Month: November 2015

A Pleasant Surprise

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Friendships are a funny thing. They are something that needs work and energy spent on them but can also be something that just spring up and develop all on their own.

I am a senior in high school, getting ready to leave my hometown and small high school to venture out into the world and find my path.

At my school it is rare to not really know every person in your grade, considering the small size. However, there was one person that I for some reason, until this year didn’t really ever speak to.

The funny thing is, is that I’d known this person for the past 3 years of my life. But it wasn’t until this very last year we have together that we finally became close.

Photo Credit: http://cdn.teenink.com

I had an unexpected friendship spring up all on its own. A friendship that I never expected. A friendship that will last me a life time.

The 5 Most Beautiful French Châteaus

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When I was scrolling through my Instagram this morning I ran across a photo that was a link to an article Vogue had posted.

The article was about an Australian couple who are renovating a gorgeous château in the South of France. So I decided to do a round of up of the most amazing Châteaus France has to offer. (Let’s be real, pretty much all French Châteaus are winners.)

5. This Winter Wonderland Château

Photo Credit: Pinterest

It reminds me of the house in Taylor Swift’s Blank Space music video. Enough said.

4. The Château that Inspired this Post

Photo Credit: Vogue

Between the creeper vines growing up the house and the amazing driveway, I am envious of the owners of this estate.

3. This Grand Château

Photo Credit: thegoodlifefrance.com

This Château is majestic in the grandest sense. With the light layer of snow all around and the beautiful architecture, I am having serious house FOMO.

2. This Beauty

Photo Credit: green-landscape.com

Though this picture is worth a thousand words, LOOK HOW MAJESTIC. This should be in a Disney movie.

  1. Valentino Garavani’s Château de Wideville
Photo Credit: iTunes/ E!

Remember on the Keeping Up With the Kardashians episode of Kim and Kanye’s wedding when the whole clan casually were invited to Valentino’s Chateau for a celebratory wedding brunch?

Well I do, and I must say GOALS. This Château is jaw dropping. From the beautiful interior, to the amazing gardens, Valentino’s Château definitely secures the place as #1.

And since this is the #1 Château here are some more amazing pictures of the grounds and of my favorite episode of Keeping up With the Kardashians (no regrets).

Photo Credit: iTunes/ E!

GOOOAAALS

Photo Credit: iTunes/ E!

And of course, Versailles is amazing in every sense, but if it was in the list, there wouldn’t be much competition.

Daniel Kish – The Sonar Man

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Photo Credit: tedconblog.files.wordpress.com

During my psychology class my editor and friend, Kendall Shiffman, and I watched a video about a man who can see using his “sonar” abilities.

Daniel Kish is completely blind and has zero sensitivity in his optical nerves. He has been blind since he was 13 months old.

Because of this he has a “freedom stick”, which is a much longer cane than most others, that he uses to sense the objects around him.

Although he has his freedom stick, he has developed another ability which allows him to be even more aware of his surroundings; clicking, a form of echolocation he has developed to sense the world around him.

Discovering this, I attempted to click my way up the stairs to my next class…which didn’t end well.

His echolocation abilities, much like a bat’s, develop an image in the mind that can distinguish shapes, giving Kish the ability to walk, ride a bike, and run without a stick. Rather, he just needs his tongue.

This beautiful ability Kish has created fascinates me. I wish I could, for a day, see what Kish sees; find sight in the darkness called blindness.

Fallout 4

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Photo credit to gamespot.com

Nerds from all over the world have been prepping, stockpiling food and water. Parents are spending their final meals with their kids, girlfriends, and wives are spending their final moments with their significant other.

It’s just a few more days until bedroom doors seal shut and it will be months before they resurface. The long-awaited sequel to Bethesda’s award-winning Fallout series will come out November 10th.

The release will be crippling social lives everywhere. Gamers will enter their bedrooms, seal their door shut, and play. Fallout 4 was announced less than one year ago; it was a great surprise when it was announced to come out so soon.

Fallout 4 will take place in Boston, 200 years after a nuclear war turned the world into a wasteland. The player will create a custom character who they play for the entire game. The character emerges from Vault 111, a fallout shelter made by Vault Tec during the war, as the sole survivor.

Bethesda decided to let the player figure out what happened after release rather than spoil major parts of the plot. After leaving the vault, the player now has to decide what to do. The game is entirely open world, meaning the game is not forcing players to follow a certain path.

The player can go build a home or even a town. They can join guilds like the Commonwealth Minutemen, pursue the main story, make power armor to defend against the mutant and savages in the wasteland, and upgrade their arsenal. The options are endless and that’s what makes Bethesda and their games so unique.

The game uses a perk system called S.P.E.C.I.A.L. which represents the character traits strength, perception, endurance, charisma, intelligence, agility, and luck. With high charisma, the player can literally talk their way out of anything; it also helps when leading a town. Endurance is essential for the true wastelanders, as it makes the player capable of taking a lot of damage.

It can get to the point where bullets don’t even hurt. The biggest use of endurance is radiation tolerance, eating irradiated food results in high medical bills or death. With an iron stomach, there is no need for doctors because the irradiated food doesn’t make the player sick.

The S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system is so unique because the player has to decide where to put their 21 points at the beginning and this determines the abilities the players can unlock throughout the entire game. S.P.E.C.I.A.L. is similar to real life in the sense that if someone is low in intelligence and high in other areas, like strength and agility.

The dialogue option will be very basic and it will take longer conversations to learn something. Low intelligence can result in stupid dialogue options; sometimes the only option will be to ask “what”. The perk system plays out in the game world which has been seen in previous Fallout games but not even close to the same level.

The games Bethesda develops maintain endless “replayability.” Skyrim is another one of Bethesda’s biggest hits. Skyrim came out in 2011, but it’s still my all-time favorite game, and no game since has been able to meet the depth and level that this game has reached. Bethesda is a rare gem in the gaming industry.

They put quality above profit, and they spend years making games when most games are made in less than one. Oddly enough, quality games profit. Fallout 4 will be Bethesda’s first single-player game since Skyrim, and it is looking like it will be their best.

Part 5

whynotstayin

The world could feel it, Act III of Humanity coming to a close. A fresh piece of paper poised and ready to go into the typewriter if Act IV of Humanity were to commence. In that moment all of the surviving humans all around the world, somehow all of them were listening waiting; their path had led them here. Their future rested in the sounds of a few keyboard clicks.

The boy closed his eyes, blocking out the swirling depths of the girl’s eyes, the inevitability of time. The boy was struck by how satirical it was that after the humans had put the world through the wringer, dragged it to hell and back, God or something else, had left the earth in the hands of one innocent and naïve human.

He opened his eyes at long last and looked into the warm and luminescent gold eyes of the girl; perhaps I am the messiah, the boy thought, but if I am the messiah then she, she is my prophet. His fingers hovered above the keyboard and he finally began to type,

<command> terminate existence </command>

His fingers where shaking uncontrollably as he typed the last symbol, he could smell the salty air drift into the cave on a slow and melodious evening breeze. Once he pressed enter the world would be just this simple breeze.

But all of a sudden his heart clenched, he curled his hand into a tight fist: but don’t all the people still alive deserve to live? Don’t they deserve to feel this sea breeze as well, he thought. A selfish need to live had reared its ugly head in him. The girl just looked at him, the fire in her eyes just warm coals, the ice in her eyes just a cool pond, the cosmos and history had swirled to a stop, waiting at this moment: you know I cannot make this decision for you. I have done for you what I can.

The world held its breath as the boy’s hand slid to the enter button and when the world could hold its breath no longer he whispered: God you are one cruel creature.

After:

Night fell on what was left of humanity for the last time that night; the next morning not one human soul stirred. The tawny eyed prophet sat at the front of the cave leaning against the entrance her feet sitting in the water, next to her the young and unlikely messiah; both sat there, life snuffed out of them the two most important people in the human chapter of history. Side by side casually leaning against rock staring into the wide and endless ocean, as if only resting in the middle of a teenage-angst-filled-adventure.

Photo Credit: http://www.shutterstock.com/

Huh, I guess I am on cruel creature.

Halloween

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Photo Credit: Drafthouse

As I prepare for my four-day weekend and Halloween, I think back to my favorite Halloween movies that I watched in elementary school, or even younger.

To this day I am not one for gruesome, gory Halloween films, but movies that resonate more with Hocus Pocus (AKA the best Halloween movie ever) rather than Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

What I’m saying is my Halloween is more Disney than AMC ( I’m looking at you The Walking Dead). But while some may be gearing up for Trick or Treating, going to Six Flags or Universal Studios to be scared senseless, or staying at home diving into a bowl of candy, Halloween, in my opinion, is a very retrospective holiday.

Whether it be looking back to all the things you did to celebrate years ago, getting the type of sugar rush that usually only seven-year olds are acceptable of getting, watching scary movies, or any other time-honored tradition.

But one thing I do know is that I won’t have to go to sleep tonight thinking that my dog coming up the stairs is actually a serial killer.

5 Best Dressed Celebrities for Halloween 2015

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Trick or treat  – These costumes are definitely better than the ghosts made from bed sheets.

Every year celebrities take the spooky streets and dress up just like us normal folk.

When November 1st comes around we get to look at the tabloids and take a look to see how the stars dressed up as for this annual ghostly night.

Here are the 5 best dressed celebrities of the night

photo credit: getty images

5) Gigi Hadid

Gigi dressed up like good ol’ Sandy from the 1970’s classic Grease. What can I say it’s a classic but I craved more creativity from Gigi, but still she looked great because, duh she’s a super model.

photo credit: the ellen show

4) Ellen Degeneres

Ellen’s costume gets all the points for creativity. The queen of daytime television and of life in general dressed up as Karla Kardashian, the new Kardashian sister. This costume screams tacky and I love it.

 

 

3) Neil Patrick Harris’ Adorable Family Costume

photo credit: ew.com

What’s the point of having kids if you aren’t going to coordinate an adorable costume with them? Ok there are a lot of pros to having kids, but a Star Wars themed family costume has to be up there. Look at them and feel the force of cuteness overtake you.

2)Kim Kardashian

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photo credit: twitter.com

Do you remember the 2013 Met Gala where Kim Kardashian wore a completely floral ensemble and everyone said she looked like their grandmas couch. Do you? Well good, because so does she. That’s right Kim Kardashian dressed up as Kim Kardashian for Halloween and blessed everyone’s Instagram feed and eyes.

And now the moment we have all been waiting for

The best dressed celebrity on Halloween was..

  1. Heidi Klum
photo credit: justjared.com

Heidi Klum gets all the points, a 10 out of 10. Every year she takes it upon herself to become completely unrecognizable and she has done it yet again. She spent hours, literally hours, in hair and makeup completely altering her face and body shape to becoming the ever so famous Jessica Rabbit. She sets the bar higher and higher every year and she has yet to disappoint.

So that’s it, the top five for Halloween 2015. I can’t wait to see what the stars have up their sleeves for next year.

 

The Problem with Social Media

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Recently, Australian social media icon Essena O’Neill “quit” social media.

She deleted her Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. She did this because she felt trapped and alone; that all her life leading up to now, she was unhappy and always seeking the acceptance of others.

She feels social media has created a “brainwashed generation,” a fake life.

Prior to deleting her Instagram, she edited her past captions stating the reality of what went into each picture.

Some were hours of waiting for the perfect lighting; taking a picture in an uncomfortable pose for the most beautiful outcome; yelling at her sister or mother to take an image from a more flattering angle; or sponsoring a company she didn’t even like or support.

Then, she released her website: http://www.letsbegamechangers.com/, where she talks about issues that really matter to her.

Now, I’m very happy she has come to the realization that her career in social media was bad for her and changed that, but she is trying to start a movement against the “fake” social media image. She thinks that everyone who posts “beautiful” pictures on Instagram are never enjoying the moment, and their happiness is based on their likes.

However, she is neglecting the fact that social media can be good and not everyone is obsessing over likes.

On Facebook, you can invite your friends to an event. Whether it be a birthday party or a meeting for a new club, it is bringing people together. It is allowing people who normally wouldn’t hang out to build up connections and band together.

Social media doesn’t only bring people together in person, but through the Internet. You can talk to a family member on vacation in another country, or a friend who you want to catch up with. You can also connect with people based on common interests. There are websites and blogs for anything you are interested in, such as book clubs and feminist forums.

O’Neill’s website is an example of this. She talks about issues that matter to her and lets others join in as well. Now this is such a cool website, but it’s SOCIAL MEDIA. She is using a website to display her ideas. She is connecting with others via the Internet. She is doing what makes her happy.

So many other social media stars are happy. She thinks that when one becomes successful on Instagram or Facebook, then all they think about is success. All their happiness is derived from that success.

However, these people aren’t just their pictures. They have vibrant lives that extend from their phone, no matter how much they display on social media. They experience happiness and sadness from places beside their feed. Just because her social media experience was bad, doesn’t mean social media itself is bad.

She is also bashing on the women and men producing these “unreal” lives. She is saying that all they’re the creators of this unattainable image, the exact images that lead her and other young girls to lust for the life shown on their screens.

In a sense this is true, but she’s neglecting to include sources for this feeling other than social media. She doesn’t talk about how burger commercials, more often than not, use skinny bikini-clad women to promote a slab of meat in between two buns or how there are huge billboards of women standing confidently in their underwear.

She refused to acknowledge that social media platforms are borrowing from other aspects of life, that a young girl or boy’s insecurities don’t have to come from social media.

She also makes it seem that there is something wrong for liking these images. She says these images of beautiful beaches or a girl wearing a dress are brainwashing me.

That is far from the truth. I like these pictures not because I want to model the people in the pictures, but because they are nice to look at. Why must I have a perfect reason to look at a picture of ice cream?

I think instead of “quitting” social media, she should’ve deleted her old pictures and posts and started anew. To use these platforms to further spread her opinions on issues that matter to her.

No one was forcing her to post pictures of her wearing a striped dress, or a picture of her in the pool.

Instead of starting this anti-social media fight, she should’ve use these resources to talk about real world issues. Think of how many people she’d influence if she called upon her following of 500,000 people. She could’ve started a revolution for something that matters to her.

I Crave Sleep

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Sometimes I just want to let go. Sometimes I just want to not care. Sometimes I just don’t want to have to think.

I wish I could just shut my mind off and get lost.

Have you ever tried to shut your mind off?

I wish I could just relax and not have a constant stream of thoughts pouring through my mind.

I wish that just for a few hours I could be alone with my own thoughts, consumed not by others words but my own.

I yearn for silence, I yearn to be able to block out all the voices and noises that are rushing through my head.

I crave the ability to just shut my eyes and block out the world around me.

I long to be able tay down and not be disturbed. I long to be able to lay down and let my mind leave my body.

I crave sleep.

Photo Credit: http://img.medicalxpress.com

 

What’s Next?

mushuoo

Throughout the past hundred years, a multitude of advancements has been made by man kind. We have iPhones, cars, super thin laptops, and jumbo jets that can fly 400 passengers across the Atlantic in ten hours.

Photo Credit:. iytimg.com

Self-driving cars and hover boards are some of the latest innovative items being produced. Although these items are incredible; what is next?

I feel as though something incredible is about to be revealed. Something is being worked on somewhere by some company that will change this generation – but I have no clue what it is.

I have a couple of ideas as to what this new revolution will be; cars that hover above the ground, computers that have holograms to type, or locks to our doors that scan our fingerprints to allow admittance.

I ponder about what is to come soon, hoping it will exceed my expectations.

Ideas, anyone?