Hunga Games 2

I saw the Hunger Games in theaters Thursday night at midnight and it was awesome! It was very true to the book, which most books that are transpired into movies are not so that was very nice. There were a few events that were altered and a character that was missing but other than that it was pretty good. The Harry Potter movies are tweaked way more than this movie was which surprised me. The casting for the Hunger Games was spot on which was very relieving because in a lot of book to movie movies the characters are totally different than you had imagined in your head while reading the book. A number of movies based off of books are either totally different than the book or are way worse than the book. For example, I read the Twilight series and really liked the books so I was pumped when I heard a movie was being made based off of the books. The movies definitely did not exceed the quality of the books, which was very disappointing. So the producers of the Hunger Games did a fantastic job. According to an article in Today, “…The Hunger Games opened with a staggering US$155 million (S$196 million) at United States and Canadian box offices, the highest domestic opening for a movie that isn't a sequel, and established what may become one of Hollywood's biggest blockbuster franchises.” (Today) The success was unexpected by many people. The Boxoffice.com editor stated, “"Harry Potter had seven movies before it got to that point, and Dark Knight had years and years of building the Batman brand. This movie comes and hangs with them in the same league.” (Today) So the fact that the Hunger Games had such great success is amazing. In conclusion the Hunger Games movie did exceptionally well and I would definitely suggest seeing it!

http://www.todayonline.com/Entertainment/Movies/EDC120326-0000083/Hunger-Games-gorges-on-S$270-million-global-debut

Music

Music is a wonderful thing. It can be a remedy for many situations by affecting your mood due to the mood of the music. Many people make fun of kids who are in band in middle and high school and I’m not going to lie, some of them were a tad weird, but I really enjoyed playing an instrument and it is not a weird thing to create music. I played the trombone from 6^th grade to 12^th grade and it is really odd not being in band anymore. I actually enjoyed it making music because it is a very good stress reliever. You will walk into class and the first thing you do is unpack the instrument and then warm up by playing long tones, so multiple whole notes until your lips and mouth piece are warm, which makes it easier to create pitches and notes. If I was having a bad day then I would just blow as hard as I could into the instrument and it was an equivalent feeling to screaming into a pillow. I also liked band because my best friend was in there with me and sat next to me for all 7 years so we would goof around and just enjoy playing instead of following all of the rules. I was also the only girl in the low brass section in my class so that always wasn’t such a bad thing.  Girls typically play woodwind instruments such as the flute, clarinet, oboe, or the saxophone. The brass instruments are predominately male instruments. The trombone was originally called a “sackbutt” and was invented in Belgium circa 1450 (Monks). It was then renamed later and there were a few modifications of the trombone until we have the current model of it today. The trombone has come a long way and is a popular instrument today.

http://www.blackdiamondbrass.com/trbhist/tbonehist.htm

HUNGER GAMES

I used to read a lot of novels when I was in Elementary school and Middle school. I have a few books that I absolutely love and would love to reread but I do not have that kind of time anymore. Over the past month I picked up my past hobby and starting read the Hunger Games series. They are by far my favorite books that I have read in a very long time. I finished the first book of the series, The Hunger Games, in about three days which is a record because I’m normally a very slow reader. If you are not familiar with the plot, I will give you a little synopsis of the order of events.

The story takes place in North America in the future where the United States and Canada does not exist anymore and instead North America is split up into districts. There are thirteen districts and they are governed by The Capitol, who are tyrants and do not treat the districts with respect. Most of the people are starving and if any one goes out against authority then they are disciplined harshly. To remind the people in the districts to not up rise against The Capitol, each year there are a boy and a girl picked from each district that go into the Hunger Games and fight with each other to the death in an area created by the Gamemakers in The Capitol. The story unfolds from there and I cannot say much more because if you are planning on reading the book I could possibly give valuable information away.  As you might know, the movie for this book comes out in theaters March 23 in a little under two weeks. They have an official website that contains all of the information one might need to know about the film. The catchy line of the movie is, “The World Will be Watching,” which is a line stated in the book that has significance and what is on the official website to catch the viewer’s attention (HungerGames.) In conclusion, these books are very good and I would definitely recommend reading it!

http://www.thehungergamesmovie.com/index.html

Greek Life

Some people believe that sororities are full of partying, “buying” friendship, and it is the equivalent of a cult. The term sorority is defined as,  “A chiefly social organization of women students at a college or university, usually designated by Greek letters.” But in reality it is so much more than that. I am a pledge right now in Gamma Phi Beta and I absolutely love it. A sorority is not about partying or buying your friends, it is deeper than that. It is comparable to a team sport in high school. You are with your sisters multiple days a week for hours upon end and form a strong connection. Being in a sorority is a way to get involved and make the huge campus of Tech seem smaller. Whenever I am walking around campus I always see multiple girls from my sorority and even if I am not good friends with them it is a familiar face with a big smile stretched across it making your day a little brighter. I came to Tech with being friends with around 5 people here, and I am pretty good friends with the girls and boys on my floor in my dorm, but being in a sorority forces you to meet new people and make new friends from different backgrounds which is always great. A sorority typically has 1-2 socials per week with a fraternity where they meet for dinner earlier and then the fraternity hosts an after party later night. This gives us a chance to get connected and form friendships with the other fraternities. One huge component of a sorority is philanthropy work. Each sorority participates in a philanthropy and hosts events for a week in order to raise money for whichever program they are involved with. For example, this week the sorority Delta Gamma is hosting events for their philanthropy, which is called Anchorsplash. The money they raise through other Greek organizations participating in their activities goes toward their goal in helping the blind in the community of Blacksburg and Christiansburg. Gamma Phi Beta participates in these activities as we are doing a dance in the talent show this Wednesday at Burrus and it is $5 to attend so come out and support Delta Gamma’s philanthropy! There are several other events that we are participating in as well, but this is a main one.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/sorority

Birthday!!

So today is my birthday and I turned nineteen! It was a pretty good day, especially since there was the first snowfall of the season today. This weekend was pretty fun with my friends being here to celebrate my birthday with me. Turning nineteen is very pointless in my opinion. There is nothing special about turning nineteen except for the fact that it is one step closer to turning twenty-one. Every year on my birthday at home my mom stays up late putting streamers up around the house and also blows up balloons and tapes them on the ceiling and the doors, so that when I wake up the whole house is festive. My mom also bakes a vanilla cake with buttercream vanilla icing that is to die for, it is delicious and my favorite. Being away from home on my birthday was not weird but just different of course. Instead of waking up with streamers I woke up with my friends around me and a sign on my door with balloons. Since my mom is not here to bake a cake, she surprised me with ordering campus cookies for me. It was so cute. She got me balloons, a cookie cake, brownies, various cookies, and cookie dipping cups with milk. So this was pretty much my dinner tonight, especially since I did not want to make the hike to a dining hall in the weather. The weather was very surprising considering that yesterday there was a high of 55. I’m not going to lie, getting out of school tomorrow would be great so that I could get some extra hours of sleep. According to the weather channel, there is going to be an additional 1-2 inches of snow tonight, but tomorrow’s high is supposed to be 44 degrees (Weather Channel). Hopefully it warms up tomorrow but to the point where there still is some snow!

Whitney Houston

            There are many amazing and gifted singers in the world. One of my personal favorites is Christina Aguilera. Her personality is a little off par as demonstrated by the way she acts on the show, “The Voice,” but I think that she is one of the most talented and gifted singers of all time. I really wish I could sing but like most people I sound horrible. There are and have been many talented vocalists and musical artists in general our generation. Mariah Carey is one, along with Céline Dion and many other boisterous voices. One artist whose popularity peaked in the 80s and 90s was Whitney Houston. She died yesterday and was found submerged in water in a bathtub in a hotel with multiple pill bottles on the counter. Reports say that she had been drinking the night before and she was taking Xanax and mixing alcohol and Xanax causes drowsiness. The final autopsy is not being revealed until there are toxology tests conducted on her body. Houston’s death on the eve of the Grammy’s stunned all of the celebrities attending and performing since this was a shock and totally out of the blue. The President/CEO of The Recording Academy, Neil Portnow, exclaimed in a statement "Six-time Grammy winner Whitney Houston was one of the world's greatest pop singers of all time who leaves behind a robust musical soundtrack spanning the past three decades.” (Fox news) She is going to be greatly missed by the music industry and her fans and the public. The classic song “I Will Always Love You” is one of my personal favorites and is a very good breakup song I might add. My roommate and I tried to sing this today and let’s just say it did not go so well. But Houston was very talented and it is a shame to see her go.

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2012/02/12/whitney-houston-dead-prescription-drugs-drowned-autopsy/#ixzz1mEgIsudN

Superbowl...

            I am pretty convinced that my dad wished I were a boy instead of a girl. Ever since I was a little girl, around the age of 4, I have been sat in front of the TV every Sunday for football. Both of my parents were born and raised in Pittsburgh so I was bred from birth to be a Steelers fan. There is a home video that my mom has of me when I was two and I had a mini Steelers jersey on with pom-poms and some black and yellow face paint, so I had no choice but to bleed black and yellow growing up. I absolutely love football and I actually want to be a physical therapist for a college or professional team one day hopefully. So being a football fanatic, of course I watched the Superbowl today just like most of America did. I was mostly unbiased going into the game but I wanted the Giants to win so I am happy that they did. However, I wish that the game was more eventful. I have to say that I nodded off a few times in the middle and it did not get intriguing until the last two minutes. Another reason of why I was not impressed or excited during the game was due to the halftime show. I give Madonna props and kudos for looking that good for the age that she is, which is 53, but I just thought the halftime show in general was a little weird and not entertaining. I was thrown off by the Egyption sort of theme and then the other artists who sang along with Madonna. On Twitter there were mixed emotions on the halftime show. Some people liked it but then others did not. According to an analysis by a company who uses a computer algorithm to detect emotional words in social media posts, people on twitter most commonly used the words ,“’amazing,’ ‘great,’ ‘good,’ ‘best,’ ‘bad,’ ‘hating,’…’old,’ ‘seriously,’ and ‘retire,’” when describing their thoughts on the halftime show towards Madonna’s performance (Welsh). The commercials during the Superbowl are typically on point but this year there were only a few that really stuck out to me. I love football and this Superbowl was a bit disappointing. But hopefully next year will be more exciting!

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2012/02/madonnas-super-bowl-halftime-show-divides-twitter.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ShowTracker+%28L.A.+Times+-+Show+Tracker%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher