Facebook Memes

Hey Readers <3,

Okay, so I don't have a Facebook, as many of ya'll know but my cousins who do have Facebooks have introduced me to Facebook memes and I am in love.

Facebook memes are faces that are placed into often rhetorical cartoons that make them funny without reason. I am obsessed. Maybe you see in my last post that I used the "You Don't Say" face, one of my favorites. In this post, I'll take you through a few of my favorite Facebook Meme cartoons, some of which you might know yourselves.

1. Me Gusta- If you've ever taken Spanish, you;d know that this means "I like". So therefore, these cartoons are mainly about stupid things that happen in everyday life that you thought you were the only person who got tickled pink by, but obviously not. For example, one that I did just today...



2. No. Rage Face- This is the face that reminds me of just every stubborn person you know that insists on saying no to anything that you request. This following one is my favorite because I remember "Blue's Clues" back in the day and getting irritated when the new guy butt in and made me somewhat hate the show. LOL...



3. You Don't Say- The "You Don't Say" face is one of my all time favorites. I mean, it's exactly what I'm always telling people when they speak the obvious like, "Did you know that the sun is a huge ball of heated gasses and light and stuff?" Then I would express a look of surprise and say "Ya Don't Say!" Look at this one...



4. OMG Face- This is one of the funniest to look at. It expresses just what it's called... OMG! Like when someone says "MAD on Cartoon Network was taking advantage of Kermit the Frog" and I would totally freak out and never watch MAD again (as I don't do anymore because of the Kermit the frog situation), ending it off with an OMG face...



5. Not Bad- For all of you Obama fans like Muah, this is hilarious. It just makes him a lot cooler in my face. I mean, even Michelle has a "Not Bad" face... it's pretty impressive...



6. He Will Never Have A Girlfriend- I think that this face is funny just because we all find ourselves sitting down in front of the TV, looking at these weird looking dudes saying "Yeah, no. He's hideous. Forever Alone." LMBO!



Anyhow, I've got a little brother that likes to latch onto me like a leech, so now that he's seen me blogging about the Facebook memes, he's about to take over this computer and freak out over them. LITTLE BROTHERS!!!!!! (Rage Face). Anyhow, see you later.

Love Always <3,
Katrina Lowell

I'm On Vaca, Yo!

Hey Readers :D,

Guess what? I'm on vacation! I know most of ya'll are going

 

but what I'm really happy about is that  I'll be able to be out of the island for a little bit. I am now back in the USA and it feels AMAZING! I need some McDonalds, Burger King, DQ, IHop, you know all of the best eateries in the WORLD.

Anyhow, besides that, I will be able to blog every day of it. In fact, I'm looking at making a vacation diary for the blog so that you guys can hear about every day's experience. I am looking forward to theme parks, American food, and family. I'm staying at my grandma's house and I love it. She has an amazing view and the neighborhood is just nice and quiet. Besides that I have a couple aunts living here, one of which has two older children, Let's call them Marcus and Melissa.

I love Melissa. I mean, she's like an adult kid and we just love spending time together and getting to just hang out like we used to. Now Marcus... he's another story. I mean, he's only a few years older than me but acts like my dad sometimes. "Katrina, stay out of my room!", "Katrina, stop being so annoying!", "Katrina, don't talk to me like that!","Katrina, don't eat my Jimmy Deans'", "Katrina!!!!" Some of my more committed readers might remember a description of my cousin in the Bad Boys >:|. He hasn't changed much, so. I mean, sure he's a little less bossy and we can actually sit and enjoy each other's company, but he still treats his sister Melissa like crap and he's still got his arrogant tendencies. Besides that, I'm happy to be back and enjoying my family.

Anyhow, I've gotta run because I would LOVE to start on the next chapter of "Beautiful" before the night falls. I want you all to H.A.G.S. (have a great summer) and keep reading everyday and take the trip along with me :).

Love Always <3,
Katrina Lowell

7.8.11- Paramore "Playing God"

Hey Guys,

I just couldn't resist bringing back all the old blog sections, like "Journal of our Generation" and "Music Daily." Haven't you missed them? Anyhow, I wanted to kick things off with a song like "Playing God." This song  is so strong and kick- butt.

I love this song because it says everything that you could ever want to tell that one person that is always getting on you, putting you down, pointing out the small things in order to change you into who they want you to be. I think that everyone can relate to that one person and so I thought that this song was brilliant.

Yes, it's amazing, but here's where it gets a little... shameful; the song was written for Haley Williams' mom. Ouch! I mean, I could have sworn that she was talking about TMZ or some sort of person from the recording company that she works for, the people who are always nagging at her, telling her to change, but your mom? Maybe I can relate sometimes when I wish my mom would stop telling me that my clothes don't look good, or my style of hair looks wacky or something, but I understand that it's not out of malice, but honest concern. I know that some of my friends might say this to their moms, though, but maybe their situations have become so frustrating that the song truly fits there. Like, for instance, I had a friend a while back whose mom had them on an insane schedule; in one week, they practiced swimming, gymnastics, piano, dance, acting classes, modelling, etc. To top it off, they don't want to do all of these things, but I even witnessed the girl tell her mom that she really didn't enjoy doing these activities and her mom looked her in the eyes and said, "I honestly DO NOT CARE, you're going and that's final." Hey, to each their own, but if it were me in that situation, I wouldn't be able to be passive and work my butt off doing things that I really don't like to do.

The song, otherwise, has that rock edge and the music video is oh so funny. It reminds me of that TV show "Criminal Minds" where you find that peculiar serial killer who drugs people and ties them up in their garage, very like Haley Williams (LOL).

Well, I hope you enjoy the song, but not enough to go tell your mom to sit and listen carefully to it; that would be a HORRIBLE idea, okay guys. Be respectful to your parents :). Love ya mom ;)

Love Always <3,
Katrina Lowell

Sweet Dream or Beautiful Nightmare?

Hey guys,

So today I just felt compelled to talk about dreams. I have had dreams all my life, every night, every nap, everything. I've just summed up that I have a hyperactive brain, even when I'm sleeping. Let's go deeper into a few types of dreams:

1. The crying dreams- My earliest dream memories are from when I was in pre-school, so about three or four. I remembered having a lot of bad dreams, be it about ninjas in the dark, or aliens abducting my grandmother, or even some of the tyrants at my pre-school hurting my feelings. In all of these, I can remember crying in the dream and each time, without a fail, my dad would wake me up, telling me that it's just a dream and to stop crying. Yep, I was actually crying every time. I would then have to go wipe off my face and try to emotionally settle down. I hated it; I mean, sure those dreams sound pathetic, but believe it or not, those were reoccurring, like three times a week. That's why they are still so fresh in my mind today and that's also why it was so scary for me back then, being so small and having to deal with this so often.

2. The running dreams- Now anytime I'm in a dream where I need to run, I just pinch myself and immediately wake myself up (yes, I can wake myself up from dreams; certain ones). Anyhow, the problem with my running dreams are that I can never go anywhere. It's almost like I'm running in place and then... I get killed and wake up anyway, so to spare myself the emotional distress, I wake myself up from early on. I wonder why most people cant run in their dreams. In fact, I just looked it up and they said something that makes a lot of sense. For one, your brain only commutes things that it has seen, smelled, touched, done, etc. That's why you can't die in a dream; you body doesn't know what it feels like. Also, you can't run fast because while you're sleeping, your brain puts your body into something called "sleep paralysis" and therefore it prevents you from getting up and operating (sleep walkers fail to complete sleep paralysis) and therefore, your body cant move in real life, so it can't always move fast in your dream; your body just doesn't work like that. Wow, lot's of scientific explanation for what I had always thought wasn't explainable.

3. The short fall dreams- I get these probably once a month and I hate it. Usually when I'm really tired and I start to slip away, maybe semi conscious, I start to dream that I'm either walking or riding a bike, or something peaceful and normal and then I fall sideways and end up in my bed, laying sideways. Not a huge problem, except for the fact that my heart starts to get this strange feeling when it does this, almost like the feeling you get if you are falling on the Tower of Terror in Disneyland, but a lot less... happy.

4. The movie dreams- these are the less exciting ones because instead of being in your dream, you watch yourself do things, like in a movie. I've watched myself beat up robbers, eat ice cream with friends, go on an awesome bike, and some other strange imaginative things like riding a rainbow horse on a giant scientific balance and jumping off and discovering that Snoop Dogg is my father... yep, some pretty weird dreams...

5. The black and white dreams- Have you ever had a dream in black and white? It's almost as if you are laying there, daydreaming, but you'e actually in full fledged sleep. I don't like them because they just tend to be boring and confusing. Ugh, gross...

6. The math dreams- I think that the weirdest math dream that I have ever had was one where when I woke up, my hands were in the air, commuting a math problem and I couldn't stop them. I felt like a nut ball. You see why now people feel like they've got alien brains and all sorts of oddities? Anyhow, yeah, these are the dullest of all, to me. I just typically sit or stand in front a board and do math problems for hours on end. Hate it, plus it makes me wake up feeling like a loser :(.

7. The love dreams- You'd think that by being a girl I should love to fall in love in my dream and run off into the sunset. I don't. I mean, the first time I had a love dream was when I was ten and it became my obsession. I started trying to draw his face and I spelled his name over everything and I named him my "dream guy." Yes, I know, but really. I think that it's just like soap operas and fan fiction; the fake things that play with your emotions and make you believe that certain things should or could happen when usually, they are very far from reality. I just like things in my life being very... normal and realistic.

8. The beating dreams- I had one of these on Wednesday night, dreaming about a girl at my school that was a complete butt hole to me the day before and I dreamed that I was in my classroom, tapped on her shoulder and then just landed a punch straight in her jaw and in her stomach, just beating the daylights out of this girl. Now sure, I felt like a disgusting person, since it was almost like fantasizing about beating someone till they bleed profusely, but it made me feel better the next day and when I saw her, I was able to ignore her and feel normal instead of having pent up anger.

9. The sleepwalking dreams-This is the last dream that I'm covering for the day. Anyhow, yes, when I was smaller, I was an active sleepwalker. I was known for sleepwalking to the dining table or using the bathroom or just anything, but the biggest one was when I left my apartment. I had a dream that my aunt (who was living with us at the time) asked me to take my little brother's diaper out to the dump, so I did and when I went to come back inside, the door was locked, so I stated to beat at the door and cry hysterically because I sensed a monster approaching when in reality, I was whimpering and not hitting the door at all. My mother said that she was sleeping in the living room (relatively close to the door) and she heard a little girl crying, so she looked out of her peephole and saw me standing there. I don't even remember getting inside because when my mom took me inside and was talking to me, I was still very much asleep, in a sort of walking nightmare. She was so scared after that, but none more than me. I was horrified of what could have happened to me and what would have happened if my mom didn't open the door.

Anyhow, I hope you guys each have sweet dreams tonight; I'm sure I will :) Goodnight!

Love Always <3,
Katrina Lowell

You Must Really Love Conflict...

Hey guys,

So I am sorta feeling like a file of garbage after taking my own advice which is... horrible. As you all know, I take that Martin Luther King Jr. stance with the whole "Let's just all be friends" and just like him... I get shot.

So we all know Miranda, the one that I speak about in the "Opposition" posts. Anyhow, yeah, she's still with her foolish ways, cursing me often, giving me nasty looks, saying despicable things to and about me on the internet, you know; the whole sha-bang. So what do I do after I'm just about ready to strangle her? I try to kill her with kindness, ye good old trick, eh? WRONG!

So here's how I went about it; It's End of year exam time and I'm stressed, anxious, tired and quite flustered and in the midst of it all, I have little miss Miranda on my case everyday and with my patience so thin, I decided to write her a note, the only way I've been able to reason with this chick. Now, if you can remember, the last time she showed everyone the little note that I gave her, so this time, I made it general so that even her friends can get the message. It simply said "Miranda, I am sick and tired of the conflict. It's getting old and it's just really unnecessary. I'm letting you know right now that My 'white flag' is up and I don't want any more conflict, and I hope you'll join in too." Short, Sweet, Simple; the three S's needed in this note. And I felt good about it afterwords, like a load taken off of me. To my surprise, the rest of the day was peaceful. She had seemed to taken the note to heart and she even told her friends that it was a nice note and all that other stuff. Okay, no more trouble, right? WRONG (again)!!!

So when I get home, I happen to check my e-mail and I get an e-mail from Mr. Miranda's Dad saying, through me, that he was angered by my communication with Miranda since my mother ordered that Miranda discontinue her interactions with me. he also took the note as a friendship request, after Miranda had already offered to be my friend earlier up and I refused; look, this isn't Facebook, first of all and second of all, I don't want anything to do with your child sir! His daughter lies to him every day. In fact, I have proof that she had NOT in fact asked for my friendship. Instead she sent my cousin a message on Facebook, saying that she didn't want anything to do with me or my "people". How bout that for a friend request? Anyhow, yes, so he finished it off with a line that was extremely selfish, in my eyes. He goes, "I want Katrina to refrain from any further communication as this new note has caused great distress to the family." Now, with that statement, you'd swear I was lying about what was on that note, but I swear to the big guy upstairs that what I placed above was everything on that note. Can you believe it? Now the selfishness that I see is this: By your daughter causing me great grief every day by teasing me and being a complete bully, it has caused MY family great distress, so try again sir. You don't understand how hard it is to hear such nasty things said about you every day like a recording. It makes you lose self confidence, hurts your heart, and is just plain cruel. So Mr. Miranda's dad, don't have such tunnel vision and understand what your daughter is doing to my family, okay?

So moving on, after getting that message from her dad, I felt disrespected and just filled with that burden I thought I had left behind. I went straight to my teacher, Mr. Perry, the next day and explained my dilemma. Apparently the same e-mail was sent to him and so he decided to call in a meeting with Miranda and me the next morning. So I decided to walk in with evidence; my cousin sent me a screenshot of the message that Miranda had sent her. If I could just show one of her lies, I was sure the rest would fall in line.

The next morning, we sat in the classroom and Miranda explained to Mr. Perry a very messed up version of what happened, saying that she felt insulted by the letter and that she was upset because my mother had implemented the whole "no talking" thing and yet the note came about. To that I said "My mother isn't crazy, Mr. Perry. My mom came in and saw a disgusting e-mail sent to me from Ms. Miranda and proceeded to reply to it by saying that her NEGATIVE remarks need to be kept to herself and that Miranda should refrain from corresponding with me due to her behavior. And the only reason I had to write the note was because her father obviously wasn't doing a good job of handling his child and I couldn't wait for him to set things straight, so I did it myself." From there, Mr. Perry read the note and found NOTHING wrong with it. So then I decided to address the whole "friendship" claim and I allowed her to explain when and how she proposed this. She didn't know that I had my evidence, so I stopped her in the middle of her lie and showed Mr. Perry the screenshot. She was shocked to say the least, and she didn't even bother to try and cover up her lie.

Anyhow, Mr. Perry completed the conversation by saying that we are to not look at one another, talk to or about one another, etc. Can you believe that as he leaves, she says a stupid remark and curses me, so I got mad; almost crazy. I walked up to her face and I said, "If I'm causing your family so much distress, why are you talking to me, right after a teacher even instructed you not to. I no longer have any regard for you and if you even breathe to hard in my direction, child, I will report you to the principal of this school, do you hear me?" She rolled her eyes, but it obviously got to her because she shut up. This passive aggressive behavior began afterwords until about yesterday. Now this is why I think that she's bipolar.

Yesterday, we had a home economics test where we needed to prepare meals, so we did our little thing, blah blah blah, and then Miranda starts cracking jokes with me, giving me whipped cream, sharing food, smiling, being cheerful, a lot like when we were friends and I was... pissed off. After getting me in trouble with not only Mr. Perry for attempting to making things easier for everyone, but also getting me in trouble with your family, causing me strife at school, lying till your brain hurts, you wanna be all buddy-buddy? Absolutely not. I am actually going to march into the classroom on Monday and ask Mr. Perry is this agreement that we had made only applies to when Miranda is in a good mood, because she's just so ridiculous. In an effort to ruin my day, she goes and makes a big deal out of something that was completely in the right and then now that that's over, you want to follow the agreement of the note? I just don't get it.

Ugh... I just chalked it up to the fact that she must really love conflict...

Love Always <3,
Katrina Lowell

Somebody Snitched On Me, It's...Katrina?

Hey readers,

So this is not really a fun, happy post, but rather one of reflection. Reflection upon everyone that reads this, upon everything that happens in your life, upon certain decisions you make.

This week, a couple of students from my school were expelled for conduct unacceptable within and outside school walls. Now I knew one of these students very well; he was in my class and at one time one of my best friends, to be honest. This occurred on Wednesday, the same day that I went to get Waffle (my dog; he's been in the states for seven months, so he finally was able to join us here in the Caribbean). One of my friends from school gave me a phone call, telling me that these students had been expelled and for what, and to be honest, I was surprised. First came surprise, then sadness, not only for him and what this incident means to the rest of his life, but also for his family and everyone else involved.

I swear I couldn't sleep properly, just thinking about what happened and everything else. Being a writer, to get myself to sleep, I wrote a speech in my mind. A speech that I would tell my classmates during any discussion about the situation since I was sure they would all feel a certain way about the two students and what they were doing. This made me feel a lot better and I was confident in the words that I was going to say. With that I fell asleep.

The next day: Thursday. I remember my drive to school as a very painful one. I felt like I was going to cry because the situation was just so saddening. Besides his family and himself,  I thought about all of his friends who would obviously be devastated at school, spending the first day without him there. I thought about the awkwardness that my classroom will be in, and wrongfully so. I was just really down that morning, and what I heard when I arrived at school didn't feel awesome either.

So as I got to school, my friends let me know that people thought that I was the snitch that got the two students, and possibly others, expelled. At this I was appalled, but the rumor spread around the ENTIRE school and there was nowhere I could hide. That speech of mine went out the door and worries an so many others filled its space. I know that I had no involvement in it, and I think that that's all that counts.

But, what I really wanted to blog is what I would have said in my speech, and this can apply to everyone:

What happened here on Wednesday was unfortunate. It was unexpected and therefore caused many of us to doubt who these people were and their true intentions due to their bad decisions. But, one thing that we all need to understand is that we are all humans. And to top it off, we're teens; we all make mistakes, especially at this time in our lives. Sure, some worse than others, but it doesn't mean that we are bad people for doing it. I'm definitively not excusing their actions because they knew to a certain extent that it was wrong. In knowing one of them, though, I can tell you that maybe doing what they did made a lot of sense to them.

I know that in this time of our lives, we often feel misunderstood and hurt, be it by our peers, parents, anyone. How people choose to deal with that pain varies; some get help from doctors and others get help from cutting. I mean, it's the hard truth, and hopefully one day we can be able to help each other in a safe way, a safe environment, with people that we trust. In any event, maybe this lead on some of the bad decisions made.

Another possibility is that of reputation; teens, especially boys, will do anything for friends, to look cool, to have that feeling. Maybe by doing this, they thought they could look better to their peers or whatever. Fact of the matter is that it has made them lose friends and possibly even their futures; definitely not worth it.

I remember when I was really good friends when one of them. I mean, he was such a good friend. I remember when he opened up to me and I TRULY got to see who he was. Sure, I've questioned his honesty about anything he has said, but it makes me feel better just trusting that that person that I met six months ago is the same person that I thought he was on the inside. I remember that he told me that he wanted to be in the navy, to help people and I thought that that was the nicest thing I'd ever heard him say. I remember some of the arguments that we had and even after, he would never call us enemies, but frienemies, whether I agreed or not. I remember how when I felt sad one day and was crying, he came by my side saying that seeing girls sad was something that he just couldn't deal with, and then cracking a joke and giving me a tissue to cheer me up. I remember him, Tracy and me just enjoying our times together as the "three musketeers" that we were. I told Tracy and she was as astonished as I was. What I remember especially was Tuesday, the last day I saw him. He walked past me and took my I.T. book and I got upset because we're not really friends anymore, so being casual like that was a little too soon after some of the things we've gotten into. At any rate, he just kept walking and said, "Kat, you should really stop writing in purple pen" and he laughed. Even though I was still irritated, I had not choice but to laugh with him; it was just so infectious. That day, he erased something that I wrote on the board and replaced it with his horrible hand writing just to jeer me. I remember the music test that we had that day where he was so nervous, since we were getting video taped, and I counted all three of his mistakes.

When I think of him, I think about all the good memories; I mean, I might never see him again. We don't hang out in the same spots, we most likely wont talk to each other anymore, so it's finished here. But I think we can all just move forward thinking about the good things that we remember, even me, the frienemy.

I don't know if anyone from my school is reading this, but if they are, take it to heart. Send him an e-mail, text, Facebook message; anything and just ask him how he's doing. See that his family's okay. Let's just be kind to one another and just move forward in a positive way. That's what's most important...

Love Always <3,
Katrina Lowell

The Challenge

Hey guys,

So I've got this new, great, fun idea that you guys can join in with to help support the blog. Like the t-shirts, it's a way to not only get word out, but for your friends and others to stand out in more ways than one.

I'm just gonna start it off with a small little challenge for all you guys to do:-

Friday, May 18th, 2012- Thursday, May 31st, 2012: Express as many aspects of yourself using the letters KATRINA LOWELL, LOVE ALWAYS, A BLOG OF OUR GENERATION, or the title of any of your favorite posts. For instance, I might do:

K - Knowledgeable 

A - Artistic

T - Talented

R - Responsible

I - Interesting

N - Nerdy

A - Author

L - Love <3

O - Optimistic

W - Welcoming

E - Energetic

L - Listener

L - Loyal

There :). But here's the details: 

1) This must be done EVERY DAY! Yep, so try to look within yourself and find as many naming qualities as you can.

2) Write them on your arms, legs, post it on a way, tape a sticky note to your desk, your locker; write it any and everywhere!

3) Decorate it, make it as unique as possible.

4) Take pictures of the finished product and post it on Google, Twitter, Facebook, Flicker; anywhere you can inspire others to join the challenge, too.

5) Last but not least, at the bottom, state a post that you were able to relate to, that made you feel something deep inside, be it sadness, love, hate, happiness, or even humor. 

I can't wait to hear how this works out! I would LOVE for you guys to tell me some of your creations in the comment box, and don't worry, I'll be doing some of my own and sharing them on June the 1st. 

Love Always <3,

Katrina Lowell