...a word that I'm sure most of the country is sick of right now. I know I am, which just goes to show. This is the first year I ever get to vote in a presidential election, which is pretty exciting. To be honest, I wasn't really interested in politics until a couple years ago. Even though I now have opinions on the issues that affect us and the country, I'm easily reminded why I didn't pay attention to politics in the past.
It's gotten to the point where I'm seriously considering tossing the television out the window because I'm sick of hearing all the political ads every other commercial. Apparently, 90% of the ads put on in this election have been negative ones - bashing the other guy and not actually stating what they are going to do if they are elected. And to be honest, a large part of the time, running the ads is just a big waste of time and money since people are going to vote for their party, no matter what.
That's one thing that I never understood about politics. We get two people to choose from; one of them is on this side of the issues while the other is on the complete opposite side. There's no in-between and no room for compromise. People also tend to vote blindly; they don't consider the other side because they're from "that other party." There's no way they could possibly be right.
I will vote for one of the major candidates, because unfortunately giving my vote to someone else won't change anything. I'll vote for whoever I believe will do the best for the country. However, I don't think I'll ever subscribe to a particular political party because frankly there isn't one that's in the right while the other is in the wrong. And I think I speak for everyone when I say that I can't wait for November 6th to come so that we can, if anything, get rid of all the annoying commercials.
Monday, October 22, 2012
Monday, October 15, 2012
FRIENDS
When it comes to TV, I tend to gravitate toward plot-heavy shows, rather than sitcoms or comedies. However, one of my all-time favorite shows is definitely FRIENDS.
For those unfamiliar with it, the show follows the lives of six friends living in New York. There's nothing particularly special or important about them - they're just normal people who have jobs, relationships, families, friends, and all the normal issues that come with those things.
However, it's the cast that really makes this show so great. They fully embrace their characters and flesh them out into real people, not just shallow stereotypes. You want them to succeed, you want to find out what's going to happen in their lives next, and you laugh and cry alongside them. My favorite character is definitely Chandler. For one reason, I have a rather sarcastic sense of humor, so he always makes me laugh. He just seems like someone you would know in real life and would get along with.
This show never fails to make me laugh, whether it's Phoebe saying something that makes everyone do a double take, Chandler and Joey getting into shenanigans in their apartment, or Janice making a guest appearance with her trademark "Oh. My. God." It was on the air for ten years, showing how beloved it was with fans. And it's definitely the only television show where the final episode had me absolutely cracking up while tears were running down my face.
For those unfamiliar with it, the show follows the lives of six friends living in New York. There's nothing particularly special or important about them - they're just normal people who have jobs, relationships, families, friends, and all the normal issues that come with those things.
However, it's the cast that really makes this show so great. They fully embrace their characters and flesh them out into real people, not just shallow stereotypes. You want them to succeed, you want to find out what's going to happen in their lives next, and you laugh and cry alongside them. My favorite character is definitely Chandler. For one reason, I have a rather sarcastic sense of humor, so he always makes me laugh. He just seems like someone you would know in real life and would get along with.
This show never fails to make me laugh, whether it's Phoebe saying something that makes everyone do a double take, Chandler and Joey getting into shenanigans in their apartment, or Janice making a guest appearance with her trademark "Oh. My. God." It was on the air for ten years, showing how beloved it was with fans. And it's definitely the only television show where the final episode had me absolutely cracking up while tears were running down my face.
Article
An interesting article that I found was talking about Web 2.0 tools in education.
The three main types of Web 2.0 that the article discusses are wikis, blogs, and podcasts. I've had experiences with all three, but not necessarily in school.
I've used wikis in classes before; in one class we had to collaborate in groups to create a wiki page on a particular subject. In another class, we created a wiki page in place of writing a paper. While wikis can definitely be useful, it's quite a bit of work to create one for just one topic. Unless it's a big project, I don't really see it being that useful in classes on a regular basis. Some teachers use it to share information with their students, which might be the most useful. While wikis are supposed to encourage collaboration, only one person can edit it at once, where something like Google Docs allows everyone to participate at once.
Blogs were the next item discussed. This is obviously relevant here since we're utilizing Blogger. I think blogs can be useful in classes, depending on a subject. For an English class, it's definitely a nice tool. Students could even post papers or writings that they had to do and get feedback from classmates. It definitely can be used in certain classes and is a nice way for students to get feedback from others.
Podcasts were the last tool talked about. I've listened to podcasts in my spare time, but they generally were about topics that weren't related to school, but some of my outside interests. I have used Grammar Girl once in a while, but it's not something I've ever subscribed to. I think that podcasts are something that might become more popular in the future, as far as education is concerned. It could essentially be a lecture from a professor or teacher in the form of an mp3 file. Possibly, this could even be used for online classes where students don't meet face to face.
The three main types of Web 2.0 that the article discusses are wikis, blogs, and podcasts. I've had experiences with all three, but not necessarily in school.
I've used wikis in classes before; in one class we had to collaborate in groups to create a wiki page on a particular subject. In another class, we created a wiki page in place of writing a paper. While wikis can definitely be useful, it's quite a bit of work to create one for just one topic. Unless it's a big project, I don't really see it being that useful in classes on a regular basis. Some teachers use it to share information with their students, which might be the most useful. While wikis are supposed to encourage collaboration, only one person can edit it at once, where something like Google Docs allows everyone to participate at once.
Blogs were the next item discussed. This is obviously relevant here since we're utilizing Blogger. I think blogs can be useful in classes, depending on a subject. For an English class, it's definitely a nice tool. Students could even post papers or writings that they had to do and get feedback from classmates. It definitely can be used in certain classes and is a nice way for students to get feedback from others.
Podcasts were the last tool talked about. I've listened to podcasts in my spare time, but they generally were about topics that weren't related to school, but some of my outside interests. I have used Grammar Girl once in a while, but it's not something I've ever subscribed to. I think that podcasts are something that might become more popular in the future, as far as education is concerned. It could essentially be a lecture from a professor or teacher in the form of an mp3 file. Possibly, this could even be used for online classes where students don't meet face to face.
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Find Another Blog
I had a little trouble finding another blog to connect to at first; Blogger isn't very good at giving you opportunities to search for blogs that are just based around a topic. But then I stumbled across the PostSecret blog.
I first learned about PostSecret when I was a freshman in high school. My teacher had some books that had collections of the secrets, and our school even had a display set up where students could submit their own secrets. I think there's something liberating about being able to tell a secret to the world; and nobody ever has to know that it's you.
The blog in question has the secrets in a queue and they get updated every so often. And while the secrets themselves might not be relatable to me (I don't have an eating disorder and I never found God at an AA meeting) but they are always fascinating to read. Sometimes if you're having a rough time, it's nice to know that you're not the only one with problems - and sometimes your problems seem quite small when you see other peoples' as well.
I thought it was neat that these were in blog format and having a collection of them in a book wasn't necessary - just another example of the internet being awesome.
I first learned about PostSecret when I was a freshman in high school. My teacher had some books that had collections of the secrets, and our school even had a display set up where students could submit their own secrets. I think there's something liberating about being able to tell a secret to the world; and nobody ever has to know that it's you.
The blog in question has the secrets in a queue and they get updated every so often. And while the secrets themselves might not be relatable to me (I don't have an eating disorder and I never found God at an AA meeting) but they are always fascinating to read. Sometimes if you're having a rough time, it's nice to know that you're not the only one with problems - and sometimes your problems seem quite small when you see other peoples' as well.
I thought it was neat that these were in blog format and having a collection of them in a book wasn't necessary - just another example of the internet being awesome.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)