When all else fails.

Last minute, you NEED a Halloween costume.

In my home, you can go into the storage room and scope out some costumes from the childhoods of four children. I'm pretty sure there's also an adult cow costume down there somewhere. But not everyone has a storage room filled with old costumes. It's time to get creative, and quick. Here's some witty costumes that require minimal effort, but will give you much praise from your friends.

1) Nudist on Strike- Dress in average clothes. Hold a picket sign with the words, "Nudist on Strike."
2) Lemon Surprise- Write the word, "LIFE," in black marker on a plain white t-shirt. Carry around a bag of lemons, while occasionally handing one out to someone.
3) Serial Killer- Dress normally. Get a giant plastic knife to keep in your back pocket. Your punchline is, "I'm a serial killer, because you can never pick them out from the crowd."
4) Leaf blower- Wear a hat, and tie one end of a string to the top of it. Tie the other end to a leaf from outside, so it hangs in your face. Blow the leaf out of your face.
5) Quarterback- attach a large picture of a quarter on your back. Football not required.
6) Game Show Contestant- Make a large nametag, and put it on the front of your shirt. Say things like, "I'd like to buy a vowel," or, "That is my final answer."
7) Pothead- Put a pot on your head.
8) The Lost TV Remote- attach a couch cushion to your front, and one to your back.
9) Refridgerator Magnet- Paint a shoebox black, and attach it to your back.
10) Cable Guy(for the party you don't want to go to)- notify friends what you are going as. Don't show up, because they never do.

And when you still don't have plans, just invite friends over for scary movies. Feeling ambitious? Do a group session for learning the Thriller dance. Whatever you do, make sure you have fun, because Halloween only comes once a year!

Halloween or bust.

Admit it. There's a time as a teenager where part of you wishes you could still trick-or-treat. So instead, you grab a small child, and dress up with the excuse that you are escorting them. Great excuse really, I'll use it in the future.

The past two years I have the excuse of trick-or-treating for a cause: trick-or-treat for UNICEF. Not entirely an excuse really, since I care for the cause too. However, I still get to dress up, and that's a huge plus.

So what happens when you're too old, even for that? Generally, you either have friends who throw costume parties, you stay at home and hand out candy, or you curl up to watch It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Personally, I would love to bob for apples, but that's beside my point.

If you decide to hand out candy, but still desire to make it fun, then there's a number of things you can do. I would love to prank kids as they come to my doorstep for candy. Not the little-little kids- that's just cruel- but the ones old enough to take a joke. One prank is to sit in a chair on your porch, dressed as a scarecrow. You are pretending to be a real scarecrow, so it must be convincing. You have your bowl of candy sitting in your lap, with a sign that says, "Take 1." It's your choice who to scare them when kids walk up and reach into the bowl. You can jump to life and grab their hand. Some would jump and scare only those who try to take more than one.

If you're going to a Halloween party, and you don't wanna dress up, then you should stop being a wimp and dress up. Halloween is awesome, and unless you have a legitimate fear of plastic and synthetic material, then there's no reason you shouldn't get in the spirit and dress up. If you insist to dress with minimal effort, then dress in regular clothes, and carry a sign that says, "Nudist on Strike." Get creative, don't be a downer, and most of all, have fun!

When shows and movies go too far.

The first Shrek movie was amazing. An absolute classic from my childhood. I wasn't sure what to expect when I heard there was going to be a sequel. I was hoping for a good follow-up, and I wasn't disappointed. It wasn't as good as the first, but it was decent.

When I became aware of a third one being made, I was excited. I haven't seen that movie since I saw it in the theater, but I know that I didn't like it. It was a disaster compared to the first two. Then came the fourth, which I took my seven-year old cousin to. He loved it, and I thought it was a little better than the third, but still significantly bad.

So when do shows and movies need to stop? For Shrek, it should have stopped after the second. Some would say the first was perfect enough. When you have a good show or movie, businesses make sequels or more seasons to make more money, but often those follow-ups ruin the legacy built by the original.

I saw Madagascar with some friends, and I enjoyed it. I never saw the sequel, but I've seen the show, "Penguins from Madagascar." It's an awful show really; entertaining enough for children, but from a critic's viewpoint, not very good. The penguins were good as side characters in the movie, but when you make them the main focus, it dulls the plot. Those side characters are typically static, and most movies need a main character that changes throughout the movie.

There is a movie coming out, "Puss in Boots," that is doing the same thing: pulling a character from a previous movie, and turning the focus on them. Not having seen the movie yet, I can't criticize it. However, I can predict that the same thing will happen, while also hoping it doesn't. Who knows, maybe Hollywood spent more time on this movie to make it good, instead of doing it just because they know Shrek fans won't miss it.

TV shows too. I admit, I am a sucker for crime shows, but when the episodes turn to a more personal level with the characters, when it was originally supposed to be about the crime, then I don't like it as much. If it's a crime show, stick with the crime. They should establish ahead of time how personal they want to be with characters, and stay with that theme. It shouldn't change to a soap opera mid-season. It bothers me when crime shows turn into Grey's Anatomy.

I can't stop drawing.

the artists are building our own generation
go on try to stop us
we feed on oppression
we fight depression
we will give you sensations
to shake you to revelations

you can't see what we see
try to stop your jealousy
the colors flow easily
we look around and see what should be

snap a picture in your head
you'll tell your kids before you're dead
that you saw what lay ahead
because we paved away from certain dread

to create is expression
to need is obsession
what we have is opportunity
to stimulate the community

our wills crave what yours deny
don't you dare say goodbye
because you too could fly
if you only try

So I was going to sit down and write a blog, but somewhere along the way, I wrote a poem instead. Hence no capitalization or commas. Sorry OCD people.

I've been getting into this awesome groove, where I'm forcing myself to squeeze in drawing time between homework and school. It feels awesome, and I'm really happy about it. I have taken art classes the past two years, but only drew projects when they were assigned. Now I have all these ideas in my head of what I could make on my own.

I also have been starting to listen to music more while I sketch. It helps me loosen my mind, and actually inspired a couple sketches. I'm also researching different drawing and painting styles, such as automatic and speed drawing. Automatic is drawing without a predetermined purpose, so your ending product is completely spontaneous. Speed drawing is drawing under a time limit, with a plan of what you are drawing.

Unfortunately, the latter style is often confused with time-lapse video drawings. Searching on Youtube, it's very difficult to find videos of speed drawing in regular time(although the videos that come from that search are still incredible).

A Tale of Two Wizards

"After all these years?"
"Always."

Severus Snape. Once a hated character of the Harry Potter series, now loved by many. It's common knowledge to anyone who has ever seen a Harry Potter movie, that Snape hates Harry. But in the seventh book/eighth movie, his character is revealed for the role he played during the course of the entire series. *Spoiler Alert*

In the last book, Voldemort is getting very strong, and nowhere is safe. The end of the sixth book features the shocking scene of Snape killing Dumbledore, and revealing that he is a double agent for Voldemort. However, Snape is truly unmasked when he gives Harry his memories just before he dies himself in the seventh. Harry sees the memories, and becomes fully aware of Snape's past, and whose side he truly was on.

Lily Evans(Harry's mother) and Severus Snape were childhood friends before they entered Hogwarts. Entering Hogwarts, Snape was disappointed to be separated from her, with her being a Gryffindor, and he a Slytherin. She made new friends, and didn't like the friends he was making. But Snape was in love with Lily, and whether she was ever in love with him, we don't know. What we do know, is that despite their friendship ending, Snape still loved her. Lily married James Potter after Hogwarts, and didn't have much contact with Snape. He still loved her.

Snape began to work for Voldemort, and when Voldemort was making his plans to kill Harry, Snape asked him to spare Lily. Having no empathy, the Dark Lord didn't hesitate to kill her once she tried to stand in his way. Snape was heartbroken and devastated, and went to Dumbledore. Seeing how much Snape had loved Lily, Dumbledore trusted Snape because he realized that his love was greater than his loyalty to Voldemort. As Harry said, Snape was Dumbledore's the moment he started hunting down Lily.

So what did Snape do from there? Well in a nutshell, he dedicated his whole life to working with Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix to protect Harry from Voldemort. He was pretending to be Voldemort's spy, but was really on Dumbledore's side. Harry is a strange character to Snape, because in the image of his father, he is the reminder that Snape never had Lily, and that he never would. However, he is the last piece of her that is left, and that's enough for Snape to get along.
So in overview, a man dedicates his life to preserve the son of the woman he loved. Even though she is already dead, and she married someone else, he died to save that last piece of her, because it's what she would have wanted.

I don't know about anyone else, but this gives me some serious, A Tale of Two Cites vibes. In A Tale of Two Cities, Man 1 gives his life so that Man 2 could live. Man 1 was in love with a woman, and that woman was in love with Man 2. He gave his life so that she could be happy with who she was in love with. Quite a tragic story because, to me, that act in itself shows true love. Snape was truly in love with Lily, and he still did what would have made her happy even after she was killed.

There should be more men in the world who are like Severus Snape.

My problem with mechanical pencils.

In my very personal opinion, I do not like mechanical pencils. What's the point of them? It's just plastic that wishes it was a pencil. Not to mention, you have to constantly supply it with lead, so that it may actually function.

I look around my classrooms lately to see a large chunk of students using mechanical penicls, and I wonder to myself, "Of all people in the world, do teenagers really show the proper commitment skills to consistently use a mechanical pencil?" Honestly, I would hate to have to go to the store to buy lead for a mechanical pencil. I much prefer plain wooden pencils. They feel more comfortable and more familiar in my hand. Bonus: I'd much rather walk across the room to sharpen a pencil, then having to refill it.

Don't get me wrong, I have no problems with commitment. I would just rather not be in a commitment-required relationship with a pencil.

This was originally going to be a rant about my dislike for mechanical pencils, but I feel it slowly turning into a discussion of commitment.

Commitment to classes, friends, family, and previously-made promises are important. Commitment to making time for the priorities in your life, and learning to balance what's due now with what's due later. Also planning assignments accordingly with your schedule outside of school. These skills are developed through commitment, and trial and error. You soon use them later in life with your career and social life, or significant other.

I feel strongly about staying committed to promises. Saying you'll do something, than not doing it is one of my biggest pet peeves. It doesn't even require the actual use of the word, "promise," like it did in elementary school. Promising to show up somewhere, then leaving the person hanging without explanation is disrespectful, despite whatever reason they didn't show up.

If you want to create a committal relationship with your pencil, I don't mind. You will not find me making a promise to my pencil, "I will fill you up when you are empty, take care of you through the thick and thin, and try my hardest not to drop you under my desk in the middle of class, because we know how embarrassing that is for the both of us."

Just remember to keep your priorities straight- beyond my example of a completely exaggerated personification of a pencil.

Halloween is coming to town >:)

Halloween is coming up! One of the silliest, funniest holidays. More celebrated than April Fool's, but less serious than Christmas. And coming from a high-schooler, I would like to say that not one year has gone by since my childhood that I did not get dressed up.

Freshman year, my friend had a party on Halloween. I dressed as a "neon hippie" or as such I dubbed it. Last year, I did trick-or-treat for UNICEF through a volunteer club at school, which I was able to dress up for with my friends. That year I went as Hermione Granger.

Now I'm obviously getting older to the point that if I went trick-or-treating without ushering a small child, then I would be just plain weird. This year, I plan on doing trick-or-treat for UNICEF again, which I'm sure slides by, considering it's for a cause. Not that I'm only doing it as an excuse, of course, dressing up is just a plus. This year I think I plan on going as someone from the 80's, although I considered going as an all-out Voldemort. That would have been much more difficult, however.

So what's so great about Halloween? Well, I find it amazing because it's one big costume party! Picking out something to be for a night, and pulling it off well is always rewarding. The candy was the best part as a child, but now I prefer costume-ing it up with friends.

And of course the scares. I have not been legitimately scared on any recent Halloween, although I eagerly anticipate this year. I hope to venture scary houses with friends, and maybe plan a scary movie party. I usually don't like being scared, but something about this time of year makes me yearn for that thrill. It would also be extremely fun to incorporate a scare-prank on one my friends. That's always a good time. >:)