Specific Randomosity

Let’s see…

anin994 — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 03:00:04 +0000

High school is crazy. I don’t have any time for the small joys in life anymore. My week consists of waking up, going to school, attending the fall musical practice, coming home, doing homework like a mad woman, sleeping, and starting over! Classes are beginning to become manageable, although they’re still all really tough. I’ll post some reviews in the near future. Keep tuned!

Lemonade Mouth

anin994 — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:03:47 +0000

Feel like reading a sweet book? Perhaps the yellow cover might attract you…or maybe its the microphone and lemon slices that form a smiley face in the cover picture. Either way, Lemonade Mouth by Mark Peter Hughes would definitly catch your eye. If I was to describe this book in three word/phrases they would be: empowering, musical, and comforting. Empowering to those who feel like their views have been silenced. Musical, because the characters in the story form a high school band, which turns popular faster than you can say “Mel’s Frozen Organic Lemonade”. And comforting to those who don’t quite fit in, who have been teased and pushed outside the “in” crowd. Each chapter allows you to see the story from several points of view. Frequently visiting the main characters, and bandmates. If you want a teen book that makes you think while you’re giggling, read Lemonade Mouth by Mark Peter Hughes.

Reverse Discrimination

anin994 — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 01:22:37 +0000

I’ve always been bugged by this. More times than I can count I’ve sat through lectures and videos at school about accepting everyone. The same points are repeated over and over again. The lesson we’re supposed to be learning is to treat the minority groups in society as we treat people the same as us. Although, I’ve always treated someone equally, I listen and think about what they’re teaching.

In the past year or so, I’ve noticed sometimes the minority groups discriminate against the majority. They arm themselves with the belief that we hate them, and always will. “We treat them differently” When I am confronted with this accusation, there is nothing I feel comfortable saying. I’m not going to apologize for something I didn’t do, but I don’t feel like I should reassure them.

Or instead of openly accusing, a group of people will separate themselves from the rest. They make it virtually impossible to befriend them. They make no effort to befriend you, but then later they will accuse you of avoiding them.

I guess I’m just really frustrated…

Another Day Wasted?

anin994 — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 23:09:59 +0000

I have only one day left (after today) before school starts on Tuesday. Knowing this, I have spent the entire day lounging on the coach! It’s odd, because I wanted to do something fun, something like a last hurrah before 9 months of educational boot camp. But strangely enough I just watch tv show after tv show. Now, it’s 6, and the contents of my day include: taking a shower, watching tv, and practicing cello. A majority of my summer, when I wasn’t away somewhere, has been spent like today. So even though I am dreading Tuesday, I am also grateful it has finally rolled around.

The unfortunate effects of being responsible

anin994 — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 13:08:00 +0000

As many of you know, school is beginning again for almost everyone (in MN at least). With the school year kicking off many other obligations will appear in my life again. This means I must prioritize.

1. Homework and schoolwork

2. Practice musical instruments

3. Family time

4. Things that I enjoy doing (this blog, playing Sims 2, watching tv, etc.)

5. Friends

Lately I have realized that people of my generation have their priorities immensely jostled. The following list is a prediction of many other teens.

1. Things I like to do

2. Friends

3. homework and schoolwork

4. practicing musical instruments

5. family time

It’s interesting how the older a kid gets, the more their focuses change. The thing that sets young people apart from others is their final goals. Is it to get through high school? Or is it to become a famous novelist, musician, or actor?

…See what I mean.

Adventures galore!

anin994 — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:29:06 +0000

Yesterday morning I woke up, dragged myself up the steps (my bedroom is located in the basement), and was making myself a cup of tea when my dad said “Wanna go to Sibley Park?” I was still pretty much half asleep, so I said “Not right now. I want to take a shower.”

Well, about an hour (and a shower) later we were on our way to Sibley park to admire the flowers. My dad loves plants. He planted a garden in our yard and has all of these things he calls topearies. I think they look like mini trees that he trims into shapes. He also has a bunch of plants in our house he takes care of. Half of them are almost dead, but he says he is going to rehabilitate them. *shrugs*

Anyway, we spent probably an hour and a half walking around this big park, that I didn’t even know existed. My favorite part was either the alpacas in the mini zoo/farm area or the squirrels that overun the whole place. I’m a big squirrel fan!

After he was satiated, I suggested we stop at a coffee shop, Bliss Coffee. He got a fancy coffee drink and I ordered a tea! MMMmmm tea! Now here is when the adventure really begins. While we were walking to Bliss from our car, I happened to notice a used book store/book exchange across the street. I’m a huge book nerd and got all excited and insisted we checked it out after we acquired our drinks. There was a sign that read “Coffee Welcome” on the door, after all! Unfortunately, it wasn’t open on Sundays, but we began to walk down the street to see what else we could find.

Most of the shops were closed because it was Sunday…which bummed me out a tad, but we had fun looking in the windows. We found a couple funky looking antique shops, a record store, a massage therapy place, a karate school/tai chi school, a “Mystic Emporium” which i totally want to go into sometime!!, and this cool little art gallery.

The art gallery was open, so we went inside and checked out the art. It was filled with very interesting pieces, most of them were for sale. There were a few different artists featured. One artist was obsessed with doll eyes. Her sculptures were creepy…

It was such a fun day!! I never knew there was such a funky edge to Mankato. The best part about all of these shops is they’re walking distance from West high school. I will be found many a day strolling about in those shops after school. For those of you who live in Kato or visit, I’m talking about Front St. You should really check it out, or look in your own town for the under the radar part of town.

Movie Review: BandSlam

anin994 — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 21:01:02 +0000

Today, I was bored. The summer is winding down and the anticipation of school beginning is murdering me inside. This results in every day seeming like an endless parade of nothingness. Today, though, when I woke up, I was determined to do something to entertain my demanding mind. I went to see Bandslam.

I was slightly concerned before I got to the movie, thinking the movie might end up being a horrible teeny bopper, disney knock off film. Fortunately, it wasn’t! Three words to describe Bandslam would be: light-hearted, inspiring, and quirky. The plot line follows the regular formula, but it is presented in a fresh way. The acting for the most part is decent, and I could be found many times giggling at the humor weaved throughout the movie. I will definitely buy the soundtrack.

*Partial thumbs up*

“Let me heal your aura”

anin994 — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 19:37:10 +0000

Wow! I went on quite the adventure yesterday. :/

So yesterday was Rock the River tour in St. Paul, MN. And FLYLEAF!!!! was playing there, who I like a lot. I wanted to go, so I invited one of my friends to come with me. My parents took us! Because they are so fantastically nice.

We really didn’t know what to expect from this daylong concert, festival thing. It had a bunch of other bands and the website seemed to protray it as a slightly christian positive influence thing. We just blew that part off and were excited.

When we got there, we set up chairs in a pretty good spot. It wasn’t crowded at all, but we were early. Then, when the MC started talking everything changed. He was praying and chanting “Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!” And everyone else was spazzing out joining him.

I’m Catholic and always have been, but I have never experienced these sort of rallies.

It soon became way too much for any of us to stand. We felt extremely uncomfortable and awkward, since we didn’t know what was going on or anything else for that matter. We left our chairs where they were and left. (We had wristbands to re enter)

We had lunch and went shopping at the mall, returning just before Flyleaf was going to play. It turned out being fine when we went back in.

The point of this post is to warn those of you fellow concert goers who may get caught in God Traps like we did.

AVOID CHRISTIAN CONCERTS/FESTIVALS even if they have an awesome, potentially neutral band luring you in. Unless you’re into that preaching, chanting, craziness. Then you have fun with that!

But flyleaf was amazing, and I am glad I went to see them. I got a tshirt too!

Much lighter read this time!

anin994 — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 03:06:41 +0000

This past week I read a great book, Geek Magnet By Kieran Scott. Normally, I wouldn’t read such a shallow sounding book, but after Gone With the Wind I needed something shallow, but I was surprised to find that this book was anything but shallow. Kieran Scott’s characters range from endearingly innocent, to mega witch evil. The main character KJ feels like a close friend to me after finishing the short novel. One of the strong points for this book was it’s clever sense of humor regarding dating, social hierarchy, and life in general. Don’t be fooled, though! Geek Magnet still incorporates serious issues and conflicts, finishing up the book with several life lessons that, personally, I won’t forget.

I highly recommend Geek Magnet By Kieran Scott for a quick and fun read!

Drowning Bunnies D:

anin994 — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 04:02:08 +0000

I’m a wanna be animal rights activist. (wanna be because I haven’t actually done anything yet, but hopefully that will change soon!) So, as many other animal rights activists’ do, I signed up for the PETA 2 email newsletter. I visit their website every once in a while, read the articles, buy their merch and just generally support PETA 2. Some of you may be asking what the difference between PETA and PETA 2 is. Well, PETA 2 is for the younger generation. It’s more targeted towards high school age and college supporters.

Ok, I’m now going to explain the disturbing title to this post. Today, when I checked my email, I had a PETA 2 newsletter. Naturally, I opened it and read some of the little headers and updates about their site and such. One of the little article snipits was talking about this pet store worker who posed for a picture with two bunnies that they supposedly drowned! They even put the picture in the email. I was deeply affected by this.

PETA 2 obviously doesn’t just tell you about this to make you sad. They supply a link to send an email demanding the pet store chain to stop selling live rabbits. So I clicked on the article to read the rest and fill out the form. Apparently, the two rabbits had been left in a cage together and had been fighting, inflicting deep wounds upon eachother. Why were they in the cage together in the first place if they were attacking eachother?! Obviously this pet store doesn’t care about the well being of their animals. So, since the rabbits were un-sellable they decided to drown them to get rid of them.

ok….WHAT?! How do they get off with that? Well, they don’t!

Please take a few moments now to fill out a form to stop this pet store chain from selling live rabbits.

https://secure.peta.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=2393&autologin=true&c=peta2_enews&JServSessionIdr001=p5jbc7dew3.app304a