Cause When You're Fifteen

“Cause when you're fifteen and somebody tells you they love you, you're gonna believe them”. How is it that such a young inexperienced singer has the ability to reach into my heart and express the exact emotions that I (and millions of others) are feeling. That's truly a gift. Anyone can sing, but there are very few singers that can make you feel music not only with your ears, but your heart. For those of you who recognized the first line of this post, the singer I’m referring to is none other than Taylor Swift. No, she might not be a Carrie Underwood or Leann Rimes, but there is something absolutely pure and beautiful about her music; it’s completely honest. She sings from experience, and although she might not have the best voice, that is truly what matters. Whether it’s heartbreak, revenge, sorrow, or happiness, she is capable of moving people with her tantalizing voice and stunning lyrics.
Some of my favorite Taylor songs include, You Belong with Me, Fifteen, Forever and Always, Our Song, Teardrops on My Guitar, Should’ve Said No, A Place in this World, Tim McGraw, and plenty of others. Every single on of these songs has made me smile, laugh, cry, or scream at least once. Every single one of these songs I have been able to relate to. Every single one of these songs I want to share with my friends and tell the world about. Most people question my obsession with Taylor Swift. She’s a new fairly inexperienced country singer, who does not have the best vocals. But there is something essential about her music that makes up for all of those flaws. She is able to move people, young and old, with her sincere lyrics. One of the things I love about her is that she does not hide who she is. In fact, she embraces it. She sings about the mistakes and trust issues she has encountered with men. She sings about the many mistakes she’s made and how she has learned from them, and in my eyes this makes her seem more human. Celebrities and musicians nowadays seem so perfect, but Taylor Swift completely defies this stereotype, which makes me love her even more.
Sorry for all of you who don’t like Taylor Swift and stuck with me through this Blog post, but just give her a chance. Like I said, she might not be the best singer technically, but let yourself feel her music. Think about the people who are going through the same things she sings about, even yourself, and you will realize that Taylor Swift truly is an extraordinary singer, who has touched the hearts of millions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A95MsJDRxhA
please check this out, you won't regret it!:)

Disability

Nancy Mairs is the author of the brief, yet ingenious essay entitled “Disability.” The key reason I liked this essay so much is the emotion and honesty she displayed behind a person with a disability. She put her audience in the shoes of someone with Multiple Sclerosis and opened your eyes to the life of a disabled person. One of the main messages she was conveying through out the essay was that disabled people are completely normal. They do the same things as everyone else, think the same way, and act the same way; with one essential discrepancy; human beings strive to conform to society and do everything they can to do so, while handicapped people cannot even attempt to conform to society. The controversial argument she presents in this essay is why advertising companies do not feature handicapped people in their commercials. We read this essay in our AP Language and Composition class and came up with a couple of feasible answers for this question.

1.)A handicapped person would not want to be displayed in a commercial. They already stand out in a crowd and draw attention to themselves, so why would they put themselves in a commercial? All they want to do is be like everyone else, and by putting themselves in a commercial and having a lot of attention drawn to them, this is no achieved.

2.)Advertising companies fear that if their products are advertised as being used by handicapped people, people without disabilities will not purchase them in fear that they will become handicapped as well.

3.)Lastly, advertising companies are expected to appeal to the majority of society, and the majority of society is not handicapped. They use people without handicaps in their advertisements because the majority of society do not have disabilities.

All of these are very probable explanations, but it still does not justify that companies are morally correct by not using handicapped people in their advertisements. Like Mairs said, they are just like everyone else, and deserve to be treated the same way. It is ridiculous to think that if a handicapped model is using the advertised product, that you will get the handicap as well. I have an autistic brother, and most people define him by his disability. And although it is a big part of his life, it is not who he is. Advertising Companies need to understand that a disability does not define a person or the way you look does not define a person, but rather the things that person does with their life.

Obama and the Nobel Peace Prize

The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the most prestigious awards that a person could have the honor of receiving. It has been given to some of the most exceptional leaders society has known; including, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King Jr., Teddy Roosevelt, and Jimmy Carter. But a new name was recently added to this list. Yes, none other than our current president Barack Obama. Don’t get me wrong the man’s a genius. The way he can persuade and move a whole crowd with a few thousand words is absolutely inspiring, and obviously one of the reasons he was elected in the first place. His strong work ethic and educational background paid off as he graduated from one of the most prominent universities; Harvard. So it is no surprise that he would win such an award. He has made impressive promises, ranging from better healthcare, to an improved economy, to a more “green” nation. He has strengthened international diplomacy and cooperation among other countries. However, he is only a new president, and with this Nobel Peace Prize, comes quite a bit of responsibility. Obama must continue to successfully lead our country and follow through on his promises to live up to the status of Nobel Peace Prize Winner. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing is the controversy. On one hand I truly believe this is a good thing. The award is an incentive for Obama to live up to the other winners and accomplish extraordinary things. Hopefully receiving this award will remind him that he is a very powerful and well-rounded man, who can do outstanding things for our country. But on the other hand, this award does put a lot of pressure on Obama to continue to do well. People are now expecting him to achieve things on the level of Roosevelt, Carter, and Mother Teresa, and if he is not able to, society will feel as though he was not worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize. Overall, it comes down to whether or not Obama can handle the pressure. Will he live up to the title and do great things, or crack under the pressure?



So what I am trying to say is, I do not feel like the Nobel Peace Prize should have been given to Obama at such an early stage in his presidency. He is just beginning to strategize and come up with ways to make America a better nation and although he deserved to be awarded it for all his prior undertakings, it could potentially inflict a negative impact upon his presidency, and ultimately our society.

A Little Birdy Told Me "Tweet Tweet"

You know those striking headlines you read every day on the yahoo homepage? Yep, the ones that range from “Britney’s Bald to “King of Pop Dead”. Those are the headlines that grab your attention and just beg for you to click on them and read more. Well a few seconds ago I encountered this. I was on the Yahoo homepage and read the following headline “Miley Says Goodbye To Twitter in Rap Video.” Pretty self-explanatory, but it made me ruminate upon the meaning of Twitter and the role it plays in society nowadays.
Twitter is a social networking site, in which users can update their statuses through their phones, computers, or blackberries. “Tweeters” are allotted 140 words for each status, to tell the world what they are doing at any given moment. This might seem like a relatively simple idea, but the phenomenon and popularity that has come with this website has exploded. With approximately twenty five million users, it’s safe to say that Twitter ranks at the top along with Facebook, Xanga, and Myspace. I’ll admit I have succumbed to the twitter mania, simply wanting to check it out. It was interesting at first to read what other people are doing (especially celebrities who always seem to be doing something extravagant), but after a while, it seems to be pointless. Is a 140-word status really going to keep people occupied? I honestly believe Twitter is equivalent to Facebook with only status updates. And when I stop and think about it, Facebook would not be as addicting if it was just statuses. If you asked Miley Cyrus, I’m sure she’d agree. Which brings me back to that headline. What in the world is Miley Cyrus doing rapping? Well check out the video for yourself and you’ll see.




She’s absolutely right. I’m not a huge fan of attention seekers, and although it appears this is what Cyrus is doing, she is doing it for a legitimate reason. She admits in this rap that she was a twitter addict, but she realizes that it really does not have any immense benefits. One of my favorite lines in the rap was "I stopped living for moments and started living for people." It was shocking how accurate this statement was. Although I had never really thought of Twitter in this way it is absolutely correct. If you are constantly updating your tweets for other people, you aren't living for or cherishing the moment you are in. In fact, it has caused quite a few problems from her, ranging from gossiping and insults from fans. She outright says that she is sick of Twitter and the drama it has created in her life, and that she has no time for it. I truly applaud her for sticking up for herself and justifying the removal of her twitter (especially at such a young age). There were quite a few rumors arising that said a friend had forced her to do it. I believed that her intentions in doing the rap were to prove to people that she thinks for herself and she deactivated her Twitter for personal reasons, not because of anyone else. There might have been a better way to display this, rather than a rap video by one of the most anti-rappers ever, but bravo Miley Cyrus, way to beat the tweet.

Pigeons

This summer at the University of Iowa, I got the opportunity to work in a Psychology Lab. Initially, I thought of psychology as humans emotions and feelings, so imagine my surprise when I discovered I would be working with pigeons the rest of the summer. Although I was worried at first, the experiment proved to be interesting and brought up some thought provoking questions. An explanation of the experiment follows:

Our world is occupied with a variety of different objects, and what helps us organize these objects is categorization. In this experiment, we will see if pigeons are able to recognize identical and nonidentical members as belonging to the same category. Categorization allows us to understand the similarities and differences between different groups of objects. If we learn the category “chair,” for example, we can behave appropriately when we encounter a new chair, even if we have never seen it before. We are able to recognize members of the same category because they share some similarities. Recent studies show that categorization is not limited to humans; it may also be present in non-human species. Pigeons will be presented with three categories (dogs, fish, and flowers) with six different pictures in each category. The birds will have to perform a matching-to-sample (MTS) task in which they are first presented with one of the pictures (the sample) and then with three possible choices. Their task is to choose the one that “matches” the sample. Half of the times the correct choice will be identical to the sample (identity trials), and half of the times the correct choice will be a nonidentical member from the same category (category trials). There are four birds and each bird will complete ninety trials each day (forty-five category trials and forty-five identity trials). We will analyze pigeons’ accuracy on both identity and category trials, to see what type of task is easier for them. We expect that the identity trials will be easier because the sample and choice share all of the same features, while in category trials they only share some features. The results show a gradual accuracy improvement in all four birds over the span of two weeks. However, there is no apparent difference between the identity and category trials, which disproves our hypothesis. Therefore, this experiment shows that pigeons are capable of completing category trials as well as they do identity trials.

Yes, some complex stuff. I was a little overwhelmed at first, but eventually I understood the objective of the experiment. And the results were a bit surprising. We were expecting a better score for the identity trials, because obviously, they should be easier. However, there was not. In fact, this experiment is still being conducted at the University of Iowa, and there is no drastic difference between the category and identity trials. This makes psychologists wonder if this is just luck, or if pigeons really are capable of learning both categorical and identity trials. The next step would be to test this out on humans to learn more about matching to sample.

500 Days of Summer

This is a story of boy meets girl, but you should know upfront, this is not a love story; the first thing you hear as you enter the theatre to see this outstanding movie. Comically enough, this movie is in the genre of a romantic comedy. 500 Days of Summer was one of the best movies I have ever seen for the following reasons; it is indeed, not a love story, it has some of the best acting ever, and the ending is unlike any other movie. 500 Days of Summer was quirky and interesting and kept me laughing, smiling, and crying, up till the end.
The story begins with Tom discussing his recent problems with his girlfriend Summer. I already knew this movie would be different, because most romantic comedies don’t start straight away with relationship problems. Tom narrates the entire movie, describing the events that occurred each day over a period of 500 days, but he does not do this in chronological order. For example, he started the movie at day 400, and hopped around from 225 to 361, finally ending at 500. Now, most people would be driven insane by this, however, I found this to be refreshing and a new take on movies. It made the movie seem more realistic, because when most people recollect on events, they do not do so in chronological order. They remember the significant events that stuck out in their head.



It really isn’t a love story. Tom meets Summer at the greeting card company where he works and is immediately smitten by her. Summer (Zooey Deeshanel) is beautiful, fiery, and spontaneous and is Tom’s dream girl. Tom tries to sweep her off her feet immediately, however it takes some time for Zooey to return those feelings. Eventually, they fall in love with each other, and like most love stories things are perfect. One of my favorite scenes from the movie was when they went to Aikea and giddily ran around the store, pretending they actually lived in the different furniture scenarios set up. The movie was side splittingly hilarious at times, but also very real and depressing. I won’t give away the ending, but it truly is unlike anything I have ever seen.
Overall, this was one of my favorite blockbusters of the summer. It was quirky and interesting and unlike any movie I have ever seen. There was not a dull moment, and outstanding acting was displayed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel. If you haven’t seen this movie yet, I would definitely recommend it.

Individual

in⋅di⋅vid⋅u⋅a [in-duh-vij-oo-uh l]
–noun
1. a single human being, as distinguished from a group.
2. a person: a strange individual.
3. a distinct, indivisible entity; a single thing, being, instance, or item.
4. a group considered as a unit.
5. Biology. a. a single organism capable of independent existence.
b. a member of a compound organism or colony.


I’ve been thinking about this word excessively the past couple of weeks. High school is a time for people to discover themselves, to join a multitude of extracurricular activities, and to meet extraordinary people that will change your life. Halfway through my high school career, I feel as though I still haven’t found myself, or the person I hope to become. Most people in high school “stick to the status quo”, but if you’re too busy doing just this, how are you supposed to discover yourself? You might call me hypocritical because I am one of those people who cares immensely what others think, and this influences my actions and personality at school constantly. But there is one person that I truly admire who is able to be herself no matter what the circumstances may be. Due to the world of blogging, I must refrain from stating her name, so we’ll just call her, Pasheba.

Pasheba defines the word individual to perfection. No, not the dictionary word per se, but the meaning that I’ve come up with. My definition of individual is someone who is not afraid to show the world who they are. She is loud, crazy, passionate, and at times obnoxious, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. She doesn’t change herself or her opinions for anyone, and if some people don’t like her for that, so be it. She always puts a a smile on my face and cheers me up when I’m down. She knows who she is, and she’s not afraid to be that person at all times, and that’s something I am utterly envious of. She might not know this, but she truly is a role model for me. She makes her fair shair of mistakes, as does everyone, but she never loses sight of the person she is and this is not something you find in any ordinary person. I am proud to say that she is my best friend, and although I’ll admit I’m embarrassed to be seen with this loud, and at times, absolutely insane person, I love her so much, and look up to her. I hope that in time, I can become a true “individual” like my best friend Pasheba.