GP Post #3

Article: In Search of the Mysterious Narwhal
Writer: Abigail Tucker
Link

Hey it's been a while since I have posted a Graduation Project post. Before I get to the actual article I just want to point out that it is officially the end of the month, also the last day of my first month as a blogger. Well done, me. Fifteen posts in sixteen days, that's a lot for a beginner. Also, tomorrow is my first official day of my GP, which means I am going out to the office and the man I am shadowing and I will be going out "on assignment." I wonder what that means.

On to the article! I came upon this article, it is a little dated but the topic was news to me, when I was at my brother's appointment looking through a magazine. Towards the end of the school year, during finals, I was going through APES book and a friend of mine asked about Narwals and why they have such huge horns. This helped me find out. Now seriously onto the article.

"To catch a unicorn, it is said, you need virgins for bait; to net a narwhal, and transfer it from ocean to beach and back again, a bunkhouse of cowboys would be handier."

Wow...well I have a new phrase for my dog when she curls up into a ball "miserable little doughnut." Although this article did not pose anything extremely new to me or something that may change the oceans forever, it was still a compelling article. And it was funny!

I enjoyed learning about the Scandinavian people. Woo! Greenland! It also amazes me that the biologist was originally a ballerina, extreme change, yes? I wasn't too offended with all of the talk of hunting the whales; I've always been okay with hunting animals as long as everything is used. [This is also why I have a high respect for Native Americans]. From what I could tell the Greenlandic people are also using everything from the animal, which is why it is such a big celebration when one is brought to shore.

This article was really great in describing the anatomy and the history of Narwhals. I found it amusing that doctors considered the tusk to be that of a unicorn, and that a coat of arms for a medical symbol placed the mythical creature on it. Imagine how the coat would look with a Narwhal on it. I also loved that the hunters wanted to know where the whales went and were constantly updated, I feel as if that shows dedication to the animal that sustains their lifestyle.

A friend of mine just told me to watch the "Narwhal song," I did and I am astonished. It is awful, the poor animal looks ridiculous.

Back to the article, overall a really decent one. I suggest reading the entire thing, it's not boring in the slightest.

XDara

Look! It's me as a mermaid...I mean Narwal. I just made this two days after this post was posted but I have no where to put it, do you like it? :)

It was suppoed to be a short, passionate, tear filled post

Thank you new email page, without you I may have waited days, weeks even to see this trailer. I am so happy, and like the title said, I almost cried. I'm not on the verge of tears because I think it looks bad, or silly, or "emo," I'm just sad and happy at the same time.

These last two movies mark the end of part of my life. Even though I only entered the Harry Potter world [the book world at least] in 7th grade I have always felt home when talking, reading or watching Harry Potter. I know that some critics, friends of mine even, hated, absolutely despised the Order of the Phoenix, movie and book. But I look and read all of the books and find something good and bad about all of them. I think that's necessary in order to completely appreciate the series.

I have been watching the movies since they came out, as a third grader I remember hearing about the fact that the movie was a book. Later that year I tried to read that same book, I couldn't do it. It wasn't until one of my best friends told me about a crucial moment in the The Half Blood Prince and I did not want to believe her. So I took it upon myself to find out. Here is how it went down in my head. [I'm not crazy].

"I just saw the fourth movie, there was some serious Harry-Cho stuff going on, maybe I should read the fourth one first."
"Well wouldn't that ruin the story? Shouldn't I start with the first?"
"Nah, why would I do that? I'm a teenager, I want to read about teenagers!"
"I'm right, to the fifth book it is!"
"What, why the fifth book? I was just talking about the fourth."
"Yeah but I already know what happens in the fourth book, why would I want to read that?"
"Okay, makes sense."

So I went off to read the fifth, then the sixth, fourth, third, first and half of the second. Yes, it's true, I never really finished the second. I spend a good amount of time searching for that book in my house and it took me forever. So before I found it I caved in and read the first one.

And then the seventh, of course. Now, I went through a period of complete Harry Potter bliss, having the first six books at my disposal, [the same is true for Twilight, but we won't go there]. So when I reached the middle of the second book I was sad, what was I going to do with the rest of my time? Wait for the seventh book? The real reason I think I stopped reading the Chamber of Secrets is because all of the Deathly Hallows hype began. Another best friend and I went to Borders for a midnight release party, which was a lot of fun, she however has not even finished the 5th book.

I got my Ravenclaw banner, but my friends and I have determined that I would really be a Hufflepuff [but I'm not putting yellow in my room], I got a dark mark and days later made a wand. After getting home at 1 o'clock I read the first two chapters and finished the rest of it the next day. I laughed, I cried, I screamed, but I did not throw the book at the wall. The protective cover was placed at my side and I sped through that book. I loved all of it.

When I finished it I proceeded to walk around my house and mutter "It's all over" to myself. Living in a non-HP household at the time I had no one to vent to. I wasn't allowed to say a thing to my mother because she claimed she was going to read all of the books. [She didn't for two years]. It got so bad that I went through the book again and recorded every character that died, which did not really help my HP depression.

Huzzah! The fifth movie came out, my spirits were lifted. Then the sixth, and I was happy. But then I remembered that each movie that came out meant that Harry Potter was one step closer to being over. It was similar to a situation that occurred to me recently: I grew up watching Disney movies, you know, the good 'ol 2D kind, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, etc.

"What are my kids going to watch?" I asked myself. "The Princess and the Frog?" Disney has changed its animation so much that I think generations to come will reject the old 2D ways. But I digress.

So what are my kids going to read? Harry Potter of course! I think I'll enjoy that, getting to see someone read the series for the first time. The next generation may not go to midnight releases or shows but they can zoom through them and reread them just like me. My parents did not have a book series like I do, no phenomenon for them to obsess about.

I don't follow celebrities, I follow Harry Potter.

Not in a cultish way, if that's what you thought. Earlier this year I went to a Harry Potter museum at a local university with a good friend of mine. I went there thinking it would be for little kids, I was wrong, so very wrong. College students walked around, waving decorated branches with tags identifying what magical element it contained. We went to Defense Against the Dark Arts with Snape and Slughorn and drank the drought of living death. I lived. Take that! I even got a picture with Snape and Fred and George.

These past years filled with Harry Potter have been amazing. This book series has definitely been a major part of my developing fangirl ways, without it I may not be the same person. Over dramatic, I know.

And so I say "Adios" to the series until November comes and I reread DH and see the movie. Farewell.

XDara

Wonita, I saw her in the street-a

Out here in the wild backyards of the suburbia a blogger may encounter many beasts. However, this one has never yet been revealed to the naked eye. This picture is the only evidence that such a creature exists. Blogger Dara went deep into the backyards to have a look.

Dara is extremely close to the creature, could this be the day that the Bloggerverse finally discovers the true identity of this mysterious animal?!

It is! It's the dangerous Balaena Wonita! Watch out, she may attack you with her razor sharp teeth! This animal is also know as a Grass Whale, making it the most dangerous aquatic-land-mammal on Earth!

Perhaps the Bloggers were wrong about the dangerous Grass Whale. What? How can the Internet be wrong, you ask? That's because everyone is entitled to their opinion and places like Wikipedia allow those people to claim things that may or may not be true.

For example, Grass Whales cannot live in trees, that is why they are not called Tree Whales. Sorry Wonita.

Hey all, meet Wonita, the Purse turned whale. I took a sewing class a while back and had made a purse. I thought about making another but apparently the concept was more difficult than I remembered. After realizing that what I held in my hand was never going to be a purse I sat there and looked at it for a while. It was oddly shaped...like a humpback whale. Behold! Wonita the Whale! Made my day. :)

XDara

I dare you to lick your elbow

I have not posted in a while, well maybe it just seems that way. I've done a lot in the past weeks. Okay, let's face it, it was the weekend; there were people in my house other than me...parents! Which means I can't just sit around and do nothing, summer weekends are the bane of, well, summer. And driving is useful in the summer...if you know where you need to go. Hint, don't go to the library if you don't know how to get back.

I digress, you may be wondering what the title is about. I hope to God that you did not try to lick your elbow. I was sitting with my family at a restaurant, Outback to be exact, when some strawberry sauce [stuff on cheesecake] fell right on my elbow. I had an epiphany: this is how humans found out that it is impossible to lick your elbow. Did I forget to say SPOILER ALERT! I really hope you didn't need it.

I propose that some great scientist, Newton perhaps, was eating apple sauce happily when a glob of it fell on his elbow. He was a messy guy, I'm sure, sitting under trees and whatnot. So being this messy man he promptly leaned toward the apple glob, stuck out his tongue and soon became enraged with his inability to complete a simple task.

I imagine that some decades, maybe centuries later, a comedian used this knowledge to his advantage. I bet he won whatever battle of wits he used it in.

As a child when and adult pulls this prank on you and you are suddenly aware of this amazing dysfunction of the human body, you must wonder what else your body is incapable of. Now some of these disabilities are due mainly to genetics, such as double jointed bones, rolling tongues, and many more that do not occur to me at the moment. [Feel free to add some in the comments :)]

As for me I am double jointed in my shoulder, but not to an extreme measure. All I can do is turn my arms in side out...it's hard to explain. The tips of your fingers face opposite of your face in general but when I use my amazing double jointed powers my fingers point toward my face, quite literally actually. That also means that my elbows are parallel to the surface in which I am leaning on. All together I look like the girl from The Ring, pleasant right?

Clearly this elbow situation did not cause Newton to just think "Well this must be true for everyone," he most likely thought "What the hell is wrong with me?!" Perhaps it took him days or years to find enough people that were unable to preform such a task to calm himself. I guess we all have those sort of things that make us question our abilities.

Such a silly thing, not being able to lick your elbow. Oh well.

XDara

GP Post #2

Article: Stalin statue removed in Georgian home town
Writer: Margarita Antidze
Link

Let me first point out that as I am writing this post this article was only put up three hours ago. This article caught my eye because in History we learned about Soviet Russia, so the topic is still fresh in my mind.

I was almost surprised to find that the reaction was not outright elated. There were many who were upset about the secret removal of the famous dictator. I do think it was a little strange that the statue was removed in secret, I am also amazed that it was a secret, a statue that large...wow!

This all occurred in Gori, Stalin's hometown. I think that the citizens of Gori may have been upset about the removal because the statue put them on the map. The reporter commented on the fact that "Stalin is held up as a hero by supporters across the former Soviet Union who say the country could not have defeated Nazi Germany or become a superpower without his leadership."

Okay, sure, I can see why Georgians would want to keep the statue, but only if that was all he did. Stalin was responsible for so many deaths, why would anyone want a symbol of that in their town? Does this mean that his actions during WWII outweigh those deaths? For example, Richard Nixon was a pretty decent president but many people remember him for Watergate. Now, I know that Nixon wasn't responsible for deaths but you get the idea.

Wow, what a creepy statue. It stood in front of some official building, it was actually taller than the building itself. If you're going to put a statue of someone up I feel like it's just waiting to be knocked down.

On a positive note, they are putting up a monument for the victims in its place.

XDara

Hee, hee!

It occurred to me today that yesterday was the anniversary of Micheal Jackson's death. I don't think I realized how early into the summer this was until now. I say this because I don't have a job this summer, unlike last year when I worked as a camp counselor.

The entire camp was MJ crazy, I even asked my senior counselor to make me a CD, which she did [it was the only productive thing she did all summer]. He was on the radio, television, everywhere. Before he died the only thing I knew about him was one day he was on the news and the anchorwoman said something about him molesting someone. As a young kid I had no idea what it meant and then asked my mom, I wasn't sure if I was glad about asking or not, but that was all I really knew about him.

All at once my eight and nine year-old campers were dancing to his music and singing along. I do remember my mom telling everyone how the Jackson family was making a fortune off of his death. I guess what I'm trying to say is that to me Micheal Jackson's death does not feel like it was a year ago. I feel like I have been hearing about him all of the time. Right after his death there was all of the gossip about his family and his physician. After that the movie came out, so advertising was everywhere, and like any movie, there was a ton of advertising for when the movie came out onto DVD.

I am guilty of having an MJ phase, I wore that CD out, but with all of this hype I can't seem to grasp the time between the two dates. I thought maybe I felt this way because my school work got in the way between the two days and I didn't notice how much time that really was; school can go pretty fast. Maybe it was the Micheal Jackson calendar that my supervisor had up that reminded me every Thursday that he was gone.

I can't put my words straight, partially because it's late and partly because I don't really understand this myself. All I know is that I cannot believe I just devoted a whole post to Micheal Jackson.

ELEVEN + VINCENT VAN GOGH = AWESOME!

See, it wasn't all about him.

Dara enrolls in Gallfreyan History 101

Ah yes, we have arrived at the point in which Dara posts twice in one day...within minutes. I couldn't bring myself to comment on Doctor Who in that last post; the two topics had nothing to do with each other.

I have always been a Doctor Who fan, and by always I mean for at least four years. I got into the show as most people do: watching an episode and thinking "That made no sense, awesome." As a writer I only enjoy shows that have well developed characters; for example, Sylar from Heroes, Rest in Peace.

My most recent obsession with Doctor who is because of Charlie McDonnell, a Youtuber I have been following for quite some time. The first video I saw of his was Doctor Who? which reminded me of the show, the last episode I had seen at that point was the finale of David Tennant's series. Being as uneducated as I was, I had no idea that someone would be replacing David and one day, when I was watching BBC America, I saw a preview for an episode. Now be aware, I did not get to see the first episode. I might never get the chance to see it, unless I buy the series. The BBC is really great at keeping things from fans.

Oh, on a side note, I only found out about Charlie because of the tumblr Why They're Hot funny how some things work out.

So now I am obsessed with the show. Matt Smith is adorable. No, that's not just the fangirl talking. When I first saw him in the second half of the Don't Blink sequel I was unsure with whether he really was as good looking as I was making him out to be. But when I saw him act, I knew. I was and still am a David fan but Matt brought this new excitement to the screen. When I watched him I felt like I could still see some David in him but he was his own person. I was digging the bow tie, too.

As the producer said, there is only one Doctor, he just has many faces. I love the addition of this new face, a lot.
Now you know how I got into it recently, I'd like to voice my opinion on the most recent episode. Cold Blood was the continuation of The Hungry Earth where Amy was abducted into the earth. I thought it was a good episode and the crack was seen again at the end of the episode. OH, my God, the end of the episode.

SPOILER

Rory dies! I'm not sure if I like that or not. I liked Rory as a character, but not with Amy. I definitely like Eleven and Amy together. Rory was too passive for Amy and her strong will, the last dialogue they really had went a little like this:
Rory: Amy, I thought I lost you forever?
Amy: Why, because I got sucked into the ground? You're so clingy.

Not exactly the best relationship. Also in Amy's Choice Amy's reaction to Rory's death was very stone-like and not very upset. Granted, she did kill herself to be with him again but I knew from the beginning that their relationship was wavering.
With all of that on my mind you would think that I am glad that he's gone, and maybe I am. I think I'm more upset about the crack and how Amy doesn't remember a thing about Rory. That bothers me and I hope that the Doctor does something about it.

Perhaps I will blog again on Saturday, say 10 o'clock?

XDara

Blogs: The New Facebook?

Hello there, I haven't posted in quite some time. I am currently shriveling up in the heat, I don't have air conditioning. In this day and age! I was planning on using this post to talk about Doctor Who, but I am not so sure.

I've noticed that soon after I made this blog many of my friends have followed suit. I have considered that this may be because I have a blog now so I am more aware of what happens in the bloggerverse.

I can't decide if I think this is a good or a bad thing. To me this means there are more ways for my friends and I to communicate...other than Facebook. How nice. A friend of mine just sent me a link to her tumblr, she said "I have been reading your blog and I like it a lot. It's cool getting to hear from you in a different, indirect way." which is nice, too. I guess it's interesting to read about something you know but see it from another point of view.

I guess I'm a little proud of myself for making a blog, no matter what the purpose is, and just being able to write what I want.

Oh, goodness. I can't contain myself. Right now I am listening to Trock, Timelord Rock, and fangirling internally about Doctor Who. I know, I said I wasn't going to comment on it, but I cannot resist. I may have been able to avoid it if the same friend hadn't posted about DW on her tumblr.

I think I will make another post, all about Doctor Who.

XDara

GP Post #1

Article: Muslims beat the drum for heritage and peace
Writer: Chris Mondics

This article is a short overview of a cultural event that took place on Saturday. While this is not "Breaking News" or very interesting it was news to me. No where on the television did I see any coverage of this event. I think I know why: It was for Muslims. In the article Mondics touches base on the sensitive topic of Muslims in the middle east.

The reporter even goes so far as to interview a young Muslim woman with her two young brothers. She says, "...we're not about blowing up planes and cars," I am glad that the writer provided this statement, although I never assume a person is a stereotype it was good to see a normal person stand up for their faith.

As a Catholic I can find myself a bit detached from all of the goings on in the middle east but I do my best to understand it. I appreciated the statement from another woman who said that "the internet spreads a lot of hate." This point is a good way to consider how the newspaper and the internet interact with people.

On one hand the Internet is fast, easy and recent; it can also be biased, uncensored [which can be a good or a bad thing], and incorrect. Newspapers tend to be reliable, stable and they provide a lot of information in such a small amount of space. However, newspapers may only come out every Sunday, making them slow and you have to pay for it.

Knowing this I plan to post every Sunday with a post about an article from the newspaper, all other days of the week will be from the internet.

I hope this is fun.

It is not okay to firebend your opponent's face off

TEAM ZUKO!!
It's that time of year again. It's time for yet another manhunt party. Every year for the past three years a friend of mine has gone all out with teams and colors and themes just for one party. I always look forward to it, and I always have fun.
I was a little upset this year, three people I really wanted to see did not show up.

The first had a good excuse, he lives in a different state and found out he had an orientation to be at, the day before no less.
The second had family coming over, in which case I was just going to kidnap him, but then he had a recital to attend. He couldn't come.

The third...I feel like he just made up some excuse, so whatever.
I realized this year how much of a prude I really am. In the hot tub everyone was playing "Never Have I Ever" and I don't really enjoy that game so I said I would sit out and sure enough another friend of mine said "No, play, you'll win!" as if it was a good thing.

Oh well, I guess another year has passed where I feel exactly the same about myself as before.

I think my team, Zuko, won. Oh, that's right, the theme this year was Avatar: the Last Airbender [love that show!]. I had a great hiding place, behind the hot tub, and no one found me! But as soon as I went for jail break the game ended.Firebending marshmallow? Anything is possible!

XDara

Blogging outside about the outside

LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!

My reaction was nothing like that, for the record. Instead of being the traditional lazy American school my school decided to remind all of the students who still came to school how the teachers had power over us. As you may have guessed, this was not the best way to end my junior year.

If I was a participant in Miss America and asked "What is your perfect last day of school?" I would have to say it would be a day of relaxation, hanging with my friends and getting people to sign my yearbook.

However, I am not a contestant, my opinion was never asked and field day commenced, unlike my sister schools.

The day started as any other over inspirational school day does: a slideshow. For those of you who have never witnessed a high school slideshow is mainly consists of the same five people in every picture. This occurrence is due mainly because those five are friends with the photographer. [actually I appeared in the last "dance" photo, and I wasn't even looking at the camera , which makes it somewhat embarrassing.] Immediately afterward we were told how field day would work...which was silly because no one remembered the rules and they had to be reexplained.

Regardless of all of the nice air conditioned splendor, my homeroom was the first to be sent out into the field.

The grand total of people present in my homeroom: 3!!!!!!! [YOU'RE A WINNER!] Except not, because with three girls who would rather be inside and a team who was dangerously into winning there was absolutely no chance of achieving anything.

I was prepared! Thinking about this whole field day facade, which wasn't a facade at all but I was just really hoping it was a joke, I had planned ahead and worn a skirt and a tube top. Nothing athletic would be happening today.

The first activity was three-way tug-of-war [it was three-way because there were three different teams in each group of homerooms.] Luckily we had some big strong boys imported and they played that. So I successfully avoided one activity, with the exception of the instructor being clever and calling for a round with only three girls on each rope. We lost on purpose, so it's alright, no effort involved.

The second was, dare I say it, a sponge activity. It's the kind of "game" where you take a sponge and try to get water from one bucket to another. I volunteered to participate once, at which point as I was running and heard my History teacher call "C'mon Dara!" I responded with "I am wearing a skirt, this is not happening." I quickly avoided the second round when I declared myself the official photographer.

The third, oh no. It was some silly dribbling thing, in honor of the World Cup, I sat down in the grass and took more pictures.

Ah, the fourth, I actually did this one. :) It was Bandanna Tag, which is flag football, minus the football. I like this game because it is easy to get out. Then the final game was avoided by not acknowledging it at all. I later met up with all of my friends and ate/drank melting ice pops.

You probably didn't want to know all of this information, but the reason I made this post is because today does not feel like the last day of school. I think I know why. Because I did not sit inside and discuss what my plans were for the summer and I didn't get upset about not seeing some people, I was completely detached from the whole idea of summer. My friends and I walked from the back of the school and almost immediately got onto our buses. It was as if I was never in school at all.

Well anyway, I guarantee that the sophies will not have to do this terrible activity. Yay them. This was a really long post, go me! Go you, if you got this far!

XDara

You should feel empowered, too!

Two posts in one day? Wow this girl must not have a life.

I know, I know that's what you're thinking, but I do have a life! It's because of said life that I am going to write tonight.

I feel empowered! I had a great conversation with my good friend about feminism and how some girl act around guys. [It's amazing how growing up can make a person just say what they need to say.] It all really started with the idea that the world is against us, dramatic, I know. The fact is, both of us are very straightforward people, none of this "batting eyelashes" and acting dumb, it's just not who we are, or who we want to be. And why should we? There is no reason for why people like us should lower ourselves to a level that I can't even think of a word for.

Now I'm just ranting, but the conversation was really excellent and reasonable. I feel as if women all throughout history have worked so hard to gain rights for future generations, we can vote, say what we want to say and be our own person...and somehow we have reverted to the pre-suffrage age. The time of Emma, where women were expected to be vulnerable and observe rather than participating.

I'm sorry, I am not wearing a hoop skirt, no matter who says it's "in."

We played with the idea that some girls return to this terrible form to boost their self esteem, and sure, the same could be said for the statements I have made. However, I am not doing something that is, how to say this, overly flirtatious to make myself feel better. Sure, I am convincing myself that all of the other girls that get guys are the ones that are desperate for a self esteem boost, and I know that even that isn't completely true.

I guess it's just nice to think that in the end everything will work out the way it should. But when I start thinking about a perfect world something always turns up that makes it a little less perfect.

It's life!

I know, I know. I guess that's what the summer is for, sit back, relax and not worry about other people that may or may not have what you want--regardless how they got it.

XDara

Of Grammar and Llamas

Finals are over. That also means that the only thing obstructing my view from summer is...well this silly Field Day that my guidance counselor set up. Personally I feel that days in fields should have been banned long ago when I, as a small child, did not see all the pressure around me. And honestly, who wants to sit around on the last day of school and actually do something?

Who does that?!

Nevertheless, I am wearing a dress to avoid it all. Not that you really wanted to know that. Looking at the combination of an exclamation point and a question mark takes me back...I remember in fifth grade telling my teacher that she was wrong to put them both together and when she told me that it was okay for them to do that...well I still didn't like that the question mark came before the exclamation point.

!? It looks balanced, or the question mark is a creeper, but that's alright. ?! makes me think that the question mark is a jerk and shoving the exclamation point out of the way. I guess in dialogue it makes sense to have the question before the exclamation because in a conversation you will always be asking a question, it just depends on how you say it.

"Why are these ice cubes melting?!"

Here we see that this person is asking a question but also saying it with force and maybe even going a little insane.

"You better wash that llama!?"
Now obviously no one needs to be told twice to wash their llama, it's just something everyone does, right? But maybe my fifth-grade-self was wrong. "!?" lends itself to sounding like you meant to be mad but your voice broke like a boy in puberty and made it sound like a question.

Punctuation is so helpful, it really is. Even after taking AP English Language and Composition and still being unable to identify comma splices like it was my super power, I am completely at peace with grammar, English critters that they are. After having a conversation with a friend of mine where we replaced all forms of punctuation with the words that represent them I realized that pauses and breaths in between words and sentences really are a beautiful thing [even if I rarely do it myself.]

On another note, I feel that when people talk about themselves and refuse to capitalize "I" they are disrespecting themselves. I don't want to sound up tight but if you are the subject of a sentence and you happen to be a pronoun or a name you better be capitalized!

My God, I'm a nerd. Here I am sitting at my laptop, Francis [see he is capitalized], and I am thinking about grammar and punctuation...also English ended over two months ago. I guess this is a good thing especially because I want to major in English, but I do worry about my mental heath when it comes to obsessing over things like this. I should get a social life...oh yeah.

I have a graduation party to go to. For the first time ever I have friends that are seniors and there is the possibility I will never see them again.

NOT.

With Facebook I feel like I never really lose touch with someone; it isn't until I "Remove from Friends" do I feel that I have lost touch with them, but usually I only "unfriend" people I no longer talk to.

I am still sad that they are leaving. The other day my friend broke down in tears in the middle of the hallway, I wanted to laugh at her silliness but I couldn't because I was just as upset as her. I never thought I would cry when I graduate, but now it seems like a definite possibility. I guess I'm scared of moving on from what I already know. Oh well. That's life.

I have no good way to end this post. Happy Last Day of School!

XDara

:) A Conceited Post (:

Hey there! Now that I have identified my purpose I think I can give myself a little room to talk about myself for at a least one post, right? That's not to say that I'm never going to be any fun on this blog, but because it is part of my GP it would probably look better if I had a more serious tone.

On a lighter note, I get to talk about myself here...wow I don't know if I actually want to do that. Hm. You already know I'm in high school and that I am interested in writing/publishing/editing.

Over here to the side is a cute little alien, hey that's me! I tend to doodle aliens like this one, on a much smaller scale though, all over my school papers. I don't have a name for them at the moment but they all have three-letter names, for example, my name is Dara and so the alien name of my name is DAR. Also, their names must go as follows: consonant-vowel-consonant. A lot of the time my aliens have names relevant to the situation. Today in History I drew one and named him FIN because we have finals coming up [finals I should be studying for].

As this blog is titled, I am a fangirl. While pride may be a sin, I am quite happy that small and maybe silly things entertain me, it is actually quite useful for my friends. The main thing that I have been fangirling the most about is Doctor Who, which, at the expense of my friends, I can babble about forever. I will not do that now, seeing as those of you who may be reading it are likely friends of mine and have already heard my rant. [Thanks guys!]

Some other things I can randomly break out into fangirlishness are: Harry Potter, Avatar the Last Airbender, Twilight [but that has been more of an anger rant lately], Super Junior, Big Bang and so much more. If you read this you will see that I tend to fangirl about random things all of the time.

I like a lot of things, and they will most likely surface throughout these posts. All I can say is that I am looking forward to writing this and expressing my obsessions and interests [and no, they are not the same things] with other people.

xDara

Starting a blog and getting it right

Hi world, not that I can see anyone reading this post...ever. That's okay. So down to business--the reason I have started this blog is because I have this thing called a Graduation Project. This project is required to graduate in my high school, at first I was nervous about the entire thing but now that I have figured out what I am doing a lot of the stress has been lifted.

What I am doing--Shadowing a newspaper editor.
Why I am doing it--This is what I would like to do in the future, and that is why I want to "try it out" so to speak.

You may ask yourself "Why is this girl blogging about some project?" Well I want to address this question: Can newspapers transition onto the internet while still providing the information its readers want?

With today's ways of communication (Twitter, blogging, TMZ) news travels faster and it tends to be a little lacking in detail. I will admit that I am more likely to look something up on the Internet than search for it in the good 'ol black and white, but I did grow up with the Internet constantly available to me. In fact, I'm writing this on my laptop right now, as I am sure most people do nowadays.

As I shadow the editor I will be writing about some of my experiences but the main purpose of this blog is for me to read an article of news every day and post my opinion on it. In my AP Environmental Sciences class my teacher did this every beginning of class and it always had an interesting impact on my train of thought. I think if I force myself to read a piece of news I am more likely to know more about something going on in the world and it can only benefit me.

If you choose to read this, so be it! I think I'm going to have fun, I hope you, whoever you may be, have fun reading it!

xDara

P.S. The beautiful picture was drawn by my friend Delilah Black. :)