Basically, Just a Little Update On Life

Hey lovelies, finally the holidays are over. Which means back to normal life, and that also means I can get back to blogging. It was quite hard to get through the holidays without blogging, but I’m glad to have taken the break. I feel great, and more motivated to get back to this whole thing. Plus I also have some things that happened over the holidays in which I should probably update you lovely people on.

What I’ve Been Up To Since My Last Post:

Did I say I would be back on Monday… Yes. Did that happen… No, of course not, typical me. However I have good reasoning.
First up on the list we have Christmas. I hope you guys had a good Christmas despite it seeming like it was years ago. One major thing I got, and absolutely love is a 1958 Olympia Typewriter. Of course I got a few other things, but I’m intrigued most by the typewriter. Yes, you can call me dork right about now. Oh well…After Christmas had passed by, the goat that started my family’s ranch, became ill. Little Ebony was the first goat we bought, she was the kindest, friendliest, and sweetest goat we’ve ever had.  On December 31, we had to unfortunately say goodbye to Ebony. She fought a good battle with whatever made her sick for five days, she just wasn’t strong enough, but at least she went fighting. It’s been tough going out to the pasture, and not hearing her little call or having her greet us at the gate. It’ll take some time, to not miss her quite as much, but it’s just really hard right now to go out there and not see her.
Then we had New Year’s. To be completely honest, my family and I have never been real big on celebrating New Year’s. Plus after just losing the goat that started the ranch, Ebony, none of us really felt like doing anything but just ending the day.

2015 Goals:

Once the new year comes, everybody makes resolutions of what they want to accomplish in the new year. Typically these resolutions are a few years old, because once February comes around people forget about them. Even I, in the past have made resolutions and failed to follow through with them. Not this year though. Also instead of calling them resolutions, I’m going to call them goals, because goals sounds so much better than resolutions. So here are 4 of the most important goals on my list to achieve this year.

1.  Finish Writing My Novel
I’ve been writing my novel for quite a while now, it’s something I work on in my spare time, and to be honest. Writing a novel, is one thing on my bucket list, and I would like to actually finish one instead of just adding it to the pile of novels started, but never finished.

2. Learn and Try Something New
For me, you can always learn and try things more, because if you don’t continue to go outside of your little comfort zone, you’re never going to grow as a person. As one of my favorite quotes goes: “Never be afraid to try something new, because life gets boring when you stay within the limits of what you already know.”

3. Listen to More Music, Read More Books, and Write More Stories
These are three of the tops things that are very important to me. Music, books, and writing. These are also the three things I think a person can’t do enough of as well. There’s so much music that needs to be heard, books to be read, and all those little scenarios that need to be written. So this is a huge goal for me, to just do more of what I love I guess.
Side note: I re-tweeted this very interesting article on Twitter of how important it is to read more novels. Here is the link to the article if you want to read it (and yes, it will open in a new tab, because I’m nice like that) – Study: Reading a Novel Changes Your Brain

4. Finish My French Program
This is very important to me. I’ve been learning French for about… a year now. However I haven’t been very consistent with keeping up with it, but I plan to change that. According to my program I can understand about 60% of all French text, and so I’m hoping to increase that just a bit more. So wish me luck on finishing that and making it where I know three languages, and then I’ll probably start working on another language.

Huge Things Are Happening:

Over the holidays, I sat down and talked with my family about this blog and where I want to see it go, and what my plan to help that happen. By the end of the conversation I was told that they were “proud to see how much thought I’ve put into this plan”, and it’s true I’ve put a lot of thought into the upcoming events for the blog. I’ve been thinking about the coming changes for a couple of months, and figuring out what I need to do and how to do it, to execute my plans for the blog.
Needless to say, I don’t want to give out a lot of details on the plan, but I will announce more in a week or two. So, although I hate being secretive of what the plans of the future of this blog are, I also want to fully know what I’m talking about when I make the announcement. Make sense? I hope so.
Also there will a post completely dedicated to the announcements, which will have all of the details and all of that. So look for the that post in the coming week or two,  it’ll probably be titled “Blog Announcement” or something quite close to that.

I think that’s it. I’m quite excited about the big things I’m planning for the blog in the future, as you could probably already tell. So, I’m sorry if my posts aren’t on time, or aren’t on their normal days, the next few weeks. Trust me, it’ll be worth it, I promise. It’ll all work out in the end.. I hope, but I’m sure it will.

Thank you guys for reading.

Until I blog again,

Ally

The Past Week, 2014 Memories, and Blogging Break

Hey lovelies, I’m still in slight denial that Christmas is less than 48 hours away. Why? Because it seems like just the other day we were welcoming 2014 as the new year, that’s why. I’m starting to think, that as you get older the faster it seems time flies by, but maybe that has more to do with the fact that I turn 16 in the spring, and in the fall I start my senior year of high school. Still not sure how to fully comprehend that last one, pretty sure my mom would say the same thing. Like they say “time flies by when you’re having fun.” Let’s see if I can make this a bit funnier of a post, because the beginning is pretty sad.

The Past Week:

The past week has been okay I suppose. I’ve been sick most of it, with like a little stomach bug, but I think I’m finally doing better for the moment. Due to not feeling very well, I wasn’t very productive in any way whatsoever. I mainly just spent my time writing, songs mainly, I think I wrote like 5 songs. Which I think is pretty good.

I did finish my end of semester exams last week. To be completely honest, I’m not sure how I got through it. There were certain times, when I wasn’t sure I was going to make it, but clearly I somehow managed to get through it. I (and all my fellow students in the world who just took their exams) deserve an award, I want a cookie. Because that, my exams, were not easy. Because there are three types of people when taking tests in general.

1st type: I know this, this is so easy, I know all of the answers.

2nd type: We learned this sometime this year, and I know, that I know the answer to this just gotta think about it for a second.

3rd type: What is this? Did we even go over this? I’m pretty sure this wasn’t in any of the lessons? Well… I’m just going to bull my way through this, and hope for the best.

Want to know the type I fall under? The 3rd… always the 3rd. When it comes to tests, I can’t remember anything. I just kind of sit there, and question myself and my inability to comprehend any type of material that isn’t song lyrics. Because ask me to remember anything that I may have learned in Civics class, I more than likely can answer your question in 2-5 minutes , but ask me to sing any song on any of Taylor Swift’s, Arctic Monkeys, or The 1975 albums. I got that. I know those lyrics like the back of my hand, and my knowledge of lyrics doesn’t end there either. Yea… I’m doomed, but oh well. I’m sure my knowledge of lyrics will help me more in life than lets say any of the two years of algebra ever will. Just saying.

Some 2014 Memories:

Of course these are just a very small fraction of memories of 2014, but these are some of my favorite ones.

January 7th – First cover video on YouTube

January 26th – First post on here

February 14th – Received my DSLR camera

March 17th – Got Lyric Melody (my fish)

March 29th – Got Captain for my 15th birthday

April 23rd – 60 Followers on here

April 26th – Finished 10th Grade

May 6th – I’m dyslexic post

July 18th – Got a halter on Captain for the first time

August 17th – Got a saddle blanket on Captain

August 19th – Hollywood Records randomly followed me on Twitter

October 16th – 100 followers on here

December 2nd – Finished the round pen

December 19th – Somehow survived end of semester exams

Holiday Blog Break:

I’m sure like most of you, I’m taking a break from blogging during the holidays, and will be back to blogging the first Monday after the new year. I’m hoping to spend part of my time updating the blog, and possibly change the theme of it as well. I’m going with the whole thing of, new year, new blog design. So hopefully I can get that done, and get some posts written and saved as drafts, for whenever I don’t have something ready for a posting day. I mainly intend to spend time doing things I don’t get to really do while I’m stuck with schoolwork. Translation: songwriting, spending extra time with my horses and dogs, reading, blog updating, and of course spending some time with my family.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all! I’ll be back the 1st Monday after the new year 🙂

Until I blog again,

Ally

Book Review: Matched Trilogy (Book 1) by Ally Condie

Goodreads Summary:

Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander’s face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate… until she sees Ky Markham’s face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black.

The Society tells her it’s a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she’s destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can’t stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society’s infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she’s known and a path that no one else has dared to follow.

My Review:

4/5 stars

This book trilogy has been compared to The Hunger Games, and Divergent. Naturally I thought it would be more like them, but instead of a society that is collapsing, this book has a society that is near perfect.

For me there were four characters that really stood out. Cassia Reyes, who is the main character, and the person whose point of view the book is written in. Xander Carrow, who is Cassia’s match, but isn’t seen a lot in the book, but is talked about more than anything. Ky Markham, who can’t be matched to anyone due to being an aberration, but somehow was put on Cassia’s match data card caused by a glitch. Finally, we have the match official, the match official is in the book more than Xander, and is almost kind of spooky in the book. Because she knows what Cassia is doing, but never reports her like she should for breaking the rules.

Despite Xander being Cassia’s match, when she plugs in the data card they receive at their banquet, Xander shows up, but then Ky Markham flashes up on the screen, before it goes black. Although Cassia’s match official tells her it was just a glitch, and to just focus on Xander, Cassia can’t help but wonder why Ky out of all people was the one who was on the card. When she signs up for hiking as a summer activity, she finds out Ky signed up as well, and decides to get to know him better. Throughout the book Cassia develops a connection with Ky, sharing a forbidden poem and story with each other, and even believes it’s Ky she is falling in love with. It’s at this point Cassia starts to question the rules of the society, and if she should break them or not.

Another thing is, it’s never explained what made the society in the book come to be what it is. Which means your left to sit there and wonder what happened for this society to exist. However in my opinion, it’s likely the citizens don’t know what happened. Because they only have 100 history lessons. Just like they only have 100 greatest poems, 100 greatest songs, 100 greatest works of art, etc. Just like each person is only allowed to have one artifact – an item from the past – which is an item handed down through the generations. Books are illegal, and so is writing. All citizens learn to type on a touchscreen, and are allowed to send messages to each other, but all of those messages are monitored by the society as well. All society members live a nice long and healthy life, but always die on their eightieth birthday – always. The society also controls, what job a person has, when and what they eat, who they’ll marry, and how many kids they’ll have and when to have them. Plus each citizen is required to carry three pills – a green, blue, and red – on them at all times. In other words the society is controlling what they know about the past, what they do in the present, and how the society will function in the future.

The book ends with Ky having been taken away to what the society claims to be a new job, and everyone – except Cassia and Xander – take the red pill wiping their memory of the past 12 hours. After Ky is taken away, Cassia is determined to figure out where Ky is. However Cassia’s family is relocated to the farmlands, and Cassia’s family has her sent to work out in the fields for suspicion of rebellious behavior. The twist is Cassia’s family and Xander, send her updates of their findings of where Ky is.

The two things I didn’t like about the book was, you didn’t know the history of how the society got to be that way – but maybe it’s clarified in one of the other two – and you didn’t really get to know the characters. Sure, you got to know Cassia, but she is the main character whose point of view the story is being told from, but you don’t get to know Xander, and you don’t even really get to know about Ky either. Xander makes more of a guest appearance here and there throughout the book, but we don’t get to learn who he is besides a childhood friend of Cassia and her match. Ky is portrayed as more of a mysterious character, and you never really get to know about them because it takes the mystery away from them, but I think there were a few details missing from him as well.

Granted maybe you get to know more about the characters in the other two books.

Overall it was a really good book, and I would recommend reading this book.

Thanks for reading.

Until I blog again,

Ally

Reading, Songwriting, and What Do You Want to See? Poll

Hey lovelies, it’s already Monday… again. The past week has been insane, but at least it has been productive for me at least. I wasn’t able to get any horse training done this week, because of the crazy weather here my horse has been acting like a moody mare, despite him being a gelding. Hopefully once the weather balances back out, I can get back to work with him. So since I wasn’t able to work with my horse, I had to find other ways to entertain my time. Therefore I did what most teens do… I decided to catch up on reading, songwriting, cleaning my room, and I don’t think most teens do these things in their free time. Anyway I’ve successfully rambled here, so here is the post.

Reading:

I’ve gotten back to reading, I just started reading the Matched trilogy by Ally Condie. I finished the first book last night, and will probably start the second book tomorrow, after I finish the book review on the first book. Which the book review will be up on Wednesday, and I’ll also say I pretty much-loved the first book, so spoiler alert there. Needless to say, the next two books in that series are up next on the To Be Read List, and then I’ll probably finally read The Maze Runner trilogy. I have a lot of reading to do apparently. Don’t mind me while I sit over here like:

Songwriting:

I’ve been writing a lot more here recently, not just songwriting but in general as well. Sometimes when you write a song, you have no problems putting the words in the right place, and it just kind of comes together by itself. A song I wrote the other night came together like that, and it’s just been playing on repeat in my head. There are two verses in particular that stand out, and I thought I would share them with you. I’ve written them in here more like a poem, and these two parts go together in the song as well, so this is how the lyrics look in my songbook. Also I may soon, actually record and upload this song on here.

Too Far Gone –

I gave up on you a long, long time ago

and I keep telling you to just let me go

but now you want to fight the war that’s already been lost

---

Can’t you see I’m tired and too far gone

to start a second war

You’re too late to win me back

I’m leaving you in the past where you belong

and I’m already too far gone

What Type of Posts Do You Want to See:

I don’t do this very often, but I really want to know. Why type of posts do you want to see more of? I do a variety of posts types on here, and I want to know which ones you like most.

The next few sentences is going to include a lot of links, all of which link to some post of mine on here, that will open in a new tab in your browser – because I like to make things easy for my lovely viewers.

Photography posts, which typically go with some kind of theme that I’ve chosen – Here are two examples: Welcome Autumn – My Average Day in Photographs. Cover Videos, these are videos of me covering some of my favorite songs and putting my own twist to them – Here is the last one I did: Voodoo Doll Cover. Book Reviews, I read… a lot, and I want to help my fellow book lovers with which book are worth reading, and which ones you should just leave at the bookstore – Most recent review: Can’t Look Away by Donna Cooner. More serious topics, nothing political or anything like that, but it’s more serious than my usual posts. I’ve done two already which you can check them both out: Fat-shaming and Skinny-shaming neither is okay – Taylor Swift Music Announcement. These are all the post types I’ve already done, but there are a couple that I would like to try but want to know how you guys feel about it.

Horse Training: I’ve worked with different types of horses, and training them, and I know a lot about horses and why they do what they do. I also know how hard it can be to train them, and unless your horse is just completely crazy, you can train them yourself.

Blog Tips: I’ve had a few blogs, and had my first one by age 9 if I remember right, and my mom is a web designer. Needless to say I know a lot about how to make your blog look good, how to get more traffic, be an even better blogger, and all that stuff.

Photography Tips: If you have a blog, photography is more important to you then you may think, and it’s a great skill to have. I take pictures with my iPhone and my Nikon DSLR, and photos from both are on this blog.

Songwriting: Basically it would be more of me sharing some of the songs I wrote, probably more in snippets than the full song, or both.

I made a poll in which you can choose more than one option that way you can vote for all the different types of posts you want to see more of.

Thank you guys for reading.

Until I blog again,
Ally

Fat-shaming and Skinny-shaming, Neither is Okay

The other day my mom and I were listening to the radio and All About That Bass by Meghan Trainor came on. Somehow not even half way through the song my mom and I started talking about body-shaming. However, she was on the defense of what society calls “fat-shaming”, and I was on the defending side of the almost unheard of “skinny-shaming”. Needless to say, she of course was certain that thin women were criticized just not as much as women who are – according to society – “plus-sized”. Meanwhile I was convinced that although women who are considered bigger are criticized more than they should be, women on the opposite side of the spectrum were criticized just as much. By the end of the conversation, we were both a little mad at each other for not seeing the other persons point of view of the situation, but we both agreed that there is too much criticism of how people’s bodies look.

To be completely honest I don’t really have much of a problem with the song at all. I think it’s a great song, with a good message, that just wasn’t said properly. Because I’ve probably heard All About That Bass 100 times, and it starts off great, it’s about being confident about your body and all that. Until we reach “You know I won’t be no silicone figure, Barbie doll” and “Go ahead and tell them skinny b-tches’ hey, no I’m just kidding I know you think you’re fat”. These two lines have caused such controversy, and I almost have to agree. Because it can very easily be interpreted as: it’s bad to be skinny, better to be curvy, and all skinny people think they’re fat. Which I don’t think that’s what Meghan Trainor meant either. As this is how she responded to all the criticism about her song in an interview with Pop Justice:

“I don’t criticize skinny people! I would never shame a skinny person!” she exclaimed. “I don’t know who would want to. I guess they stop listening immediately after I say ‘skinny b-tches’ and just turn it off. But I say, ‘Just kidding, I know even you think you are fat.’ For instance, I have skinny friends and some of them will stand in front of the mirror and go, ‘Eugh, I’m just like so big.’ And I’m standing there going, ‘Jesus! If you’re big then what am I?’ That’s not right. So I was just saying that. There was a huge Twitter account that made a blog about ‘This is a body shaming song.’ I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, okay…’ I don’t get it. No, I would never shame a skinny person. It makes no sense.”

Personally, I don’t think her goal for her song was to shame skinny people, but instead to help empower curvy women and even skinny women as well, to embrace their body and learn to love themselves. Plus after this line: “Go ahead and tell them skinny b-tches’ hey, no I’m just kidding I know you think you’re fat”, she then goes “But I’m here to tell you, every inch of you is perfect from the bottom to the top”. Therefore did she technically just shame skinny women by then going “every inch of you is perfect from the bottom to the top”? I personally don’t think she did, but I can also see how so many people have interpreted the song as a skinny-shaming anthem.

Also before I started this post, I did some reading on fat-shaming and skinny-shaming because I wanted to see what was being said on both topics. When I searched for fat-shaming, it brought up titles like: “fat-shaming doesn’t motivate obese people to lose weight”, “fat-shaming linked to weight gain in overweight people”, and “fat-shaming doesn’t work to motivate them”. Can we take a look at those titles, and just realize how screwed up they are. Are people really putting down overweight people to help motivate them to lose weight? There are so many other ways to motivate someone, but putting them down and criticizing isn’t one of them.

When I searched for skinny-shaming, it brought up titles like: “Why is skinny-shaming OK, if Fat-shaming is Not?”, “On Skinny-shaming, Not All Real Women Have Curves!”, and “Skinny shaming and Thin Privilege”. There are also so many problems with these titles as well. The major problem is, that it shows how this debate of body-shaming is split in two. Granted I see where these titles are coming from as well. Because let’s be honest, according to most of society, it’s okay to bash thin people because they’re apparently “privileged”, but it’s pretty much a crime to bash someone who is overweight.

I say society says it’s okay to bash thin people, but not overweight people because I have some personal experience with it. Growing up as a child, I was rather chubby like most children, until I was about 12 and then I started to slim down and grow in height, like most children when they start entering their teens. I’m now at a normal weight, athletic build, and I’m around 5ft 7in tall. I never once had anyone comment on my body when I was a chubby little kid, but now that I’m thin I feel like people are constantly commenting on it. With things like: “must be nice to be that small”, “you could use a few cheeseburgers”, or “why do you eat like a turtle, and exercise, you don’t need to”.  Now if I were to switch those comments for someone who is overweight for example: “must suck being that big”, “do you really think you should eat those cheeseburgers”, and “why do you eat like that, and not exercise, you really need to”. If someone was to say any one of these things to someone who is overweight, they would be the biggest jerk in the world, but some people think it’s okay for them to make comments about skinny/thin people. When in reality when you criticize someone’s body, no matter what size they are, it hurts just the same.

People have even gone as far as insinuating that I have an eating disorder, and I know this happens to other thin people as well. First, I would like to say, most of the time you can’t tell someone has an eating disorder just by looking at them. Second, not just skinny people have eating disorders, people who are overweight can and some do have eating disorders. Also if you or someone you know has an eating disorder, or if you truly think someone you know has one, please go to: http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/ when a friend of mine struggled some of the stuff on their website helped them, and if you want to talk about it you can message me through a social network or email me by going to the Contact Page.

At the end of the day are fat-shaming and skinny-shaming the same thing? Yes, and no. They’re not in the way that fat-shaming is criticizing someone for being overweight, and skinny-shaming is criticizing someone for being thin and apparently “privileged”. However they are the same thing, because at the end of the day these things are titles for the two types of body-shaming people do. I hope that people start to realize that we’re not going to stop one type of body-shaming, by doing another. That means that if you’re skinny-shaming someone to try to stop fat-shaming, it’s not going to work, and you’re just making the problem worse, and the same goes for fat-shaming someone to motivate them to lose weight. We all need to stand together, quit picking sides in this debate, and learn to love ourselves and quit telling other people how they should look or how they shouldn’t. Because at the end of the day what they do with their body, isn’t any of our business.

Thank you guys for reading.

Until I blog again,
Ally

Horse Training, Struggling With ADHD, and Big Blog Post

Hey lovelies, another week is upon us. The past week was like any other week for me, filled with horse training and school. Of course other things happened throughout the week as well. Which is the reasoning for these posts. Basically here is what happened the past week.

Horse Training –

Every week I always feel like that crazy horse girl that can be found in every class, because I always ramble about what I did with my horse in the past week…. every week. That’s just how I roll, I suppose. Anyway… This past week has been quite different from the rest. Last week was the first week I got Captain in the round pen and started working with him in there. Which I got the results I wanted from working with him in there for three days. Did I technically lunge him… no. I merely walked him in circles… on the lunge line, but didn’t actually lunge him. Because lunging means walking/trotting your horse around in circles while you stand in the middle of the circle, and they’re out away from you. Meanwhile I was literally walking around the round pen with him. My reasoning behind this when I told my parents… “Captain and I are a team, meaning we do it together”. Let me translate that for you. Captain didn’t understand what in the world he was supposed to do (I didn’t expect him to either) and I chickened out of trying to get him to do so. So yeah. I have no problem waving a lead rope towards his rear to get him to move, but when it comes to getting him to walk around me in circles, I then have a problem. What kind of logic is that? Besides messed up… and mine. Needless to say though, after last weeks training, he now seems to completely respect me, and I think sees me as the leader in his and I’s herd of two! On a completely related side note, I’m hoping to actually lunge him this week, but it rained this weekend, and so the ground is a kind of wet. Therefore may need to wait til next week.

I have the attention span of a gnat –

Now I don’t know if this is just a whole ADHD thing, or if it’s just me, but I literally have the attention span of a gnat. And it’s not just the past week that it’s been that way, but it’s more like the story of my life. Let me explain. Here recently, I’ve had to start cleaning out and packing up some of my room. Why? Well because a few weeks ago, my parents and I went house shopping, because when you live in a trailer house (or mobile home) and you’re lucky enough for a tornado to not take it away, you have to replace it. Now that you’ve gotten the back story, we’re hoping to get the new house sometime in the spring, and since spring will be here sooner rather than later we’re already starting to go through things. Anyway, while I’m going through my room, I’m coming across all these things I never finished. For example, I have like three unfinished latch hook kits, I have a painting I never finished, and I don’t know how many notebooks of unfinished stories I’ve come across. I literally can’t stick with anything for longer than 5 seconds… like a gnat. I mean the only things I’ve stuck with are music, this blog, and training my horse. I feel like in my almost sixteen years of life, I should be able to say I’ve stuck with more than three things in my life. Basically my brain:

Big Post This Week –

Every once in a while I decide to spread my blogging wings, and I step out of my comfort zone and talk about topics I feel are important or interested me enough to make a post. For example I did one on Taylor Swift’s pop album announcement. Plus I want to start writing more posts like the one that I will be publishing Wednesday about 4p.m CST, but I also want you lovely people’s opinions as well. So let me know if you would like to see more of those types of posts, by either commenting on this post, or when the big post goes up comment on there if you want to see more like it. Also I’d share more about the post, but I’m still working on it, and so I’m not 100% sure what I should say about it. However, it will be up on Wednesday at 4p.m CST.

Thank you lovely people for reading, and I will post again on Wednesday!

Until I blog again,

Ally

Weekly Update on Life

Hey lovelies, I hope you all have been well recently. I’ve been insanely busy, and incredibly sleep deprived here lately. My new saying is becoming “Today’s good mood brought to you by coffee”. That’s life I suppose. Anyway, I never really know what to write here, it’s really just me rambling on about typically nothing. Which I’m doing now. Back to the topic… The past few weeks have really been filled with lots of horse training… and that’s pretty much it. However I had a couple of other things to update you lovelies on, which is all included in the post. I’m going to quit rambling now, and let you get to the rest of the post.

Horse Training –

I have a feeling the next couple of weeks of training with Captain are going to be quite fun and interesting. The next couple of weeks the training lessons will be held in the round pen. Training lessons are being moved to the round pen, because I’m finally ready to start putting tack on him and get him used to it. Needless to say I’m excited, but also nervous. I’m excited because the past five almost six months of work with him are about to pay off, and I’m so proud of how far he has come since I got him. However I’m also nervous simply because it’s a huge step. I mean I’ve only dragged out the groundwork for six months, because I was nervous to advance his progress in training, but I think I’m ready to move on to starting him under saddle because I also know he is good and ready for it too. So more than likely the next couple of weeks will hopefully have some big updates in his training of getting him up to saddling. Wish not just me, but Captain luck as well!

I Cut My Hair… Short –

So for about three months I’ve been playing around with the idea of cutting my hair to about collarbone length, which would make it a long bob. This meant that I would be cutting my long hair that was at the middle of my back, all the way up to my collarbone. Finally I decided to take the leap of faith, and cut my hair. I was tired of having to deal with my long hair, which was weighing down my curly hair, and was a bit frizzy (which is putting it lightly). So I decided to cut my hair… and it looks so much better. I have my curly hair back with almost no frizz, and I couldn’t be happier about it. Here is how it looks:

 

Blogging –

For all my regular readers, I know I haven’t been the most reliable here lately with posting. However I’ve had a lot going on in my personal life, things I needed to figure out, process, and work through. So I’m sorry my posting has been a bit sporadic lately, but I hope you understand that I needed to figure out the personal matters before I could post here. I didn’t feel – at the time in the middle of the troubles – that I was at the right state of mind to post, but I’m doing much better now and will be back to posting regularly.

Also I’m working on a post about a topic that is pretty important to me personally. Which I’m hoping – depending on my crazy schedule here lately – to have that up sometime Wednesday evening, but it may be Thursday instead depending on how my day goes tomorrow. I also promise next weeks update on life will be better, but it’s almost midnight, and I knew I needed to post something otherwise I would continue to delay it.

Thank you for reading!

Until I blog again,

Ally

Book Review: Can’t Look Away by Donna Cooner

 

Goodreads Summary:

Torrey Grey is famous. At least, on the internet. Thousands of people watch her popular videos on fashion and beauty. But when Torrey’s sister is killed in an accident — maybe because of Torrey and her videos — Torrey’s perfect world implodes.

Now, strangers online are bashing Torrey. And at her new school, she doesn’t know who to trust. Is queen bee Blair only being sweet because of Torrey’s internet infamy? What about Raylene, who is decidedly unpopular, but seems accepts Torrey for who she is? And then there’s Luis, with his brooding dark eyes, whose family runs the local funeral home. Torrey finds herself drawn to Luis, and his fascinating stories about El dio de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead.

As the Day of the Dead draws near, Torrey will have to really look at her own feelings about death, and life, and everything in between. Can she learn to mourn her sister out of the public eye?

 My Review

 4/5 stars

To be honest, Can’t Look Away surprised me, and in a pleasant way. I started the book because I was curious as to how the author would have Torrey handle the death of her little sister with Torrey being a popular beauty vlogger. I’ll admit that the book didn’t take the course in which I thought it would, and I’m so glad it didn’t, because if it had it would’ve been a book I wouldn’t have finished.

The main character, Torrey Grey, is a very real character. Which just like people actual people, there were things I liked about her, and things I didn’t really care for. At the beginning of the book you learn that Torrey’s family has moved to Texas after her little sister, Miranda, was killed by a drunk driver. Torrey was used to being the popular girl at school, and that’s the exact crowd she tries to get back into at her new school despite it meaning she has to push her cousin, Raylene, and a possible crush, Luis, away. However as the book and story progress, Torrey starts to learn that maybe the popular kids aren’t the best people to be around, but instead the people who accept her for who she is, and not for what she pretends to be.

Along with the main character there were great secondary characters as well, particularly three stood out to me: Miranda (her younger sister), her classmate and crush Luis, and her quirky cousin Raylene. The reasoning these three in particular stood out to me? Miranda, because although she was killed, she comes to life in all of Torrey’s memories of her. Cooner actually does a great job showing the reality of the relationship between sister’s. Luis and Raylene, in my opinion should’ve been developed just a bit more, but I think it may have taken a bit of the focus off of Torrey if they had been, but their quirky and almost completely unexpected personalities helped Torrey through the challenges of her grief.

I always like to see how authors have their characters go through grief, and I think it’s because people go through grief differently and Cooner shows that perfectly in her book. Torrey’s dad throws himself back into the normal routine of daily life, while her mother was inactive and depressed. Torrey, however, she mainly kept it to herself, even though she keeps playing with the idea of displaying it on her vlog channel. Cooner shows that there is no right or wrong way to handle grief, and does so quite well.

It was also interesting to, I guess have an inside look at what would happen to someone as popular as Torrey in the aftermath of a tragedy. It kind of makes you think about what you choose to put out there online – whether it’s a blog, YouTube channel, or any social networking site – and just how much you share with followers (who feel like friends), and how much you decide to keep to yourself. Personally, I couldn’t imagine not having this little online place (since I love all of you and love what I do), but I also have a line drawn that determines just how much I share on here.

I also think there were probably a couple of things that should’ve been further developed. However it’s a great novel that talks about grief, how internet life can and may affect real life, and it was good mix and a great book that I recommend reading.

Favorite Quotes From the Book

“I want to encourage you to look away from the mirror and turn off your screens. Seek out beauty in unexpected, new places. Maybe you’ll find it in an exquisite new friendship. In your own family. And you might find it hidden deep inside something indescribably ugly. But you have to look away from your own image. Or you might miss it altogether.” – Torrey Grey

“Always look for the potential of what could be, not what is.” – Torrey Grey

“On the internet, you live forever. Everything you read could have happened today. Or last year. Or never” – Torrey Grey

“Being real means that everyone can criticize who you really are. Not just what you look like.” – Torrey Grey

Thanks for reading.

Until I blog again,

Ally

50 Completely Random Questions

Hey lovelies, I’m going to be completely honest. I had no idea what to post today, and so I went through my drafts, these questions were in there, and it seemed easy and simple enough to do right quick. In my defense, I’ve been working on my novel a lot today, and so my brain is just kind of stuck on that, and can’t think outside the realm of the novel when it comes to writing. Therefore sorry… but not really because I’ve gotten a lot of writing done. Also sorry for the two-week break from writing here, but life happens. I’ve had family stuff and school, and just life has been insane. However I think for the most part the insanity has settled, or it could just be the calm before the storm… who knows. Anyway here are 50 completely random questions answered, and feel free to answer the questions on your blog.

Photography Friday: Welcome Autumn

Last Friday I did a goodbye summer theme, and so I had to do a welcome autumn one as well. I’m personally loving the slightly cooler weather, and the pumpkin flavored everything. These are some of the photos I’ve taken so far, and I’m sure there will be more to come. Happy Friday and happy autumn season as well!

Thanks for looking! Also if you want more pictures, I post photos just like these on my Instagram: @allygonzales14

Until I blog again,

Ally