Day: December 5, 2011

Cheers to the weekend!

rangerthecatLeave a comment

This weekend was one of the best that I’ve had in such a long time.

On Friday, I went to a really cool art show in Ventura with a few people.
There was so much beautiful pottery. I love pottery, and I haven’t had time to go to the studio recently, but this trip gave me some new inspiration and I can’t wait until I have time again. There were so many different artists with a variety of work that all took my breath away.

The next day, I got to sleep in until 10:30. BEST FEELING EVER. I have not spent enough time with my bed recently, and seriously, it put me in such a better mood for the whole rest of the day, which consisted of going to a gingerbread house making party and a birthday party!

I spend about one who hour making a masterpiece gingerbread house with my best friend. We made sure it was very colorful and cute, and let me just say, it was some high quality work!

It was so much fun to decorate a gingerbread house; I hadn’t done it for years, and it made me feel like a little kid again, which I love.

Then came the big “dance party,” I guess you could call it. When really, it was just a bunch of loud music, and people jumping around making fools of themselves (including me). And I’d have to say, that was definitely my favorite part. Having fun without anyone to judge me or anything else to worry about. I spent time with close friends, and others that I’m not as close with, but still had an amazing time with both.

I did, however, underestimate the amount of work I had to finish, and overestimated the ability I have to do so. But a little bit of a time crunch is just the price to pay for a pretty amazing weekend 🙂

The Inbetweeners Movie

Yourcupatea1 Comment

The Inbetweeners

Yes the nerdy quartet are back. After the end of their third and final season in October 2010 The Inbetweeners are back with a movie.

Released this summer, the film is truly hilarious. I can honestly say that I have never been in a full cinema where everyone laughed so much including my American boyfriend who doesn’t understand much proper English.

The film tracks the four boys adventure to Malia, one of the biggest party destinations in Europe. And follows their unlucky, laughable mistakes as well as their desperate attempts to find women.

Out soon on DVD the film is definitely the perfect Christmas for anyone who wants a good laugh. It is truly one of the funniest movies you will ever watch.

Sigh of Relief

yrreskrapLeave a comment

If there is one thing that I can tell you about colleges, it is this:

BE ABSOLUTELY SURE BEFORE YOU SEND OUT ANY EARLY DECISION APPLICATIONS.

This was my problem. I thought that I was absolutely sure when I applied to a binding agreement to Williams College and Amherst College. However, after I submitted my applications on September 30th, I visited Massachusetts and toured the campus of Williams. That was when post-application remorse began to settle.

The four hour bus ride from Boston to Williamstown scared me. My fear was being isolated for my college years and reliving my boarding school life not being to leave campus when I wanted to.

As the notification deadline drew closer, I grew more anxious, my confidence wavering in the two schools I applied early for. Soon, I was hoping I’d be rejected.

And here I am. My first two college notifications were rejections, but they were the greatest rejections I have received as funny as that sounds.

What I realized after being rejected was that more than the isolation, I feared the binding agreement the most. I wanted to be able to have a choice and sort through my different options instead of being bound to a single school. I wanted options.

My experience brings me to another point. College tours. Do them.

Even if it is an unofficial tour where you are walking without a guide or fellow student, I cannot stress how important it is that one grasps the vibe of the school you might potentially attend. More than the name of the school or the prestige, it is ultimately your happiness that will bring you success and a great college experience.

So, apply to many and choose. Don’t limit yourself to one school unless you are absolutely true.

Drugs and Their Effects

r3t5nom2 Comments

This past weekend I was when I attended an FMX (Freestyle Motocross) demo in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico as a photographer for Monster Energy. I met some great FMX riders and got to talk to them and ask questions about anything I pleased.

Every single one of those athletes came across as great guys who seemed like you could hang out with without effort. But isn’t it sad how sooner or later peoples real colors are revealed.

The following day, which fell on a Sunday, it was my time to leave Cabo and head back to school. When I got on the plane I noticed that one of the riders was on the plane. This guy who’s name I’m going to leave out, is the one rider who I talked to the most and thought was awesome to be around. He was extremely sick, you could tell just by looking at him.

When we were driving to the runway he was throwing up constantly and aggressively, the flight attendant and the pilot made the decision to return the plane to the gate and remove him from the plane because they didn’t feel like he was suited to travel.

I noticed how seriously sick he looked and I made a call to my mom and asked for her to come back to the airport to pick him up and take him to a hospital.

When my mom picked him up I had already taken off, so it was a waiting game for me to find out what was wrong with him. When I got to LAX I got a text message from my mom and it read “Max, he’s a major drug addict and appears to be in withdrawal, probably from heroin. Maybe just prescription drugs, but he has tracks.”

That was not the text message that I was expecting to get but man did it make sense. Things quickly got hectic. He was hospitalized for two days and then he left Cabo. He didn’t pay for anything, his parents and friends refused to help him, and he couldn’t afford it so my mom had to pay for the hospitalization of a guy I thought was a good person and was on the verge of dying at one point on Sunday night. And to this day he has still not thanked my mom for what she did for him.

Did I do the right thing in helping him…?

Coming of Age.

YourcupateaLeave a comment

Old person

Eighteen. An age of adulthood and an age of maturity, yet I still can’t embrace the fact that in a few days I am going to be old. Yes I said it old.

Many people will say that turning 18 is the beginning of your  life. It is when you can start college, go and have fun and  be independent, but to me it’s just another year closer to the end. I know that seems pretty sad, but for me it’s the truth.

To be honest I am expecting wrinkles to appear on my face and to find my first grey hair any second. I constantly think about how scary getting older is. As I find myself staying at home in the evenings and drinking hot tea before I go to bed I can’t help but to think old age is approaching fast.

Ok there are many benefits to getting older. For example: you may lose those teenage pimples, you can buy lottery tickets, you can see different films and even buy a house, but still many of these will never get rid of the fact that I am slowly dying.

So as I celebrate a year closer to my retirement, I can’t help to feel a little bit of sadness. I know I have many years to go but the thought that the end is approaching actually does me a favor. It makes me want to make everyday even better, embrace life and have fun. In the end I guess that is what life is all about.

Herman Cain, You Make Me Laugh

therightliberalLeave a comment

Herman Cain might know something about business and the economy from his time owning a pizza chain. But when it comes to foreign policy he is lost.

Just take a look at this map in which he displays his thoughts on the world.

Now I’m sorry, but I know some kids in middle school that could tell me as much. And yet, this is the most we have heard out of Cain as far as foreign policy goes.

But this is fantastic news. I will personally endorse Herman Cain for the GOP nomination because he is so clueless and such a mess that Obama could laugh his way to a second term.

On top of his ignorance of the world around us, Cain also is a hypocrite…big time. While many politicians often do not practice what they preach, Cain has taken it to drastic levels. He has had an affair with a woman for 13 years, and his wife just found out about it.

Now he has denied these allegations, stating that he was just helping the woman in question financially. Odd that he would be texting her at 4 in the morning and made over 61 calls to her.

Now this would not be such a big deal (it seems like almost all politicians are getting some on the side these days) but the fact that one of his largest points has been the strength of family. Every politician is a hypocrite but Cain has gotten to the point of being a joke.

The whole Republican lineup has gotten to the point of just being a laughing stock and for that I thank them. Every night I can turn on the TV and laugh as I watch them struggle to give coherent answers with the small amounts of knowledge they have.

If you want to laugh some more go read this article.

CD’s Not Dead

venturatrekerLeave a comment


OVS takes up a lot of time.  After school, I have soccer practice and that ends at about 5 o clock.  So I have to drive home in the dark about 45 minutes home.  I really don’t like driving at night and find myself extremely bored during the drive.

So I’ve been trying to find something to do while driving, and I have finally figured it out.

With the fast approaching release of the second season of one of my favorite TV shows Game of Thrones, I have wanted to read the second for a long while, never finding time.

Yesterday I went to Barnes and Noble and purchased the second book, A clash of Kings, on CD.

SO for the last two days I have listened to the book on CD in my car driving to and from school.  This is the first time I have used my CD player in my car this year, but I doubt it will be the last as I feel that this may become a new trend for me.

You’ve just gotta believe

backinphillyLeave a comment

As I’m sure many NFL fans and my readers are aware of, the Eagles have fallen far short of their expectations. They have dropped to the very unimpressive record of 4-7. The Eagles lost a lot of games they should not have.

Now I agree. The Eagles don’t deserve a spot in the playoffs this season. They have not played nearly well enough. But, the league is full of surprises.

I looked through the standings and at first look, with the division leading Cowboys at 7-4 and the second place Giants at 6-5, the lowly 4-7 Eagles appeared, to me, out of the running.

Then I started digging and realized…We aren’t finished yet.

While the Eagles have lost 7 games, only one was a division game. They have won 3 division games. And so the scenarios begin.

If the Eagles win all of their remaining games, the Cowboys (who the Eagles play one more time) lose 3 games and the Giants lose 2 games, the Eagles win the NFC East. It’s that simple.

“But wait, Backinphilly! If the Cowboys only lose 3 games, that means they win the other 2 that they have and would only tie the Eagles at 9-7.”

You are right, obnoxious quotation. Enter the tiebreaker.

The Eagles’ division record would stand at 5-1 while the Cowboys would stand at 4-2 or 3-3 depending on if they lose to the Giants twice. Either way, the Eagles win the tiebreaker and the Cowboys get to hit the rodeo early this year.

The easiest way the Eagles make it to the playoffs is by winning out. But that alone does not assure them a spot in the postseason. Yes, it is still possible for the Eagles to lose one more game and still make the postseason. However, that involves the Cowboys losing 4 out of 5 and Giants losing 3 out of 5, which are odds that are highly unlikely.

This lies on the success of the Eagles and the failure of the Cowboys and Giants.

IT CAN BE DONE!!!! THE PLAYOFFS ARE IN SIGHT!!!!

FMX In BCS??!!

r3t5nomLeave a comment

I had the opportunity to go and take photos for Monster Energy of an FMX (Freestyle motocross) show in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico which is located in BCS (Baja California Sur)last Saturday Night. Because I was taking photos for Monster I was allowed to hang out set up my camera gear up close to the big air jump and the Monster tent. The pictures that are shown were all taken by me.
monster
The FMX team that was partaking in this show was AMAZING. The riders were such talented athletes and young as well. riders
There were some insane tricks done at this show such as; The tsunami, Superman Seat Grab, and the Hart Attack.

The Tsunami: tsunami

The Superman Seat Grab: Superman seat grab

The Hart Attack: hart attack To top off the night, one of the most incredible aspects of that night was the fact that the FMX riders stuck every landing and managed to not fall once. At one point I overheard the riders talking about how bad the ramps were and how “sketchy” they were, but regardless of the condition of the ramps they went out and gave the fan filled crowd a hell of a show.

Hello OVS!

yourgingerkid4 Comments

As you may know or recognize, this is Emma from last years graduating class and I’ve stopped by to say hello! It feels like it’s been ages since I’ve read this blog so I’ve spent the last half hour or so catching up on you journalists. I must say that half of you write better than I did before taking the course and there’s still half a year left for you all to improve! But seriously, enjoy that class while you can. It was definitely one of my favorite classes of all time while at OVS. Maddie and I have been working on a video, which we actually started months ago but never seem to find time for, that should be uploaded and posted sometime before Christmas. You’ll hear from us soon enough.

P.s. Give my regards to Mrs. Whipple and Terry Wilson. I miss them dearly!

P.s. 2 I miss your parking Mr. A

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