Monday, December 10, 2012

Self Evaluation


            I have always found writing to be the best way for me to express myself.  When my emotions are at a high or low I find comfort in setting the words in my head down.  I don’t write every day, only when whatever is going on in my life is too much for me to handle.  It allows me to relax, assess the situation, and be honest with myself.  English 15S taught me a lot about my style of writing and myself.
            Before this class I have never really had to write about my interests or myself.  High school writing was more analytical essays and research papers.  Since I had been doing those for so long and I did pretty well on them I thought this class would be easy.  I found that writing in an analytical manner for so long caused me to struggle when I had to write about myself.  I realized this back when I was writing my college essay; it was just hard to write about myself because every time I wrote an essay it was about a book.  This class helped me to integrate my skills of writing analytically into writing about myself.  When I write a research paper or an essay on a book I have my thesis and then just make those points and support them with quotes.  I learned how to make a thesis and make my points in a less formal approach.
            I learned that I actually like writing about myself.  The memoir was my favorite assignment because it really made me feel like a writer.  I had to choose my style of writing, create a voice, and I was writing about my life so I was of course interested in it.  I never thought I’d like writing so much about my interests and myself but it has really taught me that writing is something I love to do.  I read a lot of different blogs, mostly satirical ones, and I always wished I could do that.  The blog posts we got to write allowed me to do that!  I started to find my voice as a writer and found that I like to be a bit satirical and humorous. 
There was one moment during peer review for the memoir when Sheila helped me learn something about myself.  I was telling my story to Lucas and mentioned how the story is funny but at the time was horrible for me.  Sheila overheard and said, “You do that don’t you?  Do you look back on the past and take it with a sense of humor?”  Honestly, I had never thought about that until she said it and I found it to be true.  Yes I’ve had my fair share of problems in the past and I realized that when I talk about them and look back on them I do it with a sense of humor.  I loved that I learned this about myself because it helped me find my voice for the memoir as well as my other writing. 
            This class has taught me that art is everywhere and anything we want it to be.  Everything we did was about a piece of art.  One of the more interesting art forms that I had not noticed to be art before was the podcast we listened to.  This was one of my favorite assignments because it taught me a lot about Penn State and also about podcasts.  I loved learning about how there were different acts within it and how the way they set up was strategic because it reminded me of how I write essays: I have my thesis, make my points in a logical order, and conclude it. 
            My eyes have been open to a world of art thanks to this class.  Art really is everywhere we go and everything we do is some form of art.  I’ve discovered so much about the type of art I like, Penn State, and myself from this class.  I started this class thinking writing for a class was all about research papers and analytical essays and I learned that’s not what it’s all about.  This class gave us freedom to write about what we wanted to in a voice we wanted to and through that I discovered things I liked and more about who I am as a writer.


This post needed a picture so here's me jumping out of a plane.

And here's a box of puppies.




Hi Ms. S!  I completed my SRTEs!  YAY!

Blog Comments:













Sunday, December 9, 2012

HARRY POTTER.




I don’t know about you but there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t wish I were at Hogwarts.  I love Harry Potter and whomever I end up spending the rest of my life with better love him and his world as much as I do.  Sadly I have not read the books.  I read Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in the third grade because the movie was coming out and my teacher wanted to read the book before she saw it so we read it as a class!  Funny thing is I went to a private Catholic school.  No one’s parents cared except for one girl’s whose parents thought it was ATROSCIOUS that we were learning about witchcraft and what not in a Catholic school.  So they took her out of the school…  Awkward!
            Anyway, I don’t know when my love for Harry began but I couldn’t be happier that it did.  Except for when I have so much work to do and there is a Harry Potter weekend on ABC Family.  And the WORST is now it has become a Harry Potter WEEK.  AN ENTIRE WEEK.  I wanted to cry I had so much work and all I could do was watch these movies that I’ve seen too many times.
I find it unbelievable how J.K. Rowling created this entire world and how many people fell in love with it.  She made reading “cool” again for kids because everyone was obsessed with Harry Potter.  And for good reasons I mean I don’t understand why anyone wouldn’t want to go to Hogwarts.  It’s understandable that people wouldn’t want to be there while all this madness between Harry and Voldemort is going on but still at least you’d have some excitement in your life.  
I could honestly talk about all the characters and go crazy but this post would be never ending so I’ll talk about a few. 
Neville Longbottom.  First of all, he got really hot at the end of everything.  Second, he’s just so sweet and honest and is one of those people who flies below the radar but does great things which is a characteristic I love in people. 
What a man.

Dumbledore.  The first Dumbledore was the cutest old man besides Mr. Feeny from Boy Meets World I have ever seen.  The second Dumbledore was definitely better as time went on and the storyline became darker.  Either way I have such a love hate relationship with this man because he was so good to Harry but at the same time he was just using him.  Did he know Harry would be okay?  Did he try to make sure he would be?  There are just so many questions…

Dobby.  If you don’t love dobby you don’t have a soul.  Sorry not sorry.
Dobby: A Free Elf

I really don’t wanna go on forever about characters.  I mean I could seriously talk about Harry Potter all day there are just so many things to discuss!  I’ve been to four midnight premiers and I have such amazing memories of all of them.  But in the end, I cried at the last midnight premier because something that I grew up with, something that stretched my imagination, and something that I have had reoccurring dreams about was now over.  Plus there were really annoying people sitting next to me who kept talking.  WHO talks at a midnight premier of THE LAST Harry Potter!?  Sick, twisted people that’s who.
I love Harry Potter and I don’t care who knows it and what they think of me because in my opinion, if you’ve never run around screaming “STUPIFY” with your friends/family you haven’t really lived a good life.

Happy Christmas by the way!

Monday, December 3, 2012

Arts/Cultural Event: Barstool Blackout



For my Arts/Cultural Event I chose to write about Barstool Blackout.  Electronic Dance Music, also known as EDM, has become extremely popular.  What have become even more popular are concerts, raves, and musical festivals to celebrate EDM.  Barstool Blackout was created by barstoolsports.com, a website “by the common man, for the common man.”  Occasionally I do read some of their articles because they are pretty humorous but my interest in their website started last March when I heard they were having one of their “blackouts” in New York City.
             I’m a huge EDM fan, I’ve known about it since I was in middle school and I thought my sister was a huge guidette for constantly listening to it.  I had an amazing time when Barstool came to New York so when I found out they were going to be in State College at Levels I had to get tickets.  I got a ticket for October 23rd but little did I know I’d be going the second night they were around as well.
            The reasons their concerts are called “blackouts” are because they use black lights and other lighting so certain colors glow in the dark.  When I stepped into levels I was met with a bluish glow and a multitude of colored flashing lights and loud dance music.  The place was packed to the point where I really just wanted to scream I was so tired of being shoved and feeling like a hot sweaty mess.  I found relief by dancing on stage, which was SO much more fun then being surrounded in a crowd of raging, sweaty people.  Some of the guys working the rave would shoot water and fog into the crowd, all while dressed as power rangers, Darth Vader, and other classic characters I’ve seen through my life. 
            As 2 am rolled around the concert was over and as we sadly begin our departure from Levels, one of the workers stopped me and told me Dante, the DJ, wanted my number.  I figured “what the hell” and gave it and in return Devlin, the worker, gave me his hat!  Yay!  I figured I’d never hear from Dante but as I finally make it to bed ready to pass out, he texts me inviting my friends and me back to tomorrow night’s show.  For free!  I just got a free hat AND ticket all in one night, score one for me!
            The next night was the same playlist, same lighting, but still a great time.  I love EDM, it’s music I love dancing to and I’m so happy it’s become popular because I love celebrating it.  Overall, Barstool Blackout was a great time where I got to experience something I love.  I have now been to three shows but they had different feels because of the venue.  In NYC it was so much bigger and I generally had a better time there just because I felt like I was suffocating in Levels.  Would I go to Barstool again?  Probably not, unless it was one of their foam parties.  I’ve had my fun with Barstool but definitely not with EDM.  I hope to go to Electric Zoo this summer as well as the Electric Daisy Carnival.  Barstool will always have a special place in my heart because I had a great time at every show I’ve been to.


I know this is super creepy of me but as I stood on the upper level of Levels I saw these two people making out and I thought it was funny/cute so I took a picture.  Actually I took three but this one is the cutest.