My iPod

Music is a huge part of my life! I listen to music everyday, whether its in the car, in my room, or even in the shower. My iPod is my life, and I would be completely lost without it. I am getting a new one for either my birthday or Christmas this year. I have had the little blue nano one for almost three years now and somehow I have managed to break the buttons. Anyway, I love all types of music so I have everything from 50 Cent to Celiene Dion on my ipod. My three favorite types of music are country, rap, and pop music. The country artist with the most songs on my iPod is Taylor Swift. What girl does not like Taylor Swift? I could not name one! I have all her songs from both of her albums plus others. Keith Urban, Dierks Bentley, and Kenny Chesney also make up probably half of the country play list. For rap music, the artist I have with the most songs is none other than Lil' Wayne. All of his songs are good, I do not really dislike any of them. I also have a lot of other artists like Gucci Mane who are really good too. Pop music is more girly, and as you can tel from my previous blogs Britney Spears is my favorite! I have tons of her songs, also Lady GaGa and Kelly Clarkson. There are other genres of music on my iPod too like rock and some really random songs. I love every single song on my iPod! Whenever I am in an bad mood, I can depend on my ipod to turn my frown upside down.

Myths and Lies

People make up all kinds of lies and myths about others everyday. Whether its in the latest issue of People Magazine, or the latest rumor in the hallway at school, lies ar told all the time. The biggest reason why I think that people tell lies are because people are jealous of others. When people make up false stories or myths about another person, they may do this because they want to see the other person made fun of or hurt. Telling lies makes that person feel better about themselves when they see the other person looked down upon. It is pretty pathetic how people act sometimes, but it is the truth. In the world of celebrities, people tell lies so that they have the latest breaking news on a celeb. A myth sort of gives you the sense that it could be true or false. You normally here the word myth, when someone is talking about something from the old days, or something bizarre and mysterious. When I here the word lie, I think that the information is completely false. There is a difference in the meaning of the words to me, and I think that many others could tell this difference as well. Nobody in today's world says, "Oh my gosh did you hear that myth about Eminem?" Everyone always says the word lie. You hear the word myth when someone says, " There is an old myth about the Indian spirits that are still around." Anyways, myths and lies are told all the time whether we choose to believe them or not.

Messed Up Stuff

So today I am going to tell a story about my older cousin, Katie. Katie is the oldest cousin I have out of my entire family. She is about seven years older than me, and has had a troubled life. Growing up, she did not have the best childhood and I think this truly effected where she is in life today. Her parents divorced when she was only six years old, and her mother began to get into drugs. After the divorce, she lived with my Uncle Steve who raised her the right way. When she got into middle school, Katie started to rebel and decided she wanted to live with her mother because her mom let her do whatever she wanted. My uncle was very upset, and this began her path down the wrong road. When Katie got into high school things go even worse. At seventeen years old, she was pregnant with her first child. She was involved in many different types of drugs and things were getting dangerous. Her boyfriend died of an overdose on crystal meth. After all this happened, Katie dropped out of high school. Just two years later, she was pregnant again with a second child. Through out all of this, she developed an addiction to meth. Today she is still heavily into drugs and has just recently had her third child. She has been in jail multiple times for possession and shop lifting. my family has tried over and over again to send her to rehab but she will not stay. She does not even want to attempt to save and change her life. My family does not know where she is these days, and we fear she will die soon. She does not even want her first two children, my uncle takes care of them. Everything is so messed up about her life. I have not seen her in almost seven years. It is so sad, and it bothers me a lot sometimes.

Stax

First of all, I have never heard of Stax Records or anything that deals with it. After reading the article and looking at the website, it appears that Stax Records was a big part of American music and influenced music in several ways. I found it very interesting that it was founded by two white people. This was weird because when i opened the article and the web page, there was a picture of a black man on each page. I immediately thought that Stax was created by a black person or group. I think that it is really unique and important that they produced music that was played by black people. This was very unique because back then there was segregation and whites and blacks disliked each other. This was one of the main influences and changes that shaped American music. Stax was music company that welcomed many artists with different backgrounds and sounds of music. It set an example for music companies by showing America that things can change and music should be excepted no matter who makes it or how it sounds.

Now for some facts about Stax Records. It was found in 1957, and was originally based out of Memphis, Tennessee. They produced different types of music like blues, jazz, gospel, funk. In the 70's Stax Records went bankrupt when CBS began to come into the picture. Stax Records will always be important to American music because of its positive influence.

Food

Today, since I am starving I am going to write about food. First of all, food is amazing! I love all kinds of food, from simple things to other types of foods. My favorite type of American food is a cheeseburger and french fries. My dad makes the best hamburgers, and sometimes I make them on the George Forman grill I have in my room, but they never turn out as good as his. My favorite fast food place to get a hamburger and fries in Wendy's or Steak and Shake drive through. I do not usually like McDonald's because their hamburgers are full of grease, but their fries are the best. Even though pizza is Italian, I would call it an American food too. I love Mellow Mushroom pizza and Pizza Hut. These places are amazing. I love ordering bread sticks with garlic sauce to go with it. One of my other favorite types of foods is Mexican. I think that it is my all time favorite. I love chicken nachos, cheese dip, rice, quesidillas, and tacos. Me and my family's favorite place to go is El Rodeo in Kennesaw. They make their food perfectly, and just the way I want it. My family goes every Friday night after work and school. Chinese always hits the spot too. My favorite it chicken fried rice and sesame chicken. It is to die for! I can't forget the egg rolls dipped in duck sauce either. That just completes the meal. I hate to admit that I ate both Mexican food and Chinese food all this weekend. I probably gained a few pounds! Italian food is not my favorite, but I do love lasagna and pasta. Finally, my favorite place to go eat for special occasions and birthdays is a Japanese Steakhouse. My favorite thing to get there is fried rice, terryaki chicken or hibatchi steak. All of these foods are amazing, and I could eat any of them right now.

Real News?

I watched the video where the Daily Show makes fun of CNN. I don't believe that this is a true source of news. People do not get the real true story on this show. The whole point of the show is to make fun of news that is going on. Sure they show clips of news that has happened that week, or bring up topics that are occurring in America, but the point is to make fun of these things. I believe that most people watch this show because its funny. I do not think people should watch this as a news source. If they want to truly get the whole story people should watch local news, or news sources like CNN. I think that it is a funny show and a way of entertainment, but I do not think that this is real news. Jon Stewart's goal is to make fun of other news sources, so this is the big obvious reason it is not a real news source! I do not ever really watch this show, but I do watch a show that is kind of like this. It is called, Chelsea Lately. She is a comedian that makes fun of celebrity news. I think that the show is hilarious, but I you do not get the whole story from her either. Just like Jon Stewart, Chelsea's whole point is to take celebrity news stories and make fun of them. She never really gives the whole, true story because her point is to make fun of them. There are a lot of these types of shows out there, and none of them are true news sources. They are just a way of entertainment.

Music

I thought that this article was very interesting and entertaining. It talked about hit songs, and how there is software that can help rate a song. In some cases it helps producers and artists, but in some cases they do not think that it is the best idea. I think it is really cool that there is software out there that can supposedly determine if a song is a hit or not. I had never heard of that before, and I wonder if it is used and trusted by artists' and producers'. This could be a good way for songs to be evaluated, and producers could determine if they need to fix or recreate the song to make it a hit. On the other hand, I could see where this would not be a good idea. Some people might think to themselves, " How is a computer going to determine if people are going to like a song?" It is all about every one's personal opinions. I do not see how a software program can rate a song, and determine if it is a good song. If artists' and producers' start relying on software programs to help them with their music, then sooner or later the computer will be controlling their music. I personally believe whatever can help make a hit is good. Maybe artists' should try the program out, or only consider using it sometimes. If it can truly help, then it is worth it. As long as artists' do not let it begin to control their music then I do not see the harm.

Art Fantasy

The video I chose to watch was about Art Fantasy. I chose to watch this video because I thought that learning about fantasy and imagination would be interesting. The video starts out talking about mixing colors together, and showing viewers where and how artists work. The man talking in the video beings to tell his story about his piece, "The Bear and the Policeman. Later, a lady begins taking us through her pieces of artwork and she tells her story about being an artist who likes to show emotions. She tells us that she likes to show spaces and lines in her art work. A lot of the artists' in the video talk about how they like abstract pieces of art and photos. After a few artists talk about their pieces of work, a man from Germany is shown in the video. He is a photographer, and he talks about how he likes to photograph objects and cities. Later, a young female artist from China comes on the video and tells us about animation and videos. I believe that the video was interesting because it shows all the different types of artists, and how they go about their work. It did not really relate their work to fantasy until the end of the video when they began talking about animation. Over all, I probably would never watch one of the videos, but I am glad I got the chance to today.

Really Famous People

Today I was watching a show on Britney Spears and how she has to live her life. She is one of the most famous people in America and the World, and every paparazzi is waiting for her to come out so they can be the next to get a picture. Yes she has had some troubled times, but when I watched this I felt so bad for her. She can not even go for a walk down the street with her kids. Paparazzi swarm her where ever she is, and they always find out where she is. She starts crying during the interview about how bad things have gotten for her, and how sad she is. There plenty of famous people in the world who are followed on a day to day basis as well. It starts out as an amazing way of life to be a celebrity, but that can all change and get old after a while. The difference in other famous people and Britney Spears is that the news reporters and media are trying to catch her doing something wrong again. They want to be the first to report her shaving her head again or driving with her kids in her lap. I just feel bad that her life has come out to be like it has. Sure some of her decisions were her fault, but we all make mistakes. You can truly see how sad and depressed she is at this point in her life. She claims that she has no social life anymore. It's all work and traveling. After watching this I thought about how happy I am that I'm not famous. It sounds like things can start off amazing and go bad.

Favorite Movie

I have tons of favorite movies, but one of my all time favorites in Man on Fire. It is about a black man who goes to Mexico to look after and protect a young girl living in Mexico City with her parents. The young girls father is a very important business man who makes a lot of money. Her parents are not always home, and they need someone to help protect her. This is because the kidnapping rate has become outrageously high where they are living. The black man name, Creasy is played by Denzel Washington. The young girl is played by Dakota Fanning. These are two of my favorite actors, and this is one of the main reasons I love the movie so much. Towards the middle of the movie the young girl ends up getting kidnapped. Through out the rest of the movie Creasy goes on a rampage and searches and kills anyone who knows anything about where she is. It is such and interesting and entertaining movie. It teaches you a lot about culture and crime in Mexico as well.

Another one of my favorite movies is A Walk to Remember with Mandy Moore. This movie is about a nerdy, christian girl and a popular boy in high school. In the beginning of the movie the girl, Jamie really gets on the boy, Landon's nerves. She warns him not to fall in love with her, and he finds her very weird. Later on, Jamie and Landon fall in love and there is a big secret that Jamie has to tell him. She tells him that she has cancer and that she does not know how long she has to live. Landon ends up asking her to marry him before she dies. It is a very sad movie, but definitely one of my favorites.

Cheap Laughs

In this article there are some phrases and words that I do not understand. Here is a list:

* purport- the appearance of being, profess or claim

*solemnity- the state or character of being solemn; earnestness; gravity; impressiveness

*disembarked- to go ashore from a ship

*hubris- excessive pride or self-confidence; arrogance

*Hannity and Colmes - was an American television show on Fox News Channel , hosted by Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes , who talked about news in a liberal and conservative prospective.

*The Daily Show- late night satirical TV show.


This article was talking about satirest and they effect our world and people. In the beginning of the article it talks about how people that are important in our country are made fun of and how it can effect how others look at them. For istnance, they talk about Sarah Palin and how Tina Fey made fun of her on Saturday Night Live. I think in some cases things like this can be funny, until they get carried away. It became a weekly thing where Tina Fey would impersonate Palin and make fun of her and ultimately make her look bad because they were not supportive of her.This can obviously effect how America looks at her, and can hurt her as a person.

Hannity and Colmes and the Daily Show are not personally relevent in my life because I never watched them, but my dad watched Hannity and Colmes quite often. I'm sure that many people who have a conservative and liberal point of view are fans of the show. These shows do effect America in some ways because it gives personal opinions and shows it's views on what each show thinks about what is going on in America.

Religion

This article is talking about how much America has changed, and that many people in America are now calling themselves "spiritual" rather than religious. Religion can influence you buy how you were brought up, or how you choose to live your life. There is so much immigration that goes on in America that new groups and cultures are coming all the time. These new religions that are brought to the U.S can influence people already living here. This article is saying that not everyone in America just calls themselves Christian anymore. New religions are everywhere, but also being atheist has become very popular. A lot of celebrities have become atheist and display this by wearing the red bracelets. This might cause fans to become atheist because they want to be like them. My family is Christian, so I call myself a Christian too. I do believe in what Christians believe. However, there are so many different religions and everyone thinks that their religion is right. I think that Islamics are weird for what they believe in and how they live their lives, but they think I'm just as weird for being Christian. Religion is something personal, and maybe there are some cases in which people do not know what to believe or how to classify themselves. Maybe this is why many Americans call themselves "spiritual" rather than "religious.