and artistic, and can often highlight nice facial features, I think most people look just as pretty, if not prettier without makeup than with makeup.

Recommendation: the 2010 film production of Hamlet by the Royal Shakespeare Company. David Tennant and Patrick Stewart are amazing in it (I can't think of a time when I've been unimpressed by David Tennant, though). I would also suggest watching it with subtitles, because sometimes it's hard to catch exactly what's being said.

Where my stitches at?

So I had an absolutely brilliant topic to write about this week, but then I forgot it. Instead, I shall tell you about my knitting because I've been doing it a lot through my spring break and I'm really excited about it, and hopefully it turns out as good as whatever my other brilliant idea was.

I started knitting after I got my acceptance letter from my top choice college. I thought it would be a good way to relax after all the stress of the previous 3.5 years of high school and months of college applications, while still allowing me to be productive. My mom had done a bit of knitting in the past, so she taught me the basic knit stitch. Then I, like every other beginning knitter, made a scarf. It started out small, and I made a lot of mistakes. There were many times in the beginning when I would accidentally add stitches onto my work, and my scarf kept getting wider and wider.

After restarting a couple times, I finally got the hang of it. And then I was knitting all the time. I had several movie parties with friends over the break, and I knitted through all of them. After countless movies, Glee episodes, and Doctor Who episodes, I had a scarf that was probably about six feet long and thick enough to be a blanket. It's pretty much the coziest thing I own, and I am ridiculously proud of it.

Then I started working on a hat for my mom. However, the pattern I had required me to learn some new stitches and my mom was out of town, so I had to learn from the internet. If it weren't for knittinghelp.com, I probably never would have finished it. I also found knitting forums full of helpful people who were able to give me advice when I had no idea of what I was doing. Even with all of the amazing resources out there, I still struggled like a newb. About half of the stitches I made were wrong and it became a confusing labyrinth of yarn. Eventually I got the hang of it, but at that point I realized that some parts were such messes that they were just going to be random holes and knots and I would just have to deal. Eventually I finished that hat and it looked quite nice, as long as you ignore the mysteries at the bottom.

And then I went on to knit a pair of mittens. By that point, I'd gotten good enough that the only problem was that they were quite a bit too big for my little sister's tiny hands. SUCCESS! And now I'm working on fingerless gloves for a friend with a really neat spiraling pattern. I really like these gloves because even though they're a more complicated pattern, I don't have to knit fingers, which is quite nice. And now I'm so happy because I actually know what I'm doing and I think it shows. So I guess this all goes to show that practice really does make perfect. Also, the internet is an extremely helpful resource.

Anyway, my recomendation for this week is Flight of the Conchords. The show is hilarious and fantastic. It's two New Zealanders who are in a band that writes comedy songs, and they've moved to NYC to try and become popular. However, their agent is terrible and they only have one crazy fan. My summary probably sounds terrible, but it really is hilarious. If you can't watch the show, I suggest you at least listen to the songs. I've been listening to them all week, and they are pretty much all amazing.

A little of this, and a little of that.

Allright, so this week's topics has been very different, so I think I'll sum up my opinions etc. on these topics. And then I'll talk about something that I've done a lot today.

So I think I covered the topic school last week, so I'll skip that part. But good luck to find your college, Rebecca! (:

Now, music. So I like all kinds. I recently purchased Jamie Cullum and a Doctor Who Soundtrack. And I own a copy of all Muse albums. So I have a broad taste in music. But as of late, the only things I am listening to is wrock, trock and Youtube musicians.

Before I developed personal taste, I listened to - and liked Britney Spears and just pop music in general. Oh, and there was good 2 years of my life, where my "life's soundtrack" was Destiny's Child. It's safe to say, that I'm over that phase now.

I was quite suppressed musically as younger, since you weren't popular, if you didn't listen to specific musicians/bands or watched something called Popstars.

It's still like that. Most people likes Bruno Mars and Rihanna, and there's nothing wrong with that. I just want to hear music, that matters to me, I don't care if I'm the only girl in the world, with lips someone would kiss all day if I'd let him.

It's just - and this sounds A. frightening or B. insane, but I want to only listen to music that I care about, since life is too short to listen to stuff you just don't care about at all.

Now, clowns.

I think clowns are scary because of IT. I never saw it, I just know that I would be so freaked out scared, that I wouldn't be able to live properly for.. a very long time. I haven't even watched Paranormal Activity, but my friend told me about this (and I'm sorry, if you're easy scared and doesn't know this) scene, where something invisible under a bed throws a woman out of it and drags her down the staircase. So now, I'm not taking any chances with creepy stuff or having my feet anywhere else but under my duvet. Not even in the mornings.

But clowns. I dread clowns when I once in very rare time goes to the circus. I mean. I'm not scared of them, but there's something creepy about them. And reading Jonathan's view on clowns, I'm feeling a bit odd for ever laughing at them failing their tasks. Even though it's amusing, or supposed to be amusing, I don't know if it's right to do it.

And today. I have cleaned my room (almost impossible task) and then, because I recently received some books, ran out of space. So I emptied all the bookshelves and started reorganizing and arranging on priority, awesomeness and how-much-will-I-ever-need-this, and managed to throw away my Twilight series and a Destiny's Child cd (that's irony. Right there)

It looks, if I may say so, good now. All of my bed was filled with all my stuff, and it's a quite big bed. And it's 8 small shelves. So.. It wasn't very fun and I ended up moving my films three times before finding a place that I liked.

Oh, and I have a suggestion for a theme next week (or sometime else): opinion/view on make-up - how much/little? Why etc. - what do you think?

Anyway, I'll stop here, but with a Thursday Top 3:

1. Script Frenzy, which has turned out to be so much more fun than anticipated

2. Lost. An episode a day is awesome. Brilliant and sometimes terrifying show.

3. Chocolate Chip Cookies. <3

DFTBA (:

Clowns

First of all, sorry about not being able to post last week. My internet access has been limited and i was not able to write something up :(

Anyway I was going to write about something like school or movies are whatnot, but as I was walking home from school today I though to myself, 'you know what would be cool to write about? Clowns.' and so here I am.

I'm sure we have all seen clowns as they are ideally portrayed, with their giant multicoloured wigs and their face paint and goofy walks. I went to a circus when I was like 10, and I still remember seeing the clowns there and genuinely thinking that these guys were actually pretty amusing.

So now that I'm slightly older and have a slightly broader view of the world, I want to understand why clowns are so entertaining and yet so creepy at the same time. Why little needs to be done for a jovial jester to become a horrid harlequin has always been a mystery to me.

So I thought back to when I had been at that circus. What had I like about the clowns? what made them funny? Well for starters they were performing slapstick and generally attempting to do something and failing in the most exaggerated way possible. Is the process of watching other people fail what makes us so amused by them? I thought about that in the context of modern television too, and I realized that the antics of these clowns, like silent film stars such as charlie chaplin, were so compelling because the characters were made to be cartoons. They get makeup put on their face to make them look almost alien and unlike any normal person. As characters they are removed from reality and completely 1 dimensional, so nobody could relate to them and therefore nobody felt their pain at failing to get up that ladder or to paint that wall correctly. By making these characters harmless and cartoony, people dont really feel any shame for them and as such can enjoy their misery to its fullest (but that still leaves the question fo why people enjoy others misery; schadenfreude perhaps?).

And I think this is why they can be so creepy. Because as we grow up and begin to think about these things (who are these people? why do they keep falling on that oil slick? do they have hopes and dreams as well?), we realize that these characters whom people have created are actually pretty irregular, almost crazy. The face-paint becomes more unnerving, the floppy movements and constant trying of the same thing becomes more of a sign of insanity, and we slowly realize that the concept of a clown is that of a highly disfunctional and mentally childish person.

The last thing that I think allows clowns to become so creepy to us is that they are fundamentally a part of childhood. Regardless of whether we've actually seen them, clowns are embedded into the consciousness of our society, and as such we feel for them nonetheless. It seems that we as a society hold our childhood a sacred, and that is why having it violated fears us so greatly. If you look at creepy and scary stories, a lot of them come from taking a childhood object and making it into a monster (eg gremlins, chuckie). It seems that the fact that we took comfort in those things as kids make it all the more scary when they turn out to be watching us as we sleep.

so yeah, just my thoughts. What do you guys think makes clowns so scary?

anyway my reccomendation for this week is adventuretime. Its this completely innocent and yet awesome in its enthusiasm show about two heroes who adventure and get into fun mishaps. Think spongebob but just better and more self-aware.

DFTBA :D

Music!

So to go in a completely different direction than Rebecca, I'm going to talk about music! It can be our theme, if that's okay with everyone. I'm extremely sorry if you're not into music, but I really wanted to blog about this. :)

I spend a lot of my time listening to music. I listen during study halls, homework, and just doing other things. I know that multitasking isn't very good, but some things are too boring to go without music. My mom usually has to yell at me every night, "It's nine o'clock! Turn off the music!" I definitely consider myself to be a music nerd.

One thing about my musical taste is that if I love a song/band, I become obsessed with it and can't stop listening to it/them over and over for days. Eventually, I find a new song/band to be infatuated with, and the old song is left in the dust. It really is sad. I think I'm getting better at it, though.

I'm really into alternative rock or pop punk/rock. I just started listening to a band called You, Me, and Everyone We Know. They are really good and I almost saw them at a concert on Saturday, but I missed them by about 2 minutes. I was so disappointed. I also saw the Ready Set, We Are The In Crowd, The Downtown Fiction, and All Star Weekend. It was amazing. Paramore and the Glamour Kills Tour (the one with the Ready Set, You, Me, and Everyone We Know, etc) are the only concerts I've been to, other than free, outdoor ones in my city. I really love going to concerts, so I hope I get a chance to go to some more!

Like a lot of people, I've had music phases. Because I was born in the 90's, I was a fan of the Backstreet Boys and Avril Lavigne when I was younger. (who didn't listen to a 90's boy band?) I also had a weird Shania Twain kick, too. I don't really know where that came from. After that, I really got into Paramore, and they kind of opened my eyes to the world of music. Lately, I've been into Angels and Airwaves, Anberlin, Box Car Racer, and blink-182. I like some YouTube musicians, like Hank and Charlie McDonnell, but I don't listen to them that much.

I don't know about you guys, but I really like having an actual, physical album, not just the songs off of iTunes. I like looking at the covers and the lyric books. People put so much time into thinking about their album cover. I do have an iPod, though. They are so handy!

As you can probably see, I really love music and I cannot live without it! Thanks for letting me talk about it for a while!

Recommendation: You, Me, and Everyone We Know! Just check them out! If you don't like them, that's fine! Every one's got their own tastes. Talk to ya later!

DFTBA :)

As Above, So Below

So, I really don't know if this post will able to fit nicely (or awkwardly, even) into a theme, because I figured I should talk a little bit about my "college tour" now that it's over and I am (finally) back home.

My mom, my sisters and I left Ohio on Monday morning (closer to the afternoon, really) to drive to Pennsylvania in order to visit Haverford and Swarthmore, and on Tuesday we went to visit Haverford.  Now, before the trip, I hadn't even considered most of the schools we visited, so I wasn't particularly excited to go to Haverford (not that I was unexcited). My mom had wanted to get to Haverford by a certain time, but between getting four people awake, dressed and fed, plus the time it took to drive from the motel we were staying at to the college (plus the time for my mom to get lost) we ended up being late, and missing the tour we had originally planned on taking. But, as it happened, we ended up being early to one of the info session. Haverford's admission's office had two seniors sitting there to talk to people waiting for the info sessions about the college.  I really liked this about Haverford, and it was nice to ask questions and get a sense of the school before going to the info session.

What I really liked about Haverford that I learned from those two seniors and the info session, was the colleges' Honor Code.  Haverford's Honor Code is built on the principle's of Concern, Respect and Truth/Trust and is reviewed by the student population each semester. Throughout my time at Haverford, I was constantly impressed (upon) about how much these principle's affected the community (a word that got used too many times to count). Students were comfortable leaving their laptops out in the library (I can't even trust that my bike will still be locked to a bike rack most of the time), tests and exams are self-scheduled (I mean, with some parameters, but still), and students aren't nervous to tell their neighbors (dormmates) that their music is too loud.

On Tuesday, the plan had initially been to visit Haverford for a tour and info session, eat, go to Swarthmore where we were planning on doing another tour or info session and me sitting in a class.  I actually had been looking forward to the Swarthmore part of the day, but the plan couldn't really go as planned, with us running (well, arriving) late. My mom suggested we leave Haverford after the info session, but I found Haverford so enthralling by that point that I really didn't want to leave. Our tour guide was another (very nice) senior, who managed to give a wonderful and engaging tour, despite the ridiculous number of people on the tour. And in the process I learned more about Haverford and grew to really like it (maybe even love it a bit), and by the end of the tour I was seriously considering applying there and could see myself liking it there.

The class I visited at Swarthmore was a bit lackluster, but I think (hope) that was the case because I had decided upon a class that happened to be showing a movie that day.  I left Swarthmore that day hoping that it would similarly (if not completely) engage me the next day when we went on the tour and to the info session as Haverford had. It didn't. Our tour guide didn't seem particularly well trained, the wait for the tour was boring (and included a movie documenting different Swarthmore students' experiences that screamed cheesy testimonial infomercial), and I felt as though Swarthmore was a bit full of itself. But, maybe that's just me.

So, Wednesday we were prepared to leave PA, stopping in Philadelphia to eat and visit the Poe museum there before we were on hour way to Massachusetts. That ride was supposed to be five hours long. It was eight in the end (my mom getting lost was a recurring theme on the trip).

On Thursday we visited the next college on our list: Smith. Smith is an all women college in Northampton, Massachusetts. I was looking forward to visiting Smith, but mostly because I thought it might be a bit of fun, I never really considered it as a school I might want to go to. I never really wanted to go to an all female school, maybe on some strange idea that doing so would mean I didn't see myself as "good enough" to compete with the boys at a coed school, or that only being surrounded by women (or mostly surrounded by women, anyway) would be boring. I kinda want to slap myself for those ideas now. I suppose the first thing I learned by visiting Smith was that it's really a place where strong, intelligent and probably largely independent women come, where they are able to grow without fear of feeling or being silenced and overshadowed by men. I guess this nuance was originally lost on me. Of course, there are going to be men at Smith, since it's a part of a five college consortium, which include three coed schools (as well as another women's college).

Smith was similar to Haverford in many ways, they were both safe campuses (as in, they specified this on their tours, that the students never felt as though they were in danger), they both valued community and really worked to establish that with how they set up their housing situation, and they both had a sort of cozy, welcoming feel to them (to me at least). Smith had a prettier campus in my opinion though, and the town that it is situated in seemed a bit more inclusive and was large enough to have things to do, but small enough that it probably wouldn't seem overwhelming or scary to me if I went their (though I do like big cities, I just don't know how much I want to live in one). There were also fewer touring families at Smith, so I got a tour guide to myself, which was wonderful. My guide, Hope, really just walked next to me, taking me to various buildings, and talking to me about the school. I felt comfortable talking to her, like we were having a conversation rather than feeling like I was on a tour. I think it helped me to get a better sense of the school and atmosphere there (also, everyone [all the people we met, anyway] was super helpful and nice). I left Smith, extremely reluctant to leave Smith, and I was really longing to just enroll then and there. So, somehow, a college that I never considered I would ever be interested in, made it to the top of my list.

Which leads me to Friday, and our last visit, which was to Williams, which had been one of my top choice schools initially. I'm going to keep this one short, because this post is getting long (it's also getting late here). Essentially, I thought Williams was a really good school and it was a nice campus, but I thought that it was a place I wouldn't really fit in, let alone a place where I thought I could grow or have particularly good experiences in. So, while a school that I would have never originally considered jumped to the top, the school that had been close to the top for a long time fell to the bottom.

Sometime in the next couple weeks I will be (hopefully) going on a tour of Oberlin which is the school that I've wanted to go to for the majority of my life, to reevaluate it, and see how it compares to Smith and Haverford.

If you made it to the end of this post: here have a cookie. :)

Recommendation: If you don't read it already, I recommend the blog "Hyperbole and a Half". Because it is hilarious.

P.S. I f you hadn't already noticed, I really like post-scripts (and parenthetical asides [and sometimes, parenthetical asides within parenthetical asides]). have a great week everybody! :)

Internet Habits and Nerdy Excitement

Rebecca - I've heard a lot about TV tropes, but haven't really gotten around to checking it out. It sounds really interesting, though, so I'll probably look into it this weekend.
Susie - I definitely feel the same way about learning and teachers and math and science and literature. And I've only managed to watch about half of AVPM so far, and I forgot where I left off. It can be another thing for me to do this weekend!
Simone - Congrats on your new job, and feel better! And I definitely check teefury on a regular basis but never ever buy anything because I don't have a credit card and I don't feel like bothering my parents about it. It's a bit unfortunate. I do the same thing with ModCloth, which isn't a nerdy internet thing, but I just think they have some of the prettiest dresses ever.

I also have a fairly specific order I use my computer in. I start with Facebook and scroll through the news feed to see what people have been up to and respond to anything that needs responding. Then I check Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, Cyanide and Happiness, and any other webcomics that I know have new comics. After that is Your Pants, especially the epic Doctor Who thread in there, and this is usually followed by YouTube. Then, I check up on anything else that I feel needs checking up on, and then I wander the interent. I end up spending quite a bit of my internet time on StumbleUpon, which you should definitely go to if you haven't heard of it before.

As for academic interests, I'm pretty much a science and math nerd. I'm still interested in reading, writing, history, art, music, and whatnot, but those interests aren't as big as my love for math and science. I just love how they can explain pretty much everything that happens in the universe. There are so many complex phenomena in the world, and science and math have explanations for almost all of them. And there are all these amazing things they can prove that are straight-up mind-boggling, like quantum mechanics, and they fascinate me to no end.

Speaking of my love of science, I'm pretty excited because the state competition for Science Olympiad is in two weeks. It's going to be so much fun. I love Science Olympiad, and I love all the people who do it with me. I have quite a bit of studying to do for it before then, but it's definitely worth it.

Recommendation for the week: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. It's another one of those things I kept hearing about and finally decided to check out tonight. I've only finished act 1 so far, but it's pretty fantastic at this point. It's all on YouTube, which makes it pretty convenient to watch.
Anyway, I'm off to finish watching that. DFTBA!