Empowering

It's one thing to see and read about people achieving great things, but another thing entirely to see your peers doing things of similar merit. Age is something we relate to right away. Similarities in experiences, thought, or conditions make you feel more connected to that person, and many of those are dependent on age.

How many times have you felt awkward at a check-out line or embarrassed to see a classmate working in a clothing store? When we're shopping, we like our cashiers to be faceless and distant. The moment there's a personal connection, such as realizing it's the person-you-sorta-know-from-school-because-they-sit-next-to-you-in-class-but-you-never-say-hi-to-them-in-the-hallway, you pay more attention to them and feel more self conscious. This happens even if you don't know them personally, but they look to be about your age. Now that I'm 17, I always feel a bit weird when the cashier is younger than me, yet holding a job and telling me to "Have a nice day."

That being said, it is much more remarkable for me to watch the U-17 Fifa World Cup than the actual World Cup, simply because the players are all my age or younger, yet playing on a world stage. When you see other people your age doing great things, you feel inspired in a way that reading about an adult doing the same thing doesn't. That is why as a new blogger, I am particularly interested in reading blogs that other teens are maintaining. So when I stumbled across a website called MuseShark, my mind was blown. Lee Downen, the author of the blog, is 17 like myself and a senior in high school. But when I first clicked onto his website, the only thing I could do was marvel at how professional it looked. It's a really, well set up blog, with a lot of content that interests me. So I couldn't help but draw attention to it because that's what it deserves.

Let me summarize: when people around your age do something awesome, you feel empowered because you feel connected in some way and there's a small voice in side of you going, "Hey, he's like me, a senior in high school. If he can do it, why can't I?" Their actions alone, the fact that they accomplished something, proves that it's possible.

Prodigies and genii are a bit too far out of reach to be inspiring. They're awe-inducing, but not empowering. It's the people just short of that, who exceed expectations but aren't unreal, that command awe and respect. They're almost within reach, but most importantly, they retain their realistic edge and human qualities. You can associate yourselves with them in some way. Lee Downen has a great blog set up that has captured a lot of attention. Because I've seen that it is possible, I can hope to do the same. After all, it's good to be inspired by your peers once in a while.

Pick me uppers

It happens all the time to me. Maybe it's the stress of school and college applications, maybe it's the lack of adequate sleep, or maybe it's just a part of life- there are times when I wake up and I just feel terrible. There's no energy, no emotion, no motivation... and I can't really explain why. It's a drowning feeling really, except when I look up I can't see the surface of the water, and below me is just a bottomless depth of fluid black.

It's tough to work through those moments that can last either a few minutes or can last up to a whole day. Sleep is sometimes a great remedy, but other times I wake up feeling groggy or worse than before. So what else is there? Music and writing, of course. And I recently stumbled upon another teenage blog, the quiet voice, that focuses on just that- good books, good music, and life. It made me really happy to read someone else blogging about music and books that I've either read or may read in the future. So I guess that's another one of my pick me uppers, finding other teens to connect with and reading their blogs.

Youtube has everything

(Rainy mood cont.)
Thanks to a comment on my last post, I can know re-create that peaceful rain patter on the windows anytime I want to... even if it's bright and sunny out like it is right now. AWESOME. I wish I had a computer in my room so I could fall asleep to this every night. It's so peaceful, too, that I think I'll auto-replay it and listen to it if the house is getting loud and I need to focus or just think. (So thanks "anonymous" =] I love when I get interesting comments like this.)

So here's the link so the rest of you can enjoy it too:

This just made me marvel at the variety of things that Youtube has to offer. I mean, I'm a frequent visitor, but I'm still amazed at stuff like this that I can get for free. And there's probably tutorials for just about anything you can imagine. Someone should make a blog and try to post a new (but different style of video) everyday. Now that'd be interesting to browse through.

Planning Your Day

What is the first thing you think of upon waking up in the morning? "Stupid alarm.... I just want to go back to sleep," "My feet are really cold," or even "I really need to go the bathroom!" sound familiar. Or how about "What the heck am I going to accomplish today??"

I have to admit that last question rarely pops into my mind in the morning. Usually it's something more trivial, like wondering what I'm going to eat for breakfast or weighing the consequences of hitting the snooze button and going back to sleep. But when it does, I feel a sense of obligation to do something worthwhile, which can be both good and bad. Time is a valuable resource, and especially during the summer, days can melt away faster than the ice cube in your drink. I just don't want to come to the end of the summer and realize I wasted an entire vacation doing nothing. So I suppose asking yourself a simple question in the morning can have its benefits. Am I going to run? Hang out with friends? Blog? Play music? Just make sure "be a total vegetable and do nothing but lie on the couch, check Facebook, eat, sleep, and flip through channels" is NOT on your to-do list.

Whether or not you actually do write out to-do lists, it's important to have an active mindset, not a reactive one throughout the day. Plan, don't watch your day go by. Today is precious. So don't hold back- it's up to you to make something of it.

Insomnia at its best

Isn't it weird that sometimes your best work or inspiration comes in the middle of the night when all you should be thinking about is sleep? That's happened to me a few times, whether it's because I can't fall asleep or because  my brain is randomly firing off idea impulses that I decide I have to act on or it will be forever lost. If you can't tell, this is one of them.

Maybe it's something soothing about the silence that floods the house after everyone else has gone to bed, when it's just you and your computer screen for company. And of course, your wandering thoughts. They seem to flicker through your mind as much as the backlight on your computer is flickering through your exhausted retinas.

Or maybe it's just that inspiration strikes only when you are thoroughly tired out, blanked with fatigue. Your body begins to run on the next source of energy: a fuel I call intellectual chaos. It does wonders to revive the soul and for a moment you might wonder if you are actually insane. But sleep is not the answer. You need to spend that energy in one form or another. Writing, ranting, blogging, painting, exercising, calling a friend and crying to them over the phone, all good outlets for this sort of explosive energy. Ride the momentum and make something happen. You never know when it will happen again.

A Note of Thanks

Hey everyone, if you're going "wow, this site looks different and wonderfully fantastic now," I just want to do a little explaining about what happened to this site. Or even if you're going "wow this site sucks I hate this blogger" I want to drop you a little note anyways. For those of you who don't know, I suck at working with computers and website stuff and things like that. Heck, if blogger.com didn't have a template laid out for me when I first started writing, there probably wouldn't be a blog here. And programming? Please. To me, Java, C++, Python, and all that other programming err... programs fall under the generic term "coding stuff". So when I wanted to make changes to this site and make it more presentable, I hadn't the foggiest clue what to do.

So I went for help. My good friend David Zhang just happens to be that "good-at-coding-stuff" guy and was willing to donate his time to help me, and in turn, help you guys enjoy this blog better. And since I just wrote a post about the importance of giving credit where credit is due, I just want to thank David for all his help here. Cuz there's no way I did any of these fancy changes to the site =P So take a look around at David's handiwork, the new and improved way to comment below (hint hint, it's a link that says "leave a comment!"), and other cool options you can now mess around with. Thanks for reading! And make sure you check out David's own blog at http://dazedthots.blogspot.com/ (especially if you're a fellow "good-at-coding-stuff" person =D)