Repeat Syndrome

Everyone is guilty of loving a song so much that you just want to sit there and do nothing but listen to it on repeat all day? Just stop… you will drive yourself crazy. Not only will you have it stuck in your head, you will not want to have it stuck in your head. If you listen to a song on repeat if wears out quickly, it gets only exponentially quicker, and you will never want to listen to it again.

This problem has been more and more problematic for me in today day in age where radio is obsolete, almost all cars have AUX cords, and if it doesn't, you probably have a CD player that you use in it. And also there are all these new music apps and websites like Pandora, spottily, and YouTube Repeat, so if you want to listen to a song over and over again, you easily can. This may not be true for everyone, but for me, I don't like the songs today on the radio, or the songs in the past couple of year's, because I have listened to them far too many times, I love the music from the early to mid 2,000's. When I was in elementary school, and maybe early middle school. I didn't have a smart phone, I did not have the option to listen to a song on repeat, the only time I even listened to music was when I was in the back seat of my parents car. The songs that were on the radio back then are the songs that I really like now, because when I used to hear them it was a treat.

I don't like them because they reminded me of my early childhood, and no, I didn't have a terrible childhood, I still like them because they were not played on repeat, and they did not get old to me. They were a treat, and now when I hear them, they are vaguely familiar, and I still like them 5,6, or even 7 years later.

My suggestion to you is that if you like a song, don't put it on repeat, and don't put it on a short playlist, playlists should be a medium length, somewhere between 10-20 songs, if you have too many, there will be some that you simply just don't want to hear, and then you will spend half the time skipping songs, and not actually enjoying them. And if they are too short you will hate it soon because it will get old soon.

(428)

Cooking

Believe it or not, I love to cook, I don't find the actual process of cooking extremely exiting, but it is very rewarding once you are done. I am young, still in high school, and have a family that will gobble up all the goodies I make as soon as they come out of the oven, if i make brownies, I have to cut myself a few pieces before they are set up, because my brother and dad will devour them like crack. I end up hiding with a heap of randomness downstairs, but that is still okay with me. It tastes so good who cares if they are perfect. Honestly the best feeling I have is sitting down with some great food, a good show of Netflix or Hulu, and knowing that you don't have any work to do for a while, no worries in the world, it is just a tranquility that I enjoy massively.

This is even better when I am home alone, my little brother is a great basketball player, so during winter and summer he and my parents will leave me home alone for a whole weekend, and I have the freedom to do whatever I want. Some might invite tons of people over and have a party, I prefer to stay alone, isolated, and "nerd out" on my favorite shows, but even better than those, all of the food that I cook will last throughout the weekend, I will go out and buy some candy, drinks, and it will all last for more than a couple of hours. It actually concerns me a little bit because I'm exited to be all alone and single in  my own house.

Cooking is not the most exciting thing to me, it’s not extremely entertaining. Its what you do when you are eating the food that entertains you, the rewards of cooking are delicious. And the more you do it, the better and better it gets.

(335)

Twerps

Brothers, and sisters… Maybe you don't have any and simply don't know what its like to have one. Well personally I think that life would be better if I didn't have any siblings. I myself have both a brother and a sister, and I am not withing that they were dead, i just think that I would enjoy not having a brother and a sister. I know how it can be possibly be good to have them around, and how irritating it is most of the time. I see siblings that have great relationships, mostly twins here at Kennedy that get along well and even share the same friends. I wish I had that relationship with my brother, but we are literally opposites, and get along terribly. He is short, stocky, and i am tall and skinny, he has brown hair and eyes, I have blond hair and blue eyes, he has a fat face, and I have a narrow one. Besides these physical differences, we have differences, and tons of different lifestyles and habits, and his really get on my nerves.

The worst thing he does is eat all of the food, the second there is good food in the house, such as chips, ice cream, you name it, name any food a normal human being would like it, its gone in minutes. His personal record is two bags of lays potato chips in 15 minutes. And now that I work, I have even less of an opportunity to eat any food that I like, I have evolved into a monster that now actually enjoys health food primarily because I never have a chance to eat junk food.

Another thing is bathroom time, I am a normal guy, so I don't need much time in the bathroom to prep for school, I just need to take a shower and be on my way, but my sister, well.... is a girl. so naturally she spends up to an hour a day prepping for class, and my brother is almost worst, caking his face with pounds of chemicals, and coating his hair with what seems like chicken fat, to try (and fail) to look good for the ladies.

Now again, I am not wishing that my siblings dropped dead, they bug me, but I still love them. And I am probably selfish for saying I would rather have no siblings, because some people don't have siblings, they they would say "I have always wished to have a little baby brother to play with", to you I would say, a baby brother is only fun to play with until it hits kindergarten, then you life will be a living hell.

(449)

Cedar Rapids, not a complete wasteland

Cedar rapids, there is nothing to do here, and most of the time, I would have to agree. Most people who weren't born here don't have as tight of a connection to the city as those who do. People with family here often love it, as it is a nice city, and they have people who they know and like. People like my family though have found their way here through various means, don't know much about here or the people, and one thing I've noticed is not many people go out of their way to greet or get to know people who aren't from around Iowa. One of the things I feel like would make this city better is if there were more things for people to do with their spare time. I would love to go on bike ride. Around the city I can get place to place with the bike lane, but I mean I want to go somewhere and see something, not just use my bike to travel between work and home. I know lots of people use the bike lanes and I'm not saying they are bad, but what I am getting at is that I have very limited options of where to bike where it is safe. Yes there is a trail or two around here, but one brings you right along the river, which usually smells pungent and gross, and gives you a nice view of mount trash-more. Now I do not intend to be very harsh to the people who like the city just the way it is, I as well like Cedar Rapids, but I feel like there is a lot of room for improvement. One thing that I feel would be really nice here would be a water park, like we almost got not too many years ago. I feel like there would be more than enough people who want one to be able to go there and make use of it, but also I feel like that could be a source for tourism, which there is not much of in Cedar Rapids. Another thing I feel like would be great would be a football team that was in Cedar Rapids, which I don't see happening since everyone here already goes to the Hawkeye games every Saturday they play. Something else I feel like would give people more to do is just to have more off-leash dog parks, because this would be great for new people to the area to be able to meet people who are like themselves (enjoy outdoors/ dogs etc.). The dog park would be best if it was in a centralized location, and have different areas depending on dog size to prevent some of the bigger dogs from hurting the others. Overall, I do think there is a lack of things to do here, and that there could be improvement.
(484)