Quarter 3- Journal 2: Loving

Last night, I was at a sleep over. The statement wasn't analyzed too much, but someone said "you can't love with your heart, you love with your brain." and to an extent, that makes sense. Biologically, your heart is just an organ, and therefore can't really feel things. Your brain is what analyzes the person you love, from all the feelings you get when you see them, talk to them, or if you're just with them. But why is it then, that if you think you love someone, and you think about them, that you feel it in your heart? Is it because your brain sends messages to your body, saying that it should be felt in your chest cavity, or is it because we actually love with our hearts, and lust with our brains. I am convinced that some part of us must love, and it cannot be our brains. Our brains are such selfish tools, and I feel as though they function for what's best for they body they're in. I think love is selfless, and therefore you must love with something else. And since the symbol for love is a heart, why not say that we do, indeed, love with our hearts?

Quarter 3- Journal 1: Quiz Bowl

This weekend, I participated in a quiz bowl tournament, which was actually really fun. My team was Ian Kropp, Reshma, Emilie, Brian Katona and myself, and we ended with a 4-3 record. The thing about quiz bowl, is, that I feel that I work really well with momentum in this game, and really poorly without it. For instance, when we won our first game, I felt great going into round 2. Round 2 was close the entire time, and the adrenaline helped there, but unfortunately, we lost by just 2 points. This absolutely ruined my momentum going into the third match, mainly because I knew the answers to two of the lightning questions, but wasn't fast enough on the buzzer. Round 3 was lost, but by a considerable amount of points. In round 4, I still wasn't feeling too hot, but we ended up winning, which was great. Then we went to lunch with a tied record, and coming off with a win. Coming out of lunch, I tried to be optimistic, and it worked. We won our fifth match. Despite going in with a good momentum for our sixth match, we lost, just because the other team was incredibly good. Then the seventh match came, and momentum or not, i was raring to win. Our record was tied 3-3, and I wanted it badly. Crazily enough, we won by one point! I was so happy, and we ended with a 4-3 record. So despite our winning record not really reflecting how much momentum affects the game, I definitely think it affected my game. I need to try and work on that...

The Natural Disaster in Haiti

If you don't know this, crawl out from under the rock you're living in. Haiti experienced an earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter Scale. This unfortunate country keeps getting attacked by natural disasters, such as the hurricane that hit there in 2008, costing them nearly one billion dollars. Luckily, a lot of people have jumped to help with the cause. For instance, you can text Haiti. to 90999, which will donate ten dollars to the cause, which will be charged on your phone bill. All phone companies currently support this option. Moreover, you can donate any amount of money through various charities and corporations to help the people who are struggling in Haiti. This demonstrates that while mankind is greedy by nature, they are compassionate as well. Although the estimate is not as high as before, they are estimating that 450,000 people died in Haiti. This is still a ridiculous tragedy, and its awful that this had to happen to these people. I hope that people continue to contribute to the people suffering in Haiti. Unfortunately, things like this die down, and after a short period of time, people begin to believe that these people do not need help anymore. Contrarily, they do. I hope that companies and charities will promote donations months in advance as well, because the damage that was done is not repairable over a short period of time.

"Girls marry their fathers, and boys marry their mothers"

It IS sort of an awkward expression, isn't it? Anyway, I think it holds true in a lot of relationships. If you're lucky enough to be friends with both parties of a couple, and know their parents, you can sort of see that the boyfriend acts like the girl's dad, meanwhile, the girlfriend acts like the boy's mom. I think it makes sense, since people are most likely to be inclined to date the type of person that they grew up with. While this is a natural instinct, it displays something unfortunate about American society. It shows that American society does not adapt well to change. If American society were able to adapt to change, people would experiment and date people outside of their comfort zone, perhaps getting a better feel for who they would actually want to marry. Unfortunately, this is not the case in America, as most people date, and therefore, marry, within their comfort zone, causing a lack of uniqueness in America. I think that people should really date out of their comfort zone, so all of the daddy's girls, give the bad boys a chance every once in a while!

Cliques

Cliques is the cliched word to describe high school. Unfortunately, it's also pretty accurate. Even if you're not in a clique, you're in a clique. There's really no way to avoid them, you can only be vacuumed into them. Even if one is elusive of cliques, they are cast away as someone who is not in a clique, and therefore, put into a clique via societal judgments. It's also remarkable that all cliques are stereotyped by other cliques, display how judgmental America is. The "populars" stereotype everyone to be below them and not as good looking. The "jocks" consider everyone to be less strong than they are. The "nerds" consider everyone to be less smart than they are. In the defense of each group, I would have to say that I am friends with quite a few from each group, and none of those stereotypes are always true. They are true sometimes though. This also reveals that stereotypes derive from factual matters, whether or not they're exaggerated. Cliques are just an unfortunate part of the high school experience that adapting to will only make you stronger and better quipped for the real world.

Idol, you cash cow!!!

So as a family tradition, I partake in watching American Idol every year. It's season 9. Whoop-de-doo. American Idol would be a much better show with a few slight adjustments. First of all, the auditions need to change. They show way too many bad auditions, and not enough of the people who do very well in their auditions. I watch American Idol to find the next superstar, not to see people make fools of themselves on national television. Unfortunately, this money-making move only reflects how American society feeds off of others' woe. Secondly, the panel of judges needs to change. Randy is a music producer, but is incredibly trite. He can go. Secondly, Ellen... I think she's hilarious, but I don't exactly know how she could give accurate music advice. She can go. Kara is nice enough, but still very realistic, and makes for a good judge. Simon probably best represents the kind of criticism that these contestants need to hear. Unfortunately, Ellen and Randy are on the panel because Idol wants to associate itself with as many celebrities as possible. I just wish Idol were more about the contestants, and not about the show making money. Unfortunately, this reflects America, and how truly money-hungry our society is.

The Biggest Loser

This is actually a reality show with a great premise. Each season, 16-22 contestants go on as individuals, or with a family member or friend in order to lose massive amounts of weight in a short amount of time. The two latest winners lost 55% of their body weight! The epic televised changes are displayed with the hope that it will motivate others in America, and help solve the obseity problem in America. Did you know that we spend more money on obesity issues than cancer issues each year? Now once a person is on the ranch, they are trained two of the best physical trainers in America: Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels. Now Bob is a bit more athletic, and seems a bit more experienced, most likely due to age, but I would still pick Jillian as my trainer. She has a different tactic of training than Bob. She breaks down the contestant psychologically, in an attempt to find the root of their excessive weight gains, or why they have never done anything about it. Once she figures this out from the introverted contestants, she is able to attack the issue at it's roots, and the contestant can grow as a person, while shrinking in the physical sense. The psychological and physical synergistic effects of The Biggest Loser make it one of the best reality shows on television.

Cheaters never prosper...

It's cliche, but it's totally true. Let's look at it in a gaming perspective. If someone cheats, and is caught, they are immediately thrown out of a game, so therefore they don't win. This is assuming that the point of playing said game is to win. If someone cheats, does not get caught and does not win, then they do not achieve what they want anyway. If someone cheats, gets away with it, and wins, then they won, yes. But they had to be insecure and crazy enough to do it with an unfair advantage. Beating someone by cheating is like beating a mute person in a verbal debate. Whoop-de-doo. Too bad it was completely unfair, and there's no self-reward for cheating like that. So if you cheat, you either get caught, don't win, or win and don't feel like a winner. Conclusively it feels much more rewarding to win the right way, knowing that you did it yourself. Now for a school perspective... If you cheat in highschool, you get a 0 for that assignment/test, and life goes on, except you have a worse grade. If you cheat in college, you get a 0 for everything, get thrown out, and you have to put that on every college you apply for henceforth. If you cheat, and don't get caught, there's always the possibility of the person that you cheated off of being wrong, worsening your grade. And then, if you get away with it, you're fine if you want to live with that guilt for the rest of your life. So yeah, cheaters never prosper. DON'T CHEAT