This is Extraordinarily COOL

This is the Gates of Hell. And they're located in Turkmenistan.







It's a 328 feet wide hole in the Karakum Desert that's been burning since 1971. 38 years. Continually.

The gas hole was caused by a Soviet Drilling Rig that punctured a massive underground natural gas cavern in 1971. Poisonous fumes began to leak from the hole, so the Soviets set it alight. It hasn't stopped burning since then.

You can find out more about the Darvaza Gas Crater here , in the Atlas Obscura (an incredibly interesting website and definitely worth the look)

Apparently, there's also similar craters in Germany and my home state of Pennsylvania, but they're not as picturesque as this one. The one in Germany however, has been burning since 1688!

21st Century Breakdown

It's official-Green Day has a new album coming out! It's titled 21st Century Breakdown and is scheduled to come out in May of 2009.
The CD will be broken down into three acts-with a total of 16 songs.
Act 1 - “Heroes and Cons”
Act 2 - “Charlatans and Saints”
Act 3 - "Horseshoes and Handgrenades"


^ Green Day at the Grammy Award Ceremony this Sunday


I can not wait to see these guys in concert!

Gigi!!

So around last week I went into the store Pet-Smart for the first time in my life. I didn't actually own a pet (long story as to why I was there in the first place). Soooo...I was completely taken by surprise when I saw that they had cats for sale there. And being the enormous sap I am I begged my parents to come and see them and adopt them. Turns out they're saps too cause in no time we were filling out the adoption papers.

They're called the Forgotten Cats Foundation and they take in cats and kittens off the street. This is how I adopted Gidget, my new kitten. She's 3 months old, a calico, and completely and utterly adorable. Gigi was found in on the streets Trenton, NJ, and was the only one to survive out of her litter.

She's been running all over the house sniffing and trying to eat/play with everything. And she purrs like a freakin' lawn mower. :D

Here's some pics of her:

30 Gigs of Awesomness: A Day At Warped Tour

My second time at the Warped Tour was better (and rainy-er) than ever! Woot!


First, the best part of the day: I got to meet the band Ludo! Not only did I take a couple of pictures with Andrew Volpe, the lead singer and one cool dude, but the entire band signed my the back of my ipod!! And one of the band mates before signing my ipod was like, "30 Gigs of awesomeness!" I really couldn't phrase it any better than that. :D











On a side note, when it comes to meeting anyone even vaguely famous I act like a total dork. For instance, upon meeting the members of Ludo I just sort of smiled dumbly a lot instead of having a normal conversation or discussing their music.



The only really bad part of the day was when it started raining (then pouring, then hailing) right before Relient K came on. The whole place started flooding and I had to wade threw inches (inches, people, inches) of water in my flip flops while it was hailing. Fun! Even though I had an umbrella I still got soaked. But after 20 minutes the rain sorta died down, and the sun came back out like nothing had happened.


I saw Ludo, The Academy Is..., Angels and Airwaves, All Time Low, Cobra Starship, Gym Class Heroes, Pennywise, Relient K, Say Anything, and Story of the Year. All were great. :)

Most Excellent Days Ahead...

Well at least for me. And only spanning the course of four days. But still, I'm majorly excited for the next couple of days.


Why, you ask? Because I'm going to see Wicked the musical this Sunday! On Broadway! I have been wanting to see this musical since I was in seventh grade and our chorus sang the songs from it. It is going to be AMAZING.
If you don't have any idea what I'm talking about you can check out http://www.wickedthemusical.com/ , a tres cool site where you can hear most of the songs from the musical in the entirety. Listen to Defying Gravity in particular, since its my absolute favorite song from the musical.


Only slightly less important than going to see Wicked is my 15th birthday which is June 9th. Then, just one more year after that and I can legally start driving! (Ok...only in some states, but whatever.)


And, although I'm slightly embarrassed to say this, I'm also pretty excited for my school's semi formal tomorrow night. I mean, I don't know why I should be, it's only two hours long, and they're sure to play crappy music, and no one will actually dance. Maybe my excitement has something to do with my finding a dress I actually LIKE. (its red, black and awesome all over!) Or, just possibly, it might have something to do with me having a cute date. :)


Of course, after all this I'll once again be thrust into the worrisome time that is My End of the Year Finals.
I really should study...