The Big Reveal

And now, it's the moment you've all been waiting for. Or maybe not, but I'm going to tell you anyway. How sweet of me.

1. Process Analysis
2. Cause and Effect
3. Argument
4. Narration
5. Classification/Division
6. Example

And for those of you that are wondering, yes. #6 actually did happen.

Well, This Is Embarrassing.

I'm sure you've all been awkwardly embarrassed before. Let's see if you can guess all of these modes right. If not, you're sure to become embarrassed.

1. Usually it begins with an increased heartbeat (thump…thump…thump..thump..thump.thump.thumpthumpTHUMPTHUMPTHUMP). Then it moves down into your stomach and you find it tense up ‘til (for women) it feels like that time of month again. Travelling down through your legs, your knees start buckling and your toes start tapping to that inaudible techno beat going on in your head. With all that blood pumping, your cheeks start to look like tomatoes and little beads of sweat start to leak out of your pores to create a sheet of glistening moisture across your forehead. It’s then that you feel embarrassed.

2. Embarrassment is sparked by failure, or the fear of failure, or incompetence, or flattery. It isn’t any of these things individually, but the reaction caused by them in certain situations. Take failure, for example. If you trip up the stairs when walking with a friend, you think to yourself, “Gah, epic fail.” However, the circumstances of this failure allow you to move on and laugh it off. But, if you forget the lyrics to the national anthem in front of thousands of people, they will think, “Wow, what an epic fail,” and you will feel embarrassed.

3. Embarrassment is unhealthy. Prolonged experiences of embarrassment can lead to anxiety and high blood pressure because of the increased heart rate. It can bring about severely unsociable tendencies because the fear of being embarrassed will prevent people from stepping out into public. Embarrassment allows someone to attack themselves for being silly, oblivious, or irresponsible. Embarrassment should be illegal, and all those who judge people and make them feel inferior or embarrassed should be outlawed, too.

4. I’ve been embarrassed before. It was in 9^th grade civics class (and I say this like it was the only time I’ve ever been embarrassed. Ha, lies. This is just one of the many times.) during our Constitutional Convention. It was meant to be a fun time, but I have been scarred forever. Politics/government/history was not my strong suit but I wanted to participate so I raised my hand to propose an idea. Turns out, the idea was so radically on the other side of the spectrum than what I believed. Everybody laughed. I still got a 29/30 on the assignment, though.

5. There are 3 types of embarrassment. There’s the funny type of embarrassment. Least disheartening, this type of embarrassment constitutes the “Whoops, that came out wrong,” and “I didn’t mean to say that” reactions. There’s the questionable type of embarrassment where one often asks “Should I be embarrassed?” because everybody starts to laugh when they weren’t intending to be funny. Then there’s the My-Gosh-This-Is-So-Humiliating type of embarrassment. This is the loud-fart-during-a-test-you-better-pack-your-stuff-and-move-to-another-city kind of embarrassment. Anybody who experiences this embarrassment has no luck whatsoever.

6. Once upon a time a boyfriend and girlfriend went to the movies. The girlfriend was very into theatre and had been in multiple plays at their high school. The boyfriend obviously had to attend the play alone because the girlfriend was in it. At the movie theater, the boyfriend leans over to the girlfriend and asks, “Hey, did you ever have time to go see the play?” The girlfriend, a little taken aback, leans back over to the boyfriend and says, “I was in it.” The boyfriend was embarrassed.

It's Been A Weekend

Notice the lack of adjective in the above title. It hasn't necessarily been a good weekend. I feel like I've been going going going the whole weekend. I'm probably not even going to be able to sit down and relax until I go to bed tonight. Sure, I guess yesterday was fun but I felt the dark cloud of homework looming over me all day. So I've just decided that I'm going to be like the Energizer bunny and power through everything without hesitation or distraction. Look at me run.

Actually, no. I don't like to run. I have this huge internal conflict going on about exercise. I sometimes feel good after exercising but I don't really like to exercise. I don't like to be hot and I don't like to sweat. (Sidenote, I don't like winter, either. There is really no good place for me to live in this world that is fall and spring all year round.) I also don't really like to do too much strenuous exercise because I have asthma and if I get too worked up, then I start panting like a mad dog. I recently discovered yoga to meet my standards of exercise, though I do get hot and sweaty sometimes. I can use my dance background to pull me through.

I am so excited for Christmas. Like, actually. There is so much excitement. I'm not necessarily excited for Christmas itself, I don't know what I want, but I have all of these awesome gifts planned out for my friends and I can't wait to give them the gifts but I still have to wait a month. I'm kind of dying inside. It might be lame, but the only thing that keeps me pulling through is looking at their list of gifts everyday and thinking of how excited they are going to be when I present their gifts to them. Merry Christmas, all.

This weekend I became addicted - to Someone Like You by ADELE. (She had throat surgery, did you know that?) I don't actually know the whole song, so I've been singing the 30 second refrain over and over again. I've gotten super good at the refrain. I'm also kinda obsessed with Turning Tables. I have the sheet music for it and I've been playing/singing it at least twice everyday. I actually know that lyrics to that one. Does it ever bug you when you can't understand what a singer is singing? Because when the song is playing you can mumble along but when you're singing a cappella with your friends, it embarrassing when you don't know the words and have to mumble then.

Hey sorry for the kinda boring blog post. I'm drifting off and it's only 11:30. In the morning. Today will be a long day.

There's a tidbit for ya.

Bad Days

Wednesdays.

Wednesdays are bad days.

Especially today.

Today is a bad Wednesday.

eXploring computers

It's time for that lovely weekly blog post again. In this case, that means it's time for eXplorations and eXtensions! The wittiness of whoever comes up with things like that blows my mind. Seriously. Mind blown.

But for real. We have some issues. Our society does, at least. The extensive use of computers today pose some major problems for society, especially as we keep moving forward and develop more technologies. Something needs to be done, people. Pronto.

• Problem #1: Computers are stalkers. We have no privacy with computers, it's true, and it's a huge problem. I bet if I looked hard enough, I could find all of my personal information somewhere on the internet. Sure, you give your phone number and insurance to the nice ladies at the dentist's office or doctor's office, but they go on the database and can end up circulating the web. I don't really see a solution to this, I do think computers are logical places to store this information, I just think it's a problem that it's all available to any stranger who has the time to look for it.
• Problem #2: Sometimes it's pretty darn annoying that certain websites are censored. Like at school. I understand that the administrators want to block certain sites (like pornography and some gaming sites) but other sites like Facebook and even some sites necessary for research projects have been blocked. Can you say overkill? Those research sites contain some pretty valuable information. And, while I can understand the blockage of Facebook, I don't think it should be blocked because students either a) don't care enough about school that they would go on Facebook in class and goof off (it's their decision to fail the class) or b) students that work really hard, finish their work early, and have nothing else to do in class and therefore blog (see previous post). It's really quite annoying. Let students decide for themselves what sites they want to waste their time on.
• Problem #3: Computer talk. You know what I'm talking about, when you go to dictionary.com and click on the speaker button to hear the pronunciation and all that comes out is some robotic jumble of a word. Nobody says it like the computers pronounce it. On certain computers, you can highlight a portion of the text and it will read it back to you. I find it really funny when names are included because the poor (haha, yeah right) computer can't pronounce them and stumbles over itself to get out something that vaguely resembles a name. Why do computers even have this function? Is it really that hard to read something out loud yourself? At least you'd pronounce everything correctly.
• Problem #4: Anti-socialism and those who will become crazy cat ladies. Sometime in the very near future, computers will be able to do everything for a person so it won't be necessary for them to even leave the house. There'll be computerized machines to drop off groceries, online shopping, online school. People of our generation will lose the social life they have worked so hard on. Skyping doesn't count. People have got to interact with people and get out of the house and live. That appeal is disintegrating with the inventions of new computers. People need to stop relying so much on computers and start doing things for themselves.

Sidenote: I do very much so enjoy computers.

There's a tidbit for ya.

Blogging

This will be a quick blog.

I finished my history assignment early in class so I have time to do whatever I want! I went on Skyward (obsessive grade checker, it's a problem) and then I got bored. So I decided to blog.

Cool, time's up.

I'm really good at time management.

Seriously.

There's a tidbit for ya.

Halloween, Cats, Needs, and Thanksgiving

I've recently become obsessed with coconut macaroons. I bought them at the Whole Foods in St. Paul. I got the convenient package of "two-bite" macaroons. Neither one of my parents like coconut, so I got to enjoy all but 2 of them myself. Yay. They're my version of Halloween candy. My favorite chocolate/candy is Take 5 (a lovely combination of chocolate, peanuts, peanut butter, caramel, and pretzels). So good, man. Heaven on Earth. Unfortunately, these heavenly candies rarely come in fun size packages so I'm out of luck when it comes to Halloween.

Even looking at it makes my mouth water a little bit. How embarrassing.

My cat is so needy. He is also not very inconspicuous in his attempts to get attention. Like right now he's nudging my arm every 5 seconds, thinking "Hey. Hey, Meredith. Don't you wanna pet me? I know you wanna pet me. Why don't you pet me?" He thinks his efforts are futile, but I say "No, Dave. I shall not pet you. However, to console you, I will write a gleaming paragraph about you in my blog." He doesn't believe me. Now he's sitting on an afghan, sulking. Wait, no. He's not sulking. He's conked out.

Hey, guess what? I'm excited for Thanksgiving. We always head down to my grandparents house in Minneota. (No, that's not a typo. The city is actually spelled like Minnesota minus the "s".) We always follow tradition and eat the same things every year. Sometimes turkey, sometimes ham, sometimes both. Mashed potatoes with cream cheese. Cranberries. Stuffing. Green bean casserole (my favorite). Apple pie. Pumpkin dessert. I can eat more than some of my grown relatives. I guess my stomach just expands to make room for the foods I love.

Hey, guess what also? Nah, I don't have anything. Have a good weekend, kids. Don't drive on the left side of the road.

There's a tidbit for ya.