Who came around and dubbed all teens "too old" to participate in Halloween festivities like trick-or-treating? And who said the only thing a teen can be for Halloween (for a party of course, because what teen would ever be caught dead trick-or-treating at their age..) is a sexy pirate or some sort of hoodlum with a baggy sweatshirt?
A bunch of my friends were all working on college applications tonight. On Halloween. I finished my November 1st app early so I didn't have to be like those unfortunate souls (do you like my little Halloween puns? First it was "caught dead" then it was "unfortunate souls". I'm pretty good.)
I have trick-or-treated every single year since I was born. I remember all of the things I have been throughout the years. I was a ballerina once, I was a red M&M (that was a good one), I was a cheerleader once, a wizard (who knows what I was thinking..I looked like a boy), Tigger (good one for Boston fall nights), the Rubik's cube (I wore it for 2 years in a row - and I won a Halloween contest at school! But I have yet to receive the pizza party for me and 3 of my friends), a witch, and this year and last year I was the Bride of Frankenstein. That was a good one. Those are the only ones I can remember. But I never thought Halloween was dorky or babyish. Even in those "tween years". When everyone else was trying the "half devil half angel" and other angsty tween costumes, I was Tigger. Yes, there was a padded stomach and a hood with ears. And of course there was a tail.
I don't understand why people think it's uncool to dress up and walk around to other people's houses and ask for candy. It's like a tradition. Are you too cool to get presents on Christmas? Or hunt for eggs on Easter? Or watch fireworks on the Fourth of July? Oh, you aren't? Well then, put on a costume.
My aunt in Chicago has a cool idea to encourage teens to wear costumes. She told my cousin's friends that if they wanted any candy, they better be wearing costumes when they come by or they get a toothbrush. Take that, I'm-too-cool-for-school-ers!
I think Halloween is fun. And it shouldn't take you until you're an adult to realize that you wish you had done the things you didn't do because you thought you were too cool. You don't ever want to regret doing something fun like trick-or-treating. Like when I was in Costa Rica, we rode horses to this big waterfall and we all were going to go in the water. But none of us had swim suits on. In fact, we were wearing jeans and shirts. Not exactly swim wear. But then this girl took off her shirt, and wearing only her bra and her jeans, she went over to the edge of the waterfall with her friend. And she said 'come on, let's jump!' and then a few others followed after them both. When you think about it, how many other times would I be at a waterfall in Costa Rica? How many other chances would I have to jump into a natural waterfall in central America? For all I know, that was the only time. So I jumped in, jeans and all. And jeans are a dreadful thing to swim in, especially with a current, and I could barely swim in it, even though I'm a swimmer. Some other kid had to drag me up.
And then we rode off into the midday sun on our horses, all soaked and dirty. But do I regret it? No. I probably would have if I didn't jump.
Don't wait to jump. Just jump right in. Halloween might come every year, but don't pass it by. Take everything as if it were the last time you were doing it.
31 October 2011
30 October 2011
it's the great pumpkin, charlie brown!
I just finished watching a Halloween classic. It's not a horror flick, or the 90s Disney Channel trilogy Halloweentown movies.
Let's see if this picture rings a bell:
Let's see if this picture rings a bell:
It's my favorite Halloween movie ever, and it's great because I'm not a scary, gory, blood Halloween person. I'm more of a cutesy Halloween person. And Peanuts Halloween is the perfect Halloween for me. There just isn't any way you can beat the classics. This is actually the 45th anniversary of It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!, which is pretty cool that it has been around for so long but we still celebrate it's greatness.
I love the Peanuts because they are so young yet hysterically cynical and a little dark. Also, there are never any parents in sight. Who would let their kid sleep outside in a pumpkin patch all night long? And I love how they all wear the same nondescript white sheets and they all trick-or-treat with big brown bags.
I'll have none of this sudden vampire craze - just some good old fashioned Peanuts Halloween.
29 October 2011
the real world
I updated my iPad to iOS 5 today. I also downloaded a new app from National Geographic. It's called "7 Billion".
Because on Halloween, the world population will break 7 billion people. To me, that sort of has a negative connotation, and reading through the app (which is like a virtual magazine) affirmed this notion. "The more the merrier" doesn't really apply here.
That's because things don't really go very well when there are too many of us. And by 2045 (when I am 51) the population will be at 9 billion. "How many more can the planet take?" is sort of the question.
Getting back to right now, the global population has gotten higher at an exponential rate, increasing by one billion from 2000 (as opposed to the one-billion increase that occurred from 1800 to 1930). Other than the fact that there might be not enough resources to sustain this population, there are some immediate effects of too many people. And I learned about them from pictures. And while some people think that pictures say a thousand words, they in fact say none; they just show you emotions and feelings a lot better than any word can.
A few of those pictures come to mind. One of them is a group of eleven kids and teens surrounded by a mother who is just over 40 years old. She lives in Kenya and makes about $3 per day. She had her first child when she was 15 and she is struggling to make a sloppy porridge for her kids in this small tent. And the children all gather around waiting to be fed.
Another is an interesting photograph: the fancy buildings in an urban city in Venezuela, where the richer people live, is in the background. And nestled in the foreground is an open shack with a bunch of barefoot children dancing and laughing together. The walls of their shack are made of yellow fabric pieces pulled by the ends to the metal roof and some old posters. The rest of their shack is open, and it's where they all sleep. All five of them.
And this future that never seems to come, that seems so far away that it could never harm us, has already hit some people around the world. In another photograph a man wearing only a swim suit holds a little baby. He is with a group of about 10 people, and a woman is in the middle floating on a raft cooking something. Other men stand around holding children. Some cram onto the raft and watch her cook. Some stare off into space, nothing really on their minds. They are all in a shack made of some rotting and dilapidated bamboo shoots. They are standing up to their knees in dirty water, and upon a log nearby rests some pairs of flip flops.
Another one is of a boat, no bigger than a small recreational fishing boat, with a small makeshift bridge with children walking across. This boat is their school, where they sit on little wooden chairs and learn basic things. They cannot go to school in a building because it would get flooded. So they instead go in a boat. But only little boys can go, not girls. They are confined in their homes.
And another picture reminds me of a horribly sad book I read. A bunch of boys are playing soccer in a broken city. There is nothing there but an empty warehouse. The sky and the water on the ground are the same color - brown. It looks post-apocalyptic. But they are playing in the murky gross water, with no concern, it seems, to their fallen world.
Life is so much harder than we really think it is. Concerns we have don't even cross the minds of other people around the world. What outfit should I wear to my college interview? What should I go about turning in this school project late? Where should I go buy this yogurt, because Publix doesn't have it? What should my new Facebook profile picture be? Most of the world is thinking things like: How will I feed myself and my family? What happens if another flood comes? What if I don't have enough money? What if my kids die from starvation or some disease?
Sometimes it's hard to think that we live on the same planet. I just went to a Halloween party at the country club and I got a manicure. Things that other people around the world would never dream of doing. Even my cat has a better life than some of these people, where the average number of births per woman is over 7.
When some people say "I want to see the world", I think that they are talking about the famous landmarks, the beautiful landscapes and basically, the "good" parts. But they forget about the other parts like the slums, the ghettos, the flood regions, and the poverty-stricken villages. And that's more than 85% of the world.
Because on Halloween, the world population will break 7 billion people. To me, that sort of has a negative connotation, and reading through the app (which is like a virtual magazine) affirmed this notion. "The more the merrier" doesn't really apply here.
That's because things don't really go very well when there are too many of us. And by 2045 (when I am 51) the population will be at 9 billion. "How many more can the planet take?" is sort of the question.
Getting back to right now, the global population has gotten higher at an exponential rate, increasing by one billion from 2000 (as opposed to the one-billion increase that occurred from 1800 to 1930). Other than the fact that there might be not enough resources to sustain this population, there are some immediate effects of too many people. And I learned about them from pictures. And while some people think that pictures say a thousand words, they in fact say none; they just show you emotions and feelings a lot better than any word can.
A few of those pictures come to mind. One of them is a group of eleven kids and teens surrounded by a mother who is just over 40 years old. She lives in Kenya and makes about $3 per day. She had her first child when she was 15 and she is struggling to make a sloppy porridge for her kids in this small tent. And the children all gather around waiting to be fed.
Another is an interesting photograph: the fancy buildings in an urban city in Venezuela, where the richer people live, is in the background. And nestled in the foreground is an open shack with a bunch of barefoot children dancing and laughing together. The walls of their shack are made of yellow fabric pieces pulled by the ends to the metal roof and some old posters. The rest of their shack is open, and it's where they all sleep. All five of them.
And this future that never seems to come, that seems so far away that it could never harm us, has already hit some people around the world. In another photograph a man wearing only a swim suit holds a little baby. He is with a group of about 10 people, and a woman is in the middle floating on a raft cooking something. Other men stand around holding children. Some cram onto the raft and watch her cook. Some stare off into space, nothing really on their minds. They are all in a shack made of some rotting and dilapidated bamboo shoots. They are standing up to their knees in dirty water, and upon a log nearby rests some pairs of flip flops.
Another one is of a boat, no bigger than a small recreational fishing boat, with a small makeshift bridge with children walking across. This boat is their school, where they sit on little wooden chairs and learn basic things. They cannot go to school in a building because it would get flooded. So they instead go in a boat. But only little boys can go, not girls. They are confined in their homes.
And another picture reminds me of a horribly sad book I read. A bunch of boys are playing soccer in a broken city. There is nothing there but an empty warehouse. The sky and the water on the ground are the same color - brown. It looks post-apocalyptic. But they are playing in the murky gross water, with no concern, it seems, to their fallen world.
Life is so much harder than we really think it is. Concerns we have don't even cross the minds of other people around the world. What outfit should I wear to my college interview? What should I go about turning in this school project late? Where should I go buy this yogurt, because Publix doesn't have it? What should my new Facebook profile picture be? Most of the world is thinking things like: How will I feed myself and my family? What happens if another flood comes? What if I don't have enough money? What if my kids die from starvation or some disease?
Sometimes it's hard to think that we live on the same planet. I just went to a Halloween party at the country club and I got a manicure. Things that other people around the world would never dream of doing. Even my cat has a better life than some of these people, where the average number of births per woman is over 7.
When some people say "I want to see the world", I think that they are talking about the famous landmarks, the beautiful landscapes and basically, the "good" parts. But they forget about the other parts like the slums, the ghettos, the flood regions, and the poverty-stricken villages. And that's more than 85% of the world.
28 October 2011
there's hope yet
I don't have too many people who read this blog. Just a mere handful. And for the amount of words I type on this blog, sometimes I wish I was famous and that tons of people read my blog and I was a famous little teen. But living in obscurity is fun too.
But the other day when I posted on Facebook that I had reached 300 posts, a bunch of people read it. A girl in my math class said that she read it too, and that it opened her eyes. I was utterly enthused. Someone other than my immediate family was reading my blog! It was exciting. Because as big as the internet is, sometimes I feel like this is like a private journal that I can write in with no chance of having other people reading it. But it's great to know that I reach other people too. And perhaps I reach even more people that I don't know are reading.
Don't doubt your worth if you aren't sure people notice it or appreciate it. Sometimes it just takes people some time to come around.
But the other day when I posted on Facebook that I had reached 300 posts, a bunch of people read it. A girl in my math class said that she read it too, and that it opened her eyes. I was utterly enthused. Someone other than my immediate family was reading my blog! It was exciting. Because as big as the internet is, sometimes I feel like this is like a private journal that I can write in with no chance of having other people reading it. But it's great to know that I reach other people too. And perhaps I reach even more people that I don't know are reading.
Don't doubt your worth if you aren't sure people notice it or appreciate it. Sometimes it just takes people some time to come around.
27 October 2011
find your inner shakespeare
Shakespeare is to some people like Mount Everest. It's amazing and respected, especially by the native Sherpa, but it seems insurmountable. This is how most feel about Shakespeare. They think it's just too esoteric and cryptic for them to understand. But you know, once you get past the language, Shakespeare is so wonderful and perfect.
I spent about 4 hours today working on my newest project: a full-length Hamlet comic. I absolutely adore Hamlet so much. It is literally the most wonderful play. So far. We have only read to the start of Act 2. I like the characters, I like the setup of the conflict, and I like to reread it and make a comic version of it.
Shakespeare is like going to a really fun carnival with hamster balls. It's like a fun party that goes on all night long. Except for most people Shakespeare is tortorous, so it's funny that I like it. I guess it's like if someone handed me a sheet of paper and said, "hey, let's solve a bunch of physics problems and write some algorithms!" I would probably roll my eyes and sigh. Or have a panic attack. Or both. At once.
I'm in a fragment-sentence type of mood.
Shakespeare might not be your favorite thing in the world. Probably your second listing for a "my favorite things list", but maybe not first. Go find your Shakespeare. And you know that you love it if you can work on it for hours and it seems like the whole world melts away and it's just you and Shakespeare. Or your "Shakespeare substitute".
Dear everyone, spell check doesn't work and it's 1am. Ignore the probably glaringly obvious spelling mistakes.
I spent about 4 hours today working on my newest project: a full-length Hamlet comic. I absolutely adore Hamlet so much. It is literally the most wonderful play. So far. We have only read to the start of Act 2. I like the characters, I like the setup of the conflict, and I like to reread it and make a comic version of it.
Shakespeare is like going to a really fun carnival with hamster balls. It's like a fun party that goes on all night long. Except for most people Shakespeare is tortorous, so it's funny that I like it. I guess it's like if someone handed me a sheet of paper and said, "hey, let's solve a bunch of physics problems and write some algorithms!" I would probably roll my eyes and sigh. Or have a panic attack. Or both. At once.
I'm in a fragment-sentence type of mood.
Shakespeare might not be your favorite thing in the world. Probably your second listing for a "my favorite things list", but maybe not first. Go find your Shakespeare. And you know that you love it if you can work on it for hours and it seems like the whole world melts away and it's just you and Shakespeare. Or your "Shakespeare substitute".
Dear everyone, spell check doesn't work and it's 1am. Ignore the probably glaringly obvious spelling mistakes.
26 October 2011
happy news
Finally something wonderful!
So you know how the news is always depressing? There is never one positive thing on the news. Ever. Even on CNN with Anderson Cooper!
I found this website called Happy News. And it has tons of news stories about everything, but it's all happy.
And it's not taking your attentionn away from the "real" news; it's just taking a new approach to news. And I like that approach a lot better.
I totally recommend going and reading it. It's some really great stuff. The website is http://www.happynews.com (you probably could have guessed it).
So you know how the news is always depressing? There is never one positive thing on the news. Ever. Even on CNN with Anderson Cooper!
I found this website called Happy News. And it has tons of news stories about everything, but it's all happy.
And it's not taking your attentionn away from the "real" news; it's just taking a new approach to news. And I like that approach a lot better.
I totally recommend going and reading it. It's some really great stuff. The website is http://www.happynews.com (you probably could have guessed it).
25 October 2011
fleeting memories
I have to say, seeing it say 300 posts is a little freaky. I'm not going to say "It seems like just yesterday I was writing my first post!" because it doesn't seem like that. I just didn't think I would ever get this far.
And I'm still going! Hurrah!
I was just listening to this song that's really incredibly beautiful. And it reminds me a lot of where we go in the summer in Massachusetts. A lot of my memories are visual, olfactory, and musical. Those are the main ways I remember something. So when I've heard a song, I always remember if it impacted me in a certain way. Like the last song I heard before I left my house to move to Georgia - I just recently started to be able to listen to it again. It used to make me too sad.
Anyways, whenever we were driving on the causeway going into Nahant, I would always think of this particular album and driving through Nahant when I was a kid, especially in the summer, was the memory I have from these songs on this album. And this particular song (worth listening to!) always reminds me of this specific memory: I was sitting in my dad's childhood friend's parent's dining room on the fourth of July, and everyone else was in a different room talking and stuff. There were a ton of people there. But I was the only one in that room. And I just remember seeing all the beautiful lights and the sun setting and seeing the ripples of the ocean. And this song must have been stuck in my head when this all happened. And it was right then when every worry in the world melted away.
It's sort of a ridiculous memory; I was just standing there looking outside. But it was a magical memory, and listening to the song right now reminds me so much of it.
And I used to get really sad when I heard this song because Nahant was so far away and I was all the way in Georgia. And it would make me want to go back there. And I knew that if I just heard this song when I was there, that everything would be wonderful again and my worries would all melt away like they did in my memory.
But when I went back, and I looked out to the ocean like I had, and I played that song back in my head, I did not feel that same feeling. It was because the song didn't represent Nahant, it represented that memory; that one memory.
I'll always have the memory, and the beauty of the song will always take me there. But it's different. It's hard to relive a memory, since the raw beauty of the moment was what made it a memory in the first place. It's hard to duplicate a specific feeling in a certain moment.
But life's all about trying new things. Everyday we make new memories, and I have songs that represent memories that have come after this one. And just thinking of the song can take me there.
A lot of times when I'm down I rummage through my memories, in hopes of escaping into the recesses of my own mind. But I can't do that; so we have to remind ourselves that as much as the magic of a memory can fleet, we are touched by so many other things that turn into the things we long for when they are gone.
And I'm still going! Hurrah!
I was just listening to this song that's really incredibly beautiful. And it reminds me a lot of where we go in the summer in Massachusetts. A lot of my memories are visual, olfactory, and musical. Those are the main ways I remember something. So when I've heard a song, I always remember if it impacted me in a certain way. Like the last song I heard before I left my house to move to Georgia - I just recently started to be able to listen to it again. It used to make me too sad.
Anyways, whenever we were driving on the causeway going into Nahant, I would always think of this particular album and driving through Nahant when I was a kid, especially in the summer, was the memory I have from these songs on this album. And this particular song (worth listening to!) always reminds me of this specific memory: I was sitting in my dad's childhood friend's parent's dining room on the fourth of July, and everyone else was in a different room talking and stuff. There were a ton of people there. But I was the only one in that room. And I just remember seeing all the beautiful lights and the sun setting and seeing the ripples of the ocean. And this song must have been stuck in my head when this all happened. And it was right then when every worry in the world melted away.
It's sort of a ridiculous memory; I was just standing there looking outside. But it was a magical memory, and listening to the song right now reminds me so much of it.
And I used to get really sad when I heard this song because Nahant was so far away and I was all the way in Georgia. And it would make me want to go back there. And I knew that if I just heard this song when I was there, that everything would be wonderful again and my worries would all melt away like they did in my memory.
But when I went back, and I looked out to the ocean like I had, and I played that song back in my head, I did not feel that same feeling. It was because the song didn't represent Nahant, it represented that memory; that one memory.
I'll always have the memory, and the beauty of the song will always take me there. But it's different. It's hard to relive a memory, since the raw beauty of the moment was what made it a memory in the first place. It's hard to duplicate a specific feeling in a certain moment.
But life's all about trying new things. Everyday we make new memories, and I have songs that represent memories that have come after this one. And just thinking of the song can take me there.
A lot of times when I'm down I rummage through my memories, in hopes of escaping into the recesses of my own mind. But I can't do that; so we have to remind ourselves that as much as the magic of a memory can fleet, we are touched by so many other things that turn into the things we long for when they are gone.
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