Wed 11 Aug 2010

How To Write A Good Blog (AKA What I Personally Look For In My Reading)

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Blogs are for anoraks who couldn’t get published any other way – Janet Street Porter

There is a temptation for me while writing this to sound quite pretentious and patronising. The likelihood is I will. However you will note from the above quote that anything I may write obviously accounts for me too and therefore is self-deprecating as well as deprecating. What somebody likes about a blog varies quite a lot. When I look up blogs on irishstudentblogs.com there are certain things that will turn me off someone’s site almost immediatly. These are a couple of examples of what I think are the dos and don’ts in the blogging world.

Do spell correctly and Don’t abuse punctuation

This is pretty basic. I’m not saying that leaving out a word by accident or not spelling something properly once is a capital offence. If I spot text speak or someone over-uses apostrophes all the time I will however leave their blog and not want to come back again. Luckily pretty much everybody I’ve read is able to spell so that isn’t really a problem I encounter that often.

Don’t only talk about yourself

In my first English class at the beginning of fifth year my teacher asked us all to write down three thing that made us happy. There was a quiet shuffle as people found paper and pens, diligently going about the task. Once we were done the teacher asked a girl a name and then asked her if she had friends, family or sunny days written down in front of her. She had two out of three, the other being her favorite food. He then told people to put up their hand if they had at least one of those things down. Unsurprisingly almost, if not all, put up there hand. “The sad truth”, he said “Is most of you are boring.”

There is a certain extent to which all of us are vain, especially someone like myself who writes a blog. I put up deliberately provocative titles to blog posts  to try and boost my blog stats which I religiously update everyday and every hour after I put up a post. There is a temptation when blogging to just talk about ourselves with the notion that because we find our own lives interesting then everyone else will. Unfortunately this is not the case. Unless you are insanely funny, somebody famous or somebody with superpowers (Joss Whedon for instance) then chances are you are boring. It’s your prerogative to be but if you do only write about yourself, the ups and downs of love and school and your cat then I will not read what you write.

Don’t be a tease

Don’t you hate when somebody puts up a really interesting title on their post and click into it only to find two sentences saying ‘This thing is quite interesting. What do you think? Leave me a comment!’ This may sound like an exaggeration but it really has happened to me before. I intensely dislike tiny little posts that take you ten seconds to glance. If it’s that small put it up on Facebook, don’t make me feel cheated by giving your post a hit only to find nothing of interest. I like something to be at least 500 words and at most 1000 unless it’s a subject I am really interested in.

Do make the main topic of your post obvious

These are the anti teases. You could have something really interesting written but if I see an obscure title I’m going to assume it’s shite and pass it over. If you tell me what I’m about to read I’d be more likely to give it a shot.

Do have that little something extra

Whether it’s an interesting writing style, a wicked sense of humour or new perspective on an old topic, if you say something interesting I’m going to want to read more.

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Mon 2 Aug 2010

Why It’s Cool To Be A Geek

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Geek (adj): The people you pick on in high school and wind up working for as an adult – Urban Dictionary

There was a time when the word geek was an insult. No longer. If you asked most of my friends if they were geeks they would freely admit to it. In fact they’d wear the title as a badge of honour. It’s cool to quote from ‘Star Wars’ and watch ‘Star Trek’, it’s cool to have played ‘Pokemon’ well into your teens and it’s cool to know obscure indie bands. The best thing about this cultural phenomenon is the move away from hegemony and toward individuality – having interests outside of the normal. I’m sure this all stemmed from the fact that geeks were behind the new technological advancements in the last decade or two and became very powerful people. Geeks became an important market and with their financial success followed cultural change. For me the revolution began with ‘Sabrina the Teenage Witch’.

Back in the day I was glued to the TV and my channel of choice was Nickelodeon. This was how I came to know Sabrina Spellman, a girl who discovers that she’s a witch. Calamity ensues and this is only made worse by her teenage dramas such as trying to win over Harvey and get the better of head cheerleader Libby. Sabrina was a nerd or geek yet she was the heroine and in my young eyes that was how I came to think that being a geek was cool.

I wasn’t the only one to experience the change in media as geeks became more prevalent in leading roles instead of the usual stereo-typed character just there for laughs. If you read comics thirty years ago you would have been laughed at and scorned. Nowadays every second movie is based on a comic book hero and you’re considered a poser if you only know about them from the film. You only need to notice the amount of teenage guys who wear superman t-shirts to realise this is a widespread phenomenon. The same thing has happened in TV. ‘Doctor Who’, ‘The Big Bang Theory’, ‘IT Crowd’ and ‘Bones’ are all considered geeky shows yet they are all incredibly successful enjoying huge followings.

So what does this mean in real life? As I grew up I subconsciously divided school groups between those that were cool and those that were geeks. The cool people were the ones who went to discos and got with boys and drank. This was not necessarily because I thought it was cool but because I’d been brought up to think that cool was what everyone else was doing and all of those things were pretty popular. Unsurprisingly I was a geek. My friends and I spent our time going to the cinema, reading and listening to Green Day on our iPods. When I went to CTYI I found that not drinking and spending time on your Gameboy was the norm there. There for the first time I realised that being a geek could be cool, especially because the conversation was simply a lot more interesting.

Now geeks rule the TV and are no longer considered uncool in day to day life. In fact many people are purposefully geeky, exposing their quirks and interests for the world to see. You can now slip “live long and prosper” into conversation without so much as a raised eyebrow. Video games, once only used by geeks have exploded in popularity. Vampires and wolverines have been a staple part of novels and TV. ‘Lord of the Rings: Return of the King’ won 11 oscars. Even role play games don’t hold the same stigma they once had. Look around you. Geek is everywhere you look. If the definition of cool is fitting in and being normal then it is clear that being different is the new normal.

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Fri 16 Jul 2010

‘Cause You Gotta Have Faith

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So, if God has existed forever…you know, what did he do in his spare time, like, before he made the Earth and everything? - Father Dougal

People shuffled in quietly to the Church finding a free pew to sit on. Light pours in from the stained glass windows. Everybody is serene as the wait for the bell to ring and the priest to appear. I sit staring at the Apostles’ Creed and thinking is it really a profession of faith or a way of indoctrination?

The problem with being a teenager is that you start to question everything that you were raised to believe is true. I believed that if I stole sweets from my sister then God would be watching me and he wouldn’t be happy. I believed that when somebody died then they looked down on you from heaven.  Now I’ve become philosophical and I ask myself whether or not God really exists.

On the one hand religion has been a part of everyday life for at least 4000 years. Maybe people had the same ideas at the same time but there is some kind of collective experience there. There are miracles every day that can’t be explained by science. I don’t want to believe we’re alone in the universe and when you die that’s it, you fade into nothing. For me it doesn’t make any sense that one moment someone could be alive and experience the world and then just disappear.

On the other hand, it’s very easy to see how as a race we would have begun by attributing the unexplainable to a more powerful force. Before science if a volcano erupted it was because a god was angry, but now we know better. It’s easy to see how we would give this force attributes and make it look like us because we don’t have the imagination to think of anything else. Logically, even if the world was created by intelligent design what are the chances that there is a God that cares about each one of us and cares about whether we sin or not? In reality we’re a speck in a great expanse.

The thing is, I really want to believe. I was talking to a friend about this and he told me a heartbreaking story about his friend’s family and the different sorts of illnesses and accidents that have been thrown at them. It made me think, isn’t it easier to be angry at God for neglecting us rather than face being alone in the middle of nothing? I want to have the conviction that some of the people I know have because they are honestly content. I used to have it. My mum described faith and just knowing deep down that there is something more. There’s no logic to explain it, it’s just there.

Does God exist? He may, or he may not. If he/she/it does we have no idea what form God will take or whether it is loving, vengeful or indifferent. In all honesty we know nothing. Yet some people know that something exists beyond our understanding and I wish I was one of them.

Everybody in the Church stands and there is a rustle of paper. The priest clears his throat and the silence is broke with a chorus of “We believe in one God, father the almighty, maker of Heaven and Earth, of all that is seen and unseen…”

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Thu 1 Jul 2010

We’re Out Of Recession?

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Breaking news: Ireland is apparently out of recession. I say apparently because, sure, according to the definition we are. A recession is defined as  a period when GDP falls for at least two quarters. Ireland’s GDP grew by 2.7 percent in the first three months of 2010 meaning that we are technically out of recession. But forgive me if I don’t start jumping for joy just yet. Brian Cowen has warned of a “hard road” to full recovery. I guess he isn’t jumping for joy either. There are a couple of reasons for my pessimism.

According to the Central Statistics Office our unemployment levels are around 13.7%. This is extraordinary when compared to the 4.3% of 2007. Jobs that were once thought to be secure are no longer hiring, law and architecture being good examples.  People are slipping from high earning careers into dole queues. Unfortunately the national contraction  in employment as a whole means that it you are unlikely to get another job even if you retrain in a different area. The problems are only being exacerbated by the number of people who took out loans and mortgages when times were good and are now facing the possibility of losing their family homes. And it’s not as if our exorbitant costs have fallen either as just yesterday it was announced that our food and drink prices are the second highest in Europe.

The question on everybody’s lips for the last two years has been ‘who’s fault is it?’ After reading the summary of the Regling-Watson bank report (http://thestory.ie/2010/06/09/summary-regling-watson-report/) it is clear that the over-dependency on the property market and construction sector was a major issue. This in turn lead to excessive lending. The report strongly indicates that the government encouraged this to happen and did not implement any of the necessary procedures to ensure a soft landing.

Of course, it is easy to blame the government. The report says that we should have been saving up for a rainy day when we had growth from the mid 1990s to 2006. However if that had happened then I imagine every agency and charity would have been outraged that the government had not done more to improve the lone parent allowance/investment in the health system/transport etc. The problem with being in government is that once you’re in power you don’t want to lose it. Fianna Fail have endeavored to become a catch-all party over the last couple of years and many of their decisions were made in an effort to remain popular. They had become short-sighted.

I am normally against the government, supporting a different party, but I actually do not think that Fianna Fail are that bad. It is very easy to overlook their achievements while in power when you’re trying to pick them apart. However it is clear to me that the party is a very different entity to what it once was. To put it simply I’ll quote a line from Eamon Gilmore’s speech in 2007 – “Eamon De Valera would never have taken fistfuls of cash in a suitcase.” Even if it wasn’t illegal, the handouts Bertie Ahern took were not right and it signalled the new path that his party had taken.

Even if the economy and the health system and the banking system were to improve I still believe there is no way Fianna Fail would be able to remain in government. There always comes a stage where government needs to change. I don’t support the Conservatives in Britain but I believed in the necessity of change so that the country didn’t stagnate. Brian Cowen is right: there is a long hard road still to be travelled and I’ll bet he won’t be at the helm by the end of it.

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Wed 10 Feb 2010

I’m Giving Up The Internet

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Yes, despite the fact that this is a shocking statement it is also true. It all came to me in a startling moment of clarity. The truth is I’m more than ten chapters behind in maths homework, missed something like two chapters in physics and my hatred for German makes it hard to get more than a C in it. Of course every leaving cert student knows  that the points for all the courses are going up next year because of the increase in admissions. My course is high enough as it is, 555 points. Point being, I REALLY need to study.

Suddenly I looked over at my laptop and the light went off in my head. It was all the internet’s fault! Well, not all. But it certainly hasn’t helped. I tend to procrastinate and it’s a lot easier to do that when you have Facebook and FML and icanhazcheezburger.com all at the touch of your fingertips. I considered giving up Facebook but I don’t want to delete my profile altogether and lose all the pictures I put up, the comments and the friends I’ve added and accepted over the years. I’ve managed to stop obsessively checking the Home page on Facebook but really it’s not enough. Even if I gave up Facebook I’d just go on to something else. So I came to a startling conclusion – no more internet.

Now obviously I can’t give up the internet altogether. I might need it to look up DART times or check something for school. I’ll also be checking my e-mail once a week. But I won’t be checking it in the morning instead of having a proper breakfast or writing another blog instead of that essay I’m supposed to be doing for history. However I will be breaking my radio silence if say for instance my novel gets published or something equally insane/awesome happens. So from tomorrow:

- I’ve deleted my bebo and hotmail accounts

- I’m uninstalling Tweetdeck

- My MSN is apparently going to delete itself within thirty days

- Any other ideas you guys suggest

Sure, I’m a little worried about losing contact with friends and completely falling out of the loop but I really need to study. *Sigh* I hope this helps. If not you might be seeing me quite soon. In the meantime if you need to contact me you can text me or e-mail and lizzie.omally@gmail.com.

Signing off til the LC,

Liz

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Mon 8 Feb 2010

How Safe Is Blogging?

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My cousin started a blog recently and I think it’s quite good. The only thing was that she was very, very honest. I was reading things that I never knew about her, very personal things about friendship histories and feelings and things like that. Alarm bells went off in my head. I’m not sure if this was because I felt like I’d stumbled onto something that was intensely personal or because all of a sudden I had an image of some stranger knowing all of this information about my cousin. I have no idea how or why they’d use it but quite frankly there are some nutters out there.

The format of my blog is generally ranting about a topic, not that personal. Even still I wrote an anecdote about my old school (which I have yet to name) in a post about drinking (http://www.liz.viewfromthequad.com/?p=177) and I got a comment sometime later calling me a bitch for posting that story. I didn’t mention any names or specifics and yet I still managed to offend. Most of the spam comments I get are people from my old year which I just delete because they don’t add anything to topic I write about and also they can be quite hurtful. (By the way if you’re reading this, why don’t you say something like that to my face rather than hiding behind an anonymous comment? It’s a lot easier to be mean to someone online). Even a small bit of information can be manipulated.

In thinking about this post I looked at my ‘about’ section. Suddenly I realised what an idiot I had been. A complete stranger would know what I looked like, where I lived, where I go to school and even the name of my dog.  I have changed it to one sentence “18 year old blogger living in Ireland”. Of course it was concrete information I had posted before. What do you give away when talking about your feelings? I’d say a lot. When I sent out a general question asking what people thought of those emotionally out there online many said they thought it might be a cry for attention or perhaps they were looking for someone to relate to them. All it would take is for someone to take advantage of a vulnerable person by leaving a few supportive comments and then they will have developed an online relationship with that person. Who knows what could happen then.

This kind of information isn’t just fodder to the maniacs and psychos out there. According to the survey of 1039 employees and 647 employers, which was undertaken by the employment law consultancy Peninsula Ireland, companies are using social networking sites to check the validity of staff out sick.The survey indicates that 83 per cent of employers have monitored individual’s Facebook statuses to check whether an employee was truly ill. So if you thought you were just taking a relaxing day off and then post pictures of you going out with your friends later that night when you supposedly had the flu, you could be out of a job. In fact in Clacton, England a 16-year-old girl said she was fired from her office job after managers saw that she had branded her position “boring” on Facebook. Someone I know who was holding interviews for her organisation recently said “[it was] amazing how much of their personal info was available online (including comments about how they felt the interviews had gone).” It is very easy for an employer or interviewer to find out about you just by searching you on Facebook or twitter.

When I first started writing my blog I was pretty sure that it wouldn’t be a big deal. Who was going to read it apart from a few people I was friends with on Facebook? Yet I still manage to get spam comments from people advertising cheap Viagra and Russian whore services. If people from Russia can find my page you can be pretty sure it’s not as private and cosy as I thought.

Not to mention that many people I knew who had public profiles on Bebo and Facebook had pictures of them drinking or smoking in them (obviously I’m talking about people who were underage). As a general rule, if you’re ever in doubt as to whether you should put up that raunchy picture of yourself or leave a bullying comment, wonder what your mum or boss would have to say about it. And then maybe just think again.

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Mon 1 Feb 2010

The Jedward Phenomenon

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He’s John. He’s Edward. Together they are surprisingly one of the biggest success stories of the year.

I knew I had to write this post as soon as I saw that their debut single ‘Ice Ice Baby’ was No.1 on the Irish iTunes charts. It’s been a whirlwind for the two Dublin lads ever since they auditioned for X-Factor back in August. Even though they were in my school I thought they were gobshites in the beginning. Before you ask, I knew of them. Everyone knew of them. They were hardly inconspicuous with the hair, the suits and the fact that they were twins. I had comparative studies class with them. (Whenever I tell a noob that I let one of them borrow my pen one day they seem to think I had a serious brush with fame). Cheryl asks “Where do you see yourselves in fifteen years?”John replies “Well I see myself being older”. This is the incredible wit we would later come to love. Simon loathed them from the beginning but Louis spotted something, which I guess explains why he is worth millions.

Even though I didn’t think they were great I still wanted them to go through. They were quite amusing and although I knew they were going to get through to the live show I still cheered when Louis picked them to be one of his groups. Really started to like them after their performance of ‘Hit Me Baby’ at the live show. It was the combination of the red leather suits, the crazy dance moves and the absolute hilarity when they did the dialogue out in front of the stage. As my friend put it “They passed annoying, stopped off at bearable and ended up at amusing.” Every week people who weren’t even X Factor fans would tune in to see what kind of spectacle they would be putting on that show. They ranged from dancing in between girls legs, coming down from the ceiling and having giant John and Edwards dancing on the stage that week. And of course who can forget the Ghostbusters routine? Pure genius.

Even if Jedward didn’t win the show they were still the hottest thing to come off it in years. With brilliant quotes such as ‘We met Queen. As in the band, not the actual one”, they quickly garnered a lot of media attention. I can’t remember which company it was that ran a huge poster campaign with the slogan ‘In Jed We Trust’ after Simon Cowell pledged he’d leave the country if Jedward won the X-Factor. But even Simon himself even fell for the ‘gruesome twosome’ and saved them when they were voted into the bottom two with Lucie Jones. Of course the shock elimination ensured even more hate and abuse for the twins who were the only act ever to be booed upon gracing the stage. Ironically if Danni had chosen to save the twins in the deadlock with Olly Murs, it would have been Olly to go out as he had received less votes that week.

However even after their elimination John and Edward still popped up in the papers and have thousands of fans at this stage. Like them or hate them, they are an unstoppable force. In the first day of it’s release, ‘Ice Ice Baby’ shot to number one and there is more to come for the starstruck pair in the form of their own clothing ranges and hair products. As for me? I’ll be looking out to see what they do next.

You can view the song here - Ice Ice Baby – Jedward

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Sun 24 Jan 2010

Relationships vs. Romance

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It’s a known fact: I’m a serial monogamist. I’ve only ever dated two guys. I dated my first boyfriend for fifteen months and have been dating my second, Killian, for 20 months and counting. When I tell most people this the common reaction is open jaws and “Oh my god, are you serious?” (You can tell I live in Dublin). To some people the idea of spending that long dating one person would seem a daunting task and I wonder how many prefer the romancing and chase to the relationship part.

In romantic books and movies the main draw is the sexual tension and the ‘will they, won’t they’ of the thing. In series such as ‘Bones’ you can be pretty sure that as soon as Bones and Booth get together the series will end. It’s not as interesting watching to watch a couple in love as it is to see the drama unfold.

Real life isn’t much like that though is it? If two people like each other, their friends will generally step in and play match maker. It’s a system that has worked since the beginning of time. Well, apart from back when we were all living in caves and the way to get a girl was to hit her on the head with a club and drag her back to your cave. The point being that having your mate going up the guy and saying “would you fancy going out with her?” isn’t exactly movie worthy. How often does the bad guy turn out to be a softy who in his spare time works in an animal shelter? Since when do two best friends a) both look really good b) like each other back and c) not even realise it? And I don’t know a lot of people who have a fierce burning hatred of each other and end up getting married. Pretty Woman is a nice story but could you imagine telling that as your wedding toast? Yeah, not going to happen.

I can see the attraction of being single. There’s that moment of hope when he looks over at you, the gossiping about your crushes with your friends and the freedom to flirt with whoever you want. At the same time there is also the dashed hopes, the not having someone to hug when you’re feeling sad or simply, someone to make out with.

I blame movies for my high expectation of romance. When I was 13 I used to wait for a guy to come along and we’d dance around each other for a while and then we would kiss and it would be spontaneous and magical with fireworks in the background and birds singing (Damn you Disney). I still expect people to get together that way. Ask any of my friends, I’m relentless in my romanticism, constantly pairing up people I know. I’ll interpret even the smallest things to be a sign of undying love. “He just touched her! An accident? I think not!”

I’ve come around to a different theory though. Even if the courting stage might be lacking in the fairytale romance, it doesn’t mean the relationship has to be. I might be wrong about this but doesn’t a lot of romance in real life actually happen when you’re dating someone? Like your boyfriend bringing your flowers or your girlfriend arranging a huge party and present for your birthday or saying I love you for the first time. The story of how I got together with Killian is a nice anecdote (he shot me in the ass when I went paintballing for a friend’s party. When I want to be corny I say “they might have been Cupid’s arrows” instead of a paintball that left a horrible looking welt and made me want to cry) but pretty much all of the romantic stuff has been since we started going out.

Personally, I’m in favour of relationships. I love having someone who you can kiss whenever you want to and curl  up and watch movies with and who will come see you when you’re sick. Does that make me more dependent on other people? Possibly. I know I was in my first relationship. It was only when we broke up that I realised how little time I had spent with my friends. It’s not a good idea to become completely dependent on one person. In general though it’s nice to have someone. I come down on the side of romance in relationships. It’s a bit of a cop-out I suppose but I’m pretty happy with the situation.

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Wed 13 Jan 2010

Glee

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Every time I try to destroy that club, it comes back stronger than some sexually ambiguous horror movie villain – Sue Sylvester

My first contact with Glee was when I saw an ad for the first episode on E4 and immediately thought it might be fun to watch. On the way home from Wexford I heard the choir version of ‘Rehab’ on the radio and I became determined to find the first episode on the internet. It took two hours to load but, by God, it was worth it.

Enter Will Schuster, an idealistic teacher who pines for the days when Glee Club was the cool thing to do in school. Nowadays it’s made up of five kids: Rachel, the stereotypical overachiever, Mercedes, the diva, Kurt, probably one of the only guys ever to hit a high F, Tina, an Asian girl with a lisp and Artie who is in a wheelchair. Will struggles to increase Glees popularity and clashes with his selfish wife who wants him to quit teaching to get a better paying job. He also faces Sue Sylvester, probably the best villain ever created on TV. As the head of the Cheerios, an award-winning cheerleader team, she drains most of the schools funding.

Luckily Will hears Finn, the school’s quarterback, singing in the shower one day. I was expecting the usual ‘You have a great voice, you need to share it’ gambit but fortunately something better happens – Will bribes Finn into joining Glee by planting his locker with weed. This is one of the many examples when the show twists expectations comically rather than relying on schmaltz to win over the audience. Finn is dating Quinn (yeah, I laughed when I realised that their names rhymed), head of the Cheerios and the chastity club. In one hilarious scene they are making out and Quinn moves down to his waist before saying “Now lets do some praying”. Other characters include guidance counsellor Emma Pillsbury, a germaphobe who is hopelessly in love with Will, bad boy Noah ‘Puck’ Puckerman, PE teacher Ken Tenaka and cynical Principal Figgins.

The pilot ends with a sensational cover of ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ by Journey. The fact that this cover is currently the number one downloaded song in the Irish iTunes store should convey just how popular this show his become. The shows great strength comes from the fact that is so shiny. By shiny I mean that it is nicely packaged, the songs make you want to sing along and it has just the right amount of twisted humour that keeps it away from the overly cheesey territory. Of course for the most part the plot is completely unoriginal and the characters are total stereotypes but it has just enough satire to make that ok. There is no intelligence in it but that is part of why it is so fun. It’s a complete guilty pleasure.

The one thing I would fault though is the use of auto-tuning. You never get to really hear the actors sing which is a pity because they have amazing voices. Unfortunately when the characters sing ‘No Air’ or ‘Somebody To Love’ the show loses all believability as the songs sound over-produced and completely fake. However altogether the show is very enjoyable and I am unashamed to say I’ll be buying it on DVD as soon as it comes out. I’ll leave you with this inspiring quote from the show.

Sue: You need to get out of your comfort zone, even if that zone is where you are living. I’ll often yell at homeless people: ‘Hey, how is that homelessness working out for you? Try not being homeless for once’.

. I Am… Smeagol Fierce

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Wed 6 Jan 2010

Let It Snow!

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“And I was like ‘what do you want for Crimbo babe?’ And she was like ‘I dunno, surprise me.’” – Guy from Vodafone ad.

We haven’t seen a snow like it since ’89 or, in my case, ever. It’s been the first time I ever remember is snowing at Christmas let alone sticking. First it was torrential rain and now it’s snow. I prefer the snow. Not only does everything have a nice white frosting but it also added to my New Years Eve by allowing us to have a major snow fight. However, right now people have been stuck in traffic for four or five hours. I feel very privileged to be sitting at home in my pajama bottoms in front of a fire. Quite a few people left school early, with me among them. After all, bus services were quickly suspended and if the Dart stopped running again for the fourth time in a week I’d be stranded out in town. And I’m not thick-skinned. I don’t think I’d survive.

Almost every school has the day off tomorrow. Upon receiving the text from my school I started doing my happy dance. Once again, the snow had been a bringer of joy. Last night, instead of doing the sensible thing and lying in bed trying to go to sleep, I went outside with my neighbors and cousins onto the road. It was completely empty and had a thick blanket of snow. We started trying to make a snow man and throwing snow balls at each other. In my opinion, that is the best way ever to end the Christmas holidays. Let it snow!

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