Reflection: 9th Grade Year

My reflection of my 9th grade year is not as good as I wanted to be. When I was in the 8th grade i had a whole different look on highschool. I think that if i had better teachers i would have a better look back on my year at Parkway. Next year i don't want to come back to Parkway, i want to transfer to another school closer to my house because this year I had to wake up too early every morning. Over the summer i had expectations of how i wanted 9th grade to be. The expectations i had before coming to high school were that it was gong to be as easy as 8th grade. For example in 8th grade i had a's and b's in mathematics, but this year in math i had f's all the way through the year. I can't blame my whole failure to my teacher but honestly can say that it was mostly her fault. She was the meanest teacher in the whole school and i had her for two periods with her. She never used to provide any help and then she would call 308 for every little thing that you did or said. She thought that she could say anything she wanted to you and you couldn't do any thing about it and if and when you did you would be sent to 308. Other than that class I thought that i had a good year. If i didn't have that class and that teacher i think my year would have been way less stressful. I think my teacher would say the same thing.

Mother kills her twins

On Thursday May 24, 2012 1 year old twins were smothered by they mother. Both of them were pronounced dead at 4:10 on the scene according to www.philly.com. 41 year old Stacy Smalls is the mother and the murder of the twins, Adam and Eve Smalls. She also attempted to poison her 4 year old daughter, but she got away. Everyone should want to know why this has happened and what made a mother kill her own children. according to my research, they say that the reason for all of this is because that, the husband and father of the children was sexually abusing the 4 year old daughter. this is a very sad  thing to deal with, but i don't think that she should have kill her kids. I think she could have just move away from him, or sent him to jail. Anything besides killing innocent children. After she killed her twins and tried to kill her 4 year, she tried to attempted to kill herself by cutting her arm. Her attempted didn't succeed, she is now in jail waiting to e sentenced. Honestly I think she should be sent to jail for life, because she handled the situation very wrong. There were other ways, where her and her children could live a happy life and the husband could of be sent to jail. the 4 year old daughter is now put in foster home . I think that that is the best place for her to be, she needs a family that is actually going to care for her after coming from a painful torture. I think the lesson learned here is that, you have to figure out better ways to handle a situation.

Link: http://articles.philly.com/2012-05-25/news/31851397_1_three-young-children-neighbors-twins

Birthday Girllllll

Its my birthday & im hypee, so idc....
May 24 Get it popping

This I believe: Do Talk to strangers

I listened to a spoken article on www.thisibelieve.org . It was about how parents tell you not to talk to strangers, but Sabrina Dubik thinks otherwise. She says that talking to strangers may help you somehow in life. They can change how you feel. She shares her experience in talking to strangers. She works at a dinner as a waitress; of course there are lots of strangers that come in the dinner. She says at first she wouldn't talk to none of her customers. She would only engage in conversation's that has to do with their order of food. One day, one of the customers Mr. Rodgers came in and she begins to have conversations with him. They talk about their outside lives, he came to the dinner every week. She remembered what he ordered each time he came in. You can tell both of their thougts about talking to strangers had changed. Sabrina began to have engaged conversation's with the rest of customers. She was beginning to have fun at work, when she came to wait on people she always had a smile on her face and interacted with them. As you can see sometimes talking to stranger isn't as bad as everybody makes it. Talking to a certain stranger can help you thinking of who you talk to. I think this is a good idea, its just that some people might end up talking to the wrong person & end up getting hurt or something you never know.

Broadcasting a World of Whiteness

Yesterday we read an article about how television shows don't have diverse cast. They talk about the HBO series "Girls" only shows how " white" women have challenges to find men. But really is supposed to be about women having challenges to find men. They explain how a lot of the shows are an example of a undiverse cast. They also talk about how shows like " family guy"Discraminate and make fun of different races. On that show they make jokes on a person of the another race besides white. I don't think that network television doesn't have any diverse shows because, they think that most people look for a cast of the same race. But i really think that more people will watch a show if it has a better cast. If they're diverse cast's then more people will watch. That show will have a diverse audience. If there's only a show with white people, black people might not watch it. But if there's a diverse cast then everybody will watch that show. I don't think television is diverse enough because of the shows that are shown on television everyday. Producers are the main reason why the cast aren't diverse, they are the responsible for who's on the show. I think that producers just put on shows with cast that they think will get the most views. They should ask the people who actually watch the shows to hear what the want to see on TV.I have watched plenty of shows that aren't diverse and thought about how they should be. I also noticed if there's was a show that included white people only, then they will make a black person be their waiter or their butler. I think shows should be way more diverse because the shows would get more views.

New Fashion Wrinkle: Stylishly Hiding the Gun

Last week we read an article about the way people dress to hide their guns. They explain how people dress clean and elegant to make people not think they have a gun. A company called Woolrich made these new pants called "Chino" pants. These new pants are so called making it "easier" for people to get away with having a gun. I think this will become an all time trend because alot of people do carry guns, and don't want anyone to know. I think a lot of people will begin to buy these pants because guns are the future if nobody stops it. If you don't have gun, what's the point in dressing to cover it? I think people shouldn't be able to carry guns, but if they do I think they should be careful to who they give gun licenses. They should give gun licenses to people who has no back round of violence. They shouldn't give it to someone who has a back round of gun charges or killing. I don't think that if more people carry guns will reduce the crime because that will just make people kill more. If everyone has a gun then people wont think of fighting they will automatically think of grabbing their gun. If a fight breaks out its less likely that there will be killing. If someone has gun and they don't like someone they will think its right to just kill that person.

Health Fair: Abortion

Last week there was an health fair that occurred at Parkway. Two the 12th graders who did their 12th grade project on something that was very important to the health fair. Shayira & Sierra came to our class to express their feelings about how they feel about abortion. This was their 12th grade project so you know this had to be a lot of work. Shayira talks about how she thinks that abortion is murder. And that it should be illegal. Sierra has the same point in her powerpoint. she says that abortion is just like killing an human being. They're opinions where great and the backed them up with a lot of information. Although they both had good information to back up their thesis. I still don't believe that abortion is murder. I believe that abortion is the women's choice. Everyone can say that someone is wrong for choosing abortion but where are those people when the women have to take care of the baby. Then they said that they think it should be illegal, but that's just making the situation worst. Because there is illegal abortion out there where girls go and end be sick or worst. If someone really thinks that abortion is necessary then they will go and search low and high for any option other then keep an unwanted baby. Now on to the unwanted thing. An unwanted baby in the world is way worst than abortion. People should think about what could really happen in a life without abortion.

The Weather

Recently the weather in Philadelphia been extremely beautiful. We have been having great weather! Which is kinda weird because its only April. I don't think that there has ever been such nice weather so early. We had nice wether starting in February, its now April and we've even had days where the weather is up to 80 degrees.  I like the wonderful weather we are having, it like summer in April. It feels nice to only have to walk out the house in the morning for school with only a hoodie or a small jacket. Although we are having nice weather in the morning it feels like it winter. It really be cold in the morning, then in the afternoon its hot. That's the only thing that make me not like the unpredictable weather. You never actually know what to expect at the end of the day. The days outside with friends are better because unlike summer the weather is not extremley hot. The weather is comfortably warm, comfortable enough you'd what to stay out in the weather. I wonder what the weather in the summer time will be like because we basically didn't have a winter. Maybe our summer will come early and leave early. We will have an early fall, our seasons we be all twisted up. Or maybe that's just my imagination! If that happens i think our seasons will be switched. Like our winter will be summer, our summer will be fall, our spring will be winter. That would really weird! I would like to have the seasons switched. I wonder if there has ever been a switch in the seasons before. If it was that means it possible that our generation of seasons will be too.

Tayvon Martin

Recently there has been news about this African American boy, Tayvon Martin. He is a Young boy was killed by a man named George Zimmerman. They say that Trayvon was walking home from the store, when George claimed he was suspicious, just because he had a hood on. They also say that George shot him because he was black. Somethings are crazy, people are still getting harmed because of their race. several people in that area called into the police to tell what's going on. They could hear Tayvon screaming help in the back round of the call. The police still didn't arrest Zimmerman for what he did. This makes me sad because even though this man shot and killed someone who was unarmed, saying it was self defense did not get arrested yet. Someone who had done something minor would get arrested on the spot, but this is a huge situation and the suspect is still out living free without no consequences. Even if it was self defense, Zimmerman should still get arrested because he shot somebody. I don't even believe it was self defense because on the 911 calls, when he called he was chasing after Tayvon when the officer  on the phone told him to get back in the car and not chase him. He continued to chase after him. The things that happened that day in their neighborhood is crazy. I don't like that Zimmerman can still walk around freely after killing someone that was unarmed, all he had was an arizona iced tea, and Skittles. The man basically killed him because he was black. I thought Racism died out years back, but i guess it's still alive. Zimmerman should be sent to jail for what he did, and should not be able to walk around freely. Like anyone who has done something wrong, he should be sent to jail. Point blank!

PhotoShopped Or not

We read an article about whether models and celebrities photos are photoshopped. Steve Lohr wrote an article saying how models and celebrities have their photos photoshopped. I don't think that they should do that because that make girls who are unconfident females that that's the only way to look. It make females think that if you don't look like the models and celebrities in the pictures, then they don't look pretty. Those pictures may make them feel unconfident. Imagine if all the celebrities kept their pictures the same way that they look in real life, then everybody would feel okay in their own skin. In the article they said, " We are not trying to stop everyone from using it all together, only if a someone's photo is drastically edited."I don't see why people feel the need to photoshop their photo's, your already famous, so what's the need to try to make yourself look better than those who are not. That just makes others have low self esteem. Everyone thinks that the celebrities and models are so perfect, but they're not. they're just like us, they have imperfections too. If those pictures wasn't photoshopped then you could see the imperfections they have. I don't think there should be any photoshopped pictures because it may make a lot of girls insecure. People should just leave their pictures the same. Models always try to make their pictures skinnier than they really are. They are already skinny which makes people feel like that’s the only way they could been a model. Their photoshopped pictures make it worst. 

More Births No Marriages

Lately there has been a lot of births outside marriages. Jason DeParle and Sabrina Tavernise wrote an article about why people don't want to get married before they have kids. According to the article having kids outside of marriage used to be Illegitimacy. Now it seems to be the new thing that everyone is doing they say it is becoming normal. "They said that there has been more that half of births to American women under 30 occur outside of marriage."They basically say that the reason a lot of people refuse to get married is because of the cost and how much it cost. They also said that some people don't get married because some of them already live in the same house together, so it already seems like they are married. They also say that the child may have a bad childhood because they don't have both parents in the same household I honestly don't think that having married parents is better than not having married parents. My parents aren't married and they don't live together. But i still live the same life as other children. I get to see my dad when i want, I can go stay with my mom sometimes also. My parents don't argue like how the article tries to make it seem as they do. Although i don't mind having split up parents I sometimes get tired of moving back and fourth. The best thing about slit up parents is having two houses to go to. The article should have asked some of the children that have split up parents to give them some ideas of how there life is.

Joseph Kony

Have you heard about Joseph Kony and what he's doing lately? Joseph Kony is a Ugandan guerrilla group leader, head of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). Joseph of Kony whose actions of terror held large portion of Uganda hostage for over 20 years. Joseph Kony whose actions of terror caused 2 million to flee their villages and homesteads in the Acholi and Lango areas of Uganda and settle in squalid Internally Displaced People Camps.  Joseph Kony who enslaved 35,000 or more children, kidnapping whole boarding schools under the cover of the night.  Joseph Kony who slashed and burned villages, settlements and even refugee camps, killing, raping, kidnapping and keeping a people under the yoke impending terror.  Joseph Kony whose LRA dismembered, cut off lips, ears, fingers, hands, feet off of the innocent to keep them in fear.  Joseph Kony who impoverished a whole region of Uganda through oppression and intimidation, through sheer terror.  Joseph Kony, who took young women, called them his wives, beat them into submission, raped and impregnated them, scarring them emotionally for life.

Facebook is Using You

We recently read an article in class called "Facebook is Using You".  Law professor Lori Andrews, gathered information saying how people should be careful what they write online. She says that because of the things that you lookup on google or what you type in an email will be used against you some how. She says that most likely if you look up "Loans" on google you may be excluded from certain credit card companies. She also said that what you write in a email to some one may be used against you. The minute you write about how someone as diebetes or some one is sick pop up may start to appear on your computer screen daily. Like an ad for cures for diebetes, will pop up on the side of your computer screen. Facebook also "uses" us to get paid, the things you write in you bio on Facebook like if you write that you like guitars, there will most likely be ads of buying guitars on your computer screen. Its basiclly they use us every time an ad comes up. They get paid when the ads come up on facebook, email or even google.

Im a criminal and so are you

Reporter of CNN Michelle Alexander wrote an article about the way prisoners are treated after trial. She says prisoners are treated as of they aren't regular people, they cant get certain jobs, they lose the privilage to vote, ect. Not saying that someone who is a sex offender should be able to go out and get a job around children. Or someone who is labeled as abuse to a child shouldn't be ale to go get a job a daycare or something. Im just saying they should be able to get any job that doesn't have anything to do with what they were locked up for. For example a sex offender should be able to go and get a job being a trash man, they're not working with people in close contact. They should also be able to vote as well, what is the harm they are causing by voting for a president. Sometimes it also takes their privilage to get welfare; if your stopping them from getting a job then how are they supposed to live on nothing? I don't think they should take all of those privilages away. I believe they should just take away the neccessary privialges.

In China, Human Costs Are Built Into An Ipad

This is an article that is about the employees safety working on Ipads. It started off with an anecdote talking about worker Lai Xiaodong. I think it started off with that anecdote because the article is about the safety of the employees, and Xiaodong was caught in the explosion that ripped through building A5 on friday evening last May. They also talked about the living conditions after a long day at work. They worked 24 hour shift everyday. They went home to share at three bedroom apartment with about 30 different employees. So basicly this was like slavery, but sugar coated. They worked long shifts, had to share an apartment with several workers, and still didnt get payed what they worked for. There were also problems with the ipads because of the long shifts with hardly no sleep, and the unhealthy living. Workers say that apple didnt care about the workers nor the problems that were going on with the Ipads.As you can see with the explosion with Xiaodong.

Cracking Teenagers Online Codes

Now and days everyone has a profile on a social network. Dr. Danah Boyd is a senior researcher at Microsoft. She explains why teenagers spend most of they're time on the internet. She says that we spend most of our time on the internet because of the fact that most of our parents don't feel safe with letting us outside. Where as though we could get on the internet and be on their as long and as late as we want, there's violence on the streets so we feel like it better to be in front of a computer screen. I some what agree with what she said, about how our parents won't let us outside because of the violence. She says don't really understand why parents would rather us be on the internet not knowing what we're doing and could posibily be putting our selves in danger by talking to people we don't know. But my mom knows about what i do on the internet,  she my follower on "Twitter", and my friend on "Facebook". I can understand that some people parents are not like mine and they don't pay as much attention. Not everyone does bad things on the internet, all parents just need  pay a little more attention and you wont have to worry.

Biggest story of 2011

In my opinion, the biggest story of 2011 is when Oprah Winfrey said she was done with her talk show. Many people were surprised, many people look up to oprah. She announced that she was moving to her own network channel, called OWN. I watch it sometimes with my great grandmother, she gives away gifts just like how she does on her old talk show. Many people were upset that she was retireing from her talk show, until they realized that she was going to start a TV Network. Oprah hosted the “Oprah” show for 25 seasons. From 1986 until 2011, it was the highest rated talk show in American television history. Some say her show was mainly watched because of the topics she talked about and the guests that attended it. According to research, many people attended the “Oprah Winfrey Show” because of the gifts she would give out to the audience. They say she used to give out things like Ipods, laptops, and many more expensive items. There were 4,561 running episodes, from 1986 to 2011. Oprah appeared on other shows  and movies like “The Proud Family”, lots of people know about Oprah and how famous she is, and many people love her. People like myself wondered why Oprah stopped doing her Talk show, according to www.huffingtonpost.com “ she ended her show because she felt as if 25 years was enough of teaching and learning from her audience.” Although Oprah has ended her talk show thousands of people all over America still watch her on her Network OWN, Maybe you should try also, you might enjoy.

The Game

Last week on tuesday, the fifth season of the hit series "The Game" premiered on BET. They say 3.5 million people tuned into the show that night. This show popular all around, millions of people watch it. For the first three seasons, it was showed on the CW, and BET now it is on BET. No one knows why they switched channels. Its about a group of football players and their personal problems, girlfriends, groupies, ect. In my opinion it is a very amusing show. I watch it because of the suspenseful drama. My favorite  characters of the show are Melanie and Derwin because they keep you wondering what's going to happen next. I like Derwin because he's cute, and he really care about Melanie the way he should. I like Melanie because she cares for him the same. They are such a cute couple. This is one of my favorite TV shows because of that couple.

Casey Anthony

Lately there has been a word around that a woman named Casey Anthony that killed her own child. It was told that she was charged with murdering her 2 year old daughter. They say that her daughter Caylee Anthony was missing for 31 days. But she did not report her missing. Which puts her under "guilty" , most parents would report their child missing the day it happens. When it was figured out that she was missing, she told the people that she thinks that the baby sitter kid napped her. They say that was false information just to cover up the absence. The reason for her to lie so much is because she was sexually abused by her father her whole so she was taught to lie about everything. Because they don't have enough information to sentence her to jail, she was found not guilty. After six weeks of court ,she was found not guilty on Tuesday 10, 2012. I honestly think that she should be prosecuted for the rest of her life, the people know that she's lying, therefore she should go to jail. But im not on the jury, if i was i would make sure she was sentenced.

Facebook Breakups

In late August, there was an article published by Nicole Daley. It was about trying to show teens how to breakup in a nice way. She says that lately teens have been using Facebook to breakup with their spouse. She says facebook breaks up relationships, because after a relationship is almost at its end, they run to their computer to change their relationship status. But they never know if they spouse was just ready to call to work things out, but they ruined it by changing their relationship status to single. That person should have talked about their relationship status before changing it. 17 year old Robert says "When its over, its over" he added " After a relationship is over, i rush to my computer to change my status" "it makes the other person mad because i got there first." Most of the time relationships do get ruined because of Facebook. I know this, from personal experiences. My friend just got a new boyfriend and an a hour after she changed he relationship status. Only thing was that her boyfriend from the past(which she was still talking to) was her friend on facebook. About five minutes after she pressed the "post" button her ex was on the phone asking her all these questions about her new status. She must've forgot that they were friends on facebook and he wouldn't see it. After about 20 minutes of all the questions, her new boyfriend started to get jealous, and broke up with her . I guess he figured out that she was still talking to her ex. By the end of the night she was changing her Facebook status to "single". So all the hype to change her status and she ruined a relationship that hasn't really started yet. Who knows what the outcome of that relationship could've been, it could've been good.

Beyonce's Baby !!

Beyonce Knowles has finally given birth to her first child. Beyonce welcomed a healthy baby girl with her husband, Jay-Z, Saturday night at a private hospital in New York City. The baby was named Blue Ivy Carter. Some people thought and still do think that beyonce was lying and she wasnt having a baby. No one knows for sure, because when the baby was born in a private hospital, where no one else was allowed to enter. It was told that beyonce and jay-z brought the whole hospital for that day, it was said that they paid 1.3 million. Why would someone pay all that money if they weren't really having a baby? That just doesn't make sense! There has been some confusion with name of the baby, some s ay Ivy Blue Carter and Some say Blue Ivy Carter. My opinion who really cares i wish people just worry about they self . Instead of thinking about if Beyonce had a baby or not.

Abortion

 Abortion shouldn't such a big deal if the female and or family is not physically or mentally ready for a baby.  Some people are getting preganant young, (in their teens). Most likely if you get preganant young your parents wont  them to keep the baby because they are children themselves.  Some teens may disagree with their parents, so they may end up thrown out their parents house. If so where will the preganant clueless teen do then, what type of childhood do you think that will be for both the teen and the new baby. The baby could end up living in a shelter or worst living on the street. Most teens boys wont be ready which mean they most likely would leave the teen mom alone with a new born baby to take care of. Most of the time teens dont have a job, therefore in the time that the baby is still new born the cant attend in a job. So in that time how will there be able to care for the baby?