if love were always true,

if roses never faded,

what would we poets do?”

~Arthur Guiterman

That is quite different from being rash.”

~George S. Patton

1. “Always go to other peoples’ funerals, otherwise they won’t go to yours.” 
   - Yogi Berra 
2. “Facts are stupid things.” 
   - Ronald Reagan
3. “Will the highways on the Internet become more few?”
   -George W. Bush
4. “We all get heavier as we get older because there’s a lot more information in our heads.” 
   - Vlade Divac, Basketball player 
5. “I don’t know all the certain words to word it.”
    - Vanilla Ice, on why he hired a ghostwriter for his autobiography
6. “Most lies about blondes are false.” 
   - Headline 
7. “Better make it six, I can’t eat eight.” 
   - Dan Osinski, Baseball player, being asked by a waitress if he wanted his pizza cut into six or eight slices 
8. “Fiction writing is great, you can make up almost anything.” 
   - Ivana Trump, on her first novel 
9. “Push this button in case anything happens.”
   -Elevator in Osaka, Japan
10. “I invented the internet”. 
    - Al Gore
11. “Cars will not have Intercourse on this Bridge.” 
    -Tokyo, Japan traffic sign
12. “Please do not feed the animals. If you have any suitable food, give it to the guard on duty.” 
    - Sign in Budapest Zoo
13. “Where the hell is Australia anyway?” 
    - Britney Spears
14. “The internet is a great way to get on the net.” 
    - Bob Dole
15. “A bachelor’s life is no life for a single man.” 
    - Samuel Goldwyn 
16. “You can’t just let nature run wild.” 
    - Wally Hickel, former Alaska governor 
17. “We’ve got to pause and ask ourselves: How much clean air do we need?” 
    - Lee Iacocca, Chairman of the Chrysler corporation 
18. “Solutions are not the answer.” 
    - Richard Nixon
19. “It’s like deja-vu all over again.” 
    - Yogi Berra, Baseball player 
20. “Yes,Sept 11th was unfortunate”
    -Geri Halliwell

But hey, we’re only human. Sometimes, it’s hard to tell. Sometimes, it’s hard to know what’s a risk and what’s just plain stupid.

Then, there are some of us (myself included) that took one huge risk and screwed it up, messing up the rest of their lives. Those people are the ones that don’t take risks very often. They avoid situations in which risk may become a factor. Upside is, they don’t usually smoke, do drugs, drink, or have sex before marriage. Downside is, there’s never any chance to move forward.

Life is a chessboard, and we are all pieces. Kids are the knights, strong, willing, and seemingly invincible… in their own minds. Friends are the rooks, protecting us from danger with walls high into the air. The people in the background are pawns–once they step out of our way, we don’t notice them anymore. Ministers and Religious icons are bishops, teaching us good from bad. And, of course, we are the kings and queens of our own lives, hopefully.

Queens take risk. They are the most powerful piece in the game, and admired, but wanted by everyone. Kings take risk. The small steps they do take can place them in danger at any moment.

And our refusal or embrace of risks may well become our downfall. Refusal leads to a boring life. Embrace leads to a frightening one.

And the perfect balance is somewhere in the middle, two spaces away from the other side’s king, just out of reach from any other piece.

Or, for the people of today’s world, “Bros before hoes.”

But think about it. Friends are not forever. Some are. definitely some are, but others leave. You get into fights with them. They hate you. You hate them. You fight with them. They leave you, or you leave them, or there is a mutual leaving. The two of you don’t speak much after that, and you move on with your lives.

Come on. Can you really say that you’ve never been through that before? I’m fifteen, and I’ve left/been left by fourteen really close friends. Now granted, most of them were lost to friend drama, stupid petty fights, and ugly rumors, but those are still fourteen friends that I may never speak to again.

Friends aren’t always going to be there. Not all of them. And yet, some of us parade around, believing we can push them until they break and they still won’t be gone.

Now, I’m not saying forget your friends to go hang out with your boyfriend or girlfriend every time, but seriously people. There’s a balance here! Sometimes it’s hard to find one, but there’s always a balance! Always will be.

Sometimes, some of us need to find a better balance. Sometimes, we need to look a little harder. But though boyfriends and girlfriends may come and go, most friends aren’t forever either. There will be somewhere between four and seven friends in your life that are truly your best friends. Those are the ones you need to cherish. The ones you don’t leave to be with your boyfriend/girlfriend of the month.

But also try to remember that as many girlfriends or boyfriends you have, one will be the love of your life. One will stay. One will be worth fighting for, just like those four to seven friends. Remember that next time you are in a dilemma about who to make plans with.

is knowing they can’t fight back when you bite

their heads off.”

~Pon and Zi

A button. If you push it, you win one million dollars. But, someone in the world will die. Would you press the button?

This is the premise of the new movie The Box. Think about it. For 1,000,000 dollars, is it worth killing someone? Now, of course the proper answer would be “No way!” and if you were with friends or family or others that might judge, that would most likely be your answer. However, for the moment think about it. If you were alone, and you were to tell no one of your decision, would you do it? The person that dies could be elderly. She could be suicidal. He could be in dire pain already and want to be put out of his misery. And, they could thank you for it later, plus you’d get a million dollars.

I presented this question to a couple of my friends. One of them actually told me she would press the button. She said, no one would ever know, and life was hard enough as it was. She said that people deserved to die, then quoted Sweeney Todd. “We all deserve to die. Even you Mrs. Lovette, even I!” she said. And she said that she would press the button.

It makes me wonder how many other people feel that way. Does life really seem so bleak that everyone deserves to die? That, the evil people of the world deserve pain and suffering and death and that the innocents deserve to be put out of their misery? I find it so tragic that there are actually people out there that feel that way.

Or maybe, some would press the button out of selfishness. Sure, everyone want a million dollars right? That would be great! Tons of gas money and one LONG shopping spree! Plus a new house and a new car. Everyone would want that money, but who would be willing to kill another human being for it?

I guess the answer lives in your own mind. Personally, I wouldn’t be able too. I don’t even believe in the death penalty, but that’s a ramble for another day.

Anyway, looking forward to the movie The Box! Just came out today and I hope to see it soon!

I, and others like me, operate solely on impulse. I call us Impulse People. We do what we want, when we want without thinking about why or how it’s going to affect us or others. Sometimes, it helps us, but sometimes it lands us in very deep hot water.

I will admit, some things are just meant to be planned. And quite often, when an Impulse Person tries to plan something, they go over many possibilities as to how the event or choice could pan out. Unfortunately, for an Impulse Person, planning is not something that seems to go over well.

Plans change. Things happen. Nothing ever seems to work out the way it’s supposed too. And by “supposed to” I mean, the way you want it too. The way it was planned. The way that, while in your mind seemed so fool-proof, but now that it’s messed up, all the new things that could have gone wrong seem to just bubble up to the surface.

I call people that plan too much Plotters. Plotters and Impulse People.

Planning is hard. Even Plotters must admit that. While impulse is easy. Easy, and sometimes good. Impulse People never have to say the words “I wish I would have done that…” and Plotters never have to say “I shouldn’t have done that…”

And after experience, the grass always seems greener on the other side. Plotters want to be Impulse People. Impulse People want to be Plotters.

And though it does seem that being a Plotter would have been easier in the long run, I sort of like being an Impulse Girl. Out of all my mistakes, out of all the life lessons that I should have been smart enough to figure out without screwing up my life, I do like my impulses. I like being able to say, “Yeah, I shouldn’t have done that… But I kinda want to do that again!”

I do have to wonder though…. Would I be happier as a Plotter? Would Plotters be happier as Impulse People? Or should we all just be gray areas?

And starting last week, my English teacher decided to make us read another book called The Hunger Games. He told us it was about a young girl by the name of Katniss. When her little sister’s name is drawn to participate in the Hunger Games, a barbarous game in which twenty-four children ages 12 to 18 fight to the death until there is only one standing, she takes her sister’s place in the games, to represent the girl in her district. Representing the boy for District 12 is Peeta Mellark. As the games begin, she wonders whether or not she can trust Peeta, but must put that thought out of her mind as there are twenty-three people who now want her dead.

It sounded interesting, so I started reading it. Now, I’m not the type to read slowly. When I read a book, I either like it enough to finish it in the first couple of days, or hate it enough to stop reading it all together. Period. No gray areas there for me. This book was so good, and so ingeniously thought out, I had it finished by the second night. It was absolutely wonderful!

When I found out it had a sequel, I was determined to find someone who had that book. After searching the school, I found that one of the teachers had it, but it was checked out already… Sad and disappointed, I called my mother and told her about it. She bought it for me.

After a couple days of waiting, the teacher handed me the book. Catching Fire,  said the front cover. I was so excited, I read it cover-to-cover within a day. I couldn’t stop. I read through classes, through sleep, through time that I would usually never read, and finished it within about twelve hours.

Now, in case you haven’t read The Hunger Games, I won’t post a synopsis of Catching Fire because that would ruin it. Anyway, this is the first series in which I thought the sequel was even better than the first book. Not only that, a third book is coming out in April of 2010, rumored to be called The Victors. I’ll be the first in line to be buying that book, you can bet that for sure!

The Hunger Games and Catching Fire are by far comparable to the new Twilight. To tell the truth, I liked them far better than Twilight. It wasn’t just a love story (though like every great book, it does have love in it). It was deeper than that. It went deeper than love. I don’t know how to explain it any better than that. You will simply have to read the book. It’s wonderful!

You just gotta’ find the ones

that are worth suffering for.”

~Bob Marley

Anna, the Head V - Does anyone else think she has one of the creepiest smiles ever?

The show got me thinking. Though I’m not an alien’s biggest fan, I have seen several movies. Independence Day, Signs, War of the Worlds, and of course, that episode of Twilight Zone, To Serve Man. “It’s a cookbook!” Haha, that’s one of the best lines in the entire Twilight Zone series.

Anyway, it got me thinking. These aliens always seem to “come in peace.” Then, of course, the aliens turn on us humans and try to kill us, because obviously we humans are unfit to own our own planet. But still. Why do we always portray aliens as bad guys? Can’t an alien ever truly “come in peace” without turning his back and trying to kill us or steal our planet? If I were an alien, I would be quite annoyed at the stereotype. They always seem to be the bad people. And they always seem to be far more advanced than us humans. What? Are the media and writers out there trying to tell us that we are stupid idiots that need to speed it up in our space travel? Yeah, sorry. Sorry we haven’t excelled enough to show you what a real alien looks like. Sorry scifi writers, for not making big enough strides for you. I’ll send the scientists an email to speed it up for you, okay?

So apparently, we humans are drooling idiots, and aliens are evil backstabbers that want our planet. Really? Anybody else see a problem with this picture?

1. Having the love of your life break up with you and tell you that you two can still be friends is like your dog dying and your mother telling you that you can still keep it.
2. “If I walked away, would you follow?”
3. “‘Rawr!’ means ‘I love you’ in dinosaur!”
4. “Guys are like stars. There are a million of them out there, but only one will make your dreams come true.”
5. “Don’t be afraid to love, because not everyone will hurt you.”
6. “Love makes you hold on to things you shouldn’t.”
7. “If you can’t get someone out of your head, maybe they’re supposed to be there.”
8. “Love isn’t about loving the perfect person. It’s about loving the imperfect person perfectly.”
9. “I want to hold on, but I can’t hold on to what I never had…”
10. “The day that I stop loving you is the day I close my eyes forever.”
11. “Love is just a word until you find someone to give it meaning.”
12. “It’s the way he makes you laugh when you don’t even want to smile.”
13. “Love is being stupid together.”
14. “I thought I loved him, but he had to break my heart for me to know what true love really is.”
15. “Sometimes I wish I were little again. Skinned knees hurt less than broken hearts.”
16. “Love gives someone the power to break you.”
17. “When I ignore you, give me your attention.”
18. “Love me without fear, trust me without wondering, love me without restriction. Want me without demand, and acceot me how I am.”
19. “I was half convinced I’d waken; satisfied enough to dream. Happily I was mistaken.”
20. “I will surrender my world to you if that’s the only way I could become a part of yours.”

It means that you decide to look past the

imperfections.”

And after years upon years of predictions, the calendar suddenly stops. No explanation. Just stops. On the date December 21, 2012. I was ten when my father told me that. He said that people were inturpretting it as the end of the world. I hesitated a moment, thinking things over and counting the years on my fingers. “Wait a minute!” I said, holding up eight fingers.

I’m sure my father expected me to say something brilliant or normal, like that we were all going to die and that I was scared. Instead, I said, “That’s the year I graduate high school! I’m gettin’ a bad deal here!” I pouted and slouched in my seat, crossing my arms angrily. Perhaps not a normal reaction for a ten-year-old, but I felt betrayed.

And as the years pass on, my currently Sophomore class prepares the only way they know how: we have a prom theme chosen as the end of days, already have our class shirts decided upon, and try not to think about it.

And now, there’s a movie coming out about it. I love John Cusack as much as the next girl, but come on! Is this really what the world needs? Fuel to the fire? People are already starting to get scared. Books upon books come out every year about anticipations and guesses as to what happened. This is the next Y2K. The closer we get, the more frightened people will be, even though a certain percentage will never admit it.

Yes, the movie looks good. Yes, I will probably see it on the weekend it comes out, but this movie’s going to freak people out even more. I’m not sure it was the smartest idea anyone’s ever thought of. It looks good, honestly. Really good. And I love a good John Cusack movie. In fact, 1408 was possibly one of my favorite movies (kudos Stephen King). I don’t know. Nobody can predict the future, but you can’t help but wonder. You can’t help but wonder what happens if those Mayans were right.

We’re going to be staying afloat on the skeptism of those people that think the Mayans are full of crap. Those of us that believe will fight with those that don’t and hopefully before we know it, the day will have come and passed.

And I don’t know about you, but I’m going to be seriously pissed if the Mayans are hiding away somewhere, watching us freak out while they sip coffee and laugh their heads off at our stupidity.

I’m not supposed to care.

I’m not supposed to live my life

wishing you were there.

I’m not supposed to wonder where

you are or what you do.

I’m sorry, I can’t help it ’cause

I’m in love with you.”

                                                                                                  ~Unknown

When Stephanie Meyer wrote the Twilight series, there is no doubt in my mind that she never imagined starting a nation-wide trend (or cult of obsessed teenage girls, whatever you want to call it.) She probably never guessed that many writers would jump ship and write about vampires and werewolves mostly because of her. Of course, Anne Rice had something to do with it because of her vampire books with the lovable, and completely self-centered vampire Lestat, but Rice seems to appeal to a slightly older crowd.

Walking through my high school today, I counted the number of vampire books, Edward tee-shirts, Jacob folders, and other such paranormal memorabelia. The numbers astounded me. Fifteen books, four Edward shirts, six Jacob folders, and about fifty-three love-struck girls talking about how much they wanted a vampire boyfriend rather than the “scumbags” we have at our school. Apparently, in today’s society, a decent male must contain these things:

1. male “parts”
2. a six-pack with nice pecs
3. a good smile
4. nice eyes
5. fangs and a thirst for blood

I think that last one has now become the most important part. Males without those ammenities don’t seem to matter anymore. I find it a little sad.

Still, what is it about vampires that is so alluring. Sure, they’re hot in the case of Twilight. Sure, they have hypnotic voices and whatnot. But what is it about them?

Two years ago when my friend Anna gave me Twilight and told me I should read it, it took four seconds of her explaining that a vampire fell in love with a human for me to say, “Ow, what if he bit her while they were kissing?” I was skeptical. A vampire? Who would fall in love with a vampire?

The answer? Oh, only about half of America.

It took me weeks to finally decide to read the book, and I devoured half of it before I could even admit to liking the story line. When I finished, I read the other two and bought Breaking Dawn the day it came out, quickly devouring that one as well. Anna had a look of triumph about her face, but said nothing.

However, unlike most girls that fell in love with Twilight, my vampire fascination stopped there. I watched as every other girl in my general vacinity read book about book about them, dressing up like them for Halloween three years in a row, discussing how hot Edward was, and thinking about them.

I just find it odd. They used to be monsters. The creatures only in your nightmares. And now, every other girl, her sisters, and mother too are all obsessing over vampires. As if, real men aren’t good enough. As if, real men don’t drink blood, so they aren’t cool.

Does that mean guys are going to have to win back the hearts of us girls by drinking blood? Not that I’m condoning it >.>

Yes, that’s what I want to do. I want to follow some guy I don’t know. Let’s go all out and stalk him. Fall out of the tree in his front yard. Get eyesores from my binoculars. Hell, while I’m at it, why doesn’t he just get a restraining order on me too?

I soon learned that “following” meant that this person gets updates whenever you update your status on twitter (or myspace if you have the two synced). So I decided to start following other people. Just a couple close friends, and a few bands that I loved. Soon enough, my twitter was filled with updates from all sorts of different people. Then I noticed something. One of the updates said “So-and-so is going to the bathroom.” Really? The bathroom? TMI. TMIIIII!!! Not only do I not CARE that you’re going to the bathroom, but I really DON’T want to know!

And the more I see, the more I notice that Twitter has a spell on us. It’s frightening. I’ve seen it myself. I’ve DONE it myself. For weeks on end, I updated once every two or three hours. A couple times I updated once an hour. The only thing keeping me from updating me was the fact that I wanted a little more privacy. Granted, most of what I posted were song lyrics, but still. It was weird. Finally, I made myself stop updating. I looked at how many I had made within the spane of one week. I had nearly FOUR HUNDRED! It was crazy! So I stopped using Twitter for a while. When mysace made it possible to sync updates, I did, and now that’s the only time I use Twitter. Limited to two updates a day. ONLY.

So yes, I’ve seen the spell in action. I want to know what causes it. I want to know why, but no amount of thinking give merit to the idea. It’s creepy if you think the concept through, and everyone says that no one wants a stalker, but we use this site like it’s no big deal. And maybe it’s not.

But if you think of someone following you, it seems a bit creepy. If it weren’t virtual would people be anywhere near as easygoing about it?

“I WAS online yesterday,” I reply, shrugging.

“That’s not what your Facebook said.”

“That’s because I was on myspace, not Facebook.”

She stares at me blankly. “What’s myspace?”

Sigh. Two or three years ago, that question would never have been asked. But nowadays, when people think of social networking sites, what do they think of? Twitter, myyearbook, AIM, and of course, Facebook. It seems as if myspace has lost the hypnotic hold that it once held on people.

The question is: why? On myspace, you can change everything. You can be private and public, all at the same time. You can color and sparkle your profile, and IM. You can do pretty much everything in one. They now even have myspace email so if your friends don’t have myspace, they can still email you there.

Thing is, Facebook has taken over. It’s sad really. I got my Facebook page originally because I wanted to talk to a certain cute guy. When that plan was a bust because I didn’t have the guts to email him, I was stuck with this Facebook page and apparently a social obligation to get online each and every day. My friends started scolding me for not getting on, but I pretty much ignored them. I liked myspace better. A couple of hours on facebook had revealed that it was boring, to say the best. So, I stuck with my myspace.

Finally, one of my friends practically forced me to get on. When I tried logging in, it told me my account was blocked. Of course, I complained, and they unlocked my account, suggesting I use it more if I didn’t want it to be blocked again. When I got on, I had a bunch of messages and several friend requests. After taking care of those, I looked at the rest of my alerts. One said: “Sierra has thrown a snowball at you!” … WTF? A virtual snowball? Gee, that was cold. I had also been poked several times and a lot of people had written on my “wall” whatever the heck that is.

And, again, after I had taken care of all of my alerts, I found myself once again, BORED. So I went to my myspace. Checked my email. Checked my IM. IM’d a couple people. Changed my status. Played with my profile. Ignored a couple people. Hoped some others would email me. When they did, emailed them back. Three hours later, got bored and started playing with apps. Became a vampire. Became a mafia member. Joined a virtual gang. Played with pieces of flare. Became a werewolf. Got a new truth in my truth box. Got a hint that the person saying it was male. Figured out who it was and confronted him about calling me “freaky.” He said it meant to be “kinky.” Virtually slapped him. Virtually slapped him four times. Then, bedtime, and woke up again, went to school, and slapped him for real.

All of that. As apposed to the boring tedium of Facebook. And, after keeping up with both sites for the past couple of weeks, I’ve come to a conclusion. Facebooks sucks. Myspace rocks. After my experiment, I’ve decided to delete my facebook page. And after that, I think I’ll update my myspace page.

And don’t even get me started on Twitter, that crazy site. That’s a story for another time.

Being that yesterday was Halloween, I decided to celebrate. I’m fifteen so trick-or-treating was out of the question, and a night at home of scaring movies just didn’t seem right. So, the family went to the movies to watch, guess what? That’s right, Paranormal Activity. I had heard some really great reviews and everyone—EVERYONE—told me it was the most frightening movie they had ever seen. I was ready to be scared out of my mind. Still, I was a bit skeptical. The one commercial I saw for it showed only scenes of the audience freaking out. I had no clue what in the world the movie was even about. Seriously, what kind of commercial shows ONLY the audience being scared to death? Not ONE scene of the movie itself. What was I supposed to think?

I went anyway.

And, to say the least, I was excited with some really high expectations. I was expecting another The Grudge with some twists. Nope.

Instead, what I saw was a weird remake of The Blaire Witch Project. A young couple had a house cursed with a demon. Very slowly, the girl starts going totally nuts, sleep walking, becoming possessed and screaming after only a tiny bump in the night. Seriously? When the movie was over, a couple people began clapping. I blinked. “Um, that’s it?” I asked. “Really?”

Not only did I become dizzy from the constant shaking of the camera, the movie was IMPOSSIBLE to get into. It took about an hour for the haunting to even begin. I soon realized why the movie started out in only a couple theatres.

Now, I’m not totally dissing the movie. It was okay. Decent, to say best. Decent to say worst. It was a nice way to kill a couple hours from what would have been a very boring weekend. Besides, what else would you expect from a movie that only cost $11,000? Still, I just don’t get why so many people were thrilled by the movie. And, I’m truly angry at the people who told me the movie would scare me. It didn’t. In fact, it was more comical than anything. It wasn’t terrible.

Still, I was thoroughly disappointed. Not worth theatre fare. Not even worth Pay Per View. Honestly, it’s a movie you should wait for it to show up on HBO before watching.