Hey guys! I have to admit that I've been bored lately, and unwilling to actually open up my sociology textbook so I can study it before the semester starts. I've just been wanting to get more involved with the world lately, and now's a great time to take up causes too, since I'm not doing a whole lot else. I don't want to spread myself too thin though, so this is going to be the last cause I talk about for a while.
This effort is an easy one, actually. It's anti-bullying, and I know a lot of us have already grown up and passed that stage where bullying is so prevalent in our lives. Bullying is very junior high, in a lot of ways, and bullies grow out of their habits by college, generally speaking. But even if you aren't in junior high anymore, you can still support the cause and help spread the word -somebody somewhere is still being bullied, even if you aren't. In fact, a lot of people are being bullied right this very second, and you have the power to change that, so don't waste your moment to act like a little superhero :)
All you need to do is hit delete! The next time you get into a fight with someone over the web, and feel like stooping to low blows, don't. The next time you want to play a little joke on the unpopular classmate on Facebook, don't. Hit delete instead; holding your tongue might be the first step in reducing the number of suicides that occur every year due to internet-propagated bullying and online violence. You never know which word will drive someone to desperation. The world is already so chaotic that we don't need to create any more drama for each other, so take the first step in being a better person and DELETE DIGITAL DRAMA!
Join the Facebook movement right HERE.
Add THIS badge to your profile picture on Facebook OR Twitter to show your support!
HERE is what Emily Osment has to say about the understated issue of cyberbullying and digital drama.
If the cute virtual button didn't convince you to commit to the cause, there's more! You can fight cyberbullying and digital drama with fashion! Head on over to your nearest Charlotte Russe store and pick up your own Delete Digital Drama T-shirt, just like the stars of ABC Family are sporting HERE. See what the stars of some of the hottest summer TV shows have to say about their own experiences with bullying while you're there!
Bullying is hurtful, and wrong, but cyberbullying is so much worse than in-person bullying, in some ways. Cyberbulling allows for a certain anonymity, and bullies end up bullying an image or a profile without ever considering the consequences of their words for the very real person behind that online profile. Real bullying is more painful in some ways, because bullies DO get to see and consider the feelings of the real victim, but still bully anyway. But at least real bullying takes strength. Cyberbullying is for cowards, because they need that anonymity that the computer screen provides, and they aren't bold enough to bully outside of that. A great rule to consider: if you're not bold enough to say it to a person's face, don't say it through your status or to their profile. If you are bold enough to say it to a person's face and physically bully them for real, then you need real help in stopping, because that's wrong too. But let's start one step at a time; stopping cyberbullying might decrease physical bullying, so with cyberbullying the rule of thumb:
I kind of feel like making t-shirts or tanks with the saying, "Say it to my face, not through your status" and distributing them or auctioning them on eBay to raise money for awareness or something. Hell, I'd give them away for free JUST to raise awareness, or at the very least, I'd like to start something by making a t-shirt for just myself. It's a cool way to advertise the message and spread the antibullying love.
In some form or other, at one time or another, we've all been bullied or picked on, some more than others. See yourself in other victims, and fight back for them when they can't; show your support and encourage victims to speak out against their tormentors. Karma will thank you one day anyway. :)
On another note... is it just me, or is the new movie, Monte Carlo an entire rip-off of the Lizzie McGuire movie? >.> No contest between actresses either; Hilary Duff was as cute back then as Selena Gomez is now. Watching Leighton Meester in her first movie since Country Strong, and Katie Cassidy in something outside of Gossip Girl, should be fun. (Yes, I'm guilty of being a huuuge Leighton Marissa Meester fan... Marissa's one of my favorite names too haha.)
Peace, not bullying. The campaign against war starts at school by being against bullying. Show your support! xx
The above is a quote by Mila Kunis, referring to her movie, Friends With Benefits, that premieres next week. I'm actually really excited to see this movie; I think Mila is a talented actress, and I won't complain about Justin Timberlake filling up screen time with his hotness. Hopefully this is better than 'No Strings Attached', too!
I have two more pieces of randomness to throw out before the scheduled post.
Randomness #1: I'm irrationally obsessed with the song "Superbass" by Nicki Minaj right now; I don't know why. It's not even a new song, but I just love this song as much as my-my-my-my-pelican-fly. :P It's on repeat, and I'll occasionally rotate between Skyscraper (Demi Lovato), When I Make It Shine (Victoria Justice), and Just Tonight (Pretty Reckless). I'm in productivity mode; it's my motivation playlist :P
Randomness #2: I think the legal system is pretty messed up in America. Corrupt and based on too many technicalities rather than actual justice. I was thinking about Casey Anthony's court trial earlier. I don't have much to say about it, since the media's already covered it to death, but it's just sad how skewed the legal system really is, despite the fact that the legal system is supposed to be the moral foundation of America. The system actually enables criminals, in so many ways. Random, slightly related fun fact: The solving of cases in America actually (reportedly) dropped after the first four or five seasons of CSI (Crime Scene Investigation), because the show allegedly educates criminals about police and crime lab procedures, and how to not get caught. True or not, it's something to think about... and parents say that TV isn't educational :P On another note, I love Sara Sidle at the moment, from the original CSI -I've taken a break from CSI New York and actually started watching the original. It's good.
And now.... I'm actually going to write a blog post about my dream room, with pictures and everything! I was thinking about sophomore year dorm room decoration, and obviously price/availability/physical ability to carry things prevents me from truly building my dream dorm room. So I want to build my dream dorm virtually, with pictures and links to actual furniture and wall decor that I've found online (a lot of it at Urban Outfitters, actually, which tends to be pricey, to be honest), and I'll try to put a finished picture together over at polyvore! It should just be a fun little summer project, and maybe it'll give you readers some ideas as well, for your own dorm rooms/bedrooms/whatever space you currently occupy. Stay tuned; ideas and pictures coming soon!
Hey! There are SO many ways to get involved in so many different causes, projects and foundations, especially just by blogging, facebooking and tweeting! Wouldn't it be so cool if you had a new laptop to do all that typing on? Now, you have the chance to win a new candy pink Sony VAIO S Series laptop with a 15-HOUR BATTERY LIFE. Just head on over to the Windows blog, and tell the world what YOU would do with 15 hours of battery! If you would go someplace super cool with your new laptop, you can even include a photo of the location in your blog comment for a creativity bonus. You can also tweet about it to @Windows, with #15hoursbatt in your tweet! If you want a new laptop, or a new sheet battery, get to commenting and tweeting right away, because this offer ends on 17th July, at 7 PM Pacific Standard Time.
On a tangent, who's seen the epic awesomeness that was the last Harry Potter movie?!
Okay, guys. Here's the post that I promised was coming!
The "Love Is Louder" campaign was co-founded by the Jed Foundation, MTV and Brittany Snow in September 2010, and has already garnered support, publicity and endorsement from millions of people worldwide, including notable names like Seventeen Magazine, Demi Lovato, Miley Cyrus and Victoria Justice, among others. However, what the whole concept behind Love Is Louder really relies on, is the love and support of thousands of people, girls, boys, young, old; this campaign is geared towards anyone who's ever put themselves down, or felt inadequate. This campaign gives you the strength you need as individuals to feel loved, and know that the love you have from yourself and others is much stronger than any other negativity you might be hearing. The theme of the campaign is that LOVE is louder than the pressure to be perfect, louder than the voice inside your head saying you're not good enough, louder than the critics, louder than the haters, louder than your demons, louder than the pain, louder than anger, louder than obstacles, louder than the word "can't", and louder than anything else you might have to face or go through in life that knocks you and your self-esteem down. No matter what struggles you face as an individual, Love Is Louder Than The Pressure To Be Perfect seeks to remind you that you are not alone, and that there are others sharing in your struggles, AND sharing the experience of trying to overcome that struggle, too. Love Is Louder relies on the support of the public, of readers like you, to join the foundation and to support the cause in any way you can. The more voices that join the love, the louder it can be, so add your voice to the cause and help show, through sheer power in numbers, that love is louder than any and all negativity. This campaign gave you the love you needed, and showed you that you had the ability to love yourself instead of hating yourself; now give back to the campaign by giving your love to others who need it!
Getting involved is really easy; it all starts with a click!
Show your support by tweeting with #loveislouder
Throw your love directly into the twitterverse by writing on LoveIsLouder's page!
If you're more of a Facebook addict, join LoveIsLouder's page, and write on their wall - tell the world what love is louder than!
If you want to learn a little more about the cause before you commit to a click, head over to the official Love Is Louder page. If you need a little more incentive to help out, check out this super-cute gear over at the store.
If you want to hear a little more about what Demi Lovato has to say about Love Is Louder, and her personal struggles that caused her to write such an amazing, inspirational song in Skyscraper, check out this collaboration between Seventeen Magazine and Demi Lovato on the LoveIsLouder project!
You guys can even upload your own videos, 15 seconds or less in length, to the official Love Is Louder page (http://www.loveislouder.com),showing your support for the cause and what it means to you personally. It's a chance for you to get creative, and also a chance to check out some of the other videos while you're there!
Likewise, post a picture of your hands with a message of love written on them, either to the Facebook page, or to the official website. A picture is worth more than a thousand words of negativity, so let's get those positive thoughts out there, strong, loud and proud! Get started by checking some of these other pics on the website for inspiration!
This is a cause that personally means a lot to me, so I'm going to do everything that I can to support this cause and help take it to new heights. This is a cause that could potentially relate to absolutely anyone on the planet, irrespective of gender, age, race, socioeconomic background, or anything else. Nobody should feel like they aren't worth anything or aren't good enough; nobody should be hurting themselves. Be a part of spreading a little more LOVE throughout our world and please help out however you can!
I love this song. It's corny, it's cheesy, it's another pop song about self-esteem and positivity and all that, but it's also the most honest, raw, genuine, personal pop song about self-esteem and positivity that I've heard yet. It feels true to itself, genuine, and very personal, rather than contrived and manufactured to appeal to the insecure audience so that it can sell copies. This song feels intended for the artist, as a catharsis more than anything, rather than to sell; and that's why it feels so intensely raw and genuine. I guess the lyrics could have been more original, but it's still beautiful in the most haunting way -ordinary lyrics made extraordinary because of the way they're sung. It's also just really nice to see Demi back on her feet. You may not love her, or really even like her music, but she's human, and it's always amazing to see another human being overcome so many struggles to get back on their feet again. Even if she's not your favorite actress, it's hard not to admire her strength and sheer willpower to get herself back on a healthier, stronger path rather than succumbing to her own demons and darkness and making excuses for those demons manifesting themselves in unhealthy habits. She's amazing for even wanting to get better, and even more amazing for actually following through with her intention and getting help and getting better. She's leading by example, exhibiting the kind of strength I wish more people had, myself included. This blog is supposed to be about positivity, and about strength, and about embracing the glass as half full and life as beautiful, even when you're down and things might not be so great. Demi understands what it means to be a beautiful person, inside and out, by not letting the little things hold her back, and by not allowing herself to get in her own way. Despite her haters calling her out for having so many issues, Demi knows that it's human to have problems, but overcoming them is what shows true strength, and she keeps on trying to inspire and teach everyday, choosing to focus on the love that she gets, rather than her haters. Leave some support if you can at ddlovato, her official twitter!
Also, here's the video, artful and super simplistic. It's visually a little like Selena's A Year Without Rain, I'm not sure if that's a coincidence... the song and music and video are all just so much more mature and genuine and beautiful, though. See for yourself!
I don't think I need to include an iTunes link to this; 'Skyscraper; is trending at #1 on the iTunes top singles chart!
More on the campaign that Demi started, 'LOVE IS LOUDER THAN... THE PRESSURE TO BE PERFECT', in the next post. Stay tuned!
Blogging from India, where I grew up :)
I'm actually super tired, slightly jet-lagged, and I did a whole lot of thinking about wrongs and rights when it comes to the heart, and about forgiveness and second chances over both of my flights, which were 8 hours each. I don't want to make this post toooo long, due to the first two, but... Firstly, I realized that forgiveness and second chances have nothing to do with the other person,and everything to do with the person that's been hurt. In order for me to forgive someone, I need to be able to work through MY trust issues; no matter how much the other person tries to earn back my trust, or a second chance, they won't be able to regain my trust unless I give it to them. Giving trust again is something I personally need to work on; I feel like I blame others for being untrustworthy, and I make the other person demonstrate their trustworthiness to me, even though no matter how trustworthy they try to be, I'm just not ready to give out my trust again, plain and simple. In reality, everybody makes mistakes and even breaks trust from time to time. Everyone deserves second chances once in a while; I just need to learn to give them a little more easily.
Secondly, I'm disappointed by the ending of the book "Something Borrowed"; I wish the ending had been more powerful. It didn't seem real, somehow. It felt like a cliched, watered-down "happy-ever-after"; I think that if a story is going to have a happy-ever-after ending, it should at least be strong and dramatic and thought-provoking. It's my belief that if a writer is going to commit to something, drama, plot device, character, etc, then they should commit to it fully, not halfheartedly.
Thirdly, I listened to a lot of music over my flight time, and I thought I'd share a song. I love it because it's unapologetic, it's raw, it's real, it's genuine, it's honest, and in no way are the lyrics fake or pretentious. The sound is grunge-y rock, underground raw, it's an honest sound, full of guitar and drum sequences, and the vocals are super powerful. There's no autotune going no, and it's not the formulaic synth-pop. The song might not be super popular, but it's not trying to be anything other than a song; it's not trying to be a cash cow and sell. Nothing is worse than a song that is so obviously a cash cow. The only thing worse may be a legitimately good song (good lyrics, decent sound) that's been autotuned to death in an effort to follow the rap-pop sheep of music and in a misguided effort to sell. Autotuned pop sells to tweens; real, raw music sells to true music lovers. REAL, RAW, GENUINE are honestly the best words to describe both the lyrics and the sound. It's a little bit of old-rock, too, which I personally love. It's a cool little mix of both the old world and the new. I guess if I had to critique the album as a whole, I'd say maybe it's trying too hard to be cool, trying to hard to pull off an "I-don't-care-but-it's-so-obvious-that-I-do-care" attitude, but this song in particular is classic, amazing and faultless, in my opinion. It's a bit of a throwback to Led Zeppelin, Elton John, Phil Collins, even a little Beatles, especially solo Lennon. Classics.
Anyway, sorry if I come off as a little judgmental up above; I generally try not to be so judgmental, but if I feel passionately enough about something, I voice my opinion honestly, respectfully (as I tried to be, up above), but I don't censor my opinion. Here you go! I promise you the studio version sounds exactly the same as this live version; that's how genuine, raw and un-autotuned this song is. Taylor's unapologetic, self-serving, but still caring lifestyle is kind of awesome too. She's got balls.Will definitely update the post below this, and another post super-soon. I'm in India for a while, just chilling and not doing a whole lot, so I'll have time. I'll stop being lazy for real this time. peace.
Hi! I've noticed that my blog posts are getting a bit rambly, lately, and that's not cool. If people are anything like me, they'll get bored of the rambling, or the incredible amounts of text will just fail to hold people's attention, and they'll stop reading, even if they like the content. I apologize for the last post, it was, to be honest, emotional blog-vomit, and I was just venting about personal issues, which is something I generally stay away from in this blog. It's not supposed to be talking about negative personal issues, it's supposed to be a journey into the beautiful things that life has to offer. However, I grew a lot in the last post, in an emotional sense, and hopefully, the sense of heartbreak of the last post will help some other readers grow and lift something positive from the experience too. Life jades people and makes them cynics, me included, and it makes them unwilling to put themselves and their hearts out into the hands of chance. I believe that it's okay to be cautious, but it's still important to take the time to heal, and then love with abandon once again, no matter how many times you get hurt, because if you hold back your heart in the fear of getting it broken, the only thing you're really holding back is yourself. You just won't be able to live to your fullest if you get hurt. Better to live and get hurt than to not live at all, as they say... you only have one chance at life, so make it really count, no matter how many battle scars you endure in the process - if they didn't kill you, they'll make you stronger! (Which is something very hard to believe when you're heartbroken, but it DOES get better, I promise, and you will think yourself when you take a chance someday on someone new and it finally pays off. One hundred chances may be meant to fail, but you have to go through them all before you encounter the one chance that's meant to succeed.)Enough with the euphamisms, however... here's a breakup oriented song of the day! And I will definitely get back to the regular posts, and stop using songs as filler posts; I've just been super busy lately. This song is one of my eternal favorites though (just coinicidence that it was played in the Founders Day episode of tVD... I actually didn't remember that. I've loved this song since before the episode aired.) Regardless, here's the video with the lyrics; there's no official out for this song. I hope you guys like the music!As always, buy it on iTunes. 
I kind of feel like making t-shirts or tanks with the saying, "Say it to my face, not through your status" and distributing them or auctioning them on eBay to raise money for awareness or something. Hell, I'd give them away for free JUST to raise awareness, or at the very least, I'd like to start something by making a t-shirt for just myself. It's a cool way to advertise the message and spread the antibullying love.