Boot Camp, Morton Rhue

This time I want to talk about my favourite book, which is “Boot Camp” by Morton Rhue. I don’t know how many of you have read it or at least know what it’s about, but  just to give you a slight insight of the content, I will summarize the plot.

Connor Durrell, a fifteen year old boy, has been sent to a Boot Camp called Lake Harmony. His parents arranged a “transporter”, Harry and Rebecca, that should drive him to the Camp. Connor has been dating his math teacher Sabrina who is twice his age. Although his parents have forbidden him to see her, he continues dating her. Connor thinks that it’s natural being in a relationship with his teacher, no matter how old she is. Therefore he thinks he does not deserve it to be sent to Lake Harmony. After a while he finds out that he has to do what he is told to, otherwise he will be punished. Connor has often litigated with Joe, his “father” and leader. He shows him that he does not belong here, which makes him get punished even more often.
After some time he becomes friends with Pauly and Sarah. Pauly is now nine months at Lake Harmony but still on level one. He has been sent there, because his father wants him to be a tougher boy. Sarah is there since two years. She has been sent there, because she does not agree with the religious attitude of his father.
Connor is often sent to TI – Temporary Isolation – where he is forced to lie face down on the cold floor for hours or even days. Then a leader or other members of the camp beat and kick him. Besides TI, Connor is also beaten by other boys that are already in level 6, like Adam.
One day Pauly, Sarah and Connor decide to escape from Lake Harmony and therefore they have made up a plan. They plan to open the circuit breaker box and shut off the power; lock the box; set a fire; sneak out when the fire trucks come in. Somehow get to Canada with no money for food or transportation. They manage it and sneak out as the fire trucks arrive. After they have walked for miles they find out that Harry and Rebecca are chasing them. They find a boat and cross a river, but only Pauly and Sarah can make it. Connor is taken back to the Boot Camp and TI has come just after that. After he spends another few weeks at Lake Harmony he is already a Level Five and finally his mother comes to take him home.

Well, in my opinion it’s a really touching but also very scaring story, because regarding the fact that real boot camps existed as well, it’s thrilling that punishments like this were really an option for desperate parents. I am sure there would have been effective alternatives that are less brutal and also don’t cost that much, because these Boot Camps were really expensive. A crucial question is whether it’s allowed to treat young people this cruel way or not, just to achieve a better behaviour. 

The treatments for achieving a better behaviour and to reach a higher level, as it’s described in Rhue’s book, are for example the TI room. In this room you are forced to lie face down on the floor and then be kicked and beaten with a bat.

The methods that were used in the novel are very similar to those in real Boot Camps. In real boot camps this TI room is called “get-right-room”. In the novel it is also recognizable that this re-education program doesn’t really work. Connor doesn’t behave as they want him to and therefore he gets punished. The punishment doesn’t seem to be a signal for him to start to behave brave. After some time he starts to pretend to be aware of what he has done wrong, just to get into a higher level. That his friends Sarah and Pauly are already more than a year at Lake Harmony shows that the program really doesn’t work, at least not for everybody. The malfunctioning system suits with the failure of real Boot Camps that are known as being ineffective. 

As already mentioned, they are indeed good alternatives for “bad” teenagers to get a re-education. It’s really not necessary to send them to a Boot Camp where they are treated unfairly and invest so much money in it. Especially not when they are not even effective!
Maybe I’ll make another post and tell you a bit about alternatives, as I’m really interested in it :)

An untypical Easter tradition

I think most people have a typical image of Easter, namely spending the day with their families and friends, maybe attending a church and receiving presents and gifts in form of Easter eggs and stuff. In Slovakia instead it’s a little bit different than in Austria and Ireland for example. As it’s likely that you are going to think it’s absolutely crazy, I would be interested in your opinion on this. So just let me know :)

As most Slovakian people are Christians, they celebrate Jesus Christ’s resurrection as well, but just in a more uncommon way. I’m going to tell you about my experience, which was actually more surprising than I thought it would be. I knew that the typical tradition is that boys and men splash some water in women’s faces or even go to stranger’s houses with a bucket filled with cold water and pour it over women.  That’s not really nice, is it? But that was just the beginning. In addition they spank women with a kind of birch made out of wood with strips of cloth tied on it and everytime they get to spank a woman, she has to tie a new strip of cloth on his birch. You might think now that women are a bit disadvantaged, but don’t worry - they do something in return. They need to give the men chocolate eggs. Isn’t that lovely? Hahah

Well, that’s what normally happens. However, in my case it was all still a bit crazier. The doorbell was ringing and I went to open the door. Neighbors were at the door and while one of them took my hands and the other one my legs, they put me under the shower and showered me with all my clothes on. I had never thought that your clothes get so much heavier when they are wet haha

I kind of like this tradition because it’s really not something typical that you see in everyday life. In Slovakia it’s also not common to exchange presents. The aim of it is to spend the day together and to enjoy the tradition.
So if you have planned to ever visit Slovakia and to experience something really traditional, then I recommend you to go to Slovakia in the Easter breaks :D

Really bad songwriters!

The does/do phenomenon

In school you have learned how to use verbs correctly, namely when using present tense you put an “s” after he/she/it at the end of the verb (she does) and after I/you/we/you/they you don’t (you do).

Well, many people still have difficulties to handle this rule properly and it’s questionable why such an easy rule causes so much confusion. In my opinion incorrect English, e.g. in the internet, is a big influence that can mess up your correct grammar. What’s more, song lyrics are very often wrong as well. I first realized that three to four years ago when I started listening to song lyrics carefully.

In song lyrics verbs are often used in the shorter form, even if it was supposed to be the longer form with the “s” at the end, because otherwise it wouldn’t rhyme or it wouldn’t fit in the rhythm. Even if many people don’t care about that bad grammar in songs, I really do, because listening to a song and suddenly hearing incorrect grammar really makes me angry.

The newest song by Robbie Williams “Candy” is a really good example. In the first line of the refrain he sings “Hey ho here she GO, either a little too high or a little too LOW”, because otherwise it wouldn’t rhyme ;) Really clever Robbie, but it may confuse language learners, so just stick to correct grammar! 

Look, it’s not that hard :)

I try my bestest…, my heart bleeded…, can we conversate?

That’s even more dreadful. Making up words that don’t even exist, I mean…c’mon!
It’s an eyesore typing this text into Word and having these words underlined in red. Don’t you songwriters have Word on your PCs? If not, you should get it.

Gwen Stefani thought that “bestest” would be the superlative of “good” or she just thought making up a superlative of the already existing superlative “best” would be clever.
“When you cheated girl, my heart bleeded girl…” Alright Mr. Timberlake, but you don’t have to invent a new past participle for “bleed”, because there is already one – “bled”.
And last but not least the word “conversate”. What the heck does that mean? Did you mean “talk” or something like that?

Probably the worst title of a song is “The Way I Are” by Timbaland and Keri Hilson. Using “am” instead wouldn’t hurt. It wouldn’t even change the rhythm!

There’s a similar problem with Bryan Adams. “But that’d change if she ever found out about you and I” You and I? Really? Obviously it’s supposed to be “You and me”.

You got the idea?

Songwriters can be really horrible regarding correct grammar in song lyrics. Sometimes it’s better not listening to song lyrics at all. Either they contain a stupid content that doesn’t even make sense (Justin Bieber), or they are written in wrong grammar. Just trust the grammar you read in books and what you’ve learned in school.

The influence YouTube has on singers

YouTube cannot just change the life of a YouTube artist, but can help making people from, for instance X Factor UK more famous in other countries as well. Many people, especially teenagers, regularly upload songs they covered on YouTube in the hope of getting as many subscribers and views as possible. With a lot of luck and when the right people share your videos in the right moment, you can even get discovered and maybe have the opportunity to sign a record deal.

A teen-pop legend became famous through this YouTube phenomenon – yes, it’s the super-cute Justin Bieber! Justin has been discovered by Usher himself, who firstly met and sang with him and secondly offered him to sign a record deal and have Usher as his producer. Here’s the video of him singing to Usher:

Many YouTube artists have been discovered and given the opportunity to record an own song with a music video to it, but mainly they hadn’t much success with it and therefore rejoined their career as a YouTube cover artist again. This happened to Savannah Outen, Charice Pempengco, Esmee Denters and many more.

Then there are these artists that are brilliant, record some own songs with a music video, but somehow don’t get the opportunity to sign a record deal. Megan and Liz are the best example, because they already recorded lots of own songs and even met the band Plain White T’s and sang a song with them.

I really hope these two sisters will make it far because they would absolutely deserve it to get famous. They really have talent and nevertheless don’t have a record deal, but Justin Bieber, who is in my opinion an average singer, became famous at the age of 15. Somehow unfair, but Megan and Liz will make their way as well :)

Another way of getting recognized by the world as a YouTube artist is through the amazing Ellen DeGeneres. As she is the most generous person on earth, she is also interested in helping unknown artists getting discovered. This happened to Greyson Chance, who has been invited to Ellen’s show to perform Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi”. Maria Aragon has been invited to her show as well. She sang Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way”, which was so stunning that Lady Gaga herself saw her video on YouTube and invited her to perform a song with her on one of her concerts in Toronto! 

This event definitely made her popular and because of the fact that Ellen’s show is not only broadcasted in American television, but is uploaded on her YouTube channel as well, makes her popular in even more countries. Because when people like me watch her show on YouTube, see Maria Aragon’s video and share it, it will absolutely help her to get more popular.

In general there are not so many ways of getting recognized as a YouTube singer and even if you get discovered, it doesn’t have to mean a total success. What I experienced is that the success of singers that have been discovered by Ellen lasted the longest. It’s a difference if you record an own song and shoot a music video that’s only published on YouTube, or getting the opportunity to sing at a talk show and be seen by many many more people. YouTube does indeed influence YouTube singers, which is actually a positive thing, but in most cases it doesn’t help them to become famous anyway.

Help! How do I get a toned body till summer?

This is a question many people are asking themselves at the moment, because as sun finally seems to appear, many people want to get their body in shape again. Because of the fact that Christmas and Easter was being celebrated recently, and some people enjoyed it to the full, many are now complaining about their increase in weight.

So, even if I’m not that kind of person who gained weight over Christmas and Easter time, I don’t want to have an unshaped body for summer either. Therefore I explored the internet for some really good tips and workouts that will help my body to become toned.

This site is really helpful:  http://www.glamour.com/health-fitness/2011/02/8-workout-moves-for-a-toned-body-in-two-weeks#slide=1

I think especially the stomach and the legs are the body part with which women have most problems with, but if you are motivated and want to reshape your body, these exercises look very promising and effective. I will absolutely try them out!

A really good and effective exercise is the so called „squat“. 

If you exercise it right, your whole lower part of your body will get trained, inclusive your muscles in the stomach area. If you want to train your biceps as well you can hold one or two dumbbells (that’s a strange word, isn’t it? haha) in your hands for extra effort.

For training your legs I found a good workout as well.

There are also some exercises for training your legs if you click on the link above, but these seem quite good to me. 

If your problem zone is your bottom, noooo problem: the “squat” exercise trains your bottom as well ;).

Toning your body is not just something you do for your appearance in summer, but it’s really healthy for your body as well. So even in October, when it starts to get colder again, you could at least do some of these exercises once or twice a week. Fitness is an essential factor that contributes to your health in general. When you are fit and have achieved a state of physical fitness in doing cardio training for example, you will live a happier life, at least that’s what I think and hope to experience myself.

Training and shaping your body doesn’t mean to go on a diet and start starving, it just means to eat healthier, which is in my opinion really really easy. For me it’s very easy, because I’ve always eaten healthy except the fact that I’m totally in love with chocolate, but I’m going to quit my relationship to it now, unfortunately :( haha.

I hope I could at least some of you motivate to do a bit of sports now and hopefully my exercise suggestions can help you :)

FITNESS FIRST.

Celebrating the awesomeness of food!

The absolute best food blog I found on the Web is www.iamafoodblog.com! It is written by a woman who is totally in love with food and photography. That’s what makes her blog so special - it looks soooo delicious! :D

By giving her readers the chance to see what the dish looks like, I think much more people are interested in cooking it themselves. She not only adds a photo of the final looking, but also from some further steps to check whether you got it right or not.
Her recipes are really detailed! It is absolutely clear which ingredients you need and in which way and order you have to put them together, so that’s a thing I really appreciate.
Sometimes she adds some personal stuff as well before starting to give instructions, like why she likes buffalos :D 

What you say? Why would you go around saying buffalo over and over again? Because: Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo is a perfectly grammatically valid sentence! There are three types of Buffalo: the city, Buffalo, New York; buffalo, the verb to bully; and buffalo, the animal. What the sentence is really saying is: Buffalo-origin bison that other Buffalo bison intimidate, themselves bully Buffalo bison

 Another thing I really appreciate is that she kind of cooks for everyone’s taste, because you’ll not only find dishes including meat, but vegetarian and vegan dishes as well. Therefore anybody could use her blog as a cook book and use her recipes, because it will definitely include something for everybody’s taste! As I’m not that kind of person that needs to have meat in every dish I found in interesting what you can actually cook with just tomatoes, mozzarella and bufala mozzarella. Look at this deliciously looking food:

I actually found something Irish as well. It’s called “Beef and Guinness Pie Recipe”. A Guinness pie is a beef stew topped with a puff pastry topping. Aaaaalright :D
Well, she cooked this for St. Patrick’s Day and it really looks fantastic, like all of her pictures. If you have time to you could read through the whole recipe and discover why she is so fascinated about beef stew ;)

http://iamafoodblog.com/beef-and-guinness-pie-recipe/

I will absolutely try some of her recipes, like the ‘Tomato Basil Bufala Salad’ and the ‘Spinach Feta Egg Wrap’, but without egg. The pictures to the recipes are really fancy and they are inspiring. Maybe I’ll try the wrap on weekend ;) 

The singer and the hype girl!

Today I want to introduce Sophia Grace (8) and Rosie (6), probably the most amazing girls from England!

The first time I saw them they were interviewing the contestants from the X Factor UK 2 years ago and now I saw them on Ellen DeGeneres’ show performing songs from Alicia Keys, Taylor Swift, Adele and Nicki Minaj. Their first time on Ellen’s show was because of their video singing Super Bass from Nicki Minaj, which Ellen discovered on Youtube. This was reason enough for her to invite them to her show and since then they reunited over and over again. 

The fact is, Ellen is the most generous person in the entire world - not for nothing is she called DeGeneres :) – and it doesn’t matter who it is: young, old, gay, bold, Chinese, popular or not, she always tries to help people in all ways possible and that makes her to an outstanding woman all over the world! This time she proved it again. Sophia Grace and Rosie are huge fans of Nicki Minaj and Ellen arranged a meeting with her. Not only did Nicki Minaj come to the show and sang with the two girls, she had a gift for them as well: necklaces and a shopping tour with her. It was incredible how happy these girls were!! 

So Sophia Grace and Rosie started to sing for fun at home, getting filmed by their parents. Now they’re singing on the Ellen Show, meeting famous people like Rihanna and Zac Efron, and even having an own show called “Tea Time with Sophia Grace and Rosie” in which they are interviewing celebrities, drinking tea and eating cookies with them. And who made this happen? Ellen. Of course it was Ellen! Because of Ellen the young girls were hosting people like Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Reese Witherspoon, Taylor Swift, Julie Bowen and the amazing Hugh Grant!

In almost every episode they’re asking the people to tell a joke and Hugh Grant absolutely nailed it, haha!
* What’s black and white and black and white? - A nun rolling down the hill.
* And what’s black and white and laughing? - The nun who pushed her.

Absolutely hilarious! :D And the joke Rosie always tells:
* Why is the banana going to the hospital? – Because it’s not peeling very well!

...alright haha

The point I want to make is that Ellen is the superwoman from the 20^th century, who’s not only able to help people financially, but also to help them in a way she does with Sophia Grace and Rosie. She’s giving unusual people a chance to explore the world, meet new people and just to have fun. Her show is kind of representing the modern American Dream, which is the total opposite of Benjamin Franklin’s view of it, namely by working hard and not by singing on a TV show. These two girls were ordinary kids in school, but now as Ellen discovered them by chance, they got famous within a short period of time. I think, or hope, that some people still believe in the traditional way of “From rags to riches”, or how it's also called “From a dishwasher to a millionaire”, but as everything’s changing, the American Dream changed as well and Ellen is nowadays a good medium through which people can receive help and get famous. In my opinion her show is also a good thing for upcoming Youtube cover bands/artists. By giving them the opportunity to perform on her show, she also gives them a chance to be seen by thousands of people, namely by everyone who’s watching her show.

If you haven’t seen her yet, you should check her out :)

Be kind to one another! :))