Thanksgiving! And Black Friday

     

Gobble! It's technically Black Friday, but I am doing a Thanksgiving-themed part of this post anyway. 

     I am thankful that I have the opportunity to have this blog.

     Enough mushiness.

     Today, Black Friday, I will have to go clothes shopping. Yay. *voice drips with sarcasm* Seriously, though, I need it. My closet is full of stuff I don't fit into anymore.

     I'm now out of ideas, so how about a history lesson. YAY!

     According to History.com, the most common story is that every year, shops go "into the black" on Black Friday. Stores use the color red to record losses, and black to record profit. Apparently, on the day after Thanksgiving, shoppers spent so much on discounted items that stores would get to record the day's earnings in black, instead of the usual red. 

     However, this story is false. 

     The true story goes like this: in the '50s, in Philadelphia, police used the term "Black Friday" to refer to the disorder that occurred the day after Thanksgiving. On the day after, a large  Army-Navy football game took place so tourists would flood in the day before (Friday). In this chaos, shoplifters would make off with goods from stores, so police had their work cut out for them. In the 1980s, retail stores removed the negative connotation from the term "Black Friday" and coined it as a sales bonanza. Eventually, discounts extended through the weekend and "Cyber Monday" and "Small Business Saturday" became other retail holidays.

     Fun Fact: Black Friday is not the biggest shopping day of the year; that honor goes to the Saturday before Christmas. 

Have a wonderful weekend and I'll see you next Friday!

      

Hello there! It turns out that the Google we all know and love has a few tricks up its sleeve, so let's uncover them.

1) Try Googling "askew" and see if anything looks a bit... off.

2) Have you ever searched "Atari Breakout" on Chrome and gone to "images"? It's a complete waste of time - highly recommend.

3) A lot of people know this one, but if your internet is not working and that dinosaur pops up, press the space bar for entire seconds of ecstasy .

4) If you look up "solitaire" or 'tic tac toe" Google will indulge you in a game. It's useful when you are too lazy to go find cards or a piece of paper and a writing utensil!

5) This one isn't really an Easter egg, but Google Autodraw is a site that can guess what you draw. For best results, spend $700 on a touchscreen laptop.

6) Googling "recursion" can get recursive.

7) Google loves anagrams!

8) Ask Google to do a barrel roll; hey, it can do something my dog can't.

9) If you want to time travel, look up "Google in 1998"

10) Googling "Pacman" is a highly intellectually engaging way to cure boredom.

Sorry for the shorter post but I HAVE 2 PROJECTS DUE THIS WEEK GIMME A BREAK.

I'm a Mom!!!!!

     Hey guys! I have something rantom to share, so if you care, click here.

STOP!

DO NOT CONTINUE READING UNLESS YOU HAVE CLICKED THAT LINK

OR ELSE

DEATH!

just kitten

     I am now a blog mother; yay! My blog mother (the person who taught me the ropes of blogging) was Bubbles from A Tween's Chitter Chatter. I am now the blog mother of a friend of mine named Jodi, and we have started A PARTNER BLOG! *cheers and applause* 

     Wait... that makes Bubbles a blog grandma. Hey Grammy, if you're reading this!

     Sorry for the short post this week, but as I'm sure some of you know, setting up a blog is very time-consuming. I have been working for maybe a couple of hours with her, and I actually had to ditch her for a few minutes to write this for you guys. Sorry!

     Hope you decide to check out our new site and make sure to follow both of my blogs. 

     'Kay bye

*note* this review contains spoilers and is more of a rant than a constructive recommendation

oopsie daisy

     Hello, Internet! I recently read this novel at a friend's recommendation and decided to review it. As far as I know, it's not one of those uber-popular books like the Harry Potter series, but it's worth a read.

Genre; Mystery (murder mystery, specifically)  Romance
         

Plot;
     A girl who lives in a trailer park and goes to a local high school starts getting mysterious messages from an unknown person. The messages are cryptic and read like clues, and suddenly, a girl from the protagonist's school is left drugged and unconscious behind some bleachers at a sports game. More and more of these incidents start piling up, and they are all related to the clues that the main character is receiving. Worse - the main character, Nearly (yes, that's her name), realizes that she is probably the next target. She can't tell anyone, either, or else people will, understandably, think she's out of her mind and probably consider her a suspect herself. Oh noes!

     Additionally, there's this strange, rebel-type kid that's following Nearly around; rebel meaning like eyebrow piercings and a tattoo - in high school! His name is Reece, and he seems like he's trying to help, but really, in my opinion, he's getting a little too close for comfort. Also, even though this kid is well liked and actually portrayed in a very positive light, I kinda hate him. SPOILER: NEARLY ENDS UP WITH THIS KID. UGH!

      Finally, Nearly is vying for a scholarship that will basically win her a ticket out of her decrepit trailer park home. The scholarship is enough to leave the trailer behind and go to college, but he is up against some tight competition, but unfortunately, her studies start to suffer. It turns out, surprisingly, that solving a murder mystery really eats into your studying time. Who woulda thunk? SPOILER: SHE LOSES THE SCHOLARSHIP

     


     Although the plot kept me hooked until the very end, the actual resolution was very unsatisfying. At least, from my very biased viewpoint, Nearly should have studied harder instead of chasing after Mister Rebel Wannabe. Sure, she solved the mystery, but now she has nowhere to go, with no money to pay for college and a boyfriend who can't help her in any way.

It's probably apparent that I will be that mom who demands straight A's from my kids

     Although good as a mystery book, in my opinion, this book sends all the wrong messages about things like school and the importance of your future.

     However, I would highly recommend that  you read this book; maybe then you can yell at me for hating on Reece, or maybe you will agree with me.

     Bottom line; guys, stay in school. Love, a 12-year-old girl with no experience in the "real world" whatsoever.

     Make sure to check out Nearly Gone!