Three Billion Voices

     The world wide web. It has only been around since about 1989 but it has helped mankind in so many ways. The internet helps us to connect to people we originally never could of. It also gave millions of people a say on what's going on in the world or a way or let people hear their voice and opinions. I bet without the internet the world would be different than it is now, we might not know as much and the world probably wouldn't as connected as it is right now. Millions of people would be lost in the dark about what's going on in not only their country or state but what's going on in the rest of the world. Without all this new technology we would be utterly lost. 

Big Think Article- http://bigthink.com/big-think-tv/what-does-three-billion-new-voices-sound-like

Quotes

    For the last few months I have been obsessed with inspiring quotes, so much so that i have a book that i keep my favorite ones in. Today as I was writing down some quotes in my book my younger sister Isabel was looking over my shoulder and asking me about why i kept these quotes. I was a bit taken back when she asked me this because I didn't know the answer to her question, so of course I had to do a little soul searching. I realized that I use this book like a diary or as a way to express how i'm feeling. I also realized find myself reading the Quotes when i'm stressed or need a little reassurance.  So to me quotes are just more than words in a screen or on a piece of paper they are a way for me to get through the tough points in life, to help me know that everything will be alright. 

The Great Gatsby - So Far

Last week my english class started to read The Great Gatsby. Before we started reading it I knew the background and a little bit of what is going on because I saw the movie and my sister already read the book. I'm only three chapters into the book but it is already better than the movie ( I know most books are). I'm sitting there in class thinking to myself about why they left this part out or why they changed this. I really enjoyed the movie when it first came out but after reading the book my love for the movie is changing and being replaced by the love for the book. At first I was a little confused and boarded but once I got into the book I really liked it and I hope it stays that way.

Glow-In-The-Dark Ice Cream!?

    An ice cream company in Bristol England called "Lick Me I'm Delicious" created the worlds first glow-in-the-dark ice cream. This new ice cream concoction lights up and glows when it comes in contact with the tongue. The owner stated that the ice cream glows because of bioluminescent synthesised jellyfish proteins that produce the glowing effect when agitated ie. when it's licked. The ingredient used to cause this effect is more expensive than gold, so one scoop of this ice cream is about $225. I dont know about you but I wouldn't eat this ice cream even if it was $2 a scoop, you don't know what kind of effects it could have on you.... plus it's kind of freaky.
http://bigthink.com/ideafeed/we-all-might-scream-for-glow-in-the-dark-ice-cream

New Television Shows

   Has anyone seen or heard of any new shows that just started this season or ones that are starting new season. Well I have have. My sister and I were talking about some of the new shows last night and we realised that all of these new shows are paranormal and/or romance and they are all dramas. So I understand that these kinds of shows and movies and even books like this a very popular right now, and some of them are even good but this is overdoing it quite a bit. I dont mean to sound mad or prissy but it,s getting a bit ridiculous. It works for some shows and even makes them better like Ravenswood (a show on ABC Family that I am not to fond of) but for others it makes no sense and it seems like they just tack it onto the end of the episode of add it into the middle or a little jump, they do this on a show called Reign a show about the queen of Scotland who is in the french court waiting to marry the prince of France on the CW, now this is a good show though it's definitely not for everyone but they just through this little ghost thing into it every once in a while they dont even explain it, the only time they did was in the first episode and a little girl told someone about it. I just want to enjoy a funny, non paranormal show for just a little while! 

Gridding

     Yesterday in STAC some of us had a workshop where we learned about grinding and the placement of text and pictures in a magazine or newspaper. At first using a grid to design a page can be difficult and a bit confusing but after a while and playing around with it you start to see what works and what doesn't. When Catherine first came in and told us what we were going to be doing I thought that it would  be easy and a waste of time, but when she started to explain it in better detail I realized that I would need help if I wanted to learn and learn how to use a grid correctly. This is a very useful skill that everyone should learn whether you go have a career in art/graphic design or not. You can use it not only when creating a magazine or website but when your making a worksheet/flyer or resume. 

The Science of Dreams

      Dreams. What do they mean, why do we have them, how do they affect us? Since the beginning of time human dreams have been a subject of science and pseudoscience alike.
Our dreams combine verbal, visual and emotional stimuli into a most likely nonsensical storyline. Many even think that we can learn from our dreams. 
      Some psychological theories say that we dream because it helps to sort out problems and events that happened that day. Other theories say that we dream in order to test neural connections that affect how we learn, some scientists even believe that it is a combination of the two. More recently, around 1973, researchers Allan Hobson and Robert McCarley set forth another theory that threw out the old psychoanalytical ideas. Their research on what was going in the brain during sleep gave them the idea that dreams were the result of random electrical impulses that pulled imagery from traces of experience stored in the memory. 
      Most dreams take place when we enter REM (rapid eye movement) sleep or the fifth stage of sleep which typically happens after being asleep for an hour and a half or 90 minutes. Physical changes also during REM sleep, your heart rate and breathing quickens, your blood pressure rises, it is harder for you to control and regulate your body temperature and your brain activity increases. Other than that the rest of your body is mostly paralyzed until you leave REM sleep, This is so you don't act out your dreams while you're having them. 
      Did you know that 5 minutes after a dream ends we forget almost fifty percent of it then and in ten minutes we forget over ninety percent! So you may ask why do we forget our dreams? research points to the simple reason that other things get in the way. We are forward-thinking by nature, so remembering something when we first wake up is difficult. But L. Strumpell a dream researcher believe that there could be a few things contributing to the fact that we forget our dreams. Strumpell stated that dreams are forgotten first thing in the morning just like many other things. he also stated that since most dreams are not very intense so it easier to forget them. Dreams are also usually unique and vague to begin with so that could be one of the reasons why remembering them could be difficult. 
      

Whats On Your Bucket List?

    A bucket list is a lit of experiences you want to have or things you want to do before you die. People usually associate bucket lists with older people or the terminally ill, but I don't think thats right. I believe that everyone should have some form of bucket list no matter what age you are or your health. To me bucket lists aren't a set thing I think that after you make one that you should be able to add to it take things off it as your life change. A bucket list can have many different things on if like where you want to visit, who you want to meet and what you want to do. They can be long or short. Bucket lists are good to have it's like saying look what I have done or look what I am going to do. Kind of like a list of reminders saying that you should  go out there and adventure or memories of what you have done. Now go sit down and write a list of this you want to do before you "kick the bucket". 

Making a Zine

    Over the past week our class has been working on making a zine. A zine is a is a self-published, small circulation, non-commercial booklet or magazine, usually produced by one person or a few individuals. Zines come in all shapes, sizes, topics, and formats. Most zines are photocopied, but they can also be printed offset, like a magazine or newspaper. Zines range from handwritten and sloppy to cut-and-paste (text pasted on top of background images) to artsy with handmade touches to produced on a computer with a professional looking layout. Zines have been around for a long time but they were mostly used in the late 1900s (1970-1990).Zines are used to share someones stories, opinions, art, ideas (etc). 

     Our zine is halloween themed so it revolves around horror with a touch of comedy. It has short stories, small drawings and even some made up ads and coupons. The zine we have been working on is completely handmade by us. 

Making helps to teach you to work with your hands which is a good thing for us to learn because in this day and age we don't use them much to create things, everything is on a computer. It also helped us to learn how to make quick decisions because when you are making a zine you are usually have a deadline so you don't have time to mess around. 

I liked making the zine, I liked that we got to work with our hands and that if we messed up we didn't have to start over we could just cover what we didn't like with paper and redo it. Making a zine is a fun experience that i think everyone should have but be warned that it is difficult and can be frustrating at times.