Every year before the holidays
everyone seems to be scurrying around trying to find the perfect decorations,
gifts, and food in order to have a wonderful Christmas with their families. In
my eyes, simply having my family with me all together on that one day means the
world to me. I mean of course the presents and food is great to have too, but
when everyone gets together on Christmas day nothing else seems to matter. With
Grandma and Aunt Shelly knitting in the living room, the little ones playing
out in the snow, and the others playing Pictionary in the kitchen there is
nowhere else in the world I would rather be. Every Christmas my family and I
head up to Brainerd for the week until New Years comes around. Every other year
my Cousins from Texas take a two-day trip to visit us up here in
Minnesota. The seven of them stay at my
family’s guest cabin on Horseshoe Lake for the week that they are here. It is
such a special treat for us to have them come up here because we all get along
so well and we really have a great time together. On this side I have a total
of 12 cousins including Lilyanna, a fairly new addition to our family. There is
never a time where we feel bored when we are all together. This year, our
Christmas is going to be very different considering my much-loved uncle passed
away in the spring. It has been a rough 8 months for us all but he is always in
our hearts and prayers and his joyful humorous spirit will stay with us
forever.
When the big day finally comes we
all head over to grandmas house for a dinner/lunch (linner) of prime rib and
potatoes. At Night all of us go to a movie late at night as a Christmas
tradition. Throughout the week we usually spend our time at the cabin
snowmobiling, sledding, and snowboarding in the yard and because I only get to
see my cousins twice every other year, I always stay up late with them every
night. Even though it may not be the best idea, it is still worth it. I hope
that this Christmas will be filled with joy for everyone and that everyone can
get the chance to spend some time with his or her families. Merry Christmas
Everyone!
Narration
The day after I failed my first Biology test, I promised myself that I would change. Change my study habits, change my grades, and change myself. Little did I know, it would be a lot harder than I thought. After a few days of changing my study habits I realized that this wasn't going to work. I was bending over back and staying up late for things that didn't even make a great impact on my grade. I knew that what I was doing was right, but I just couldn't keep it up. "From now on," I told myself, "I am going to take it in moderation". I decided that changing that soon was not the best thing for me to do at the time. I feel that over the years, I have changed the way I study but still not to the point that I want.
Description
The scrunchy, slimy green cattepillar scooted along the stick inch by inch wondering when he was going to be ready for mother nature to take his body and transform it into a magnificent winged creature. When the creature became full grown he cozied himself upside down on a branch and waited for the chrysalis to encase his body fully. About ten days did it take for the caterpillar to awake from his slumber. Breaking apart from the chrysalis emerged a magnificent creature, wings spread apart, long legs stretched out. Now its time to take flight.
Comparison/Contrast/Argumentative
The difference between staying the same and changing is that when you change is simply that your different. The answer is in the question. Nancy Mairs once thought her life was over after she was diagnosed with multiple sclerocis, but one day she realized that if she didnt change she was going to live the rest of her shortened life very terribly. Once she realized that she was going to die sooner than she thought, she decided to spice up her life and come into terms that she was going to die. She ended up being okay with the way she was and she now is living life to the fullest.
Process Analysis
Asking someone to change is like asking someone to finish a 10 page paper in one night. Its nearly impossible. The process takes some time. First you have to make the person aware of the problem that has come up. Without them knowing the problem, there is no way that they can fix it. Often times venting to someone about your problems and issues helps a great deal. That way you can get advice as to what you need to do to fix it. This tends to come in handy with anyone. It is scientifically proven that the mind and body feels better after talking to someone when you are feeling down. It helps release stress. Next you need to do some self evaluation. This way you can contemplate what changing can do to make you feel better. Check to see what other goals you can achieve in life by changing. The last step in changing is making sure that you can make that change. It is necessary for you to believe in yourself in order to make the change needed. Once you have this process down, you will be one step closer to making your change.
Division of Analysis
In order to change, one has to know the three different types of change. The three most known types of change are developmental, transitional, and transformational. In order to change, one has to know the different types of change. Developmental is when you recognize the need for change. Instead of starting from scratch, you are just refining yourself you make it better. Transitional is when you realize you need to take on a completely new course of action. Transformational change is something you cant control as much as the others. A new process creates itself as a result of the failure of another. It is usually not planned.
Cause and Effect
Many things, good or bad, can happen after you change. If you were once the nicest person in the school and something inside you snaps, this could be very bad. You then find yourself alone in the world wondering why you changed. If you were once the bitch of the class, then come back the next year as the sweetheart, you are going to end up making a lot of new friends and everyone is going to want to be with you. Depending on what you are changing from, you never know what the consequences are going to be. Good and bad things will always come from change. It also depends on the person whom you are talking to.
Definition
Instead of having many different meanings like any other normal word, change is the exception with really only one meaning. Change simply is to become different. You could be giving a completely different form or appearance to something or you could be changing on the inside instead of out.
Ever since my mom was a teenager she has been under constant stress from depression. Depression runs in the family on my moms side and almost every family member out of seven has it. Throughout the years, we have good days and bad days. I don't know if many people know this but when you put many people with clinical depression in the same room with the same situation, it is not pretty. When your in your worst mood, you need others to help you and support you. You need them to be there for you. So when the whole family is like this, everyone needs help and no one can give it so things start to get worse.
I remember this one specific moment with my mom when I was about 14 when she was in a very bad state. It was the winter, and as you know, in the winter we do not get very much sun (when you are depressed you need the sun to be out to keep you warm and to give you nutrients to be happy) and my mom was going through a lot. My parents were fighting, my brother was not doing very well in school, and my mom and I were fighting a great deal also. My mom was lying in her bed after a fight with my dad over something ridiculous like it always is and I was upset with something else in my room. I was in desperate need of my mother at that time so I went in to go talk to her. Little did I know, she was in her room upset about the fight, so we were both in there crying to each other knowing that we couldn't help each other. Once my brother heard me and my mom crying he came upstairs to see what was up. (My brother has always been the one to settle the fights and make people feel better in our family and I really look up to him and admire him for that). Once I was done sharing why I was upset it was my moms turn. This is when I realized that something was extremely wrong. I had never seen my mom so upset before. I didn't know what was wrong and why she was acting that way. Then I heard them, the stabbing words that cut deep into my heart pouring out of her mouth.
"The only reason why I am still alive, is because of you guys, my children."
Those words really hit me hard. After that sentence came out I realized that I really needed to step up in this family and help out a lot more. My brother was leaving for college soon and I was the only one who understood my mom at the time. I needed to take control and help my mom out as much as possible.
My mom has been getting help everyday from many people and she is slowly making progress and I always try to be there for her when I can. It does get tough at some times but we are strong enough to get through this and we have so many people that are willing to help us out. Being in this situation for a large part of my life has really taught me many things. I feel as if I am an independent strong person and it has made me realize that I need to put others before myself and make sacrifices for others.
I wanted to show how much food we get in America compared to Africa first then show all of the good food that we waste in America that could go to the kids in Africa. If you cant eat that much food, then don't put that much on your plate. Next I show a bunch of starving children from Africa to make people feel bad. I was thinking about adding something about the organization Feed My Starving Children but I thought that might be too much to put into my video and people would start to get confused. The message that would go along with Feed My Starving Children is that If you are not going to eat all of your food and you are going to waste it, go to this organization to help feed millions of kids around the world that don't get much to eat.
While thinking about what I wanted to do my project on I knew that I wanted to send the students a good message. Instead of showing them information, I wanted to make an argument that would make the students see the bad side of my topic so that they would take my side. The pictures that I used have negative connotation so that the bad side can be projected more. I feel like my video is easy to understand and will help my audience see it from my perspective so that they can take my side.
Everyone has passion, whether or not it lasts a long time or not, it always takes over a part of us somehow. Passion is taking that first bite into the rich double chocolate cake, its taking your first step onto that baseball field. Passion is falling in love, unfortunately, it doesn't last. When passion takes over your life, you would do anything, you would give up everything for your emotions. Its the best feeling you will ever experience. Once its gone, you don't think you could ever go through the same thing again. Passion can bring joy, happiness, pain, confusion, and even fear. In Ancient Greek terms passion [(πάσχω)(paskho)] means to suffer, and we find that passion can make us suffer at times too. Why is it that whenever we find something we love, we always have to lose it? Well the truth is, if you have passion for something, the passion will die down and things will start to go down hill. Little do we know, this is the beauty of passion. Once the passion dies down and things start to go wrong, we should know that it will pass and the real love will start to take toll. As passion goes down, love begins to get stronger.
Now there is a tricky side to passion. It can fool you into thinking your in love, and once you start to lose it, all you want to do is give up. Overcoming this is the hardest part. Because passion is so strong it causes us to think in ways we never have. This is why we find ourselves changing over time. Or are we not changing? Maybe we are going back to the way we were before, Maybe the passion was changing us and now that its gone, we go back to the normal person we were once before it took over. We will never fully understand what passion does to us or what we are capable of but we will always be put under its spell, whether we like it or not.
My mother has always been seen as very liberal and the person who always lets me do whatever I want. She is a very nice, sweet and easy going person but she does know how to lay down the law. To be honest, I think she has the perfect amount of rules in the house. In my opinion, I think that she is doing a wonderful job raising me and even though I do make mistakes, it does not mean that it was her fault. I am in total control of what I do and if i make one mistake, it does not mean that I as brought up the wrong way. When others say that they don't think that my mother raised me the right way because of her rules, it infuriates me because she actually raised me very well. When parents are too uptight and never let their kids out of the house, that's when you have to worry. The child is going to want to rebel. That is not always the case but usually it is what happens. I have no feelings of rebellion ever and I believe that is because my parents taught me right. I know it is different for everyone, but if it works for your child, then raise them that way. Also my mom is always there for me when I need her and is so incredibly smart and loving. She is also the perfect amount of crazy and silly. She teaches me something new everyday. My mother is by far the person I look up to the most and I am so lucky to have someone like her in my life.
Everything you have heard about teenagers is basically true, we party hardy, fall in love, sleep all day, but really in the end, we just stink; we're messed up.I mean come on guys, take 5 minutes out of your day to actually take a shower. No one wants to smell the wet dog and leftover pizza stains on your clothing. Before you know it, you will have all the animals crawling after you like a dead rodent on the side of a road. Yep its that bad. Just do us all a favor and stay home. Cant I just go see a movie with my girls and not pass out from the people in there? Well maybe you just went through a break up or maybe you dont have enough stamina to get yourself off the couch every once in a while because your broke, fat, and you cant get a job, but like a good friend of mine would say "Get your sh*t together man!" If you keep this up, everyone will catch your drift, if you know what I mean ;)
Dont let this be you and do the right thing. Take a shower. If you cant help it, stay home.
Bauerlein, an English professor at Emory University uses the book The Dumbest Generation to, shall we say "slam" the new generation. Pretty much he is saying that we are stupid kids who don't know how to use our time wisely and we are too caught up in the newest technology of our time to realize what is really happening in this world. Personally, and I think I speak for all of us teens that this book is a dis to all in this society. Its preposterous! Okay well maybe it is a little true, but to those who are the total opposite, and i know there are many out there, this book is just a way for Bauerlein to get his anger out at all of the no good, dirty rotten stinky kids that come into his classroom and disrespect him. Bauerlein argues that teenagers these days don't have the common sense to do what is the most productive. He states that we are getting dumber because we don't read as much anymore and as said on the back cover of the book, "Cyberculture is turning us into a society of know-nothings", as in we always turn to the net to find our answers because supposedly we don't know anything anymore. As if we are supposed to know everything in the first place. Bauerlein cherry picks throughout the whole book; not every teenager falls into the "Dumbest Generation" stereotype. He uses facts and statistics to back up his argument, but you know what, I am not buying it Bauerlein, like, whatever. Just because he has a lot against the younger generation, doesn't mean he is right about us. He has to explore both sides of the argument. The only reason people liked this book and thought everything was a good point is because of his cherry picking.
Apparently this book was a big hit? Maybe that's because it is targeted towards the older generation and since its not about them, they think its entertaining. What about the children? Huh? We are the next generation, and we are going to make a difference, you just wait and see. The parents could also very well be at fault for this whole scenario; they could have easily brought their kids up to love reading.
I found a perfect example of a passage from the book that makes a disrespectful remark to a young girl who was on a radio interview for the Survey of Literary Reading in America.
CALLER: I'm a high school student and yeah, I don't read and my friends don't read.
HOST: Why not?
CALLER: Because of all the boring stuff teachers assign.
HOST: Such as?
CALLER: Uh... that book about the guy [Pause] You know, that guy who was great.
HOST: Huh?
CALLER: The great guy.
HOST: You mean The Great Gatsby?
CALLER: Yeah. Who wants to read about him?
After stating this, Bauerlein says that he tried not to laugh when hearing this. How terrible can he get? This is a perfect example of cherry picking. I can agree that it is bad that she doesn't read what her teachers assign her but still, don't pick on this one girl, she has feelings too. Besides a lot can change in a person in a few years. Maybe she loves reading now. Its not fair to humiliate someone just to try and prove a point.
On page 119 Bauerlein talks about laptops that are given to students in hope to make them more intellectual....
"By an overwhelming margin, seventh graders who received laptop computers say the computers have made schoolwork more fun, and 83% of the students say the laptops improve the quality of their work."
Then he goes on to say that even though they have the laptops and they say they are learning more, their test scores say otherwise. I disagree with this statement because these kids are at least making an effort to try and do better. They even said that they enjoy doing their schoolwork; that doesn't sound dumb to me. That sounds like trying.
On the other hand, I do agree with Bauerlein when he brings up the Jay Leno talk show. On person is asked how many stars are on the American flag. "Fifty two," she says. That is just sad. Everyone should know the amount of stars on the American Flag, it really is just common sense. The ignorance really is hard to believe.
I also agree that the amount of people that read for fun these days has gone down the kitchen sink.
"We should consider, too, that reading is easier to carry out than all the other leisure activities included in ATUS except "Relaxing/thinking." it costs less than cable TV and video games, it doesn't require a membership fee, and you can still read in places where cellphones are restricted and friends don't congregate."
This is a very true statement. If you think about it, reading doesn't take much at all. If you don't get one of the words that you read, all you have to do is grab a dictionary to see what it means, or you could be able to find out what it means through context. To buy a good book, it should only cost you about 15 dollars, which is cheaper than many other things, but there is always the library, you can get a library card for free, then you don't even have to pay for the books that you read.
To end this great rant, I am going to shove something else down your throat. If you haven't read the book The Dumbest Generation by Mark Bauerlein watch this video to get an idea of what it is like.
Heres a Link show some other reviews and comments on the book.....
Why do we celebrate Halloween? Why do we like eating things that are scary looking? You would think that if it looked scary and we didn't know what it was, that we wouldn't want to eat it, but there is something about this day. Halloween takes our fears away and makes us do things we normally wouldn't. For instance, this....
How gross is that? It actually looks like this persons skin was burnt off, and those teeth? Come on now? Now we know that this is actually ham wrapped around a fake skull but it looks completely real! Personally i would not eat this because it looks too real but there are many people out there that would not mind.
Dont worry, for those out there that are like me and you see something like that above you get sick to your stomach, there are actually some Halloween foods out there that we can tell what they are and they do look edible.
Thats much better. I can actually tell what these foods are made of and they are just so cute that i need to eat them anyway. Obviously the top ones are little piggies in a blanket except they are made into little mummies. The ones below are little taco monsters, and come on, who doesn't like tacos? Then on the bottom, there are little gravestone pudding cups. The tombstone is a sugar cookie, the dirt is Oreo crumbs, and the mud is the chocolate pudding. Not only do these look cute, they look delicious, and because we know what they are made of we are okay with eating them.
But what makes us want to eat things that are so cute and fit with the theme?
My theory is that we eat this stuff simply because everyone else is doing it. It is a fun way to eat also. By making our foods into something that they usually are, more people are going to want to eat it because it is out of the norm for food. It gives us something fun to do in our normal boring lives.
Other Halloween things to ponder......
Why?
Why do we feel the need to scare people?
Why does scaring people give us so much satisfaction and why is it humorous?
Why do we eat the foods that we do on Halloween
Why do we eat things that do not look appetizing on Halloween?
How?
How much Halloween food do you eat on the holiday?
How do you scare people?
How much does it take for you to get scared?
What?
What kind of Halloween foods have you made on the holiday before?
Whats the weirdest Halloween food you have ever eaten?
Whats the best thing you have ever been for Halloween?
What is the best way you have ever scared someone?
What is the scariest thing you have ever been for Halloween?
Here is a fun Halloween video to watch! But seriously, watch it. Enjoy :)
Whats Halloween really about??? Well ask me now and you will get a completely different answer from when i was 5.
Princesses, disney characters, withces, and crayons? That was the premature stage of my life. I have now moved on to animals. The past few years, i dont know what it is, but the feeling of transforming myself into the most beautiful creatures has captured my inner being. Maybe its what i am meant to be. Maybe in another lifetime i will enter the world as an amazingly graceful bald eagle spreading my wings for all to see. Who knows, maybe i will be a skunk. Either way, i will feel complete.
Every year I would wait for that one day, when I would get to dress up as someone else and get buckets upon buckets full of sweet treats for it. Fine with me! Picking out my costume was always so easy for me. It was simple. Just match my brother! He was Darth Mal, I was princess leah, he was a wearwolf, i was a witch, he was the beast, and i was the beauty. Perfect, no work involved and we were a hit every year. As shown below, supposedly being inatimate objects was the thing? We thought being a crayon was the most original idea yet! Little did we know that 2 other groups were crayons in the neighborhood we went trick-or-treating in. Talk about crushed hopes and dreams.
Halloween now? Its like a whole new world. You dont pick out your comstume until you find out what everyone else is being. If your caught with the same costume as someone else, your in deep do do, and of course everyone is trying to have the most original yet. Trick or treating is not even in the picture anymore. Its all about the parties. Whose going where, who was invited to that one? One big party is definitly in our favor and of course we can have our own candy at the party!
This year all of my friends went as the pink ladies from grease, with their lips blood red, their hair pushed up to the sky and their boobs sprung up to their noses! :p Me, being the outcast that i am (nah just kidding) was a peacock. I thought, why not, its senior year, and i am going to go all out. My hair is probably the best part and it only took me, what, 2 hours? I didnt want to be a pink lady, so i mixed it up a bit and made my own peacock costume. Everyone loved it except the fact that i kept hitting their faces with my tail feathers. It was so worth it. Mwahahaha!
It's a bittersweet feeling to know that halloween is changing as every year passes, knowing that we are not going to be with our close friends that we have now forever and knowing that our youth is passing us by. Moving on is a must and will help us grow, its part of the process that helps us become who we are.
This weekend, MEA of course, has been pretty amazing I must say. Four days off of school? Sure i will take it! Although my favorite part about breaks is the sleeping, I still don't manage to get enough of it. I mean i am a teenager so I guess its normal right? Instead of sleeping I always find myself staying up late thinking, just laying in bed, but then i get tired of thinking, so I slither over to the computer so I can fry my brain a little. As if I haven't fried it enough from watching TV all day. Yeah I know this isn't really a good way to spend my free time, but I think that the senior slide is starting to kick in. It cant already, I need to work hard! I need to reach my high goals or else I will be extremely dissapointed in myself. I really should be doing homework or college apps, or reading a little for fun. Maybe my brain really is frying! Nah, I just need to get back into the game!
I chose this speech to show because well, i thought it was just great. This reminds me of my school so much. First of all, there are a lot of kids at my school, many of them which are hilarious. The boy giving this speech in the video I feel is one of those kids who doesnt have to try hard to be funny. To me, thats the funniest person to get to know.
I think that it is funny because the fact that he messes up a lot and always makes little filler noises makes it more entertaining. The fact that it is so informal is so awesome! He makes me feel like I could get up in front of people and give a graduation speech. He makes it look so easy! Even when he messes up, he admits to it. This kid must really know what he is doing becuase everything he says turns out to be funny, even though it may not be. He uses his facial expressions to his advantage a lot of the time.
Whenever he says something that is meant to be funny, he keeps such a straight face the whole time. For some reason, this is something that appeals to many people. Its very funny, but we dont really know why. It would be so hard for me to keep a straight face throughout the whole speech if I was telling jokes.
Usually when people write based off of an observation they go to a fun, hoppin' busy place where they hope to find the most action. But me, i chose the library! Original Huh? ;) Not so hoppin' but pretty busy! Hope you find my blog post interesting! :)
Victim #1
This poor mother. I cant believe what she has to go through. I cant even imagine what her kid is like at home if he acts like this in public. Kicking, screaming, scratching!
"Mom you said i could get a toy! You said i could get a toy," over and over like a broken robot. There was no end. His mother just stood there ignoring and taking in his hits as if she were his punching bag! She had no control over him.
This troubled boy has had a rough day. It probably consisted of sugar on top of sugar which caused him to miss his afternoon nap. Thus, causing him to spiral into a out of control frenzy at the store. What has gotten into kids these days? Surely I wasn't like that at all! ;) After his mother told him that he could get a toy at the store just to get him to cooperate, he was thrilled. Little did he know, he wasn't going to be getting the new Lego he was promised.
Victim #2
At the library everyday this little kid sits. Maybe 11, maybe 12 years old. Not even old enough to drive, yet he manages to make his way to the library everyday after school. Maybe he walks to school, or gets a ride from a friend. Either way it doesn't matter, this kid definitely eats his Wheaties for breakfast. First of all, he is quite the multitasker. He can read, be on the computer, listen to music, and do his homework all at the same time! Quite frankly I am jealous. I wonder what he would do if he was interupted.... is he the type of guy who needs his privacy and space? Or is he easy going and would like some company? Judging by the way he does his work, I feel like he doesn't want to be bothered at all.
Victim #3
Run run run! I see a little kid with his mother at the library looking for books. He grabs a book and scampers off to see his mother. I can tell he is not much of a talker. Together the mother and son read the first page of the book. The little boy closes the book and goes to grab a new one. I guess one page is enough. This little boy, we will call him Will (he looks like a Will), seems to be very impatient with many things. If he cant sit down and read one whole story, i cant imagine what he can sit through during the day. I believe he can watch the first five minutes of bob the builder. The theme song in the beginning tends to bore him just as he was bored with the rest of the books he read. Its either he is impatient or he has a short attention span and needs to keep moving at all times.
The beginning of our universe, its quite scary to think about. I have so much trouble believing this Big Bang Theory of ours. I dont see how it is possible for something to start from nothing. Everything always starts from something. You dont get an infection without a bacteria entering your body. A brownie doesnt just show up out of nowhere, you have to make it out of something, even the ingredients come from something else. Even though it is said that the earth expands now and must have started out really small, doesnt mean that the earth was created from an explosion in space. There is no proof. So if something can't come from nothing, there must have been something there in the first place.
Wow.
While listening i found myself agreeing with every point made. I thought it was incredibly interesting how they compared emotional and rational. With emotional, your brain puts together a picture story whereas with rational, the pictures are taken away. When someone gives you two scenarios and one is more violent sounding but only kills a few people and the other sounds less violent yet kills more people, your emotions are going to be triggered and you are going to want to save the few people that are killed. The scene is painted in your head as a bloody masacre. Therefore, you are going to feel more sympathy for those few people.
The writing process is a peculiar thing to think about. When i write, my process is very straight forward. I simply think of a topic or am given one, and sometimes i get stuck on the start, sometimes i don't. If I get stuck in the beginning of the writing, i will usually take a break from what I am doing for a short while and then once I have the brain going, the creativeness just starts flowing. I don't like to think very hard about what I am going to write next. I like to just put down what is on my mind at that moment. It seems to be much easier for me and much less stressful. Now sometimes it is tough for me to write down exactly what comes to mind at the moment, but that is only because I am thinking too hard about the subject. I believe that people should practice writing down what they are thinking right then and there instead of thinking too much about what should be on the paper. It really can help someone with their writing blocks and it is a good step to becoming a wonderful and talented writer.
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Suddenly the things that wronged you in the past are the things that got you here to this moment" -Sydney Bakken
