I'm Just Like Every Other Teenager.

Focus is essentially nonexistent for me. Always.

It's not just homework, I just can't concentrate on anything. Even if I'm procrastinating on homework on, say, Facebook, after a little while, I get bored of it, and go on Tumblr. Then that gets boring and I check my e-mail. And there's rarely anything exciting there, because lets be honest here, what teenager uses e-mail to connect with their friends anymore? None. So, naturally I get bored of that and go back to Facebook. And the cycle continues.

I'm basically just like every other teenager when it comes to focus.

So on a normal school night when I'm writing a paper, this is how it typically goes. I get home from musical rehearsal at 6. I eat couple (ok, a lot of) snacks, then go on the computer for around half an hour to check all of the social media sites. Then my family eats dinner. After dinner, it's around 7:30. So I go up to my room to do my homework.

Now, going up to my room is really a terrible idea if I'm trying to accomplish homework, because my room is so messy, that the only clear spot to do homework is on the bed, which makes it a heck of a lot easier to fall asleep on my homework. But staying downstairs really wouldn't be the best idea either, because, as anyone who knows my family understands, my family is quite loud. And, sound carries quite a lot in our house. So really, I'm screwed no matter where I go in my house.

After I've got out my homework, found a sharp pencil, and sat down on my bed to start working, my phone usually goes off or I have a sudden urge to go online via my i-pod. So if I'm trying really hard to focus, I'll turn my phone on silent and throw it across my room so I don't get distracted. Also, I'll turn off my i-pod. So I work for a while, trying my hardest not to let my mind wander. If it's 2 in the morning and I'm still buried up to my eyeballs in unfinished homework, I'll take a shower, and if that's already been done, I'll turn on my radio or use my i-pod, and (prepare to judge) dance around my room like a crazy person. This is a daily occurrence for me, and while it wakes me up, it leaves me quite unfocused, because it exposes me to my biggest focusing weakness: music.

I could write an entire blog post (or book, for that matter) about how music distracts me, but I'll leave it at this: IT IS TOTALLY IMPOSSIBLE FOR ME TO FOCUS WHEN THERE IS MUSIC PLAYING. Any kind of music, whether I've heard it or not. It just doesn't work.

So that's my usual process. However when I was writing this paper in particular, it was quite a different situation because, as anyone who read my last blog post knows, I was in Orlando with the marching band. So most of my paper-writing process happened in an airplane or at 1 in the morning after a full day at Epcot.

On the way to Orlando, I tried (I'm using the word tried loosely here) to start writing my paper, but realized fairly quickly that it was simply not going to happen. So instead, I went insane with highlighters on the original article, and tried my best to make it so writing my paper later would be easier. And it certainly helped, but writing a paper is writing a paper, and when it came time to actually do it, I just had to write. Nothing else, just focus and write like mad.

And that was how my rhetorical analysis paper was made.

Band Zombies

Since the weekend topic is open, I may as well write about literally the only thing that happened for me this weekend. That's right, marching band trip to Orlando, Florida.

And it was sufficiently bomb.

Let me back up and start off by saying I love marching band. I was about two seconds from dropping it after freshman year, and my life would absolutely suck if that had happened. The term "band geek" is totally applicable, but really, it's a compliment. I'm actually a terrible musician, and I don't care too terribly much about concert band, but marching band is indescribably fun. 

To understand what band is like for me, you have to know that I'm a percussionist. This means I am in drum line. Anyone who is actually in marching band and reading this probably just screamed "CULT!" because that's what the rest of the band essentially thinks of us as. We even have matching sunglasses.  We certainly lived up to the "cult" title on the trip, because every moment of my trip was spent with almost all of the drum line members who went. I really don't care what the rest of the band thinks, because I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. They are all hilarious. 

Moral of the story: it you're not on drum line, you're missing out. 

Besides drum line being a cult, normal, tourist-y things happened too. We went to Harry Potter world (yes, I had a butterbeer). I went on the Dueling Dragons ride. Twice. But apparently it's been renamed to something more lame. I took lots of pictures, which, if you're friends with me on Facebook, you'll probably be able to see this weekend. And it was loads and loads of fun. Only bad thing (that is kind of good too): Everyone who went on the trip is basically a zombie, they're so tired. This could be a good thing, because (and I can say this based of personal experiences) band kids get weird when they're tired. Meredith was loopy, the center snare was an awkward kind of grumpy, and rehearsal was basically an inside-joke fest.

Well, I'm going to go attempt to get some sleep, so I don't look like I just crawled out of a grave tomorrow morning. Brainsss....

Welcome to my weekend. 

I can see both sides.

As I'm watching Two Million Minutes, and reading the articles-- mostly "For Once Blame the Students"-- the instinctive part of me want to be like "WELL, SCREW YOU TOO!"

But, of course, that would be a little irrational.

While I want to get mad, and think "That's just a generalization. It doesn't apply to me," I  realize it actually does. I mean, I'm terrible at focusing. I always promise myself I'll work really hard on homework during the weekend and spend a lot of time understanding it, but every time I make that promise to myself, it ends up being a complete and utter failure. For example:

Things I've already done this weekend:
- Catch up on the most recent episodes of Castle and Glee. Ok, and Modern Family.
- Spend too much time on Facebook and Tumblr.
- Go to a hip-hop class.
- Volunteer at/ watch part of the girls varsity soccer game.

Things I have planned to still do this weekend:
- Hang out with my friend/go to a haunted house
- Possibly go to a bonfire
- Reherse for 7 hours for the Marching Band Orlando trip (This was not a choice, may I just say)
- Pack for Orlando

And of course, I'll try to fit as much homework into there as possible. That's how it usually goes for me. Plan all of the fun stuff I'm going to do, and assume my homework will magically get done inbetween it all.

It's not a very good system.

And I wish I could say that I'm the only one who's doing this, but I know I'm not. Most of my friends have the exact same strategy. Some of them do the same thing, but still manage to get all their homework done, study, and get A's on everything. I call these people freaks of nature, because it doesn't seem humanly possible to do everything they do. (I suppose I should really call them "Super People" in accordance with my rhetorical analysis article.) Aside from these people, most of us are just procrastinating like pros, and finding average ways to scramble along, but not really giving it our all.

So, in regards to studying and focus, yea, India and China beat us any day. But, based on the documentary, they didn't seem to do a whole lot aside from that. I know the video couldn't show us what they did every day, so maybe we didn't get to see some of the other fun activities they did (or maybe that was purposeful), but they were so focused on studying and maybe singing, ballet, soccer and violin, that they didn't have any time to just LIVE. I'm sure if you ask any kid in our school what they did over the weekend, probably 90% of them went out and did something, whether it was going to a sporting event with friends (I heard Wayzata won the football game!), taking a dance class (Brigadoon hip-hop, maybe?) or just relaxing with their friends or family.

So as important as studying is, sometimes I just want to live and enjoy life. I know their is a time to focus, and screwing around can only happen in moderation, but just look outside right now. Would a stroll be worth the 15 minutes of time you take away from homework?

Not-So-Obscure Music

I an efforts to make a post that people won't mind reading, I decided to focus on the most generic, overused topic that EVERYONE can relate to:

MUSIC.


For the most part, my taste in music includes your generic pop music (Lets see how many times I can use the word generic in a single post! Just kidding, lets not). But talking about just that type of music for an entire would post be pretty much be the most boring thing to read ever, because it's all so similar. So, instead I'm going to talk about some of the music I like that hasn't been on the iTunes top 100 (mostly). 


Of course anyone who knows me outside of class knows that I'm going to start by talking about Ellie Goulding. I'm not saying that her music isn't popular, because she certainly has a huge following, but you certainly wouldn't hear her music on KDWB of 96.3 NOW or whatever. Her album was actually in the top 5 on iTunes for a short while (I know, I know. "You just said you WEREN'T going to talk about music that was in the top 100 on iTunes!" Yea, well, I lied.). Debatably her most popular song thus far has been "Lights", which I love, of course, but my favorite song off of her U.S. album is probably "Starry Eyed". Her voice just has a sound so different from most of the top artists today. 

If you knew I was going to talk about Ellie Goulding, then you also know that I went to her live concert this summer at the Fine Line Music Cafe. I've only been to one other concert in the last 5 years (Glee Live tour. Yep, make your judgements now. It was mostly for Darren Criss) and the Glee concert was almost all lip-syncing. Sad, isn't it? But Ellie Goulding's concert was completely live. And the venue was a lot more intimate (Target Center vs. a music cafe) and it was just an altogether more personal experience. I was like 30 feet from Ellie Goulding. It was great. Here's a picture I took at her concert.  Right down below these words.

Alright, beyond Ellie Goulding, I don't have a ton, but at least a couple other songs I've really enjoyed lately. There's one called "Skin and Bones" by Romance on a Rocketship (Their acronym is ROAR. Awesome.). I don't know how much I like the lead singer's voice, because it sounds kind of auto-tuned, but I just really like the song. Its cute in an instantly-gets-stuck-in-your-head kind of way. The last song is "Roll Away Your Stone" by Mumford and Sons. I have to give my friend Ally credit for making me like this song, because at first I thought it was terribly boring when she played it for me, but then I heard it again and loved it. I know Mumford and Sons is actually really popular, but, like Ellie Goulding, you won't hear them on KDWB or 96.3 NOW. You will, however, hear them multiple times a day on Cities 97. I'm starting to like that radio station more and more every day. 

Well that's about all for my mildly-obscure music (and my mildly, I mean barely). I know the layout kind of (really) suck, but I'm working on figuring it out. Hopefully you learned about a new song, or at least recognized a good one. Thanks!

p.s. Sorry for stupid technical difficulties!

Internet frustration

Caroline is unable to post now due to internet outage.  This is her Dad posting from her Grandpa's home.  Will advise when service is available at home.

(Wow, my Dad is so formal. Sorry about that. long explanation of why my post wasn't up by 4: I started working on most post earlier today (like 12ish) and as soon as I tried to embed a video, my websites stopped loading and nothing connected to the internet worked. So my Dad (who knows how to fix things like this) was at my Grandpa's house visiting him. So I called him and asked if he could tell me how to fix it, and I did what he said, but nothing happened. So I waited for him to come home to fix it (I didn't want to ask him to come home right away, because my Grandma passed away this week, so I figured my Dad should probably stay with my Grandpa for as long as he could) and then  he did as soon as he got home and now it's up. Sorry! p.s. I'm editing this after the internet started working at my house, not magically from my Grandpas. Thanks for understanding!)

Audience, Audience, Audience

First, I suppose I'll address Obama's appearance during his "Back to School" speech. I looked up what the colors of ties have to do with mood, and while I couldn't find what stripes meant (granted I didn't look that hard), I did find what gray (or silver) and white meant separately, because it looks like those are the colors of his tie.

"White ties:

White ties are said to be the Queen of all neckties. White is the traditional color of ties when ties made it into the fashion world in France during the 17th century. White is a color of purity and neutrality. Judges in Germany for example are required to wear white ties to court. When matched with a solid black dress shirt and black suit, the white tie has more of a “gangster” image on the other hand.

Gray neckties:

Gray is men’s favorite suit color. Gray is said to be solid, conservative, and timeless. For neckties, gray is most common in the winter. Silver ties popular ties for formal events during warm weather or during the day."       (source)

So I suppose the gray/silver mixed with the white might mean that he was going for a neutral look (as he wasn't focusing on sided politics, but rather the success of children) and possibly also because he wanted to appear solid, as a role model or something like that.

Alright, now on to the actual presentation and content of the speech. The thing I noticed most about the whole speech was that the language he used was so fitting to younger people. The very first word he said was "hey". Not "hello", not "welcome" or anything like that. Simply "hey". "Omigosh, I say "hey" to my friends too! That's so cool! The president is JUST LIKE me!" might be (and over-exaggerated version of) the reaction that he was hoping to get. He also used phrases like "Now , if you promise not to tell anybody, I'll let you in on a little secret," which shows how he is trying to be more personal and less formal as well. These both show how he really focuses on who is audience is.

He also expresses his purpose well. It is very obvious that his main goal is to motivate students to do their best and work hard both in and out of school. He uses the word "future" a lot (maybe as a scare tactic if you're someone like me) probably to emphasize how much our actions now impact what will happen to not only us, but our nation, later in our lives.

In terms of signposts, I noticed one of the first when he said "...so I want to talk to you about meeting that responsibility. It starts with... " which clearly denotes that he is about to expand upon previous ideas. I didn't notice too terribly much repetition (certainly not as much as MLK at least) but I noticed a little bit of figurative language, such as "sometimes you have to color outside of the lines" (which, but the way, I laughed out loud when he said that). He wasn't necessarily too dramatic in his speech, but I suppose that's because the issue wasn't quite as dramatic as an issue that's killing people right and left (though school certainly seems like it's attempting to kill my social life).

I guess what's left now is delivery. With his delivery of the speech, he was very good about not being monotone and changing his facial expression a lot. Especially at the beginning, he was very smiley as he was greeting everyone, and then as his topic got more serious, so did his face. I did notice, however, that he said a lot of "uhs".

And I think that's about it, EXCEPT,  I have to acknowledge the fact that he talked specifically about musicals and marching band coming together :)

I don't get it.

Ummm... what?

^^My reaction in a nutshell to the Jim Crow Laws.

I was actually surprised as I read over the list of Jim Crow Laws that Mrs. Cardona provided us with. Maybe it's because I tend to zone out in history class, but I thought these laws would have outlined much worse treatment for African-American people. With the exception of about four, all of the laws set basically just separated white people from black people. I realize, of course, that this separation is really called segregation, and led to terrible treatment of black people because of this stupid thing called "racism", but they didn't explicitly state that black people were to be treated in a worse manner.

The laws were all appalling, nonetheless. There must have been seven or eight laws about inter-racial marriage in that list alone! I really can't imagine what it would have been like to live through that time period, black or white. I especially can't understand what was going on in the heads of the white people who just sat there and watched it happened. It's so frustrating to me that people could watch other people, just like them only with the skin a different color, suffer, and not have just the basic freedoms that they did. It's disgusting. It really pains me to sit here and think about the fact that this really happened. It's just so preposterous.

How could they be so HEARTLESS?