The Greatest Songs You Have Never Heard Of!!

Sorry for how long it is!!
p.s. notice we didn't edit out what we said we would :)

LOVE YOU ALL!!
meg & anna

NEW THOUGHTS FOR THE NEW SEASONS

Hi guys,
Many of us in this season are travelling somewhere or having a good time, cherishing the moments with our families and friends. Within our own happy Kodak moments, we sometimes forget to think about those families who are homeless or underprivalidged during this time of year. The time of Christmas is special for everyone because it creates a harmonious environment. It is important for us to not only help them, but also thank God for our wonderful families and for our wonderful lives. Try to make it a goal to do something nice for others this time of the season. You could help someone, give a gift to a poor family or help in your own special creative way. It's a very nice feeling and a great thing to do, not only this time of the year but all the time.



Write down some of your goals or things you have done to help.

Traveling

Hey everyone,
I'm actually in Boston right now! And I just had the best pizza in the whole world. Not even kidding.
But since we have "open blogging," I figured I'd just post something now instead of feeling guilty all throughout break about ignoring anything to do with school.
My family doesn't usually travel for Christmas--if we do go somewhere, it's usually right after Christmas (last year we went skiing over New Year's.) But this year, my parents decided to go visit family in Boston. My dad said it was "necessary" and that it was "our turn to go." On my dad's side, my grandparents, great-grandparents, three aunts and three uncles live here in Boston. I don't really like the idea of not being home for Christmas, but I think it'll be okay.
Another downside of this whole away-for-Christmas thing is the spreading out of presents. I like to get all my presents on Christmas morning. This year, I'll get a couple on Christmas morning, more when we come home, and more on New Year's. I'm not sure how happy I am about this.
So, do you guys think it's good to travel on Christmas? Do you usually? If not, do you wish you did?
See you all January 5th, and Merry Christmas/Happy Hanukkah.

First Academy vlog!

Quotebooks. Because when people say something embarrassing, you want to remember it. =)

Snow Day

Just thought that doing a quick post on the snow day would be good.

How did you guys figure out it was a snow day? I heard about it from friends who have facebooks and stuff.

How did you guys spend your snowday? I spent mine sledding and just hanging out with friends. Sledding is a lot of fun when you don't snowboard down the hill and have your friends push you and watch you fall on your face...cough... taylor, lindsay... cough.

Hope you guys all have a good winter break!

Great expectations... but little to come?

Throughout the entire day, both students and teachers were buzzing around on excitement [espresso :)]. Not only are the holidays and winter break just around the corner, but there has been an underlying anticipation for, you guessed it, the snow day. Don't deny it-- you know you've considered how awesome it would be to start break a day early: no last-minute tests, no homework, and absolutely no teachers. Just you and your pillow together at last. However, reasoning comes over you and tells you that there most likely won't be a snow day and that you shouldn't get your hopes up.

But that's exactly it: you shouldn't get your hopes up. Why? Because you know that if it turns out that we don't have a snow day you'll be royally ticked off. And if you keep your hopes low, let's just say you won't be a happy camper. Is it just human nature to create images like this to alleviate distress? Why do we constantly set up false ideas when we know that they will make us feel worse than we did in the first place? 

Now let's flip perspectives. Is it considered pessimism when you purposefully keep your expectations low so that there will be no hard feelings? Based on my own experiences I have learned to keep my expectations low to prevent myself from totally losing it (which I can't say that I haven't done already). What is your opinion? Do you keep your expectations high or low?Do you think it determines whether a person is optimistic or pessimistic?

College Football

Over the past weeks there has been a lot of talk about college football. Whether it be about things like trophy winners, or great games, or fantastic teams, to players shooting themselves in the leg, the conversation is really stirring up the town. In the next view weeks the football season will come to an end with a series of bowl games. This system is very unique and is completely original to College football. The system consists of vast number of bowl games, (games played once between two teams and the winner receives the trophy), that take place all over the country. These games can range from the Holiday Bowl, to the PapaJohns.com Bowl. All the bowls are of relatively equal importance with the exception of the BCS Bowls. The BCS Bowls consist of the Fiesta Bowl, Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Rose Bowl, and the BCS National Championship. These bowls are the coveted prize in college football especially the National Championship. Each year the contenders for each bowl are different. Every year, with the exception of the National championship that automatically picks the top two ranked teams, each bowl choses which teams play in their bowl. Usually it is the most prestigious bowls, like the BCS bowls, that pick their teams first. After each game has been decided the games are played on various days between december and early January. The last bowl game to be played is always the national championship. With a new game every day between two great teams, causes for major excitement and entertainment in my life.

Although I have to admit that the end of the season is the best part of college football I also like watching football during the regular season. Even during the regular season there are still some great games. Being a Notre Dame fan I go to many of there games. If you have ever been to a game you would know what I am talking about. The crowd is always lively and yelling (especially the student section) the bands are playing, the cheerleaders cheer leading, the place is filled with noise. This makes for an exciting and enjoyable game even if your team doesn't really stand a chance. Even if you don't care much for football, watching a game with your family or friends is a great way to spend an afternoon.

By the way here's the final plays of the 2007 Fiesta Bowl. It was one of the best and excitng games I have seen.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoZJxi3A0VQ&feature=related
Have you ever been to game? What was it like?

Have you ever seen a game you ever have really enjoyed?

Are there some other sports that you enjoy watching?

A Strictly Hypothetical Scenario...

Many of you, if not most, have seen my doodles of personified inanimate objects. The first in line was a little tangerine with a contagious smile.

Upon its great approval by my fellow classmates (:D) I created similar creations. These included a pear, tomato, kiwi, orange, mango, and coconut (kokonawt). But I went further, I drew an angry bucket, a Slurpee cup with brain-freeze, and an ecstatic rice bowl. I plan to continue this trend, but meanwhile, it set me thinking: What If we lived in a world, where everything was personified, where every object had the capabilities of emotion and thought?! Now under this assumption, a number of things would occur:

• You would no longer have any privacy. People would just have to get used to trusting the telephone booth not to look while you quickly change into a superhero outfit and fly off to save the world..
• Different "things" would have different ranges of emotion based on their stereotypical niche. In other words, a rock, which to most people, [with the exception of geologist, who themselves can be very boring] would consequently have a boring personality. This, in turn, would serve as a basis for some social stratification.
• The common expression "sticks and stones can break my bones, but words will never hurt me" will have a somewhat new meaning..
• Rocks, in addition to being boring, can also be excessively violent.
• Transportation vehicles (i.e cars, buses, planes) would no longer need drivers. This can be good or bad. If your car is a bad driver, and has frequent road rage, you MIGHT just want to get another car.

Then the question occurs; would buying and selling be acceptable? Wouldn't owning possessions be a form of slavery, if those possessions were living? This would not last very long, because an army of sticks, stones, cellphones, computers, and just about everything else could overpower the human population that owns them. Hence, arguably the most significant difference would be that we would either have no concept of possession WHATSOEVER, (contrary to hunter gatherer people who still possess tools and various items), or all possession would be mutual. Personally I think that the latter is more likely, because mutual possession exists even in our current world. One could say, "she/he's mine" or "I'm yours" or even on candy hearts when it says BE MINE. This context applies mainly to relationships in our society. However, because most people wouldn't be looking for a relationship with a stapler, there would be a different form of mutual possession. Just like the common example found in popular media with one being able to say "That's my dog, Fido" and the dog being able to say "That's my human, John."

Another thing to point out is that currently factories create products, which would grant the humans the control over the population size of many objects, a power that could easily be abused. Just as easily, those objects could start manufacturing either themselves, or other objects withing physical ability. What I mean by this, is that a computer could draw the plans for a small toy, a laser could melt down the plastic, which would re-solidify in a mold. Thus the computer, laser, and mold would have power of the small plastic toy population.

In summary, although this hypothetical universe would seem cool, amazing, and frungapolous, there would be unethical amounts of undying social stratification. I don't know what all of you would learn from this, but I learned that I should stick to my doodles and hope that my pencil doesn't mind.

I Speak For Most, If Not All, Or At Least Some, But Definitely Me: A Manifesto

I must confess - I am not particularly interested in the falling of leaves upon northerly nations or the ethereal qualities of snowflakes or even the nighttime activities of our dear St. Nicholas. As such this post will consist of none of those, nor Johnny Depp, but a little in-house political activism. Let's address ACADEMY PET PEEVES.

THE NING

Why do we hate the Ning?

Well, it's fundamentally a monstrous, counter-intuitive Gordian knot of a redundancy. Going to the 'Benefits of the Ning' discussion (Go to the homepage, click Glenbrook Academy Freshmen, scroll down, click View All in discussions, try to find it on the first page, fail, try to find it on the second, 'succeed', click), we find such benefits as:

"Posting and discussing for homework!"
"Its nice to have a resource base open to me 24/7."
"In times of confusion, I have something to turn to for clarification."

(As well as the nicely post-ironic "I think integrating technology with education is GOLD." and the rather obvious "The Ning is a good backup for me.")

So: the Ning is a place to find homework, discuss homework, and complain about homework. The problem is:

It doesn't work.

* It's a sprawling, bloated mess of a Facebook ripoff. (On paper, this thing must have looked wonderful - full-featured, free, distinct from the social complexities of Facebook, but you didn't try setting thirty people loose on this thing beforehand.)

* It's hard to navigate - see parenthetical small-text statement above.

* It's badly designed from an aesthetic standpoint.

* It has a confusingly convergent feature set - discussion vs comment wall?

* It offends us whenever we get a homework clarification (in the form of a discussion?) at seven after checking the Ning at six-thirty.

* The redundancy aspect isn't inherently bad, but it is poorly executed. When we get a Greek Mania worksheet in-class but have to start discussions on the Ning and a couple of days later get our partner quiz entirely on the Ning and are confused about its content because it was barely mentioned in class, it just makes your students more disillusioned with the site than they already are. (Sorry, Mr. Williams, you're not the problem - you're just caught in the maelstrom.)

* The 'Freshman Academy HW' discussion is probably the most important thing on the Ning. Yet teachers often circumvent it for larger assignments, it's often used for proclamations other than straight assignments, and it's irregularly updated. Confusion.

* EVERYTHING WE DO IS IN THE GROUP 'GLENBROOK ACADEMY FRESHMEN'. Why do we have to take that extra step whenever we go on the website? Futhermore, constraining everything to one group robs us of functionality - hence the discussions instead of Greek Mania Group A. We almost never communicate with upperclassmen, and when we do it's for social reasons that can be covered dans Facebook - the one time it was necessary, TED, we created a Google Site and overrode the Ning for a few weeks. How about an 'Academy Freshmen' Ning site, at the very least? (I'm going to disregard the redundancy in the title - if we're on the Ning, we're most certainly in the Academy.)

*It lacks chat, so if you want to get something done right away you have to go elsewhere regardless of personal feelings towards the site.

*It went down for 4+ hours Tuesday, and it'll do it again.

* The communication tools it provides are already offered, in a better way, elsewhere. Without the Ning, we'd all IM and use email for projects - sure, it's not strictly a school-only format, but we use them anyway and they work better.

And on and on and on.

The Ning has its benefits, to be sure - most were listed before the rant began. Let's not throw the baby out with the proverbial bathwater. (I flatter myself, of course, by suggesting anything will be thrown out at all.) So instead of making quiet, snide remarks on the Comment Wall, a plan:

1. Give more power to our Gmails. They form the basis of all we do scholastically, be it providing a log-in for the Wikispaces and Blogger or trading info in-class or on the go. These little @-signs are more powerful than the Ning could ever hope to be.

2. Either find a MIRACULOUSLY PERFECT alternative site or streamline by finding a more pure information-dissemination tool. Assignments are always printouts - so put up a final-word PDF on a cleaner, more simplistic website. That's all we need. Really. Enable comments if absolutely necessary but otherwise rely on students emailing teachers with questions (the old-fashioned way). Bonus - that's less work for you.

3. Why did we all have to use Blogger for our personal blogs? Google Reader can subscribe to anything with RSS or Atom enabled - limiting us to Blogger just makes us more resentful when it lacks a feature (for example, I got pretty frustrated a couple paragraphs ago when I couldn't double-indent my lists and eventually had to rely on asterisks). Give us more electronic freedom - this stuff is really tangential to actual coursework anyway.

4. Give us all our assignments in class. No exceptions. If you want to give us a link online, fine, but tell us it's going to be there. As a rule: we don't like surprises.

5. Get total teacher support. Mr. Field needs to be on board with this too - I don't care if we have an entire section of the website entirely en francais, it's insane to have all these one-stop sources for homework floating around. It's a testament to the impotency of the Ning that a teacher needs to set up an entirely different site to put up vocab, calendars, and some widgets. (Actually, though, Mr. Field's site is the most functional of all our resources - a template, perhaps.)

6. And while we're on Mr. Field, he's hit upon something marvelous - sharing homework assignments as public Google Docs. It's worth noting that despite our inability to comment on or discuss French homework on-site, we've never had any questions about it. If you're more explicit in the beginning you'll have less trouble later.

Little of this will happen this year, and certainly no fundamental change will occur until the next freshman class enters. But, hey, we are the largest test group you've got. Let us help decide what'll be best for the class of 2013.

(If I've misrepresented anyone's opinions, tell me in the comments. Tell me why I'm wrong. Tell me why I'm right. Tell me what we should do instead. We'll change the post - heck, we could even make a discussion on the Ning - how ironic. This should be an ongoing discussion with professorial input.)

Obsessed with Leaves...

Okay, I know, I forgot. So to make up for it I will post about... leaves. Over the past few years I've been to Canada quite a few times (all for hockey of course.) The last time I went there was this Halloween. For some reason, a few things dawned on me that trip. I'm not quite sure why I never realized these things about our great neighbor to the north before but... I didn't.

First of all, there's the money. Although extremely exciting because there's people playing hockey on the back, it looks quite alot like monopoly money. The lettering/numbering, the colors, and the shininess. Also, why does a country that has had independence from England for **not too sure how long, but a while** still have their queen on it's money? Yes, I know it's part of the Commonwealth, but if you fought so hard to get rid of your imperial power why give them that satisfaction of having one of them staring up at you every time you hand the cashier a bill. Furthermore, the fact that they would want to be part of the Commonwealth at all just astounds me. Do they think that it protects them in some way? I don't know... Now, not to mislead you, they do have some of their former "Prime Ministers" and such on the currency but the queen is on some of it. Which just begs me to ask the question, when she dies does everyone have to print new money? And how does that work?

Next, is the accents. This last time, I was in Windsor, Ontario, which is literally Candadian Detroit. It's right across the narrow river. So basically, its like Detroit but worse because the drinking age is only nineteen <-- a whole different subject of ranting. Anyway, when you cross into Canada a strange thing starts happening, everyone begins to talk funny. It's still English, but it's weird. In Social Studies we've learned about "proximety transmission." So, its just seems weird that people who live closer than you and me have totally 99% different accents/speaking styles/ect. I mean, nobody in Detroit talks like a Canadian, and nobody in Windsor talks like an American. How did this happen? No clue..

Last, is the leaves. The strange obsession Canada has with the red, maple leaf. So, yes it is their national symbol thingy, but, no joke, it's everywhere. Everything they have has one of those little devils on it. Honestly, there was a leaf painted on the swing seats at a playground... You know the McDonald's arches? In the middle of every single one there was a little leaf, like that makes them so much different than American McDonald's. If they hate us so much and want so badly to not be "American" why have McDonald's in the first place? Make your own! Why not? Well, because they can't. Now look, I don't hate Canada, and I'm definetly not a patriotic person at all. After high school I plan on zipping right over to Europe for college and quite possibly the rest of my life, but I just found it infuriating. If you're going to be "Un-American" be it. But please ask yourself before you build something, are we going to have to stick a little red, maple leaf somewhere to distinguish this from the American kind? Because if you are, you're a hypocrit .

Emotional Intelligence

In seventh grade we had a topic involving emotional intelligence. For some reason, I found this topic very interesting, yet hard to understand at the same time. What exactly is emotional intelligence? Can one achieve perfect emotional intelligence?

I concluded that emotional intelligence is made up of several aspects. First of all, knowing yourself is important. Knowing yourself is how far you think you can push yourself, and who you believe you are through your own eyes. Accepting yourself is next. Just being okay with who you are and knowing your capabilities.

Another aspect of emotional intelligence that I found interesting was how you communicate with others. Communication is what makes the world go round, at least in my mind. By communication, I of course do not mean texting or emailing someone. Face to face conversation, calling someone, or showing them through your actions I believe is communication. Facial expressions are signs of communication. Communicating with others can also mean sharing your opinion or thoughts with others. Telling them how you feel, and what caused you to feel that way is what I think communicating is also.

Cooperation with others also involves communicating. During class we had a discussion over whether a society could be run without talking. How can one cooperate with his/her peers if they can't convey their ideas in the best possible way(preferably verbally)?

Another form of emotional intelligence is connecting with others. I think that connecting with others is when you can relate to other people and their problems. It is a time when you can understand what they are going through and try to help them get through it. If you can't connect with others, how are others supposed to connect with you? What are the effects of not being able to connect to others? Any other ideas of aspects of emotional intelligence?

Without emotional intellingence, our ideas would not be conveyed very well. We would be using powerpoints all of the time instead of speeches. Is there anything really inspiring about powerpoints, to a certain degree? One can possess immence intellingence, but without the emotional intelligence to portray that intelligence I think it is near worthless.
(sorry for the late post guys!)

Santa Claus

Okay, in light of the holiday season and all, I figured I'd post something on Santa. I just got home from this "Santa Day Brunch" at the Glenview Club, so I've been thinking a lot about Santa. At this lunch I went to, you took a picture with Santa and ate lunch.

I did some background research on Santa, and here's some stuff I found on Wikipedia. Santa came from a real person called Saint Nicholas of Myra. I won't go into the whole story now, but you can look it up here if you'd like. There are a couple names people use for Santa: they include Santa Claus, Father Christmas, St. Nicholas, and Kris Kringle. Most people imagine him to look like a fat, jolly man in a red suit with black mittens and boots, with a Santa hat. He uses his eight reindeer plus Rudolph to deliver toys to all the good girls and boys all over the world on Christmas Eve, and coal to the naughty children.

There are several views on Santa: I was brought up to believe in Santa; most little kids do. Some critics think it is bad for parents to lie to their children. Others think it detracts from the religious part of Christmas, and others think it is just a sign of how commercialized Christmas has become. 

By the time kids are in, say, 6th or 7th grade, they start to question the existence of Santa. (I really hope I'm not bursting any bubbles right here.) I don't have any personal horror stories; I pretty much figured it out for myself. Some kids find out from their friends and some kids' parents break it to them gently. My parents didn't--for all I know, they still think I believe. 

I don't know, though: after I stopped believing in Santa, Christmas just kind of dimmed for me. It was a lot more fun to write letters, to stay up late and then pretend that you heard sleigh bells on the roof to make your brother jealous, to leave Santa cookies and then wake up and gasp at the half-eaten cookies and the note in your mom's disguised handwriting....I guess it just lost something.

My questions for you guys are: Did you believe in Santa when you were little? How did you find out he wasn't real? What are your views on Santa and his influence on little kids?

the Future!

Ok well I think today is my say, but I am going to post anyways! Vicki your post was very interesting. It kind of reminded me of an article I read awhile back. It was about scientists' predictions about what our society and technology will be like in the future. (50 years is what I think it was) Some of the technology they predicted there would be are self-driving cars, computers everywhere (even paper thin monitors to put in your pockets!), lots of wireless technology, robots, and other things. They also thought that there would be nano-materials in clothing and furniture that immediately clean up stains, holographic gourmet chefs to guide you while cooking, printers that could print 3 dimensional items, and smart clothes that allow you to change outfits without actually undressing. In relating to health, they predicted that people would be able to live up to 200 years old! Some of these things seem completely unreasonable and others may be within reason. I wonder how scientist could come up with these ideas.

Also, another thing that was part of this article was what people in the 1950's thought we would have today. It was predicted that today we would have waterproof furniture indoors, computers used to communicate, shop, and get the news, the idea of being able to take a pill instead of eating, flying cars, and personal jet-packs. While some of their predictions may have came true, most of them did not. This makes me wonder whether our predictions now are very reliable or not. When I first read this article a few years ago, it made me really excited to see what we would have in our future, but now I realize that we probably won't have all of this. Although a lot of these predictions would be really cool, I think that most of them are probably not going to come true. :(

Magazines

Reading Meghana's post about memory reminded me of an article I read last year that discussed memory. The article asked why nobody can remember what happened to them as a baby. Its explanation was that, in order to store long-term memories, you need to have learned to talk. So long-term memory begins at the same time that speech does.
The article was in Muse, a magazine published by Cricket that covers a very wide range of subjects. The dozens of articles I've read since I first subscribed to Muse have included lightning strikes, political cartoons, chess, catapults, and the Brooklyn Bridge. The magazine also includes columns about surprising uses of math and science--from the knots that form in cords and loose string to the design of a paper bag.
I've been reading Muse for a few years now, and while I've lost interest in a few of the other magazines I used to read, I still enjoy reading Muse because the articles--whatever their subject--are consistently interesting and thought-provoking. I have learned things from the magazine that I never would have found anywhere else. Every issue has something new and surprising, and I always look forward to the next Muse.
What about everybody else? What are the best magazines that you have read? What makes these magazines so great? Would you recommend them to other people in the Academy?

Remember This.

Something that has been explained to me numerous times is how we remember things. I think it's pretty cool, so I figured I'd pass it on to you all. Now, I may not be able to tell you the year Alexander the Great was born, but I can sure tell you the year Johnny Depp was born [1963, if you were wondering]. When there's something you've heard once, it gets stored in your short-term memory, and if you never think about it again, you will soon forget it. But, if there's something you hear once, and again, and again, somewhere in your frontal lobe, your hippocampus takes that fact or memory and stores it in your long-term memory. Think about if you can rattle off your first phone number. The same thing applies. If I told you the numbers 823-6235 and asked you to tell me what they are next week, odds are you couldn't remember. But through repetition, you remember phone numbers. 

This all is fine and dandy, but why do you care? Well, knowing this, you can apply it to yourself. When you're studying for a test, repetition helps you to remember what you're trying to do. It also is known that when you sleep is when that marvelous little hippocampus transfers memory to long-term. It also replays the day's memories, storing them where they should go. Which tells you all night cram sessions are NOT the best idea. 

The brain is insanely complicated, and I don't pretend to understand it at all. But, with some cleverly worded Google searches [by which of course I mean typing "memory" into the search box] , I learned just a little bit about memory. Very cool stuff. 

Hope I posted on the right date! 

Also, hit me up about some random facts. I'm FULL of them. Yay, hippocampus! 

2012 - Near or Far - the end or the beginning - life or death?

Hi everyone!
I'm not sure if anybody has heard about this, but it seems as though I've heard more about this topic more the past month than I ever have before.
For those of you who haven't heard of this "2012 theory" it describes the end of the world - an apocolypse. Sounds very frightening, I know. I tell myself that stuff like this pops up all the time, but then there is this voice in the back of my head saying "could that really happen?"

I've read about this theory in articles, and I just did some googling to find some extra information on it. According to USAToday, the theory started in the 1950's when astrologists and researchers got together and decoded the ancient mayan calendar. Supposedly, the ending date on the calendar is exactly December 21, 2012. So what? They probably just got lazy and didn't want to write anymore days. Hmm... I don't think so. The mayans accurately predicted many other "occurences" in history like patterns in the worlds cycle, eclipses, the stars, etc... In addition, the Chinese I Ching, Hopi Indians, Einstein, prophets, oracles, and yes even the Bible have predicted or suggested the end of history. Now whether they are talking about a new beginning, a purifaction process, or just the destruction of the world altogether, we don't know.

Scientists and researchers nowadays have started using our modern technology to help predict weather patterns, stock crashes, etc... A couple of years ago they created an all-knowing computer called the Web Bot. This computer was originally used to predict stocks, but recently it has been used to fortell the future on topics including: solar eclipses, events, weather, the economy and many others. For example, it predicted that in 2001 an event would occur that would forever more change security in America - to be exact September 11, 2001. Its predicted other happenings, but on a smaller scale. Now whether to say this is just a coincidence...I kinda doubt it. Anyway, this computer sends little bugs into the web world and gathers information that helps the computer formulate ideas about the future. Like the Mayans, it predicted the end of the world on December 21, 2012.
So the second question to this "theory" is how it will happen. Some say it is a buildup of things that will lead to our downfall. Over the next few years we will see an increase in: floods, droughts, diseases, wars, earthquakes, tsunamis, global warming, higher radiation levels, hurricanes, starvation, more nuclear threats, etc...
Others say that one single event will lead to the end of our world. For example, a single asteroid or one nuclear weapon. Also, at 11:11 December 21, 2012 the sun will align with the milky way. What this means I'm not sure, but it might contribute to the end.
I'm very sorry if I got anyone really scared, but I think it is something that we should be aware of. Whether this is total bologna or reality, is hard to say. I'd like to think that this won't happen becuase predictions like this are always popping up i.e. a computer bug in 2000 will kill all of us. Unfortunately, only time will be able to tell us.

also look at this video, if you have time. It gives some more information:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11iCmzGnOI8

How different art forms convey ideas, particularly visual art.

As many of you probably already know, I love to paint, draw, etc. I also love music, and really anything with a creative aspect to it is something I can wholeheartedly enjoy. So I decided to blog about how ideas can be conveyed...[particularly painting/drawing]

There are many ways to spread ideas. The first and foremost, you can simply say it, and explain in. In other words, orally. However, in most situations, an idea is orally transmitted only to a small group of people. This is because you don't always have the opportunity to be listened by a large crowd, keep their attention, and effectively explain your idea to them. Another way to express an idea is to write it down. This is very similar to speech, as writing simply encodes things that can be said in little squiggles on paper. But there are many ways to do this as well. You can write a novel, a poem, a manual (although NOBODY reads the manual :] ), a poster, etc. The whole principle of writing is based on expressing ideas. The first writings were official documents, they expressed very practical ideas, that, namely, would be enormously dull to read for the sake of reading. As writing developed, more abstract ideas could be recorded.

Music is a very interesting way to present ideas. Instead of focusing on hard, straightforward words (disregarding lyrics, if any), the tone, instruments, rhythm, and other various aspects of music are used. The key thing is, however, that music does not present a finished idea. Music provides the listener with emotions, and it is up to the listener to interpret those emotions with the help of their imagination.

Finally, last but not least, visual art. Visual art is very much like music in the way that it does not present an idea in a straightforward fashion, thus making it open to interpretation. Because I do not have much, if any, valid experience with three dimensional art, I will focus more on the two-dimensional art forms, in particular drawing, painting, photography, pastels, charcoal, and computer art, although many of the same rules apply to three-dimensional art as two-dimensional art. No matter the medium however, the basic principles are the same. The aesthetic qualities of art determine how the particular work appears to you. There are the elements of art, which are line, color, shape, size, form, value, texture, movement, and space. Then there are the principles of design, which include rhythm, unity, balance, emphasis, variation, contrast, proportion, and harmony. None of these things actually convey the artist's idea in its entirety. Not alone, not all together. The final piece, is actually what is painted, or the subject matter. Unless it is an abstract work, the subject itself cannot be interpreted in many ways, as it simply put, is. For example, I am currently about halfway done with a painting. There is a wolf, standing on a barren plateau, over looking a very alien, (both literally and figuratively) mountain covered desert, howling at the two moons in the sky. There is nothing more. You can't pretend that the wolf is actually a potted plant, because it very obviously is not. There are many unanswered questions however. For example, how did the wolf get there? Where exactly is the wolf? Why is the wolf there? Is the wolf alone, or is are there other people/wolves/animals with it? All you know is that the wolf is there. The elements and principles of design, in essence, guide the viewer to what is important, and present the situation painted, in a manner that the artist wants it to be seen. I saw a poster somewhere recently. It said something like: Art Is Not How You See Your Idea, But How You Make Others See It. This is what I mean by the elements and principles of design guiding the viewer. In this way, the artist's idea itself is not only in what is painted, and not only in how its painted, or what medium was used (this is also very important, as different mediums have different limitations and benefits), but a combination of all. So next time you view a painting, or a drawing, pay attention to the color, the focal point, the subject, etc. and try to find the most involved interpretation of whats going on.

\m/[(^_^)]\m/

Why we should implement a national RPS in America

I'm here to talk to you about a national RPS (hopefully no one has picked this before).

I'm willing to bet that most of you have not heard of an RPS, and may (or may not, depending on how much you care) be wondering what it is. RPS stands for renewable portfolio standard, and is something the government enacts to promote alternative energy. If you are looking for a good example of one, you can look at California. they currently have enacted one of the toughest RPS's in the country (except for Maine).

You probably aren't asking "but Jacob, why can't all the other states just follow California's lead? Why did you say we need a national RPS?" but let's assume you did. The federal government needs to enact this policy because a national RPS helps out states like Ohio. What make Ohio special is that they would be unable to meet the standard set by California. It would simply cripple their economy. What a national RPS does (along with a system of REC's, or renewable energy credits) is it does not force companies everywhere to meet it, but it does require an average. It also draws from each individual area's strong points. In other words, it can utilize the strengths of each area, without hurting the wildlife.

For the sake of argument, let's assume you are asking "How would a national RPS in America help reduce the rest of the world's CO2 emissions?" Well, it wouldn't directly decrease CO2 emissions in the rest of the world. However, the US accounts for nearly of a quarter of total world emissions, so if we could substantially cut our emissions, it would have a world-wide effect. On the other hand, the US is a strong, powerful country. Hopefully some other major polluters would follow the lead of the US. If we don't implement some sort of environmentally conscience alternative energy policy, there is no hope of other countries listening to us on how to be environmentally friendly.

You might actually be asking this question "How would a National RPS effect the economy?" Well, it would be a big help, especially in the long term promotion of American hegemony. There is a large market for alternative energy globally. However, if we can move some of that market into the US, it would probably inspire kids like us to grow up and become scientists. That would be instrumental in moving all the stuff that makes America the one and only (innovation, economic leadership... ) back to America. It would be similar to the effect of the space race. More alternative energy in the US would also spur more investment in the US, which is definitely good for the economy.

A national RPS would also have substantial effects on our relations with Europe. The Europeans care a lot more about alternative energy than we do here in America. If the United States and Europe agree on more policy, then it can only help our relations with them. We can point to our RPS and say "see, we care about global warming as well." And from there, they would be more likely to help us out in places like Iraq, and other terror frontlines. Thus, a national RPS will help sustain long-term political cooperation with Europe.

And, the last point. A national RPS would, without question, help fight climate change. It demands that we shift away from conventional energy that puts tons of tons of CO2 into the air. CO2 is the main pollutant causing global warming (at least the human emitted one), and so the less of it there is in the air, the better.

America needs an RPS. It needs it economically, politically, and environmentally.

Here's a question I know you're asking, "When will this maniac writer stop writing?" And I can answer that: right now.

Jacob, signing out.

Giving Thanks

Hey guys-
Thanksgiving this year was very different from past experiences. This fall, my grandma remarried and I've recently had to deal with a huge addition to our family (its a little bit bigger than having a new baby; a whole new side of the family is a lot to get used too). We had my new step-family over to introduce them to the group, and it was a bit uncomfortable at first because none of us knew the other terribly well. We didn't even have the buffer of dinner to ease some of the awkwardness; it started really late, due to the fact that my mom had accidentally set the turkey on fire. Since the Strom side of the family is majority adults, me and my sister Janna and my new cousin Hannah were kind of stuck at the other end of the table. We tentatively figured each other out by lots and lots of questions. I found out at the end of the night that even though the beginning of dinner was awkward, our families clicked pretty well. We played Gestures (which is my mom's favorite party game: it is introduced at EVERY SINGLE PARTY we host the moment after dessert has been finished), and it loosened everyone up. Conversation was noticeably lighter and easier after that, and the time passed much quicker.
After everyone left, I thought about how different this year had been from other years. I realized that in fact, I did have a lot to be thankful for. Not every family has the opportunity to add some new characters to predictable get-togethers. And it was worth it to see how happy it made my grandmother when she saw the party meshing together and getting along. I'm really happy that she's found someone that she loves enough to spend the remainder of her life with, and that she cares enough to make it official at the age of 76. Its nice to know that family isn't always a matter of chance. You can sometimes piece together a collection of people who mean the world to you, and that's what really made me thankful this thanksgiving.
P.S. Im sorry I posted late, I was busy all day yesterday.

Computers, Ipod, cellphones, Oh My!

           Let's face it, we can't live without modern technology today. How else would we chat on facebook, or do our Webassigns or get to surf the net, listen to music conveniently or talk and text and the same time! People who created these things were geniuses!!!!

            A week ago, in my fashion/textiles  elective, we were watching project runway and the designers had to create clothes for the year 2050. That got me thinking; what would life be like in year 2050? If you were on a reality show like this and were given a task to create an advertisement for an invention for the year 2050, what would it be? For Example, When I was small I came up with the Robo3000!!! "The Robo3000 can clean your room, do your homework, do the dishes, drive for you, buy you everything, and it can read you bedtime stories!! For a small price of $19.95, it is all yours! Call 1-800-ROBO-3000, that is 1-800-ROBO-3000. Call NOW. And Wait! If you call within the next 5 minutes, you'll receive a second one free! Call NOW!" It was a lot of fun, try it and see what you can come up with ! :)

          

           

Musical Silences

So, I had an idea for a blog post, and of course, with my luck, Alex had the same idea and an earlier name alphabetically. Whatever, that's life. So here's my variation on her topic:

Music. It's not just beats and notes and words. It's much more than that to me. Basically, it's a teacher, one of the best I've ever found (no offense to our totally awesome Academy teachers). My orchestra conductor last year said "Music is a combination of sounds and silences." Something about that phrase struck a chord with me (no pun intended) and I only recently figured out what it was. It's that everyone overlooks the silences which can speak volumes about the tone of the piece. I went to the GSO concert tonight and I heard one of the best sets of music they've ever played. One of the songs, I think it was by Wagner, had a completely different feel to it when I mentally eliminated the pianissimo sections (for all the non-musical people, that means very quiet). Anyway, this proves her statement.

For me, music helped me get through difficult times in my life and changed the way I think. Literally, I count in music divisions when I'm trying to keep track of something. If you know me well, you are aware that I often have an iPod in my ear and I'm constantly making people listen to new songs in an attempt to inspire expansion in their personal taste. I have something like 2600 songs on my iPod, which is quite a lot. It is probably the single most important thing to me, now more than ever, because of the stress I feel about school. I get comfort from knowing that something familiar waits for me at 3:15 everyday.

On a different note, silence is something that I think is overlooked. Seems strange coming from me, I know, because I talk so much. But I really do think that we seriously need help in this area. A British author Walter Bagehot said, "An inability to stay quiet is one of the conspicuous failings of mankind." (And no, I didn't just know that. It's in my speech for speech team!) This is truly a problem! In my opinion, people just babbling on about anything makes the important conversations lose importance. It's very rare that I find someone I can really talk to, and lack of silence is a reason for that. Silence doesn't always have to be filled! We have gotten so used to everyone shouting their message to the world that we do not have the finely attuned hearing to pick up on the quieter, yet not less-deserving, voices.

To wrap it up, my topic is two-fold. How does music influence your lives, if at all? What aspects of it do you enjoy, what don't you enjoy? What types do you associate yourself with, and are there any particular musicians you admire? Do you play any instruments? Also, what do you think about the possibility of silence being determinant in a piece of music? Do you agree or not? How do you think a lack of silence has changed the way people communicate?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Sorry It's so Long

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

If you don’t know by now, I am absolutely obsessed with Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And I would like to tell the Academy about my obsession, in the hopes that someone will watch the show, so I can finally have someone my age to talk about it with.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is not only a show about a slayer named Buffy, but it also breaks through many current and past social barriers, such as the archetype damsels in distress, addiction, lesbianism, and death. From the first minute, the story of the slayer portrays a history of strong female leaders: in every generation there is a chosen one, who will stand against the forces of darkness. She is the slayer.

Throughout history in this show, a strong female has always been the protector of the human race against the vampires and other demons. These women have always protected people against the apocalypses that evil beings have tried to end the world, which is shown constantly throughout Buffy: in season one Buffy kills an evil vampire who tried to take over the world by unleashing a hell demon that lived under the Sunnydale High library; in season two, Buffy keeps her ex-boyfriend-vampire-who-had-and-then-lost-his-soul from empowering a demon with the ability to send the entire world to hell by killing him; in season three, she, along with the help of the rest of the graduating class from Sunnydale High, defeats the demonic mayor who had planned to become a human-consuming demon.

In season four Buffy and her two closest friends and mentor stop an evil Frankenstein-like creation from unleashing powerful demons on the Sunnydale community; in season five, Buffy dies for the third time in the series to stop a hell god from returning to her home dimension which in turn would break down the barriers between all dimensions (destroying them); in season six, Buffy and her friends unite together to stop their best friend from ending the world because of a recent tragedy, and finally in season seven, Buffy and her friends once again save the world from being taken over by the biggest evil ever to exist.

Not only is Buffy a strong leader and figure for women, throughout the series it is also proven that no matter how strong a leader is, male or female, there are moments in their lives that test who they are: such as when Buffy’s boyfriend of three years leaves her after an epic battle, and the death of her mother not to mention the discovery that her new-to-viewers sister in season five is not actually her sister, but the “key” that an evil hell god needs to get back to her home. Buffy handles these things remarkably well and only has one emotional breakdown in which she comes to terms with the huge turn of events in her life and admits her insecurities to her sister, Dawn.

In season six as well, the viewers find out that when Buffy died in season five, she went to heaven where she was happy and finally at peace, only to be pulled out of heaven by her best friends, who assumed they were saving her from a hell dimension. Her remarkable recovery not only shows how strong she is, but when her best friend breaks down after bringing her back from death a second time (Buffy and Tara get shot, and Willow tries to save Tara without knowing about Buffy’s condition and brings Buffy back instead), Buffy is able to face the fact that only months ago she was pulled from heaven back to hell (Earth) where fire and violence is real, which, having not completely recovered from, shows her remarkable strength and willingness to do anything to help her friends.

Another huge problem in the world today is addiction. Drug and alcohol addictions are becoming more and more common, damaging the health and well-being of the community. In Buffy, Willow (Buffy’s best friend throughout the show) slowly gains an increasing addiction to magic, eventually allowing it to cause her physical harm so that she can have more. When her girlfriend Tara leaves her, Willow realizes how the magic is slowly poisoning her life, but it is only when Willow crashes a car with a fifteen-year-old Dawn inside, and causes the memory loss of everyone she loves to try to undo her mistakes, her lifelong friends finally recognize the addiction Tara saw long ago. Eventually, the gang helps Willow get better, and by the end of the series, she has begun to harness her magic for good to help her friends.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer also has a unique way of dealing with death. Because it is so common for someone to die because of some dark creature in the show, when Mrs. Summers (Buffy’s mom) dies in season five of a brain tumor, the show takes a huge step towards growing up- the characters realize that they all have to die at some time, and recently demon-made-human Anya expresses the feelings that everyone have when someone close to them passes away—the “why can’t he/she just get back in that body and wake up to a daily routine again” feeling, which Anya can blatantly express because she has not been human long enough to understand that it is socially unacceptable to voice those emotions.

Well, as I’m nearing a thousand words, with the knowledge that I could continue on about this for ten or more pages of writing, I feel that this is a time to close my post. Throughout all seven seasons, the characters continue to develop and grow in a way that we will, without the supernatural, yet still with inner demons. In conclusion, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a supernatural show that only expresses the most human parts of the most inhumane, unrealistic, and crazy lives, from being a social outcast in high school, to growing up and gaining the responsibility of an adult.



The Video (working on posting it): this video is a great overall embodiment of the show that I found on YouTube. Note: it does contain some inappropriate content, but aside from that it is a great overall summary of the best moments in the
10- Spike’s reaction to his love (Buffy) being resurrected
9- One of the high school teachers is killed by Buffy’s vampire-boyfriend who was good and turned evil again (it’s a long story)
8- Spike tells Buffy he loves her
7- Buffy kills her boyfriend to save the world
6- Buffy’s boyfriend of three years leaves her after an epic battle
5- In the last season, when the First evil is threatening Buffy and her friends, as the First begins its attack, Dawn (who’s home alone), is visited by her mother’s spirit in the middle of an attack
4- Buffy sees her mom’s dead body in season five when Joyce dies
3- Spike sacrifices himself to save the world, just as Buffy tells him that she loves him
2- In season five, Buffy jumps into a portal that kills her to save the world and her sister, because the blood of Dawn has opened a portal to all dimensions, and that blood needs to stop flowing for it to close. Because Dawn is “made” of Buffy (she’s not actually human), Buffy runs off the tower to spare Dawn and keep the walls from all dimensions stable
1- Willow shows that the bonds of friendship are what truly matters in the end: after her girlfriend dies, Willow is so pained that she tries to destroy the world to end her suffering, but Xander shows her that in the end, as long as you have true friends you’ll be okay

High School Stress

We all know that although high school has its fun and freedom that junior high didn't posses that much, it also has its stress. Being in the Glenbrook Academy, taking other honors classes, participating in extracurriculars, and of course all while still maintaining a social "life." Juggling everything together is difficult, and sometimes it is a living torture for me. Late nights, fatigue the next morning, or maybe even some classes that you can't keep up with. The life of a student is a stressful one.

So how do you deal with it? Everyone has their own unique way to battle stress. Do you play a sport to relieve stress? Listen to some music? Go for a walk? I learned in Health class last year that activities such as watching fish more, giving hugs, and petting animals actually lowers your blood pressure and lowers stress! Who knew! And if you don't have that "activity" you do to help with stress, what type of activity do you think you would want to do? There's still 3 1/2 more years of high school. I know worrying about the future is unhealthy, but it's pretty much known that stress is inevitable in high school. When we finally become upperclassmen(!!!), we will begin to worry about those dreadful ACT's, SAT's, and college picking. So it would be a great idea to have that something that's your stress-reliever. Not to say that high school is a one, long, tension- filled life; because it's not. High school is definately going to be a blast!

Health is defined as a complete state of physical, mental, AND social well-being and not just the absence of disease. We don't normally think of it like this, but handling stress is a crucial part of having good health. Now back on to the question that I managed to stray from. 8) I want you to share your personal methods of relieving stress. What works for you?

Books vs. Movies

I was wondering what you guys think about books and the movie versions. Now this is not about Twilight. Do you guys prefer the books or the movies? For example, Harry Potter and The DaVinci Code. I know personally, I never read the Harry Potter books. I tried in 4th grade but I just couldn't. So this summer I just decided to read the books. I wanted to know so badly how the series finished and couldn't wait for the movie (which was supposed to be released on my birthday but now we have to wait until July! What were they thinking?). I really love the books because they basically grab you into the worls of wizardry. Then I found out they were opening a Harry Potter theme park in Orlando, Florida. I saw pictures of the plan and it looked pretty cool. I'm glad I read the books, but I love movies too so I can't wait. Personally, I think they did an amazing job with the movie, and the books whirl your imagination in different ways others can't experience. I'm really glad I read The DaVinci Code before I saw the movie. The main reason was since my older brother was confused and I was the expert for once. He had to ask me what was going on. But in this case, they differed the plot much more than I expected.

How do you guys feel about books to shows? I don't know many except for the girly ones like Gossip Girl and Privileged. One of course based off of Gossip Girl, the other off of How to Teach Filthy Rich Girls by Zoey Dean. I only read the Gossip Girl books, and I love the show. Here they show books which are turning into movies or have already been turned into movies. Some seem kinda far-fetched to me. So basically what do you guys prefer? Pros and cons for books and movies?

Okay, so before I was thinking of writing this, I was "googling" weird news to see if I could come up with something interesting to write about. Sorry to disappoint. I clicked on one of the links from the first page, and this website had very strange news. At first I thought it wasn't real. It was about a "Werewolf Boy" and "Vampires," and I realized how everything recently related to Twilight. (sorry if you aren't a fan.) Including the phrase "twilight zone" which was reoccurent before we watch the movie today. As you noticed, half of us started cracking up because we all thought of Twilight. Do you think it will meet the expectations of the fans and readers?

Fine arts and why you should care

I was exceedingly indecisive about what my blog post was going to be until about noon yesterday. Then Sean and Patrick came to visit me at the piano in the band room, where I often am a little before lunch two on B days. Pat joked about how Sean had practically no music education, and I thought to myself how incredibly depressing that was.  Before that moment, I was already thinking about doing a post about music and some of its emotional effects. I was in choir for many years till my schedule could no longer fit it this year; I've been in band since fourth grade and doing piano since I was five- I'm a band geek through and through. Then I realized the incredible task I would be undertaking, and I could never, ever do justice to it. It also reminded me of a quote that once made me chuckle:

"If a literary man puts together two words about music, one of them will be wrong." -Aaron Copland

So I'm not going to talk about how music makes you feel I'm going to talk about music education and why it's good, yay. =) As a preface, this might turn out to be a lot of logos and light on the ethos, but I don't think anybody's done something like this before.

As probably a lot of you know or suspect, when underfunded schools need to cut something, a fine arts program- i.e., orchestra and band or sometimes choir -is usually the first to go. And it seems to make sense- in elementary schools it's often not a 'real' class, instruments are expensive, etc. But giving a kid an instrument is not just...giving them an instrument (bear with me here).  It's giving them a lot of other academic benefits that you probably don't even realize. Wonder no more!

A lot of times music education is dropped in favor of math or science. Again, makes sense. People in India or China or any other developing country want your job.  But music involves a *lot* of counting and can give you a significantly better hold on math by the time you're a high school senior. Kids with a music background are four times as likely to do a math or science fair.  They also have better attendance and are more likely to win awards for grades. Students with a musical education score 107 points better on the SAT than kids with no musical education.

But there's also a lot of effects that are less, or less obviously, related to scores and such. Students in band or orchestra are the least likely group in a school to do illegal drugs. It teaches how to work with a group, self-discipline, and tenacity. The children read for fun about twice as much. And not to mention, music is just fun- it's a social activity as well, seeing the same people on a regular basis and making a connection through music.

So when schools cut out music and fine arts programs from their curricula, they're really putting the students at a disadvantage in many areas.

But here's my questions for you guys- if you're in the music program at your school, do you like it? Do you feel it's made you smarter or whatever? If you're not in the music program at your school, have you been in the past? If not, do you regret it at all? Do share. =)

Sources (just in case):

http://www.americansforthearts.org/public_awareness/artsed_facts/001.asp

http://www.summerhaysmusic.com/News/musicadvocacy.html

Braces

After seeing Rebekah's horrifying "cat's cradle" rubber bands today, I have decided to talk about my views on braces. Everyone knows that braces are used by orthodontists to straighten your teeth and make them nice and pretty and give you "the perfect smile." A lot of kids get them at some point during their junior high or high school years, and people have become accustomed to seeing these metallic smiles. Sounds all right so far. The average cost of a two year treatment is around $5000 dollars. Add to that the price of broken bracket replacements, x-rays, and other things included within treatment, and you have quite a hefty bill. Some health insurance plans do cover orthodontic treatments such as braces, I know that the one my family has does, but it of course won't pay all of the fees. Setting aside the price for now, braces can cause tremendous discomfort by making your teeth ache or creating sores on the sides of your mouth through the friction from the metal brackets. Brushing your teeth becomes more complicated than it used to, food gets stuck in your braces. Your toothbrushes wear out a lot faster because they're not just brushing enamel now, they're up against steel. Rubber bands can be a hassle to manage, and in some extreme cases they will severely limit the motion range of your jaw and possibly cause pain (as in the case of Rebekah). Having a metal cage on your teeth specifically designed to move them simply will not be a pleasant experience. But the thing is, a lot of people were fine with their teeth until they got braces, then they start to think that they have terrible teeth that need correcting. In my honest opinion, I don't think it will affect your attractiveness at all if your smile isn't perfectly symmetrical. Is it worth it to pay thousands of dollars to secure brackets to your teeth and tie them together with steel wires in order to force your teeth into the "perfect smile"? I'm not saying that some people don't need it, there definitely are people out there who are born with their teeth so out of place it makes looking into their mouth painful. To these people: GO FOR IT, it actually will make a significant beneficial difference in your case. But if your teeth don't look horrendous and aren't jutting out at a 45 degree angle, think carefully before you decide you want braces. I am sure that there are kids like me who didn't want them at all in the first place, but were not given a choice by their parents. Initially, the only reason that I opposed them was because of the way that they looked, but once I got them on, I started thinking about it and realized that there were many other reasons to not get them put on.
Thanks for reading if you did, hope it wasn't too boring, and please feel free to disagree or criticize, I realize that this is more of a biased rant than it is a meaningful response. :D

The post to end all posts.

It appears that the day has come for me to post. Bear with me as I dazzle readers with my anecdotes and stories. Without further ado, the tale of the all-knowing Jason. 

Jason was an old man, crying out for help in his old, decrepit hut one day when the titanic Bill came along, like an angel out of the blackened sky. Jason's shark-like skills allowed him to survive his near-death experiences, aided by Bill's expertise in Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation.

Bill sat Jason up in his seat and handed him boiling green tea as he questioned the old man. Jason recited tales of his childhood, being raised by a pack of wolves. From there, Jason went on to live among the trees and the birds, listening closely to their calls and memorizing the songs, only to hum them at later times.

Bill was nearly falling off of his chair in awe of this unknown man's tales, when he heard a crashing sound at the door. In crawled a newborn infant, clothed only in the purest of white linens. As this infant crossed the threshold, Sean came running in after it, beady-eyed and panting. 

"Don't go near the baby!" shouted Sean. 

"What is wrong with this baby? It's... It's growing rapidly into... into a giant!" clammered Bill.

Before their eyes, the infant grew into a beastly being, eight feet tall and a couple wide. It grew armor plates, seemingly out of its own skin, and became a fully reptilian being. 

Disgusted by the site, Jason once again began to clamor. He had seen it, somewhere. 

Just then, the beast roared. It charged at Bill, who stood facing towards it, in front of Jason's chair.

In the nick of time, Bill grabbed up a steel javelin that was conveniently located next to him. He parried the attack and sent the beast flying back. With this, the beast and Bill were sent into hours and hours of conflict, jumping on tables and crashing through plates. Yet conflict only strengthened the beast, and Bill was tiring of the brawl.

As Sean and Jason sat, open-eyed and in awe, the beast suddenly halted the fighting. He turned to Jason, and began to mutter guttural noises from the depths of his throat. "Eek!"

Jason listened, unable to comprehend what the monster was attempting to communicate. Trying as he might, there was nothing linguistic about the monster's voice.

Yet, after minutes of trying to understand what the beast was saying, Jason finally understood.

This monster was not saying anything at all. This monster was afraid.

Sean was aghast at his own behavior. He had chased this poor baby, turning it into a devilish creature. Bill also was saddened, he had fought this monster and fed its anger.

And, miraculously, the monster began to shrink as the humans began to understand.

They stopped chasing it, they no longer fought against it, and it grew back into regular form.

And then, the baby crawled back over the threshold, and into the forest.

-Sean needs to write a sequel. And yes, try to get some meaning from all of this. Sorry Bill and Jason. 

Mean Girls

I was brainstorming ideas for this blog post, and I had a total eureka moment.  A question that I have been bouncing around for years is this; why are girls so much more vicious than boys?  I am sure that every girl in Academy has come across a girl who has just been down right nasty.  Recently I had an encounter with one of these type of girls.  She stole my cell phone and read through my text messages learning all sorts of things about my friends, then told someone what she had read in the messages creating even more drama.  But, why don't we hear stories like this from boys?

It is  a problem that starts very young.  I personally know a fifth grader who has so much stress from the "mean girls" at her school that the skin on her finger tips is falling off.  She literally has to take steroids in attempts to grow the skin back.  The school also failed to acknowledge the girl was having a problem at school until her father called.  Her mother had called several times too, but they brushed her off as merely an over concerned mom.  To me this is absolutely horrifying.  What can schools, parents, and or teachers do to try and stop the maliciousness amongst girls, and why is the school sexist against mothers advocating for their children?

 I would like to know what you guys think about this.  Does this all boil down to gender divisions and what girls are taught to do?  Is it innate; are girls just truly meaner than boys?

As some of you may or may not know, I really enjoy to write poetry. If I have some free time, I may read past things that I have written, or begin new pieces. But, poetry, I feel is the best way for one to learn about how you feel. The words must be chosen precisely. You really have to pick and choose your words so that you say what you mean, and even then, it could be interpreted entirely different. Something new will come out of it every time. I'm not saying that novels and other works won't have the same result, but poems are often more ambiguous and more pleasant to deconstruct. So, here is a poem that I wrote. I am wondering what you think, and if there is anything that I can do to make it better. (It doesn't have a title. I feel that titles cause the reader to focus on one specific idea or concept, and I don't want that.)

Life was peaceful

Early in the morning
I would accompany the birds warbling
Celebrating the sunrise
With their harmonious melodies

Late into the night
I would listen to the wolves
Dolefully howling
At the luminescent moon

In autumn, greedy squirrels
Would superfluously raid
My drooping limbs of the ripening nuts
For their winter storerooms

In spring, I would rejoice
As birds built nests in my boughs
And I would cheer
When they took flight

I would shake my branches with laughter
As ants and beetles
Crawled up my bark
Tickling my belly and feet

Life was peaceful
But one day
A strange creature appeared
And it was peaceful no more

It looked ominous.
Walking on two feet,
It was followed
By gigantic metal monsters

Day and night
I was forced to listen
To the incessant whirring
Of theses hideous beasts

I could no longer hear
The warbling of the birds
Or the howling of the wolves
Only the whirring that supplanted them

Soon, one of these creatures paused by me
It walked on two feet
And carried a strange item,
A strange rock broached by a strangely smooth stick

The creature inspected me
And stared up into my branches
It then raised its foreign object high
And swung --

“Timber”

The Future: So Far, Yet So Close...

I know that half of us attended a four-year planning with our parents and counselors. We basically planned out which classes we would (indefinitely) be taking over the course of our four years based on what fields we consider going into in our post-high school careers.

For example, I've known for a long time (since kindergarten, actually) that I wanted to become an author or some kind of writer. As I got older, my interests grew and I wanted to become a journalist and because of a deep passion for writing music, a lyricist.

Well, as I was talking with my counselor, I mentioned how I would love to coach volleyball at some point. She then recommended the teaching field. Learning the skills of a teacher would help my skills as a coach. I thought about it more after the meeting and I thought...well, I really like to write and I really like to help kids. What if I became an English teacher??!

Now, of course there are other options, like for me I love sports and again, I love helping others...well there's always physical therapy.

I suppose that there's something for everyone. There are so many options out there, so many unopened doors, waiting to be discovered. If you don't know what you want to be yet, just think about what you are truly passionate about and what your interests are. Try new things, take new classes...you'll find something.

This is your chance to express how you think your talent(s) will help make a difference in the world. What will you contribute to our society? How will others be affected?

I want to know what you want to be. Engineer? Teacher? Musician? Author?...and why?!?! I really want to know!!! If you don't know...well, c'mon, there's got to be something that you're good at! =)

Not a chick flick...science!

Anyone who is in Honors Biology at South will know that we just watched GATTACA. GATTACA not only has some pretty smokin’ guys in it, but it has an amazing way of getting you to think about life. GATTACA is about a futuristic world where your genetics determine every single part of your life. It usually starts with the chromosomes being scanned to have 23 of the best chromosomes from each parent. As Lindsay would say, “It’s like customizing your own children.” When the children are born, they take blood samples and can tell you a whole bunch of things, even the baby’s “expiration date”. The main character was a “God Child”, which is when the child is not screened to have a perfect genetic makeup. He has a 99% chance of heart problems and isn’t supposed to live past the age of 30, but he is determined to get to where he wants to be in life.

There was a new way of discriminating. It wasn’t on your skin color or your nationality, the baseball team you cheer for or the football team you cheer for, it was what kind of genetics you had. Job interviews were done by just a simple urine sample, and daily screenings to see if you are who you really are. No more having to prove yourself, they could read it in your genetics. The main character had horrible genetics, so he took someone else’s. The two had a partnership and the main character got what he wanted, to work at GATTACA, a space development area.

The point I’m trying to bring up is, is it right to screen the children? Does that future seem close or far? If you have seen the movie, what were your thoughts on the scientific part of the movie? To me, it is mind boggling how constrained even the brightest of people were. Everything was based upon things you probably couldn't control.

Although, I'm not the biggest science fan, I'm more of a math person, I found this movie to be inspiring in the way that I want to look into the subject more. How far are we from a world like that... will it even happen? Those are just some thoughts to have you ponder on. If you haven't seen the movie...go watch it. It's not boring and it's not a chick flick!

TMI: Yes or No?

Last Tuesday, Merrick noticed my "I voted" sticker and said, "Mr. Morgan, who'd you vote for?" I paused for a second and then said, "I'm not sure I want to say." Because the monster archetype group was preparing to unleash their spine-tingling presentation, I never had an opportunity to elaborate on my decision. So, here goes:

I am reluctant to reveal my decision because, like Jimmy Wales the founder of Wikipedia, I believe in NPOV (neutral point of view). I am not saying Wikipedia or I always practice this philosophy, but I do, in principle, value it in the classroom setting--a place were ideas bounce around. When talking about archetypes in literature, I try hard to present Carl Jung's and Joseph Campbell's point of view. Likewise, when we eventually challenge these notions, I will present Gerda Lerner's and other constructivists point of view.

My point is that ideas/views have multiple sides (not just two by the way), and I think it's our job as teachers to explore a handful of them. Personally, I'd much rather talk about advantages and disadvantages of an idea or an action than try to frame it as good/bad or right/wrong. As a literature teacher, who enjoys asking probing questions and helping students think better, I am not particularly concerned with "one right interpretation of the text," but I do like to stir the pot. Sometimes that means playing devil's advocate or taking an absurd stance.

So, the question is: does revealing ones vote interfere with the pot stirring that makes discussions lively? Will students hesitate to express themselves if they know who I voted for? Will they dismiss some of my remarks if they know who I picked? Will they assume that they now know my beliefs on all topics? Will this information in anyway hamper our discussions? I believe that our discussion certainly could be hampered, and that "could" is enough for me to keep my vote to myself.

Now it's your turn. Should teachers reveal their vote? What's gained by this? What's lost? Should they express their political views in a classroom? Professor Yen Yen Woo's blog post has over 20 thoughtful responses on this very subject. Statistics show that students are pretty adept and figuring out a teacher's political views; however, that's not my point. I want to know where you stand, as a matter of principle. And, I want to know why.