I'm only human. So are you. That's what this is all about. LIFE.
I'm a 14 year old girl, and you can call me UrbanNerd.
This blog is just about me, what I like, what I don't, the issues I face. Basically, this is my life.
If you have feedback or suggestions, or even if you have a life story of your own that you think might make an interesting thing to blog about, tweet me at @UrbanNerd_ .
Enjoy. xo.
Wow. That's all I have to say. I struggled to think of a creative title because I am just lost for words after watching a certain something on YouTube.
As some of you might know, Jackie Emerson is an 18 year old singer, songwriter, actress, and inspiration.
Yes, she is one of the most inspiring people I have ever known.
Today I was stalking my favourite celebrities' twitters, as usual, and I stumbled upon a link on Jackie's to a talk that she did. I nearly didn't watch it, I didn't really know what it was going to be about, but then I thought, why not? I didn't have anything else to do. So I watched it, and I am so glad I did.
It was all about holding onto your inner child, as the title of the video suggests. I felt that what she said was so relevant to me and it really made me stop and think. Straight after I had finished watching it, I wanted to go out and do something, something for me.
To finish off, I want to thank Jackie for doing this. I personally think that it is incredibly inspiring. I truly, truly admire Jackie.
Please watch it, you'll be doing a huge favour for yourself.
If you ask me, October 23rd is one of the biggest days of the year. Yes, it is the darling Amandla Stenberg's 14th birthday. Fourteen, that just seems so grown up! Even though I'm already 14 and am still very much a kid...
Anyway.
Yesterday I cam across a tweet about my hero's birthday, and it got me extremely excited, fangirl mode, if you will.
THIS. A girl on twitter, @maddy_merz is making a birthday video for Amandla. I just love the idea of this, because if Amandla sees it, SHE MIGHT ACTUALLY SEE YOUR FACE. Oh my gosh.
And because I love Amandla very much, I wanted this girl's video to be the best it can, so, that's where you come in.
Now, I know that not everyone will actually know who Amandla is (if you actually read my blog though you damn well should), but those of you Tributes most definitely would.
If you are a fan of Amandla, what are you waiting for?! Send in a picture!
There's some more information for you here, if you need it.
Happy early birthday my dear Amandla, and may the odds be ever in your favour.
I recently discovered that the fabulous The Book Critic over at bookfangirling.blogspot.com is having a writing competition!
It is called CAPTURED, and it is a short story competition.
Basically, she has given you a picture of a scene out of The Hunger Games and you have to write a short (a maximum of 2000 words) FanFiction about it.
The prize is that she will promote your blog/twitter/tumblr or any of that type of thing for all of November! Also, the winning story will be featured on her blog!
All of the rules and everything else you need to know is here.
You should definitely check it out and get invloved! I know I will, if I find the time and motivation! Haha. I think it would actually be a great opportunity, as I don't usually like writing, but because it's about something I love then it should be fun!
I can't wait to see the winning entry, and if you decide to give it a go, good luck!
First of all, I want to congratulate myself for making a creative title and also including a pun in there, go me.
Last Tuesday, the season premier of Grey's Anatomy was on. When I saw the ad saying that it had been 'fast-tracked' so we got to see it the same time as America, I was so excited, but geez, the ad nearly made me cry!
You see, in last season's final episode, some of the doctor's had been in a plane crash and my favourite character died. Sob sob. And my second favourite character, they were in love, sigh. But the guy, Mark, didn't really confess / realise it until when she, Lexie, was dying. So yeah, it was really sad.
And then, next thing you know, the season premier was on and Mark was in a hospital bed!
And long story short, he wasn't showing any signs or recovery, and his 'wishes' were that if after 30 days he wasn't get any better, he wanted them to turn off the life support.
So at five o'clock on that day, after 30 days of no recovery, they all gathered there, in his room, on the seats outside, and sat with him while he died. ALL THE WHILE I CRIED MY EYES OUT.
Sorry for yelling just there, my emotions just took over.
And so that's why the end of my Tuesday wasn't too good. But you should still watch Grey's Anatomy because it's amazing.
Also I now am so desperate to meet Eric Dane to make sure he's alive and okay.
I know I haven't been posting recently, and I apoligise for that. I've decided that I'm going to make a few changes around here. One of the main ones is the frequency of my posts. I used to blog every single day, but recently I've found that hard. So, now, instead of posting every day, I'm just going to post once or twice a week. I think that will suit me better, and that way I think my posts will be better too. It's just a bit of a trial, I'll try it out for a while and see if I like it, if I do I'll keep it like that, if I don't then I'll try something different.
One of the main reasons for this change is a lack of motivation. I've really been struggling to think of good things to blog about lately, so that's where you can help. If you have any ideas for an interesting topic that I could blog about, I'd love to hear it!! It could be anything, it could be some thing you've experienced or a lesson that you learnt. It could be a tutorial on how to bake a cake or do your nails, it could be absolutely anything. So if you have any ideas, you can tweet me at @UrbanNerd_ or leave a comment below. Or, if you have an idea but you don't really want people to know that it was from you, I have an email address for this blog that you can send it to. Just ask me for it and I'll be happy to tell you.
The other day there were these people on A Current Affairs that were just talking about winning competitions. They entered every single competition that they saw, and gave us some tips on how to win things. For some reason I found this very interesting, and I immediately got out my iPod and wrote down these notes. There wasn't many, but I thought I'd share them with you anyway!
-When entering a competition where you have to send in your entry by mail, use a small envelope!
-When entering a competition where you have to send in your entry by phone or text, send in your message right on 12 o'clock in the afternoon. Right on the dot! They just said that for some reason this is the luckiest time of the day.
So this got me thinking, have you ever been lucky enough to win a competition? What is the best thing you have ever won? Drop me a comment below or tweet me at @UrbanNerd_!
My favourite thing that I have ever won would probably be The Hunger Games poster that I won last month, I wrote about it here.
There's also this competition going on at the moment and the prize is absolutely SPECTACULAR! I haven't entered yet but I'm really excited too, and I know I probably won't win, but YOU'VE GOT TO BE IN IT TO WIN IT!
Something that I absolutely hate is racism. Why does it matter what colour someone's skin is, or what country they originate from? How does that make them a bad person? How does that make it right for you to judge them?
Everyone's different, different hair, different eyes, different interests, different house, different clothes, different family, different skin. Who cares? That's what makes the world interesting. Imagine how boring it would be if everyone was the same! It's like if I came up to you and teased you because you have blonde hair or green eyes.
So before you judge someone because of their skin colour, or their race, or their accent, talk to them! Chances are you could learn something about them, about their home country, anything!
Yesterday all these people were talking about some Bad Lip Reading thing. I had absolutely no idea what they were on about, until someone showed me this video..
THIS IS ONE OF THE FUNNIEST THINGS I HAVE EVER SEEN.
Now, whether you're a Hunger Games fan or not, your sure to love it. What they've done, is gotten scenes out of the movie and done funny voice over sort or things. It is so good! But it's really clever, it actually looks like that's what they say. It's really hilarious.
I suggest you watch it all and also check out some of their other things on YouTube, Bad Lip Reading. Plus they've got a Facebook and a Twitter!
There are so many social networking sites nowadays, Tumbr, Instagram, all that kind of stuff. But I would think that the two most popular would be Twitter and Facebook.
Now, everyone that uses these sites would know that they are quite different, and everyone would have their opinion as to which one is better.
So today, I'm going to give my point of view, and share some of what I think are the pros and cons of Facebook and Twitter.
I was actually going to make this post 'Three Reasons Why Twitter Is Better Than Facebook', but I didn't think that would be fair, so I went with this instead.
So let's get down to business..
Twitter Pros:
-You can choose what sort of people you socialise with and what you see in your timeline. By this I mean the sort of people that you follow. For example, I obviously love The Hunger Games, so most of the people I follow are either actors and actresses out of the movie, or fans just like me. I find this really great because I don't have many friends in real life that have read the book or even seen the movie, so it's good having people on twitter that I can talk to and that will relate to how I am feeling when something exciting happens in our fandom, like somebody being cast as character in Catching Fire, or a competition being announced.
-You can tweet as much as you like. Twitter is made for saying what you want to say, when you want to say it. There is no limit on how much you say, well there is, but you'd have to be a pretty avid tweeter to reach tweet limit.
-It's a good way to talk to and find out about what your favourite celebrities are doing. When a celebrity tweets, it's always fun to tweet them back with plenty of meaningless tweets, but it's amazing when they reply. Cons:
-Pretty much anybody can see what you post.
-You don't always know who's behind an account. Because there's people from around the world on Twitter, you won't know everybody, obviously. So sometimes it's hard to know whether it is safe to talk to them or not. Most of the time, they're just friendly kids that wan't to talk to you about your many interests or obsessions, but you've got to be careful.
Facebook Pros:
-It is more private than Twitter. You can choose who can see your things and how much they see.
-There is no limit on how long your statuses or messages can be!! On twitter, your tweets can only be 140 characters long, and some times I find this a bit restricting. So Facebook is good if you want to write longer things and get your point out. Cons: -Like I said before, barely anyone that I know is a fan of The Hunger Games, so if I post something like a photo or a quote on Facebook about it, no one will understand. It's kind of annoying sometimes.
And there we have it!! Personally, I prefer Twitter, as you can probably tell because the Twitter section is probably about twice as big as the Facebook section, haha.
So what's your opinion? Do you agree with me? Do you think Twitter is better than Facebook, or the other way around? Or maybe there's a whole other social network that you think beats both of these!! Let me know what you think by dropping me a comment below, or tweeting me at @UrbanNerd_.
You wouldn't have to worry about how skinny you are, or how short your dress is, or how long your eyelashes are, or how perfectly your hair sits.
You could just throw on a t-shirt and shorts in the morning and you'd be ready to go.
You wouldn't have to worry about putting make-up on because if you don't people will probably judge you.
You wouldn't have to worry about having to be perfect all the time.
You wouldn't have to worry about being stereotyped all the time.
Lately, in English, we have gotten piles upon piles of work. And the worst part is that they have been assignments, so I actually have to put some effort into them.
The latest topic that we've been working on is politics, and we have to make up our own little make believe political party. On Monday we are actually going to have an 'election' so we have to make a speech on what we stand for and all that type of stuff. Another part of the project is that we have to make some merchandise pieces or other things that promote our party.
Mine is called The Justice Party, and for one of my items to promote it I made a website!
I really just made another blog but I've tried to make it not look too much like a blog..
Anyway! I'd appreciate if you could take a look at it, just tell me what you think, give me some feedback. It's not really anything special, but still.
When you're in not so much of a good mood, nothing can cheer you up better than a good laugh. And with my new found love for YouTube, I have found the perfect source of plenty of giggles.
This video is so funny. It is made by the hilarious Jack Quaid and Nick Williams (out of Neon Albatross) and I laughed quite uncontrollably when watching it. It has a bit of cursing in it, so if you are around other people then you might want to put some ear phones in, that's what I did, and I got a fair few strange looks.. but oh well! I got a good giggle out of it.
Jenna Marbles would have to be the most hilarious girl on the planet. This video is one of my favourites out of all of hers. And this one also has a lot of swearing in it, so you will definitely want to plug in those ear phones, but it's pretty darn funny.
The boys in my class played this in science the other day, and I think it's funny because it is just so stupid. Like, seriously, who would ever think of making a video about NARWHALS?! But it is safe to say that Narwhals are now my favourite animal.
WARNING: Tune may be stuck in your head for days on end, watch at own risk.
So they're my top videos to get a bit of a laugh at, and now for an extra bit of news that might 'lighten your mood', well it definitely did with mine..
AMANDLA STENBERG FOLLOWED ME.
Yeah, that's right. Oh. My. Gosh. I still can not believe it!! Ahhh, it was so exciting! It wasn't on my personal or my blog account, it was on my fan account, oh wait, I mean, ACCOUNTS! Yeah! Two of them! You see, I have heaps of fan accounts on twitter, including one for Amandla and one for Jamandla! Jamandla is the name that Jackie and Amandla call them selves, by the way. It's kind of like their friend ship name.
So I got home from school on Wednesday, and you know, went on twitter, checked out all the latest gossip. Then, I worked my way down my list of accounts, my Hunger Games account, my blog account, then to my Amandla account! I went into my mentions, and BOOM. 'Amandla Stenberg follows you'. I was like, "FREAKIN' WHAT?!" I thought it must have been a fake account, until I went on to the page and saw the amount of followers it had and that I already followed it..
I ran into our study and started screaming and crying and all of those crazy type of things. When I finally calmed down, well, sort of calmed down, I went into Amandla's follow list to check that I wasn't making it all up, AND I SAW MY OTHER ACCOUNT! And then all of the screaming and crying started all over again.
You guys know how much I love Amandla, I love her a lot, and two days later I still don't believe it happened. For real, someone that I love, adore, support, and someone that I look up to noticed me! ME! Just an ordinary girl that has a lot of love to give. Ah, it's so incredible.
So yeah. That's just my news. Hope it kind of made you smile and the videos made you laugh! You should all definitely check out some more of Jack Quaid, Jenna Marbles and even Neon Albatross on YouTube!!
Drop me a comment down below or tweet me at @UrbanNerd_ and tell me what makes you laugh or smile!
The other day my English teacher, we'll just call her Mrs. D, told me and my friend that she had decorated her daughter's room with some Hunger Games images that she had found. Now, Mrs. D knows that we are huge Hunger Games lovers, so she said that she would email us the images in case we wanted to print them out as well.
I saw that she had sent them the other day, and I love them. So, I thought I would share them with you! Just in case you wanted to print them out and decorate your room too!
Here they are..
I just have to say, I love this one. It's so simple but I think I like it so much because I just love Rue.
Something else I really liked about this is the notes on it. Now, in the movie, Katniss and Rue's Mockingjay calls are a little different. These notes are the actual notes to the tune, but I don't know whether it is actually Rue's, or whether it's Katniss'. I think it might be Katniss', but that's still uber cool.
I like showing off and telling people that I can play it on the keyboard, also because I can't whistle.. hehe.
Oh I love this one too! This one is for all of you that are both Tributes and Potterheads!!
And I really like the colours in this one.
And there we have it! I hope you like them and you might even stick them up in your room! I know I will be!
Happy Hunger Games, and may the odds be ever in your favour!
Yesterday I received my first ever blog award! I didn't even know this type of thing existed, but I want to thank The Book Critic for awarding it to me! It means a lot!!
One of the rules for receiving this award is that I have to answer 5 questions that I was given. Here they are!
1. What was the last book you read? Was it good?
The last book that I read was actually The Hunger Games! And as for the was it good? Of course it was! I was re-reading it, obviously, it's the second time I've read it. I absolutely love it. Love, love, love.
2. What was the last blog you read? What do you think of it?
I really like murder investigation type of shows, so I love Castle and Bones. I also really like Greys Anatomy and New Girl. I like a lot of shows, but they're some of my favourites.
4. What is your favourite genre of book to read?
Hm, I like books that keep you in suspense, that make you want to keep reading at the end of a chapter. I read a book a while ago, it was a few years ago in fact, called Silas and the Winterbottoms. I'm not sure what genre you would put it under, but I really loved it, it was my favourite book until I read The Hunger Games!
5. Did you like reading in primary school?
Yes! I really loved reading in primary school, I used to read every night as soon as I got home. Then as I moved into high school I didn't read as much, but then as soon as I read The Hunger Games..
Thanks again to The Book Critic for giving me this award!!
I don't actually read many blogs, not because I don't want to, I just don't know how to find good ones! So if you run a blog and you want me to check it out, leave the link in the comment box below, I'll be happy to take a look at it! Or if you have read someone else's blog and you like it, you can tell me about that as well.
So anyway, the five blogs that I'm going to award this to are the ones that I have read, but I really like them all so they do deserve them. And it sucks that I can't give one to The Book Critic because her's is my favourite blog! But anyway..
And to those five people that I chose, here are the rules!
1. Make sure you thank the person that gave you the award and tag them in the post!
2. Ask the next five people five questions and answer the ones that you were given.
3. Award five people of your own!
4. Remember to post the rules!
So here are the questions for you guys..
1. What is the one thing that you always do when you have some spare time?
2. What is your favourite song at the moment?
3. Why did you start a blog?
4. What country are you from? Where would you live if you could live anywhere in the world?
5. What's your favourite thing to blog about?
And there we go! I've really enjoyed writing this post, I hope you've enjoyed reading!
So the other day, I saw this completely awesome post on someone elses blog, and it contained a heap of gifs.
If you don't know what a gif is, just google it. They're awesome.
So when I saw it, I was like:
And then I was like:
But then I was like:
And then she told me how to put gifs in posts, and now I'm like:
I've probably said this a million times, but I'm going to say it again! I really can't say it enough, I love and appreciate all of you!! All of my readers mean so much to me!
I get so many confidence when people tell me that they like my blog, or when I see that I have a certain amount of views on a blog. It means SO much!!
All of my readers and all of my followers on twitter are so kind. They always give me some feedback and I think that's really great.
So I just wanted you to know, if you're reading this, THANKYOU SO MUCH! I appreciate every single person that reads my blog and it means a lot to me.
So today I was helping my friend with some homework she had. And it sounds really funny, but I was actually enjoying it. Why? Because it was on The Hunger Games! After she'd left I thought, I really want to watch it now. So I did. And I realised how absolutely amazing all of the actors and actresses in it are.
I thought they all deserved some appreciation, they deserve a blog post.
I have to start with Amandla Stenberg. Her performance as Rue was absolutely phenomenal. When Rue was killed I actually cried. She was that good. And if people think that Amandla wasn't absolutely perfect, they should probably go eat some Nightlock.
Alexander Ludwig. Alex did such a great job as Cato. He portrayed the character in so much depth and even though Cato was quite evil, towards the end we saw another side of him. I really loved this and I thought he was fantastic.
I don't think anyone would make a better Thresh than Dayo Okeniyi. Some of my favourite scenes in the movie were ones with Thresh. I loved it when Cato's knife got stolen, and he took it out on one of the other tributes, but then we see little Rue hanging up by some straps on the roof and she has it. But the thing I love about that scene is when Thresh sees her up there and gets this cheeky little grin on his face, it just makes me go 'aw'!
For a 12 year old, Willow Shields is such an amazing actress. She portrayed Prim so perfectly, she was just so innocent and seemed genuinely scared. I just couldn't help but adore Prim and I'm sure I'm not the only one that felt so many different emotions when her name was reaped. When she was saying goodbye to Katniss it was just so so sad. Willow was amazing.
Isabelle Fuhrman was absolutely perfect as Clove. And when I see perfect, I mean perfect. The scene in which she almost kills Katniss is one of my favourites in the whole movie. She just seems so evil and cunning, I really loved it.
I loved Jack Quaid as Marvel. He was just so goofy, in a way, and it was like he brought a lot of himself to the character. The snippet we see of Marvel's interview was my favourite out of all.
Thanks to Jackie Emerson, Foxface is now one of my favourite characters. Even though she didn't have many scene in the movie, when she was on the screen she was perfect.
Josh Hutcherson was an amazing Peeta. No matter how hard I try, I can not imagine someone else being Peeta. He portrayed the chemistry between Peeta and Katniss perfectly.
Jennifer Lawrence. Flawless. There are no other words for her. There is no way anyone else could ever be Katniss, she is the one and only. There is just something about Jen that just makes her so likeable. She just brought so many different emotions to her character. I loved her so so much as Katniss, words can simply not describe it.
I love ALL of The Hunger Games cast. Every single on of them. Even the ones I didn't name, I still love them as much as the others. Leven was a perfect Glimmer, Elizabeth an amazing Effie, Woody was a hilarious Haymitch, and Lenny such a serene Cinna. All of the cast is so wonderful.
Alright, I just have a few things I need to say. Nothing big! So don't worry, but just a few little things.
First off, I apologise for the font in the last post! It was different to all of the other posts and it looks a bit out of place, this is because I wrote it on my iPod and it just didn't want to go to the right font.
I was typing it last night, it took me like half an hour because it kept glitching, and then the whole thing just disappered. I was so angry! So then I had to type it again and it took me forever, but at least I got it posted eventually!! Anyway, that's the first thing.
Next, comments. The first time somebody commented on one of my posts, I was in class. I wasn't actually meant to be blogging, but I couldn't help myself, and we weren't doing anything important anyway. So when I saw it, I like screamed. It was so exciting! I know you might think that's stupid, but when people comment on my posts and means that they are acutally reading them.
So, next time you read one of my posts, if you like it, let me know! I need to know if I'm doing okay, I need to know what I should do more of and what I shouldn't do at all. So that's just something to keep in mind!
Also, running a blog is hard. Like really hard. Especially because I want to post something everyday. But I have heaps of homework at the moment and it's quite hard to find time to post things. I do try my best, but some days I just won't be able to blog, and this just makes me disappointed too. If I don't post one day though, don't fret! I'll try and do two posts the next day or maybe the day after that.
I posted a recipe last Friday, you can take a look at it here, and I got quite a positive response from that, so I was thinking of doing one every week or maybe every fortnight. So if you have a recipe that you would like me to share with people, you can tweet it to me at @UrbanNerd_ or leave a comment below. It can be everything from savoury to sweet, or maybe even a yummy drink! Just let me know if you've got one!
Lastly, I want to thank you all. Thank you for simply reading my blog. I love the fact that people actually want to hear what I have to say! It feels so good getting all this positive feedback. You are all so kind, so thank you for that. THANKYOU ALL FOR EVERYTHING!
Did you go orange today? I did! As it was a school day, and we have a uniform, I unfortunately couldn't dress head to toe in orange, but I still embraced the orange and wore an orange ribbon, orange ear rings, and I painted me nails orange too!! I even bought a delicious ORANGE juice from the canteen at lunch just to add that extra little touch.
How about you, what orange attire did you wear today? Or maybe, depending on where you are in the world, Thrsday the 6th might have only just started for you! In that case, what are you going to wear?
Don't miss out on promoting this wonderful cause, dive deep into your wardrobes or raid the fancy dress cupboards if you must, and find something orange to wear!!
Remember not just to wear your orange for just one day, we're going orange until September the 9th!!
Tweet your orange pictures to the No Kid Hungry twitter page here.
If you're doing something new, if you've got some opportunity that you're lucky enough to do, if you're not that keen on it, just give it a go.
You'll never know what it's like until you give it a go. You might even like it! Chances are you probably will.
So if you're doing something and you're not sure if you're going to enjoy it or not, don't just give up. Have a go and see how you do. If you don't like it, well now you know. And if you do like it, well then that's even better!
