Hello strangers!

Oh hey, It's been nearly five months since I last posted...

                   5 months?!

Yes, five months. But have no fear, I'm back for good.

And you can expect a lot from me this summer.

So, let's get the ball rolling here.

Allow me to tell you all about what my life is currently.

Reading: Agenda 21 by Glenn Beck. Which is basically this cool book based off of the actual Agenda 21, a plan made by the government for the 21 century. It's pretty interesting and I recommend it to you! Also, I'm reading a book called Barred to You by Sylvia Day. I'm only about 10 percent of the way through according to my kindle fire, but so far it's a decent book. A lot like 50 Shades of Grey so far.

                        

Writing: Several things currently. A poem, a letter, and a novel! My very first novel. I'm calling it "After Brian" and I can't wait to see where it takes me. I'm so excited. When I start really getting it rolling I'll post it on my Wattpad account.

Listening to: I'm listening to Young and Beautiful by Lana Del Rey. It's one of the songs from The Great Gatsby soundtrack and I'm absolutely in love with it, as well as the movie. Both super amazing. The Great Gatsby was perfection, and I seriously recommend it to everyone in the world. Click HERE and listen now!

Watching: I'm watching a Jenna Marbles video. She posts one every Wednesday, but sometimes I get behind, or I don't watch them in order. You should watch it too. (:

Thinking about: More things than my brain should be able to handle at one time:

-the awesome day I had

-the best of friends I spend it with

-the guy that is breaking my heart

-how i'm going to keep him off my mind

-where my mom is with my laundry....?

Looking forward to: I'm really looking forward to my next day off. Which happens to be the day after tomorrow. I think the weather is supposed to be crappy, and so I need to rent all the seasons of Pretty Little Liars and watch every single episode there is. Just a thought. Sounds like a wonderful day to me though!

Making me happy: Right now it's this pretty baby in my lap.

I can't wait to share more with you guys this summer!

                                                                                                                      -Miranda

                                                                                                                             xoxo

Help Ashley, she needs a new heart.

Hi everyone. Today I have a very, very special post. I want to inform you all of the opportunity you have today to help make a difference, and ultimately save a life.

Meet Ashley,

...a beautiful 20 year old who always has a smile on her face no matter what! She is an inspiration to all who meet her. She should be going out with her friends and having fun, but has, for the past two years, and most of her life, been in hospitals including NMRH and U of M fighting cardiomyopathy and frequently battling congestive heart failure. Just over a year ago, Ashley's heart stopped. Thanks to the awesome staff at NMRH, she was revived and airlifted to U of M in Ann Arbor where the equally awesome staff took over her care and eventually her heart regained some of the function.  

Since then, she has endured multiple surgeries and a life of pain and exhaustion. 

This is her personal story:

Now Ashley's heart is just too weak and enlarged to properly perfuse the rest of the body. The only option at this point is a new, healthy, donor heart. Ashley is being placed on the heart transplant list and must remain in the hospital until she receives her new heart. She has medical bills from the last couple of years and that pile is growing. In addition, her family lives several hours away and would like to be able to be with her as much as possible which means gas, food, motels, missing work, etc.

Ashley and her brother

Please help support Ashley and her family with as little of as much as you can!
All you have to do is click the link below and follow the directions to donate for her heart transplant. Every bit helps, and is so greatly appreciated.

Ashley Needs a New Heart

I laughed for 10 minutes straight.

Hello my lovelies,
I just found this video, and I seriously laughed SO hard. It is hilarious. I love the Twilight Saga, but these stupid things are just too funny to get mad about. I hope you get as much humor out of this thing as I did. (o: Enjoy!

Jenna Marbles.

It's Friday, and because of that, I will post whatever I want today. Friday is supposed to be the best day of the week, and I'm not going to plan anything for Friday's posts because spontaneity is good. So, here we are, and I'm going to post my favorite Jenna Marbles video. If you don't know who she is, you should really go to her YouTube channel. The link is just under the video.

Here is an explanation about why I picked this for today: A few day's ago I posted my Watch it Wednesday video, and I talked about three things I like, and three things I dislike about college. One of the things I complained about was noisy neighbors. Today, when I got done with work, I got home and I started blogging a ton, and I was also on Youtube and other time sucking sites. I came across this video, and I started cracking up. This is not one of Jenna's funniest videos ever, however, it is really great. The fact that she is having a similar problem to the one I am having is what made this so great. I know exactly how she feels!

Click here to go to Jenna Marbles on YouTube!

clear as black and white.

Today I want to point out a thing or two. First, a little history. 

The Clark Doll test was conducted by Dr. Kenneth Clark and his wife Mamie Clark for her master’s degree thesis. The study focused on stereotypes and children’s self-perception in relation to their race. The results of Clark’s study were used to prove that school segregation was distorting the minds of young black kids, causing them to internalize stereotypes and racism, to the point of making them hate themselves. In 1954 in Brown v Board of Education, the experiment helped to persuade the American Supreme Court that “separate but equal” schools for blacks and whites were anything but equal in practice and is therefore illegal or against the law. This made the experiment even more controversial. It marked the beginning of the end of Jim Crow.


In the experiment, Clark showed black children with ages ranging from 6 to 9, two dolls, one white and the other black, and were asked the following questions in order:

Show me the doll that you like best or that you would like to play with.

Show me the doll that is the ‘nice’ doll.

Show me the doll that looks ‘bad.’

Give me the doll that looks like a white child.

Give me the doll that looks like a colored child.

Give me the doll that looks like a Negro child.

Give me the doll that looks like you.

The researchers found that black children often chose to play with the white dolls more than the black ones. When the kids were asked to fill in a human figure with the color of their own skin, they frequently chose a lighter shade than their actual skin color. The children also gave the color ‘white’ positive attributes like good and pretty. On the contrary, ‘black’ was attributed to being bad and ugly.
The results were interpreted as good and reliable evidence that black children had internalized racism caused by being discriminated against and stigmatized by segregation. The study shows the stereotyping of black people as bad and white as nice and more desirable. Here is where all this information came from.

Here is a video made of the same test, done years later, to see how much we've progressed since Clark's experiment.

Results: Not much improvement at all. Which is quite unfortunate. The saddest part for me is at the end when the young girl as asked, "which baby looks most like you?" and she almost grabs the white baby, but then picks up the black one, almost ashamed and sad that she looks like that one. There is no reason for this. Every young child should feel they are the same as the next one. This video is an eye opener. Today I was the witness of something very different from what I saw on this video, and from what was done in Clark's experiment. Hopefully it will be an eye opener for many people.

 This, is a white baby. She is my newest cousin. And she is absolutely adorable. 

 This, is a black baby. She is the daughter of my step sister's best friend. She is also absolutely adorable.

They are both babies. 3 months apart. The only difference is their skin. They should be treated the exact same way.

 Today we took Makayla (the black baby of 10 months) and brought her over to a friends house to see how Sophia (a white baby of 23 months) would react to her. At first, the two were very interested in each other. They stood in front of each other just staring for the longest time. When Makayla reached out to Sophia, almost as if to feel her skin, I think she realized how alike they were.

 After this, they both played nice together. They were laughing and playing like there was no difference between then at all.

 Sophia was even trying to help Makayla. It was so adorable. She was giving her the bottle, trying to rub baby powder on her head, and giving her the pacifier. They were by no means unkind to each other or refusing to play with each other. Makayla did not identify Sophia as the 'good' one and Sophia did not identify Makayla as the 'bad' one.

Look at this baby. Look at her. She is one of the cutest little things I have ever seen in my life. I will never understand why racism ever became and issue. I will never understand how one can come to hate another just because of the color of their skin. Being different is one of the best things in the world. You're not supposed to try to be different, you're supposed to be you, and people will find it to different. When they do they should respect it to the highest degree. I know the girls are very young, and may not have even noticed the difference between each other. I hope that what I saw today will continue to be the same even as the girls get older and start realizing all the stereotypes. I hope that before my life time is over everyone can learn to love others for who they are, and for their differences.

Hopefully that isn't too much to hope for.

time to refresh.

Well. There's not a whole lot to say about today. I stayed home from school, and though I would have loved to be enjoying the sunshine, I was forced to stay inside and do homework. I started at 10:00 and I'm still not done. So far I've written an 800 word essay on civil disobedience and self reliance (yes, that one I told you about), I wrote a college paper outlining like 10 theories of development, I finished 15 physics problems (minus 4 that I can't do), a physics study guide, and flash cards. It's been nearly 8 hours. I deserve a break.
So I was thinking about what people do when they're overwhelmed. What do people do when they have tons to do and they need a break? What refreshes them? And after they're refreshed and they finish all their work, how do they reward themselves?
Well...this kind of thing happens to me all the time. So I'm going to list a few things I like to do to refresh myself when I am in dire need of a quick break.

1.) Watch a funny video. For some reason funny videos refresh me. If you don't believe me, watch this one and tell me that you don't feel at least a little better than before. (*WARNING* there are a lot of swear words in this so if you don't want someone to hear it, put in some head phones.)

If you were wondering, it's called "You're a Wizard Harry."

2.) If that doesn't do the trick, watch another one! Like this one I posted in January, or one like this.

 If you were wondering, this is called Llamas with hats episodes 1-4.

3.) Listen to a song you like all the way through, and really just try to focus on how much you enjoy the song, and nothing else. I posted one earlier today that I love, go ahead and listen to it! (*WARNING* it also has a couple swear words in it and is NOT for young children.)

4.) Eat something yummy. When I get sick and tired of doing something I like to eat something yummy. My all time favorite are candy orange slices. I mean seriously, who doesn't want to eat a sugar coated lump of chewy sugar?

5.) Give yourself some quality 'You' time to reward yourself when all your work is done. It's probably the nerdiest/geekiest thing in the world, but its true, and it ALWAYS makes me feel better probably because I never get to do it because I rarely let myself when I have other things to do because I'll feel guilty if I do it when I have other things to do, but usually I play my favorite video game to reward myself. 

Seriously, I could play this forever. Which is why I must get going. I still have a calculus take home quiz to do, some calculus extra credit to do, a calculus homework assignment to do, a physics paper to write, and a physics Rube Goldberg project poster to make. So I'll see you later. 

Watch for a note card video I plan to make. It will be coming soon!

oh, the wonders of YouTube.

Peacock by Katy Perry

I have liked this song for quite a while now. My friends and I accidentally came across it and since then it has been a huge part of our outings. It's great for blasting in a hippie van through town and it is also great for dancing like a maniac to in the hippie van while driving through town. 

Another thing I love about this song is a very hilarious video made from it. After you listen to the song you have to watch the video I'm talking about. I've posted it below.

*if you are interested in the music portion of my blog please visit the music label on my page*

I wanna see your peacock, cock, cock, your peacock, cock

Your peacock, cock, cock, your peacock

(x2)

Word on the street, you got something to show me

Magical, colorful, Mr. Mystery

I'm intrigued for a peek, heard it's fascinating

Come on, baby, let me see what you're hiding underneath

Words up your sleeve, such a tease, wanna see the show

In 3D, a movie, heard it's beautiful

Be the judge and my girls gonna take a vote

Come on, baby, let me see what you're hiding underneath

I want the jaw dropping, eye popping, head turning, body shocking

Oh, ay, oh, oh, oh, ay, oh

I want my heart throbbing, ground shaking, show stopping, amazing

Oh, ay, oh, oh, oh, ay, oh

Are you brave enough to let me see your peacock?

Don't be a chicken, boy, stop acting like a beeotch

I'ma peace out if you don't give me the payoff

Come on, baby, let me see what you're hiding underneath

 (x2)

Peacock, cock, cock, your peacock, cock

Your peacock, cock, cock, your peacock

I wanna see your peacock, cock, cock, your peacock, cock

Your peacock, cock, cock, your peacock, I wanna see your

Skip the talk, heard it all, time to walk the walk

Make me off, if you bad, show me who's the boss

Need some goose, take it loose, come on take a shot

Come on, baby, let me see what you're hiding underneath

...

Are you brave enough to let me see your peacock?

What you're waiting for, it's time for you to show it off

Don't be a shy kinda guy, I'll bet it's beautiful

Come on, baby, let me see what you're hiding underneath

I wanna see your peacock, cock, cock, your peacock, cock

Your peacock, cock, cock, your peacock, cock

Oh my God, no exaggeration

Boy, all this time was worth the waiting

I just shed a tear

I am so unprepared

You've got the finest architecture

End of the rainbow looking treasure

Such a sight to see

And it's all for me

Are you brave enough to let me see your peacock?

Don't be a chicken, boy, stop acting like a beeotch

I'ma peace out if you don't give me the payoff

Come on, baby, let me see what you're hiding underneath

If this doesn't make you die of laughter, I don't know what will. It is probably one of the funniest things I have ever seen in my life. Oh, the wonders of YouTube.

P.S. If you have found any of my blogs interesting, please show your appreciation by following me. (o: Thanks!