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 :)

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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 :)