This may or may not be the most adorable thing I've ever seen

I've never been one to watch cute cat videos online or read cat memes with those funny captions, but upon finding this little gem floating around the internet I decided I had to put this up because it is officially the most adorable thing I have ever seen.

It is a dancing cat. A. DANCING. CAT. A SMILING DANCING CAT. 

enough said. 

Photo Time!

More photos I dug up online for all of you lovely people!

Courtesy of Tumblr.

Courtesy of Tumblr.

courtesy of Joni Mitchell. com

Courtesy of Tumblr

How can you not love Stefon?

Courtesy of Buzzfeed

Right, Regina?

Courtesy of Buzzfeed

This is the office of the coolest teacher ever.

Courtesy of Buzzfeed

Remember to check out my weekly cover right below this post, and if you have any photos you'd like me to add to the next post, leave the link in the comments below!

Weekly cover!

I've decided to make this a weekly thing because it's fun and easier than typing long entries......

This week I'm covering "We Might be Dead by Tomorrow" by Soko.

If you have any songs you' like me to cover next week please leave your suggestions in the comments below! If I use your suggestion I'll be sure to mention you in the description.

I decided to try something...

I didn't exactly know what to blog about and was in the mood for playing my ukulele (mostly because I'm procrastinating on cleaning the basement...) so I hope you enjoy this cover of "Naked as We Came" originally by Iron & Wine!

See the original here! (Sorry I can't do the cool guitar intro! I'm not actually good. Also, Samuel Bean wins all beard awards ever created.)

Website of the Week

Website of the Week: http://www.buzzfeed.com

You have to see for yourself.....
Also, I got Janis Ian on the mean girls quiz.

Music Artist of the Week: Regina Spektor

I chose Regina Spektor as this weeks featured music artist because a.) she is the most angelic person who ever lived and b.) she just had a baby!
Regina was originally from Russia, but moved to the U.S. as a young girl. She quickly excelled at playing the piano, and started slowly getting gigs around New York City. Her voice is gorgeous and angelic, somber at some times, happy and joyous at others.

Check out her website here!

Get her latest album, "What We Saw from the Cheap Seats" on iTunes here!

This is my favorite music video of hers! (Also, this song is uber fun to play on the ukulele!) 

This is another music video by her that is insanely weird but awesome at the same time

The Me Me Me Generation: Why Do Adults keep Stereotyping Us?

     The other day I was on a job cleaning up stacks of old mail when I came across a Time magazine from May of 2013. On the front there sat a girl with straight red hair holding a camera at arms length away from her. The caption above her head read "The Me Me Me Generation: Millennials are lazy, entitled narcissists who still live with their parents, how they'll save us all." I was shocked by the title, and proceeded to read the article, hoping that "The Me Me Me Generation" was just a catch to get consumers to purchase magazines. I was, evidently, wrong. The article went on to describe how young adults born from the early 1980's to the early 2000s were spoiled, self-indulgent, didn't care about anyone, and had no work-ethic whatsoever. (I found this ironic, considering I was reading this article as I was hoisting piles upon piles of mail to be sorted, working so I could raise money myself for a trip to Europe.) According to the article, all that the "Y generation" is focused on is taking selfies, social media, and other things of that likeness.
I, for one, was outraged. The stereotypes surrounding Millennials may be true in some cases, but what about those instances where it isn't? Many of the young adults I know who indulge in social media from time to time are also Straight-A students and participate in a variety of sports and extra-curricular activities. I know kids who wake up at the crack of dawn and stay late doing babysitting just so they can earn money towards a substantial purchase that ISN'T a form of technology! Many of us have to come home after sports and extracurriculars to do another hour or more of homework. We have chores, grades, and many other factors that contend with our daily lives, yet somehow, we are still the ones who are called lazy.
What made me even more angry about the article was that it hasn't been the first time I've seen something like it. Many media outlets also contribute to the hatred of Millennials, fashioning the same stereotypes as the Time article.  We're made up to be a joke, a spectacle to be mocked by the press. How is this type of stereotyping different from any other, and what makes it so acceptable and widely used among the media?
Joel Stein, the man who wrote the article and has been writing for Time for years, is, in my opinion, in no place to be speaking about the antics of the Y generation. He has a child who isn't even middle-school aged, yet he somehow seems to know all about our antics. I also found this *ahem* selfie floating around the internet:

https://twitter.com/thejoelstein

oh, and this

https://www.facebook.com/thejoelstein

Hypocrisy at it's finest. 

As I left that house with money towards my trip nestled soundly in my back pocket, another thought crossed my mind: even if our elders like Mr. Stein tell us "who we are", or who the world has made us up to be, doesn't mean we have to listen. This is our future, and we're the ones who make it ours, not the people who write allegations about us in newspapers and books. It's our time, and it is what we, the Millennials, make it out to be, and I guarantee, by the time we're done, the world will still be here in one piece. 

Said Offensive Cover in Question (www.time.com)

  

DIY Tutorial: Melted Crayon Art

       

One of the coolest things you will ever do.

Time 2-3 hours

Materials:

You'll need......

- 1 pack of of 64 Crayola crayons

- Hot glue gun

- 1 canvas ( I used a 9x12 canvas from A.C.Moore) 

- Hair Dryer

- Trash Bags

- 1 Black  Sharpie permanent marker (optional)

 Step 1: Before you glue, figure out what order you want your crayons to be in. Line them up on the canvas before hand. Be sure that there is no space between the crayons, and be sure that they are up against the top of the canvas.

Step 2: Begin gluing your crayons down. It is good to not only glue them to the canvas, but be sure to put a thin line of glue between the crayons as well to help hole them in place. 

Step 3 (This is the part where you get to pretend your James Bond and be all like "I zap you with my hairdryer!"): Lay your trash bags on a floor in an area in your house that is ok for you to possibly get dirty. Plug your hairdryer into a nearby outlet and lean your canvas up against a nearby wall facing vertically (you have to let the wax drip down.) 

Step 4: Turn the hairdryer on high and point it at the bottom of the crayons at a direct and/or downward angle. It will take a while for the crayons to melt, so you have to be patient. When the wax starts to drip use the hairdryer to maneuver the fall of the wax in whatever way you want it. As I said, this process takes a really long time, and there may be wax flying everywhere, so be patient and wear clothes you don't mind getting dirty. 

Step 5: After you have the wax at it's desired place, turn the hairdryer off. This is where the Sharpie comes in. Find a design you like online (or you can freehand it!) and trace it with the Sharpie. After you trace it, fill in the outline with the same Sharpie. 

Step 6: Take a picture and Post/Tweet/Instagram/Snapchat it to show all of your friends what a little artistic genius you are. 

Tips: If you want to make a design that involves having the design under/ based around how the wax melts, such as...

Be sure to draw the design BEFORE you melt the crayons.

To keep yourself from getting bored  during the hour-plus melting process, watch a movie, turn on some music, that kind of thing. It can get pretty boring, and your arm can end up pretty tired. 

Bombdiggity Artist of the Week: The Preatures

If you took David Bowie, subtracted the glitter, added the subdued sass/ beauty of Stevie Nicks, and threw in more pairs of 70s sunglasses than you could count, you would have the Preatures. Led by singer Isabella Manfredi, the Preatures originated in Sydney, Australia and originally signed with a label there. They are amazing. Please, for the sake of your ears, look them up.

Check out there website here.

Check out their most popular song "It This How You Feel?" 

And... Here they are on Spotify! 

http://darlingmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/The-Preatures.jpg

A Picture's worth a thousand words...

Here are some of the images I have been using lately as both personal and creative inspiration (or just because they're really cool!)

This really awesome wedding dress (made from a vintage table cloth!) courtesy of Buzzfeed

How I miss this! Courtesy of Buzzfeed

Roy Lichtenstien courtesy of Wikipedia

This is a photograph by a 21-year-old photographer named Nirrimi Hakason. Her work, (and story,) are astounding, and this is one of my favorite photos by her. Courtesy of the Road is Home.

Sarah Hyland from Modern Family courtesy of Modern Family

The entirety of Reality Shows captured in one image. If only we all looked this "majestic" when we cried. Courtesy of Buzzfeed.

Amy Winehouse courtesy of Tumblr

Website of the week

Website of the week: http://www.instructables.com

This website teaches you how to make literally EVERYTHING. What to learn how to make pressure cooked corned beef and vegetables? Done. Want to learn how to make Flappy Bird in a box? Yes. However, through research I discovered that it doesn't teach you how to make duct tape utensils. So much for making all my food taste like plastic!

And you to may contribute a verse...

It took memorizing a Shakespeare monologue at summer camp, reading the fault in our stars, and listening to enough Joni Mitchell on vinyl to permanently destroy my hearing, but a few months ago I finally developed an appreciation for poetry. There's some sort of emotion that comes out in poetry that can come out in nothing else. I would have thought doodling song lyrics all those years I could have loved it sooner, but there were certain things that really led me to it. I have especially began to find a love of poetry written by musicians. Here are some of my favorite poetry recommendations:

Grapefruit, Yoko Ono ($14, Amazon)

http://wordobject.files.wordpress.com
Grapefruit is classic Yoko. It reads more like an instruction manual than a book of poetry, but in a way the things recommended within the pages make one think more than traditional poetry. With an introduction written by John Lennon, this is truly a fascinating, thoughtful book.Gathered Light: The Poetry of Joni Mitchell's Songs ($25, Amazon)http://www.threeoclockpress.com/sites/default/files/images/covers/9781927513125.jpgAlthough The Gathered Light isn't technically a book of poetry, it is an anaylisis of the philisophical and lyrical sides of Joni's music. I have always had an appreciation for Joni's skill with words, and this book only shows how much can be taken from her lyrics. 

 

Bombdiggity new artist of the week: The Moldy Peaches

Although they aren't exactly new the Moldy Peaches exemplify indie music in it's natural state. Originally formed by Adam Green and Kimya Dawson, the Moldy Peaches started in New York and went on to release exactly 1 album. Most people know the Moldy Peaches for their song "Anyone Else But You," which became the theme song for the movie "Juno." Check them out here.

This is the original "Anyone Else but You" by the Moldy Peaches (performed by Green and Dawson)

This awesome couple did a parody of "Anyone Else But You" at their theoretically awesome wedding

This is Ellen Page (she played Juno and had to sing the song in the movie) doing an awesome cover of "Anyone Else But You" for the awesome Barbara Walters.

image: http://www.moldypeaches.com/bandphoto.jpg

Bangor Area Childrens Choir on tour!

So this last weekend the Bangor Area Childrens Choir (BACC) went on tour! It went really well and everyone had a great time....... after we were rescued. About an hour into our trip, our bus proceeded to break down, leaving us to set up camp in McDonalds for about 2 hours. A very nice chaperone bought us fries so we wouldn't die of starvation, and we took many goodbye/will/who-gets-what-of-our-possesions videos.

Us at McDonalds

The nice chaperone who bought us fries also bought us jumbo sodas!

which we all enjoyed (mostly because it was free and it was keeping us alive) (I'm going to nominate that man for some kind of humanitarian award!)

And suddenly.... a school bus appears!

And we all rejoiced when a school bus arrived to save us!

Well, Skrillex, that was unexpected...

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-54BCKU4dKVA/Ux7pqW_00GI/AAAAAAAAE_U/h_ypUlwHsHE/s1600/recess.jpg

2 days ago Skrillex released an album very suddenly, putting it for pre-sale unexpectedly on iTunes. This rocked the music world, as nobody knew the tracks were coming. Since I love stating my opinion on music, I figured I would check out the new album and figure out my viewpoint. Here's a description of each of the tracks from the perception of someone who doesn't really have a thing for dubstep.

Tracks 1-11: 

http://collegetimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/aliens.jpg

In conclusion, I think what Skrillex was subtly trying to tell us is that they are always watching and waiting and that we should be ready. They're coming.

After After School, March 12th

Website of the week: http://.isitchristmas. com.

The title of the website is pretty self explanatory. In case you are confused about the month, or in most cases, the season, this website is for you. Great if you keep your decorations up all year!

After School Post, March 12

"The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of a world and wake up in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment then where is it to be found?"

- J.B. Preistly

Kristen Stewarts Face

Well, technically I guess vampires don't sleep....

Image source: http://s1.ibtimes.com/sites/www.ibtimes.com/files/styles/v2_article_large/public/2013/07/13/kristen-stewart.jpg

Bombdiggity New Artist: SoKo

I know that no one reading this blog will EVER care about this, but being me I had to share a new music artist discovery! For anyone who has watched the YouTube video "FIRST KISS" you probably heard the awesome and painstaking music in the background. I looked it up, and it turns out that that is Soko, a French singer/actress. Her music is really, really haunting and soulful. Check her out here.

The Treachery of Rene Magritte

If you've read the fault in the stars, then chances are you're at least somewhat associated with the art of Rene Magritte, the man who created the image on Hazel's "c'est ne pas un pipe" shirt. His artwork is awesome and weird and crazy philosophical. Here are some of his paintings.

The Treachery of Images (which reads in French "this is not a pipe," meaning that it is instead of it being a pipe, it is a painting of a pipe) 

 

The Son of Man

Golconda (You may recognize this is Mrs. Barnes art room)

And as I said before, if you haven't read the Fault in our Stars it is a seriously amazing book.

Source: http://www.renemagritte.org

Introduction

Hi Everyone! I'm Jessie, and this is my blog! I'll be blogging every day about everything and anything, from entertainment to travel, from art to fashion! I hope you enjoy!