Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Just to give you an idea...

So, folks, you've probably noticed that posts by Spencer and myself have become a bit more spaced out in the last few months, a bit fewer and further between. hey, we try, ok? Not to make excuses, but we both lead extremely busy lives as a high school Junior and Senior. And yeah, of course there are those of you out there thinking "Jeesh, you're kids. how busy could you possibly be that you cant it down at write for a few minutes?" You want to know how busy I am? Alright. I thought I'd turn this post into a bit of a project. For the past week i recorded everything I had to do each day so you folks could see just what I'm talking about.

MONDAY - Woken up at 7:30 by my mom for school. Fun fun. Somewhere between my 90 minue classes I had to find time to begin editing a video for a class project. Caught a lucky break and got to leave school 45 minutes early for a very important college interveiw (went well!), ate a quick, cheap fast-food dinner before having a rare 3 hours to spend with my girl :).
I finally got home at 10 pm, at which point I began research on Heinrich Himmler (not a nice guy) for yet another project. I finally collapsed from exhaustion around 12:30.

TUESDAY - Woke up at 7:15 (early for me) and spent 30 minutes looking for my english novel. In school, had to - once again - spend my one, tiny, pathetic 20 minute break editing that video, after which I took 2 hour-long tests and watched Supernanny. yay for stupid classes. Had a physically exhausting practice for 2.5 hours, spent another hour working on the video, and then went into the school concession stand to help out furing the varsity basketball game. Home at 9:15. From there I worked on submissions to literary agencies for 2 hours and did a bit more research on mr. Himmler. Turns out in one weeks time I get to give a 15 minute speech on this guy. Finally fell asleep watching TV at 2:30. Hm, missing anything? Oh yeah. Dinner = quick sandwich at 9:30. Mmm, mmm, good.

WEDNESDAY - What a day. Woke up at 7:30 and could hardly open my eye. Lucky me, all my contact solution is at another house. 10 minute drive to the other house, and then 20 minutes back and forth to grab the key I forgot in the first place. I go about my day with one contact in (harder than it sounds, folks. I have a vision correct of about -8. For those of you who dont know, thats baaaaaaad!). Got to school 15 minutes late.
School went relatively smoothly. 2.5 hour practice, after which I locked myself in a classroom for 3 hours of video editing. At school until 9. Dinner 9eaten alone0 was left over lasagna at 9:30 during an episode of AFV (watched alone). Then - surprise - back to assembling a presentation for my 15 minute speech. Around 2 I fell asleep whil taking notes.

THURSDAY - Woke up (roughly 7:30) with spiral indents on my face from the notebook zi fell asleep on. Thank God I actually made it school on time. Sadly, I spent both my short break and my lunch period editing my video, had to leave school for one class period to finish up other random bits of work, and then back to another 2.5 hour practice. Another 3 hours of editing, one short hour at la casa de mi novia (girlfriend), home by 10. Dinner was...non existant. half a snadwich at about 7, the other half at 10:30 witha bag of doritos and a powerade. Got in another 30 minutes of research and finally began writing out a speech outline. I'm quite behind schedule but...hell, when am i ever on schedule?! Fell asleep while working (again), woke up about midnight, ate some fruit snacks, and fell back asleep.

FRIDAY - Woke up a little ahead of schedule and actually made it to school early for once. Day went by rather smoothly. Spent 10 minutes of my lunch period and finally finished that video. Woohoo. Practice was quick. 2 hours, rather than 2.5. The next 4 hours, though, were spent in the concession stand again for the basketball game. Another spare hour to relax finally. Between waking up at 7 and getting home at midnight, I ate a whopping one slice of store bought frozen pizza and a pack of mambas. Joy. At 12:30 I had a bowl of pasta alone in the dark while rying to motivate myself to get to work on my speech. never happened. Fell asleep at the computer around 1:30.

SATURDAY - Muahaha! All thos days I missed out on eating dinner...well, I made up for them today. I got up at 7:30 (yes, 7:30 on a saturday) for breakfast witha friend. Ihop = yum! Bought a new jacket (my girlfriend thinks mine is pathetic). Around noon I met a friend at subway and ate a 6 inch. At 12:30 I wnt back to town to return my new jacket thanks to a very large rip in the sleeve. While there, I ate lunch ate Arbys. Haha I just hit up all the best restaurants in one day. I stopped at the bank quick and got home at right about 3. Had just enough time to shower before friends started showing up. For the next few hours myself and a few friends made utter fools of ourselves strapped to snowboards, after which we stopped (about 9:30 pm) for a late dinner. Ihop again! Just when it looked like I was going to have a totally trouble free day. my friend's car key snaps clean in half in his car door. So, about 11 oclock at night, at least an hour from home, we had to sit in the cold and wait for help. I got home around 12:45 and was alseep within 5 minutes. Didnt even bother taking off my jacket.

SUNDAY - Up around 9 oclock and realized my room loocked like it had just been hit by a hurricane. Guess i should clean it, huh?
Went in to work at noon and stood basically in one spot for the next 6 long, boring hours. After work I stopped by to see that girlfriend of mine again to see if she could fix my computer. Stupid computers with stupid viruses. Ate some spaghettios for dinner and went home by 10. Worked on my speech for about 2 hours. All in all, pretty slow, down paced day. That, my friends, is rare.

Now, did you notice how long that was? It s because Im just that busy. heck, I spent almost 60 hours just in the school building this week. Who wants to do that?! I'd really rather not! Not once throughout the whole week did I have an actual meal. So...yeah, I'm just taking life as it comes to me, and at the moment its just been coming kinda fast paced.

I know there are those of you out there who know what tghis feels like, and those of you out there just waiting for a time when you can feel like you'd rather rip out your eyes and play ping pong with them than work for another minute. Yeah, just wait. when that time does come, though, all I can say is...good luck

cheers
*superman*

Monday, January 11, 2010

Children and Tweenies: Tiny Skirts, Low Shirts, and Other Things I Don't Want to See

That's right folks. Today's topic is aimed not at parents of teenagers but towards parents of children or that awkward stage of tweenies. More specifically, today's topic deals with the clothing issues of today's youth and where parents need to draw the line.

I am going to be quite blunt. Your eleven year old daughter is undeveloped, a child, wearing little to no clothing, wearing more make up than I do, and, quite frankly, slutty. That's right. Slutty. I don't care if showing-so-much-skin-it-almost-breaks-the-rules is the latest trend, I don't wanna see it. People wonder why kids start having sex at an earlier and earlier age. Well, it's 'cause they dress like they're easy and lustin' for some. Your child, is exactly that. There is no reason for her to be dressing like that. Even in highschool. You want her to meet a guy who will like her for her. First, dressed like that, she's gonna meet a boy who just wants to get it on. Secondly, she's in elementary or middle school. She shouldn't be dating anyways.

I understand that it can be hard to find proper clothing with all those suggestive styles out there. But if you give up and let your twelve year old buy that five inch skirt, you're just not trying hard enough. Thrift stores and consignment shops offer some amazing deals. I happen to love them. Because you don't want to spend an extra thirty minutes shopping is no excuse to let your daughter outside looking like she belongs on a street corner. And I just don't understand the low cuts shirts these companies make for these girls. It's not like they can fill them out anyways. Why not keep their, well, flat chest nice and covered like it belongs.

And let's think about the season. It is currently 24 degrees Farenheit where I live. 8 degrees below freezing. What in your mind said it would be ok to let your tweenie out in a tight tank-top and a tiny lil skirt? 'Cause it's darn cold, folks. What if her bus breaks down? What if your car breaks down? What if she goes outside for recess? Frozen daughter that's what.

Onto make-up. While playing with your make-up and getting it all over our faces may have been cute when we were four, wearing a pound of make up on a daily basis when you're in middle school is just ridiculous. I wear a little bit of cover up beneath my eyes because I often have dark circles there and eyeliner. And that's it. Everyday, while waiting for class to start, I see these ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen year olds wearing more make up than me and my friends wear to prom combined! Where are these kids getting the money to spend on all this make up. And who's letting them? They have no acne as they haven't hit puberty. They have no serious flaws. They shouldn't be trying to make boys like them. So, you can understand why I'm a tad confused about all this.

When did all this change? Why must these little girls flaunt what they don't got and cover what they do? When I was a little girl, I was wearing baggy t-shirts, hand me down jeans, and the most outrageous bows in my hair. When did this change to too tight tops, way too short skirts, and pounds of make up? Parents I'm asking you, no I'm begging you, wipe off your child's face and put some real clothes on them. You don't want them to end up on street corners, so don't let them look like they belong there. You are the ultimate say in all of this. Someday, they will thank you for it.

-Spencer

Saturday, January 2, 2010

You can call this one whatever you'd like :)

Oofda, it's been a while, folks. You still remember who I am, right? Yeah, Ive been busy with quite a few things in the last month, and sadly, writing has gotten pushed to the side...well, in a sense.

Ive been putting an awful lot of work into a particular project of mine in the past month, and its becoming quite stressing and time consuming. One thing you may not have known about me - I'm a writer. Yes, obviously I write for this blog...but literally, I'm a writer. I'm in the midst of taking steps to have my first novel published (cross your fingers for me).

So, a little under three years ago I sat down at my computer and just started typing. For basically a whole summer I just sat at that desk, type type type, and about a year and one rewrite later I had myself a manuscript. Now, I do a lot of reading and I had seen so many times authors talk about the long process of writing a book and all the bajillions of rewrites they've had to do and yadda yadda, and I - 15 years old - was sitting there thinking, "What the heck are these fools talking about? It can't be that hard to be a world renowned author - if these pansies coudl do it so can I."...Well, I sent it out to a publisher. And then another, and another, and a few literary agents here and there. And then a few more. I quickly found out how the life of a writer erally goes. The few replies I got were all very generic, "You are just not right for us," and none were positive. The one positive reply I have gotten turned out to be a very poor reputative agency I should never have submited to in the first place.

Well, I got the idea after a while and began my rewrites, and then had friends, parents, teachers edit my work for me...and the story goes on from there. The point is, when i was 15 it was so, so obvious to me that being a rich, famous author was the only thing i was going to do with my loief. years later now, I'm hardly optimistic in that area. Having my work published is now a dream, rather than an inevitable truth. Making a living on writing seems like a miracle that almost cannot happen. Yet, I have absolutely no intention of doing anything else. I may very much be shooting myself in the foot for my entire life, and I am not ignorant of the fact that I'm probably looking at a very bland life, pending a best seller - keep those fingers crossed :) - but thats a far cry from certain, or even likely...

....but what about the upside? Well, here it is. I'd be doing what I love to do moe than almost anything else. Now, if i have to stick with a career for the rest of my life, why not try to make it with something that I would be more than happy to do every day, something that would make me happy to do? It's not the safest road, but it would be my road. Now, I know current economic situations might be teaching us to play it safe, go for a job where there are opportunities and high paying salaries. Folks, listen to me. If your willing to be a little risky, I encourage you to ask yourself what you would really love to do with your life. Remember when you were a kid and you had that dream job? Why not go for it? I'm telling you, this is the one time you get to live your life. There are no do-overs. Why not make the best of it while you got it?

I'm definitely not saying you should throw your entire lief away on some super unrealistic fantasy, of course. I'm just saying, sometimes it pays off to be a little risky. You might not have the security and nice, expensive house in the suburbs, but you'll be happy with what you're doing. An hell, maybe you'll get luck and have both :).

So, whatever you choose to do, the best of luck to you! I know I'll certainly be in need of some.

*superman*

Friday, January 1, 2010

A New Year's Resolution

December was not a great month for me. As you might have noticed, I blogged a grand total of zero times. December was a month filled with long nights in the concession stand, hours of time after school, a bajillion assignments to finish, shopping to get done, people to see, places to go, and a million more things on my to-do list. So it goes, unfortunately. But now, it's January 1st and time to start a whole new year. A year that's bound to filled with new frustrations, elations, and all the times in between. It's also time for New Year's Resolutions.

I'll be honest. I have already messed up my resolution. And I say that with a smile on my face. I have decided to take on a project that will last me 365 days. Or thereabouts. I want to take a picture everyday around the same time from a particular spot on my road. The view is simply gorgeous. I plan on then stringing all of these picture together in some animation program. "But why?" You ask. Simple. 'Cause I want to. Now, I know it's the first day of the new year and I shoulda started my resolution out strong. Well, I didn't go take the picture. Can you blame me? Up until 5 in the morning with the most beautiful amazingest friends a girl can have, wake up a little before ten, have to clean up after it all, just kinda want to lay in bed for a while.

"So then, why are you smiling about this? You messed up and it hasn't even been 24 hours!" Well, that one isn't quite as easy to explain. I've run into my fair share of difficulties since school started. Things have been more than just hectic and crazy and mentally exhausting. But through it all, I've found everything is better if you just take a deep breath and keep smiling. And that's become my other New Year's Resolution. To smile no matter what challenges I face. I know I will surely fail that one. It's quite impossible to smile all the time. But the part that matters is that I try. And if I try, I know that things will still seem better even if I only smile for a little while before I have an utter break down.

A new motto has come into my life. "Our true color is happy." You might think it sounds a little cheesy. But it will always remind me that no matter how upset I get, with all those special people around me, loving me, supporting me, I'll always be happy underneath it all. I just gotta dig deep to find it sometimes. But I know there's someone out there who will always be able to find it for me. ;)

If there's one thing I would like to say to the very few readers of this blog, it's to make smiling your resolution this year. Who cares if you cheat on your diet or don't learn that new language. What really matters, is that you're happy. So, my challenge to you, is to be happy even when things suck. Things will get better. The sun will shine again and the rain clouds will blow away. You just gotta stick it out and keep smiling.

--Spencer