Magazine

Name of magazine: Crazy Cat Lady
Concept: This magazine covers more than the basics. Every article goes into detail and depth, providing you with all the information you could ever want. 
Readers: Cat lovers, mainly experienced ones. Ranging in age from early twenties into fifties. Mostly female, middle or upper class.
Competition: Other magazines claim to be useful, but are mostly filled with pictures and pictures and not much else. My magazine has full-color pictures and helpful tips, articles, and reader stories on every page.
Advertisers: Iams Cat Food, Los Gatos Veterinarian, Tidy Cats Litter, Walgreens First Aid Antiseptic Spray, San Jose Animal Care Shelter.
Articles: Exclusive interview with renowned cat expert Maggie Muggers, best cleaning products for getting cat barf off fabrics, kittens and everything you ever wanted to know about them, readers' pick for best litter box of 2011, twenty tips for how to be the best cat owner you can be.
Cover: Background picture is my cat, Cece, caught in the middle of a yawn. Articles are highlighted in colors that compliment the picture, and this issue comes with a bonus poster in the back.

Books

Since I've read hardly any new books in the past few years, I will post a few of the books I loved when I was younger (and still love now!)

1.) The Series of Unfortunate Events (by David Handler a.k.a Lemony Snicket)
I was reminiscing about these with my friend, and he aptly described them as "the most depressing dictionary you'll ever read". I enjoyed these books partially because they "broke the fourth wall", in a way, and through them I learned new words, cultural references, and discovered new things that I liked. For example, two quotes in the books were "The world is quiet here" and "That no life lives forever, that dead men rise up never, that even the weariest river winds somewhere safe to sea." Both are references to "The Garden of Proserpine", a poem by A.C. Swinburne, which I fell in love with after reading. Another wonderful poem mentioned in the books was "The Walrus and the Carpenter" by Lewis Carrol. And to add to all that, I thoroughly enjoyed the stories themselves, following the characters' journey through thirteen humorous, albeit depressing, books. Here are two excerpts:
Entertaining a notion, like entertaining a baby cousin or entertaining a pack of hyenas, is a dangerous thing to refuse to do. If you refuse to entertain a baby cousin, the baby cousin may get bored and entertain itself by wandering off and falling down a well. If you refuse to entertain a pack of hyenas, they may become restless and entertain themselves by devouring you. But if you refuse to entertain a notion--which is just a fancy way of saying that you refuse to think about a certain idea--you have to be much braver than someone who is merely facing some bloodthirsty animals, or some parents who are upset and find their little darling at the bottom of a well, because nobody knows what an idea will do when it goes off to entertain itself, particularly if the idea comes from a sinister villain.
And the second one:
A cloud of dust is not a beautiful thing to look at. Very few painters have done portraits of huge clouds of dust or included them in their landscapes or still lifes. Film directors rarely choose huge clouds of dust to play the lead roles in romantic comedies, and as far as my research has shown, a huge cloud of dust has never placed higher than twenty-fifth in a beauty pageant.

2.) The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (by Roald Dahl)
This is one of Dahl's lesser known books. Some of his more popular works include James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and Matilda. I love Dahl's writing style, although it's hard to explain why. Maybe it's the way he gives fantastic descriptions without wasting any words, or maybe it's the odd phrases his characters use that were perhaps very common in Britain in the 1900's. Here are two excerpts from one of his books, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator:
"What did I tell you!" cried Grandma Georgina. "He's round the twist! He's bogged as a beetle! He's dotty as a dingbat! He's got rats in the roof! I want to go home!"
And another:
"I've done it!" cried the Chief Financial Adviser. "Look at me, everybody! I've balanced the budget!" And indeed he had. He stood proudly in the middle of the room with the enormous two-million-dollar budget balanced beautifully on the top of his bald head. Everyone clapped.
Dahl's children's books are known for their unsentimental and dark humor, but they are still very fun to read.

3.) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (by J.K. Rowling)
I love the Harry Potter books, but I'd rather not discuss the movies. Watching Rowling's writing style transform from short, choppy sentences in the first book to in-depth thoughts in the seventh book was wonderful. I love Deathly Hallows in particular for the same reason that many people don't . . . so much stuff is going on. It's a long, long story that travels all over the place, which is a key factor for me because I like variety. Since so many things happen, I can read the book many times over without becoming tired of it. It also sums up everything the past six books mentioned and ends satisfactorily (which is actually a word, who knew?). And to leave you with a final quote . . .
There was a clatter as the basilisk fangs cascaded out of Hermione's arms. Running at Ron, she flung them around his neck and kissed him full on the mouth. Ron threw away the fangs and broomstick he was holding and responded with such enthusiasm that he lifted Hermione off her feet.
"Is this the moment?" Harry asked weakly, and when nothing happened except that Ron and Hermione gripped each other still more firmly and swayed on the spot, he raised his voice. "OI! There's a war going on here!"

Media Impact

People have always had a tendency to blame media for real-life problems. It's a whole lot easier than pinpointing the blame on specific individuals. You could say, "Oh, it's the media's fault," and most everyone will accept your accusation without question.
For example, some school officials and police officers are concerned that social networking has led to a rise in schoolyard fights.


This article explains the concerns that some officials have. An interesting thing to note is the phrase: "Although she could not pinpoint a specific reason why."


Read the article and be the judge for yourself!

Media Autobiography

Books: I've been reading since I was three years old. I love it! And the crazy part is, I read for fun. Unfortunately, I've been reading less and less books as life progresses. This is due to a few factors. One is that I read very quickly, so it doesn't take me long to go through books and therefore I would rather sit in a bookstore and read than actually buy some books to take home. Another thing to take into consideration is that I've been getting busier, and there has been less time to just sit and read. And finally, I must admit that I don't even know what kind of books I really enjoy. When I was younger, they were picked out for me. But now that I get to choose for myself, I don't know where to begin. All of the books I currently have are for younger readers, so the first step would be to find some for my age group.

Newspapers: To be honest, I've never read the newspaper. For my whole life up until a month ago, I lived at my mom's house and she did not subscribe to the newspaper. When I would visit my dad's house on Thursdays, he had a newspaper subscription and I always dove straight for the comics. Now that I live with my dad and have access to the Mercury News every day, I still go straight for the comics. I believe my dad mainly focuses on the sports section. I tried reading a few articles once, but I guess they just pale in comparison to the accessibility we have online these days. In regards to my high school newspaper, that was a joke. Most students didn't even know we had one, and only occasionally would a teacher pass a few copies out in class. And, like our yearbooks, they were full of short, choppy sentences and tons of misspellings that made me wonder if we even had an editor.

Magazines: Yuck. That's the first word that comes to my mind. A bit harsh, I know, but I've had limited experiences with magazines, and the ones I did grow up surrounded by were just . . . garbage, in my opinion. For example: People, Seventeen, and Cosmopolitan. I'm trying my hardest right now to avoid turning this post into a rant, for I could go on and on and get completely off-topic. Between the overly-Photoshopped ads that take up most of the magazine, and the articles themselves ("10 Sexy Ways to Flirt with that Sizzlin' Summer Cutie!" "Oh My GOD Britney Spears Ordered A Pizza!" "Find Out Which Nose Hair Color Is Right For YOU!"), it's very hard to find something I'd consider caring about. I'm going to be blunt here: I really don't think it's worth knowing what certain famous people have or haven't done, or what fashions are "in". I've never gone for the whole "popular" spiel. But! To be fair! I have nothing against magazines that focus on home improvement (or decor), cooking, music, auto repair, floral arrangements, or anything else. It's just that I never was surrounded by those types of magazines throughout my life.

Movies: I like movies! They're a great form of entertainment, or good for getting a point across. A wonderful activity for yourself, or friends, or family. I used to go see movies in the theaters all the time, but now it's just too expensive for me, so I save my money for, example, a midnight showing that I have to go see. (like Pirates of the Caribbean or Harry Potter, yeah!) I don't take critics' reviews into much consideration, because they might give a movie one star but I might happen to love it. Or vice versa.

Recordings:

Radio: The radio was nice up until the invention of the iPod (or portable mp3 player, you get my point). Throughout my childhood (the 90's), I listened to one station: Mix 106.5. Now, many of those songs are on my iPod, and my friends are amused by my collection of "nineties music". The only downside to the radio was obviously the commercials, and, in my case, the talking part. Don't know what it's called. Now, I like to occasionally listen to different stations to try and find a new song I like, but mostly I listen to my iPod because there are no commercials, I like all the songs, and I can have instant gratification from choosing one particular song that's been in my head all day. The radio is great for being exposed to different things that maybe you've never experienced before.

Television: I've never watched much TV, but I do like it. I watched plenty of cartoons when I was younger, but now I watch shows with my dad that we've recorded so we can watch while we eat dinner. I only sit down and turn on the TV randomly if I want to waste time on purpose. And no, that's not me being bitter. TV is helpful to me if, say, I'm waiting for a friend to arrive, or I'm throwing a party and want 7:30 to get here faster. Just turn on the TV, and boom, instant time travel. Other than that, I like to try and find more productive things to do, such as  . . .

. . . internet! 1990 was a convenient time to be born. I love the internet, it has (maybe unfortunately) become my new addiction. There are infinite possibilities, with almost anything you could ever want. It has also made research a lot easier, if you can sort through all the sites to determine which is fact and which is fiction. The hardest part is walking away from the computer, especially if you find yourself trapped in a Wikipedian loop.