It just makes no sense...

Why do parents seem to force stuff upon their children? Is it because they are jealous of them? Are they trying to live their lives they wish they had, in their children? This blog post isn't really relevant to my life, but it still hits pretty close to home.

The other day, I got a call from a bewildered and distraught friend. They were having huge issues with their parents. It turns out the the parents are forcing something upon this friend that is not fair whatsoever. This thing that is being forced is college. Not college as a whole, but the location in which this person attends college. Now, is it just me, or is this completely wrong? A parent shouldn't just say, "Hey, it's either there, or community college." And not many people go to community college by choice. For the sake of privacy, I won't include any more, but let me tell you, there is a lot more to the story that just makes me extremely angry inside.

But back to the topic of parents, it always seems that there are jocks that suffer from extreme depression and afraid to stop being a jock, all because their parents have forced them to do something they don't want to do. Back to my friend, this friend (if they choose to go to the non-community college location) will most likely not do well, simply because they don't like the environment.

It just makes no sense...

Will it make sense to you?

(sorry for the horrible post, I thought there would be more to build upon with that, but I'm going to post it anyway, because it is still better than nothing...)

I'm slowly running out of topics...

I have a problem. I'm finding less and less things I want to blog about. The thing is, there ARE probably things I could write about, but I don't want to have to repeat things. I seem to be at a loss...if any of you have any topic ideas, they would be greatly appreciated.

Right now, I will give a little word on procrastination.

I previously blogged about it, but it is a SERIOUS problem I have. I noted at the beginning of this term that I would try to blog more throughout the week....but that hasn't exactly happened. I'm sitting here on a Sunday night, doing what is due for MONDAY, when I've had since last Monday to do it... Definition of procrastination, I think so. When will this procrastination end? I hope I can figure it all out by the time I get to college. I feel as if I will NEED to get it all together by then.

Will you procrastinate?

"Hi, I'm Fiona Wallace, and this, is Web Therapy"

I love Lisa Kudrow. It's as simple as that. But has her hit online show, "Web Therapy," fallen below her potential? I think so.

This show is basically completely improvised. So props to that. But what I find a bit lackluster, is the fact that there is basically no plot-line, no climax, just an overall lack of "fire." Part of what I like about Lisa in "Friends" is her large amount of spunk that she brings to Phoebe. She always finds a way to add that goofiness in everything she did. I've watched the bloopers and interviews, so I've seen what Lisa is like outside of "Friends" and I think she could add more of this fun side to Fiona Wallace.

The basis behind "Web Therapy" is that the main character, Fiona Wallace (Kudrow), is a therapist that is a bit disgruntled by the whole lay in the couch therapy session thing. She thinks that there is no need to have an hour long session when you can complete everything that needs to get done in three minutes. The sessions usually last longer than that for some quirky reason, but nonetheless, they are significantly shorter sessions than the hour long ones.

As I said, my problem with the show is that there is a lack of a climax. They seem to be just talking the entire time, and because it is improv, they seem to be struggling to find things to talk about. I do think it is impressive that Lisa Kudrow was able to come up with a show strictly on improv with the intent of having a theme, but the idea kind of flopped. There haven't been any new episodes in a while, and I'm guessing that was due to a lack of popularity. The only reason I heard of this show was because I googled Lisa Kudrow and it came up that she had a show. Otherwise, I would have never known.

Below, I have included a clip of an episode. You'll see what I mean by the lack of a plot and such.

Will you enjoy "Web Therapy"?

Feelin' Stressed...

Have you ever just had one of those weeks where everything builds up and just keeps building inside you? And suddenly you're on the verge of a meltdown? Yeah. That's where I'm currently at...Sweeney Todd (the show my school is currently doing) is this week and I know we aren't ready. Homework keeps piling up. Because of the show, I have no idea what is going on in any of my classes. The March of Dimes is next weekend. I'm not going to get very much sleep this coming week. I still have another blog to do. So yeah, I'm freakin' out a little bit.

Here's the problem, when you become stressed, you tend to shut down, and all you want to do is sleep and/or stare blankly at a computer screen. This is what is going on for me. I don't really feel secure on the Sweeney Todd stuff yet, so that's what is really getting to me. Our director has been pretty irritable lately, mainly because one of our leads has had an extremely hard time getting all their stuff memorized. This frustration, in turn, is taken out on the rest of the cast. And this coming week are the dress rehearsals, which means we will be at school until 9, and the nights of the show we will be at school until 10 or later, so I will have NO time to get my homework done.

So here I am. Feelin' stressed. And all I can do is stare at this blank screen. What's going to come of this? Will I get over it?

Every year, I go through the same pattern. The spring musical puts me under a lot of stress. And every year, once the musical is done, there is a huge relief of stress. Will that happen this year? I sure hope so...

Will you be stressed?

Is this the real life?

As well as the ACT, Saturday, April 10, 2010, was also the date that my show choir sang with the Orchestra Iowa and a Queen impersonator. It was quite possibly one of the coolest things I have ever done. The lead singer was amazing, the orchestra was amazing, and most of the choir was amazing. The reason I say most is because the guy I happened to be standing to seemed to not be able to identify pitch. I mean, it wasn't like he wasn't on the right pitch, but he was just waaaay below the actual pitch is. To understand this, you need to know that there are pitches between the normal pitches you would hear on the piano. Anyway, he was just extremely flat.

I'm not going to let this get to me, though, because the overall experience was amazing. Here is one of the songs we sang, just for you enjoyment.

Such incompetence...

As I mentioned in my last post, I took the ACT on April 10, 2010. What I didn't tell you is that the teacher that acted as the test proctor was extremely incompetent.

Warning: Once again, this will be another ranting post.

First off, the teacher decided to turn on the fan that was in the room. Sure, that was a nice gesture because it may have gotten hot, but she should have at least been considerate as to where she put this fan. She decided to set the fan directly in front of me. Thank you teacher for blowing my papers askew throughout the test. Also, I have pretty sensitive eyes, so as the fan oscillated across my face, I essentially started crying.

Following the first test of crying, I asked her to move the fan. She did so kindly, and we began the next test. All went well for that test and we took a break.

After the break we took the Reading portion of the test. She announces we will have 35 minutes for the test. She writes the end time of the test as 11:13 and none of us think anything of it. There were approximately 17 minutes left in the test and I thought, "Hey! I'm doin' pretty well!" Just as I thought that, the teacher goes up to the board and erases the 1 and changes it to a zero. The time now reads 11:03. She realized she accidentally calculated the time wrong and when we had all paced ourselves for the extra ten minutes, we were all suddenly screwed.

After this test, she instructs us to sign our answer form and write the sentence provided in cursive on the bottom. She then starts collecting our question booklets. It wasn't until a student announced, "Ummm...we haven't taken the science portion yet...," that she even realized we weren't done with the booklets. She passed them back and we began the test. You can imagine that we were then all flustered and I was certainly thrown off for the rest of the test.

As you can see, this teacher was extremely incompetent and could be part of the reason I may potentially get a lower score than I hope for. But only time will tell. I have considered writing it in, but I don't want to have to retake the test unless my score is low. I would rather get a low score and retake it than not know my score and retake it and not know until mid-June what my ACT score is.

All in all, my ACT testing was not a very good experience at all. The incompetent teacher and the overall test were both factors in this. But if I must retake it in the future, so be it. I'll just consider this the practice test!

Will you be incompetent?

The dreaded ACTs

Warning: This will be a ranting post
Saturday, April 10, 2010
This marks the day that I took the most dreaded test of my life. This most dreaded test is also possibly the most important test I will take in my life. It is the test that basically decides what college I get into.

My question is, why does a standardized test control you fate? Why should this test decide my future? Here are three reasons as to why I am opposed.

Reason #1
This test is a timed test. So what, you may be thinking? Sure, timed tests aren't bad, but when you have a ridiculously small amount of time to finish long tests, you're essentially screwed. For example, the science portion of this test. You are given 35 minutes for 40 questions. Not bad if these were normal science questions. But no, these are those questions where you have to read the intro, analyze the graphs, and then answer the questions. But then when you get to the question, you have to go back and forth between the question and the graphs and by that time you're spending approximately one minute per question. The downside to this is that if you need 3 minutes to read and analyze (that's pretty speedy if you're trying to understand the experiment at hand) and then one minute per question, you are going to go over time. There are maybe seven different experiments, so that's 21 minutes, and then 40 questions, so you're going to need 61 minutes to do the exam, not THIRTY FIVE!

Going along with this, you are also given 35 minutes for 40 questions in the reading portion. This is more reasonable because you don't have to read AND analyze, you only need to read. However, you need to be a speedy reader. My discretion to this is that when you have to read quickly there is no way you are going to comprehend. So this test instead goes from a reading comprehension test to a 'let's see who can read the fastest and guess the correct answer' test.

Reason #2
Not everyone do well on standardized tests. Well duh. But what I mean by that is, people who do well in school may just be bad test takers. These people who get a 4.0 GPA shouldn't be punished because they can't pick A, B, C, D, or E...

One thing I do like about standardized testing, however, is that on the math portion, you know if you are right or wrong. They have four potential answers for you to get, and on the computation-like problems, you can easily determine which answer is the correct answer.

Reason #3
Taking this test is expensive. Taking the ACT test + Writing came to $47. For some people, this may not be a big deal, but if you do poorly on the first time, and then take it again, that's another $47...If you don't think $47 is very much, $94 certainly is. Especially for just a TEST. The problem is, you HAVE to take this test. Even if you just want to go to a small community college, the ACT is almost always required.

All in all, taking this test is a stupid method to determine one's future. It isn't fair to the student. Those reasons above give my opinion on the situation so there isn't really a need for a conclusion.

Will you take the ACT?

Things that annoy me...Part 3

And really, there is only one thing in this post that annoys me.
EXCESS COUGHING AND NOT DOING ANYTHING ABOUT IT! Right now, my sister my sister is coughing just about every two minutes. I am about ready to kill her. And the worst thing about it is that she isn't even covering her mouth. The ironic (not really ironic, but I don't really have a better term) is that if any of us (meaning my family) would do that, she would be the first one to freak out. She is now claiming that she has been taking medicine, but right now, when her coughing is at its peak, she is doing nothing about it. I told her that cough drops with menthol are the way to go, but she keeps using Luden's which are basically just candy and they are doing nothing. She tells me, "I don't like the way they taste!" But who cares? They work. I'd take the gross taste over the not coughing any day. Just brush your teeth afterward for goodness sake.

That is all that is really annoying me right now, and to be honest, I just needed some more words for my word count.

Are you annoyed?

iPad. Success or Failure?

If you have even glanced at any of the internet hot-spots (Yahoo, Google), you know that the latest thing on the market is the Apple iPad. Apple is known for its top of the line merchandise and the iPad is no exception.

The question is though, is it worth the minimum price of $499? Personally, I think that is a surprisingly low price for the market. However, if you're thinking of it as a computer, you have to add on the price of a USB attachment and a wireless keyboard and that tacks on another $200. At the price of $699, it is no longer a cheap item.

There are quite a few people out there that are speculating there be a release of second generation iPad in the next year and are withholding buying the first generation because there is an anticipated camera addition and that could revolutionize the use of Skype. Simply having the camera right there in your lap would be extremely handy.

But is this "iPad" a failure? I certainly think the name is a failure. They could have probably easily come up with some more clever names than iPad. First of all, it comes with a lot of jokes regarding female sanitary napkins... This new contraption is basically an iPod, so why not name it the iPod Tablet? They have the iPod Classic, the iPod Mini, the iPod Nano, the iPod Touch, you see? It would fit in nicely. As for the whole idea? I don't consider it a failure. I consider it a major success. It will greatly improve the market of iBooks and will help the college population because they will be able to have all their textbooks in one place. This will create huge revenue on Apple's part.

The reason some could consider this new phenomenon a failure is because it really didn't live up to its speculated expectations. There are websites (such as this one) out there that show that the iPad that was originally introduced was to have a camera. Then suddenly it wasn't marketed with one. Also, the fact that it doesn't come with the USB ports is a major downside. I would expect that more people would purchase it then because they could use their own keyboards. As I mentioned, you must then purchase the wireless keyboard from Apple, which would add on an extra $100.

All in all, I want this. But most likely I will be waiting until the 2nd generation comes out. I will for sure be going in to Best Buy to play with the iPad just to experience it, but I won't be purchasing it.

Will you like the iPad?

How To Stop Drinking Pop

As mentioned in my previous post, I have decided to make a tutorial on how to stop drinking pop. There are a couple options that I recommend trying.
#1
Quit cold turkey. I understand that this is probably one of the harder ways to stop drinking pop, but it works. This was the method I used. I had a realization that this was not doing anything good for me and might as well stop. The thing with pop for me was the carbonation. The feeling in my stomach is what I liked. It wasn't until after I stopped drinking that I realized I also liked the caffeine. Be aware that when you stop drinking pop, the first few weeks will be rough because the sudden drop in caffeine could lead to headaches, excess sleepiness, or even restlessness (wow, I feel like I'm listing side effects on a commercial). Though the whole quitting cold turkey thing may be hard, it is very rewarding in the end.

#2
Slowly wean yourself off the pop. When I decided to quit cold turkey, I was at about two bottles of pop a day. In order to slowly wean yourself of, I recommend reducing your soda intake to about 1 every other day. Try that for about two weeks, and then to 1 or 2 every week. Do that for another couple of weeks, and finally, stop drinking pop altogether. In the end, that's about one month and you will have stopped drinking pop. This way is probably the easier of the two, but restraining yourself to just a little pop can be surprisingly difficult.

#3
Substitute pop with juice or water. If you go with juice, make sure you get 100% Juice because the other stuff has loads and loads of sugar that could in turn be worse for you than pop. I have found that when you drink water when you're craving sweets, is surprisingly suppresses your craving.

If you choose to do either of these, I highly recommend doing them with somebody. When I began not drinking pop, my friend JeepersCreepers was by my side. We kind of made a competition out of it. We were going to not drink pop until New Years Eve, and then we would drink it again. Well sure enough, somewhere around November, she began drinking pop again. This in turn made me want to prove that I could still do it, so I kept on with not drinking pop. I even chose not to drink pop on New Year’s (again, except for the fake champagne). The whole competition side of things pushes you to move forward and not give up. Not that you need to have a competition or anything, but a support system is always nice.

In conclusion, if you choose to do neither of the things listed above, I strongly believe you should give up pop, still. The positive side effects of not drinking pop greatly out-weigh the side effects drinking pop.

Will you stop drinking pop?

P.S. One little bonus I found is that when you order water when you go out to eat, you save a surprising amount of money. $0 for water is a lot less money than and average of $2.50 for soda.

Photo from moneyreasons.com

242 days...but who's counting?

On August 5th, 2009, I made probably one of the most important choices I have made in my life. And that was to stop drinking pop. It has since been 242 days of absolutely NO pop, and on top of that, there has been no carbonation (except for the fake champagne on New Years Eve).

What has this decision done for me? Well, in those 242 days, I have lost 20 pounds, gained energy, less of an appetite, and I just feel better overall. Because this has done so much for me, I'm going to make a "How-To" on how to stop drinking pop.

Image from businessweek.com