Racing in the Street

When evaluating and reviewing music, whether it is an individual song or an entire album, there are specific criteria that a reviewer usually uses.  They usually start with talking about the specific band or artist who preforms the album or song, like what kind of genre they are, how long they've been around, and how many other albums/singles they've produced.  Next, they would start with evaluating the album on it's own, like what style of music it is, is there an underlying message/story to the piece, is there flow to the album/song, the actually performance of the song and is it interesting/does it capture the attention of the audience.  If one song from the album is the "title song" or has gained extreme popularity, the reviewer might go into close detail about that specific song.  They might talk about the specific lyrics and musical aspects of this song and maybe talk about the cultural impact of the song or why try to ration out why it became so popular.  They might compare it to the artist's other works or other popular musical artists songs (whether it's similar or different) and talk about how successful the album has been in the charts.

Flaming Lips

The Legend of Zelda; Ocarina of Time is by far the best game I have every played.  The story line follows a young boy by the name of Link, who lives in the fictional forest of Kokiri.  In the beginning of the story, he meets Princess Zelda and she asks him to help collect the Spiritual Stones to help fight the power of the antagonistic, Lord Ganondorf.  The remainder of the game is searching and collecting the Spiritual Stones.  The game has an excellent sense of story and cinematography.  It's like watching a movie that you can interact with.  While it is a puzzle video game, and I am awful at puzzles, the plot kept me coming back to play.  Because of the personal aspect of the game, as you play as Link and he meets and helps people, a real sense of connection to the characters is created.  That is also due, in no small part, to the realistic dialogue between characters.

English, do you speak it?

Over the summer, Disney Pixar released the film Inside Out.  This film features a young girl named Riley's emotions in her head as she moves from Michigan to San Francisco, California.  The film was a truly excellent portrayal of a young person's thoughts and emotions throughout this transition.  At one point in the film, Riley falls into depression and her emotions cannot control her anymore.  In the end, what was understood, is that it's OK to be sad about change and growing up and that life won't be just one emotion at a time but many emotions all together.  I felt that this movie was truly ground breaking in how society and individuals view depression.  However, Riley's depression is solved in the movie by talking to her parents, which is not accurate because, in most cases, depression doesn't just go away all at once.  I really appreciated that depression in young people is now becoming a mainstream topic of discussion because that topic really hits close to home with me.  The portrayal of a person's thought process, interest, and experience of emotions was truly excellent.  I also loved seeing the contrast of how Riley's parents' emotions behaved and how her emotions behaved.  There was also this portrayal of becoming more emotionally fluent as the emotions in Headquarters got a bigger "control panel."

Love Sick

I have never been in a romantic relationship of any kind.  Not even close.  Don't get me wrong, I have had interests in people and people have been interested in me.  However, the people who I seem to attract I am not attracted to.  They are always a little odd.  A little awkward.  Or just down right unattractive to me.  There was one particular incident with a boy named Hayes.  Hayes was my friend and he was interested in my other friend, Bri.  Bri did not reciprocate those feelings.  After being asked out by Hayes, Bri fake cried and turned him down.  Not five minutes later, he texted her asking, "Hey, could you help me get Rachel?"  I have so many problems with this statement.  One; It shows a complete lack of actual romantic attachment to Bri, which could hint at him not having any romantic attachment to anyone.  Two; What? You just declared your love to Bri and now you immediately want her friend?  Three and most importantly; I am not a think to be "got."  Let's make that very clear.  So, for the next two years of awkward friendship and constant hinting at a closer relationship, after I shut him down many times, Hayes graduated.  Or, at least, he left high school.  I still see him from time to time because he works at Walmart.  And the utter indifference and slight annoyance he gets from seeing me give me such satisfaction.

My Old School

There have been several times in my schooling career that I have realized that I was a favorite student.  I also realized the advantages.  I was picked on and bullies many times throughout school.  A few time my temper got the best of me and I acted on it, like when I tried to stomp on a boys foot and then kicked him in the shin when I missed.  There was one instance where I discovered just how much I could get away with.  It was during Freshman health class.  Noah, a boy who was a known terror among the students and faculty, was picking on me for reading Harry Potter and being a fan.  Once he turned back around in his desk, I raised my roughly 500 page hardback book and hit him on the back of the head as hard as I could.  Granted, it really wasn't that hard, but the sound it produced was quite impressive.  The teacher, almost reflexively, asked, "Noah, what are you doing?"  There wasn't even a thought that I had done something wrong.  The fact that I was a "good student" and he was a "bad student" effected the outcome almost entirely.  After this, I used my "good student" title to my advantage, which sounds awful, but it did work out for myself and others.  After alerting the teachers to the rowdy behavior of some of the other students, the school year and learning process was much more enjoyable.

Even Burt Reynolds

This past summer, I went on a road trip with two of my best friends.  Ten days, 5 different locations.  The trip took us down south into Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.  I have done road trips before, but nothing this intense.  On the third day of our trip, we arrived at Cape Lookout, North Carolina.  It was 100% humidity and approximately 1000 degrees, well, it felt like it was.  After walking half a mile in the sun and sand and carrying heavy backpacks, we were all exhausted and suffering from heat stress.  After cooling off, we had a lovely time that night.  However, the next day held much of the same from the day before.  Again with 100% humidity and with very high temperatures, the ferry ride back to shore was unpleasant at best.  We arrived at the car and my friend promptly vomited from heat exhaustion.  I had experience some anxiety and fear while traveling, but the reality hit me like a ton of bricks then;  We were over 700 mile away from home and had never done anything like this before.  While calling my mother, I told my friends, "I'm going to cry now and I hope you're OK with that."  And I did.  I cried and cried.  I even began hyperventilating because I was sobbing so hard.  We drove to a hotel to spend the night and I just laid in the back and cried.  I couldn't stop.  I never expected my anxiety and emotions to get the better of me like they did.  I think that moment, and the moments to follow, really started my struggle with anxiety and keeping my emotions and thoughts in check.

Words of advice for young people

I imagine that Tessa Violet would offer me some advice, pertaining to my current academic and life situation, similar to the following, "I think that going to a community college to figure out what you want to do is very smart.  I would encourage you to go out of your comfort zone and don't be afraid to explore classes and careers you've never thought about before.  As for your anxiety and difficulty transitioning into college life, just give it time.  You'll figure it out and find a schedule that works for you.  Things will also get better once you get involved in activities around campus.  I know it's hard going from high school to college, when you were so involved in high school and you had your specific peer group and niche.  Just do what you want to do and you will gravitate towards people with the same interests and vice versa.  Feeling anxious about a new phase in your life is not unusual.  It's perfectly normal .  You'll figure it out.  Also, don't feel like you have to rush in to choosing a career or a major.  If you find one quickly, great!  If you graduate and still don't know what you want to do, don't worry!  Just keep moving forward.  The right path for you will open up when the time is right."