Music makes the world go 'round

I've already talked once about how the weather can affect your mood. Now, I'd like to talk about how music can have an impact on how you are feeling. 

If you don't know what I'm talking about now, you must be living under a rock, by yourself, in the middle of Antarctica. Because even the Amish would understand what I mean. Music changes your mood. And your mood determines the music you listen to. 

Just think back to a rainy day, when you were driving down the street, alone in your car. You were already in a depressed-ish mood (pst, due to the weather) and now you've got some heartbreak, tear jerker, my-life-is-awful music on. It's not helping to improve your mood, to say, but listening to happy music would make you sick right then. So you crank those tunes and sing your little heart out. 

Then there's the days when you are just ready to rock out. You turn up your loudest, most upbeat rock/pop/country/whateverthehellyoulistento music and you sing loud and dance like an idiot, because right then, you're in the best mood and nothing can bring you down. 

You know what I'm talkin' 'bout. 

And when you're in a mood, you have to have music playing. Silence does nothing for you. And guess what? There's science behind that. That's right. SCIENCE. According to Your Dictionary, music helps to release endorphins that can calm and relax you. Music can also increase serotonin levels which helps to calm your brain itself and in general, make you feel better. There has even been research saying that music can help improve a student's academic performance. Of course, it has to be the right music. No one became more intelligent by listening to Nicki Minaj or Lil Wayne.

My friend, itszappy, has an interesting take on music as well. She talks about how she chooses different music based on how she feels and she also mentions how depending on what she's doing, music will affect her in different ways. Lastly, she just talks about what music is. She talks about how it really is art, and how it does stuff that no other thing can do. 

So remember, the next time you're feeling crappy, or are in a crummy mood, try listening to some music. If you want to concentrate better on your homework, try turning on some classical music. Or if you just want to feel good, pump up the tunes. One way or another, they're going to affect you.

Feminism is the radical notion that women are human beings

Oh would you just shut up, Ms. Cheris Kramarae. Don't be so melodramatic. Seriously.

The quote from Ms. Kramarae is exactly why I hate feminism. Well, technically I don't, but I suppose our culture's view of feminism is a bit distorted. The feminism I hate is probably more considered "radical feminism." These women seem to still think women are as suppressed as they were in times when it was okay to beat your wife.

Ms. Kramarae, a professor at the Center for the Study of Women in Society at the University of Oregon, is the main theorist of something called the "muted group theory." And while the facts behind it are genuine, the way those facts are used infuriate me. It is essentially stating that women (and minorities) have less voice in the world. Ms. Kramarae essentially says that since men created language, they have more control over language and thus women. I find this a very medieval ideal.

Sure, you may argue that women are still repressed in today's day. But are they really?

One argument is the pay difference between the average man and woman. A CNN article states that women on average make 82 cents for every dollar earned by a man. But let's think about this logically. Is this unjust treatment? Or should we actually look at the statistics behind the facts? Firstly, you can simply look at the careers women choose to go into. Not many women go into engineering nowadays, (though that is slowly changing,) and the jobs women tend to go toward are generally lower paying. Are they lower paying because females usually fill those positions? Um, no. Females kind of generally tend to do this thing called "having babies." And that generally requires taking time off. Sure, there's maternity leave, but women often want to spend longer with their children. So thus they take more days off. Women also tend to work less hours than men, as stated in the CNN article. Overall, that argument falls a little flat. 

Madonna has a quote that can help explain the next argument. She said, "I'm tough, I'm ambitious, and I know exactly what I want. If that makes me a bitch, okay.” With this mentality, the idea is professed that women are not allowed to voice their opinions without criticism. Okay, seriously. For every woman that's true for, there's another man in the exact same position. Men can be called "assholes," "dicks," or "douchebags" for stating their own opinions. This is a two way street, sweetheart.

Largely, what bugs me about the feminism we hear about these days is their extreme anti-men stance. They often portray men as evil, which as a whole, they are not. Their main goal in life is not to oppress women, believe it or not. Just as there are men who do horrible things, there are also women who do horrible things. The scale does not tip largely in favor of one gender in this case. One quote that demonstrates that brings us down to earth on that is from a male himself. Timothy Leary said, "Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition." And honestly, why should you even try to match up to a male if a female? We are very different creatures, despite being the same species. We have different limitations, strengths, and tendencies. We should not hold ourselves to the same standards.

So I get feminism. Women should be proud of who they are, and should embrace their womanly-ness, and should want equality with men. But aren't we already there? Generally, a woman just needs to be determined and have the drive to reach her goal and she can do it. As Roseanne Barr said, "The thing women have yet to learn is nobody gives you power. You have to take it."

Our house, in the middle of our street

A lot of responsibility comes with growing up. You have to buy your own food, pay your own bills, wash your own laundry, and *GASP* get a job. As kids, we often look forward to being a grown-up, as we believe it will give us more freedom. And it does give us more freedom, in a way. The thing is, when we're kids, we have time and energy, but no freedom. When seniors, we have time and freedom, but no energy. And when adults, we have energy and freedom, but no time. It's quite the dilemma.

And I'm trying to not rush into adulthood. But I've been contemplating taking on one huge part of growing up. That is to buy a house.

I know, it kind of sounds ridiculous. But hey, it's the American dream. And it's largely achievable. 

I've got it all figured. I'll need to find another job, which is okay, I waste a lot of my time as it is anyway. Once I get that, I can cover all the needed expenses: utilities, taxes, insurance, and of course the mortgage payments. 

Sure, the house is nowhere near perfect. It needs a little tlc. But I'm okay with that. It's  just another aspect I'm excited for. To get my hands dirty, do some real work, build some muscle by working hard; I'd love to do that. I could get good experience at fixing stuff, along with the budget balancing I'm going to have to do.

So while it's not looking likely, I'm still really looking forward to this. The house I found is out in the country, which is one of my life goals. I've always loved the country, as my grandparents used to own a farm and live out there by it. I loved going there, with it's quiet and dark nights. In the cities, we have so much light and noise pollution. But in the country, you can hear the world and see the stars. I just love it. So I'll keep optimistic and cross my fingers, hoping to cross this thing off my bucket list.   

Which would you choose?

It's something we've all thought about, ever since we were young. The question's been asked many times, by friends, by teachers on busywork "assignments." And it's fun to think about. If you could have any superpower, what would it be? There are so many to choose from, and so difficult to narrow the choice down to one. 

1. Invisibility- This is always a popular choice. I mean why wouldn't you want it? You could go anywhere undetected. You could break into banks and steal money. You could sneak out to the Hollywood sign. You could even sneak into the opposite gender locker room, as we all know most guys would. It would be pretty sweet, in general.
2. Super speed- Think Dash in the Disney movie The Incredibles. We all know it'd be awesome to be able to run so fast that you can run across water. You could get so many places so much quicker. And you could compete, that wouldn't be considered cheating, right?
3. Super strength- Same as super speed, you could use it for competing. But everyday life would just be easier too. No need to ask someone to open that drink bottle or jar for you anymore. Need to rearrange your room? No problem, you can do it yourself. You would be able to get all those groceries in one trip. Just imagine the feeling of accomplishment.
4. Flying- This could mean superman-esque, with just some sort of magic powering your flying, or even with wings. Both would be awesome. It's always been mans dream to fly, and we're on our way to achieving that, with planes, and skydiving, and jet-packs. But to just have the pure and simple ability to fly would be amazing. 
5. Mind reading- This is the last major superpower I can think of. And in my opinion, the best. So often, I think the world would just be easier if I knew what people were thinking. I guess some of it could be considered cheating, like reading your teacher's mind for the answers. But other times it would be honestly beneficial. You could read politician's minds. You could read those on trial, their minds. You could even read your parents minds to know what they were going to ask you to do, do it before, and tadaa! Perfect child status achieved. How great would that be?

But remember, with great power, comes great responsibility. So choose wisely, and dream away.  

Jazz hands and smile pretty!

I was never really into the whole show choir thing. I enjoyed watching it, sure, but I never really had the desire to be in it myself. I tried out once, in sixth grade, didn't make it in and that was enough for me.

This year, I decided to join the show choir band, called the combo, at our school. I had friends doing it and I enjoy playing trombone, so why not.

Now as a band kid, I really had no idea what to expect. I had seen the show choir perform before and knew a fair amount of people who either were out had been in show choir. And they all loved it. But these people I knew and talked to were just the singers/dancers. I hadn't really talked to any of the combo members or the crew members, so I was taking this essentially on faith.

The first practice with the choir was terrifying. They had been practicing since summer, while we only had our music for less than a month. How would we ever measure up to the extremely high bar they had set? Granted they had a lot more to learn than we did, and what they did was more difficult than what we had to do, but the task ahead of us was still incredibly daunting. 

But things gradually got better. The choir understood that we weren't going to be perfect at the beginning and we knew we had to work our tails off in order to not let them down. So we did just that and the choir was there every step of the way.

You can really feel the passion of the group, and that's what I've come to love the most. They really are like one big family. They have highs and lows, good times and bad ones. But they all sick together for the love of the sport. They're so incredibly dedicated to what they do and they work hard to be the very best.

But they don't keep that feeling to themselves. They project it through their show. You can see it in the way they even treat the combo and crew. They will let us know how grateful they are to us. They know that just like how we would have no show without them, the show would not be able to go on without the combo and crew. They go out of their way to make us feel like a part of this group. Just yesterday, at a performance, the director mentioned to them that one member of the combo thought this was just an awesome experience and wanted to meet all the members of of the choir. Immediately, someone turned around and introduced themself to that member. By the end of the day, so many singers had made sure to talk to that person and introduce themselves.  It was really a great feeling to see them all rise to the occasion, just to make one person a bit more happy.

And then there's the parents. They have just as much enthusiasm as the choir does, if not more. They're encouraging and incredibly helpful. They really complete the feeling of family in the group.

So through this experience, I've learned so much. And this is just the start of the season. We'll get better and grow as a group. Overall, I feel each one of us will come out changed by what we have done and accomplished, and I'm confident it will be for the better.

This thing isn't human

Recently I watched a movie called Splice. I'd been wanting to watch it for a while, practically ever since it came out. The movie was released in 2009 and was given a 37% on Rotten tomatoes by the audience. Which is completely understandable. It was quite the movie.

Just so you know, this review is going to contain spoilers, partially because it'd be hard to explain it otherwise and partially because I hope this gives you an excuse to never see Splice and gets rid of any desire you ever had to see the movie before.

Splice starts out pretty good. It's about a genetic experiment that goes wrong and the beginning of the movie is a lot of cool science experiments and stuff. You get to know the characters fairly well and it gives you some good background for the rest of the story.

Unfortunately, the actual plot doesn't make itself apparent until about halfway through the movie.

Once the science-experiment-gone-wrong is created (which happens to be  a partially human hybrid) it starts to get weird. It begins with the creators, a couple who live together(not sure if they're married), taking the creation home with them and dressing it up. See, they weren't supposed to create it and people are getting suspicious. So they sneak it out and take it home and start treating it like a child. They've named it Dren and decided that it's genetically a female. Sure, it's kinda cute at this point, look at them, they got a kid. Ain't it sweet.

Around then I stopped following. The woman creator starts getting random mood swings that we're supposed to assume are genetic. She starts taking her daddy issue anger out on Dren. Then the male creator discovers that woman creator used her own DNA in Dren because she wanted a child she comes could "control." He gets angry, they fight, woman creator cuts off Dren' s trail, which contains a dangerous spike. Man creator comes back when woman creator is gone and ends up having sex with Dren. Woman creator walks in on them and goes ballistic. She leaves, man follows soon after. They somehow make up, all is forgiven and they return to Dren to find that she's sick and dying. Dren dies, they bury her, and some dudes from the lab show up and are like "fess up and show us the thing." Creators go "she's dead bro, go dig her up yourself." 

But it doesn't stop there. Then something swoops out of the sky and grabs one of the lab guys. The other three follow and see that it's some sort of Dren incarnate. Other lab guy grabbed and killed (if you didn't guess, the other guy was too.) It then turns into essentially a horror movie with the two creators running from what turns out to be a male Dren. Male creator is knocked out and boy Dren pins down female creator. This is the point when I knew I really regretted watching this movie. The dialogue goes as follows:

 Female: What do you want?!?!

 Boy Dren: *distorted voice* Inside you...

It then starts having sex with her. Male creator stabs the thing through the chest, Dren stabs and kills the male with its tail thing, and female smashes Dren over the head with a rock, promptly kills it.

I thought the movie was over then, but then there is a flash forward. Some chick from the lab is talking to creator female, thanking her for helping them move on to the next phase. Creator chick stands up and OH SCHEIB she's pregnant.

Then it's the end, clearly open for a sequel I pray each night will never be created.

Overall, I recommend never seeing this movie. And no, I don't remember what the characters actual names were.

He's going the distance, he's going for speed

I usually consider myself a good driver. I use my turn signal, I watch out for other drivers, I only go five miles over the speed limit at most. Driving is fun and as long as you do it safely, I have no problem with you or your car. But accidents are scary, and many people either have not experienced them or have somehow miraculously forgotten how terrifying they can be. 

Just today, we were driving to Minnesota. Long distance driving is somewhat safer compared to street driving. But man, there are some idiots out there. There are many reasons why I might choose to hate someone, and about 68% of those reasons are the way you drive. 

1. Not using turn signals: The reason you have turn signals is to alert other drivers as to what your next move is. No one is a mind reader, and it's your responsibility to let others know if you are going to be changing directions. I know, it's so much more effort to move your hand to turn it on and if it doesn't automatically turn off, it's such an ordeal to have to do it manually. But seriously. Just use your turn signals. 
2. Driving under the speed limit: Hey guess what. It doesn't get you bonus points. That trooper sitting on the side of the road isn't going to give you a negative ticket for going five under. All it does is piss other drivers off. I will tailgate you if you go under the speed limit. The only time I consider it acceptable is if the driving conditions are hazardous, like rain, snow, or fog.
3. Not using lights when necessary: Let's just be grownups here. If you can't see your speedometer, then your lights should be on. If you can see stars, YOUR LIGHTS SHOULD BE ON. It's common sense people, come on. 
4. Not being in the correct lane: They teach this in drivers ed, I can assure you. And it's also common sense. On high speed roads, such as the interstate, slower traffic drives in the right most lane, and the left ones are essentially for passing. Don't just drive the speed limit down the left most lane. You will see lots of birds.  
5. Not keeping speed consistent:  That pointy thing that points at numbers on your dashboard, that tells you how fast you're going. And if you push your foot down or let your foot up, your speed is going to change. So try super hard to keep your little footsie still and you just might be able to keep your speed consistent and make the world a better place. 
6. Cutting people off: You might not have even cut me off. Nonetheless, I now consider you close to a spawn of Satan and should have your license revoked. If you cut ME off, you are Satan and should just be sent promptly back to Hell. It's like that one saying: "Failure to plan on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine." Don't endanger my life and my passengers' lives because you should have been in a different lane.