The dramatic girl in the end lounge - this is for you

This will probably be a slightly snarky post - so if you don't want to read it, then don't.

Sometimes girls just don't know how to cut the drama.
Tonight, I decided to go out for a walk. Before this, my friend had come in from outside to drop by my room. This was around 12:30. As she entered, she mentioned there was a guy and a girl on the 3rd floor stairwell - something that's a "grey area" in boundaries for opposite sexes to meet. Didn't think much of it.
Later that night, I needed to clear my head - so I went out for a walk. About 1 am. they were still there. 2 am. I get back from my walk. They were still there. He had a Bible and was talking about something spiritual. Like I said, didn't think much of it.

Sleep! :-) Wake up at 2:45 am. I hear a girl talking loudly in the end lounge. I just wanted to see if she and this guy were there. So I did. I grabbed some garbage from my room and stepped outside to throw it away in the end lounge trash bin. It was that same girl - without the guy.

But I couldn't stop listening to her convo. (Yes, I realize this was eavesdropping... but I'll use the "samwise" copout - 'I wasn't droppin' no eaves, sir, promise....nothing important...I mean, something about a dark lord and the end of the world)

I discovered she and her boyfriend named Andy were arguing over the fact that she hadn't talked to him in 3 days. (I figure something bad had happened.) I later found out that their relationship is long distance.

3 am. She decides to call her boyfriend. Can I just say that when you're upset, or when your boyfriend's upset...3 am isn't the best time to be having this conversation. Everyone (INCLUDING THE WHOLE WORLD) knows that things seem worse in the middle of the night. So at 3 am, don't call your boyfriend upset. Wait another 12 hours to have this conversation, and the light of day might bring different results. (Although, technically, the Bible says not to wait til the sun goes down on your anger. But I'm thinking that's a little bit metaphorical.)

Some of my favorite lines by her through the evening were, "I'm apologizing to you! Didn't you hear that? I just apologized to you. You're supposed to forgive me! The Bible says it!"
Ok, well, you're right. The Bible says we are to forgive - and you did just apologize to him. But you really think the best way to get him to forgive you is by calling him at 3 am to say your sorry, then tell him he HAS to forgive you? Really? I'm thinking not. My next thought is that at 3 am, telling him to forgive you is just going to get on his nerves more than anything. When you do something wrong, and you ask for forgiveness, they need to forgive you. But don't expect it to happen in a heartbeat. Sometimes it takes a little while to say "I forgive you."

She also said, "No, andy, listen to me, just listen to me...listen to me!............. I talk to YOU.....more than I talk to GOD!" Ok. Let's talk about this. Also a good point. We should talk to God daily. Not saying we shouldn't. But that is by far the worst cop-out line ever. Ya think about it, and most relationships we talk to each other verbally more than we talk to God. But we talk to God in more than one way. So, really, he wins in this one, too.

She also said later, which he later confirmed it, "What do you want me to do - forget and ignore all my friends here?" (I'm assuming most of these 'friends' are guy friends.) "You're not acting like my boyfriend right now! Cuz if you were, you'd understand that it's different! They're my friends." Now, I'm no relationship expert. But usually when you have a boyfriend (even harder when it's long distance), you need to be EXTRA cautious about who your male friends are and when and how you hang out with them, and how you act around them.
Let's dissect this further. You just spent the past 2 1/2 hours from the hours of 12-2:30 talking to a BOY in depth SPIRITUALLY about YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR BOYFRIEND. I'm thinking that wasn't the smartest of moves. Yes, you may have understand that "you sinned" by "not taking the time to be intentional about talking to your boyfriend." But I'm thinking that spending a good portion of your very late night alone with a boy in a stairwell - who wasn't your boyfriend.

"I talk to you more than once a day! I talk to you by texting. I text you all day long!" My thought: Does texting really count as talking to? Not really, for me, because you are not using your vocal chords. Nor can you sense intonation. And lets be honest. Any relationship based on texting throughout the day isn't much of a relationship.

In the end, let me just say the following:

UNLESS you WANT half of our hall to wake up and listen in on this conversation...and UNLESS you WANT your boyfriend to break up with you...
I'd start by NOT having 3 hour in depth Spiritual conversations alone with a boy in the middle of the night, and then NOT calling your boyfriend at 3 am in an end lounge, crying and yelling. Just saying.

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Animoto - my new best friend

I've recently discovered my love for a wonderful website called animoto.com
The genius' behind this website thought that America needed an easy and quick way to make videos of their photos set to music. What they created was, in fact, just that. This website is so easy to use my grandmother could maneuver her way through. And as quick as quick can be, a video with your photographs of a vacation, friends photo shoot, senior portraits, or day-to-day candids are thrust together in a great conglomeration.
There are a few down-sides, however. Along with the quickness and easiness of it all, your photos are set to the tempo of the music. So if you pick a fast song, expect them to go faster than your eye can keep up. You can change the tempo of the photo-turning, but it's either 2x or 1/2x, which sometimes seems awkward. This also means you can't change one photos' length of time, either.
The other downside is that if you want the free version, you only get 30 seconds to play with. The good news: a year's subscription to "all access" is only $30, which includes unlimited video time.
Videos can also upload actual video clips, also, but are limited to 5 seconds for the free version and 10 for the all access. (The all-access does not include copyrights, especially to their songs. If you own a company, there is another alternative for you.)
For the average person who just wants a new way to portray their photos of their every-day-lives, this is a brilliant website.
Here's my latest example:

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Go to animoto.com to begin your newest video scrapbook.

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From worse to worst - Oscars 2010 fashion gone wrong.

The 82nd annual Academy Awards filled the screens tonight. And while millions of viewers tuned in to see if Kathryn Bigelow would beat out ex-husband James Cameron for Best Director, or if Sandra Bullock could finally break through her RomCom facade and win Best Actress, the other portion of the world tuned in to see only one thing: The Fashion!

The Oscars are known as the time where the biggest designers and actors' sense of fashion either flourishes or fails. And like other favorite shows we watch (*cough* American Idol), most of our enjoyment of the evening comes from making fun of the flubs...and by flubs, I mean the biggest fashion mishaps in the year. Hence, the worst dressed lists were born.

So, my dear friends, without further ado, I give you my top ten worst dressed of the Oscars 2010.


10) Jennifer Lopez, wearing a silk organza Armani Prive.

Trying to play with textures and structure, J-lo thought these extra curves would enhance her own. The top suites her well, but all of those structural curves near her hip enhanced all the wrong places.

9)Miley Cyrus, wearing Jenny Packman.

Dear Miley - a corset-looking top does not bode your breasts well. Although I will give you grace since I liked the chiffon skirt.

8)Zoe Saldana, wearing a Givenchy Haute Couture gown by Riccardo Tisci.

The top on this dress was actually quite stunning. But once you get past the waist, it looks as if a Viking cheerleader attacked it with purple pompoms. Textures are a big trend this year, but don't expect to see this one anytime soon (although maybe by the time 'Avatar' comes true.)

7)Mariska Hargitay in Vera Wang

Although her slender bodice fits beautifully in this piece, I'm afraid Wang forgot to finish sewing the bottom of it. It looks like she took the bottom of a bedskirt, wrapped it around the bottom of the dress and just forgot to sew it across.

6)Carey Mulligan, nominated for actress in a leading role for "An Education," wore Prada.

This black sweetheart dress doesn't seem sweet after taking a second glance at the long train on such a short dress. It seems as if she couldn't make up her mind if she just wanted it short or long. One or the other, dear.

5) Matt Damon looked more handsome and chiseled than usual, but his wife Luciana's dress didn't demand as much attention.

As a matter of a fact, it seems as if the attention she gave this dress was about 5 minutes...the amount of time it takes to make a towel look that good, which is what it seems to look like. The only difference I see is that I don't see any terry-cloth nor wet hair.

4)Charlize Theron - wearing ??? (nobody wants to admit it.)

This dress could have been simple and stunning between the two shades of purple and the form-fitting foundation. What nobody seems to understand are the two circles of lavender that seem to be attacking her breasts. It demanded attention in a place that's neither lady-like nor flattering. Her hair pulled back gave us a view of her gorgeous face, but nobody could pay attention any farther up than her neck.

3) Diane Kruger is a subtle beauty, but this dress makes it even more subtle. Trying to play with the textures, this dress chops up her slender figure. As a whole, the piece isn't cohesive from top to bottom; the ruffles in that middle section are what makes this dress fly right over the edge.


2)Mariah Carey. Now, I'm usually not the biggest fan of Carey's fashion to begin with, but this one just didn't do her justice at all.

Dear Mariah,
Try a little more on the bottom and a little more on the top, next time, and you might hit it right. Learn how to cover yourself up and you might actually land yourself on the "best dressed" lists for once.

....and the WORST dressed of the 2010 Oscars goes to:
1) Nicole Richie.

Taking the opposite approach as Carey, Richie thought that dressing from head to toe (almost literally) would make her hit the best dressed lists of 2010. Looking more like a better designed piece of sheet metal or chain mail, this dress would have been better served being in the best costume category for "Joan of Arc."

So there you have my top 10 worst dressed - Do you agree/disagree? Who did you like the most? Were there any in my worst dressed that you liked? Anybody you thought I missed?

.....stay tuned for the BEST of Oscars 2010!

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Snow!

It's peaceful. It's magical. It's beautiful.
Ladies and gentlemen of the world...it's snow!

Tonight, it started snowing. Sometimes it was gently floating, and others it was fluttering along with the wind.

Snow! Charming, graceful, falling white puffs. Every year, when the first snow comes, I grab my music player (from cassette tapes, to CD's, to an Ipod now), and I take a walk. I listen to my favorite Christmas album ("A Christmas Story" by Point of Grace) as I watch the snow glisten and glitter on its way down to earth. I look up and see a sky plastered with white fluff-balls coming at me. Then I look down and see the street glittering and the cracks in the sidewalk filled with the glistening snow.

Giggling and skipping down the path, I bounced along the sidewalk, walking through a sea of swimming white fluff. When they landed on my jacket, I would stop to study them.

Have you ever looked at snow? Not just watched it fall down, but actually take a close-up look?
Snow is beautiful! It's exactly like we used to draw snowflakes in kindergarten, or cut them out of coffee filters.

To some, snow is a nuisance that just adds to the stress of rush-hour traffic driving and makes them mutter as they bundle up, not wanting to deal with the cold.

Not me! I embrace the cold! I'm not saying I don't have times where I loath going out in frigid temperatures. But really, I love the cold! It's the chance to bring out classic fashions, like the scarf, mittens, and earmuffs.

Even without the fashion of winter, there's a romance and magic about the snow. Grinning from ear-to-ear, you can't help but just stop and stare at the beauty that surrounds you.


Snow!
It holds an piece my heart that nothing else does. I get filled with so much excitement I tend to squeal, giggle, laugh, and sing.

The only thing I could think of tonight while on my walk was just simply "Snow!"
My God is so great, and gives us this gift every year, whether in bucket-loads of it, or, like tonight, just graceful and simple quantities. No matter the amount, His beauty is always there, and all you have to do is look and enjoy it.

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Emotions Autumnal

Autumn brings out a subdued, nostalgic, and subtle side of me. It's a rarity, for sure, being as that I tend to reside on the crazy, loud, and quirky side. But come the time where leaves turn pretty colors and the temperature grows closer towards freezing, I become quieter. I become less overly-enthused, and more towards appreciative and relaxed.
I wonder why this is, much of the time. It's not that I enjoy life less, or that I don't like the autumn. It's just a different phase of the year. I feel a little more sadness, but still mixed in with a smiling heart, somehow.

I love the vibrant reds and oranges that surround me, with the still-green evergreens that are interspersed between. I enjoy walking through the crisp, cool air, reminding that winter is just around the corner. I still like the feel of crunched leaves under my feet, although lately they've been soppy and wet.

But there's something in my heart that feels like it's missing the warmth and energy of summer.

It's always around this time that I start yearning to go back to so many places...the places I've called "home", whether temporarily or permanently, in my heart.

McGregor is one of them. Specifically my grandparents. With their many acres of pasture, ponds, dirt and gravel paths all enclosed within a beautiful forest, it's hard to stay away...especially during the autumn. And although my heart yearns to be up there, I know it's not the same as when I was 15, and stayed there...just me and the grandparents. So quiet, peaceful, and serene.

Bismarck is another. I think it comes from the memories of my senior year, which I have concurred was one of the best anyone could ever hope for. I long to drive up and down River Road, even though most of it's closed currently for construction. I wish desperately to just feel like I am home again, cuddled in my own home out in the country. I miss being in high school, going to "the bowl" for football and soccer games, and just plain being at Century High with all of my friends.

It's a mystery to me, but this time of year I always feel this way. Maybe it's God's way of quieting my heart, I don't know. And in feeling this way, I couldn't help but write about it, just wondering if maybe other people feel this way, too?.....

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O let the sun beat down upon thy face

Life is full of good quotes.
It was JFK that said, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." FDR uttered the famous words, "a date which will live in infamy." Obama overused the saying "Yes, we can!" (Bob the builder anyone?)

But how many times do you stop to admire the great quotes that come out of the media that surrounds us. Song lyrics and film quotes are continually overlooked in favor of Presidential speeches, campaign slogans, and inspirational quotes.

So I have compiled a list of some of my favorite lines from films and songs, sharing the joy and perplexity they bring. (In no particular order, of course. It would be far too difficult to rate them.)

1) The song by Bruises by Chairlift is an upbeat, foot-tapping song, which is cute and sweet...pun intended.
"I grabbed some frozen strawberries so I could ice your bruising knees
But frozen things they all unfreeze and now I taste like....
All those frozen strawberries I used to chill your bruising knees,
Hot July ain't good to me
I'm pink and black and blue for you."

2) Those who have watched any of the Ocean's movies know that their thief-jargon is perhaps the greatest mystery of all-time in films. It's a quirk that makes those movies original and funny...and always keeps you wondering, "what does it really mean?" Although I could share far greater than a dozen of those lines, I will only include a few, since just having one wouldn't suffice.
In Ocean's 12, Tess, played by the lovely Julia Roberts, hints in code to her husband Danny (George Clooney)that her ex-lover and Danny's former victim has come for revenge.
The Line: "Oh no...Danny....There's water in the basement and the pilot light is out."

3) Ocean's eleven was a mastermind that still keeps me wondering how they pulled off all of their tricks. In the beginning, while trying to assemble a team, Rusty (Brad Pitt) lists off jargon names of people he thinks they'll need.
"You'll need a Boesky, a Jim Brown, a Miss Daisy, two Jethro's, a Leon Spinx, not to mention the biggest Ella Fitzgerald ever."

4) My all-time favorite conversation exchange takes place in the Ocean's 12. Matt Damon (the 'rookie' rolling for leadership), Brad Pitt (the #2-man) and George Clooney (the boss), meet a character named Matsui at a local bar to bargain a deal for a heist. The following three lines will boggle your mind until you can't think straight.
Rusty (Brad Pitt) says: "A doctor, who specializes in skin diseases, will dream he has fallen asleep in front of the television. Later, he will wake up in front of the television, but not remember his dream."
Danny Ocean (Clooney) follows by saying, "If all the animals along the equator were capable of flattery, then Thanksgiving and Halloween would fall on the same day."
Matsui then says, "When I was four years old, I watched my mother kill a spider... with a teacozy. Years later, I realized it was not a spider - it was my Uncle Harold."

The brilliance of those three lines was that it's meant as a coded conversation...a way for the thieves to talk business in a public setting. If you haven't seen the movies yet, watch them ASAP. Worth every moment of your time.

5)If Tina Fey could bottle and sell her comedy, it would come out in the best "stupid lines" in a conversation, greatly portrayed in the film, "Mean Girls," which her screenplay bore. "Mean Girls" has become the new and improved "Napolean Dynamite," as teenagers and adults alike quote the movie more than they quote themselves. With lines like "If you're from Africa, why are you white?", "I wanna lose three pounds," and "I have a fifth sense," teenagers across America have snatched up the hilarious comedy and plugged it into their own dialect.

6) Adam Young, creator and mastermind of his one-man-band entitled "Owl City" has inspired a new age of electric pop lyrics. His sweet-nothing type lyrics take us on a fantasy ride through many-a-different universe's. In his song entitled "On the wing," lyrics sing and tweet a quirky message.
"Breathe and I'll carry you away, into the velvet sky. And we'll stir the stars around, and watch them fall away into the Hudson Bay and plummet out of sight and sound."

7) A new favorite duo of mine is a couple, who entitled themselves "Luke and Drew." The name is lacking in luster, but their music is something like you've never heard before, and the back-story to this singing duo is quite cute. Both Luke and Drew have considered themselves "artists," and like to find different avenues of art (both physical and non) to express themselves. The story goes that after a fight the two had, Luke needed to express how much he loved Drew. He sat down with a guitar that night and whipped out the tune "Song About You." After he sang it to Drew, she fell in love with it, and more so-with Luke, as well, they started writing songs together. Not too long after, Luke proposed to Drew, and the two began their recording and touring debut as "Luke and Drew." (who are now officially "Luke and Drew Goddard". Congratulations!)
Their songs and lyrics more-so reflect the joy and love one finds in their soul-mate. Some of my favorite lyrics are from their song "Our Own Little World."
"I can't wait to wake up beside you and take you by the hand. And walk you into our cozy little bathroom and brush our teeth together. Or how about when we make our first grocery list. We'll hop in the car and ride to the market and buy what's on our list. It'll be our own little world, it'll be our own little world, it'll be our own little world...I can't wait. I can't wait!"
Those lyrics seem like they were ripped straight out of a love-letter, and embrace what true love really is. True love isn't always high-romance, a hundred thousand rose-pedals, champaigne and wine, type of love we often think it is. Most often, it's just being with the person you were meant to spend the rest of your life, and the lyrics of that song bring to life what I believe true love is supposed to be.

By the way, if you'd like to see their proposal video that Luke recorded, it's right below. It's more than worth your time to watch it. :-)


8)One of my favorite memories of high school was singing in our choir. Our songs ranged everything between pop and musicals to classical and new age pieces. But one of my all-time favorite songs we performed was by a fabulous composer named Eric Whitacre. (Follow him at @ericwhitacre, or his blog www.soaringleap.com) The song we sang was one of his first pieces, entitled "Sleep." The song is about just that...sleep. The lyrics that he wove were magical and brought me into a world where I felt calm. Here are some of my favorites from that song.
"The evening hangs beneath the moon. A silver thread on darkened doon. With closing eyes and resting, head I know that sleep is coming soon. Upon my pillow safe in bed, a thousand pictures fill my head. I cannot sleep, my mind's aflight, and yet my limbs seem made of lead."
And my all time favorite line: "Then I surrender unto sleep, where clouds of dream give second sight. What dreams may come both dark and dep, of flying wings and soaring leap. As I surrender unto sleep."

9) Emily Dickinson kept it short and sweet, but yet profound and beautiful in her poem "I Have No Life But This."
"I have no life but this,
To lead it here;
Nor any death, but lest
Dispelled from there;
Nor tie to earths to come,
Nor action new,
Except through this extent,
The Realm of You!"

10) Perhaps the greatest writers of all time weren't of this age. In a land now known as Israel, in a time far far away, a Psalmist named David wrote what is possibly the most widely known Psalm in the history of the world. The serene imagery and the peacefulness of this verse is arguably the best any human has ever written.

Psalm 23
"The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
he leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul:
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: for thou art with me;
thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:
thou anointest my head with oil;
my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever."

So there is my ode to great lyrics and lines. I hope you enjoyed it. :)

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Ima Fan Now!

It was fifth grade. I had just gotten my first ever CD player, and was really into Leann Rhimes and Deanna Carter. And that's the last I ever considered myself a country fan.

Those of my friends who love country know that I don't, and usually make it a point to play other music while I'm chillin' in their car.
But lately, there's one artist that has recently made me cross over again. And that's the ever-so-popular Taylor Swift.

Taylor Swift was an artist I hated for two reasons.
1) She was a country singer. (Yes, I dislike country that much.)
2) She was everyone's favorite. And I hate copying people.

But somehow, this girl, whose second album which went quadruple platinum, has captured my listening attention as well as my heart.

Taylor's music is good country, meaning she's not too country, and just enough pop in it to make it cute and listening worthy. Not only that, her lyrics speak volumes about what it's like to be a teenager. "Fifteen" for example speaks about her and her best friend Abigail when they were 15, and the mistakes they hope others will avoid. "You belong with me," is a top favorite, which conveys a story about the not-so-popular girl and the boy who's dating the mean and preppy cheerleader.

Back in the day, there was a song by country-star Leann Rhimes that went "don't ever lose that light in your eyes." That light in Taylor's eyes is clearly evident every time she gets up to sing her music. Every time this beautiful girl performs, whether it's a small acoustic set or a crazy subway ride, she radiates from the stage and into her audience all across the nation.
Despite being rattled by Kanye Wests' recent display of rudeness, Taylor put on her "performance" face and had the best subway ride of her life. With hundreds of fans surrounding and singing along her, she rode the subway and sang her hit song "You Belong With Me," then exited to find herself in front of Radio City Music Hall on top of a taxi, again, surrounded by more fans. It was by far the craziest and most fun performance I've seen in a long time, because in those moments, you realized that singing that music gave her such joy. And sharing that joy with hundreds of her fans in the middle of New York City is something she will cherish for a long time.
Two days after the VMA awards, Taylor Swift performed again on The View. Those performances of "Fifteen" and "You Belong With Me" were just as impressive as the subway ride. When she sang "You Belong With Me," she beamed with joy, like singing that song was what she was made to do, and she was reminding herself of just how blessed she is. And she just loves to have fun with her music, just like the rest of us do when it comes on the radio: we blast it and sing (or screech) along with it.

Taylor is just a down-to-earth girl who acts just like all the rest of us "teenagers at heart." What attracted me at first to her music wasn't her music at all, actually; I had found a video blog she had posted on Youtube. The fact she video blogs, and shows just how much crazy-fun she has, makes her so much more relatable. It was those videoblogs that made me listen to her music...and I gradually came to love a singer who considers herself a country singer. If you haven't looked for any of her video blogs on youtube, you should immediately watch it below.


Lastly, Taylor is a humble, modest, and poised young lady who deserves appreciation. The whole "Kanye West" show during the VMA's would be enough to make me start bawling, or at least slap him silly. But she just stood there, and although rattled, didn't fight back and let Kanye be his rude and self-centered self. Later, on an interview on "The View," speaking about winning the VMA and Kanye, she quoted her process of thinking as "wow, I can't believe I won! This is awesome! Don't trip and fall. I'm gonna get to thank the fans this is so cool. Oh, Kanye West is here! Cool haircut. What are ya doing...ouch...I guess I'm not going to get to thank the fans."
Taylor loves her fans. On the first time ever a country music singer wins a VMA, it wasn't about how awesome she is or even how much she loves her family...it's "Thanks to the fans." Later on, Beyonce herself showed poise and self-sacrifice when she gave up her award speech time to Taylor Swift, so she could then, not dis Kanye West, but to say "I'd like to thank all the fans on twitter and myspace, and everyone who came out to my shows this summer." Showing complete grace and poise in the situation, she never once bashed Kanye West for his display of rudeness. Instead, she said, "I can't say I wasn't rattled, but if he wants to say hi, then sure." Obviously not wanting to say anything negative about West, she held her own and handled the whole ordeal with the upmost grace and poise - something most 19-year-olds don't know how to do....and even some celebrities.

So, after about 6 months, my thought process about Taylor Swift goes like this.
"I hate country music, including Taylor Swift. I will put up with Taylor Swift's music. She has the sweetest video blogs. Hey, her music's actually pretty good. Wow, she is talented. Nice hair. Hey, she's actually a stand-up-girl too! Guess I get to thank her for being an inspiration."

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