How to Meet Your Favorite Band (Stalking Musicians)

Here is a guide to meeting your favorite artists, this is completely from personal experience and 80% of the time it works every time. (But honestly, this has had a 100% success rate)

• Figure out when and where they are playing- The smaller the venue the better. So no, this wont help you meet Taylor Swift, though I hope she's not your favorite artist. Anyways, places like Emo's, The Parish, Red 7 are pure gold when trying to meet artists. If they only sell standing room (General Admission) then you are good to go.
• Don't go alone- going alone will make it harder (you'll see why in a sec)
• Come early- Take whatever time they start, subtract 10 hours, arrive then.
• Make friends with the people in line- You and your friend are going to need to befriend super fans who also arrived early. (again, you'll see why)
• Scope out the area- look for the back and side entrances, note places that the band's van will likely park.
• Rotate- Take turn returning to the spots you found to see if any vans have arrived letting your other friend save y'alls spot inline (let your newly befriended fans know what y'all are doing so they don't freak out when y'all save each others spots, hey maybe they'll want to help.)
• Wait for sound check- Once you see the van and you figure out you missed them and they are already inside, wait for sound check. Once they start sound check, they are likely going to stop and get back in van or in my experiences, walk down sixth street and get some food. Once they are a good couple minutes into sound check stay back there until they come out. (make sure you have your camera ready just in case they don't want a photo with you at least you'll have a stalker photo of them ;-) ) 

Congratulations, you now have a photo with, more likely of, your favorite celebrity! They gave you a really strange almost intimidating look when the flash went off. You bought an over priced ticket and merch and now have approximately five hours to go. 

Why October is Perfection

• The Fall Collection at Bath & Body Works

The candle collection during the fall consists of everything from Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin to Leaves and even offer a deal for two full sized candles for only $22. Pumpkin Pecan Waffles is my personal favorite and actually smells like heaven on earth. No but really, it smells like a Sunday morning when you have no commitments, and your mom made breakfast and she is heating up the syrup on the stove and she already has a stack of waffles made and ready to eat. On top of nostalgic candles, their Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin candle, body wash, body lotion, body spray, whipped shimmer body mousse, hand sanitizer, foam hand wash, car air freshener and room spray are the most amazing things to happen to the world and making every moment of your life feel like fall.

• It is the First Month That is Completely the Season of Fall
• My Birthday! (Season of The Libra ♎) 
• Flawless Weather 

Finally the first month after summer where the weather isn't exceeding 100 degrees. While it's not too hot, it isn't too cold either! Its perfectly windy, cool weather for the majority of the month. Also, because it's windy, the pretty Autumn leaves are everywhere and who doesn't love playing in leaves?

• Halloween

Oh yes, who could forget candy organization and trading 2 Dum-Dums for a crunch bar with your siblings

The only holiday you get to dress up (and a little kid isn't sitting on your lap telling you what he wants you to give him). There is also just a lot of candy all the time, and you get to go to as many people's houses you'd like and take their candy (free candy test better). Also, haunted houses and carnivals are  prevalent and are two of the best forms of entertainment. Spook walks and hay rides are also other forms of scary activities during October and are just as fun.

• Finally, Halloweentown Marathons Start Playing On Disney Channel 
• Oh yeah, who could forget, Hocus Pocus

Final Exemptions

Okay so what pisses me off makes me upset about the "Final Exemptions" are as follow:

• The rules aren't clear. 
• Unexcused and  excused absences are grouped into the same category.
• The fact there is a project in place of the assignment.
• You can only "exempt" one of your finals.
• Seniors get to exempt four finals rather than two. 

Starting with the rules being unclear, what the hell. No one told my about the final exemptions until I finally heard the rumor of these alleged waivers that would get you out of a 100 question test, and all you have to do is earn them. (I then asked a teacher about this rumor and she shrugged her shoulders at me...) Yes, I understand you have to have some sort of guide lines to these waivers I mean, ideally that's the point. Administrators do not care about the pressure of students having to take consecutive two-hour-long tests that are worth 1/4 of the students semester average, where the teachers don't hand out reviews until a week or so before. They are doing this for those slacker students who don't push themselves to get good grade because they only come to school because they have to. (Which B-T-DUBS, those students are NOT going to try any harder. They'd probably rather fail a test than do a long project over the material. They aren't trying in the first place so why "waste their time" on a long project.) Though maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it's going to work in keeping kids inline so they get the privilege of doing a project. :-)

Secondly, the fact that any kind of absences is "unexcused" as far as these waivers go is so ridiculous. I already have absences due to a field trip and it's like the 4th week of school. And 3 tardies = 1 absences??? Yup. I was 2 minutes late, then 1 minute, then 3 minutes. 6 minutes less of class = being gone for an hour and a half. You are right. You are all right. Sorry I ever questioned anyone. :-/ I guess where this number is coming from is the rule that as long as you make it to class within the first 30 minutes it's considered late and not absent, and 30 min x 3 tardies =  90 min = 1 class period. But for those of us who struggle to get from the locker room (where I'm not a magician, my clothes don't just poof on when I walk into the room) to the third floor that's on the opposite end of the locker room, so I'm constantly tardy to that class.

UPDATE: Okay, so now the rules are a little more clear seeing as I had an interview with Compian. There has to be a project because AISD doesn't permit any exemptions from finals. So instead we are using a model after Anderson High School's final "waiver" system. Where students do a "culminating project" that represents what you learned throughout the semester for a grade that will show up as your final grade.


So project, no longer bothers me. Attendance does get anger me to an extreme. If I'm making a good grade in the class, why does it matter how often I was there to get the grade? And what about the fact you have to have a doctors note to excuse illness. Sorry I didn't pay to go to the doctor when I had a 24 hour stomach virus. :\ I guess I won't be staying home for cold/headaches anymore though.

 

This is just a photo of how I feel about tests. I hate tests. A lot.

Reflecting

This was my first complete year at Austin High, and I’m really happy I decided to come here. It’s the school I’m zoned for, but for some reason in 8th grade I had this great idea to go to McCallum. I thought things would be better there, I live right down the street from it, like a 5 minute walk. It was gonna be great. It was gonna be a lot less stressful there, I knew people there, everyone always talked how laid back it was, and how everyone fits in. Well see, that was a big lie. I almost failed English because I kid you not, the teacher told us on the first day to go out and purchase The Odyssey, because that would be our first reading assignment. The first quiz over it I got a 2/25. I’m a reader, and that was the worst experience of my life trying to read that book on my own. She never went over it in class, ever. We’d do like in class writing assignments where we reflect on what we had read, but it’s hard when you don’t understand what the heck you are reading. It was just a nightmare. Oh but not as bad as The Iliad which is what we got to jump into next. Aside from the teachers, the classes there were so crowded. The amount of people they stuffed into that school was ridiculous. It was impossible to get to class on time because the hallway traffic was a living hell. Like, actually. I don’t really like to think about this, but I’m 900% sure everyone there hated me. Like I had a group of friends who liked me, but everyone there obviously has extremely liberal parents, who raised REALLY liberal kids. And because I was in journalism, some of the things I’d write would be political stories, and would be typically conservative pieces. That being said, my extremely liberal journalism teacher told me, that “You know this entire I’m going to give you a hard time for being the only republican in the class,” she also told me she hated my editorials, and that I didn’t look at all angles. Which I totally did, and I totally do. Anyway, the first party I went to all these guys tried to pull this elaborate prank on me, which I’d go into detail but it was just so stupid. Like, they were trying to embarrass me, which It totally didn’t work but just the thought of them trying to do that really got to me. The thing about McCallum, everyone knew each other and if one person hated you, they kinda all did. And, they kinda all did. Not just because of this, but there were just a lot of stupid rumors flying around, and just stupid drama. So, by the end of the semester I had my one best friend (who doesn’t even talk to me any more) and like a few people who still actually liked me. I knew there was no way I could finish the rest of my high school career in this hell. So after winter break, on what would have been my first day back, I dropped my transfer, had an awkward meeting with the McCallum principal who I had never even seen in my life, enrolled into Austin High, and started over. I knew this was where I belonged. I grew up with all these people. I have so many friends here, and things just seemed different here. A good different.


Now, this is my first complete year at Austin High (well almost, 3 weeks left!) And I am actually really pleased. Still a lot of drama, like a lot. However, I have and made so many new friends. All the stupid stuff seems to just fly out the window. There are just such an array of people here at Austin High. McCallum was so stressful, it was such a competition in the Fine Arts. But now, I look forward to my choir class and see it more as fun, and no longer have to try and out sing the girl next to me. I no longer have a terrible journalism teacher, all my teachers actually care about how I’m doing, in and outside of class. I love all my teachers, they are all so helpful and flexible. The only stressful part is not living close to the school, but I’ve gotten used to the commute. I’m 100% looking forward to spending the next 2 years here at Austin High.

Six Years Later,

Ever since the 4th grade, every Mother's Day has been so difficult. That was the year my mother lost her mother, her best friend, someone she never imagined her life with out. It was hard on all of us, us girls were all so close. It was always hard to find the right things to say to my mom on Mother's Day. She told me she never wanted anything big, so I listened. And I'd usually just slip a card onto her night stand, or make a banner for her bedroom. As the years past I never knew if it was appropriate to give her something extravagant or make a big deal out of this one day. The one day I was "supposed" to celebrate how great of a mom she is, she was at a cemetery crying. This year however, I found it to be appropriate to go all out. I mean, it's been six years. And what used to by tears of grief are now smiles, and tears of joy. I decorated the entire house the night before, banners, roses and streamers. I made her coffee and cinnamon rolls. I bought her a rotating picture frame with photos of us, and a box of 48 Ferrero Rocher chocolates. The entire day was dedicated to her. I think she was so distracted all day she was truly just happy. We did go out to the cemetery where my grandma is buried to fill her in-ground pots with flowers. And for the first time in six years, she didn't cry. We didn't cry. It was rather silent, but that was okay, because she was happy and so was I.

She Could Be a Farmer in Those Clothes

    Bullying in high school is so different than how it's portrayed in those stop bullying videos, movies, T.V. shows etc. Bullying is seen as the whole "give me your lunch money or I'll beat you up," though bullying is nothing like that and I can even say I've never seen that happen nor has there been any cases that I've heard of. Bullying like that would be to easy to catch, it would be easily punishable. The only time there are ever any physical affrays that I've seen, both parties were immature punks who fight each other over something stupid like a rumor that someone hooked up with their boyfriend. It's all, I guess you'd say "publicized" around school in attempt to entertain and prove that they aren't scared of anyone else. Any way, back onto what bullying actually is and why it annoys me that there are so many misconceptions.
    Firstly, that girl who gave you that mean look because she didn't like what you were wearing, is not bullying you. She's just a jerk. Unless it's a constant thing that every time you see her she goes out of her way to make you feel bad, it's not really bullying. Also, it's never the popular girls that bully. Like, ever. They are popular because everyone likes them. Because they are nice. Even if it's fake, the popular girls are never the bullies. In movies it's always like a group of three girls who bully all the other girls. And like "induct"  a geek with "potential," make them awful people. (Also, the title is a Clueless reference which is a movie that falls greatly under this category.) I don't know why I'm still ranting about this, but it's like none of these high school movie cliches. MORAL OF THE STORY. If there even is a moral..seeing as I wrote most of this blog last class, I kinda forgot what I was even talking about... But anyway. Bullying is never portrayed on T.V. the way it should be. And it really bugs me. How can you expect teenagers to relate to bullying if we adults writing the scripts of how they think cyber bullying and physical bullying is if one, they didn't grow up with cell phones and social media, and two they haven't been in a school setting in years. Maybe they should run these scripts by some teenagers who can tell them what they are doing wrong. Okay, rant over!
(Why do I feel like I've done 6473847+ blogs about this? Maybe it's just because I mentally rant about this problem all the time.)

So I jinxed it. I wrote a blog annoyed that AISD didn't block Tumblr, and they do block YouTube, but yay they came to their senses, and now they block both. Even though I cannot compare the two as a defense as to why YouTube should not be blocked, I can however still defend it. It's so ridiculous that YouTube is blocked. YouTube does have a wide range of different videos, but I just don't see how it can be totally misused during school. No one is going to open up a music video, or a movie, or watch someone's vlogs (video blogs) in the middle of class or library without a teacher noticing. Explicit videos are flagged and then removed in the matter of minutes on YouTube, especially when there is a lot of attention brought to them. Blocking YouTube just enables students during research projects, or when they need a little extra tutoring. There are millions of tutorial, education, and instructional videos on YouTube. It's unfair to have these blocked from students. Honestly, if a student wanted to look at something explicit or "noneducational" could totally just do it from their phone if they are not running on WiFi. It's like, you aren't going to completely stop it, so why not just embrace it? I don't know. Maybe I'm just crazy and it's a terrible idea and would be the start of the next world war.

"New Blog, New Me"

I laugh every time I hear the whole, "New Year, New Me" thing. I mean, it is honestly ridiculous. Why are you waiting to start changing what you do not like about yourself? It's just a socially acceptable way of procrastination. If you really cared, and you really wanted to try, you'd start as soon as possible. On the other hand, I guess it sorta makes sense why you'd wanna wait. It is the day  you and your friends can start on a new path together. Although, I think there is too much hype for it to be effective. You force yourself to make a resolution, one that is easy enough not to break, not putting yourself up to your fullest potential. If you started when you decided you wanted to make a change, I feel it will be more effective. You will not be doing it because you just need a resolution, you are doing it because you want a change as soon as physically possible. I could just be totally bitter, and maybe it is super effective and I just haven't ever tried and been successful because I have this mind set about it already. I just find the whole thing super lame, and if you want to make an honest, wholesome change you shouldn't just keep putting it off. You should do it when you want to, and not wait just because there is so much hype circled around one time slot. :)