This is halloween, halloween, halloween.

If upon reading that title any of you are singing along to the tune of the song from Tim Burton's halloween movie (the Corpse Bride?) , then you are truly in the halloween spirit. Halloween is on the horizon and I am planning on spending my entire night working on my Mopro Part 1 (WHAT HAS THE WORLD COME TO!) but I might as well try to feel the spirit, despite the lack of Halloween candy in my stomach. When I see my sister carving pumpkins and picking out her warmest costume for trick-or-treating, I feel some major nostalgia of haunted houses, apple cider, pictures on the front porch, and the movie "Hocus Pocus." In retrospect the movie Hocus Pocus is a slightly disturbing and messed up movie for an 8 year old to be watching on a monthly basis, but that was my childhood at my grandma's house. Oh how I loved watching Sara Jessica Parker singing "Come little children I'll take thee away" on her broomstick or Bette Midler melting into nonexistence. No wonder I turned into such a strange kid.

I went to a Catholic elementary school, and despite the opinions of the witchcraft-hating nuns who ran the place, we had an unbelievable Halloween carnival every year. It may have just been a bunch of lame booths in a church basement, but it was definitely the highlight of the year. Not only would we get to win awesome prizes (I probably collected about ten jars of goldfish from those carnivals over the years) and get completely spooked in the HUGE haunted house, we would get to see all of our friends and teachers decked out in their crazy costumes. Every time Halloween rolls around and I see all the girls wearing their skimpy "costumes" (seriously, how is lingerie a witch costume?) I wish I could travel back to the magical halloween nights of the past. Maybe stealing some of my sister's Reese's cups will help treat the nostalgia. 

Pet Peeves (in order of what first popped into my head)

1. Negative people (this actually is my #1 pet peeve).
2. When you ask a question to people around you and no one feels the need to answer.
3. When someone who has say, perfect hair, says "Ugh my hair looks gross today."
4. People who fish for complements.
5. Newspaper staff writers who use the excuse "My source didn't email me back." I don't care if they didn't email you back. Get off your butt and go hunt them down.
6. Vending machines that eat your money.
7. How on some days you will have absolutely nothing going on and then on other days every thing seems to fall on you all at once.
8. When the spiral from a spiral notebook comes out of place. I HATE THIS.
9. Country music.
10. When people? Talk like this? With rising inflection? Do they realize how dumb they sound?
11. When my mom says, "Sorry doesn't fix it." What am I supposed to say then??
12. People who complain about mopro. Come on, this stuff is actually interesting!
13. When my sister changes the radio station from the Current to KDWB.
14. When people respond "maybe" on facebook events and then the day of the event they decide they will grace you with their presence.
15. Party crashers.
16. When the person sitting in front of you cracks their back, neck, and/or knuckles.
17. When guys talk about sports/cars/fantasy football/COD. Do you realize that A. I don't understand a thing you are saying and B. I really do not care?
18. When drivers don't use their blinkers.
19. Rihanna's music. Specifically her newest song...something like "Let's drink to the freakin weekend." Those are some classy, quality lyrics.
20. When people ask me, "You are like Mexican or Puerto Rican or something right?"
I will add more as they come to me...

We can all be tiger students, as long as we want to be.

The topic of American students vs. Chinese and Indian students has been of major interest to me ever since I saw 2 million minutes a few years ago and especially after the TIME magazine article about Amy Chua's Battle Hymn of a Tiger Mother was published last year. I decided to write a feature about Asian student lifestyles in the school newspaper last year. When I began reporting, I hypothesized that the key to success for Asian students was the pressure from their parents. The responses I received from four Asian students, as well as their parents, expressed that many Asian students grow up with a hard work mentality. They appreciate the amount of effort that their parents had to dedicate in order to come to work in the United States, and they hope to live up to the high expectations of their parents. The students overwhelmingly responded that their high grades and test scores came as a result of self - motivation. This is what 2 million minutes and "For once, blame the student" are arguing. I agree that American students can definitely learn from our Asian counterparts because of their exceptional dedication to their schoolwork and their drive to succeed, but we must also remember that within our American schools, we are comparing a large heterogeneous group of Caucasian students to a select group of Asian students who are descendants of a select group of very intelligent and hard working Asian immigrants. At the same time, I do realize the cultural difference in work ethics displayed in 2 million minutes. While Asian students are taught to focus solely on their academic work, American students have a much wider variety of activities and distractions. As a personal example, I don't spend nearly as much time on my homework as I could on a regular afternoon because I might have rehearsal for the musical, a meeting for a school club, or a set of emails that I need to send regarding one of my leadership roles. This does not make me any less dedicated to my school work, it just gives my life some balance and allows me to apply myself in a setting outside of school. I think this balance is what many of the students in 2 million minutes are lacking. Social life, sports, and extra curricular activities are an important part of the high school experience.
But don't get me wrong, I agree completely with Mike Rose and Patrick Welsh when they  frown upon the lack of motivation and focus that many American students have. I love the following quote from I Just Wanna Be Average, "Bullshit, of course, is everything you - and the others - fear is beyond you." I feel that too many American students focus too much on the present and not enough on their future. I believe that oftentimes, the slackers are afraid of what is ahead of them: college, a job, the need to make a living for oneself. They would rather go to that party instead of working on their Mopro because they can deal with the consequences later. I think that the difference between someone who barely gets by in school and someone who succeeds in AP classes is not only their level of intelligence. It is whether they view high school as simply a memorable experience or as preparation for something much bigger in their future.

A diet of herbal tea and vitamin C.

Who else was absolutely in love with the weather today? I never knew Minnesota would be generous enough to give us 80 degree sunny weather at the same time as rich fall colors and that smell of apple cider and pumpkin pie on the autumn breeze.
If only I could actually smell it.
I'm sick, yet again. I know my entire last blog post was about why my life is a failure. Don't get me wrong, I am 100% happy with my life and like to see myself as an optimist, but I can't help but find yet another unfortunate trend in my luck. I always seem to catch colds at the worst possible time. Let me provide some examples to get some "logos" up in here. Sophomore year had quite a few interesting colds. Cold #1 was during South Pacific auditions. Guess who did not make the musical sophomore year? Later on in the year, I got one of my worst colds during Concert Choir auditions, where I missed the mark by one point. That same week I had my regional solo-contest performance, on the same day as a big track meet. I can still remember the tissues that were pouring out of my bedroom garbage bin that week. The list can go on forever. One other favorite example of mine is from the beginning of this last summer. I had been working on a song for over a week that I was going to perform at a benefit concert at a coffeeshop; my first performance of this kind. Obviously, I woke up and could not speak.
Let's just say that I have gotten used to living on Throat Coat tea, cough drops, Dayquill, and a very noisy humidifier. I have even tried stuffing baking soda down my throat (one of my mom's sworn-by remedies that never works). I have learned to embrace my horrible immune system; it's a lifestyle. This week I have Vive Voce auditions, I have to sing at church, musical rehearsals for 2 hours every day, and supposedly a jazz performance at the Depot coffeehouse. I am surprisingly calm at the fact that I know I won't be participating in any of these thanks to my lovely stuffy nose and manly voice. Maybe I should get some sleep? Considering it is 11:00 pm and I have yet to finish my homework, that will not be happening.

"Let's get to work," says Obama.

Barack Obama's "Back to School" Speech anaylsis:
-Obama walks up the podium with a smile on his face, greeting those around him, standing with poise and wearing a formal suit. This shows his proffesionalism and evokes a sense of trust from the audience.
-He uses very effective eye contact, moving his head to different areas of the crowd each time.
-Obama refers to the audience as "You" from the very beginning, as if speaking directly to one student. He relates to the students by mentioning the everyday responsibilities and difficulties of school, such as academics, sports and social lives. He get's down to their level by using simple language and saying "I don't want to just be just an adult up here talking to you."
-Obama uses hand gestures throughout the presentation in a smooth and fluid way. He points to the audience when directly encouraging them to do something, he points upwards or holds out one of his hands in order to emphasize a point.
-Obama uses climactic order frequently, going from a description of a specific student to the importance of education on a national scale. For example, when using the examples of the student who did cancer research or the student who began a non-profit, he related everything back to his statement, "You don't have to wait to make a difference." He also transitions from high school into college graduation, or from immediate action to success "down the road."
- He uses sign posts that are engaging to the young audience, such as "Let me fill you in on a secret."
-Repetition:  He repeats questions such as "What does it mean?," when talking about the questions that all students should be asking themselves. He also repeats the phrase "Right now" frequently and with a very affirmed voice throughout the speech, creating an overall theme that the time for students to become engaged in their academics and society is now.
- He often pauses between words at the ends of sentences for dramatic effect, such as in the phrase "Seeing you learn." He also pauses in the middle of his description of the cancer research teen in order to emphasize the power of the story.
-Overall, he uses a very simple and organized flow of of thoughts with several concrete examples as pathos.