Opinions and reviews of mainstream pop culture by a teen, for teens!

I just did my science unit test for biology. Either I did it totally right and got a really good mark, or I bombed it.

Lets hope its not the latter.

This day is not my day…

Hey all.

So, as you may know- The Hunger Games came out recently (About a month ago) and was adapted from a book by Suzanne Collins (WONDERFUL BOOK.) It also has a sequel and a final book, Catching Fire, and and Mockingjay. The soundtrack. (The Hunger Games: Songs From District 12 And Beyond) was also just released (Wonderful bands and awesome songs. They seriously relate to the movie and everyone out there that has had a problem with doing something they were forced to do.)

I thought the movie was awesome. I’ve been a rabid THG fan for a few years. I fell in love with the books the first few pages. When I first heard about it becoming a movie- my first thought was ‘Oh awesome, they’re going to ruin this series and I’m going to cry.’ but then I saw the trailer, and I put a countdown on my wall for the movie to come out.

I can honestly say I thought they did not leave ANYTHING crucial out. A lot of people are saying how “Oh well this person was supposed to look like this, and that person was supposed to say that…” The thing with Collins writing, is that EVERYTHING ties in with EVERYTHING, and it really isn’t until the last page of the books where all of that clicks in. Had someone said one thing, or that person looked like that- it was left out for a reason. It was already a 2.5 hour movie, they did as much as they could. I feel like the people that did that movie really cared about the message (Stand up for what you believe in no matter what.) and really cared about the books and keeping them perfect. It was simply just an outstanding movie, and I really do admire and look up to Katniss Everdeen because she isn’t dependant or all about love, she is a STRONG, ADMIRABLE, CAPABLE, WOMAN. Normally we see young and helpless girls, who just want to be with who they will ‘spend their lives with’. It’s a nice, fresh breath of air when you see that humanity has not lost all faith and that there is still some joy in the world.

I love The Hunger Games.

And I totally ship Kateeha. (Katniss and Peeta.)

Hi Guys, so at my school that offer a program for kids that throughly enjoy creating art through technology. It’s called Media Arts.
Am I part of this class?
Why yes! Yes I am!
Here’s something I need in ten minutes (I may or may not have procrastinated.)
CHECK IT OUT.

I can huff and puff all I would like, but I can’t just play generic Taylor Swift songs on the sidewalk expecting money to fly into my guitar case. (Speaking of which, I need a new one.) So, I’m going to come up with a set list that will appeal to all audiences, and hopefully ring in some more cash and that are fun to play and fit ME, who I am as a musician. So, I’ve found the top ten songs that I’ll be playing. Remember to keep it original and put your own twist on things. The more creative you are, the more fun and money you’ll have at the end of the day.
*All chords can be adapted to any instrument of your choosing.)
TOP TEN SONGS FOR BUSKING TEENAGE GIRLS (OR ANYONE ELSE.)
1. Lilly Allen – Smile (Chords + Lyrics)
2. Neil Young – Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Chords + Lyrics)
3. Train – Drive By (Chords + Lyrics)
4. Carley Rea Jepsen – Call Me Maybe – This one sounds surprisingly good on guitar. (Chords + Lyrics.)
5. FUN. – We Are Young (Chords + Lyrics.)
6. Jason Mraz – I’m Yours (Chords + Lyrics)
7. Michael Buble – Haven’t Met You Yet (Chords + Lyrics.)
8. Jeff Buckley – Hallelujah (Chords + Lyrics)
9. Train – Hey Soul Sister (Chords + Lyrics)
10. Foster The People – Pumped Up Kicks (Chords + Lyrics)

So, for about a year now I’ve been on a search for quick money to buy a new Macbook Pro.
I must admit, I’m a little bit of a gamer (I play things like The Sims 3, Bioshock,
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and such. I also love graphic design (I’m 99% sure I’ll go to school for it.) and Mac’s are great for that sort of thing. (Final Cut Pro (Top of the line video editing software) can ONLY run a MAC. Anyways. That’s off the point.

I’ve been trying to find a job for a while, basically. The only thing stopping me from making the money I need (Which is a lot.) is laziness. I am zero motivation to do ANYTHING. I could babysit, mow lawns, chores, garden, take pictures, write books, do some graphic art… but I’m lazy. I’m to young to get a “real” job (The canadian law says you have to be 15. I’m JUST turning 15 end of August, plus when you live besides a University with a ton of students with more experience than you and more on their resumes… it’s a tough competition. One that won’t be easily won.) and because I’m to young to get a “”"”"real”"”"” job, I have to be creative. Lemonade stands, bracelets, I’ve read so many books that tell me how to do it (like this one) I’m just lAZY. I don’t really WANT to do anything. I just want the money to magically appear in my Paypal account. But sadly, that won’t happen. So I’m going to have to work for it.

So, with that into account- I’ve thought up of something. Creative, fun, makes a bit of money, and something I will commit to night and day if I have too.

Music.

I’ve self taught myself 3 instruments (Guitar, flute, and drums.) and have been classically trained in piano for 8 years. (I started playing when I was really young.) So, ladies and gents- I will busk.

I’ve never really done this before, so I had to do a ton of researching. Still long ways away. There is a plaza near my house that I’ll play at, (Guitar and voice, I suppose.) Along with a very busy street with lots of people-traffic. Hopefully, if I work hard enough and have fun and it shows through my music, I’ll make some coin. And hey, maybe I’ll post a video on here of me playing. Maybe. We’ll see.

I recently got an android based phone, the Motorola Razr. I’m quite liking it- more than I loved my previous Iphone. One of my favourite things about my phone is the Apps- litteraly endless possibility’s as it offers open-source apps to join the play store- something you have to jailbreak your iphone to do. Here is a list of my favourite free apps, and why!-

1. TUMBLR. The popular social media based website as now offered itself to the android market! You can ‘reblog’ (litteraly re-blog) pictures, quotes, video, text, or links. You can make a diary out of it or whatever you may please.

2. FACEBOOK. Facebook is a handy communication tool for on the go or sitting at home. It’s also great for procrastination. Since the Android phone supports flash- you can play games like Farmville or any other Zenga game. My facebook is here.

3. TWITTER. I honestly could not live without my twitter. My twittah is right here.

4. INSTAGRAM. I am really liking this app. You can use it to instantly transform your pictures into vintage history using filters and borders.

5. FLIXSTER. This app is great if you love movies- or love GOING to the movies. The app gives you detailed synopses of the movie, feedback, user comments, and a rating using “rotten tomatoes” like you’d find on the site. It also tells you the show times for all the theaters in your area using an advanced GPS system.

6. ASTRO MANAGER. I’ll let you guys in on a little secret- you can get ANY app for free using a file type called ‘.apk’ You just search for the app you want, download it to your computer/load it on your phone, or download it straight to your phone- go to this app, find the file (very easy) and hit install! Simple as one two three. I’ve gotten many paid apps from this lovely FREE app.

7. TEMPLE RUN. A fun, very very addicting game. You’re an adventurer running away from zombie monkeys, simple as that.

8. PICSART. Now that Picnik is down for good, you can now edit photos on your phone seamlessly and easily using this app. I use this app daily, as it enables you to upload your photo directly to the media source you’d like to share it with.

9. GO SMS PRO. This app allows you to customize your theme for text, your text colour, your text screen- anything you’d want for customization to your text inbox/out box, it has it all.

10. SHAZAM. Ever heard a song and though “I HAVE to have this.’?” Well, you open up this app, hit the “shazam’ button, and viola! It reads the song (doesn’t matter if it’s hummed, sung, played.) and tells you details about the artists, tour dates, link to buy it, links on youtube, links to lyrics, etc. I use it DAILY. Perfect for when you have a song stuck in your head and can only remember one line.

Please take some time out of your day (23 minutes) to watch and educate yourself and maybe even educate other on this matter. It’s really awful that nobody knows who Joseph Kony is- but I am dedicated to showing the world who this monster is and what he has done.
The Invisible Children Website

and the video:

watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc

Help out by donating, putting up KONY 2012 posters, bracelet
MAKE HIM FAMOUS. KONY 2012.

Kony 2012 Stop At Nothing T-Shirt

Howdy everybody! Today I’m going to take a look at the BEST books of my lifetime- Everybody’s taste differs, but I know for a fact that my favourite genre is the “troubled teens with a mix of comedy and a bit of romance” books. A little bit specific? Maybe. But you’d be surprised at just how many teens love these sorts of books! These next 5 books are great gifts ideas for teens that love to read! And even then, if you don’t like reading, these next books will convince you otherwise.

5. The Pretty Little LiarsSeries. The book is about a group of girls that start to be stalked when they enter high school- but the catch? their stalker is their dead best friend, Ali. Nobody knows who or what this stalker is, or what they want- but they know that “-A” knows all of their dirty little secrets and will spill them at the tug of a rope, or the click of a button. They’ve recently become a teen sensation on TV, (ABC’S Pretty Little Liars was released as a TV show about 2 years ago.) But, as they say- the book is better than the TV show. Check these books out! They’re great for mystery lovers and are great for girls who love tension and rich girl problem novels. View the TV show HERE.

4. The next book is It’s Kind Of A Funny Story The jist of this book? It’s about a depressed teenager that stops taking his meds and insists he stay at a mental ward, but since the Children’s Ward is under construction, he must stay in the Adult Ward- along with the girl of his dreams (surprise!). This book is a feel good, romantic, and heart warming comedy. It was made into a movie last yer, which you can check out here.

3. is number eight on our list- this books very logical and about a teenage boy with asperger syndrome who depends on numbers. But when he discovers a dog in the night time by his neighbors yard, stabbed with a pitch fork, he takes it upon himself to find out what happened and why.

2. is a great resource for teens that are in a tough place, wondering about life, or even just looking to exceed their expectations. It covers everything from School, to pregnancy, to parents, addiction- this book has everything you need to become a successful teen in your families eyes and yours.

1. is all the hype right now, and I used to be a HUGE skeptic-but I finally sat down and read these books and MAN are they good. You’d expect just a cheesy love story, but this is a gorey book about the reality of survival and the ultimate test for man itself. I’d recommend this book to anyone- my brother (8) and mom (30something) both read The Hunger Games- it’s an easy and very exciting read, perfect for anyone. The movie comes out in 11 days, so be sure to read it before it’s too late! The movie looks excellent, and if it is any thing like the books, it will be the next Harry Potter (Which is also a fantastic read!)

The new Motorola Droid RAZR is on the market and ready to take off. But with competition like the Iphone, will it ever be known as the worlds greatest smart phone?

Let’s look at the SPECS

As you can see, the Motorola Droid RAZR is bigger than the Iphone and also supports more bluetooth options, has a larger battery, is thinner, and lighter- it ALSO supports flash and allows you to download files straight off the internet (PNG, JPEG, PDF, MP3, MP4, and more) The droid apps are also far less expensive, if money is even in the question (90% of all droid apps are FREE.) The only thing the Iphone has is a better screen- but the razr isn’t falling far behind. With the RAZR, there is also NO ITUNES. It’s simple -plug-your-phone-in-and-click-and-drag process. Easy! No syncing, authorizing, complicated account settings, etc. You can make a playlist simply by clicking and dragging songs into the same file folder on the computer, or making one of the phone itself. But, of course- because of the phones lack of popularity, you need a different charger than the Iphone (which is an extremely versatile charger, almost every dock/person has one.)

So, without further chatting, I give you the BEST phone of 2011!

The Motorola Droid RAZR.

We all have that one soft-spot in our hearts for a video game we all used to play when we were younger- It could be Pac-Man, Frogger, or even Super Mario Bros. For me- that game is The Sims. Being unschooled close to my entire life, I would have a lot more time to play The The Sims and it even taught me the basics of reading and using letters to communicate in ways I didn’t know possible. (I would have been 6 or 7, so I really didn’t have a very good understanding of what words even were.) But it also taught me the straight consequences of life- if you don’t sleep, you’ll do poorly in life the next day. If you don’t eat, your mood will get lower- and so forth, but it also (at the time) had a goal system- every day your Sims would wake up and would “roll” new goals for the day- it could be anything from seeing a ghost to eating Mac N Cheese. Who knows! So when the The Sims 2 came out, you can only imagine the happiness I felt- finally more customization, and even more opportunities for your Sims! New jobs, new people, new graphics. The Sims 2 was certainly a very very good game if we’re taking 2003-2004. Then, it 2008, June 2nd- The Sims 3 came out! It was everything the past games had had and more. There were new tools such as Create-A-Style, where you can litteraly make your own pattern and place it onto anything and everything you wished. Clothing, furniture, etc., and there was also WAY more clothing, new jobs, and the The Sims 3: Showtime were unbelievable. The game-play it self was awesome and you’d think it got to be repetitive but it’s anything but. The options are limitless, and the game is very well made and I can promise you, the game is worth your time, as they are always including game-updates and new expansion and stuff packs (new clothes, houses, towns, interactions.) The possibility are endless. Without a second thought, I’d give this game a 10/10, because of it’s incredible graphics and huge play-value. It’s a perfect gift for a boy OR a girl of any age. The Sims 3 is just simply an awesome game.