Junior

I'm back, hello!
It's been a while since I've made an entry, but I've finally brought myself to write.
So, school starts 10 days from today and I'll officially be a junior...it's crazy I know. And I have no idea what I'm going to do with myself this year. It'll either be extremely stressful, or mundane (Which I'm sort of hoping it will be) and hopefully much more exciting.
I don't have as many things planned this year as last year, extra curricular wise, so this year should be slightly less stressful.

You know what I've never understood?
The fact that it's 2013 and yet, women aren't paid the same amount as men.
Especially if it's a job that requires "hard work" (Which really shouldn't matter anyways) It's like "Oh, you want to be a construction worker and do the same exact job as a man and do the same amount of work? Oh, because you have a vagina, let's pay you less, because you're obviously not capable of doing that job, so we're just going to not give a shit and pay you less, because it's a good excuse for our company."
I'm 15, going on 16 years old, and I really don't want to have to worry about getting a job, and worry about not getting paid enough. I highly doubt any of this will change within the next 20+ years, (Which is really sad.) You don't hear much about it in the news. And for once, I'd just love to not be discriminated against because I'm a woman. I'm not weak, I'm not saying I'm more superior than a male either. I'm saying that we're all human and that I can equally complete at ask that requires just as much hard work as a man can.

New York City

So I recently got back from my trip. I went backpacking around NYC like an average tourist for the first time and hell, it was quite the experience. The bus ride was about 4 and a half hours from Northern Massachusetts to New York City, and it went by faster than I thought it would.
Our first destination when our bus stopped was at Central Park.
We toured around by a tour guide holding a light saber. How cool is that?
So he told us a bit about the history of New York City.
Yoko Ono (John Lennon's widow) Lives in one of the top floors of this apartment. It was said by the tour guide that New York City was a getaway for John Lennon, and he was and wanted to be treated like an average citizen. An area in Central Park was dedicated to him. "Strawberry Fields" It's called, after the song "Strawberry Fields Forever" by The Beatles. Another amazing landmark that we saw was the "Imagine" circle, I suppose you can call it.

"The mosaic, in the style of Portuguese pavement, is at the heart of a series of open and secret glades of lawn and glacier-carved rock outcroppings, bounded by shrubs and mature trees and woodland slopes, all designated a "quiet zone". A woodland walk winds through edge plantings between the glade-like upper lawn and the steep wooded slopes; it contains native rhododendrons and hollies, Carolina Allspice, Mountain Laurel, viburnums, and Jetbead. Wild shrub roses and a mature pink Magnolia soulangeana flank the main walk. At the farthest northern tip of the upper series of lawns enclosed by woodland are three Dawn Redwood trees, which lose their needles but regain them every spring, an emblem of eternal renewal. The trees can be expected to reach a height of 36 metres (118 ft) within 100 years, and eventually they will be visible from great distances in the park." [x] It was a truly breathtaking sight, and I'll never forget it.
Now moving on to something that I was extremely excited about and looking forward too. As everyone knows, I'm a huge Doctor Who junkie. The last episode that included The Ponds was "Angel's Take Manhattan" There were ongoing jokes between me and several friends about The Statue of Liberty as we watched her (I'll talk more about that later) But most importantly, I saw some amazing areas where they had filmed. Amy is seen in one of the scenes dropping some food down to ducks over a bridge:

Bank Rock Bridge

Now I tried not to get over-emotional as I saw the sight in which The Doctor reads Amy's last page. I admit it, I didn't cry, but I did get a little gloomy. It was as if I could see the doctor sitting there. (Okay enough Doctor Who talk)
I also saw where the last scene in one of my favorite movies "The Avengers" was filmed, where Loki is taken captive.
After our tour of Central Park, we were allowed some free time in Times Square, which was the most amazing in my opinion. It was huge, amazing and so surreal. It was overwhelming. Sometimes people can be rude and not say excuse me. (We were tourists, what did I expect? I honestly have no clue.) But it was amazing. I managed to jaunt around the M&M factory which was extremely interesting. My favorite part of the day was visiting the 9/11 memorial. Now I was only about 4 years old when the terrorist attack occurred, but it didn't mean that I didn't have the right to mourn. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in my entire life. I walked around one of the "Footprints" of the waterfalls twice with a friend, and we looked at the other briefly before leaving. Now I didn't get a picture of it, but my teacher told us something amazing about "The Survivor Tree" Out of everything that survived of the attacks, there was a tree that somehow stayed intact, despite everything. It's still there and it's chained down into the ground to prevent it from harm. The story brought tears to my eyes.
Now the last of our adventures was taking a group picture on the red steps in Times Square. (Which I unfortunately have not scanned on my computer)
Day two was the most overwhelming of our adventures in New York City.
We had so much to do in so little time. (I was there for a period of three days, by the way)
The day included the Harbor Cruise, large amounts of walking, a Broadway play, and clambering up several flights of stairs up the Empire State Building. By the end of the day, the buses were filled with many tired, emotional and home-sick teenagers. (But it was a good time)

Now I was worried about the Harbor Cruise. I had only been on a boat one other time, and that was when I was about seven, and went to Niagara Falls on the Sierra Mist. But it was beautiful. We got an amazing view of The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island and the skyline of New York City itself.
I felt the wind in my (Short) hair and it was so beautiful to be out on the water. If I had the chance to do it again, I would! 

After a few hours of jaunting around Times Square, we were on our way to Broadway. I saw "Spider-man" which I won't talk too much about, it was one of those "You had to be there" experiences I suppose.
After our Broadway play we grabbed some dinner at "Dallas BBQ" and made our way to The Empire State Building. We clambered up god knows how many flights of stairs and finally made our way to the top. But the walk was worth it, I know that much.
We made our way back to the hotel after that adventure.

Now day three was meant to be relaxing. We got our official tour of NBC studios which was so amazing. We got to see where Saturday Night Live, The Dr. Oz show, and Late Night With Jimmy Fallon were filmed, which got me extremely excited. It's also the heart of where The Today show is hosted! After that, our group (This was a choral and band music trip) performed at the bandshell in Central Park which was again, another amazing experience. After this we took a tour around Lincoln Center and were shown around the music and dancing that the amazing area had to offer.
And that's all folks! Hope you enjoyed my little anecdote of my trip!
(NOTE: 100+ photos weren't included due to the formatting of my blog template, check the rest out here)

Feminism and Inequality in Society

Sexism is a large problem in today’s world. Not many people think about it in their daily life. It happens everywhere, which is why we have feminism. Feminism is extremely important to understand in today’s society.

Women should be more aware of gender equality in their everyday lives. “I want young girls to know that they should dream big and that if they put their minds to it, they can accomplish anything.”  Women today, especially young girls, need someone to look up to. Unfortunately, not everyone has this advantage. Girls need a role model, someone they know will make good choices. Women need to become more exposed to the fact that they should have some sort of education on feminism.

“Today’s fashion and advertising industries have decided to glamorize this narrative.” (The fact that an average dress size is considered “too heavy” for models. In the 60’s for example, many women were known to be housewives. They were expected to stay home and cook, clean and take care of the children. They were often without jobs, as being a housewife” was one of them. Women were often and sometimes still are assumed to be less capable of completing hard tasks than men.

Today, women still aren’t sometimes considered political leaders. “In the 70’s, the government equality become resistant.” When a woman won primary, the news reporters laughed and did not take the situation seriously due to the fact that she was a woman. Often when a male’s candidate’s looks get criticized, it’s a way that feminizes him, believing that it is suddenly acceptable for the community to criticize women. People were telling Hillary Clinton to “De-sex” herself and look weak as a result of male candidates discouraging her for her position.

The community should understand the importance of feminism in the world. Not only were women being treated unequally in the 20^th century, but they are continued to today.  For instance, the fact that women are still being treated unequally is upsetting and extremely discouraging for young girls today. As a result, they may grow up believing that men are more superior to women, and this is a huge dilemma. Unfortunately, one can only be exposed to such information in certain places. Sexism is everywhere; workplaces, schools, stores. It’s a reoccurring issue that needs to be taken seriously and continues to expand every day. With the help of many people, this problem could be resolved in time, with much work and effort from the community.

Warm Bodies: "He's still dead but he's getting warmer" (Contains spoilers)

Warm Bodies is an extremely thrilling action love story that takes place during a zombie apocalypse. This movie caught my attention because not only is it from a zombie’s point of view, but because the zombies can speak. The setting takes place in an abandoned airport where zombies roam.

“R” is the main character. A man around the age of his late teen years. He is accompanied by several other zombie “Friends” when he witnesses the mayhem that Julie and her crew are creating when they are set out on a mission by her father to destroy the zombies.  And that is when R falls in love.

Julie is baffled when she finds that R is attracted to her. She threatens to kill him, but when he makes a sincere gesture of friendship, she allows him to take her away to his “home” (Really an abandoned airplane.)

Over the course of the time, Julie allows R to take care of her and assist her with avoiding the zombies.

Now here’s the catch: Julie’s father is the head of the military command which is in charge at the time, and is skeptical of whether or not R is safe around Julie when she reveals how he is changing both emotionally and physically.

The situation is resolved in the end when Julie and R flee and her military powered father and his assembly end up chasing after them both. They are forced to come face-to-face with her father. When R is exposed for who he really is, Julie’s father gives in, and eventually allows the zombies and humans to live together in peace.

School Problems

As a 15 year old sophomore in high school, things can be tricky. You're still trying to figure out what you want to do, who you are, what your sexuality is, who you like and dislike, what your strengths and weaknesses are. As a teenager, what I've found is most common in high school today is that fitting in can be one of the hardest things you'll have to do. Sometimes you might have to talk to different people and find similar interests. It took me almost two years to be friends with the people I talk to now. And it's difficult. You have to find people that make you happy, and that you can trust.
          Now, high school is very serious. Freshman year is pretty much the year where you can almost stay a middle schooler in some ways. But in sophomore year they don't take it anymore. I hear people complaining about the amount of homework we get, but yet they want to go to college. It just doesn't seem to make sense to me at all.
          Also, what a lot of people have a hard time with, (I know I do) is trying to focus in class. You have cute boys/girls (sometimes) around you that you want to stare at, you have your best friend just inches away from you where you're eager to gossip about the newest break up in the school, and you have your phone in your pocket. What I find most helpful is sitting away from your friends, and if possible when asked to partner up, work alone. It's not because I'm a loner, it's because I work best alone and because I want to get my work done. Now some people may find this silly, but it's something that's worked for me for a long time.
         So I hoped this helped. Especially from someone who goes through things like this every day and struggles.

Elementary

God. It kills me, because (Joan) Watson’s deduction skills are getting so good, and Sherlock is slowly realizing that she’s beginning to do the same as him, and follow him. Because at first, she was just

supposed to watch him, right? She didn’t have to take part in any of these cases or help him out, but she does, because they’re becoming closer, and she trusts him, and he trusts her. And that’s the beautiful thing about their relationship.
It's amazing how their relationship has progressed. They overall trust each other more, and I think what they're building is not only a romantic relationship, but also a healthy relationship/friendship as well. It was all said without words in the episode in which Joan asks Sherlock's father to stay and he says no, but she stays anyway, because she can't imagine her life without him.