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Sunday, November 30, 2008

Notes

Things I want to talk about on here but am going to forget:
~Hannah Montana's new wig and theme song
~The grocery store theme park in Ohio
~The video of Robert Pattinson vampire-biting Tyra Banks

Okay. Now maybe I'll remember to talk about them. Don't have time now, government essay. Not that anyone really cares about any of that. ^_^"

Ed Westwick to Ed Cullen

Guess what? I saw Twilight again on Friday! My cousins wanted to go. This time, since I already knew what was coming, I focused on the dialogue more. Wow...the first time, it didn't strike me how awkward it was. This time, I was slinking down in my chair. Really, though. Twilight is probably the worst movie I've ever loved. It actually wasn't as bad the second time, now that I was expecting it. It's really growing on me. So is Rob, I like him better now than I did last week.

You know who would make a really good Edward Cullen? Ed Westwick. They would have do some work on his look to make him fit the part appearance-wise, but his mannerisms are very Edward. I think his acting would fit the part really well. He's British, too, but he does an amazing American accent. I didn't know he was British until I heard him in a "Gossip Girl" promo speaking normally.



This girl in newspaper keeps telling me that I look like Idina Menzel. We were watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and she was on a float, so I mentioned it, and my dad flipped. "Oh my God you look just like her! Stand next to the TV, I wanna compare!" Maybe I look a little like her. I take it as a compliment because she's pretty. I'm for sure not as pretty as her. We might look a little more alike if I didn't have gaps in my teeth like a third grader.

Speaking of which, these three teeth that I'm missing were supposed to come in over a year ago, and I foung out yesterday that if they don't, I have to get surgery on it or I'll start getting sinus infections and all these problems. Excellent. Knock on wood for me though. I don't want surgery.

Love,
Juliana

Friday, November 28, 2008

My Thanksgiving

I hope you had a good Thanksgiving! I did. There was a fire, a gingerbread house contest, and a game of capture-the-flag on a golf course in the dark.

We went to my aunt's house about five minutes from mine. I mentioned the gingerbread houses that were so important to my sister. We had another contest with them, but this time, the little kids were involved and their attention spans for anything but Batman Tag are pretty non-existant. Michael (7) stayed in there for a while, though. He was on our team.

While we were outside being oblivious, my cousin's toilet caught on fire. No, I'm not making that up. There was a candle on top of it next to a fake flower. The flower caught on fire, fell and completely melted the toilet seat. The whole thing was melted off and black. The wall was all singed. I didn't see the fire, but I heard it was almost two feet high. Of all things to catch on fire on Thanksgiving, it ends up being the thing filled with water.

My aunt lives on a golf course, so we went out and played football after the golfers dispersed. It was actually fun. I used to hate it in middle school, I mean really hate it. Now that I'm not forced to learn all the rules and play it for a grade, it's not as stupid as I used to think. The first time I played in fifth grade, I asked this girl in my class how to play. She said (exact quote), "When the ball comes toward you, you run like hell that way." That's how I played football for four years.

I just realized yesterday that it's called a "down" when you drop the ball. I always thought a down was one quarter of the playing field (four downs). It makes so much more sense thinking of it like an out in baseball. Anyway, I scored a touchdown!

Then we played capture the flag in the sand pits in the dark. Our flags were the sand pit rakes, and I knew someone was going to get hurt. Like they say, it's all fun and games until the 7-year-old gets whacked in the jaw. He was fine, maybe bruised today, but I was too far away to see clearly and his piercing shreik made me think it was something worse, like the pronged side in his eye.

Happy Christmastime! I know the whole thing about Christmas starting after Thanksgiving is all commercial, but that doesn't mean I have to love it any less. We put up decorations today. I love Christmas.

"May your days be merry and bright,"
Juliana

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Gingerbread House Black Wednesday

9:30 this morning, I couldn't decide what to wear, so I ended up being lazy and watching an "I Dream of Jeannie" rerun (funny, too. She inadvertantly robs a bank). Anny starts yelling:

"I called Michael's [craft store] and they said they only have a few gingerbread houses left, so lets go now before they sell out! If you're not dressed in five minutes, you're not coming." Anny really wants gingerbread houses to build on Thanksgiving at my aunt's. None of the supermarkets had them.

I don't know what the employee on the phone considers "a few" because they had more gingerbread house kits in two display racks than I've ever seen in my entire life. Good thing we rushed. I wouldn't let her live that down for the rest of the day. XD It wasn't her fault, but she really yelled at me for not getting dressed fast enough.

Oh, and I watched the first part of American Pie: Band Camp this morning (channel surfing), and wow...that is STUPID. I think my IQ dropped. Never seen the original one and never really had a major interest, but now I probably never will. Watching that was totally not connected to me making apple pie for Thanksgiving this afternoon. o_o That one was Anny's choice, but the irony wasn't lost on me. Is it irony or coincidence? Meh. I'm too tired for literary devices.

I found the best Twilght review that I've read so far! Read this, it has all of my opinions plus a few others I wish I'd thought of myself. Really good review.

Happy Thanksgiving! About an hour to go, I think.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

I feel accomplished for some reason.

Brace yourself for a little newspaper babbling.

My fabulous partner with the great work ethic decided to ditch me on deadline day and not come to school. She better have one hell of an excuse, but then again, she wasn't much help the days she did show up.

I was teamed up with A (and didn't know this until I had finished it, but third group member V) to design a page for the newspaper. We planned to work on it at lunch in order to have it all done by the end of class today. We had class time to work on it, and last class, she decides she doesn't feel like helping me. "I can't help you today" is not the kind of thing you want to hear when you have two days to design a page using a software you've never used before. Seriously, I had no idea what I was doing.

Yesterday, we got nothing done because she decided our lunch time was a good time to get anal about the box proportions. Me: "Yeah, A, not such a priority right now First we have to figure out what goes in the boxes." Today she didn't show up. Excellent.

Me on this software was like a game of pin the tail on the donkey, but I am so happy that my blind attempt was close! My teacher told me it was one of the best pages she'd seen all day! *Deep sigh of relief* I had no idea if I was doing it right. For all I knew, I was way off base. I mean, when Ms. Editor Almighty looked at it yesterday, she cringed and made a face. (She wasn't in school today either <3)

I put all these pictures in and spent all this time screwing around with photoshop. Then I found out in the last 20 minutes of class that it wasn't my job. My teacher said "Oh, nice, who did this for you?" Oops. Actually, all that was V's job. She never told me it was her job. She said she didn't know how to do it, but I never realized she was supposed to know how to do it.

One thing I didn't do right: I couldn't figure out how to do a "clip path." The button wasn't working, I placed and adjusted and re-edited the picture and it still didn't work. It wouldn't work for my teacher either. Now it looks too boxy and there are two gaps in the page margin where the picture overlaps. Wah, now I'm going to get grief about it (and about V drawing in corrections with a ballpoint pen, not my fault).

I want my teacher (and all the editors who think they're better than me) to know that I do work! I'm not a stupid staff writer who can't do anything right, and if I'm really just not cut out for this, it's not because I don't try.

The "my section" girl went off on a hilarious rant during lunch about the stupid staff writers who don't belong in newspaper. She said something to the effect of only the editors should write articles and the rest of us should get page jobs. ^_^ I never cease to be amused. On impulse, I almost told her to shut up.

Oh, this other freshman held her own to an editor and actually said, "None of you took the time to come ask me about my article, so this is what I have for you. If you had something else in mind, you should have told me earlier." I almost high-fived her. I did tell her how great that comment was and that I totally agree.

I'm on Thanksgiving break! Yay! Smiles. Oh and if you want to see a commercial for pudding flavored fruit roll-ups from 1987, it's on my other blog. Linkety Link.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Between 12 last night and 12 this morning...

I was talking to my friend on the phone about school. She knows this girl from my newspaper class through dance (who's like newspaper's golden sophomore. The editors all love her partly because she's a good writer, but also because her sister was the former editor-in-chief.)

Anyway, Lisa says "You know, the school she talks about and the school you talk about sound like two completely different places." In a lot of ways, they are.
I said, "Well, we hang out with totally different people."
Lisa said that the girl from newspaper talks about all this high school drama, gossip, who's manipulating whom, and I never mention any of that.
I said, "Like I said, I don't really live in that world." It's funny how we can go to the same school and have such a different perspective on it.

The girl from newspaper is actually a cool person. She was my roommate at newspaper camp, and I knew the kind of people she hung around with, so I stereotyped her. She surprised me. One of those Nick Jr. lessons: If you judge people, you run the risk of feeling really, really stupid when you're wrong.

Another thing I feel like talking about. If you don't want to know the ending to My Best Friend's Wedding, don't read this.

I watched the last 40 minutes of that movie this morning. It stars Julia Roberts, Dermot Mulroney <3, and Cameron Diaz, and it's pretty much the same concept as Made of Honor but opposite. Julia Roberts is in love with her best friend, but he's getting married to Cameron Diaz and she's the maid of honor. She tries to break them up and actually fails!

If it would have ended the expected cliche way where he leaves Cameron at the alter for Julia yada yada yada happily ever after, it would have been too predictable, but the ending was like...what? She tells him she loves him, they kiss, the fiancee sees them and runs away, he chases her, and Julia decided that she will never have him and should get over it. In the end, she makes a toast at their wedding, he gives her a hug and leaves with his wife. She gets together with this other guy who I guess was a friend (didn't see the whole movie) and has sort of a different happilt ever after.

Interesting ending because they made it seem like Cameron Diaz was a background character that didn't really matter, so I didn't expect her to "win." I guess they wanted it to be a surprise. I don't know...they didn't show that Julia stayed friends with him or that it was all okay in the end. At the end, she said something like, "I'm doing something I should have done a long time ago. I'm saying goodbye." I guess it was a happy ending because she could finally stop pining for him after nine years knowing how he feels, and she can be happy for him. I wasn't prepared for that one.

Good screenwriting on their part. If the movie had the expected ending, I wouldn't still be talking about it now. I would have been like "that's cute" and forget about it five minutes later. It got me to spend 20 minutes typing it into my blog, too. Geniuses. I fell into the trap. ^_^"

Thanksgiving this week!!
Juliana

Saturday, November 22, 2008

John Tucker Debe Morir

I watched John Tucker Must Die in Spanish this morning! It was funny in Spanish. I'm trying to listen to it more to get used to it. I can't understand much Spanish when they talk at a, well, normal speed. That doesn't help my grade much, so yeah, I'm watching John Tucker Debe Morir for my grade.

My complete Twilight review between the two posts on here was almost 1,500 words. And I took stuff out! I probably could have written another 500. Sorry about all the babbling. Good reviews are concise.

So my Chemistry teacher said that if you bite into a Wintergreen Lifesaver in a dark room, blue sparks come out of your mouth. Something about electrons being knocked out of orbit that creates bluish-green light. Of course, I'm a dork and quite curious, so I tried it. It didn't work as well as I thought. I didn't see anything, but my sister said it sparked a little, like once. I'm going to try that again.

Earlier, I was watching the Spongebob episode where Patrick writes a song. Love that one. Here you are. Spongebob is <3.



Until later. Don't know what I'm going to do tonight. Might watch The Breakfast Club in Spanish or something. The DVD probably doesn't have Spanish surround though. Oh, well. I'll watch it anyway.

Hasta luego!
Juliana

More Twilight

I was too tired to finish this last night, but I have two more things that were so funny I didn't want the 2 AM exhaustion to make me more incoherent than usual.

JASPER'S FACE!!! That can't be explained in words, and I can't find any pictures that do it justice. When the Cullens first walk in during the beginning of the movie, Bella's friend Jessica (who was dead-on accurate to book Jessica) said something like "That's the one who always looks like he's in pain." His face was like wide-eyed stone statue face like he just saw a bear. I think he supposed to be all pain-stricken because he was trying so hard to control his blood-thirst in a room full of humans, but the face was...fabulous.

Another thing. Why were the Cullens so clingy? Jasper and Alice, Rosalie and Emmett walked around with their arms wrapped around each other awkwardly in nearly every appearance. They were supposed to act casual at school in order to blend in, look like a normal family, and not draw attention. In the movie, it was like heads turn when they walk in a room. The movie tried to give the Cullens more of a "weirdness" factor by making a big deal about "oh, wow, they're adopted brothers and sisters and they do that?" They're just supposed to sit quietly in the corner, not climb all over each other and draw attention. Ostentatious.

They interrupted scenes that were supposed to be critical and serious with stupid random stuff so you can't not laugh just because of the timing. Jacob and Bella's conversation about wolves and vampire legends on the beach was interrupted with this girl from her school screaming girlishly while this guy chased her around with a snake. Stuff like that happened a lot, and you can't not laugh.

Okay, here are the things about the movie that was actually really good Twilight to movie translation, or just good decisions.

The casting for the whole Cullen family was great. I think Rob might have been okay for the part if he acted more Edward-like, though I don't think his (the actor himself's) looks and mannerisms are very Edward, even if he did step up the acting. All the actors for the family definitely fit the parts and translated them well (Jasper! That killed me.) Victoria, Laurent, and James, and the high school kids were alright, too. None of those characters were mangled too badly.

Basically, this movie is as shallow as the trailer makes it seem. Maybe it was meant to mirror the shallowness of the series but in a different way. If this was a parody, it would be the most epic movie, the social context of having Bella represent typical teen girls entrenched in what they think is love, and Edward standing for the bad boy that these girls should avoid but can't.

I'm the last person to say I believe that 17-year-olds can fall in love for real, but reading the books, I believed in Bella and Edward. The movie though...if the whole point of that brilliant disaster was to parody Twilight's superficiality, I commend them and give it a 10. If not, than they just missed the target and gave me a good laugh.

So worth it. Sooo worth it. I will buy this and watch it a million times for Edward's facial expressions alone. Go see this and tell me what you think! <333

Juliana!

Twilight Movie!

Disclaimer: Possible spoilers (not like the Twilight story is a secret) and if you totally loved this movie for it's face value, sorry to offend you, but I two newspapers, three adults, and two of my friends all said the same thing: if you're over 13-years-old, you will probably have many of the same opinion I do.

I have never seen a movie theater that packed before. The line to get tickets was ridiculous, but just the line to get in the door was...insane. There were three theaters running at the same time. It was so totally worth it, but not for the reason everybody thought.

I can say that I haven't laughed so hard during a movie since the Brady Bunch parody. And that one was actually supposed to be funny.

Twilight was so bad that it was good. Actually, it was better than good. It was the best thing ever. If it was supposed to be a parody, I would give it an A. M and I made a list of everything in this movie that made us fall out of our chairs laughing.

To start, there was no character development. Bella stayed somber, depressed, and monotone. Edward stayed somber, depressed, and monotone. They're the same people at the beginning of the movie as they are at the end, and they're characters have no dimensions. Bella hates her life and is obsessed with her vampire. Edward hates his life and loves protecting his human. That's all there is to them. There was no emotion in this movie at all.

Now, seriously, the thing on Bella's bed...I shall explain. Edward's in Bella's room and uses the "let me try something" line to kiss her. He says that, then says "don't move." He stares at her for a few seconds (apparently the director's attempt at a dramatic moment but really just looked like staring) and says "don't move" again more forcefully. A few more seconds of staring then they're making out in that whole "oh, they're gonna do it" way (annoyingly pointed, and of course they don't).

Bella's wearing underwear and a tank top. Uh huh...so obviously trying to make a point. "Oh, we need something sex-related so here ya go. If we make it really intense, maybe you won't notice the lack-of-emotion." Then Edward throws himself backwards off of her about eight feet into a wall and says something like "I have more self-restraint than I though." To which she responds, out of breath, "so do I." That whole scene was way too in-your-face and might have fit the purpose better if there was actual emotion there. Maybe. I felt bad about laughing but, what the...

Another gripe: the meadow scene. They butchered that so bad that it was hilarious. I can't even explain how messed up and funny that was. Basically, they went to the meadow because Edward says "You have to see what happens to me in the sunlight! Now!" and he pulls her up on his back and takes off. The part where he freaks out on her and starts throwing trees was fairly accurate though. They did a good job with that.

There was so much staring in this movie. So much screen time was dedicated to characters staring at each other. The acting isn't good enough for the stares to be all-telling and dramatic, so it's just funny dead space. There was this one scene where Edward drives past Billy and they stare at each other. Billy twitches.

Robert Pattinson's Edward was out-of-character. He mumbled, says like and um, and used colloquial teen phrases. Edward is supposed to be old-fashioned and articulate. His facial expressions were really weird. The first time he met Bella in Biology, he was biting his fist to show restraint, but it really just looked like he was shoving his fist up his nose.

In the ballet studio scene, which was really anticlimactic, they spent a lot of time watching Edward weigh the pros and cons of sucking the venom out of her. When he finally does, it looks like he's eating her arm like a big sandwich.

There was no emotion in this movie. If you didn't read the book, you would think that the whole relationship between Bella and Edward was just Bella's fascination with his vampire-ness. At most, it looked like shallow teen romance attraction instead of cutesy fairy tale true love that the book made it to be.

The action sequences were goofy. Edward jumps out of windows into trees, and the vampires fly like E.T. on a bicycle. The whole thing was just...surreal and reading the book is kind of a prerequisite ot the movie. If you didn't read it, you probably wouldn't understand. It's very choppy and switches from one scene to another with little transition.

Anyway, this thing is hilarious. Go see it, it's an amazing parody and maybe an effective marketing strategy. People who don't like Twilight might like to laugh at the superficiality of teen romance.

I have more to say about this, but I'm tired and this post is already long. ^^

The one who will buy this on DVD,
Juliana

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Newspaper x_x

I would write five articles for this issue is someone else would do the interviewing for me. Actually, if someone would design my page and do my interviews, I would write ten articles. Gah, I hate newspaper sooo much. I have to write an article in two days, no big deal, but I have to get interviews. Terrified.

And I hate In Design. And designing pages. And the people in my class who talk to me like I'm four. I'm never going into journalism, though I hope I get over my fear of talking to people by the time I get a real job. Ahh I can't do this again. If I could just interview freshmen and sophomores, I'd be fine, but I need juniors and seniors for this!! Ah, I can't do it.

They didn't say I need interviews, but getting by talking about holiday food without more quotes than just the Russian girl in my government class and my little quote from the principal probably won't go over well. I talked to more people than that, but the rest wouldn't help me! GAHHH.

At least there's diagnostics again tomorrow. I miss morning classes and get to sleep. Tiny silver lining in my hellish newspaper-centric next week. Sigh, at least once it's over, it's Thanksgiving.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

More antics from Ms. Editor Almighty

I wrote this yesterday and fell asleep before I got to posting it, so here you are. Just pretend the date stamp is Friday.

Newspaper yesterday was so funny I had to face the computer screen and pretend to be working so il duche wouldn't see me laughing at her.

Our editor-in-cheif yelled for an hour, and it would have been nonstop if it wasn't for the fire drill that she tried to make us skip. Yeah, the fire alarm went off and she goes, "You have got to be kidding me. Okay, nobody leave, just skip it, they'll never know." Our teacher was out, and it took us a few minutes to actually leave.

Another editor got up, and "the great one" yelled at her to sit down. I was cracking up. What kind of power does she have to tell the 30 kids to skip a fire drill because she's in the middle of a rant? Hahaha precious moments.
Once we got back, though, oh boy did she scream. A lot of "What class am I in? Is this newspaper? It doesn't seem like it because nobody wantes to write anything. Fantastic. A staff of 30 and no one has any interest in making a newspaper. I'm going to assign you an article that you don't want to write because you're so apathetic. That's what you get." Every single thing she says is dripping with sarcasm. Always.

Her problem was that we have to many features and not enough news, so we need to come up with more news articles. If I was in charge, I would just convert a news page to a features page and be done, but instead we are coming up with boring and overdone news articles to fill space. I hate filling space. There is so much I would hange if I was in charge. I have ideas, but she scares me so much I'm afraid to say it. They don't have anything to do with school, but they're interesting.

Another thing: Why does all of our news have to do with school? School is boring. High school kids are boring. The real world is so much more interesting than the little bubble we live in where FCAT and scholarships make good news articles.
One of the freshman yearbook kids who were working on computers during our class turned to me and said, "She seems a little bossy." UNDERSTATEMENT, but for an outsider to say that, there's no way I'm crazy.

Seriously, though, I was laughing for the entire class. If I ever yelled like that, I would probably be too embarrassed to show up again. No one can respect her when she throws fits like a toddler. It gives me a good laugh though.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

You're so vain!

Ni xi huan dan gao? Do you like cake?
Wo ai dan gao! Wo de dan gao shi hao! Ni de dan gao hao ma?
I love cake! My cake is good! Is your cake good?

Hehe. I love Chinese. I can't remember how to write cake though. It was a bonus on today's test, but I only got it half right.

I was eating a Halloween Oreo today that tasted like candy corn >.> Coincidence?

It's only Wednesday (right there, I almost sad Thursday) and it feels like it should at least be Thursday. At least I get to go into school late tomorrow, and that means newspaper is shorter. Mwaha =]

I need something to talk about...

X-E (my favorite website ever) is setting up for Christmas! Oooh, ooh! I just thought of something!

Carly Simon is going to tell people the name of the guy who inspired "You're So Vain" one letter at a time. She hasn't given out any new letters since 2004 I think because so far, the letters she has revealed could fit any of the three suspected guys. If she gives out any more, it would give it away.

She gave out an E, an A, and an R. The three suspected guys are Mick Jagger, Warren Beatty, and James Taylor. This June, she supposedly told Howard Stern the name of the guy.

In interviews, Warren Beatty has said that the song is totally all about him and people should stop speculating. You're so vain, you probably think this song is about you.



I love this song. It's cool that she's trying to regenerate hype about her song that' Billboard's 72nd best song of all time, but has fallen into obscurity like most things from the 70s. I have her on my iPod, so I'm doing my part. ^^

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Why does sock guy come out unscathed?

Today was a pretty happy day. I got to go to lunch (long story) and newspaper wasn't too painful. Speaking of newspaper...

Someone in newspaper interviewed my friend about the bowling team, and he's one of those people that everyone absolutely hates. I have never met anyone who didn't have something to say about him. For sure, he has more enemies than friends and neutral aquaintances combined, and some of that he brings on himself (he doesn't always know when to stop talking), but I don't think he's as annoying as everyone says.

I mean, at the mention of his name, three sophomores grabbed chairs and circled around to exchange grievances about him. They come up with really uninspired rumors. It's funny though how much they hate him. If you look past his obvious quirks, he has a lot of his own opinions on things, he's interesting, and is actually a pretty decent person (especially for a 15 year old boy). When he gets in an argument with his haters, his comebacks are so funny and true that I'm like, "Maybe this guy's not as bad as everyone says." And he really isn't.

Hold on, I'm getting to the actual point.

Weirdly, the people who bash him and make up rumors about him are the people who think Stefan, my much-loved sock guy, is brilliant and poetic. Yes, I'm using his name. Doesn't matter anymore.

Stefan needs to get his butt kicked, or at least a strongly-worded lecture. The people who hate my friend don't see anything wrong with Stefan listing the girls who look ugly without make-up. They don't notice when he's so disrepectful to our English teacher that it leaves him speachless. (I've felt so bad that I almost went to the teacher and apologized for him). They don't notice when he makes fun of people who died. My friend might be annoying, but he doesn't do that. He's the extroverted math nerd kind of annoying, not the obnoxious party boy who...just isn't like Stefan. When you become like that, you can't fall much further. Strangely, a lot of people see nothing wrong with him. If you can tolerate Stefan, you can't call anyone annoying. I almost asked them. That would be an interesting poll.

I can probably name 10 other "Stefan-esque" people at my school with bad attitudes and/or ugly souls that are absoulutely adored.

I think one of the reasons I respect their much-hated math nerd is because he and I hate the same people. Sure, he may bother you, but doesn't high school have enough jerks you can kick around? Why not ignore him? He means well. Why pick the one that's already socially isolated and out of your way? Oh right, because you're sheep. No one dares mention the Stefan-esque kids' names unless in the context of "is Jesus reincarnated." He has friends, he has credibility. Mess with him, and you'll become the new "hated one" that the newspaper kids gossip about.

Of course, that doesn't stop shy Juliana from death glaring at "the holy one." As one of my freshman newspaper friends told me, I have a really good death glare.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Abandoned Albertsons = CREEPY

Would anyone expect an abandoned grocery store to be creepy? Evidently, the Albertson’s grocery store chain shut down. I guess I forgot about that. We walked by one of the abandoned Albertson’s last night, and there was a huge window looking into absolute desolation. It was the strangest thing, kind of what I’d imagine a grocery store movie set to look like before they put the props in. Just…fake. What would a grocery store look like with nothing in it? One of those things that you don’t think about. Half the shelves were gone, the freezer cases were empty, and the only things really left inside were dismantled checkout counters and the signs on the walls that say “Fresh Produce” and “Pharmacy.”

You know what it was? It was surreal. I stared in that window for a few minutes thinking about it until my mom broke my trance with “Julie, you look intrigued.” I answered with “It’s just so sad-looking. I mean, once upon a time a mother would take her little kids here and they would beg her for cookies in the cookie aisle, or a young husband and wife would stand in the dairy section deciding if they want skim milk or 2%. And now it’s gone!” To that, my sister bluntly responded, “Remind me never to go grocery shopping with you. You get too sentimental.” True, I am, but I’m lucky that I was born a girl because sentimentality is expected, and I can always use PMS as an excuse. Speaking of sentimentality, I have another story, but later.

Anyway, there’s nothing like a row of empty freezer cases to make you ponder your own mortality.

I probably failed to mention that I was in Orlando, FL this weekend, and I got to watch the Epcot and Magic Kingdom fireworks from a distance. I love those. Did you know it costs $1,000 to run them for one minute? They go for 20 minutes a night, 365 nights a year. I can’t do that math, but cost? Environment? They should look into a laser lights instead and only do real fireworks on Saturdays or something. They are pretty though. ^___^

Saturday, November 8, 2008

No...just no.

I have nothing to talk about, so I'm going to post my compilation of things I've heard recently that deserve a "no...just no."

Miley Cyrus and her 20-year old boyfriend.

On the topic of Miley Cyrus, her having her 16th birthday this week and televising it when her birthday isn't for three weeks. I am three weeks older than her and I take pride in that! She doesn't get to share my week.

The "Will it Blend?" guy blending an iphone. Who paid for that one?

Baby slippers that look like high heels.

Part 2: Yay! THat's amazing! later

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Anecdote to offset all the politics >.>

These guys in newspaper were cutting out pictures of girls in bikinis and taping them to the wall in the corner by the computers. There were a bunch of those, one angled for a straight shot down Jessica Simpson's shirt, one topless pregnant 20-something-year-old girl (I couldn't figure out what that one was advertising), two dead fish, one cartoon turkey, and a coke bottle. Oh, and a pyramid of cats.

I was cracking up. One of them was bribing me to say "Jessica Simpson is hot." I told him I'm staying out of it, and he thought I was just being homophobic. Actually, I didn't say anything because I couldn't decide if I thought she was hot or not. I probably wouldn't have said it out of principle anyway, even if it was a guy. Maybe if it Chase Crawford I'd say it.

Election Musings

Okay, these are my opinions on the election, our new president and why I wasn't siding with him for the end of his campaign. Respect my opinions because I need to get this out. I haven't been talking about it to avoid confrontation and mostly because my political views aren't so one-sided that's it's worth making my friends mad at me over.

Okay, nothing against Obama or anyone who voted for him, but these are the things that made me lean toward McCain:

~His tax plan isn't likely to succeed in the long run. It's a great idea to take money from the people who have a lot and give it to the people who have a little--in a perfect world. What about the drug-addicted deadbeat alcoholic who spent the last of his savings on meth? He's going to get free money. People actually worked for their money (maybe not all honestly, but there are some who are honest and earn it) are going to have to give more of it away to Obama so he can pay the meth addict.

In the end, that won't help the economy anyway because the people who receive the tax break probably won't spend it and put it back into the economy. They would probably save it. I mean, I'd save it. My parents would save it. In the end, that would burrow us deeper into a recession, and he will end up having to tax the middle class more anyway.

Meanwhile, the small business that got screwed in the tax plan will all die, and the big business owners will have to start firing people.

~If we threw in the white flag in Iraq now, when we're almost done, all those guys who died there would have died for nothing. War sucks, and I've been saying forever that we have to stop it and that it's stupid, but at this point, all these years later, the guys who volunteered to fight and died for America...I don't think all that should be for nothing. They shouldn't die in vain.

And we'd leave the entire Iraq devastated but the people still live in fear of terrorism. That's like taking a broken car, offering to fix it, taking it all apart, then leaving it and saying "yeah, we give up." That would just make it worse!

I'm being controversial, but just respect my opinion on that one, okay?

~A ridiculous number of people voted for Obama because of his race, and that's just ignorant. It's great that he's African-American, it's about time we had a black president, but that doesn't mean you ignore everything he stands for and focus solely on his lineage. That bothers me so much. If they actually like him for his views, that's different, but I've talked to people who have no idea what his views are.

~Another group voted for him because he's young, thin, and charismatic. That was my initial attraction to him. A few months ago, I was set on choosing Obama over McCain. He's an amazing speaker, and he presents himself very presidentially. But if he were an old, short, stocky, bald man, would he have gotten that many votes? If McCain looked like Kennedy, would the Republicans have gotten more support?

~HIS ADVERTISING. That was inappropriate. There's a line between politician and celebrity, and I think our new president has blurred it.

Ahh, now that that is off my chest. I haven't talked about this to anyone really because I don't like being political, and I really don't hate Obama. We disagree on a few things, and if I could vote, I would have voted for McCain. However, I think I subconsciously always wanted Obama to win because he'd be a cool president.

I just negated my entire post with that hypocritical statement, but the power of his charisma is too strong. It's not his fault either. Any young guy advocating change is going to be popular. I'm trusting him though, and I think he'll do a good job. Hey, he has to be better than Bush.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Happy birthday to me!!

I will be 16 in 2 hours and 40 minutes from the timestamp on this post. My birthday was happy. Taylor and Tyler from math made me a card (soo nice of them because we haven't talked about birthdays in a long time, but Taylor still remembered. I also never knew Tyler cared, but he wrote in it, too. It's always nice to know that people think of you, especially when you don't expect it.

Kelsey got me a penguin-shaped stress ball for my birthday! That was such a highlight. I've been showing it to people all day going, "Isn't this adorable?" M said it was so appropriate for me. Haha, yeah it is.

My Spanish teacher handed me a nice birthday present: two 90s on last week's quizzes. That put me in a good mood. I needed at least that to protect my sanity.

In other news, election day today, huh? This will be interesting. I think people know who I want, though I've avoided talking about it for the last few months because people automatically assume that I hate the other guy. I don't. We all know who's going to win, whether the republicans want to admit it or not. He's going to have a huge mess to clean up when he gets in, and God bless him for wanting that job. I'm going to trust him and believe that he'll do the right thing because he seems like a good guy. Anyway, some fresh blood might be good for the U.S. I just hope he can handle it.

Okay, talking politics is dangerous, so moving on to "Gossip Girl." Much less controversial, unless you're the Parents TV council who tried to shut it down this year. Grr, I won't let them do that.

Okay, last night's episode. The thing with Blair using the dean's friend's daughter to get into Yale was funny, especially when she realized she was dealing with a mini version of herself.

And Jenny and Nate...I know they are supposed to be two years apart in the show, but Chase Crawford does not look 17. Especially standing next to 15-year-old Taylor Momsen, he shows all 23 years. I think the age difference is glaring...although I wouldn't mind being in Taylor's place ^_~ In the end of the episode, Dan (Jenny's brother) finds out, yells at Nate, and Nate says "She's a sophomore, I'm a senior. Don't act like I'm some creepy older guy." Hehe, well looks can be deceiving, budddy.

Oh and Jenny's fashion show? That was awesome.



Sigh. How long did I just babble about "Gossip Girl?" I have to much time on my hands. Actually I don't. I put off Chemistry homework for that. ^^ Bye!

Love the almost 16-year-old Juliana =]

Sunday, November 2, 2008

I will be 16 in 46 hours o.O

I don't even care that I have two newspaper articles to finish for tomorrow because I had the best birthday weekend ever!! Really, and probably the thing that made me happiest was that my friends who didn't know each other got along. I don't think they're that good at pretending, so I'm pretty confident it was genuine pleasantness. It's always happy when your friends like each other, too, right? I've had a lot of friends who hated each other passionately, and that's not fun.

M took the best pictures on Fran's camera and I have to get her to give them to me. The following ones aren't them. They're for illustration purposes.

M got me a bonsai tree (We have this joke about them because there's a random bonsai tree sitting in the hallway at school by my government teacher's room, and we have no idea why.) I love it, it's so cute and so cool that she thought about it. ^^



Since my party was my whole extended family plus three of my friends and my friend's brothers, there were lot of younger kids there, and we expected rain, so my mom decided to get T-shirts and let everybody color on them.

I was all for it because I haven't decorated T-shirts since 5th grade, and it's so much fun! It did rain, and the T-shirts came through once it got too wet/muddy out to play Man Hunt (we're such kids, but I'm holding on to my childhood! I'm not officially 16 until Tuesday!) Ayway, T-shirts:



No last names, so I think I'm okay to post it. I love my shirt! I had a bunch of people sign it. I tried to get everybody.


I wrote the Chinese love symbol better in fabric marker then I do on tests >.> The "ah, seriously? yes, seriously." is a joke about my disbelief and basic freaking about being 16 in two days. The thought process was kind of a rising "16. 16. 16? 16!? NO!!" I don't feel that old! I don't even feel like a "teenager." I was writing the number on the shirt and I started counting years to make sure I wasn't wrong. I don't believe it.

Halloween itself, by the way, was so not disappointing! Maybe best ever. It did my obsession justice. I'm sad it's over though. Next is the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!

Oh, and Fran got me a Twilight poster. Hehe. Another obsession fueled. =]