Books

This blog will be about some of the books that i have read recently. Including Tina Fey's Bossypants and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. I will give you a quick summary/describe the book and I will review it. 
Bossypants is an autobiography of Tina Fey. She talks about her life before her break on SNL, her time on SNL and her show 30 Rock. I actually started watching 30 Rock after I read this book because I wanted to know what she was talking about and I really enjoy it. It is really cool to see what goes on behind the scenes of Weekend Update and how she came in to character for her famous Sarah Palin skits.
I loved this book. I think that it is really well written because it sounds like she is talking to you while you read it. She also is very honest throughout the book, she doesn't make her life seem that it is so glamourous. She describes herself as a normal person with an unusual job. One thing that I would recomend for anyone reading this book would be to watch 30 Rock and Weekend Update or at least have an idea about it. She gets pretty descriptive of these shows and it helps if you know what she is talking about. Overall I really enjoyed this book.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children was another book that I recently finished. This book is a fantasy book about kids who have special talents. The main character's family has secrets that lead him to go on a trip with his father to Wales. He is trying to find out more about his grandfathers past. He ends up at Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and discovers there might be more than meets the eye at this run down house in the middle of the forrest.
I really liked this book as well. The reason that I chose to read this book was becuase it has vintage pictures of the kids at the home. I am really in to photography and I really liked the mixture of fantasy and photography. While writing this blog I found out that there is a sequel to this book called Untitled and they are thinking about making a movie. I read an article that Tim Burton is thinking about directing it and you know if he directs the movie it will be amazing.

Poetry

The Number One Question

Katie Wolfe

When are we ever going to use this is in real life?

That is the number one question,

Papers are shuffled out,

Erasers start to dance across pages,

Frustrations boiling like a volcano,

Nervous glances are exchanged throughout the room,

Hands shoot in to the air like rockets

The delightfully, wicked teacher calls on the student,

The student mumbles those few fateful words….

“When are we ever going to use this in real life?”

And BANG the teacher turns in to a raging animal,

So angry, the students gaze in horror,

As the teacher does everything but answer the question,

Growing smaller by the minute,

 The student shrinks in to his desk,

And continues to do the assignment,

Accepting the lack of an answer.

Explanations

1.       The line including the “hands shooting in to the air like rockets” gives the reader an image of rocket ships taking off and students raising their hands .

2.       “Erasers dancing across the pages” gives erasers a humanistic quality which in this case is dancing. When inanimate objects are given humanistic qualities it is called personification.

3.       “Growing smaller” is an oxymoron.  Growing normally means getting bigger, when paired with smaller it becomes an oxymoron.

4.       “Frustrations boiling like a volcano” is an example of a simile. In order for something to be a simile two things have two be joined using like or as.

5.       “BANG” is an onomatopoeia because bang is not only a word but a sound as well.

6.       My word choice could be considered different when I compare teachers to raging animals. This is an example of diction which is basically what words the author decides to use in the writing.

7.       An Antithesis is a comparison of two directly opposite things. I used “delightfully, wicked teacher” because delightful and wicked are opposites.

YouTube

This is going to be another blog about funny Youtube videos because who doesn't like funny videos? I recently found out about the videos tab on pintrest which is a pretty big deal if you ask me. There are tutuorial, funny and informational videos. Just last night I found a tuturial about how to curl hair,  of course I had to get my curling iron out to try it.....lets just say it was a lot harder than it looked. Anyway I found a few good funny ones that I am going to share with you.

1. This is a video that you will eaither laugh until you cry, or will find it stupid. I find this so adorable and funny. This video makes me want to get a baby lamb because it is so cute. All you need to know about it is that the little lamb is trying to find it's owner who is calling it.
Here is the link, or you can just type in lost lamb. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jNaQ4ul7AQ

2. This video is about a little girl  who is selling girl scout cookies. Sounds normal right? NOPE there is a plot twist in this one so you will have to check it out for yourself be aware, it gets loud at the end. I also happen to find this one halarious. Again here is the link but you can search girl scout fail on youtube and it will come up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pNFJfGlsd0

3. This next one isn't as crazy as that last one but I think that it is pretty funny. It is called "The Hunger Games Musical"  It is just clips from the movie Hunger Games with music playing which relates to what is happening. I thought that it was pretty good, not my favorite. If you don't like the movie you might still like this musical because it kind of makes fun of it but that is your call. Anyway here is the link or just search Hunger Games the Musical http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpN335pY7c4

I hope you thought these videos were as funny as I do if not hopefully they made you smile a little bit! Thanks for reading:)

Identity Thief

I haven't done a movie post in a long time so that is what I am going to do. Since the last time I blogged I watched my first rated R movie in the theatre, which was super exciting. It was called Identity Thief starring Melissa McCarthy. So just like I usually do, I will do a quick summary of the movie and then a review.

This movie is about a middle aged business man, Sandy Bigelow Patterson, that gets a call from his "credit card company" saying that his identity has been stolen and they ask him for his credit card number. When actually it was a woman (McCarthy) in Florida scamming him to get his identity. When Sandy's real credit card company calls him he finds out the truth. It turns out to be a huge fiasco that might cause him to cause him his job. He has only one option, go find this woman and bring her back to his hometown to turn her in to the police. Which proves to be harder than he thought. This is all based on a true story.

I went to this movie with my Mom and we both loved it. It was a mix of everything, funny, sad, and exciting. Melissa McCarthy shined in this movie. She was the perfect person for this role and I don't think it would have been as good if she wouldn't have been in it. What I liked most about this movie was that it did have a good story with more than just jokes. Another character that I liked was "Big Chuck" played by Eric Stonestreet. It was crazy to see Eric in a different role from "Cam" on Modern Family. He plays a very sexual character in this movie which is hilarious. This is one of those movies that can potentially have that awkward sex scene while watching with your parents but it depends on your level of compatibility.
The only criticism of this movie would be that some people expected it to be hilarious all the way through. As I said I preferred the sad and heart warming moments. In my opinion it made the movie more realistic.

I would recommend this for teens and adults. I think that you cold get by with having a younger kid watch it but it wouldn't be the best parenting decision. There is a lot of adult material, swearing and  not to mention the whole sex scene. I will let you be the judge of that. I think that anyone can relate to this movie because it is such a common problem. Everyone has either had their identity stolen or knows someone that has.

Standardized Testing

Blog 4/5/13 words 506

This week was the Iowa Assessments, which is a standardized test that is required for all students in the state of Iowa. In my opinion these tests are a huge waste of time. The scores for these tests are not like those of the SAT or ACT they do not affect students admittance in to college and they are not graded on these tests. There is no real benefit for students taking these tests except for the t-shirt that they get for getting their personal best, 90^th percentile or 99^th percentile

The concept of the t-shirt incentive is a whole separate issue. It makes kids value their academic success on whether they get a shirt or not. If that is the only reason why kids are trying their best on these tests there is a problem. There is also the issue of the kids that don’t get a shirt, how are they supposed to feel? I understand that administrators are trying to increase student moral with the shirts and making those kids that did the best feel that their work is appreciated. I just think that there could be a lot more time and effort spent on other things.

Time could have been spent teaching content in our classes instead of taking 2 hours out of each day for three days. AP tests are right around the corner and I know that in the two AP classes that I am taking I need all of the time I can get in class. The timing of these tests could have been planned a lot better. I think that the best time for these tests to take place is right after AP testing is done and before finals. That way all of the stressing out about the AP exams is over and it is too early to begin to worry about finals. If it were this way I believe that scores would increase because kids would be more focused and ready to do their best on the Iowa Assessments.

Standardized testing is a problem in itself. How accurate is the information collected about students on one day? Every student has a different level of understanding for each class and it is not fair to be judging them all on the same criteria. It is a lot different for a person in Pre-Calculus to take the test from someone in 4 term 2^nd year algebra. Obviously the person in Pre-Calculus will have more of an understanding of the math concepts presented on the test than the person in 4 terms.

I think that there are other ways to measure one’s intelligence. Data collected one day out of the year is not a very comprehensive view of how well a student is doing in school. That is why the Iowa Assessments and all standardized tests need to be changed. If it were my choice there would no longer be Iowa Assessments at the very least, not having them at the same time as they were this year.

Analyze: Let Teenagers Try Adulthood

                After reading Let Teenagers Try Adulthood by Leon Botstein I started to really think about the way that things are in High Schools today compared to a few years ago. I do agree with a lot of what Leon says in this article. Too much emphasis is put on students to fit into a certain group. I also agree with how much emphasis is put on cliques in high school. Why does it matter if you were popular in high school? A lot of the time people that are “outsiders” become more successful than the most popular kids. High school is actually a very destructive place and that can lead to a lot of violence.

 I agree with what the author said about violence in schools. High school can be a very harmful experience for certain kids who are exiled by their peers. In the passage Botstein refers to the Columbine shooting and just recently there was a school shooting at Sandy Hook. These kids were obviously not a happy highschoolers. Kids like these are often outcasts and not well liked by their peers. Some of this anger could be the result of kids maturing sooner than when high school was created. Kids are becoming sexually active sooner than in years before and that causes more conflict within schools. In the past kids were maturing later in life, specifically out of high school. All of those emotions happening at once along with the stress and pressure of fitting in create a really destructive learning environment.

High School has become more about social issues instead of what it is intended for which is learning. That is what the author is saying throughout the essay. If we went back to focusing on what is important then students would be a lot more prepared and successful in life after school. He makes a point of saying that a lot of the time kids that weren’t very high on the social ladder tend to be successful in life after school. Then again High School does not prepare kids for real life and it should be abolished according to Botstein. All of this focus on social issues and lack of progress in education leads to unprepared students and isn’t the point of high school to prepare kids for real life? If it isn’t doing what it is supposed to why keep doing the things that aren’t working? These are some of the questions Botstein raises in his article.

One thing that I don’t agree with about this article is that the author says that under trained teachers is the main reason as to why students aren’t successful and why high school should be abolished. Everyone has had a teacher that isn’t the best at what they are doing but I don’t believe that that alone is the problem of high schools today. I think that it may have a part in it but I do not think that it is the main reason as to why high school isn’t successful anymore. I mean what can a teacher do to change the way that high school works? They just follow the rules of high schools; I think that the main problem is high schools themselves.

So, what can we do to change high schools to make them more up to date and successful? In the article he proposes that students graduate at 16 instead of 18 so they can get on with their lives. I agree with this to an extent. I think that some students are ready to take on the world at 16 but some need those two extra years to prepare themselves. I would change it to 16 like Botstein recommended but I would put some restrictions on who would have that option. I would make sure that high schools were not sending kids out in to the world too early and make sure that they had the knowledge to become successful. Changing the age to which kids graduate would eliminate some of that sexual tensions and frustrations. I think that administrators need to get more involved in the social aspect of high school because it is such a big part of what high school is today.

To conclude, I agree with a lot of the things that Botstein proposed in his essay with a few exceptions. High schools these days are defiantly not what they should be and there needs to be a change. The American High School has become a place of violence, discrimination and social inequality. When the focus of high school is not to become popular but to be successful outside of school.  

To Kill a Mockingbird Response

 

I thought that the way the Author criticized some of the classic books that we are required to read was very interesting. We read To Kill a Mockingbird last year in Language Arts, so I could relate to some of the things that the Author referred to. Long before last year I had heard about To Kill a Mockingbird and how it was a book that “I just had to read”.  

In my Language Arts class we had a whole unit about all of the racial discrimination and prejudices explained in the book. It felt like we were in a history class for most of the time. I agree with the author that schools need to focus less on things like that because students will get most of that information from their history classes.  I do think that it is a big part of the book and there should be some emphasis on it but we should be focusing on how the book was written. It is a lot easier to teach and discuss racial discrimination verses literary development; I think that is why some teachers decide to do just that. During the TKAM unit we wasted time discussing other racial things happening in the time period such as the Scottsburro Boys, we spent at least two class periods watching a movie about it.

Following the unit about To Kill a Mockingbird we had a unit about the Holocaust. This proves the Authors point; Language Arts classes are focusing on the wrong things. I get that the Holocaust was a big event that every student should know about but it would be more beneficial to be working on analyzing pieces of writing for literary points. Last year I was also in World History Class, So on some days we would spend two hours discussing the same topic in two different classes.

I disagree with the fact that the Author thinks that we should change some of the book lists in schools. They should be kept the same because I think that there is a reason that those books have been on lists like that for so many years. If students don’t read some of the classic books I think that they would be missing out. Books on these “must read lists” need to stay the same but the way that they are taught needs to be different.

Overall, I agree with a lot of the Authors points in her essay with the exception of a few things. Language Arts classes should be spending time learning things that will help them in the future and save history topics for history class. Book lists should stay the same but the way that they are being taught needs some serious reform.

Word Count: 462

If I Were Queen of the World

If I was Queen of the world and I could change anything about our education system that I wanted, I would start with changing standardized testing. How is one test that is taken on one day a correct representation of a student’s abilities? It's not. A student might not be a good test taker or they are having a bad day. These tests are a big deal; things like the ACT's decide whether a college will admit a student. I would have the students in and out of class work be represented. I would also spread out finals over the course of 3 days. There would be two tests a day to create more time for students to spend studying.

 
Grading would be changed to reflect the student’s effort in and out of class.  Instead of having only tests in the grade book there would be more points awarded for completed homework and in class activities. There would also be set grades, instead of having a 89.9% in a class the student would be either moved up to an A or down to a B. This would be a signal to the student so that they would know whether they need to be putting in more effort or rewarding them for doing well.

 
The next thing that I would do as Queen would be to implement some of the things happening in schools in China. In China they call on the students that are struggling with a concept to do it in front of the class instead of calling on the kids that know the answers. Of course the kid raising their hand and blurting out answers understands the concepts but what about the kid sitting next to him struggling? There would be severe consequences for blurting out answers because everyone needs the chance to try to answer questions. There needs to be more focus on getting everyone to get to the same level of proficiency.

 
If I were Queen there would be more High School elements implemented in Middle Schools there is too big of a gap between the two. There would be more emphasis on studying and test taking to prepare for High School. Time management is a skill that should be developed before High School.  Making sure that students are more prepared for High School will make them more successful. I think that Middle School is too easy right now. It needs to challenge kids more so that they have the knowledge to be successful in High School.

 
Early education would be changed to focusing on skills such as foreign languages. It is better to start learning a language as young as possible. This will help kids develop the skills needed to learn another language so that when they get older they can choose to learn a third language.

 
I believe that these changes would improve our education system and make sure that American students can compete with foreign countries. Making sure that every student has the same opportunities and resources would be a priority.  

 

 

 

 

 

The Power of Habit

I just finished a book called The Power Of Habit. It is about habits and how they are powerful. Hows that for a summary? Just kidding, it is about how habits influence us in life and business. I found this book extremely interesting. It has a lot of psychology in it which I liked because I enjoy things like that. It changed the way that I think of habits.

I never knew that they were such a big part of businesses. The author shows you how businesses uses their knowledge of habits to influence us as buyers. It is kind of freaky how businesses like Target use your information to find out what kinds of ads to send you. I never knew that things that like that happened.

This book also mentions how habits influence people. They had a few stories about people that had unique situations. There was one case that they talked about that I found really interesting. A man had a memory disorder that caused him to loose his short term memory. He still thought that he was 20 something in the war when he was actually at home in his 10's. They asked him to draw a map from his living room to his kitchen and he couldn't do it. They asked him to go to the kitchen and he got up and went to the kitchen. He knew where to go because the habits that his mind created. I thought that it was really interesting how habits that he created influenced his memory.

At times this book reminded me of a self help book which was weird for me because I haven't read anything like that before. At the end of the book there was a chapter about how you can use some of the information in the book in your life. There was a circle of habit formation that was shown throughout the book and at the end it shows you how you can plug in your situation to extinguish some habits. 

Anyway, I would recommend this book for anyone especially if you are interested in psychology. I think that anyone would like this book because we all have some habits that we don't particularly like and this book explains what is happening during habits. Thanks for reading :) 

385 word count

Safe Haven

I am so excited that one of the books that I read this year is coming out in a movie. It is called Safe Haven. When I saw the commercial for the first time I immediately paid attention because it had a song in it that I really like and then I realized that I have read the book and I got really excited. I don't really want to give a summary of it because I already did in one of my other blogs. But it is a Nicholas Sparks book so you know it is a really good love story. The movie is coming out on Valentine’s Day so I will probably go to it, by myself, loner life. Anyway, I Loved the book and I am so excited that they are making it a movie because I am obsessed with books that are turned into movies.

 Just to let you know as I am writing this blog I am wearing my Harry Potter shirt, I know I’m kind of obsessed. I could probably write a whole blog about Harry Potter. I have read all of the books a few times, seen all of the movies numerous times, have a pottermore account and have been to the amusement park. The thing that I loved about Harry Potter was the story and how it was so popular all around the world. I can’t say enough good things about Harry Potter. I loved the story and the way that it is played in the movie is so amazing. It was defiantly not a letdown like some books turned movies are. You know that something is pretty amazing when it has an amusement park. Which I have to say is freakin’ sweet.

 
I cannot say the same for the Twilight series. I read all of the books and I have to say that I did enjoy them but I kind of gave up on the movies. What I didn't like about it was that it was just a love story whereas Harry Potter had so much more than that. There is also that whole media scandal with the actors from Twilight. I feel that when I watch it all I will be able to think about is that Kristen cheated on Rob. I know that I saw the first movie for sure but after that I can't really say. I remember reading them in middle school and they were really popular at that time. The other thing that I don't really like is the whole vampire vs. wolf thing it was okay at first but now it is everywhere. It is actually really annoying, it is like that song that gets over played on the radio.

 
So in the debate between Harry Potter and Twilight, Harry Potter wins by a landslide. There is no competition for Harry Potter and no I am not forgetting about Hunger Games, I have already blogged about it so go read my older blog. Thanks for reading!

State Large Group Speech

This past Saturday was our State Large Group Speech Competition, which was held at my school this year. First of all Districts went really well, we received all ones which is the highest marking that you can get and therefore we qualified for State. As a school we were really successful at Districts, all most all of our pieces got a one rating.

This year I was in Group Mime and Radio Broadcasting. At State, our Mime went very well except our music started skipping in the middle and totally cut off at the end of our performance. I like to compare Mime to dancing because they are really similar in that you are moving to music without talking. So if you can imagine someones music stopping during their dance recital, that is pretty much what happened during our Mime. Music is crucial to Mime because you have certain cues in the music that lets you know how to be moving. Fortunately my group and I just kept going and the judges didn't score us down for it. As for Radio Broadcasting everything went as planned. We ended up getting all ones for Mime and for Radio at State but that does not mean that we move on to All-State. To move on to All-State you need to have two out of the three judges nominate you as well as having an overall one rating, it is a very selective process. Neither of the things that I was in made it to All-State.

The thing that makes me really mad is that no matter how well your scores are and how good the comments are on your ballot you still have a slim chance of making it to All-State. Wouldn't it make sense to score things lower that aren't going to go to All-State, so kids don't get their hopes up for nothing? It was very frustrating to look at the ballots and see that all most all of the comments were excellent and then not make All-State. The only justification for why you didn't make All-State is that some other group must have been better and it just wasn't good enough. Sorry, I'm done with my ranting, I guess there is always next year.

Anyway, I had a good time trying out new things this speech season and I'am looking forward to next year already. Thanks for reading :)

Word count: 400






 

Spirit Week

Spirit week. When I think of spirit week I think of fun crazy outfits and good times. For people that don't know spirit week is a week where each day has a different theme and students are encouraged to participate by dressing up according to the theme. Some of the more popular themes are things like neon day, lazy day and color outs (you wear what ever color is decided such as black or white). Some of the more creative ideas are classy day, America day and today's theme at my school: super hero day.
When participating in spirit week there is a certain level of participation that shows that you are involved but not over the top. Some people decide to totally disregard the whole week and wear normal clothes while others are putting on face paint and dying their hair. I guess it depends on each persons level of confidence and desire to stand out. You can tell by walking around school on spirit week who has enough confidence to look ridiculous in front of everyone and who is more comfortable blending in.
The whole purpose of spirit week is to make people feel united and it brings everyone together. It is a fun way to make school more interesting. An example of this happened at my school earlier this year when we lost a classmate to cancer. Everyone wore purple to show support for him including teachers. It was really amazing to see how many people wore purple and bought the shirts that were made in honor of him. It showed how group of people can come together in the wake of a tragedy.

Next time you have a chance to participate anything such as spirit week think twice about how your support or lack of can influence your peers. Thanks for reading:)

Do It Yourself Projects

Websites like Pintrest have been increasing in popularity over the last few years. On pintrest there are categories such as food and drinks, DIY, fashion and hair. In this blog I will show you some of the DIY (do it yourself) projects that I have found on pinterest and tried out. Some have worked out really well and some were a bit harder than I thought they would be.

First of all most of the recipes found on pintrest work out most of the time for me if they are something that is fairly simple. With the exception of the really crafty things (I am not very crafty or artsy). My friend, Emily and I made a whole 5 course dinner from recipes on pintrest one night because we were bored and it turned out to be very good.

I have tried some things that haven't turned out as well as I would have hoped. I made a  plate/serving tray.As you can tell what I got is far from what should happened. All that you have to do to try to do this is place mints on to a pan with some parchment paper on it and put it in the oven for about 8-10 minutes.

The top picture is what it was supposed to look like and the bottom is what I got.

The next project is a calender made out of paint samples and a picture frame. All you have to do for this one is get the colors that you want for the days of the week, a picture frame and a white piece of paper. After that you just lay out the days in the way that you want it and glue them on to the white paper. Then you put it in to the frame and you are done. This is really easy and fun to do.  I gave it to my parents as a gift because all of the colors match my house and my dad owns a painting company.

This is what it is supposed to look like 

This is the calender that I made

This is what it should look like 

This is what mine looks like

The next project is making a tank top out of an old t shirt. The only things that you need to do this are an old tshirt and some fabric scissors. To do this you have to cut off the sleeves of the shirt, the neck line and the hem at the bottom. Then you cut the back as low and as revealing as you want. The next thing you have to do is take the bottom piece of the shirt that you cut off and stretch it out so it is a long piece. Then you take the back of the shirt and pull it together and tie it by wrapping it around and knotting it with the long piece.

If you want to see more of the DIY projects that I have found on pintrest you can follow me my name is katie2wolfe. Thanks for reading :)  

Abduction

"Teenager finds out that that they have been lied to their whole life and their parents aren't really their parents." That is the summary of countless movies and tv shows. Last weekend my family and I were looking for an appropriate movie that we would all enjoy. Which, actually a pretty hard thing to do because a lot of movies now a days are really inappropriate and my Dad does not like to watch movies like that with us, even though we are clearly old enough. Anyway, we were searching netflix for what seemed like forever, when we came upon a movie called Abduction starring Taylor Lautner. So, we decided that to see if it was any good.

It is obviously about a kid that finds out his parents aren't really his parents but this movie had a good twist. At one point in the middle of the movie my Dad looked over at me and said "don't we know how it's going to end? His parents abducted him when he was a baby." My response was "yeah, but lets keep watching anyway."  A few moments after my Dad said that we knew that we were wrong. This is one of those movies that makes you believe that you have it all figured out but you really don't.

 I don't want to give away too much in case you want to watch it but this movie has a lot of action and has a really good twist to it. I thought that the beginning was pretty slow and boring but I'm really glad that we decided to keep watching it because it turned out to be really good. It was also a bit cheesy when Taylor finds out that his parents are lying to him. It seemed a bit over acted but that could have been just me because like I said I have seen a lot of movies that have the same ideas. At times it was hard to follow who was who because there is a lot of different minor characters that look a lot a like and at some points in the movie I kept thinking that Taylor looked like a wolf. Other than those things I really enjoyed this movie. It kept all of my family interested and any movie that can do that is a good movie in my book.

If you are looking for an action, thriller movie I would recommend this movie to you. It is appropriate for families that have older children. Let me know if you watch it, Thanks for reading!:)

Carrie

I finished another book so that means another book blog. I read Carrie by Stephen King. My reasoning for choosing this book was that it was reading day in my class and I forgot my book at home. I also wanted to try another Stephen King book because I liked Pet Symetary. I had heard about this book but I never knew what it was about. So, I decided it was time to read it.

This book is about a girl who has gotten constantly bullied all throughout school by her peers. Her mom is obsessed with god and makes Carrie practice her beliefs with her. The whole town knows how strange Carrie and her mother are. An incident in the locker room after gym pushes Carrie over the edge and causes her to realize that she has this unusual power known as telekinesis. Which is the ability to move objects using your mind. Another such incident at prom causes Carrie to put this power to work when she decides that enough is enough and that revenge is what these people deserve.

What I liked about this book is that all throughout the story there are news clippings and interviews from the rampage of Carrie. It made me want to keep reading to find out what she really did. They also added a realistic quality to the book. This book kept me interested from beginning to end I could hardly put it down. I thought that it also had a pretty good message which is that bullying and harassing people is not okay. You never know what other people are dealing with at home and in their personal lives. In this book the bullies never took the time to try to be nice to Carrie and it did not end well for them. It was however pretty graphic and dealt with mature topics. I would recommend this for girls that are at least in high school and aren't faint hearted because this book doesn't have a happy ending.

They actually made a movie from this book in 1976. I really want to see how they interpreted this story in the movie because it is pretty graphic. I am  going to keep reading books by Stephen King for sure because the two that I have read have been very good. When I watch the movie I will let you know what I think about it. thanks for reading! :)

What Are You Going to do With Your Life?

Where are you going to college? What do you want to do with the rest of your life? How are we supposed to know as juniors in high school what we want to do for the rest of our lives? We have begun the process of registering for classes for our senior year and our teachers kept asking us what we want to do in college, but what if we have no idea?

The whole registering for classes is a big production at my school due to the amount of students. First we have sheets that we have our current teachers sign with their recommendation for the course that they think that we should take next year. Each student decides if they want to do what their teacher recommends or if they want to try something else. Then we have to take those sheets and complete the online process which is selecting the courses from your sheet. We have to start doing this in January just to make sure that the councelers have enough time to figure out the schedules for everyone.

Then there is AP classes. These are classes that are taught at the college level in order to prepare students. There is just about an AP version of any subject. There is a lot of pressure put on students to take AP classes by administrators. At my school it is pretty much required to take at least one AP class before graduating because of the way that they prepare students for college. However it depends on what you want to be as to what type of AP classes if any you take.

It is really hard to think about what I am going to do after high school. People have always made all of the major decisions in our lives up until now. It is up to us to decide which college if any we want to go to and what to major in. It is even harder being the first one in your family to go to college because your family doesn't have that experience to share with you. College visits are the first things that are recommended for high school students.

There is a lot of pressure put on students now a days to grow up. What happened to enjoying high school? especially senior year? Senior year and even junior year ends up becoming very stressful instead of laid back. So, what do you want to do with the rest of your life? Thanks for reading:)

Online Shopping

Online shopping has become a very popular way to shop in recent years. This past black Friday had more people than ever shopping online to skip the frustration of the stores. It doesn't stop with black Friday though. Online shopping has become a huge thing.

Pricing is a big reason as to why people to shop online instead of in store. In most cases stores have special deals for online shoppers that you can't get in store. Generally it would cost more to shop online due to shipping rates, so to compensate for this store will have deals to get people to buy it online. It is also quicker to compare products online to get exactly what you want instead of going to stores. Google even has a shopping tool where you can look for products that you want to buy.

Just about every store or brand has a website that you can buy from. Websites like Ebay, Pintrest and Wanelo make it easy for shoppers by having a wide range of products. Wanelo is the newest craze in online shopping. Wanelo stands for want, need, love. It is pretty much pintrest but you can buy everything on the website. When you click on an image that looks like something that you want to buy, you will be directed to a site like ebay where you can buy it. What I love about Wanelo is that the things that they have are really unique things that you wouldn't be able to find in a store. If you are an online shopper I would recommend Wanelo for you.

Sometimes buying online can be pretty sketchy though. You have to make sure that the website that you are buying from is reliable so you don't get ripped off. Making sure that your credit card number doesn't get stolen is another thing that you have to worry about with online shopping. A lot of the time I don't order online just because I want to make sure that what I'm buying fits and looks good on me. I have also heard that a lot of people get in trouble with online shopping because they loose track of how much money they are really spending because they just have to type in their credit card numbers and that's it.

From the way that things are going I'm sure that online shopping will out number in store shopping. Which will be more convenient but also cause problems for people. Anyway thank you for stopping your online shopping for a minute to read this blog:)

American Idol 2013

"This is American Idol" is the iconic greeting from Ryan Secrest, before every show of American Idol. Last night was the premiere of the 12th season. I am one of those people that have stuck with this show from the first season with Kelly Clarkson. In the past few years there has been a lot of changes in the judges. The original pannel of Randy Jackson, Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul are long gone. This year has brought some changes with the judging, this year the judges are Randy Jackson, Nicki Manaj, Mariah Carey, and Keith Urban. I haven't decided my position on these new judges.

From what I have seen so far I like Nicki's personality a lot, I think that she takes over the "Stephen Tyler" of the show, with their funny comments. I have to admit that I don't really have any background information or opinions about Keith but I LOVE his accent. I am one of those people that are obsessed with other peoples accents. I don't have my finger on Mariah just yet. Then there is my dawg, Randy Jackson. He is not only the last remaining original judge but he is just so real in that he tells it how it is.

This year is pretty exciting for Iowa because there are at least two contestants that have made it to Hollywood week. Alisabeth Von Presley from Cedar Rapids and Gabe Brown from Marion Iowa. Alisabeth actually helps out with our musical theatre groups for speech at my school and I saw Gabe perform at a local restaurant. It is really fun to see people that are from your town on a show as big as American Idol. I hope that they both do really well! I am looking forward to a great year of American Idol.

Thanks for reading :)

Speech

This upcomming weekend is Districts for our speech team. First of all let me explain speech because a lot of people have misconceptions about it. It is not standing in front of a group of people talking. Speech is basically acting. There are different categories such as group and solo mime, improv, choral reading, readers theatre, one act play, ensemble acting and musical theatre. There is also some categories that are non performing such as short film, radio broadcasting and TV. news broadcasting. A student can only be in two events (maximum) each year.

I have done speech for three years now and I have been in short film, radio broadcasting, TV. news, choral reading and group mime. I have really enjoyed speech because it helps with class presentations. It is also a way for people to be involved in theatre without being in a play. At my school we have two musicals, and one regular play per year. I am not a singer whatsoever so I can only try out for the non-musical play. I go to a very large high school so there are a lot of people trying out for the plays. Our last non-musical play was Rumors and it had a cast of about 12 people. So as you can tell this really limits a persons chance of being cast. Speech gives a lot of people opportunities to act that wouldn't have gotten a chance and that is why I love it so much.

Another reason as to why I love speech is that the competitions are so much fun. After you are done performing you can go watch other performances. It is really fun to go support your classmates and watch other schools perform. My favorite categories to watch are choral reading, readers theatre, mime and improv. I just find those categories fun to watch because they are they aren't too long and I have some experience with them. This year should be even more fun because we got more of our friends to sign up this year. For the last two years it has been me and two of my friends but this year we convinced some of our other friends to sign up too.

This weekend is the first competition of three. If you get a one at districts you get to move on to state. At state you have 3 judges and to move on you have to get three ones and be recommended by two judges to make it to all state. It is very hard to get an all state nomination. At all state you can win a banner for the category that you performed in but only one school takes home the banner. For example our improv team took home the banner for  the last two years, which is a huge honor.

This year my school is also hosting the state competition which is pretty exciting. Being the host school means that every student has to have a "job" during the day. Some of the jobs are timer, room chair and hallway monitor. Timer just times the performance and tells the performers when they have to stop. Room chair opens the door to the center when it is about to begin and crosses off the list of performances. Hallway monitor makes sure that people are quiet in the hallways outside of centers that have performances going on.

I guess my purpose of this blog is to tell people what speech is really about. Hopefully, if you aren't in speech right now you consider it because it is really fun. Thanks for reading:)

Reality TV.

Reality TV has become a major type of TV show watched in America in the past few years. Shows like Real Housewives, Keeping Up With The Kardashians, and Here Comes Honey Boo Boo are a few of the most popular reality shows. But what makes them so good? they are just people living their lives. So why do we find them so fascinating? Have you ever tried to explain why you like these shows so much to someone? It is rather difficult.

The Real Housewives of (any city that you can think of) is basically a show about a group of women's drama. The whole show is basically about who said what about each other. It is all about drama. I am addicted to the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. I know that it is all drama but I can't stop watching. My Mom and I started watching last season and now we have to see every episode. My Dad has asked me what I like about it and I have a hard time telling him.

Take Keeping Up With The Kardashians, this show has 3.0 million viewers in its 6th season according to By The Numbers website. All the show is about is the Kardashian's day to day lives. So why so many viewers? In my opinion, I think that people like to see how different the Kardashians lives are to their own lives. We are fascinated by celebrities.

Lastly, Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. Why do we find a bunch of disgusting hillbillies so fascinating? What makes us want to watch their show? Is it because we again just want to compare our lives to theirs? I have to admit that I have seen a few episodes and at times it is just revolting. I always ask myself why I am wasting my time watching these people?

I guess it is just to see how other people live their lives compared to our own. Even so it is interesting that shows like these are actually on TV. because they are just people's lives. Anyway thanks for reading :)

The Summerland Project

If you had the chance would you bring someone you loved back from the dead? Is it an ethical or moral issue? Those are the questions that the play, Summerland Project makes you think about. I went to see Summerland project at TCR last night with my family. It was a very thought provoking play because it was such a controversial topic. It was actually written by someone who worked at TCR and last night was the world premiere.
It was about a man that had lost his wife to a brain aneurysm and he had the opportunity to bring her back to life with a new technology. After the procedure she would feel, look and act like she used to. The only things that would be different is that she would have to be hooked up to a battery to charge and she wouldn't need to eat anything. The whole play is about how controversial this new procedure is and how technology is taking over.
The only thing that could have been a little bit better was that it dragged on a lot and I thought that the ending should have been different. Other than that I really liked how this play integrated science fiction with romance. My family liked it because there was a little bit of everything for everyone.

Thanks for reading :)

Netflix T.V. Shows

This blog will be about some of my favorite T.V shows that are on Netflix. They aren't similar to each other so there is a little bit of everything.

 I know that this show isn't new or anything but I have started watching it in order and I have became obsessed. The show is called The Office. I remember watching it when it was still on T.V but I never watched it as consistently as I should have. For those of you that don't know The Office is about a paper company called Dunder Mifflin. The manager of the Scranton branch is Michael Scott (Steve Carrell). He makes this show so good. The next stand out character is Dwight Shrute (Rainn Wilson). Dwight Shrute is one of those unforgettable characters. The best part about this show is how little work they end up doing and how they spend their time in the office. The Office has a certain type of humor that people either love or hate. My Aunt doesn't like this show because there is no laugh reel so she doesn't know when to laugh. My Mom doesn't get how it is funny. I personally think that it is very comical and witty.

Obsessed, My Extreme Animal Phobia and Freaky Eaters (and other people with OCD shows) are pretty popular shows on netflix (I know Obsessed and Freaky Eaters are on Netflix for sure). People are fascinated with other people's problems. I'll admit it, I think that it is really interesting to see how people have to deal with life and their phobias or OCD problems. Obsessed is a show about people that are obviously obsessed with something. The way that something is categorized as a phobia is that it interrupts the persons daily life. My Extreme Animal Phobia is about people that have and irrational fear of animals. I saw an episode about a person that was afraid of moths and I saw another one that was about a man that was afraid of puppies. They use exposure to help these people overcome their fear. Lastly, Freaky Eaters is a show about people that will only eat a certain type of food. In an episode that I saw the woman would only eat cheesy potatoes. I also saw one where there is a guy that will only eat pizza. So they bring in a specialist that helps them to overcome their eating problems. These shows are interesting because you get to see what made these people the way that they are and how they overcome their issues.

Those are a few of my favorite shows to watch on Netflix if you need a new show to watch try these out. Thanks for reading :)

Social Networking

Now a days everyone is on some type of phone most likely checking Twitter or Facebook. There are so many different types of social media sites. First and foremost there is Facebook everyone and their grandma knows about facebook. It has become a site that you can not only connect with friends but share photos, play games, and creep on people. You can't say that you haven't creeped at least once in your life on someone. I'm not going to explain it any further because I'm sure you can get the gist of it.

 Anyway another popular website is Twitter. Now just about anything that you watch on T.V. has a little hash tag so you can tweet about the show. Twitter is different than facebook in that Twitter is just a little update about what you are doing. There isn't any games on twitter and there isn't very many pictures like Facebook. There are also some different things that you can do like on Facebook you can "like" or "comment". On Twitter you can "re tweet" something that someone said this will just show up like you tweeted it but with the person that you retweeted name is under it. You can "favorite" someones tweet. This shows up that you favoritedsomeones tweet it is just saying that you like what they said. You can also quote what someone said (I don't use this one as much). Quoting is used if you want to respond to what someone said. You can also just tag them in your tweet like facebook. I hope this clears up some questions about Twitter.

The next social media site that is pretty popular is Instagram. You have to have a smart phone or some kind Apple devise such as an ipod to join this site. All Instagram is, is a site for  pictures that people take. There are no status updates or games. You just update a picture of something and then you can add a filter which is just something that will either brighten your photo or make it black and white. Some of the things that you can do is crop it, blur out some of it, or put a frame on your picture. Most of the things that you can do is the same as Twitter and Facebook. The only thing that people do is comment on pictures or like them. Some of the things that you might want to know if you are thinking about getting one is some of the abbreviations that people use: there is "tbt" which means "throw back Thursday"you would say this when you are uploading a picture from a long time ago. There is "OOTD" this one had me really confused when i first got one but it means "outfit of the day" So you would just take a picture of whatever you are wearing. Those are the two big abbreviations that are used on Instagram. There is also photo challenges that people do where you find a list of types of pictures and then you upload a picture everyday.

The next thing that I'm going to talk about is the newest social media app. You also need a smart device or phone to become apart of this site. It is called Snapchat. Snapchat is a way that you can send someone a picture but they only get to see it for a few seconds before it is "erased forever". As you can tell this one can be used inappropriately but most people (by most people I mean my friends and I) use it for ugly selfies. A selfie is where you turn the camera so you are the only thing in the picture. You can draw on your picture or type something on top but that is pretty much it. If you have an iPhone you can send videos but there is no liking or commenting on photos because they are gone within a few seconds.

I hope this helped if you were thinking about getting a new social media site. I know that a lot of people get confused when they start talking about all of the different sites or they think that they are all the same. Thanks for reading and if you have a twitter or instagram follow me at katie2wolfe. Thanks :)

The Importance of Music

Hello, what are you listening to right now? You can tell a lot about a person by what type of music they listen to or what type of mood someone is in. Music is a pretty powerful thing , it can relax us, "pump us up", or take us back to a different memory. Mostly everyday when we walk in to Language Arts my teacher plays music for the first five minutes. I really like this five minutes to a just from one class to the next. Some teachers jump right in to their class when we are still thinking about our last class. My point is that music is a big part of every one's lives whether we know it or not.

As for my taste in music I am normally that person that listens to whatever is on the radio but right now I am kind of obsessed with Florence and the Machine and Mumford and Sons. I'm kind of getting in to Taylor Swift too. I also like the oldies: Journey, .38 Special, Elton John and Bon Jovi are a few of my favorite oldies.Someones taste in music is completely their own and unique take my brother for instance, we are pretty close in things that we like and our personalities but when it comes to music he likes the hard rap but I can't stand it. I think that it is important to respect someone for their taste in music if it is different than yours.

Anyway, if you haven't heard of Florence and the Machine or Mumford and Sons you should defiantly check them out if you like indie/folksy music. Thanks for reading :)

DIY Pintrest Craft

Hello, this blog will be about an project that I just did on Pintrest. Earlier this year I found a really cool idea on Pintrest. So I asked for the materials for Christmas. I ended up getting them and then doing the craft over break. There isn’t really name for this DIY project but it is basically crayon melting.

The only materials are: Canvases, crayons, hair dryer, hot glue (or regular glue, I used my hot glue gun and it worked well) Once you have all of the materials all you have to do is to glue the crayons on to the canvas. Now there is a number of ways that you can arrange the crayons. Some people do hearts or you could just line them up on the top of the canvas like I did. I am actually making another one for my Dad and I am going to arrange them in an arch, like a rainbow. The next thing you have to do is find out where you want to do the melting because it can be really messy.  I recommend doing it somewhere where you can lean the canvas up on a wall or some sturdy object. It helps when you go to melt the crayons if you can have the wax roll down the canvas. Once you have the location you need to get newspaper or an old table cloth to lay out. When doing this you need to make sure to tape some newspaper on to the wall (I learned this the hard way) because when you melt the wax it splatters around. The next thing that you need to do is to plug in your blow dryer and start melting the crayons. You should angle the blow dryer down from the top of the canvas if you want it to run down.

What I liked about this is that it doesn’t take that long and that the materials are common enough things. Sometimes DIY projects are impossibly hard or have weird materials in them. I also like how you can customize this however you want. I put a quote at the bottom of mine from Disney's Pocahontas “Can you paint with all the colors of the wind” I was debating putting “the colors melt like lemon drops” from over the rainbow but I will just use that on a different one. I also saw where people put a silhouette of a couple underneath an umbrella.

Anyway I really liked the way that mine turned out, here is a picture of what mine looked like. Let me know if you end up trying this, thanks for reading! J  

Just Another Movie Blog

Hello, today is the second day back from winter break. So this blog will be about some of my netflix adventures that happened over break but also I will talk about some of the up and coming movies that are on my list to see.

First of all when I am on netflix I usually end up looking for a movie for a long time and then watching some of it and if I don't like it I end up watching the Office. I will do a whole blog about TV series on netflix sometime.

Over break my family and I decided to watch a movie on netflix, my Dad was the person picking out the movie (not a good idea on my part because he tends to pick the weirdest movies.) Anyway, after contemplating for what seemed like forever he finally chose, Clue. The movie is about the board game also named Clue with all of the original characters. It was very interesting to say the least. It came out in 1985 so as you can imagine it was pretty out of date. I thought it was pretty interesting to see all of the characters and how the story played out, having played the game a lot when I was younger. However I did not like the ending. The reason as to why I didn't like the ending was that there was multiple endings that "could" have happened, I thought that it was dragged out too long. The idea was good because they were trying to show how during the game there are a lot of possibilities every time you play. My Mom hated the movie, she thought that it was really "cheesy" and weird. All in all it was a pretty good movie if you have played the game and are in the mood for an old cheesy movie.

I can't remember if I have already blogged about Men In Black 3 but we gave it to my Dad as a Christmas present. I had already seen it but I thought that it was really good. I loved the ending of this movie because it wraps everything up from the rest of the movies. If you have seen all of the other Men in Blacks then I would HIGHLY recommend this movie.

Now for all of the movies that are on "my list of movies to see". First and foremost I really want to go see Les Miserables. I'm sure that you have all heard about this movie because it is such a popular movie/musical. We talked about it in class yesterday and someone said that there is a total of ten words spoken throughout the whole movie. My friend went to see it and said that it was really good. I'm not sure if I want to go to the theatre to see it because everyone says that it is really sad and I am  a really big cry baby in movies.

I have seen commercials about the next movie, it is called A Haunted House. It is making fun of all of the scary movies like Paranormal Activity. It is kind of like all of the Scary Movies because they both make fun of scary movies. Anyway, it looks really funny and I want to go see it.

Call me lame but I also want to go see Parental Guidance. I thought that this movie looked funny even though it looks a little "cheesy". I hope that this movie isn't one that has all of the funny parts in the commercials. I hate it when movie people do that, why would I want to go see a movie when I know all of the funny parts from the commercials?

Those are just a few on my "list of movies that I want to see". Hopefully I will get the chance to go see some of them soon and then I will do a review on them. Oh, I also got a new book over break, it's called The Power of Habit. I will do a blog about it when I finish but as of right now I really like this book. Until next time, thanks for reading :)