To those in the Bay Area of California

This has gotten national media attention so I thought I'd share to those who don't know...

Ten days ago, 15-year-old Sierra LaMar never caught her bus to school on Friday, March 16th. The following weekend, her phone and her purse with a neatly folded pair of pants and T-shirt was found. Just today, there was a report of someone who looks like Sierra hitchhiking into a black truck near an intersection on East Lake Avenue. So far, no one knows for sure if she was kidnapped or was planning to run away. Her texts and Twitter posts reveal no signs of distress or plans of running away and she would never idly leave her phone behind. Her father's a registered sex offender, but is not a person of interest in this case and would never do harm to his own daughter. Now FBI agents are here in search of this Morgan Hill girl.

I am so frightened because anything could have happened to this pretty young girl. We've already lost beautiful 14-year-old Tara Romero four months ago in a drive-by shooting. Sierra could be anywhere with anyone; maybe even outside the state of California. We don't know anything. Below is a flyer from the Facebook page to find her. I pray she's found soon and is returned home safe and sound.

I don't have to stay after school till 6 anymore!

Musical weekend has come and gone and it went off with a great hit! All worth the depriving of my sleep schedule. Opening night: Awesome. Friday night: Slight mishaps but great. Matinee: Awesome. Closing night: Ended on a high note. Long story short, a great weekend for the drama department. Both Friday and Saturday nights, the cast and crew went to Denny's afterwards and enjoy food with friends. In between the matinee and closing night, a lot of people stayed in the PAC to play games; mostly Body, Body and Hide and Seek. Yes, I said that right. Hide and Seek in a Performing Arts Center. It is the most fun I've had all year in drama was finding a place to hide in the entire building.

After closing night, it wasn't that all fun when everyone had to stay after to (not kidding here) strike the entire set. Whether it was moving furniture to be taken to its proper home or disassembling the platforms, ALL OF IT had to be taken apart before anyone could go to Denny's. This is what happens when you don't come to help take apart a set; the drama teacher will force you to stay after the next performance to take it all apart. Taking apart everything took two hours to do so no one was able to go to Denny's until 11 at night, and thank God Denny's is open 24/7 for those with midnight cravings. Didn't go home till 1 in the morning and for whatever reason I stayed up till 2 watching Youtube videos. I need to get out of the habit of staying up late nights for no reason...

Lazy Sunday today other than procrastinating on homework which is really easy. Now that I don't have to stay after school for long hours anymore, I have more leisure time to do stuff: finishing the Hunger Games trilogy, eventually see the Hunger Games movie, write, come up with story ideas, and drawing.

A great man once said...

"You're going out there a hysterical screaming queen, but you're coming back as a big, great, passing for straight, Broadway star!"

So finally, opening night is among us all as the last rehearsal was performed special for the teachers and tomorrow, all those seats will be filled to see The Boyfriend! Our weeks of rehearsing, set building and fixing lights are finally paying off for this weekend of fun! Actors are ready to sing, dance and act like there's no tomorrow and they are amazing! I may be tired and slowly catching up on my homework from a couple sick days but it's all worth it in the end. I'm so anxious just thinking about it that I don't wanna go to sleep. Plus I haven't blogged in 9 days so what the heck.

So not much besides the musical in the past week. Oh right there were the CAHSEEs which were super easy and I totally forgot about them. And uh... Yeah nothing. How's that for an eventful life? I don't get spring break till the first week of April and that'll be like an eternity till then. I could probably rant about some odd topic but it's late at night so maybe tomorrow or sometime this weekend when I'm not super busy.

XOXO,

Liz

Nothing can express my rage

Than wondering why the show Secret Life of an American Teenager exists. I swear the moment I saw the commercial for the new season, I was almost tempted to kill my TV. I can't believe it's still running after four years.

If no one knows what it is, consider yourself lucky. It starts off with the main girl (I don't even care to learn her name) finds herself in trouble when she finds out she's pregnant. Actually you know what? If you just watch the commercials, you can pick up what the show's about and what happens in the episodes. To make a long story short, she keeps the baby and deals with a crap ton of drama with raising a child and managing high school, a relationship and friends who are going through their own crap as well. And it is just terrible.

Like any other drama TV show about teens, it's exaggerated. Not like Degrassi exaggerated, but still pretty bad. While I haven't watched the show itself, the commercials give too much away that I can predict what's going on by myself. And it's pretty accurate. And all it is is the main girl just acting happy one second and the next whining because her life sucks. What was your first clue, honey? The fact you're taking care of an infant when it's obvious you can't even take care of yourself? How did your parents let you keep the kid?!

Oh and when I saw the commercial, not only is it more whining from the cast from their preventable drama, but I can already guess the "big shocker" for the next season; she's pregnant again. For God's sake producers of this crappy show, you're not even trying anymore. It's bad enough when you copy MTV and create a show glamorizing teenage pregnancy, but now you're interpreting teens as unintelligent and incapable of making decisions based off common sense. I know I've encountered people who aren't the brightest crayons in the shed, but come on! Not every teen on this planet is truly THAT stupid.

If there are some things I hate about television, it's shows that exaggerate the lives of teenagers and shows that glamorize teen pregnancy. God knows how much I regret ever watching some of the crap I've seen in my years.

The Pregnancy Pact: Believe it or not, this is based of real events in Gloucester High School in Massachusetts where 18 girls were reported pregnant within two months. The principal claimed that all these girls created a 'pact' to get pregnant together, but that was never an intention of them at all. Thanks to media controversy, I actually have no clue what the real story is but God I pray it's NOTHING like the film.

The girls in the movie are just dimwits. They think their lives are gonna be better having babies but (obviously) it turns for the worse and their lives turn to crap. Big freaking surprise.... What really shocked me most was this one part where one of the pregnant girls passed out from drinking and when her parents were told, guess what they did? Ask if the baby was okay and thought nothing else of it.

Okay, if you're underage, pregnant AND drinking, and your parents think nothing of it, they don't love you or they're just idiots. Hypothetically if I was in that situation, I would be grounded until the age of 30 and give the kid up for adoption. I'd do the same with my kids. Honestly, if someone is THAT incapable of taking care of themselves like that, then I would NEVER trust them with a baby in their hands. The reality of it is that children are a big handful in your lives and won't always make everything better. I can't believe the actresses agreed to be in a movie where they had to be delusional morons. I kinda give props for them somewhat de-glamorizing teen pregnancy but it's extremely little.

Teen Mom/16 and Pregnant: If I haven't stewed in my own rage because of these shows, I'll do it now. MTV created these programs and followed the lives of teen girls becoming mothers, and like all MTV shows, it's scripted and fake. If people really think these girls are really happy being teen moms, you need a CAT scan. I'm sure without the cameras they're crying their eyes out because their lives suck from raising a child when they're still children themselves. Ugh.. what's wrong with people?

Juno: This is a better movie of teen pregnancy but it still has some bad qualities about it. I do like that it presents the option of giving the baby up for adoption as opposed to keeping it, abortion or just abandoning it at the nearest hospital. My problem is that Juno didn't experience the social outcast issues that came from being a pregnant teen. She had some but they were very rare and she's way stronger than other pregnant teens displayed. Not to mention she has little troubles giving up the baby and living a normal life again after giving birth. But I digress.

Degrassi: Degrassi is basically just the lives of teens and the issues they face going through high school and their early years of college. What are the issues? Well, freaking everything! I mean every other episode, someone has sex/is raped, someone gets pregnant, someone's on drugs, someone has a gun, someone commits suicide and just all this crazy stuff! For God's sake, is anyone's life that problematic every single day?? In the recent spin-off, The Next Generation, it's just issues every single episode that are blown completely out of proportion and these people are entirely incapable of solving their problems in any way possible.

And I mean if people in just one area are having so many problems and issues, where are the police?? Where are the adults helping these teens from living crappy lives?? Do the adults not exist or are they oblivious and retarded?

I guess this show had some good intentions with displaying some problems teens face but this is overly exaggerated and unrealistic to the lives of teens; even to the ones who could have some of these issues! I'd be scared if everyone I knew had those problems and carried guns with them. I mean, my God! If you wanna make a show that displays teen issues, how about showing how to solve these problems so they won't happen again?! That'd be a good show! But with Degrassi as it is now, just horrid.

Okay so glad I got that off my chest. Just wish something existed that de-glamorized teen pregnancy in a realistic way.

C'mon opening night~

God been working such long hours after school and over the weekend. Feel exhausted. It's basically hell week for the drama club as the set is close to finished, the dances are being finalized and we have a week and four days till the opening night of The Boyfriend. God nothing can express my pure joy and happiness when I don't have to stay after for two and a half hours building and painting. Here's the title song for those who have no clue about the musical.

Fun fact of the day: This was the first musical that Julie Andrews performed in playing the role of Polly Browne. And this musical is just adorable beyond belief. I heard the film adaptation wasn't that great but if you're part of the drama department and have no clue what to put on for a musical, I recommend this one! It's just so amazing!

I'm really keeping my fingers crossed that this week I accomplish in recruiting people for backstage crew since we need to change the set entirely in between the three acts. I've stopped trusting the sign up sheets with the drama kids on them cause I know that after my little rage fest with the set building, I'm not trusting these backstage kids will show up either. So I'm recruiting myself. Maybe I can get some of my friends to do something on their weekends.

Here's another song from the musical called Won't You Charleston With Me?

And just cause I'm crazy, this is an optional song for the musical called Nicer in Nice.

This is the solo song my sister has as she is the French maid, Hortense. It's gonna be awesome!!

Let's see....plans for this week.

Oh yeah we have our high school exit exams or CAHSEEs which will be a no brainer seeing as how it's basic algebra and English. Problem is I'm probably gonna get bored out of my mind since the likely chance says I will be done like an hour or two early and my teachers will avoid assigning homework since we also have a block schedule too... God I so don't want to spend two hours in just one class... Whatever.. Hopefully my Spanish teacher will get some sense this week and change the due date of our project where we have to research Mexican culture. I did mine on the Olmecs.

And now I will do research for my story idea! Ta ta!

*Yawn*

My weekends aren't long enough. The week back from a long vacation feels like an eternity. Doesn't help that along with piles of homework, I stay after school for another 2 and 1/2 hours to help build the set for the upcoming musical. I'm so tired I forget to do the fun stuff that I want to do like finish writing and finish reading The Hunger Games.

Speaking of while I'm on the topic, I am barely finished with The Hunger Games and I already love it so much! It has just everything I love in a book: suspense, action, romance and awesome characters. I hope to get it finished before the movie comes out.

For anyone who has no clue what this book is about, here's a plot synopsis:

In the ruins of a place known as North America, there exists a nation known as Panem. In this country, there is a great Capitol with twelve districts. Previously, there were thirteen but the thirteenth district led a rebellion against the Capitol and was destroyed. As punishment to keep the remaining districts in line, each of the twelve must send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games. The Hunger Games is a great game which pitches the twenty four competitors against each other in a battle of survival (on live TV) where the winner receives glory and fame forever. Our focus is on Katniss Everdeen, a sixteen-year-old girl from District Twelve who takes her sister's place in the games. As the story progresses, we read her struggles of survival in these horrid games and what she deems is right and wrong of her country.

A very suspenseful novel that keeps you wondering what's gonna happen next with characters you get attached to and love. Highly recommend it if you have nothing to read.

Now on top of reading The Hunger Games, I'm also starting to read Fahrenheit 451 for my English class as we begin to focus on Modernism. Hopefully it's as good as it sounds.

I've actually been thinking of a plot for my own original dystopia idea. Maybe after I finish this one story, I can start writing it out. I know it's gonna be a good story.

I may forget to update this blog for a while since starting next weekend the musical director wants people to come in during the weekend for rehearsal for God knows how long. So I will be too tired to remember to do stuff (Hopefully I won't forget any upcoming homework...)

Before I go I thought I'd share this to my manga artists out there. My darling friend Kelly told me to look up a guy named Mark Crilley who is a manga artist and has many videos on Youtube giving out tips on how to draw in the manga/anime style. Here's just one of his videos. Enjoy!