Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Life is going by so fast!

Sorry for not having posted in like a month, but school started and life caught up with me and dragged me along as it whirled past. (Boy am I in a poetical mood)

Anyway, here’s the latest life update, just so we’re on the same page when I start getting philosophical:
~ Being a junior in HS is like impossibly hard, esp. with 4 AP classes
~ Being in Varsity Debate doesn’t help too much either
~ Trying to get in driving hours and looking at college mail just adds to the fun
~ Add to that that I still have a social life and therefore have youth groups and stuff to do with friends…
You can see how my blog would not be a major priority. Anyways, today I have a day off from school and so I can catch everyone up and try to make this more regular.

And now into the mental stuff!

Did you know that Google is only ten years old?
About three days ago they had a Google doodle window celebrating their tenth birthday. Imagine that! I can’t think of a day when I don’t use Google, either to find pictures, or websites for school, or recipes for my mom, or simply to use my Gmail account and post on my blog. How much does the rest of the world rely in Google? How many hours a day do you spend in front of your computer? What if Google crashed or got shut down one day, what would we all do? Did you know that your Microsoft word document would probably not recognize google or blog as a word? Try it! On one of my friend’s blogs (see it in the side, the one called insert really cool blog name here) has a post called the facebook files. How old is Facebook? How many of you are signed up for the Facebook event ‘the day with out facebook”? Now, how many of you won’t remember to do it until you log into facebook and see the event on the side flashing at you. Reminding you that you’re not supposed to have logged on that day? Yes, we can say big brave things, we can tell people that we aren’t dependant on our computers, but in reality we are, and we just need to make it work for us rather than us work for them.

New phrases related to online sites:
I’ll google it (google bring the verb here)
Facebook me about it (Facebook also being the verb)
That is SO my new facebook quote
I’ll look in Wikipedia (like Encyclopedia, but no one uses those anymore)

Because publishers do not censor the Internet, pretty much anyone can post stories or ideas up. What are you putting on the Internet everyday? When you post on someone’s facebook wall, are you going to remember that all your mutual friends will see that? Just something to think about. It’s hard to have integrity online, And I know it most of all, having a blog, but it’s important that we do. It’s here to stay, so lets use it for good.

Thoughts on Grades
So how many people have read the report card by Andrew Clements? I think that it has a very good point about grades. Grades are for teachers to see how their students are doing, how they are succeeding, whether they need help. Grades are for colleges to determine whether students will be able to keep up with the courses at their schools.
Grades should NOT be for students to show off to one another, should NOT be for schools to compete on whose students have higher GPA’s, should NOT be a stress filled thing when students are waiting to receive them.

However, Grades are all of the above (both the good and the bad) and more. I’m not sure what I think about this yet, but I know that grades are so stressful, and I feel like they shouldn’t be, because in ten years which will matter more, my grades or the friendships I built, both with God and with people?

FIREPROOF!!!!
I haven’t seen it yet, but I’m going to see it today. I really like what Alex Harris (I think it was Alex) said on the Rebelution blog about it and the previous sherwood films (see side bar). I will post again this evening when I’ve seen it, but it promises to be really, really good, the trailer gives me shivers and causes emotion to rise to the top.

Debate
This years Policy debate topic is Alternative energy. There’s so much out there on it, and I’m trying to read up more on it, but the choice to do debate is not an easy one, and it requires a ton of outside work. Please pray for me in this, as my academics have to come before my extra-curricular, and the extra-curricular takes a ton of time.

Quote:
“It is our choices that make us who we really are, much more than our abilities.” ~Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s stone

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