The Beauty in Song

Music's always been something that really speaks to me. Whether it be a form of therapy, or just listening out of boredom, or physically playing guitar or piano, music's always been an outlet for me. My love of music probably started when I was a baby. My dad used to bring me in my little baby carrier over to my great Aunt Winnie's house, where she used to teach him piano. So every Sunday, for the first year or so of my life, I heard hours of beautiful piano playing, and as I've grown up with pianos and singing and music of every kind, everytime my dad plays Moonlight Sonata on the piano, I get this sense of calmness, and relief. I guess that's what he must've been learning with my great aunt. 

I started actually playing music in maybe 3rd or 4th grade, my dad would teach me simple songs on the piano to keep me distracted for awhile. But I'd always be ready for something new. So, in fourth grade, when we were given a choice of instruments to begin learning, I decided to play the trumpet. Which I did, for about 3/4 years. And I liked playing trumpet, I did, but it was never really something that I did because I wanted to, or because I was passionate about it. I did it because it was homework, and because my dad always used to say "I love hearing you play trumpet, Harp." And being a kid, all I wanted to do was make my parents proud. 

But I gave up on trumpet. And I started playing piano more, and after a few beginner lessons from my dad, I started playing chords, and those chords turned into songs, and before I knew it I was just hopping onto the piano and looking up the chords for whatever song was playing on the radio, and spending my Saturday afternoons perfecting it. I still do that now, and it's really become not just a passion of mine but some kind of therapy. Something about playing music puts me at peace every time I sit down to play. 

I also started playing guitar about two years ago, and I play guitar just as often as I do piano. I love playing guitar, I think it's such a beautiful instrument and I love the variety of things you can play. My favorite kind of music to play on guitar is probably anything with picking in it, I've recently been working on Ronan by Taylor Swift and Leaving on a Jet Plane by John Denver.

Guitar and piano have both been such great outlets for me, and I took this week to write about music because a lot of people don't know how passionate I really am about it. I started writing songs probably when I was like 10, just making silly songs up on the spot. But they turned into real songs, and now I have a couple that I think are actually pretty decent. So, yeah. I hope you enjoyed this little look into how music has affected my life, because I think it's something everyone should enjoy, too.

Exercise and Things

Exercise is one of those things that you really can't do without motivation. And, like a lot of things in my life recently, I have no motivation to exercise, or participate in any physical activity. I feel like if I had more motivation, just in general, I'd get so much more done in life. I'd get my homework done, I'd study for tests and quizzes instead of just winging it, and I'd eat healthy and exercise. Part of me really wishes I had that motivation, and the other part of me is just so used to being dissatisfied with my habits that it feels as though there's no hope.

There was about one week in the past month or two where I really wanted to be healthy, so I bicycled everyday, and ran, and ate a lot of fruit and whole grain bread and stuff. And I have to admit, I did feel better. I had more energy, I was in an overall better mood, and I enjoyed the things around me so much more than I usually do. But for some reason, that week didn't extend past those 7 days or become a habit. I'm back to my diet of Cup Noodles and Poptarts, and I feel awful again. Luckily, I just started this swimming thing every Sunday where I can swim for an hour, and clear my head, and then come home and feel better. This is also super helpful because it means I'm forced to get my homework done earlier on Sunday, to be ready for swimming at 5:30.

At first I was kind of dreading it, just because exercise is one of the many things that I'm not good at and therefore avoid altogether, but it turned out to actually be really fun. And it made me remember how much I love swimming, and why I dedicate my whole summer to it, even if I'm not the best one out there. I'm not the most coordinated person in the world, so when I find a sport that I'm decent at, genuinely enjoy and can be consistent with, I don't walk away from the opportunity. So I'm happy that I'm doing this weekly swimming thing. It'll be good. And I think it'll also help me out in more ways than one.

Capture The Fall (Watch in HD)

My "Capture the Fall" video challenge. Okay, this was actually so much fun to make. I took my little sister and my puppy down to the park and we had so much fun filming and running around, and it was such a nice, happy, productive use of time. I probably wouldn't have gotten to enjoy such a beautiful day without having this assignment to do, considering I spend my entire life in front of a 13" MacBook Pro, so I guess I owe this one to Mr. Mayo. But really, this was such an enjoyable experience. I filmed it on my iPhone 4, and I'm surprised at how good the quality actually is. Sometimes it's really grainy, but it turned out really well for this. I think it probably had something to do with the awesome lighting.

This was a really fun assignment, and I really enjoyed not only filming it, but picking music and putting it together. It didn't feel like homework to me, it just felt like a hobby; something I wanted to do. I like editing and filming and stuff, that's why I want to get into photography. But I have yet to buy a DSLR, because I spent $250 on really good seats to the Taylor Swift/Ed Sheeran concert. Anyway, I basically just filmed a lot of pretty trees, and different shots of fallen leaves, and my dog and my sister. I'm glad I had to do this. If we did more creative assignments like this, where we just get a theme (like "fall") and we can do whatever we want with it, I'd look forward to those. So, yeah. That's my capture the fall challenge. Enjoy.

Little Things

Recently One Direction released a video for their new song, Little Things. Personally, I don't think One Direction is worth all the hype they get, but I mean, that's what's expected to happen when you take 5 attractive boys that can sing and have british accents and throw them into the music industry. I don't think they're terrible, but I don't like their music and I feel like they get so much credit when they really aren't that great. Anyway so their most recent song, Little Things, is absolutely beautiful, and it's written  by Ed Sheeran. 

Ed Sheeran is honestly one of my favorite musicians ever, he's so incredibly talented. Not just because he can sing, but because of his songs, and how they read like poetry. One of my favorite songs of his, Kiss Me, has some of the sweetest, most beautiful lyrics. "I'm falling for your eyes, but they don't know me yet, and with a feeling I'll forget, I'm in love now." His music resonates so much, when you hear a song of his all you can think of is the sheer brilliance it takes to write something as magical as some of the songs he's released. They're not all amazing, obviously, but unlike a lot of musicians that have a few great songs on an album and the rest mediocre; songs that fill space on an album but aren't that amazing, Ed Sheeran's album "+" is just one beautiful song after another. You can tell how hard he worked and how much the album means to him because all the lyrics are so personal, and so real.

The first time I heard Little Things I knew it didn't sound like regular One Direction pop singles and I recognized the intricate and personal lyrics, I even recognized his style of songwriting. That sounds weird, but his songs are so distinct that it's pretty easy to pick out an Ed Sheeran song. It kind of bothers me that One Direction's like hey, this is our new song, isn't it beautiful? And they're not telling the complete truth and being straight up like we didn't write this. One Direction's fans are obviously just gonna eat it up, because anything they put out is gold to them. I feel like people are gonna assume they wrote it and that's gonna kill me, because Ed Sheeran should get the credit he deserves for writing such a beautiful song.

Hurricane Sandy

I hate natural disasters. They scare me so much. You don't know when they're coming, how long they're going to be, how dangerous they are, how to prepare, etc. You don't know anything! They just happen, and then homes are destroyed and people are dead and cities are flooded and there's nothing anyone can do, except donate to endless relief funds and pray. Hurricane Katrina was probably one of the worst natural disasters to ever occur in the US, and even today we look back and see how terrifying that must've been. Obviously, this hurricane taking over the east coast isn't going to be nearly as bad as Katrina, but it's still terrifying to know that there's really nothing we can do except wait for disaster to strike. 

You can buy as many flashlights as you want, but what if all our houses get flooded? What if our homes and everything are destroyed? See this is the kind of thing that worries me endlessly. So I've taken it upon myself to write a list of things I would absolutely 100% need in case hurricane Sandy is really bad. This list doesn't include electronics. Because electronics die. It also doesn't include my family. Except my dog.

1. My dog.
2. My candles.
3. A lighter for my candles.
4. Batteries for the lighter.
5. Some food that never goes bad, like Chef Boyardee or goldfish.
6. Some crayons.
7. Paper.
8. Magazines.

You know. While writing this list, I've realized how absolutely lost I'd be without my electronics. It's sad but like honestly I can't live without my phone/computer. This hurricane is like a test to see if we can survive, and hey, we did the first time, right? During that huge storm when nobody had power for like 5 days? We survived then! My whole neighborhood, rallied together in the darkness. It was great. I spent 5 whole days at my neighbor's house, everyone bonded over the misfortune that was nature.

But then again, my neighbors had a generator. And therefore electricity.

Also another note, last weeks blog post was literally just a list of youtube channels. I need to get more creative. So from now on I'll try to write about something more interesting so I don't get like an E on my weekly blog post.

Kbyeee.

Youtubers

Recently I've been obsessed with youtubers and following all these vloggers and stuff. I love spending time on youtube watching different people, from like cooking channels, to beauty/fashion channels, to random vloggers that just talk to their cameras and somehow make it really funny. #dailygrace Also, a lot of beauty gurus (people that do makeup tutorials, etc.) have second channels, where they vlog about their life. A lot of them have third channels where they vlog from their iPhones. I'm fully aware of the amount of people I watch and that it's ridiculous. But in case you wanted some entertainment, I thought I'd share them.

So here's some of my favorite youtubers:

Beauty people and their other channels:  
Tracy/Stephanie and more Tracy/Stephanie
Ingrid and more Ingrid
Bethany and more Bethany (even though she barely posts on her second channel)
Fleur (she's british!) and more Fleur

People that have way too many channels:

JUSTINE:
Main
Vlog
iPhone
Reviews
Gaming

Funny people that I like:
Hannah
Grace
Mamrie
Joe Santagato

Cooking Channels:
Laura Vitale
Chef John

Cute sisters that sing together:
Cimorelli

Last one I swear:
Charles/Ally

^They've been making videos everyday for 1266 days.

Okay I'm really done. That was way too many. But yeah. K bye.

A Fresh Start

So this week's edition of the Harper Rants About Nothing show is gonna focus on something a little unusual. Our teachers have decided to let loose the reins and let our "creative spirits soar." Nobody really said that. I just threw it in for effect. But anyway, I haven't been to school in a week, and I'm not gonna talk about why because I already made the mistake of telling a few people, who told some more people, and now pretty much the entire cap program knows about the inner workings of my personal problems. 

I haven't always been the attention-seeking, spotlight-hogging, "does not play well with others" type, I think I grew into it. Which doesn't really make sense, seeing as I'm the oldest of 3 and spend most of my life teaching and caring for kids as little as 5 months old. I have no problem interacting with kids who are younger then me, probably because I like a sense of authority. But when it comes to people my own age, geeeeez things get out of hand. Everyone's always telling me how I'm such a social, people-person, but in reality, I think that's becoming less and less accurate. I like people, I like being around them and interacting with them and spending time with the people I enjoy. But the two ends of my I-enjoy-your-company spectrum are worlds and worlds apart. There are some people that I love, and there are some people that no matter how hard I try to like them, I can't stand being around them. I probably have the same effect on some people, it's a natural part of life. But I think I need to work on being more accepting and open to people.

This post really didn't end up being much except a very intense personal reflection. But hey. Whatever.

Here's a cute cat: