I'm Back!

Guess who hasn't been posting regularly on their blog?! What? No guess? I'll just tell you than, it's me! Since I haven't been posting regularly you as in my readers (insert hopeful tone) will be getting a lot of posts coming toward you very fast.

The Loss of Defeat

Swimming, although it may not appear to be at first glance, is an extremely difficult sport. In the upper levels, swimmers must go to practice every day, 6 days a week along with early morning practices. All of this training is to accomplish one goal. This goal is to swim fast. To demonstrate this ability swimmers go to swim meets and race against other swimmers in order to get faster times. The ultimate goal is to be fast enough to qualify for the Olympics, but that doesn't happen to very many. Everyone starts at the basic meets that don't have time requirements. In an ideal meet you cut of time on almost all of your events and get a little bit closer to your goals.
What makes swimming really hard is when you go to a meet expecting to cut off this time and it doesn't happen. When you have worked so hard for a race and it turns out to be shit. It just gets worse as race after race you fail to accomplish your goals. Then you step up to the blocks of your last race and think this is it, I am going to blow this one out of the water. You hear the announcer say "take your marks", you grip the blocks and fly off into the water. Before you know it you're slamming into the wall. But when you look at the board you realize you have yet again missed your time.
That moment is one of the hardest moments in swimming. What is even harder though, is to come back from that moment. To remain positive no matter what. The challenge is to say to yourself
"Well really sucked, but now I know what I can work on and the only way I can go is up. I WILL do better next time."
The point of this whole block of writing is that to tell you guys that no matter what remain positive. I don't care how badly you screw something up. What counts is being able to come back from that screw up try again, whether it be sports, school, art, music, or even life! Whatever it is just remember, never give up.

The cuteness of the bat

It has come to my attention that some people believe that bats are not cute. After the initial shock of that statement begins to wear off, I beg to differ.
 First argument~

 Argument number two~

 Argument number three, an amazing picture I found while wandering through the depths of tumbler, nearly impossible to get anything more amazing, just saying~

 And here is my final argument, this is my stuffed bat Theodor, he resides on my windowsill~

Benefits of thrifting

Well I'd hoped to finish this post sooner, but that obviously didn't happen. Before I actually talk about what I am meaning to I must mention something that I forgot in my last post. I happen to be one of those kooky people that name their instruments. As a result my violin's name is Lady Elixa, my viola does not yet have a name seeing as she is still a rental.
Now, lets get down to business. Seeing as I am on the web quite a lot I have been noticing a trend, especially in the YouTube comments section. On every video or what ever featuring someone wearing clothing that is perceived as goth I see a few of the following comment: "I love the goth style, but I just can't afford to do it." The first problem with this statement is that goth is really not just a style. It is a whole subculture that involves music, a way of thinking and a way of dressing, it really is a whole lifestyle. The second problem with this is that it sounds to me like whoever writes these comments expects to transform into a goth overnight. I'm sorry to say this, but there is no escaping the baby bat phase. Dressing goth, well actually everything about is usually pretty gradual. There are several different styles and each person must find what one(s) fit them and that they like the most.
The third problem is that goth is only expensive if you make it expensive. Sure there is a lot of cool stuff online, but the majority of it is insanely expensive. Instead of looking online, look in thrift shops. I go to thrift stores, mainly goodwill and find lots of amazing shirts, shoes, dresses, and skirts. It just takes longer and sometimes you can't find anything at all. I recently went to goodwill and found a couple cute shirts and dresses which I may post later. Another good way to cut down on expenses is to do DIY (do it yourself) stuff. Have a boring black t-shirt? Go to a fabric store and get lace and add a lace fridge. If the t-shirt is larger then cut it into strips and use it over a tank top. There are tons of different things you can do to make your clothing your own and at usually pretty reasonable costs. Along with clothes that can be expensive you also have shoes. Shoes can be tricky, but there are some things that you can do. One thing that I do to shoes that I like, but may not like the color of is sharpie out what I don't like. I tend use black or sliver sharpie but other colors also work well as long as they are relatively dark. Another fun thing to do with shoes is to put in different laces.
Last but not least lets talk boots. Boots no matter what you do always tend to be expensive. I myself LOVE boots, but don't really have the budget to get them for brand new prices. Sometimes they do show up in thrift stores. I have gotten two pairs of my boots for almost new condition for in between 10 to 15 dollars. To get more specialty boots from brands like demonia, online is often the only option. To get a pair online I find the name of the boots I am in love with then I constantly check eBay for the boots to see if I can get a better price.
It appears that this post turned out to be quite a bit longer than I intended it to be. Yet I still feel as if I left some things unexplained. So, I will probably make other posts concerning some of the things I mentioned in this post. If you have any questions or want me to explain something or even are just wondering something random please comment and I will try my best to make a post to answer any questions.

Violin vs. Viola

In one of my other posts, I believe it was the hello one I said I would be explaining the difference between a violin and a viola. Guess what I will be doing today? You got it, I will indeed be explaining the differences between the violin and the viola. There is also something else that I wanted to talk about today, but it is on a different subject so I will be making another post after I complete this one. To sum that up, if this post is incredibly boring don't lose hope! There will another hopefully more interesting one coming your way very soon.

In the above picture I have set down my two instruments side by side so the differences between them can be more easily seen. I even added helpful name tags! As you can see from the picture the viola is a bit bigger than the violin. It also has a deeper more richer sound due to it's increased size. For the deeper sound the viola also has different strings than the violin. The strings on the violin are G D A E while the strings on the viola are C G D A. If you want to actually hear the difference the two instruments look on YouTube because I don't have good video technology sound wise. The other difference between the two instruments is that they have different clefs.

The violin uses the tremble clef (shown above), while the viola uses the alto clef (shown below).

An Intro

What I'm hoping this blog thingy whatever it is will be an insight to what it is like to be a goth teen in a world that doesn't except you. I happen to be a goth teen and just my luck there are no other people who are or really understand it in my vicinity. So, a lot of things I post on here will be concerning my gothy tendencies and hopefully will help other goths who are not really sure what the hell they are doing. When I first got into the gothic subculture I certainly didn't know what I was doing, at all. Something else I will be discussing, although maybe not as much will be swimming related things, as that is also something I am involved heavily in. Hopefully this will be my last awkward introduction post and I will get on to discussing interesting things that will entertain you guys who take the time to read this. :) ~ smiley face to brighten up your day/afternoon/night.

Hello

Last night I had the amazing idea to start a blog and ta da I have now started a blog. I guess to start out I should tell whoever is reading this a little bit about me. My name is Rachael, I attend high school in a rainy part of the country, I play violin and hopefully soon will begin viola (I will try and make a post later to explain to those who don't know what a viola is), I have a swimming obsession and I am in love with the darker aspects of life. I'm hoping to make posts often, but once the school year starts I make no guarantees.