Day 17: Grateful

Today in class we had a pop quiz. To many, including me, it was a surprise. But at the end, it wasn't too bad because it was only 6 questions, 5  of them which I got wrong. But then while we were reviewing our answers, I started to think about how fortunate I was to be able to take a pop quiz. I mean, in developing countries, many don't get to learn how to read, or even write. A lot of people would do anything to get an education. But meanwhile, here at John Carroll, there are people who are just failing classes, wasting the opportunity they have to get an education, to have a successful future. I am not here to judge anyone, it just seemed interesting to me how different could life be in the opposite side of the world. But right now, I am grateful for everything I have.

I am even grateful for that pop quiz...

Day 16: Sleep

Today in class we further discussed about the video that we saw yesterday, you know, the one with the stupid CEO refusing to talk with people who want to make the world better place. I would have liked to give some of my thoughts and add them to the soup of the discussion, but I almost passed out. I literally had this hardcore drowsiness that made me feel like I was high and I had no idea what was up xdxdxdddd. I tried to listen to the conversation, to gain knowledge from multiple points of view, but everything was just spinning, and my eyelashes were heavier than Nike's annual profit. Ok but for real at the end of the class my teacher complimented my drowsiness in the classroom. At that moment I felt kind of bad because I didn't want the teacher to think that his class was boring. I actually really like human geography, but I need to raise my hand to get the full kick out of it. You know what, I will make it my goal to raise my hand next class (even though I said that 10 blogs ago). No only that, but I will also avoid not getting enough sleep, because sleep is good. Change is good.

It is never too late to change...

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Day 15: Are you kidding me Nike ?

Are you serious? This guy went to India and lived in in the terrible wage that the Nike payed its workers for a month. This guys went through all this trouble to save thousands of people, but the CEO of Nike doesn't want to talk because he is having lunch with a friend. This just amazes me because it shows how greedy can people veg for money. While we are in america, enjoying Nike's products, people in India are living miserable lives. It really does upset me. But i am proud of that guy because I know that he will make a difference, and will actually change the life of many. Can you imaging changing the life of thousands of people? Maybe that's the feeling I will seek in the future. I mean, having an impact on so many lives has to be great, specially because you are helping the world become a better place.

But seriously Nike, please be more humane...

Day 14: Two Sides

Today in class we continued to discuss globalization, but one particular part of the conversation really got my attention. At one point, we started talking about who would we vote for to be the next president of the United States. Some said Donald Trump, a business man with a sense of humor. People where saying that he would be a good president because he hasn't really been involved in politics, and he "understands" the average citizen. I found these facts to go into Trump's favor, but then my teacher started commenting on trump's negative side. He wants to build a giant wall to block off migrants, even though the statue of liberty in New York is supposed to welcome immigrants from all over the world to America. Donald Trump is missing the whole point of the statue of liberty! All in all, this conversation made realize learn something important;

Everything is like a square; because it has two sides to it...

Day 13: Ding!

Today I got my graded test back from human geography. I got an 84%, which certainly works for me. But now, I want to improve and get a higher grade, perhaps a 90% or higher. This is because if you do get a 90% or higher on your test, our teacher rings a bell when he gives us our test. The bell makes a "ding" noise, which I can now remember and hear it in my mind. Now, I want to hear a ding when I get my test back. But why? What drives me to want this to happen? Well, if you don't get a ding, it tells the class that you either got a B, a C, a D or even an F. Even though I got a B, I am still in the same category of the "no ding", which also includes an F. This feeling somewhat makes me fell, unsatisfied. Next time, I will work harder to get an A.

And I will be proud, when I get that "Ding"...

Day 12: Globalization

Today in class we discussed about Globalization, which is; "The process of interaction and integration among the people, companies, and government of different nations, a process driven by international trade and investment and aided by information technology." (dictionary.com).

This term has been popularized as "Americanization" because America has expanded tons of their businesses across Oceans to distant lands. Food chains like MC. Donald's are a common cite in a handful of countries, despite the fact that it was originally founded in America.These food chains can adapt their menus depending in which country they are located in, but they also can have some negative impacts, such as affecting local culture and businesses. But they also provide benefits on both sides. A business that spreads over the world can significantly increase the owner's profit, and provide the people in that region with multiple jobs, decreasing the number of poor people in a country. This statement can be questioned though, because in other countries, these businesses can pay below minimum wage to increase their profit.

Anyway, the business world is full of wonders....

Day 11: Did you know?

Today in class we saw a video with a bunch of "did you know facts". Most of the facts, if not all of them, were really interesting. Now I have to answer 3 questions about my feelings towards the video, here they are:

What was your initial reaction to what you saw?
My initial reaction to most of these facts was "wow" because I really didn't think about those topics before I saw the video. So it was interesting to being reminded of ideas that have been hiding in the back of my brain.

How are these changes manifesting themselves in your personal life?
The rapidly increase of numbers in these facts are quite amazing. I can't believe that there is as 4 times more people in India than in the US, and India has a smaller land to live in I will definitely keep these thoughts in my mind for a while, and it will help me be more grateful for my life.

How much of a role does technology play in your life?
I really don't know where to start on this one. I believe that technology has a really big place in my life. I don't know what I would be doing in life without my desktop and laptop. I am actually now really grateful that I have access to technology, and I am glad that it can take a role in my life. I might be a little dependent of my electronics but that is not really a problem these days.

Now here is my question to you: Did you know that I was about to fall asleep without doing my blog, so I sneaked into my laptop, wrote this assignment under my bed and put a decoy pillow to take my place while I did wrote this?

Yep, I bet you didn't know that one...

Day 10: Tests and Quizzes

These things can either be your best friend, or they can become your worst nightmare. Tests and Quizzes show what you have learned in class so far. But today in Human Geography, we took a pretty casual quiz. The reason I call it "casual" is because all the events that usually happen to me during testing happened.

First of all, I did review the power point in order to study for the quiz, like I usually do. But there is always this sense that tells me that I did not study hard enough. This probably happens because there is always that one question that you remember reading about, but for some reason you can't remember the answer. And then there are questions like "how many people attended to Socrates's trial?". These questions just make me ask myself, "did I seriously miss this while I was studying ?".  On this one I  took a wild guess, and wrote 300. After the test I checked back and it said "500", which made me want to flip the table, but you know, I think that is part of the fun of tests. Sure, you are going to get a 100% some quizzes, but the fun of it is to see what you did wrong, and learn from it for your next quiz/test. Then, you will have the satisfaction of getting a 95% or higher on a mayor test, because you learned from your mistakes.

After all, learning from your mistakes is a big part of life...

Day 9: Obligations

Most of us have obligations in life. I, for instance, have the responsibility to attend school, while my dad has to go to work. I gladly accept my obligation to go to school because I know it will serve me in the future. But what I really don't like are the obligations that we talked about today in Human Geography.

If you are a man, and you are in the age between 18 - 24, you can be drafted into the military in case of an emergency. I really dislike this, I understand the country might need help, but what about my dreams? What about if i don't want to be the one risking his life? I know, I sound selfish, but I never really dreamed of being a soldier.

But you know, one obligation that I did appreciate is that when you are 18, you are allowed to vote. This is not really an "obligation" but I consider it to be because it is our duty to make sure that we vote for people who we trust. But unfortunately, a lot of young people do not vote, because they are simply not interested. After all, like my teacher said, young people prefer to watch Netflix instead.

In the end, some obligations are up to us to judge...

Day 8: An Open Mind

Today in class we went over certain topics about Ancient Greece. It was all mostly review, but the topic that interested me the most was Socrates. Now, Socrates was a philosopher, who taught young people how to think, and to have a mind of their own.

To me, this sounds great, but to the Athenians, it wasn't really good news. Instead of complimenting Socrates for his efforts, they perceived what he was doing as "corrupting the minds of young people". They were hostile to Socrates because his ideas where different from most Athenians, and in society, different can be seen as bad. 

So, they sentenced Socrates to a painful death with poison. I really don't get it. How can you do that to a man who was trying to help society? His intentions were good. If the Athenians appreciated different ideas, maybe Socrates could have gone a little further with his purpose.

Atleast Socrates taught some people how to think, with an open mind... 

Day 7: Ancient Greece

Back in Ancient Greece, there were certain terms that had strong importance. Here are some of the terms from back them:

Agora: The central spot in Ancient-Greek cities.
Polis:  A small community.

In ancient Greece there was also a man called Socrates. An important, Greek, philosopher. He died by execution. He is famous for the "Socrates method", in which he questions his students for a long period of time, searching for the truth.

Additionally, in ancient Greece, an idiot was someone who was not interested in politics, but was not necessarily stupid.

Finally in 508 BC, there were reforms in the democracy.

Another thought on ancient greece is that they had a different way on living their lives, making us realize how far have humans come to modernize and bring forth their society. Maybe in 100 years, people will make research about our lives today.

After all, time does go by fast...



Cites Used:
http://study.com/academy/lesson/greek-polis-definition-facts-quiz.html
http://www.greece-athens.com/page.php?page_id=574
http://www.biography.com/people/socrates-9488126
http://entertainment.omgfacts.com/nerd/7538/The-word-Idiot-has-a-completely-different-origin-than-what-you-might-think-ab630-2

Day 6: Viral

You and I have witnessed the amount of videos that go viral through the years. Nowadays, even the stupidest thing you can come up with can get you 10 million views on you tube. But, how did something get popular back in the day? Well, luckily , that is what we discussed today in class.

A message to Garcia was a short essay that was published in 1899. The story took place in the Spanish-American war. The inspirational story became so huge that it sold over 40 million copies, and was translated into 37 different languages. It became so popular that almost everyone knew about it. They were using the story all around america to withdraw workers from slouching. It certainly had a positive impact in america.

Some new words that I learned today included:
Imbecility: Incapable, Stupidity.
Stenographer: A person who takes note of a dictation in short hand.
Missive: A letter, specially a long or official one.

This literary work is actually really impressive, and we might see work like this in the future, specially with today's technology.But honestly, I think most people will just stick to six second cat videos...

Day 5: Five things

Today, my teacher was talking to us about how high school is the hardest part of our educational career. So he let us write our blogs today in his class, and we have to write 5 things that I could do to not make high school so bad. So, its day 5, I have written 5 blogs so far(including this one), and now I have to write 5 things. High-5? No? OK, sorry about that. Anyway, here are 5 things that I could maybe do to make high school better;

1. Do not procrastinate:
Now, when I was in 3rd grade, I never did my homework, which got me into vast amounts of trouble. So over the years, I stopped being really lazy and started to acquire quite a good work ethic. Now, in middle school, I liked to leave some homework for the last minute every now and then, which really stressed me out. So if I just stay consistent with doing my assignments in a reasonable time, and get a good grade on them I feel I will have a good school year without much stress.

2. Join the Film Club:
I haven't really seen any recent movies because I haven't gone to the theater in the longest time. But I really like to analyze pieces of art, such as videos and movies. I find it really interesting and I think I could meet new friends, and get into those, interesting conversations. I think it would make high school much better; I will give it a shot.

3. Balance
As long as I keep a good balance in between doing work and having time to relax, I think it will greatly affect my high school experience in a positive way, because I wont have a negative/gloomy mood most of the time.

4. Getting Along
As long as I can along and be friendly to my fellow classmates and teachers, high school should be enjoyable, because you will always have someone to express your passion for a subject, or a hatred for a class.

5. Doing something unique
I want to do something original, that almost no other person does. Something that I can impress people with. I have yet to find this, but I wish to find it someday. You may call this step filler, but it is actually really important, because it will show you part of your true identity, part of who you are.

Man, there goes 5 future titles for blogs.
Whatever, high school awaits...

Day 4: Raising our Hands

While the topic itself sounds simple, raising a hand to participate in class has a lot more depth that it appears like. Today in human geography, our teacher was mesmerized at the fact that most of us didn't say a thing, or raise our hand even once. But, in my point of view, raising your hand floats above the idea of a high risk and reward system. You see, when you raise your hand, three things can happen:

1. When you get called on, you will give out a smooth, perfect answer that will shock the teacher on how delicious that answer was. Following this, the teacher will exclaim "Very good!" and continue on with the lesson. Afterwards, you will be in your seat, feeling amazing about yourself, while showing off to your classmates how smart you are.

2.You will get called on, you are confused and ask what the question was again. After that, you still don't know the answer, so you either say you have no clue, or you murmur what is barely qualified as an answer. The teacher will then proceed to give you the "what is wrong with you kid" look and then won't take the class's pressure off of you until you get it right. This will make you look like quite a idiot, and you will cringe to the memory of that moment for days, months, or even years.

So yeah, this is how the experience of raising your hand can go (from my point of view). Of course, there can be all sorts of variations depending on the different situations, but you get my point. But you know, I think raising your hand is like real life, there are always ups and downs. Despite this, we always learn from our success and from our mistakes, so after all, maybe raising my hand a little more often might be worth it. We have so much to say, but the dread of what others might think of our answers just keeps us down, but we should stop thinking that. Indeed.

Oh, I almost forgot about the third thing that could happen, you can use your real life hax and ask if you can go to the bathroom instead of answering the question, and you will put your cool guy fedora + glasses and walk off to the bathroom, avoiding a bad situation like a true high school master...

Day 3: Motivation

Today, I read a letter called, "A message to Garcia". Our teacher told us that it was written over 100 years ago, so I thought it was going to be lame and boring. I was wrong, it turned out to be really interesting to me. Even though it was written 100 years ago, I can still relate the general idea to today's modern society.

Before I go into detail, here are some words that I didn't know the meaning off:

Perihelion: The point in orbit of a planet nearest to the sun.

Slipshod: Careless, untidy.

Slumming: Poor part of a city.

Conveniently, Slipshod and Slumming are words that closely relate to the idea of "A message to Garcia". Here is why:

As how I perceived it; the general idea of "A message to Garcia" is that a lot of people in our modern society are lazy about their jobs and normally perform bellow the expected because of mediocrity, or Slipshod. The author of the letter, was looking for someone to send a message to Garcia, but the task was so important, he couldn't just have a regular person send the letter, because that person probably would not take the job tat seriously. They would need something like "extra pay" in order to motivate them to do their best at the task. But, in my view, I believe that motivation should not always come from other things, but often times it should come from yourself. This is because not always in life you are going to get rewarded by others for the positive things you do, but this should not stop you from doing those good things.

That is why you should motivate yourself, give it your best effort...



Definitions found in dictionary.com

Day 2: How do I Blog?

What did we do in class today? Well, I went to the bathroom, I guess that's cool. I mean, our teacher
was just helping everyone with their blogs, and that was pretty much it. It might sound like a waste of time, but it is actually not because we made sure that everyone could post on their blog. Since we are going to be posting on it for the next 150+ days, we might as well dedicate a class to making sure they work. Anyway, after that class, the rest of the day went pretty smooth, despite that I didn't have a free block/unscheduled period today. Not much homework, I wasn't as tired as yesterday and I think I feel fairly positive. I think being positive will get you really far in life, because it helps you jump or solve any obstacle that comes your way, and allows you to have a happier life. Well, I hope I can stay positive through this school year, or even better, I can stay positive through my 4-years of high school.

And maybe if I try hard enough, I can stay positive through the rest of my life...