A (fairly serious) article about an issue facing teenage girls today (school work)

One of the most prominent problems facing teenage girls today is the latest media technology that is available to them at their fingertips. Despite the fantastic changes it has made to society, it also has a more negative affect on some aspects of our lives.

Firstly, the invention of the contraceptive pill in the 1960’s enriched the lives of so many people. It meant that children were not born into families where they were unwanted or could not have a stable life, and it gave women a choice about what they wanted to do with their lives. However in these modern times, this easily obtainable pill has become far too common so more and more girls (and their partners) take for granted the fact that they can have sex without getting pregnant. This increases the pressure for girls to have sex in an unstable or new relationship.

Additionally, the development of media in the 21^st century means that role models to young women have dramatically changed. Whereas 100 years ago, girls would have looked up to authors such as Jane Austen and Louisa May Alcott, or their favourite characters from books, with the invention and success of the television, they now look up to the likes of the Kardashian family, people from reality shows like ‘The Only Way Is Essex’ and other such celebrities. This means instead of having realistic aspirations such as becoming a servant for a rich family or having a respectable and well-paid job, girls are now obsessed with mimicking the ‘model’ look and becoming famous. These expectations encourage girls to try and change their image to look like their favourite celebrities, which in some cases makes girls want to become super-skinny and painted in make-up. Young women do not have as much time, nor money, to achieve these looks so as a result, try to rush their appearance using crash diets and overpowering make up.

Furthermore, new technology such as digital cameras mean that girls are bound to be snapped anytime they socialize, so for them, looking good is a necessity. Networking sites such as Facebook make it so much easier to share photos, and also comment quickly and easily. This gives girls another insecurity; it is too easy for people to make comments or judgements over people they barely know, so girls are unconfident and self-conscious, forever needing to look attractive. In television, one style usually takes over the world of celebrities for a few months and so in this time, normal girls are expected to take on this image – girls who don’t are usually bombarded with offensive labels and stereotypes, such as being ‘emo’.

The recent progressions in the world of plastic surgery now teach different morals to young women; the fact that it is so easy to have a blemish removed, or body parts changed gives the idea that imperfections are not acceptable and we should all change ourselves to become ‘perfect’. Cosmetic surgery pressurizes people about their image, and celebrities whose surgical enhancements have been widely publicised advertise the fact that unnaturally changing the body is the ‘cool’ thing to do. Additionally, when girls eagerly look over the latest glamour magazines they see beautiful models pictured in articles, they do not realise that these have been airbrushed or photoshopped, so therefore they believe that they should look like this – this is a massive confidence breaker. With so many pictures of influential people looking perfect and fault-free, it is becoming an expectation that girls should look this way, when in reality nobody does.

I think technology has many fantastic advantages but as with many things, it also comes with a price. Our mothers and grandmothers would have been influenced by the Hollywood film stars of their day and would have tried to have copied their look and behaviour (like the craze of smoking). However, the difference today is the constant 24:7 bombardment of mass media and technology which makes it so difficult for young girls to be individual and stand out from the crowd. 

Use a line from a Shakespeare play as the title for your own piece of writing

"All that glitters is not gold"

As I stood on the platform, I reminisced about what I was leaving behind. I envisioned the look on my husband’s face as he woke up in the morning and realised that I was absent. I could almost feel his touch, every morning since we married he would, without fail, give me a peck on the cheek and play with my hair to gently wake me up. Standing amongst the city crowds, a tear trickled down my cheeks. It suddenly occurred to me that I was leaving everything. This was the first time I had a chance to consider my feelings, and for just a glimpse of a second, I wondered whether I was making a mistake. But I wasn’t, I didn’t deserve a family, not after what I had done.

I was brought up in the vast city of London. From a baby, I was surrounded by bright city lights and the madness of industry everywhere I went. My parents had brought me up as a city girl, they were a working couple. When I met my husband, I realised a busy life wasn’t for me. We settled for a peaceful life that focused on family values. I loved that about my husband; we wanted the same.

The happiest moment of my life was the birth of my son. Holding him in my hands, I saw him as a jewel- beautiful and precious. I couldn’t believe the intensity of the love I suddenly felt for something so small. Since that day, I have maintained a strong relationship with him. Family is important and I wanted to give him the gift of love and stability, which meant a lot to me.

A train whizzed past me, making the tail of my coat float up into the air. My memory flickered back to the long summer days we spent as a family. The endless glasses of lemonade we would devour during a picnic by the lake. This was undoubtedly bliss. I remember a dog running up to us, escaping from its owner. As a reflex, my son grabbed the bottom of my skirt, I guess he thought I could always protect him. I knew that, had my son been with me on the platform, he would have clutched on to the bottom of my coat every time a train rushed past, or a crowd flooded out of the ticket booth.

Anybody would wonder what could be so dreadful that would make me be at the platform, heading miles away on my own. You see, all that glitters is not gold; despite outward appearances, my life was not perfect. Throughout my life with my husband, I have always had a cloud above my ray of happiness. It has always loomed over me. That day. What I did. I will never forget it. And that’s why I have to go.

I couldn’t leave my husband and son without an explanation, I owed them a letter at least. It took me several attempts, trying to find the right words, trying to jot down my feelings amongst the sea of tears that kept splattering onto my note. It was finally done. The breakdown of my life was there on a page, and nobody would ever forgive me.  I got up in the middle of the night, lightly pecked my sleeping husband on the cheek and whispered my love for him. I then went to see my son, who was also sound asleep. A salty tear ran down my cheek as I kissed his head. When I went downstairs, I took a last glance around my home, the place that shared my fondest memories. I balanced my letter against the fruit bowl on the kitchen table and went into the black darkness. 

I sighed as my train came in and people started to pick up their luggage, barging to the front to ensure they got a seat. I glanced at the wedding ring on my finger before taking it off and hiding it in my pocket; I prepared to board. A ticket man ushered me onto the train and as I took a step forward I heard someone calling me. A familiar voice. I look around and saw a figure running towards me. I watched his slender body push his way forward. His feet tripping as he weaved between the busy crowds.  His hands were poised in a determined fist clench and his eyes, shining with the moisture of his tears, narrowed as his gaze met mine. He finally reached where I was standing and looked up at me with that face I knew too well. There he was. My son.

A school task - 'Write A Rant About Anything'

The first cinema was built in 1919 and people used to go in their fineries to watch and marvel at this unique exhibition. Oh how times have changed. Cinema etiquette has rapidly decreased.

Don’t get me started on the people 4 rows down who can not watch a 2 hour film without having to go to the loo- why can’t they go beforehand? Or what about the people behind me who resort to kicking the back of my seat throughout the entire duration. How about the group of girls sitting at the front who, admittedly have their phones on silent, but do not consider that whenever they check their messages, the glow on their phone lights up the 4 rows behind them and distracts the whole audience. Can’t they wait 2 hours without outside communication? Honestly. The cinema used to be an extremely fashionable and grand night out. Now it is nothing more than a play school for bad habits and utter rudeness and disrespect for fellow cinema goers.

I’ll start with the latecomers. The average cinema ticket is already overpriced at £8 for an adult ticket. If somebody is willing to pay that amount of money to watch a film, they could at least be on time for the start of it. I am sick of settling down to watch the movie, lights are off and everybody is silent in the anticipation of what the film will be like and then…*shuffle shuffle shuffle* Late. Not only do they whisper to their friends as they awkwardly try to find their seat amongst the already crowded cinema, they can never find their seat in the dark. This results in having to get an attendant with a torch to show them to their designated place. Annoyingly, the latecomer will almost certainly find their way to your row and you will have to let them past as they clumsily block your view, they mutter ‘sorry, sorry, excuse me, sorry, thanks, sorry’ as they edge themselves past each person in the row, distracting others further and creating more of a nuisance of themselves.

Next, we have sniffers. I would like to watch this film without the risk of being seriously infected by what most be the sickest person in the world. The women next to you spends the whole 2 hours of the film routinely sniffing in a fashion that distracts you from the happenings of the movie every time. After about 45 minutes of the film, you glare at her and she realises that she is being annoying. First, she blows her nose which grabs the attention of the whole theatre. However after about 5 minutes, the sniffing starts again. She realises her dilemma and resorts to even more annoying and frequent staccato sniffs. This frustrates me so much that I feel inclined to call a doctor or tell her to go home and rest until she is better. For everybody’s sake.

I do not for the life of me understand why cinemas sell popcorn and other such disgusting foods. The boy in front of me sits there with a jumbo sized box of salty popcorn, which probably cost him £5, almost the amount of a child’s ticket. Despite this high price, at the end of the movie, I peer over my row and see that he has left half of it on the floor. Throughout the film, I have seen him constantly flicking popcorn at his mate, dropping handfuls of it onto his lap as he tries to eat too much at one time and wriggling about in his seat so much that he spills his tub onto the sticky, greasy floor. Of course, the boy waltzes out at the end of the film, oblivious to the mess below his seat, and taking it for granted that somebody else will clear it up. Would he do that at home? Nope. May I also add, why did the family sat behind me choose to bring a family size pack of chocolate éclairs to munch their way through? I am sick of hearing the rustle, crackle and crunch of the noisy sweet wrappers throughout every piece of dialogue in the film. Back to the popcorn, to be honest, it is as much as the cinema’s fault as it is the audience’s fault; cinemas are already greedy with ticket prices which cost almost the amount of a DVD anyway. Yet they still think of other ways to rip us off. They sell cheap popcorn and impractical sweets which are distracting to everybody around its consumers. It would take the cleaners half the time it takes to clear a cinema, if they didn’t sell such ridiculous, messy food.

I also want to mention the incredibly selfish people who choose to occupy more than their allocated amount of seating by draping their coats and bags over them. If they want an extra seat to use as a coat hanger, they should pay for one! Not to mention the common obscurity of people resting their feet over the seat in front, that is just plain rude- nobody wants dirty, greasy shoes in their face as they snuggle down to watch the over priced film. It shouldn’t have to be mentioned- it is common decency that people should know to keep their feet on the floor! And not only that, why do people leave a gap in between each group whilst choosing where to sit? It means that, come the start of the movie, the last few people coming in dribs and drabs can not sit together.

If I owned a cinema, I would force all late-comers, toilet-goers, nose-sniffers, popcorn- throwers and seat-stealers to eat every single one of the smelly, greasy jumbo hotdogs in the cinema, and then single handedly mop up the floor with a toothbrush until the floor is clean enough to project a film onto. 

A monologue from the point of view of one of the four seasons

I hate him. He just does it to spite me. I have my time and he has his. He just chose to do things differently. (shrug) I try my very best to brighten up the country, I don’t hide away the sun, I know how she hates that, (whisper) she’s sensitive. He, of course, loves to cause trouble and routinely hides her away, gets his colony of clouds to stand in front of her and spoil the elegant atmosphere she has helped me to create.

It was Mother Nature who elected me for the summer holidays, best time of the year because everybody can enjoy the goodness I spread. Well, he hated this! But, I mean, its not like he just got half term like Autumn, (sniggers) he was given the Christmas holidays. Though if you ask me he has ruined them- I could do a much better job! What’s the fun in sprinkling a hint of snow and making the public expect more? Getting their hopes up, only for them to receive a weeks worth of splattering raindrops replacing the delicate snowflakes they were expecting. He’s selfish. He saves it all for himself.

Look at him! (points) All high and mighty sitting on a chair of snow over there, who does he think he is? And then to steal the leaves off the trees…well that is pure evil, how would he feel if I went over there and stole his earmuffs?

When Mother Nature briefed us about our jobs, me, Spring and Autumn all understood. But as soon as she leaves us to control her children, those monstrous little tornados, all hell breaks loose and Winter decides to freeze the whole place. Now why would you do that?!

He’ll get what’s coming to him. Take Spring for example, she is always late, leaving Winter to conduct even more gloominess around the UK but, boy did she suffer from that! Mother Nature was furious when she realised how late Spring always was. She banished Spring to under the ground and now all she can do is push flowers up from under the soil. Not a good life if you ask me!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I am needed to go and persuade the sun to heat up the country. Ha! That will get on Winters nerves!

Sony Vegas Editing Software

Bit of a strange one to review, right? I just thought that there are so many softwares similar to this on the market that it is the smaller details that make or break a product like this. I was given this programme last Christmas, with a new laptop because I became very interested in media and video editing and had been struggling on an old windows programme to edit holiday videos for ages.

To begin with, you need to know exactly what you are doing to use this programme. I would not recommend it to any beginners because the features have specific names and settings that can be hard to find and control. Luckily I had been doing some video editing at school with a teacher so knew vaguely what I was doing when I started. This, however, did not stop me from searching numerous tutorial videos on youtube to look for basic functions such as how to 'cut' a piece of video clip and how to add transparency to an overlay.

Once you learnt the basic layout and functions, this programme is fantastic! To an extent you can move the windows and buttons around so that you can have everything where you want it and all features are easy to find. Simple controls make video editing a quick and thought-free process but to make a slightly more technical video the buttons are there.

I still haven't discovered everything you can do on Sony Vegas as it's capabilities are so vast and endless however the features that I have discovered are clever and extremely adaptable to whatever one may want.

A critiscism is that some of the functions tend to be hard to find, and take a lot of clicks into different folders in order to see. Additionally some of the icons are confusing and misleading, to this day it still takes numerous wrong clicks in order to do the simple task of importing new media.

All in all, I think this is an extremely clever and useful program which creates beautiful and creative films of many different styles, my repertoire ventures from our home video to my mini-series of 'Louisa in Reverse' clips! (see here). However, this is not a program for beginners, I would recommend a program such as 'Windows Movie Maker' for these people to start with!

A very fond impression of 'The Big Bang Theory'

So I watched my first episode of this before I went to America, because we would be going to the Warner Bros studio and seeing the set where it was filmed. I had also heard my friends talking about it a lot, comparing it to the same league as 'Friends'.... Now for any programme, that is an honourable rate, as 'Friends' is pretty much a world-wide programme that most people have seen and love.

It's quite hard to sum up what is currently 5 series of a sitcom, but the general story is set around Sheldon Cooper, a 20-something-year-old physicist with a huge IQ but a minuscule amount of social skills, which provides the mishaps that make us laugh so much in many hilarious sketches. He lives with his roommate, Leonard and has two other close friends, Howard and Raj, with Penny, the 'normal' girl across the hallway. Together, this gang of 5 muddle their way through life in California and the ups and downs of romance, friendship, work and 'nerdom'!

I was skeptical about whether 'The Big Bang Theory' would live up to my expectations after all the hype I had heard, however I now find myself deleting 'Friends' episodes on our sky planner to make room for new 'The Big Bang Theory' episodes, and if you know me, you will understand that this is a big deal!!! My whole family loves it, and although we are now at the stage where we have watched every episode (*cough* perhaps more than once), I was given the whole box set for Christmas, and countless numbers of our evenings are spent sprawled in front of the TV, watching back-to-back episodes. The thing that makes this programme so fantastic is the fact that each character has been written so cleverly and intricately, making their characteristics and mannerisms extreme versions of what we see in some of our friends - the 'nerdy' one, the 'women crazy' one, the 'shy, unlucky one', and this makes the characters extremely relateable. The humour is fantastic, although it is sometimes based around 'scieney' or 'nerdy' topics, the jokes have been well-enough written to ensure that they are received well. Each episode is funny, well-written and clever making it appeal to all sorts of people. Even my parents love to watch it and find some scenes unbearably funny!

Whoever you are reading this, I urge you to watch just one episode of 'The Big Bang Theory' or even just click here, here or here.... and also here

Cinema trip to see 'The Wedding Video'

Last night I saw 'The Wedding Video' at the cinema with my friends. I didn't know much about it, I had only briefly glanced at the trailer (see the trailer here) however in all honesty, I was surprised at how good the film was!
Think 'The Hangover' and 'Bridemaids' and you will get a feel for what the film is like. The old 'wedding-goes-badly-wrong' film but with it's own unique feel.
The aspect I liked most was the fact that it was filmed by a non-professional, and this made some of the scenes very funny because it gave a very realistic impression of how differently people act on camera. Being interested in video-making myself, I found this particularly funny and interesting!
Despite the theme being done hundreds of times before, the story line was not as predictable or tedious as I would have expected and many of the sketches gave the audience genuine belly-laughs! (Although it has to be said, my biggest laugh came from the fact that my friend spilled popcorn all over the couple sitting in front of us, rather than a part in the film..!)
Perhaps the ending was a little cheesy for my liking, and some of the scenes dragged out a bit, but all in all it is definitely a film to recommend to anybody over the age of 13 (although it is rated 15!!!).

Short review of Inception

Okay...so I watched this rather unwillingly at a friend's house one evening. I wasn't overly keen at first because I knew it was a confusing movie and there were a lot of us watching it- I can be easily distracted at times - I knew this would confuse the plot even more for me. Having said this, I watched the film with 2 or 3 'experts' or 'fanatics' of the film. They explained everything to me as it was happening so I do have a basic idea* of the storyline.

*note a very, very basic idea

My initial thoughts were that it was an extremely clever movie, the plot was gripping and unique, and how they portrayed this abstract idea was interesting. Having said this, a lot of the main issues in the story were not highlighted (until a friend pointed them out to me). They were said in passing conversation by the characters so it didn't really occur to me what was happening. As the film progressed, however, I found that the plot was unravelling and made the occasional "oooohhhh, I get it now" comment when a previous situation was explained!

Overall, I would rate this film 7/10 for somebody my age. I would not recommend it to anyone younger but I think someone of higher intellect would possibly enjoy it more! I might try to watch it again soon and see whether I enjoy more the second time, as I know what is going on!