TED Talk Review: Tony Robbins

I found Tony Robbins to be very annoying actually. A lot of his advice were actually just cliches and his anecdotes were just giving himself some praise. Sure some of his stuff was somewhat inspiration, perhaps, but I wasn't moved at all by what he was saying. I'd rather listen to a person that was humble than this guy.

TED Talk Review: David Blane

First thought; this dude is absolutely crazy. I didn't think that it was possible for someone to actually be able to hold their breath that long, it was insane. But as I was watching it I learned, however crazy it is, it actually is possible to do. I was amazed by his determination and willingness to do the seemingly impossible. A quote that stuck out to me was when he said something about, "I was just waiting to black out because I knew the doctors were there to revive me." I couldn't believe it, but I actually found it rather inspiring. It just shows what we can do if we push ourselves to the limit and dedicate ourselves to a cause.

Glass Menagerie Questions

Laura and Jim look at the glass unicorn.

1. What is Laura's disability?
2. How does Jim know each of the Wingfields?
3. What happened to the father?
4. Name a symbol used in the play.
5. Where does Tom work?
6. Why is Tom resentful for his mother?
7. What does Laura do instead of going to class?
8. Who does Tom see when he leaves the house after the fight?
9. What was Jim's nicknames for Laura and Tom?
10. What character break a class figurine in the play?

Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech

I would like to accept the Nobel Peace Prize not only on my own behalf, but on the behalf of every person that has done a kindness, loved another, or helped the world. It is in these actions that I believe we are truly capable of anything.

I realized that helping people was the only way I could feel complete when I was a teenager growing up in Chicago. Volunteering was the most rewarding way I could spend my time, whether it was at a home for special needs adults, a hospital, or the library, I always felt that I was getting more than I was giving. And I think that the thing about the world I like the most.

There’s a quote that goes, “You cannot bring sunshine into the lives of others without getting some on yourself.” Imagine if every human  lived by that principle. Imagine if every human being valued life as if it were their own. Imagine if every human experienced the pain of another.

I think we would see our world become a better place.

And people do care about each other, but it can be hard to worry about danger when you have walls that protect you. It’s difficult to imagine dying of thirst when you can effortlessly turn on the faucet. And hunger is far from our minds when you go to bed full from dinner every night.

But more people are faced with these problems, then people who are not. We need to remember that there are human beings suffering and dying right now.

That thought may make you uncomfortable.

It makes me very uncomfortable.

When this thought wouldn’t leave me I began thinking, ‘What can I do about it?’

A small voice told me, ‘nothing, you’re young and basically insignificant in this giant world of people’.

But I held on to a louder cry, deep inside of me that said, ‘it only takes one person to help another.’

It only takes one to feed a starving person. It only take one to help the sick. It only takes one to save a life.

And so I began on what seemed like an impossible mission; solve the world hunger crisis. My idea was that if we can provide people with basic necessities like food, it will give them a chance to rise out of the poverty and situations they were in while also improving health and overall quality of life.

Although we are far from seeing the end of global hunger, we are closer. Every dollar we donate, every box we ship, every minute we volunteer; we are closer. Every starving child, on the brink of death, that we are able to save, we are closer. And I know, that one day, ‘closer’ will become a thing of the past and we will all say, ‘we are here, we have reached the end of this.’

As I’ve said earlier, this would not have been possible without every person’s assistance, but I’d also like to thank the influences in my own life.

My mother, for being a constant reminder that I can achieve anything and for all of the years of nurturing and love she has given me.

My father, who supported me through anything.

All of my friends and family, who decided to stick with the girl who thought she was crazy enough to change the world.

I also need to thank the people who helped shape who I am today, my teachers. I have been so fortunate to have wonderful teachers throughout my life. From my teachers I have learned the value of education, how to use what you learn, and most importantly lessons in life and empathy.

So, lastly, before I leave I hope to leave you with a message of empathy.

We are all humans, we all love, we all hurt, we all hope. And it is our responsibility to help those that are in need, even if we are the only ones. It only takes one to save another. 

You are that one.

Top 10 American Poems of the 20th Century

1. 'My candle burns at both ends' - Edna St. Vincent Millay

My candle burns at both ends;

it will not last the night;

But ah, my foes, and oh my friends-

It gives such a lovely light.

2. Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening- Robert Frost

3. Humanity I Love You- e.e cummings

4. The Road Not Taken- Robert Frost

5. Phenomenal Woman- Maya Angelou

6. What If's - Shel Silverstein

7. Dream Differed- Langston Hughes

8. I Do Not Love You Except Because I Love You- Pablo Neruda

9.  Raisin in the Sun- Langston Hughes

10. Fire and Ice- Robert Frost

Great Gatsby Questions

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1V7XUEkNrqJrOP

22 questions all about the Great Gatsby.

Winter Dreams by F. Scott Fitzgerald

It's the classic love story; Boy wants Girl, Girl doesn't want Boy. We meet Dexter Green in his youth, a caddie who encounters a beautiful, rich little girl, the infamous Judy Jones. Instantly, I despised Judy. My instant hate of the character was only rivaled by Dexter's instant love for her. But in that moment, Dexter's life was changed by the Judy.

How I hate Judy, let me count the ways. Her character seems to made from qualities I despise; she's manipulative, abusive, and vain. But she's pretty. Yay for her. I felt like throughout the story I was actually rooting against Dexter because I didn't want him to end up with her.

But I think after a time Dexter stopped loving the actual Judy. In this pursuit for Judy, a quest he started the first time he met her, he longed for the image that Judy became. She was 'love' and 'success'. By obtaining Judy, Dexter would have reached that perfect idea of love that he craved. So instead of loving a real person, it became this idea or symbol.

The ending gives me mixed feelings. We find out that Judy's life is a mess. No surprise to you, I'm completely delighted that things are going miserably for her. Dexter's in a pretty good spot in life when he finds out what happened to Judy. After learning that she faded and is nothing more than just some woman, below average, nothing special.

I feel bad for Dexter in this part, because his one dream, his perfect image of Judy is gone. Something he once thought of as timeless, a beauty that could never be dulled, has crumbled into a million pieces. As Dexter cries he says, what is in my opinion, the best line.

"Long ago," he said, "long ago, there was something in me, but now that thing is gone. Now that thing is gone, that thing is gone. I cannot cry. I cannot care. That thing will come back no more." 

TED Talk Review: Mathmagician

This was amazing. It was incredible to watch someone so effortlessly complete these math problems mentally, that I couldn't even figure out on a calculator. From calculating days of the week from history to squaring five digit numbers, this TED talk was fast-pace, interesting, and funny.

TED Talk Review: Figuring it Out

I wanted to like this, I really did. But I just didn't. Tavi Gevinson, the speaker, was sweet, honest, and easy to relate to. As much as I tried to like it, I was put off by the lack of professionalism and crappy graphics behind her. Yes, I get it. She's 'figuring it out'. Hardy har har. Even though I disliked this, I felt like this made her more 'real' and easier to connect to .

The biggest problem for me was her idea. It wasn't that I didn't support hem, it was that they were overused generalizations and nothings unique. Her view didn't astound and her outlook seemed cliched. Although this TED talk may have inspired some people, it didn't offer me any new viewpoint.

The Bear by William Faulkner

The theme throughout this story is growing up and facing fears. The author expresses this, albeit painstakingly slow and boring, through Isaac's confrontation with the Bear.

 “Courage, and honor, and pride,” his father said, “and pity, and love of justice and of liberty. They all touch the heart, and what the heart holds to becomes truth, as far as we know the truth. Do you see now?”

I think this is the moment that we find out what it means to grow up.

Sophistication by Sherwood Anderson

This short story is the kind that make me smile at the end. I liked the characters,I was charmed George's advances on Helen, and I enjoyed the overall 'meaning'. The main moment for me was George's realization.

"I have come to this lonely place and here is this other," was the substance of the thing felt. 

I think this is breathtakingly beautiful. It's a simple statement, but it means so much. We're all here in this world, this lonely place, yet there is the person here that understands you. That cares. That loves you. And I truly think that's gorgeous.

Read No Evil: Censorship in High Schools

Read No Evil: Censorship in American Schools

            “Censorship is like telling a man he can’t have a steak just because a baby can’t chew it.” This quote by Robert A. Heinlein, an American author of over 59 stories, perfectly illustrates the very essence of censorship itself. When a society deems that something is unfit for some, it censors it from all. This blatant eradication of the First Amendment is specifically seen in American schools today.

            Censorship not only personally affects students’ growth, but it is legally objectionable. Countless court cases regarding schools and censorship have arisen throughout the years, dealing with the elusive First Amendment Rights student so rarely receive. The law guarantees free speech yet somehow, schools and their students are exempt from the blanket of protection it offers. Instead of learning institutions shielding Huckleberry Finn, Catcher in the Rye, and countless other classics that have become an integral part of literature, they are the forces that drive the attacks.

            Censorship in schools should be ended because is it stifles student’s creativity, restricts teachers, and limits perspectives. Censorship should not be tolerated under any circumstance, especially in a place that claims to open young minds. By blocking topics, you only block understanding, and without understanding, people can never truly grow wiser or come to accept each other.

            Some people may claim that students are too young to be able to decide what they should read. However, this goes against the 1969 Tinker v. Des Moines decision, where students should not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate." (Ray) Another argument is that teachers have the right to limit what the students can and cannot read. This has been refuted by the Supreme Court when it was determined that students had the right not to be coerced by school administrators to doing something they disagreed with.  (‘Rights’)

            Students cannot be creative in an environment that is constantly restricting their work and putting limits on what can be made. One high school student in Pennsylvania wrote an article for her school paper, and it was not allowed to be printed. The controversial subject? Ironically, censorship in high schools. (Courogen) Sadly, this is not just one isolated incident; cases like this are happing in high schools everywhere. The First Amendment Center, a group dedicated to preserving free speech, states ‘Students have been suspended for writing short stories, poems, and artwork that school officials have deemed dangerous.’ (Artistic Expression) Even students as young as the first grade are having their rights questioned, and ultimately, taken away.

             One first grader wrote a poem honoring her grandfather’s service in the Vietnam War, where she included the line “He prayed to God for peace, he prayed to God for strength.” (‘WNP’) This seemingly innocent line ignited a fiery debate between whether the school board should allow the young girl to recite it or not. The second grader lost the battle and the right to recite her piece. By not allowing the poem because of the word ‘God’, the school loses a voice filled with individual thoughts and ideas.

            Creativity is not only brutally slaughtered on the student’s side, but it restricts teachers as well.  Jane Agee, associate professor of Language in Education at the University at Albany, states, “One teacher had to decide if texts were ‘worth going for.’” (Agee) This quote shows that even if teachers may be indirectly placing the censors; they are still affected by it. If a teacher is put in the position to decide whether a book is worth the effort or risk, it obviously means that restrictions have been put on their own creativity in terms of teaching.

           In another case, a school was to perform a play written about the war in Iraq. Paul Rieckhoff, journalist for the Huffington post, reports, “The school principal Timothy H. Canty feared the script's political implications and chose to shut the play down before it was ever performed.” (Rieckhoff) This example of a play being shut down is the epitome of creativity being strangled by the noose of censorship. Performing a show is no small feat, which takes and an immense amount of effort and collaboration from both students and faculty, and to have the play shut down is an insult to everyone that worked on it. In one fell swoop, an entire school lost expression and creativity.

Censorship also limits perspective by censoring what books student can and cannot read, and also what they can and cannot write. The American Library Association, the oldest and largest library association in the world, reports that this year alone, U.S. schools have banned more than 20 books and faced more than 50 other challenges. (Diamond)

By banning over 20 books students lose so much perspective and are missing out on what is censored. The National Guild of English Teachers, a group founded on uniting American English teachers, states “…To deny the freedom of choice in fear that it may be unwisely used is to destroy the freedom itself.” (‘Censorship’) This statement is very powerful as it expresses how crucial the right to read is. It also goes on to tell how by denying students the freedom, is to take it away. By not allowing students to read, that is exactly what schools are doing.

An example of losing a unique perspective can be found in Krystal Meyers, a student at Lenoir City High School in Tennessee, who had her editorial in her school paper removed because it was about atheism.  (Judge) This case shows how original thinking and uniqueness is being stifled at school. Her article was not specifically targeting, offending, or hurting anyone with opposite beliefs of hers; she was only looking to express her feelings on a cause near to her. If teachers and schools limit what students write about they are taking their freedom to original thoughts away and also, depriving the rest of the student body from gaining perspective on unpopular or controversially subjects. 

In conclusion, censorship is a plague that must be stopped because it stifles student's creativity, restricts teachers, and limits perspectives. William Douglas, an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States for 36 years, said “Restrictions of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversion. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us.”  Despite warnings of censorship causing our own demise, as stated in the previous quote, Americans, as they stand at the crossroad between free speech and censorship, struggle with that choice.  By releasing schools from the shackles of censorship that weigh it down, America can truly learn what freedom is.

Technological Mess or Huge Success?

At this year's Mobile World Congress, a convention for only the most tech savvy buyers, we saw a myraid of inovations for anything related to one of the most common electronic devices, our phones. These new ideas varried from genius to bizarre and everything in between. Here's my opinion on what's going to fly and what's going to flop.

 



Your phone can double as a fish!



Success: A cell phone that's teenage girl proof? You may say that's impossible (and perhaps that's still true), but with the Chinese company Huawei realising it's completely water resistant smart phone called Ascend D2 (pictured above), we have found a phone that will even survive those 'accidental' trips into the pool.

Generation: Designed for the techno Grammy of the future.

Mess: The only device that may be more popular and useful than a cell phone is a walking stick, of course! I'm being facetious, but I honestly don't see how useful Fujitsu's Generation GPS walking stick is going to end up being. I mean, the demographics that use walking sticks and use smartphones don't exactly mix. And if this walking stick from the future wasn't weird enough, just look at it. It gives me a 'Star Wars' meets 'The Hobbit' kind of feel.

Yay Technology! Now excuse me while I go geek out.

Success: We've all been here before. You're waiting on an important call, you're on the go, or your cell charger just doesn't seem to be anywhere. Well Wysipss may be your saving grace. They have recently developed a thin layer using photovaltic energy to power your cell phone. The technology alone really strikes me personally on this one. I've been taking a class at a college all about votovaltic cells and solar energy, and this innovation really makes me appreciate it even more. And because I just proved to you that I'm a total geek, check out the picture to the left to see where the film goes inside of a phone and the inner workig of it.

Mess: Looks like the people who gave the names to couples like 'Bradgelina' decided to start naming phones too when they came up with the 'phablet' idea. Even the name just sounds bizarre. It might be a good idea... in theory, but who has the room to put the hybrid off spring of a tablet and a phone in your pocket. I guess cargo pants are really your only option with the phone if you'd like to keep the phone handy. I mean, isn't it kinda defeating the purpose? We're actually losing the 'mobile' in mobile phones.

This is your newest device for saving the world.

Success: Will James Bond please claim his lost cell phone? Oh wait, it yours! This next success is a phone lock that only opens with your fingerprint. Your phone gets stolen? Bam, instant protection. So whether you're agent 007 using the latest technology or just trying to hide text messages from your parents, this gadget is sure to be an awesome additon to your phone.



Mess: The Bradgelina namers strike again! This time with the elegantly named PadFone. The PadFone is, you guessed, an iPad style tablet and a phone. Maybe this one is just personal, because my inner editor is crying out against the intentional spelling error or maybe I dislike phones large enough to be my computer. Anyway, I don't think that PadFone will be hitting it off anytime soon.