Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Another Quick Memo...

I know. I know. Just when I make a comeback I gotta leave twice?! Sorry guys! This time I'll be gone for a WEEK. In ICELAND. Iceland, I know. I know. Haha, alright here's the low down. My best friend in the universe lives there and it's about time I'm giving her a visit because in the past five years since she's moved, I've only gone over there once. I'm super stoked, but here's the thing: (well obviously I'll miss blogging! But here's a major frightening factor) I'm flying there alone. If you've known me for my whole life, at some point or another you would have realized that I have some sort of anxiety issues. I can get myself really worked up about things. I was so scared when I booked the flight, but my nervous feelings went into hiding the months coming up to the trip, and I kept thinking about the posistives! How this would be an adventure, how it would help me with my fears... but now I woke up at five o'clock this morning after having a dream about flying, and I couldn't fall back to sleep! I finally realized, I'm going on a plane. Alone. It's been sorta freaking me out the whole day! Like having a lingering bad taste in your mouth, being stuck in an extremely awkward situtaion, it was just nagging at me in the back of my mind the whole day.


I've been on tons of planes before though, and I LOVE traveling. My mom had worked for American Airlines for the longest time, so I was exposed to a lot at a younger age. I'm just hoping all the butterflies will go away once the plane takes off, because there's no turning back now! Yikes!


Me and my best friend, Svana, in 2005(?) in front of the Blue Lagoon in Iceland!

Thanks again for putting up with me! Maybe I can do short posts while I'm away?! Hope so! ♥


Song stuck in my head today: "So Yesterday" by Hilary Duff :P


Keep on keepin' on,


Madison

Monday, June 28, 2010

On Death Row.... Should We Say No?

If you've been watching the news lately you might've heard about a recent execution. Ronnie Lee Gardner was convicted of capital murder in 1985, and was sentenced to death. His victim was attorney Michael Burdell, who was fatally shot while Gardner failed in his try to escape a court trial. Before he killed Burdell, he was facing charges of murder in the shooting death of a bartender. When he was sentenced, Utah still had death by firing squad as an option, even though it was outlawed in 2004, Gardner chose to keep this execution method because he preferred it, not because of the controversy it stirred.

If you don't know how a firing squad execution works, here's a rundown. The person who is to be killed, is strapped in a chair, with a black bag over their head, and a bib-like target placed over their heart. A handful of certified policemen, who volunteered for this position, and remain anonymous stood 25 feet from the convicted, behind a wall cut with a gunport. To make it that the policemen can rest easy at night, certain guns are loaded with blanks, so no one will know who fired the fatal shot.

If you'd like to read more about Ronnie Lee Gardner's troubled life, and it's frightening ending, I'd suggest searching his name on today.msnbc.msn.com and click on the first link. I found it to be a great article, because it talked about so many things I didn't think about when dealing with executions. So I hope you check that out, but right now I have to get to my point because I know some of you reading this right now aren't going to want to read a whole essay just about Ronnie Lee Gardner.

When I heard about this, I was sort of shocked. I mean, I guess people get executed all the time but death by firing squad? Who should have to die like that?? I started talking about it with my neighbor, and they were a little taken back that I had any sympathy for this criminal. It got me really frustrated, and I couldn't make up my mind about it.

The death penalty is right. It's like the whole "an eye for an eye" philosophy. The convicted person made a choice, and with their choice comes consequences. You only get one life, and this is how they spent it, so they should accept whatever comes their way. They did something so horrible, it's not worth it for them to go on living.

The death penalty is wrong. It's like the whole "an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind" philosophy. Everyone deserves a second chance, "two wrongs don't make a right". Executing people only makes us murders also, so are we advocating homicides? People can change, many people in jail have been changed from the experience and have served communities countless times.

So what do you think? Let me know, I'm really curious.






Song stuck in my head today: "Hey Stephen" by Taylor Swift

Keep on keepin' on,

Madison

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

A Quick Memo...

Right now I'm working on a few new posts but they won't be up just yet because I am going away from Thursday to Sunday! Just wanted to let everyone know so it wouldn't seem like I went on another unmentioned hiatus. I wish I had a laptop to take with me on my trip, but I don't have one and it would take away from enjoying my trip, not that I don't love blogging but you know what I mean! I am going to Hershey Park, so I'll have a post about that when I come back, a Flower List update, a review on a Liberty game I went to yesterday, and another post that I won't tell you to leave you to wonder and come back for more... ;)




Thanks so much for reading and I hope you come back next week to check on my new posts. Enjoy the rest of your week.
Song stuck in my head today: "Round and Round" by Selena Gomez <---- Thanks Jake. I hate you.

Keep on keepin' on,

Madison

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Our Snapple Cap Collection

* Collected
Yet to Be Found

#1 "A Goldfish’s attention span is three seconds."
#2 "Animals that lay eggs don’t have belly buttons."
#3 "Beavers can hold their breath for 45 minutes under water."
#4 "Slugs have four noses."
#31 "The average human will eat an average of eight spiders while sleeping."
#36 "A duck's quack does not echo."
#40 "It is possible to lead a cow up stairs but not down stairs."
#69 "Caller ID is illegal in California."
#77 "No piece of paper can be folded in half more than 7 times."
#89 "The average American walks 18,000 steps a day."
#114 "The oldest known animal was a tortoise, which lived to be 152 years old."
#116 "The largest fish is the whale shark - it can be over 50 feet long and weigh 2 tons."
#162 "The temperature of the sun can reach up to 15 million degrees Fahrenheit."
#679 "A tiger's night vision is six times better than a human's."
#683 "Snails have teeth."
#697 "Pilates stretches your muscles, improving your posture and helping you appear taller."
#718 "On average, a strawberry has 200 seeds on it."
#735 "A full moom is nine times bigger than a half moon."
#769 "If a sheep and a goat mate the offspring is called a geep."
#794 "Mount Whitney, the highest mountain in the continental United States, and Zabriskien Point, the lowest point in the United States, are less than eighty miles apart."
#845 "A lemon contains more sugar then a strawberry."
#850 "Hawaii is furtehr south than Florida."
#887 "The "Valley of Square Trees" in Panama is the only known place in the world where trees have rectangular trunks."
#889 "The original Cinderella was Egyptian and wore fur slippers."
#906 "Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated"
#902 "Barbie's full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts."

So whenever you see a Snapple cap, think of us.

Yesterday, I took my Algebra I Regents. Prior to the actual exam, their was a review session provided by three of my school's teachers, so trying to get some extra study time in, I went. When the review session ended though, we weren't aloud to just go and take the test, so we had an hour or so to kill. Most people either brought lunch, or walked down to the deli to go buy some food. My friend, Sam and myself had our own makeshift picnic on the school's front lawn, which, after finding out the hard way, really needed some TLC because I could've sued that school for the state of itchy-ness my legs were in. One way or another, me and Sam started talking about Snapple. Y'know Snapple! That delicious tea company with the really cool "Real Facts" on the inside of every bottle cap? Well, we've decided to collect as many "Real Facts" as we can.

After doing some research on Snapple, I found out that yes, some "Real Fact" caps are retired, so unless we go all out, and buy them on EBay or something, we're most likely not going to get ALL of them. And that's okay. We just want to see how many we can get. So, as everyone slowly came from the deli to take the Regents, we took as many Snapple caps as we good. Thanks Nick for being our "dumpster diver"! Hahah.

Here's a little bit about Snapple, that I copy and pasted from their website (snapple.com). Why don't you check it out? It's pretty neat. It all started in New York’s Greenwich Village in 1972. Childhood friends Leonard Marsh, Hyman Golden and Arnold Greenburg saw more potential in fruit than just something to throw in the lunchroom. They began selling fruit drinks to health food stores under the name Unadulterated Food Corporation. But where did they get the name Snapple? It actually came from a carbonated apple soda that was part of the original beverage line. The soda had a great snappy apple taste. Now that’s cleverness at its best. Fast forward to the era of hair bands and acid-washed jeans. We’re talking 1987, my friends. That’s when Snapple teas were born. Snapple Lemon Tea was first. The godfather of all Snapple teas. Today, Snapple produces more than 50 varieties of teas, juice drinks and flavored waters - all Made from the Best Stuff on Earth.®
As I'm reading more and more about Snapple right now, I thought I'd share some interesting things! Credits to wikipedia.org. Which as you know, I know and love despite what others say. :)
  • There have been many attempts to collect Snapple caps but none that could come close to completion.
    Snapple Top Collection Services is a database, "Global Community Collection", that collects photos of Snapple "Real Facts" caps from its visitors to display as a reference to all Snapple fans.
    The basis of the site is to bring together a community of Snapple fans and simultaneously show the power of the internet. In fact, Dani links the personal website links to the caps they submit in appreciation of their submission. The goal is to collect all of the "Real Facts" ever printed.

  • #31 "The average human will eat an average of eight spiders while sleeping." This statistic was proven in 1993 as an example of the absurd things people will believe simply because they come across them on the internet, as uncovered by Snopes.
    #36 "A duck's quack does not echo." Tested by Snopes and Mythbusters. Both tests concluded that a duck's quack does echo but is hard to distinguish.
    #69 "Caller ID is illegal in California." There is no law against Caller ID in the state, though there were lengthy debates about legalizing it in the early 1990s.
    #77 "No piece of paper can be folded in half more than 7 times." This myth was proven wrong by Britney Gallivan in 2002 when she managed 12 folds. In 2005, drawing on Gallivan's accomplishment, the Discovery Channel show MythBusters, folded a piece of paper 11 times. The piece of paper used in MythBusters was an oversized piece of paper and thinner than a standard 8.5"x11" piece of paper.
    #89 "The average American walks 18,000 steps a day." There are many 10,000 steps a day health programs which consider 10,000 a stretch goal. Such programs state that a "sedentary person" only walks 1,000 to 3,000 steps a day.
    #114 "The oldest known animal was a tortoise, which lived to be 152 years old." A tortoise named Harriet once lived to be 175 years old.
    #116 "The largest fish is the whale shark - it can be over 50 feet long and weigh 2 tons." Full-grown whale sharks do not weigh 2 tons (4,000 lbs or 1,820 kg), but are much heavier, weighing up to 16 tons (32,000 lbs or 14,550 kg).
    #162 "The temperature of the sun can reach up to 15 million degrees Fahrenheit." In fact, the core of the sun reaches 15 million degrees Celsius, about 27 million degrees Fahrenheit. #794 "Mount Whitney, the highest mountain in the continental United States, and Zabriskien [sic] Point, the lowest point in the United States, are less than eighty miles apart." It is true that Mount Whitney is the highest mountain in the Continental United States, but Badwater in Death Valley, not Zabriskie Point in Death Valley, is the lowest point in the United States.
    #889 "The original Cinderella was Egyptian and wore fur slippers." It is true that Rhodopis is considered the oldest telling of the Cinderella story, but her slippers are consistently described as rose-gold. Some claim that Charles Perrault's classic French telling featured fur slippers, and that vair (fur) was mistranslated as verre (glass), but this is believed to be an urban legend.
Click on "Snapple Collection" under "Some Fantastic Flower List Pages. Click And Bloom!" on our side bar <---- to see what we've collected so far, and what we need! I'll be sure to update it everytime I get a new one, so check back on it from time to time if I don't talk about it on my regular posts. (:





Go drink some Snapple!
Song stuck in my head today: "Sea Lion" by Fiest
Keep on keepin' on,
Madison

Friday, June 18, 2010

Back to Basics: A WELL NEEDED Flower List Update

*FIRST OFF: I haven't blogged in years it feels like.... or maybe just a month. I feel absolutely terrible! I thought getting off from school would give me more time to blog - which it did! But I guess I just had to get adjusted to all that extra time and find out how to use it wisely, which I'm still very much in the process of doing. I'm always hitting myself, wondering why I spend most of my time lying around when I could be doing something great! But I've now gone back to blogging and really hope you guys will continue to read!*

Do you recycle?
42% said Yes! Of course
0 of you said Yeah, I think...
0 of you said Nope
57% said Wish I did!
0 of you said Why would I?
and...
0 of you said Ha, you kidding? Waste of time.

So... I'm very happy a lot of you recycle! Kudos. (: I'm also really happy that none of you voted 'Nope, Why would I?, or Ha, you kidding? Waste of time.' and that those of you who didn't recycle chose 'Wish I did!' instead. As you might've known from my previous posts, especially "Earth Day is Every Day!" I'm getting into being green. And recycling is one quick and easy step to start! For those of you who wish you recycled, be you're own fairy eco-god mother! Find out about places in your town, county, or city where you can recycle. I know in my town, we leave our non-deposit bottles, cans, etc. out on the curb on certain days for pick-up; and those items that can be deposited for change, we bring to our local beverage stores that do that. Check on your item's label to see if you can get money back for recycling in your state! I really hope every one of us takes at least one step to going greener, wheter it be recycling, buying a hybrid, purchasing clothes that are made recycled of recycled material or just shutting a light off when you leave the room! Be proud of yourself, no matter how big or how small your action is.


I found a picture of these great public recycling cans in NYC. Maybe they're in your local city too!

Reflecting on my first "Back to Basics" post, I realized I haven't shared my other Flower List page with you guys! So here it is! Click on the April Blog Archive to find the first page if you'd like.



Leave any questions about my choices for my list below! I really gotta start working on them... I'm going to try #23 real soon for the latest and greatest Harry Potter! What's on your list?

Oh! Before I sign off, I should add one more green tip! Recently, I found out about a great Google powered search engine, by word of my friend Sam. It's called blackle.com. The entire screen goes black to save energy, because it takes a lot of watts to power a screen white! It works exactly like Google. The down side: it only does web searches. So know picture, videos, or maps. :( Hope you use it though!

Song stuck in my head today: "Half of My Heart" by John Mayer

Keep on keepin' on,

Madison

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Glee Review #9: Journey (Season 2, Episode 9)

The title of the episode encompasses it all. Glee -so far, anyways- has been nothing but a journey. A journey to higher levels of talent, a journey to higher levels of respect and knowledge, a journey to new experiences and new friends, and of course: a journey to Regionals.

This episode surprised me, it was so perfectly done at some points that I cried. I cried when the rest of the glee club was crying at Mr. Schue's house. I cried when Rachel and Finn shared that blissful moment backstage, seconds before going on and singing "Don't Stop Believin'", where he said he loved her. I cried during "Bohemian Rhapsody" which shocked me at how lovely it ended up being. I didn't cry though when New Directions didn't win. I'm guessing that's when a lot of other people cried, but I sort of saw it coming. You knew at some point they had to throw a curveball! Shelby adopting Quinn's baby was something that made a lot of sense, but you didn't see it coming too much. I actually thought Quinn would end up keeping Beth. Will and Emma reuniting again was good, but I'm more excited to see John Stamos next season play Emma's new lover, Carl Howell the dentist.

All the songs were great, I wasn't necessarily loving some of their choices but they still performed them amazing.

My questions to be answered (hopefully!) next season!
1.) Since Shelby has adopted Beth, will that mean we'll never see her again?
I can't come up with a good plot line that would draw Idina Menzel's character back into the lives of our beloved New Direction's members, now that she is busy with raising a kid of her own. But who knows, Glee has some fantastic writers so maybe she'll come back next season!
2.) Will New Directions step it up now that they've been given a second chance?
Since McKinley High School's glee club didn't win Regionals, will they come back even stronger and more determined to place in the Ohio competition? I'm hoping so! I really want to see the glee club take it home- but deserve it! I'm hoping that their new songs and performances will be even better than what they've done before.
3.)What will happen to Terri's relationship with Finn?
In the episode "Funk" we saw Terri's eyes light up when she realized Finn was nothing but a "six-teen year old boy", will her new found fascination with the young high schooler and his connection to her ex-husband continue into the next season? Only time will tell! I really love seeing Terri still on the show, but I'm hoping nothing in their relationship gets too weird.

Here's your quotes for the last time until the next season!
"It's as barren as me in here, Will." - Sue
"Please. You think Puck and Santana are gonna even acknowledge my existence once we're not in glee club together anymore?" - Mercedes
"Brunettes have no place in show business." - Olivia
"I know you think I'm heartless, Will, and you may have a point: I spend large segments of each day picturing you choking on food, and I recently contacted an exotic animal dealer because I had a very satisfying dream that the two of us went to a zoo, and I shoved your face into one of those pink inflamed monkey butts that weeps lymph." - Sue
"I'm seriously going to puke in your mouth." - Sue

Thanks for reading, sorry to say that there's no photo for this post! Fox.com/glee/photos as much as I love it, isn't cooperating and the ones on Google aren't very good... wondering why I was so delayed in writing? Check out my post entitled "Back to Basics: A WELL NEEDED Flower List Update" Which I'll be adding tomorrow, Thanks again! Love you guys.

Song stuck in my head today: "How Far Do You Wanna Go?" by Gloriana

Keep on keepin' on,

Madison

Glee Review #8: Funk (Season 2, Episode 8)

Funk was a good episode, I thought the songs weren't as great though. "Tell Me Something Good", while extremely funny was also full of awkward moments that made you wonder what the hell was going on. "It's A Man's Man's Man's World" was touching and somewhat inspirational but clouded by the pregnant teen dancers in the background that left the performance with a bad after-taste. "Give Up The Funk" and "Another One Bites The Dust" had to be my favorite songs of the episode, and watching everyone at Sheets N Things sing in "Loser" made me laugh so hard, it was adorable. "Good Vibrations" was just, good. I liked it but had to Youtube it to remember exactly what happened.

*No questions or usual extras due to a very delayed post, please check out my post entitled "Back to Basics: A WELL NEEDED Flower List Update" to read what kept you waiting! :(

Quotes!
"I'm so depressed, I've worn the same outfit twice this week." - Kurt
"That's what they said about a young man in Chicago in 1871, who thought he'd play a harmless prank on the dairy cow of one Mrs. O'Leary. He successfully ignited its flatulence, and a city burned, William. That young terrorist went on to become the first gay president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln." - Sue
"I thought Jews were supposed to be smart." - Terri
"You know, for me, trophies are like herpes. You can try to get rid of 'em, but they just keep coming. You know why? Sue Sylvester has hourly flare-ups of burning, itchy, highly contagious talent." - Sue
"Mr. Schue, Rachel's one of us. We're the only ones who get to humiliate her." - Kurt


Puck, Mercedes, and Finn performing "Good Vibrations"


Thanks for reading this sort, terrible review. Like I said, please check out "Back to Basics: A WELL NEEDED Flower List Update" for why I've been gone!

Song stuck in my head today: "How Far Do You Wanna Go?" by Gloriana

Keep on keepin' on,

Madison