Star Wars

"The Hero's journey is a journey into the center of yourself"


This is true for Luke because in the movie he not only felt deep down that his father, Darth Vader was good, but he had to search deep down inside himself. Reason I say this, is because in order to hold one's stand the way Luke had, he had to know himself, he had to trust in himself and he had to find that strength that one can only find within themselves. And how he held his ground and refused to kill him, it takes strength.
Now Darth Vader, perhaps it was a little harder for him seeing as he had said it was hard to resist the darkness, and that it was impossible, however, with the help of his son Luke, who refused to give up and refused to believe that he was all bad, he too searched inside himself and found that Luke was actually right. And with that, he gave his life to save his son. In the end, it was not only Luke who was the hero, but Darth Vader as well.

Community Service

Last winter we did another one of the joint musicals between Anderson and West Valley. However, this year it was big. This year we did “The Wizard of Oz” and seeing as it was such a big musical, it took a lot of man hours. There were the costumes, and the props, and the additional things to add to costumes such as hats. There was the dancing and the singing and the movements to perfect it. There was the time, and there were the big set pieces, and also, a new addition, the flight crew. I’m pretty sure that I worked over 20 hours with that play.
I helped out with things like cutting out the fabric, in which sometimes I would stay later or come earlier to help do so. There were the dances that I helped with, that I stayed late to watch and critique and add in my own ideas. Also, I had helped with the little kids so that they knew what to sing and what to do. I helped make the props which took a lot of hot glue, tap and anything else we could find at times.
Sure, it may have sounded easy, however it wasn’t. For one thing, wrapping the polls for the Winkies was not my idea of fun. It took a lot of time seeing as I am a perfectionist and I wanted the black tape to look nice going around the polls. Also, there were the flying monkey wings that I had to punch holes in. All they were made out of was plastic binders that they had spray painted black. Be that as it may, those holes were really hard to punch, however I didn’t mind it. Cutting out the patterns for some of the costumes wasn’t so bad actually. I kind of, in my own weird way had fun doing that part. I helped sew some weird plastic things to the masks they were going to use for the “Flying Monkeys” as well, making me feel cool because I was sewing something I literally couldn’t mess up.
I helped with the dances too. I actually helped more with the crows than anything else. I showed a few moves I thought would look cute to the dance instructor in which she gladly used. I also helped the crows clean their dance, counting out their steps so that the instructor could either work with another group or do something else she needed to do. Yes, we were all very busy. Oh, better yet, I had ended up going a few nights even when I wasn’t needed to help with other dances once I learned I wasn’t actually in it. A friend and I had made it up and practiced it with the group a few times.
All in all, I wouldn’t change a thing. It was fun helping out, knowing that if I hadn’t helped some of those things may not have gotten done. It was also nice to know that I was taking a little of the burden off the parents helping during the show. I guess you could say, I could understand how hard it was seeing as my grandmother had helped with “The King and I”, where she had sewn well over 200 costumes. That was very stressful, and so this year I could only imagine how bad it must have been for them.
One thing I learned from it was that things went better when there was help. No one person could have done all of that themselves. I also learned how grateful it could make a person when you help them take such a huge load off their back. It also made me think about my friend Chris Yost and how busy he must have been making all the things he had. Usually I just saw him and his friend Kelsi when he helped with our show. I don’t understand how he does it, but next time I see him, I’ll learn to ask him if he needs any help. (Not that I hadn’t before.)

Pakistan schooling

I don't agree with the way they are doing things. I think that everyone should have a fair chance at having an education. I mean, sure, we as Americans take school for granted a lot of the time. But honestly, if you think about it, if we weren't forced to go to school, most all of the students would still go anyway.
Anyway, in Pakistan, girls are not allowed to go to school unless they have wealthy parents who can pay to send their girls out of the country and the boys go to a religious school. I mean, if you only concentrated on religion, what else would you do in the world other than worry about upsetting God. These people, actually, it's mostly men, if all they know is religion, what is going to happen when they don't know much else?
As for how it will affect the world, I have no idea. I mean for some of us, we won't really think about it much like we don't really think about anything other than ourselves. I mean sure, it will mean that another country is going to be suffering, and we will donate money, and a lot of Pakistan women will be coming here or to other countries to get educations. There will be more suicide bombers and we will keep sending aid to said foreign country.
I mean I feel bad because most all of their country is and/or will be illiterate, but there really isn't much we can do. I understand that President Obama is worried about them, but he isn't their president so he can only do so much. And perhaps that will even anger them. It may just cause trouble, but beyond that, I don't see how it will affect the world.

Star Wars

In Star Wars, Luke is the hero. He has a lot of helpers. There are the two robots R2D2, C3PO, Princess Leia, Han Solo, Chubaka, and Obi One Canoby (Sp?). Also, his threshold guardian is Obi One Canoby (Sp?) seeing as he teaches Luke things and makes sure that Luke is safe, making sure to teach him even after he is gone, guiding him in the right direction. By the end of the movie, the hero has changed from a boy who wanted to be like his father, lost in the world that he lived in, to the man who saved a planet, fell in love and has confidence in himself. Although there is the tiny little piece of information he's missing when it comes to his falling in love with the princess, seeing as she is his sister, however, he doesn't know that yet.

I don't know what to say.

Five years ago, my cousin had died in a car crash. She had died instantly but it wasn't pretty. I remember having a chance to go in and see her but I had refused knowing that she wouldn't have wanted me to see her like that. I won't go into detail on how bad it was, all I know is that my mother used to cry and cry and cry about it. When I asked her, she just said, "Remember all those scary monsters in the movies that everyone tells you aren't real. It's just make up and fake skin. Well this was real. It wasn't your Nicole, it was a monster." In my head millions of pictures started morphing, trying to picture it but I just couldn't. She was my cousin, and I loved her to death...As far as I knew, she wasn't allowed to die. However, she had...I don't think it's ever really hit me, seeing as I still have the urge to call her on the phone and talk to her.
This story hits close to home in a lot of ways, and the more I think about it, the more I imagine pictures of Nicole popping up on the screen...the monster I was told of...I don't know how that girl Nikki's parents did it. As far as I'm concerned it is none of the public videos. It was none of those officers' either. What if it had been heir child? They wouldn't have liked it so well then. And as far as the myspace thing goes. It was no one Else's business either. I'm pretty sure they did it because they were just jealous because she had more money than they did. So what? Because they were mad that she had more than they did, so they decided they wanted to do cruel things. Nobody deserves to die like that. I don't care who the heck you are! Better yet, no one deserves to be treated like that after they've died. It is just sickening. People in this world have become so hateful1 It's like all their lives center around is money. That's all they want. Life is no longer centered around living, it is centered around money so that they can live after, and when it finally comes time to live, your life is almost up. Some people are fortunate, like Nikki,and I find myself wishing I had money too, but I would NEVER, I mean NEVER do something like that.
I'm just at a loss for words. There aren't enough words (not to mention appropriate words) that I could say to either express my opinion or much anything else about it.
I just keep thinking of my cousin and having her morbid picture posted all over the web. I just can't do it. And for other matters, no I don't think the new stations should be able to post it, especially without the family's consent.

Things NOT to learn in School.

One thing I did learn, a few days ago, is that a teacher CAN actually flunk a whole class. I have one teacher who was talking about grading the class as a whole, meaning that if the class average was a C, the whole class got a C. This would mean that if a bunch of people decided that they wanted to mess around and slack off, then every body's grade would suffer. That being said, the teacher would be flunking us all.

Another thing I learned if that there is more to learn and more you need to know than what's on the test. I have the perfect example. Cooking. There are things you need to do when cooking, things you need to know. And if you limit the things you tell yourself you need to know, and just memorize the little bit of things on the test, then you are in for a rude awakening. Like, sure, we learn how to bake cookies, and we know that will be on the test, so we study that part. However, what about the cakes. We didn't necessarily make those in class or study too terribly hard on those, but we would still need to know just in case, one day, we decide we want to bake a cake. Or if you go for a job in the industry. You would need to know these things.

I learned, last year, that it isn't always the teachers job to do the whole thing. They are there to guide you in the right direction. No, one person can control the way your mind works. They cannot control what you think or how you do it. They can only help you, guide you in the right direction so you can do so yourself. I learned this while I was in the subject I struggle with the most. That of course, happens to be math. And I had told the teacher one day that it was their job to teach me because they are the teacher, and I had believed that for so long. However, that day, when I went home, it hit me that it wasn't the truth. I had learned that lesson the hard way.

I learned that it doesn't matter how smart you are. It doesn't matter if someone else is flunking. Usually it is their own doing. You can never be too smart. There are things to learn everyday, and if you chose to overlook that for the sake of making others look bad, then you are only learning to let others control your life for you. I learned that even if a friend is flunking, at best, the only thing you can do is help them. You shouldn't have to make yourself look bad just for their sake.

I don't quite remember when I learned that even though 70% is a C and at least it's not a D. All I know is that you can only do your best. Sure a 70 is not great, especially with all those 80's and 90's. It's only half hearted. It means that you only tried so hard. However, there are also those, who do their best, and at best, to them a 70 is an 80-90. It is the best they had ever gotten. And it isn't because they weren't trying, it is because, they did their best. I'm not saying that a 70 is good and you should only try for a 70, however, some (like myself) can only get so far.

Also, I learned that not all tests are going to be multiple choice. It may be harder, but I figure, it's only so that it shows that you fully understand. That you actually remember. Like I had used in the previous, Cooking. You can't just walk around a kitchen hoping everything you do will have a four choice answer and one is going to be right. That would mean that you "wouldn't have to study as hard" because you wouldn't really have to wrack your brain to remember it. You'd think, hey, "I'll know it when I see it" and leave it at that, never really knowing anything, save for, "the answer is B".

Sometimes, there is not always a retest. I personally feel that they look bad. Not to mention I'm not any good at test anyway. I didn't really learn that, all I know is that after a while, the further up in school I got, the less teachers began to offer and I sort of just figured that on my own. I figured, do my best because that test is going to either bring my grade down, or higher it. (9 times out of 10 it lowered it.) So I figured, you can't always count on the redo. It's best not to get too used to it. That way you don't go into life expecting it, because life doesn't care. If you fall, it isn't going to wait for you and you can't just rewind and do it again.

That goes into the next, which is the fact that you don't necessarily get to pass, just because your buddies do. In jobs, they aren't going to say, "Oh since I'm going to higher you, I'm going to higher your friend too." If you chose to slack off, and your friend gets a job, tough luck. I guess that would mean you should either up your game, or hope to hell your friend likes you enough to help you out. You got yourself there, and it isn't their job to wait for you to make sure that you get somewhere too. It's like a 40 year old living with their mother and expecting her to cook, clean, work, and do everything else for you. It's just not right, and I kind of learned that myself.

File-Sharing

I think that file-sharing isn't great but some people just can't afford to keep buying CD's. And if the United States passed a similar law I would be very sad. I mean I'm someone who loves music. I listen to it night and day and without it, I am nothing. Also, when I hear a song and I have to have it, it bothers me, I get this...I don't know, my emotion just goes weird. I think it is because I am addicted to music. SO if the law was passed I know I would be greatly effected.

However, I think that a compromise could be, having a file sharing site that charges a certain monthly fee, not too expensive, but enough to give the artists, musicians, and other media half the profit. I think that would be an ok thing. Actually, I'm pretty sure that I would be willing to pay the monthly fee. They could charge a bit more for movies and tv shows, and a little less if someone just wanted the music. It could be things like that.

Perhaps that could have a site or something where you could listen to the music for free. Not necessarily have it to download unless you wanted to pay for it, but just be able to listen to the songs all you want. That could be another one, another compromise I mean. Because I mean you can listen to music on iTunes, but it's only 30seconds. Beggars can't be choosers though.

Intellectual property is someone Else's property, someone Else's art and I think that if I were an artists, I probably wouldn't like it either. However, I would also know that there are some things you can't stop. I think I would at least be a bit happy that I got a little profit off of the programs that charged. I mean as long as I had money to pay the bills and not be scrapping for Cash I think I would be ok. And with the way the economy is, you KNOW someone is going to find a way to get music free. Because $14.oo may not seem like it is that much, however, with the economy, it actually is. And paying that much money for a CD, you can't. Not unless you have a lot of money.