Who's Truly to Blame?

There have been many conflicts over what is alright for tv and what shouldn't be there. That got me to wondering about things. I've heard from a lot of TV specials or talk shows, magazine articles, and such and how TV is corrupting children and teens and that they shouold be more strict about what is allowed on television. I can kind of see where they are coming from to a point. You can't turn on the television and not have one of the following things come onto the screen within the next 20 minutes ; swearing, sex, violence, or partying. Most of these things weren't even allowed on tv 30 years ago. But wait, if it wasn't allowed 30 years ago, then why is it that it is able to be shown now? Something must have happened in order to change things. That's right, that change was from us, the very people that are trying to stop it. We allways demanded freedom of speech and being able to do whatever we felt like on the TV. We wanted it so much that we changed the rules and yet now we aren't happy with what we chose so we want to change it back. I don't think that it's a bad thing to want to make it so that there aren't so many things like that on TV but it looks like if you don't want your kids and teens to be " negatively influenced" by the television, you're simply going to have to put parental blocks on the television shows or simply just cut down on the television viewing hours. One more thing that I want to add is that I think people need to stop blaming the bad things that teens do on the influence of the television. I watch all the popular shows on the television and yeah I see all of those things but I never go out and do it. You can't completly blame the show for the behavior of the teen. Infact, it almost seems as though the type of show that the teen is watching depends on the type of teen that is watching it ( if that makes any sense). All in all, I think that people blame television just beacause it's the easiest thing to blame for the problem. It's not human and the blame is then off of the shoulders of the parents. If you were really conserned about the effects of the TV on your children, then why do you have a television?

THE MYSTERY MAZE!!

k, so I know that this has nothing to do with honors english, but the drama class is putting on the play The Mystery Maze next weekend ( may 3, 4, 5) at 7 and we really want all of you to come!!! It's going to be wayyyyy good and you don't want to miss it! Thanks =]]!!!!!

Just A Thought

Haha,ok, so I was sitting in my Seminary class thinking about how stupid people are sometimes when I remembered something that I had done that perfectly proves my point. Not too long ago, I was home alone sitting in my room when I saw some matches that were still in my camping bag. I was really bored and decided to light all of the candles in my room ( and there were quite a few because my grandma likes to give me candles for no reason at all). So I was just lighting all of these candles when I saw this binder that was full of old papers and such that I didn't need anymore. So I, obviously not thinking clearly at the time, just decided to sit down and light the corner of the binder on fire. It actually looked kinda cool at first and i wasn't too worried about it. BIG MISTAKE!!! The next thing I knew the flames on teh binder had become HUGE! I started freaking out because heck, there was a burning binder in my room. I grabbed the binder and ran in the bathroom. I flung open the shower curtain and threw the binder in. I turned on the cold water as far as it would go and then jumped back. Now,the fact that I was burning a whole bunch of candles and also that I had just lit my binder on fire would end up leading to the fact that the fire alarm started going off. Even though I was the one that did it, I'm still shocked that someone could do something that stupid! Ha ha, so the next time that you find yourself doing something totally stupid, just remember, it happens to all of us!

Mixed Messages

About a week ago I walked into the grocery store and saw that my favorite magazine, Seventeen, had just come in. Later that night I decided to read some before I went to bed. Now, usually I don't find anything wrong with whats in the magazine, but this time I couldn't help but notice that they were sending all sorts of mixed messages about one particular subject, body image. When you open up this months issue, there are tons of things like " eat heathier food at parties so you don't pack on the pounds" and " Get Flat Abs in 4 FUN Steps". Now, I think it's great that they are trying to help girls become healthier and more happy with themselves, but then they throw in an article called Skinny Scandal that's all about how the fashion industry is sending the wrong messaages to girls and that they should be happy with whatever body type they have. Then I went back to look at the other issues that I had and I noticed the same thing. In the April issue they had a section called Just Flaunt It where they showed you how to flaunt your best features no matter what size you were and on the cover of the March issue, they had a quote from Mandy Moore saying " I'm not Nicole Richie. I'm not a toothpick and I never will be.", and a story line Cute Clothes For YOUR Body. Then along side all of these things that are telling us girls that we should all be happy with our bodies they put things like Sexy Legs Workout, Get Your Best Butt, New Body-New You, Is The School Food Making You Fat?, and so on. It kind of leaves you wondering what it is you're supposed to do. I think that it's fine that they are trying to have a happy balance, but it seems to be one extreme against another. They bash the fashion industry for not sending good messages to young girls and then 4 pages later they're telling you 8 easy ways to slim down just in time for summer.

Teen Hangout

It seems like when you're friends want to hang out, somebody usually suggests the mall. What is it about the mall that attracts all of us teenagers? Is it the shopping? The food? The boys? The girls? Personally, I like to go to the mall and just see all of the different people there. I love seeing how everyone dresses. Some people treat a visit to the mall as if it were an apearance at the MTV music awards. They have makeup, fancy hair, and are wearing their best clothes. Then there are the people that wear their pajamas to the mall because they couldn't care less about the fact that hundreds of people are there. Then this is the one that confuses me, the people that wear black and pierce odd parts of their bodies and say that they hate everyone that smiles, still go to the mall just like everyone else. Maybe the mall is just something that we all have in common.

Mean Girls

Most girls between 12-18 have seen the popular movie Mean Girls. The whole movie is about how girls in high school lie, start rumors, party, and ruin eachothers lives. This may sound more like a drama buts it's done in a humorous way and most people leave the movie laughing at themselves about how over the top us girls can be some times. But lately its started to look like maybe some girls are actually taking it seriously and thinking that that is the way to act in high school. I've started seeing more and more younger girls at the movies or the mall that act like they're 17. Many of them have tight shirts and short skirts, stick straight highlighted hair, and high heels. If you ever bother to listen in on their conversations, you're likely to hear something like this " yeah, she totally kissed him at that party" or " she is so fat, she needs to lose weight". Now it probably seems like I'm being a little over the top, and I wish I was, but it's really happening. All of these girls are becoming MEAN. On Opera and Dr. Phil they have had specials about how there is a scary trend in younger teens where they are becoming ruthless towards eachother. I think that these girls are watching The O.C, One Tree Hill, Mean Girls, and others and thinking that that is how they have to act in order to have a normal school experience. Somebody needs to tell these girls that they're being just plain crazy. Most of them are eather total beasts or they're miserable because the "popular girls" are so mean. My sister in law is 12 and she has already had a problem with rumors and boys that I don't even have. I think that parents should keep a close eye on their daughters to make sure that they don't turn into teenzillas.

Charles Dickens

I don't think that more than maybe 2 people truely enjoyed the Charles Dickens book that they chose to read this term. I heard mulitple complaints throughout the term from people saying that The Tale of Two Cities or Great Expectations was one of the worst books that they had ever read. I'll admit that Great Expectations was more of a pain to read than a pleasure, but it wasn't the worst book I have ever read. It had some good qualities and was better than some, but for some reason, I couldn't wait to finish it. When I really started thinking about what I thought about this book after I read it, I realized exactly why I didn't care for the book. I found that as I read the book it seemed to drag on and on about something that didn't seem interesting, or even important for that matter, which would cause me to have a hard time focusing on the story. I also found that a lot of times when I wanted to know more about something, he never really took the time to explain. I became really confused after about page 100 because I kept wondering how old he was so that I could better understand and better relate to his feelings based on his age. He would tell, of coarse, but it always happened at the beggining of a chapter when you're not really paying attention, and it was always something like, " after four summers passed". I did find myself becoming more interested in the book about 400 pages in, but then the ending was a huge let down. Throughout the whole book he is obsessed and completly crazy about this girl. He was always thinking about her, talking about her, visiting her, crying over her, and all of these other things. I was expecting their relationship to be something bigger than it turned out to be because she was in so much of the story. The whole story seemed more of like a pile of random events rather than one big adventure. I've heard from a lot of people that Charles Dickens is a good writer. I was talking to my Young Womans leader about it and she said that she absolutley loved Oliver Twist, but when she tried to read Tale of Two Cities, she got about half way through it, stopped, and hasn't picked it up since. So maybe there are some good Charles Dickens books out there. Even though I was really dissapointed in this book, I'll probably read another one of his books before I decide that he is an all around terrible writer. What was it that you liked or didn't like about Tale of Two Cities or Great Expectations? Will you ever read another Dickens Novel?