Senior Project Update

I have not done much with my senior project since the initial post. It has been a low priority because I have been working on college stuff, my eagle project and the lead role in the school play. I bought an astronomy book, looked at the stars on a couple of occasions and can now identify a couple of constellations. I also have been paying attention to the moon. Other than that I haven't put any time into this.

The thing I need to work on is finding a mentor for this project. I already approached my chemistry teacher from last year and he said he'd do it, but he wasn't that knowledgable on the subject. So I think I will talk to my physics teacher next see if he is more knowledgable and ask him if he would be willing to do it. Then it's a matter of setting up and completing the interview. Nothing like a deadline to get you going!

On "Drugs"

     What a peculiar title for this post! No I'm not on drugs, rather I am commenting on the essay "Drugs" written by Gore Vidal in 1970.
     In regard to Vidal's statement that drugs should be legalized because "each man has the right to do what he wants with his own life...as long as he doesn't interfere with his neighbor's pursuit of happiness", I agree with the statement but with this added corollary: as the preamble of the U.S. Constitution states, one of the purposes of the union we have formed is to "promote the general welfare" therefore I would add a corollary as follows: "each man has the right to do what he wants with his own life...as long as he doesn't interfere with his neighbor's pursuit of happiness" AND as long as he is aware of the risks associated with his actions. I believe one of the functions of government is to enlighten our citizens so they can make better decisions and this certainly aplies to the case of legalizing drugs.
     Now, Within this statement there is an assumption that drug users with legal, readily available, drugs are not going to interfere with their "neighbor's pursuit of happiness." A study by the Bureau of Justice indicates that over half of violent crimes by state prison inmates were committed while under the influence of alcohol or drugs. While this study is out of date, it is no secret that for years we have been drawing connections between drugs and violence. Violence certainly interferes with a "neighbor's pusuit of happiness" or even promoting the general welfare and establishing domestic tranquility. It's tough to tell if it would help if drugs were completely legalized. For example alcohol and cigarettes are legal and plenty of crimes and deaths occur from people under the influence of alcohol. Here in the Napa Valley we have a monthly DUI list in a couple of our papers that is full of names. We are lucky there are not more deaths.
     Research from the University of Berkeley indicates that legalizing drugs   or enforcing the strict regulations we currently have are not solutions. Rather the solution can be seen as somewhere in the middle. When looking at history and compromise, it makes sense that the answer to our drug problem lies in the middle and the university cites many countries with policies in the middle as prime examples.
     Whatever the case something must change. The US has the largest prison population total and the highest per capita. Many of these inmates are in for drug-related crimes including the abomination of justice occuring with Clarence Aaron. Let us look to the middle for our solution.
    

Link to ICE 10/17

The Character of Thomas Jefferson

On "Politics and the English Language" by George Orwell

      I found this essay to be extremely dated and hard to understand, yet there were a few things in it that we could all take with us to improve our writing. 

      For one he talks about eliminating overused phrases and idioms and mocks people for using such phrases when they do not actually know what each individual word means or where the idiom came from. He then went onto illustrate using examples, how popular idioms are less descriptive because they mold something into a specific category due to the writer's laziness. Whereas if the writer were to take time to describe the object in it's uniqueness, the description would be much more apt.

     Another thing he talks about is avoiding the passive voice. This is something that was no doubt stressed to us in AP literature last year and Orwell does a good job of describing why the passive voice is misleading.

      Finally Orwell talks about "pretentious diction" (a phrase that perfectly describes his point) or words that use assumptions or slanted views of a particular subject or false authority.

      In summary, Orwell urges writers to be specific, be concrete, write exactly what they mean and avoid staying confined to the societal norms of writing.

Grantland.com's Hollywood Prospectus Blog

Grantland.com's Hollywood Prospectus Blog is a quality blog! This blog is effective and entertaining for numerous reasons.
1) It is updated frequently and there is a lot of content. Every weekday there are probably a half dozen new posts on the blog.
2) The blog is diverse and it effectively uses different media. There are links to youtube videos, there are videos created by the Grantland site. There are links to original podcasts, there is quality writing with images created by their design team. Oh and there are links to their facebook and twitter pages.
3) It has consistency to it. No matter what article you click on the sidebar still has links to the top stories, and the top bar has links to all the different features offered by the website. The color scheme is red and white. The logo is the same throughout, the font is the same, the links are always in read and certain features occur on specific weekdays (for example the podcast for hollywood prospectus in general is on Tuesdays and the reality-tv friday podcast is always on fridays)
4) There is quality writing from numerous writers. Something that sets the Hollywood Prospectus blog above other pop culture blogs is that there are numerous voices and angles instead of just one. Sometimes they run features where two writers exchange emails. These discussions along with their podcasts where they argue back and forth provide multiple angles on particular subjects. The writing is very clever and funny and the writers are from diverse backgrounds.
5) The Blog uses tags, headlines and links to make things easy to find.
6) They also analyze past pop culture. The blog does a magnificent job of looking at current events such as the Emmy's oscar's, the newest summer blockbuster or Quentin Tarantino trailer, but rather than just be content with the current news, they also go back and look at previous eras, which allows younger folk to become more culturally literate.
7) There is a sense of reader involvement. All the writer's twitter handles are available and sometimes they reference tweets in their columns. Also there are polls given out such as the Sequeltology bracket which determined which movie sequel was the greatest of all time (If your curious and too lazy to click the link The Empire Strikes Back beat The Godfather II in the finale).
All in all Hollywood Prospectus is a quality blog and an easy way to lose hours of your life.

Research Paper Topic: Arab Spring

1) For my research paper topic I will be researching the "Arab Spring" or the transition of Islamic nations from dictatorship to democracy in the past 3 years.
2) There is so much that is controversial about this topic. For one it is contemporary so everyone has different views about what caused it. People also don't know what's next and what it means for the country-to-country relationships in the middle east.
3) I will be using news articles, editorials, magazine articles. There is a plethra of resources available online on this topic. Many writers have made a reputation on this topic and other writers with a reputation have tackled this topic.
4) To me the Middle East is the most fascinating and important region of the world right now. Things are constantly evolving there and the oil they have is extremely important to the world. I am doing this paper because I am curious, right now I have a barely formulated opinion and I would like to see what else is out there and see what opinion I emerge with after significant research.
5) I don't think this topic is particularly popular, it is fairly new. And whatever the case I feel that my opinion and research will differ greatly than someone else in the class who tries it, because I have my own analysis and they would have theirs.
6) Do you think this topic is too broad?

STRESS!

STRESS!

One of the most popular psychology topics is stress. My peers and I encounter it on a daily basis as top-tier-college-bound seniors at high school. We take multiple college-level courses, (AP) cram our schedules with sports, clubs, music lessons, community service and yet it may never be enough.

Walk into any of my classes and you'll find a room full of highly motivated brilliant kids who are being pushed to the brink. So Where does this stress come from? How do we deal with it? And why do we have stress? The answers can be found in the psychiatric field.

The National Institute of Mental Health classifies stress as a Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Symptoms of a GAD are excessive worrying and anxiety about everyday obstacles and the future for a prolonged period of time (6 or more months). Sound Familiar? I'll go on. GAD is most likely to affect people from late childhood to early adulthood. It is as we are developing into the person we will become for the rest of our lives that we are most vulnerable to excessive stress.

An illuminating study by the American Psychological Association reveals some shocking statistics and many of the causes of stress. According to the APA in 2011, 22% of Americans rated their stress level as 8 or higher on a scale of one to ten with the mean level being 5.2. What causes this stress? According to this survey :

"Significant sources of stress include money (75 percent), work (70 percent), the economy (67 percent), relationships (58 percent), family responsibilities (57 percent), family health problems (53 percent), personal health concerns (53 percent), job stability (49 percent), housing costs (49 percent) and personal safety (32 percent)."
So clearly money has the biggest impact on stress, followed by family, health, and personal safety.

This begs the question: what is stress biologically and why do we have it? According to Web MD: Stress is a heightened state of awareness that comes when we are asked to do more than we typically would. Our heart races faster, we breathe faster and function better. Stress is useful in times of crisis because it allows us to escape danger, and be most productive when our life or career is on the line. Unfortunately too much stress can keep this heightened sense of awareness up even at night and keep us from properly recovering. Eventually our bodies and minds wear down as the stress takes its toll. 

So what can we do about stress? The University of Texas Counseling and Mental Health Center in summary suggests being social, exercising, taking short brain breaks, and most importantly managing time better. We humans are very much creatures dependent on eachother. Being social is a great way to relieve some stress. Taking care of your body will make you feel better as then you only have to worry about mental stress. But the biggest thing is to limit your activities. Quantity over Quality! The more you try to cram in the less effective you are going to be at each individual thing. So if you can, limit your activities, take a deep breath and do some yoga, your body and mind will thank you.

Division/Analysis

Boy

I want a husband

I want a husband who earns all the money in the family, allowing me to spend time at home with my children who I treasure more than anything or anyone that came before them. I want a husband who comes home on time, leaves work at work and smiles the second he walks in the door. I would love a husband who comes home and plays outside with the kids, does all the heavy lifting, does all the yard-work, offers to cook dinner and do the dishes despite just getting home from a long day. If he asked me about my day and listened intently that wouldn't hurt.
I would love if he played a musical instrument or sang for me. If he was constantly creative and romantic with our dates I would feel special. If he wrote me poetry and bought me flowers just because then he'd have my favor.
If he never showed a hint of jealousy when I chatted with other men at dinner parties that would be just wonderful. I'd love for him to be kind, handsome, with a good taste in fashion and decor. I want a husband who is knowledgable about nearly everything, from the sinks to our cars. I want a husband who reads in his spare time.
I want a husband who is social, funny and impressive to everyone I show him off to, but not so much that he diminishes me.
I want a husband who is clean and neat. He insists on doing his own laundry, grooms himself obsessively, has no hints of facial hair and cares about how dry or moist his skin is.
I want a husband who takes pride in all of his little achievements but has no grand ambitions. He would be content with being with me.
I want him to tell me every day how much he loves me. I want him to be sentimental. I want to sit with him pouring over photo albums. I want to sit through romantic comedies with him and for him to cry in them occasionally. I want him to never be embarrassed of me.
I want him to understand me, to read my mind and moods. I want him to comfort me in my sad times. I want him to be there for me.