Archives for July 2010

You’d think that this oil spill would make the government learn from their mistakes, right? It seems that the spill has opened everybody’s eyes but the Obama administration and the oil companies.
A couple days ago, I was reading the latest issue of Rolling Stone and found an article about BP and Shell’s next drilling plans in the Arctic. The article stated that the government seemed to be going along with these plans and giving them the green light. As I was reading this, an article in a mainly liberal magazine that was criticizing the Obama administration, my blood was boiling.
Shell and BP plan to drill in the Arctic as soon as January, when Obama’s temporary freeze on drilling ends. After the debacle in the Gulf, how can anybody think of doing more drilling, in a harsher climate no less? If there was another rig explosion, oil could leak into the Arctic and we would have no chance of cleaning up, because in the harsh winter, the Arctic is covered in ice that is very hard to break through. The oil will rush through the Arctic, destroying habitats and wildlife everywhere.
The article then said that the corporations did not have appropriate plans of action for worst-case scenarios. I can not believe that with between 94 and 184 gallons spilled in this spill, 1387 dead sea birds, 444 dead sea turtles, and 53 dead mammals, the corporations still are not capable of responding to another spill.
How can the government allow these companies to drill again in the near future? We haven’t even fixed this spill yet! If you really want to destroy innocent animals habitats and the environment as we know it, take it one spill at a time! The government has to realize that the state of the environment is in their hands and that is worth more than any amount of money. They must put a permanent freeze on drilling. Now is the time to learn from our mistakes. Lets open our eyes and make a change before it’s too late.

Every summer, I want to do a lot of things like joining programs, doing internships, participating in preps and courses to enhance myself but schools are giving us loads of homework assignments to do. Then when is our break time? Isn’t summer supposed to be our break from school? So why are we doing so much work outside of school? Some students have to do assignments for their AP classes, read 4-5 books, write an essay after reading and taking notes on a book, definitely S.A.T. preps, college visits, college office assignments like practice filling out the common application and writing personal essays for colleges. My brain wants to explode after reading all the assignments I listed above! If you are not good at time-management, you probably don’t want to do any extra activities because you will be pressuring yourself. I wouldn’t say I am an organized person but I plan out my whole summer. My whole summer calendar is packed with “things to do” lists! Recently, I joined the COAP (Career Opportunities in Accounting Profession) program and it took six days from my life but it was a great experience. Then I joined College Now (Journalism) and it took approximately month and a half days away from my life. Then I got accepted in SYEP which is very lucky for me and it took up month and a half days away from my life, too. Now, how many days do I have to do all my summer homework assignments? I know the school is giving us work to prepare us for college but I feel tired. I still haven’t done any homework at all which makes me feel like I’m on the edge of the cliff. Is two weeks enough for me to do all the things I listed before?

My addiction is poetry. It was my favorite way to relieve the stress and pain in my life. It even helped me find the right words to explain my happiness and appreciation for the good things in life that did happen. One of the good things I discovered about myself is that I loved to write as a kid. It was almost as if I was forced to select that path because growing up in a bad neighborhood my mom was almost paranoid to let me go outside and play. So I had to find a productive way to spend my time because I was never really satisfied with just watching T.V all day. It all changed for the best.

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Recently within the sports world there have been many new accomplishments and much gossip also. The National Basketball Association has received a lot of attention due to the free agency. Within this free agency great basketball players such as Lebron James and Derek Fisher had to make a decision on what team they would play for in the 2010 – 2011 NBA season. Lebron James also known as King James is seen as one of the best players in the NBA in which he is, but he is also viewed as a leader in which he is not after signing with Dwayne Wade and the Miami heat. Since he was drafted in 2003 Lebron James managed to take his team to the eastern conference finals and a few years the NBA championship, which is why he was considered a leader. Now he has left his home team of Cleveland and should be referred to as prince James due to the face he is going to Miami to live in another man castle. He signed with the heat for many reasons, he doesn’t want to work as hard as he did in Cleveland , but he wants a championship and he thinks playing with dwade will bring him that not realizing Miami doesn’t have a team just three signed free agents ,also Dwayne wade won his championship already and he worked very hard for it being down two games to nothing and coming back to win four straight games with over 30 points each game . Personally his decision to sign with the heat was not intelligent, if he wanted to win a ring any time soon in his career Lebron James should have selected the Chicago Bulls due to the fact for someone who plays the small forward position in chi town every other position is filled with talent in which would benefit him. Elite point guard Derek Rose, all around power forward Jaokim Noah and one of the top centers in the lead Carlos boozer. This run and gun offensive set would have fitted perfect for Lebron James,he would have still had a lot of control over the ball and he would still produce point, rebounds and assists but signing with Miami with 2 other superstar he stats will drop. As the top free agent prince James knew what he was going into and he also knew with chi town he would still have to work hard in getting the ring, which proves he a is a weak player and a follower for going with Chris Bosh and Dwade. He could have also remained in Cleveland and been fine due to the fact they just received an NBA champion coach Byron Scott , which prince James did not have last season , between coaches ,players and team selection Lebron James has proven he does not want to work hard to win the NBA championship. In conclusion now that Phil Jackson and Derek Fisher have re-signed to the Lakers , LA will be 3-peat champions, owwwwww!!!!!!!!

There is oil gushing into the Gulf every day. I thought you’d like a reminder because this pressing issue is not the number one story for news organizations anymore. There is less and less coverage every day of this immense problem and it doesn’t make sense. While I understand news organizations want to remain current and cover stories they know will interest the consumers, a blind eye can not be turned to this issue. Not only are we losing millions of dollars daily, this spill is destroying the lives of local businessmen and killing sea life in the gulf. It kills me to look at the pictures and see footage of these animals covered in oil, many of them dead. These animals are helpless and do not know what is going on. They did not cause this oil spill. Carelessness and corruption on BP’s part led to this oilrig explosion, causing this huge spill.
If we say, as a country, we are committed to helping the environment and saving wildlife, we must act now. I believe that if this new cap stops the oil from gushing out, the first priority must be to create a safe habitat for these animals once again. The failure of BP to stop this oil spill in the last 87 days is a fact that is very hard to swallow. If these corporations put so much money into these rigs and were so involved in the construction of them, they should have been aware of all the safety issues and they should have planned for things to go wrong. The constant arguing inside BP needs to stop. The blame game can wait until after this spill is stopped. That must be priority number one and that needs to happen now. We must all join together and put a stop to this terrible disaster, before it’s too late.

Some bands need recognition and some are well known like forever the sickest kids
And family force 5 they write good music and are great guys they care about what their fans think about when it comes to where to tour or what style of clothes they know their fans send them fan mail and they take time to answer each letter or respond to the gifts the fans send in to them. They feel it is their purpose is to make great music and entertain the people who listen to them and to them their band mates are like a family these bands just need a bit recognition for all of this good work they put out there listen to family force 5’s song “keep the party alive” and forever the sickest kids “ what do you want from me” these bands want to be known and I think they deserve that much from music finders or searchers or maybe you are just bored well this is a great start for you just listen to these songs and you might like the bands and download or buy whole albums if you like . I would like to
Help these bands get noticed enough to have a following just to show people are behind them in a good way they will be eternally grateful in what the fans are doing
For them in many ways they might even write a song about it and it is very kind to help others and they might even help you in return or even take you on tour with them just for extra company and for support and inspiration for clothes and what songs to play but it is all about friendship in many cases.

In my school, the word ‘hipster’ is constantly tossed around, whether as an aspiration or a derogatory term. “God you look like such a hipster,” or “Niiiiice, lookin hipster today,” mean totally different things. The typical hipster shops at places like Urban Outfitters and American Apparel, but venture into small hole-in-the-wall stores to find special “individual” items to set themselves apart from the hoards more smoking in Union Square. Urban dictionary defines a hipster as “a subculture of men and women typically in their 20’s and 30’s that value independent thinking, counter-culture, progressive politics, an appreciation of art and indie-rock, creativity, intelligence, and witty banter,” but that is no longer the case. Sure, thats the ideal, but hipsters have become as conformist as the abercrombie and american eagle cult we’re all familiar with. Hipsters are also certainly not limited to 20’s and 30’s, there is a new sub-subculture of the hipster: The high school hipster. 

Lots of times I hear to be more girly you have to wear a skirt, or you have to wear lipstick, or bright nail polish. I consider my self-girly, but not to the point where consider me having to wear tight shirts or mini skirts. Me being girly is letting out the inner girl. For example, the fact that I can cry to a friend about boy problems, instead of me puffing out my chest saying, “ I’m good” when I’m really not, makes me consider my self as a girl. Cause I can go through that girl problem then cry about it makes me girly in my eyes. Being girly isn’t wearing your hair out everyday, especially when you’re a ponytail girl. Does that consider me a man or a tomboy? Although I can sound like one at times? And that my hands aren’t exactly as soft as other girls? Guys look for the girly girls that show there girly interest on the outside of them, they look at them for what they wear, the color of there lip gloss, they shape of there butt of breast instead of the inside girly part of them. I’m considering about being the external girly, but would that change the way my special type of internal girly is? Or does it depend on the fact that I can keep my special type of girly while changing my look? To be both types of girly. I will try it out and make a deal. If my external girly interferes with my internal girly, I feel that it isn’t worth my new change. Dressing in jeans and a T- shirt, is something that makes me feel comfortable, but trying something new is something I’m willing to try out. In the end, I’m still me on the inside, that’s the one type of girly that wont change.

Emotional Abuse is a kind of abuse that no one can really see or visualize. Half the time, no one even knows it’s there. It happens to us all in our everyday lives even if we don’t notice it. There is no universal definition for what exactly emotional abuse is, everyone has their own definition for emotional abuse. The main thing about emotional abuse is that when it happens we aren’t exactly aware of it. We don’t know that it will affect us in the ways that it does. We may be thinking ‘oh it’s nothing I’ll get over it’ when someone is criticizing the way we do something or the way we speak or even how we are in general. Most people go for the looks that’s how they get you and next thing you know you have flaws and you don’t know where they came from or how you came to realize that they were even there in the first place. Emotional abuse takes a toll on how you live your life and who you truly believe that you are.
Some of the effects of emotional abuse are low self-esteem, isolation, desperation, the fear of ‘letting go’, severe anxiety, and withdrawal, overly passive, sleep disturbances, the inability to trust, frequent crying and depression. Sometimes when emotional abuse is inflicted on you, things that are told to you are burned into your subconscious and over a period of time these things, these insecurities, these flaws they taunt you. They make you over look yourself and feel like you aren’t good enough. You begin to believe these lies over time and you don’t realize it but you begin to admit to them as if you always had before and you allow yourself and your mind to believe that it was you who created this image, this flaw for yourself when indeed it was someone else. This is not the way that it is with everyone. Not all people have the same defense mechanisms.
To be honest emotional abuse has many different obstacles and it all depends on how you personally can handle situations that are thrown in your direction. Many people that I know have been through emotional abuse and they’re bad at dealing with situations that are thrown at them. It’s kind of like baseball; the batter never knows when the pitcher will throw him a curve ball. That’s how life is with emotional abuse and all things that occur in everyday life in general you never know what’s going to happen. Emotional abuse isn’t this fictional thing that people just make up it is real and it happens every day whether we like to admit it or not. We can’t just ignore this like it isn’t a world epidemic not to exaggerate or anything but emotional abuse in teens has increased 96% in the past five years. Dealing with this isn’t something anyone can handle by themselves. Most of the time emotional abuse isn’t recognized by how you’re feeling. It’s usually falls under the actions you take like for instance hurting yourself or others around you. I believe that the worse kind of abuse is the abuse that you cannot see. The abuse that happens behind closed doors. When no one can help you or hear you crying out for their help. This is indeed REAL and not at all a Myth in any which way.

“I find beauty in things that might not be beautiful to others,” says photographer, Kree Gumbs. His edgy style, eye for beauty, and amazing talent come off in every photo he shoots. Only 20 years old, this Brooklyn resident challenges what is trendy or hip and breaks barriers by juxtaposing what he sees as true beauty and what the world may categorize as beautiful. Initially, he began taking photographs for Myspace and his ability to capture moments continued to grow. Kree does not limit himself to a specific genre of photography. He takes pictures of anything that catches his eye from a parked yellow Lamborghini in Soho, NYC to a blue butterfly bush in his mother’s garden. “I like taking pictures of everything and anything that sparks my attention.” I attempted to get him to pick a favorite photo but Kree, like a proud father, loves all his pictures equally. He, however, feels what sets him apart from other young photographers is that he sees the world through a different pair of lenses. Kree sees beyond what is normal and what is accepted by society. He is never afraid to take a photograph that some may consider a risk. “I don’t feel people see what I see when I look at the world.” This theory reflects his idea that his photographs are taken based on his natural instinct to see beauty. It doesn’t take him long to catch a really stunning photograph “if the object is eye catching, I just focus and shoot,” says Kree. He is also interested in Video Editing, Graphic Design and “Anything Artsy.” Kree exemplifies the importance of youth engagement in the arts such as photography. I think Kree and I can agree that the world would be a rather boring place without art. It is amazing how he is able to touch so many different people of different ages, of different views, and perspectives with his photographs. Kree sees photography as an opportunity to express himself. It enables him to reveal to others a view of the world through his thick magnifying glasses.