I've Missed You!

I apologize for being away! Final exams descended upon me in June, and now I'm free (kind of). I still have a summer assignment to do, and I'm taking Health as a summer class instead of the mandatory elective next year. So I go to summer school every weekday. The good news is that I've met some really nice people from this!

The weather's been mostly thunder-ish for the past few days, unfortunately. I do love lightning, but the dark clouds that are always looming make me miss the sun!

Let's see, what's happened in the last month or so:

• I've received an A in all classes and on my finals!
• I'm reading some awesome books, including Persepolis, which is really good.
• I've been chillin and not doing to much, but I will be working on an "alternative paper" with a friend. I'll give the website link as soon as I have it! Also, I'm going to be in a concert, commissioning a new musical piece! That's pretty exciting, too.

Ooh. It looks like a storm's coming right now, as I type! Excitement.

I've also been into some photography lately. Here's some photos, and a link to more here.






















Here's a really serious article about a teen who was "bullied to death". It's so awful that things like this even happen. I wish that adults who saw this happening would do more about it.

This is an amazing story of Daivd Ashby, someone my age, who's walking along the east coast from Orlando, Florida to Washington, D.C. all by foot! He's trying to raise awareness and money for homelessness, and I think it's a wonderful cause! Check it out!

I contribute to mylife24-7.org often as well. I'm a student ambassador for them, and I really love their message. Go to the site and take a look around!

Recently, I joined a few college/scholarship search sites that I really love: zinch.com, fastweb.com, and cappex.com. All three have helped me find really good scholarships and contests, along with schools that I may be interested in. Some are really fun to use, and not that different from social networking sites!

See you soon!

-Brianna

So:

Lots of news here! In the time since my last update, I've discovered so many cool news articles. I'll share that and some news from my life with you.

First of all, hearing Ishmael Beah speak was wonderful! We got to take a picture with him and I even got his autograph! Now I'm actually reading his book, and it's so suspenseful! It's amazing to think that he survived those events and manages to talk about them frequently. It takes a truly strong person to admit that he/she's killed someone, seen people die, and suffered.

Secondly... I discovered this wonderful website: OperationNICE.com, which highlights all of the positive things in life. It made me smile. It's a great resource for anyone who needs cheering up. :)

Also: things have been hectic, and they'll stay like that until after finals. Once I get past those, I'll be free (well, except for that summer assignment in AP World)! In the meantime, I've taken a bassoon reedmaking lesson, uh... not too much else. Awards night is tomorrow!

Now, on to the articles!

1) This article appeared in the New York Times last Thursday. It talks about teens and hugging. I'm not really sure where to stand on this, but I'll write a later post on teens and hugging, from the perspective of a teen.

2) WireTap Magazine has a very progressive, youthful take on national/international news and opinion. I really enjoy reading about young people's takes on the world!

3) Here's an article from WireTap Mag about the future of high school journalism. I'm slightly worried about this, considering that I want to take this course next year, and I'd like to go into journalism!

4) Here's two Newsweek spotlight articles on our society's focus on beauty. It's really interesting. I cannot believe how much the average diva spends on beauty... Click here and here to see the articles.

5) Here's an article criticizing Sesame Street. I couldn't believe how low it was ranked among children's shows! I grew up with it! I really enjoyed that show, although there is much controversy over the usefullness of kids' TV shows now... Let's take a look at some good old Sesame Street memories:

Cookie Monster? Healthy Food? What's Next?!?!


I would always dance around to this one... Do De Rubba Duck!


So catchy! I loved this song...


These animations were so cool!


Now that I've shared my articles, here's one more website. I recently discovered Jango.com, which is a great resource for music and internet radio. It allows you to get the songs that you like onto a single station, and it lets you skip past the songs that you don't want. :) It's really fun! I'm listening to it now!

On another note, I've been meaning to comment on Susan Boyle for awhile. In a later post!

-TTYL!

Drugs???

While viewing the Voices page, I noticed an article on drugs in high schools. Consider these facts from the government:

Marijuana use across the three grades surveyed has shown a consistent decline since the mid-1990s, but appears it to have leveled off. Past-year use was reported by 10.9 percent of 8th-graders, 23.9 percent of 10th-graders, and 32.4 percent of 12th-graders.

In 2008, 15.4 percent of 12th-graders reported using a prescription drug nonmedically within the past year. This category includes amphetamines, sedatives/barbiturates, tranquilizers, and opiates other than heroin. Vicodin continues to be abused at unacceptably high levels. Many of the drugs used by 12th-graders are prescription drugs or, in the case of cough medicine, are available over the counter.

Attitudes toward substance abuse, often seen as harbingers of change in rates of use, were mostly stable. However, among 12th-graders, perceived risk of harm associated with LSD continues to decrease. Additionally, perceived harmfulness and disapproval of marijuana and inhalant use softened among 8th-graders this year.

I wonder if illicit drug use/sales/abuse in high schools are really as bad as they seem from this? One of the local schools is dealing with a drug problem that the police are involved in at this point. At our school, it doesn't seem to be as bad as the facts make it out to be. But what about other schools?

This video is absolutely amazing - made by a 14 year old!

Wow, has it really been almost a month?

I apologize for such a wait in writing another blog post! Things have been fairly packed...

There's a cold going around our school. Surprisingly, I haven't gotten sick - yet. *Knock on wood*. Check out this article on it.

More thoughts...

Here's some great essays about teenage inauguration attendees - definitely worth reading!

Midterms are over! I did fairly well on all. They were not as bad as I expected, although I still don't understand the necessity of them only in certain classes.

I'm working on making the blog more interesting without clogging it up, so thoughts would be great. I've added a music player, so comment about that... It was surprisingly easier than I'd planned for.

I'm dreading actually having to go to classes tomorrow - even though there were exams, I enjoyed having half days today and yesterday! I definitely enjoy school, but of course with high school comes the typical social awkwardness(although I still feel like I have some good friends), and the high stakes for grades - that's pressure, haha. I do cause some of it, considering the fact that I'm the freshman that's concerned with college.

Also, I finished a very peculiar book review from the New York Times: it chronicled a woman's experience in a mental hospital. The catch was, she feigned being mentally ill to experience firsthand patient conditions, so that she could write about them. Being in these facilities, she relapsed into depression, and truly needed treatment. A similar idea was done by Nellie Bly, the famous journalist, during the Industrial Revolution. Here are the two links:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/27/health/27book.html?ref=health
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/bly/madhouse/madhouse.html

Another hot topic: teens and sex. It's being discussed on nytimes.com, which says that despite rumors of teens being wildly promiscuous, the percentage of sexually active teens has gone down. It appears that teens today are more careful about sex, but that ideals behind relationships have changed. There are "hook-ups" more often, where teens are physically intimate without having a long-term relationship. This is where "friends with benefits" falls. Those that are unwilling to commit but are interested in a physical relationship become "friends with benefits" or "hook-up". So, what do I, a real live teen, have to say about all this? Well...

It's clear that sex is on teens' minds; anyone could see that. At my school, teens have been "going out" and having relationships since 5th grade. The "popular" teens constantly switch boyfriends and girlfriends, and by this point, certain students have gone out with almost all of their friends of the opposite sex. What I don't understand is, how does one "go out" without having a car? Your parents have to give you rides, so it's technically not "going out". But that's not the point. As I was saying, teens do think constantly about sex and relationships, and some adults have caught on to this. They attempt to talk to us about this, which is extremely awkward, and they do excercises about this type of thing. My classmates and I were "polled" by our guidance counselors, to discover that we perceived the senior class as wild, party-loving, substance-abusing, non-virgins. In actuality, I know many upperclassmen that I know are not sexually active. Yes, there is a percentage of students in each grade, but for the most part, teens may talk, but do they actually do it? My guess is no.

Well, that's all for now. Ta ta!

Inauguration Day

So, yes. Today was the long-awaited day when President Elect Barack Obama took the oath of office and was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States. It was a momentous occasion for many, seeing as how Obama comes into office during such tumultuous times. I had two friends at the inauguration. I remained in Central New York, enjoying the festivities from home. Before I describe my experiences, I'd like to discuss a few things...

Firstly, I am bothered by the fact that people feel the need to identify Obama as the "First Black/African-American President". Yes, based on skin color, this is something that is new to America, but is his race truly the important thing? I'd rather refer to him as the President that brought change and hope, who happened to be PARTLY AFRICAN AND PARTLY CAUCASIAN. Yes, that's right. He's not all African American! He's biracial, just like me. So therefore, he's not our first black president... That's not a bad thing, just saying. Besides, AMERICA STILL LOVES YOU! :)

Also, did anyone else notice that the invocation prayer leader happened to be an openly anti-gay Californian pastor? Offensive???

What did you think of Obama's speech? I thought that it wasn't his best, but it wasn't his worst. He is an extremely powerful speaker, and his speeches are extremely well-written. I was very impressed with his composure and eloquence, even if he does use teleprompters...haha.

We watched this in school, in an assembly in the auditorium. I expected kids to be rude and chaotic, but actually, I was pleasantly surprised. I was overjoyed to see the entire school stand and become quiet as Barack Obama was sworn in as our 44th President. It almost brought me to tears to see so many unique individuals unite for those few moments, all because of one man.

Thanks to today, I truly have hope and faith in the future. For Obama - time to get started on those campaign promises!

See ya!
Brianna