To my-sixth-grade-self,

Pretty soon, all your friends will have MySpace pages and you will not have the permission from your mother to make a page of your own. No worries, your best friend will make a page for you and she’ll keep it secret until your mom’s answer changes from ‘no’ to ‘I really wish you wouldn’t.’ As a person who cares more about your well being than anyone else in the world, including you, I feel it would best come from me. You’re on the brink of discovering something huge. You won’t know when it happens or why you fell in the first place, but the television will soon step aside and be replaced by the Internet, and you’ll fall in love with it.

I know what you’re thinking (I am you after all). “How is that possible? What about the news?” you ask yourself. One day, you’ll have access to all the news you could ever want to know on the internet. The news broadcasts you watch on TV will have websites of their own to share the world’s happenings in this new way. Think about the news slide presentation on AOL. You look at it all the time just before logging into instant message. Just like that but on an exponentially larger scale. In the future, you will not frequent instant message or MySpace but the online world is yours for the taking.

I’d like to offer you a head of caution before you get in over your head. Don’t get me wrong, digital media is, for the part, most as great as it sounds but it does have it’s drawbacks. There is a such thing as information overload. Any information truthful or not can be found with just a little searching. Be careful of what you search for because you won’t be able to un-see the darkest depths on the online world and trust me you’ll want to. You’ll be in the know about the things happening thousands of miles away the same seconds they happen. I know it sounds cool but put your eyeballs back in your head and read these words carefully. Many things go wrong with lightning fast reporting. Think about the game ‘telephone’ where everyone stands in a circle and whispers a phrase into the next person’s ear. The message that comes out is never exactly the same as what it started as. It’s not until the excitement is over that you learn where the phrase went wrong and it’s not the player’s fault for mishearing the phrase but it does take time to accurately sort out the information flow. (At the end of the year you’ll play a huge game of telephone with the entire 6^th grade and you won’t care that the teachers are trying to convey this very message.)

Unlike the news you watch on TV, you will have to sort out for yourself when the media is being truthful and honest. You’ll need to learn how to tell when the media is trying to get you to agree with their opinion. It will take time, but once you know how to pick up on these reporting tactics, you’ll feel like nothing will get past you. It is important to carefully inspect sources but be skeptical of all of them. Even when you do realize the inaccuracies, but do not throw those sources aside. You may find things you don’t agree with will strengthen your opinion and sometimes things that you do agree with will end up weakening your support.

I do not want to scare you away from the internet, though I know that would be very hard for anyone to do. You should grab the online universe by the balls. With your security setting locked tight you should make a YouTube account before all your friends do, share pictures of yourself and your friends on Instagram, and tweet to all the celebrities you wish to because you never just how many people might see.

For the next 10 years you'll be okay,

Katie from the future

P.S. When that one girl gets bratty with you, find a better best friend. You’ll be doing everyone involved a favor.

In Your Twenties

I saw this on tumblr a couple months ago and I've had it pinned in my liked posts ever since.

Oysho to USA

During my internet peruses as of late, I've been finding myself surfing the UK version of Oysho.com.

I really love how cozy everything looks and I want to buy it all, but there's one small issue. Except for select countries, they don't ship internationally. I'm sure it's a messy customs issue or something but I feel like :(.

Just about everything is so cute and cuddly-looking. I want it all but I am mostly interested in their sock selection. Socks are my favorite article of clothing because my feet are always cold. I could be sweating everywhere else but my feet are still uncomfortably cold. Yes, I am of the martian species who sleeps with socks. Hey Oysho, I want to dip my toes in the warmth that your plushiest socks provide.

First Bath Bomb Experience

My most recent bath tub experience before this included sitting on the side of the tub and learning how to shave. I think I was maybe thirteen or so?

Last week (a very stressful, school work filled, week), I found myself wandering into my local Lush store. I knew I wanted to pamper myself (Lush always seems to make you feel that way too, right?) and in my opinion, bath bombs are their most intriguing product. After smelling the each of the different colored bulbly-looking things, I went for the large yellow/beige one from a wooden box labeled 'Honey Bee,' Mostly because I really just liked how the scent was subtle compared to all the others but let me tell you, it was just as delicious.

I did know how bath bombs worked but I was definitely not prepared for the experience, in any way. IT WAS SO FUN to just watch the thing explode into bubbly goodness and float around the water spreading it's now liquid joy. The experience was less photogenic than I had anticipated as the final water color was almost like a muted lemon meringue pie and less bubbles lingered as the pictures online led me to believe. To be completely honest, it was a little daunting before I got in the tub but it was peaceful and refreshing once I settled in. I felt like I imagine the girl in Lee Price's bath paintings to feel (they're cool, check'em out).

I really enjoyed sitting in the bath tub and calming down at the end of the week. It was totally luxurious and made me feel refreshed and even a little excited for the week to come. Tell me what your favorite bath bomb is and maybe I'll give it a go in the very near future?

Always,

k.peterr

(P.S.  I'm choosing to be blindly naive about the color of my bath water, my mom thought of it as something completely different from lemon meringue pie)