~Whimsical Reasoning~

It is of course undeniably true, today's youth are becoming more and more involved with technology in all aspects of their lives. Technology has even begun to make its regular appearance in classrooms everywhere. Luckily enough, Linworth seems to be at the top of its game in this aspect. Whenever I tell people about our 'Smartboards', they are really interested as to how they work. But that's not all, recently(as in like 3 days ago) Linworth received a new batch of computers, this will enable us to do so much more next year than what we were able to accomplish this year. Are there more ways to integrate technology into the classroom effectively? I think so. There has been a lot of buzz about Nintendo's new game consul, the Wii, and how it has changed the face of gaming forever. One of the newest and most talked about game is Wii Fit, a game that uses a balance board and four training modes to involve the gamer in physical activity. This is not the only game for the Wii that has physical exercise integrated into it. There is also the very popular game that comes with the Wii system, Wii Sports. This game has the player use the wii remote to play five different games, boxing, baseball, tennis, bowling, and golf. Now, people are skeptic about how much exercise someone can actually get playing these games. I myself have played all of the Wii sport games, and have spent time amusing myself by watching the six year old twins playing baseball against each other, animatedly swinging their arms around, with me yelling in the background, making sure they don't run into each other. Now you may ask, where am I going with all of this? Well my idea for a class involving technology is a physical education class. Linworth has already demonstrated interest in video games at our several game tournaments at some of the dances. With the smarboards, it is relatively easy to set up the games. Along with utilizing the Wii, workout videos would also be used, as well as "The Best You Can Be: A Teen's Guide To Fitness And Nutrition (Science of Health Youth and Well Being)" by Christopher Hovius, a good detailed book on common workouts and the special nutrition needed by teens. The book stresses the importance of sleep and a balanced diet, two of the biggest problems in teen health today. A great feature of Wii fit is that it enables the user to weigh themselves on the balance board and record their BMI and fitness level, as well as outside activities that would also be required for the class. A couple of smartboards would probably be needed for the class, as well as several Wiis and projectors. My main goal for people to learn in this class is to learn the basis of fitness, and how it can be fun without being boring or difficult.

Posted in: on Thursday, June 5, 2008 at at 12:25 PM 2 comments    

Whenever discussing the police of Worthington with a teenager from a different city, I tell them that since Worthington is a relatively crime-free area, of cop's favorite pass times involve catching people for speeding and interrogating teens out even a second after midnight. Sometimes I wonder if they get a curfew violator bonus, like the more teens they catch the higher they are paid, you know? If you couldn't tell by now, I have been the unfortunate victim the headlights of a cop car at 4 am. Now I know its the law, and apparently these laws are designed to keep us 'safe', but I find it impractical and annoying. Now, when I was caught, I was on public property, a sidewalk in fact, was not harming anyone or anything, had not been drinking or smoking, nor was I doing anything illegal other than being out too late. I can understand the need to catch 'delinquents' to stop them from destroying property and the like, but when a cop doesn't believe that you just didn't wear shoes out and in fact ditched them somewhere as if you got them soaked in blood or something, now that's what I have a problem with.

Now enough about me, this post is supposed to be about the new policy our bright Mayor Coleman has instated. To read the whole article, click here. Basically, if caught out past midnight, teens under 17 will be taken to the YMCA, and held until picked up by their parents. Now okay, that doesn't sound too bad right? I mean its better than being taken down to the station. Well, that's not all. If your parents do not come and pick you up, in the morning, you will be handed over to the Franklin County Children's Services. A bit extreme, yes?

Posted in: on Saturday, May 24, 2008 at at 2:05 PM 0 comments    

Ah yes, we all love reality TV, don't we? A somewhat recent phenomenon, it has evolved immensely over the past couple of years. As I have noticed thought, each show comes from the same general formula. Reality shows prey on our emotions, take for example, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. At first this show started our largely a decorating show for families in need, now the whole show revolves around the people, not the house. America likes stuff that will touch their hearts, or inspire them. Its so heart warming for viewers to watch the show, its one of those feel good shows, you just can't stop watching. Now another emotion commonly expoilted by the media, is fear. Take fear factor for example, watching people face their fears is somehow interesting to us humans

Posted in: on Sunday, May 18, 2008 at at 11:43 PM 0 comments    

Ah yes, the nostalga of our treasured childhood shows. Growing up, I didn't get cable until I was in middle school, so I spent the majority of my time watching far more educational shows that know I would have watched, as the only real time I could watch cartoons was early saturday morning. I watched pretty much every children's show that aired on PBS between the years of 1992 and 2000, including ZOOM, Puzzle Place, Sesame Street, Barney, Arthur, The Krat Brothers, Zaboomafo, and one of my favorites, Bill Nye the Science Guy. I remember them all vividly, I mean I watched them every day for like 8 years. One of the shows I have never really stopped watching is Sesame Street, as I babysit very frequently. It still has the same general outline, same main characters, but there are a lot of things that have changed and added. The most notable in my mind is a segment called Elmo's World. This segment seemed to be aimed especially at the youngest viewers of the show. Featuring a silly man called Mr. Noodle that would always twist the directions Elmo gave him in a funny way as well as a TV that had every available channel Elmo happened to need, like the Joke channel or the Dance channel. Like the predictability of Blues Clues, Elmo's World was a daily segment, running the exact same way every day.Although childrens shows have remained somewhat the same over the years, there are still new shows popping up. Most of them remind me of an acid trip, so many colors, strange shapes, and 'magical machines'. Take for example the Doodle Bops. For those of you not familiar, they are three colored alien looking people who are on a constant concert tour, which they actually do in real life around the country. Now I know the creativity so to say of the shows is nothing new, but now, even childrens shows seem to have so much going on in them. Not so much as to lose the child, but its a vast amount of information overload for a little kid. Is this just a sign of our changing world? With email, computer, and TV, most teens are used to multitasking, is this just a way to get our children prepared for life? Hmm.....

Posted in: on at at 11:42 PM 0 comments    

Ah yes, the advertising industry, it never ceases to amuse me. Everywhere you look, there is some kind of ad. Apparently, CNN has taken advantage of yet another aspect of the "New Frontier", AKA the web. Because of the Internet, it has become so easy to get your ad out to just the right people. In the case of CNN, they market their T-shirts to those who regularly read their stories, instead of just putting up an ad on a billboard. But really, the scariest part in my opinion, happens on facebook. When I first joined, the ads displayed seemed random, but after awhile, and after filling in my interests and such, the ads became somewhat 'personalized' for me. For example, in my interests, I stated that I like running. BAM! I constantly see ads for sites with training programs, running shoes, and the like. I also seem to get gender specific ads as well, makeup, shoes, clothing. This is creepy if you ask me. In the COTA buses, on the handholds, there are little ads advocating against smoking. Now who is the typical rider of the COTA buses? Teens, and those with lower paying jobs. Is it a coincidence that these are also the targeted demographic of cigarette companies? I think not. I have even heard of ideas for companies to sponsor city sidewalks, so each concrete block would be filled with an advertisement for Pampers and the like. America is definitely a corporate country.

Posted in: on Sunday, May 11, 2008 at at 2:49 AM 2 comments    

Race, although we hate to admit it, has always been and always will be, and issue. Sure, we've gotten over the slavery part, but there is still a rift in the tide. Racial profiling happens more than we'd like to admit. It is very aggrivating, in a justice system like ours, there is such a flaw. One of the most controversial cases in recent times is that of the Jena six. Even though Linworth is a dominantly white school, I cannot imagine a community that shows such hate to a particular race because of their skintone. Now I'm not saying that race is the only factor that causes people to be wrongly accused, because gender also has a role. Generally, when you think of crimes, you think of men. Obviously, we are now in the 21st century, and that is not the case. Since we now have the tecnology, I think cases in court should depend more on solid evidence more than anything else, such as eyewittness accounts, as those can be biased. Something else with race I have found is that if a little white girl went missing, it would be all over the news. In contrast, if it were a little black girl, not much is thought of it. Even though it is estimated that eventually all of the human population will become one skintone, I belive then we will find other things to separate us from others, it is just a part of human nature.

Posted in: discrimination, race, racial profiling on at at 2:27 AM 1 comments    

I love comedy, I have over five hours of it stored on my ipod. I listen to my ipod before I go to bed, and I have often been said to laugh loudly after I'm asleep. One of my favorite comedians is Jim Gaffigan. Most of his routines consist of him making fun of things in our culture that we take for granted. One of my favorite bits of his talks about the absurdity of our holiday traditions. With Easter being tomorrow, I decided to take a deeper look into these traditions, and share my opinions on holidays in general, and how we as Americans have commercialized the hell out of every holiday we can get our hands on.

Okay, so I know most everyone knows the premis of Easter, Jesus raising from the dead ect. ect. So how did we get eggs and bunnies and pastel colors from all of this? Well, as almost every Christian holdiay, we got it from someone else. Pagans are the source of almost all of these 'Christian' traditions. It amazes me how much the Christian church scorns pagans, when we copied almost everything in our religion from them, from our stories in the bible to our sacred rites, to our holiday symbols, all of these are of pagan origin. Being a daughter of a pastor, I am constantly reminded of religious day, symbols, and traditions. I also wrote a paper about similarities between religions last year for Larry's class.

See, eggs symbolize new birth, AKA, the rebirth of Jesus. The pastel colors again, are the colors of new life, spring flowers, rebirth. And the fact that Jesus is said to have rose from the dead near spring is no coincidence. Christians were big fans of replacing all things pagan with thier own twist on things. Easter is in Spring to take the place of the pagan celebrated Spring Equinox. It shows how unoriginal most religions are.

Everywhere you go, even months before any holiday, you see decorations, countless decorations. This is a huge industry in the United States, we like our holidays God dammit! You can buy anything from easter egg window decals to markers shaped like baby chicks. Why do we have these obscure items? Well, because people will buy them of course. Its like those giant stone geese you used to see on everyone's porches, the ones you could dress up. There was no real function to them, but they we 'cool' and 'in'. Some of this has to do with the Tipping Point, one person buys it, and it spreads like wildfire. If people are taught to think that they NEED easter grass to go in their children's Easter baskets, they will buy it. Human behavior is a strange thing...

More next time!

Posted in: on Saturday, March 22, 2008 at at 2:05 PM 1 comments