The Power of Song

Singing, it can be as simple as that.  Songs can allow you to forget, you can relate, or sometimes just dance the night away.  When you are down, sometimes all you need is a good song to bring you back up.  Music can be magical, if you let it be.

You know what I’m talking about when I say that everyone has the favorite song, the song that when it comes on you forget about all your problems and everything bringing you down.  When the music comes on you drop everything, turn up the volume on the stereo and break out singing and dancing.  The minute it comes on you forget why you were crying and just let go for three minutes.

There are also those songs that seem to tell your life story.  You can sit there and listen to the words and think, “That was written about me.”  You might break out singing or just sit there and listen, it might bring tears to your eyes or make you remember happy times, whatever it is it is telling your story.

Then there are the songs that the minute they come on you just break out dancing.  They might not have great lyrics but they have just the right beat, just the right tempo to break it down.  Those are the songs you listen to at night when pulling all-nighters and trying to stay awake.  Those are the songs you listen to with friends well laughing the night away.

No matter how you see music, it can be magical.  It can help you forget, remember, or just get down.  Music is everything, even if you don’t realize it.

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Advanced Placement Examinations

            AP Exams. Yikes! I said it.  In case you forgot, the annual exams starts tomorrow and if you are one of those people who took AP Environmental Science, Psychology, or Chemistry you have the unlucky first day testing.  If that happens to be your first AP Exam I have some tips for you from an old timer.

1.      Study.  If you have an exam tomorrow, like I do, it is basically too late to do this now.  You could try going through and making sure you remember the large topics but it is going to be almost pointless now.  If you have a little more time left, start studying today, not tomorrow, but today.  Get a study book and split it up by how many days you have left before the exam, but leaving the night before the exam open.

2.      Know the timing of all your exams.  You don’t want to think you have more time than you really do.  The best idea would be to take a practice exam so you know exactly what it feels like to have minimal time.

3.      Sleep.  Hopefully that is a duh thing, but just in case, I decided to include it in the tips.  I’m not talking about just the night before either; make sure you get ample amounts of sleep a few nights leading up to the exam.

4.      Eat a good breakfast.  This is something that you are supposed to do every day, but if you are like me you usually don’t.  However, the day of the exam make sure that you do eat breakfast.  You will do much better on your exams if you aren’t sitting there thinking about how hungry you are, and it will help keep you from getting tired and stay energized during the exam.

5.      Don’t drink a lot the morning of the exam and avoid coffee.  You are probably asking yourself why I would say to avoid coffee, but hopefully the drinking part makes sense.  However, caffeine runs through your system faster than say water, so drinking it will have to make you use the restroom very soon after you start the exam.

6.      Leave for your testing site with plenty of time.  Your exam will either be starting right during morning rush hour or during lunch hour.  You don’t want to get stuck in traffic and be late.  Also remember this is the time for construction so make sure you know which roads may be closed.  Once the doors are closed to the testing site they will not let you in, so don’t be late.  It will be better to arrive early rather than late.

7.      Go to the bathroom when you arrive at the testing site before taking your seat.  You want to make sure that you won’t need to go as soon as the testing is done, all the tests I believe are timed and you don’t want to waste any of the valuable time in the restroom.

I know your school will probably give you their own set of tips, along with all of your different teachers.  These are just what I do and have seemed to work for me the last couple of years.  Most of all, I wish all of your good luck on all of your exams.

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"Crime is Pride"

“Think: all men make mistakes

But a good man yields when he

Knows his course is wrong,

And repairs the evil: The only

Crime is pride.”

 

            The idea behind the “Crime is Pride” quote, I think is completely true.  I believe that everyone makes mistakes and that it is only human nature to be imperfect, but if you’re smart you will learn from those mistakes and try not to make them again.  But pride is the biggest mistake, as it will lead to more mistakes and will prevent you from learning from your mistakes.

            It is my belief that humans make mistakes, always have been and always will be, that it is part of our human nature.  The mistakes made in life could be as simple as missing a test question, or as big as marrying someone they aren’t truly in love with.  No matter who you are, you have made a mistake at some point during your life, and you may even have regrets about it.  I know I have made mistakes in my life, and it is just something that everyone does whether they want to admit it or not.

            When you know you are or have been making a mistake, if you are smart you will generally stop and learn from what you are doing.    I believe that this is true and that although we sometimes slip up, when you know you have made a mistake you will try not to make it again.  However, I have the belief that we will still, as humans, make the same mistake twice or maybe even more.  We are not perfect so we can say that we have learned our lesson, but many times I know we will still go and make the same mistake a few more times before completely learning.

            When the quote says that, “The only Crime is pride,” I believe that it is referring to the idea of having pride about what may have been a mistake, or having too much pride in yourself.  When you think too highly of yourself, or you have great pride, it can lead you to make mistakes as you may think that you are above everyone else.  Many times the mistakes you make out of pride are ones that you will not learn from.  The mistakes that you are making and not learning from, or stopping, can lead to more pride and it is all a downward spiral of mistakes.

            What comes to mind when I read this essay is the typical high school girl.  Many times a girl will have one guy that no matter what they will keep going back to.  Most of the time this guy is probably not very good for the girl, but the girl will keep going back to him and making the same mistake over and over again until she learns.  When she finally learns that going back to him all of the time is a mistake, she will stop doing it.

            Therefore, I have to agree with the “Crime is Pride” quote and that every human does make mistakes, but if you are smart you will learn from them and stop making the same ones over and over again; and that pride is the biggest mistake by far, leading to other mistakes.

 

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Braces

            I have had braces for over 3 years, in fact over 3 and a half years yay… oh wait never mind.  Braces suck and I don’t know how else to describe them, and they are really just a hassle.  There is brushing, the appointments, and the lovely rubber bands for months on end… oh and don’t forget the diet change.

            If you think that brushing your teeth is time consuming, try it with braces.  You have to make sure to brush from every angle of the brackets, wires, and hooks every time.  Plus, food gets stuck so much easier and is that much harder to get out.  The biggest fear with not brushing is the dreaded stains after the braces come off, for me it is basically a given after almost 4 years I will have some sort of stain though, especially with my coffee love.

            The monthly appointments to the orthodontist are so much fun.  I can never wait until my next one.  I really hope you knew that was sarcasm.  Spending a good almost hour every 4-6 weeks well they basically tell you to just come back again in another 4-6 weeks, I’ve lost track of how much time I have spent laying in the chairs at the orthodontist.

            For me, the longest and most difficult part of the braces part has been the rubber bands.  I have been wearing rubber bands for I have no idea how long.  They are always breaking and are everywhere in my house and car by now.  In fact, this post topic was decided when I yawned and my rubber band snapped.

            The favorite part everybody says when they get braces is when they can no longer chew gum, well technically.  Although in some ways braces have been convenient in getting me out of eating foods, such as celery, in middle school when I really didn’t want to eat it, now I’m just tired of not being able to eat a caramel apple.

            I remember looking forward to getting braces, now I look back and laugh at myself.  Just remember kids, braces suck.

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Gardening... Strawberries

            Today was in the seventies, like what is this, this has not happened in forever.  I was finally able to feel comfortable with planting all of the strawberry plants in my hanging trellis off of my deck that my dad and brother put up for me last year.  Yeah, I’m one of those crazy garden people and I don’t know why but I am so deal with it.  I was so excited to be able to plant my strawberries that I couldn’t wait to do it and did it right after I got home from work even though I was so tired and just really needed a nap.

            This is going to be one of those awkward blog posts with tips about gardening I’m just super excited so sorry if I start to ramble.  The unfortunate thing with strawberry plants are that they take need to be planted a good 18 inches apart from each other and are always sending out these things called “runners” from the base plant.  If you are planting strawberries, I would recommend when you plant them, plant something like radishes or carrots around them that will be able to be harvested within a few weeks so that you aren’t wasting all of the extra growing space in your garden.

            Strawberry plants are also very frustrating in the fact that they usually have very crappy growing years for their first year, and then only last a good 3-4 years before being burned out.  The way that you avoid having them all have the same good years is pinch the blossoms off of every other plant the first year, after the third year go through and remove all of the plants on one half and replant the next spring doing the same with the other half the next fall.  This is to avoid having them all have the same first year twice, and pinching off the blossoms gives them a good second year but nothing the first season which is why you only do half.

            Have fun growing, oh and don’t forget to water all your plants.

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Country Concerts

            In case you didn’t know, and most likely you didn’t, Kenny Chesney’s “No Shoes Tour” was in Des Moines, Iowa last night.  I happened to have tickets to the show with my mother, and it in many ways may have been the best concert I have ever been to.  It took place at the Wells Fargo Arena which was the same location I saw Carrie Underwood a few months ago, and there were a lot of differences I found in them and liked more in one than in the other.

            Generally you go to a concert for the music so I am going to start with that.  Carrie Underwood has been my favorite artist for as far back as I can remember, but I’m not really that old so probably shortly after she was off of American Idol.  I love so many of her songs and I love her voice.  Unfortunately the night she was in Des Moines she was losing her voice so I was slightly disappointed in a few of the songs and she played a shorter set than normal.

            During Carrie Underwood’s Blown Away Tour she played a lot of her more recent songs that were not necessarily as known or popular.  I have all of her albums except the most recent one, but I still did not know quite a few of the songs she sang which was very disappointing to me.

             Now to talk about Kenny Chesney’s music, I do not always actively listen to country but I knew every single song he sang except for two of them.  This to me was able to keep me very entertained and I was able to enjoy all of the music since he was playing his more popular music rather than just his newer music.

            To get away from the music part of the concert, I’m going to talk about the set and costuming of Carrie Underwood which was just awesome.  She had some of the prettiest dresses, cutest outfits, and I loved her shoes.  She did a lot of costume changes and had awesome backgrounds.  At one point, Carrie even went on a stage over the floor part of the crowd.  Carrie also had some really good lighting that was never over powering or too bright.

            When it came to Kenney Chesney’s staging, well it stayed the same.  He also never changed outfits which I find a little more normal since he is a guy and all.  His original stage was never anything all that special though, he just had screens with pictures and videos playing throughout.  However, I did like how his stage had a spot that stuck out into the crowd on the floor in the middle.  His lighting, however, for a majority of the time was very obnoxious and over powering.  For me it was disorienting, and made it difficult for my mom to drive home later.

            The last thing I will discuss is the opening acts.  Carrie Underwood had Hunter Hayes with her.  Hunter Hayes was the other person I really wanted to see at the time so I was really happy when I found out they were together.  I knew a lot of his songs and he is pretty well known.  To put it nice and short, to have him there made me very happy.  Hunter was also very good and had very good staging.

            Kenney Chesney in Des Moines had two opening acts, in some places he has more.  I heard Kacey Musgraves and the Eli Young Band.  I had never heard of Kacey and she mainly sang songs by some other artists but she did have one song that is relatively new she wrote that I have been hearing quite a lot.  Eli Young Band has been around for about ten years and has a few songs that are pretty popular.  They even sing like my all- time favorite song and it left me almost in tears.

            All in all, both concerts were very good and I am glad I went to both of them.  I will have to thank my mom for buying the tickets and taking me with her even if the Carrie Underwood ones were my birthday present.  Last night’s Kenny Chesney concert was much better though than what I can remember from the one I went to years ago with my mom when our seats were occupied by people who couldn’t fit just in their seats, and after being put in other seats had beer poured on us…  I’m glad I went last night J

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Fads

            I am going to make this blog post in response to my dear friend Finley's latest blog post.  He had a blog post about hats but I found the actual purpose to be about fads.  I wanted to talk mainly about the last point he made and the big hair fad in the 70s.

            If you ever stop to think about it, many of the fashions from the 70s and 80s have been coming back.  The poofs in the hair and in general a lot of the clothes are all coming back from the time of my parents.

            A couple of years ago I was so confused why everyone was going from wearing boot cut jeans to skinny jeans.  I used to think that they were the craziest idea ever, but a few years later I am wearing usually only skinny jeans.  In case you didn’t know, skinny jeans are a returning fad, as Finley would say, from the 70s and 80s.

            Another fad would be neon.  Nowadays you can walk into quite a few stores, and they have a whole section of neon clothes, or at least they did last summer.  Once again, neon is from the time of my parents and it had its return to us.

            The biggest shock I have had with returning fads would have to be the idea of poofs in the hair.  Now it is quite common to simply poof your bangs or the front part of your hair to keep it out of your hair at any time.  Other people will wear a headband and put a big poof in the back.  I used to think that this was the craziest thing ever when the fad began to return, but now I do it too.

            It really is weird the way that fads come and go, being recycled and returning as the generations age.  I’m just hoping that shoulder pads never come back, I don’t think I would be able to handle that fad.

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