October Poll

I can't believe nobody voted for Goosebumps!

Writer's Conference

Yesterday, I went to a writers conference for Jr. High students. I was there as an aid to one of the professionals. The kids were divided up into groups where they read their pieces out loud to the rest of the group to be critiqued. It was a really neat to be around other people, particularly kids, who enjoy to write. I haven't written much fiction in a long time. Sadly, most of my writing is school oriented (essays and journalism). Outside of class, I blog and journal, but I'm not sure if that counts as real writing. I did do a lot of fiction in middle school though. When I got home from the conference, I went digging to see if I could find any of it. "The Perfect Band" was one of my favorite short stories. I've come a long way since then. Enjoy.

"The Perfect Band"

.

Becky Carson was never the easiest person to get along with. Most people would call somebody like her a control freak or snob.

.

Becky was a few inches over five feet. She was slim but not twig-like. Her hair was golden blonde. It was very strait. Every hair on her head was cut the same exact length. Her golden hair was longer than shoulder-length but didn’t quite reach her belly button. It was silky, soft, hair. The kind of hair people like to run their hands through. Her eyes were blue. They were round and watchful like an owl's. She also had dimples that showed when she smiled her ear to ear smile. Her nose was as pointy as the tip of a pencil. It was speckled with a few faint freckles.

.

Becky’s favorite thing to do is sing. She grew up in Nashville and always dreamed of being a star. She would trade anything in the world to be a famous singer. Becky would sing on the bus, between classes, during meals, and any other time or place.

.

Becky’s best friend is Samantha Dillon. Samantha is extremely short. Her skin was tan. Her hair is short and curly. She wears it in a ponytail tied with a pink ribbon. Her eyes are almond shaped. She wears glasses which makes it hard to see her beautiful dark brown eyes underneath them. To Becky, Samantha looks dorky.

.

Becky and Samantha go to Glenmont Middle School. Glenmont was fairly new. The lockers were blue and the walls were white. It’s a generally small school. Becky and Samantha are in all of the same classes. The two usually do most of their talking during study hall.

.

“So Samantha,” said Becky, “are you coming to band practice today?”

“Um...” Samantha hesitates, “I don’t think so.”

.

“What do you mean you don’t think so?”

.

“I may not be able to come”

.

“You can’t come?”

.

“I have to…”

.

Becky cuts her off. “Samantha, you know we have practice every Tuesday and Thursday. You know that. You’ll have to rearrange your schedule.”

.

“Whatever”

.

The bell rings signaling a class change. Becky and Samantha pack their things and walk towards their next class. While they pass the school bulletin board Becky notices a flier. The flier read,

Youth Talent Contest

The Youth Talent Contest is February 9, 2004.
We invite all talents.
Winners will receive $500.00!
Please sign up in the front office.
If you plan to enter, please sign up by February 1st.
Good Luck.

Becky’s eyes widened with excitement. If she could win this contest there would be a chance she would become famous. She wasted no time. She entered herself and her band in the Youth Talent Contest right away.

.

After school Becky and the rest of the band members met at Becky’s house for their regular band practice. The band practiced in the garage. The garage was dusty and dark like any other garage. The first thing you saw when you walk in the garage is the drum set. It was placed smack dab in the middle of the room. Underneath is set a big rug. The rug was green. Soda and snack stains were spotted all over. Next to the drum set was a keyboard. This was the keyboard Samantha played on. The keyboard was black and covered in dust. Sheets of music were left scattered on top of it. On the other side of the drum set there were two music stands. One was for each guitar player in the band. There was a microphone about 4 feet in front of the drum set. It was for Becky to sing into. The garage had posters of band after band on all four walls. Every poster was perfectly strait. None were wrinkled or bent.

.

“Okay everybody, I have a surprise for you,” Becky announced. “I have entered our band in The Youth Talent Contest going on at our school. So we’re really going to have to work hard if we want to win. This may mean extra practices and things like that. But I’m sure you guys won’t mind. Besides, the winners get $500.”

.

The band’s jaws dropped. But they didn’t look as excited as Becky expected.

.

“You what!” Yelled Rick. Rick was the lead guitar player in the band. He was tall, about 6 feet.

His hair was a midnight black color. He spiked it up like the rock stars he saw on television. Rick had green braces that matched his green eyes. Rick and Becky never agreed on anything. They would argue for hours on who was right and who was wrong about the silly things.

.

“I entered us in The Youth Talent Contest,” Becky replied.

.

“Why didn’t you ask us if we wanted to enter first?” Rick demanded.

.

“I thought it was a good idea.” Becky said.

.

Samantha joined the conversation, “Becky, I don’t really have a lot of extra time to practice. Do you think we’ll be ready in time for the performance? When is it?”

.

“It’s on February 9.”

.

“But that only gives us 2 weeks. We’ll never be ready in time. That’s insane.” Rick said.

.

“Look everybody, we’ll just have to work hard. Plus the winners get $500 in cash” Becky said.

.

“That’s kind of cool” said Marie. Marie played the base guitar in the band. She had long spiral

like hair that reached her waist. It was a dusty brown color. Marie didn’t talk a lot. She mostly just kept to herself and followed what everyone else did. She was very mellow but hard not to notice because she was the tallest member of the band. Marie chewed gum constantly. She was never seen without a stick of gum in her mouth. The teachers didn’t even bother asking her to spit it out because they knew she’d just put another piece of gum in her mouth while they weren’t looking.

.

“Yeah dude,” said Greg. Greg was the drummer in the band. Greg and Marie were twins. He had the same curly, dusty brown colored hair as his sister only his hair was much shorter. His hair was always a complete mess. Greg, like his sister, didn’t talk a lot. He mostly only talked when spoken to. When he did talk he said words like “Dude” and “Yeah man.” Greg and Rick were best friends. Greg couldn’t stand Becky. But he kept it to himself because he knew this was the only band he’d find with members his age that actually had some potential.

.

“Okay, I guess it wouldn’t be so bad. We don’t really have anything to loose.” Said Rick.

.

“Good, I’m glad you see it my way.” Becky snottily said, “Samantha what about you? Are you in?”

.

Samantha looked at the other band members. They, like her, weren’t very enthusiastic about the idea. She looked at Becky.

.

“Okay, but I may need to miss a few practices because of tests and stuff. I guess I’ll do my

best.”

.

“Great, then it’s settled. Practice is every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday for now on. We need all the practice we can get! Samantha, did you say something about a new song?” Becky said.

.

“Yeah, it’s really good too. I think it’s my best song yet,” Replied Samantha.

.

Samantha passed out her music to Greg, Marie, and Rick. She gave a copy of the lyrics to Becky. The band diddled on their instruments a little trying to read the music.”

.

“Hey Samantha, this is really good,” Said Rick. “It’ll be a hit for sure.”

.

Becky quickly looked at Samantha. Becky had the look of jealousy in her eyes. Becky wanted to learn to read music but would never admit it. She wanted everyone to think she was perfect. She was scared to ask a fellow band member to teach her because she’s scared they might make fun of her. Becky also wanted to write music. She had tried writing lyrics before but they were never as good as Samantha’s. Samantha had natural music ability and Becky knew that. Becky hid her jealousy by acting like music didn’t matter. She was constantly asking the band why they needed their music written down anyway.

.

“Thank you,” Samantha replied with a bit smile.

.

“I don’t see how you guys can read music. It makes no sense. Besides, I always thought real artist just felt the music,” Said Becky.

.

“What does it matter to you?” asked Rick, “The only musical talent you have is singing. What’s the challenge in that?”

.

Becky pretended not to hear him. She went back to humming the lyrics to herself.

.

“Do you think you guys have looked over the music enough times so we can actually try and play it?” Becky asked sarcastically.

.

The rest of the band moaned at her question and nodded their heads.

.

“Good, let’s play.”

.

The band played their new song. It was a little rough but they’d play it great if they get enough practice. The song was upbeat and kind of fun. The finished playing their new song when Rick motioned for them to stop.

.

“Do you think we could have a guitar solo in this song?” he asked.

.

“Or maybe even a drum solo?” Greg added.

.

“That’s a really good idea!” said Samantha. “Yeah Rick, just start your solo when we’re getting near the end.”

.

“I don’t think so,” cried Becky, “That’s a stupid idea.”

.

“You’re just jealous because you don’t get a solo!” Rick yelled back.

.

“Am not!”

.

“Look I got to go. Practice is over. I’ll see y’all Thursday.” said Samantha. With that, she grabbed her music and left. The rest of the band trailed behind her.

.

Becky was jealous about the guitar solo. She dreamed that she could play some sort of instrument so she could have a solo. She went inside and felt more and more jealous of the rest of the band members.

.

The 2 weeks rolled by and it was now time for the band to meet again for their last practice before the contest.

.

Samantha had bags under her eyes and looked very tired and stressed.

.

“Hi y’all! Let’s get to work,” said Becky cheerfully.
The band jumped right into their new song. They played it great. Everybody was on beat and in key. Not one mistake was made. But that wasn’t good enough for Becky.

.

“Okay everybody that was awesome. We’ll win the contest for sure. But there are some things we need to talk about.”

.

“Like what?” asked Rick?

.

“Well, I think we need to look our best for the contest. So I want each of you to make sure and do all these things for me. Greg, do you think you could actually comb your hair before we go on stage. Marie do you think you could go three minutes without chewing gum. Rick, please don’t smile because your ugly green braces might show. And Samantha, please don’t wear your glasses. You look like a total dweeb.” She said all of this very quickly like she had put a lot of thought into this criticism.

.

“Excuse me?” said Rick, “I don’t think that Samantha’s glasses make her look like a dweeb.”

.

“And who cares about Marie’s gum?” said Greg.

.

“Greg’s hair is cool,” said Samantha.

.

“And there’s nothing wrong with braces,” added Marie.

.

“I’m just saying…”

.

“Well don’t okay!” yelled Rick.

.

“Besides Becky, I can’t even see my music without my glasses. You know how bad my eyes

are!” said Samantha.

.

“Look everyone, it’s only one song! Anyways, onto other business. I was thinking about how we want to have the announcer person announce us. How about this? "This next band is about to perform a song called 'More Than Perfect' written by our own… Becky Carson.”

.

“Written by who?” screamed Rick.

.

“Becky Carson”

.

“But Samantha wrote that song”

.

Samantha’s chin was quivering like she was inches away from crying. Her eyes were watery and cheeks were red.

.

“So?” Becky relied.

.

“You can’t steal other people’s music. That’s illegal!”

.

“Who cares?”

.

“Look, Samantha worked really hard on that song. I can’t believe you would even think of doing that! You’re crazy Becky Carson. You are crazy!”

.

Tears were running down Samantha’s cheeks. She was staring at Becky as if she just stabbed her. Samantha looked down at the keyboard and then looked back at the rest of the band.

.

“I’m really sorry you guys. But I’m not going to be at the contest. I can’t play with someone like Becky. I’ll see you at school later.” She turned to Becky stared at her as if she was going to say something but walked away. All the other band members followed except Becky.

.

The next day the band gave Becky the silent treatment. But Becky wasn’t worried about the friendships. She was worried about how she was going to win the contest. After school she bought a karaoke cod she could sing to for the talent contest. She practiced all that night so she could win.

.

It was time for the talent contest. The school body filled the gym. Samantha, Rick, Greg, and Marie all sat together. They watched all the acts. Other students did things such as juggling and yodeling. The band knew they could win but realized Becky had gone completely overboard. Near the end of the show it was Becky’s turn to sing. The music she bought started to play through the speakers. It was scratchy. Becky started to sing but something was wrong with her CD. It was skipping and Becky had no working music. Becky’s face looked red. The gym filled with snickers and giggles from the other students. Becky had tears falling across her face.

.

Samantha looked at her fellow band members. They all nodded at each other and went down to save Becky. They played their song for the Talent Contest. The students were amazed at how good the band actually was. They played Samantha’s song. Rick even played his guitar solo. It was the best they ever played it. Becky was very thankful. You could see her pride in her eyes. The song was over and the five band members sat on the bleachers.

.

“I’m really sorry you guys,” Becky said sobbing.

.

“Well it’s okay. You went way over board but that did punishment enough have to go through the embarrassment of a broken CD,” said Samantha.

.

“I think we’re going to win,” said Rick.

.

“It doesn’t matter any more,” said Becky, “I’m just glad I have friends like you.”

.

“Shush.” said Marie, “They’re awarding the winners.”

“The first place price goes to Becky, Rick, Samantha, Greg and Marie for Samantha’s very own song, 'More than perfect'!” said women holding a trophy cup and a $500 check.

.

The band spent the money to buy Becky guitar lessons. The band argued here and there but got along better than ever after they won the contest.

The Office

I've never really enjoyed watching TV. I like movies, but TV's just so loud and just looking at it makes me feel like I should be doing something more productive (like blogging). Recently, however, I've become progressively more and more addicted to The Office. Stevie owns the DVDs of seasons one, two and three and I've been borrowing them. I'm completely hooked. I've seen every episode up to season four, which I'm catching up on with the help of the NBC's handy dandy website which has select episodes available to watch online. I only just discovered the website tonight. It's lots of fun. The fictional character blogs are perhaps the coolest television website thing ever: Shrute-Space (hilarious) and Creed Thoughts. So what's so great about The Office? It's difficult to say exactly. Maybe it's lines like this:

"Wikipedia is the best thing ever. Anyone in the world can write anything they want about any subject so you know you are getting the best possible information."

Said by Michael Scott in the episode entitled, "The Negotiation."

Who's Bram Stoker?

I didn't know Dracula wrote a book! Wait a minute. Isn't Dracula a fictitious character created by Bram Stoker? Poor Bram Stoker. He invented the vampire genre and at the same time wrote a classic that people will still read hundreds of years from now and he also created a character who is recognized world wide (even by people who have never heard of the book), but nobody ever remembers Bram Stoker's name. I wonder how long people will remember Neil Gaiman. As much as I enjoyed Princess Mononoke, I don't think it has the quite the same staying power as Dracula.

This question came from the "Are You Goth?" quiz I found while procrastinating my English homework. I never found out if I was goth or not though because you were required to give them your email address before they told you your score. I wasn't going to fall for that.

Fall Break Fell Over

I go back to school tomorrow. Fall break went by far too fast this year. It was a busy few days. I visited a potential college, attended a bonfire where I ate my first vegetarian hot dog (not bad), decided what I'm going to be for Halloween, watched all of season two from The Office (my favorite show ever, not that I've ever watched much TV), went to a small party (separate get together from the bonfire), cut my best friend's hair (looks great) and had a haircut of my own, survived a full day of marching band (8a-5p), had an audition for Williamson County Youth Orchestra (and made it), finally saw Little Miss Sunshine and laughed till I died, and made progress on my college applications.

College Applications

As of this morning, I have applied to four schools: UT Knoxville, MTSU, East Tennessee, and Western Kentucky. I still need to send my transcript and ACT scores to three of those schools (the exception being UTK), but I can't do that until fall break is over because all that information is at school in the guidance office. I've registered for housing and have started my scholarship application at UTK, my number one choice right now. It feels good to make progress on this college thing. It's exciting.

The whole application process is sort of annoying though because every school asks the same exact questions. I wish I could just fill out one form and send it to whatever schools I wanted instead of filling out four different versions of the same exact thing. It's irritating. I got pretty fast by the time I applied to Western Kentucky.

A Story's Triumph Over Time

I started reading Crime and Punishment today and was surprised to discover I love it. I know I'm a total book worm, but I'm still intimidated when I pick up something labeled classic literature. Older books have such a reputation for being difficult. Sometimes it seems like that archaic language is distracting from the story (Dickens), or if the language isn't ancient the vocabulary is difficult (Joyce), or the novel seems plotless (Hawthorne), but today when I was reading Crime and Punishment, I realized I had it all wrong. Wuthering Heights is full of words people don't use anymore but it doesn't take away from the story. Archaic language isn't that bad, not if you read it enough. It grows on you and it's definitely nothing to avoid. Difficult books (like Ulysses) are supposed to be complicated and confusing. It's part of the story telling. The Scarlet Letter is one of my favorite books ever and it's pretty much plotless. Those first six pages of Crime and Punishment really got me thinking because even though that book is old, I'm already in love with it. Who would have guessed I could appreciate a story created in 1866, a time so different from the one I'm in now? I guess it's sort of like art; Michelangelo may be dead, but his paintings are still as beautiful as ever.

The idea of a story triumphing over time is so fascinating to me. It's amazing how we still can enjoy books that were written over 150 years ago because things have changed so much. Just yesterday in English class, during a discussion of Daisy Miller (published 1878) by Henry James, it was pointed out that automobiles were not available in 1878 to the general public. By "cars" James meant carriages. Parents still read their kids still Lewis Carroll's Alice stories even though they were published over 100 years ago when children didn't have Mario, Crayola, Blues Clues, Twister, Play Dough, or air conditioning. My dad used to read to me a lot and one of my favorite books was The Little House on the Prairie (1935). It's a newer classic, but still, 1935 and 1995 are two completely different worlds to a five year old. I'll probably never encounter Indian territory or have to build my own log cabin, but I think that may have been one of the reasons the book was so much fun; it's almost like reading fantasy. Now that I'm older, one of my favorite books is Les Miserables (the abridged version) by Victor Hugo. That book was published in 1862, but that I love that story. Jane Austen's novels are continually popping up on the big screen. Even the 2000+ year old stuff can be good. When I took Great Books last year, we read a lot of ancient philosophy, which I loathed. I read Aristotle, Sophocles, and Plato kicking and screaming, but Socrates, who wrote the Oedipus books, I loved.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that if the book was written a long time ago, it's probably still being read for a reason. Stereotyping classic or old books as difficult is lame.

Banned Books Poll

Remember how I said I was going to post something everyday during banned books week? You may have noticed that it didn't really work out. I had a busy week. Sorry. Here's the results from the frequently challenged books poll. There weren't many votes, so I'm not sure if the data can be very valuable, or even interesting. I voted for Harry Potter.