What If...

What if we were all the same? What if every human being looked exactly alike? Same mannerisms and same thoughts. In that world, people would not fight over religion and race, people would be equals and no one would be ignorant. But in this world, inventions would be missed, great speeches not made, chance would be taken over by a continuous mundane world. We live in a beautiful diverse world, it's not going to change. We need to stop looking at race, religion, looks and start looking for potential. But what do I know. I'm 15.

Lists.

Why
1. Simplifying ideas to make them easier to remember
2. You can physically check off ideas with a list.
How
1. Focus on a single topic but not too specific.
2. Organize in a certain way i.e. by priority
3. Not too long, not too short
4. The point of lists is to remember what is on them, put it in a memorable place.

Video Games and Kids

Many people assume that children are easily affected by violent video games, but it isn't the video games' fault. It's the parents.Most parents don't limit the amount of time on video games. In addition, they don't look at the rating of the games. If you look at what you're buying for your kids, it could change their future. For example, if you allow a child to "get whatever game they want," they will suffer in their school settings, if raised too early with violent video games, kids could become more violent. You also need to limit time on games, let them go outside! All in all, video games aren't bad for you or your kids as long as you limit the time on it.

Troubles With Facebook

Facebook and Twitter are so popular because they allow people to concentrate friends and ideas onto one page. They also allow people to shout anything they want into the darkness with minimal repercussion but recently people use Facebook and Twitter for business. But unfortunately when your friends with your boss and you want to criticize your work, you could get fired or go to jail. You have to watch out what you post or you could end up fired!



Our Perceptions

What is beauty? How do you describe colors (without using other colors)? What is average? These questions are answered differently by every person. Describing a color is hard when you cant use other colors. What if my interpretation is different than others? It would be confusing! How do we know that were talking about the same thing? It seems all too possible that we have no idea what we are talking about.

Writing- Not Our Strong Suit

Why aren't many people good writers? One of the major reasons is a lack of ideas but with all of the influences and information around us we still don't write enough!All you need to do to become a good writer is practice and thats the hard part. With our busy lives becoming good at anything, except work, is challenging! Although is sounds simple starting a piece of writing is one of the most difficult parts. You need to always chose a simple idea. Then go deeper. Say you like texting, write about texting first. Write everything about it. Now " zoom in" or "zoom out" on a certain part of your piece depending on how much you wrote about the topic. Back to the texting example, if you could write a page about it then zoom in but if you got about half or less zoom out. In writing, everything is relevant to you!

Genderized Music

If your realize it or not, music today is subliminally categorized within genders. Men usually listen to Rock (i.e. Metallica), Rap (i.e. Eminem) and Scremo (i.e. Broken Side). Notice that all these bands have songs about anger, sex, drugs and death. Through this classification these topics could be considered "Manly." On the feminine side we have R&B, Light Rock and Emo. These bands sing about love, marriage and a perfect world. These could also be determined as "female" topics. Of course, these are merely speculations at something far more complicated. Girls can like scremo or rock and guys can like R&B or Light Rock. But most people in the U.S. can agree that music today is aimed at certain genders.

Reality TV

Remember when MTV actually remembered what it stood for? Probably not, considering that was back in the '90s. Today, Reality TV is all the rage, with the fake drama, the orange spray painted people and the ridiculous stories. Reality TV shows are a sad reminder that today's youth merely cares for drama, pain and suffering.  Really?!  Indeed it is so. As long as it's poorly acted out by a group of trashy looking teenagers, of course. Personally, I love how parents today blame video games for the violence caused by teenagers, when really our behavior is influenced by TV. In video games, I kill fake zombies. On TV I watch people kill themselves and those around them for the sake of money and fame. So parents, what is better?!

If I Was A High School Teacher...

If I were a High School Teacher, I would teach kids objective thinking and problem solving instead of filling them with useless facts. Who cares about when Columbus came to America!? Would I ever use this information? No! Unless I become a history teacher! Now, problem solving is a useful skill, it teaches you how to look at problems a different way. No matter how small. Objective thinking is even more important! This means you look at someone elses point of view in a disagreement. Objective thinking is much more useful then what is a virus. The only way that kids these days are going to understand the world around them is to have useful skills like objective thinking and problem solving, not to mention creativity.

Save the Internet

All of us have net neutrality, whether you know it or not. Net Neutrality means that every website can be accessed at the same bandwidths and no IP (Internet Provider) can limit that. So say Comcast wants its users to use Comcast Email so they cut off access or slow access to Yahoo, Google or AOL. Fortunately, its illegal to do so, but it could be changed! Comcast or ATT could cut off access to certain websites and charge to visit them! Take Netflix for example, if Comcast had the ability to limit Netflix you would have to pay to visit the site and pay for the service itself! Net Neutrality needs to be kept safe if you want to continue to visit any of your favorite sites without paying extra. Visit/Click Here for More Info: http://www.savetheinternet.com/

Nobody Ever Told Me

No one ever told me driving would be so hard! Focusing on everything all at once with your high-expectations teacher is never easy, especially when your teacher uses the brake pedal way too much. Does he realize how nerve-wracking the WHOLE experience is? A near complete stranger who spends hours yelling random information is now in with me in a car expecting a perfect performance. So get ready kids buckle your seat belt position the seat adjust the mirror for minimal blind spot, adjust the seat again, double check blind spots because if you don't and you fail, you might as well have committed social suicide. Get ready to go with your mom to the movies!

Race to Nowhere

BANG! The gun sounded and off the racers flew running on the track formiles and miles. But the scenery seemed to never change. The racers ran consistently and at perfect pace with one another. Some had water that they periodically grabbed and gulped down. All of them had different motivations but now there was only one goal among them all. Finish in the 10 mile race they had all started. After the longest time, in which nothing seemed to change, the buzzer beeped and the racers jumped off their treadmills. Finally, the race to nowhere was over.

Books into Movies

When I think of great book to movie series the only one that comes to mind is the harry potter series. Unfortunately, many books are torn to shreds due to bad acting, low budgets and straying from the actual plot. Perhaps the worst of these cases is "The Golden Compass" A few problems include the obviously bad acting, the annoying characters and the plot was never followed. In the book the characters cross dimensions fighting "Shades" that appear when a portal is opened. The entire series is wildly controversial as there is a scene where they kill, the now symbolic, God. The book tells vivid tales of corruption and fighting an unbeatable force But the movie was nothing like the book, the movie had a plot of its own merely using the characters to give the illusion of being like the book.

Tornado

Sirens were going off in her head. She was afraid. Wind was the scaryiest element and at high speeds tearing up everytthing below it, destroying whole buildin- She didn't even want to think about it. The only shelter they had was their own bathroom but even there she didnt feel safe. All they could do was wait and the sirens wouldn't stop going off in her head. Again and again she heard the siren ringing, warning, telling everyone in the county that there is a tornado warning. She tried to ignore it and focus on her two cats that were with them, but to no avail. The wind was almost deafening over the sound of the sirens. Her mother screamed something at her; but, she couldn't hear. Suddenly. It ceased. Nothing moved. All was quiet and for a few moments no one talked.

Decisions

Do you ever feel like too much pressure is placed on you? Like as if all of your friends and family want help and you just dont have the time or reasources? Like all of the decisions are up to you and you can't make the wrong choice? Decicions change us and the people around us and making the right decision is never easy. Ever. No matter how small or how large it is always difficult. Of course the larger a decicion the more you have to weigh the options. If im buying food, it would be easy and I could tell you very quickly what I wanted. However, if your talking about what 4 year college I want to go to... Thats a different matter. I would have to call the colleges find out their programs and spend months on this one choice and i would keep reminding myself that its all up to me. Theres no way to avoid decisions. You have to take them as they arrive and choose what you want.

Nutrition

Honestly? Nutrition does not matter to me. I honestly couldn't care about what I eat! But that kind of thinking will get me in the long run. This means I should look at nutrition facts or plan ahead. Food SHOULD matter to me, and everyone in this world but most people shrug it off and ignore what they are eating, give up to the convienence of unhealthy food. I may sound like a hypocrite but its true people should watch what they are eating and really plan a meal, look at nutrition facts and try to become healthier, happier individuals.