OCD

So lately, I've been thinking really hard, and I came to the conclusion that I probably have a small form of OCD.

OCD, or otherwise known as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, is something that makes a person feel compulsive thoughts and do duties that has to be applied the correct form, or else they freak out. I'm not that bad YET, but I feel like lately I've been having a lot of those moments.

For example, there might be something that will bother me, and then I'll be thinking about that the WHOLE ENTIRE DAY, and I will stress/freak out about it because it will bother me, and then I would get mad at something random, making me freak out more, etc.

So this is probably not OCD, but I mean there's something wrong with me. I don't know, maybe a lot of stress, but whatever it is, it's eating away my life.

Socks

Have you ever tried on these socks? ---->

They're apparently called "toe socks," and they are supposed to hug each and every one of your toes (unless you have six toes, then that just sucks for you) so you have superior comfort and balance.

It comes in all shapes, sizes, and colors.

I'm wearing one right now, and it's very colorful. It reminds me of the rainbow. Therefore, it makes me happy, because rainbows make me happy.

However, there is something that I don't like.

IT'S SO UNCOMFORTABLE.

See I really don't understand why people think it's comfortable, because when I wear these things, the sock separates my toes, and I really don't like my toes separated. I like them bunched together.

But, this is when I wear my socks for a couple minutes, and then take them off because it bothers me that much.

I just wanted to rant about how much I don't like toe socks. I'm sure they're very comfortable when people wear them for large amounts of time, but I don't.

Homosexuality

I go to a youth group in College Church, and last week my leader raised up a controversial issue that still bugs me today: homosexuality.

First, I need to point out that I'm not a homosexual. Second, even though I do follow Jesus Christ and the church's views, this is probably one out of the few that I don't agree with. I don't see anything wrong with homosexuality at all. I'm not saying I'm pro-homosexuality, I just need a solid reason as to why it's wrong.

The church defines that homosexuality, adultery, and rape is frowned upon. Yes, I can understand how adultery and rape is; but homosexuality? What's wrong with loving the person of the same sex? It is strange, I know, but once you get over that factor, there's nothing wrong with it. It really bothers me when I ask people about it, they say "It's bad," or "It's gross," without any facts supporting it.

As I noticed while I was watching the news, everyone's focus is on homosexuality. What about rape? Or murder? It seems like we are making a huge deal about giving rights to gays/lesbians and not about trying to prevent violence in this world. Okay, seriously, out there, people are dying, secretly smuggling drugs, killing everyone, and we choose to focus more on rights for homosexuality than preventing violence. Let me get this across: THEY ARE PEOPLE TOO, AND THEY JUST LIKE PEOPLE OF THE SAME SEX. How do they harm us in any way? Seriously, just give them the rights. They aren't going to bomb us or anything.

So, in conclusion, these are my views on homosexuality, and how I think there's nothing wrong with them. But, if you have a good reason why it's not right, I'll be happy to listen. :)

Yoga

So I was wondering the other day which yoga class to take: Bikram Yoga or regular Yoga.

Bikram Yoga is basically heated yoga, where you do yoga in a 110 degree room. You have to be hydrated well enough, so you won't die or pass out or anything. The class is 90 minutes, and I personally think it's more effective because you sweat a lot, thus removing lots and lots of more toxins than regular yoga. Plus, you would be able to be more flexible while taking this class because the heat warms up the whole body and makes the joints looser.

Yoga, on the other hand is in a regular room that isn't as intense. Regular yoga does improve flexibility, but I'm afraid it won't remove that many toxins as it will if I do Bikram.

Tell me what you think!

The hazards of texting

I am going to say this on behalf of my own and probably 75% of the girls in this school: I love texting. I text everyday, and just like every other girl, I am pretty much glued to my phone. Of course, every now and then (aka probably every two days, depends on how mad my mom is), my mom decides to take my phone away for a couple days so I won't get addicted. And to be perfectly honest, no matter how annoying it can get, my mom is doing the right thing and protecting me from doing harm to myself.


Very recently, maybe a month ago or something, there was an LA train wreck. A driver who was carrying 222 passengers on the train didn't see the red light and crashed head on to a freight train. 24 people were killed, and 80 were injured. The sad thing is, this would not have happened because the driver was TEXTING his friends. Because he was texting, he got distracted and didn't look on the tracks, and he killed 24 people, including himself.


A couple of years ago, A teenage boy named Patrick Sims killed a 63-year old cyclist because he was texting on the highway. He looked down for a couple of seconds, but it was enough for him to see that he couldn't get out of the way. As a result, he has no cell phone, his liscense was taken away from him, and he was sentenced to 300 hours of community service.


Texting is a very serious business and a huge distraction. We get so on task on what we were initially doing, but the moment we hear that buzz or ring, we stop what we do and we start texting our friends. Believe me, I know how much of a distraction it can be. Sometimes I do my homework and my friend texts me, I start texting them. Because of this, I stay up to 12 doing my homework because I wasn't as productive as I would have been if I didn't have my phone.


I'm not saying to stop texting altogether, because that would be very hypocritical of me, and I can't do that. I'm saying to not let texting be your life. I'm also saying this now especially to the sophomores or juniors who just got their license, because they don't know how much texting can do to them, or how badly they can get hurt by just looking at their phone for a couple of mere seconds. If you get a text while you're driving, wait until you're off the road, because if you don't, you are putting yourself in a life-threatening situation. And seriously, you don't need to answer that text at the moment, no matter how urgent the situation is. Do you want your car looking like this?

Love

According to this, love is defined as "a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person". There's like, 27 other definitions, but this is pretty much the gist of what love actually is. The other day I was watching an episode of One Tree Hill, and I don't remember what season it was, but it was during the scene where Brooke is talking to Lucas during their post-break up session. It was after a ball, where Lucas's basketball coach was saying how he loved his wife so much and something related to basketball. After that Brooke asks Lucas, "Do you think love like that exists anymore?" And it really made me think, because nowadays, I hardly see anyone feel that strongly for something they "love" very much.

Marraige is supposed to be a celebration where a man and a woman bond until their death. Yet, according to divorce rate statistics, almost 50% of all marraiges end up in divorces. Thats HALF of the families. Plus, there's also the couples who don't want to get a divorce for other reasons, yet they don't love their spouse. This is so confusing, because the people are supposed to LOVE each other, yet they treat their serious bond as if its nothing.

Isn't love supposed to be passionate? When you love someone, aren't you supposed to love them, and see yourself in their future and no one else's? Take the book Twlight, for example. The love portrayed in there is so strong that it almost sounds unrealistic. That's an example of what love is really supposed to be. We use the term "love" so loosely now that it's real meaning has faded away.

I'm not trying to be pessimistic and say that love like this doesn't exist anymore. I'm just saying that we don't use love in a way that it's supposed to be used, and we use it very loosely now. It doesn't really make that much of a difference now, because we are high school students and we pretty much use every term loosely, but in the future, we can't just use love as something light. Love is something serious, and it can change your life, either in a good way or bad way.

*update* I'm using Twilight as a reference, and I don't really like the series.

Obesity

Obesity is a serious disease that kills hundreds of thousands of people annually. It affects 65.2 percent of the people in the UNITED STATES alone, which is more than half our population. But is there a cause behind this or is it just our fault?

I believe that obesity is our fault because all we do is eat. We eat is processed foods, such as candy and chips, and most of it is not healthy. They aren't fresh and they have tons of sodium, fat, cholestrol, and other lovely things. The food companies take the food and then they add all these chemicals to make it taste and look better so it would taste yummier. Then, when we eat them, we're all like, "WOW they taste good" and then we buy more and more and then we eat more and more and our bodies take in more and more gross things.

Then, we start to gain weight, and then we all freak out and we're all like, "I'm so fat," and then we don't do anything to get rid of it. We make up excuses to not exercise and then when the weight gets to be uncontrollably high, we start to rely on weight-loss pills. Around two million dollars is spent annually on these pills, and the thing is, we're still obese. Then, when we can't take it anymore, instead of starting to work out, we chose to spend thousands of dollars on a procedure called gastric bypass surgery.

We need to stop this epidemic. We can't have food companies spoil our bodies and have us going to solutions that hurt instead of help us. Try to exercise and eat fresh foods. Even if you don't have that much time, a half hour of yoga or joggin everyday will make a difference. Plus, it releases endorphins and you feel better. Seriously, it does. Also, try to eat organic foods. Even though its a little bit more expensive, it would probably be better if you splurge on food that you're sure won't spoil your body. A good place to get organic food is Whole Foods.

So, if you really care about your body, eat well and exercise and you won't be in this outrageous and tragic epidemic.

Violins, violins, and more violins

After ranting about the rain, I realized that I COMPLETELY forgot that I had to link things and stuff. So, I've decided to write another post on practicing the violin.

Violin has been a major thing for me in the past ten years. But I'm not here to tell my story, mainly because it's really boring and there's nothing to it. I'm here to talk to those violinists about how to *hopefully* efficiently practice violin.

To start off practicing, you must begin with scales and exercises. Not only does this help your fingers get warmed up for what you need to work on solo-wise, but it is helpful for ear-training. Start off by playing one scale, and play it twice. Listen very carefully to the intonation and the intervals between the two notes. Try to get that scale perfectly in tune. After that, you should work on thirds, octaves, arpeggios, and all that jazz. An scale book that I recommend is the Scales for Advanced Violinists by Barbara Barber. It is excellent for scales and exercises pertaining to scales. It contains all 12 major scales and minor scales, plus arpeggios, chromatic scales, octaves, tenths, fingered octaves, and much much more.

Don't start off playing all the scales. Instead, start doing one scale per day and really listen to how you're playing. Just playing the scale without listening gets you nowhere. Afterwards, you can play the scale with a slurred bowing, or you can do different bowings while practicing scales. Patience and disciplinary ear work will pay off in the future. After a while, you can gradually build up to two scales a day.

After practicing your daily dose of scales, you need to work on technical exercises, like thirds or bowing exercises. Another book I recommend is the Rode 24 Caprices. These little songs include difficult techniques such as thirty-second slurs and lots of bowings that need practicing on, such as staccato and hooks. Another good technique artist is Fritz Kreisler, and a lot of his techniques focus on intonation. There are some exercises, however that do puts a lot of stress on the fingers, such as fingered octaves and tenths. In order to efficiently practice these before your hand starts to hurt, you should practice playing the bottom note only, then playing the top note, and then putting it both together. It's frustrating, I know.

After practicing, you should be able to comfortably practice your solo piece. If you are starting a solo piece, try to get down some fingerings that are really comfortable to you. Don't change your fingerings every time you practice, because you will get confused. Try to get a solid base on your fingerings and bowings. After that, look for dynamics. If the composer tells you to play piano, don't play forte. There's a reason why the composer made that part the dynamic he wanted, so do it like the composer says. Also, you should have an idea of what part of the bow to play in if, for example, a composer gives you music that has staccato notes. If the composer has sixteenths notees that are supposed to be soft, play from the tip to the middle of the bow. If there's staccato, play from the middle of the bow till the end, around 3/4 of the way to the bow. You'll know where to play staccato off the string with the bow when you feel comfortable with your bow bouncing off the string and you're able to control it.

So, that's the basics for practicing violin. I know at times, practicing can get frustrating, or you just don't feel like you want to practice at all. But it all eventually works out in the end. Hope this goes well for all you violin players out there! :D