Fish Fish Fish Fish

Fishing is supposed to be a leisure activity, but it gets me so stressed out. I am never ever, ever able to catch a fish! I'm not exaggerating either. I been fishing many times on boats, bridges, parks, and other places and I can never seem to get lucky and get a fish. Maybe it isn't luck at all, maybe I'm just not skilled in the area of fishing. I don't understand why I can't even catch a little baby fish though! I'm not trying to catch a huge 30lbs fish, but I would really appreciate it if just one, ONE, little 2lbs fish would bite my line. Then my self-esteem would be a little higher and I might actually enjoy fishing more. I'm on this topic of fishing because that is what I am doing in gym right now. I've went one time to Durkee Park so far and didn't catch anything. I think there are about 3 or 4 more classes and I'm hoping to master the skill of fishing and catch a dang fish! If I catch a fish I want to keep it and name him Sprinkles.

St. Bonaventure Bound

I'm ready to go! I'm so excited to have something new in my life besides boring high school with the same schedule everyday. I can't wait to start getting all my things together this summer and packing for Bonaventure. I think half of the reason that I'm so excited to leave is because I love Bonaventure soooooo much. It's the perfect school for me and I have no doubt in my mind that I am going to love it there. I already have a roommate too, so I don't have to worry about that anymore. I'm a little nervous for the new teachers that I'm going to have to meet and the heavy work load, including homework and softball. I'm so pumped for the next four years though and to finally be in a different environment with new people!

FaceTweetPinSpace

Social networking is a major "hobby" of young teens and adults these days. People check their Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest all the time and with all the fast, new smart phones coming out it makes it even easier to stay connected 24/7. These networks are great to have to stay in touch with old friends, far away family member, or celebrities activities, but I have witnessed some major drama forming on these sites sometimes. Especially with Facebook, people have a even greater opportunity then anywhere else to hide behind a computer and talk smack to others. There isn't really any solution to this and I would definitely never want these sites to be taken of the Internet because I admit I am one of those people who is on these sites a lot too. More and more of these sites are going to start to be created and I can't believe what else people can come up with. We already have Facebook where you can post words, pictures, videos, news articles, and pretty much anything else, then we have Twitter which is a fast growing network to make quick updates about what is happening in your life, while adding pictures every once in a while, and then Pinterest which is a place for mainly picture posts and some words from you. These are only three sites of about 15 or more(also Youtube, Msypace, Google, Blogger, etc.) that let people put their social lives into. I don't even know what other social networking sites people would need, but I'm sure some very smart people are working on something new at this very second.

Softball Shout Out!

The Syracuse.com softball state rankings just came out the other day and we were number 20!! I'm not sure if we had made these rankings the last three years that I was on the team so I can't really compare it to the past couple years. But I would say number 20 is pretty great still. We have been doing really well and I'm excited to keep playing more games and hopefully keep winning! I was a little upset about the rankings though because we just beat Solvay last week but they were number 17 om the list! That isn't right! So hopefully we will just keep moving up in the next couple of weeks. I was looking at some of the other rankings in class AA and class A and it seems like the same teams are always at the top of those lists. Our whole team was happy about #20 but there are teams out there that are ranked #1 or #2 every week and it doesn't even phase them! Those are the bigger schools though that have like 50 girls come out and try to make the team. We unfortunately don't have those kind of numbers here but whatever! So this is a shout out to all my softball girls: good job and keep up the hard work!!

Some School Stuff

What many people are talking about these days is how graduation is "so close" and the school year is "almost over". But, in reality, yes, we are closer to getting out of here then we were in December, but there are still 9 solid weeks left of school. In my opinion, this isn't a short time. Short to me is like 2 weeks. So, I wish people would stop getting my hopes up and saying "yeah, we graduate soon" or "we're almost done with high school", CAUSE WE AREN'T!

I am one of those people who is sick of high school though (which puts me with probably most of the senior class). I'm not going to complain to much, but I just feel like I'm ready to leave. It's hard to go to school with the same people for years and years because everyone just gets tired of seeing the same people everyday at school. It's not that I don't like my friends, but I'm  ready to go make more friends and meet people that aren't just the normal Homer/Cortland guys and gals. It's kind of funny, that I just said that because at the end of last year I was dreading this time when I would have to leave. There are some things that I will always love and will absolutely miss about this school, and it will be sad when they are gone.

Gotta Love Those Books

I finished reading the book Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro, which is about a girl named Kathy H. and how her life at Hailsham set her up for the future.

Hailsham is a school secluded away from the outside world with students more special than anywhere else. They are always reminded how important they are and how important their work in art, writing, and poetry is for Madame’s Gallery. The students never asked questions about why they had to do art, why are they learning more about one thing then another, or what’s going to happen when they leave the school. Asking those questions was thought to be embarrassing or awkward to the other students around, but as Kathy H. and her friends began to grow up they got curious. It seemed there were more secrets hanging around Hailsham that the guardians would never discuss or only just allude to in a passing conversation. As more theories and rumors came to minds of the students as they left the school and grew up, they could only wonder about their existence/future and why their artwork was so important for their souls and for Madame.

DON’T KEEP READING IF YOU ARE GOING TO READ THIS BOOK BECAUSE I GIVE STUFF AWAY!

Ishiguro’s central theme throughout the whole book was proving that the students were actually students and had hearts and souls like everyone else. At this point you are probably like what the hell is she talking about, but that’s because you don’t know that the students of Hailsham were clones. They didn’t all look the same, or act the same, but they were all created for the same purpose (which I’m not going to tell you, so read the book yourself). Ishiguro told stories of these kids growing up to show that they acted like normal people and shouldn’t have been hidden away from the outside world. Ishiguro told Kathy’s stories about her friends, artwork, and emotions, to prove that these clones were just like the humans controlling the school and should’ve had the rights that all the normal people had. In developing this central theme, Ishiguro used the literary element of setting. He set the story in the future world and made the school seem as isolated and hidden away as possible. This set up the story for him perfectly to be able to talk about why these students should not have been treated as creatures or clones, but true humans living with the rest of society just for a different purpose.

I actually really enjoyed this book. I am not much of a reader, but I was able to get through the book at an efficient pace and although it wasn’t always a nail biting, page turner (like the Hunger Games), it was still interesting. I think Ishiguro wrote the book really well and I would definitely consider reading more of the books that he wrote. Ishiguro wrote the book just as if Kathy H. was telling you the story herself in a flashback and I liked that part about it. Yes, I know that is called writing in first person, but he didn’t just write it like every other first person book; he wrote it with language that someone like Kathy’s character would use and also in like a laid-back-having-a-cup-of-tea kind of talking way. I also felt like Ishiguro included the right stories in the beginning about the students being at Hailsham. What I mean is that, he didn’t mention pointless stories about when they were kids and different events that happened just to make the book longer. He had stories about them that either added to the events in the book right then, or that the reader would look back to and say “oh, yeah that’s why that event in their childhood was so important.” I did not find very many things that I thought were weak with the book, but one thing I did not like were some of the details he added about certain things. I know that in some cases details are needed to set up a scene or describe an event where the details of the surroundings were super important, but in some cases the details were just unnecessary. At some points in the book I almost felt like I was reading about every single step they took or when they turned left, right, up, down, backwards, and so on. By the end of the book, I was just realizing how unimportant the details were and I would just skip the paragraphs that had no important information what so ever in them.

I felt after reading this that it was a great, well written book, but not a book for everyone. I would suggest this book to people who enjoy more of a serious book with some romantic aspects because it is definitely not a boyish, rough and tough action novel or a book with a happy comedic uplifting story.

Movies at Midnight

I happened to be one of those who couldn't wait a day to see the Hunger Games, so I went at midnight (12:20) to see it. I'm not going to mention all the things I loved and hated from the movie because I don't want my opinion to ruin it for someone who hasn't went to see it yet. But I am going to mention how I found it completely stupid to go see the movie at 12:20. I was literally so tired; I'm sure I missed a couple things in the movie just because my mind began to get cloudy and tired around 1:00. I had never experienced a premiere before, so I am glad I went to one once in my life, but it will be my last. Waiting one day and just going Friday at like 8:00, wouldn't have killed me and next time that's what I will do. So just a warning to all those planning on attending premieres in the future, take a very long nap before, drink some coffee, and try not to fall asleep or miss anything during the movie!