EE Goals

Who are we writing our EEs for? This is sort of a funky situation, where we're writing it for a grade from a teacher but also for points from IB. Which is more important, and where would you rather receive a high score? I feel that it should be IB, but to be honest I think the CP grade means more to me. What are your thoughts on this?

Mobile!

I'm writing this via the mobile blogger app on my phone. Technology has made so many tasks quicker and more portable and/or convenient, but does this make us lazy in return? When we can do so much instantly (research, socialize, blog, shop, type), do we develop less patience to do tasks that involve travel, waiting, or delay?

Or another thought - how has instant internet access made our lives HARDER? My main example would be the increased expectations in school regarding amount of research, less time to write papers, deadlines at any time of day via turnitin, more temptation to cheat, etc.

Just some thoughts as I sit here on my smartphone with about ten windows open on my laptop right in front of me... (how did our parents do it?!)

Is it Possible to Talk Forever?

     I'm around my closest friends a LOT.  We've been close all throughout high school, and we do almost everything together. You would think that we would get sick of each other, or bored of talking to the same people - but that just doesn't happen.
     This week, for example, I've spent many many hours together with my friend Sydney. We watched a volleyball game and then a soccer game and then a movie together on Tuesday  then hung out all day Wednesday  went to the football game, and watched another movie together (others were always with us, she just happens to be the only constant at all these events). That night she slept over at my house, and we lied there and talked until almost 5:00 in the morning. How can we spend SO much time together, yet still have so much to talk about all the time? We've been like this for years, and I feel confident saying we've never run out of things to talk about. Is it possible to talk forever with the same person? Can two people muse over the workings of the world without the conversation ever getting boring or predicable?

Weather, Season and Mood

It's insane how much the weather can affect one's mood and personality. I feel the biggest factor isn't temperature, but how much sunshine there is. Sun just makes everything brighter, happier, and gives me more ambition and energy. Gloomy clouds are simply depressing.

I have a friend with SAD, seasonal affective disorder. During the winter months, she is a completely different person than she is during the rest of the year. She gets quiet, somber, emotionless. This year, she has finally recognized it and is starting to take action against it, and is getting a light for phototherapy. For her sake and for the sake of those of us around her, I really hope it helps.

Why does weather affect some people's mood more than others? Is it biological, or due to a state of thinking? Is it really the sun's vitamins and power that makes the difference, or is it just knowing that the sun is or isn't out that can change one's mood?

My (Sketchy) "New Best Friend"

      Yesterday I witnessed a disturbing scene at the football game. I've been debating the ethics of posting this, but I won't mention any names and I believe that nobody will/can get in trouble over this.
      I was in the bleachers cheering for the Rebels, and standing next to somebody I'd never met before. He started chatting with me, introduced himself, and then proclaimed "we're best friends already, I love it." This didn't bother me at all, I figured he was just being friendly.
      However, then he whispered something to a boy walking by, and that boy went and talked to a bunch of his friends, and soon there was a line leading up to the boy next to me. My "new friend" pulled off his backpack, and I soon learned that he was selling miniature bottles of vodka "on sale" for $2 a piece. Since I was right next to him, I heard all his conversations and saw all of his customers (there must have been at least a dozen). I didn't know how to react, so I just turned to talk to my friends on my other side.
      WHY do people find it so exciting to drink at football games? At a school function on school property, and especially as underage drinkers, they're just asking for trouble. Is that risk what makes it so intriguing? My other issue was this - was the boy I just met really friendly and interested in being my friend, or was he just gaining my trust or testing the waters to see how I'd react to his alcohol deals? I felt played, and found myself in an extremely awkward position deciding how to react. The entire situation caused me to leave the game early I was so disturbed.

Recognizing Racism - A Downward Spiral?

Racism (and many other -isms, but here I'll just focus on race) is a very real issue in the world today. This year in IB English, focusing on the media, naturally we discuss race issues a lot. But I often go back to an interview with Morgan Freeman (I believe from 60 Minutes).

MIKE WALLACE, CBS`s "60 MINUTES": Black History Month, you find...


MORGAN FREEMAN, ACTOR: Ridiculous. 

WALLACE: Why? 

FREEMAN: You`re going to relegate my history to a month? 

WALLACE: Come on. 

FREEMAN: What do you do with yours? Which month is White History Month? Come on, tell me. 

WALLACE: I`m Jewish. 

FREEMAN: OK. Which month is Jewish History Month? 

WALLACE: There isn`t one.

FREEMAN: Why not? Do you want one? 

WALLACE: No, no. 

FREEMAN: I don`t either. I don`t want a Black History Month. Black history is American history. 

WALLACE: How are we going to get rid of racism until...? 

FREEMAN: Stop talking about it. I`m going to stop calling you a white man. And I`m going to ask you to stop calling me a black man. I know you as Mike Wallace. You know me as Morgan Freeman. You`re not going to say, "I know this white guy named Mike Wallace." Hear what I`m saying? 

I know this isn't exactly what we're doing in English, and it is probably important to be able to recognize microaggressions, but at what point do we need to just stop and see people as people and leave it at that? In English class already, I've become aware of a few stereotypes that I never even knew existed. Wasn't I better off NOT knowing these? Sometimes I agree with Freeman, that if we just stopped talking about race and pointing out stereotypes, the "race issue" would slowly be diminished over time. Any thoughts?

Naps!

     I have a knowledge issue that would probably be solved easily by Googling it, but I'd rather post it here and see how others feel. Is time spent napping as beneficial as time spent sleeping at night? For example, if I slept for 5 hours at night, then took a 1 hour nap later that day, would I be getting the same benefits as sleeping 6 hours that night? That 5+1 schedule has been my sleeping pattern most of this school year, and it works nicely for me because when I come home from school I'm in no mental state to do homework, so I make my time productive by napping instead. But, as a result of this, the rest of my activities and responsibilities get pushed back, and I go to sleep later that night.
     I know different people respond to naps in different ways. Do you feel an hour napping is worth an hour of sleep at night?

Strength of Hate vs. Love

At the volleyball game today, I heard one player say something I found interesting -

"I hate losing more than I love winning."

When I thought about this, I wondered if it's possible to compare the two feelings. Then I decided that yes, you could judge the intensity of the emotion, and that would be fair. Then I wondered if I agreed with her, and decided that I didn't. For me, the level of joy from winning something (sports game, board game, competition, ect) outweighs the amount of sadness or disappointment I feel if I lose. I totally believe this balance is different among individuals though - I've seen clear evidence of it in  my years of being an athlete.

Could one preference over the other create an overall happier person? I suppose if somebody lets the bad things in life "get to them" more than the happy things, this could lead to sadness or depression. Any thoughts on this? Where do you feel you stand in this balance?

Altered Memories

     In TOK last year, we learned about the idea a somebody that the only part of a memory that really matters is the end. For example, a great movie with a terrible ending will always be remembered by the terrible ending.  Along this line, we also talked about the thought that it doesn't really matter how long a vacation/happy experience is. For example, if somebody took a three day vacation on a beach somewhere and spent the entire time sitting on the beach, they would come home with just as happy memories as someone who spent eight days doing the same thing. Memories don't equate the happiness level with how long it lasted - they just remember that it happened at all.
     Do others believe this is true? How much can we trust our memories to judge how much happiness something brought us?

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Clothes' Effect on Mood

     This feels like a shallow topic to blog about. Stereotypically "girly". But I'm going to blog about it anyways. TAKE THAT.
     What I'm wearing and how my hair is styled can completely change my approach to a day and my mood. Is it this way for anybody else? For example, if I'm wearing a sweatshirt and yoga pants, I like to curl up and sprawl out and dance and move in different ways all day, and I have an increased urge to nap. I also tend to approach school and homework with a lazier, "I don't care" attitude. However, if my hair is straightened and I'm wearing nice jeans and shirt and jewelry I planned out, I sit properly more often, hold my head a little higher, and attack the day with more productivity.
     It's not like I think about what I'm wearing before I act in any of these ways. It's subconscious, however, I notice the trend. Does anybody else feel how they look affects how they act? Is this shallow to act in this way, even without thinking about it?

Passwords on Passwords on Passwords

     How much of our lives do we spend logging in, putting in codes or passwords, or unlocking things? We have codes for our school, gym, music, and athletic lockers. We have school IDs and lunch PINs. We have usernames and passwords for multiple email accounts, blogspot.com, moodle, Facebook, Twitter, turnitin.com,  and countless other websites...
     It's become nearly impossible NOT to have some kind of jot book to keep all our passwords and information. At what point is this too absurd? It is that much of a security risk to have the same password for everything online?
     My prediction: within ten years, Google is going to take over the Internet. Google+/Google Drive already has the power to link almost everything together. Would life be easier with everything accessible with a single username and password? Or would this kind of monopoly be too powerful and risky?
     This might be taking it a step too far... but will we ever reach a point where a single finger swipe, pin number, or barcode can register us in everything everywhere around the world? (Has anybody read the Bar Code Rebellion series?)

Ownership of My Room

One issue that I tend to argue with my parents a lot with, and I'd bet that many others do as well, is the amount of control and privacy I have over my room in our house. I understand that my parents bought and own the house. However, as a member of the family, isn't it fair that my room can be MY space that I can control?  My mom often demands that I clean my room when she feels its messy, and feels free to stroll into my room and snoop around whenever she pleases. She'll even "clean up" for me sometimes, and then I can never find anything because she moves it all. We still call it "my room", but can I even call it that if I don't really own or control it?

Split Lunches

Strangely enough, this trimester has been my first experience with a split lunch. I've always had the first or last lunch, so class was never interrupted. Experiencing "C" lunch now, I'm not sure that I'm a fan. Technically, the amount of class time is the same no matter which lunch you have. But the way I approach class is different. While the largest chunk of class time occurs before lunch, I find that the last 30 minutes or so of class that we have after lunch are largely useless for me. Especially with work days, I find this small amount of time useless. It's too much work to get back into the zone, log in, and re-start the academic thought processes for what little time remains. For example, today after lunch I didn't type any more of my ethnography, and I know many others didn't as well. Despite the same amount of total class time, does anybody else feel that when lunch is during fourth hour can really affect the productivity of the class?

Political Opinions on Social Networks

With the presidential debate tonight, I didn't have to watch a minute of it to know what was going on. Looking at Facebook and (much more so) Twitter, there were a handful of  people who made their opinions and interpretations of the debate painfully clear. Despite who the people were praising or bashing, each post angered me. I support expressing political feelings, but I don't feel that social media is the place to do it. Does the entire world have to know your every political sentiment? Do you have to make those who don't agree with your views feel attacked or isolated? No. I feel there are much better places and times to express feeling and opinions about politics; NOT Facebook and Twitter.

Micro Agression in Powder Puff

For PowderPuff football, about 18 senior girls were on my team. At our first practice together, we had no "tryouts" or tests or anything. The coaches (senior football players) just looked at each person and decided what they would be best at. I noticed that all of the African American girls on the team were put in positions where speed was essential: running backs, wide recievers and corner backs. All of them. Although these girls did for the most part prove to be very fast, could this be considered a micro agression? Without any comparison or testing, was it fair for the coaches to assume the African American girls would be fast?

Fifteen Minutes of Fame

The last couple days have been overwhelming after I was announced homecoming queen. Countless teachers, friends, schoolmates and relatives have sent their congratulations, and sometimes it goes further. People I don't know or hardly recognize have jokingly bowed down and opened doors for me, Mrs. Larson sang "God Save the Queen" in IB advisement, I was asked to take endless pictures with little girls at the parade today. All this attention is flattering and overwhelming and even sometimes awkward now, but what about in a month? A week, even? As soon as it started, all this attention will fade away. I'll be normal Jackie again (and what a relief, in many ways!). How can people go from treating me like a normal student/friend/schoolmate, to bowing at my feet, and then back to normal again? It's just all so strange to me: I've been the same person the entire time.