Presenting the One and Only, Lady GAGA: From Rags to Riches

Hello all people of the world! Christmas is near and what better way to bring holiday cheer than discuss the awesomeness that is Lady Gaga? I know. She's amazing. What else can I say? Well actually, I could also say how she came from a low class family and in under four years (thanks to her brilliant music, creativity, originality, fashion sense, really the list goes on and on) she moved up to the Upper Class! 

Tis true. Lady Gaga, or should I say Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (I bet nobody knew that), did not come from a wealthy background considering her parents both came from lower-class families. When you have less money, you usually lose social class status. Stefani was made fun of at school when she was 11 for being too eccentric and was often called a freak. It's pretty ironic considering that this is now one of the many reasons why millions of people across the globe love her. But moving on, her road to fame and wealth first began with her passion for musical theatre. She took part in many school plays and even a television series, which in turn led to the interest of songwriting. On a quick side note, have you ever noticed how long and amazing her musical videos are?! It's all because of her passion for theatre. She's a great actress!

Her small NY apartment to the left; her stunning
$5 million Bel Air mansion to the right

She settled in a humble NY small apartment in 2005, and began recording songs with hip-hop singer Grandmaster Melle Mel. She tried several attempts to get her career going by working with music producers and such.

FUN FACT: Stefani worked with a music producer, Rob Fusari, who kept comparing some of her vocal harmonies to that of Freddi Mercury, the lead singer of QUEEN. He referred to Queen's song "Radio Ga Ga" every time Stefani walked in the studio. It was said that in a text message he sent her with that song name, the word "Radio" got auto corrected to "Lady". And Stefani was convinced. She responded, "That's it. Don't ever call me Stefani again."

And there you have it. The only time someone should refer to her as Stefani would be if she was in court. :D

But to continue, Lady Gaga was hired to write songs for Britney Spears, New Kids on the Block, Fergie, and the Pussycat Dolls. Their songs were always so catchy! Who knew Lady Gaga was the mastermind behind it all?
As 2007 came to a close, her former management company introduced her to songwriter and producer RedOne. It was in that recording studio where she recorded her CHART-TOPPING singles "Just Dance", "Poker Face", and "LoveGame". And that is how, my friends, Lady Gaga went from rags to riches. All you gotta do is work hard and keep trying even if all else fails. Cheesy, I know, but true.

Then, you all know what happened. The Fame and the Fame Monster. She relocated to Los Angeles, set up a team to perform with her, and came out with the next #1 hit--"Bad Romance". Then led "Telephone", "Alejandro", and the rest I assume you know. She won a boatload of well-deserved performance awards, video awards, best artist awards, etc ladygagaisamazing etc etc. 

And there you have it folks! I honestly thought this would be a quick blog because I know all there is to know about Lady Gaga but there is just so much I wanted to say and talk about, that it turned out to be fairly long. I hope you all had fun reading and enjoyed those fun Lady Gaga facts! :D Have a nice day and come back here next week for my next upcoming blog post! :D <3

BTW: The Born This Way album came out recently! And to just catch you up on the most recent video, here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cggNqDAtJYU&ob=av3e

Only true talented artists can compose a 13 minute music video and actually have it be interesting. ENJOY. BASK IN THE AWESOMENESS THAT IS OF LADY GAGA.

Inequality in our Society!

Welcome back, awesome fellow bloggers! :D I hope you had a great and FAT Thanksgiving... I know I did. Rule to live by: There's no such thing as too much turkey. The same rule applies to gravy, mashed potatoes, and cake.

Well, to get on with the topic! So what IS social stratification? Great question. It basically has to do with the differences of people due to age, class, race, and gender. It explains why inequality exists in our country. So let's start with one of the factors--class. We all know that 3 social classes differ greatly and they are basically the reason why there is inequality. It's all because of the economy and money. It's simple. If you're wealthy, you'll live in the high class and have more education and opportunities as opposed to those who are poor and even beyond the point of poverty-- the lower class. 

Although some may not agree, I think that more important jobs such as a police officer should be paid more money and should receive a higher status than someone un-important to the country and its people. For example, should a doctor (one who cures diseases and makes the people healthier) be paid less than Paris Hilton? What does she do that helps contribute to the wellness of society? What is fair and equal about that?

Also, another factor is race. Statistics show that Caucasian people (especially males) have more of an advantage than anybody else. A white male is more likely to be paid more than an African American in the United States. They have always had the higher status than any other race and receive more social rewards. 

The same applies to males over females. It's sad and unfair, but true. A man gets paid more money than a woman doing the exact same job.

Well, that's social stratification for ya. Please tell me your opinion on this topic and on any of these factors discussed in the comment section below. THANK YOU! 

Stay tuned for next week's blog, you guys! Have an AWESOME day and start putting up those CHRISTMAS lights :D Happy December First. :)

Under Pressureeee...

Wow what an awesome song. This has to be song that most frequently comes to my head. There's a reason for it but I just can't seem to think of it right now.

SO! To start talking about what you all came to this blog for, let's begin! :D

Teens go under all sorts of pressure. I already discussed some of that pressure in my last blog post about drinking. Many middle and high school students (teens basically) are being pressured to do all types of things by their friends and even family members. Some of those things are drinking alcoholic beverages and doing drugs.

I'd really love to share my personal experiences with that but I just can't think of a time I was pressured into doing drugs or trying alcohol. 

But what I can share is that I was pressured by society many times to change my appearance and voice/accent. When I first came to America when I was 8 years old, I had to start learning English. It wasn't easy and not everyone knew that. Kids in elementary school teased me about my accent and the way I dressed. Yes, I had a pretty thick accent. Who doesn't? When you first come into a country without knowing the language, your first couple of months of speaking that language wouldn't be the best. It's already a given that you'd stand out and look like and sound like a foreigner. But moving on. My point is that society pressured me to change the way I look. I began to learn the students' American slang and adopt the American norms. Then I changed from wearing Bulgaria's trends to America's fashion trends. 

Another type of pressure is school pressure. Sometimes a teacher throws loads of homework at you disregarding the fact that you have three other classes in which you have the same type of teachers throw homework at you, not to mention that you also have online classes and extra curricular activities such as clubs or sports after-school. AND it seems like all of your teachers give quizzes and tests on the exact same day that you have other tests for all your other classes. It's almost as if...now bear with me....as if all the teachers meet up at this underground secret cave where they pick a day (usually Friday) and schedule all their quizzes/tests on that day just to purposefully stress the students! I'm not crazy! I know all about it!

Well anyway, moving past the point that I just revealed the teachers' secret meetings, parents also put pressure on the students. Most of them just don't understand what it's like to have so much school work, do extra curricular activities, do service hours, have a social life, and get a full night's sleep. It's just too much and most parents freak out over having a B or a C on your report card. "You can always do better; you're not trying your hardest; I bet that if I ground you, you'd do better! Yeah, that's what I'll do! That'll show you!" Yeah, that sounds familiar to me. It pressures students even more. And that is my perfect example because it describes my life. Parents will be parents.

Please leave your comments if you agree or disagree with what I said about pressure and feel free to share your experiences or if you've ever been pressured by school work or parents. Thanks guys for reading this week's blog! Have an AWESOME DAY!

BUT FIRST, hear this awesome song that I was talking about:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtrEN-YKLBM 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Come Onnn.. Just One Drink Couldn't Hurt

Hello all you awesome bloggers and those who read my blog! :) In this week's blog we will be discussing peer pressure. A specific kind of peer pressure that pertains to teen drinking.

So first of all, WHY are kids so easily peer pressured into something? I mean, sure, they all have common sense and may have said that they don't want to drink yet or even at all (because they aren't ready, it's unhealthy, etc) but when it comes down to the people or friends they trust or want to impress, their mind could suddenly change. One might be convinced to do something they don't want to do either because they don't want to be disliked or rejected by their friends, to be ridiculed, or because they want to appear and feel more grown up. Whatever the reason may be, it shows that peer pressure works on adolescents. They're at an age of fitting in and experimenting. Can you blame them? Although, I'm not saying that every teenager is like this. Of course there are some who can resist and stand their ground.

So now that we covered that, it's time to get down to the statistics. First of all, drinking doesn't only involve high school students. It happens to teens who go to middle school too. I know right? It's unbelievable; they're so young! According to surveys, it is more probable that teens would try alcohol and would give into peer pressure in schools where alcohol and drugs are used. Studies show that a whopping 62% of high school students and 28% of middle school students attend those type of schools. The numbers have even increased these past years considering it was 44% of high school students and 19% of middle school students in 2002.

I know what you're thinking. This is insane. And the sad part is that the major reason is not that students resort to alcohol because of family or school issues or stress; the major reason here is.... peer pressure. It needs to end and I feel very strongly about that. It affects with the students' education, health, and mindset.

Please leave your opinions and the way you feel towards this in the comment section. And have an awesome day you guys! :DDD Stick around for next week's blog!

OH MY GOD! I FEEL SMARTER!

It's BLUE TAPE!! MY LEARNING CAPABILITY HAS SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASED!

Okay, so let me fill you in if you haven't already heard. Apparently, teachers in Fort Lauderdale High School are forced to put blue tape on their white boards in their classrooms due to the fact that it increases the learning capability of students. 

^^^ Now it would look something like that.

Personally, I find this whole thing ridiculous. So I choose to mock it.

I love how some students even buy into the whole thing about making them supposedly smarter since it makes them focus on the lesson better. I mean think about if it wasn't even BLUE tape. OH GOD, WHAT IF IT WAS RED..? OR WORSE. ORANGE?! .... *SHUDDERS*

So most teachers have this magical thing on their boards now, and trust me, I still do the same things I did before. I still stare off into space. I still think of other things while the teacher is giving directions to an assignment and I still have to ask a couple of people to repeat what the teacher said because the first one wasn't listening either. I still have the same working dynamic in my classes and I still have the same learning and listening capability.

But hey, what do I know, right? Why would anyone want to listen to the opinions of the students?

So! To review:

Good.

Bad.

Thank you. Class dismissed.

Those Hip Hipsterssss

Hello all you awesome people who read my blog! This week's blog post is about an American subculture, specifically...... *drum roll*........ HIPSTERS.

Now I'm sure we've alllllllllllllllll seen, talked about, or heard of them at least once in our lives. There are 2 types of hipsters. One are the hipsters from the 1940s (which we're not gonna get into) and the other group are the urban hipsters. This subculture first appeared in the 1990s and were mostly teenagers and middle-class adults.

Some basic facts about the Hipsters are that they rebel against social norms. The thing you have to understand about this specific subculture is that they hate hate HATE anything mainstream, or in other words, popular. This means that once they start listening to a certain band, they would switch bands if that band is viewed popular by society. In my opinion, this is just very silly. I believe hipsters are just trying very hard to seem interesting to others and be envied by those who aren't hipsters. I'm just talking about those teenage hipsters who think that they are the original hipsters. (Not you, Ms.Basi! YOU'RE AWESOME!)

Hipsters tend to shop at thrift stores and goodwill. They either decide to buy something really cheap under $5 to show that they are fashionable but completely effortless, or they would go and buy vintage clothes. Simple as that.

Don't you wish you are as creative at
making mustaches as me?

See, the Hipster way of doing things is by always striving at all times to stay a step ahead of everyone else. Basically, they would like to show that their subculture is better than any other. They do this by taking out-dated fashions and bringing them back. They are easily spotted with big black framed glasses, effortlessly dressed like a homeless person but still appear fashionable, have a couple of witty tattoos, and drawing mustaches on their face. Yes, hipsters are obsessed with mustaches. But fake mustaches are kind of mainstream, so look out, the hipsters might stop doing it. It wouldn't no longer be unique to them.

One last thing about them is that they are mostly a subculture in New York (Brooklyn).

Well, time to wrap it up. Thanks for reading this week's blog about hipsters and my opinion on them! Sorry if you're offended; I didn't mean to make them sound like 'self-centered freaks'. They're not; I'm sure they're very nice people. They just like their things to be original. Where's the harm in that? :)

Please leave your opinions on hipsters in the comment section below, and have an AWESOME day guys! :D

The Fun Stereotypes of the BRITS

Let's take a second here and laugh at look at Britain. :D The stereotypes are....endless!

(But before I begin, I feel that I should mention that the thing about stereotypes is that it does not apply to every person in that country. So if you are in fact British, so sorry if this offends you.)

The British are always known for having a reputation of being extremely, over-the-top proper with everything that they do. Sure, being proper and sophisticated is always a plus but it also has a negative side. In this case, it portrays the Brits of being stuck up and snobbish. They've always been known for having a gray personality.. When I say 'gray', I mean the opposite of outgoing; they're un-emotional most of the time.

Englishmen are the easiest to make fun of. They have a reputation of being self-conceited and the joke is that they often have an occupation as being an aviator, sailor, nanny, military commander, colonial, gardener, butler, servant, or just someone from an upper class. They happen to get prettyyyy violent and crazy over some football game and speak in drunken 'Cockney' accents.

Aaaah, now speaking of accents.... you already know this next part. The famous BRITISH ACCENT that everybody loves to imitate and/or make fun of. So why do we find this accent interesting? Well let's think about it. It makes you sound more proper, witty, and sophisticated, correct? It's the reason why it's used in movies and plays. I find it pretty amusing how some characters in famous dramas have a British accent even if the setting has nothing to do with England.

Now let's bring on the British looks! If you could picture a Briton (yes, that is what they're called) in your head, what would you see? An Englishman dressed in a black suit, a top hat, with a case of bad teeth, and perhaps sipping tea with the Queen?? Oh my god, same here! Haha Americans have made it seem like that's all they do. Drink tea and say Cockney slang phrases such as "Pip pip Cheerio", "Hello chaps", or "I say!"

But all jokes and stereotypes aside, I have a high respect for the British. I have a couple of friends that are British, a teacher in this school, and also my boyfriend. (Half-British... it still counts.) :D

Thank you for reading this week's blog and have an AWESOME DAY, guys!! :)

Gender Equality

Gender equality is pretty much self explanatory in the name. It is the equality of both the female and the male gender. This all resulted due to feminism in the 1960s. 

Feminism is a movement where women fight to have the right to equality with men. This movement made changes to laws, be it particular issues or anti-sex discrimination laws. Also, it changed the attitudes of people to equality in education. And many occupations allow both men and women to work there. For example, women are allowed to work in the army, police force, and as a fire-fighter. Though considered to be a ‘man job’ at first, feminism and the need for gender equality have turned that around. Also, men have been accepted to work ‘women jobs’ too, such as nursing. And at home, they have been considered as having the job of child-rearing. It is not only a female role. Additionally, women in today’s society have the option of choosing whether or not to take their husbands’ surname on marriage.

Sooo, why does this ALL even matter? Well it matters to me and it is why I chose this topic. I am a big feminist. I may not seem like I am maybe due to the clothes I wear or the way I act or joke about things like this, but in all honesty, I am. I believe in gender equality because I think both men and women should be able to do whatever they please without getting discriminated about their gender. I hate sexists. I really do. They just don’t make any sense. Their egotistical and sexist way of living bothers me. Not to mock anyone out there; I’m just sharing my opinion on my blog here, people. :)

 Also, since we’re on the topic of gender equality and sexists, do you want to know what really grinds my gears? Well I can’t really hear your answer, so I’m going to take that as a ‘yes.’ Well here you go, my peeps: Women who are sexist and/or anti-feminist. All I’ve got to say to that is ‘WHAT THE FIRETRUCK?!’ That is just one of those things in life that I will never fully understand, you know? Like that boatload of ice in restaurants that waiters put in your soda. I mean, the cup is literally ¾ ice and only a fourth the actual beverage you ordered. What’s the point? By the time, you’re done with half of it, most of the ice has melted and your beverage becomes terribly flavored water! Am I right?? But anyway, that compares to the way I don’t fully understand why some women are going in the opposite direction of feminism. It’s one thing to not participate in the movement and fight for gender equality but it’s another thing to denounce ever having the same rights as the opposite sex. Please tell me if you agree or disagree with this in the comments below. Thanks!  And feel free to discuss your opinions on gender equality! :D

Intro :D

Hello guys. As all of you may know, my name is Denitsa Veselinova Kurteva... okay, not a lot of you know my actual name. But yes, that is how long it is. It's Bulgarian.
Now I've told this story about 1,733,529 times since I was 10 years old, but I guess I'm going to tell it again. I was born in Sliven, Bulgaria. In 2001, my parents registered for a green card and since it randomly chose families, we were ecstatic when we were the one who got the green card to go to America. It was honestly like winning the lottery. So in the summer of 2002, my mother, sister, and I left our apartment in Sliven, our whole family, and our beloved country to go to the "land of opportunity" (my dad went 2 months before us so he could find an apartment for us to live in). We settled in Florida and I started school in September. I didn't know any English and I felt just plain stupid when I couldn't interact with other students or at least know what they were saying. Nevertheless, my mom taught me English at home from old Bulgarian-English books from... you guessed it, Bulgaria. And after 5-6 months, I knew how to speak English fluently. To this day, I still know how to speak, read, and write Bulgarian only because I still practice it. I still visit my family in Bulgaria about every other summer.
So that is my life story I guess. So far, I am liking high school. Life's treating me pretty good and I've got nothing to complain about. :) I don't quite know what my interests are; I'm one of those 'still undecided' kids. So if you have any questions to ask or if you would like to comment, please do so underneath. :) Thanks for reading! Have an awesome day GUYS. STAY AWESOME :D Chyea.