Bedecked - Victoria Redel

Tell me it's wrong
the scarlet nails my son sports
or the toy store rings he clusters 
four jewels to each finger. 

He's bedecked.
I see the other mothers looking at the star choker,
the rhinestone strand he fastens over a sock,
Sometime I help him find sparkel clip-ons 
while he says sticker earrrings look too fake.

Tell me I should teach him it's wrong to love the glitter,
that a boy's only a boy who'd love a truck with a remote that revs,
battery slamming into the corners
or Hot Wheels loop-de-looping off tracks into the tub. 

Then tell me it's fine-really-maybe even a good thing
-a boy who's got some girl to him, 
and I'm right for the days he wears a pink shirt on the seesaw in the park.

Tell me what you need to tell me but keep far away from my son who still loves a beautiful thing not for what it means-
this way or that- but for the way facets set off prisms
and prisms spin up everywhere 
and from his own jeweled body
he's cast rainbows made every shinging true color. 

Now try to tell me-man or woman-your heart was ever once that brave

Love Quotes

"The love that lasts the longest is the love that is never returned." ~ William Sommerest Maugham

"For it was not into my ear you whispered, but my heart. It was not my lips you kissed but my soul." ~ Judy Garland

"You can shed years that she is gone,

or you can smile because she hs lived.

You can close your eyes and pray that she'll come back,

or you wan open your eyes and see all she's left.

Your heart can be empty because you can't see her,

or you can be full of the love you shared.

You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday,

or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday.

You can remember her only that she is gone,

or you can cherish her memory and let it live on.

You can cry and close your mind,

be empty and turn you back

Or you can do what she'd want,

smile, open your eyes, love and go on." ~ David Harkins

"If you love somebody, let them go. If they return they were always yours, if they don't they never were." ~ Unknown

"One of the hardest things in life is having words in your heart that you can't utter." ~ James Earl Jones

"Love is just a word until someone comes along and gives it a meaning." ~ Unknown

"Every man is afraid of something. That's how you know he's in love with you; when he's afraid of losing you." ~ Unknown

"You can close you eyes to the things you do not want to see, but you cannot close your heart to the things you do not want to feel." ~ Unknown

"It is better to lose your pride with one person than to lose that someone you love with your useless pride." ~ Unknown

"To the world you may just be one person but to one person you may be the world." ~ Brandi Snyder

"We cannot do great things on this earth, only small things with great love." ~ Mother Theresa

Life Quotes

"Life lives, life dies. Life laughs, life cries. Life gives up and life tries. But life looks different through everyone's eyes." ~ Unknown

"Intellectual growth should start at birth and cease only at death." ~ Albert Einstein

"Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today." ~ James Dean

"Laugh as much as ou breathe and love as long as you live." ~ Unknown

"Nobady can go back and start a new beginning, but anybody can start today and make a new ending." ~ Maria Robinson

"Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain and feel the wind. Live your life to its fullest potential, and fight for your dreams." ~ Ashley Smith

"Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive." ~ Howard Thurman

"Experience is the name every one gives to their mistakes." ~ Oscar Wilde

"The doors we open and close each day decide the life we live." ~ Flora Whittlemore

"One day your life will flash before you eyes. Make sure it's worth watching." ~ Unknown

Death Quotes

"Death is one moment, and life is so many of them." ~ Tennessee Williams

"Death is not the greatest of evils; it is worse to want to die, and not be able to." ~ Sophocles

"Death is not the greatest loss in life, the greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live." ~ Norman Cousins

"Have the courage to live. Anyone can die." ~ Robert Cody

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever." ~ Mahatma Ghandi

"There are more dead people than living. And their numbers are increasing. The living are getting rarer." ~ Eugene Ionesco, Rhinoceros

"Cowards die many times before death

The valient never taste of death but once" ~ William Shakespeare, Julius Ceasar

"Death, in itself, is nothing; but we fear

To be we know not what, we know not where." ~ John Dryden, Aureng-Zebe

"Death will be a great relief. No more interviews." ~ Katherine Hepburn

"As soon as one is born, one starts dying." ~ Luigi Pirandello, Henry IV

"When do the dead die? When they are forgotten." ~ Laura Esquivel

"Look on the grave where thou must sleep

Thy last, and strongest foe;

It is endurance not to weep, 

if that response seems woe." ~ Emily Bronte, Self-Interrogation

"On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero." ~ Fight Club

"That's the happiest moment. When it's all done. When we stop. When we can stop." ~ Edward Albee, Three Tall Women

"Death lies dormant in all of us and will bloom in time." ~ Dean Koontz, Old Thomas

"The living is a passing traveller,

The dead a man come home." ~ Li Bai, The Old Dust

Tenessee Williams Quotes

"A prayer for the wild at heart, kept in cages."

"There is a time for departure, even when there's no certain place to go."

"I have found it easier to identify with characters who verge upon hysteria, who were frightened with life, who were desperate to reach out to another person. But these seemingly fragile people are the strong people really."

Online Jobs

I've got this friend Elias. He's a partier, smokes, drinks and skips school most of the time. As he says, he never goes to school high - he never goes to school. Well, he's 20, still in High School, and probably going to fail this year, if he does its over for him. He sees this, is aware of the position he is in, and doesn't know how to get out, it's a scary place to be with your life ahead of you.

Here's my advice for people in this situation. 

Not all jobs need a diploma. Infact, many jobs don't. Do you have a special skill? Most careers in the arts do not necessitate a diploma (aprat from a critic, cutator, historian, etc), and there are tons of careers you can create online. You can sell things you make, murchandise you buy in bulk, old thing you don't need anymore or buy cheap (in a thrift store for example). You could also make a blog or website.

Elias has started making a website. He is doing a beautiful job, it is a gret website with a very specific target audience he can realte to and understand. Also, Elias is very good at publicity. He seems interested in turning it into a career - or at least happy to have an option.

SAT 2 : French

I just took the SAT 2 in French (without listening) and decided to write a blog on it before I forgot... So here we go...

The test is composed of different types of questions, the first series tests primarily your vocabulary level, I'd say it was around 20-25 questions long. All varieties of vocab were tested from what emotion would correspond with the rest of the sentence (they are fill-in the blank, multiple-choice questions) to how to say customs police in French (les douanes).

Next on the test you read a paragraph in which there are blanks you have to fill in. This is just a bit trickier than the previous excersize because some of the questions have several responses that would make sense, but only one that works in the given situation. I would suggest reading the entire text before attacking these questions as well as thinking out your responses to make sure your not falling into a trick question's trap, also be careful on verb conjugation and tense in this and the previous section. I had three different texts in this section.

Afterwards, you are presented a few ads or brochures which you need to read, then respond to questions on these ads. For example, I had an ad for a getaway in the mountainside with a family and one of the question pertained to what was covered in the stay. Another example was a brochure for an african getaway, in the ad was written where you landed, what you could do, etc and the questions assure comprehension of the text. If you read the ad/brochure carefully and have a fairly extensive vocabulary this section should not be too troublesome.

Last but not least is the text anamysis section. I was given two texts of about 3 paragraphs in length to read and then answer questions on. The goal is to comprehend the text so to study this section I would suggest reading french books, articles, etc and when you come across words you don't know make them into flashcards (that is what I did when I arrived in France and had to learn the language and now, after two years speaking the language I am fluent, it really works great).

Apart from that all I can do is to wish you good luck and suggest that you start studying now and continue until the night before the test (generally it raises you score by 100 points). Then you get the reward of the break afterwards. ^^