The Expedition of Caroline Neelon

Sunday, November 24^th, 2013 (said in a British Accent)

“On the 24^th day of the 11^th month, of the 2013^th year, a glorious expedition was made. I, a british explorer, Caroline Neelon, went on a fascinating expedition with her proud and powerful husky, Blizzard. I will tell you my story. The wind was howling like no other day. The world seems to be spinning in its own realm. The grass is barely alive and the trees look like they are about to fall any moment. The British Flag placed for expedition was about to unlatch from the stick that was dug under the frozen ground. The wind was pushing us eastward and we stumbled across the ground. Blizzard first tried the lake but it was frozen. I told him to leave it alone because it was set aside for environmental purposes. He obeyed and we finally made it to our destination after trekking the endless grounds with winds pushing us. The woods. The forest. Its called the dead forest because no source of vegetation grows there. There was only one animal that survived and we needed a sample of its DNA. The animal is called the death deer for it lives in the death forest and closely resembles a deer. No human source has been able to recognize the death deer. The researchers believe it has very visible differences of a deer but we could be incorrect. We hiked the woods. It was incredibly difficult because of its wood that sticks up in so many placed. Finally, we reached our sample. We had accomplished the mission and I told Blizzard we must reach base before the wind comes at its highest speed. When the wind does, we wouldn't be able to walk much. I had trained for that occurrence and so had Blizzard but we did not do it in the harshest conditions. It was hard to run because we were traveling westward, AGAINST the wind. It was almost tipping us backwards. I pushed myself as much as I could, and Blizzard has his own techniques that helped him travel. He wasn't cold though, because of his thick thick fur. With all my might, I used the most of my power to bolt to the door. Blizzard was just a big grey mess. The door. The door to the base wasn't locked but it took a lot of strength to open it, due to the wind. I yanked it open and both (wo)man and dog crashed inside. And now I sit in a comfortable chair, telling my story with a cup of warm cocoa in my hand. Thank you.” -Caroline Neelon

Caroline Neelon is a fictitious character. Well... Its actually me! And Blizzard is not a husky, he is a small Bichon/Shih Tzu. It was in our backyard. The woods. And yes, it was very very windy. Since both my mom and dad weren't up to taking Blizzard to go do his business (number 2), my dad challenged me. I do believe, I told you about my trip to Antarctica when I am 21/22. I have been preparing since October. And I will for the next 11 years. My dad challenged me to go outside with Blizzard into the very coldness, and he has to “go” before I can come back in. He said that, I can prepare Antarctica while doing a great help for them. True. I dressed up in warm clothes and then.... THIS... When my expedition started, my accent changed to a British accent because it sounded cooler. Anyways, it was my imagination and a challenge that formed this story!

Typhoon Haiyan

A tragedy. I quite agree. Recently, a record breaking typhoon hit the Philippines with a disastrous effect. When the search, rescue, and relief began, an estimate of 2,000 people died. That amount seemed quite unreasonable, because of the high population density in the Philippines. That number obviously changed soon, but not only did the number go up, but drastically went up. As soon as the news let out that possibly 10,000 people died, articles were thrown out into the internet as if they were scraps of leftover junk that were thrown into the trashcan. So many websites were writing about this happening, the experiences, stories, conflicts, ups and downs and so much more about this disaster. An article that caught my eye was :"Is This the Best Humanity Can Do for the Philippines?" By Conor Friedersdorf from The Atlantic. It had a philosophical twist in it and a moral flavor. You might want to read the article before actually reading the rest. So go to: http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/11/is-this-the-best-humanity-can-do-for-the-philippines/281332/

SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER ALERT!!!!


SPOILER: The article asks an important question: Is this all that we, humans, can do to prepare for these treacherous occurrences? For every disaster, relief comes, but after it happens. We already know it's going to happen again: So why aren't we preparing? Another major concept in the article states that:

"And while it may seem wide-eyed, in the near term, to suggest that countries ought to spend less figuring out how to kill one another and more trying to stop nature from prematurely killing us, that may be the only chance we've got in the long run."

I think this is a very valid point because it is very true. War, war, war... That's what armies are for. And its true. Reality cannot be defined without war. But even if we know that armies are essential, don't you think the values of maybe tons of people's lives are essential too? Thats a big question asked. But many of us just can't help but stare at the problem and do nothing about it. Of course we help, but in the long run its just the same every time. Like it's said: "History repeats itself." And its true. But everytime it just gets worse. And maybe not physically worse, but mentally we are all saying to ourselves: "This has happened before!" And that's not good in most cases. I believe that even if slowly this change occurs, we should work as a team to prepare for saving the lives of so many people.

Ballet and Pink

It really annoys me. What annoys me? Questions that have no answers. And quite so, Google should be ashamed of them. Don't you think that all questions in a mind should have an answer. Even if they are questions of the future, they should have an answer, even if the time is to come. For some people, they think of a question but even if it is interesting, they don't care about the answer. On the other hand, there are people who have questions and MUST have an answer or it will bother them for as long as they don't have an answer. For me, only specific questions do that, and certainly this is one of them. Before I continue with the question itself, I would like to say that even if it takes years for the answers to come, I will one day deliver this answer to 5 girls in one class of Ballet and one teacher that taught Ballet. Before I start the brief background, I owe a big apology to that one teacher for throwing questions her that were somehow related to the past conversations and can be very interesting if they are actually thought about. Another apology to a girl in the class for also having annoyed her (No names mentioned). Now the Background: As a competing dance team, we must attend an intensive that consists of three hours of different dance styles. This year it was a late class and my last class was 7:30 pm to 8:30 pm. It was the last class of the day and a nice one. I hope you realize it was Ballet. The class before Ballet was Hip-Hop which was my favorite dance. Modern was the first. I was not completely tired at the end of Modern so I used ALL my energy in Hip-Hop. I was very happy that Ballet was last because it gave me plenty of time to refuel. I did realize that even though I had lost most of my physical energy, mentally I had quite of lot of energy left. The only way to let it out was to talk. Then I began to ask questions of all sorts that interested me. My questions went on and on and a few of them were answered by my peers and teachers. I decided at the end to collect all these questions and do a Google Session. I have done a Google Session a few times but the questions were quite irrelevant so I just did it for fun. BTW,  the definition of Google Session is the following:

Google Session |ˈgoōgəl ˈse sh ən|
Noun

A period of time when you are with your electronic device and ask Google multiple questions only using voice command and find answer. 

I did a Q and A. The first question: Who invented Colored Ink? Why is a Lame Duck Turn called that?
What is the difference between the French ballet and Russian ballet? And the last one that is extremely annoying me and I couldn't find an answer to it: WHY IS PINK THE COLOR OF BALLET, WHY? WHY???? I am desperate for the answer so the best thing in the world RIGHT NOW, would be if I had the answer.  Please give me this answer for GOOGLE DID NOT HAVE THE ANSWER!!!!!! > : ( GRRRR.

PS: One more question I had in mind, but it was answered. What is the answer to the universe, life and everything? 42. But why? Is the question right????

PPS: You wouldn't get the PS if you didn't read The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

PPPS: Great book, I recommend it.

Instagram!

Lot of people use it and love it!! I am big instagram user. I love Instagram and I am pretty active. For you guys who don't know what Instagram is, it is a semi-social network where you can connect with your friends through videos or photos. Originally, Instagram was only for photos but very very recently they allow making videos too! Although a lot of people do use the video making part, you have to have IOS 5 to be able to. Another recent update is you can tag people on the PHOTO, not the comments. Anyways, I my favorite part of it is really the friend part. Like you can share your TRUE personalities through photos. Like, "At the Beach"! When you share it through a photo it's different than saying in words. You can also stay in touch with people you really don't see much. It's a little hard to explain why Instagram is so.. Um.. So .... I do know, but a true IGer (Instagrammer) would understand.

Blizzard

Hey, I know I haven't written for a long time. I was really busy. And I know that that's what everyone says. But it was real busy because......  I got a dog!! It's not extremely late. I got him on the third week of April. He's is older than two months! His (he is a male) birthday is on Feb. 19th. Alright now it comes to what I named him. Well probably by now, you've figured out that his name is Blizzard. A lot of people ask me why? Well he was born around Blizzard, that's why. It's just news I had to say. Not that I'm going to say a lot. I'll try posting a picture of him, but I am so happy. I wish I could tell you more but I don't have much time left before piano class. So, just sharing the news with you.

April Fool's Day! (Google)

As many notice, Google has a fun time making pranks for this special day, April Fool's Day! April 1st, a widely celebrated holiday is the best day for many (esp. pranksters) and the worst for some. Anyways, Google started the "April Fools" fad in the tech world. And they started in the year 2000. The first ever prank they had created was searching with your "mind" called as MentalPlex. It showed an illusion and gave directions to follow. Even when you tried searching it would show a humorous error message.  Even though it was a good prank, Google has been getting better at it year by year. Another funny one was released in 2005. It was a fictitious drink called "Google Gulp". To review this old prank, go to http://www.google.com/googlegulp/ . 

The 2013 pranks are quite the laugh. First, the most widely viewed is "Google Nose". It was/is located on the homepage on April 1st but it was/is there along with the Google Images, Maps, etc. When clicked on a page comes up with a button saying "Try Google Nose". Each time it brings you it is clicked it brings you too something to smell. I won't spoil it but I'll give you an example. A used napkin was one of them. If you get the used napkin on your first click and I spoiled it, don't worry. You're sure to get another one on your second try. But that's not it! After it come up on the search engine, you will see that on the side it: says what is searched, gives a caption for it, shows what other people sniffed, displays three buttons that read Smell, Share Aroma, and How it Works. The How it Works button brings you back to the last page. Share Aroma brings up an option if you want to post it on Google+ . And if you click on smell, it will, well... I won't spoil it! So that's Google Nose!

But that is still not it.... Another fun April Fools Joke is the Treasure Hunt on google maps. Quite fun, I might say. But before started the hunt watch the video on Youtube. 

Happy April Fool's Day!

Abstraction!

Everybody has their own style of art. Many prefer landscapes, or portraits, retro and some create their own style. My style of art is abstract. Now, I am terrible at art. I truly am. So the way I draw something is not at it's best. The reason I like abstract style the best is because it breaks all the rules of other styles of art. What I'm trying to say isn't that an piece of art where someone goes crazy with a pencil is a good abstract artwork. What I am trying to say is that your artwork isn't limited in abstract. Well, I guess people can argue with that from their point of view. Many could say "Art itself is limitless". I do agree with that statement but when you draw something to be a landscape and it doesn't capture the points of the style then it won't be categorized into that style. If the artwork doesn't fully capture all the points of any style it would be your own type of art. And that is how new art styles are developed. Making your own style is very good. I'm not saying that drawing a common style is bad. Even if you don't realize it, everyone has their own style! The way a style is created is that you take some points from one style and some other details from other styles and mix them: BOOM! Your style! To artists: It's not as easy as it seems. It is an artists job to mix the right points with the right points to create a good style that is completely yours. Now that is what I cannot do, but a young artist could. So many should try what they can! Here is a few drawings I did on the computer.

Thanks!