final presentation.. oh lord.

Alright, so. I did my presentation. I had not really gone over it completely at home because I know how the class likes to talk so I did not know how long that would take and how long it would take to explain things soooo, I ended up being short of time. I had SO MUCH MORE TO TALK ABOUT! In my booklet thing I handed in, I actually wrote two pages of things I could have talked about but I did not include. I love how the class talks, its quite entertaining, but when you're trying to do a presentation.. it gets irritating. I really wish I could have gotten everything out I wanted to say. It would have made me feel so much better about it. I thought it went okay though. The class seemed pretty interested in it, for the most part. I learned not to show the class videos of cars crashing. They don't shut up lol. But I did learn a few things doing this project like some of the history of the sport and the flags. Who knew a crazy obsessive person like me doesn't know EVERYTHING about the sport. Weird. I think that the class did learn a bit about it. It was cool for the kids who didn't even know what NASCAR was because now they have an idea of how it goes down, which made me feel pretty good. :) I think it was about an 80. I always hate being asked to grade myself because I really have no idea how I did or how bad I did. I always feel like I do really good and then get the mark sheet back and I end up getting like a 68. I could be way off for all I know. But I honestly have no idea what the mark should be. It didn't really relate to school in any way but it is something that I am EXTREMELY passionate about. I love to tell people about it. Like I honestly do. I get extremely competitive when it comes to NASCAR. I have been known to yell at the TV, throw things, scream, cry. It's just horrible. I'm not a violent person but if something goes wrong that I don't like, you'll know. I don't really know how I got hooked on the sport but I guess it's just something that's up to the individual. I mean everyone likes things for their own reasons. ANYWAYS, back to the project. 40% of the final mark.. wow. I'm kind of scared to see how I did. I definitely don't think that this project is worth that much. 15% I would say.. but 40. I was stressing out about that number all week, actually the last few weeks. I'll admit I did leave things to the last minute but in my defense, I know a lot about it already so I did not entirely have to do much research. Mainly just look up the videos and the pictures for the most part. But overall, I was kind of happy because of the topic, but I wish I could have had 2 classes to do this because I was short and did have A LOT of information left to share.

Angels and Demons movie.

Okay am I the only one who seriously does not think that the movie was bad or anything? I FRIGGEN LOVED IT! Besides the legs, which was a huge disappointment, I thought it was amazing! I however didn't like some of the things that they changed, like the Illuminati branded on Vittoria's father's chest, WHO BY THE WAY IN THE MOVIE IS NOT HER FATHER?! WTF?!, that should have been in there, instead of the piece of paper saying Illuminati. I thought it was good, followed the book in some spots. I don't think the last pope should have lived. I think the ending should have been played out like it was written.

Pope 2.0

Ha this made me laugh when I read this. The Pope. The flippin Pope himself, has a facebook page. WOW. How interesting is that. Well actually it's Vatican City, but still. I think its BRILLIANT. What a way to reach out to the younger more high tech people these days. I mean I bet you a lot of younger people are going to check it out just to see what it is. I know that I actually went and looked it up. Let me tell you. It's pretty cool! I think that leaders around the world should follow the Pope and do the same thing. What a better way to reach out to younger people than to get them where they always are. The computer. If they started making pages on social networking sites like Facebook, more people would check it out.

The Da Vinci Code

To be completely honest with you, I loved the movie. I don't know why anyone wouldn't like it. But then again my taste would be argued against. But I honestly don't understand why so many people, and even critics didn't like it. Maybe it was just because they didn't understand how some one could write something like that. Maybe it was because people thought something like that could actually happen. Who knows.

Al Gore

Wow. What an intelligent man. To be completely honest, I didn't even understand everything that he was talking about. From what I heard, I'm kinda confused. But then again I agree with the parts that I actually understood lol. But anyways. This one is not going to be very long because I don't know what to say to what he said. Besides the world is going down the toilet, and unless we do something to save it, we can kiss our planet Earth as we know it goodbye.

if i could change one thing...

I would change the fact that most of the time what we learn has nothing to do with the class we're in or the fact that we will never have to use that bit of information again. Nothing makes me more mad than when the teacher even says to us we will never use the information again. It's like, why are you wasting my time with this if I won't ever use it again!? For example, this year in college level engligh we did a unit on criminals. WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH ENGLISH?!? Nothing. Thats right. Nothing. So if I could change anything it would be the content that they actually teach us. I would make sure it is related to the course completely.

small towns, and american teen

I think that statement is pretty much true. I mean in a small town, EVERYONE knows EVERYONE. Word gets around pretty fast too. So you always have that little thought in the back of your head saying "is anyone going to find out about this?". And the truth is, yea they probably will before you even get home. But at the schools, you have gone to school with these kids pretty much your whole life. You know what they are good at and what they're not. You're always striving to get a better mark on your test than Sally because she always get's A's. I admit that I have done that a few times where I want to get a better mark for bragging rights almost. So yea, I totally think that small towns cause pressure to succeed in school and in life.

American Teen

So. This documentary was pretty much your average high school life. It shows what it's like to be a teenager right now. I would say its pretty accurate. Except for the "princess". Oh man she just drove me up the wall. I mean how many people are actually as mean as she is? To TP some one's house and draw that on their windows, thats just over the top. I wanted to hit her with a very large book sometimes. I would hope that it was just the camera in front of her that made her act that way. But I don't really feel any sympathy for any of them. I mean, they're living their teenage years. That's what it's all about. There are heart breaks, bad dates, drama, pressure from parents, all that jazz. It's nothing new and it will never be new, never ever. It all goes along with being a teen and you can't help it no matter how hard you try to. I've gone through some of the stuff they have so I understand their pain but at the same time I think that hey, I got over it, so you will too.

la finito of ANGELS AND DEMONS.

First off, I would just like to say.. HOLY MOTHER OF PEARLS! I LOVE THE BOOK! Okay, now that that is out of the way, I would like to say some other things. Some parts, *cough* like the first 100 or so pages of the book, made me wanna shove a rather sharp knife in my eye balls. IT WAS HORRIBLE. I know you need to understand that part to get the rest, but seriously! It was sooooo dry and booooooooooooring. SNORE. Other than that, I absolutely LOVED the book. I'll admit that I did not want to read the book at all. I was like great, this is going to be a bore. But turns out I liked it a lot. I would recommend it to others to read, but I would warn them a head of time.

Something new that I learned... well I sure learned a lot about CERN and Vatican City. I am not religious at all so I found that part quite interesting to see what some people believe in. And CERN, man I didn't know they could do that with particles. That sounds pretty darn amazing if you ask me.

technology in classrooms?

Look around you. Technology is everywhere. Yes, including schools. Whether it is a cell phone to an iPod or a computer to a smart board, technology pops up everywhere you go. Text books are starting to become unheard of and computers are taking their places. Personally, I think it is a good idea to an extent. I know that I learn a lot better when I have some type of physical thing infront of me, NOT A TEXT BOOK! READING PUTS US TO SLEEP PEOPLE! But if some one popped in a movie or had a video playing through a projector, I would pay attention and actually be interested in what people are saying. Text books now are just excess baggage teens have to carry around. A lot of the time they just get lost or you never use them. How many classes now actually use a text book regularly? Not many I assume. And I'm probably right. I know that one of classes actually uses one a lot which would be sociology. The rest you hardly use them. Kids just go to spark notes to see what the book is about that they have to read. I mean if you did a survey of how many kids actually read the books they are given, you would be pretty shocked as to the amount of students who actually do not read them. The education system needs to at least make a mental note of this problem. Adapt it so that we don't have to read books. Make slide show presentations, smart board presentations, watch movies. Something that is actually up to date and in the 21st century because right now, it seems pretty old school to me which is very boring. Change things up. It won't be that hard to do, besides having to teach all the old teachers how to use the new technology. Students now can pretty much do anything with a computer. I admit we do spend too much time texting or on Facebook or Chloe's obsession, Twitter. Fights start because of things that happen on facebook or anything like that. It's ridiculous actually. I don't know why people get their lives so consumed in this drama and bologna. We need to find a way to keep that out of school life because it does ruin our day if some girls start drama about you because of something you posted on a friend of a friend's picture which she posted two months ago right after her 17th birthday party you went to only because you were friends with her at the time but now you hate each other because she wore the same thing as you did to school one day but you had it first and she thinks she had it first when actually its not the same shirt it just looks alot alike but hers is a slightly lighter purple than yours is and she got hers from a completely different store that you don't shop at just because she shops there. ( THE LONGEST SENTENCE IN THE HISTORY OF THE GIFTED CLASS) But as I was saying, oh gosh I dont even remember what I was saying. Ill finish with technology should be embraced, not run away from screaming.

Angels and Demons.. so far!

SO. This book. We're suppose to be pretty far into it, and currently I am not so far into it. Im at about page 2. And would you like to know why? Yes? Okay perfect! :) Well I was jumping on my bed in excitment with my sister and my book was laying on the corner of it. Apparently we were jumping around too much and it fell of my bed and I cannot find it at the moment. But when I do I'm going to sit down and read, read, read!

Once upon a time in Ingersoll...

Face it. Ingersoll is a little hick town and unless you can drive, you're stuck here bored out of your mind complaining that it sucks. I am guilty of this. But seeing as it is such a small town, everyone knows everyone. Most of the time, teenagers (some of them) just go out and drink and smoke because they have nothing else to do. When it comes to school, you have those students who strive for the best grades and then those other ones who roll out of bed and decide school sucks. But what are we suppose to do if we need help? Something like the Pirate Supply Store secretly a place for children to go who need homework help could possibly work here in good
'ol Ingersoll. You have the children in the younger grades who would probably want to go to a place like this because let's face it, it benefits them. But for the high school students, I can almost guarantee that most of them would not be caught dead in that place. I think its the fact that it is a small town and everyone knows everyone. So if someone went into this place to get some help, people would be like "OHMAGAWD SHE IS GETTING HOMEWORK HELP?!" and then the person who went for the help would be like "OMG people know I can't go anymore!" That is pretty much how it would go down. Personally, I don't really know if I would go to a place like this. But I guess that in the end it does it's good for some people.

teens, lazy?

How dare you even begin to call us lazy and unprepared. You know what I say? No that's right you don't because I'm about to tell you. Well. I completely say that the teachers are not preparing us properly for what is ahead of us on our journey through post-secondary education. Throughout your high school times, teachers and students are telling you to be ready for college or university and that its hard but what I don't get is why don't you actually take the time to tell us what hard is or show us what we're not going to be ready for. If you want us to succeed and do better than that we're doing now then why don't you take the time to explain it to us. Classes should be set up more like colleges or universities are. The length of classes and the size of classes are another thing that is possible to change. There is NO WHERE in high school where we are properly prepared for anything in life. Half of this stuff is USELESS and we will NEVER IN OUR LIVES USE IT AGAIN. SO why not teach us some more practical things? Thank you. :)

Seeing is believing, or maybe it is the other way around?

When I hear that saying, my mind wanders back to the movie Santa Claus. The boy holds up a magic globe ball and asks his fathers girlfriend to look into it. A sleigh soon flies across it out of no where, almost as if magic. Do you have to believe things in order to be able to see them? Or do you have to see things before you see it? I know that I believe in things in order to see them. Take this for example. Many people do not believe in ghosts and think they are not real. I quite honestly believe in them and there is a good reason why I do. I was alone in my room one night, half asleep, when something strange caught my attention. I rolled over to see what I thought was just my house coat on my door. I sat up and stared at it for a long time. After a while I got really scared and started noticing that the house coat was indeed not a house coat. It had a face, very light, and had a body, althought some parts were not completely visible. I blinked a few times and hoped that it was just my imagination running astray but alas, it did not leave. It sort of limped over to my closet and turned around, then disappeared. I strongly believe it was a ghost of some sort. I did believe in them before but now I believe a lot more now. You can believe in many things that you might not have seen before. You can believe in Santa Claus, even though you have never really seen the real thing. You can believe in the Tooth Fairy but yet some how you never really manage to catch a glimpse of her. You believe in love but you cannot see the actual emotion. Sure you can see the result of love, happy couples, marriages are results of love and children are too but the emotion itself you will never be able to see. Another good one is God. Millions of people around the world believe in God and yet, again, no one has seen the real thing. We all believe the events in the bible were all true and actually happened. Again, we have not seen complete proof that they all have and we all still believe very strongly that they did and do not like to be proven overwise. My last thing is heaven and hell, or an afterlife in some way. Do you believe in one or the other? Other people out there do and there is no evidence of either. How do we know that when we die we will go someplace better, or in some cases, worse, than where we are now? How does anyone know that? Yet there are people out there who would argue very strongly that there is something after this life, that we do go somewhere when it is all over for us. We will never know if there is or not, but for now, all we can do is believe.

Twitter and dying?

Okay, let me first start off by saying WHAT THE HELL DOES TWITTER HAVE TO DO WITH BEING AFRAID OF DYING?! As I read this article, I was thinking to myself that exact question. He stated that he thinks many people "tweet" because they are afraid of being alone or dying. If I was afraid of being alone, or dying, I would surround myself with fuzzy, cute, happy, bright and colourful things. Not immerse myself in Twitter. If I was afraid of dying, why would I do that? It just does not make any sense at all. It could just mean you have no excitement in your life so you want to spice it up by following the lives of other people. He said that the average user is 31 years old. 31. Facebook's average user is probably about 16. It says something too that Facebook is being taken over by teenagers. Twitter could be a place to go for those older people who don't like the teens on Facebook. But I still don't see why you would join Twitter if you were afraid to die. It seriously baffles me and makes me laugh at this. I could just keep asking myself the same question over and over. Why? Why why why why why? It honestly confuses me to an extreme amount of confusion. Dying alone? Twitter can ease that fear of dying alone? How could something you find on the Internet, a place similar to Facebook, ease your fear of dying? In my opinion, it would make you feel insignificant compared to some famous people who might be out there on Twitter. If some one has something exciting going on, or says something profound, you could feel pretty dumb for not knowing what they are talking about. I might just be rambling now and it might not make sense to any of you, but to me this makes perfect sense..in a way. Facebook AND Twitter to me are pointless. Yes, they are addicting and I myself spend countless hours on Facebook creeping on people just because I'm friends with my sister's best friend's cousin's daughter's friend Rachel. I sit there and look at peoples pictures of parties and see just how wasted people can get. I guess on Twitter you can't do that so its a cleaner, smaller version of Facebook. Before this class, I had no idea what Twitter was. Now I hear that word everywhere. Twitter this, Twitter that. Oh did you hear? So and so is now on Twitter and I'm following her. What is the point? Is it a way to express yourself to millions of people all over the world? Maybe. And so be it. But when you start to examine something so thoroughly people are getting scared of dying alone so they join such things like Twitter, you know you might have gone too far and just caused some poor person to lose their last little bit of sanity. Hey, I know I ramble and a lot of what I say does not make sense, but it's just how I see things. And this is clearly one of those things I will never fully understand.

Science and Religion

Personally, I do not think that science and religion can be combined. I am a person who does not really believe in God or anything in the Bible. To me, it just seems so unrealistic that some one could build a boat that large to carry two of every species of animal on the Earth at the time. Things like that to me just don't make sense. It doesn't seem like something that could actually happen. It sounds like something that was made up. Now I don't mean to offend anyone by saying all this but it is just how I think about things. I believe that we were created through evolution. I believe the science behind all of this. It just seems much more logical to me. I have a friend who is extremely religious and I have talked to her about this many times. She argues with me that science is a bunch of bull and I argue with her that those religious things don't make sense. She of course knows that I do not mean to hurt her or offend her. She understands that this is my way of thinking. We even tried to consider each other's theories about this. It just caused us to get in a very large argument. It just seems so strange to think that religion and science could possible intertwine together. Scientists have tried to prove that these kind of things can't happen or never did so why would you want to work together? To me, this all just does not make sense. If you are very religious and enjoy science at the same time, thats fantastic. But when you are a scientist and you are religious, you can't let that stop you from thinking logically, or clearly. If you can find a way to do both and not let one interfere with the other, then perhaps the two can work together.

Earth Hour

This past Saturday March 28Th was Earth Hour. Usually, you see something on the Internet or on the news about this event but how many people actually pay attention to it? I don't have the answer to that but I would think not as many as they would hope so. During this one hour, you shut your lights off to try to save energy. Some people I know can't live without the TV on or the computer going so they would never do something like this ever. Then there are the people out there who are all "save the earth!" and would do anything they could in a heart beat. Personally, I think it is a good idea but it's just something small. They need to make it better and bigger. One hour out of one day to me is not big enough. They need to make it Earth Week or something along those lines. They could have many different things a day such as recycling , going and to clean up the environment, having one whole day where you try to use a little power/energy as you can by turning lights off, not using the TV or computer. I did participate in it with full intentions of keeping those lights off for an hour. I tried very hard. Turns out, I forgot to turn one light off before I left. As we were driving around town, I noticed many people left their lights on. A lot of houses had almost every light in their house on. Some were completely dark, but the area I drove through had many lights still on. I know that where I work, Tim Hortons, they had turned some lights off but not all of them seeing as they are a business and cannot run without some lights and equipment. I think that the idea of participating says something about people. If after that hour you are anxiously awaiting the moment you can turn your lights back on, they are not doing it for the right reasons. If you can easily sit there for an hour and not actually worry about what time it is, you are in it for the right reasons.

the Pope lied to us?!

The Pope. The one and only Pope has recently told Africa a load of horse crap. His latest statement stated that "condoms don't stop HIV". WAS HE ON CRACK? Was he smoking something before he said that? I clearly think so. Last time I checked, condoms did help to prevent that. Like, think about it. It's a latex barrier. Unless it breaks(you better hope that it doesn't), you're pretty much good to go. But this man, this wise old man, is telling us "no it does not work and don't use them". STOP. EVERYBODY STOP. STOP THE WORLD FROM SPINNING. STOP THE CLOCKS. The POPE!? has just told us something we all know is COMPLETELY NOT TRUE. Scientists I'm sure would love to confront this man and tell him what's what. I know I would. Sure it's what he believes in, but honestly? No. He's full of it. :)

parental units.

Okay. So my 14 year old sister could pretty much kill some one and get away with it. Now if I tried that, I would probably end up in jail for the rest of my human life. My parent's let her get away with absolutely anything. She never gets grounded. She never gets anything taken away from her. She's their perfect child. I'll admit, I was not the easiest tween to raise in the world. I had a pretty big attitude, not going to lie. But I was no where near as bad as she is. I would be grounded all the time. I think, one year, there was a total of maybe 2 months when I was not grounded. Now did I mention that my parents don't ground for days at a time. It is always WEEKS at a time. So I would be grounded all the time. I would get the TV taken away, I would get the computer taken away. I would get the phone taken away. I would get my baby taken away, my cell phone. But she would not get anything. She still doesn't. I told my parents that one day. Okay, that was a lie. I pretty much screamed it at them and they called me a baby and crazy. Clearly, I am not crazy. Not at all. But WHY?! Did I do something wrong? Say something wrong? I don't think I'm that bad. And I know that my sister is so taking advantage of that. I mean what in the world will make them realize? HELLO?! YOUR LITTLE PRINCESS IS ACTUALLY A RAT! Don't get me wrong, I love my sister. She's just evil. :)

there's enough A+'s to go around.

There's this University professor who just gave everyone in his class an A+ and said not to worry about grades. He just taught them and didn't even do the 'proper' teacher thing and grade them and pick them apart in everything that they handed in. To me, this is kind of not the right thing to do. I personally think its not a bad idea. Grades are rather weird. Some person somewhere decided to tell us that we need to have a number attached to our intelligence. That number tells you that you are either smart or dumb, for lack of a better word. You never really know why some one gets the mark they do. Sometimes the person is a a bright student who puts everything into their work and gets like a 99%. Sometimes people are just not into what they're doing and don't give it their everything, so they might end up with like a 65%. The person could just be going through a tough time. Or, they could just be not that smart. Either way, why do we have to have a number telling us how successful we will be? I honestly don't agree with that.

Oak Island.

So, there is this place, known to people as Oak Island. There is a bit of a story behind it. For years and years and years, people have spent their life savings, even died, trying to figure out what is down there. Throughout the years, many things have been discovered. Pillars, bodies, water, more water. No one can quite figure out just how the whole concept came to be. Every time some one tries to dig, it mysteriously fills up with water. Man made beaches were discovered. Mystery after mystery. It is said that the island is also cursed. Do I believe this? No, I do not.

Everyone who hears about this has their own opinion about what is actually down there. Some people say it is pirates. Others think that it could be some religious thing that could possibly change religion all over the world, or possibly destroy it.

In my personal opinion, I think it is a city on top of a city. I believe that there is some type of maybe lost city down there, almost like Atlantis. There could be a whole other world down there that is not meant to be found. Clearly if some one put that much effort into hiding it from the world, I truly think that it is not meant to be discovered. Just let it be and leave it alone. People have already destroyed the island enough in hopes to crack the mystery which is Oak Island. Clearly, if some one put that much time, thought, and plan into this, what ever is down there, what ever mystery lies beneath the surface, is meant to remain a mystery until it is time to reveal itself.

IDC Ken Robinson's talk.

Alright, my thoughts about Ken Robinson's talk very much agree with everything that he said.
One point that stands out in my mind was when he talked about the girl who teachers thought had ADHD just because she couldn't keep still in school.
I know that I have that problem sometimes so does that mean I have ADHD too?
She turned out to be a dancer. She just learned differently. I think that teachers and schools should actually take the time to find out just what interests students when it comes to their learning habits. If the majority of the class groans and moans when an overhead is put up, I think that the teacher should try to find a way to get the students involved in what is going on because chances are the student is not going to pay the least bit of attention to what is being discussed.
What we are being taught in schools these days does not always prepare us for the world ahead of us. There are some things in the world that you can't learn through a text book, no matter how many useless pieces of information are shoved into our already over stuffed brains.
Schools don't teach you common sense. They don't teach you how to be social. Now, kids whip out their cell phone if they want to talk to some one and they text message them. What happened to calling some one up and talking to them? Saying "Hey! What's up? Wanna do something today?".
Children are much more social. They have their friends at school, that favourite blanket, or that imaginary world they created just for them. Almost everyone can admit to having an imaginary friend. Once we get old enough to understand that having something like that is silly, it just goes away. When actually, it is not silly at all. It shows how creative and imaginative that child is. They create this whole world just for them. Everything in their are things they like, things they want, things that make them happy. When you get to school, you are forced to remember dates, numbers, names, things that you are not used to. Over the years, you start more into the harder subjects like math and science. They have no room for creativity, besides the diagrams you draw or the pictures you doodle in your binder because you're too bored to pay attention.
I definitely agree that schools should encourage creativity and imagination.

my experience with blogging

Bonjour, Hola, Hello!

So, my experience with blogging is pretty much non existant.
I have never blogged before.
So this is all new to me.

' Ashley.