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Will be traveling, and will have limited internet access for the next week. Hopefully, I'll check back soon! :)

Women's Rights and Equality

When women's rights and equality come up, I'm always reminded of the Schoolhouse Rock video that I used to watch all the time:



But recently, I found this more modern video pertaining to women's equality and rights:



Think about these facts:

1% of landowners in the world are women.
130 million women world wide have been submitted to genital mutilation/cutting.
There are an estimated 5 thousand honor killings a year, mostly in the Muslim world.

Women today are still subjected to horrendous conditions, often mistreated by their male counterparts. We cannot, as a people, allow these occurances in our modern world. It is of extreme importance that every able-minded and able-bodied woman take a stance on the issue of women's equality.

Tomorrow is Women's Equality Day - do something about it. Take a look at this or this and begin to understand the conditions that some women and girls live with every day.

Take a stand, for those who can't.

What Happened Today...

Well, today was another excellent day. I had two main things that went on... I visited twins that I tutor and had a great time talking/playing with them! They were adorable! We also visited some friends and chatted with them. :) It was a lot of fun to be around people like them!

Also, I'm watching Saturday Night Live (rerun) right now. It's such a great one... the one where the real Sarah Palin comes! I love the Sarah Palin rap!!! Sometimes the shows are just hilarious...

This is about it. I'll write more tomorrow/later! :)

Videos, etc.

I hope the videos that I posted earlier were remotely day-brightening or amusing. They were fun to watch for me!!!

Well, I went to a party and enjoyed it today; it was good clean fun, with parents around and lots of music, joking, and sweets. Sometimes those things, with friends, are all I need to stay sane.

I'm enjoying a late night of "work": printing directions for college tours, and working on items for MyLife24-7 and Junior Pro Art, a music group I belong to.

Going to finish that up now! Talk to you soon!

Food Court Musical

One other video: This one is absolutely hysterical! I wish this happened in real life. I wonder how I'd react if I was one of the people in the food court.

High Five Escalator

This is such a great video! I absolutely adore it. So clever. It shows how one thing can change people's day. :) Enjoy your day!

Relaxed Day

This morning I had a great bassoon lesson, very laid back. I enjoy them a lot. I might want to play bassoon in college, so I might as well learn now! Then, I got to go home and relax for a little bit, then eating lunch with a friend, then more relaxing. I just got off the phone with some people from mylife24-7.org, which is a youth-led website/group. I'm an ambassador for it, and I really enjoy working on it. It's basically website design and blogging, both of which I love! I'm heading out for ice cream with another friend in a sec.

This article was interesting and sweet to me. I really enjoyed learning about other girls in a different country than me, and I learned just how lucky I am. It made me grateful for what I have.

Well, that's it for now. Writing pieces to be posted soon (I hope)!

A Nice Day...

So, today was quite nice. I spent the majority of it relaxing, practicing bassoon, and enjoying my free time... Not a bad life! I updated my profiles on zinch.com, cappex.com, and fastweb.com, so that my scholarship chances are greatened. :)

In my internet adventures, I've discovered amazing stop-motion videos by someone who calls him/herself "PES". I really enjoy them, though! Here's my favorite, "Western Spaghetti".


Cool, isn't it?

Next order of business, I'm just learning of this case out of the Mohawk Valley (relatively close to me). A lawsuit's being filed from the NYCLU on behalf of an openly gay 14 year old boy. Being openly gay, he was subjected to years of verbal and physical harassment, according to the lawsuit. Apparently, administration did nothing to prevent/deal with this. Now they're being sued because of it. I think that the boy and his parents are doing the right thing. Comments under the news article suggest that thousands of lawsuits could be filed like this... my response is, "Why not file them? We need more attention to be drawn to bullying and harassment in schools." As a student, I see firsthand the effects of bullying. Students that are bullied usually undergo years of harassment that is uncalled for. Check out this story here and here.

I'm considering writing reflections on some big summer events for me; when I do, they'll go right here!

The schoolyear is approaching fast. I'm happy to say that I'm looking forward to it. Clubs are meeting early so we can discuss the upcoming year, and I'm actually getting psyched for these plans!

Speaking of school, I'd love to discuss a recent news story. In New York, low-income families were given an extra $200 per-child for "school supplies". If I understand this correctly, a millionaire decided that he would contribute to this because "as a child, he was poor, and he always remembered the money he got for school supplies". That's all well and good, but this was a truly disastrous plan in execution. Most of the people receiving the money had no idea what it was for until after the money was spent on things other than school supplies. And for those that did know, I'm sure that many of them put the money towards "more important things". Their children will still come to school complaining that they can't afford notebooks and pencils. How do I know? These children are my classmates. I watched my single mom drop over $100 on my brother's school supplies alone, and does she get welfare money? No. She pays taxes that go towards ineffective programs like this. I apologize for ranting like this, it just seems a bit unfair. Everyone's suffering, Paterson.

Well, that's all for now. I'll check in soon!

Apology, and Update

First of all, the delay in my blogging is inexcusable. I do apologize for not including any posts since over one month ago! I should have kept it up to date. Won't let it happen again. :)

So, now the updates.

I've been using this new site called Polyvore and I really love it. It's so much fun. Basically, if you can imagine clipping photos out of magazines and making collages with them, that's what you're doing. It's a really good time! I'm so addicted but I love it. Here's two examples of my work:

Untitled by lettert on Polyvore.com

Vintage by lettert featuring Alexander McQueen shoes

Also, I found this really interesting: Joshua Bell, world-renowned violinist, played for an hour as a street musician at L'Enfant Plaza subway stop in Washington D.C., and he went unnoticed by so many! I was shocked to see this. It made me wonder, "Would I stop to listen, even if I didn't know who he was?". Check it out here.

If you enjoyed the photos from my previous posts, be sure to my photography out on Flickr.com! View them here.

I just finished the book "My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Piccoult, and I loved it! It was such a sad book, but it was really touching, too. I'm trying to decide whether the movie would be better or worse.

My Sister's Keeper from Red Carpet on Vimeo.

Check out this cute editorial on water fountains across the U.S. Artists tallied who went to each fountain during a certain amount of time and sketched the fountains. Makes me want to do the same thing! If I do, then I'll be sure to post it!

I think that this contest would be interesting to enter. Write a story of 600 words and start it with this sentence: "The nurse left work at five o'clock."... How exciting! The possibilities are endless.

My summer's been pretty exciting. I'm really enjoying how laid back everything is, I'm looking forward to an upcoming vacation and school. :D So far, I've already survived summer school in Health class, so I can get ahead and not take it during the school year. The summer weather has been somewhat iffy, with lots of rain. The past few days have been warm, but it just rained again. Who's complaining, though? I've ridden my bike often and spent time outside, some time tye dying, and we've already gone to Boston/Hampton Beach and Sylvan Beach. Fun trips!

Well, that's all for now. My goal is to write a bit more frequently now. Let's see if I can keep it up! Ta ta for now!