How to Survive Shakespeare!

 

My freshman English class and I recently finished reading Romeo and Juliet together.   No doubt, Shakespeare’s writing can be overwhelming and a bit difficult to understand, but in our world of technology grasping his work is a piece of cake.   When it comes to literature, the internet is your friend.   While reading R&J I came up with a system to help me ace my quizzes. This system helped me a bunch! 

Here are some of my tips:

     1. Buy a copy of your book and if possible get the Sparknotes version since it has both the original Shakespeare text as well as plain English.  Sparknotes has a website which is also a great resource.

    2. Conquer each act at a time.  Try by first reading the Shakespeare side with audio (on YouTube), then the plain English side by yourself, and the Shakespeare side once more with audio.

     

*                                                                                     

3. Find any videos on YouTube pertaining to your book online, this will help you understand the text visually. 

                                                                               

This doesn’t only help with Shakespeare’s writing.  Finding online resources can be done with almost any piece of literature.  I hope this helps you!

 *Links for mobile:
1. Romeo and Juliet audiobook
2. Act 1: Romeo and Juliet explained

Ciao and Good Luck,

                             Monique

Playlist Live 2014

This past weekend I attended a YouTube convention called Playlist Live.  The event lasted from Friday, March 21st through the 23rd .    

The point of the event is so that Youtubers can meet their viewers and give advice to any people who are planning to create their own channels.  If I had to describe it in one word it would be: MADNESS. 

 

Hotel Lobby (see if you can spot Brittani Louise Taylor) 

 

People around Toby Turner

 

Wait to get inside of the convention center on Saturday

 

Inside Expo Hall

I will start by telling you all of the negative parts of my experience.  

The whole event was highly disorganized.  Everywhere was filled with screaming girls who often crowded a room up to its full capacity.  There was plenty of pushing, screaming, running, stalking, and craziness. Much of the time I felt incredibly overwhelmed and frustrated. 

When it came to meet and greets the guards failed to create an organized line system.  

 *Side Story:  Sunday afternoon my friend Angelica and I tried to meet Zoella, Tanya Burr and Louise Pentland.  We got there very early, when there wasn't very many people waiting.  Then after about 30 minutes hundreds of girls started piling in. The security was obviously unprepared and forced us all to “keep on walking” instead of starting to form a line.  This caused unnecessary confusion.  Angelica and I pushed our way to the front and stayed there for nearly 4 hours with literally no space between us. We were jam packed with hundreds of girls, basically in a claustrophobic nightmare.  After all of that, we ended up not even meeting them since the lady decided to hand out only 200 tickets randomly.  Most of the people she handed them out to were people who weren’t there nearly as long as we were.

Now onto a more positive note, I was able to meet or at least see many of the Youtubers that I watch. Most of them were really sweet and nice, while others seemed as frustrated and overwhelmed as I often did.

People I Met:

 

My friend Kiara, Mazzi Maz, my friend Angelica, me

 Swoozie (also a Trini!)

Teala Dunn

Mr. Tukie

thecomputernerd01 (Josh Chomik) 

 *Side Story:  After SDK was on stage, Josh Chomik took the time to praise God for all of his success.  This took a lot of guts, considering not all of the audience applauded him.  This was a really commendable act and I definitely have a lot more love and respect for Josh.  

BeyondBeautyStar (Claudia Sulewski)  and Aspyn Ovard

Tim H

missglamorazzi (Ingrid Nilson)

 

missmeghanmakeup (Meghan Hughes)

 

beautybaby44 (Lindsey Hughes)

 

strawberryelectric48 (Kristee Vetter)

 

Emma Blackery

Louis Cole, Steve Booker, Ben Brown

 People I Spotted:
 

Tyler Oakley and a baby

Ricky Dillon trying to eat his bagel in peace

 

Jenna Marbles

 *Side Story:  In this picture we were seated down at Jenna Marble's meet and greet.  We had the golden opportunity to meet her but we left the room thinking that we were late to meet Dan and Phil.  Turns out we weren't and basically had no chance of even meeting them.....  Golden opportunity wasted. 

 

Glozell 

Niomi Smart (one of my fav bloggers) and Marcus Butler

Inside Sessions:

Tobuscus

Tyler Oakley, Jim Chapman, Marcus Butler, Alfie Deyes, Caspar Lee, Joe Sugg

 

 

Dance Party

Kingsley Q&A

 

Project Library Breakout Session

Beauty Guru Session: ilikeweylie (Weylie Hoang), makeupbymandy24 (Amanda Steele), missglamorazzi (Ingrid Nilson), beautybaby44 (Lindsey Hughes)

 

Lindsey smiling at the camera

 Outside Sessions:

Keenan Cahill

SDK

Lia Marie Johnson

Lia and Jonah Green

All in all Playlist Live was a good experience and I'm glad that I attended.  However, I'm not quite sure if I would be up to going next year because of all the craziness.

Ciao,

       Monique

*I apologize that many of the pictures are very blurry.  The pics were taken with different cameras and many taken in a rush.

DIY Gel Nails

If you’re anything like me, you can’t go through one day without getting your nail polish chipped.  This is why I fell in love with gel nail polish, which typically stays on for 2 weeks, chip-free.  The problem with gel nail polish is that it eventually becomes expensive getting it done every 2 weeks.  This why my mother (also a gel nail fanatic) decided to invest in our own gel nails kit.

She bought the Nicole by OPI gel kit.  The process to applying the nail polish is quick and easy.  The nail kit cost about $30, which is how much it was for us to get it done at a salon per appointment. 

Supplies in Kit: LED light and plug, top coat, base coat, 2 Nicole by OPI colors (“Indelible Pink” and “Red Over Heels”), nail file, nail pick, alcohol wipes

1

      

  

     1. File your nails and make sure they are neat.

     2. Apply the base coat, and put under the LED light for 30 seconds (light should come off  after 30 seconds).

    

 

Hold LED light like this to do thumbs

  

     3. Apply one coat of your color, and put under LED light for 30 seconds. * I used a Sally Hansen gel color called “Pink Pong” instead of an OPI color

     4. Apply the second coat of your color and put under LED light

  

    5. Apply your Top Coat and put under LED light for 30 seconds

  

   6. Gently go over nails with alcohol wipe

     

     7. Viola! Beautiful, chip-free nails!

*Don’t worry if it comes out awful the first time!  I had to use it a couple of times before I got it right. 

Tip: Make Sure to take off side smudges before putting under light!

Ciao and Good Luck,

                             Monique