Free Write: IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS

EVERYWHERE YOU GO!

OMG words cannot express how much I love Christmas. It really is the most wonderful time of the year! I love winter so much (just not right after summer when I still want it to be warm); Thanksgiving break, my best friend's birthday, my best friend-iversary, my birthday, Christmas, then New Year! It's a bajillion spectacular things in a few months! Plus, it's the season of giving (and receiving)!

I'VE SERIOUSLY BEEN SINGING CHRISTMAS SONG SINCE TWO DAYS AGO.
I love singing Christmas songs, I love giving people presents (getting presents is probably second to that), I love the atmosphere and the various scents that come with Christmas... It just fills me with warmth :)

Also, we're singing "Carol of the Bells" in choir, but Soprano Two's part is just "dinggggg donnggggg, dinngggg dongggggg" like fifty percent of the time. I want the fast part with the words :(

AND I'M DOING LIKE FOUR SECRET SANTAS - including one Clandestine Comet - and I love giving people gifts soooo muuuch that I don't mind :)

I know it's like three weeks away, but I'M SO EXCITED FOR CHRISTMAS THIS YEAR!!!

How does the death of Hostess affect the nation?

The death of Hostess seems to be a troubling issue for most Americans rights now, but for me, personally, I... don't care. Maybe the nation will be a better, less obese place without Hostess. People won't have a way to hoard Twinkies under their beds or stuff themselves with Ho Ho's or Ding Dong's or whatever other crazy moniker for "diabetes in a package" there is. The nation will mourn, in its own way, and the legacy of Hostess will be nothing but a fading footprint marking American culture. Some years from now, we'll all be going, "Oh remember when we used to pack Twinkies for lunch?" And then we'll all sigh and go, "Oh yeah! Good times..." and go on with the rest of our lives.

Would I drink a potion that would make me live forever at a certain age?

Ummmmmm...
I'm conflicted.
I'm alright with dying, but I can't do aging. I just can't grow old. I CAN'T.
I want to live a long time because I want to do a lot of good in the world, but I would hate to live forever and live through the end of the world and the sun burning out and the second ice age and nuclear wars and stuff... NO JOKE WHAT WOULD HAPPEN TO ME IF I LIVED FOREVER AND THE WORLD ENDED? Would I still be alive floating around in space? Would my body disintegrate but my consciousness be scattered around what's left of the universe??? THAT WOULD SUCK, MAN!
Get that potion away from me. I don't want it anymore.

What is the toughest thing about being a reporter?

The toughest thing about being a reporter is getting people to tell you what you need to know in the way that you want to hear it. This is probably one of the main problems a reporter has besides setting up the appointment and making sure the interviewee keeps up his or her end of the bargain. 

Personally, and I'm positive that everyone in Newspaper can relate to this problem, I get very frustrated when the person I am interviewing gives unintelligent, vague or incoherent responses. Needless to say, not everyone is obligated to speak in complete sentences, either. When you are a reporter, you depend on written text to convey your message; this isn't television, so whoever is talking can't convey an emotion through tone. A good reporter looks for something quote-worthy, or"soundbites," as some might call them. The catch is, they have to be organic. You can't just force the words "Work hard, be nice" out of a principal's mouth. It wouldn't be natural to tell someone, "Hey, do you mind answering in complete sentences?" (although I do ask people that sometimes) either. If he or she were forced to answer in complete sentences, then that is probably not how he or she speaks in real life, but it would make the person seem more intelligent. I don't think it's a bad idea to aid someone in seeming more credible, but I think that natural speech conveys more of the person's personality in a story.

It takes a truly skilled reporter to coax a person into revealing information in a natural yet coherent manner. This is a skill I think all reporters must master in order to be the best that they can be.

What's something good about today?

I'm alive. That's good.
Barely, though.
Oh! I finished my essay for English, and it's really good!
Unless I completely didn't answer the prompt. That'd be awful.
It's not a very good day.

Free Write: Asphyxiation

I have been feeling this constricting... something in my chest/abdomen area lately. It's like I'm having a hard time breathing. Like I'm suffocating or something.
This would be a really good metaphor for my life, actually. If we were annotating for symbolism in a book about my life, then this would symbolize how I'm stressed about life and life makes me sad OMG.
I think I need to see a doctor for this.

Thoughts about the election

I am independent, bi-partisan or whatever you want to call it, but I just happen to be for Obama this year. I am satisfied, yet strangely apprehensive, about his reelection. 

What I like about Obama: equal marriage, energy plan, education plans, cutting taxes for middle class (I don't think the rich need more money), sending back the troops. 

What I'm iffy about: the economy (I...hope he doesn't screw up), abortion (kind of meh), foreign policy (LIBYA, NORTH KOREA?)

So, anyway, there are my thoughts. I have nothing more to say in my dazed stupor.

If I could change anything about the media, what would it be?

If I were able to change anything about the media, it would be the amount of bias that clouds all of the facts that the people actually need to know. If it were up to me, I would make it illegal to report falsehoods about news and people and political figures alike. This way, there would be less room for persuasion and more room for information. Society needs to know the truth about events and things that affect their lives.

Do we make the moments in our lives or do the moments make us?

I think that we definitely make our own moments in life. There are certain moments or experiences that are handed to us, and it us up to us to make those into something else. You could easily take a happy moment where you're frolicking in a field of flowers and make it depressing by making a big deal about getting bitten by a bug. Also you could turn a sad moment like getting bitten by a bug and make it happy by naming it Jimmy and setting it on a small leaf where it can roam free. Moments don't define us, we define them.