Toddlers in Tiaras. DISGUSTING.

The reality show "Toddlers in Tiaras" on TLC is the creepiest, saddest, most disgusting reality show I've seen on TV. Most reality shows make me sad and disgusted, but at least the participants in those shows are stupid adults who volunteer. In this show, the participants are young children volunteered by their stupid parents.

It's a reality show about little girls in beauty pageants, showing every ounce of drama and commentary from the crazy pageant moms. One of them said, after her daughter lost, "I've learned not to expect much from her."

@_@

That is just horrible. I think the entire concept of pageants is horrible. Mothers actually sign up their children to spend long days in far-away places getting pounds of make-up caked on their faces, wear uncomfortable outfits, parade around on stage for judges who then rate them on their eyes, their smile, their walk, their appearance, and no matter who wins or who loses, all kids walk out of there learning the wrong lesson about life. What kind of person would subject their five year old to that?

The losers get kicked in the self-esteem, being told they aren't as pretty as the other girls, and I can imagine over time they lose their feeling of self worth. The winners leave on a huge ego trip because they won money for being pretty. These kids should be outside in shorts and T-shirts playing with other kids, not inside in dresses and make-up being judged and compared to other kids on a stage in front of a room full of people and cameras that will air this humiliation on TV.

I would NEVER put my child through that. It's child exploitation. Some of these parents say "Oh, my daughter loves attention, she loves to model and dress up" but you can tell the parents are much more into it than the kids. If my little girl expressed genuine interest in the spotlight, I would put her in an acting or dance class at the rec center. If I couldn't afford that, I would take the camera and let her dress up and make movies or encourage her to put on little plays. There are a million ways you can encourage your kid to be a little drama queen without putting her through pageants to make money off of it. I hope those parents are putting the pageant money away for their kid's college or something, because there's a whole other ethics issue right there.

This show makes me sick.



I almost cried watching that. Seriously. Tanning your child, false eye lashes and fake teeth to fill their gaps...I think this should be illegal under a certain age. I really do. It's a civil rights violation, and these children shouldn't pay the price of a life of warped reality because they had parents who didn't look out for their best interests.



Doesn't that creep you out? Thank you San Francisco Chronicle for the picture. Follow the link and read the article and the comments under it. Some of the comments are so funny. "It's like a parade for pedophiles" and "I could just imagine if we ever went to court against the Muslim world, this would be exhibit A of why they have a right to hate us." Totally.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfmoms/detail?entry_id=43981#ixzz0Pd20z0Pe


I have to stop talking about it now. If you have an older child who knows everything a beauty pageant entails and still really wants to be in one, that's completely different from throwing your toddler into this life. If you even consider spray tanning your baby to be judged in a contest, you really need to evaluate what's important in your life and what you want to be important in your child's.

Love,
Juliana

Rob Lowe's Eyes

Holy crap, he has pretty eyes.

I finally saw St. Elmo's Fire, that 80's movie about the seven college friends and their post-graduation shock of real life. Rob Lowe is the irresponsible guy who doesn't want to grow up. His hair in this movie reminds me of John Stamos in the first season of "Full House." Anyway, he had (and still has) gorgeous eyes. He reminds me a little of Chace Crawford, and I know that's not just in my head because my sister said the same thing.

The only picture of him on Google Images that was good enough had the description "ROB LOWE SEX TAPE" in caps like that, and I didn't chance it and click. So here's the movie cover. Rob Low's the guy in the bottom right corner.



Thank you WFNX radio of Boston and New Hampshire for the picture. Someone there did a movie review of it, so check it out.

Love,
Juliana

Danny Boy

Does it mean I've overly emotional if the song "Danny Boy" makes me kind of teary?

"I shall hear, tho' soft you tread above me
And all my grave will warmer, sweeter be
For you will bend and tell me that you love me
And I shall sleep in peace until you come to me."

One guy at the senior center sings this all the time. It's his favorite song. He sings a bunch of old songs, and I love listening to the lyrics. Old songs are amazing because they actually say something. They're poetic. You don't see that much in modern music. That's why I like Taylor Swift. Her lyrics are powerful.

Here's another sad song that I love, not as old or poetic as "Danny Boy," though, and definitely not as sad: "Leader of the Pack" by the Shangri-Las, circa 1960s. (I was going to do "Teen Angel" but I like this one better.)



This video's like a jackpot for me. I'm happy I found it. It looks silly acted out. It's really sad when you hear it by itself. It's like the Notebook, but instead of the two reuniting ten years later, Noah dies in a tragic accident. I would have been so upset if Noah died.

Love,
Juliana

Some things I've had saved in my favorites

Ever seen this Oreo commercial? This is so cute. I love this.



Also, I found the music video of "Crazy for You." It's my favorite Madonna song. Oh, wait...now that I said that, I need to think of a new security question. Just kidding, the idea to make that a security question just came to me.



That bridge with the fog at 18 seconds...since I saw this video, I've had dreams of being on that bridge. I don't really love this video, but I do love the song and I was waiting for the video to come back to You Tube for so long because the only thing I could remember about it was the bridge. It hasn't yet...I found this on AOL Music.

Also, who watches "Family Guy?" I've watched it a couple times out of curiosity, and I can't believe how outrageously asinine that show is. I'm guessing the reason it's so popular is because people like to see what insane thing they're going to do next? That's what kept me watching. Sadly, this freakin obnoxious show keeps me interested longer than "Hannah Montana." That's really sad.

Love,
Juliana

Just some thoughts

All I have left to do tonight is make my history notes prettier, and I feel like writing. It's bulletted by topic, and I think it progresses from superficial anecdote to soul-searching because that's just the way my mood went. I feel like I start to sound like Carrie Bradshaw at the end. Sorry about the length. ^_^

**New editor-in-chief of our newspaper decided yesterday we need to do "get to know you" activities even though everyone on the staff either went to camp or was in the class last year. I thought the point of journalism camp was so we wouldn't have to stand outside in a swarm of gnats in 98% humidity on the first day of school playing "never have I ever" to get to know each other. But it's his call.

**A girl I was friends with in first grade died the other day. I believe she was hit by a car. It's so scary when you see the name of someone you haven't thought about in years, and it's in the obituaries.

**I went back to the senior center to help out after school today. I miss it there. I'd rather be there than in school. I miss all the fun afternoon activites they do. I like helping people paint during arts and crafts. I was afraid that going back, some of the people with advanced dementia wouldn't remember me. I'm afraid that if I stop going often, someone might die or their disease will progress so much that I can't talk to them anymore.

I think this is just a more specific example of the fear everyone has, that time will get away from them, they will be forgotten, and people they love will disappear.

**Drawing on that, I've always realized that many of the friends I have today will, in 10 years, be distant memories. Maybe I'll keep in touch with a few, maybe one really will be my friend forever, but relationships I have now won't be the same after high school is over. I've lost so many friends over the years. Everyone does, and they're always friends they never wanted to lose.

My friend has a completely different outlook on high school friendships than I do. She believes that "climbing the social ladder" is the most fun part of high school. She hangs out with people she knows will make her popular, and she wants to meet as many people as she can before she graduates.

I don't believe in that. I have two close friends at school. Two. That's it. One I've known since the first day of high school. The other I just met in January of last year. I feel like I've known them forever, and that's dangerous because I know we're going to grow apart some day. But if you live high school looking at friends superficially, as names you will barely remember by the end of college...how do you know who to trust?

She's at a different school in a whole different world. We see things differently and don't always understand each other. I can't think in terms of real-life social networking, friends as connections to more friends. I think that even though good friends might leave, the memories of them never will. Maybe she's just being realistic and knows friendships don't last, so might as well be loved superficially by many than profoundly by a few. Maybe, in a way, that's better than tricking yourself into believing in the idealistic idea of BFF.

Love,
Juliana

Because I like to relate weird conversations I have.

Here's a conversation I somehow got into with a senior from yearbook (who I don't even know) in journalism class today. It almost ended in a screaming match and left me wondering...what the hell just happened?

I was talking to my friend about how our teacher is teaching Journalism 1 classes this year so newbies aren't thrown into newspaper or yearbook without any background knowledge. This girl overheard. Imagine voices getting progressively louder and more caustic.

Me to Allison: Yeah, she only has one English class. She's teaching Journalism 1 for the Freshmen.
Yearbook girl, in a snarky tone: No she isn't!
Me: Yeah, she told me the other day. Freshmen who sign up for Journalism are taking intro classes.
Her: No, Journalism 1 kids are put in regular newspaper or yearbook. *Rolls eyes* Not that I would expect you to understand.
Me: I know, they were last year, but this year it changed.
Her: No it didn't!! You have no idea what you're talking about.
Me: Yes it did!! Whatever.
I turn around to end the conversation and see "Journalism 1, periods 1 and 3" written on the board with homework below.
Me: It says right on the board, she's teaching two classes of Journalism 1. See?
Her: You don't have to get so snippy!

She left, and I had one of those "What just happened?" moments. Allison asks me, "What was with that girl freaking out on you?"

I have no idea. She always looks blazed, so I figure she just has issues. That was pretty funny though. XD

Love,
Juliana

Wake me up when September ends

BORED OUT OF MY MIND. I wasn't bored all summer. One day at school, and I feel like my breathing is as slow as the clock's minute hand. 11th grade is like the school version of a management position at a data processing company. Sure, you have authority over those less experienced than you, but you're still processing data and you just have more work than they do.

High school juniors...Your books have no pictures or color, you're thrown a list of upcoming orals and exams the day you get there, and you sit in dreary, sparsely decorated rooms packed with 35 teenagers for an hour and 41 minutes listening to teachers drone about the school rules and class expectations.

Biology was the worst. It was my last class of the day, and my teacher is dry like toast. He's very strict, he told us he's "strictly business," and he has a lot of rules. He's not very warm, and he doesn't smile very much. He seems like a good teacher, but I was disappointed. I was hoping for a fun Biology teacher, and it's clear Biology isn't going to be much fun this year.

We're not allowed to talk in his class. The room is dark, warm, and quiet. His voice is low and soft. I was so close to falling asleep on top of my class expectations packet. At least it's not Chemistry. Always a silver lining. Any teacher in Biology is better than a year of advanced Chem. (Let's see if I still think that by November.)

I'm going to read about the properties of water in my depressing, colorless Bio book and be happy I'm not calculating the percent mass of anything. I hope my classes tomorrow will be a little happier. I'm going to make the best of this year no matter what because you only get to do high school once.

Love,
Juliana