iPad??

I don't know if you've heard yet, but Apple is going to be releasing the new "iPad." This iPad is most likely going to be a huge hit on the market. This latest innovation mixes the idea of an iPod Touch and a tablet computer. The iPad will be equipped with a 9.7" multi-touch LED screen. It is bluetooth enabled and will also be available for wifi and/or 3G coverage.

The enhancement of bluetooth will allow you to be able to use the Apple Wireless keyboard and basically have a computer at your fingertips. The major problem to me is that it wont be able to fully act as a computer. I think that Apple could make major bucks if they make their highly noted Macbook Pro into a touch screen interface. I truly think that that could make some serious money.

Even though the Apple merchandise is highly sophisticated in its technology, is it worth the money? Why do such things cost so much? If they would just bring down the prices, they would add in the number of sales made and then would create a larger profit than what is coming in now. That would be my marketing technique at least.

And for a final note, I'm going to put in my two-cents on the whole Mac versus PC debate. Personally, I am a Mac fan. Unfortunately, my family is not. So I kind of stand alone. One main thing I like about Mac's are that you don't have to purchase the extra things such as Norton Anti-Virus because Mac's don't get viruses. This extra cost of Anti-Virus software can be brutal. Also, the pure sophistication of the Macbooks are enticing on their own.

Whether or not you are a Mac fan or a PC fan, you have to admit that the new iPad sounds like a cool idea. And if I were Apple, I would make a touchscreen Macbook Pro and call it the Macbook Touch.

Will you be a Mac fan?

P.S. I'm not coloring a certain word in this one because their isn't on set idea to color.

Here We Go...

I honestly don't remember if I informed all of you that I am on the Thespian State Board. Well, I am. I tried out for it at Thespian Conference (the place where we did The Laramie Project) and it entailed developing a potential theme for the next thespian conference and then presenting it as well as information about you. Tomorrow is the first meeting of what I am guessing to be many. It is taking place up at UNI because we are making the switch from Davenport North High School.

I am excited for this meeting, but at the same time, I am kind of stressed about missing school. I truly do not like missing school. When you miss school, you have to deal with getting caught up and getting all your make-up work. Also, I kind of forgot that I would be missing school tomorrow so I forgot to tell all my teachers I would be gone, therefore I will have extra work to do Tuesday night. I am not excited whatsoever. Also, when you miss school, you miss out on learning firsthand what is being taught that day. I don't know about you, but I prefer to learn with the rest of the class. Not with the teacher while the class is working on something else.

Tomorrow is going to be exciting. We're starting a new location, we're learning what it means to be a state board member, we're missing school.

Will you miss school?

P.S. Sorry that post SUCKED :(

Chronic Sneezing: A Self-Diagnosed Problem

Anyone who knows me, or has even just been in a class with me, knows that I sneeze constantly. Not only constantly, but almost always in threes. The bizarre thing is, if I happen to only sneeze twice, soon after that I would make up for it and sneeze once more.

Now you see, as far as I know, I am not sneezing for allergy purposes, I am sneezing just to sneeze. I am completely and utterly stumped. I have considered seeing my doctor, but then again, it's a little quirk I have you know? Nobody else sneezes like I do. When I was in elementary school, we were doing a song about a kid with a cold and I was the one getting to sneeze throughout the song.

Why do I not just hold it in you might ask? It HURTS! I'm telling you. It hurts like a (insert profanity here). There have been many times where I feel it a necessity to hold my sneezes in. For example, backstage at a show, in the audience of a show, onstage at a show, church, well you get the idea. There was one time I was standing onstage and I had to just stand there while I waited for my cue line. I felt a sneeze coming on and I knew if I sneezed outloud, all hell would break loose. So I decided to hold it in. I swear, I have never felt a pain like that in my life. It's like a horrible burning sensation in your nasal cavity. Kind of as if you sneeze a chili pepper up into your nasal passage (I have witnessed this before). It does NOT feel good.

I seem to do this a lot, but on a side note, if you were watching the Grammy's, OH MY GODD!!! Pink was SOOOOO good.

In conclusion, I am most likely never going to stop sneezing, simply because I like to. And if you ever ask me why I don't just hold it in or why I don't make it quieter. Well, I can't help it!

Will you be a sneezer?

Excuse me? I'd like to know a little sooner next time...

Does someone ever volunteer you to do something without your permission? If so, you know that most times you think to yourself that you probably would have done it anyway, but it'd be nice to volunteer yourself.

Well, yesterday, my mom comes home from a church meeting and says, "Hey, I told the pastor that you can sing at church tomorrow." WHAAAT?? Sure, I'm always up for singing at church but seriously. I have to learn a new song the day before?

This leads into the whole National Honors Society problem. We have to complete six service hours and so far I have zip, zero, nada, zilch. First off, my sister informed me that when she got inducted into NHS, she didn't even have to have service hours. So why do we now? How do service hours fit into National HONOR Society. Isn't it a society for those that do well in school? Those that try their hardest in all they do? Well apparently it's also a lets get some more work out of them society. I want to disclose that I am NOT bashing on NHS, I just think that 6 hours of volunteer hours are too much. For SNHS (Science National Honor Society), only one service project is needed and one learning opportunity. This seems more feasible to me. Also, for SNHS, I mentioned a learning opportunity. Doesn't that sound like it could be involved in NHS? I think so.

Now by no means am I knocking volunteer work. You should ALWAYS do anything you can to help those in need. Whether it be sending them money, working in a soup kitchen, or even just sending someone a Get Well Soon card. Anything to make someone's life better.

Will you be a volunteer?

What to do, what to do...

It is now time for us to sign up for classes next year. Really? This early?

First off, we have this new registration system. I think it's a pretty cool system. We are going to be able to go online and register, which is extremely different from what we've done in the past. In the past, we circled our classes on a sheet and let the counselors take care of it.

Here's the dilemma. What classes do I sign up for? Should I register an easy schedule and just slack off? Or should I rack up my schedule with hard courses and make my senior year suck? Registration poses all this stress of having to choose what I want to do next year and not even being done with this year yet.

The biggest problem is that I can't imagine making this year easy. It's just not possible. It is programmed in my blood to take hard classes, to take everything I possible can, so unfortunately, I will probably end up taking hard classes. Deep down, I truly wish I could slack off.

Personally, I want to have a good resume for the college application. I am afraid that if I take easy classes, they may deny me the opportunity to get into their college simply because I didn't push myself. But then again, what if I register for hard classes and do poorly in them? Will they think, "Wow, this kid couldn't take the difficulty...should we really let him in?" This is all weighing in my head right now. I'm really hoping that they see that I took the challenge and if I do poorly they would give me the benefit of the doubt and just say what the heck.

To add to this problem, I can't just take the required classes and be able to get out of school with a release a period early. No, I am involved in choir and that takes up three periods in my day (one of which being after school). So like the past two years, I am going to have to take an early bird class, as well as my after school choir class. Which leaves me with having a full schedule once again.

Here's what I'm thinking. I will take a difficult Spanish, Math, and Social Studies. That will wrap it up for the hard classes. Then I will "slack off" with the Language Arts and Science. Though this will still be a difficult year, might as well leave those two easier classes in there to lighten up my day.

Will you register for the hard classes?

Avatar is STILL selling out?

If you haven't seen Avatar yet, you must not live on this planet. Most people would assume I am going to discuss the underlying meanings in that movie, but no. I am here to discuss my hate towards line-jumpers.

Most of you have seen that commercial (if not, you can find it here) for Ci-Ci's pizza "line-jumpers" and how it doesn't really matter in a buffet, but at movies, they are strongly disliked. For example...

A few of my friends and I arrived at the Galaxy 16 Cine in hopes to see Avatar 3D. I had already seen it in normal format and I decided it would be well worth it to see it in 3D. We arrived 15 minutes before the showtime thinking, "Oh, it's been out for a over a month now, it should be easy to get into." Well, we were wrong. First off, the credit card system was down and so we couldn't just avoid the lines, we had to wait.

My friends arrived later than I did, so I was just going to pay for them and they were going to pay me for them later. A bunch of little middle school-ers had apparently had one person stand in line for them because suddenly 5 more people line-jumped and stood with him. Not only that, but apparently they were going to see Avatar 3D as well.

They all got their tickets and then the last kid walks up and says, "I'd like three tickets to Avatar 3D," and he receives his tickets. It was then my turn to get the tickets. I walk up and say, "I would also like three tickets to Avatar 3D, please." The lady says, "I'm sorry, but he just bought the last three." You can imagine my anger when she says this. They had ALL just line-jumped me, and for what? For me not to be able to see my movie.

So if you are a line-jumper, let it be known that it is ONLY okay to line-jump at the buffet. NOT MOVIES!

Will you be a line-jumper?

Why do I even bother?

Lately, one of my teachers has been on the rampage. S/he gave us a new seating chart because we had been getting off-task to easily. Then s/he decided you could only do extra credit if s/he says you can. What I mean by that is you have to talk with him/her and s/he has to decide if you are "eligible." On top of this, s/he decided that he will give out more pop quizzes to see if you've actually been reading, and s/he is giving less lectures and more time for us to read in our text books. Why do I even bother?

What frustrates me the most about this is that it is only a few people in the class that are making our lives hell. Because these people can't stay on task, our teacher is taking it out on us. Why do I even bother?

If it's not me taking this class off task, if it's not me that has lowered my work ethic, if it's not me being annoying, why is it being taken out on me? I believe that most of the class would agree with me on this one. Why are we feeling the grudge of our teacher if it's not us? Why do I even bother?

I truly didn't intend for a rant, but that's kind of how it turned out. What I'm trying to say is, why is it that if a few people screw up, why should the entire class be punished? Why do I even bother?

This idea is similar to many situations. One of my friends from Monticello made his way to a state meet for track and he happened to be in a relay. In relays, you have to rely on your teammates to do their best and do your best as well. He was/is a very good runner and would have most likely been able to go on to the Drake Relays. But two of his teammates got caught stealing and therefore could not run int he meet. He had to suffer because of his own teammates idiotic choice. Why does he even bother?

Also, a few years ago, through a series of unfortunate events, our prep show choir had to deal with not having 2 of our members. We had to rearrange EVERYTHING, all because they messed up. THEY made a mistake, and WE had to pay. So, why do I even bother?

Why DO I even bother? Because I care. I care that my grade will fall. I care that if I maybe do even just a little bit better, our teacher may change. I care that our show will do better if I do bother.

Will you bother?

A Weekend of Surprises

My creative juices are just not flowing this week. I have so far done two analyses, one of a movie and one of Friends. I am now going to do a recap of my feelings on this past show choir competition. Wow. Pretty original.

Saturday marked the second of six (including our own) competitions. Supernova is a competition that our show choir traditionally doesn't do too great at. However, the past two years we had gotten second place, which is a miracle for how we could have done.

The day started with our freshman group performing. Then our prep group. Then our varsity. Next came the awards and the finals announcements.

Now, during the during the day rounds at Supernova, there were two truly fantastic prep groups that I watched. Our prep group really had their work cut out for them. There especially was one AMAZING soloist in the one of the other show choirs that I thought was a shoo-in for the Best Female Soloist award. I mean, I had chills throughout the entire solo. At awards, I was proven wrong, a girl from our prep choir (who without a doubt does fantastic at her solo, I just thought the judges would like the other better) won.

After the announcement finalists at Supernova, we found out were were in and tied for fourth place. This was kind of a downer to be tied for such a low place. But then, during finals, while watching two that were ahead of us, it was clear they should have been ahead of us. After our finals performance, everybody thought we had done fantastic, which was mentioned in another post as what truly only matters. Well, I happened to feel not so great about the performance. This has always worked out for the better on my math tests, I ALWAYS feel bad about them and end up getting A's. So I took this to be a good thing that I felt bad about this performance.

We get tot he awards and it is announced that we got third place!! You see, in points, we were in fifth, but in rankings, we tied for 4th. this may be hard to understand unless you see the score sheet. But that means we jumped up 2 places and one of the other groups dropped two! We were all ECSTATIC! My thoughts were correct, because I felt pretty bad about it, we did surprisingly well. The Grand Champion clearly deserved it. They completely swept. Best Vocals and Best Choreography went to them. Supernova is wrapping up to be a great competition for us. I LOVE show choir.

Will you love show choir?

Just as a post-script. I have decided that show choir rankings do not matter whatsoever. We have a great show and just about everybody knows that, even if the results don't show it. We captivate audiences with every show. As our critique judge said at Supernova we are performers, and it shows in our audience's reaction. Even though it doesn't matter, here is a link to the National Show Choir Ranking system.

BE ITALIAN!

For those of you who have not seen Nine yet. Don't. It's not worth it. The music in it was certainly FANTASTIC. But the entire thing was downright boring.

This may sound as if I didn't like the movie, but I did LOVE it! I was bored throughout, it felt like it was going on and on and on and on and on and.... well you get the picture. The opening to Nine was great, Penelope Cruz's number was good, Kate Hudson's number was great, Fergie's number was AMAZING! But those were about the only things that the movie had going for it. Sure, the acting was good as well. But seriously, the writing for the movie just made it drag on and on and on and on and on and on... again, you get the picture.

Nine had a lot of sexual content that was all tastefully done withing the content of which it was presented. Penelope Cruz, for example, had a song all about her being the "other woman" and how she couldn't stand being away from Guido Cantini (Daniel Day-Lewis). She was in a sexy lingerie, but it was all in the context of the music.

Fergie's song, "Be Italian" was my FAVORITE song, by far. It combined a lot of dancing and belting and an overall "chorus line-y" feel. The ending is the best part, when Fergie just belt after belt and it is all done phenomenally.

Just for a random interlude, I am watching the Golden Globes and man is Meryl Streep getting old.

Okay, back to Nine. Who knew Kate Hudson could sing!? She did an awesome job. And just for how small of a world things are, I found out that my voice teacher TAUGHT Kate Hudson in voice lessons! No way right?? Well, WAY! I was texting him and he said that both him and his wife taught her in the 90's and that she had a beautiful voice. I was awestruck by this/I still am. But seriously, I am only on degree removed from knowing Kate Hudson.

Anyway, if you really wanna capture the essence of Nine, just go to YouTube and find all the recordings of the songs.

Will you become bored by Nine?

This is the end of the song with the belting :)

How well do you know your Friends?

Yes, this is yet another blog post about the T.V. show Friends. I am currently watching "The One with the Embryos." This episode is where a competition rises between the boys and the girls about who knows who best. The guys team includes Chandler and Joey, and the girls Monica and Rachel. Ross is made the game leader (Phoebe is busy getting in vitro fertilization).

The bet starts out with whoever the winner is gets $100. It then escalates to the girls betting their apartments and the guys getting rid of their chicken (actually a rooster). Through a heated lightening round and the girls not being able to answer the question "What is Chandler's job?" The guys win and the girls are forced to give up their apartment and accept Joey and Chandler's much smaller so-called "Hell-Hole."

It got me questioning how well I actually know the people in Friends as well. I have a quiz book called "The One with the Trivia" and I'm pretty sure I have over half the book answered, all of which have been checked and are correct. Personally, I consider this an accomplishments. Unfortunately, to others they say I'm "obsessed." I do think it is a bit sad when I know off the top of my head that Chandler Bing's job is statistical analysis and data reconfiguration. But an obsession? No.

Obsessed can best be defined here. That definition obviously says I'm not obsessed. Friends does not "haunt persistently" or "dominate my thoughts." My friend Smooth Like Shea Butter is an addict like me (though she owns ALL ten seasons) and is commonly mistaken as being obsessed. We just know our Friends REALLY well!

Do you know your Friends?

Rah-Rah-ah-ah-ah Roma-roma-ma GaGa Ooh la la Want your bad romance

Thank you SO much Lady Gaga for having Bad Romance stuck in my head for the past week. I mean literally, I can not stop singing it. I will give you credit that it is a fantastic song and you are a fantastic artist, but my gosh, I can't stop singing Rah-rah-ah-ah-ah Roma-roma-ma GaGa Ooh lala Want your bad romance.

People criticize Lady Gaga for all of her crazy ways and her unique performances, but you have to give her credit, her music is soooooo good. Her hits include: Just Dance, Bad Romance, and Love Game, to name a few. Her MTV VMA's performance of Paparazzi caught the attention of many people. Her end picture was of her hanging with fake blood EVERYWHERE (including her eye). Some people may have been disgusted but I thought it was one of the best performances of my life. The main reason I think it was, was because she actually sang AND performed, most singers just lip sing. I just really like that she is genuine about the entire thing.

As mentioned before, I cannot stop listening to Bad Romance, so here is her music video for you to watch/listen to.

I know that it is a pretty whacked out video, but you have to admit that she is REALLY good. Her video truly shows her individuality and her just wanting to be her. Sure, her outfits and out there, but like I said, Lady GaGa is her own person.

Even if you are someone who doesn't like Lady GaGa, at least realize that she is a fantastic singer and is a true performer.

Will you be an individual?

What did you say?

I would like to add this to my list of things that annoy me.

People who mumble.

First off, here are some tips to stop mumbling.

My sister is one of those people, and not only does she mumble, but if I say, "What did you say?" She will respond with anger. And I'm thinkin, What did I do to make you yell at me? You mumbled in the first place! I just frustrates me a lot.

There are also some teachers that do this very thing and it really does not help when you have loud, obnoxious students that talk the entire class and you truly have no idea what the teacher just said. These mumbling teachers are frustrating because a lot of times they don't understand why you have questions because they are thoroughly explaining the idea.

What is especially annoying about the mumblers is that on the phone, you really cannot hear what they are saying. Especially when they are in a car or outside, and then (my sister) they get angry when you say, "WHAT??"

To conclude, if you are a mumbler, you should seriously try to stop. Those of us "Loud-Speakers" are getting annoyed.

Will you be a mumbler?

Boredom is Self Inflicted

To self inflict pain is completely idiotic. To self inflict anything is completely idiotic. All of this you have self control of. Why would you make yourself do something that is completely unnecessary? Why would you want to be bored? But do you realize, you are bored because you made yourself that way?

You always have something to do, no matter if it wastes time. If you are bored, you can resolve that by texting, playing a game, getting on the internet, watching tv, doing homework, hanging out with friends, doing a puzzle, eating (though it's not recommended, it can lead to repercussions), and the list goes on. You constantly see people's tweets/Facebook statuses that say "I'm bored, t/c," (t/c = text/call). Well if you want people to text or call, why don't you just initiate it?

My brother-in-law once told me, "You are never bored, you are just a boring person," or something like that. So think about that next time you tweet/update your status, you are just announcing to the world you are a boring person. That doesn't sound that great does it? I will admit that I have said that I was bored numerous times, but I am trying to change that. It kind of hit me that I don't want to be considered a boring person. I like to think I'm a pretty entertaining person, why tarnish that by calling myself a boring person?

All in all, if you ever state that you are bored, just remember that someone out there could be thinking, wow, I don't want to hang out with a boring person...

Will you be bored?

Photo from iplot.typepad.com

Here We Go Again

It's 3 o'clock in the morning and my alarm goes off. Yep, you read that, 3 A.M. We started our journey to LaCrosse, Wisconsin at 4:30.
Yesterday marked the first day that our hard work as a show choir would pay off. Viterbo is one of, if not THE first show choir competition of the year and we were there. We had two cross-town rivals also competing and for them (most likely), winning is everything. Our director has given us speech upon speech about how we cannot go to a competition in the hopes/expectations of winning, we must go into the competition to give our best show and the results may or may not reflect that.

My personal feeling is that I just love to perform. I am completely non-competitive. I "play" tennis. Or at least I used to. I had played since I was four and I was pretty decent. But what happened was that everybody I played with began to have to competition of who was better and such, and I'm really not into that. I wasn't the best by any means, but like I said, I was pretty good. I would do okay at tournaments, but would definitely never win. And at tournaments I usually just cared about getting past the first round and anything after that was great but didn't really matter. So when things got more competitive, and I found out I was better at singing and show choir, naturally I took that over tennis.

As my director says, I do not take show choir as a competition. But every time I go onstage, I do my best and leave my heart out there. That I think is the most wonderful thing, knowing you did your best and that whatever happens, you will always win in your heart.

This was incredibly essential at Viterbo. With these cross-town rivals, we couldn't let ourselves think that because we had done better than them last year, that the same would happen this year.

After day rounds, we were tied for third behind our cross-town rivals. After last year, I thought this was a good thing. You see, last year, we had a reputation for starting out on top, and then dropping after finals. So maybe this would be our time to start down and move up. After finals, we did move up, but only by a half a place. When we were tied for third, that means we were between 3rd and 4th. So we beat out who we tied with, and took third for our own.

Sure it was kind of a bummer to lose to our cross-town rivals, but who cares? We had a HUGE improvement from our day rounds and 2 of our judges told us we had the best ballad by far. So I take that as a win in its own. Congratulations show choir!

Will you let it be a competition?