If You Really Knew Me

If you really knew me, I think you would think differently about me. If anyone really knew me, I think I'd be shocked.

If You Really Knew Me-This may be the only show on MTV I can watch without becoming completely disgusted in humanity.

This show could not have come at a better time in my life. Here is a show that could actually better the teenage population if we really take it seriously. I remember picking my sister up one day after one of her volleyball practices. Her eyes were red and puffy and her cheeks were tear-stricken. I asked her what was wrong and she told me how her volleyball team had a "If you really knew me..." moment. She couldn't believe all the things she never knew about her own teammates and classmates that she had known for years. It opened her eyes, her teammates eyes, and her coaches eyes.

Could this be something every high school needs?

I think so. If kids would take this seriously, I really believe a program like this could change the lives of the students. Every kid in school has their own view of each person, but how many times is that view incorrect? My guess-A lot. In all fairness, how could we possibly know the truth? We have been raised in a "culture" that teaches the suppression of feelings; especially ones that make you cry. I know for a fact I absolutely hate talking about my feelings. But who's to say that things can't change? I think our school would become a better place if we have a "if you really knew me..." moment.

What do we have to lose?

Dreeeeams

How accurately can dreams really portray what is going on in people's heads? Dreams are so different for everyone, I find it hard to believe that they can be that accurate. My dreams never seem to make sense, even when I try to go on to dream interpretation sites to interpret my dreams. Not only are dreams different for each person, but a lot of the time the interpretations are different too. Now there are the classic dreams such as loosing teeth or running without going anywhere, but not everyone has these dreams. I don't think I've ever had a dream about running without going anywhere; maybe once I did. There are ways of breaking down dreams though; picking out different symbols or items and trying to figure out why you're dreaming about these things. This is where you use a dream dictionary.

http://www.brilliantdreams.com/dream-dictionary/dream-dictionary-a.htm

But again, what can this really tell a person? Whenever I would try to pick out things from my dreams, interpret them, and then piece them together and see what they mean, they never made any sense. My dreams never seem to make any sense. But still, I find it fun to try to interpret them anyways!

Heritage Shmeritage? No Way

What am I? I've been told I am mostly Spanish, while German comes in second and the rest (English, Dutch, Swedish, and Irish) are minuscule percentage wise. So what does this tell me? Well right now it tells me nothing. I can get stories about my Spanish heritage from my dad, but my mom is reluctant in telling me any stories about the other 50% of my heritage. I'm not sure if this is on purpose, or if she just does know any because her parents never told her any either. But I am fascinated with my heritage. Well, I'm actually just fascinated with heritage in general. I really think it is an incredibly important thing for a person to know. What happened in the past affects the future. I think it's important for people to embrace their heritage and appreciate it. Heritage helps make us who we are today. Plus there is always so much that can be learned from a person's heritage. It gives new looks on life and new ideas when you look up the culture from which you were made. Going along with my fascination, when you know your heritage, you can hear so many interesting stories! Who knows who I could be distantly related to from the past? There are so many possibilities and chances for growth. If one thing is for sure, I don't think that finding out more about heritage and embracing it can hurt. You could learn so many things you never knew before. Who knows, maybe it could change the view of a culture for someone. Or maybe even their view on their own family.

Blogging Monster

Blogging is quickly beginning to take over the whole cyber space! I really never noticed how many people blogged (or how many people actually read other people's blogs). It seems a lot like an online journal, which can always be a bit entertaining if the person if is interesting. But I feel a bit strange when I read other people's blogs. Some people can get incredibly personal with their blogs. I also find it a big strange that some people put up tons of pictures and information about themselves. THIS CAN BE SEEN BY ANYONE! But hey, that's their prerogative I suppose. It's these people who seem to be real blogging monsters to me. It's like a radioactive blogging material has taken control and it becomes an activity they do constantly. It quickly becomes an obsession, especially when these monsters find out how many people read their blogs. This is what fuels them; their fans. It's a bit worrisome. I find blogging to be a good technique and a fun activity, I just think some people take it a bit too far. But this is how most things are in the world; there's always someone that takes whatever the idea or thing may be too far. There's something about blogging though that I feel like there are too many people taking blogging too far. But hey, who am I to judge?

Disney Magic

Does Disney ever get old? I think not! Disney movies and songs never get old. They are always full of happiness, love, and youth. I believe Disney could turn the most pessimistic person into an optimists. I could care less how "unrealistic" Disney is, because I think otherwise. People concentrate much too much on negative things in life. If Disney has taught me anything about life, it's about appreciating what goes right, not what goes wrong. If people really look, I think they would notice that for every one thing that goes wrong, at least ten things go right. So thank you, Disney movies for helping me realize this. I just hope other people realize this as well.

Disney also reminds me of my childhood. I can remember clearly my sister Sabrina and I sitting in our matching, blue Minnie Mouse chairs watching The Little Mermaid (Ariel was always her favorite princess, so we watched this movie often.). We knew every word to every song and often sang and danced along. These are some of my fondest memories, thanks to Disney.

So then why do people try to degrade Disney by trying to point out inappropriate images in the movies? It makes me so angry to hear people say these things. It only ruins the movies for me. Why ruin childhood classics? They have only brought happiness to children, so quit ruining them people who think they are funny by pointing out inappropriate images. It's just annoying.

HP=L!F3

As I opened my Google Chrome account to start my blogging, I had the privilege of seeing how many days are left until Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows arrives into the theaters and into my life. As the fateful day draws closer (November 19th), my anticipation grows immensely. Why am I blogging about this? There are multiple reasons, but I'll just name two.

1) Why not? Harry Potter is amazing. End of story

2) I was reminded of something I learned when I was younger.

My mother was not allowed to read literature like Harry Potter because it had "dark magic" that contradicted the power of God. I never really thought of HP that way. It got me thinking, if my grandmother didn't allow it, then many other people must look at it the same way as well. Could HP be seen as a contradiction to God? I suppose it could, in a more deeper, spiritual way. But I seriously doubt JKR was trying to show this. This also got me to thinking about just literature in general and how there are so many books out in the world that could have been picked apart until they proved a point. So many good books have been misinterpreted due to over-analysis. This is why books get banned, if you ask me. People will pick apart books until they are satisfied with their conclusion. A girl in a story could be wearing a red dress, and some people will think "that symbolizes the Devil! SHE IS A DEMON" or they will think "Red, she must be in love!" when really, maybe the author just wanted to put the girl in a red dress. I'm not saying that the analysis of books is bad, I'm just saying that there are lines that can be crossed. So people should be careful. (I'm also not criticizing my grandmother, I just disagree with the whole "dark magic" idea)

Flattery Will Get You Nowhere

How true is the statement "flattery will get you nowhere"? Well, for the most part, this statement is just seen as an idiom. In reality, flattery will get you EVERYWHERE. So why is it so looked down upon to be a suck-up? I say it's because there is a difference between the two. To flatter is often appealing. Flattery involves compliments at the right time and little, almost caring, gestures. Sucking-up involves annoying gestures that can often turn to the point of creepy all at practically the wrong time (but is there really a right time for annoying gestures? Not really). So how do you tell the difference? How can you tell when you're being flattering or just being a suck-up? I think this all depends on the person that you are directing your attention towards. But a key thing to note is timing. If you do give compliments, do them sparingly and only when you completely mean it. This is flattering. If you do it excessively, then that's when you turn into a suck-up. Also be careful with compliments that are heard by others. You must take caution to not slam others while giving someone else a compliment. Not only will it look bad for you, but karma does exist...and it will come back with vengeance.

That One Looks Like A Flower!

I was watching Spongebob the other day (don't judge, it's a good show) when I thought of the episode of Sandy and Spongebob watching clouds and deciding what they look like. Then I thought about how practically everyone has done something like that in their life, right? Clouds seem like such a universal image; like the moon in a way. Who hasn't caught themselves staring at a cloud and realizing "hey, that one kind of looks like a dragon!" or "that cloud reminds me of a duck fighting a man"? No matter where you go, or where you have been, clouds will always look practically the same. Is there anywhere on Earth that a certain kind of cloud has not been yet? And who's to say that that cloud you're looking at is not big enough to be seen by another person in another state? Exactly. It's sort of something interesting I never thought of before. The cloud could really be a universal symbol to unite people. How curious.

Legalize The Hippy Lettuce?

I heard an announcement for a STARS debate about legalizing the use of marijuana. I'd like to try to argue both sides!

For: The "for" side, I feel, will be pitiful for me. But hey, I'll try! Well if marijuana was legalized, then I think that would cut down on the trafficking, illegal actions, and hype. Let's be honest, most things lose much of their excitement when they are no longer "dangerous". It's like alcohol in foreign countries. Kids our age are able to drink alcohol in other countries without being reprimanded, so alcohol seems normal and an everyday thing. It loses any kind of excitement. Kids also would learn at an early age how to control their intake of the substance. It's experience that helps. Now if marijuana was legal, there would be no sneaking around, no shoot-ups because of the lack of substance because suddenly a drug-bust could happen. There would be safe places that people could purchase this gross stuff. So maybe by legalizing it, you are taking out a lot of the potential danger present when trying to get marijuana.

Against: I'll just start off with the fact that smoking, of any kind, is just unhealthy and gross. If we legalize marijuana, it would seem like we are encouraging people to just smoke the heck out it. It would almost seem immoral to legalize marijuana. Now by making it illegal, there does seem to be less of a chance of people getting a hold of it. Does this increase curiosity for consumers? Or does this make the more lazy of the consumers just give up and not smoke? This is hard to answer. When things are easy to get, sometimes they do become a bit more appealing. It just depends on the person. Then there is another question that arises-If we legalize marijuana, what would possibly come next? This could be a chain reaction leading to many drugs being legalized which should not be. You never know!

Now which side am I really on? I still have to decide.

Igpay Atinlay

Yes you guessed it, I am now going to blog about Pig Latin! Ellohay, ymay amenay isway Amanthasay-If you are unfamiliar with this "language", then I shall translate. I said "Hello, my name is Samantha". In order to speak Pig Latin, you must take the first syllable of the word, move it to the end, and then add "ay" to the end of it. There is also a version where instead of taking the whole first syllable, you take just the first letter. It was used for codes as well as just a game in America. The earliest signs of Pig Latin date all the way back to the 1800's. Thomas Jefferson was said to have written Pig Latin in his letters some times. Some English slang like "ixnay" (nix) or "amscray" (scram) is Pig Latin. Sometimes I hear these words in everyday speech, but don't even realize it's Pig Latin. Throughout history it changed until kids really began to develop what is now Pig Latin. It was known as "Dog Latin", "Dog Greek", "hog Greek" and many others. It was basically just known as a made-up language to sound like Latin, but was only just very bad Latin. Letters and sounds were added to regular words just so it sounded Latinesque. A very early form was found in a Shakespeare work. It just goes to show you how much language, made-up or real, can change over the years. And how language seems to be one of those things that just does not die.

Does This Catch Your Eye?

As I looked through the blogs posted on this site, I noticed how creative the titles were! For some reason it did not occur to me that we should name our blogs in an interesting fashion. I began to realize though that the ones with the interesting titles were the ones I read. It's practically like judging a book by its cover (Which is something a lot of people do, even though they try to claim otherwise). But I do judge books by their titles a lot of the time. It's sort of a mentality thing for me; if the author can't think of a creative title, then chances are they won't think of that creative of a story. That has pretty much always been a thought process for me that has yet to fail (knock on wood...). So while blogging, I am going to try my best to think of great, creative titles in hopes that many kids here have the same mentality as I do.

STARS

Is STARS a debate team, really? I had thought debate teams were assigned a view to have, forced to research, and then made to argue their point. But with STARS, I feel as though it could get too personal if people use their own views. I've often wanted to try to participate in one of their arguments, but I was afraid that things could get too personal. When you have a choice of what view you want, this is when things get personal. Other's will start attacking your view instead of a random view you were just assigned. I think this could be a bit dangerous because it could ultimately hurt kids without people knowing it. I think the idea of STARS is good; just a place where ideas can be debated on. But I think it needs to be more like a debate team where teams or kids are assigned a view and then forced to argue why their view is right.

The Perfect Baby-Builder

I read once in a magazine called Mental Floss that there is technology being created (or already created) that allows aspiring parents to pick out traits and build their perfect child. This seems immoral and horrible to me. This would only drive people to find "the perfect child", which is just sad. All children should be accepted for who they are, not matter what they look like. I once read that male children were killed if they did not resemble their father in the first stage of infancy when humans lived in tribes. Now people are trying to change their children to not even look like them. This only adds to the growing. materialistic nature of humans.

But there could be an upside. Perhaps the parents have a medical condition that could have been given to the child. If we have technology like this, could we create technology that would prevent the spreading of inheritable diseases or deformities? This would be an incredibly useful technology to have. Deaths from disease would decrease immensely!

Here is more info on this subject-http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/03/02/2009-03-02_custommade_babies_delivered_fertility_cl.html

Match.com

Yes, I have decided to blog about online dating sites. Recently, (just yesterday, actually) I did an English project about the book Emma by Jane Austen where I created a fake online dating website because the main character believes she is a match-maker. I find these sites to be oddly fascinating. Maybe it's just me, but I can't help but doubt these sites. Parents and adults always warn us teens about meeting people online that say they are some one when they really are not. Studies have been done to see just how many people do these sort of things! Couldn't this just happen on one of these many sites? Anyone could upload a random picture, lie about interests, and totally make up their information. I mean, unless these sites have a way of picking out the liars (I wouldn't know).

----- One out of ten users on online dating sites are scammers; one out of ten users leave within the first 3 months; and one out of ten sex offenders reportedly use online dating to meet people.

http://www.zimvi.com/?p=2897

But studies are starting to show that online dating is rapidly growing in popularity.

------------ In the first half of 2003, consumers spent over $214 million for online dating services. This number is 76 percent higher than the same time last year.

http://www.onlinedatingmagazine.com/mediacenter/onlinedatingfacts.html

I would just feel weird about meeting someone online. There just seems to be something impersonal about online dating. There could easily be liars. Meeting people in person allows you to get a better feel for them. Also, meeting in person allows you to see if you have any physical chemistry. Plus, why would people want to pay so much money in order to do this? Not much of it makes any sense to me. But I do agree that it could be a potentially good way of meeting someone new. But this is why there are free sites like Facebook, if you ask me.

My 8-Legged Friends

I've always wondered, why do we find spiders to be so gross? For the most part, I've really never met a person who likes spiders. I don't mind the tiny ones, but if they are bigger than a dime I have a problem. But I feel like this is the same way most people are. So then, what is it exactly about these multi-legged creatures that makes people's skin crawl? I decided to research it. I couldn't find any legitimate research or tests to prove anything, but I did find many comments from people about them. It seems to be the multiple legs that get people freaked out. That and the fact that they're hairy normally. Whatever it is, it's just creepy.

http://isitnormal.com/story/why-are-spiders-so-gross-50045/

Here is a little forum discussion...almost everyone agrees with the statement that it is the legs that gross people out.

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing

I recently read a booked called The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing where there is a boy named Octavian who is kept by a secret society during revolutionary who do experiments on him. I haven't finished it yet, but it seems to be a bit backwards. Octavian is African American, and all the men who do the experiments are white. All the white men have numbers for names instead of regular names. For Octavian to have a name instead of a number is almost an insult. This is completely different from how slaves were treated then because they all got numbers instead of their names to take away a sense of identity. Octavian is also educated and given many privileges. This is how the white men do their experiments. They try to see if Octavian's race is like the whites. It's interesting to see another side of that time period. Not many white people did experiments like these. Like I said before, it's a bit backwards.

IB Friendship

Sarah Carbone and I have noticed a difference in our IB group compared to last year's group (and probably previous years' groups as well). I feel as though we are different; we aren't our own group. It's almost as if we have groups inside our IB group because of our different friends and extracurricular activities. When Sarah and I look around the lunch room (her and I sit together), we notice that the senior IB kids, for the most part, all sit together at a lunch table. But if you look around, you would see that our junior group splits up into twos or ones. We each still have our own group of friends, which is unlike what all the other kids had told me last year. I had been under the assumption that once you're an IB kid, you only hang with IB kids. Many kids told me "Good luck having a life or seeing your friends from this year. Because you will be just hanging out with the kids in your IB class. IT BECOMES LIKE A CULT". This had scared me a bit last year. But noticing what I notice now I see that it is completely different from what those people had told me last year.