Why don't we read dictionaries?

            Why I don’t read dictionaries in my free time? So teachers are always saying how us students and kids of this generation need to expand our vocabulary because we don’t know squat. Well, there is a reason I don’t read dictionaries in my free time, and I feel like this isn’t just me, but also is the same for other kids around my age.

            My first reason for not reading dictionaries is ain’t nobody got time for dat! Like the amount of homework we get in classes each day is ridiculous! It’s like teachers think that we can function with no food, no sleep, and no social life. I don’t know about anybody else (I’m guessing it’s the same with other people too, since humans don’t like to be alone), but I would go insane without social contact! Like I’ll start talking to my cat if I don’t talk to anyone for a really long amount of time, and I’m not just meaning like texting someone, I mean face to face interaction. Which while I’m on the topic of having a social life it is also equally ridiculous when you try talking to friends during class and your teacher is like socializing is for other time. Oh please, you tell me what other time since during passing time you have to quickly get to class, during lunch you’re eating, and then all the time outside of school is dedicated to sports and homework. But anyway back to my original point, I don’t have time to  read the dictionary and expand my vocabulary because if I were to do that I’d be like the walking dead (well, I kind of already look like the walking dead with the lack of sleep I get…). So my solution to this dilemma is for teachers to give us some words that we don’t know so we can actually expand our vocabulary because were supposedly at school to learn, so we should be learning vocabulary!

            Second reason I don’t read dictionaries. Have you ever actually tried to read a dictionary? It makes no sense! It’s like I’m trying to read a different language because none of it processes in my head. Oh, what’s hilarious is when you look up the word for a word you don’t know and then it gives you a definition that is another word you don’t know. You just got to love when that happens, not.  So anyway, dictionaries are boring, and it’s really thick too! You know how many words are in the English language? A LOT! I don’t exactly know the ‘exact’ number, but I just know it’s a number I wouldn’t care to know (if that makes any sense at all?)

            Lastly, I’ll give one more reason why I don’t read dictionaries in my free time. I just really don’t care too much to actually expand my vocabulary. I mean it’s not like I’m the one bitching about needing to expand my vocab. I think I talk very rad, and it makes me, me. By learning new words it would change my view on the world, because knowledge is the key to life, and I’d rather live in my fantasy world and just be myself. So dictionaries…..Read them or don’t. And if you really want to expand your vocabulary I suggest using a thesaurus, I feel like it would be so much more useful. 

Uglies

            Uglies is a book by Scott Westerfeld that is all about plastic surgery and living in a conformed society. In regards to my last blog post, Mean Girls, this blog post is going to be centered on the same idea of beauty/ugliness.

            So all the way back in 7^th grade (wow, four years ago, I’m getting old) I read a book for my language arts class called Uglies. I actually chose to read this book because it was back when the language arts teachers I had let us read what we wanted that wasn’t made only in the 19^th century. So the goal of the class was to read this 425 page book; which I had already wanted to read it, so I finished it all over the weekend and began to read the next book in the series. So this series actually has four books in it the first is called Uglies, the second Pretties, the third Specials, and the fourth Extras. I have read all four of the books, my opinion the fourth book isn’t all that great, but the series as a whole is a rather simple to comprehend and has a well established story line going.

            So now to actually talk about the book and not just tell my own personal narrative of how/why/when I read the book (oh, I forgot to add I had wanted to read it because my sister had read it before). I’m not going to lie, I hardly remember the exact details of this series because I’ve read so many series that sometimes I mess up names and details from one series into another, but considering I have the book sitting right next to me as I’m blogging this blog post….I can tell you that the main character is Tally and she has a friend named Shay who is quite rebellious. Anyway, the main thing to get from this story (at least the first book) is that society shouldn’t be conformed in the way that you have to get plastic surgery to be controlled by the government.

Now that I’m thinking of the series as a whole I feel like if I reread the series I would probably understand the concepts better than I did when I was in 7^th grade….But I really do think this series teaches a lot about loving who you are and you don’t need to be ‘pretty’. At the beginning of the book that’s all that Tally could hope for is becoming pretty, but really prettiness is all a matter of perspective and if Tally and all the other people in the book would have just realized they already are pretty than the government would never have been controlling them. I just think that this was a very fulfilling series to read, and though I don’t remember a lot of it, I remember the main ideas and think that this is an amazing book for middle schoolers and even some high schoolers to read because it’s all about accepting yourself (and being a rebel!)

Mean Girls

            Mean Girls came out ten years ago starting on Wednesday. The ‘anniversary’ of Mean Girls is April 30^th and that happens to be this Wednesday (always wear pink on Wednesdays.)Why is Mean Girls still popular and people still make references from this movie if it came out ten years ago?

            So the first to know about Mean Girls is it centers on the cliques of high school like the whole plastics, nerds, potheads, and all those different labels. For about the past month different pictures have been making references to Mean Girls by different rules from the movie like the wearing pink on Wednesdays, only wearing your hair up once a week, and no sweatpants. Also of course Twitter, Tumblr, and all the different social networking sites have been making quotes from the movie that are just hilarious (which I won’t share if your that curious either watch the movie or look it up).

            We come back to the question, why is this movie popular? Well first thing this movie is hilarious it has all the drama in high school, romance, bitchy fake girls, and just the way they talk is humorous, totally talk more valley girl than I do. Another reason that this movie is popular is it like I said in the former sentence it has romance and fighting over who will end up getting the cute guy in the movie, Aaron. The movie portrays some pretty hilarious scenarios/situations of Regina and Cady fighting for Aaron.

            The reason my friends and I seem to like this movie is because though it seems to over exaggerate the situation of cliques and girls being mean it honestly couldn’t be closer to the truth. In high school people get made fun of all the time for their appearance and not how they are as a person. It seems that usually the ‘plastics’ or popular people are so focused on their appearance that nothing else about themselves matter. I feel like that is kind of how it is in high school, so many girls are so focused on their appearance, so they can have that cute guy in their class to notice them. Women totally subject themselves to men and making themselves is what they think guys want and if that means getting a nose job like Regina in Mean Girls than girls will look into it.

            Mean Girls is a comedy, but the movie definitely has truth in the dialogue. Girls (even some guys) talk behind each other’s backs and gossip to try to fit in and it’s kind of just human nature to want to talk about yourself and other people because we all love to compare ourselves to others. I think that’s why Mean Girls is still popular to this day, because there is truth in how girls treat one another and if girls can just open their eyes and not start rumors about others maybe, just maybe, high school wouldn’t seem too bad.

                                                        

Spelling

            Spelling in life doesn’t seem like it would be all that important, I mean we start spelling tests and everything as soon as we learn to write. But that’s the thing, no one really seems to know how to spell anything. So why are people unable to spell simple words anymore?

            The major thing is that people will talk face to face and use that as a form of communication. The other big thing is more people text, tweet, email, and communicate through electronics. Now that’s the thing you think that since people would be using these devices that it would increase their ability to actually spell words correctly, but it doesn’t. Spell check is used widely now usually before you send something via electronically then you’ll spell check it if it’s an important email or in cases of texting you’ll use texting lingo which usually no one uses correct punctuation, grammar, or even spell words correctly since no one wants to take the few extra seconds to actually type on their keyboard correctly. This was very common in some of the first cell phones since spell check wasn’t a real big thing a couple of years back, but now with cell phones like the iphone it automatically corrects your spelling errors, so that there is no need to know how to spell. Honestly, it’s pretty pathetic if you get some people to try to spell simple words and they just can’t do it! It’s like they never learned the rules to grammar and keep an e in a word that you’re supposed to drop off the e and just add ing.

            But if you go on Twitter or Facebook or any other websites (maybe even possibly blogging) people are spelling words incorrectly and it’s getting to the point where it’s just incredibly sad since some people are in college and high school and they can’t even spell words like management correctly. Texting and texting lingo has completely altered the way people write papers even during class. For example a teacher tells a student to handwrite a paper and the student will want to type it on the computer since there is no spell check when you handwrite a paper. I think it would be very interesting to see the differences between a paper typed up on the computer and a handwritten paper to see how many words people spell wrong. Even in books now in days, it’s really easy to find errors in books, publication companies need to hirer better people to check for grammatical errors and spelling errors all throughout the book because many books I’ve read before have errors.

            Overall, in high school language arts teachers should start with spelling tests again because it’s pretty pathetic if people are spelling even simple words incorrectly, just look at what some people have posted online, it makes absolutely no sense!

The Role Music Plays

            Imagine a movie without any music in it, pretty quiet right? Music plays an essential role in how you are supposed to feel during a movie. For instance think of any movie you have ever watched; was there music there to make you feel a certain way? If so then you probably see where I'm coming from when I say music is everything.

            I’m a big listener of music, it’s actually quite sad how much time I spend listening to music. I listen to music during passing time, while doing homework, when I’m taking a shower, in the car, and just about all the time! I think on average I listen to about 5 or more hours of music PER day. But how does this relate to putting music into movies? When going through the movie the director (or honestly whichever job gets the role of music) goes through the movie and adds in music in a certain spot to make you feel a certain emotion. For example, during a horror film the instrumental music is usually used to make you feel more frightened because you end up anticipating something bad is going to happen and then boom, you jump a little. What makes up a great horror film is definitely having music in the correct spots. So next time you’re watching a horror film think of how it would be without the music.

            Music doesn’t just have to be in horror films, it’s in every type of movies like romantic, sci-fi, action, comedies, and of course musicals. But what makes them determine what music to use? Well, first off if they want the movie to sell, usually they’ll end up using music that people like. Obviously not everyone likes the same genres of music, but usually theirs a majority that like a certain type for this day in age I would probably guess it being rap, pop, or dub-step (which I consider to be electronica, but others look at me like I’m crazy when I say that). But if they had music that people found annoy they might end up reinforcing the idea of annoying music and this movie and then end up hating movies like that.

            Another thing is music can get people to actually watch the movie. I like a lot of different types of genres, but if I see a commercial on the telly with a song I love or by an artist I love then I might watch that movie just because of the music it played. This happened with the Great Gatsby to be honest, I love Nero, and I think their music is great, so since I liked that artist I decided to watch the Great Gatsby. I’m not saying that will happen to everyone, I’m just giving an example of when it occurred for me. Also music at the beginning of the movie might influence what you think of the movie. I love the Fast and the Furious movies, and the 6^th movie that came out had the song We Own It at the beginning and I thought it was catchy, which influenced what I thought of the overall movie.

            Music is all around us. I mean you can try to cut music from your life, but it’s in shows, movies, commercials, on the radio, and just everywhere. So whether you like certain genres it is true that music will affect how you react to a movie because it will make anticipate a certain moment, or emphasis that moment. 

Going to the Movies or Not?

            Why people should or shouldn’t go to the movies? Everyone gets really bored every once in a while and usually a solution to this problem is why don’t we go to the movies and go check out a movie that looks not half bad? Well, there (in my opinion) are some good reasons to go see movies and some really bad reasons as to why you shouldn’t see movies.

            The first reason I have is that if it’s nice outside, seeing a movie is probably not the best choice. Since movies take place indoors you shouldn’t waste the beautiful day by spending it inside watching a movie, go play sports, go for a walk, or honestly do anything, but waste the beautiful day spending it by watching a movie inside the theaters. Now there is exceptions to this rule like if there’s an outdoor theater then it’s okay to go watch a movie because you’re outside. One reason that you should go to a movie in regards to the weather as well is if it’s raining, no one likes the rain and unless you want to go dance outside in the rain (which I actually love to do…) then seeing a movie is probably the best choice if you want to get out of the house and actually DO something, but keep in mind there is so much more to do then just see a movie. Oh, and of course it’s during the winter, no one ever wants to actually do anything we like to store our fat, or you know just don’t want to do anything in the cold. But usually, people can never think of what to do, (especially in Iowa), but you just have to be creative and not always go with doing the boring things.

            Another reason to not go to the movies is that it’s pricey. I mean considering a ticket is about $9 and once the movie comes out on DVD you can buy it for like the same price. Also the food there is not even worth it, add all this together for going to the movie and you end up spending too much on just wanting to see a movie. So if you want to see a movie I’d do it maybe every once in a while like once a month or something (besides there is other activities besides seeing a movie.) In contradiction to that, maybe you just love seeing a movie with people surrounding you, I for one seem to laugh more when I’m at the theaters since I feel awkward laughing at home by myself. Besides it might be a movie you really want to see; which then it’s okay to go see a movie in theaters.

            I also think that it's really weird when people go to the movies together. I mean I know no one wants to go to the movies by yourself, but think about it, whenever you go to a movie with a friend you just awkwardly watch a screen together because it's not like you can talk during the movie for the people around you will probably end up shhing you. But as for going to the movie on a date it's a bit weird unless you don't think being quiet is awkward at all. So just overall think of other activities to do besides a movie.

          But overall sometimes going to the movie is a good idea while other times you should just get off your lazy butt and do something besides watching a movie, even if it’s walking in a circle at the park. But all depends on the situation, and seeing a movie at night is always a best bet since there’s not much you can do at night besides partying….So yeah, movie might be your best bet. 

Movies During School

            I think that during school teachers should show movies because it allows the students to relax for once instead of having to learn something new all the time. Teachers are always stressing out about lesson plans and what to do during the class period, so by just showing an educational movie it will allow the students to learn from the movie and have the teacher be less stressed on trying to get a lesson plan together.

            During middle school I remember watching a ton of different movies, and now in high school my teachers rarely have us watch any movies, and it saddens me because I think that we learn a lot from just movies. One reason teachers should play more movies is it allows the student to just relax, and yes I know that this means an opportunity for a student to be sleeping since us students never have time to sleep! But anyway I think that if teachers played movies during class it would allow the teachers to be able to get caught up on grading the students work, creating other lesson plans, and just in general get to relax.

            I think especially during the time after Ap exams are all finished that teachers should play a couple of movies for the class to watch because like I said before, you can learn a lot from a movie, just like you can learn a lot from a book. I would love for more teachers to allow students to watch movies, since I feel like sometimes were not doing anything in class anyway and it would allow teachers to use their time wisely by showing an educational movie.

            Some teachers think that showing a movie in class is a waste of time, and to a certain degree I agree with them like there’s not really a movie you can watch that’s based upon math that will help you learn math…But I definitely think that in subjects like Spanish, Ap Psych, Ap Us, and just a ton of the subjects I’m taking this year that it would be very productive of the teachers to show a movie from time to time.

           Overall, I think that teachers should show a movie every once in a while so that the teachers can get caught up on their work since us students are always wanting to quickly know what we got on a test or different homework assignments. And it’s good for us students too! Because it allows us to not have to think for once and just relax and take it easy for a bit. So I think that teachers should show a movie in class every once in a while; I’m not saying all the time just maybe like once a term or something. 

Energy Drinks

            I’m always tired all the time and what is my solution to staying awake and finishing my homework at night? Caffeine.  Caffeine is actually really bad for you, but what other choice do students have to try to stay awake during class? Teachers assign so much homework that students have no choice to stay up late at night to finish their homework, since many students are involved with other extra circular activities like sports, clubs, and music students either chose sleep or achieving good grades.

            I am one student that I strive upon trying to achieve good grades during school, so I stay up late about every night trying to finish my homework for the next day and end up being exhausted. My solution is caffeine. Every morning I have to drink coffee or I’ll be exhausted the entire day, and even sometimes I drink my coffee plus an energy drink in the morning just because I had to stay up late to finish my homework and without the caffeine I would end up falling asleep during class. Which teachers get mad when we fall asleep during class, but what they expect? That we are robots that can just function without sleep? So a lot of students are having to make a chose to whether get good grades or to get sleep.

            So if you’re wondering how this relates to books and movies…How does it? Well, it sort of does in a way because during class usually you’re forced to read some sort of text and how can you read something when you’re half asleep? So anyway that’s how this relates to books and movies. Ever try reading something when you’re half asleep? It’s like you read the page and when you finally get done with the page it’s like what the heck did I just read!? That happens to me all the time, but with my junior year I decided to start every morning off with coffee, and occasionally the energy drink if I’m really tired.

            Energy drinks are not good for you. I’ll say that simply, they are not. With people that are really sensitive to caffeine they should not drink them because it seriously has about three times the amount of caffeine and sugar that normal can of soda contains. But I mean what choice do I have? A lot people that get good grades I know end up falling asleep in class because they had to stay awake late to finish an assignment. One thing that I don’t get is that schools encourage extra circular activities, but how is one supposed to do extra circular activities, get good grades, and get a descent amount of sleep? It’s really hard to do, so my way of being awake all the time is to drink an energy drink or have some coffee. And though caffeine consumption is really bad, so is not getting enough sleep, and I (along with many other students) don’t get enough sleep either.

Dark Visions

            One of the best books I’ve ever read in my opinion is a book called Dark Visions by L.J. Smith. L.J. Smith has wrote some really good supernatural books in my opinion, but my favorite one is this one because it doesn’t exactly seem like a carbon copy of all the other books out there. Yes, it is a romantic book, and has to do with supernatural abilities, but instead of werewolves, vampires, or some strange other species this is all about psychic abilities of some teenagers.

            The reason I like this book so much is because first of all it has romance in it and I sometimes love romance books, but the main reason is the writing style. I mean the words are pretty easy to interpret and it’s not really hard to understand or anything and that’s why I like it. The age group for this book I’d say is about middle school and maybe early high school (so me being a junior now would probably be an extremely easy read for me), but I definitely suggest to about middle school students and to the high school students that are tired of looking up every other word in the dictionary because you have no idea what it means, or sparknoting the book to figure out what the book is trying to tell you to begin with.

            Dark Visions focuses on three guys and two girls (if I recall correctly) Lewis, Gabriel, Rob, Katlyn, and Anna. I think the psychic abilities makes the book a little different from most romance novels and there is way more action occurring than would usually be in a plain romance novel. And honestly it’s one of those romantic books that doesn’t really seem like a romance till about the very end (or a bit in the middle).

            I love the characters that L.J. Smith created in the book you have this golden charming guy, Rob, the bad boy, Gabriel, the comedian, Lewis, and then the sweet Anna that’s always there for everyone. Now the book takes place from Katlyn’s perspective and so like most romance novels she thinks she’s nothing important and by the end of the book….blah blah blah like most clichés.

            I just think that if people want a rather simpler read (but not too simply of course because that is just highly irritating) that they should read Dark Visions. My guess though is that probably only girls would like this book, but you never know…But this is definitely one of my favorite books and I think that others will enjoy it as much as  I did (I read it like five times). Now if they had a movie for this book, I think that would be really interesting, but there can’t necessarily be a movie for every book I enjoy sadly. 

Repetition

            So some people say why should you read books more than once? Like what is the point of reading a book multiple times since you already know everything that happens? I enjoy reading books multiple times, not like back to back though.

            I have re-read multiple books and book series because I just love the story like I can’t even count the number of times I read Dark Visions by L.J. Smith I just absolutely love that book. The reason I like to re-read a book is the first thing is I really enjoyed the book the first time and I think that if I read it again I’ll enjoy it even more the second time. My second reason for re-reading a book I have already read is you get more details from the second or more times you read it than the first time reading it; I can’t say the number of times that I read a book and I forgot a part that wasn’t in the book before, so by reading it more times I can remember more of the details. Not only do you get more details, but when you’re reading it the first time you don’t know what happens at the end, and a lot of books end up foreshadowing and when re-reading it you can see all the places in the book where you should have realized what the ending was going to be.

            I just like re-reading books some people say it’s a waste of time if you’ve already read it, but I don’t think so. Especially, re-read a book or series if the movie is coming out soon and you read it a while ago, re-reading will jog your memory and have you all pumped up for the movie. So I just think that people should re-read books because of that as my main reasons.

            Another thing is when reading the second or more times you can pay more attention to the vocabulary and word choice and it will help expand your vocabulary, or if you don’t know what a word means you can go look it up in a dictionary since you won’t be as eager to read the book since you already know what happens, it will just help you overall. Also I like to do a fun thing where I edit the book and see how many mistakes I can find in the book overall (usually I find a lot). But overall I just think re-reading books is a good idea and people should do since they will get more from the book the second time than the first time they read it.

Divergent

            The new movie Divergent came out about two weeks ago and is a complete hit for a movie to see. The movie can be seen by both females and males, and also young and older people, so it is a really good movie to see.

            The movie is based upon a book series called Divergent by Veronica Roth about a dystopian society that has to live by the rules and follow the structure within the society to follow the rules. I have not currently read the books, I believe there are three of them and I have heard from multiple friends that the book series is extremely good, and contains three books (so it’s a trilogy). Maybe in the future I will read them, but for once I have actually watched a movie of a book series I want to read before actually reading the book. But I heard from people overall that compared to the book the movie was okay, that they left out some major details, so most people if you have read the books might kind of be annoyed by the movie in that aspect.

            I thought that the movie was really good, then again I didn’t actually read the books for once. I honestly think this kind of reminded me of like the Giver, the Hunger Games, and City of Ember because the main focus of those books is like a dystopian type society that must follow and obey all the rules or will be punished. I think though compared to the Hunger Games movies I definitely prefer the Hunger Games movies (the first and the second, Catching Fire) and I really liked the movie; City of Ember because the main actor and actress I really liked, I think they did a really good job in that movie. But back to Divergent, the movie was overall good since it had a lot of action and suspense going on; and of course some romance to add to the spice of it all between the main actress Shailene Woodley who plays Tris and Theo Games who plays Four in the movie. Also they add some humor in the movie between all the characters within the certain faction that Tris had chosen.

            I think the movie did a good job, my favorite part in the movie was during all the action at the end and the whole really cheesy part of where Four wakes up and remembers Tris, but the part that was the worst part in the movie is when Shailene Woodley starts crying because of her characters mum had died, I just thought it was a pretty pathetic way to cry and just seemed so fake, so that’s the part I disliked the most. But this movie is definitely one of the top movies to see of this year. And it’s even funnier since the movie that comes out later in the year called the Fault in Our Stars is a romance with Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort…And in the Divergent movie they are brother and sister which I just think is hilarious. So yeah, this movie was really good and I recommend seeing it eventually whether it be in theaters or at home.

Switching Out Textbooks

            Why should schools get rid of textbooks? Textbooks are heavy, and no one likes to carry them around. Schools should get rid of the textbooks and have online textbooks it will save many of us high school students from severe back pain.

            So like many students including myself they have about six subjects in a day, so that can mean up to six textbooks, or even more if that certain subject decides to have more than one textbook that they use. Ap World History is an example of a class that used two textbooks, and unfortunately with one of the textbooks you had to bring to and from school. Just carrying one textbook around wouldn’t be that bad, but it adds more weight to our backpacks, because yes the adage of papers adds up with all the papers teachers give us students. So all the loose paper and a few textbook is a complete pain to always be carrying around. Some teachers I know they will tell you when you need your textbook in their class that day, but not all teachers do that for instant my Ap United States History doesn’t say when we might use the textbooks in class. All this adds up to is back pain and the annoyance at the teachers for dragging the textbook around. And like I said before, all these textbooks add up.

            I think that if the school’s got rid of textbooks and replaced them with nooks or tablets (honestly any device that is lighter than a damn textbook) then it would really benefit the students and save money for the school by not having to buy new textbooks every few years. To be able to download all the textbooks that the student would use in one device would make it easier for the student as well. And the student just needs to bring that back and forth from school to home. Another reason the schools should replace the textbooks with an electronic device is students could easily access Microsoft programs on their tablet or the device and so students that do not have internet access, a computer, or laptop don’t have to worry about staying at school late or coming in early to finish their homework since they would be able to access it all one the one device.

            The schools should just get rid of textbooks because it’s a pain to always have to be carrying them around, and even if they don’t provide an electronic device they should still get rid of textbooks and make everything online. I’m not saying that’s the top solution they should do, because I for one think it’s really awkward to read a textbook with a computer or laptop, but it’s better than having to carry around textbooks. Or another suggestion I have to solve this problem of having to carry around textbooks is make an app for it; that way people can read it right off of their phones. Obviously though, with this idea they’d still have to provide textbooks to the students who don’t have a phone or a phone that has apps, but at least that would make it a bit easier for more than half of the school.

            I think that the schools should get rid of textbooks, it’s really annoying to always have to be carrying them around, and honestly they cause back pains with all the stuff that gets put into our backpacks we don’t need the weight of textbooks as well. My suggestions are to get electronic devices and start using technology, textbooks are ‘old school’ and we need to keep up with the whole world and move on from those nasty heavy textbooks. Though I know overall the cost of providing every student with an electronic device would be costly, it would really benefit the students and the students could raise money in order to achieve the switching of textbooks to tablets or another device.