Tumblr (That Thing That Ruins Your Life)

In case none of you have heard of it, tumblr.com is another of those social media websites such as facebook or twitter (but tumblr is better). Tumblr is basically a blog that's more picture and gif oriented than text. You follow other peoples' blogs and reblog their posts. I only started tumblr last summer, and it's pretty much taken over my life. I'll admit that I spend about an hour every day on tumblr. I guess what I like about the constant sharing and reblogging is that you can experience and collaborate anonymously. You can share a photo and have no idea who originally posted it, or how many people have reblogged it until you saw it on your dashboard. I love looking through vintage and photography tumblrs, as well as the ones about food, and blogs that express feelings. Some other favorite blogs are here, here, and here. It's really frustrating sometimes because of the layout, but I find that it's worth it when you create a blog you're proud of. Just in case you were wondering, my main tumblr is here and my tights tumblr is here.

A Vegetarian Thanksgiving?

I am a pescaterian and have been since 4th grade. A pescaterian is a person who abstains from eating all meat except for seafood. Throughout my life, I've found that people are very ignorant about vegetarian eating habits. This thought comes up more often as we near Thanksgiving and Christmas, when we finish shoveling down Halloween candy and start carving the Turkey.

 

I became a pescaterian because, first of all, I hate the taste and texture of meat. I've never liked it, unless it's sliced thin and hidden in something else. my least favorite food would probably be a tie between beef and bacon. I do, however, love fish and shellfish, and it would be really hard to give it up.

 

It's assumed by others that if you label yourself as a vegetarian or a type of vegetarian, you have to follow a set of rules. Vegetarianism is a belief, and I believe in not eating meat. If I do eat meat, I haven't broken the law; I'm still considered a vegetarian. It's a personal choice what you eat, unless your family or religion hold you to the rules. It's rude when people act as if I'm breaking a rule if I eat something that has beef sauce on top.

 

People tend to make a big deal about vegetarianism, but, at least for me, it's never a problem. When I am at other people's houses, I'll eat what they give me out of courtesy. I'm not offended by their choices and I don't mind if they serve me meat or - god forbid - eat it in front of me.

 

I've had people serve me meat and be disappointed that I don't like it. "But you'll like my chicken!" Sorry, I don't. It's not you, it's me. And then there are people that act like I'm crazy for not liking meat. I'm not altering my lifestyle enough to upset myself, and I'm certainly not altering theirs. How could it be possible that I hate bacon? But bacon is the best thing that ever happened to this planet, better than sliced bread! Maybe I am crazy, but I can't believe that you don't like some things I do, like brussel sprouts or tuna fish.

 

All in all, I wish people would try to be more informed about the types and lifestyle of vegetarians. I don't expect people to accommodate for me of understand my reasons, I just want to live in a society where we can be free to eat whatever way we find healthy. Why not do some research and try out different meals?

 

So thin Thanksgiving, I'll probably try a bit of gross to-furkey, then give up, and stick to the rest of the meatless meal. Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Why is babysitting the best?

I babysit a boy that lives down the street from me, and it's one of my favorite things to do. I really like kids and babysitting, because it's fun and a great way to get experience for teaching. The job I have is really convenient because he lives down the street from me and I can walk to his house. It's a pretty regular job; I usually work once or twice a week after school.

The kid I babysit is named Owen, and he's 8. He's an adorable, sweet kid who loves dinosaurs and soccer. It's amazing how polite he is considering that most 8 year old boys are really annoying. Owen and I play soccer outside his house and love playing games like Uno, Sorry, and Monopoly (which he cheats terribly at).

I've had some great times hanging out with Owen. It's been an amazing experience, and I encourage anyone and everyone to try to get some babysitting jobs. Babysitting is an easy and fun way to make money. I would recommend getting certified first by the Red Cross, though.

Happy sitting!

What is the best thing about Autumn?

The best this about autumn is crunching on leaves. I go out of my way to step on them. There's a tree two houses away from me that has really crunchy leaves. I hope leaves can't feel pain, or I'd fell pretty bad about myself.

Actually, the best thing about autumn is all the new smells in Bath and Body Works and Coffee Shops. They always come out with some delicious pumpkin-smelling candle or some fancy Spiced Apple Cider Latee Frappucinno Capucinno Iced Autumncinno Awesomecinno...

Let me take that back - the best this about autumn is getting ready for halloween. I feel that you're never too old to dress up for halloween, and getting ready is the best part. Trick or treating with friends and then trading candy is just the absolute best feeling. But sometimes you tend to feel a little bit sick the day after...

The best this about autumn is still being able to wear tshirts without freezing to death, because it's not too cold yet. You still have some opportunities to wear your summer-y clothing before bringing out the parka and snowpants.

The actual best this about autumn is the changing leaves. Or the pumpkin carving.

No, the true best thing about Autumn is that all of the fall cliches don't actually bother me. I get completely caught up in scented candles and leaves and sweaters.

Well, there's school too.

Nah.  Sweaters are the bomb.

What is your plan for your future?

What is my plan? I have a basic sketch, though I know that life has many twists and turns and my direction could change quickly. Basically, I want my life to involve my favorite things: music, art, children, fashion, etc.


I plan to attend college, which will probably be American University. My mom recently started working full-time for WAMU, which is owned by AU. Because of the job, I'll be able to go there tuition-free. I really love the school, and it's probably the college I'll end up attending. If I don't go to AU, my other top colleges are UNC at Chapel Hill, NYU, Stanford,and Claremont McKenna. I want to major in Elementary Education, though I'm also considering Women's Studies, PR, General Education, Drama, and/or Sociology.

After college, I plan to travel for a few years. I want to live in Italy for a year of two, and I want to visit my family in Japan and my Aunt's village in Cameroon. I want to become an elementary school teacher, but I might have a career in theater or high fashion, depending on how the tables turn. I'm certain that I want to be a mother, and I want to start a family. We might stay in the US and live somewhere on the east coast or we might live in France. I've always been obsessed with France, ever since I was a little girl, and I really appreciate their education system, maternity leave, and quality of life.



Who knows where I'll end up? I'll be happy as long as I have family around. I'm glad that I have this much figured out at this point of my life, though I'm open to and accept the change that will come.


Have a splendiforous day!
Laura

Questions

I'm not sure if I'd classify this as a full blog post, it's more of an announcement. After we were given the freedom to post about whatever interests us, I was very excited to be able to post freely. I thought of coming up with a theme, then realized that it's very hard to classify myself.

I don't fit into a certain "type" of person, I have varying interests and I can't be labeled as part of any group. It's hard for me to describe myself or my hobbies, so I thought of this theme as a way to express all of the sides of me.

My blog's new theme is: questions. We're surrounded by so many questions in our lives, some that we can't answer. I'm planning on using this blog to go into detailed answers to questions I think up, whether that means blogs titled "Why are babies just so cute?" to "Who are you?". Maybe I'll just answer a bunch of short questions, or I'll go into detail on a more retrospective one.

I think that we all have voices in our communities and we should take advantages of the modes of communication given to us.  I'm going to attempt to do this with my blog. I apologise in advance for my love affair with commas and for my lack of te letter "h" which sticks on my keyboard and doesn't always appear in my text. I try to add it in later, but one might be lost every once in a while.

Have a nice day!

Scriptwriter

My group's script for the trailer "The Condemned" is progressing well, as we've gotten rid of many extraneous scenes. We started out with almost 4 scenes involving dialogue between the same characters. Through editing, we've gotten rid of many of them and shortened our movie-esque trailer into a trailer-esque trailer. 
Some of the elements of a dystopia our script incorporates are: 

• Propaganda is used to control the citizens of the society - Leia is confused by Cade's talk that the world is far from perfect, and says that she doesn't know what to think.  
• Fear of the outside world/Natural world banished/mistrusted -In the narration, Leia talks about how they're told there's not a world out there, and we see archival footage of a mushroom cloud explosion.  
• Citizens live in a dehumanized state - In the narration, Leia talks about how some people are taken away and killed if they don't score high enough on the test. We have several shots of people being taken away, and a mother hugging her son goodbye.   
• Citizens conform to uniform expectations - This is shown by having all the citizens wearing the same uniform: gray shirts and black bottoms. 
  

We're using voiceover and sound from the actual scene. There are 6 total scenes on our script. We first learn about Leia's world and her relationship with Cade. Then, we see her nightmare about losing her brother. We then learn that Cade's not satisfied with their world and that some teachers rig the scores. Then Cade and Leia search through the files on the top floor, and are chased by guards. Leia finally escapes into the field.