Vampire Diaries

So, I watched the first two seasons of Vampire Diaries once they were put up on Netflix. I loved the first season, and most of the second, but once the third was posted I found I wasn't interested in it. I was wondering why I wasn't, and realized it was the killing and blood-sucking that turned me off to the show. I was at work the other day and a girl I work with said she LOVES the show and watches it almost religiously. My other friend from my ward is the same way. I was kind of surprised, and couldn't really figure out why they like it so much. I guess its the whole vampire/hot guy thing...but because of its ickyness I no longer like it. I guess it just surprises me what keeps us watching shows. For them its the hot guys and love story, but for me that didn't outweigh the violence and blood.

Roots

I just started reading the book Roots earlier this week. For those who don't know, its a book about a young boy named Kunta Kinte who is taken from Africa and made a slave in the United States. I'm maybe 200 pages into the book, and it is talking about the voyage across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas. The description of the voyage is so terrible, and often makes me feel...so ashamed of our country's history. I don't know why I hadn't realized it before, but the men and women who were taken as slaves fought back as much as they could after they were captured. It was only the immense cruelty and neglect that made them too weak or injured to fight back. I don't know why I've never considered this aspect of slavery (I know in school they always talked about the cramped quarters and poor conditions on the ships) but it was never really driven home in my mind until I started reading this book. Although it is very sad, it is also amazing to me that a book I decided to read on my own time gave me a totally different perspective on our nation's history.

Pumped Up!!!

Today I did something crazy. I went skydiving. In Moab. With some friends. We were all super nervous and scared, but the ride down we were pretty mellow. Once we got there and filled out the paperwork and had walked to the hanger, that's when it started hitting everyone what we were actually doing. It was interesting to me though, because the guys running the jumps were playing exciting songs as we were waiting. One girl in our group kept saying how some of them were songs she danced to Zumba. It was interesting to see how the exciting music pumped up the group and got us ready to fly. Pretty neat.

Hoping its for the better...

I have this favorite book series that I've read multiple times and love. I recently started reading it again, and finished the first book. One morning I was reading the second in the series and realizing how violent it is. It is a fantasy series, and there are lots of fights and death and stuff. At first I tried to brush it off, but realized that it was making me feel icky and bad. So, even though it was very difficult, I decided to never read the series again. I packed up all 12 books that I own and put them away in the garage. I still haven't decided what I'll do with them...donate them, or throw them out. If I shouldn't be reading them, why should others?

No Music?

My speakers on my laptop are no longer working right, and it has been difficult! They're not completely gone, but they fuzz in and out, and sometimes don't work at all. Normally I do my homework and listen to music at the same time, and not having it made me realize how much I love it! There's one song in particular that I normally play over and over again, and I felt totally lost! But it also made me realize that although I think I tune out my music the majority of the time, subconsciously I am really listening to it.

Rock -n-roll

So I was listening to the radio tonight with one of my friends and realized that all of the songs were ones I loved. It was some kind of rock station, and we were blasting the music. I was thinking about rock-n-roll and why I love it so much! Now, I come from a home where my parents LOVE rock. They even named my four sisters and me after 80's rock an roll songs (Leiah, Roxanne, Loreli, Rhiannon, and Layla are our names.)

Although the lyrics of the songs aren't always great, there's just something about the amazing guitar riffs and crazy vocals I love. I think its fantastic because it makes me think of my parents and growing up. Rock just makes me happy. :)

Warrior

My friend Hannah and I LOVE the movie Warrior. She lives up in Idaho, and we have a tradition that whenever she's down in Provo we get together and watch it. Most of the time we end up just talking while the movie is on, but we always make sure to watch the last 20 minutes of the movie with rapt attention, and sometimes even rewind it to watch the end again. Hannah was in town this Monday and we watched the movie again. After she left I was considering why I like it so much, and why we've made this little, silly, tradition. The movie is not a funny one, and it has some very serious and intense situations between these two sons and their father. I originally saw it because I love the actor in the movie (Tom Hardy) and thought the MMA fighting scenes looked cool. It turned out to be a movie that was a lot deeper than that, focusing on the relationship between a recovering alcoholic and his two grown up sons. Although the movie doesn't really connect with my life, for some reason it really means a lot to me, and I'm not sure why.

Overall I would say the movie had some content that was not so great (the sons are very angry with their father, and very unforgiving. The fight scenes are also intense...and there language) but the overlying message of the movie is a good one (learn to forgive others, especially those who have hurt you the most). I think that's why I really love it. The last scene in the movie (spoiler) is the two brothers fighting eachother at a huge MMA competition, and the older brother has to make the younger brother tap out. The younger brother, Tommy, has a dislocated shoulder and just won't give up. The older brother, Brendan, gets him in a headlock and is trying and trying to get him to tap out. He's telling Tommy that its okay, and that he can tap, but he won't. Finally, with a lot of emotion, Brendan tells Tommy he loves him. Tommy finally taps. I know it sounds cheesy in writing, but it is the BEST scene. Although the movie is rough around the edges, and has some content I don't really like, I believe that this touching scene is why I love it so much, and why Hannah and I have made it a tradition to watch it.