Fall looks like winter this weekend

While we should be out apple picking, running through a corn maze somewhere, celebrating the fall and Halloween season. Not this weekend, the rain is coming down and the snow is not far behind. Snow in October? Something does not seem right with this picture, October was not meant to be snowy! This Noreastern snow storm is really hitting New England hard this Halloween weekend, some areas getting up to 10 inches of snow. All we can really hope for is that Halloween is nice for the little trick or treaters! Bundle up and get ready for a big snow storm! Happy Halloween!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/29/northeast-weather-fall-_n_1065021.html?1319915700&icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl1%7Csec1_lnk2%7C108507

Remember when MTV played music?

MTV used to be the channel to watch when you wanted to listen to the latest hits or discover new music. Some of the worlds greatest artists have gained popularity through MTV. Eveyone can remeber those saturday mornings when you sat on your couch and watched music videos for hours on end. Or early in the morning while waiting for your ride to school. Now, when someone thinks about MTV they automaticly think of the rediculous shows they  have now, Jersey Shore, Awkward, My Life as Liz, etc. Unless you wake up at four in the morning, its not likely that you will find some music videos. So many people are wondering what happened to MTV? where did all the music videos go? MTV viewing have increased every since they started showing TV shows, some have become pretty popular nation wide, but that doesnt make up for the lack of music.

Personally, i love some of the TV shows on MTV, but i do miss the good old days of music videos. I wish there was some sort of happy medium where there could be both.

http://www.salon.com/2011/10/27/remember_when_mtv_played_music/

My IPhone foreclosure

Have you ever gotten that feeling that a part of you is missing? and it eats away at you and bothers you for as long as you are without this piece? I have. I get that feeling when i misplace my IPhone. Its the worst feeling in the world. I lose all communications, and happiness with the world outside my own brain. I am obsessed with my phone, and proud of it. The thought of my IPhone ever breaking due to water damage etc. is heart breaking to me and that is why this article caught my eye. This poor young woman lost his phone for a whole night, only to wake up and find it in the drive way with water damage. She writes about how upset she was and how she felt also though she couldn't function with out her phone.

She puts a twist on the article by basically saying at the end of the article that she was lying, that this did happen to her but she really didnt care much. she was not devastated or extremely effected by the tragedy. She wrote this article to prove a point that yes, Phones are very useful and can become addicting but not all teenagers and young adults are obsessed with their phones, leading to the incapability of having a normal face to face conversation with a human being. Phone are necessary in this day and age, but that does not mean that we cant live and function without them. Ha to all the adults out there that thought other wise.
http://www.salon.com/topic/life_stories/

How music changes our brains

Listening to music on command has become second nature to those living in the twenty first century. You can listen to music just about anywhere thanks to Ipods, MP3s, and phones. This ability to listen to music constantly has raised the question in scientists heads, what is the sound of music doing to our brains? Although in some cases music results as being harmful to the brain, researchers have found that music can "help children with learning disabilities, elders feel more connected to the world, and even get people into better shape."(Rogers) Sound can also be very damaging. A recent study states that "sound is the second greatest pollutant in the world today." The volume of the music is the main reason sound can be so damaging, it is proven that sound can reduce the amount of healthy years you live. 45,000 "healthy" years world wide are taken away by sound per yeah. Now that's crazy. 

Every since i got my first Walkman I've been hearing my dad lecturing me about how loud my music is and that by the time I'm twenty ill be deaf. I do admit to the fact that i listen to my music pretty loud, mostly because when i listen to music that's the only thing i wanna hear. I believe that most teenagers listen to their music extremely loud just because its the thing to do, that's how we have always listened to our music. In our games, during a warm-up before games, loud is the best way to listen to music. i do believe that music and how loudly its played effects our brain, but i do not believe its going to cause us to become deaf, that seems a little extreme. 

Why Teens Should Read Adult Fiction

We live in a world where parents believe they are capable of shielding their children from the reality of life until the day they die. These days parents are keeping their children from reading adult fiction novels, essays, articles etc, for one reason. They are inappropriate for their age. Now not many believe this false accusation. Adult fiction books do expose teens to new things, good or bad, but it is simply a part of growing up. In the norms eyes, teens reading adult fiction books is perfectly normal, and affective with their learning and development. Parents keeping their teens from challenging themselves in literature by reading these books are just simply holding them back.

I enjoyed reading this article because i agree with it very much so. I hate when parents hold their teens back from something that can truly benefit them, its absurd to me. Reading these books are for their own good, for the bettering of their intelligence and pushing them to develop into young men and women. i encourage teens to read adult fiction often, they always seem to be great books and are a good challenge.

Is tanning really worth the risks?

Over the past couple years the obsession of being tan has increased dramatically. The thought that being pale is absolutely disgusting has filled women and even some men's brains, and has totally manipulated them. Appearance has always seemed to be a problem, usually hair and make up, which in the long run wont necessarily affect your health. Tanning on the other hand, artificially or even laying in the real sun can be extremely damaging to your health, not to mention you'll get major wrinkles. Melanoma is the leading skin cancer found in people today, after tanning daily for a long period of time your chance of getting skin cancer is extremely high.

Girls all over the world are trying to make a point that being tan isn't worth the risk of getting skin cancer. Although it can be almost harmful, there are cases of skin cancer that can kill you or injury you permanently. This article tells a story of a girl who realized that she had skin cancer when she was only thirteen years old. In a small period of time is affected her life in a huge way, and made her feel like and outcast. With friends and family by her side she was able to embrace the fact that she had skin cancer, and it was just a part in her life that she would have to learn to live with. Reading this girls story, i realized how skin cancer doesn't only affect your health but your life as well. Tanning in the end really is not worth the price, at all costs stay away from it.

http://www.salon.com/2011/10/16/cancer_survivor_open2011/

Can multitasking hurt your health?

In this day and age, we are expected to do more and more in a shorter period of time. Lets face it, we all wish there were more hours in the day. One way we try to cram everything we need to do, in our limited 24 hours is multitasking. Now researchers and scientists are not able to prove that multitasking can have an effect on your health, but they do know that if your multitasking then what you are working on is not going to come out to your full potential compared to if you were just working on one thing at a time. Scientists have also discovered that people with ADHD multitask, simply because its a hobby, something they like to do. They can only do one thing for so long before they get bored of it and need to switch activities. Multitasking can be an extremely dangerous thing, multitasking that involves driving a car, and maybe a cell phone, leads to an extreme amount of car accidents every year.

I enjoyed reading this article on multitasking and ADHD because it was eye opening, but i did not like that fact that the title made it seem life multitasking really did have an effect on your health, but then in the first or second paragraph you learn that it has no effect. That was the only factor of this reading i did not enjoy, I believe the author did a great job luring people in with the articles title, and then through out the reading.

It's October, so where are all the horror movies?

October has been known for it's horror films for years now. But not this year, so people are asking where did all the horror films go? For this fall season there is only one movie in theaters now and three more arriving soon. Some are saying that the horror month of august stole October's thunder this year, with six horror releases in just one month. Now ever since "Saw" fell of the radar "Paranomal Activity" has taken over. For so many years "Saw" has been top dog, no movie could stand a chance against them. Movie critics are starting to believe that this is a reason no one is coming out with films, they do not want to waste their money competing for the top stop they will never reach. Make sure to check the box office for this "fright-tober's" newest movies.


I enjoyed this article very much because I am a huge horror movie fan. There is nothing better than a month full of frightful movies. I'm extremely disappointed to learn about the lack of Halloween spirit this season. Hopefully next year they movie companies get into the competitive spirit and come up with better and scarier films. I love the way the author wrote this article. He knew exactly who would be reading this and was able to relate to them and grab their attention easily. Happy October everyone!






http://m.aol.com/moviefone/default/article.do?articleUrl=http://blog.moviefone.com/2011/10/03/october-horror-movies/&mainLink=news

Finishing School Journal Entry

When I was younger I spent my summers in Maine with my Mother's sisters and all of my cousins. One of my aunts was a nut when it came to table manners and being proper at the dinner table. When my cousin Kelsey and me didn't reach her standard of etiquette, she sent us to school. And not just any school, but a school where you learn how to act proper, know what fork to use for what meal, and how to sit when sitting at a dinner table. It was awful, every Wednesday morning we would wake up, put on our pretty dresses and make our way down the old dirt road to the center of town, where we would sit with straight spines for hours on end. By the end of the summer my cousin and I were correcting our aunt on her manners, we found great fun in this. 


Even though at the age of ten i found this a huge waste of my summer, today I am able to look back on it and correct myself. I'm a pro when it comes to setting tables, sitting up straight, and eating properly. It taught me what life was going to be like when i was older, and never resorted to my poor table manners again. This experience did prepare me for adulthood which I am grateful for today.  

Why should marriage last forever?

Until death do us part, or until the contract is up? Mexico City has been developing the thought of marriage licences with a time limit on them. Living in this world today where the divorce rate is 50%, this new law of marriage contracts would certainly help a lot of people in unhappy marriages out, but then where does the true meaning of matrimony go? Assemblyman Leonel Luna is all for these new marriage laws, he believes that it will take the stress and depression out of divorce. But what happens when your wife or husband decides that they do not want to renew the marriage licence? That is basically divorce, and that would cause the same amount of pain and suffering as divorce would. I one hundred percent agree with the Catholic Churches view on these new ideas, "This reform is absurd. It contradicts the nature of marriage. It is another one of these electoral theatrics the assembly tends to do that are irresponsible and immoral." Marriage is an everlasting contract of love between two people and love and that is how it should always remain.


I enjoy the way Mary Williams writes this article, especially because she gives both sides of the story and reasons why and why not the new marriage laws would or wouldn't work. She includes some really interesting quotes from the Catholic Church and Assemblyman Leonel Luna which made the article very interesting and seems as though the two sides of the story were fighting on paper. She also wrote as though she was mocking the creators of this idea of time limited marriage contracts. At some times she was extremely sarcastic, you can tell by the way she writes that she is not in favor of the new laws but of everlasting marriage. "It doesn't always last until one person gets the privilege of burying the other one." The assemblyman Leonel Luna clearly has something against marriage is Williams is able to say that they believe its a privilege to bury the one you are married to. After reading this article, I am shocked by the thought of these new marriage contract and think that they are absurd. There should never be a time limit set on love.

http://life.salon.com/2011/09/30/why_marry_forever/

Facing down my eighth-grade tormentor..





Has someone ever made your life a living hell? Has something ever bothered you so much that you never let go of it, even thirty years later? There is two sides to every story, and that is what Steve Almond went searching for, the second half. In middle school Almond was bullied like many kids are today. Some children are able to shake it off and move on with their lives, through high school and college. Other kids are strongly affected by early stage bullying and it sticks with them for the rest of their lives. Now, there are different reasons why a bullying situation would stick with someone through out their lives, one is because the actually bulling was so painful, physically or life threatening. Almonds reason why it stuck with him for so long, is because he wanted to know why his tormentor Sean was so mean to him in their eighth grade metal shop. 


There was no better way for Almond to find out why, then to finally grab control of this relationship, and call Sean, thirty years later. This conversation they have over the phone is the interview provided in this article. Sean barely remembers Almond, and of what he does remember about Almond, was not how he bullied him in eighth grade but how he envied him. Almond grew up with two loving parents, Sean's parents separated when he was young. Sean thrived for that parently love that Almond always had, that was his reason for lashing out and wanting to make other people as sad as he was. Today and surely in the past, people always favor and try to help the victim in a bullying situation. People very rarely look into the bully's life, what he is currently going through, and maybe what influenced him to do that things that he did to other people. Bullys are stereotyped as the football captain or cheerleaders, but a bully can be anyone if they have a motive. Bullys also are said to be bullys just because they are mean and heartless, but most bullys have family problems at home, or have faced serious trauma at some point in their lives. Bullys target people that will make them feel better about themselves because they commonly have low self esteem. Bullys have a side to the story as well as the victim, sometimes it is just important that you hear both before judging.


I love the way Almond tells his story. Reading the story of his life in eighth grade and then reading the interview with Sean was very interesting. I really enjoyed reading the interview, and the fact he left nothing out and was completely truthful made it that much better. Almonds story was a good one, i liked the honestly of Sean and how he basically admitted to Almond that he doesn't exactly remember bullying him but that he wouldn't doubt it because he envied him. THE BULLY ENVIED THE VICTIM. Almond proved that not every bullying situation is what you think and that every one has two sides to the story. It was brave of Almond to use his life story to prove this and to show that interview is an effective way to find peace with yourself and a past tormentor. I truly enjoyed Almonds writing styles i thought it added a lot of character to his story.