Telemarketers: Annoying or Just Simply There?

Finished Fall ‘06

What is the purpose of telemarketers, those scourges of the Earth? Disturbing one’s peace by abruptly calling for absolutely nothing useful whatsoever? Do they enjoy it? Do they find it exhausting? I personally think telemarketers should be hauled away by the wagonload and fed to bears.

Sometimes I will be sitting at home on a quiet afternoon,

Tanning and Teenagers

Finished 6-5-05

Thousands of teenagers go to tanning parlors all the time, simply to look “hotter” or to create the impression that they’ve spent a week in Florida. This not only applies to teenagers who are eighteen and older, but also to minors. To practice this routine is horribly dangerous, and the only positive thing about tanning is your appearance after you’ve tanned, which only lasts a short time anyhow.

Firstly, tanning itself is very risky, whether or not you get it done “naturally”

Amateur Authors

Finished 11-20-03

Five years ago, it was a rare occurrence when a child under the age of fifteen wrote and published a novel. But now, one reads almost every week of someone of that age doing that. Is it simply because adults respect younger people more, or are kids just becoming better writers?

However, most of the books I’ve read by children or teens are filled with boring, unfinished sentences, or have their idea not properly developed. And this is how a young person
does write mostly. Because they did not have the proper teaching, or not enough

How Not To Get Lost and/or Destroyed in Seattle

Finished 5-30-05

When in a large city such as Seattle Washington, you have a great chance of getting lost or destroyed, even if you try to be careful. In fact, it’s nearly inevitable. Especially if you get chased down the street by a posse of people wearing Jedi costumes and chasing Stormtroopers, lightsabers a-blazing.

First off, you have to make absolutely certain that nothing distracts you in your trek about the city. Some major distractions can be very….distracting. For instance, if you

Seating Arrangements–the Cons

Finished 5-4-06

Although I love my school dearly (in most cases), there’s one very minor policy held by many teachers that I would like to see changed. That is the seating arrangement that most teachers assign to each class. I personally find it inconvenient and annoying.

I was always of the opinion when I was younger that highschool students were able to choose their own seats when they walked into a class. As I entered freshman year

My Mother

Finished 4-27-06

My mom is one of my best friends. Most teenage girls shun their mothers at this age, but that’s not the case with me. Even though I have friends from school that are wonderful (although admittedly, in some cases it’s easier to deal with certain things with people my own age than with my mother), I would trade them all in an instant for my mom.

Probably the reason why I’m so close to my mom is because I’ve spent my entire life with her after all, and there’s never been any huge rift between us. I’ve never felt any

The Poisonwood Bible…Thoughts on Orleanna

Finished 10-26-06

Orleanna is, in my eyes, an internally strong woman, despite the submission she showed outwardly towards her husband. At the beginning one thinks that Orleanna is stupid for not leaving her husband when she could, despite the mental and physical harm he does to his family. But as the book progresses, one can see just how Orleanna’s choice to stay with her husband has affected the family, in good or bad ways.

In the beginning of the novel, we see that although Orleanna is certainly liked more

Perceptions of Nudity

Finished 10-6-05
[Some opinions may have changed since then]

The common perception of nudity in our modern culture that we have is one related to sexual topics. For teenagers, nudity is classified by adults as “bad.” Any mention of it is often quickly skimmed over, and really, it’s mostly ignored, despite its prevalence in life.

Personally I think nudity is a beautiful thing, if treated and looked at right. There are two types of nudity; erotic nudity, which is often associated

The Joys of Being Lactose Intolerant

Finished 11-22-05

Among all my other problems, being lactose-intolerant is one of the most irritating. Especially because I absoballylutely love cheese and ice cream (but not mixed together!). Milk I can live without, unless it’s colored hot pink and is strawberry flavored. I dream of drinking that. Lactose-intolerance basically means that your stomach feels ill after you consume a dairy product. This sense of illness is often–but not always, thankfully–accompanied by internal gas. Or to be blunt, farting. That’s the

Yes. I Lie.

Finished 2-2-06

Life is filled with lies; I personally quite enjoy them. Though lying is technically not considered a good habit to have and use, it certainly makes for some interesting adventures. Though lies, when directed at someone, can initially hurt, they can also provide a great amount of variety in one’s life, at least for a little while. Though I agree that looking back on the experience resulting in a lie is always far better than actually going through it.

I’ve been told many lies in my life, all of which have launched

How To Go About Inheriting the Earth

Finished 9-25-04

When he is born, the first sign is his wide-eyed look around at the world, which may be nothing more than a simple maternity room, or perhaps a bedroom in a house, or more uniquely, a cave in the mountains of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in a bed of sweet grass. Either way, the first glimpse is a special one, and he greets the new world with open arms.

As he grows, he develops a new way of looking at his surroundings, not only with astonishment, but with comprehension. It begins slow, this new realization, but

The Library

Finished Spring ‘06

The first time I ever remember going to the public library was the summer before I started kindergarten. I had broken my arm falling out of a swing a few weeks earlier, so when I arrived at the library and had to write my name on my new card, the signature came out incredibly shaky, because my right arm was in a cast and that’s the hand I write with.

I was embarrassed about my handwriting on that card for years to come, for it looked like a baby had written my name for me with the pen held between

Dreams

Finished 2-23-06

I’ve always been inclined to adore fantasy, the unknown, and in general anything that has no explanation. The unknown holds a certain allure to me, and personally, dreams are included in that category. I love the adventure and process of dreaming, and even if I have a nightmare, it’s still an experience that I created, and that’s special to me in a demented way.

Every night I look forward to what kind of adventure I’ll be having in my dreams. It’s nearly a disappointment when I do not dream vividly or cannot remember anything when I wake up, because dreaming is that important to me. After all, humans spend

Buddism: Opinions of an unknowledgable young girl

Finished early ‘06

I often feel like something is messed up with my life. Not as if I’m missing anything per se, but I can sense flaws that I wish weren’t there. As a result, I’ve embarked on a perhaps lifelong search to find the solution to these supposed problems.

While others make do with religion, traditions, or the comfort of material things, those choices do not appeal to me. I’d rather discover a

En Memoire

Finished sometime in ‘05

Everyone knows that Hitler was the most evil man alive during WW2 and before, but do they truly realize how he has affected our lives now? Was that passing generation really as it
seems, not much worse than a bee sting which hurts for a while, but eventually goes away?

My answer is no. Adolf Hitler may not seem so important to most of us nowadays, but he
has caused a lasting pain in some perspectives which is much worse than any bee sting. As a
highly acclaimed leader in

Counter Culture Dreams

In my AP History class, as an end of the year project, we were divided into groups, each of which was given a topic having to do with the 1960’s era. Luckily for my group, the counterculture of the times was our given topic. We laughed at groans from the rest of the class when they heard how much better than theirs our subject was. I was overjoyed with the topic myself (it was certainly more interesting than the Vietnam War) for a personal reason.

For a long time, the counterculture–hippies, shall we say–has intrigued me. I think it is mainly because I grew up in a family whose

Highschool Sports–Do Away With Them?

Finished 2-9-06

It seems to me that highschool sports are regarded as utterly more important than anything else having to do with school. My case in point is that so much focus is put on sports that little recognition is left for any other aspect of public school.

It’s ridiculous how much time and money is put into public school sports. Not only do the athletes pay a good deal of money themselves to play–often up to $250.00 not including equipment–but in addition a large portion of the district budget goes towards

Pain in relation to Happiness

Finished 10-12-05

Is it possible to have happiness without pain? Depending on someone’s personal experiences and beliefs in life, perhaps, or perhaps not. However, I shall blatantly ignore everyone else’s opinions on the matter and just go jaunting off on my own little spheel.

If one has a month full of times of complete bliss, doesn’t that cancel out the idea that pain must go hand in hand with happiness? Maybe,

Halloween Musings

Finished Oct. ‘05

Halloween is one of the most peculiar holidays that mankind has ever dreamed up. In America at least, we dress up little kids in weird costumes and send then out to go wandering around creepy neighborhoods in the dark. And this is done willingly by most parents, which leads me to believe that yes, parents are as stupid as children think they are.

The other issue I find quite strange is that the kids get candy by

Good Housekeeping Adventures

A lovely sight, this. A beam of light just hovering over my head. Naturally I can’t see it, because obviously it’s pretty much impossible to see anything on top of your head. No matter how far back you bend your neck, it never gets to the point where it’s physically possible to actually view anything above the point where your eyes start to roll back into your brain.

But at any rate, I just knew the beam of light was there. For I had just had the most wonderful idea. An awesome, fantastic, dazzling idea! Simply genius!