Best Day Ever Part 2

After working with Bret, most of our opener sounded great! There were a few small changes he made that some others and I didn’t like as well, but whatever! Either way we sounded way better than before! Rehearsing the ballad was the highest point in my day. We sounded sooooooo beautiful, more beautiful than anything else I had ever heard before, and I was just basking in the beautiful sound we were making. These moments are the ones I live for. Singing Soprano1 is so fun, and the high notes in our ballad were just made for me. I loved singing it so much and I wish we never had stopped.

            After our workshop, my best friend, her mother, and I went out to dinner at Noodles and Company! It was super delicious and it definitely filled me up! We then scurried back to school to start to set up for our competition the next day!

            I had to decorate a room for McKinley Show Choir and even though I was not the oldest, I was definitely in charge! We finished up in no time and everything looked beautiful! Then it was time to wait. We weren’t allowed to set up for our competition in the gym until the basket ball game was over, so we had quite a bit of time to spare. My friend Adam and I insisted that not everyone in happiness had stayed (when we were all supposed to) so we decided to go on a secret mission! We started at one end of the school and commenced to go into every room and say “chhhhh ROOMS CLEAR, OVER chhhhhhh” we did this though the entire building. It was so stupid, but soooooo much fun! We didn’t find anyone that we thought had left, because a lot of people had been playing Ultimate Frisbee and we hadn’t seen them.

            Now we had finally wasted enough time and it was time to start setting up the gym. When racks of chairs were emptied, me and my friend, Adam would grab them and run and slide on the wheels all the way across the school. It was soo fun, and not to mention dangerous, but we had so much fun! Also, when transporting things two and from the gym, we would only grab things on wheels and we have so much fun racing other people and doing crazy things with the carts. This probably lasted about an hour, but it had to have been one of the best hours of my life!

The day was almost over! It was finally about 11:30 at night. We were all still at school and all the things for the competition were finally set up. We all got on stage and did a sound check to make sure all the mics were in the right places. We were finally done!

            It was midnight and we were all excused to go home. It had been a truly amazing day and I had had the time of my life! I got to bed at 1 am and woke up the next morning at 6. But that my friends is another story for another blog!

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Best Day Ever

Do you ever have one of those days that just make you wish that everyday could be exactly the same? Well for me, yesterday was one of those days! Everything just seemed to be going my way and I would consider it one of the most fun days in my show choir career.

            When I woke up Friday morning, I was greeted with a lovely surprise. We had been granted a two-hour delay! I was so excited, knowing that Friday night would be a very long and late night, so I went back to sleep. When I awoke two hours later, my day was already great. I was so refreshed and I had truly enjoyed sleeping in! Also I had twenty extra minutes to get ready than normal, because on snow days zero hour classes start 2 hours and twenty minutes later than normally scheduled! I ate breakfast with my mom and was on my way.

            My drive to school definitely did nothing, but improve my already great mood immensely. Because of the newly fallen snow, everything was blanketed in white and all of the trees looked so pretty. I didn’t even feel as if I was in my neighborhood. Everything looked foreign and beautiful to me. The wonderland continued at I pulled out onto the main drag, 42^nd Street, to get to school.

            Once I arrived at school, my day continued to get better with the fact that I got the pleasure of walking in with, my soon to be WPA date, Jon. We had a fabulous chat in which I was sticking my tongue out reaching for snowflakes and we commenced with our day. School was fine in the morning, but what really brightened my mood was that we didn’t have a fourth hour. That meant that my friends and I got to go out to eat over a hour and twenty minute long period! We went to Jimmy Johns, my favorite place in the world, and my day continued to rise up the bar!

            After lunch we had class, but it wasn’t that bad because all we were doing was preparing a project we all have to turn in on Monday. After 5^th hour ended, all my show choir buddies and me headed down to the choir room to start a singing workshop, with the director of the BEST show choir in the nation. Bret has worked with us before, but having him back really vamped our sound and we continued to get better and better. Even though our school day ended at 3 pm, we continued with Bret until 5 pm and in that time we worked on our opener vocals and our ballad vocals.
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Pigs Out Vegetables In

To the public, I look like any other normal citizen walking down the street; however, this isn’t necessarily true. I have been a vegetarian for 1 year, 4 months, and 29 days! I love being a vegetarian and although some people don’t agree with my choice, I wouldn’t want to live any other way. I don’t understand how people can just continue to eat pound after pound of meat and not feel bad for all of the animals that are being killed, because of their choice! I believe the world would be a better place if only we didn’t eat meat.

Everyday billions of people sit down at restaurants ordering anything from a good tender steak to a nice roasted chicken. According to the National Agricultural Statistics Service, about 112 million pigs are killed for food each year. That’s roughly 35% of the United States’ entire population. Now what if a pig came and killed 35% of Americans every year? Don’t you think that would make the citizens of the world just a little angry? Well how do you think the pigs’ feel? Dr. Donald Broom, a professor at Cambridge University and former scientific advisor to the Council of Europe explained that pigs brains have the ability to be quite intelligent; more so than some of our common house pets and definitely more so than our average three year olds. So how is it that we can just go on, day after day, with poor little pigs being fatted up and killed for our daily breakfast, lunch, and dinner?

One reason why you should be a vegetarian is for the health benefits. In the book, Mad Cowboy by Howard F. Lyman there is a quote by Dr. Julian Whitaker, founder of the Whitaker Wellness Institute Medical Clinic. “Death of heart disease is as unnecessary as dying of drug abuse, yet it is taken as a normal thing.” If eating meat is so bad for you, then why do so many people of the world like to enjoy a delicious dinner of steak or lamb chops? In my opinion, the only answer could be that they don’t understand just how bad meat can be for you. As the Baylor Heart Hospital states, “ Every 37 seconds another American dies of heart disease.” So wouldn’t you rather stop eating meat and be able to live your entire life to the fullest, not having to worry that in exactly 37 seconds your life may be coming to a close? Also according to a study by a group of Swedish researchers “vegetarians have about a 25% lower risk of heart disease than non-vegetarians.” If I were deciding to either be an herbivore or an omnivore, I would definitely choose the vegetarian odds. You only get one body. You have to take care of it.

As said in, Mad Cowboy, by Howard F. Lyman, “There are only two things wrong with meat: what we know for sure is in it, and all the other stuff that might be in it.” One thing that we know for sure is in the meat is chemicals. Over 25 years ago the chemical DDT, formally a commonly used pesticide in the U.S., was banned domestically. Unfortunately, even after being banned this chemical still remains in the ground today, continually contaminating all the crops grown in its soil.

·       About 80% of all the pesticides used in America are put toward enhancing the crops, corn, soybeans, cotton, and wheat. These are the major crops fed to animals and all the pesticides being fed to them are now being fed to us.

·        Humans are now getting 95% of DDT fed to them through meat and dairy products. ()

·       According to the Department of Cancer Epidemiology in Sweden, many pesticides are carcinogenic. This in short means any substance or agent that may cause cancer. ("carcinogenic.")

 The Department of Cancer Epidemiology also says that pesticides such as DDT most commonly promote tumors. In this day and age, everybody knows how hard it can be knowing someone with cancer, so why take the risk of getting it yourself?

Do you ever think about what the animal your eating has suffered through before landing on your dinner plate? According to The Humane Farming Association, after interviewing dozens of slaughter house workers they concluded that every single worker they interviewed either admitted to abusing animals or admitted to not reporting those who did. There were also many disturbing quotes taken from these interviews such as:

·       “I seen them take those stunners-they’re about as long as a yard stick-and shove it up the hog’s ass”

·        “These hogs get up to the scalding tank, hit the water and start screaming and kicking. There’s a rotating arm that pushes them under, no chance for them to get out…it takes them a couple of minutes to stop thrashing.”

·       “I could tell you horror stories… about cattle getting their heads stuck under the gate guards, and the only way you can get it out is to cut their heads off while they’re still alive.”

 I don’t think any animal should have to go through what these animals go through. They are beaten, and stabbed, and tazed and anyone who takes part in this slaughtering process in my opinion deserves to go to jail. If anyone treated a human like this they would be locked up in a minute. Why should this be any different for animals?

All my life I have hated the idea of animal cruelty. I don’t understand how people think its ok to treat an animal any differently than they would treat a human, with respect. Senate Study Bill 3128, page 2, line 8, states that a person is guilty of animal cruelty, if the person is a responsible party for an animal and causes the animal unjustified pain, distress, or suffering by any means, including but not limited to mutilating, beating, or poisoning the animal. If any sane human were to read this text from the Iowa Code I would say that most, if not all, people would agree with this legislation. Why then do we have people who beat animals so cruelly before they are killed for our table? In an interview with Gail Eisnitz, Chief Investigator for the Humane Farming Association, a man says, “He’ll kick them [hogs], fork them, use anything he can get his hands on. He’s already broken three pitchforks so far this year, just jabbing them. He doesn’t care if he hits its eyes, head, butt. He jabs them so hard he busts the wooden handles. And he clubs them over the back.” Now how can this possibly be considered anything other than causing an animal unjustified pain by beating? How do we allow this man to just walk around in our civilization unnoticed?

If the entire world only ate meat for two months we would all die of starvation. However if the entire world were vegetarian, we would never run out of food. (Freedman,) Wouldn’t it be great if everyone in the world could be fed, and pastures could be used to grow crops and not for cattle to walk around on? Still, according to the Vegetarian Times, only 7.3 million of America is vegetarian. Compared to 3.6 million or 6% of Europeans being vegetarian, and finally 8.5% of Israel follows this. It makes sense why heart disease is such a large cause of death when only 3.2% of America is taking this disease seriously.

If anyone isn’t a vegetarian because they think its too hard then they should think again. I am in high school and I still manage to find food without a side of pig or cow. There are so many great foods you could eat such as a falafel, eggplant parmesan, or even a black bean burger! Now you may be thinking how do I find recipes that don’t contain meat? There are millions of good vegetarian cook books and if you really miss that taste of meat, there is plenty of fake meat that when put in a casserole or in chili tastes exactly the same as normal meat. My own top three favorite foods are bacon, burgers, and jerky. Luckily there are vegetarian options for all of those meats; you just have to be willing to give them a try.

After learning only some of the bad things that can happen to you from eating meat and all the bad things that happen to animals, why do you still chose to eat meat? Think of how much better the world would be if no more animals were being beaten and stabbed to death and humans were not dieing of unnecessary causes. When you die do you want to know that you did absolutely nothing to help the poor animals or that you have done all you could to improve the world for generations to come? Even if you don’t care about animals, at least try to care enough about yourself to stop eating meat. As said by Howard F. Lyman “When you can’t take it with you, all that really matters is what you leave behind.” So, what will you be leaving behind?

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Works Cited:

Key TJ, Fraser GE, Thorogood M, Appleby PN, Beral V, and Reeves G

"Pigs: Intelligent Animals Suffering in Factory Farms and Slaughterhouses | PETA.org." People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA): The Animal Rights Organization | PETA.org. Web. 06 Feb. 2012. <http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/pigs-intelligent-animals-suffering-in-factory-farms-and-slaughterhouses.aspx>.

"DDT |Persistent Bioaccumulative and Toxic (PBT) Chemical Program | US EPA." US Environmental Protection Agency. Monday Apr. 2011. Web. 06 Feb. 2012. <http://www.epa.gov/pbt/pubs/ddt.htm>.

"Statutory Law." Iowa Legislature. 2011. Web. 06 Feb. 2012. https://www.legis.iowa.gov/IowaLaw/statutoryLaw.aspx

Lyman, Howard F., and Glen Merzer. Mad Cowboy.: Plain Truth from the Cattle Rancher Who Won't Eat Meat. New York: Scribner, 1998. Print.

Dich, J., S. H. Zahm, A. Hanburg, and H. O. Adami. "Pesticides and Cancer." NCBI. Web. 06 Feb. 2012. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9498903>.

Freedman, Rory. and Kim Barnouin. Skinny Bitch: A No-nonsense, Tough-love Guide for Savvy Girls Who Want to Stop Eating Crap and Start Looking Fabulous!Philadelphia: Running, 2005. Print.

Appel, Lawrence. Erlinger, Thomas. The Relationship Between Meat Intake and Cardiovascular Disease. Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, 2003

Key, T. J., G. E. Fraser, Thorogood, P. N. Appleby, V. Beral, and G. Reeves. "Mortality in Vegetarians and Nonvegetarians: Detailed Findings From a Collaborative Analysis of 5 Prospective Studys." NCBI. Web. 12 Feb. 2012. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10479225>

"carcinogenic." Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 12 Feb. 2012. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/carcinogenic>.

"Vegetarianism In America." Vegetarian Times - Great Food, Good Health, Smart Living. Cruz Bay Publishing, Inc. Web. 12 Feb. 2012. <http://www.vegetariantimes.com/features/archive_of_editorial/667>.

Skinny Bitch, Book Review

I chose to read the book, Skinny Bitch, because when I was writing my Vegetarian Synthesis for this class many of my facts were coming straight from the pages of this book. After reading bits and pieces of it, I was very interested and I really wanted to know more so when people asked why I am a vegetarian I could give them a complete answer. This book was challenging for me to read for three reasons. One, all the talk about how cruel the workers are in slaughterhouses presented many emotional challenges for me. Two, all of the medical jargon, when talking about health, was sometimes very confusing and difficult to follow. And three, the book was so jam packed with interesting facts that I wanted to remember, but couldn’t. However in spite of all these things, the book was still a very interesting read and anyone interested in being a vegetarian should definitely put this on their reading list!

                The hardest section of this book to read was the few chapters about animal cruelty in slaughterhouses. Some of the things these workers do to the animals are so horrific I just couldn’t bare to read it. I had to take reading breaks between every few pages just so I could clear my head and sometimes take a few minutes to just cry. Once I even found myself getting physically sick and I had to skip over a section of the book and return to it later. I don’t understand how people can be so cruel to the poor innocent animals. This was by far the most challenging part of reading this book.

                Another major section of this book was about how eating meat and other animal by products can affect your health. These chapters were very difficult to read because there was a lot of medical jargon that I didn’t understand. I often found myself going back and rereading pages, and sometimes even chapters, of the book just trying to understand what was being discussed. Also with all of the big medical terms, I usually had to read with a dictionary by my side because sometimes I would find myself looking up three to five words on every page just trying to understand the topic being talked about.

                The last challenging aspect of reading this book was trying to remember all the facts. Because this book doesn’t follow a story line, I wasn’t as concerned with remembering specific information regarding characters and happenings in the book. I was however trying to remember all the facts I could and this was very challenging because I felt as if I was reading a college textbook. It was one fact after another and even though most of it made sense, I still had a terrible time trying to remember everything. By the time I was done reading the book, I had highlighted many things and ear flapped many pages so I can go back and reread the interesting facts when I want to.

                Even with all of the mental and emotional challenges that came with reading this book, it was still a very good choice in literature. I thoroughly enjoyed learning all the vegetarian health facts and next time someone asks me why I’m a vegetarian, I will be able to give them a very good answer. I feel as if reading this book helped introduce me to a different type of reading that I had never tried before and I am very interested in reading other books like this in the future. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about being a vegetarian and just staying healthy in general. It was a great book and I never wanted to put it down.

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Cupids Arrow

This year on Single Awareness Day, aka Valentines Day, I was given an opportunity I had never even dreamed of. My voice teacher is an international opera singer and because of her career she knows many people all over the spectrum of our society. One of her friends just happens to be an Italian chief, at a restaurant in Iowa City, Iowa. This restaurant is called Baroncinni’s and is a cute little Italian restaurant with plenty of good food to choose from on the menu.

            The restaurant wanted to do a young artist program this year on Valentines Day so people could come eat Italian food and listen to Italian love songs. Karla’s friend asked if she had any students who would be willing to participate and I along with two of her other students were asked to sing on Valentines Day. One of her former students who now sings in college, also came back into town to be apart of this experience.

            It was a night of fun and it went like this. We all had to be dressed up and at the restaurant by 5:15, so we met dressed in our ball gowns, at our teacher’s house and drove out to Iowa City together. Our accompanist, Tony, was already there and we were all excited for a night of performing.

 I was up first, singing right after the guests had received their drinks and I sang an aria asking my father to let me run off and marry my true love! After I had finished and the first course had been served, it was my friend Lindsey’s turn. She sang an aria about how her love had betrayed her and how he had to choose to love her or the other woman. After the second course had been served it was Angie’s turn to sing. She sang an aria about how she found her true love and it was beautiful! After the third course had been served, Angie and my teacher Karla performed together and the song they sang was so beautiful and the harmonies sounded great in the acoustics of the restaurant. Lastly, it was Karla’s former students turn to perform. She sang while everyone was eating their dessert, the tower of love, and she sounded absolutely amazing, and the accompaniment Tony played was gorgeous, as his fingers scurried over the keys.

The last song that was performed on that very special evening was with all five of us! We sang a song in English asking the audience to accept the humble presents we were giving them. As we sang we handed out roses to all of the ladies. It was a glorious ending to a wonderful evening and I can’t wait to have another experience just like it!

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Life Isn't Fair

No matter what you do, it is impossible to please everyone. Whether you’re telling a story, singing a song, or writing a novel, there is no guarantee that everyone who hears you or sees your work will like it. You may also have people who just hold grudges or strong beliefs against certain people or organizations. For example, if you write a book, the novel might be amazing and a great attention grabber. But if someone is holding a grudge against the publisher you used, they may refuse to even consider reading it. It’s just the way people are and everyone has to deal with the consequences that may come with one person’s bad attitude.

            Just this last weekend my show choir attended a competition in Davenport, Iowa at the Adler Theatre. We compete at this competition every year, but this year our competitors were especially good. The way we saw it we could give our best show and end up first or fourth. So, naturally we were all very nervous for our performance.

            As it turned out, we without a doubt gave the best show of our season. Saturday, we all felt so good about our performance and just hoped that it would be good enough to go up against the other 3 good schools there. However, because someone was too wrapped up in their own life, they wasted all of our hard work for nothing. At the end of day rounds we were spread across the board. There were two judges that had us tied in first with Waukee h

High School, one judge that had us in second behind Waukee High School and one judge that had us in SEVENTH PLACE! How is that even fair! Of the six groups he placed above us, three didn’t even make it into finals! Now can anyone tell me how that’s even remotely fair!?

 After all the scores were averaged, we were in fourth place. So much for the past three competitions we have been grand champ at, because this one judge, who cared more about his personal life than the lives of the 50 kids on the Adler stage, just ruined our season.

           

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The Nervous Poops Part 2

Auditioning for a musical is a little more challenging. To prepare yourself properly, you have to make sure that you are set in the three different areas of the audition. Acting, singing, and dancing. When doing an acting audition, for a musical, the same rules apply that are explained in paragraph two and three. But singing and dancing are a different story.

Being able to sing is the key talent needed for a musical. Yes, you need dancers too, but you can teach anyone how to do a few dance moves, singing is a different matter. If you have been told the song you are singing in an audition before hand, make sure you know it like the back of your hand. You don’t have to have it memorized (unless this is an audition requirement set by your director) but you have to make sure you are very confident with the rhythms and notes. Also, if you are auditioning for a Broadway type of show, don’t go in and sing in a tiny breathy voice, that’s not going to cut it. Sing the audition piece, how the character you are trying out for would sing it, not how you would sing it.

If the audition song is not picked for you, choosing a song to sing can often be the most nerve-racking part of the entire process. Make sure you pick a song that showcases your voice and pick a song that fits the genre of the musical you are trying out for. If you go to an audition, for a musical that contains only jazz music, you can’t sing opera at your audition. It just won’t work! So choose a song that will benefit your audition, not hurt it.

The last area to prepare for, before a musical audition, is dance. Obviously taking a few dance lessons before an audition never hurt anybody, but just cause they do help doesn’t mean they are absolutely necessary. However being able to dance without looking like you’re having a seizure, would be helpful. Make sure you know the steps. Before an audition, there will most likely be a dance clinic. Make sure you are there. If you can’t learn the dance, you can’t try out! Also, be sure you know what moves come on what counts, because if you’re doing all the right moves, just at the wrong times, you’re still wrong. Lastly, don’t forget about faces. Having a happy, fun loving look on your face while dancing is the best thing you could possibly do. If you mess up, don’t show it on your face! Continue to look like you’re having fun and make is seem like that mistake was supposed to happen. Having the ability to recover from a mistake is always a good thing.

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