Lauren Chamberlain: Softball Powerhouse

Lauren Chamberlain is one of the best hitters in college softball right now. She plays at Oklahoma University and is a senior this year. For a little bit of background info, Oklahoma is one of the top softball schools in the country. Lauren's freshman year, they were WCWS runner up to Alabama, the next year they were WCWS champions over Alabama, and the next year they were WCWS runner ups to Florida State University.

Lauren's freshman year, she hit 30 home runs, earning a batting average of a .357. Her sophomore year, she hit 30 home runs again, with a batting average of .458. Her junior year, she was injured, but still hit 12 home runs. If you didn't know, 72 home runs is a heck of a lot of home runs. That is 10th in career home runs.  She is my idol. It has always been a dream of mine to play on a D1 college team that goes to the Women's College World Series, and she has been there 3 times, and no doubt will be there a fourth. 

It is the most amazing thing to watch Lauren play a game of softball. She is always cheering and it is awesome when she hits a home run. She still gets beyond excited when she hits a home run, pumping her arms in the air and gliding into home to her teammates. She has a love for the game that makes her spectacular. You can tell she is a team player, one of the most important characteristics an athlete can have. 

Not only is Lauren an incredible softball player, but she is also very talented at singing, and is very funny. I always enjoy going through her vines and other social media. Yeah I know that's kinda creepy, but you know you have that one famous person you do it to also. She's even done an interview where they had her hit different types of fruits. Probably one of the more entertaining things I watched. 

Lauren Chamberlaun is the kind of softball player that makes little kids want to be great. Everyone aspire to have as amazing of a college career as she did. I know that she inspires me to work harder to get to the D1 level, and eventually achieving my dream of playing in the WCWS.

Word count: 390 words

42

This is probably the most inspirational and amazing sports story of all time, and if you don't know what im talking about, shame on you. The first African American man to play in Major League Baseball, Jackie Robinson, wore the number 42, the only number to be retired by all of the MLB teams. He played on the Brooklyn Dodgers, starting in 1947 and ending his career 9 years later. 

In 1947, the United States was still dealing with racism. Everything was segregated, and Jackie was a very lucky man to get the opportunity that he did. We have Branch Rickey to blame for that. He wanted to bring African American players up into the MLB. Now as you can imagine, this didn't make too many people happy. It even took a while for Jackies teammates to warm up to him. Rickey had to trade 2 players to a different team because they refused to play with Jackie. 

Jackie faced teams that were looking to injur him. Pitchers purposely threw balls at his head, runners cleared him, and coaches belittled him. He had to really worry about this in the south. Clouds booed him, umpires called unfair calls for him, and even got kicked off of the field by a cop in the middle of a game. This never stopped Jackie. Jackie was incredibly fast, and whenever he got on base, he would dance around on the bases and get in the pitchers head. In his career, he had 197 stolen bases. That is incredible! He even stole home a few times. How do you even do that? He was amazing. Now at first, these coaches and fans were getting in his head, and it was affecting how he hit. Finally, He got in the groove, and it seemed like he was always on base. He had a career total of 137 home runs. 

Another problem Jackie faced was that the hotels his team was staying at wouldn't let him stay there. Eventually, none of his team could stay in the hotels. A lot of his teammates were very upset at him. 

There is a movie based off of Jackies story called 42, and it is just about the greatest thing you will ever watch. I get goosebumps everytime I watch it and it never gets old. Sports stories like his are the best to hear about. It makes you appreciate a lot more and it makes you work harder. I suggest that every single person on the planet watches the movie, 42, I promise you it will benefit you in some way. 

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The Magnificent Seven

How many people know what I'm talking about right now? Probably no one but you all should. The Magnificent 7 are the 7 female gymnasts that won the gold in Olympic Women's gymnastics for the first time in United States history in 1996. The girls who made up the team were Amy Chow, Amanda Borden, Dominique Dawes, Shannon Miller, Dominique Moceanu, Jaycie Phelps, and Kerri Strug.  They were the best shot at an Olympic team gold, but had to battle Russia and Romania, the two-time world champions. Just a little background info, for each team, you were aloud to have up to 7 gymnasts, but only 6 could compete per apparatus, and only 5 scores counted to your team score. The gymnasts routines were judged based on a 10 point scale, by 6 judges, all from different countries.

The women started the competition off behind Russia by only 1 tenth of a point. This didn't stop the young Americans. The first event the U.S. was on was the uneven bars, the strongest event they had. The Russians were on vault, Romanians on balance beam, and Ukraine on floor excersise. The Americans had Jaycie Phelps, Kerri Strug, Dominique Moceanu, Amy Chow, Shannon Miller, and Dominique Dawes competing for the first event. What happened next? Every single gymnast nailed their routines, earning a collective score of 48.736, which is tremendous. This is the reason the Americans pushed ahead of the Russians. 

Next event, Balance Beam. Competing for this event was Amanda Borden, Jaycie Phelps, Kerri Strug, Dominique Dawes, Shannon Miller, and Dominique Moceanu. They earned a collective score of 47.551, pulling even further ahead of Russia. 

Next up, floor excersise. The same 6 gymnasts competed for this apparatus. Shannon Miller had the only error of the gymnasts, but every other teammate nailed their routines. They earned a collective score of 48.761. Russia was inching it's way back up to the Americans.

Last but not least, the vault. This is where the nail biting begins. Phelps, Chow, Miller, Dawes, Moceanu, and Strug were the vaulters for the U.S. The first 4 gymnasts nailed their vaults, and it was up to Moceanu to seal the deal. All she needed was a 9.430 to secure the gold medal. First vault, she under rotates as lands on her butt. Second vault, she under rotates again and does the same thing, only earning a score of 9.2. This meant that Kerri Strug needed to deliver. First vault, she does the same exact thing as Moceanu, excepts seriously sprains her ankle. Pushing through to the second vault, she nails it, sticks the landing, and then had to be carried off the mat because of her ankle. The United States did it. They won the 1996 Women's Olympic Championship, with a full point lead over Russia! 

This is probably some of the best gymnastics I have ever seen in my life. Nothing compares to the moment when Kerri stuck her second vault, one footed. It is amazing what these young women could do, and it is a very inspirational story. 

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Softball vs. Baseball

Well I bet you already know what my point of view on this is going to be, considering I am a girl and I play softball, but I understand that both sports have harder aspects to them. Do I think that softball is a harder sport that baseball, yes it has been scientifically proven, but that's not what this post is about. I am going to be comparing certain things like ball size, baselines, etc.
I guarantee you most people think that softball and baseball are practically the same thing, but to be honest, there is only a few aspects that are the same. For example, a softball is bigger and yellow, and a baseball is little and white. This actually factors into a lot of different things like distance from the pitchers mound to the home plate, distances between bases, and the length of the whole field. With a smaller ball, the ball is going to be thrown a lot faster. This means that a baseball pitchers mound is a lot farther away from home plate than softball. For baseball it is 60.5 feet, and for softball it is 43 feet. Yes that is quite a difference, but if you think about it, a pitch going 70 MPH from 43 feet away is the equivalent to 98 MPH from 60.5 feet (those are scary fast!). Also, since the ball is smaller in baseball, the ball will get hit harder. The baseline for baseball is 90 feet, and softball is 60 feet (making softball much faster paced but that's beside the point). I think baseball is harder in the aspect of covering ground. The outfield is ridiculously huge and I give props to the outfielders in baseball. The downside in having such a huge field is that the game is a lot slower. You have to be really quick when fielding a ground ball in the infield because even a moderately fast girl is going to beat out the throw. In baseball, the infielders could take a lunch break and still throw the batter out. 

Another huge difference to these games is that in baseball, a pitch is thrown over hand, and in softball, it is thrown underhand. There are advantages to throwing underhand, like making the ball rise( hardest pitch to hit of ever let me tell you!). Baseball pitchers can't throw a rise ball. 

As far as rules go, they are exactly the same. So you could definitely argue that baseball is harder than softball or vice versa, but they are built off of the same idea. Plus we all know softball is harder so there is not argument needed here! 

Wordcount: 445 words

Crossfit: is the feeling of death worth it?

Crossfit is probably one of the most rigorous things I have ever participated in, but holy cow it makes you 10 times stronger than you were before. It may feel like you are dying during the workout, but it is totally worth it in the end. 

This year, I am doing crossfit with a few girls from the track and field team. We joined a 3 month program that is on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday for an hour(and no we don't go to those crazy crossfit competitions for insanely buff people). For the first 2 weeks, we learned form on our lifting during the first half hour of class. These lifts include power/full hang cleans, power/full hang snatch, clean and jerk, front squat, box squat, sumo squat, and probably 20 more lifts. When we hit the 3rd week, we went to the regular workout. The workout would consist of one primary lift that you would do a certain amount of reps on. For example, we would do 3 clean and jerks every other minute on the minute for 10 minutes. That would mean doing 3 clean and jerks in 1 minute, and then a 1 minute break period. After that, we would go to the WOD(that means workout of the day which I just figured out like yesterday) which are always very VERY difficult. They are circuits of different workouts that you either have a time limit to do a certain number, or you do as many rounds as possibly in a certain time cap. For example, tomorrow we are doing a 5 rounds of 400 meter runs and 15 overhead squats in a time cap of 18 minutes. This is one of the easier workouts. The hardest workout I've had to do so far was 50 box jumps, 50 jumping pull ups, 50 kettle bell swings, 50 walking lunge steps, 50 knees to elbows, 50 push press, 50 back extensions, 50 wall balls, 50 burpees, and 50 double unders in a time cap of 30 minutes. I'm pretty sure I died after that workout. 

I know that crossfit is working for me because my hang clean max has improved 15 pounds and my squat max has improved 10 pounds. It may be very extremely terribly hard, but it is very worth it if you stick it out. 

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Recruiting: such a frustrating thing

One of the most frustrating things going on in my life right now is recruiting. There are so many rules to keep track of and it's hard to know what to do! Hopefully I can help you out a little from this post.

Now recruiting might be different for other sports, but for softball, a D1 and D2 coach can't contact you until after the July of your junior year. But how do people verbally commit to schools when they are freshman and sophomores? They start the recruiting process very early on and they know that they need to get in contact with the recruiting coordinator. Another thing you must do is get a NCAA Clearinghouse. I think this goes for all sports. A D1/D2 college coach can't talk to you until you have that done!  It's a little different at a D3 school, they can contact you the August after your sophomore year, so it is not as complicated. 

One thing that has helped me is getting the help of a recruiting website. I use a website called CaptainU. You make a profile with all of your stats and accomplishments for any college coach to see. It also provides you with a list of things that will help you get started on the recruiting process. You add the colleges you potentially want to go to, and CaptainU keeps track of everything you are doing to get recruited by the school. It prompts you to send emails(which almost every single college coaches email is there) and even tells you when they open the email and if they reply. Don't get discouraged if they don't reply, because they legally may not be able to talk to you yet. In order to get a coaches attention, you have to be overly obnoxious! Send them email after email about what you are working on, if there are any camps you can attend, why your interested in going to their school, and even how your grades are. It's important to a college coach that you get good grades. If a coach sends you information about a camp, go to it! It's very important that you show yourself off the the coaches as much as possible! After the camp, don't be shy and go talk to the head coach. If you introduce yourself to them personally(and confidently) they will remember you! 

Once a college coach has decided they are interested in you, they get you set up with the recruiting coordinator. This is the point that I am at, so I am not quite sure what comes next. I do know that the college coach is going to come watch you play at anything and everything they can come to, so be on your best behavior!

A few tips for when a college coach is watching you:

1. Be a good teammate. Encourage them and pick them up when you are down. 

2. Don't get upset at yourself. If you make a mistake, you can't let it affect you. If a college coach sees that it affects you, they will almost always walk away.

3. It may not seem important, but make sure you have a quality warmup. You never know when a college coach is watching. If they see you being lazy in a warmup, they will not come watch you play in a real game. 

4. Be respectful to your coaches, teammates, and even your parents. A college coach will walk away if you act rudely towards anyone. 

5. BE A TEAM PLAYER! This is probably the most important. If you are all about yourself and it shows, there is no chance you are going to get recruited. It is more important to a coach that you're a good teammate rather than a good player. You can always teach someone how do play a sport, but you can't teach them to be a team player.

I hope this post is helpful to you guys. I know it would have helped me! Good luck to you all who are in the recruiting progress and see you soon!

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Sports Drinks: Good or bad?

There has always been a controversy between whether sports drinks are good for you or bad for you. Well here is your answer: it depends. Drinking it while you sit on the couch watching tv, not good for you. Drinking it during or after exercising, that's good for you! The only time you should drink them is when you need to replenish your electrolytes, otherwise it's just unnecessary sugar for your body. It would be the equivalent to drinking a soda. 
There are many different types of sports drinks such as Gatorade, PowerAde, All Sport, and I consider Propel a sports drink too. It is not bad if you drink one after just a simple run, but these sports drinks should be used only when you are still exercising, and you feel physically drained. You feel this way because when you sweat, you lose salts, or electrolytes, and your body needs them to run properly. Without the salts, your muscles could cramp up, and trust me, that is the worst pain of ever (I'm exaggerating)!
If I have a preference of these sports drinks, my favorite is Gatorade, the yellow one to be exact. My dad likes to surprise me with the giant bottles of Gatorade, and don't get me wrong I get really excited, but they usually just sit in my refrigerator until my next activity. I can say from personal experience, Gatorade actually replenishes your energy! I was playing in the 5th set of the regional semi-finals for Volleyball (this is the start of the state tournament, meaning you lose and your out!), and we had played almost every single point that could be played. The scores were 22-25, 21-25, 26-24, and 25-23 and I was absolutely exhausted. I could have probably laid down in the middle of the court and slept! So what did I do? I grabbed my handy dandy Gatorade and chugged that puppy down. That 5th set, I had more energy than the first, may that be accredited to the adrenaline of being in such a close match or not, and we won and advanced to the regional final! It was great.
So yes, Gatorade is good for you in those tough workouts and long games, but I wouldn't recommend it for your everyday workout. It is very sugary, and sugar leads to fat. If you would like to read another opinion, go to this link----->http://healthyfitfierce.blogspot.com/2014/09/is-gatorade-actually-beneficial.html

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Picture source: http://dialog.scarborough.com/index.php/sports-drink-enthusiasts-thirsty-for-media-big-on-sports-and-down-with-music/

TIME FOR A CHANGE

Sorry guys, but I am changing the topic of my blog! It was time for something new, and I love sports. Hopefully you like my new blog!

Celebrity Sibs

How awkward would it be if both you and one of your siblings were famous? I mean it would be a competition all the time! And one would be more famous than the other and I would just hate it! But, I have to say, some of my favorite celebrities are siblings. Sometimes I don't understand how one person could make so many beautiful and talented children! They are some lucky parents!
My first pair of celebrity siblings are the Hemsworth brothers. All of you know Chris and Liam, but did you know there was a third named Luke? I certainly didn't and I kind of feel bad for him! His brothers are super famous and good looking (especially Chris!!!) and he's not bad... I think I would hate my siblings if they were famous and I weren't!
Next up, the Chmerkovskiys! I LOVE THEM SO MUCH! The fact that both of them are super good dancers makes them ten times better too! Personally, I like Val more but my sister likes Maks. They are both on Dancing With The Stars (one of my fav shows ever). But the fact that me and my sister have favorites proves my point of how awful it would be to have a celebrity sibling.
Now I personally feel bad for the next one... Beyoncé and her little sister Solange. Beyoncé is the most perfect person in the world and I didn't even know she had a little sister... She must feel very neglected compared to Beyoncé! How can anyone even compare to her.. Ugh I feel so bad! I guess it could be a good thing too because then you would get to say "Hey my sister is queen Bey" to all of your friends! But we've got to give Solange a little credit, she's done her fair share of incredible things too. She is a successful singer and actress.
There are definitely more examples of really famous celebrities with siblings but I don't have enough time to tell you them all. It's pretty cool to see that many of the siblings are famous themselves. Could that be because they already have a famous sibling or did they earn it on their own? You would never fully know if you did something on your own or if you got the job because your sibling is famous. That is why I feel terribly bad for all of these siblings, because they will probably always be competing against one another.

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Pictures: http://pandoraboxx.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Maks-and-Val-Chmerkovskiy-2.jpg

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Childhood Letdowns

It's very disappointing to see all of our favorite childhood stars go down the drain. These girls have very young fans and are setting wrong standards for them. From taking nudes, to getting addicted to drugs, these childhood stars are in the wrong.

First up is Miley Cyrus. What the heck went wrong here? Her dad is such a good person how could Miley have turned out this way? She does drugs and is practically naked every time she does a performance. It was really unexpected too. One day she was Hannah Montana and the next she chops off all of her beautiful hair and sticks her tongue out at everything. It's really quite strange to see. Although I really do like her new songs, she doesn't need to act the way that she does performing these songs. She wears these weird leotard things and it's very unappealing.

The next childhood star is Lindsay Lohan. Of course everyone has probably heard all about what she has done. I used to love her as a kid because she was in one of my favorite movies, Freaky Friday. And how could one forget the wonderful Mean Girls. Then all things went downhill for this celeb. She was caught doing drugs and she even had a DUI. I will never understand the appeal to drinking and driving... And then, she kind of fell of the face of the earth... I haven't heard much of her since her arrest.

Oh why did Amanda Bynes have to make the same mistakes as Lindsay? I LOVED her as a kid! She had that awesome show literally called The Amanda Show and I used to watch it all the time! I swear, these celebrities are setting kids up for failure because of the mistakes they are making!

The most disappointing thing for me is Jennifer Lawrence recently had nudes leaked of her... WHY!! I will never look at her or the Hunger Games the same again! I bet the director and author were seriously peeved at her! But what makes anyone think that taking a nude picture of themselves is okay? IT'S NOT! So please, other celebrities, do not follow her footsteps!

This topic really makes me mad, and I have even mentioned a few of these in some of my other blogs... But really, the stupidity of some people has me amazed! There is some crazy stuff out there if all of this was appealing to these celebrities! UGH!

Pictures: http://cdn.all4women.co.za/var/all4women/storage/images/media2/images/amanda-bynes4/1567997-1-eng-GB/amanda-bynes.jpg

& http://www.gotceleb.com/wp-content/uploads/celebrities/miley-cyrus/2013-mtv-video-music-awards-in-brooklyn/Miley-Cyrus-Pictures:-HOT-VMA-2013-MTV-Performance--43.jpg

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Law and Order SVU

This is one of my favorite and least favorite shows of all times. It's terrifying but wonderful all at the same time. How is that possible? Because it's about a police station catching serial rapists and murderers.
When I watch SVU, it makes me think about how horrible some people can be in the world. I don't understand what could make someone angry enough to want to rape or murder them. It also makes me realize how lucky I am to be living in a safe environment with good parents. Most rapist and murderers become the way they are because they have experienced something similar. They either don't understand what they are doing is wrong or they are just so angry, they don't care anymore. But, there are some very rare cases were people are born psychopaths. Those are the scariest episodes to watch. They give me chills!
One downfall to the show is that it scare the life out of me. I don't like to be home alone, outside at night time alone, and I even lock my bedroom door at night. I realize that I live in a very nice neighborhood, but you never know who will come knocking at your door. That reminds me, I don't like to answer the door by myself either... It's become a problem!
Even though the show is fake, things like rape and murder happen everyday in our world, making the show very real at the same time. I don't think I could be a detective for a special victims unit. It has to be the most stressful job in the world. I have great gratitude for the detectives that go through all that they do to catch all the "bad guys" in our world.

You could say the show has been successful because they have had 15 seasons and counting. The 16th season just started and it's really good and terrifying. I love all the people in the show too. Especially Detective Amanda Rollins and Sargent Olivia Benson. They are my two favorite characters on the show.

I highly suggest that you watch this show because it gives you a taste of the "villains" and "heroes" of our world. It also can be very beneficial because if you ever come across any of the situations in the show, you know how to handle them correctly and teaches you how you can protect yourself as well as you can.  

  

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Picture: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYoY6bIfrM169XTZ-G8Bw9pbaAhZHuNIsy70TngsC52WV-oO8W_BmPtN2YE2gqHLN4h_dhlEYjPIOJnw1fBfYmRxlyTSRxk2PZXyiK-1fcQXYgLip9lrckhhshTHIGQK8K4JHzzCMXglQ/s1600/Law+And+Order+Special+Victims+Unit+Season+14+Episode+Born+Psychopath+14019+6+Mariska+Hargitay+Kelli+Giddish.JPG

The Television Drug

You all know what I'm talking about right? REALITY TV! A majority of the shows I enjoy are reality TV shows. I mean who wouldn't love them? It's the juicy, drama that helps me stay out of trouble!

First up, The Voice! I flipping love this show! Even though it's just a singing competition, it gives me all of these different emotions. Most of the time, it's just the funniest thing in the world. To see the coaches, Adam Levine, Blake Shelton, Gwen Stefani, and Pharrell Williams, fight over people is hilarious! Blake even put on the infamous big hat that Pharrell wears all the time! But sometimes, it's even sad enough to make me cry. I hate it when people don't get picked, or sometimes, people just get super emotional, and I'm the kind of person that cries when they see someone else cry! This isn't a reality show that really has any drama to it, it just makes you happy that these people are getting an opportunity to get their name out in the world.

Another one like The Voice is Dancing With The Stars. This one is practically the same as The Voice, except it's about dancing. It has made me cry and laugh. But hold on, there is some drama along with this one! Sometimes, certain dance partners have really good chemistry, and you can't help but think that they are in love! This years couple that I think are in love are Val Chmerkovskiy and Janel Parish. I'm not the only person who thinks this too! Janel was recently interviewed about it. But the difference between The Voice and Dancing With The Stars, not only that one is about singing and the other is about dancing, but Dancing With The Stars is for celebrities. Of course you have to love this because some of the famous people you love are actually really horrible at dancing, like LoLo Jones. Girl what were you doing?

Now we take a big hop and go to Teen Mom. This is absolutely nothing like Dancing With The Stars or The Voice. This show is jam-packed with drama and I love it! Now if you don't know what this show is, take a wild guess by what the name of the show is... I didn't think that I would like this show at first because it's not a good thing to be pregnant when you are a teenager, but it has some really great life lessons in it. Also, it is the perfect way to show your children that they should always be safe because being a teen parent is hard. You get to see every single struggle that these young adults go through involving their children and not involving their children.

Last but not least, Dance Moms! Most dramatic TV show award goes to this show! How could something like little kids dancing bring super drama you ask? Well what parent doesn't want their kid to be the best? That is the stem of all problems in Dance Moms. Not only does the drama just entertain the heck out of you, but you get really attached to the girls in the show. I know that when my favorite girl, Chloe, gets yelled at or treated unfairly, I cry almost every single time and I've never even met the kid! Also, these girls are just flipping amazing at dance and it's breathtaking to watch them. I would watch them dance over and over again.

Reality TV shows are strange because they make you feel connected in a way. I love all of my reality TV shows and I know I couldn't live without them! Some shows are just stupid though, like Naked And Afraid. Who even thought of that?

Pictures:  http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/09/24/1411539613761_Image_galleryImage_LOS_ANGELES_CA_Tuesday_Se.JPG

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Thats a No-No

A lot of celebrities have been doing very illicit things, such as drugs, abuse, and nudes and such. I don't understand some of the choices made by these famous people. I don't think they realize that a lot of people are following everything that they do, and some people will even follow their actions. Oh a celebrity did drugs? It must be okay for everyone else to do them then too. NO! Some celebrities are messed up in the head!



I don't think I will ever understand the decision to do drugs, yet a lot of people do them. One person that comes to mind is Lindsey Lohan. How disappointing was it when she got arrested? Little kids looked up to her! What's the appeal to doing cocaine, or other hardcore drugs? Don't people know that you get addicted to that? I guess some people don't have very good logic...



It's very disappointing to hear about all of the abuse that's going, and a lot of it is coming from professional athletes. NFL football player Ray Rice was one of these athletes. Not only was it horrible that he was involved in this, but the NFL did NOT handle it well at all! You're telling me that hitting and knocking out your wife only calls for a two game suspension? The way that it was handled put out the message that since he's famous, the law doesn't apply to him. There are way too many occurrences of celebrities getting out of trouble when they should be punished.

This just outrages me.. What the heck are people thinking when they take nude pictures of themselves? I mean what could possibly be the logic to doing this? I think it's pretty clear that there are some creepy people out there, so how could these celebrities think that their photos would stay private? It's especially disturbing when a few of these celebs are former Disney channel actors (cough cough Vanessa Hudgens). When I hear about these stars and their illicit pictures, It makes me not want to look at them. How embarrassing would that be for the whole world to have seen every part of you? I will never know because I'm not stupid enough to do that kind of thing.

Celebrities need to start thinking about their actions and how it's going to affect their fans. Especially if their fans are children. Sorry for my ranting, but some people just don't think about what they are doing! (415 words)

Pictures:http://static.tvgcdn.net/MediaBin/Content/140908/News/2_tues/thumbs/140909ray-janay-rice1_300x206.jpg

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Celebrity Baby Boom

For the longest time I thought that famous people would get married to another equally famous person to impress the crowd. This may well still be true, but a lot of them are pregnant, and that would be weird if the power couples didn't actually enjoy each other!

The baby I'm most excited for is Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds. They are probably my favorite celebrity power couple because you look at pictures of them, and it doesn't look posed or awkward. I actually believe that they are in love! plus, that baby is going to be perfection! But, sometimes even the prettiest people can have some strange looking children... Take Christina Aguilera. She's probably on the top ten list of beautiful women and her kid is, not to be rude, a little strange looking...

I'm super shocked at  few of the people getting pregnant. I can't believe that Hayden Panettiere, who was in movies I watched as a younger kid, is expecting and that's just strange! It's making me realize how fast time is going by! But I do have one question for all of these celebs. Why are they all getting pregnant now? It seems like there are thousands of them! Click here to see a few of the soon to be parent celebrities.

I'm super excited to see how all these famous to be children are going to look! There are going to be some super duper cutie pies, and there are a few that are probably going to be on the stranger side, but that's okay because they will be famous and people will love them anyway.

One thing I'm curious of is how these children will be raised by these big stars. Many of these celebrities are still working. How will they have time for their new children? It also makes me think about what kind of people they will turn out to be. Are they going to be spoiled, bratty kids, or will their parents actually parent them? Many celebrity children have turned out to be very problematic. I mean look at Miley Cyrus... She's turned into a strange person.. Hey whatever, you do you Miley. 

Well, I hope for the best for these celebrities and can't wait to see their children! See you soon.

Pictures: http://i0.wp.com/www.fun2enjoy.com/wp-content/uploads/miley-cyrus-cant-stop-05.jpg?resize=570%2C811

http://chismetime.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/christina_aguilera.jpg

Word Count: 381

The Perks of Being a Wallflower (book)

I really enjoyed this book not only because it has a great story line, but it also has a really cool format to it. It is written by Stephen Chbosky.  It's about a somewhat strange young boy who is just starting high school and he doesn't have any friends. It's about his journey through high school and all the great things about being a "wallflower". The book is written like each chapter is one of his letters to an anonymous person.

The main character is fifteen year old Charlie, and he is just starting his freshman year of high school in a Pittsburgh suburb. He is really intelligent for his age, but he is very awkward and shy. He is trying to get through the suicide of his good friend Michael. At first, he doesn't find any friends except for his English teacher. He finally builds up the nerve to talk to one of the people in his shop class and it is Patrick. He introduces Charlie to his step sister Sam and they all become best friends. During the school year, he has his first date and his first kiss, deals with some bullying, gets in a few arguments with his friends, and even experiments with drugs and drinking. Near the end of the book, Charlie has a severe mental breakdown. To find out what happens after that, READ THE BOOK! It may seem a little strange the way it is written through his letters, but it's a really great book. So great that it even got a movie made after it.

I would suggest this book towards girls a little more because most boys probably don't want to read about an awkward boy trying to find his way through high school. That doesn't mean that boys wouldn't enjoy this book, it's just a little more feminine. Please take my word on this and read the book! You won't be disappointed! (322 words)

Iron Man 3

This isn't one of the newest movies out there but it's one of my all time favorite movies, and you guys should be proud of me.. I actually like an action movie! But of course there's romance and comedy in it and that makes it ten times better! This is another movie from Marvel, so if that's not a give away that this movie is awesome I don't know what is. The basis of this movie is a super hero creates these iron suits to help him fight terrorists and any other thing that is potentially bad.  

In Iron Man 3, the movie takes place after the events in the Avengers movie (also another really great film) and Tony Stark is trying to fight anxiety from it. He has trouble sleeping because of his anxiety so he throws himself into his work way too intensely. It starts to affect his mental health and his girlfriend Pepper Pots (best name I've ever heard) is getting frustrated with him. Meanwhile, a new terrorist called the Mandarin starts causing problems. Of course the wonderful Iron Man has to step in and threatens the Mandarin publicly. This was a bad decision because his entire house was demolished and is only left with his very damaged Iron Man suit. What will he do next? Watch the movie to find out!

My favorite character in this movie is Jarvis but I don't know if you can really consider him a character. He is the voice in all of Tony's suits. He is just like a person and has conversations with Tony all the time. He just has this really funny part in the movie where he is malfunctioning and he says "at the end of the sentence I say the wrong cranberry" in his wonderful British accent. That may not seem that funny but trust me I laughed way too hard at it!

Tony Stark is played by Robert Downey Jr. and I don't think he could have done a better job. He is really good at being sarcastic and funny but also serious. Pepper is played by the one and only Gwyneth Paltrow. I'm pretty sure she has been named the sexiest woman alive before.. She's really pretty. She does a really good job too being a girlfriend/boss to Tony. The movie is directed by Shane Black.

Everyone should watch this movie it has like 6 different genres and can please all types of people! All of the Iron Man movies are wonderful so watch the first two if you haven't! See you soon. (429 words)

The Proposal

This is probably my favorite movie of all time cause holy cow, IT'S HILARIOUS! Obviously it's going to be hilarious because Sandra Bullock is in it and she is amazing! It's definitely one of the funniest movies I've ever seen and it never fails to make me laugh no matter how many times I've seen it! The movie was made in 2009 (sorry, it's another kind of older movie.. But it's too funny not to suggest!) and it was directed by Anne Fletcher. Anne is a very successful director. She has directed 27 Dresses and the first Step Up movie, both really incredible movies.   

For many years, Andrew Paxton has been slaving as an assistant for Margaret Tate, an editor. Margaret is facing deportation because her visa expired. She has come up with a plan that her and Andrew are getting married, and he agrees, as long as he gets a promotion. This is when things get interesting. They fly to Andrew's home town for his grandmas ninetieth birthday, but little did Margaret know, he lived in Sitka, Alaska. They keep up the charade, but INS thinks they are faking, and is ready to arrest Andrew for fraud and deport Margaret. Did they pull it off and Margaret gets to stay in the country? Or does something more happen (something more does happen...)?! Watch the movie and find out!

My favorite character in the movie is Gammy and she is played by Betty White, possibly the funniest person of all time. Her character just reminds me a lot of my grandma, they both say a lot of funny things on accident. She makes up funny dances and is really outgoing. Near the end of the movie, she pulls a stunt that scared me to death but if you know what's coming, it's actually really funny. Also, there's a really cute little white puppy in the movie and it melts my heart and I want it..

Andrew is played by Ryan Reynolds (holy cow he is good looking) and Margaret is played by Sandra Bullock. Sandra Bullock is one of my favorite actresses (if you couldn't already tell I wrote a post about just her...) because she is insanely funny in her comedies that she does. Ryan does a really good job of being really sarcastic in a funny way and sort of acting as a typical male. Sandra does an amazing job with her role. She nailed being a bossy boss (that's really fun to say...) that everyone hates, but secretly is a really good person. All of the other actors/actresses work extremely well together in completing the side characters and an incredible movie was made.

Please, watch this movie, it's one of the greatest things ever! If you don't believe me, watch the movie trailer HERE! See you next time. (471 words)













Source: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1041829/plotsummary

Sandra Bullock

One of my favorite actresses of all time is Sandra Bullock. She is a very adverse actress. She is in a lot of comedies, drama, and does some romance too. She is 50 years old (though you would never guess this if you've ever seen her. She's beautiful!) and has been in more movies than I can count! She has won 56 awards ranging from Golden Globes to Jupiter Awards. Not only is she a phenomenal actress, she is a wonderful person too. She adopted a little African American boy named Louis. He is cuter than a button may I add.

The movies she has participated in include Gravity, The Heat, The Proposal, The Blind Side, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Miss Congeniality, and many MANY more! I think she has been in a total of 51 movies! That's a lot of movies! Every single movie I have seen with her in it has been awesome! One of my favorite movies is The Proposal. It's super duper funny and she rocks. She is my woman crush!     (176 words)

The Voice

The voice has just started its seventh season last week and I could not be more excited! It is an American reality singing competition. The idea behind this show is to find awesome singers by having them perform for four judges, that then become coaches, in the blind auditions. The coaches for this season are Blake Shelton, Adam Levine, Pharrell Williams, and Gwen Stefani. In the blind auditions, the coaches are in these big chairs that are facing the audience not the singer making it "blind" for the coaches. The singer then sings a part of a song that they choose themselves, and the coaches press a button that turns their chairs around if they want that person to be on their team. If more than one person's chair turns, they all argue and give a pitch about why that person should be on their team and it's pretty hilarious because Blake and Adam have a rivalry and they always try and beat each other on this show! If no one turns, the person doesn't make it on the show. Each coach can have twelve people on their teams.

The next stage in this competition is the Battle Rounds. During the battles, two people from one team will be chosen by their coach to perform against each other. The coach then has to choose one of the singers and the other one will not make it to the live performances. There are steals in this round, so each coach has two steals. The steals allow a coach to take one of the performers that wasn't chosen in the battle rounds and put them on their team.

Then come the live performances! Each week everyone performs a song chosen by their coach. You have to vote for people in order for them to stay on the show. In the beginning of the live performances, only one person gets eliminated, then it progresses to two people getting eliminated. These performances continue until one person is left, and they are the winner! The coach who's singer wins the show also "wins" the show too. The winner of the show gets $100,000 and a record deal with Universal Music Group. Sometimes even the people who don't win the show become famous.

Adam and Blake have been on the show ever since it started. On the other hand, this is Gwen and Pharrell's first season on the voice! Other people who have been coaches on the voice are Christina Aguilera, Usher, Shakira, and CeeLo Green. Blake has won the show three times, Adam has won two times, and Usher has won once. The previous winners of the show are Javier Colon, Jermaine Paul, Cassadee Pope, Danielle Bradbery, Tessanne Chin, and Josh Kaufman.  

Me and my family make this show really fun to watch because we all make bets on who we think will win the voice! I have won twice (yes I am the champion!) with Danielle and Josh, and my mom has won once with Tessanne. We just started watching this show during season three. It's crazy how many good singers come on the voice and it's awesome to watch! I hope you watch it!    (531 words)  

The Dreaded Twilight Series

Don't ask me why, but I used to be obsessed with the Twilight Saga, and I guess I still kind of am.. I'm not proud of it, okay? But how could you not love it! It has vampires and werewolves and crazy stuff like that in it! I love romance books and movies and this is definitely a romance. There are four books; Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn, written by Stephanie Meyer. There are five movies based off of these books. Each book got a movie, but the last one was too long (freaking 754 pages long!) so they made it two movies.

The main character in the series is Bella Swan, and she is a very awkward girl who moved from living with her mom in Phoenix, Arizona to Forks, Washington to live with her dad. She is seventeen years old when the series starts and she meets a peculiar person named Edward Cullen. At first she thought that he didn't like her very much (you should see the look on his face when she first sits by him!), but then she found out that he was a vampire. They fall in love, even though it's very dangerous, and go through a lot of problems together. At one point, Edward even tried leaving Forks to keep Bella from falling in love with him, but failed and they end up falling in love anyway.

Edward has a "family" and they are awesome. Esme is one of my favorite characters, and she acts as sort of the mom of the family. She is married to Carlisle, who turned Edward and Esme into vampires to begin with. He is the father of the family. Along the way, Rosalie, Alice, Emmet, and Jasper join in to the clan too. This is very different for Bella because she doesn't have any siblings just two parents and a best friend. Her mom, Renee, is not a very prominent character in the books, but her dad Charlie is. I love him because he is sarcastic and funny. Her best friend is Jacob Black and he is a part of the native Ticuna Indian Tribe. He is one of the main characters in the series. Bella later finds out that he is a werewolf.  

Of course there has to be a few bad guys in the plot. It all starts with three vampires named James, Victoria, and Laurent. They ran into the Cullens one day and realized that they had a human friend. The first time they saw her is when they decided that they wanted to hunt her. Eventually all of them die because the wonderful Edward protects her. Then the Volturi (sort of the dictators of the vampire world) find out about Bella and are upset that she knows about vampires. Three vampires make up the Volturi and they are Aro, Caius, and Marcus and they have a guard with special "powers" (example of these gifts are Edward and Alice. Edward can read peoples minds and Alice can see into the future). They told Bella and Edward that she either had to become a vampire or die because she knew their secret.

I don't think that the roles of these characters could be played better than the ones chosen for the movies. Bella is played by Kristen Stewart and she knows how to play an awkward role let me tell you. Sometimes it made me laugh at how weird she was, but then I realized that she was supposed to be that way. I really love that Robert Pattinson is Edward because he is definitely eye candy and no one expected him to be good for the role but he was magnificent. Jacob is played by Taylor Lautner and he physically fits the role. I would explain to you why everyone is perfect for their roles but that would probably take too long...

I guess you could say I am obsessed with this series because I have read the all of the books (I even read the last book like twelve times...) and I have seen all of the movies. Sometimes when I get bored, I watch the last movie again.. I know practically all of the lines in that movie. I'm not proud of it. I even taught myself how to play some of the songs in the movies on the piano. Yeah I know, I have a problem!

If my craziness doesn't convince you to read the books and watch the movies then I don't know what will! See you soon!    (760 words)

  

Dancing With the Stars

IT'S BACK! Season 19 of Dancing with the Stars kicked off on Monday, September 15th. It airs on Mondays and Tuesdays on ABC. For those of you who don't know this popular show, 13 stars were picked, with no dance experience, to dance with a professional dancer picked by the show. All of these stars are competing for the big, bad mirror ball trophy. Each week, one couple is voted off because they have the lowest combined total of points earned for their dance and number of votes received. The show is judged by four judges this year, Julianne Hough, Len Goodman, Carrie Ann Inaba, and Bruno Tonioli. Each of the judges rate the dances on a scale from 1 being the worst to 10 being the highest. I don't know what kind of judge Julianne will be because she is new this season but each judge has a different personality. Len is the strict judge. If anyone gives a lower score, it's usually him. One thing I noticed about him is that he loves to rhyme! Whenever he gives a 10 to anyone, he always says "From Len, the 10!". Carrie Ann is the nice judge. She's always crying and happy and giving high scores to people who don't deserve it! Bruno is the crazy one. Literally every single time he is talking to a star, he stands up and has these crazy hand gestures! It also helps that he's gay and always hits on the famous men! 



This year, our stars are Sadie Robinson (I'm rooting for her because I have been told on many occasions that I look like her!) from Duck Dynasty, Tommy Chong, a comedian, Randy Couture, a MMA fighter, Alfonso Ribeiro (OMG IT'S CARLTON!), an actor, Jonathan Bennett, which pretty much everyone knows from the wonderful Mean Girls, Lolo Jones only the fastest hurdler of ever, Betsy Johnson, a fashion designer, Bethany Mota, a famous youtuber (first time that's ever happened!), Antonio Sabato, a very attractive model, Tavis Smiley, talk show host, Janel Parish (Mona don't hurt anyone (only PLL fans would get that one...)) from my FAVORITE television show Pretty Little Liars, Lea Thompson, an actress, and Michael Waltrip, a former racecar driver.


Our pros this year are Whitney Carson (she's only 18 and she's a professional dancer...), Mark Ballas, Emma Slater, Keo Motsepe (he's new!), Allison Holker (also new), Artem Chigvintsev (It's okay I can't pronounce his last name either), Cheryl Burke, Karina Smirnoff, Val Chmerkovskiy (he's one of my favorite people ever), Peta Murgatroyd (just for clarification she is a girl), Derek Hough (he's won way too many times), Tony Dovolani, and Sharna Burgess (she's probably the most beautiful girl I've ever seen).

Each week, the couples are given dances ranging from Contemporary to Argentine Tango. A different couple goes home every week until there is a champion! This is one of my favorite shows to watch on television and I highly recommend this to pretty much anyone! Just because I love Val and his brother Maks a lot click HERE to watch one of The dances!  (516 words)

Guardians of the Galaxy

This movie really surprised me at how good it was. When my parents told me that we were going to it for our family day, I wasn't very excited. I mean it has a talking raccoon in it. I'm not into that kind of Stuff! And it's "action" and that's not my favorite genre but I seriously loved this movie it was so funny! I guess I should have figured it would have been awesome because it's Marvel and when has there ever been anything bad from there?


So I was really confused at the beginning of the movie because it started off with a scene of a young boy named Peter Quill in a hospital room with his dying mother. Right before she died she gave him a present but he didn't open it. He ran outside after she died and was taken to space with Yondu, a space scavenger. A really long time later Peter left Yondu to find this really powerful space orb thing. This made the bad guys, Ronan and Thanos, very angry and they sent Gamora (she's a really pretty green girl)to retrieve it from him. Also, the talking raccoon, Rocket, and his friend Groot (he's probably my favorite character because he's a tree and he's so cute!) want to get this orb from Peter too. They all end up getting in a fight and get sent to a "space prison". This is when they all join together and even find a new friend, Drax the Destroyer (he has a huge grudge on Ronan because he killed his wife and daughter and wants to kill him!). and they escape prison!


All of them regain the orb and head out. But of course the wonderful Ronan had to find them and take the orb from them. He plans on taking the orb and destroying the whole planet of Xandar. The guardians of the galaxy race after him and his army to try and take the orb back from him and save the galaxy!


Now a lot more happens in the movie but what kind of person would I be if I ruined the movie for all of you? A horrible one! But let me tell you this movie will not disappoint because It's really funny (and kind of stupid) and crazy unrealistic things happen in it! The movie comes out on DVD sometime in December so if you don't want to wait to see it you have to see it in theatres! Please enjoy it for me because I would watch it again a million times!  To watch the movie trailer click HERE!  (437 words)