The Long Lost Art of Letter Writing

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Dear Readers,
Remember way back when people would write letters to each other? Yeah, I don't either. We live in a world where everything is sped up to lightning-fast speeds and don't want to bother with waiting to get a response in the mail or want to take the time to actually write a letter to someone.
A simple letter can tell you so much about the person and what they are telling you about.
First of all, if you receive a letter in the mail today, that means that person who sent it doesn't want everything in life to be at your fingertips...literally.
Second, the handwriting alone can tell you if the person is excited to tell you about his or her day. I know for me, if I am really getting into what I'm writing my handwriting gets really sloppy because I just want to get it all down. It also makes them a person. When all you do is communicate through email or text, you turn yourself and the other person into, well, a robot; into a machine.
I really wish people would write letter more. I know that there are people who do still write them but unfortunately, the numbers are getting smaller and smaller as technology is making communication easier for us. If getting a text from that someone special makes you smile, imagine how happy you would be if they wrote you a letter.

Sincerely,
Skooogster(:

Has Facebook Killed Love?

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Thanks to texting and social network sites it has become a lot easier to get to know someone…or has it?

 

Before Facebook or texting was a thing, people would write letters to each other or talk for hours on the phone. Or, even better, they would meet in person and talk about their day. Okay, so I know people still do these but let’s be honest: it isn’t as common as it once was.

Let’s say you meet someone you grow to like. And I mean like like. You used to exchange addresses or phone numbers and you would call each other and talk or write letters to each other. But today you find their profile on Facebook and send them a friend request and exchange cell numbers and text. I’m sorry to say but not a lot of relationships will work out if that’s how you’re going about doing it. They won’t last; eventually the two of you will drift apart sending one text once every week instead of every day until it trickles down to nothing. I’ve seen this happen enough times to know that trying to peruse a relationship based off of texting and Facebook is not easy. I’m not saying it’s impossible, though. But if you really are interested in this person, call them or maybe write them a letter. Show them that you are genuinely interested in them and want to get to know them better. Through Facebook, all you know about the person is what they want you to see.

Through Facebook and texting, relationships are rushed. Everything goes so much faster. There isn’t the long wait for their response to your letter or the anticipation of a phone all. Everything is sped up so we don’t have to wait anymore. You can send someone a text and they get it almost instantly. Conversation goes faster and before long, you’ve run out of things to say. Then what happens when you actually get together? What is there to talk about?

My friends and I were actually talking about this one time and we said that today, people will text or post whatever is on their mind. Let’s say you just saw a cat doing a back flip. You whip out your phone and immediately tell everyone in your contact list. Why don’t you just wait until you see your friends at school to tell them? That way face-to-face conversations aren’t awkward…which, unfortunately, they are thanks to texting and Facebook and other instant-messaging systems.

 

Facebook is fine for beginning a relationship. You get to see what they've done through the pictures they post, what they're thinking through their status updates but you don't get to know the real them until you sit down with them and talk to them or call them. Don't let a machine define what love is for you; it's up to you to find out what it is for yourself.

 

~Skooogster(:

To Ireland and Back Again

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I just got back from my amazing trip to the beautiful country of Ireland on Sunday and let me tell you, I did NOT want to come home! No matter where you go you will see green grass and have fresh air like you wouldn't believe! It was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had in my life.
After a long and exhausting eight hour flight to Dublin from Chicago, we got on a coach (charter bus) and toured around Dublin, stopping at Trinity College to see the Book of Kells and the Long Room.

The Long Room

The Book of Kells

Sunday was Saint Patrick's Day and I can honestly say that I have never seen so many people stretching their necks to their limits to try and see around the hundreds of people there. There were people on top of statues, churches, roofs, phone booths and hanging out of windows to try and see the parade. Unfortunately, it was a really cold and rainy day so the two and a half to three hour wait before the parade actually started was a bit miserable.

Okay so as much as I just want to recap EVERYTHING for you, I think I will just continue with the major sight seeing opportunities.

Blarney Castle:
This was one of my favorite days of the trip. I just wished we had more time to explore more of the castle. The main attraction at the castle is the Blarney Stone. If you lay on your back and hang over the edge of the castle and kiss the bottom most stone, you're supposed to be blessed with the gift of being social (or something like that). In order to get up to the top of the castle you were able to walk through most of it, seeing all the rooms like the kitchen and girls' rooms. The stairs however were freakishly narrow with only a rope that went from the top to the bottom to hang on to. the higher up you got, the narrower the steps got. Once at the top you can look out over the entire gardens of Blarney. It was so green and beautiful! Probably as green as we will ever get here unfortunately. And if you were wondering, yes I did kiss the stone and I even got a shirt that reads, "do you remember your first kiss?" pretty epic, no?

Just look at how green it is!

Blarney Castle, everyone!

The view from somewhat the top

Me going down to kiss the stone

Cobh:
Cobh is a little sea side town which is where the Titanic actually left from before it sank (at least I'm pretty sure. Sorry for all the uncertainty. I just know there was a lot of Titanic stuff at the gift shop). There wasn't much to do with the time given to us but a little down the road is a beautiful cathedral but we didn't have time to go see it. So if you ever go to Cobh, check it out and let me know what you think!

This is a statue of the first people to step foot on Ellis Island from either Ireland or Cobh.

Panorama of Cobh

Belfast:
Belfast is actually part of Northern Ireland which is part of Great Britain. There were British flags on every single lamp post. It was crazy. On our second day there, we took a tour and drove past the church that C. S. Lewis (author of the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe) went to church with his grandpa. Then we went to a high school and performed there and actually ate their school lunch and got to meet some of them. It was absolutely amazing to hear what life as a teen is like over there. Plus, they were all super nice (and I'm actually friends with one on Facebook!). Also in Belfast, there is the Titanic Museum where the legendary ship was built. I have never actually seen the movie all the way though but I do know the story. I highly recommend that you go visit the museum if you are ever in the area. If you ever get a chance to go to Belfast, check out Victoria Square Mall as well. IT'S AMAZING! it has an observation dome at the top where you can go up and pretty much see all of Belfast. Plus, it's kind of a indoor-outdoor mall which is hard to explain but it's still pretty cool!

the Titanic Museum

The last photograph ever taken of the Titanic before it sank



The church C. S. Lewis went to

The only Titanic memorial in the world with all the names of the people who sank



Victoria Square Mall

me at the top of the mall

Giant's Causeway:
Best. Day. Of. The. Entire. Trip. At least in my opinion and I don't even know why. It was probably one of the worst days weather wise. It was hailing and windy and raining and cold yet we all had a blast. Scientifically, the Causeway was formed by lava causing it to harden in hexagonal shapes but the myth goes that they were all once really tall and a giant ran away from another giant disguised as a baby (and if the baby was THAT big, he didn't want to mess with the dad!) and as he ran he hit all the rocks down. Me and my friends went to the top of the cliff where there was nothing to break the wind and it was just biting cold but we still managed to survive!

Me on the rocks

just the rocks

how cool is this?!

The beautiful cliff that we got to the top of.

Our last day was spent in Dublin where we had three hours to ourselves to shop and hang out and explore Dublin. Gafton Street is the main shopping area where most of the stores are. There are street performers and lots of good food. OH! If you ever go to Dublin, stop into an Insomnia Coffee shop and get a Hot Angel. So. Good! It's kind of like a white chocolate hot chocolate with vanilla or something delicious in it. I highly recommend it!

So that was my trip! If you ever get the chance to visit Ireland, you should visit these places. Ireland is the most beautiful place I have ever been to and would jump at another chance to visit. I've already decided that I'm going to move to Dublin, live in a house with a red or blue Dublin Door, marry a cute Irish boy and have cute Irish kids.
It'll happen.

~Skooogster(:

Do the Harlem Shake!

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You have all probably heard about the latest trend sweeping the world: The Harlem Shake. It’s just like planking where it was really popular for a while no one really knew the purpose of it then it eventually fades away. The Harlem Shake is when THIS song plays and starts with one person dancing in the middle of a bunch of people who look like they are ignoring them then when the song says “Do the Harlem Shake” the camera kind of switches and in the next frame everyone is dancing (sometimes switching clothes entirely). How they do this is they will record the first part, turn off the camera, have the people start dancing and turn it back on so all we see is the quick switch. I’m not exactly sure what the purpose is in it but I do have to say that some of these do make my day. Here is a top five video: CLICK HERE!

Just like every other strange fads, this one will fade away but why not enjoy them while they last? I am currently trying to convince my AP Government and Politics class to do one and I think it would be hilarious if my whole school did one with my principal whereas this is her last year here at Kennedy. Fortunately, the teachers are doing a two and a half minute Harlem shake for our next pep assembly on April 12^th. Here is a sneak peak. I am so looking forward to seeing this!

In my AP US History class we will get papers with ‘trends of the 60’s’ and I will look them up and think why the heck would anyone try and see how many people they could fit into a phone booth?! (Phone booth stuffing) But if you flash-forward  fifty years from now students just like me will get a paper that says ‘trends of the 2010’s’ and on it there will be ‘The Harlem Shake’ and they will think that we are just as weird as we think people were back in the 50's.

 

~Skooogster(:

Freaky Food

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Have you ever thought about where you’re food is coming from? It isn’t a question I ask myself daily but ever since we watched Food Inc. in my AP Lang class it has made me stop and think a little. Is what I’m eating safely made? How is it made? Where did it come from? And am I eating what I think I’m eating?

Here’s the thing: I am a huge meat eater, my whole family is, really. I will never turn down a nice juicy burger or a steak with garlic mashed potatoes no matter what I hear about what is in front of me. That’s just the way it is with me. Even though what I have been watching in LA is disturbing and quite disgusting, it’s not going to stop me from enjoying a steak dinner.

The meat that we eat comes from corn-fed cows. Now, cows aren’t supposed to eat corn, they’re supposed to eat grass. But corn is cheap and you can grow more of it faster and with the high demand for beef, we need a lot of big cows. Once they are big and beefy, they are taken to huge slaughter houses where they are kept in overcrowded corrals where they can barely move and end up standing knee deep in their own manure. It’s disgusting and is a breeding ground for all kinds of diseases.

Now know this, I’m not, by any means trying to convince you to stop eating meat or boycott meat made in these kinds of factories. It is understandable. Factory farms are a necessity to American life. We were talking in class yesterday about where would big cities like New York, Chicago, or LA get their meat if all factory farms were shut down? Easy. They wouldn’t. Here in Iowa, farms aren’t that hard to find. I mean, there’s one in my back yard for heaven’s sake! We could easily survive if factory farms were shut down. But those highly populated cities need somewhere to get their food. In my opinion, they should just make factory farms a bit more sanitary, that’s all.

So next time that you are at the supermarket look at the meat. It is possible to buy grass fed beef (meaning that the cow was fed on grass, not corn) but it’s a bit pricier than the corn fed manure caked cow. If you have the money to spare, try buying beef that came from a happy and healthy cow.

~Skooogster(:

Sports in Today's Society

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I have been playing sports almost since I could walk as do most people. That’s just how it is. But I feel that today we put way too much pressure on little kids to do well in sports. Now don’t get me wrong, playing sports at young ages isn’t bad. In fact, it’s the total opposite. But when your five year old son misses the ball in t-ball, he’s five. You don’t have to keep him after a game for half an hour having him hit ball after ball. He’s five. Take him home, buy him an ice cream cone and tell him you’re proud of him.

When kids have this image in their mind that they need to be a five star athlete by the time they reach middle school, things start to go seriously wrong. You have juniors in high school with injuries you used to only see in adults. You never used to see teenagers needing ACL surgery or tearing tendons in their knees. But because we are putting kids in competitive sports so early, they are more prone to these potentially career ending injuries.

When I talk to my mom and dad about this topic, they always tell me that when they were my age, you never really knew what your talents were until you got to high school, maybe even college. Can you imagine someone who had never played football before, going into the University of Iowa and saying to the athletic director, “I want to play football,”? Sure it’s been done before and there have been movies made about it but life isn’t a movie. If you want to do that, you have to make up ten years plus of training and skills.

Sometimes if you are in a sport for so long, you can get really bored with it. I have played volleyball since fifth grade so next year I will have played for eight years plus five years of club volleyball. I used to LOVE playing volleyball. I wanted to get a scholarship and had dreams of playing for the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. I could picture myself on their court playing other Big 10 teams. But after a while, it just gets tiring. I have spent so much time and money and spent up so much of my summers with private training and camps and practices that I finally realized how much I was missing out on. There is so much more that I wish I could have done looking back that I was never able to do because of volleyball.

So this is a message to both kids and parents alike. Don’t push yourself so much that you hurt yourself and are out all season and try and maybe see what else there is out there. There is a whole world out there full of opportunities that are just sitting there waiting for you to find them. Take a step back from your sports and realize what the world has to offer.

 

~Skooogster(:

Musicals ♫

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I have a new found love of musicals. This summer I went to Phantom of the Opera in New York City and now with Les Misérables I have really grown to love them. They are like movies but the music is so much better.

When I went to The Phantom of the Opera, I had never really been to a musical other than ones that my school puts on and I was pleasantly surprised at what I had experienced. Because of that, I was even more interested in seeing Les Mis (see my previous post for a review of the Les Misérables movie). Now there is no denying that I have joined into the great group of musical people. I honestly could sit on the couch all day watching Broadway musicals (if I had the DVD’s of them. I’m working on it though!). Not to mention you are introduced to some great songs that you would never have heard before. And the people who are performing are actually good singers. Everything that you hear is all sung live. That means no auto-tune. The notes that are coming out of the performers’ mouths are the actual thing which is just so impressive to me. Also, yes I do have to agree, my love of musicals now have introduced me to the singers who can sometimes be very good looking!

But that’s not the point I’m trying to make. All I’m saying is that musicals are actually very good if you just give them the chance. The costumes, stories, and music are all great and it’s just another thing that you can annoy your parents with!

~Skooogster(:

Les Misérables

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Last weekend my family and I finally went to see the movie phenomenon Les Misérables. I wasn’t really sure what I was expecting to see but despite that I thought it was an amazing movie. It IS a musical so it does take an acquired taste in musicals. If you are a person who has a hard time sitting though musicals or things like them, I recommend not seeing it in a theater. Maybe rent it once it comes out on DVD (which I heard was soon but I’m not 100% sure so don’t quote me on it).

The movie is set during the French Revolution and is about how Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) is released from prison but is still constantly running from the law. The movie follows him though the next years of the revolution: how he tries to make a suitable life for himself and later Cosette (Amanda Seyfried) without being caught again. You know, I’m not really sure why the police are still chasing after him but I’m sure it’s in there I just missed it.

One thing that I was a little skeptical on was the singing. The main characters aren’t exactly singers, but more of actors but I was pleasantly surprised at their performance. I’m no music expert by any means but I do know that they I have heard professional singers sing worse than the people in the movie. One of my favorite aspects of the music was that it was all sung live. The director didn’t want the music pre-recorded because he thought that the live singing put more of the emotion of the song into it which I do have to agree with. Plus, the songs are just beautifully sung and are like flies to the spider web that is your brain. I’ve been singing the songs for the last week and all of my friends are probably getting annoyed by now. Some of my favorites are “Do You Hear the People Sing?”, “On My Own”, and “Castle on a Cloud.”

If you have been thinking about seeing Les Misérables, I highly recommend that you do. It is such a beautifully made movie, the costumes and makeup are just phenomenal and the music is great. But remember to pack a few Kleenex’s. A couple of scenes sure did trigger the water works for me!

~Skooogster(:

Packing!

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Just an update, I leave for Ireland in nine days. NINE DAYS! We’re down to the single digits, ladies and gentlemen! As the trip gets nearer and nearer I am thinking more about what I am going to pack. You don’t want your luggage to get so heavy that you have to pay extra money (which is about up to 100 lbs.) so you need to pack relatively light. And as a girl who loves her clothes and shoes that was kind of a struggle. But I was able to compromise. Most likely, the weather there will be cool, spring-like. Taking this into consideration I am packing in layers which can stay light if you do it right. Here are some tips that I thought of while packing my own suitcase!

·         When looking for a suitcase, try and find one that is a low weight one. Depending on how heavy your suitcase is to begin with will determine how much clothes you can take

·         Take as little clothes as you need. For girls, a smart thing to do would be to take a few tops that you can wear by themselves or under a sweater or jacket and take a few jackets or sweaters. If you take three tops and two sweaters, you have five different outfits to wear. And ta-da! You have all the tops that you need for a five day trip!

·         Take only a few jeans. Denim is a really heavy material and taking a lot of denim will pile on the weight quicker than you may want. I am taking only three jeans.

·         If you are a big worrier of ‘I don’t want to wear the same outfit two times on the trip’ don’t wear something that really stands out. Take three pair of regular jeans so that it isn’t so obvious that you wore the same jeans two days in a row.

·         If you do worry about the above, stop. You’re on vacation and odds are the people you see there, you won’t see again so why does it matter?

·         Take a few nicer outfits in case your family (or group of people) wants to go to a nicer restaurant or something like that.

·         Shoes. A girl’s best friend right? Guys you can kind of ignore this part. I’m guessing this isn’t a big problem for most guys. But girls: only take the shoes that you need to take. Don’t worry if the shoes you take don’t match perfectly with the outfits you are taking. Honestly, no one will care. Plus, shoes are EXTREMELY heavy.

·         Something different that I am doing this time is I bought two bags that you use to put clothes in under your bed. Luckily both of them fit perfectly into my suitcase. In one I put my tops and in the other my bottoms. These hold everything together because when you fly your clothes can get all mixed up into each other.

picture from Bed Bath and Beyond

·         And finally, start thinking about what you’re going to pack at least a week in advance. You don’t want to be stuck doing loads and loads of laundry the night before. Been there, done that. It’s not fun!

I hope that these help you out the next time that you are packing for a big trip!

 

~Skooogster(: