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!

Blah.......

Not much to say here. Stay posted for more.

One thing, actually, did you see my quote/pic in the article about Syracuse Symphony Youth Orchestra in the Family Times?

Fun links!

So, did anyone catch Obama's slip up on Jay Leno's late night show? He said he was awful at bowling, and compared his skills to "the Special Olympics or something". He later apologized to the Special Olympics, before the show was aired. He also invited some Special Olympics athletes to come bowl or play basketball in the White House with him. Here's an article about it.

Speaking of the Special Olympics, they have a new campaign against the R-word. Unfortunately, too many people believe that it's alright to describe something that they dislike as "retarded". The Special Olympics has started a movement to put an end to the ignorance. Here's their website.

Tomorrow is World Water Day! Help me campaign for Water for Life! Check out their site.

On a much different note, here's an interesting case of what appears to be extreme bullying. In my opinion, the school should have stepped in before things got to this point. See the article here.

Check out a new artist who's absolutely great: seanfournier.blogspot.com. He also has several free songs that you can download. :) Enjoy!

Have a great night! See ya!

No news

No news from me yet, but keep checkin back! I'll be updating...

PS: Have you checked out What Would You Do? on ABC? Tuesdays at 10. Check it out! It's a cool social experiment type thing...

More thoughts...

Here's some great essays about teenage inauguration attendees - definitely worth reading!

Midterms are over! I did fairly well on all. They were not as bad as I expected, although I still don't understand the necessity of them only in certain classes.

I'm working on making the blog more interesting without clogging it up, so thoughts would be great. I've added a music player, so comment about that... It was surprisingly easier than I'd planned for.

I'm dreading actually having to go to classes tomorrow - even though there were exams, I enjoyed having half days today and yesterday! I definitely enjoy school, but of course with high school comes the typical social awkwardness(although I still feel like I have some good friends), and the high stakes for grades - that's pressure, haha. I do cause some of it, considering the fact that I'm the freshman that's concerned with college.

Also, I finished a very peculiar book review from the New York Times: it chronicled a woman's experience in a mental hospital. The catch was, she feigned being mentally ill to experience firsthand patient conditions, so that she could write about them. Being in these facilities, she relapsed into depression, and truly needed treatment. A similar idea was done by Nellie Bly, the famous journalist, during the Industrial Revolution. Here are the two links:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/27/health/27book.html?ref=health
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/bly/madhouse/madhouse.html

Another hot topic: teens and sex. It's being discussed on nytimes.com, which says that despite rumors of teens being wildly promiscuous, the percentage of sexually active teens has gone down. It appears that teens today are more careful about sex, but that ideals behind relationships have changed. There are "hook-ups" more often, where teens are physically intimate without having a long-term relationship. This is where "friends with benefits" falls. Those that are unwilling to commit but are interested in a physical relationship become "friends with benefits" or "hook-up". So, what do I, a real live teen, have to say about all this? Well...

It's clear that sex is on teens' minds; anyone could see that. At my school, teens have been "going out" and having relationships since 5th grade. The "popular" teens constantly switch boyfriends and girlfriends, and by this point, certain students have gone out with almost all of their friends of the opposite sex. What I don't understand is, how does one "go out" without having a car? Your parents have to give you rides, so it's technically not "going out". But that's not the point. As I was saying, teens do think constantly about sex and relationships, and some adults have caught on to this. They attempt to talk to us about this, which is extremely awkward, and they do excercises about this type of thing. My classmates and I were "polled" by our guidance counselors, to discover that we perceived the senior class as wild, party-loving, substance-abusing, non-virgins. In actuality, I know many upperclassmen that I know are not sexually active. Yes, there is a percentage of students in each grade, but for the most part, teens may talk, but do they actually do it? My guess is no.

Well, that's all for now. Ta ta!