Comic Life Self-Reflection

Working with Comic Life was certainly something new, but it wasn't that hard. I liked that everything was visible and easy to manage. Talking boxes and different styles of font and backgrounds took almost no time to locate. The system is very nice, but the overall experience was not exactly my favorite. For someone that is a fan of this type of stuff, editing and taking time in creativity, Comic Life is great. For someone like me, that likes to almost only write and do nothing more, it can get quite boring. Specially when exporting Photo Shop images. It takes a couple of full-time classes only to edit the images and import them to Comic Life. I think that our project is worthy of being showed to other people. We took some serious time on our details and the information is clear. Using Comic Life was something new and easy, but it takes creative types of people for it to flourish.

I believe that comics can be useful to learn serious literature. They are obviously not the most serious resource to learn about a subject, but they work. I agree that some comics are mainly made to entertain. Although I also think some comics are made for easy understanding about serious subjects. I've seen some of my classmates comics about Romeo and Juliet and they do show the characteristics of the play. They use original language, and modern language when appropriate or when not talking about something very important. Overall, I think that comics are a useful and easy approach to understand literary subjects.

Bay in a Day

Day on Earth Rodrigo from mistermark on Vimeo.

My video is about a day in my life, and a couple of the things I like to do. At the end, it shows pictures of my friends, which tell how much I appreciate them. If I could choose another theme I would've chosen the beach. I was actually going to do a video about beaches in Vallarta, but it seemed to be fairly complicated. Plus, I live a little far from the beaches here in Puerto Vallarta. The process took a fair amount of time, even if it looks so easy to make. I did edit some parts to make it look better, it took me about two hours to make the first two minutes of the video. The other half took about a class and a half to complete, it was easier since I didn't have to make too many changes to the stills. I still tried to make it more smooth when going along with the song, but you can't be perfect always. Sometimes if you fix something, another thing goes wrong, and it goes on and on. I think that my project is good, I think that people will like it, the song is really soothing and the video is relaxing.

One day on Earth video

I really liked the video because of everything it shows. It tells us that the world is something beautiful that is worth recording. The purpose of the video was to inspire us to do the same. They want us to record a day in our personal world. I think that this is going to be a very fun activity to make. We'll get to know each other better, and we are going to get to express ourselves individually. I can't wait to see how my classmates come out on their projects.

I think that the parts with war and ugly scenes are weak because they don't really inspire you. They let you see the bad things in Earth and then you don't really feel like making your own video. The parts with nature and the little girl at the beginning are really nice. These things remind you of innocence and purity. The world must be seen that way in order to truly appreciate it, and I enjoy to think that way. The video in general was very pleasing, but there were some parts that were kind of ugly. I'm planning on making mine very beautiful and unique.

Fuel efficiency

In the last days of computer class, I have learned to measure how much fuel different vehicles use, and how much time I need to make it to school each year. I learned that there are several cars, such as hybrid ones, that use a lot less fuel than a normal car. Riding a bicycle is by far the most fuel efficient method of transportation, as well as walking. I plan on getting a fuel efficient car when I'm 16, I also want a cool car, but I'll think about fuel efficiency when browsing for one. I think that this was a very useful project, these are things I will probably find handy in the future. I wish we can do something similar soon, I find it to be a very interesting subject. Also, we should learn to use less fuel, even if we are lucky to live the way we do. For now, let's move onto another assignment, see you later!

Cars and Fuel

Actual Car: I have Ford Explorer 2009, and it uses 41
0.1154 liters of fuel per year. It is actually a lot, but I need to come to school so it's necessary.



Dream Car: My dream car is the Aston Martin Vanquish, it uses 472.8082 liters per year, so it would be worse for the environment, but it is still my dream car.

Efficient Car #1 (Mini Cooper S 2011): The Mini Cooper uses 84.8965 liters of fuel per year. It's the most efficient car of all four I've listed and it is actually a cool car. I might buy a Mini Cooper when I turn sixteen, I'm seriously thinking about it.

Efficient Car #2 (Toyota Camry Hybrid 2010): The Toyota Hybrid uses 90.1209 liters per year which is actually really great. It wastes a lot more less fuel than my previous cars.

Google Earth Tours

I'm going to talk about the Google Earth projects that the class just did. Some did really well and some did horrible. Adriana's project was good, she had the necessary places and good timing when moving from one place to another. It would be better if it had a little more effects though. Marifer's was really bad. She just moved around the place and did not zoom in into anything, it lasted 25 seconds. Plus, she only had two places, I have nothing positive to say about this one. Courtney's just zoomed into her house and stayed focused on that place for like a whole minute and then ended. I can give her a positive on the good start, but the rest of it is boring and bad. My tour had smooth and good, timed movement in my opinion, the zooms where also smooth. I had five stops, which were more than necessary, so that's another positive attribute. The only thing I would change would be inserting voice explanation. I actually tried to do this, and I even tried with a mic, but I just didn't understand how it worked. It was a very exciting project and I hope we use Google Earth again someday.

JOY

J
In first period, we didn't have a teacher so we just were like listening to our iPods and chatting with each other and it was quite relaxing. I feel more comfortable starting the day now because I feel more calm. I don't really know why Mr. Whitten didn't come, but he didn't show up to class. Miss Schalla substituted him yesterday I guess she was busy with another class or something else because no one ever came. We just did our own stuff for 45 minutes and waited for the bell to ring, then we moved on to this class. Moving on to a different subject, I ate an apple this morning, which is good because I never have breakfast. It actually works, I don't feel like I'm about to sleep. I hope this will be a good day to learn at school.

O
I would like to travel the world alone. I would also like to go with my family another time, but I would love to go by myself at least once. Enjoy a good dinner in front of the Eiffel Tower and just relax with the view. Drinking a German ice cream by the pool and watching the sunset at a nice cafe. Even taking a walk down the roads of Rome would be amazing. It's those little things in life that make it so great, you don't need to do big stuff to enjoy yourself. I would really love to do that someday, maybe I will when I work and live on my own. I feel like it's something you got to do before you leave this world.

Y
A part of me that makes me very special is my charisma. I don't ever treat people badly or at least I try my best not to. I do not judge people by their looks or by how much money they have. I judge people according to their personality, if they treat me well, I treat them well. I'm actually friends with everyone, I don't really know people with whom I don't talk or don't get along well with them. I like all types of sports too and I'm open minded, ready to learn and experience new stuff. I'm also good when talking to people, I don't really feel awkward with silence or anything, I just feel that talking is talking, and it doesn't have to be weird. If you get to know me I'm sure we'll get along, and remember, treat people the way you wish to be treated!

Typing Graphs and Discussion

I have improved a lot over the course of the year in typing. I was already kind of fast when I started, but my scores totally went up significantly. The best thing is that they grew, even if we now had a much harder test. I think it's important to write faster, I may need it in college or even when I work. You can do your works faster than everyone else, and you cut off homework time. I think that typing should be included in all grades of high school. Students need that skill, it's not just something new to learn, it's something that will help them work and study. I was really happy with my improvement, I wish to do better over time, maybe get 65 or 70 in net speed by the end of next year, I'm my own limit breaker!

MAP Testing Graphs

This is my reading graph, it is a good graph when representing my scores. It shows slight changes over time, half and half that show progress or descent of my scores. It's easy to read, or better said, to identify the changing of the graph over different points, I think this graph is nice.

This is my math graph, this was one of my best graphs since it only shows one descending point, the rest of them showing progress. we can see a significant growth on the beginning bars, and then on the last four, maintaining kind of a steady pace. This graph was great, it shows my best scores

Finally, we can see my language graph. This is actually very similar to my math graph, we can see a big progress on the beginning points, one descending point, and a steady pace on the last four, the last two being the same, just like in the math graph. I think this is even better because I think you can see it more clearly, it's easier to identify the slopes. This was my personal favorite graph.

The two best graphs were the math and language ones, since they represent the same descending and ascending points in my tests, not the same scores, but the same progress. It has to sum up to only one, and I have chosen my language graph as the graph that most clearly represents my MAP scores. Yes, it may be the same as my math one, or very similar, but the language one is easier to identify. The points are put clearly in their place, and you can see without difficulty where the points are placed, or better said, more accurately. I'm very satisfied with my scores, I hope next year they will be even better, thank you!

Oil Spill

I think that the oil spill was an accident, the company wouldn't do that on purpose. There are many things that we can consider to know what caused the oil spill. I personally think that because of the high tide, a big and strong wave hit one of the main towers. Then it broke down and caused the breaking down of the main system. The oil began to come out, and since it holds tons of oil, it became something massive. The oil spill is bigger than Vallarta, and bigger than small countries. We have to be aware of the consequences this is causing to our environment and to the wildlife that lives in that environment. It's something that will take a long time to fix.

Despite the severeness of the situation, we can repair the damage that as I write, is flowing through the ocean. It will take time of course, because of the size, but it won't be impossible. First we need to make sure everyone knows about this, and make everyone aware that this is damaging everybody. Then the company has to listen to us, listen to the people and hope that they will do as we hope. They can get help so they can fully clean the water contaminated by the oil. We could rescue animals that still had a chance to live, and keep them in a safe place until the oil spill is controlled. It will take some time and lots of patience, but together we can make it happen.

MAP Testing Week

Take a moment and revisit that post. Have your feelings changed? Take a moment and reflect on another testing week. How did it feel? What would you change about the process? Were you happy with your scores?

Going back in time and thinking about my previous MAP testing scores, I think that I did improve over the year. I totally got better at math and reading, I was always good at language, but those two subjects definitely got better this time. It felt good to be testing again, my mind felt refreshed and I did learn some new stuff. Those tests are actually kind of easy, you just have to read the question well, they don't show any impossible stuff, it's just different stuff from what we see in a daily basis here at school. I actually felt refreshed from doing those MAP tests. What I would change about the process of the MAP testing week is that some kids engage with the performance of other kid's tests. Some people change the answers of others and click enter just to enjoy themselves, and that's just wrong. Despite all of these things, I was really pleased with my scores and I hope it will be better next time. Thank you for your time and I hope you learned something while reading this text!

Environmental Power Points (Air Pollution)

After looking at some of my classmates presentations, I realized I missed something. I had too much information, yes it was good information, but I think it lacked creativity. It just had four opening images but no more in the middle of my presentation. When I saw other peoples pictures throughout their Power Points, I thought it looked cool. My favorite presentation was Eduardo's, it was catchy to the eye and had good information. My Power Point was also really good, it was just missing some artwork, some more images or graphics. It was exciting to see how everyone tries to save the world, and they have some interesting ideas. I now know what to do for next time, see ya!

Power Point Presentation

One day in Spanish class, we had this project that required a Power Point presentation, and it was horrible. I couldn't read it because of the font, it was manuscript and it was like font 10. It had an orange background and light red letter, it was just impossible to read. It had tons of animations that got boring over time. The spelling was okay, but it had confusing bullet points that didn't tell anything really. It had too many slides with a lot of garbage talk, only a couple of the sentences the person used were necessary. It was really bad, everyone talked about it in lunch, but of course, no ones perfect, and we don't have that much practice using Power Point. I hope this helps to understand bad Power Point presentations.

Thanks!

50 things I hate and love about Skateboarding!

Love:

1. The speed

2. Learning a new trick

3. Drops

4. When you do high, clean tricks.

5. Friends

6. Grinding

7. Getting to know skateboarding brands

8. Getting new shoes

9. Getting a new skateboard

10. Getting new skateboard parts

11. Getting new skateboard clothing

12. Getting new skateboard hats

13. The feel of new skateboard gear

14. The sound of the skateboard when you ride

15. The sound of the wind when you're in mid-air

16. The sound of the skateboard when it hits the ground

17. All of those three sounds happening so often at the park

18. Visiting a new park

19. The feel of a waxed ledge or rail

20. Watching your friends progress with you

21. Meeting new skateboarders

22. Skateboarding contests

23. Drunk people that come up to you, try something on the board, and fall

24. Skating places that you're not supposed to skate

25. The first time you skateboard

Hate:

1. Cops

2. Not getting permission to go out to skate

3. Getting really hurt

4. Sweating a lot

5. Losing your breath

6. Watching one of your friends get seriously hurt

7. When you want to buy something, but someone else buys it first

8. Breaking your board

9. Not finding your board when you're going to go out

10. When a wheel falls off the board when you jump

11. When a truck breaks

12. When a bearing breaks

13. Doing a high quarter pipe drop and falling backwards

14. Falling when you grind, one of the worst ways of falling

15. Not having wax and wanting to grind

16. When your shoes break

17. When the grip tape gets ruined

18. When the board chips

19. When the board gets wet and grows fungi

20. When someone insists on playing a game of S.K.A.T.E, but you don't want to

21. People who keep bragging about how they can do any trick

22. Fat kids who skate, sorry

23. Adults who stereotype skaters as drug addicts, not all of us are

24. Losing a game of S.K.A.T.E

25. When you feel like you didn't accomplish anything new during a skate session

Those were the things I love and hate about skateboarding, thanks!

Peer evaluations and project

I think that both of the evaluations I graded were good. They had original photographs and the audio was clear. They used creative ideas, but they had some minor flaws. For example, one of the projects I graded used last names for their credits, but nothing exaggerated. They were really cool, not exactly shocking masterpieces, but I did enjoy them. I don't think there was like a PERFECT project, since no one is master of perfection, but there were some that were better than others. It was a really nice thing to do, the evaluation also helped me to look more clearly at my project.

By reading the evaluation and grading other students, I realized what qualities my project had, and what flaws it contained. I could notice that my project was missing something important, and without the evaluation, I don't I would have found that mistake. My project lacked of pictures, that is what I realized when I was looking at the evaluation. I only used three pictures because I did a mistake. The teacher gave us a maximum of three pictures taken from the internet, and I used only three pictures in total, thinking that the maximum of pictures was only three. I really messed up, now I know that.

If I could change my project at all, I would put in more pictures than I did. At least like fifty pictures or something, but three are almost none, and it was a mistake to do that. I will think about re-doing the project or not, I still haven't seen my grade. If my grade is kind of bad, I will probably re-do my video. I would also like to have higher quality images, since the ones I put in did not have the best quality, for some reason. So now we all know, the evaluation opened my eyes, I would like to change something about my Earth Day Video project.

Earth Day Environmental Post

I am going to talk about an environmental idea. If some billionaire came up to me and simply gave me a billion dollars, I would make a center to take care of the Earth. I would make this building in which people did things to protect the Earth. We would have like a cleaning site, a place where you could admire nature and much more. It's probably something I will never be able to do, but if I could, here are my ideas. They're pretty great, I hope someone does this someday. Not exactly the same as I will describe below, but something where people could enjoy the amazing nature that our Earth contains.

I would build a place called Nature, it's not that creative, but it's catchy and easy to remember. In the cleaning room, we would store gases with a suction system and clean the toxic matter it has. We would then use it for machinery, which I will talk about later. The gas would enter this chamber in which many components would take that gas and extract toxic or harmful matter. Then it would go to a double-check chamber, in which small remaining particles would be removed. Then the gas would come out into the using chamber, where it would be clean and ready to use. It would be a place where only authorized personnel could enter.

The now processed gas would be used for machinery. These machines, which would be located in the Ozone Layer section, would clean and prevent the ozone layer from being destroyed. The processed gas would be launched into the Earth's surface, in which the ozone layer is located, and kind of form an artificial layer so the ozone layer doesn't get all of the impact from harmful material. The artificial layer would come less effective, but when that time comes, we would just shoot up some more gas, it's as simple as that. This would also be part of the restricted area.

We now move on to the public are, where everybody can go and enjoy of the creation of the building. We would have kind of a food court, but with natural and healthy food only. Meat would come from naturally dead, well fed, and not processed animals. The majority of our food would be vegetables and fruits. We would plant them ourselves and cut them ourselves, no fertilizers or bug sprays, our personnel would take care of them naturally. We would have a viewing area, which would be out in the open. You could just sit there and drink a cup of hot tea while admiring the beautiful forest and fauna we would have at the buildings side. We would also have a waterfall full of trees, in which birds would stop to chirp the day away.

Our prices would be regular, not expensive, but not exactly super cheap. This is because the maintaining of the building, even though we would have the gases, would be really expensive. Therefore, the prices would be average. People could also buy yearly passes, and they would be cheaper than buying a ticket daily. Of course, this would probably never happen, it actually kind of fits in the fiction area, it's not that realistic. Well, at least I have shared my ideas, I hope someday at least something similar is built. Hopefully you, yes, you, take care of the Earth, let's save it! Thank you for reading.

Earth Day Video!

The track we chose as our background music is Hana (Flower) by Masaaki Kishibe. It's a really beautiful song, and we did not think twice before we picked it. I created the entire poem, it was not that hard, but it was kind of hard sometimes to find the correct rhyme. I think it was good, since I wrote it in about ten minutes, and it does not have a bad quality, it's actually pretty sweet. We used Puerto Vallarta images, using different elements to describe the poem. We firstly used a picture of the Malecon so everyone could appreciate the sea. We then used a picture of the moon, which describes a part of the poem we used. Finally, we have the Caballito, which is located at the Malecon. It's the Caballito just in front of a beautiful sunset, it's our personal favorite. I personally had some trouble using the iMovie, I spent all night figuring the system out. I didn't sleep until 1:20 A.M, it was a pain in the butt. That was pretty much it, live long and prosper (SPOCK!) Random...

The perfect spring break

The perfect spring break to me would be one full of new things, and full of crazyness. I would like to have an Aston Martin Phantom to ride around the city, since that is my dream car. I would learn how to surf, how to kiteboard, and how to wakeboard. Those are the three most famous aquatic sports, and I have never tried even one. I would like to make new friends. I would like to meet people that I could trust me, and at the same time trusted me back. I would like to go with those friends to the beach and perform the things I mentioned earlier. Maybe grab a few soda pops and just chill while feeling the wind. I know that those sports are hard to learn, or at least that is what people say, but I would totally go for it.

After all the water stuff, I would like to go to a fancy city and stay at a fancy hotel. Maybe go up to New York City and just go to the greatest hotel there and enjoy my visit. I would not ask for much there, just good food and peace. No disturbing me or anything like that, just me with myself and a cold Dr. Pepper in my hand, watching T.V. Then, I would go and relax at the pool, enjoying the sun and the women, being a guy. Then just get back to bed in my room, turning on the warmer and sleep the most comfy way I have ever slept. Wake up totally fresh and feel renewed. Until now, we have gone through 7 of the 14 days of Spring Break.

Then I would go on to the madness. People going crazy and having the best time ever. Pulling over to important parties, of course, healthy and nice crazy parties, not drunken-fests. Maybe go skateboarding to the big ramps up in San Pancho, and just going the maximum speed. Feeling the adrenaline, feeling the wind, feeling how you elevate from the floor. Flying without having to have wings, to enjoy that breeze, to enjoy the sunset. That would be the most perfect thing, I know it would. Maybe going up to the street skate park after ramping. It's right ahead the tunnel, it has small ramps with copings, but mainly street. I got to say I love skateboarding, everybody should do it. We have gone through 11 days now.

This part of my Spring Break is called The Bear Stage. I call it The Bear Stage because it is like hibernating. Just staying at home and watch some good movies, sleeping eighteen hours a day. Sleeping, waking up, eating, watching movies, sleeping. Three days in a row of just that routine. I find it kind of necessary since I just wasted all of my energies on the past Spring Break days. Maybe playing a little Playstation 3, mainly doing entertaining, but not tiring stuff. Feeling like if you're kind of hibernating, I think you might understand what I am saying. After all of this, going back to school. I know, boring, right? Unfortunately, that's the way it is, and also, this story leads to ending. Thank you for your time folks.

343

Her laugh broke the silence. After the expected time in which Erika Amanai should have died, she giggled frenetically in my face. Yes, I wrote Erika's name in my Death Note, but she did not die after the forty seconds. At that moment, I assumed that she had given me a fake name. I also considered that the fact that my Shinigami (Death God) Karemu laughed, was because she knew that it was a fake name. The supposed to be called Erika was smiling as she thought I was cooperating with her in the Kira (Killer) case. After spelling her name, I had written that the cause of death was a heart attack, I would take her away so no one could find her lying on the floor.

After a few minutes of having pressure on myself, because she was getting closer to find out I was Kira, she said she had to leave to the headquarters. I could not allow this, if she went there, it would be revealed that I was suspected of being Kira, and there was enough evidence for me to be confirmed as Kira. She started to walk away, and I realized I only had five minutes until she got there. I had to kill her before she got there, but how? An idea crawled into my brain, a brilliant one. I told her not to leave, that I had to tell her something else, something of vital importance. I told her I was part of the Kira investigation headquarters. She was surprised, and she got excited to hear such good news. I offered her a spot to work with us, but of course, I was not involved with the headquarters, it was a bluff. She said that she would completely join the case, and that she wanted to take revenge over his husband, no matter what she had to do.

It was all going as planned, she fell for my bluff. I told her that to get into the headquarters, I just needed an I.D, so I could register her information. She gave me a drivers license and confessed that she had given me a fake name before. Bingo. I told her it was okay, that it was all to protect herself from Kira. I didn't know why everyone was protecting themselves from me, even if they didn't know me. I only killed bad guys, and everyone knew it. I would never kill an innocent civilian, but she was about to reveal my true identity, and I could not allow that. I looked closely at the I.D. Misa Haruno was her real name, according to the drivers license. Carefully I introduced the name into my death note, but she thought I was only registering her information. I looked closely at my watch as the forty seconds were now in the process of murdering Misa. She then asked with a tone of voice I will never forget, "Why are you looking so closely at your watch?''. I answered with a simple "Oh, this? Well it's because... I'm Kira". Shock covered her face and body, it was success. She collapsed onto the floor after the needed forty seconds had passed. I took her away with the help of Karemu. The fact that I was Kira was fully unknown, I was suspected of being Kira, but there was no physical evidence, since I just needed a name and a face to kill. At least, I was not discovered yet...

8th Grade Rotoball

8th Grade RotoBall from mistermark on Vimeo.

We were working on a roto ball video on the last few weeks. The videos needed to be creative and at least fifteen seconds long. You could not have any kind of violence in it, especially murder and blood. A problem I encountered during the creation of my flash project was the background. I tried a few but some just went directly into the imaginary trash can. Finally, I found a cool but simple one, which ended being the one I used in the final project. Other than this everything was pretty easy and fast, I finished the whole thing in three days. I edited and put all of the classroom's videos together, found a couple songs, and introduced them into the video. I also made the slides, but those were pretty easy. I had some problems in finding the music that would be the best for the final project. I thought about millions of songs that I like, but I couldn't think like that. I had to pick something that would interest everyone in the class, something cool, but something neutral. I finally picked A Cause Des Garcons, and Boogie Wonderland. I think they are pretty great, and don't get out of the normal tune. These were my main problems with the flash project, it wasn't really that problematic. See you next time!

Rotoball Video

The video was great, but some things could be changed for the best. Some backgrounds are either too funky our just look bad. This can be easily fixed in a few minutes and will make the video look completely different, better. Also, some of the videos have kind of a stiff character, they could add at least some flexibility in the knees. Not all need that flexibility, since some are just people standing. Lets take Thomas' video for example, he is supposedly surfing, but he does not move at all. Perhaps if he extended his arms and bent his knees it would look a lot better. Other than these small flaws, the video was quite good, I hope you think so too.

I give myself credit for putting the videos together, selecting and inserting the music, and creating the video slides.

Rotoball Idea

I had many Roto ball ideas, but one stands out. I am planning on receiving the ball and transform it into a skateboard. I will do some sort of trick on the skateboard, I will think of something realistic. Then I am going to pop the board, and catch it as a ball. I am then going to pass it to whichever side with my booty. It's going to be fun, skateboards are over used in videos, but it's still creative. This is the main thought my head has right now. I will perhaps think of something else on Thursday, but I am pretty sure that's what interests me. Thank you for your time!

Rodrigo Flater's

Growing Up Online

4. Identity Play

Things you post can go to other people that your friends. Of course all of the things I post are directly meant to reach my friends. I never post innappropiate things, and I never post personal information like my address or phone number. The problem is when people do post that kind of material. People out there can easily get into your Facebook, they have ways of doing it. If you have personal information, they could catch you, and you might get into a BIG problem. Just don't post important info in your profile, that's it. Don't put your original last names, and/or use nicknames. This is what I think about identity play.

3. Social Networking - Keeping in touch

I think that social networking is not such a big deal as people think it is. Social networking such as Facebook, Myspace, etc. are good in certain ways. Having these sites can help you contact someone you haven't seen in a while. They can also entertain with the games they contain, or simply to talk and socialize with your current friends. It can also help for business. People think that it is only for talking, but you can download blogs and pictures or videos to Facebook, educational blogs. Of course, there is online bulling and that is not okay at all. People should really stop that, it doesn't matter what the case is, people commit suicide because of this. These are the reasons of why I think that Social Networking is not bad at all. Yes, it might contain innappropiate stuff, but you can choose whether to see that stuff or not.

5. Parenting - Privacy and Control

People exagerate about privacy and control. These programs that they refer to like ''Catch a Predator'' just grow fear in adults without need. Yes, it is true that something bad might happen because of online blogging, but you can stop it. If you don't post important and personal information into your blog, they will not catch you. Just think about it, don't tell them who you are, and do not tell them where they can find you, that will just bring trouble into your life. Parents are really overreacting about this. I think they should stop those warnings, they are UNNECESSARY. This is the way I feel about the privacy and control of parents with blogs.

Dude that uses spark notes! Should he feel guilty?

I think that this guy should feel guilty for the following reasons. This kid should feel guilty about looking up spark notes on the internet to get his homework done, instead of reading an actual book. By using spark notes and not reading, kids today are losing that quality that people used to have thirty years ago. If people keep doing this, our economy will decrease, since people nowadays are even lazy to read a simple book. But it's not as simple as him feeling guilty for doing that, he has to stop doing that so he can make a real change in our society, everyone should stop it. I personally had never used spark notes to hand in a book report, and I don't think many people here do it, but it's apparently popular over there in the United States. This is why I think that he is, and should feel guilty for using spark notes online.

Modern Internet

Modern internet is completely different than it used to be before. Teenagers these days use the computer mostly to use Facebook or Myspace or any social sites really. Maybe it wouldn't be as bad if they only used those sites a few minutes a day, and just one or two days a week, but it's not that way anymore. Now, teenagers use those sites sometimes up to 8 hours a day, and seven days of the week, not exactly 24/7, but you could say that because of how much they use it nowadays. I'm not going to lie, I also use it a few hours the seven days of the week, but still, I know it's really bad, and it disappoints me how everyone does it, I disappoint myself. These are the changes in the Internet nowadays. Hope you think the same as me.

Things that will tell why the computer is different from television, videogames, stereo/radio, magazines and books.

Computer is different from televisions because televisions transmit scheduled programs that don't necessarily have unappropriate content, of course, they could. The computer is different from videogames because video games are more parental controlled, and the internet is more out there for everyone. The computer is different from radio, magazines, and books, because all of those are government controlled issues, and do not content inappropriate content for people who are not 18 years old.

My Winter Vacation!

My winter vacations where extremely fun and entertaining. When vacations started on December 16, all I did was sit around on my bed playing video games and relaxing watching a movie or something. I watched Two and a Half Men occasionally just to have a good laugh, I ate popcorn every time of course, I'm addicted to them. That's pretty much all I did until December 26, and sometimes I also went to the mall or to the park with my sister-in-law, my mom, and my nephew, so my nephew could have an ice cream and ride his tricycle or something.

On December 26, we had planned to go on a vacation to Reno, Nevada and after three days go to Lake Tahoe, California, although they are in different states, Reno is just 50 minutes away from Lake Tahoe if you take a cab. The plan that was really stuck in my mind was that we were going to snowboard in Lake Tahoe. After three shopping days in Reno, we finally went to Lake Tahoe to snowboard. It was really fun but really hard! It was a lot easier for me to ride the snowboard because I'm a skateboarder, so I learned how to turn easily, but my brother actually never learned how to. We stayed there in Lake Tahoe for three days, and we left on day three to Reno. The best part of the trip is about to come up!

We first went to Scheels, the biggest mall on Reno, and I bought 7 skateboard waxes, Flip and Ledge Butta brand waxes, and Bones Swiss bearings. What I was really looking for there in the U.S was this skateboarding deck, a Girl brand deck, they don't sell those over here in Vallarta, and that has been my dream since like six months ago. Then we went to a mall downtown, I don't really remember the name, we bought some DVD's and I bought a Playstation 3 game (Little Big Planet). We were walking down the mall when I suddenly look to my right, it was a store named Zumies with millions of Girl decks! I instantly ran into the store to look at the stuff they had in stock. I ended up buying a Rick Howard 7 5/8 Girl deck with MOB griptape, Thunder trucks, a skateboarding tool, Ricta and Spitfire wheels, Girl Risers, and Lucky bearings. I bought the extra wheels and bearings because they gave me the whole skateboard for seven extra bucks, and that's a perfect deal. We then came back to Vallarta, I finished my english and science homework, and here I am today writing this paragraph. That's it! :D