What has happened to Christmas? It has become so commercialized. Atheists are even starting to celebrate this (what use to be a) religious holiday. They have casually put an "X" in front of this holiday (removing the Christ), thus altering the basis of Christmas. Christmas is originally suppose to be a time during the year to worship and celebrate the birth of the infant Jesus. It is a time for Christians to remember the roots of their religion. When Jesus was born in order to create the gateway to heaven. Well, that is what I believe. Other things associated with this holiday are getting together with family and having a good Christmas meal. I am okay with everyone doing this. I mean, all families, regardless of religion, need a time to get together. Especially, with these tough American times.
What angers me the most, is the fact that a lot of people are obsessed with the "receiving" part of Christmas. The giving part is good. It allows people to show that they care for the other human being. If the gift is something that the other person wanted or needed, that only shows that the giver cares even more about the person who got the gift because they pay attention to the other person's needs. Nowadays, some people just give more gifts in order to receive more. I almost forgot about the children. Oh, the children. They whine and whine all for a single gift. All that they know to say is "GIMME, GIMME, GIMME!!!" Their young, so they do not know any better. I know this, because I use to be one. But, in due time, they will forget about the universe circling around them. Unfortunately, I do not know what to ask Santa Claus for this year. I am not really sure if it is because I don't deserve one, or if I am content with my life and what materials I have. This is the possible reason for why I am questioning Christmas. I think it is because I want something that cannot be given in a gift wrapped box. Maybe, I want happiness, because at this moment is when I will need it most.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
PARTAY!!! (Yes, I know that I misspelled it)
This previous weekend, my friend had a really fun birthday party. The whole day was dedicated to just relaxing and doing whatever we could to stay entertained in a stress free environment. Instead of talking about the bad things that happened, I will just talk about everything good. The good things that happened made my weekend worth it. I am going to start out the day before the party. I didn't get to make the cake batter and bake it, but I got to prepare it by choosing and putting on the frosting. I am a unique person that has a very strange taste in food. It was a good thing that the birthday boy had a unique taste in food too, so he wanted his cake to be a surprise. Because the cake was already baked (it was the yellow batter kind), I had to make the frosting stand out the most. I decided to go with mixed peanut butter and jelly, and nutella (a hazelnut and chocolate mixed spread). Too my amazement, everybody loved the two cakes.
Other than the great food, the activities were what also made that day great. As I said before, I will not talk about the worst events of the day, such as the tennis court incidents, and our first game of "Sandman." The highlights of the day were the tournament of the games of skate (a game of horse played by using skateboards), and the games of "Sandman" that we had played at night on the play structure (after all of the little kids that unfortunately can get injured from us older children had all left). In the tournament, I actually wanted to win for once. I usually never take them seriously, but this time I wanted to prove myself. I beat my brother in the first round. It was an intense game. I cheeped out on a semi-easy trick and won. The next round was a three-way final. It was me against the birthday boy and a cool other guy that we had just met in a free-for all match. I was the first one to go, but I was able to give the two of them a letter each. In the end, the birthday boy had won. To end my day, we played sandman until my mom arrived to give my brother and I a ride home.
Other than the great food, the activities were what also made that day great. As I said before, I will not talk about the worst events of the day, such as the tennis court incidents, and our first game of "Sandman." The highlights of the day were the tournament of the games of skate (a game of horse played by using skateboards), and the games of "Sandman" that we had played at night on the play structure (after all of the little kids that unfortunately can get injured from us older children had all left). In the tournament, I actually wanted to win for once. I usually never take them seriously, but this time I wanted to prove myself. I beat my brother in the first round. It was an intense game. I cheeped out on a semi-easy trick and won. The next round was a three-way final. It was me against the birthday boy and a cool other guy that we had just met in a free-for all match. I was the first one to go, but I was able to give the two of them a letter each. In the end, the birthday boy had won. To end my day, we played sandman until my mom arrived to give my brother and I a ride home.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Thanksgiving Break
Well, for me, I wouldn't really have considered it a break. Just like all of my other "breaks," i did not get to do that many activities that I wanted to. Usually, my parents take control of whatever I do over my breaks. But, this time, I was given one of the six days (I included Tuesday after school and totaled my half days of freedom as one) to do what I wanted to. As always, I just wanted to hang out with friends. This period of time that I got to enjoy was about equivalent to a weekend. The rest was mainly family time.
Family time wasn't all that bad. I got to be with my cousins (some of them are about my age) for majority of the break. We watched television, rented movies, played a few video games, went on youtube to watch many hilarious videos, and helped a bit in preparing the Thanksgiving feast. Unfortunately, I didn't eat that much turkey. This happened probably because I ate a bit too much of the home-made lumpia (I think this is how you spell it, by the way, they are the Filipino egg rolls) appetizers with the delicious sweet, spicy, and sour sauce. My mother and my aunt had prepared two turkeys this year. One was oven roasted, the other was barbecued. Both tasted great, but the barbecue turkey was a little dry.
My cousin didn't have any turkey because of his big football game the next day. His team made the playoffs, even though the team was just started last year. Unfortunately, his team has much to learn, because they lost by a lot. My uncle knew that the other team was going to do well, because he saw the other team's coach at my cousin's team's practice (possibly spying). In a few years, my cousin's team will probably get better.
Family time wasn't all that bad. I got to be with my cousins (some of them are about my age) for majority of the break. We watched television, rented movies, played a few video games, went on youtube to watch many hilarious videos, and helped a bit in preparing the Thanksgiving feast. Unfortunately, I didn't eat that much turkey. This happened probably because I ate a bit too much of the home-made lumpia (I think this is how you spell it, by the way, they are the Filipino egg rolls) appetizers with the delicious sweet, spicy, and sour sauce. My mother and my aunt had prepared two turkeys this year. One was oven roasted, the other was barbecued. Both tasted great, but the barbecue turkey was a little dry.
My cousin didn't have any turkey because of his big football game the next day. His team made the playoffs, even though the team was just started last year. Unfortunately, his team has much to learn, because they lost by a lot. My uncle knew that the other team was going to do well, because he saw the other team's coach at my cousin's team's practice (possibly spying). In a few years, my cousin's team will probably get better.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Technological Evolution
Looking back to last week, I still cannot get the idea of these technological advancements out of my head. The TED video was surprising and shocking at the same time. I have recently been aware of the exponential growth rate of technological improvements. These improvements are occurring more faster and often as time goes on. This is amazing, because robots and other artificial life are becoming more realistic, just like that one robot dog thing. It was able to regain its balance when it was kicked by that one man. What I found even more interesting, was when the robot dog thing was slowly going down the snowy hill. It made a life-like mistake of slipping, but then it regained its footing. I watch a few science fiction movies from time to time thinking that some are completely unrealistic. But, when I saw the robot dog thing, I slowly started to think of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Terminator. Could the "age of machine" really be real? And if so, how close are we to reaching it? This is one thing that scared me.
Another part of the video that we saw, focused on cell research, the duplication of organs and other various body parts. Whatever problems that could not be fixed by replacement, was fixed by technology (such as hearing aids for the deaf). And due to the ever increasing speed of technological advancements, the deaf will be able to hear better and better as time goes on. The man in the video said that possibly in a few technological generations, a deaf man will have a hearing aid that will allow him to hear better than the average human. And from then on, hearing aids will continue to become even better than the one before. He brought up the idea that humans are at such a high level, that they could possibly create their next evolution. Now, I am a Catholic, and I am sort of afraid of the fact that humans will be interfering with a natural cause of nature. Is it right for us to be playing God?. What scares me the most is the thought, what if we mess up? I mean, we're only human. Will there be extreme consequences? Only time will tell if we choose to do such.
Another part of the video that we saw, focused on cell research, the duplication of organs and other various body parts. Whatever problems that could not be fixed by replacement, was fixed by technology (such as hearing aids for the deaf). And due to the ever increasing speed of technological advancements, the deaf will be able to hear better and better as time goes on. The man in the video said that possibly in a few technological generations, a deaf man will have a hearing aid that will allow him to hear better than the average human. And from then on, hearing aids will continue to become even better than the one before. He brought up the idea that humans are at such a high level, that they could possibly create their next evolution. Now, I am a Catholic, and I am sort of afraid of the fact that humans will be interfering with a natural cause of nature. Is it right for us to be playing God?. What scares me the most is the thought, what if we mess up? I mean, we're only human. Will there be extreme consequences? Only time will tell if we choose to do such.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Reading
I haven't really been reading on my spare time lately. I believe that due to having harder classes, I usually spend all of my free time with my friends and/or family trying to relax. Due to not reading as much as I did before, I am starting to read slower and become a worse speller. I guess that reading actually is good for your intelligence. Recently, I have not found a "high school reading level" book or series that I have been interested in. I was never really a fan of the Harry Potter book series. I had a bad experience with the first book as a child. Now I just watch the movies instead of reading the books. I kind of gave up on anime and comics. I use to be obsessed with buying the anime books of the Naruto series, but then I slowly drifted away from it. I still read comics a bit whenever I see some at a friend's house or just the ones in the Sunday paper.
The only kind of book series that I really enjoyed reading was the Perseus Jackson and the Olympians. All of my teachers declared it a "middle school reading level" book. I may be in high school, but I still enjoyed reading it. The way that the author, Rick Riordan, incorporates Greek mythology (with all of its violent and action-filled stories) with our current society turns out to be really appealing to a young teenage boy. I can tell that I really liked reading the books because I would sit in the same spot for hours a day reading just to find out what would happen next. Also, whenever I find the topic of something I read interesting, I read a larger amount faster than when I read when I am bored. I fell in love with the series by the time I had gotten to the seventh chapter of the first book. Unfortunately, the first series is over, and it will probably be a while until Riordan can get another one started. Also, I am now in high school, where teachers don't want their students reading "middle school books." So hopefully, I can become interested in another series/author, maybe a young adult one of some sort. But, their is still no denying the child in me the right to read and explore my unstoppable imagination.
The only kind of book series that I really enjoyed reading was the Perseus Jackson and the Olympians. All of my teachers declared it a "middle school reading level" book. I may be in high school, but I still enjoyed reading it. The way that the author, Rick Riordan, incorporates Greek mythology (with all of its violent and action-filled stories) with our current society turns out to be really appealing to a young teenage boy. I can tell that I really liked reading the books because I would sit in the same spot for hours a day reading just to find out what would happen next. Also, whenever I find the topic of something I read interesting, I read a larger amount faster than when I read when I am bored. I fell in love with the series by the time I had gotten to the seventh chapter of the first book. Unfortunately, the first series is over, and it will probably be a while until Riordan can get another one started. Also, I am now in high school, where teachers don't want their students reading "middle school books." So hopefully, I can become interested in another series/author, maybe a young adult one of some sort. But, their is still no denying the child in me the right to read and explore my unstoppable imagination.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Blog Review
Looking back at my blog, I have noticed the large amount that I have written. I wrote about many different (maybe even random) topics. I have done blogs about topics that will probably show up again, and some on things that I might never talk about ever again (i.e. "Random Signs"). At the beginning of the school year, the class wrote a "statement of purpose." In it, we were suppose to write what our goals for writing were. I feel that I have met my goal. Before I was really use to formatted writing (I said this in my "statement of purpose). I was so use to following handouts on how the teacher wanted the paragraphs and essays to look like. By doing these blog posts every week I am able to find my own way of writing and spotting out where topics change and new paragraphs begin. This wasn't really a goal, but doing weekly blog posts allow me to get a better idea of what kind of person I am. To be honest, I think that I am a random child.
Now, I'm not really sure if I have many goals. Now it's just do good in school in general. Not many others are English based. Maybe I should read more often because I have been reading slower lately. But in order to read, I need spare time, and school really seems to get in the way. So much homework is assigned to me every night. When I finish I just want to relax and rest. I have been struggling with math a bit, but I think that I'll get the hang of it eventually. Another goal that I really want to do is to join n organized school sport. I mainly want to join track. I can run pretty good for decent distances. Running can be fun while doing it with friends. I want to join, but it will be quite difficult finding time to do homework about three hours after school when I'm dead exhausted from running. And so this is my major dilemma, I want to join a sport because it will be fun and look good for college, but yearly maintained good grades look good for college as well. I guess that I'm an advanced student (I'm in HP pre- calculus), but I'm not advanced enough to be juggling sports and school.
Now, I'm not really sure if I have many goals. Now it's just do good in school in general. Not many others are English based. Maybe I should read more often because I have been reading slower lately. But in order to read, I need spare time, and school really seems to get in the way. So much homework is assigned to me every night. When I finish I just want to relax and rest. I have been struggling with math a bit, but I think that I'll get the hang of it eventually. Another goal that I really want to do is to join n organized school sport. I mainly want to join track. I can run pretty good for decent distances. Running can be fun while doing it with friends. I want to join, but it will be quite difficult finding time to do homework about three hours after school when I'm dead exhausted from running. And so this is my major dilemma, I want to join a sport because it will be fun and look good for college, but yearly maintained good grades look good for college as well. I guess that I'm an advanced student (I'm in HP pre- calculus), but I'm not advanced enough to be juggling sports and school.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Assassin's Creed 2 (THIS IS NOT A REVIEW)
Assassin's Creed was an amazing game when it came out. It surprised so many people with its amazing graphics, game play, and limitless possibilities. I never owned the game, but I was always eager to play it whenever I was at my friend's house. I didn't really know much about the storyline because I never did mission's. All that I knew was that you played the role of a man in the near future. He works for scientists as a test dummy who enters this virtual-reality chamber that allows you to experience medieval times through the eyes of an assassin. The group of assassins that the main character is a part of kills only corrupt government officials and helps peasants that are abused by knights. At my friend's house I never did the missions for story mode. I just messed around by killing guards. It was also pretty fun just to run around the small towns and climb giant buildings.
Assassin's Creed got many great reviews. Its review scores ranged from 9.5 to 10 out of a possible 10. Currently, the sequel to this great game should be coming out soon. But, this makes me and my fellow gamers wonder, how can they possibly make the sequel equivalent, if not better than the original? I watched the trailer and some game play footage, and I was in awe. Both the trailer and footage showed that this time, the group of assassin's are in the Renaissance era. Now this is great. If my parents wonder why I bought the game, I might be able to make them overlook the fact that the game is rated M and say "I find this highly educational because I'm learning about the Renaissance in history class." The other thing the trailer revealed about the storyline is who the assassin's are enemies with. Now they are against the corrupt Roman Catholic Church (which I am learning about in history class). In order to improve game play, the creators have added new tools, new weapons, new combat features, and Leonardo da Vinci's flying machine (its a glider). All of this is making me extremely eager to play this masterpiece of a game.
Assassin's Creed got many great reviews. Its review scores ranged from 9.5 to 10 out of a possible 10. Currently, the sequel to this great game should be coming out soon. But, this makes me and my fellow gamers wonder, how can they possibly make the sequel equivalent, if not better than the original? I watched the trailer and some game play footage, and I was in awe. Both the trailer and footage showed that this time, the group of assassin's are in the Renaissance era. Now this is great. If my parents wonder why I bought the game, I might be able to make them overlook the fact that the game is rated M and say "I find this highly educational because I'm learning about the Renaissance in history class." The other thing the trailer revealed about the storyline is who the assassin's are enemies with. Now they are against the corrupt Roman Catholic Church (which I am learning about in history class). In order to improve game play, the creators have added new tools, new weapons, new combat features, and Leonardo da Vinci's flying machine (its a glider). All of this is making me extremely eager to play this masterpiece of a game.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Alameda Weather
The weather for this past week has been really strange. I have seen cloud filled skies with no rain, cloud filled skies with rain, and sunny skies with rain. When it rained, it would sometimes be really warm. The day can start sunny, take a turn for the worse, and strangely it could end up being sunny again.
I have not been enjoying this very awkward behaving weather. It can be so unpredictable that news weather reporters are completely off with their morning forecast. I go to school ready for some rain, and then end up coming home with my clothes (sometimes even thick "waterproof" jackets) wet inside and out evenly through all articles of clothing. Once I reach my house I just throw everything into the washing machine (because my momma told me to) and take a very warm shower. Because of the terrible weather and school, that ten minute shower is the highlight of my day.
Yesterday was the most amount of rain I had ever seen produced in an hour. The streets of Alameda had enormous puddles resting near the clogged storm-drains. I remember in the last half of sixth period, when the rain began as a light, almost unnoticeable drizzle. Everyone gathered near the windows completely surprised. People said things like, "Darn, it's raining." Now In the last ten minutes of class I remember hearing a rapid "pitter-patter." As I gazed at the window, the amount of rain left me speechless. All of those "goshes" and "darns" had changed into reactions like, "HOLY CRAP!!! WHAT IS GOING ON?" By the time class was over and I had already been soaked by the single minute I spent in the rain in order to walk over to my locker, I was finally able to take in the impact rain has on Alameda. As my friend (he gets a ride with me back home because we are neighbors) and I walked it to my mom's car, we saw giant pools of water on both sides of the street. Cars that were really low to the ground almost had water at the level of the doors. A lot of people were asking their friends if they could get a ride with them, while others waited out of the rain (under entrances to buildings or just inside) to be picked up. I have never seen Alameda in this much chaos before.
I have not been enjoying this very awkward behaving weather. It can be so unpredictable that news weather reporters are completely off with their morning forecast. I go to school ready for some rain, and then end up coming home with my clothes (sometimes even thick "waterproof" jackets) wet inside and out evenly through all articles of clothing. Once I reach my house I just throw everything into the washing machine (because my momma told me to) and take a very warm shower. Because of the terrible weather and school, that ten minute shower is the highlight of my day.
Yesterday was the most amount of rain I had ever seen produced in an hour. The streets of Alameda had enormous puddles resting near the clogged storm-drains. I remember in the last half of sixth period, when the rain began as a light, almost unnoticeable drizzle. Everyone gathered near the windows completely surprised. People said things like, "Darn, it's raining." Now In the last ten minutes of class I remember hearing a rapid "pitter-patter." As I gazed at the window, the amount of rain left me speechless. All of those "goshes" and "darns" had changed into reactions like, "HOLY CRAP!!! WHAT IS GOING ON?" By the time class was over and I had already been soaked by the single minute I spent in the rain in order to walk over to my locker, I was finally able to take in the impact rain has on Alameda. As my friend (he gets a ride with me back home because we are neighbors) and I walked it to my mom's car, we saw giant pools of water on both sides of the street. Cars that were really low to the ground almost had water at the level of the doors. A lot of people were asking their friends if they could get a ride with them, while others waited out of the rain (under entrances to buildings or just inside) to be picked up. I have never seen Alameda in this much chaos before.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
For the Love of Math
I can't believe that math was a subject that I use to enjoy. I was actually a pretty good student. I was a student that usually got A's and B's. I think that the reason to my success in the past was because of my great teachers and my desire to succeed. Ever since I accepted the fact that I was a mathematically advanced student (yea right), I had teachers that pitched every lesson in a way that us students would learn easily. They went over all of the homework assignments to see what our strengths and weaknesses of that chapter were. If we did not understand a certain section, they were willing to put of the section's test for a few days so we can spend extra time on reviewing that and other sections. Reflecting on my history with math classes, it made me notice a trend. Whenever I have an entertaining/good teacher, I always do well.
On the other hand, whenever I have a difficult teacher, I struggle quite a bit. I remember in sixth grade, I thought that I was stupid. I always got C's and D's on my math tests. But, one day I got an A+. I guess that might have been motivated by this to try harder. Even though my teacher made us work a lot in class, I would try my best to score high whenever an opportunity arose. For some reason, this year is a little different. I'm not entirely sure, but I'm slowly starting to lose that motivation to work hard. In HPpre -calculus, I get a lot of homework every night. Usually, I hardly understand the lessons, which ends up with me not doing a lot of my homework problems (every night). For some reason, for the first couple of tests and quizes I was able to get A's and B's. But just last week, I barely got a C on a test. I mean I was pressed for time and it was sort of long, but I made many foolish mistakes. I switched numbers around in the answer and I did the hard problems (which I only got partial credit for) instead of the easier ones. This made me wake up and realize that summer vacation is over and I need to start working harder. Hopefully before progress-report time, I'll be able to raise my grade.
On the other hand, whenever I have a difficult teacher, I struggle quite a bit. I remember in sixth grade, I thought that I was stupid. I always got C's and D's on my math tests. But, one day I got an A+. I guess that might have been motivated by this to try harder. Even though my teacher made us work a lot in class, I would try my best to score high whenever an opportunity arose. For some reason, this year is a little different. I'm not entirely sure, but I'm slowly starting to lose that motivation to work hard. In HPpre -calculus, I get a lot of homework every night. Usually, I hardly understand the lessons, which ends up with me not doing a lot of my homework problems (every night). For some reason, for the first couple of tests and quizes I was able to get A's and B's. But just last week, I barely got a C on a test. I mean I was pressed for time and it was sort of long, but I made many foolish mistakes. I switched numbers around in the answer and I did the hard problems (which I only got partial credit for) instead of the easier ones. This made me wake up and realize that summer vacation is over and I need to start working harder. Hopefully before progress-report time, I'll be able to raise my grade.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Funny Signs
Yesterday, while I was waiting for my teacher to open up the classroom, my friend noticed something inside the school that I had never seen before. At first I laughed, then I found it to be a cruel sick joke. It was a handicapped sign (the one's with a guy in a wheelchair) pointing to a set of stairs. It said elevator, indicating that one has to go down the stairs to use the elevator. How the hell can a person in a wheelchair go down the stairs? And secondly, why would he use the stairs going down, just to use the elevator to go back up? This made no sense to me at all. To make things even worse, there wasn't even an elevator at the bottom of the stairs. It just lead to an exit. The laughter ended when another person that was there at the time (and had seen the sign) said, "they don't care about them." I found this a bit true because if the school really cared, they would have removed that misleading sign.
While all of this was going on, it made me think of the time my brother and I were ridiculously bored. It was during the weekday, we both finished our homework, and we had no idea of what to do to entertain ourselves. Like all other bored children, we turned to the power of the internet. I don't know how we stumbled upon the subject, but we ended up googling funny/hilarious signs. What we found made us laugh like maniacal idiots. I think the pre-boredom state of mind made the pictures seem funnier than normal. These stupid pictures were funny because some seemed to contradict themselves like "0% OFF SELECT ITEMS TODAY." Others had sneaky messages at the bottom hidden in small lettering. Looking back at this occurence made me notice that I do really stupid things to keep myself entertained (but I'll save those for another blog post).
Tatem Blog Post
(6.) “Yeah, I just found out that Cleopatra was a Black woman.”
“What?”
The first student went on to explain her newly learned information. The second student exclaimed in disbelief, “That can’t be true. Cleopatra was beautiful!”
(7.) What had this young woman learned about who in our society is considered beautiful and who is not? Had she imagined Elizabeth Taylor[5] when she thought of Cleopatra? The new information her classmate had shared and her own deeply ingrained assumptions about who is beautiful and who is not were too incongruous[6] to allow her to take in this new information at that moment.
I annotated this text by underlining key phrases like, " That can't be true. Cleopatra was beautiful!" I also underlined other sentences such as, "Had she imagined Elizabeth Taylor[5] when she thought of Cleopatra? The new information... and her own deeply ingrained assumptions... were too incongruous[6] to allow her to take in this new information..." I drew an arrow pointing back to the phrase about Cleopatra being beautiful and said in my own words that this was a racist comment. The actress/portrayal of Cleopatra was beautiful. There is no possible way that this student would have known what Cleopatra really looked like because she died a long time ago. I believe that this paragraph is important because it showed an example of prejudice with wrong information (which I wrote right next to the paragraphs).
“What?”
The first student went on to explain her newly learned information. The second student exclaimed in disbelief, “That can’t be true. Cleopatra was beautiful!”
(7.) What had this young woman learned about who in our society is considered beautiful and who is not? Had she imagined Elizabeth Taylor[5] when she thought of Cleopatra? The new information her classmate had shared and her own deeply ingrained assumptions about who is beautiful and who is not were too incongruous[6] to allow her to take in this new information at that moment.
I annotated this text by underlining key phrases like, " That can't be true. Cleopatra was beautiful!" I also underlined other sentences such as, "Had she imagined Elizabeth Taylor[5] when she thought of Cleopatra? The new information... and her own deeply ingrained assumptions... were too incongruous[6] to allow her to take in this new information..." I drew an arrow pointing back to the phrase about Cleopatra being beautiful and said in my own words that this was a racist comment. The actress/portrayal of Cleopatra was beautiful. There is no possible way that this student would have known what Cleopatra really looked like because she died a long time ago. I believe that this paragraph is important because it showed an example of prejudice with wrong information (which I wrote right next to the paragraphs).
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Classic Rock
My cousin and I were once discussing how music has changed so much. We both came to the final conclusion that the quality of music has changed greatly. He had thought that it has slowly been degrading and backed up his idea very well. He said that great expertise in music started out with Beethoven conducting large orchestras of highly skilled musicians. Then, he talked about how bands were formed next. They were all still greatly skilled musicians, but there were fewer members and they usually had solos to show how experienced they were. And now comes the modern age day of rap. Mainly all that makes it good is the lyrics and bizarre dances. There are usually only a few members, and it's just a guy expressing his feelings with a poem backed up by some other guy making a bunch of strange noises (sometimes not even using turn-tables).
Now go back a bit, and you are in the age of classic rock. Big names like Queen, Guns n' Roses, Led Zeppelin, and Journey come to mind. Now these were some really great bands. Everyone played an important role from singer to drummer. Their sounds would just work together perfectly. And in the majority of all classic rock songs, there was a big solo where a member of the band's choice would have their moment to shine by showing the reason why they are a famous professional musician. Nowadays, many bands have singers that sound alike due to new-age technology that alters their natural voices and tries to create a "perfect" voice. This does not make any sense to me at all. Why would somebody want to change someone else's voice if that is what made them famous in the first place. Looking back at classic rock, you can see a wide variety of different sounding voices. Freddie Mercury's voice and Axl Rose's voice sound nothing alike. The guitarists and drummers also were what made classic rock so great as well. Slash from Guns n' Roses was an expert at what he did. Sweet Child o' Mine (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-qx47-C2Q0) takes my breath away every time I listen to it. Watching John Bonham's solo to Moby Dick (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ed5YvFkcR7g&feature=related) leaves me speachless by being suprised that someone can get that good at playing the drums. Looking back at moments like these make me think about what has happened to the music industry.
Now go back a bit, and you are in the age of classic rock. Big names like Queen, Guns n' Roses, Led Zeppelin, and Journey come to mind. Now these were some really great bands. Everyone played an important role from singer to drummer. Their sounds would just work together perfectly. And in the majority of all classic rock songs, there was a big solo where a member of the band's choice would have their moment to shine by showing the reason why they are a famous professional musician. Nowadays, many bands have singers that sound alike due to new-age technology that alters their natural voices and tries to create a "perfect" voice. This does not make any sense to me at all. Why would somebody want to change someone else's voice if that is what made them famous in the first place. Looking back at classic rock, you can see a wide variety of different sounding voices. Freddie Mercury's voice and Axl Rose's voice sound nothing alike. The guitarists and drummers also were what made classic rock so great as well. Slash from Guns n' Roses was an expert at what he did. Sweet Child o' Mine (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-qx47-C2Q0) takes my breath away every time I listen to it. Watching John Bonham's solo to Moby Dick (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ed5YvFkcR7g&feature=related) leaves me speachless by being suprised that someone can get that good at playing the drums. Looking back at moments like these make me think about what has happened to the music industry.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
My History Project
Every once in a while I always ask myself certain questions. But one that keeps recurring is, do i really know that much about my parents? It took a history project to get me to recently ask myself this question. I was supposed to interview a relative that grew up in a different period of time. I thought about interviewing my grandfather. He has so many different stories from growing up in Mexico, but then I would need my dad to help me translate some of his words because he is fluent in Spanish and speaks only some English. Since that idea would not work that well, I thought about interviewing my dad. He has a couple of good life experiences to share and he enjoyed listening to most of the music that I like. The only major problem with this, is that my dad was going away to Denver, Colorado for a business meeting. My mom recommended that I should interview our neighbor Jewel. That was when I found the perfect person to interview staring me right in the face, my mom.
She is only one generation before me, but this was the time where great advancements in technology took place. My mom would probably be the best adult that could expose me to the life from a few years back. I asked her if I could interview her for my project, and sure enough she let me. It was a very casual interview. We sat down. She was reading the paper when I asked her a couple of questions. And all of a sudden I was done. In the twenty-five to thirty minutes that I interviewed my mom, I learned a few things that I had never known about her before. I found out that the first place she lived in America was Oahu, Hawaii. She also told me that her family lived right across the street from the hospital her mother worked at. I thought that this was pretty cool because after her father and brothers had surgeries, they would just walk it home. Learning about this new information has surely impacted the way I use to depict the kind of person my mom as.
She is only one generation before me, but this was the time where great advancements in technology took place. My mom would probably be the best adult that could expose me to the life from a few years back. I asked her if I could interview her for my project, and sure enough she let me. It was a very casual interview. We sat down. She was reading the paper when I asked her a couple of questions. And all of a sudden I was done. In the twenty-five to thirty minutes that I interviewed my mom, I learned a few things that I had never known about her before. I found out that the first place she lived in America was Oahu, Hawaii. She also told me that her family lived right across the street from the hospital her mother worked at. I thought that this was pretty cool because after her father and brothers had surgeries, they would just walk it home. Learning about this new information has surely impacted the way I use to depict the kind of person my mom as.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
MTV 2009 VMA's
The MTV Video Music Awards was a fascinating night. It contained mind-blowing live performances by so many artists of different genres. Muse, Green Day, Katy Perry, Beyonce, Jay-Z, Taylor Swift, Pink, and many more music artists had a share in the limelight. I was especially amazed by Lady gaga's performance. I am the kind of person who normally does not enjoy listening to pop music because of new-age technology that has altered so many the musical artists' natural voices. So many pop stars (who's names I will not mention) probabaly don't even sing that well live becuase they have resorted to bizzare dances and lip-syncing. I was amazed at Lady gaga's natural voice. I heard the song paparazzi on the radio and her voice sounded completely different (fake) compared to what it sounded like live. To be honest, I think that she is a great singer with a powerful unmodified voice. The other thing that I really liked about her performance was when she started bleeding and scared the audience. If I was wrong about Lady gaga, then I feel ashamed about saying that pop music is full of a bunch of lip-syncing dance freaks.
The other reason why I brought up the Video Music Awards was because of the little dramatic incident involving Kanye West and Taylor Swift. The way he acted was pretty disrespectul. I was sort of suprised because he just marched onstage and said what he said. It sounded a little bit like a cheesy joke, so I thought it was something that MTV had put him up to, but I guess it wasn't. Everyone took the joke/comment he made the wrong way and got really pissed off at him. Taylor Swift looked pretty hurt after Kanye implied how Beyonce should have won. I didn't get to hear Kanye's side of the story until today. My mom told me that Kanye apologized on Jay Leno. She told me that Jay asked Kanye, "How would your mother feel if she saw what you did?" Kanye broke into tears and said that the reason the incident happened was because of his mother's death. He still hasn't gotten over it and tries to block out the pain with drinking. While I was watching the award show, my mom pointed out that he did in fact have an alcoholic beverage of some sort. Hopefully, this won't happen again.
The other reason why I brought up the Video Music Awards was because of the little dramatic incident involving Kanye West and Taylor Swift. The way he acted was pretty disrespectul. I was sort of suprised because he just marched onstage and said what he said. It sounded a little bit like a cheesy joke, so I thought it was something that MTV had put him up to, but I guess it wasn't. Everyone took the joke/comment he made the wrong way and got really pissed off at him. Taylor Swift looked pretty hurt after Kanye implied how Beyonce should have won. I didn't get to hear Kanye's side of the story until today. My mom told me that Kanye apologized on Jay Leno. She told me that Jay asked Kanye, "How would your mother feel if she saw what you did?" Kanye broke into tears and said that the reason the incident happened was because of his mother's death. He still hasn't gotten over it and tries to block out the pain with drinking. While I was watching the award show, my mom pointed out that he did in fact have an alcoholic beverage of some sort. Hopefully, this won't happen again.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
What Will I Blog About?
For my blogs, I plan on writing about numerous subjects. I want to write about things that I use or activities I do on an average day of the week or weekend. School is probably going to be a major topic because most of my life revolves around it. I wake up early to get ready for school. I talk and fool around with my friends at school. And even when I get home, I have to do work for school. Other topics that I will most likely write about will be music and movies. When writing about movies, I will share my opinions about different genres and favorites that I have enjoyed watching for many years. This might apply to my thoughts on music as well. Ever since my cousin and father had enlightened me to the world of rock and metal, my view on music has changed quite a bit.
This year, I hope to improve my writing in one major way. I really want to find my own individual style. In sixth and seventh grade, I had teachers that gave the class handouts on formats they wanted their students’ essays to look like. I got so use to following and relying on the formats that it almost became second-nature to look at the handouts the whole time I wrote any document. Then, in eighth grade, I had a teacher that objected to that form of writing. He made us write final drafts only one paragraph long almost every other night. He disliked the “filler” sentences and words that were there only so the students could reach the assignments minimal length. For his essays he wanted us to explain everything because it is better to leave the reader well-informed rather than completely lost. He would always say, “In my class, two plus two equals five as long as you can explain it.” Since people see things in different way, this caused group discussions to have multiple answers to just a single question that was brought up. I was finally starting to understand writing. But, that was a while ago, and I haven’t written as much ever since then. In ninth grade other classes gave me more homework than English class, so I might be a little rusty. I just hope that I can try to improve on interpreting and explaining the text again.
This year, I hope to improve my writing in one major way. I really want to find my own individual style. In sixth and seventh grade, I had teachers that gave the class handouts on formats they wanted their students’ essays to look like. I got so use to following and relying on the formats that it almost became second-nature to look at the handouts the whole time I wrote any document. Then, in eighth grade, I had a teacher that objected to that form of writing. He made us write final drafts only one paragraph long almost every other night. He disliked the “filler” sentences and words that were there only so the students could reach the assignments minimal length. For his essays he wanted us to explain everything because it is better to leave the reader well-informed rather than completely lost. He would always say, “In my class, two plus two equals five as long as you can explain it.” Since people see things in different way, this caused group discussions to have multiple answers to just a single question that was brought up. I was finally starting to understand writing. But, that was a while ago, and I haven’t written as much ever since then. In ninth grade other classes gave me more homework than English class, so I might be a little rusty. I just hope that I can try to improve on interpreting and explaining the text again.
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