Zombies?

So yesterday at work I heard parts of a conversation over near where the Enquirer magazines are...you know the magazines where all the fake news stories are. Some of the words I heard were: naked, cannibal, man's face, GONE, took a couple shots to kill him. So of course, you can imagine my stunned reaction. At first, I was like "helloooo you're reading this from fake magazines! Let's get real people, this is NOT real" On my break, however, is when I was totally freaked out. I went over and grabbed the newspaper that had a title that read, "SICK! Man Eats Another Man's Face" and to my surprise it was not the Enquirer or some other dumb magazine. Some guy really did eat another man's face off! 80% in fact. What is this world coming to? Drugs and zombies? Drugged zombies? I don't know, and I don't know if I really even want to know what's going on. Just kidding, I'm very interested in what would make a human being get naked and then eat the face of another naked human being ON A HIGHWAY no less. I feel like "normal" cannibals would at least do that in their garage or in the woods or someplace private, not where you have a million witnesses. So, I will spend the next couple of days researching this gruesome topic because sadly, it is quite intriguing.

Too Much of A Good Thing

After much anticipation, I finally went to the new Forever 21 store at Carousel. What a disappointment. Everyone told me that it's really huge and overwhelming, but they did not stress to me just how huge and overwhelming it is! You walk in sorta knowing what you want to buy, and suddenly you lose all sanity and run around like a mad woman because there is just so much stuff! I didn't necessarily like the old store, but I didn't hate it either. I think a one story re-vamp of the store would have sufficed, but no they had to one up themselves and make it like a department store! The one thing I liked was that they have a shoe room with a lot of shoes and they had mt size in the store for once! I never get that lucky. Once I became semi-sane again, I spent way too much money and all of that good stuff, so I guess I'll just get used to it.

Prom Hater

It's a good thing that I don't have prom again next year, because I wouldn't go. It really is a huge waste of money. Tickets were $40 this year and for what? The food wasn't even that good, and that's really all I cared about. The extra money went to cheapy little masks that were probably made for 50 cents and decorations that no one really appreciated. As if that wasn't bad enough, I didn't win anything at the after party! I stayed up until 4 in the morning for absolutely nothing! Such a rip off. I got a t shirt out of that whole little deal, yay. All in all, the only good thing I got out of prom this year were pretty good pictures before, which I guess is good, but if you think about it I paid a lot of money to go to a park in a dress and take pictures. Oh and don't forget the part where you get to go watch your classmates basically fornicate on the dance floor. Nooooo thank you.

Dream Job: Disney Princess

 

Today at work, after a particularly pleasant customer was done yelling at me because she couldn't return her half eaten box of donuts, I started thinking, is there a job that you can truly love? I could never be a doctor because I’m pretty sure I would faint if I saw blood or anything. I’ve been thinking about being a real estate agent, but ehh I’m still not sure. Life is just so complicated and I find something I don’t like about every career! But then a genius idea popped into my head. Disney princesses know where it is at. Playing dress up every single day to take pictures with little kids that adore you AND at the happiest place on earth? Who wouldn’t want to do that?! There is no physical labor involved, no bitchy old ladies who yell at you for no reason, and you just get to make little kid’s days all day long. The only downfall I can think of is that your mouth would get tired from smiling all the time, but hey, I’m sure I could get used to that. If all that isn’t convincing you, you also get to live in Florida OR California. Beaches and nice weather all the time! When you aren’t at your wonderful job, you can lay at the beach. So, next time you’re in Florida, hunt me down, I’ll probably be in the blonde wig, poofy blue dress and perma smile. 

Senioritis: A Problem or Not?

What is senioritis anyways? People going to college next year are going to have to get back in the swing of thing anyways so why waste most of our time screwing around when we are just going to have to work hard in a couple months and take things seriously? Don't get me wrong, I have senioritis as much as the next person, but I don't really see the point in losing all motivation when I just have to get it all back and more when I go to college. However, even after my rant I will continue to have senioritis because it's easier.

       

     Forget what you’ve heard, The Hunger Games is not the next Twilight! This is an actual story, it is very well written, and best of all, it has amazing characters! Katniss Everdeen is a very strong teenage girl just trying to provide for her mother and younger sister Prim. Although it is illegal, Katniss hunts in the forest outside her small town, although hunting is illegal, and the forest is forbidden. With her bow and arrow Katniss is able to provide food for her family, and many of her neighbors in town also. Gale is Katniss’ most important accessory of all while hunting. Gale is Katniss’ best friend, they’ve been hunting together for a very long time and their friendship borders on love.

            Every year, the Capitol chooses two kids, ages 12 to 18, from each district to go fight to the death in the Hunger Games. Katniss’ partner happens to be Peeta Mellark. Peeta and Katniss had met before when Peeta gave Katniss bread from his parent’s bakery, but other than that they did not really know each other. This story is based in the future when the United States was broken up by rebellion and was replaced by Panem. Panem is made up of 12 different districts and the people of that district are to remain in their district forever, it is against the law to leave. The Hunger Games is the Capitol’s way of showing the districts that they are strong and are not to be challenged.

            The central theme of this novel is survival. This theme is evident throughout the novel, not just when Katniss enters the Hunger Games. Even in the beginning, in District 12, survival is crucial and an everyday struggle. Food is not plentiful and the living conditions are terrible. District 12 is a very poverty stricken place; there is hardly any food, money, and no help from the Capitol. District 12 is a mining town, so everyone who lives there focuses on the mines, not farming or hunting, because hunting is illegal. Even if there were farmers in the District, the land would not be good for farming because everything is covered in coal dust. The huts in the District are falling apart and many people are living in one hut, and can barely fit in them. In some cases, people share beds. The people of District 12 are also very poor. Many goods are acquired through trade and bargaining. There are no grocery stores to go buy food from. In fact, Katniss’ little sister Prim owns a goat which produces milk that they make cheese out of, this is their only source of cheese and milk. There are no showers in the huts, Katniss and her family take baths by boiling water in a pot and using that. Even before the Hunger Games Katniss, her family, and essentially everyone who doesn’t live at the Capitol struggle every day to survive.

            When Katniss reaches the Hunger Games, survival has a whole new meaning. There, food is even scarcer, especially if you do not know how to hunt. The only way to get food at the Hunger Games is to fight and get it at the beginning of the games and risking your life, or hoping that you’re a good hunter or know which plants are poisonous and which ones are not. As if worrying about feeding yourself wasn’t bad enough, you also must make sure your life is not taken from you, whether it’s an animal or another person who takes it. The Capitol makes animals that are even more dangerous than natural animals and the players in the game are constantly on the hunt for their opponents. Even after winning the Hunger Games, the winner must watch out for the Capitol. The government of Panem is so corrupt that the winner must always fear for their life, even after going through the Hell of the Hunger Games.

            One literary element in the Hunger Games is the use of epiphany.  Before Katniss and Peeta enter the Hunger Games, Peeta tells Katniss that he doesn’t want the games to change him or to be “just a piece in their game”, and at first, Katniss does not understand what Peeta meant by this. When Katniss’ friend during the games, Rue, is killed, however, Katniss has an epiphany and finally understands. Rue, the only person that Katniss trusted in the games, was killed by another player. Katniss covered Rue’s body in flowers in hopes that she could get a respectful burial and to show the Capitol that their games are pointless and only taking innocent children’s lives. The Capitol did not air the piece where Katniss covered Rue in flowers. This moment makes Katniss realize just how corrupt her government is. They choose 24 children every year to go and kill each other, just for the entertainment value. From this moment on, Katniss fights the Capitol, and also realizes that Peeta wants to do the same thing, which connects them even more.

            Overall, I thought this was a great read! As soon as I finished the first book, I went out and bought the second and third books! Usually, I don’t like to follow reading fads *cough cough* Twilight, but this was totally different. This is actually a well-written book with great characters (and no vampires thankfully), I really couldn’t put it down. I really liked the fact that it was set in the future; it was interesting seeing what the author thought that America would be like many years from now. I loved that Collins used names that were unique; it definitely kept my attention because it’s a totally different world than ours. Essentially, I think I loved this book so much because it is something different than what I usually read. Katniss Everdeen is not your typical girl. She is strong willed, tough, and a great hunter. These days, the main characters in books are none of those, especially if they’re a girl! It’s nice to see a change in how girls are personified in literature. Although Collins changed up the view on girls, she still kept the good old love story, and I loved that! The love story was almost unexpected because the reader’s view on Katniss is so set in stone, you think that she doesn’t have time or even the want for love, but then it comes and it’s a nice break from all the killing and craziness. One thing I did not like about this novel was that it was sort of hard to grasp at first. I started reading this book not knowing anything about it so it took me a while to realize the setting and everything. I guess I just didn’t like the amount of time it took to come right out and say that it was in the future and things were totally different. But that was the only thing I didn’t like, and I got over it really fast.

            I would recommend this book to everyone I know! And I have already; my mom is reading it right now! It’s a well-written book that really makes the reader think about things. It almost makes you thankful for everything we have, because in comparison to Panem, we have a lot. This book keeps you on the edge of your seat and makes you never want to stop reading. As I said before, this book is like no other that I’ve ever read and that is what makes it so good. It’s a nice change from reality television and all of that other garbage. So, go out and read this amazing book! You won’t regret it.

Decisions, Decisions

Usually, I would love all of this nice weather, and don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining! But it does present a problem: what do I wear?! I don't want to be that girl that wears shorts too soon, but I also don't want to be too hot. It's just like in the fall when you're not quite sure when to bring the Uggs out! Then again, we don't have that problem at our wonderful school because lately I swear they've had the air conditioning on even though it’s been quite chilly.


I also had line dancing in gym today, so that kind of messed my dress idea up. Who wants to wear a dress and sneakers for line dancing in gym? Not this girl. After consulting my personal weather man (a.k.a. my dad), I decided that a dress would be a good decision because it was going to get up to 70 degrees today. I would just have to rock the dress and sneakers look for a period anyways, I figured I could survive.


Yes, the temperatures lately are very summer-like, but in my humble opinion it is still way too early for shorts, especially with our bi polar New York weather! Wait a couple more weeks at least to see if this wonderful weather is going to continue, then the shorts can come out for good.