Academy Awards 2012

Fashion At The Oscars    
     The Academy Awards was this past weekend, and it was one of the best award shows I've seen this year. There is something about the movies, the actors, and the whole lifestyle they live that is just incredibly fascinating. Another thing that was fascinating about the night was the fashion, so here are a few looks that I would like to call the "Best Dressed":

George Clooney in Armani and Stacy Keibler in Marchesa, Stacy Keibler's dress was the best of the whole entire night! The color and shine of her dress were perfect and it fit her flawlessly!

Brad Pitt in Tom Ford and Angelina Jolie in Atelier Versace, The whole leg-thing completely worked for Angelina that night, her dress is amazing, and Brad's hair was a perfect fit for his classic tux. They are truly a power couple in the industry.

Mila Jovovich in Elie Saab, she looks stunning in this sparkling dress, it fits her well and the shine is perfect for an event like this

Pharrell Williams is one of my picks for the best dressed men of the night, the fit, cut, and style of this tux makes it unique and a bit different from all the other suits on the carpet.

Emma Stone in Giambattista Valli, she definitely made a strong fashion statement with not only the bold color Red, but also the huge bow by her neck. She looked gorgeous!

Kristen Wiig in J. Mendel, at first I wasn't sure what I thought, but I ended up falling in love with this look on her. I love the nude color trend and I think everything about her look was perfect.

Octavia Spencer in Tadashi Shoji, this trend was perfect in my eyes and she looked completely dazzling in her dress, she also was a bigger winner of the night!

I hope you enjoyed taking a look at what I consider the Best Dressed at the 2012 Academy Awards, it was an amazing night movie-wise and fashion-wise!

-Brandon

Getting Over It

Relationship Talk 
     I have seen a lot of breakups and one thing I know for sure is that most of the time, it is extremely hard to get over that person, especially if you dated them for a long time. Don't worry though, it happens to everyone, you are not alone. Just because your relationship ends does not mean you have nobody. Enjoy your friends and family and take time to discover who you are with out the distractions of a girl or boy. It is normal to be devastated or even depressed when you experience a break up, but (this is such a cliche) time will heal all wounds. Usually after a few months, you will be over it, so don't stress over "what could have been" because it is not worth the pain. By dwelling over the past, all you are doing is reliving the mistakes that were made that led up to the breakup, and what does that do for you? Nothing. Just learn from it, know not to make those mistakes in your next relationship, and move on. That is the #1 key: move on. When you get out of a relationship, you are taking steps forward, don't take any steps backward. It's like walking. When you walk, you walk forward, you may not always know where you are going, but you always have a pretty good idea. When you walk backwards, it's almost impossible to know exactly where you are going and you have to constantly keep your guard up. In other words, moving on you are sure things will end up positively, if you keep thinking about how bad your relationship was or how bad the break up was and you want to get back with that person, you never know if it will end up bad again because what stopped it from going wrong the first time?
     Okay, all this talk about moving on and not looking back is great, but for the most part that only applies when you are in an abusive (emotional or physical) relationship, you were cheated on, or anything else happened that you consider "crossed the line". If you were dating someone for only a couple months and you both decide to break up but then you both decide that your feelings for each other come back, go ahead and give that relationship a second chance. Every relationship deserves a second chance. Just remember that I said a second chance. Not a third. Not a fourth. Not a tenth. I sound dramatic, but you know it happens! When you give someone chances over and over and over again, it has many negative effects. That person thinks they can do what ever they want and you will always take them back, so they will continuously push your boundaries, and you can sometimes become dependent on that person. Do not ever become dependent on anyone. Know that you are strong enough to do what ever you want for yourself and you don't truly need anybody.
     So, what are some top tips for getting over someone and moving on?

• Delete, Delete, Delete! Delete that person completely from your life, literally. Delete their number, delete them off of your Facebook or your Twitter, and just do not have contact with that person for as long as you are still emotionally attached to that person. It's okay to stay friends with an ex, just be sure you like them only on a friend level, and be real with yourself about that. If you still like them as more than a friend and you know there's not a chance things could go back to the way they were, you are not ready to just be friends.
• Dive into work, or school-work. Focus on making amazing grades for yourself and do your absolute best every day at your job. This will result in positive feedback from others causing you to understand that you can be happy with out your ex-significant other.
• Get a new vocabulary. Don't ever speak of their name unless new situations are occurring. Tell your friends that you are no longer allowed to speak of them because if you do, it will most likely be something about the past (which again, you do not want to dwell over).
• Play the field. You don't have to go on a full on search for your soul mate, just have fun and talk to a lot of different people. You don't always have to be in a serious relationship, just let those people know that that is your game plan so no one gets hurt. 

     Like I said, getting over a break up takes time. It can sometimes seem like you will never be over that person, but trust me, you will move on sooner or later. Move on, let go of the past, and focus on how you can make yourself happy with out depending on that girl or boy. I hope this helped you all out and I hope you all keep these tips in mind because more than likely, you are not going to stay with your significant other forever... This is just high school. Say you live for 100 years, high school only takes up 4% of your life. You will be okay, there is no other option.

-Brandon

YOU Are Your Biggest Competition

As long as you are worried about other people, there will always be someone who is smarter, nicer, better looking, more muscular, more in shape, cuter, sexier, stronger, faster, more likable, more stylish, more popular, more efficient and overall better at everything than you are. This type of thinking causes low self esteem, which is NOT what anybody needs! Concentrate on yourself and try to be the best you can be at what ever it is that you want to accomplish. Don't worry about competing with others, because that will only result in unhappiness. Compete with yourself and try to do things better the more you do them. This applies to any area of your life, including school, friendships, sports, jobs and any other activities you may be active in. Don't look at someone else and feel like they are always better and then try to beat them, because more than likely you will lose sight of what ever it is you are trying to accomplish in the first place. You live your life for you, so do what you know is your best. 

-Brandon

Empowerment

Working Together, To Come Together

     Being teenagers, we have so many things to worry about. From grades, jobs, and sports to friendships, relationships and weekend-life, we all have a lot of different things going on. That, I feel, is something that many of us fail to realize. A lot of times, we forget that we all have more things in common than we think and this is why we often fight with each other and try to bring each other down (even with small comments we say about random people). I don't want to focus on all of that negativity in this blog, because I feel that going into detail about it doesn't really do anything. Instead, I want to focus on empowerment and how we can be positive towards each other. 
     What does empowerment mean to you? To me, it means understanding one another and making people feel good about themselves. We are all teenagers, so we need to start gaining the knowledge that we all have things in common, no matter what. Being a teenager is one thing that we can all relate on, and sometimes it can be difficult. It's nice when you surround yourself with people who understand you and want to be there or you, so we should all try to be those type of people. 
     There are several ways we can go about empowering one another. One obvious way is to just give people compliments about one's appearance. If you like someone's hair or what someone has on, tell them! Trust me, they will remember, and not only will they feel good but you will feel good too, knowing that you just helped someone feel good about how they look. Just by simply complimenting someone, it makes them feel important and it makes them feel noticed. Another way to empower someone is to listen and be attentive. When someone is telling you a story, listen to them. Look at them and really try to take in what they are saying, because most of the time when someone talks, they want what they are saying to be heard. People can tell when you are really listening to them, and it makes them feel good. Encouraging others to do their best is another way to empower others. Tell your friends to do good in school, and tell them to make the right decisions about life. Commit  yourself to putting your friend on the right track through life. Nothing is better than wanting the best for others. One last way to empower other teenagers is to give advice to others. Do your absolute best to tell your friends how you feel about a situation they are in and do your best to help get them out of any kind of negativity.
     We all should work together, to come together. Teens all go through the same things, so making each other feel better can only promote peace through out the entire teenage society. Empowering others has become one of my main goals in life. Who doesn't want to feel good about themselves? I hope you all have taken away something from this blog, and I hope you all plan on working to empower others. Empowerment is one of the most joyful things to experience in life. So, let's begin this road to peace.

-Brandon 

Bullying

It Takes More Than Just My Words To Stop It

   As many of you know, I preach and preach all the time about how wrong bullying is- yet it still continues to go on. Maybe I haven't explained to you all enough about what bullying is, and maybe some of you don't even realize that you are doing it. So, by the time you are done reading this post, I hope that you will fully understand just what bullying is, and I hope that you will join me in helping to bring an end to it. 

   Bullying. What exactly does that word mean? We see in the movies and on television that it is often portrayed as teens getting shoved into lockers, thrown into trash cans, getting beat up, and getting their lunch money stolen- but that is far from what bullying really is in today's society. In our reality, the word bullying really means teens getting bashed on Twitter and Facebook, teens getting called "overweight", "fat", "ugly" or "fag", teens trying to ruin each other's reputations whether by way of verbal altercations or hiding behind the computer and writing nasty things on the Internet. Bullying has gone way further than being thrown into lockers and trash cans, because words stay in peoples' minds forever- bruises don't stay forever. 

   You may think that calling someone a name or making fun of how they dress or their unique style is not a big deal, but it is. Every time you make a comment like that to someone, they remember it and become insecure about what ever was pointed out. This is not cool, it totally tears one's self esteem down. Why should people not be allowed to be the way they want to be with out being criticized for it? There is no legitimate reason for that. 

   Now, let's tackle another aspect of bullying: Social Networking Websites. Originally, they were created so that people can keep in touch with their friends' lives, look at pictures, and just see what their friends are up to on a daily basis, but some don't seem to remember that, or even care about that. Recently, I have seen so much drama on Facebook and Twitter, and it just doesn't seem to end. People are constantly talking crap to each other, starting fights, and just beating each other up about how they look or how they act or who they hang out with. It's not right at all and it seriously needs to end. In the end, who wins? Nobody. You both have been torn down and criticized. Not only did that happen, but it was done on the Internet, for everyone to read. You all need to cut it out because that is not what these social networking sites were made for. 

   Bullying is not what you typically see in the movies. Bullying is all around us. We all need to remember that we are all people. We are all teenagers. We don't need to tear each other down all the time for any reason. Just be nice, it's not that hard. 

   Please help me spread the word, because my voice alone is not strong enough to make a difference- we all need to join together to work against this, for the better of our community, society, city, state, country, and world. 

Thanks for reading, it really means a lot to me,

-B

Turn Me On

The Latest from Nicki Minaj and David Guetta

     Check out the brand new video for the new song "Turn Me On" by Nicki Minaj and David Guetta. I am loving this song, and the video is even more than what I expected! Hope you enjoy!

-B