Unbelievable

After receiving this assignment I dreaded it all week, I didn't want to write about my life journals and blogs are about books and movies where I get away from my life. Plus I was convinced nothing exciting has ever happened to me I have lived in the same house for the past 15 years and the only vacation we go on is the beach every summer. My life is not unbelievable but there are a lot of amazing moments that to me are priceless so I guess amazing could be a synonym for unbelievable. Like I said I have lived in the same house for 15 years, we moved in when I was three and only old people lived here. When I started middle school the old people passed on and a bunch of kids my age moved in and these people are still my best friends to this day. It is a unbelievable that four kids with no more than a year age difference were all living within a block of each other. I still don't understand how we all ended up together. In fifth grade a girl and her family moved in four houses down from me. At first we started off a little rocky as in she told me she had enough friends and I ran home crying. I was a mature eleven year old. Fast forward seven years and she is now my best friend she comes over almost every day (my dad pays her to grade his papers but I like to pretend she comes for me). She puts up with the fact I can talk for hours about a TV show and even watches them with me. She fuels my supernatural addiction, over winter break we decided to watch all of season five. Thinking back it was possibly one of the best times we laughed, cried, and drank a lot of energy drinks but those twenty two hours were a little crazy. She actually just asked me to give her adjectives of what I think of her for her school project but I couldn’t think of any. At first Jared Padalecki comes to mind and ice cream. This may seem like I am a terrible friend but I think of Jared because we both get crazy obsessed about things I tell her about how Misha Collins renewed his vows in drag and she tells me Jared dressed his son up as yoda for Halloween. I think of ice cream because we know each other’s routine so well and she is so comfortable in my house it is like her own so she does steal all our ice cream.  She’s the kind of friend you go to when you need a shoulder to cry on or to be told it’s all going to be alright. When something seems like the end of the world or it is turning your world upside down she says alright and that she might not understand but she is always there and is reasurring and compasionate.  A month later another girl moved in one house away she didn't start of making me cry but she thought I was real weird. After a week of her moving in I showed up in the world’s puffiest magenta jacket welcoming her to the neighborhood. We have had a rough relationship but now it feels almost perfect. We do the strangest things around each other like I have caught her singing and dancing for her turtle (I know I only listed strange things she has done but my classmates read this not hers).  She’s actually the one who started calling me KattyKakes. It was one day this summer she comes on the family beach trip with us every year. She was sitting in the back of the car and I get in the front and I hear "was sup Katty Kakes?" I just start laughing and said what did you call me? She explained that was my name in her head but she had never said it out loud and it kind of stuck. Now ever adult at our church calls me katty kakes plus there was much debate on how it was spelled eventually we came up with this. She is like that though she is never afraid to walk up to a complete stranger and say you see that blonde girl call her this. I never worry about bringing her to meet new people because she almost immediately strikes up a conversation like they have been friends for years. She is possibly the strongest person I know and not she has been through a lot but because that’s her personality to go with the flow and knows that you can either fix the problem or deal with it. She can be stubborn and knows when things need to get done or she can spend an hour snap chatting instead of writing the five page report she has due the next morning. I need both these girls one lets me escape reality when I need it and the other helps me face it. Now the fourth member to our little gang is a little different. We’re not just a street filled of estrogen a whopping seven houses down lives a boy who has been here for as long as I have but I didn't meet him till seventh grade. What can I say seven houses is a long way when you’re a kid. He is my best bro and yes bro not brother or friend but bro. We even have bro night were we watch strictly action movies most of which containing Jason Statham and eat bacon burgers. Bro night also contains challenges usually containing food like can you fit this whole donut in your mouth or will you eat the mozzarella stick that fell on the floor. We once found some bungee cords and decided that if we hooked them up to his pick-up truck we could use the bed as a launch pad and tried to fling this stuffed bear. Eventually the bear ended up only four feet away and went straight into the pavement but it was a valiant effort. He’s my friend who is vulgar, indecisive, and frankly a stupid boy at times. He can be sweet and will help you out if you really need it. After I have had a terrible day where I have just given up on the fact I will never understand death and dying he'll look at me and say it’s okay to feel sad sometimes. I’m pretty sure he got this from a movie but it just makes the day better and the unbelievable become believable. So these are my strange neighbors, we walk into each other's homes steal each other’s food and crash on each other's couches. They are my unbelievable story the fact that somehow fate has brought us all to our little neighborhood where we all help each other survive the unbelievable.

That is not a classic!

So I've been meaning to blog about this since before break because it happened second to last period before the pep rally. In math Mrs. Tremont had us play Christmas trivia and we split up into boys vs. girls. There were questions on Christmas songs, movies, and traditions some were obscure and I didn't know the answers to them like a lot of my classmates but what some of them said made me want to tear my hair out. There was a question about it’s a Wonderful Life, what I call the classic Christmas movie. The question was what was the town's name if George had never been born? I didn't know it and neither did anyone else but one girl got angry that the question was too hard. She yelled out "Why don't we have questions on classic Christmas movies life Elf?" I wanted to punch her. I'm sorry if that offends anyone and I'm not saying Elf is a bad movie or shame on her for not knowing it’s a Wonderful Life but Elf is not a classic. I feel like now days kids are starting to know less and less about the classics. Movies, TV, and music were great and are great but no one bothers to learn. There is literally a song out now where they just say I'm different twenty times. Fine that floats your boat but do not tell me that the drum solo in Hot for Teacher is unimportant. Last year at prom Trevor asked me who Alice Cooper was and if she went to our school. This is how bad it is. Can we have not only historical events taught but movies and music also because I don't want to live in a world who can't sing Schools Out in June.

I'm sorry I just need to acknowledge how cool Death's enterance is

The Turtle and The Cat

So a while ago my friend asked me to watch Fruits Basket with her and we ended up watching most of the first season (I don’t know if there is a second). There is a story of the zodiac symbols that most of the plot line uses. Immediately as I saw the story I was reminded of the folk tale from Things Fall Apart of the turtle. The zodiac story is that all the animals were invited to the banquet but the rat convinces the cat not to go and the party goes on without the cat. This is why the cat is not a part of the zodiac. For purposes of comparing the two a real quick summary of Okonkwo’s story is that the turtle wanted to go to the birds’ banquet so he got a feather from each. They all flew up, he took all the food, birds got pissed, took away feathers, he fell home, cracked his shell, and that’s why the turtle’s shell is bumpy. Both stories involve animals going to banquets and explain something. In the zodiac story an animal is tricked out of going but in the folk tale an animal is tricking others so he can go. I guess this mean both stories have trickery and have the desired outcome but the outcomes are the opposite. What the stories explain also involve what animal is affected by the trickery. The outcomes of the very end of the story could also be considered negative I mean the cat probably wanted to be in the zodiac I mean in the show he did and the turtle probably did not want to fall and crack his shell. I'm not sure which story came first but using my knowledge of mythology I think that one story used the other. Back on the subject of Fruits Basket that is a great show if you have not already been able to tell I love shows or books that are based off of stories or mythologies so it amazes me that from this simple story an entire show can blossom. Not even the show but all the character’s personalities are based off this short story that could be summed up in two sentences amazes me.

The Next Cain and Able

I told myself I wouldn’t blog about supernatural but then I watched thirty episodes over break so I kind of have to now. I watched all of season five which is where the devil is out of the box. To me this was the best season because I loved all of the angel and demon fighting. I love that they use Christian mythology as the back story for a lot of the characters because they pull a lot of the major characters from it like Lucifer, Michael, Gabriel, and even God. Plus the idea of vessels developed so much it was awesome. At first you get the information that Dean is Michael’s vessel and your thinking this is cool but not great for Dean but then you lean that Sam is Lucifer’s vessel and your mind is blown. Comparing the characters to what they were in the beginning is a little crazy because at first Dean is the one who misbehaves and acts on the wild side but after he goes to hell he’s scarred and forms this relationship with Castiel that brings him closer to faith. Sam goes the other way I don’t think he was holy in the beginning but he was defiantly more well behaved than Dean and slowly his character comes to the idea that there’s something dark inside of him and I don’t think Sam becomes evil I mean he said no to the devil longer than his other vessel nick, who lived seven miles from my house. Sam’s not evil or even a bad person I mean after the shape shifter episode I would not trust him with my child but he’s a little lost or misguided and has make some bad decisions. That’s why I couldn’t see him as the devil he wasn’t pure evil and when we see the devil he doesn’t seem pure evil just sarcastic and a little bad. Then you see him where his face is half exploding and he brutally murders tons of pagan gods. In the wonderfully hysterical episode with Gabriel we learn that the Winchester boys derive from Cain and Able and are supposed to fight each other to the death. They are not just paralleled to Cain and able but also Michael and Lucifer. One son obedient, the other rebellious and you realize why both of them are special because maybe Dean isn’t holy but he fits Michael’s description and Sam isn’t evil but he fits Lucifer’s description. I will admit in the end I did want Dean to just say yes because team free will didn’t make a lot of sense to me because Cas was using jimmy as a vessel. I let that one slide because if Cas wasn’t jimmy Misha Collins wouldn’t be in the show and I love him plus jimmy wanted to be a vessel so it all works out in the end. I did like future Samifer (Sam as Lucifer) with the white suit and loafers but now he just has no soul which has become very frustration and confusing and I want Dean to go off with Cas again but Cas is gone. So far season six is not working out for me but we’ll see.

Kesha Vs. Alphaville

I’m reading Tuesdays with Morrie for Death and Dying right now and so far it’s been a pretty easy read. I don’t mean that in its difficulty level but my willingness to keep reading it. Mr. Ingram keeps lecturing about how it has not been out of print since it was published in ’97. I understand that the meaning of life should be timeless but it is dated slightly. I think it only seems dated to teenagers reading it and I don’t think it’s because we’re superficial and think it’s old. It’s because our generation grew up with a different message.  The book and even the nightline on Morrie bring up the idea that the culture likes to not talk about death but our culture now talks about death all the time. Well not all the time but now songs and movies are all about living like it’s your last day and making the moments count.( “if today was your last day and tomorrow was too late”) For over half the summer the motto was you only live once…yolo, the message being were all going to die so live your life.(which was also a song) Look back at the song forever young the lyrics are I wanna be forever young but now kesha is singing live while were young. So instead of wishing we will always be young let’s just live in the moment. I’m not saying that any of those old messages were lost or if this new idea is good or bad it’s just hard to understand what avoiding death is like. In any other part of the book there is no big difference. I mean kesha probably isn’t pushing the same ideals Morrie Schwartz is but our culture now thrives off of yolo and seize the day so when a man goes on television to talk about death it seems fascinating but it’s not really controversial or new anymore.