Appearance

When I was in eighth grade, I had a friend (I won't mention her name), who loved everything that a boy would. She was my one friend who was a girl that I was actually able to get along with. The reason for this was probably because she was a tomboy. Yes, it's true, I was still afraid of girls, even in the eighth grade. Anyway, this friend, lets call her Lucy, was a very bright, outgoing, and friendly girl, who a lot of people loved for who she was on the inside, but not the outside. She was very self conscious about herself; she had bad acne, freckles, no "hip" clothes to wear. Although my guy friends and I would always tease her about how she looked like one of us, she knew that we were just playing. The problem was when other people, people who she hadn't even met before, started calling her names everyday such as: ugly, disgusting, and manlady. 

Although I teased her by calling her mean names occasionally as well, I got extremely mad when others would call her that. There was a huge difference from when I, her best friend, who would always assure her that she was beautiful, called her that, and when a group of random jerks called her that to hurt her feelings. I remember when one day, in class, an asshole named Bart from the back of the class made fun of Lucy, calling her the ugliest student in the whole school. Although Lucy tried to pretend that she hadn't heard it, she casually told me that she was sleepy, put her head down, and remained like that for the rest of the class. When the bell rang and she had left to go to her next class, I saw that there was a small puddle of water on her desk, and that she had been crying, and not sleeping. I got so angry that I caught up to bart, broke his nose, busted his lip open, knocked a few teeth out, and kicked his nuts. The next day, it would be clear that Lucy couldn't have been the ugliest person in the school, because he was. (Oh, and as for kicking him in the nuts, I just did that because I was mad).

Lucy, after another week being called horrible names in school, committed suicide. Her death saddened me to the point where I wasn't able to come to school for a week, and also made me angry towards all the people who had been mean to her, even myself. From that point on, I never judged anyone based on appearance again, and showed no respect for people who did. 

     Have you guys ever judged someone based on their appearance or been judged based on your appearance?

If i won the lotto

After recently watching the movie Mr. Deeds I began to wonder what would I do if a huge sum of money dropped in my lap like that. Just a couple weeks ago 3 people won and had to spilt the Mega-Millions lottery jackpot of 656 million dollars. If I won the lottery this is what I would do.

If I won the lottery at this age it is tough to decide what I would do with all of the money. First I would probably split it in half. The first half would go in the bank in a savings account that I’m not allowed to touch. And out of that half I would dabble in the stock market, probably in Apple, their stock hardly ever goes down. I think I would stay in school but needless to say I wouldn’t be too concerned with my grades. I would take over the financial aspect of my life so there would be no more weaning off of my parents. It’s a nice thought to think about, getting whatever you want without having to look at a price tag. You could just pick and choose what you wanted to buy.

You would have to be careful with all the new money though. You would have to watch you spent it on. I hear it time and time again where lottery winners get in trouble with their money, either they spend it too fast or gamble it away. This is tragic because it has even been known to cause some people to commit suicide; they go from having it all to nothing and they cant stand it. So my question for the class is this: what would you do if you won the lottery? How would you spend that money? How would you save your money to ensure that you wouldn’t run out and turn into a bum?

Before I Die

In New Orleans, a lady named Candy turned the outside of this abandoned house in her neighborhood into an interactive work of art. Candy lost a loved one and it turned her head to thoughts of her own life and death, what would she want out of it? She was also curious to see what others wanted out of their lives. She made the side of this house into a giant blackboard and paint stenciled the words "Before I die..." in rows with an open line beside the unfinished sentence. Pieces of chalk lie along the side walk, waiting for people to pick it up and write what they desire to before they die. The answers left range from humorous hopes, occupational ambitions and deep wishes of personal fulfillment. The wall reveals the deep desires of people who wish for this one thing to happen while they are still on this earth. People of all ages, ethnicities and social classes have stopped to unveil what they want to accomplish before their time runs out.

Some examples of things that have been written on the wall include, "not live an average life", "tell my mother that I love her", "be someone's cavalry", "know true joy", "find Atlantis" and "be completely myself". The individuals who have written on this wall are letting their insecurities be known and letting their hope come through. Having their wish on a wall, open to the world, but anonymously is a wonderful gift to those who write on it. It is also a gift to those who seethe words and are inspired by them.

When I saw the website for this wall, it got me thinking about my life, what I have done and what I want to do while I am still here. I do believe in life after death, but I realize that there are some things that can only take place on earth and the relatively short time that I have here. Examples of things that went through my head were in four categories. First I thought of my personal life. I know that before I die, I want to have a family of my own. Then I thought about my career goals and how I would love to dance professionally or be a curator for a theater New York. Then my mind was filled with all sorts of silly little things, some possible and some that are not. Some examples are trying every flavor of Ben and Jerry's, climbing Mt.Everest, visit every continent, and master levitation. I also have some cheesy things like seeing worldwide peace, being able to forgive and be forgiven, live with complete abandonment and to not care what other people think.

I hope that you will take time to look at the website and see all the many very touching, humorous and inspiring things that people have written. Look at the wall and then ponder to yourself the things that you want out of your life before you die. When you have your list, sort it out into the things that you have control over and the things that you do not. I would then invite you to take charge and make the things that you can control before your time is up. I have lost loved ones and have wondered what they could have done or what they would have done differently if they just had a little more time. Looking at this wall really made me take a step back and evaluate what I want out of life, I hope it does the same for you.

As far as responses go, just tell us about your bucket list. What do you want to do before you die?

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/198bOF/:THVwp0cO:SHkQHI8d/candychang.com/before-i-die-in-nola/

Looking Back

So this will be our last week of blogs. The school year is finally coming to a close. As I thought of a subject for my blog I began to reminisce over all the things we covered in such a short span of time. As I looked at each essay I thought of how quickly we learned and created them. We learned many different styles and when to use them.

We started with the snapshots. This essay style allowed us to learn different ways to tell a story. Then we learned how to create a research paper. This style of essay can be used to make and support an argument. The last essay we completed showed us how to analyze a text and give our own interpretation. This is not including our blogs or our free writes. These styles of writing are all very different and used for different mediums and audiences.

I am not a very strong writer but found that I enjoyed some styles of writing such as the research paper and the free writes. I however dreaded some styles of writing as well. The analysis paper on a text of our choice sounded easy until I started it. I found it very hard to avoid summarizing and adding my own opinion. I know now I do not like analysis and will probably have to put more time in to that style of essay.

So now that it’s over looking back, which style of writing appealed to you the most? Which styles of writing are you hoping to avoid as you continue through college? Why or why not?

Should Steroid Use Be Allowed In Sports?

For all of my life I’ve been involved in sports. I’ve always tried to be an all natural athlete, meaning no steroids, no growth hormones, and no pro hormones to enhance my athletic ability. I’ve always been against using those supplements because it is looked on as “cheating” in today’s society. Recently I watched a documentary about steroids called Bigger, Stronger, Faster, and that opened my eyes that those supplements may not be as bad for us as the media puts it off to be. The movie starts off by showing how all of the mainstream superstars that we’ve heard of as kids all used steroids such as Mark McGuire, Hulk Hogan, Sammy Sosa, Arnold Schwartzenager, etc. The movie then talks about how all of them used steroids and pro hormones and how the use of those substances helped their athletically ability out tremendously. The movie goes on to show steroids aren’t the only thing that can enhance athletic ability. Take Tiger Woods for example. He got surgery on his eyes to make his vision 25/15. No other human alive has as good eye site as Tiger Woods does. Does Tiger changing his genetics to benefit his golf game make him a cheater? When Mark McGuire took steroids to help out his baseball game he got bashed, I don’t understand why it’s not the same for Tiger Woods. There was another scene in the movie where a runner slept in an oxygen tank overnight to make him have more red blood cells, therefore making his oxygen flow better, thus making him be able to run for longer. Why is that legal? He’s changing his genetics the same way steroids is putting more testosterone in Sammy Sosa’s body. If anything steroids is less significant of a substance than either of the other offenses because steroids is simply testosterone, it doesn’t change ones genetic genes at all. So what makes steroid use so bad in sports if people are getting advantages in other ways? Knowing now that steroid use isn’t the only way to get help to enhance your athletic ability what is your input on steroids and sports. In my opinion all is fair in love and war and if others are getting an advantage by having surgery to enhance they’re play I don’t know why supplements should be banned. My question to you all is, should steroids be legal in sports? Why or why not.
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D3KzGfuFFSxA%26fb_source%3Dmessage&h=QAQEX1Z0L

Cyber Bullying

When I was thinking about topics I was reading through the chapters in The Curious Researcher and saw how it talked about the Internet a lot. Most of us can agree that we spend a majority of our time on social networks but what people don’t think about is how they might be a victim or contribute to cyber bullying. Cyber bullying can range from calling someone a name on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, or any social media site.

When a child is tormented, threatened, harassed, humiliated, embarrassed or otherwise targeted by another child is what is considered cyber bullying. Many people now a days don’t even realize that they are doing it. It can be so minor that you post a status saying I hate you and that is considered cyber bullying. Most people contribute to cyber bullying because of anger or frustration with another person and it fuels them to do it. Others can do it because they are bored and want excitement. Even when people don’t post to many tweets, I find people on my Twitter saying stuff like, “Lets see a twitter fight to liven up tonight!” Some of their friends might enjoy them making fun of someone else so they could have someone forcing them to be mean. Especially in middle school, there is a constant urge to be “popular” and sometimes that means picking on people to get to the top. This is where cyber bullying falls into place.

Just the other day I logged onto my Twitter account and witnessed cyber bullying myself. Some people on my timeline were arguing about each other because of their boyfriend. When kids are younger and are victims of this, most are tempted to commit suicide. About a year ago there was this young boy from my hometown who did in fact commit suicide because he was being cyber bullied. It is very sad and a shame that people can say those things to other people. There was this movie that I saw too about cyber bullying and sometimes victims are scared to tell anyone about what is happening to them because they can be ashamed thus leading them to have no one to turn to. It is really sad that this actually happens to people and that it can hurt them so much their willing to give up their lives. It is a lot easier to say mean things when your writing it to a computer but still, words hurt just as much as saying it to someone’s face.

I think that cyber bullying will eventually die down; once kids learn about the consequences and how it can really hurt people, they will stop cyber bullying. Lets just hope this is soon so that we can stop all the rude and hurtful comments people say about each other!

So my questions to the class…

Have you ever been a victim of cyber bullying? What happened?

Have you ever been an instigator of cyber bullying?

Do you have any other ideas on how to stop cyber bullying?

His Heart is Shown

As a child in long car rides, I would look out the window to find images in the clouds to pass the time. Many parents who take their children on long car rides teach their kids this game to entertain them. It always interested me because I would need to use my imagination most of the time. I would need to explain to my parents how my mind formed what I saw in the clouds. However on rare occasions, there would be an apparent figure that my family could see too. These images are only visible briefly though.

This weekend, I travelled back to my hometown. While driving, I was looking at the clouds and saw a heart in the sky. The picture above is the picture I took on Friday. What is amazing about this instance of looking at the clouds is that right before I saw this heart, I saw clearly the capital letter “I”. My first thought was that the next word I would see after the heart would be “you,” meaning that the message would be “I <3 you.” My inclination was that God was saying that He loved me and loves this world. Although I never saw the end of this sentence, it made me think of everyone and everything that I love. I love God and Jesus; I love my boyfriend; I love my family; I love the beauty of this world. To me, it is amazing to look up into the clouds when I am feeling down to see an encouraging or funny image and know that God is giving me a sign that everything will be ok and that He has a sense of humor.

When looking at these big, white, fluffy clouds with a bright blue sky, I am happy and thinking positive about life, even without seeing a recognizable shape in the sky. The color and texture of a cloud affect a person’s mood about the day. In this instance, people want to be outside in the sun at the beach. It is overall a good day usually. However when the clouds start to turn grey, people anticipate a storm coming. Their mood changes to not so good. When a storm comes and the clouds are dark grey, people want to be inside and lazy. Their mood changes to feeling lethargic and sleepy. But once the dark storm clouds roll away, people tend to hope for a salvageable sunny day. Once we see a rainbow and the clouds clear or new white clouds stroll through, our hope of good weather is guaranteed.

For the last several days, I have been fascinated with the beauty of the clouds and the deep blue of the sky. My challenge for you all is to look at the sky and see what images you can see in the clouds. If there are no recognizable ones, can you remember an amazing or unbelievable image that you have seen in the clouds? Do these pictures have any significance to what you are facing in life? How do the clouds make you feel? How do the figures make you feel and think about?

The Open Road

I have spent the last week or so trying to come up with a good topic for this blog post, and up until yesterday had absolutely no clue what I was going to write about. I decided to open up our Beyond Words book and try to find an article that interested me, and that I could write a blog about. After a few minutes I came across one of the clusters that we talked about in class a while back entitled Roads We Travel. This cluster focuses on experiences that people have when traveling on long road trips. It explains that many people are affected by road trips in different ways and that road trips can mean a variety of different things to an individual.

The article uses college kids as an example for the kinds of people that may take long road trips to different places. Of course when most of us think of road trips we think of driving somewhere for spring break, or some other vacation. The article says that many people our age view road trips as a rite of passage and that they symbolize our transition from kids to adults. It also mentions how there have been many movies made that use the idea of road trips as their plot. The movie Road Trip is used as a specific example.

However another part of the cluster consists of several articles that talk about a deeper meaning to the idea of road trips. These articles include, The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck, On the Road, by Jack Kerouac, and On My Road, by Holland Cotter. They focus more on how the road shapes us and how it makes us who we are. For instance, John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, talks about the journey that many people had to make across the country in order to find jobs and have better lives during the 1930's. Then, in Holland Cotter's On My Road, he talks about what he experienced while driving through America during the 1950's, when the United States was being torn apart by racism.

So, my questions for everybody is what are some of the things that you have experienced while taking a road trip? Is there a particular road trip that is memorable to you? If so where did you go and what made it so memorable?

No More Dinosaurs or Dancing in New York City Tests

          We have all heard of at least one controversial book that parents or educators disliked so it became banned. When I was in seventh grade this one book was banned because it was too direct about female puberty. The book was about this thirteen year old girl that was going through what every girl goes through and at one point needed to buy her first bra and she talked about having crushes on boys and all those weird things girls like in middle school. This one mom believed that the book was too graphic for her son. First off, why would her son read about a girl going through puberty?  Secondly, everything mentioned in the book and more her son would learn when the nurses would come every year to teach us our yearly sex education class. So this is about a book and other books have gone through the same scrutiny but did you ever think “loaded” words other than curse words or derogatory terms would be banned from an educational system?

Well, the city of New York has developed a very long and interesting list of words they believe should be banned from the city’s standardized test. They have decided to create a list because they believe some words may evoke feelings that my upset certain students from certain backgrounds, demographics, or religious beliefs. The city of New York does defend its odd actions by saying that they are not the first to do this. They state that California avoids using the word “weed” in their test (like any state would talk about weed in a standardized test) and Florida avoids using the words “hurricanes” and “wildfires.” The only difference between these two states and New York is that New York has created a list with 50 words including words such as religion, politics, and dinosaurs! When asked by reporters why dinosaurs were being banned they casually replied that dinosaurs brings to mind evolution and may upset fundamentalist. Even though I thought standardized test could not get any worse, New York City students are going to have extremely boring standardized test.

Here are some of the words being banned:

·         Abuse (physical, sexual, emotional, or psychological)

·         Alcohol (beer and liquor), tobacco, or drugs

·         Birthday celebrations (and birthdays)

·         Bodily functions

·         Cancer (and other diseases)

·         Catastrophes/disasters (tsunamis and hurricanes)

·         Celebrities

·         Children dealing with serious issues

·         Cigarettes (and other smoking paraphernalia)

·         Computers in the home (acceptable in a school or library setting)

·         Crime

·         Death and disease

·         Divorce

·         Evolution (Dinosaurs)

·         Expensive gifts, vacations, and prizes

·         Gambling involving money

·         Halloween

·         Homelessness

·         Homes with swimming pools

·         Hunting

·         Junk food

·         In-depth discussions of sports that require prior knowledge

·         Loss of employment

·         Nuclear weapons

·         Occult topics (i.e. fortune-telling)

·         Parapsychology

·         Politics

·         Pornography

·         Poverty

·         Rap Music

·         Religion

·         Religious holidays and festivals (including but not limited to Christmas, Yom Kippur, and Ramadan)

·         Rock-and-Roll music

·         Running away

·         Sex

·         Slavery

·         Terrorism

·         Television and video games (excessive use)

·         Traumatic material (including material that may be particularly upsetting such as animal shelters)

·         Vermin (rats and roaches)

·         Violence

·         War and bloodshed

·         Weapons (guns, knives, etc.)

·         Witchcraft, sorcery, etc.

Do you think that the city of New York has a valid point in banning these words? Could keeping these words possibly cause some type of obstruction to the test taking skills of students? Comment away.