For Neda

Hello all! I come to you this sweltering Floridian afternoon with only sadness in my heart. I was browsing through HBO on Demand, just perusing the documentaries when the documentary "For Nada" came up. And then, for one hour I sat curled up on the couch for one of the most sorrowful hours of my life, which is saying something.

The documentary takes you into Neda Agha-Soltan life through interviews with family, friends, and spectators of her tragic death. Neda was shot in the heart during a peaceful protest in the streets of Tehran in response to the election results. Soon, she became the heart of the green movement in Iran, striving for basic human rights and democracy in Iran. In the documentary, the interviewer talks to the family as they share anecdotes about Neda. They described her as a rebel who "only wanted to receive as much love as she gave". Neda fought for women's rights in daily life, exemplified when she fought government officials when they told her she could not enter the University campus to attend her classes unless she was covered up and had no makeup on. Even as the protest grew more violent (her eyes had been injured with the tear gas the Red Army threw into the crowd), even as her family plead with her to stay home, she replied with, "Even if I did not vote, the government robbed my sister, my brother, my friends of their vote and their right to think for themselves. I have to protect my family."

One day after saying this, Neda was shot down.

I remember sitting on the couch, crying. How could a whole regime twist a supposedly peaceful religion into something malicious and cruel? What happened to the people's right to govern oneself?

This is not even the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, concerning Iran's blatant human right's violations. Iran supposedly has the highest rate of execution in regards to the country's population. In Iran, one can receive the death penalty for such things as adultery, drug dealing, and even explicit homosexual behavior in public.

I could go on forever about the injustices of the current Iranian regime, but you can just see it for youself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F48SinuEHIk

^This is the documentary I saw on HBO.

Also, please visit "Neda Speaks" for more information on what you can do to show your support for the green movement. On the website, you can upload a picture of yourself with a sign saying "I am Neda" to show your support for all humanitarian efforts in Iran. I know I will.

http://nedaspeaks.org/

To help raise awareness of this issue, please visit the website below to purchase your own "FREE IRAN" wristband.

http://www.freeiranwristbands.com/

As philosopher John Locke had said, "Every man has a property in his own person. This nobody has a right to, but himself."

Till next time,

Tatiana :) 

"What is one to say about June, the time of perfect young summer, the fulfillment of the promise of the earlier months, and with as yet no sign to remind one that its fresh young beauty will ever fade."

Hello my avidly-following readers!

I have only one thing to say.

Summer!

Just kidding, I wouldn't waste a whole post to announce it. Or would I? But anyways, what I really wanted to discuss today is what I would like to call affectionately "My Summer Hit List!", as I had referred to vaguely in other posts. As promised, I just got finished drawing it up and am here to share it. I wrote it on a piece of construction paper and hung it on my bulletin board so I can see it everyday. So here it is, basically for verbatim:

My Summer Hit List

Effective June 12, 2010

• drink ONLY water (side-note: if you know me you know I have this horrible addiction to Coke. It really isn't healthy and, hey, why get rid of it while I'm striving to re-invent myself?)
• go to the gym everyday (conditioning for Tennis season)
• keep on top of FLVS/school
• sleep under the stars (beach preferably)
• listen to a new song everyday
• take a roadtrip
• get tanner
• finish my booklists
• reconnect with my surroundings
• self-improvement
• monitor my spending (definitely hiding the credit/debit card!)
• embrace what the summer has to offer
• spend at least a day a week with some me time
• study for SATs/ACTs once a week
• actually do laundry
• wander around all night just for the heck of it
• go to the viewing deck on the Pier at sundown to see the city lights
• have the best city-wide scavenger hunt ever!
• have a photo shoot just for fun

"I solemnly swear to complete this list with as much dignity as possible by the end of the summer, including any other tasks that may at any time be added to the list."

Love, Tatiana

So this is the much-anticipated summer hit list. I know its not very original, but I want to have new experiences that I will never forget. And this is the summer to do it, with no earth-shattering responsibilities, no college obligations, no plans on being carted from relative to relative that come with graduation duties: this summer is just about me. I know this sounds selfish and corny, but this summer is about expanding my world views. After all, isn't that what being seventeen is all about? I want to embrace the world for all its worth.

Cheers,

Tatiana :)

"For love that smiled in April Is false to me in May"

Hello yet again! Sorry for the late post, I have been swamped with activity lately. But, it probably doesn't matter since I'm essentially talking to a wall in a practical sense. But, I feel the need to vent. Not necessarily negative things...just things.

So here's a update. I have only one more week of school. I am sooooo happy! I have been so stressed out the past couple of weeks that I have made myself sick, so a little dose of summer magic should hopefully cure me by the time vacation runs around :) Prom was awesome!! Even though it is May and it happened in April, I'm going to talk about it.

Like I said before, I wasn't really looking forward to it, but once the day came, I was really excited about it! But in the end, it was basically a more expensive, formal Homecoming. Nevertheless, I had fun just dancing with friends and seeing everyone :) Here's a picture of us at prom:

Here are some other pictures of the past couple of months:

This was my cousin Amanda and I in front of the Massachusetts Congress Building when we visited MIT.

A pic of Shanny and I at the beach, obvs :)

FBLA: simply the best :)

 Tennis Banquet!

Anywho, I am done with my AP Exams! I'm pretty confident about how my US History test turned out, but my Spanish and Language not so much :/ Oh well, I really don't have to worry about that again until July!

Over the summer, I'm staying home and most likely taking classes at USF and taking on a volunteering job at Moffit on the Tampa campus. I'm not quite sure yet, because this isn't a definite. Hey, at least if I can't spend my summer in Boston, I can spend it taking classes, getting a ton of volunteering hours, going to the gym, tanning on the beach, and chilling with my friends. Sound like a perfecto summer? I think so :)

So over the summer, I'm really going to make a commitment to self-improvement. I do it every year where I say, "Yeah, this summer I'll play more tennis or read more books." But really, I waste my summer away on sucky TV shows and going to the beach when I bet I could be doing waaaay many more productive things. Sooooo I made a list of goals that I HAVE to accomplish for the summer:

• Make a summer reading list of actually relevant books (and keep it up)
• Try and go to the gym every day
• Make a "summer bucket list" (To be discussed in more detail in an upcoming blog post)
• Plan a totally awesome scavenger hunt! >:D
• Actually keep the blog up to date so I don't have to keep writing extremely long blog post, like this one
• Finish my Precalc course on FLVS 
• Write a short story
• Listen to a new song every day
• Talk to someone I ordinarily wouldn't talk to
• etc, etc...

...the main point is, I cannot, repeat CANNOT, watch any television (the exception being my True Blood/Entourage indulgences) this summer, I have to keep busy. Or else the laziness will consume me and I will be doomed. You, my imaginary friend (insert awkward laugh), will be there to help me on my goal to some sort of productiveness this summer. Think of it as a support system. 

 I think this is enough information for the night.

Keep it classy!

-Tati <3

Call Me Plies 'cuz I Be Stressin

Hello everyone! Long time no talk. Anyways, I thought I would update on how my life has been. I'll start with a lengthy bulleted list...

• School = KILLING ME. Ha ha, not in a literal sense, more like killing my mind and soul until I am a shell of a person that I once was.
• All is good in the friends realm, I'm sorta bummed though that I won't be able to hang out with them more this month on account of me studying for AP exams/SAT.
• Prom's coming up! I was really excited when I went dress shopping a couple weeks ago, but now not so much. Maybe when I'm getting ready to go, the excitement will hit me again. I sure hope so!
• Getting decision letters about the summer camp's I've applied to!
• And the verdicts are... no bueno, but I still have to hear from Carnegie Mellon and FSU yet, so there still may be hope for me. Otherwise, I guess I'll just take some classes over the summer at USF :)
• SCHOOL'S OUT IN SIX WEEKS!
• MY BIRTHDAY'S IN FIVE WEEKS!

So in approximately three weeks, my life will be sooooo much better, with no more pesky exams to take and school coming to a slow but sure close.  I'll try and update when some more developments come up.

Till then,

-Tatiana :)

Album Review: Let Go

Recently, I have discovered the brilliance that is Nada Surf, particularly through their recent album Let Go. I have heard of the band through friends, but I wrote it off as another one of this indie-nothing bands. But, after a glorious hour of sitting down and listening to Let Go, my opinion of the band quickly changed.


Now, I know what you're thinking. I mean, we all have our favorite bands (some better than others), and I know when my friends burn me a CD of a band they like, I call them up after listening to it saying, "It was cool and all but *insert random band name* could perform *insert random song* ten times better!" And, its okay if you do that. But, you might love them like I love them.

Nada Surf's sound could be comparable to Death Cab for Cutie's sound, and I think that's what initially drew me to the band. But, after a few songs, you could tell this wasn't the case, with the simple strumming of the electric guitar and the tenor lead vocalist's, Matthew Caws, honest and bittersweet lyrics. I found that when I popped the CD into the stereo system, that my mind drifted through different memories with the help of Caws's realistically sweet poetry.

My particular favorites of Let Go are "Inside Of Love" and "Blonde on Blonde". I like to listen to the album as a whole, for it transitions smoothly from song to song. The hypnotic melody is guaranteed to get stuck in your head all day :) My only beef with Nada Surf is that their style changes greatly from album to album, so will the next album be this awesome?

So go ahead, try something different. You might actually like it :)
Rating: 4 1/2 out of 5 stars
Check out their MySpace !

Can I get a whoop whoop?

I've been wanting to start a blog for a while, so alas, I finally got around to actually starting it! It was quite frustrating, trying to start one and all, with picking a name and settings and all this mumbo jumbo I am too scatter-brained to really figure out haha.

The reason I started this blog was to create sort of a journal about my life so I can look back in a couple of years and either smile remembering the good times or think "oh my god what was I thinking?!?!?". I'll try and update this every few days for accuracy's sake. Every once in a while I'll talk about religion, politics, philosophy, etc etc...

So a few things about myself!:

• I live in Florida
• I DON'T like living in Florida. The only thing I like about Florida is the beach
• One day, I want to move to either Ann Arbor, Seattle, or Boston. I think I'm more of a city girl.
• I want to be a doctor one day.
• I have about 10 close friends with whom I either talk or see everyday.
• I have a dog named Coco.
• I am a very faithful pen pal (well I mean e-mail...e-mail pal?)
• I went to Catholic School for about eight years of my life
• I think GOING to Catholic school is the reason I'm Agnostic. Oh, the irony...
• I haven't had a really bad break up...yet...let's hope that doesn't happen anytime soon :)
• I'm running out of things to talk about without appearing vain...

Anyways, hopefully this will be the first of many blog post!

Signing off,
Tati :)