My oh my, the (invisible) blogs from this quarter... (fav blog post)

So the year is wrapping up and that thought goes through me head: blogs.

As we started junior theme I was told that we should be doing a blog about junior theme now, and somehow that translated to the fact that we didn't need to do as many blogs, even though I knew I was wrong. As the month of April continued on I was the most busy I'd been in a long time. Junior theme, plus busy in other classes, plus lots and lots of skating going on. After forgetting one week, the pattern went on. It saddens me because I really liked blogging, and I wish I had been a better student and remembered, however I was not, and I am very sorry for that.

So I guess my favorite blog is my most recent. Yes it is really the only real blog I have, but I still like it a lot. When I started writing it I didn't realize the depth I would go and as I was writing and researching it was fun for me to do that research and learn and connect it to ideas we have talked about throughout the year.

Blogging this year has been a fun new experience. I've never kept a constant blog before and it really taught me consistancy and focus, or at least how much is needed. I felt myself listening to the news more, and critically thinking about the world around me, even as my consistancy in blogging went downhill. I'm really glad we did blogging this year, because even though I myself wasn't completely able to keep up, I know many people were and I still learned from it and had a lot of fun.

PHEW. I think that was longest "favorite blog post" ever.

Disappearing Diversity (LOST)

As we have been talking about in class throughout the year, heightening with Mr Bolos's "TV Tokenism", there is a prominent issue of race in television. We talked about the TV show LOST and how it started out with this huge diversity of characters, a very powerful and good part of the show, but as it came to the end all the ethnic characters had been killed off and all the white people were left.

In my ventures to watch the anticipated LOST series finale, there was a little "pre-show" lets call it. The "pre-show" had the two writers and some of the actors/actresses talking and reflecting upon their experiences. A huge part of this pre-show was to explain how diverse and amazing the cast was, how they had been flown in from so many places and represented so many people. The writers however failed to mention the fact that they killed off all these characters. Obviously the fact that they started out so "diverse" made them think that they had done their job and could now kill them all off so they can play with their more "relatable" characters, as Mr Bolos talked about with the "key audience".

The even more interesting part to me was hearing the actors and actresses real accents. For example, Naveen Andrews played Sayid, a former Iraqi torturer. In the TV show Sayid is given an Iraqi accent, yet in real life he has a very strong British accent. This completely shocked me. Here I was on the show, taking him by appearance and believing this accent, yet the "diversity" is all just created by the false accent. As I researched Naveen Andrews I found out another interesting fact: he is actually of Indian decent, not Iraqi. Again, here I was believing the false Iraqi background and accent and they actually took a British man of Indian decent. 
Also, Jin, played by Daniel Dae Kim, is an American born actor who actually had to learn Korean, and fake his Korean-American accent. And his Korean is apparently so bad that he is laughed at by native Koreans (although this is a "fact" from my father, so it's not completely trustworthy).

As I researched these actors I realized a very interesting thing. Even if a show looks diverse, it's not necessarily what it seems. Yes, American shows are going to have American actors, but it can be quite deceiving when actually watching a show. You don't realize that the, say, Chinese people on your American TV show are just barely fumbling over their new basic Chinese skills, or that the Italian on your show is faking an Italian accent and is actually from Canada.

And the writing begins...

So we started writing. Eek.
I initially was having a lot of trouble just getting started because I couldn't figure out a thesis. Mostly I couldn't figure out what to do about the "sex education" part of my paper. I encountered so many different opinions that I couldn't quite find substantial evidence for one side. I'm still kinda working on that...

Now as our body paragraphs, or newly termed "paragraph blocs", are starting I'm starting with the media portion of my essay and will later rearrange. However, I'm having difficulty deciding what my different paragraphs in my "bloc" are going to be about. I was originally going to separate the media into, obviously, different types of influencing media like TV or movies or music, etc. Yet I was starting to feel a trend in how they each effected the teenagers and figured maybe I could organize my paragraphs that way. But as I started to focus on it that way, the lines between the ideas were very blurred and I realized I think I still need more sources. Yay more researching!
Which creates a question of mine:
How many sources should we have in each paragraph? And can those sources be repeated within the paragraph blocs?

So that's my issue of the moment, and I hope I can start to figure it out tonight as I rewrite a bit.

JT: Interview yay!

So in my last blog post I was thinking about emailing Nicole Lynn Lewis, and since then I have emailed her, she has emailed me back, I have emailed her, and she has emailed me back! Yay!
She seems incredibly nice and willingly to talk to me so I'm very excited. I have another possible interview-y person but now that I have her I don't really need to worry about it! (Unless this is a total fail, hope not!)

Now what I need to do is think of some questions to ask her. Since she was a teen mother herself I'll probably asked some questions about that, but I don't want to get too personal. I'll probably ask her general my own why question to see if she has any of her own opinions. Or I could get specific and ask what she thinks about certain sex-ed programs, or TV shows. So I'm trying to brainstorm quick enough so I can be ready for her next email! She emails back fast! Wow!

She did write a book but I don't think I'll read it or completely ask about it because I haven't read it (awkward if she asks if I have...eek) just because he situation was unfortunately more complex. But we'll see what happens!

Oh Junior Theme....

(Topic: Teen Pregnancy)
So I thought it was about time I posted a blog about the JT. Unfortunately you all missed my many confusions and changes about what I was going to research but that's ok, and it's my fault for not posting. Oops.
Right now I'm trying to figure out how to write an introduction. I have a pretty good start on some research, although I'd like a lot more. But I have time for that...I think? There is a lot of articles out there about abstinence programs and it's own history but I need more than just that. I have gathered a lot of information of types of sex education, some about media influences, and ideas about parenting and peer pressure. I've also been looking into religion it's not as convincing in my opinion.

For the media section I really want to watch something like "16 & Pregnant" or "Teen Mom". There are so many shows out there about pregnant teenagers. There is also "The Secret Life of the American Teenager". But since I don't watch any of these shows regularly I wouldn't know where to start so I'm holding off on that for right now. There is also the movie "Juno" and the lifetime movie "Pregnancy Pact" which I wanted to use for peer pressure as well. 

Also. For a potential interview I found a woman named Nicole Lynn Lewis in my CQ Researcher Article. She is a former teen mother and advocates for the cause. She also wrote a memoir about her struggles. A book called Glori. I feel she would be great because of her personal background and willingness to talk about the topic. However, she lives in Maryland.

3rd Quarter Blog!

My favorite blog post this quarter was probably "All Around Knowledge". I like that I took what we talked about in class and continued the discussion on my own blog. As I continued the discussion in this blog, I brought up the fact that just because the world may be filled with problems does not mean we necessarily need a "problem-solving-brain". In my mind problems have two different approaches and in order to find the best solution we need both approaches. The logical, and the creative. Starting our Junior Theme now in class I came upon a book in the library that talked about how the right brain (the more creative brain) is starting to take more dominane than the left brain has in the past. I immediately thought of this discussion and my blog post about how creative brains are very much needed in the world. It seems counter-intuitive with such a technology based upcoming world, but if you think about it technology really is creativity. And thats where the two collide and create the best possible solution. (As I explained briefly in my blog post)

Privacy vs. Security

We all heard about the possibility of having a "full-body scan"at airports but we never thought the day would come. Or maybe did think it would. But either way, the day HAS come. And it has reached O'Hare airport.


The scanner has caused some controversy between people as all new additions usually do. These scanners are designed to find hard to detect explosives but producing an x-ray of the entire body of someone within seconds. The picture that comes from it is almost like a naked picture and a passenger, quoted in an AOL article, says "I feel violated knowing they can see under my clothes, I'm a very modest person". There is an option to be patted down by a TSA agent, but most people would rather be scanned then touched and felt over by some officer. A CNN article gives a counter argument for the privacy saying that, "This system uses a pair of security officers. The one working the machine never sees the image, which appears on a computer screen behind closed doors elsewhere; and the remotely located officer who sees the image never sees the passenger". Yet this article still address the issue of privacy. The idea that the technology can really do more than they say it can, and more.


As I finished reading the second article I came across a comment that is something I always think about when relating to security, "It's stupid to spend money so terrorists can change plans". When we bring more security to airports then terrorists will either just work to find new ways around the system, or just find other places to attack and more creative, confusing ways at that. As we get smarter, they do too. Its a confusing concept, and very scary.


What do you think about the scanners? Do you feel violated? Is the security worth it?

Can there be TOO many advertisements?

In class we have been talking about advertisements and how they affect our world and our choices. The country Russia came up in the conversation of almost no advertisements. Both my teacher and another student commented on how different and weird it felt to not have any advertisements. Daniel Boostin commented on how being back in the United States was a relief. He explained, "the flourishing of advertising then is a clue to the increasing opportunities for choice" compared to no opportunities for choice.

Yet, when I thought of a world filled with advertisements (well even more than the present) I not only cringed, I began to be skeptical. What if everything everywhere was advertised? Would their even be a need for advertisements?Advertisements in my head make certain products stand out, or at least make them known to you. But with too many my brain would be too bombarded with too many products and in my present mind, I'd feel they'd just all cancel each other out. How could I make my choices if every single choice was screaming in my face? As I think of the world to come I try to imagine what will become of all the advertisements and what new (and potentially scary) ways advertisers approach us next. What do you think?

Modern Marriage

This weekend I saw the school's play "Thoroughly Modern Millie", twice. Millie has come to New York, ready for a new "modern" life. After learning about the 20's in class, it was interesting to see the play and recognize things. The younger girls in the play all wear flapper-type dresses and go out to party at speak-easies. Millie also has this "plan" in mind. What she swears is the "modern way". She plans to marry her boss, so to marry rich, claiming love comes later. She claims a "modern girl takes charge of her life". In the end she is persuaded by love, but she spoke so strongly of the plan, even referring back to "Vogue" where she read about it.

I found it interesting once again how view points and life changed so rapidly around the 20s for women. The 1920s was a decade starting to be run by business and then Millie refers to marriage as a "business arrangement". So as the nation changed, viewpoints changed. This made me think of how women see marriage today. I found myself debating against myself. I'd like to think that people are more romantic and marry for love but then I thought about "gold diggers" and "cougars" and those sorts. 

How do you see marriage today? What you'd like it to be, or what it is in reality? How has it changed?

Who needs drugs when we have video games?

So, cracked.com. I could do a blogpost all about that site, it's great, read it. But, I'm just going to talk about an article I found on it, or rather, my sister found and showed me. It's scary and whether it is completely true or not, it all makes sense. Anywho:

Poll: How many of you have played video games before?
How many of you are addicted to at least one?
Ok, so maybe this isn't the best time to be asking this question to my fellow 4 level high school students, but you get the point. I'm sure you know someone who is/was obsessed with some type of game. 
This article is entitled 5 Creepy Ways Video Games Are Trying to Get You Addicted, and reading these ways I just cringe inside, because they are so true. I could go on about all the ways but I would never do them justice. I would just read the article if I were you, you will get amusement (and fear) out of it.

What I'm really getting at is how scary this is. I have found myself addicted to certain games, repetitive and boring, yet still pulled into them, and I know plenty of people who have addictions. The way these games are crafted to keep you coming back for more, to keep you going, that there are scientists just for this job. The science of gaming addiction. I'm not kidding. It's ridiculous. Games no longer care if someone buys their game and never plays it. It now feeds into the internet, and real money. There are games that require real money to be sent in to do certain tasks, receive a certain "golden key" that will open a "special door". These types of ploys are everywhere, and people soak them right up.

Yet getting at my title, video games are just as dangerous as drugs. It's true. The article links to another article about a couple starving their own child, and there have been more deaths associated with video games as well. People coop themselves up in rooms all alone, addicted to their fictional friends, or their online friends. And they think they're fine. People need real connections to the world, and without these they can find themselves cut off, depressed, only feeling better when back int heir games. Thus, the viscous cycle continues.

You there! Go make a living!

Today Mr. O'Connor talked about what it means to "make a living", a very common phrase used around our society. It is usually meant to describe what someone's does when they get a job and start making money. The focus here on money. Then Mr. O'Connor asked what was our definition of "making a living". 

Interested in what the images on the interwebs would portray, I typed in "make a living" into Google images. Most images did not have much to do with what I was talking about, but what I found with the few that did was the common theme of money. It makes sense, even to me, to think about "making a living" as "getting money", but when I grow up and "make a living" I'd really stick a different definition to that. And most likely not even use that phrase. The idea that I am just "making" this life sounds like I am taking a recipe out of a generic cookbook.

1. Go to school

2. Get a degree

3. Get a job

4. Make money

5. Start a family

6. Make more money

7. Retire

I am all for the idea of life being a "construction", but I feel like the construction is very individualized. My "making a living" would include getting a degree, finding a good job, but the manner at which it is done seems different than this robotic idea. If I take a year to relax, to do something that interests me; or if I am interested in something with little job opportunities and am just happy the way I am, so be it; or if I go out of order of this original "recipe", that's that. And I believe that's how many people I know think. What do we strive for? Well happiness of course! But the pressure is on from society for us to just go and"make a living!" It can't be that hard, right? But with the pre-determined connotations it brings it makes our mindset stuck on that one item, money. If we don't have money, we are not successful people. 

Which I do not find true at all.

All Around Knowledge

In class today we talked about giving money to the Arts and how we feel about that in an economically depressed nation, as ours is right now. For me, I would support that. I feel that having knowledge and exposure to the Arts actually supplements one's knowledge and can only help that person. Without the exposure of Arts we'd probably be a less developed world.

I think that learning about using creative energy and actually utilizing that creative energy is healthy for our bodies. As science has showed (also reference to what Ruchi said today), the right brain contributes more creative thoughts, while the left brain is a logical thinker. To only be using one side of your brain doesn't sound like a very good idea does it? I agree with the fact that murals and music can help boost someone's feelings but I really think that without learning to use the creative part of our brains we would not understand much of the logic we understand today. Solving problems is not always logical. Sometimes we need to come at them in a different, more creative way. Cutting out that creative side would slow down progress, even scientific "logic-based" progress enormously.

....Netbooks?

So I was going to blog about how these small cute Netbooks take up all our class time starting up, but it took so long to start up that I now have to shut it down and have no time. Shame.

The Olympics: More Danger!

Watching the Olympics my heart goes out to my own sport, synchronized skating, one that has not been admitted to the Olympics. Yet. But I am not here to advocate for the sport, even though I would very much like it to become part of the Olympics. I'm here to talk about what people look for in the Olympics. And that, is danger.

Sure, there are sports that are not very dangerous, but they have been around in the Olympics for much longer periods of time. But if you look back in time, more recently in that, you think about what excites people about the Olympics. Yes, team USA winning gold is most definitely exciting, but what else do you remember? Injuries and death. And when we watch, what do we talk about? That's right, who fell and hurt themselves, or maybe just who had a really epic fall. You may disagree with me, even I know that we watch the Olympics for other reasons as well, but we all know deep down that this is correct. On the women's downhill skiing slope, it was so icy that many women fell, very intense falls. The next day at school, that was ALL people were talking about. Before the Olympics even started, a luge athlete died. I hadn't even processed the Olympics were starting until I heard about the guy dying while practicing on the Olympics course.

So why did I introduce my own sport? Synchronized skating is being debated this summer on whether or not it will become part of the Olympics. As I looked online for opinions of this, the first article I clicked on showed me exactly what I have been arguing above. The author first talks about the history of synchronized skating, and how it is much different than people would expect, and much more difficult, but then the article turns to a personal experience. The experiences turn to injury, a calf being sliced open, fingers almost sliced off, and all these girls hopping right back into their program to finished what they started. People cringe as they hear this type of experience, the exact type of cringe you want when you watch the Olympics. As the author goes on to describe more experiences, all they talk about is the dangers and high speeds the skaters go at. And then concludes that it should become an Olympic sport on that knowledge alone.

In my mind I'd want to be advocating for Synchro in the Olympics because of the difficulty of it and the strength of the athletes, but instead I'm forced to use the apparently stronger argument of the high speeds teams go at, the high likely hood of crashes during intersections, the many slashes a blade has done to human flesh, and the dangerous lifts that higher teams do.

Discrimination Commercial

I just finished watching LOST, and as a little experiment I decided to count how many African American people showed up in the commercials. In class we talked about commercials a little while back, how they've changed, and how they are constructed to get people to want the product. Our big discussion on kids and toys.

As I watched I counted 40 commercials, give or take a few. The amount of people in the commercials? Way too many to count. The percent of the people who appeared African American? Very little. There were maybe 22 appearances, 10 of which were part of another show being advertised and the others were put in places normally associated with the lower class. There were gangsters, a barber shop owner, and a factory worker. I've always been aware of an unbalance but watching more intently I really realized the impact it has. People design commercials to relate to the average person, so they can reach and convince the most people possible. Watching the smiling, thoughtful, decidedly average people with their "white" skin color I realized that even watching TV African American people are discriminated against and given bad symbols for who they are supposed to be. Under that notion, should we ban commercials? Of course that can't happen, but it makes me wonder why people don't see the problem in this type of discrimination.

Legos! And Growing Up

As I finished my homework tonight (yay!) I thought I should entertain myself with something fun. What did my brain go to? Why, Legos of course! Well, maybe not of course, but seeing as my family knows and loves me all too well for my dorkiness I had received some Legos for Channukah. And not just any Legos, oh no, Spongbob Legos--complete with the Krusty Krab and all. *feels lame*

As I sat in our living room reading the instructions and carefully placing each piece where it belonged I thought of the list we put together in class about imagination driven games versus toy driven games. When I was younger I had a mix of both. Certain friends sparked the creative side of me, fairytales, animals, house, etc, while other friends brought out my MyLittlePony sets. As I thought back I remembered all the fun I had as a kid with my imaginary games, dressing up, running around, being a kid, the freedom it created. Then I brought myself back to reality. I'm a teenager. We don't "do", "imaginary". If we ever have time what are we playing? Wii, Xbox, iPod music dance party, assorted acceptable board games maybe, etc. A lot of these ideas come from our generation growing up with new technology as well. When have you gone up to a friend of yours and said, "Hey, let's play fairies!" That's right, never. Maybe once. Maybe you have friends like that, I'm not judging (Spongebob Lego girl here), but the majority?

I know the class discussion was about "childhood" but it still brought me to the aspect of "playtime" or as the term grows up,"hanging out time" or "friend time" and how we distribute our time and energy to bond with our friends.
What do you do with your friends? How do you think new technology has interfered with the bonds of friends?

Viscious Verizon

Do you remember the old Verizon commercials? "Can you hear me now?" Does it ring a bell now? Do you remember old AT&T commercials? With the iPhone indistry taking over Veirzon is fighting back. And it's fighting back hard, yet very cleverly.

Recently on TV there has been a very visual war between Verizon and AT&T. Verizon showed AT&T as having a very uncovered map of coverage, only to be sued by AT&T because of misrepresenting their "3G coverage". So Verizon just stuck the words "3G coverage" on the map, and continued on. AT&T created their own map, and using the actor Luke Wilson, threw postcards over visually almost all of the nation showing their "coverage", being sneaky of course. But then Verizon came out with something I find very clever, "There's a map for that". Using Apple's words of "There's an app for that", they created a commerical to HURT the iPhone, with the same ring to the phrase meant to HELP the iPhone.

I do personally have an iPhone, but I have nothing against Verizon, being a customer there myself before switching to AT&T to be with the rest of my family. Watching Verizon's commercials I have to give them credit. But I also have to cringe at the immense hate flowing through them. It's a lot of effort put into a commercial, and it reminds me of the Geico commercials. They are genius. Simple, but fun. But yet, it makes me sad, does anyone know anyone you actually has Geico? I hope so.

There's a map for that! --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZPjJI0K7Bk 

I just looked back at the two logos and realized something: how different they are. AT&T has a sphere, rounded shapes and text, and blue and white logo. While Verizon has a check mark, straight lined shapes and text, and a red and black logo. Strickingly different. What do you make of that?

RUSH!

Many people go to colleges hoping and dreaming to become part of a soroity or a fraternity. They are thought of as the epitome of college party life. The "in crowd", the only way to make friends. My sister has recently transfered colleges and has decided to try out this whole idea of soroities. I never thought of her as a soroity girl, but then I realized that colleges have tried to change this now.

There are 12 sororities at her school and everyone of them claims there is a "sorority for everyone". That each sorority has a different type of girl, creating a nice clique and friendship circle. There are even just charity sororities. Well this is all well and good I really wonder if that's true. My sister is undergoing her week of rush right now, where she goes to all these parties, meets people, and tries to showcase herself as someone the soroity would want. After each day of partying each girl is either invited back to a soroity or not. As I hear, apparently the first invite back should be between 6-8 sororities. I don't know too much about the process but to me, there must be many, many girls there. All trying to be there best. Be fun, inviting people. And in ONE day the girls already in the soroity can go back (after the party) and decide which girls they will invite back? It's like RUSH! show me who you are in....*uhh I have 2 minutes with this girl* 2 minutes of awkward talking! Go! The girls have one night to show if they have a personality fit for the soroity. One night. Unless they get invited back that is. Too me, that's too soon.

I haven't asked my sister much about what's going on, but my mom explained to me that she was told "not to talk to the press". The press? I didn't realize this was such a pressing issue for the press. But even then, the bigger question here is why? For secret reasons that is. This whole process is suppsed to be very secretive and mysterious. Which brings the soroities back to looking like cliquey groups of friends who dont talk to anyone else but the people in their soroity. Now I know this isn't true but this whole idea still interests me. It almost makes me want to rush a soroity just to see what craziness goes on! Or if there even IS craziness.

What do you know about sororities/fraternities? Sibling part of one, want to be part of one (and why)?

The Big Hungry Bear

When thinking about secret messages in children's books I automatically went to one of my favorite books that I can remember, The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear. It's a simple picture book. No more than big pages and big text with not many words but it says a lot.

The idea of the book is *spoiler alert!* that a little mouse finds a strawberry only to be told by the narrator of a Big Hungry Bear who wants the strawberry and that there is nothing the mouse can do to hide the strawberry or disguise it. The book has the narrator constantly telling the mouse that his plans to hide the strawberry from the Big Hungry Bear will never work and the only solution is to share the strawberry with the narrator. We never actually see this so-called "bear" in the book so we don't even know if it really exists.

After re-reading this short picture book I realized that there could be many hidden messages. Each character (or fruit) can represent many things. There is the narrator who scares the mouse and eventually gets the strawberry, there is the idea of what the strawberry could represent, and there is the Big Hungry Bear who we dont even know if it exists or not. Sadly, my first instinct when reading this again for secret messages was the government. There is the citizen mouse with his new money he has earned, being told by the government that he needs to share it (give taxes) or he will be hunted down. Now, I'm probably reading too much into it, but you never know.

The book was most likely intended to teach children about the quailities of sharing but there is also a protectiveness. You need to protect what's yours. Or it might be taken away.

What do you think these characters (plus fruit) could represent? There are so many options and ideas that could be read into.