I'm so frustrated, I just threw a fit

I just finished watching Vampire Diaries with my mom. Katherine got the best of them and was compelling Aunt Jenna the whole time, so Elena goes over to Stefan's house and he says, "I already know what you're going to say." Anyways, she says it's over. She's been too selfish because she loves him and she knows how much he loves her, but they can't do this anymore, so she breaks it off with him. The whole time, both of them are crying (which Paul Wesley did an amazing job, BTW) and Elena leaves. This frustrated me so much that I threw one of the biggest fits I've ever thrown after watching TV. I literally threw myself on the ground (well, there was a mattress there) and I was screaming and kicking and my mom was crying and my grandpa probably thought I was possessed or that I've finally gone off the deep end. Needless to say this frustrated me so much that I had to write about it. All these months of watching Vampire Diaries and I thought I liked it better than Twilight. For one the acting on the female side of the equation is much better. The other biggest thing that made me like it much better than Twilight is that Stefan never leaves Elena because he understands that he needs to be there to protect her. And what does stupid Elena go and do, she breaks it off with him. I thought they were stronger than that. This is not the way that true love is supposed to be and it makes me want to rip out my hair. I would never let Katherine win, never, if that was me. OMG, this just makes me so mad. I don't know anymore....

Gross, my toenail fell off....EWWW!!!!

I thought I would talk about my day. Some interesting things happened.
First I went to the opening of the Disney Store. They gave away Mikey ears to the first 250 people. It was pretty cool I guess. Here's a picture of the hat:



Then, I decided to alter some leggings I have, so when I was trying them on, I took off my socks and I realized that my toenail was coming off, so I took it off. It looks so disgusting. Here's some pictures of that:



Oh and if you couldn't tell from that picture, I just painted my nails. I used a regular red and Ruby Pumps by China Glaze, which is a glitter, on top of that. I want to own a car painted that color one day, that would be so awesome.





In other news, I made a video for a contest on GreenDayAuthority.com, which is the best Green Day Fansite Ever. Anyways, here's that video:


And I just listened to the GDA podcast because they announced the winner at the end, and I found out I didn't win. But the guy who did win did a pretty good job. Here's a link to that: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WB1Ffc4KIV4&feature=player_embedded
I'm not that upset that I didn't win. It was pretty fun making it. This is definitely not as upsetting as losing the Wanna Be Green Day Contest at the Tilted Kilt. We should have won that. I thought we were good enough to be in the top three, but whatever. Hopefully I will have some other opportunity to meet Green Day.

What else do I have to say? Oh yeah, this is day 4 of me wearing contacts. I remember I tried to wear contacts at least 7 years ago. It was a major fail. This time was much better in comparison. I'm still a glasses person, but I need to keep wearing the contacts so that I can wear them on Saturday for the Paramore concert and not have to worry about losing my glasses. And also so I can take pictures on my DSLR easier. The whole contacts thing started because at Green Day we were getting killed in the pit because Billie Joe makes people go crazy. Anyways, my glasses got all disgusting and I couldn't see out of them and also, they kept falling off when people would land on my head when attempting to crowd surf. It was a great show though, one of the best times I've had, and also the most sore I've been after a concert (the only time that could maybe beat it was Bamboozle Left a few years ago during MCR). I looked really disgusting and sick too after I got out. And yesterday (9/13) was the 9th anniversary of me getting my braces of. Anyways, I think that's all the updates I have. Oh yeah, and I can't wait for my niece to be born, it would be nice if it was soon before I went back to school.

Well, this ended up being a life update, instead of an update of my day, but whatever. Until next time.

Groin pull? On a girl? Is it possible?

Why yes it is, in case you're wondering. How do I know this you may ask. Well, it's because is happened to me and I'm a girl. What a lucky person I am. It happened yesterday (Wednesday the 14). How did it happen? Well, thanks to Jillian Michaels I was doing plié [plee-AY] jumps and I guess I squatted down too far and I pulled the muscle. How great because I'm going to Disneyland on Saturday and Comic Con is next week. So anyways, I'm sitting here with a heating pad and I kinda feel weird, like I'm getting shocked, but it's a very light sensation.

P.S. I don't really feel pain anymore because of the painkillers and muscle relaxers, but it really hurt at first.

I'm Sorry

Ok, so apparently yesterday's post was a giant overreaction. Everyone who has seen the cupcake pops think they actually look like cupcakes and everyone who has eaten them has really liked them. I too must admit that I've eaten about 10 (if not more) of them because I like them so much. So, I'm sorry for sounding kinda psycho, but that's how I felt yesterday, but apparently I was wrong. It's nice to be wrong about something bad for once. Usually when I'm wrong it sucks, but this time was ok. However, there were some things I said yesterday that I won't take back. It was a lot of hard work. It was very time consuming and my feet hurt. But I guess it has all been worth it after seeing people's faces when they eat the pops. So it all turned out ok in the end, it was a test run after all and a learning experience. Except for, I think I probably gained 5 pounds (no seriously, I had to go back to my bigger pants because my looser pants were really tight on me.)

Why do I fail at life so hard?

I FAIL I FAIL I FAIL I FAIL I FAIL I FAIL I FAIL I FAIL I FAIL I FAIL I FAIL I FAIL I FAIL I FAIL I FAIL I FAIL I FAIL I FAIL I FAIL I FAIL I FAIL I FAIL I FAIL I FAIL I FAIL I FAIL I FAIL I FAIL I FAIL I FAIL I FAIL I FAIL I FAIL I FAIL I FAIL I FAIL I FAIL I FAIL I FAIL I FAIL I FAIL I FAIL I FAIL I FAIL I FAIL I FAIL I FAIL I FAIL

at life. Geez, it just seems like everything I've done in the last couple days has just been a failure. I can't do anything right and now I just hate myself. It's come to the point where I just want to be shot and be put out of my failing misery.

Exhibit A:

I have failed yet again. I tried to make cupcake pops and just ended up with a mess. The cake wasn't the fail. That was actually pretty good tasting. It was the rest of it that failed really hard. Actually, maybe the cake did fail. It was really greasy when I was trying to roll it into little balls. That was so disgusting. Man, I used to really like baking, but the last couple attempts I've made have failed miserably. I hate myself.

From Food Creations

Absolutely nothing about this was a success. Every step kept getting worse and worse until I just wanted to smash everything.

This is what it's supposed to look like: http://www.bakerella.com/make-your-cupcakes-pop/

I wish I could just be good at one thing. But I'm not. I suck at everything I do, and then when I finally think I'm doing something right. I realize it's wrong or suddenly I can't do it anymore. I hate myself and I hate my life. But there's no one to blame but myself and the crap luck that I have. I don't blame my parents and I don't blame God. I just blame me and life. Not everyone can be a success. I know I'm not the biggest failure ever. I know that there are others out there that definitely have it worse than me. But right now, none of that seems to matter.

It's times like these when I think, "gosh Rachel, you're such a failure. Why don't you just give up on life. The world would be a much better place without you. Or maybe it doesn't even matter because it's not like I even made a difference in the world. I'm just a tiny spec, tinier than all of the other human specs on the face of the planet. Nobody even knows my name." But then something good usually happens to get me out of my depressed mood. Well, I'm waiting....I'll probably be waiting for the rest of my sad life.

"Explain to me, this conspiracy against me"

Yeah, that probably sounded like I was talking about the cricket conspiracy, but no, I was actually talking about my computer. And amazingly right now, I'm listening to genius mixes on iTunes and "Conspiracy" by Paramore just came on right now (after I already typed the title of this blog). Anyways, would anyone like to explain to me why my computer hates Bloon Tower Defense 4 and me in general? Every time I play this game (oops I lost) my computer likes to shut off, especially when I'm right in the middle of a level that's close to the end. I used to think that the reason my computer shut off in my face was divine intervention telling me that I should go do what I need to that's not on the computer, but I'm on vacation and I have nothing to do, especially at midnight, WTF computer?!?! Please don't shut off again so I can finally beat this on hard.

And what would you know, my computer shut off in the middle of me writing this, and I was on level 30. FML!!!! And now Firefox is going supper slow. Why is everything going wrong right now?!?! And nobody knows how badly I wanted to throw this computer and make sure I broke it, and stomp on it until it was just a bunch of little pieces. Ok, I think I'm done with this rant now.

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

P.S. I hope someone listens to this song. It's not the best song ever, but it was a bitch to get this embedded here.

I Love Paul Wesley

And the rest of The Vampire Diaries cast. Yesterday I went to the Vampire Diaries meet and greet in LA. It was advertised as "meet the cast of The Vampire Diaries," so naturally you would assume the three main stars would automatically be there. Well, we got in line an hour before the meet and greet was supposed to start and then we found out that only Paul Wesley was gonna be there. The guy told us that Ian Somerhalder would be at the Q&A after the meet and greet but that Nina Dobrev wouldn't be able to make it because she was stuck on the east coast. I was a little upset about that, but at least we would be able to see Ian. The guy also told us that we would be able to take pictures of, but not with Paul. It ended up that he was lying because when we got to the front, they told us we couldn't take pictures. Well, after about 2 1/2 hours of waiting, we finally got into the store. Then they told us, the only thing he can sign is the poster they were giving us, that he couldn't personalize it, no pictures and no touching, not even a handshake. So, finally it was my turn and I can't even really remember everything that happens because when I meet famous people I kinda lose myself. Anyways, Paul was so nice!! He asked me my name and then said oh hi Rachel, how are you doing, thank you so much for coming. And the whole time he made full eye contact until I left. I still can't get over how nice he was. Oh, and I should mention that the girl that went before me got to shake his hand because he initiated it and she told him that she had been waiting for such a long time and he said, "well I hope it was worth." He is so nice, I'm so glad I waited in line for hours for somebody nice and not some mean bastard who doesn't even care about his fans. Next time, I'm gonna shake his hand, even if they tell me I can't because I don't think he'll mind.
So after that, we went down stairs to get a spot for the meet and greet. When we got there A Fine Frenzy was playing, which I really didn't care about, I just wanted to see the Q&A with Paul and Ian. It took Ian forever to get there, so this one dude was trying to entertain the crowd by giving away merch to people who answered trivia questions correctly and ask the fans what questions he should ask during the Q&A. They also gave away bags, but of course, they ran out even though they said everyone would get one, liars. Anyways, while we were waiting, we kept getting updates on Ian and we got a nice surprise that he was on his way in the helicopter and that Nina was with him. So finally after traveling for hours, they started the Q&A somewhere between 7:45 and 8:30, but it was only about 20 minutes long. To wrap this up, there were a lot of annoying, screaming girls (some of whom cried after meeting Paul), the three from the cast seemed very nice, especially Paul because I actually talked to him, and I hope they do this again sometime, because now I'm prepared. Paley Fest, here I come.




From the top the to bottom: Paul, Nina, and Ian after the Q&A; the signed posters; the display at the front of the store

AHHH, I'm so bored.

I'm so bored right now. I really don't know what to do. And I'm hungry. This is a really bad combination. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH................I'm bored.





P.S. I'm bored.

**EDIT: This should show how bored I was:

From The World According To Rachel

Green Day on SNL?

Ok, so I don't know when Green Day was on SNL, but I just found this video from a link on Twitter. It was pretty funny (unless you don't like Will Ferrel at all):



If it came on already, which it probably did, I'm pissed because I missed recording this on my DVD recorder. If it hasn't aired yet, which I'm not sure if that's even possible since it's LIVE, I'm confused. See, this is what happens when I don't keep up with news on Twitter.

On a small side note, this morning I woke up from a dream involving Jack and Alex from All Time Low. They were doing a signing after a concert the night before. The signing was taking place outside of my old elementary school, and there were a bunch of people there that I knew, but in real life I don't think they are fans or even know who All Time Low is. Anyways, someone wanted to take a big group picture. Then after I was talking to Jack and Alex and Jack asked me what was the first concert I went to. I told him and I didn't remember and I was thinking about it. Then he told me his first concert was 30 Seconds to Mars. Then he asked me what my first concert was again, this time I replied Santana. Then he asked me what his first concert was. I started thinking about it, but then Alex answered the question correctly. Then Alex started talking about his first concert, but instead of actually describing a concert, he was talking about going to a sorority. Here comes the weird part, in the middle of Alex describing the sorority, Jack started kissing him. Then, instead of having a conversation with those two, I was at a computer screen, like the whole thing I had just experienced was really a video on the internet. Something popped up on the screen, like a quiz after a video and asked me what was the first concert Jack ever went to. I'm not sure if I answered it correctly because after that I woke up, but I think the reason why they were kissing was so the people who were giving the quiz could see if I was paying attention to Jack's questions and answers, especially because he repeated the concert he went to, like it was important and he wanted me to pay attention to that.

Ok, that's enough about weird things. And to think, all of that was supposed to be a small side note. I wonder if Jack has ever even been to a 30 Seconds to Mars concert....

Pure Greatness

An actual conversation between my grandpa and me:

Me (at 7:12pm): Aren't the Lakers playing tonight?
Grandpa (while watching the Detroit vs. Phoenix game): Yeah, but they don't play until 6:30. What time is it?
Me: 7:12
Grandpa: Aww man, what's the point in watching now, it's probably almost over.
So he changed the channel and it wasn't almost over, it was the 2nd quarter if I'm not mistaken, and the Lakers were up by a huge amount of points. Then he started talking about Oklahoma City and saying "oh, these people are from Oklahoma, who are they against the Lakers?" basically implying this was an easy win for the Lakers. (BTW this is my translation from Spanish). I was thinking to myself, it better be after some of the ridiculous losses of this season. Anyways, below is a video of highlights.

And to think, my grandpa almost missed this game (dang it, now I lost):


Click here for a link the the page: http://www.nba.com/lakers/news/091122_gameday_thunder.html

The Cricket Conspiracy....WHAT?!?!

So, I've said that I was going to talk about this months ago, so now, I will finally talk about the Cricket Conspiracy. Ok, so the first thing you have to know is, I don't like bugs, especially spiders. But last year around my birthday party, which was in April, it was really hot, so we had to keep all of the doors open so we didn't die of heat in the house. Because of that, a crap load of bugs came in to my house, the most memorable ones being the moths and, you guessed it, the crickets. There were some huge moths in my room for a few weeks, let me tell you, they were gross looking and very huge. But, at least they went away after a few weeks(maybe because they died in the heat), the crickets on the other hand, decided to stick around for a few months longer. These damn crickets conspired against me for months just to torment me. I would go in the shower at night, and when I would come out, there would be a cricket, just sitting there waiting for me. So, many times I would go from the shower to the toilet, and I would literally get dressed standing on the toilet, and if I had to, I would climb onto the counter if I had to put stuff on my face in the mirror. By then if I hadn't screamed or been rescued, I would have to talk myself into jumping off the counter so I could run straight to my room and jump onto my bed. Those little piece of crap crickets had me so paranoid in my own house, it was ridiculous. I had to thoroughly examine the floor so I could walk through the house or into a room. I would literally search my house for these things. The reason I would scream sometimes is because I would see one when I wasn't expecting it or when they would jump close to me. If I was searching for them to make sure the coast was clear, I wouldn't scream, only if they did something unexpected.

Another reason why it was a conspiracy is because it seemed like they would wait for me to go in the shower, right when everyone in my house was starting to fall asleep, and hop right under the bathroom door, to wait for me to get out of the shower. And now matter how many we got rid of (by throwing them outside, unless they decided to be in the shower, then they went down the drain), they always seemed to be around the house. What's worse is that when I would go dog sit for my aunt and uncle, there would be crickets there too. It's like they knew I was leaving my house, so they called in the troops to follow me to my uncle's house. Don't you see how they were out to get me?

Well, there is one piece of good news, I haven't seen a cricket in my house for at least a month or two. I really hope it stays that way, I'm praying for it.



**Breaking News!!(at least for me)**
OMG OMG OMG OMG, I just heard that The Matches are going on a hiatus. They don't know when or if they will get back together again. So, I'm a few days late, it still injures my soul. I loved that band. They were so unique and had such a great sound. I'm really gonna miss them. I'm especially upset because I won't be able to see their last Southern California concert. My life will never be the same without them and I hope they decide to get back together soon. They are all such great people, I've met Shawn, Jon, and Dylan, and they were all so nice. I wish them luck in whatever they decided to do as individuals, but maybe not too much so they will realize that they need to come back to be The Matches. *goes and cries*

**Update** as soon as I posted this, there was an advertisement on the next page and it looked like this:


Ironic, right?

I had a 21st Century Breakdown, but don't worry, it's Nothing Personal

Ok, so I just finished listening to the new All Time Low CD, Nothing Personal, and I actually enjoyed it for the most part, which is weird because I never really like CDs the first time I hear them. Maybe it was because I just finished listening to 21st Century Breakdown and I was still on the wave of happiness from it, who knows. Anyways, this is kinda my thoughts on both of the CDs since I just listened to both of them (yeah I really finished listening at 1:40 in the am).

I think there's a reason why it took me a long time to comment on the new Green Day and a short time to comment on the new All Time Low because they are so different structurally. 21st Century Breakdown was like an acquired taste, if you will. It took a few listens for it to sink in (the total times I've listened to it is now nine). Another reason why it took me so long to comment on it is because I didn't listen to it right away. It took me weeks to listen to it for the first time. One reason is because I wanted to take my time with it and listen to it all the way through because it's supposed to be like a story and I wanted to sit down and listen to it all the way through in order without stopping and with no interruptions and I had too much going on at that time to do this. To be completely honest there was another reason. I wanted to hold on to the American Idiot era because it was so great and I was a little scared to jump into it even though all the critics thought it was great, even better than American Idiot (however, I don't always believe them, they hated Warning and that was one of my favorites). So now that I've had the time to listen to it all the way through nine times, listen to the lyrics, and let them settle in, I feel like I can talk about it better. It really took me a while to fully embrace it, but now I love it and I just want to keep listening, but I limit myself so I don't listen to it over and over all day.

On the other hand, my feelings toward Nothing Personal were quite the opposite. I was really excited to buy it and hear it. Not that I wasn't excited to buy a new piece of Green Day history, but 21st Century Breakdown meant the death of an era that I loved so much, but I have now realized that the new era will hopefully be as good as the last. I was just scared for them because I really didn't want them to fail, not that I thought that they would, I knew they would pull it off, I just had that little nagging feeling in the back of my mind saying how could anything get better than American Idiot, or even close to that level. Well, it took them some time, but they definitely got there, and I'm so happy for them. Anyways, back to Nothing Personal. The first time I listened to it I liked most of the songs. While 21st Century Breakdown has characters and a plot line and a theme, Nothing Personal, to me, is just a collection of new songs, like most CDs out there, which is not a bad thing (not that CDs are that simplistic, but I hope you get what I mean). With 21st Century Breakdown, since it has a story, it takes much longer to digest and to really get what they are trying to convey. With CDs that are like stories, all of the songs have the potential to have at least a double meaning, if not multiple meanings beyond that. Again, Nothing Personal is the opposite of that. Songs could have a double meaning, but not necessarily. This is definitely not to say that the songs are transparent, some songs you really have to dig deep to understand what they are really saying. So in that sense there is kinda a double meaning; what you see/hear on the surface, and what it all really means that we, as the audience may never know. So if you look at it that way, CDs with a storyline can definitely have more that two meanings per song: what you see/hear on the surface, the song's meaning to the storyline, and maybe even the songwriters feelings toward someone or something in their life that the audience doesn't know about. All of that just to say that Nothing Personal, as a whole is just less complex to the ears and brain than 21st Century Breakdown. I'm sure writing music, whether there's a storyline or not, is hard, so I'm not trying to insult either bands' songwriting skills, I'm just saying that with 21st Century Breakdown there is more for the brain to digest.

I love the sounds of both CDs. With 21st Century Breakdown, I hear a lot of influences from older Green Day CDs. I even made a list of new songs that match old songs. Not to say that the songs are exactly the same, sometimes they just have the same beat, or one song just reminds me of another. It's a great CD. A lot of the songs either start out slow or soft and get faster and/or louder and some just keep building tension, and there are a lot of highs and lows, the music never stays in one place. There are so many great songs, it's hard to choose one favorite, but right now a few of my favorites are The Static Age, Peacemaker, Last of the American Girls, Viva La Gloria, wow they are all so great. I think I like acts 2 and 3 the best, I don't know why, maybe it's just because the mood as it progresses just keeps getting better and better. One last thing, I really love how it all comes together like a musical, the two songs at the beginning recur again (well they start off the same but go in different directions), just like a musical, it starts with the introduction song and it goes full circle and recaps the introduction at the end. Five stars for 21st Century Breakdown. You can really see how much the band has grown musically and Billie Joe's vocal range, as well as the rest of the band's musical and song writing abilities.

I like that Nothing Personal has a range of different sounds. It's not completely something new for music, but it's new for All Time Low. They change it up a lot more with this CD, but at the same time, the songs had a familiar feeling, I don't know how to describe it, like I could just sing the words even though this was the first time I heard the CD. Of course I've been listening to Weightless and Dammned If I Do Ya (Damned If I Don't) since All Time Low leaked them on their own, but it was nice to hear the songs as part of the rest of the CD. I really did love all the new ATL sounds up until Walls, and my feelings continued with Too Much. In my opinion those songs could have been left out. It sounded like they were hip hop songs for most of the song, they did break it up with a rockish sound, but I didn't really like those sounds too much. The rest of the songs were really good in my opinion. I also really like Therapy, it really showed Alex's vocal ability, which could also be seen on the rest of the CD. Overall I give it four stars. I think they have grown, at least a little, musically, but for the future, I'd love for them to really blow me away, like what Green Day did to me, which I started to see a little bit. Maybe I'm asking too much, but maybe it will happen with a little more experience and time.

Oh yeah, by the way (whoa, I haven't actually typed out those words in a long time, usually it's just BTW), I thought it was interesting that there was a song on both CDs that used some form of the word elated (for 21st Century Breakdown it was Restless Heart Syndrome and the word was elated, for Nothing Personal it was A Party Song (The Walk Of Shame) and the word was elation). I had no idea what that word means, so I looked it up. This is what I got from Dictionary.com:
e⋅late  [i-leyt] e⋅lat⋅ed, e⋅lat⋅ing, adjective
–verb (used with object)
1. to make very happy or proud: news to elate the hearer.
Which is funny because that's how I feel about both CDs. I'm so glad to have new songs to hear and learn so I can sing them when I see them live.

Picture Tiime!!

I'm bored so I decided to post some fairly recent pictures. Click the thumbnails to see a bigger image.

My Lakers inspired nails (I actually did this during the finals):






The Father's Day card I sent to my dad:


What it said on the inside of the card:


Lemon tarts, I got the recipe from Paula Deen:


Red Velvet Cupcakes, recipe also from Paula Deen:

Lakers Are The '09 Champions (1, 2, 3, RING)

I'm sorry, but I have to talk about it....the Lakers that is. I've been watching the Lakers Championship celebration on FSN which will be replayed pretty much all day today. Well, I was watching it all morning with my grandpa, and it was so exciting. I've been a Lakers fan since I was a small child (I'll have to get my mom to dig up a picture), and some years I didn't pay too much attention to the Lakers, but there have been other years that I watched a bunch of games (I lost). This was definitely one of those years. Ever since my grandpa told me the Lakers were on a winning streak starting from the beginning of the season, I knew they would be the Champions. I didn't see most of those games at the very beginning of the winning streak, but it was nice to hear about it from my grandpa. After awhile I got sucked in again and I was watching pretty much every game I had a chance to watch. There were some great games I watched, and a few I had the misfortune to miss. There was the win against Boston on Christmas; a sweet revenge (like MCR) game since the Lakers had lost to them in last year's NBA Championship. So much greatness has come out of this season. All of the Lakers have really grown as a team, and individually. Phil Jackson won his 1000 game (it was the win on Christmas actually). {Even though LeBron James won the MVP award, I knew Kobe was the REAL MVP, and he proved by wining it in the Finals (I'm sure many other people shared my opinion). Injuries and other adversities aside, the Lakers still went 65 and 17 and went on to win the Championship.

I'm just gonna give some general comments about the series that led up to the Finals. The first series against the Utah Jazz, was a little exciting but not too much of a challenge with the Lakers wining 4-1. The next series against the Rockets was so intense and both teams were playing very physical. There were times when it was looking pretty scary, but I knew they would take it, even if it had to go down to game 7 with the Lakers winning 4-3. There were a lot of critics after that series say the Lakers weren't playing hard enough, and saying that they weren't gonna root for the Lakers anymore. The next series was just as intense against the Nuggets. It was another physical series, although, not quite as much as the last, and there were some GREAT steals from Ariza, a key player in my novice opinion for this series and the next. In the end the Lakers won the Western Conference Finals 4-2. At first glance the NBA Finals looked to be the biggest challenge yet; the Magic had just won the series against the Cavaliers 4-2 and had previously beat the Celtics on a difficult 4-3 series and I have to admit, my whole household was rooting for the Magic to win the Eastern Conference, but as soon as the won the Eastern Conference Title, I knew they had just become the enemy. They were confident and had beat two tremendous teams, first the Celtics, who were last years champions, and the Cavaliers, who had won 8 playoff games in a row prior the series with the Magic. The Finals series was no easy task. It was aparent that both teams were not going down with out a fight (with the exception of game 1 because I missed it *sad face*). I thought it would come down to game 7, or at least game 6 for sure, but no, the Lakers won it in 5. It was a very bittersweet day. Sweet because the Lakers finally had done what they had vowed to do when they lost the Finals last year, and in doing so winning their 15th championship title out of 30. It was a great and exciting game. But here comes the bitter part, no more basketball for at least 4 months. It was such a fun and exciting season. There was a huge build up of emotions starting from the beginning of the season, but most especially from the beginning of the playoffs. Every playoff moment was exciting and these exciting times were built up all the way until the last second of game 5 of the Finals. It was then that we were drop kicked from this exciting season. I will be waiting anxiously for the 2009-10 NBA season because nothing is as exciting as a great basketball season followed by a phenomenal playoff season (well, maybe there is, but not that I can think of at the moment.)



And I still don't know what a pick and roll is....

*P.S. Sorry if I missed anything good from Playoffs or the rest of the season, or if I recounted anything wrong*

Blood Donation=VIP Passes??

Hello, it's been a while since I just talked about stuff and not posted a concert recap. Anyways, I just wanted to say that I donated blood today. I think it's something important that people should do if they are eligible. It's for a good cause, and, if that's not good enough, they give you food afterwards and sometimes they give you incentives like a free meal at a restaurant. The reason why I chose to donate at this blood drive was because I heard that if you donate to Music Saves Lives (which is in some way associated with the Red Cross), you get a VIP pass for Warped Tour. You still have to by tickets to get into the show, but the VIP pass with give you special access to signings and other stuff.

Ok, now I'm gonna make it really simple for you to donate and get VIP passes and all the info:

To make an appointment for a blood donation click HERE. You have to be at least 18, or 17 with parental permission, but if you're not old enough, I think you might be able to volunteer to help with a blood drive. There is more information about this in the link below. After you click the above link, click on a skull (each skull represents a city) to find blood drives in your area.

For more information on donating and VIP passes click HERE

For more information on Warped Tour in general click HERE

After you donate you will get a card that looks like this (please don't try to make fake copies, they will catch you):



Then when you get to Warped Tour, look for the Music Saves Lives booth. If you have any questions, click on the second link above.

I just have to share this picture, just because the bandage was such an atrociously bright pink:




That's about all I can think of saying for now. I'm gonna go watch the rest of the Laker's game. GO LAKERS!!

P.S. Can someone please explain what a pick and roll is?!?! I've been confused for so long....

No Doubt and Paramore Recap

Last night's show at the Conspiracy (the new name my mom made up for Cricket Wireless) was so amazing. The crowd was so huge since it was a sold out show. We were in section 101 so, when looking at the stage, we were all the way on the right side. One time during No Doubt's set, I looked back and it looked like an ocean of people. We missed The Sounds, even though we were in the parking lot before 7:30, when it was supposed to start. The whole concert just seemed like it went by so fast. I was enjoying myself so much, I guess time flies when you're having fun. So, I'll post the set lists with my comments.

Paramore:

1. Misery Business: I was surprised they started with this one since it is their biggest hit, so I was wondering what they were going to close with, but then again, it was cool because their closing song would be a surprise, but I kinda figured it out.
   
2. For A Pessimist, I'm Pretty Optimistic
   
3. Pressure: So, after they played Miz Biz, I thought they would play this song last, but, Wrong Again!! It was nice to hear this song.
   
4. Ignorance: New song. I read the lyrics on the Paramore website the other day and I was really curious to see how it would sound because I really couldn't hear any music at all in my head when I read the lyrics. The song was surprisingly good, it made me really excited to hear their new CD. Here are the lyrics: http://www.paramore.net/postDetails/2009/05/18/why-not/
   
5. Crush Crush Crush: I don't know why, but I'm not really a fan of this song, but they do a good job live.
   
6. Decoy: I love this song.
   
7. When it Rains: I also really love this song. It reminded me of when I first heard it live, last year I think, at Soma. Hayley dedicated it to some special people she saw in the parking lot that day before the Soma performance. This time the song was just as good.
   
8. Another new song. They didn't say what it was called. It was upbeat and fun.
   
9. That's What You Get: I loved it and so did the rest of the crowd.
   
10. Let The Flames Begin: They had a cool little ending addition to this song. I can't remember if they had done this before. I know they like to do a different ending, but I can't remember if it was the same as last time.
    
11. Decode: By the time That's What You Get was over, I kinda guessed they would end with Decode because I couldn't think of any other hits they had except Emergency. I was wondering if they would even play Decode, but right before they played it, Hayley said, "You all know this one," so that's probably why they played it last, because everyone knows it from Twilight. It was a great ending.
    

So, after Paramore, I bought a shirt, as usual. I was surprised they were charging so much, but, I paid the price anyways. I really liked the Paramore jacket/sweatshirt they had, but I was not about to pay $75 for it, no matter how much I liked it.

No Doubt:

They came out behind a white screen so the audience could see their silhouettes. This stage was white and futuristic looking.

1. Spiderwebs: One of my favorite No Doubt songs ever. I always thought it should be used as a greeting on a voicemail.
   
2. Hella Good
   
3. Underneath It All: They had a screen in the back and were playing clips of the music video.
   
4. Excuse Me Mister: Gwen said it was their oldest song off of Tragic Kingdom and that they were going to remix it a little, which they did. It sounded good, but it was slower than the original version.
   
5. Ex-Girlfriend
   
6. [ ]
   
7. Simple Kind Of Life: Gwen said this song means so much more that now she has little ones running around.
   
8. Bathwater
   
9. [ ]: I don't know the name of this song and I don't know if it's really a song they recorded because it was mostly instrumental with a lot of trombone and trumpet sound.
   
10. New
    
11. Hey Baby
    
12. Running: They played some footage and showed some pictures from what looked like the very beginning of the band. They all looked so young. It was really cool to see that.
    
13. Different People: Gwen said it was the first song she ever wrote lyrics to and she announced all of the band members and where they were from in the middle of this song.
    
14. Don't Speak
    
15. It's My Life: The video they played in the background was the three guys driving around in one car and Gwen driving in another car.
    
16. Just A Girl: One of the most awesomest songs in the history of frontwomen. It was so great to hear this song live. Gwen kept mentioning that the grass (as in the lawn/nosebleed) is where it's at and that she wanted to go up there. In the middle of the song, she got off the stage and ran up to the lawn. She was in the middle of a bunch of people, and I don't remember all of what she said but at the end she said, "don't kill me, I'm gonna get down now, but please don't kill me, ok?" And then she ran back to the stage with a security person and I saw someone try to grab her, but she kept going. When she got back on stage she laid down for a second and then got up to finish the rest of the song. It was so epic.
    

Encore:

1. Rocksteady: Gwen said it was her favorite No Doubt song ever written.
   
2. Stand and Deliver: Adrian was dressed in a ballerina tutu and played one of those marching band drums strapped to his chest at the front of the stage. Then
   
3. Sunday Morning: This is my other favorite song. When my mom was trying to win tickets, we would listen to the radio a lot more than usual and one night after they said to call, the DJ played this song and I danced so much I could barely breathe. So, I danced the most during this song.
   

There are two interesting things that happened, but I forgot when they actually took place. First, Gwen said to someone in the audience, "Do you want to take a picture?" So she grabbed that person's camera. It was a disposable one and she said something like, "This is so not current, you know that right?" Then she kinda squatted close to the edge of the stage and told the person to smile and I think both of them were in the picture. Second, someone had a stuffed lamb and she said, "Is that for me? Can I have it, I love presents." Then she took it and said, "I'm gonna put it on the slide," which was what part of the stage looked like (see picture). At the end of the show, she threw it back into the audience.

It was an amazing concert. Sorry what I've written is not completely finished because I don't know the names of some of the songs. And I'm so sorry for my recent lack of posts. Summer is coming up so I hope to ramble about other stuff soon. I'll post pictures as soon as I can.

My April Recap

Wow, April was really a great month for me. Meeting Gerard Way,Bamboozle Left, my birthday, and meeting Matt Dallas at the Fangoria Convention, among other semi eventful things in my life, just to sum it up.

Full recap to come soon!!

The Snakes and Suits Tour [this is still in the process of editing, I'm not done writing it, even though it's super long]

And now my very first concert review. Actually, I think that word is a little inaccurate, it'll be more like a recap, well, maybe a hybrid of the two like a reviewcap, with more emphasis on the recap part because I pretty much only go to concerts that I like and to give a true review I would have to rate it and so forth, and it would be lame because everything would be five out of five. So, it will be like a recap with my comments and thoughts to go along with it. I hope it's not too boring, if you don't care about the concerts I go to, you should skip my recapviews (that's a working title, I'm open to suggestions, but who really reads this anyway).

Ok, so tonight I pretty much determined that William Beckett=The Academy Is... and by the commutative property, or something like that, or maybe it's the If and Only if thing I'm looking for, The Academy Is...=William Beckett. I kinda knew it all along but tonight confirmed that pretty much he is the band. Not to say that he is snobby and stuck up about it, like, "oh I'm the singer and I'm the best so I get to be an a****** to everyone because I'm so full of myself." He's pretty cool about it, but he only brought out one member of his band for two songs, which I thought was weird. They should have just announced the tour as William Beckett featuring Sisky Business, but I guess that goes to show that he's in it for the band, which I respect and think is very cool, because some singers get all cocky and think that they need to be the center of attention and start a solo career, which I think is really lame. They aren't solo, they're just with a different band, but they're being selfish and just putting their name on it, like they're the only ones that are playing. But if William Beckett went "solo" it would be really dumb because it would be the same thing as The Academy Is... since he writes most of the songs, it would just be different people, idk. I do have to say that he has an amazing voice and is a very talented person, especially because I've never seen him play the guitar so much. He looked pretty good too, so did Sisky and William kept smiling and laughing and kinda making eyes at people without really meaning it. Ok, enough of my digressions, here's the set list:

1. I don't know what the first song was, it was something short that wasn't an Academy Is song, and I didn't have time to record it so I could figure it out later.

2. Classifieds (It was pretty fun, it's one of my favorites by them.)

3. His Girl Friday (William started talking about the basis of why/how he wrote the song, he called it a history lesson. When he was in high school, guys, who he described as "bros" would make fun of him and call him a fag, but little did they know, he made out with all of their girlfriends behind their backs, but they still went back to their boyfriends. Fun song.)

4. A Cover song by Alkaline Trio (He talked about how he used to listen to the radio to discover new songs by bands like the Stone Temple Pilots, Nirvana, etc. but after awhile he realized it was "recycled garbage" by bands like Creed and some other band that I forgot, so he started listening to "punk rock" <--huge air quotes on that one. He listened to bands like Bright Eyes and Alkaline Trio. I thought he did a great job with the song, although I've never heard it before. I haven't heard too much from Alkaline Trio, it kinda deadened the mood though, because not too many people knew the words.)

5. Seed (Pretty good, brought the general mood and vibe back up since more people could sing along. He described it as a song about when you're in a relationship and it goes bad because of jealousy, etc.)

6. Attention (Great song, he introduced it by talking about how he used to work at the Gap, and he got over that real quick. He had to work in the morning and fold t-shirts and women with kids would walk in and ask him to sell them stuff. He said that at the time he was writing the record "Almost Here" and one day Adam came to his house and when William let him in, Adam looked him in the eye and asked him if he had been writing any songs, so William looked him in the eye and said, "Attention, Attention..[cue the rest of the song]")

7. The Test (William introduced his fellow band mate, Adam T. Siska, aka Sisky Business. Before Sisky came on stage William took a poll about who everyone thought was the best batman, Christian Bale won. Michael Keaton was a close second. Then William said that he thought Sisky should be the next Batman, so he was going to audition for us. They did the voices for the first scene of the Dark Knight, and I have to say, he really sounded like Christian Bale's Batman voice. Then Sisky played the harmonica while William continued to sing and play guitar for The Test. William described it as a break up song. Sisky left after this song.)

8. Jimmy Eat World Cover song (I think it's called A Sunday, I'll double check after I get some sleep. He brought Ben from This Providence and Evan Taubenfeld (I don't know who he is) up on stage to play with him. They said they had just learned the song the day before, which was pretty cool because it sounded great. William and Ben also mentioned that Jimmy Eat World was in their top three favorite bands.)

9. You Brought This On Yourself (Another cover song. William talked about his blog and how on Saturdays he does the Saturday Night Music Club and posts a song/video. This song was featured a few weeks back. Here's the link to his blog if you're interested: http://thewilliambeckettblog.com/)

10. Automaitic Eyes (William said that he mostly writes songs, I guess from his experience or his perspective, but this one was about another member of TAI who had a sudden break up.)

11. Down and out (He said he wrote it about his parent's relationship. It was great since most people knew the words.)

12. After The Last Midtown Show (He said it was the most romantic song he has ever written. It's about not taking the present, or whatever is happening in your life right now for granted. He mentioned that, especially when you're in school, people are always telling you that everything is leading up to something better, but he said something that really moved me, I guess is the best way to put it, not trying to sound sappy or anything. He said that we have to enjoy our lives right now. Pretty much what I thought about that was I'm wasting my life away. Like the Green Day song, I'm not growing up, I'm just burning out. I'm not having fun and life is passing me by and the saddest part is that I don't know how to change that.)

13. Slow Down (The complete opposite of the previous song. It's about wanting the person you break up with to "stop breathing in their sleep." <--He said that not me. Great song, one of my favorites. It reminded me about how during the summer, I listened to that song while everyone else was asleep in the house and I really wanted to get up and sing really loud, but I had to lay in my bed and quietly sing and dance laying down. I'm weird.)

14. About A Girl (Sisky came back for this song. When he first came back he started playing Superstition by Stevie Wonder and then William started singing along. Then Sisky started playing some other Stevie wonder song, I can't really remember which one. Which reminds me, at the end of one of the other songs, I don't remember which one, William said that something random came into his head. He described it as a weird roller rink song from the 90s, but now I can't remember what it was. Anyways, both of them played guitar for this song. I forgot what he said about the song, like if he gave background on it or anything, but he told us that there was another concert on another floor of the building and he wanted us to sing so loud it would shock the other people. Super fun song!! I had fun singing really loud and I think everyone else did too. It was very loud.)

After this song William and Sisky were signing at the merch table, but somehow I ended up at the end of the line. The girls I was standing behind kept looking at themselves in the mirror and fixing their makeup, I thought that was dumb. I bought the This Providence CD from Gavin, the guitarist. He was cool and he signed it for me. Then the people were telling us that we only had twenty minutes and to hurry up because the line was long and they probably couldn't get through everyone. Well, needless to say, they didn't because it was getting close to 11:00pm and they couldn't have minors in the facility and were telling everyone under 21 to leave. Damn you little girls that look way under 21. Then they made William leave, I guess they figured that the only way to get everyone to leave was by taking him away. I was so close, yet so far. Then we went outside and Sisky was still signing, but they had to take him away because they had to move their bus. So we went around the building and saw the bus, and we were just there stalking them. I'll post the pictures in a little bit.

Overall, it was a great night. I discovered This Providence. I kept wondering why they're name was so familiar. When I bought their CD, I realized they are on the record label as The Academy Is... and Paramore and whenever I sign into the street team page, I see their band name really huge on the side of the page. I thought they were pretty good, good enough for me to buy their CD. It was only $10, I figured I might as well if I liked them because at the store it store it would probably be more expensive. We missed most of Evan Taubenfeld though.

Ok, so I don't know if anyone will read this. I'm kinda too ADD to read things that are this long, but sometimes I do. Sorry it turned out so long, I'm mostly doing this because I want to remember this but there was no video recording, so I have to extract my memory and put it into words. It's kinda OCD, similar to the way I wrote everything down when I got my wisdom teeth taken out, yes I actually made notes.

Random Rachel

P.S. Supernatural was really good this week, so was Kyle. And, no more writing class for two weeks.

I lost....

Not the game, although I did just now. I was talking about losing the Jagk Contest. I can't believe I lost, I thought I really had a chance with this one. I thought that the winners were good but I thought that there were others that were better, no offense. Oh well. You can see the winners here: http://www.buzznet.com/groups/jagkyourselfcontest/forum/topics/417721/congratulations-winners/.

You know what, I've been thinking, it's usually when I'm driving, not that it has much to do with anything, but I always think about what I should do with my life. I feel like I've just been wasting it, I don't really know how to explain it, but I just feel like I was meant to do something bigger, like I could do so much more with my life. The problem is that I don't know what that something is and it really frustrates me, sometimes it's depressing.

On a slightly brighter note, my mom and I got tickets to No Doubt and Paramore, unfortunately they weren't pit tickets, but they were decent seats none the less. On another somewhat brighter note I finally got my All Time Low Toys. It has taken months, but finally they came to my house today, however, I was expecting them to be a little bit bigger. The box is not much bigger than my hand, and all I can say is, wow, I paid almost $70 for that?!?! They should have made them a little bigger.

I'll talk about the Cricket Conspiracy soon,

Random Rachel.