I HATE BLOGGING ABOUT MY EDUCATION

well, i hate that i'm not dedicated to blogging about it.
so i'm in high school now. a FREAKY FREAKY FRESH(wo)MAN.
this is the interior of my locker:

yeah, it consists of a little VAMPIRE WEEKEND/DSCVRY vibe, but hopefully by now you know they're my favorite band, and i have an unhealthy obsession over them.

the top two photos are the covers of their albums, VAMPIRE WEEKEND and CONTRA. the middle photo is the cover art for ROSTAM's (Rostam B. of VAMPY WEEKS) solo-song 'Wood'. lively persian vibes, that song expresses. the next one is a photo of VW, and the last one is the cover for DSCVRY LP. ain't it purty?

moving on, 

since a few weeks ago i started swimming at school well, the class, and i do NOT enjoy it. the teacher makes you take COLD showers. i have swim class second hour out of five, so for most of the day i WOULD have wet hair, but i have supernatural hair where it dries completely within maybe an hour/90 mins TOPS. the other children in my class can be so OBNOXIOUS and i hate when we do freestyle drills because i am the worst at freestyle.
i am the only human being on the planet who does not know how to properly 'do' freestyle swimming. HELLO, i am a Hoosier. i grew up AWAY from water and CLOSER to corn fields.

also, Christmas is just around the corner, and i am pretty stoked!!!
i told my parents that for Christmas i (gratefully) request:

1. record player
2. nice sweaters (NOT turtleneck or button-down)
3. Milk Duds (for my stocking)
4. Kit-Kats (also stocking)
5. a banjo
6. Strunk & White's Elements of Style

and more sensible, rational gifts. i'm really looking forward to a record playa and sweatas!
man, i could really use a blueberry pomegranate G2 gatorade right about now with all of this present talk! be right back: going to the gas station on 7th and SPRINGHILL called Maui's to get my gatorade.

But this feels so unnatural, Accent-imitating too...

I love accents.
I've always had an interest in the way people speak. Not sure why I'm into it, but I am. Imitating various accents is fun, too. British is my favorite. I blame Harry Potter for that one, because when I first saw The Sorcerer's stone, I was both confused and intrigued by how the characters spoke. It was neat and organized, and not so barking and straightforward. I was awestruck when Hermione delivered the line to Ron, "Besides, you're saying it wrong. It's leviosa, not leviosaaaa." After I'd heard her say that, I tried to copy her. It's leviosa, not leviosaaaa. My mother, who was sitting next to me at the time, was very impressed.
Later on I discovered I could imitate a southern accent. Thank you, Sandy Cheeks.
Eventually I find out I'm actually really good with accents: English, southern, New Yorker, Jamaican, Australian (though I frequently get that and English confused), Russian, Austrian, Irish, Minnesotan, etc. French can be difficult for me because I have a stuttering problem, which sucks because I enjoy speed rap, and when I attempt to rap it sounds like I'm choking on popcorn.
And I highly doubt this... "talent"(?) was hereditary because neither of my parents can speak in different accents. My uncle Steve's pretty decent, though. He's an English teacher so it's not surprising if he's articulate.
I'd also like to take a moment to brag that I can sort of wiggle my ears. My grandpa on my mom's side can wiggle his ears, and nobody that's been born since his birth in our family could wiggle their ears. And then along came Addy. I'm not as skilled, but I'm proud to be an amateur.
Back to accents, about a week ago I watched this episode of How the States Got Their Shapes on the History Channel, and they did a special on how accents originated in the U.S., and why, even though we live in the same country, we have different accents. There's this guy that the host of the show interviewed who coaches actors on accent-imitating for a living. He was very impressive; I want to have lunch with him at Cracker Barrel someday.
There have been whispers that a lot of people believe Long Island should become a state, and not just a piece of New York. This Long Islander apparently carries around in his pocket a replica the Long Island flag. Here's a photo:

It's decent. I remember him saying the 4 stars represent the regions(?) of New York City.

I'm getting off topic here. Anyway the episode just interviewed random people from certain regions of the country, and that we're weird for having diverse accents. Not languages, but accents.

Congratulations, U.S.A. for our bizarre-ness!

Okay for some odd strange fucked up reason my photo of The Voyage didn't pop up.

here it is. have a nice day now.

Fly Fly Middle School

Oh... hay.
I know I've been super MIA lately and for that I apologize. I just graduated middle school (8th grade) Tuesday and now I'm preparing for the most boring summer I will ever encounter. Only fun thing I'll do is go to an amusement park in Santa Claus, IN, called Holiday World.
This is a photo of one of Holiday World's wooden coasters The Voyage. Yeah, it's pretty sweet. But last summer I went to Cedar Point, which, if you don't know, is the best amusement park in the world. That was a good day.
So yeah I just graduated and now I'm waiting for my report card. Kinda scared to see it yet totally anxious to see my GPA. Every year we have an eighth grade ceremony and we give out awards and shit. Out of all of the awards I only got 2: perfect attendance and for winning the school spelling bee (I got a plaque for that one). So after all that and tears and goodbyes and stuff I went home, checked my Twitter and spent an hour at Books-A-Million with the company of a DQ blizzard. That was my day.
Right now I'm sitting at my laptop typing this irrelevant post experimenting with African music ignoring my friend's texts of wanting me to play MadLibs with her. I just finished listening to Majek Fashek's "Send Down the Rain" and The Very Best's "Warm Hear of Africa" featuring Ezra Koenig. I like these two songs because in my opinion they pretty much clash, even though they're both considered African music. I love listening o African because I love the fact that African has so many genres, though it's categorized as a genre itself. I haven't heard too much African since I grew up listening to rock and hip-hop, so I always feel refreshed when I hear Majek Fashek or Esau Mwamwaya. I like how this post went from talking about middle school to discussing African music.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get my chore list done before my mom gets home. gotta run

POW MIA

the title is all i really need to say. but in detail i'm sorry for not blogging lately. it's the end of school (middle school actually) and i've been trying to get all my work/projects done. today i finally finished the pants i had to make in sewing class. weeks of hard work and i get a B+ -.-" but whatevs. i'm not too excited to get my last report card because i know i'm going to have at east 2 Bs on it-- science and pre-algebra. English is my strongest subject, and i'm getting a 97%, fortunately. in history i just took a huge 100-points Civil War test (which i got 92/100!!) so i should be okay in that area. wish there was a class for tweeting and Facebook-ing because i'd be so less stressed. although Bs aren't the end of the world, i still cringe whenever i have one. i admit it, i much much MUCH prefer As. i've never had a 4.0 GPA but i've had a 3.952!
  i'll shut up now about my grades. in other news, today's national doughnut day!

Ahh, nothing like a patriotic doughnut.

  

 Breaking news:  Look what I found!

Because I had no homework today (surprisingly enough), I decided to surf the net, and by net I mean Google Images. I typed in "Lively Vibes" and I found a picture of me and a few of the pictures I've posted on this blog... and I found this! Apparently this "Lively Vibe" is a lifestyle blog covering a variation of topics. Cool! So I saved the picture, edited it on Paint and added the "s", and voila! The Lively Vibes logo is born (with a help of copying).
   In other news, IT WON'T STOP RAINING. Even though I prefer cloudy, breezy weather over hot, sunny weather, this rain is making me wanna shoot Martha Mitchell! The bad news is it's gonna be like this for a few more days. Oddly enough, though, I'm pretty fortunate other than the people who have been attacked by tornadoes and floods lately. I remember back in '09 Terre Haute had a major flood and many lost their homes and properties. The walls in my garage got a bit torn up, but other than that we were fine. My brother's friend woke up to his room flooded with water up to his bed that night! It was truly an unfortunate time for us Hoosiers. We're not used to feeling like Floridians (no offense to all you Floridians).

Twilight: The Whole Enchilada

      I know a lot of people who HATE Twilight, or are just not into it. Just a year ago I practically breathed Twilight and all the movies and books. Robert Pattinson was (and pretty much still is) the love of my life. The walls in my room are currently splattered with pictures of the Twilight cast and anything that relates to it (I was in a collage-making mood for a few days). I went to the midnight showing for both New Moon and Eclipse, and woke up the next day for school, still mind blown. Last July I attended a Twilight convention with my mom in Indianapolis and met some of the werewolves (Chaske Spencer "Sam Uley", Bronson Pelletier "Jared", Alex Meraz "Paul", Booboo Stewart "Seth Clearwater" and Tinsel Korey "Emily Young/Uley"). To be honest, that was the best day of my life. I got 4 out of the 5 wolves' autographs and got to shake hands with them (I got to personally speak with Booboo and hug him!). Besides meeting Hulk and Brooke Hogan, Bill Nye the Science Guy and a few not well known people, I'd never met celebs before!
     I really hope sometime in my life I meet my beloved Robert Pattinson and have a fundue time with him. Speaking of Robert Pattinson, yesterday was his 25th birthday! I celebrated by winning a scrimmage against another soccer team during practice last night. I have to admit I'm not AS crazy about him as I was just a year ago (and I blame Vampire Weekend for that), but I still have the occasional hyperventilation when I see new photos of him n a magazine or see a commercial/advertisement/new information about Water for Elephants and Breaking Dawn Part 1. Yesterday all I wanted to do was watch Remember Me, but I never did since I do not own it. Life sucks.
    There's a lot of Twilight haters out there, and that's okay... sometimes. Sometimes haters sip on the Haterade and take things too far. All I know is, I love Twilight and hopefully I always will.
   

Flags of the World

   I have a bizarre interest in flags of various countries. I like learning and identifying them. My dad bought an app on his Droid called GeoQuiz. It's a 20 question quiz over geographical categories like capitals, plains and plateaus, rivers and lakes, foods, population, etc. My favorite category? Flags.
   For instance: My personal favorite flag is the Togian flag.

"The red square symbolizes the loyalty and the patriotism of the people towards their country. The green represents hope, fertility and agriculture. Yellow stands for the country's mineral wealth and the faith that hard work and strength will bring prosperity. The white star represents life, purity, peace, dignity and Togo's independence. The five stripes represent the nation's five distinct geographical regions." That's deep.

   Next up, Libyan flag.

   Libya's flag is probably the most interesting to me. I like how Libyans chose to be simple and down with the law. Of course, green IS their national color. It's also a symbol of Muammar al Qaddafi's 'Green Revolution', which, if you're naive toward all of this, was Libya's "intention to turn Libya into a wealthy agricultural nation." I guess to a Libyan national colors come first. Plus green's my favorite color.
   Oh, you want another flag? Okay.

 The Kuwaiti flag.

Back when I was in 2nd grade, we had an exchanged student from Kuwait. Her name was Lulwah Al-Doukhi. When she came to my school in Indiana she, along with her four siblings, knew only a few English words. To be nice, I introduced myself. Aware that she has no idea what I was saying, I talked to her and tried to help her with her English. Her going to speech and my teaching her simple words helped her with her English immensely. Eventually we became friends-- best friends. Her parents wouldn't allow her to come to my house, so I hung out at her house a few times. One time I had dinner with Lulu (her nickname) and her family. You know, Kuwaiti food is pretty delicious!! Unfortunately I can't remember the name of it, but Lulu's mama cooked this Hamburger Helper-looking dish. IT WAS SO YUMMY. Later that day I came to a realization: I just experienced my first Kuwaiti vibe.

 Lulu was in my class from 2nd to 4th grade. I have a theory that my teachers saw how well I interact with Lulu, and she would be more comfortable if we were in the same class. Lulwah and her family moved back to Kuwait when she and I were in 4th grade. We didn't have any way to contact each other and the only thing I have left of her is a picture of her and I at our siblings' band concert.

This is why I love Twitter:

A couple months ago I signed on to Twitter and noticed I had a DM. The DM read "hey remember me? :)". The message was from LULWAH AL-DOUKHI!!!! She followed me, I followed her and BAM! We're friends again!

   Okay, last flag:

Nepal. Pretty palpable as to why this is one of my favorites. "The crimson/red color is a traditional Nepalese color and the blue outlined edge represents the country's peaceful nature. The two triangular portions of the Nepalese flag represent the Himalayan Mountains and the two main religions of the nation - which are Buddhism and Hinduism. The moon and sun originally represented the royal family and the prime minister's family, the Rana family. They also represent the country's desire to live as long as the sun and moon." An immortal vampire country. I like the sound of that. I like that the Nepalese are complete rebels and have a pointy B shaped flag. Ridin' solo. But I love how spiritual they are, for reelz.
   Okay, nerd alert corner is over. Just wanted to share my flag vibe with y'all. This has been fun.

JUNO vs. TWILIGHT SAGA

Movie soundtracks.
   I love listening to soundtracks, when I own them. If I don't own it... screw it.
As much as I love listening to soundtracks, I've only heard 4 or 5. I suck.
But anyways, Juno was the first soundtrack I listened to, and I fell in love w/ it. Barry Louis Polisar's "All I Want is You" makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside (so... many... metaphors!!). I start to have an asthma attack every time I sing that song. Barry must be a professional swimmer. "I Am a Vampire" is probably the most adorable/strangest track on that soundtrack. But I love it anyway.

  Next: Twilight Saga.
  To be honest, I love Twilight and Edward Cullen, and to be even more honest these soundtracks are partially how I got into indie. Eclipse, in my opinion, portrays the best tracks among the three films (though I have soft spots for "Flightless Bird" and "Full Moon" on the Twilight soundtrack, and "Slow Life", "Shooting the Moon" and "Done All Wrong" on New Moon). I was excited to see Vampire Weekend record a song for Eclipse cause, as you know, they're my favorite band. "Jonathan Low" blew me away, especially the spontaneous melody. So much is happening simultaneously, and yet it's insanely beautiful. Also, I was pretty psyched about Beck featuring for Bat for Lashes' "Let's Get Lost". That man's voice gives me chillzzzzz!! Not until recently did I listen to the Florence + the Machine's track "Heavy in Your Arms", and I highly regret that. Man, Florence has got some pipes on her!! I was surprised, but also interested, they chose a track from Cee Lo Green. What a weird mix they've got up they're sleeves, I thought to myself. But I ended up really enjoying that kind-of-beautiful "What Part of Forever". Sia's track... I have no words. It's so gorgeous and professionally simple. One of my favs. Dead Weather, Fanfarlo and David Shore's "Jacob's Lullably" are also amazing.
  So I'm done yapping about Juno and Twilight. Y'all can go back to Tweeting and Facebook-ing and blogging about better things than what you just read.
  Adieu.

My 10 Favorite Bands

Okay so I'm not one of those teens who live off listening to hip hop/pop singles from artists such as Ke$ha, Katy Perry, Jason Derulo and Justin Bieber.
    I know better than that.
What I listen to is... well, indie. And alternative. Alternative indie. Independent music can mean so much more than pop. Bands such as Vampire Weekend, MGMT (though those 2 bands are getting pretty popular, though), Grizzly Bear, Phoenix, Bon Iver, Beck, (the list could go on) expose creativity and can prove a better point. I'm not sipping on Haterade; I just believe indie doesn't get as much credit as it should.
   Anywho, just to get it out in the open, these are my personal 10 favorite bands/artists (in no order):
1. Vampire Weekend (my all-time favorite. duhhh)
2. Beck (so creative!)
3. Regina Spektor
4. Grizzly Bear
5. Discovery (electronic, but brilliant)
6. Ra Ra Riot
7. Ben Folds
8. The New Pornographers
9. Dave Matthews Band (no brainer)
10. Arcade Fire (another no brainer)
Not that this is relevant -- I just thought I'd get that off my chest. This isn't gonna be a complete all-about-music blog, but, since I do love it, I will talk about it frequently.

Eye Coordination

Salutations.
Right now I'm sitting in front of my computer drinking Gatorade and eating cookies I baked at 10:30 last night.
I like to bake sometimes, especially at 10:30. It's a magical time.
    But anyway, I'm Addison and I'm an Aryan. I love music and hate sewing. I have mild OCD and asthma (so I can't smoke anyway cause I'll, you know, die quicker).
    My Twitter account is @AddisonCullen and I do have a Facebook.
This first post has been fun.