Alice's ah-mazing summer reading list

A lot of you guys are probably gonna be a bit bored over the summer, so you should seize the chance to read a good book! Here's Alice's recommended reading list of all my favorite books. (Note- books marked with a star * are books that might not be obtainable in the U.S.A.)

Alice in Wonderland-Lewis Caroll
Alice Through the Looking Glass-Lewis Caroll
Everything on A Waffle- Polly Horvath
Red Scarf Girl- Ji-Li Jiang
The Mysterious Benedict Society (series) -Trenton Lee Stewart
The Conch Bearer (series)-Chitra B. Divakaruni
Absolutely ANYTHING by Roald Dahl (a genius-I swear!)
City Stories: Tales From Here* and There-multiple authors
Anything AT ALL by Enid Blyton*
Blue Jasmine- who is the author of this? I forget, sorry.
ANY book by P.G. Wodehouse (some of it may be a bit harder to understand, depending on which book)
Nancy Drew (series)- Carolyn Keene (I LOVE these books :D)
Harry Potter-JK Rowling (Well, this was obvious.)
Millicent Min, Girl Genius-Lisa Yee

TO BE CONTINUED...

Is good pop music dead?

Before you read this post: Okay, many of you may disagree with me. You may think I'm flat-out wrong. but this is my blog, not yours, and if you have a problem with that then stop reading this right now and go back to twittering or facebooking or whatever else people like you do on the internet.

Pop music today. Kelly Clarkson, singing drippy songs encouraging women to be emotionally dependent like the single "My Life Would Suck Without You". Katy Perry's oh-so-cliche hit "Waking up in Vegas." The mass-manufactured, typical "The Climb", Miley Cyrus. Is this pop music today? What happened to mentally stimulating? What happened to fresh, new ideas? What happened to background music that is more than just a guitar? What happened to singing about something OTHER than love? What happened to the pop music industry? What happened to good old real music like The Beatles? The Bangles? Queen? We now are fed processed filth that we've heard a million times already, just with a different singer. We (I) need new! We need change! Change we can believe in! Because right now, pop music industry, I'm losing faith in you. That's one person who's not buying pop songs on iTunes. I wonder how many of you out there agree with me. Good pop music, with the exception of T.a.t.u., pop from foreign countries (Japan, Korea, Russia, and Brazil), and old songs, is dead. Dare to disagree. Comment.

Do what you love, and love what you do- or do you?

Do you? You hear drippy fairy tales all the time about, oh, that girl who wanted to be the first female postwoman when she grew up because she was just sooooo passionate about delivering mail. Or that guy who lived, ate, and breathed nothing but becoming a dump truck driver when he grew up, and how his parents wanted him to become a neurosurgeon, but he was so absolutely dedicated and bent on driving a dump truck that his passion for trash prevailed over the force of his parents. I for one, can't decide what is more important- doing what you love or being able to financially sustain yourself. Like being a journalist, you won't make much $money$ unless you are super-good. So, I think that it doesn't really matter how much $money$ you make if you enjoy your work, but on the other hand you can't exactly buy designer bags or live in Orchard:Scotts, Singapore if you only have enough to put food on the table and clothes on your back. What do you think? Comment your views.

KYAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!

Oh my god. The apocalypse is finally upon us. THE WORST, I say, THE ABSOLUTE MOST HORRIBLE event on this planet of earth (besides 9/11 and war) has just occured. iTunes just took off HUGE AMOUNTS of j-pop from their downloads. You can no longer download your favorite Ayu, BoA, or Ai Otsuka (not to mention tons more!) songs from iTunes. This is the tragic story. I was minding my own business, it was a sunny day, and I decided to get the Ayumi song Depend on You. A few weeks ago I wanted it but I didn't have a gift card. Today, I got one, ready to buy the song, and I search the name Ayumi Hamasaki. Nothing comes up. I make it all lowercase. Still nothing. I search Hamasaki Ayumi, as they would say in Japan. Nada. Fine, I think, maybe Ayu had some copyright issues or whatever. That's okay, I can still get that new Ai Otsuka album. I type Ai Otsuka into the search bar. Zero. Otsuka Ai. Zip. Nothing. Then BoA. They've taken off all of BoA's albums except 2 of her EP's- BoA and Eat you up. Neither of which are her good albums. Everything else is gone. Kotoko- they have only one kotoko song left. I panic, rapidly typing in the names of all the j-pop artists I know, and I am disappointed. They've chopped the j-pop selection in half. Gone. Goodbye, j-pop. I'll miss you. I want to petition these crazy people from Apple whose dense, thick skulls can't appreciate the bubbly happiness of Japanese pop music. Let's bring j-pop back to iTunes! But while we wait, what'll we listen to? Lady Gaga, The Black Eyed Peas? To them I say- ewwwww, that's not real music! So join the J-pop revolution!!!!!! BRING AYU BACK!