iPod..
If I had to choose one belonging to have with me while stranded on an island, I think I would most likely want my iPod with me. I really don’t know what I would do without it. The iPod truly is an amazing invention. You can easily take it with you anywhere, and at the same time, have access to thousands of songs (depending on what model you have). What’s great about these tiny little devices is you can make it very personal by adding playlists and pictures, videos, and more. I especially like how it is classified by artists, songs, albums, genres, composers, and compilations. If I’m craving to listen to rock ballads, I just go to “Music,”" Genres,” and then “Rock,” and pick the song that I want. If I’m in the mood for My Chemical Romance, I go to “Artists” instead. Creating playlists are even better, because it is a way of classifying songs by what you think they have in common, whether they are to sing along to, dance to, or have it as background music while writing blogs. So to me, iPods are very efficient to have, since it is so much easier having all of my music in one place, rather than millions of CDs. I remember back when I was maybe nine or ten I would always change the CDs because I would get bored so easily of the same artist and the same songs. Eventually I started burning CDs with my favorite songs by different artists, but those could only fit maybe twenty songs, and I would, after a while, get bored of those too. But now, with the iPod, I can just press shuffle and listen to a variety of music.
There’s only one problem that I have with the Apple company. The iPods just keep coming and coming out with new editions which are always somehow better than the last. Only in 2001 did the very first iPod come out. Then we started seeing the iPod Mini’s, the Nano’s, the Shuffle.. Then the Mini’s weren’t being made, but even newer generations of the Classic, Nano, and Shuffle came out. And finally… the iPhone and iTouch came out. This advancement in technology occurred so fast that I didn’t even have time to take in the second generation of the Nano. This all happens so stupidly fast that one second you’re happy with the newest version of whatever you may have, and not even a year later are you already wanting what they’ve made next. I first got an iPod (the first generation of Nano) when I turned twelve. This past Christmas, I got the newest version (3rd generation Nano). I will admit that I did get sucked into the competition of who has the newest iPod, but who hasn’t? And if you do have an iPod, I’m sure there’s been a time where you wished you had the latest edition. I just think that things would be a whole lot easier if the Apple company weren’t so desperate to get out their newest invention every two months. But then again, I have to thank them for this ingenious idea of theirs, because without my iPod, I don’t think I could possibly survive. Okay, maybe not that exaggerated, but I’m guessing that you kind of get the point; without my iPod, things would be extremely different for me.
And just so the name of this blog actually fits into what I write, I’m going to start concluding my entries with the title of my blog…
Feel the beat!!!!
Homework..
Why do we get homework? I just don’t understand why we need it. We go to school every day for eight hours (seven if you don’t count break and lunch) and get our education. Then, we come back home after a long, exhausting day and have to do more! There are things that we students would like to do when we get to our houses after school, such as nap or watch TV, or anything but homework. And those of us who have activities, like soccer, volleyball, or dance have enough to worry about trying to cram those into our busy lives. Things like studying for a test, completing a project, reading, or blogging I can understand, but why do I have to leave school just to come home and read through textbooks and answer questions? Luckily, I have time in classes to get it done, but still. I don’t want to have to worry about having homework all the time and being concerned about when it’s due and what I have to do, etc. It can be stressing, and that’s the last thing we want to be, stressed. Some people say that homework helps you practice and understand the subject that you are studying. I guess that’s true, but sometimes it can feel like an overload. When I come to think of it, there haven’t been that many times where I had so much homework that I could have exploded. But there have been some times where three different classes have assigned research papers and stories and projects to be due all around the same time. All I’m saying is, maybe we don’t NEED homework to get through our education. It can help, but we don’t need it. But when I think about it, I don’t necessarily have anything to complain about, because lately the homework hasn’t been as hard or as much as it was before. Hopefully, high school won’t be an overload of work either. So yeah. These were just some really random thoughts because I really didn’t know what to write about. But there you go. My opinion about homework has been stated. Peace 
Singing..
I love to sing. Every day when I come home from school, I turn on my music and start singing at the top of my lungs. If I had a frustrating day, I would probably listen to loud rock, while if I had come home from school feeling sad or lonely, I would probably listen and sing along to more depressing songs. Sometimes I wonder why it isn’t the other way around; if I were sad wouldn’t I listen to happy music to make me feel better? But when I have certain feelings I want to express them through my singing, even if it’s the saddest song. Since I can relate to the lyrics, it makes me feel like I’m not alone. There are others who share my feelings. To me, singing is like crying. When something bad happens and you feel like crying, you shouldn’t hold back, otherwise you would be bottling up your feelings. My philosophy is: Either you cry or you don’t. If you cry, then you let it out right then and there, and you never ever cry for that reason again. If you don’t cry, then you completely forget about the situation and never cry for it either. It’s the same thing with singing. Except when you sing a song, it could mean something completely different to you than it did last time you sang it. With a song, every situation is different, because there is so much to take in; the sounds, the lyrics, the instruments… These components are what make a song, a song.
To me, music is like my own personal sun. It’s what gets me up in the morning, helps me see through the day, and shines light upon the darkest situations. It illuminates my day with so many emotions, and can be blocked easily by big gray rain clouds and make me confused. But whether or not it starts raining, I can find my way around those clouds and see that the sun was always there, brightly shining, trying to force its way through the confusion. And when the day is over, and the moon comes out, surrounded by tiny stars, my sun is still there, filling my dreams with relaxing and happy images that I know will help me through the day that still hasn’t arrived.
Music is so inspiring. In fact, I’m listening to music right now, listening to each note and lyric, letting those guide my writing. My dad told me that when you write, the music you are listening to makes your “brain juice” flow, which makes you think more and want to write more. To some people it can be a distraction, but for me it’s the total opposite. It’s like second nature for me to sing; it doesn’t interrupt my thoughts or distract me, I just sing without realizing it. I can’t help doing something that I love so much, and if I lost my voice, I would be so sad. Just like dancing, I can’t live without my music. In a way, dancing and music are related. As a matter of fact, they work together in a sense. It would be kind of hard to dance without music, because there would be no beat, no tempo to dance to. When you dance, you listen to the lyrics to express the moves. You wouldn’t just get up and start dancing to nothing, but when I hear a song, I get this feeling that makes me want to dance. I guess that is why I love, not only dancing so much, but music as well, because without music there is no dance. If there was no music, I could never enjoy dancing like I do.
I was just thinking right now, although it may be off topic, but I was thinking about situations that make me, or anyone, cry. It’s funny, because sometimes I hear a song and my eyes tear up and I just want to cry, for no real, apparent reason. There aren’t many songs that make me do this, but strangely, the few songs that do cause this effect are the number one songs on my 25 most played songs. It isn’t that I’m constantly sad and looking for a place to escape to, but hearing these songs just makes me think a lot about things. They’re inspiring because they create such strong feelings in me, because I have never experienced them before. You could say that they make me curious, so I explore the meaning behind the words, and I may not really be able to relate to them, but I understand where these feelings are coming from.
I’m happy that this is my passion. The thing is, if my passion was basketball, I wouldn’t be able to write the way I am now. It just doesn’t seem to be inspiring to me, and to write about my passion I have to be inspired. Unless I’m coming home from a basketball practice and just had this feeling of I HAVE to write about this, then maybe I would be able to accomplish something, but otherwise, I couldn’t see myself sitting at home just writing about it so passionately as I am now. The difference is, at this very moment, I’m listening to the most inspiring songs that I have on my iPod. These songs are what make these words come out of my head, and on to this post. Music is my everything; I can’t possibly live without it.
Freedom..
Freedom. What is freedom? It could mean lots of things to me. Maybe dancing on a huge stage with no one else around to watch me. Singing at the top of my lungs in an empty room. Laughing with my friends about the weirdest, most random things. Being able to cry when I need to. Sure, those things make me feel free, because I can express myself in any way I feel. I don’t have people telling me what I can and can’t do; I just do what makes me happy. And that’s what freedom is to me: Being able to express myself without worrying about being judged or told the difference between right and wrong. Sometimes it honestly feels like we don’t have so much freedom. Things like bed time curfews, computer/video game playing time, who we can date, who we can’t date, and places where we can go are just a tiny, tiny list of things that take us away from our freedom. But if you think about it, you don’t necessarily have to follow these rules. Technically, you don’t have to go to school. No one is physically forcing you into the car and forcing you to walk up the stairs to your classroom. But we all know that if we even attempt to skip school, we will suffer severe consequences, not only from teachers, but from parents too. Why do kids feel the need to be free? Maybe its because they feel they don’t have enough freedom, so they go off and do whatever they feel like doing and rebel and suddenly become druggies or alcoholics, or even pregnant. Its sad to see what has happened to kids in society these days, but the reality is, maybe we need more freedom. But then again, if kids had too much freedom, they would probably still do whatever they wanted to do, making them end up in a bad situation. So I guess it all comes out to balancing your freedom and those rules that you must follow. All I’m saying is we can’t have too much freedom, or things can get out of hand. I personally like having rules, because they keep me under control. If I didn’t have that self-control, I would probably be in a huge mess by now. So back to the question: What is freedom to me? I had previously said that it is a way to express yourself without being judged or knowing what was right and wrong, and I still believe that, but along with freedom comes responsibility. Which leads to the next question: How does freedom affect you as a blogger? While blogging we express ourselves, specifically about our passion. Now technically, according to the First Amendment, we have the right to freedom of speech IF we believe in something. But if we started swearing and insulting other people or their ideas, is that still following that rule? Although you might think differently about something than someone else, you shouldn’t have the right to put them down. Instead, you should be open to opinions and, if not accept their point of view, at least understand why they think that way. The truth is, you shouldn’t be going around bashing other people’s blogs; it’s not right. If you have something to say, sure go ahead and say it, but you must say it (or type it) in a way that won’t be misunderstood and is written as an opinion. Because that’s what it is, an opinion, nothing more than that. Even though you believe strongly in something does not mean it’s factual, because there is more than one way of perceiving it other than yours. Sometimes you just have to be open to what other people have to say, and maybe you’ll be able to understand and agree with them. So while we are blogging, just remember that we can say what we feel and believe, but we cannot go overboard with it, because that’s when you get in trouble and altogether banned from the site. And if that happened to me, I know I would be quite disappointed because I think that the Edublogs are a great experience that I wouldn’t want to miss out on. So be careful with the things you say on here, because the end results may not be so pretty.
Yesterday..
Well yesterday I went to my ballet class, like I do every Monday and Wednesday, and I didn’t really think it would be all that different than it usually was. I showed up and saw my fellow dancers there. We had a conversation about a dance that we were putting together for a little show, and then we entered class. Usually we always start off with a warm-up that includes stretching the back and leg muscles. Then we started the bar exercise which we usually memorize at the beginning of the year. The first “barra” (as they say in spanish, for bar exercise) is always the easiest. It consists of plies [pli- ae] and releves [re-le-vae], which are probably the most simple steps in ballet. But as we were practicing these, the teacher stopped us, which was unusual, and asked us to do plie and stay in that position. She explained what feeling you were supposed to get as you bent your knees (that is what you do in plies) and what part of the legs you were working. Then, we did it again and ,unlike I might have felt before she explained, it actually hurt. I never really thought of this step to be all that painful, but as soon as I did, I was glad the teacher had explained. There were a lot of things that the ballet instructor explained to us that class yesterday, such as where your shoulder plates needed to be and how that created good posture. As I got home last night and was getting ready for bed, I kept thinking over and over in my head, what if she hadn’t gone in to depth with these simple steps? What if I hadn’t learned to do this correctly now? If I hadn’t, would I ever have learned it later on? That thought kept piercing my brain, and I just kept wondering about it. If I had never learned to do it correctly, it would be so much harder to get it in the future, and not only that, but I had been doing it this way my whole life!! Imagine, 11 years of dancing and I have been doing one of the most simplest steps incorrectly. Could that have been affecting my skills? Now I know though, that doesn’t matter anymore, because now I know and now I will apply my new knowledge to my dancing. See, when we have been doing something wrong our whole lives, we take the opportunity to correct that mistake. And having this experience has really helped me realize (and this has nothing to do with dancing) that its not too late to learn from your mistakes. I know now that you have to ask to get things right, and people just seem so afraid to ask questions. Some people say that it makes them feel stupid, but it makes you quite the opposite. Asking questions shows that you want to learn more things and understand better. I know that asking questions has helped me come a long way academically and through dancing. People may also be scared to ask questions becuase they think that they should have the answers to all their questions. Although we all like to feel like we know so much, not asking questions is refraining you from becoming the best you can possibly be.
Its funny what a simple ballet class can make you think. Some days, you might think, “Gosh this is so boring and seems pointless.” Other days you might get out of class and say, “Oh, I never knew that was the way you did it,” and there are times where you feel so happy that you’re doing it because you love it and you learn so much. Its not very ordinary that I walk out of a ballet class and start thinking of it as a life lesson, but situations like mine just show that the simplest things can teach us something important. And maybe what you just read will make you roll your eyes and think,”Whatever, its not that big of a deal,” but it truly has made me think. And if something that you never realized suddenly just popped out in front of you and finally made you see, take the time to think why it affected you. Its not that hard. Really.
