Final Exams

Around the time of final exams I always find myself in a moment of confusion; in between all the madness of teachers, review sheets, missing assignments I always eventually feel lost and confused. I don't know why, and keep in mind these would only be my second final exams, so this moment of confusion has only happened once, but still. It's there. I guess it might be because of the things that we regret about the last semester, or in this case, the last two semesters, or might simply be the fact that we're nervous because final exams are 20% of your semester's grade, yet when you have a C+ you kinda stop caring about your Bio exam. So truly, what does cause this immense amount of confusion? I've been thinking about it, and as I write this blog entry I feel like I'm running in circles as I both write and argue with my friends, and as I realize and feel that I'm running in circles I feel like everything I'm writing I already wrote. I guess final exams will always bring the side effect of terrible clarity or intense and random confusion. Now that I've thought about it, I think its because of the fact that I do have a sadly huge amount of regrets; oh well I guess things aren't that bad, after all I still got 5 more semesters... 

A bit of Personal Writing, with a bit of Teenage Drama, with a hint of Love and a touch of Hate, makes for a great Monologue!

Honestly I've been having a lot of difficulty coming up with an idea for this blog entry (I know, that's been the case very often lately) but this time I've been seriously stumped! I'm supposed to write an entry about a book I've read this semester, and honestly, I've analyzed and talked about ENOUGH books for a while, so I decided to leave that entry for last. For this entry I've decided to post a monologue I wrote, for a couple of reasons; one, I enjoyed writing the monologue because even though it was never graded and I never handed it in and got a good grade on it, I still got a lot of positive feedback from my peers that read it, second, I really like theater and I think it's a good idea to expose some of my work out in the World Wide Web.

Of course, for you guys (the readers) to understand first you must know the background or context behind  the monologue. The current setting is in Paris, France. Yet the character saying the monologue is from California. Her name is Lisa Dobson and she is in her early twenties. Her french boyfriend Chris died almost two years ago; this caused a great emotional depression on Lisa. To solve her problems on the matter of moving on and forgetting about Chris, Lisa enrolls on a foreign exchange student program that allows her to go to France for a year. In France she hopes to learn more about Chris' family and his background, in hopes that someone might listen to her story and relate with it since Chris and his family left France so abruptly. She hopes she can meet someone who also relates with the loss of Chris. During her time in France Lisa gets a job in a public library. In the library she meets a french man who is fluent in english and finds Lisa quite attractive; thus he asks Lisa out several times -- Lisa always denies the invitation -- Eventually the man gives up and as their amount of interactions lower she becomes very fond of the man. So fond that by the time the monologue takes place Lisa admits that she might be in love with him. Well that's the background information and I hope you like it!

...

I don’t understand my feelings right now. Every time I see him I just feel a cloud filling up my mind, it’s as if a force within me is taking over, a force which I don’t know, and I’m not aware I had. Yet the way I feel about him, it’s a feeling that to most people is unique, but I guess I’m lucky, I got the chance to have this feeling twice. First with Chris and now with this strange man, but then again, that’s not good, is it? No, it can’t be good. How could it possibly be good to be in love twice, love can only bring sadness, anger and an infinite amount of pain, yet, Chris and this man, have been the best thing that has ever happened me. I can’t believe I’m really admitting it, but I love this man, the way he reads that book, it’s like he’s living the story, I can only imagine how passionate he must be in real life. But passion at times only disrupts determination; I know that’s happened to me ever since I got to France, my love towards Chris is still basically intact, yet he’s been dead for almost two years now. Why? Why do I feel like this? Why can’t I just move on? It must be easy, mustn’t it? No, I guess it isn’t. If only that tenant could have let me seen the house when I first met him. Then maybe I would have done some progress, maybe I would have been able to tell him what happened to Chris, but then again, he probably wouldn’t care. Nobody does. Chris left France years ago, most of the people his parents knew don’t care about him anymore. But I can’t blame them, can I? I guess I can’t, because the way that Chris and his family left France was so rude. This country and all of Chris’ friends had been so nice to them, they ultimately made Chris’ dad the success that he is right now. Without all that power and money, Chris’ family could have never afford to move to America and establish themselves the way they did. So again, why would anybody care anymore? Anybody that knew Chris and his family probably don’t want to know anything about him. And the people that didn’t even know him will have even less reason why to listen to my story, to Chris’ story and to the way he was taken from me. Life is just not fair sometimes, life doesn’t care about people, life only cares about itself, if life were good then Chris would be alive, and I wouldn’t be feeling so miserable. Plus my misery is only amplified by my feelings towards this guy, this strange guy, this person that I know so little about, yet I feel like I’ve known him enough to fall in love with him. Of course loving him wouldn’t be hard, he already asked me out several times, but I don’t know, today is too important of a day to mess it up with “love.” Because love is evil, love stands for the past, present and future tense of all pain that a human being will ever feel. But why? Love is supposed to be butterflies in your stomach and wanting to be with someone so much, that you wish you could tell them you love them a thousand times, and still wanting to love them more. 

So, how bout nem' grades huh?

For my 10th blog post I wanted to talk about my grades, so I will. The reason why I want to talk about grades is because this is a blog created only for academical reasons, which leads me to believe that there is no better place to talk about how angry opening my Skyward makes me.

Every week I open my Skyward at least once because I believe that something awaits me; it may not be good, but nonetheless, there's something in there that is always needing my view. Yet when I open my Skyward I'm constantly disappointed because even though I get good grades, somehow when you add up the numbers (no matter how hard I try) the latter grade always either goes down or stays the same. That's the reason for why I don't put my full effort into school, because once I have a bad grade it will always end up being a bad grade in the end of the year, and when I get a good grade I know that it will eventually go down to an okay grade. What I'm trying to say is that I don't fail because I'm dumb, or because I don't pay attention in class, or because I socialize too much during class, no; I fail because I want to, because I know what I'm capable of academically, and I know that the grade system in most schools is designed to fail students like me.  So the way I see it, is that if my hard work isn't rewarded, then I won't work as hard next time, and if that means bringing my grade down, then may it go down in peace, but I will not work my a** off in school only to have my grades brought down by the tiny little details which make up most of the corrupt on way street that the grade system truly is.

Despite I am truly, one hundred percent aware of what I just said, I am going to keep trying hard at school because I promised myself I'd make it to honor roll this semester, that's a 3.3 GPA, and even though right now I'm probably at a range from a 3 to a 3.2 GPA, I'm going to give it one more shot at the allegedly functional "Word and study hard to get good grades" system, because honestly, I need better grades, and I know I can get them. 

I'm God... In Call of Duty... I know... It's lame, but it's all I got...

As it is clearly visible in the title, for this blog post I'm going to talk about my awesomeness in the never-ending online continuation of the extremely awesome and famous first-person shooter, "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3."

"Call of Duty" is a video game series of eight first person shooters. All games of the series have been funded by "Activition," but have been mainly developed by two companies, "Treyarch" and "Infinity Ward." Both companies have developed "Call of Duty" games, but never at the same time, and never have they developed a game between separate series. For example, all "Modern Warfares" were developed by Infinity Ward, but not with Treyarch. I personally prefer "Infinity Ward" since not only have they made what is considered the best out of eight Call of Duties, but also I think their games have done a much better job in the online continuation of the game. The online continuation was added to the Call of Duties in 2007 when "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare" was released. Before it, no Call of Duty had an online continuation. This was an extremely innovative feature since it allowed the gamer to keep playing the game even though the campaign was over. In the online continuations of Call of Duty, players have to go through different amounts of levels, which after all have been passed, the game gives you the option to enter "Prestige." Once a player "prestiges" he must go through all the levels of the game except he gains new titles, emblems, challenges and obviously, prestige. Each Call of Duty since "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare" has had a different amount of prestiges. I am currently playing the newest addition to the series and the end of the "Modern Warfare" trilogy, "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3."In MW3 each prestige contains eighty one levels, and there are ten prestiges. I am currently in Prestige 3, Level 80. I've played the online about two days and eighteen hours, so a total of 65 hours. This means that I pass (approximately) 5 levels per hour; that's pretty good. Plus some of m friends have recommended that I make a youtube channel, were I upload my gameplay to. Although that might be fun, I don't think I'm at the point yet were I'm good enough to upload gameplay to youtube, but still I'm good. And although I at times get competitive, I find Call of Duty a relaxing hobby, were I can just have fun and feel one hundred percent comfortable knowing that I'm actually good at the activity. 

In the end, I conclude this has been a rather insignificant blog, because you, the reader, will most likely not care, or you'll find me way too cocky, but I just thought it might be fun to blog about my level of expertise in the "Call of Duty" franchise, so then I asked myself, "Why not blog about Call of Duty?"

My Top 10 songs from my Favorite Artist... Eminem...

For my eighth blog post I've decided to make a top ten song list of my favorite artist and rapper, Eminem. I decided to make a top ten song list of Eminem because not only is he my favorite artist and rapper, but also because I knew it would be a challenge. Making this list was a challenge because the first step I took to make the list was searching "Eminem" on my "iTunes" library and I got 103 song and videos as my result. Then came the challenge; eliminating 93 of those songs. Now I must admit, it wasn't easy, and it took me about ten to fifteen minutes, but after a lot of perseverance and a lot of good decision making, I did manage to make my Eminem's top ten. Also links to youtube videos with either the lyrics of the songs or its official video are next to them on the list. So this is it:

1. Lose Yourself http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4Uv_4jGgAM
2. Not Afraid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5-yKhDd64s&ob=av3e
3. No Love (feat. Lil Wayne) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KV2ssT8lzj8&ob=av3e
4. Space Bound http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JByDbPn6A1o&ob=av3e
5. Sing for the Moment http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgRN78skEQU
6. 25 to Life http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26TfFqgPyWQ
7. Hailie's Song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5w3zl7aL58
8. You're Never Over http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CChi3GkCM30
9. When I'm Gone http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wYNFfgrXTI
10. 'Till I Collapse http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1xXYeNrW9k

Now I know that who ever reads this blog post might be thinking "Hey man, What the F***? Why aren't My Name is, The Real Slim Shady, Like Toy Soldiers, Mockingbird, etc, on the list?" The answer to that is because although the songs I jus mentioned in that quote are both extremely good and famous, I don't think they can compare to the greatness and the power that the songs on my top ten stand for. For example, no matter how much money it produces, no matter how much popularity it receives, I do NOT believe any Eminem song will ever be as good as "Lose Yourself." In "Lose Yourself" Eminem really opens up to world what his point of view of his life was back when he rapped underground in Detroit. He raps about dealing with the stress and difficulties of being segregated in the rap clubs because he was a "white boy." Being a "white boy" in an underground rap club in Detroit meant not being able to speak or rap without the crowd and your opponents insulting you and mocking your words. Eminem also talks about how its annoying to be a man and still live in a trailer house with your mom, as well as the complication of having to take care of his daughter Hailie, while at the same time trying to reach stardom. This can be seen in the second verse when Eminem says, "He goes home and barely knows his own daughter." Eminem also dedicates basically most of the second verse to his longing for fame, fortune, success and power. Lastly, in the third verse of "Lose Yourself" Eminem clearly states that what makes him a unique rapper was and is his determination to not give up and accomplish his goals; this determination can be seen near the end of the third verse when Eminem says "I've got to formulate a plot or end up in jail or shot, success is my only motherf*cking option, failure's not."

Ultimately I think those ten songs are Eminem's greatest, now I will admit, a couple of them might be in the list because I can relate to them, but still, I'm a teenager, its virtually impossible for me to have an objective opinion, especially on something as personal as the top ten songs of my favorite artist. But nonetheless, the list is done, and before you go to the next blog, stop and think, why not listen to at least one the songs?

Why Not leave Facebook?

For this blog post I've been kinda troubled on choosing a topic. But I've finally decided that I want to talk about about the possibility that I might close my Facebook account. Yes, I know, I've betrayed all the teenagers in the world.

Facebook is a social network founded by Mark Zuckerberg on 2004 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since February, 2012, Facebook has more than 845 million active users. Although it started as a small social network created in Mark Zuckerberg's room in college, Facebook is now recognized worldwide as the most used social network. Unfortunately, because of recent events and thoughts I might close my Facebook account. First I've realized that Facebook isn't entirely necessary, at first I made my Facebook account to stay in touch with my friends from the States, but years have passed since then and now very rarely do I talk to them. Also It's just a huge distraction, that at times downgrades my performance in and out of class. Plus I've realized that Facebook is just a very big lie. I remember that when I first made my account I was told Facebook was a non-profit organization, and that making my account would be completely free. Now, one of those statements is a complete lie, and the other one is (I guess) a half lie. This is because Facebook is NOT a non-profit organization, in fact, its an organization that makes A LOT of profit, that's one of the reasons why Mark Zuckerberg is the world's youngest billionaire. Facebook makes profit by selling all your personal information to companies and by letting those companies have advertisements in the Facebook website. That leads to the reason why the second statement is basically a lie. Facebook tells its future users that creating an account is free, and although user don't pay Facebook to create their accounts, they do have to give Facebook complete ownership of all the information they upload to their profile. Those two statements trouble me because I don't feel comfortable with a multi-billion dollar corporation owning all my personal information and selling it to companies that just fill up my Email inbox with A LOT of junk mail. And last, but not least, a couple of moths ago Facebook changed its users profile view to Timeline. Part of the reason why I don't like timeline is because it makes it easier for other people to "stalk" my profile, and it also makes it harder and more uncomfortable for me to access my profile. Plus, not only do I not like Timeline, its NOT optional. Facebook is slowly forcing its users to change to Timeline, and I find this both wrong and annoying, because I don't think its cool that give a company all my personal information and in return I can't even have the option to have my own type of profile.

I've been a Facebook user for about three years now, and I have to admit that I've enjoyed it. It made it easy to stay in touch with my friends, it facilitated my means of communication with people outside of school, except for teacher, and I got a couple of laughs out of my friends status updates, but I've come to realize, its not really worth it anymore. To me Facebook used to be a cool, advertisement free, socializing space, but now its turned to a corporation that just makes keeping in touch with my friends an annoying struggle. In conclusion, when the day comes and Facebook forces to change my profile to Timeline, I will, and literately seconds after I do, I will shut down my account, and that will be the end of my Facebook account.

Album review for "Hell: The Sequel" by Bad Meets Evil

"Hell: The Sequel" is the first official album by the rap duo "Bad Meets Evil." The duo consists of Eminem and Royce da 5'9. Eminem and Royce were both underground Detroit rappers when they met, and in the early 1990’s they came together to form "Bad Meets Evil." At first "Bad Meets Evil" stayed underground, by the time the 21st century arrived they already had a respectable reputation in underground rap, in fact, "Bad Meets Evil" recorded a single "Renegade" which was later on used by Jay-Z's album "The Blueprint." Unfortunately, in the early 2000's Royce had a fight with members from both the "G-Unit" and "D12." This "beef" became extremely problematic because Eminem was a very strong supporter of G-Unit and he was a member of D12. Because of that "Bad Meets Evil" broke up. To make matters worse, in 2006 the rapper "Proof" died. Proof was Eminem's best friend, and on the years before his death he tried to reconcile Royce with both the "G-Unit" and "D12." After Proof's death, Royce managed to reconcile with both "D12" and "G-Unit" but most importantly, 'Bad Meets Evil" reunited.

"Hell: The Sequel" was recorded from 2010 to 2011. It's release date was June 14th, 2011. The album came with two versions; the standard version and the deluxe version. The length of the standard version is 37 minutes with 18 seconds; the length of the deluxe version is 46 minutes with 7 seconds. The standard version came with nine songs, but the deluxe came with eleven. The album had two singles, which were "Fast Lane" and "Lighters." Both those songs have a music video, which in both occasions is quite good. In general the album received positive critics, and it definitely helped "Bad Meets Evil" get back up on its feet. I, of course, bought the deluxe version, because it has a very big difference on the album, in fact, it makes it better. I've actually given a lot of thought and I've come up with a "Top Five" songs of the album, unfortunately one of the songs that I chose for my "Top Five" is from the deluxe version. In fifth place I chose "The Reunion," in fourth place is "Welcome 2 Hell," in third place is "Echo," in second place I chose "Fast Lane" and, for first place I chose "Lighters." Lighters is a song which has the contribution of the famous pop singer, Bruno Mars. From Eminem's side the song tells how Eminem believes he is the best rapper in history, and that his okay if people disagree, also it tells how Eminem believes he is a stronger and better version of himself after quitting drugs and getting over his lost of inspiration during 2009. From Royce's side, the song tells how he is thankful to Eminem for giving the chance to be the "second best." Also Royce tells how after his fallout with Eminem things weren't working out for him. Below are the links for YouTube videos with the lyrics of my "Top Five" songs of the album.

The Reunion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUZq3loPzgk
Welcome 2 Hell: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRkY4iLNv7E
Echo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpFV3lLiJQs
Fast Lane (Official Video): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJOsjP33nF4&ob=av2e
Lighters (Official Video): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWt4wmZ_EMI&ob=av2e

I would have to say that "Hell: The Sequel" is a great album. It puts together the cons and pros of both Eminem and Royce da 5'9. If I were to give it a grade it would be a B+. In the end I would have to say that "Hell: The Sequel" is a great album and people should hear it, and even if you don't usually listen to hip hop/rap, why not listen to it now?