Just an ordinary day...

So I haven't blogged in a while and the reason is simple: school. It's that time of year again except this year it's a new world. As a senior we're the oldest and most experienced in the building, and yet this is not true for some.

There are plenty of new faces, the sophomores, and plenty familiar, the other sophomores. Understand this, the grade below me is very immature and they made a very bad first impression on the seniors, mainly me. So to me the "Juniors" are really the other sophomores just because I feel that they will never measure up to where they should.

I'm in school right now and I'm pretty surprised that I can get on here with the new security system in the computers. I should be doing research for my GP, there is a book on journalism right next to me, but I love to people watch. It's fun to look at people while I sit here typing and watch them confusedly sign into the new computers.

Did I mention that I have late arrival? All it means is that I can come in an hour later than normal. That's right, 9 o'clock. And what am I doing? What time is it? It's 7:46 and I'm in the library people watching. This "not so late arrival" is mostly due to the fact that my m0ther has a preference for the car that I drive to school so it is not always available. I guess I don't mind really, sure I would love to sleep in an hour but I do tend to have a pretty interesting time in the library.

Now that it's no longer summer and school has started up I have homework and as a result I have decided to take a break from Facebook. Because of late arrival I only have three classes: AP Macroeconomics, Calc 1 and AP English Literature. I love AP English. I have an amazing teacher with an amazing class. MACRO is fun too, but I still have to really think about what I'm doing, same goes for Calc.

Oh.my.God. They are so annoying. The other sophomores.

Oh well. Off to research.

XDara

Music of the week CINCO!

Hey, I'm behind on this, you know, vacation. I'm going to do it a little differently and name some of the songs I have been listening to that are not on my MP3.

1. Beautiful Hangover: Big Bang
It's their new Japanese single and I am in love with it. GD, how do you do it? He looks like a nerd and really geeky but very sexy at the same time. Note that the girl in the video is not Asian. That lucky girl! Now, this isn't the official video because YG cut my favorite part at 1:18 Taeyang does my favorite part "We gonna get down, down, down, give me love, love, love." The arm movement looks so cool.

2. The Only Exception: Paramore
This is such a pretty song and I love the message, too. I can never stop listening to it.

3. Kings and Queens: 30 Seconds to Mars
I don't normally listen to them but I love this song. Every time that person is hit with the car I jump, I don't expect it. Wonderful.

4. I'll Be There: Taeyang
What's better than a hot Korean guy who can sing and dance? A hot Korean guy who can dance and sing in English. I love being able to know what he is saying, he's so great at it.

5. Lucifer: SHINee
SUCH AN AWESOME VIDEO. Awesome band, too. Taemin <3 href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOI4OF7iIr4&ob=av2e">Somebody to Love: Justin Bieber ft. Usher
I know, I've fallen prey. I am so weak willed when it comes to a group of people dancing in unison. This music video is just that.

7. Love Like Woah: The Ready Set
Such a cute kid. Good dance music, too.

8. Cooler Than Me: Mike Posner
He looks like Justin Timberlake and I love his voice. The song is so true, too.

9. Up and Down: SHINee
It's just such a funky sound, I love it.

10. DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love: Usher
This is such a good dancing and driving song. <3

Day 12: Victory!

That's right, I have officially completed all forty hours of my shadowing. Notice how I didn't say my Graduation Project? Yeah, that's because it's not over.

Today was a day as the first: boring, in the office, watching Jeff write articles and asking him questions about them. But all of that is okay, because it's done.

I thought it was funny because Jeff and I had a discussion about what I've learned. He said right off the bat "I don't think you learned much." And he didn't mean that as in I wasn't paying attention, more that there wasn't too much I really could learn. I went out "in the field" and watched Jeff know everyone on the spot. People could tell he was writing for a paper, I learned that you have to be social in order to go to events and talk to people. I learned that small newspapers like The Advance have to have editors take and edit their own videos and pictures. I also learned that procrastinating leads to hours of work after everyone has left at the office.

In the end, I learned that this isn't what I want to do. I want to write, but not in this way. I find newspaper articles to be cheesy and boring and they can lack creativity, which is what I love the most about writing.

I'm glad to have had this opportunity with Jeff but I'm still nervous about presenting in November.

Wish me luck!

XDara

Hour Tracker: 40 HOURS

Low budget scary flicks > Romantic Comedies

Ever been so down in the dumps and you just need something to laugh at? We've all been there and we have all reached for the funny, yet romantic movie to tell us that everything is fun and good in movie-land. We all know that everything that happens in those movies is slim to none in real life. So I have to suggest that next time you reach for a more realistic movie: the bad horror film.

These are the movies that make you say "There must have been a one-man staff; who could possibly want to work on this?"

I have seen my fair share of bad movies, Spring Break: Shark Attack, Autumn, Wrong Turn, Wrong Turn 2: Dead End, Star Quest: The Odyssey , just to name a few. Over the years I have noticed that many bad movies have a sign, the colon. It signifies all that is bad, and yet somehow hilariously outrageous.

I guess I always wanted to make a post about this but with the soon to be in theaters Piranha 3D I came upon this article. Even though I have never seen any of the movies on this list I had a good feeling they weren't lying.

The other day I finally got to see the critically acclaimed Spring Break: Shark Attack. I promise you, this is the most amazing movie I have ever seen. Yes, I have just seen Inception and the mind blowing special effects could not compare to the art and skill it took to windsurf into a shark's mouth.

I love zombie movies, and SBSA gave me that. There is nothing better than seeing a bunch of oblivious college students trying to jump onto a floating stage off the shore and crawl out of the water like bloodied zombies. Groaning included.

It had a plot to, go figure. The overacting was spectacular. There was Danielle, the traditional "Damsel in Distress" who was forbidden to go to spring break and unsure if she is having fun at all. Then there is J.T. the "good-looking," overly tan, popular guy that is set out to "get the girl." More like get the date-rape drugs in the girl. But fear not! There is a good guy, a local "nice guy" who carries her back to her room when she is all drugged up.

If you were worried about the fate of J.T., don't worry, a shark eats him after a girl is climbing on top of him to save herself on the stage. Well, she gets eaten, too, but he got what he deserved. The most thrilling part of this entire movie is when the good guy is on a boat with Damsel and her brother [who is mysteriously there researching sharks]. They put a cage off the back of the boat filled with bloody fish and guts and the good guy calls out "HEY SHARKS." He continues to cat call the sharks for about three minutes, inviting them to lunch, etc. and it all becomes scarily awkward for the viewer.

I should also mention that there are no shark attacks until maybe 45-60 minutes in the film. At one point I changed the channel to avoid the freaky trailers for a new exorcism movie [do they really need another?] and almost forgot to change it back. I thought, "Oh no! What happened to Danielle?!"

I won't spoil the ending because this movie is just pure genius. I would seriously consider seeing Piranha 3D but the only person who would really appreciate it with me is in another state. Oh well.

Just remember this whenever you feel down, it could be making you laugh even if the director didn't want it to.

XDara

Day 11: MOOOO is more like Moauoaahaha!

That's right, everything you thought you knew about cows is wrong. Those cute little children's books that told you that "A cow says "Moo,"" it's lying to you! How can you trust me about this?

I just spent four hours in front of cows. Cows that were staring me down. Daring me to challenge their very distinct form of communication.

Remember that post I wrote about the Grange Fair that I had never heard of? Well this is that fair. It was really interesting. I'm lying, you may think one day "I'd really love to learn more about farm animals." Don't. Or, if you do, don't do it at a fair.

It's pretty scary. I don't mean "AH! Serial killer cow!" I mean it's really strange to see young people handling animals almost five times their size. It's also a little sad to see these animals that are used to being in large fields in a small pavilion. It mean, it wasn't inhuman, but the cows did not want to be there.

Jeff was covering the judging of all of the farm animals. He had told me that the day before the goat judging took over four hours. A lot of the time was spent watching cows and smelling their various bodily functions. [It was like being at a zoo but only staying around the Rhinos].

It was one of the less exciting days for my GP but I learned a lot about Al Pacas and Cows. I don't think I will ever see these animals the same way again.

XDara

Hour Tracker: 36:00

Day 10: 80's hair bands?

As I usually do, this post is late. This event happened on August 15th. YES! It was Musicfest, and it was a huge success. I was there from 1:30 to around 3:30, I only saw two bands preform and both were amazing.

Being a young person, I was more interested in the younger group, JC Satellite. Okay, I'll admit it, it's really because I'm a young teenage girl that loves to see guys my age being successful in something they love.

Before JC Satellite went on I wandered around and talked to a few vendors. One was Payton Woodcraft, she was a very nice woman who makes jewelry out of recycled leather and wood. I also spoke to some people working at the Cambridge Sound Studio's table, they are the people that organized all of the bands.

Then JC Satellite went on! So I sat down and took some pictures. Want to see?

Some things you may want to know about JCS: There are four members, Jake, John, Jeff and Sebastian. All but Sebastian are brothers. Jake is 13 and the lead singer, he also plays guitar. For his age he has an amazing voice. Jeff is 15 and the drummer, who I could rarely get a picture of from where I was sitting. Jeff is the 17 year old bassist, and Sebastian is also 17 and a guitarist. Sebastian's father was just recently on tour with his band opening for ACDC and he is their producer.

From what I could tell, they were a huge hit. Looking around at the crowd I saw people singing along of all ages. There was a middle aged man in front of me nodding his head.

I'm just going to say, they rocked! They performed covers of familiar songs like "Johnny Be Good" to which the whole crowd was singing along. I even started to sing to some of their own songs, they are easy to catch on to and just really great.

I bought their CD and I listened to it on the way home. Before I left I got the chance to talk to Jake, the lead singer. I asked him about how the band started and if the three brothers had always worked together. He said "Well me and Jeff [drummer] started it and then John [guitarist] joined later on."

Overall the whole event was really amazing and I look forward to it next year.

XDara

P.S. I also spent about an hour writing an article about the Penn's Landing concert for Jeff to critique.

Hour Tracker: 32:00

Dear Dara

As is customary for my current age I was watching video bloggers and saw Charlie McDonnell's most recent upload. I really thought it was clever, well only if Youtube still exists in ten years. So I thought I would blog to my future self. I hope I don't delete this account. How awful would that be?

Dear Dara,

I hope you didn't change your name...it's quite unique and no matter how many times you have to correct people when they pronounce it, it's really awesome.

I don't want to be too optimistic but I really hope that you have what you want. Whether it's writing for a nonprofit organization or writing novels for a living [which I doubt is happening because you're only 27]. Maybe you have a family. I think it's pretty reasonable, mom was married at 25. I'm sorry if you would have preferred if I left that out. I hope you have at least had a boyfriend.

On to more important things, not really because that is pretty important to me. I just got back from the first vacation with the Driscoll family in North Carolina...I say first because there was talk of similar vacations. [Although when I mentioned this to mom she insinuated that I was not included].

Currently I am talking to Hannah and Marie. Hannah and I are discussing AP English, and Marie is trying to reassure me that I will not be fat...I have reason to doubt her. I currently like this guy....and he's causing so much trouble. But that's all really me because I'm an analyzing fool. If you don't remember then good for you. It means he wasn't worth it. Now why can't I get that into my head now?!

Please remember that you can't sew. It just occurred to me that no matter how certain you are about sewing a curved seam, you're not. Check out a blog post a little ways down, you know, the purse that became a whale?

I hope you loved, or at least found it entertaining, the college/university you went to. I hope you're out of college by now. And I really hope you are not one of those Admissions people who swear they loved the school too much to leave...don't be one of those people.

I hope you don't hold any grudges against people, family especially.

There are so many things to say. I hope you remember that you were or still are a fangirl, and that's okay. I hope you got to travel somewhere outside of the United States.

I would love it if you remembered all of the good teachers you had and use what they taught you to get where you need to go. You shouldn't forget what is good.

I love my family. They are really great people. Uncle Danny [Do you still call him that? Or is he Dan?] just commented on some of my pictures from vacation and made my night. I learned so much about the family from this vacation and I really appreciate them. It still creeps me out that they all knew each other for a while. It makes me wonder if I will know the guy I marry. Scary thoughts.

Caitlyn should be about ten now. I hope she is nice and fun. Is she a combination of Lauren and me? I know that she's a Driscoll.

I hope everything is well. I cannot think of anything else to say. Figures.

Love,
XDara [ahah from Spock to Spock]