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Dear Readers,

Today we are going talk about the high and mighty getting off of their high horse.

In other words, we’re talking about Alex Day.

But for those who don’t know who Alex Day I’m going to rename him Mr. Pretentious so you can imagine him as whoever you want who acts like him.

First of all, lets get the disclaimer out of the way: I like Mr. Pretentious. That being said, I'm opinionated and so I'm going to talk about him like he will never find this (which he probably won't).

Mr. Pretentious has been talking about the silliness of social media for years, about how he doesn’t think it’s worth the trouble. He’s basically that grandma, (not necessarily your grandma but the grandma) who is always complaining about how she doesn’t understand that Internet nonsense and why can’t you just go over to your friend's house like she did back in her day.

The catch: Mr. Pretentious has just signed up for facebook and twitter.

I almost dropped dead from laughing so hard.

Now, Mr. Pretentious doesn't have a problem with the Internet or social media sites. . He just believes that social media has the ability to consume your time and hinder you from doing something productive and that it's not a real viable way to connect with people.

He’s basically that parent who is always complaining about you being on facebook when you should be doing your homework. Meaning, he has a valid point, but you wish he would shut up, because it's not like he's ever tried it.

Social media can, and has been used for so many great things! My first post, Don’t 4get 2 Vote talked about ways to use it for the political process. Facebook was a critical factor in the pre-production of my short film. Without twitter I would have missed John’s live show. Yeah, it has the ability for great evils procrastination, brain crack and developing antisocial tendecies among them, but it also the ability to just be great, bringing unlikely people together and exposing talented people.

And it annoyed me that he wouldn’t even try it first. Not enough to fight him over the Internet, because it's his life and its not like we're friends. But enough where I rolled my eyes every time his superiority complex popped up, by way of him letting everyone know he did not own a twitter or facebook account and he had no intention of getting one.

But now he has one. It's official.

Facebook official in fact.

Okay, now that I've sufficiently made fun of Mr. Pretentious, I will mention that I am impressed.

He allowed himself to consider a different opinion, and was willing to change his mind over something he felt strongly about out of respect for his fans.

That's very cool.

It's kind of like we're that friend who forces you to try their favorite food, even though you told them nine zillion times you don’t need to try it to know you don’t like it.

Maybe he’s gonna be that friend that admits he was wrong and the snack is as awesome as we claimed. Or maybe he'll be the one who goes “HA! I WAS RIGHT!”.

I'm hoping for the former, but only time will tell.

Sincerely,
Elle

Spoilers

Dear Readers,

Okay Doctor Who fanatics, match the quote with the quoted:

"Spoilers."

If your answer is the ever wonderful River Song, then you are correct. If not, you're incorrect. If you don't know what I'm talking about, pass go and collect an imaginary 200 dollars (translation: skim to the part of the blog where I'm not geeking out. I'll be there in a second).

I bring up River not to talk about Doctor Who (though I probably should one day) but because every time River says spoilers, I suddenly get this intense urge to strangle her. I am pretty sure my face mirrors The Doctor's every time. I desperately want to know what she is stopping me from knowing,  but I know its for my own good that I don't know.

Still with me? If you need to read over that a few times, I can wait.

All good? Okay.

Yesterday John Green did a live show where he read the first chapter of his new book, The Fault In Our Stars, as a teaser for his eager fans.

And a voice in my head that sounded strangely like River Song whispered "Spoilers."

When John reached the end of his chapter, I swear, I had my "Shut up River!" face on, complete with "Why would you do that to me!" groan. Especially when he said it could be as late as NEXT MAY before I would get my pre-order. >_<

Now here is where the monopoly players can come back.

The point of the little geekfest above was to explain why I simotanously love and hate pre-reads or any kind of good teaser.

I love them because of the obvious: I get to finally hear at least a little about something I was waiting for. I love watching/hearing/reading these things because I can make a sort of judgement on whether I'm going to like it or not.

At the same time I was really sad/annoyed when John finished reading the first chapter of his book. Because it was good. Really good. Great in fact.

And I hate it when something great is not available immediately.

It's so easy for me, especially with books, to become invested in characters. I want to know what's happening to them, right then. I don't have a lot of bookmakrs because I don't like to stop reading things once I've started. I literally have to check out six books from the library every time I go so that I don't have to return the next day, and even that doesn't work most of the time.

So when a teaser gets me invested in characters or invested in a plot line and then says "Sorry, you'll have to wait to find out what happens." all I hear is the maniacal laughter of someone who knows more than me and isn't sharing.

All I hear is River Song.

And lord knows I'm not patient enough to be The Doctor. -_-

Sincerely,
Elle

All Colleges Look Like Hogwarts

Dear Readers,

Hey guys! Been gone a while and I thought I should explain myself.

I was touring colleges up in the NorthEast: New Jersey, New York, Virginia, Washington, etc. I'm not going to list them or tell you my favorites, but I will tell one thing.

All colleges look like Hogwarts.

Okay, not all colleges. But all of the old, prestigious college's residential halls look like Harry Potter's room. And that was incredibly cool...the first time.

The fifth time, I realized that they are still muggle schools so it doesn't really make a difference, now does it?

But it did get me thinking: College is going to be a lot like going to wizarding school. You'll be off, in this new place, surrounded by things you don't recognize, discovering who you really are and all of your abilities, and ultimately you have to emerge as the person you were meant to be.

Just a Harry Potter fan's way of looking at it.

Sincerely,
Elle

P.S. I didn't just go to colleges to compare them to J.K. Rowlings masterpiece by the way. If you're thinking about college right now, I strongly suggest you go to the information sessions. You learn a lot about the schools that way.

The Good Kind of Stressed

Dear Readers,

You know how when you are counting down to something, a big presentation or a driver's test, and you're stressed out of your mind but it's the good kind of stressed? The stress that has you hyped and happy, even as you complain about being stressed out?

I live in that kind of stress. I never escape that kind of stress. It's thrilling.

But stressful.

I just got done with my first ever short film a few weeks ago. I was really proud of how it turned out and the hours I spent on  two Fridays and a Saturdays filming it in the hot sun didn't seem so horrible anymore. My friends liked it, forgave that their appearances were a lot shorter than what they were hoping for, and my life seemed ready to slow down.

But then I had Rat Pack camp (long explanation) and then I was on a trip to Washington to check out schools and then I was introduced to a new film contest that is right up my alley.

So on the ride home from Washington, I spent a good two hours composing yet another script (though this time it has dialogue, something my last script did not, so I kinda like this one better).

Now I am once again the good kind of stressed. It seems I'm determined to truly live up to the phrase "I'll sleep when I'm dead." I like that I'm constantly doing things, but on the other hand...I do enjoy sleeping. Of the not dead variety.

So I tend to wonder, why do I keep throwing myself in these situations?

The answer: I don't.

I truly believe in destiny, that sometimes things fall into your lap for a reason. You find out about things, you are offered opportunities that you were meant to take and that you have to seize immediately. Every single "good stress" inducing activity I've done has bettered me in some way

So if you have something out there that you are afraid will be stressful but are pretty sure might be worth it I say seize the day! Do it, do it, do it! Peerpressurepeerpressurepeerpresure!

After all, stress isn't all bad.
As long as it's the good kind.

Sincerely,
Elle

My name is Elle, and I'm a Youtubaholic

Dear Readers,

When I first started posting videos to youtube, it was as part of a short lived collab channel whose videos now make me cringe every time I watch them. The only thing I really like about that channel is that through it I found the vlogbrothers.

The vlogbrothers, for those who don't know, are two brothers who vlogged to each other every day, and they are the keepers of the "nerdfighter" community on YouTube. In the nerdfighter community the word "nerd" is loosely defined. The qualifications seem to be only that you are awesome, awesome being defined through wanting to help others by decreasing world suck. It's a long story but really it's because of this community that I love Youtube the way that I do.

And why my friends call me a Youtube Addict.

I'm not going to lie, I spend a lot of time on Youtube. But that's because I personally think it has created this opportunity for people who aren't "famous" to be recognized. It's like how in the medieval age there were peasants and there was the aristocracy and no middle class. Then there was a rise of the middle class. Well I see Youtube as the rise of the middle class in the entertainment industry where status is like money. You have celebrities and then you have youtube celebrities and then you have regular people. Being a youtube celebrity is more of an honor, in my opinion, than being a "real" celebrity, just like being middle class is more impressive than being "rich". The middle class are the backbone of our economy. Youtubers are the regular people who toiled to build a fan base, not through advertisements or movies or blah, but by making their content on a regular basis and being awesome. If you have a real fan base on Youtube, you have loyal fans, Harry Potter fans, fans who will wait anxiously for your videos to come out every week, will beat down any troll who sounds like they are trying to diss you, will buy every button, every t-shirt, every c-d that they can afford. Youtubers don't have to resort to becoming alcoholics or shaving their head to regain the public's attention.

I've seen YouTube raise thousands of dollars for hundreds of charities in a weekend. I've seen YouTube unite hundreds of people at conferences and gatherings. I've seen people get just as excited over meeting Hank Green as they were to see Snookie.

Because really, in the battle between Jershey Shore and the Vlogbrothers, who has the more real reality tv?

Just sayin.

Sincerely,
Elle

A Good Mistake

Dear Readers,

This weekend I tried my hand at directing with an impromptu commercial I wanted to enter in a contest. My script was last minute (and turned out to be completely useless because I couldn't make it fit my into timeframe) and my directing style consisted of, "ummm...just do what you do!". I did get a little better when it came to getting the shots I wanted, but I was so unprepared that I really didn't have any direction to give. And when I got home I had a story line that would not, no matter how hard I tried, fit the 15 second deadline that I had been give. So I had to edit the video into a entirely different plot, something that was not really difficult, but not fun because I had to cut out everyone's lines. The end result was a commercial that was nothing like it was supposed to be.

But the commercial is not that bad, something that was surprising to me at first because I thought for sure I wouldn't be able to make the footage work. However with clips that I hadn't really meant to get, extra footage that I would have gotten rid of later, I was able to pull together an okay commercial.

Basically, the mistakes I made while filming saved me from the mistake I made while writing. Because I had left-over film from moving the camera or waiting for someone to get in their places, I had enough film to make a 15 second commercial. It was a mistake, but it was a good mistake.

I wouldn't recommend doing this on a regular basis, but I think its important to remeber making a mistake doesn't always have to be bad.

Sincerely,
Elle

A Universal Language

Dear Readers,

I have come to the conclusion that in every language teenagers have a language all other teenagers can understand. Do not deny it, do not contradict me, because I have tested this theory twice and it has held true thus far.

True, testing the experiment twice would not validate a scientific hypothesis, but it will do for my purposes.

Two of my very best friends are bilingual: One speaks Vietnamese and English and one speaks Finnish and English.

When they are talking in school or to their friends they always speak in English but when they are talking to their parents they speak in their parent's native language, Vietnamese or Finnish. Yet no matter what language they are speaking, there are times when I can almost tell what they are saying, despite not being able to speak Vietnamese or Finnish myself. And I have determined that I can understand them because they have slipped into a third language, a language many people don't even know they speak.

Teenager.

In my opinion, all teenagers have a universal language. Words like, "Yes ma'am, Uh-huh, No ma'am, mmm-hmmm, nope, sure, Do I have to?, *sigh* fiiinnee," sound the same in every language. The tone of voice, the slight look upward like maybe God could explain why your parents are taking so long to get the point, the look over to your friends that says "Save me, please!", it's that stuff that defines the teen language. It works with other words too like "Thank you!, I love you guys!, This is awesome!" , coupled with the bright eyes of someone who just got what they wanted, the beaming smile of someone who, at that moment, is truly grateful to have such terrific guardians, the bounce in one's step when they finish talking.

It's funny to me how unimportant actual words are in this language. It's really about how the person sounds and looks at that moment. But then again, I think that's true of every language. If all we had were words we probably wouldn't understand everyone very well at all. It's the body language and tone of voice that really defines a conversation.

It's like how babies have their own language. They all seem to understand each other fine before we teach them words and meanings. Furthermore, parents seem to understand their kids, at least some of the time, before they learn to talk. Babies have a way of communicating that really has nothing to do with the gurgles they can pull off at that age, and more to do with pointing and laughing and smiling.

And crying. Lots and lots of crying.

By tone of voice and facial expression you can determine, in any language, whether the words are good or bad, angry or excited, sad or ecstatic. And with Teenager you can determine bored or slightly annoyed, emotions that seem to be the trademark of adolescents.

Then again gratitude and happiness is also easily determined, if my experiments are to be trusted, so maybe those should be our trademarks too.

...No? You don't agree? *sigh* fiiiinnnneeee.

Sincerely,

Elle

Confessions of a Peanut

Dear Readers,

It doesn't matter what you are trying out for, the soccer team, basketball team, cheerleading squad, a play (hint hint), there is always that one group where all the kids know each other already because they have been on the team before and are pretty sure they are going to be on the team again. It's that group that when they are not trying out, get together and talk and laugh while others are trying to try out and the coach/leader/person in charge has to keep saying,

"Quiet in the peanut gallery!"


Now I know that when someone says "quiet in the peanut gallery!" they are not calling those people peanuts. I'm aware that it refers to the olden days when peanuts where sold to people in the cheap seats at performances, and the owners of these seats usually caused a bit of ruckus during the show.

But for the sake of the title of this blog, which I am quite fond of, I'm going to call the individuals that comprise this group, peanuts.

Yesterday night, I tried out for a play at my local community center. This is my third time working with this particular theatre troupe and every year you see pretty much the same people trying out over and over. A lot of these people also go to my school, so I also work with them in school performances. These people are also some of my best friend outside of plays as well. We hang out, have musical parties, talk to each other on facebook, treat the Tony Awards like it's the MTV awards, etc. We're friends.


And yesterday, if you haven't figured it out already, we were the peanuts.


First off, we were not heckling people or making fun of them. That is not how we "roll", as you youngins say. We were catching up, because two of them are in college now, so this is the first time I've seen them in months. The fact that we are dramatic people, and therefore loud and always joking around, didn't help. I was in stitches every five seconds from laughing so hard, and was quite unable to stop.


But we had a strict rule that once someone started to actually read for a part, we shut up and listen. We might whisper here and there when we saw someone we liked a lot but other than that we were angels.

However as soon as no one was on the stage we started back up again, resulting in us being "SSSSSHUUSSSHHHH"ed quite frequently.


Now it was not a complete confidence that we were going to get a role no matter what that had us so relaxed, and because the fact is everyone usually gets cast with this particular troupe, so we were actually more worried about what part we would get than getting a part period. No, the reason we were peanuts yesterday was because we tend to be like that any time we're together. Because we're friends.

Loud, causing a ruckus, unable to breathe for laughing, friends.


Which isn't ideal for a very serious audition, but for this one I don't think it did a lot of harm.

The best actress there was in our little group, and even though she is amazing and therefore could probably get away with being stuck up, this girl is fun and hilarious, not to mention incredibly nice. So every time someone finished reading, she started clapping and hooting and hollering like we were at a football game. It was a confidence booster I think, to those doing this for the first time. One of the better guy actors, another peanut in our gallery, is just as dramatic as this girl, so of course they went back and forth on who would clap the longest and hoot the loudest. Overall, I think it made what can be a very nerve-racking experience, fun.

There are some places where the peanut gallery probably should tone it down, but I think there are also some places where a bit of ruckus is okay.

And peanuts should be welcome to hang in the gallery.

Sincerely,

Elle

Hi!....Okay, Bye

Dear Readers,

Okay, so does anyone else feel weird when you see people you vaguely know from school or work or (fill in blank here) outside of school, work or (blank) and its like

You: "Hi!"
Vague Acquaintance: "Hey!"
You:"......Okay....bye!"

And then both you and the Vague Acquaintance think:

Awkward.

It's like when you're a little kid and you believe that when school is over the teachers vanish into thin air because they cannot and do not exist out of school.

And then you see them...in a grocery store!

It's like someone just told you that the Easter Bunny isn't real. You don't want to believe it, but the proof is undeniable.

Now you could always just not say "HI!". Problem solved, right?

Well, it would be, if there wasn't that automatic pull, when you see someone you know, to acknowledge them. It's like how on facebook if someone requests you and you vaguely remember their face and you see that you have a few friends in common, so you just accept.

And then you throw them in the "other" section of your chat options and find ways to make sure their statuses don't keep popping up on your news feed.

You don't know them really y en ninguna manera do you really want to talk to them or learn about their life.

But you recognized them, so you accepted their friend request.

Now with real friends it's different. You want to know what their statuses are and you hope they are on chat because you want to talk with them.

When you see a real friend outside of school or work or whatever (lets say school) and you say "Hi!" you mean "I'm so happy to see you! We haven't seen each other in forever!" and when they say "Hey!" they mean "I KNOW! The thirty minutes between now and school were sooooooooo long! Never leave me again!" And then you talk until your parents drag you away from each other.

I'm fine with acknowledging vague acquaintances with short conversations. The less I know the person, the less I talk to them, because when I don't know someone very well and I try a longer conversation than:

Me: Hi!
Vague Acquaintance: Hey!

It ends up like:

Me: Sooooo....did you hear the new Trock song?
Vague Acquaintance: What's Trock?
Me: It's music about the interstellar traveler Dr. Who...you know what. Never mind.

Awkward.

Sincerely,

Elle