Christmas

I am writing this on December 14th, 2009. Which means that Christmas is quickly approaching. It is 11 days away. Unlike the past years, I have not made a wish list this season. Instead, I went out with my mom and my friend on Black Friday at 4 in the morning and I picked out my own gifts. I got a Playstation 3 video game for $30 and a Playstation 3 controller for $30 also. My biggest gift is an HP laptop from P.C. Richard and Son's for $350. It was an amazing deal. Now that I know most of presents, you would think that Christmas would not be exciting for me. Actually, I think this is the most excited I have been for Christmas simpy because I can't wait to use my new things that I picked out almost a month ago.

Heart-Breaker

This weekend, my Florida Gators played the Alabama Crimson Tide for the SEC Championship game. The Gators were undefeated and ranked #1 in all of College Football. If the Gators won the game, they would be selected to play in the BCS National Championship Game. My dad and I were expecting a win against Alabama so we were already planning a vacation to Pasedena, California to watch the National Championship game. Contrary to what we expected, the Gators didn't even show up. Alabama crushed Florida by a score of 32-13. We were all dissapointed. I turned down a vacation to South Florida over winter break so that I could save my money for a ticket to see the Gators in the Championship, but now my plans, and dreams, are crushed. I would say, "There's always next year". But in this case, there is no hope for next year. Our leader, motivator, and star quarterback, Tim Tebow, is graduating and moving on to the NFL (best of luck to him). Without Tebow, we have a completely different team. Not that our back-up quarterback is bad, but he is nothing compared to Tebow and he plays a different kind of quarterback than Tebow, which means that our offense will have to be re-made during the offseason for this upcoming season. Of course, Tebow still has one more college game to play. The Allstate Sugar Bowl on New Year's Day. People would debate that it is an important game because it is one of the top 5 bowls in the league but compared to what should have been, it means nothing. "Gator Nation" is now mourning the loss of not only our star quarterback, but our season's hopes and expectations.

Students Grade Expectations

Students work very hard for their grades. Most students expect at least a B, assuming that they do all the work required. That is not always the case. Depending on how hard a course you are taking, doing the minimum amount of work will not get you a B anymore. Yes, that worked in elementary school and middle school, but it will not work now in high school. I have many classes where I cannot simply read the book or do the worksheet to achieve a decent grade. I really have to buckle down and do extra practice problems and study a little bit longer than I usually would. An example of this would be my AP Physics class. We have a homework quiz basically every day in that class. Every night, I take notes on the sections that the quiz is on and then I do the practice problems in the back of the chapter based off of the reading. I know of many people who don't even so much as read the section and they recieve C's and D's on the quizes. They cannot expect more than that if they don't go the extra mile and read what they should read to help them comprehend the information. Although hard work doesn't necessarily mean that you should get an A or a B, hard work is crucial to earning those grades. Just because you did the extra work doesn't mean that you will get that high grade, but without working for it, you stand no chance whatsoever of getting a good grade.

This blog is in response to this NY Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/education/18college.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=student%20expectations%20seen%20as%20causing%20grade%20disputes&st=cse

Texting

I believe texting has its pros and its cons. Personally, I am all for texting, except for certain circumstances. I think that texting is a great, easy, and stress-free way of communicating with your peers or your family members. Texting is so convenient that anyone can send or recieve a message at any time. I always text my mom if I need to ask her something or if I'm in a place where it would be rude to talk on the phone, you can multi-task and keep multiple conversations going. It's a great way to keep in touch with everything going on around you. Texting does have it's cons though. It is a huge, huge distraction. If I'm sitting in my room working on my homework, my phone will light up and buzz and I feel some unexplicable necessity to answer it immediately. If my phone goes off while I am thinking about my homework, it completely ruins my train of thought. There is a simple solution to this; turn off the phone. It's really not that hard. Even as a teenager, I know that I need to get my work done. So when it comes time to buckle down and work on the things I need to accomplish, I know I need to turn off my phone. And I do it. Once I turn off my phone, it almost cuts my time in half. It definitely is a distraction, but it is easy to avoid.

This blog is in response to this web article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/26/health/26teen.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=texting%20may%20be%20taking%20a%20toll&st=cse

I agree with a few of the things that this article says, but I feel that this article portrays texting as a terrible thing that could eventually one day cause the Apocolypse. Obviously, I don't agree with that. Although there are some bad things about texting, I believe that its benefits are far more important than its negatives.

The Purple Fuzzies

Alright so, one day there was this kid. He was in 3rd grade and he was required to do a research project on anything he wanted. He decided to do his project on the Purple Fuzzies. He has heard about this before and has always wondered what it meant. So he went up in front of the class and told his audience that he would be doing his project on the Purple Fuzzies. As everyone in the class gasped in horror at the sound of those words, the teacher kicked him out of the class and told him to go home and never come back. He didn't know why he was so rudely kicked out of his school. So when he got home, he told his mom what had happened. At the mention of the term 'Purple Fuzzies', his mom screamed at him to get out and that he was disowned from his family. Sad and lonely, the boy walks down the street until he encounters a police officer. The boy asked the police officer what the Purple Fuzzies were because now it is really bothering him. The police officer immediately slams him into the ground and arrests him. After getting kicked out of his school, kicked out of his family, and thrown into jail, he decides to ask his jailmates what the Purple Fuzzies were. Because of this, every day for the next 40 years that he is in jail, he gets brutally beaten by his jailmates for asking about the Purple Fuzzies. 40 years later, when he finally gets let out of jail, he is wondering around the desert when he stumbles upon a bar. After getting thrown out of school, kicked out of the family, thrown in jail, and getting beaten every day of his life, he really needs to know what the Purple Fuzzies are. So after a few drinks, he stands up on the bar and shouts, "WHAT ARE THE PURPLE FUZZIES?!". For the first time in his life, no one responded. The bar tender turned to him and asked, "Do you really wanna know what they are?" Of course the man does. So he responds with a yes. The bar tender then tells him that there is an all-knowing lady living across the street and she will gladly answer his question. Immediately, he jumps out of his seat and runs out the door. As he was crossing the street to finally hear his answer that he's been looking for for 50 years, he gets hit by a bus and dies. The end.

Driving

So, I recently had a birthday. This was a very special birthday, because it permitted me to drive for the first time (legally) in my life. As the state laws unfortunately require, I had to drive a total of 6 hours with a licensed driving instructor. It went really well and I passed with flying colors. But, like all inexperienced drivers, I need a lot of work.