Erica’s Awesome Blog! ;)

I’ve decided to use this post to ask myself the question…

What color am I feeling today????
I think a mix of navy blue and sea foam green.
Navy Blue because I’m kinda sad like the color blue but angry at the same time, hence the navy part, because it’s dark. When I’m upset, chances are I’m also mad, so navy blue is a good sum for what I’m feeling

Also, Sea foam green because at this point I just don’t care anymore. It is what it is. Sea Foam green is just a serene color and it reminds me of rippling water.. Calm and quiet. If I were to stare at rippling water it would be very soothing. So sea foam green is a good description of how I feel.

International Day of Families is put on to bring famiies closer together, and to get them to open up to one another through trust. In response to the challenge about the International Day of Familes, I want to write what an “ideal” family is to me, and the pros and cons of having one.

The Ideal family would clearly consist of one Mother and one Father. There would probably be one Daughter and one Son as well. The son would be older than the daughter as to protect her from jerks.  Also the Father would work a steady job, and the Mother would stay home to clean house and raise the kids. Everyone would be happy because what reason would you have not to be?

Sounds like your typical 1950′s perfect little family right? Well surprising as it may seem, many people want to live a life almost like this. The truth is, it didn’t even exist back then. Family is a tough never ending ~ thing~ that you have to work hard at. You build connections and trust and reliability.  NO family is EVER happy all the time. If you think i’m wrong, your in denial! Family is supposed to be the one thing that you always have to fall back on, that will always be there for you when you mess up. Having good relationships within a family is key to being “happy”. I feel like a pro of this “ideal” family i’ve created is having one parent home all the time and not nessecarily the mother. This is good because then there is always someone there if you need to come home early, if you need to talk, or if you just want someone to fix you a sanck.  Also on that same note, in reality, there aren’t always two parents. Sometimes, crap happens, and you just deal with it as it comes. Family is made up of all different types of people. You wouldn’t love your brother any less because he’s…emo and your a jock, you wouldn’t hate your parents because they’re nerdy. Families are accepting of each other. Granted they fight. I know my brother’s and I fight ALOT. I’m fighting with my little brother as I type this… My point is that this supossed “ideal” family isn’t real. It doesn’t exist. The family you have, however perfect or dysfunctional or distant they may seem to you, they’re your family until you die. Get over the fact that they aren’t exactly what you want and love them. :):)

  This is a tough one for me to narrow down. Surprisingly enough there are a significant amount of heroic people in my life. Heroic by my standards at least. I cannot pick just one of these people so I will write about someone I don’t personally know.

   I do not believe that heroism is done soley by the people who risk their lives in death defying jobs eveyday but they are a great portion of heroic people. Soldiers, Police and Firemen are the usual people who come to mind when you think of heros. I think this is because they do alot of the stuff that most of us are afraid to do; going to war, running INTO a burning building, going in the line of fire. All these things are what make them the heroes we see them as. A hero is someone who shows great courage when faced with danger. A hero is someone who stands up to challenges not knowing the outcome. While these things are what defines a hero, heroes come in all shapes and sizes. They are out there, everywhere, being modest and not looking for recognition. Heroes can be just about anybody, so consider this thought and think of who is heroic in your life.

An animal I would like to see in the wild, rather than in a zoo I think would be just about any. I don’t like seeing ANY animal in a cage.(Except spiders) They look so sad. If I HAD to pick it would probably be panda bears. By “Wild” I mean their natural habitat. I understand that they are in zoo’s to prevent extinction and to help reproduction but they’re not ment to live life in zoos. They are big animals and need space to roam free. I don’t know if this seems like an impossible thought, but it’s just that. A thought.

Check out the links below! The first is a factual page solely about pandas and the second is a youtube video of a panda sneezing… it’s cute.

<a href=”http://www.indianchild.com/panda.htm”></a>
<a href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4R6vMPYR1vo”></a>

Earth Day, I feel, is a growing attraction for many people. The celebrities especially are jumping into be a cause. There are many organizations solely devoted to saving our Earth. I personally? Eh, I don’t go out of my way to make the Earth more green. I do take advantage of the clean air Oregon provides but at the same time I’m not a carzy pollutant type of person. There are alot of people who care immensely about saving the planet I recylce and reduse for sure, and I’ve participated in my fair share of campus clean-ups. I should do more, I know, but in reality I don’t. Sad truth…

Poetry Mash-Up

Slice  of Life_

When I was in seventh grade, my seventh period class was “Drama” or rather theatre as I like to call it now. I was one of the original students in Agnes Stewart Middle School’s theatre program. The first ever production for us was called, “School for Nerds.” It was about a jock ruled school in desperate need of academic help. Five “Nerds” are recruited but they are bullied by the jocks until the end. They learn to work as one and save they’re school. I was the dumbest jock named Dumbbell. The rehearsals were ridiculous. We managed to get a good week of practice and three days on the stage. We were barely ready, if at all, by showtime. On the night of our first performance my stomach was cringing incessantly.  I was one of the first actors to arrive. The usual smell of our auditorium seemed heightened. I changed quickly into my costume and began to apply my make-up, quite heavy at that.  Soon more and more actors, and their huge families, arrived. My nerves began to get the best of me as we got into our prayer circle. After a quick cry of help to god, we all began to tell each other to “Break a Leg” for luck. I said, “We’re going to need more luck than that, Everyone, GO DIE!” That phrase later became a tradition. When I got onto the stage, I began to sweat and shake, but I played it off well. The stage lights were brighter than ever, or so it felt. As we moved along I became more comfortable and natural. By the end of our play, I was the happiest I’d been in a long time. The rush of adrenaline I felt is irreproducible in any other way than acting. That night, we messed up a lot, missed cues, skipped around the script, and many other mistakes. Yet we all were so proud of ourselves. I’ll never forget that night and how I felt afterward. It was amazing.

Podcasts:
I listened to the podcast called Drowning Anna by Susan Mayfield. Just the title alone caught my attention. It was about a girl who was bullied to the point of suicide. The people who made it used three different artists. They put a lot of thought into which songs to use. The lyrics matched perfectly for the story. They blended the voices and the music in well. They chose specific parts of the story to keep you interested. The people who “acted” in it used accents also. The booktalk has convinced me to read the book. The girls who made it weren’t afraid to push limits. They used harsh language, which was appropriate for the context. Their booktalk had elements that made me want to listen the whole way through.

http://odeo.com/episodes/17438933-Drowning-Anna-by-Susan-Mayfield

TEXT MESSAGING:
In general, I believe text messaging is a new and permanent form of communication. Texting makes awkward social situations easier and gives people time to think of what they mean to say, if that makes sense. On average I send/receive a good three to four hundred texts a day. Texting is my main form of communicating with people away from me. I text about ten different people on an average day. All of whom mainly are old friends who go to different schools and who I don’t see regularly. I truly believe that text messaging has little to no effect on my ability to produce good writing. Honestly the only thing is I short-cut on long words and abbreviate, resulting in temporarily forgetting how to spell the word. Text messaging doesn’t really have a “place” in schools. It does, however affect the way some people speak. I believe text messaging has a great effect on the younger generations (6th-8th) ability to speak publicly and to write well. When it comes to entertainment purposes, text messaging is just used to draw the attention of a certain audience. Text messaging has changed spoken communication. Some people speak in abbreviations and use words of a lesser vocabulary. Some people also write in slang. From time to time I find myself putting space fillers such as “like” or “totally” in my writings, but I’ve been getting better. However, no matter how positive or negative, I believe text messaging is here to stay.