Another comment...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/boston-bombing-suspect-cites-us-wars-as-motivation-officials-say/2013/04/23/324b9cea-ac29-11e2-b6fd-ba6f5f26d70e_allComments.html?wp_login_redirect=0

We've been blaming the president(s) and wars, etc.I don't think the bombing was Bush or Obama's fault. I don't think we should point fingers and people who never wanted this to happen. Bush didn't go to war so he could get the Marathon bombed. The fault truly lies with the two brothers. Of course it was possible to take measures, for example, finding a way to get the information from Russia on the older brother, or monitoring him, etc., but I don't think we can blame others too much.

Articles

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/judge-atheist-group-takes-separation-of-church-and-state-too-far-on-ground-zero-cross/2013/04/07/9551c8be-9fb3-11e2-9c03-6952ff305f35_story.html

The cross should be in the museum because it was a symbol of hope to people. I'm sure people would have taken this as a form of love, even after such a horrible event. For someone to try to keep it from being displayed, something that meant a lot to someone is, to me, a very selfish act. I definitely agree that the separation of church and state is not the separation of religion and public life. This is something that helped people with their grief and we should allow it to be memorialized. Anything that helped others in this way is worth keeping.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/feds-4-ny-nj-airports-didnt-follow-safety-training-rules-agency-cites-paperwork-issue/2013/04/08/3f5d3406-a08b-11e2-bd52-614156372695_allComments.html?ctab=all_&

I think it’s horrible that the Port Authority didn’t make sure that it’s officers were properly trained.  I’ve flown through JFK several times, and such a big airport in such an important city would be a huge terrorist target, as it has been in the past.  It is also one of the busiest and many people could be killed or injured if something were to happen.  LaHood is spot on when he says he “expects all airports to ‘comply with our safety regulations and to correct any deficiencies immediately.”  Not only is it safe for everyone, the airport and it’s governing body have a duty to make sure passengers are safe.

Lists and Poetry

Lists:

10 things I know to be true:

• My religion
• Gravity
• My family relationships/love
• That water is really good for you
• I have good talents
• I love to travel
• I love my family
• I hate layovers more than 3 hours
• I enjoy the arts

10 objects I can't live without:

• My family
• The computer
• Food
• Water
• Cadburry Eggs
• Contigo water bottles
• TV
• Religion
• Pens
• Paper

10 things I should have learned by now:

• How to do homework faster
• How to be more patient
• How to exercise better, more
• How to take more to-the-point notes
• What # and @ really mean
• How to be less stressed
• How to cite books in MLA/how to cite in MLA off the top of my head
• How to be less stressed
• How to not used to-be verbs
• How to read fast/speed read
• How to get around confusing airports

10 of my greatest fears:

• Me or someone I love will be harmed in some sort of terrorist attack
• Me or someone I love will get kidnapped
• My plane with crash
• My plane will get hijacked
• Me or someone I love will get in a car crash
• Someone in my family will die (or I'll die and they'll be sad)
• Me or someone I love will die of bacteria in infected food
• That me or someone I love will drown
• Me or someone I love will get killed by a serial killer
• That when I have a full time job as an adult, I'll get fired.

I know, my fears are weird and a lot of times irrational.

10 things, places, people, etc. that make me the most happy?

• My mom
• My dad
• My brothers
• My dog
• Poipu Beach, Kauai, Hawaii
• Traveling
• Hawaii
• Restaurants/Going out to eat
• Bookstores
• Walking out of the building on the last day of school
• Desserts

10 places I will visit before I die:

• England
• France
• Prague
• Germany
• Maui
• New Zealand
• Australia
• Japan
• Boston
• Estonia
• Russia

Self Portrait Poem:

Coleman

Happy, Busy, Annoyed-at-times

Calvin and Cy

Love of family, religion, and travel

Who feels happy, stressed, successful

Who needs family, religion, and food

Who fears untimely demises, kidnappers, and serial killers

Who gives friendship, attention, and help
Who would like to see England, Paris, and New Zealand
Who lives in a place not to be disclosed on the Internet.
P

That was quite a poem, I must say.

Blog Reviews: Travel

Blog 1: Delta Air Lines' blog Under the Wing:
http://blog.delta.com/

The design of Delta's blog is phenomenal.  The sleek and modern Delta brand is very present on the site, as on their main page.  It has a professional, modern, in-style look, though at the same time very simple.  The focus on the blog was all about travel.  The posts ranged from their on-time performance, to a couple that through them.  The content and writing style on the site is also very understandable and modern.  It has a modern voice.  The grammar and punctuation is also correct.  It message effectiveness to keep customers up to date and even advertise Delta's "goodness" is present, or rather very effective.  The website audience is definitely customers, frequent flyers, and future customers.  The authors on the blog are many different Delta employees.

Blog 2: My View from the Middle Seat:
http://myviewfromthemiddleseat.com/

I thought this blog was amazing.  It's design was creative, but not overwhelming.  The focus of the site was on traveling.  A traveler tells her stories of travel, obviously.  One of her posts was about New York City, and had beautiful pictures of Midtown.  She also has a story on a "missing" rental car.  The content is easily readable and I like it a lot.  The writing style is slightly tongue-in-cheek.  When looking it over, I saw one grammar mistake.  To me the message was to experience different things, and the blog made me want to/excited to try new things.  I think the website audience is for travelers and those who want to travel.  The author is a traveler herself who loves New York and who said at many places, get the local experience.

Blog 3: Johnny Jet:
http://www.johnnyjet.com/

I thought the design of the layout was lacking, looking slightly tacky, crowded, and worn-out.  The focus was on travel, airlines, and getting cheap airline tickets.  I was glad that it talked about airlines and airlines tickets because that stuff interests me.  The content was all about travel so it matched perfectly.  The writing style was good, even though the posts were "random," stretching from LAN Airlines to when to use your frequent flyer miles.  The writing was grammatically correct.  The message of travel tips was very effective.  Because the blog catered to my interests, I wanted to click on every post and read.  It was very attention grabbing for me.  The audience for this blog are travelers, budget travelers, and many others.  The author, Johnny, said that the blog was for everyone, and that he originally started as emails to other traveler friends.

Out of the Ordinary?

My life during the school year is always crazy, though not that interesting.  It's not interesting because I do homework all the time so I never do anything else....  But hey, this is life, right? However this week, I broke my normal pattern of waking up at 6:30, going to school, possibly going to play rehearsals when school get out, and then staying up till I need to go to sleep doing homework.  

Me and my family went to St. George (I know, what crazy change).  

However, I was able to feel what it is to really relax again and realize a lot.  

My high school experiences have helped me realize I need to go to another school, but taking this time was really cleansing.  For once I was able to sit, actually sit, without waiting for the guillotine to fall.  I had nothing to do, which was amazing.  True, I spent the majority of first day reading for Socratic, but that night and the following three days were awesome.

My problem is that I have this strict and weird "work before play" mindset. I know but always fail to head is that when I work all day, there's no more time to "play." That's what made me spend my entire day reading an over-the-top book assignment and spending the three-hour car ride doing future-assignments in Chemistry that I would miss while I was gone.  The car ride down was horrible because it wasn't fun at all and acids and bases were very hard to wrap my mind around.  That was why I stayed up till 2 a.m. trying to read my Socratic book for school.

I get annoyed a lot (I'm not exaggerating) at teachers who assign inordinate amounts of homework and don't follow the rules of keeping core class homework within 30 minutes, etc.  But, I feel like I have some sort of right to this.  I'll use blogging for an example.  When I was ten, I created a blog, that would be updated for the next three years. It was great; it was fun, enjoyable, and I always looked forward to getting comments for my sometimes many-times-a-day posts. True, I sort of grew out of it, but one reason I stopped posting was because...

there was simply no time.

I started eighth grade at this school, and time for me vanished immediately.  Because I had no time, posts only showed up after several months.  My amount of time hasn't changed.  As I said before, after being here for three years now, it's time for me to leave.

But, my lack of blog posts, creative projects, happiness, etc. isn't just the school's fault, it's also mine.  My "work before play" mindset is what also led to all of this.  If I could just put chemistry, geometry, Socratic away for once, I could have some (but I do mean some) free time.  Things would be a lot different.
I have a lot to offer the world.  I really feel like I was born to do more than just slave over sky-high amounts of homework every day of my life.  The two things stopping me from doing what I need to do are over-the-top homework and my own mindset.  If I can get to a place where I can make both of these manageable I know my life will be a lot better and I will be able to do what I was born to do, as well as be a lot more happy.  Please don't think I'm saying "I'm not going to do homework anymore because it's getting in the way of my 'mission.'" I'm not, I'm totally going to to my homework still.  I'm just saying I need to balance my life out better.

Creative=Interesting

How can I use my talents and interests to "join the conversation" online? This may be a different response, but I think making your blog visually interesting, like using different fonts or formatting in unique ways, is important.  I'm creative, so this comes easy for me, though any of us can do it.  It always bugs me when people say "I'm not creative." I disagree.  Everyone is, they just have to let themselves.  By making your work interesting, others will want you to join the "conversation."