High Tech High School

Yesterday in class Mr. John told us about his venture to High Tech High. He gave a brief overview such as this.. At High Tech High the students are allowed to wear whatever they would like, they call their teachers by their first names, eat and drink while in class, "hang out" all around the campus during free time, and classes aren't structured persay. At this highschool one can choose which classes he or she would like to take. I believe this is a good environment for learning. By having food and drinks in class students are constantly reenergizing themselves. Also, by not sitting in desks and listening to lectures all day the students are actually DOING the things they are learning which 9 out of 10 times is more easily remembered. Something like this is coming to Baton Rouge in 2010. I am not saying I would leave Saint Joseph's Academy, because this place has been my dream since I was a child and I love it. But I am excited to see how this type of school evolves over time.

Bullying Causes Death

STOP BULLYING. END OF DISCUSSION.

Can bullying be the most reason cause of children suicide? Yes. In a recent article on CNN, a young boy from Georgia hung himself. His mother states that on the day of his death, Jaheem came home from school and handed his mother his report card. He looked very happy because he made all A's and B's. As his mother prepared dinner, he went to his room. When dinner was ready his mother called for him, but there was no response so she and her daughter went up to his room where they found him hanging by a belt in his closet. He had hung himself.

Alligations were made that it was caused by the extreme bullying and tantalizing the child was recieving at school. He was constantly being called gay and virgin, and it got to the point to where he could not take it anymore. This is completely awful, to go through life with no one able to help you end the bullying. Finally you just give up and figure death would be easier.

Fashion by Technology

One of the newest designers for surf and skate label RVCA doesn't have a design degree, many fashion internships on her resume or even a wealth of sewing experience. What she does have is a little unconventional: a Web site, featuring pictures of her daily outfits, that happens to draw more than a million hits a month. A year and change later, she gets 35,000 hits a day and hundreds of comments per post. As the Internet took notice of her blog, designers and industry heavyweights did, too. Neely was invited for a private tour of the American Apparel factory, then to New York Fashion Week in fall 2008 to see Alexander Wang's show and model Erin Wasson's line for RVCA. She is now going to Paris for a show.

This is an example of how technology can also help entrepreneurs. By starting a website and a blog about her fashion, this girl has been discovered as one of the next big designers.

Facebook Addiction?

ALERT! ALERT!ALERT!

Today in class I read an article on CNN about a woman who was clearly addicted to the social networking site known as Facebook. She spends over 20 hours a week on Facebook, which could add up to one whole day a week. She wanted her name to remain anoymous. Her child would ask her for help with her homework, but she would decline just because she did not want to leave her "happy" world known as Facebook. A therapist and marriage counselor in North Caroline says that some of her patients also get so wrapped up in Facebook that it ruins their marriages. One client of hers 'friended' an old boyfriend on Facebook and began flirting with him and explaining how unhappy she was in her marriage. By saying this her younger cousin saw the wall posts and told her parents which then told the husband. They are now in the middle of a rough divorce.

The physciatrist says you know you are obsessed when:

1. you lose sleep over facebook
2. you spend more than one hour a day devoting time to nothing but facebook
3. you become obsessed with old loves
4. you ignore work in favor of facebook
5. the thought of getting off facebook leaves you in a cold sweat

Pile has her own quick test: "Try going a day without Facebook. If you find it causes you a lot of stress and anxiety, you really need to get some help."

Sing Along

Do you ever hear a song on the radio that you know every single word to, yet you can't remember when the last time you heard it was? I surely do. This past week I put my iTunes on Party Shuffle and was amazed at the songs I had from years ago that I still to this day love. I wanted to share some of the songs from my playlist with you.

Do you remember....

Aaron Carter's "Saturday Night" and "Aaron's Party"
Backstreet Boy's "Larger Than Life"
98 Degrees' "Buenos Noche"
Nsync's "Space Cowboy"
No Doubt's "Hey Baby" and "It's My Life"
Britney Spears' "Oops I Did it Again"
Ricky Martin's "Livin' La Vida Loca"
Rihanna's "Unfaithful"
Usher's "Yeah"

It is amazing to watch the style of music change over time. I remember loving Christina Aguilara's "Genie in a Bottle", and now she has songs out such as "Keeps Getting Better". I think it is very cool to watch artists grow up and mature their sound. Just like Britney Spears used to be an innocent pop singer, and she now has more edge to her sound and is more upbeat. Music is a big part of my life, and it is the main source of technology that I feel as though I could not live without.

Blogging this year has made me realize how much I take for granted. Like being able to listen to any song I want to with the click of a button, whether on the computer, or in the car.

Disney Channel Original Movies

Flash from the past. Don't you remember as kids how movies such as Halloweentown would frighten us so much we had to sleep with the lights on, or how we all wanted to be an artist after we saw the movie Quints. I sure remember I do. Here are a list of movie that I remember distinctly that are Disney Channel Original Movies.

1. Brink
2. Halloweentown
   
3. Zenon
4. The Thirteenth Year
5. Smart House
6. Don't Look Under the Bed
7. Up, Up, and Away
8. Miracle in Lane 2
9. Phantom of the Megaplex
10. Motorcrossed
11. The Luck of the Irish
12. Double Teamed
13. Cadet Kelly
14. Gotta Kick it Up
15. Get a Clue
16. Eddie's Million Dollar Cookoff

ETC ETC ETC

Technology can be helpful in many ways. It can help you contact friends and family in the blink of an eye, or find the definition to a word you do no understand, or, in this case, it can help teach you valuable life lessons.

By watching these, plus many more, DCOMs (Disney Channel Original Movies) I learned at an early age how all people are different and it is not a bad thing. In the movie "The Color of Friendship" a white, proper young lady comes to live with an African American family while on foreign exchange. They battle their differences and end up realizing that it does not matter what color you are. A person could be black, white, purple, blue, or even green. What matters is that person's personality and their actions towards others.


Another lesson I have learned by watching these movies came from "Brink". Andy "Brink" Brinker and his friends love to skateboard for fun, while another group of skaters, that call themselves Team X-Bladz, skate for the money. Team X-Bladz is made up of bullies and rude teenagers, once Brink joins that team his friends do not take the time to question him about his decision, instead they exclude him. At the end his friends realize he was only joining the team to get money to help his parents in their financial issues. From this movie I have realized that no matter how tough life gets my friends will always be there for me, so I should be there for them. I should also give people the benefit of the doubt instead of instantly judging them.

Seventeen Again.. Again??

Remake better or worse?


Zac Efron stars in a remake of a classic story. In the movie he is an older man who while in highschool got the love of his life pregnant, so he throws away his college scholarship to marry her. He ends up getting visited by the Ghost Spirit and is turned seventeen again. Throughout the movie he leanrs more about his own children by attending school with them masked as a student. He also learns just how much he cares about his wife and does not with to get a divorce from her. Once he makes this realization the Ghost Spirit turns him back to himself and he is able to save his marriage and to better understand his children's lives.

Although this is a new twist to the story, I personally liked the Disney Channel's version better. It is also called Seventeen Again.

This Disney Channel Original Movie, Seventeen Again, starts Tia Mowry, Tamera Mowry, and Taj Mowry. This story is about a grandmother and a grandfather who have lost all contact with their grandchildren and their marriage is falling apart. One morning they wake up to find themselves seventeen..again. Just like their granddaughter. While the grandparents are attending highschool and learning more about their granddaughter and helping her with daily obstacles, their grandson is trying to figure out a way to get them back to normal. In the end the grandparents decide to renew their wedding vows and have had more personal experiences with their grandchildren.