Week/end of Morality - Part 1

Hey guys! Golly, gee, I feel that I should tell you how my junior year's started off! So I will!

This past week has been quite the week. All new teachers, with the exception of my TV Production teacher (a class that I now have in the morning instead of in the afternoon, which I'm still undecided over whether it's better or not); all new people, since I share my new classes with new classmates this year; and classes that are Advanced Placement level!

This last characteristic of my junior year classes; I should stress, seeing as it's caused some important "life" changes. Mainly, a rigid schedule that I developed (and took a good amount of time to do so) well before school started.

It basically says, "wake up at 6:00 AM, go to school until 2:20, come back home by around 3:00, eat and nap until 5:00, do homework and everything you gotta do, including eating and chores, from 5:00 to 10:30, and be asleep by 11:00 PM."

But the most interestingly constructed portion of it is that big span of time from 6:30 AM to 2:20 PM! Let me tell ya about it.

OK, so I wake up at 6:00 AM and between bells and whistles, by about 6:30 - 6:45 I'm at school. Now, of course, besides eating the free, school-provided breakfast, you're pretty much free to do absolutely anything you want during the time between my arrival at school and 7:20 AM.

You could do homework, you could talk to friends, you could make out on the staircase, you could talk with your teachers, you can go to the library, you could buy a drink, you could make a baby ... well, OK, maybe that's going too far.

Hey, don't give me that face! Don't tell me you didn't think about these things when YOU were in high school!

But my point is, the majority of the eight or so hours that I'm at school has been fitted with a tight, merciless schedule - 7:20 to 9:20 AM, first period; 9:20 to 11:20, third period; and so on. But that small, teensy-weensy hour or so that takes place before school commences at 7:20, has been left completely unattended!

Taking 3 AP classes, and having to balance that with being the videographer for the school band, a secretary on the district student government association, and being part of a community service club, it would be the death of me if even this small hour were not assigned some particular purpose.

So, I went ahead and decided to assign specific tasks that must be carried out during this period, as well as the midday lunch period - an even smaller, half-hour period that's also been left terribly negated, and a period in which some of the craziest things can happen. I can't just go out and experience these breaks without a clear mission! So I began to think - what things do I not accomplish during the rest of my day that I could possibly do during these misguided time slots? Let's see ... well, the rest of the eight hours in school, I can't really do much about since it's all reserved for five different classes. The time between dismissal and starting my homework ... well, I'm not touching that! I gotta nap! And then, the time between 5:00 and 10:30 PM, that set aside for homework ... well, it's homework time!

Then I had an epiphany, and realized that those small half-hour to hour periods before and during school were to serve as the great social hours of the week! Thus, I made it clear one summer afternoon when I was pacing around my house, talking to meself, working out this fine daily itinerary - in the morning, and during lunch, I need to completely let myself go and partake in as much social activity and interaction as possible.

That means: flirt with girls, talk with friends, attempt to get girls, talk with friends, be frustrated over girls, talk to friends, meet with teachers, look at the sky, walk the halls, help/mock the freshmen, tie my shoe ... oh yeah, and I have to eat too, cause if I don't ... well, I might die, Doctor. I mean, it's either doing all this during the morning and lunch ... or like, working at Smoothie King, so ...

to be continued in Part 2 ...

Week/end of Morality - Part 1

Annual Reflection: Becoming a Junior

Sometimes you'll be doing something you don't want to do and you end up finding something inspirational whilst doing it. Then you feel inspired and you have to write, even if it's been such a long time. And it's tradition. 

   

Hey, everybody! Man, I haven't blogged in ages! I think the blog is collecting virtual dust! Look, there goes a virtual dust bunny!

But anyway, I've got lots - LOTS to tell ya.

Over the summer, I was granted the opportunity - well, following an application process - to be part of the James Ansin/Peace Sullivan High School Workshop for Journalism and New Media, a completely free program held every summer at the local University of Miami in which twenty or so high school students are brought in to live in the campus' freshman dorms for three weeks, during which they're given access to the University's School of Communication and produce a newspaper of their own, with a central theme binding the publication's twenty or so stories (at least one per student), replete with student photographs and design input. In recent years, audio and video work has also become a part of the workshop's curriculum, extending its length by about a week (it used to be only less than two weeks) and allowing students to partake in the new dynamic of journalism - web video. Based on their written stories, and the people they've interviewed along the way, the students make short documentary style web videos about eligible stories.

Not only all this, they're also taught by former journalists and current UM professors, video editors, as well speakers regarding the topic(s) they write their stories about (our topic this year was the Jan. 12 Haiti earthquake). And to top it off, field trips to the local newspaper and TV station are included. 

Did I also mention free food? Well that too. 

I feel privileged - truly privileged - to have attended this workshop. It was life-changing, a quality of the workshop they'd advised us about from day one. 

Sure, it meant three weeks away from home - only somewhat though, since I live biking distance from the University - but it was worth it. I made unforgettable friends - from cocoa butter loving Mupi, to seasoned video producer and editor Stoltz, as well as award-winning Haley and concert-loving Melissa. 

My interest in journalism only grew larger - interviewing people from my local neighbor to a geology professor in Mexico, dealing with the frustration from multiple rewrites to my story, learning about ethics, understanding the importance of story, and what makes a good one ... it was a beautiful, truly beautiful experience. 

To see our work, visit http://workshop.com.miami.edu/2010/.

And of course, one of the highlights was dorm life. We were spread out across two floors - boys and girls - but the fact that we were freely able to walk out into the hallways and down into the second floor at eleven o' clock at night made it very thrilling. 

It was like a little town - downstairs was Haley's Internet Café (she was the only one with a laptop), next door was Danny's Space Pudding Restaurant (some weird chocolate/peanut mix, I think, that she always shared with everyone); across the hall was Mupi's Arcade (he'd brought a 60-inch television and an XBOX 360, complete with a Logitech sound system). 

It was a world I'd like to live in - truly a taste of college life - and fortunately, despite all these distractions, I stayed focused and concentrated on writing the best story yet. 

Yes, that's me. Did I ever give that blanket back?

Luckily, so was everyone else, which only added to the experience - I was surrounded by people who shared my love of journalism, my love of talking to people, my love of writing, my love of making the best end product possible. That's something you don't always get in school, but here, dedication was alive and well. 

And so now, being only a week away from the first day of junior year, rushing just a healthy bit to finish my summer assignments on time, I take my five-minute break, sip on a nice, refreshing, ice-cold can of Coke, and I think about coming back to school. After the workshop, I feel like there's so much more I can come to school with now. Of course, I can bring new ideas to my TV Production/Journalism class - as you can well imagine, I learned a plethora of skills and concepts I knew little to nothing about beforehand - but there's a social component too. 

Experiencing dorm life was as beneficial from the workshop as was the "work" part of it. I got to talk to awesome people, but more importantly, people of just one or two years older that went to high schools in the next county (only four from the group went to a local high school). 

That small age difference, as numerically insignificant as it is, showed quite the leap in personality, in maturity, and in knowledge in these older peers of mine. Upon talking to them, I realized that they were already driving, working, having more "committed" relationships ... regular stuff you expect seniors and juniors to do and sophomores and freshmen to wish they could do, right? 

 

Sure. But it's just so unbelievably amazing - to me personally - how, at age 16, you could be eating dinner every night at the dinner table with your parents, riding bike to school, and having to come back home before 10; and only two years later, at age 18, you could be driving a car to school three-fourths of the year, and to work during the summer; paying for your cell phone bill, picking up friends from their houses or from their two-day parties and riding to the beach at your considerable leisure. 

Isn't it just amazing how fast we grow up? I for one will be sticking to the humble bicycle transportation option for now, but regardless - I wouldn't be surprised if I see a report in the Herald tomorrow regarding how fast this generation (whatever its name is) is growing! It's crazy! Absolutely mindblowing. 

My friend and I, for example, have been soul searching for a while, and so I often reflect on what it means to be in a relationship. 

Two years ago, it meant kissing and making out, if you got lucky. Today it means ... well, whatever it's supposed to mean. And two years from now, it'll probably mean something completely different again. Him and I are "talking" to prospective soul mates at the moment - "talking" being another dynamic of relationships that only entered existence for us less than a year ago - and it's really only now that we're enjoying newfound interest in the process that is getting to know someone, complimenting them occasionally (for fear of coming on too strong), being yourself, maybe going to go see a movie together, talking about important life stuff together. 

Our spiritual needs have changed, him and I - but who's to say they won't be completely different two years from now? Maybe the "talking" aspect of it all won't be a source of frustration in the future (it surely is now). Who's to say relationships, and our attitudes towards them, won't be completely different again next year?

Everything else is!

Regardless of any and all generational change - summer's ending, and the chance to keep growing during the school year soon returns. Summer is sometimes like a checkpoint, where you can reflect on who you've been, and who you'll be. 

Whatever happens, though - here's to an excellent junior year of high school!

Annual Reflection: Becoming a Junior

Coining The Social Requirement

Hello, world!

One night earlier this school year, I had to miss out on the homecoming football game at Tropical Park - right behind my house - only because I hadn't done my homework. I wa frustrated, no doubt, but by the time I finally finished, it was only an hour into the game! So I made the horrible, horrible choice of riding to Publix to pick up some groceries (which my mother told me to do) and on the way pass by the park, to see all of my friends cheering from the stands, all the while wearing that sad, puppy-dog, eye-sparkling face the lead actors wear in all those dramatic romance movies. After reaching an indescribable low point of depression (well not really; when I left the park someone gave me a red banana that tasted like an orange, so I rode bike home just fine), I began thinking about what I later coined, the "social requirement".

Why wasn't I able to go to the football game? Because I didn't realize the importance of social opportunities, of something as socially and psychologically beneficial as the opportunity to hang out with friends (and meet new people) at the homecoming football game. I did not equate the priority of an outing to the priority of homework - so I reserved an unlimited amount of time for my work that had no respect or consideration towards the football game. So I decided to come up with a concept to help me divide my time properly, and I called it the social requirement.

Essentially, the social requirement involves applying the same time-management skills you use to divvy up long projects, to divvying up time between your work and the social outings you can attend. So next time you're debating whether to stay home on Friday and work on that history report due Monday, or instead go to the movies to see Toy Story 3 with your best friends, go see Toy Story 3! Sure, you might have to accelerate your work on the report a little bit, but the social requirement is just that! It's believing that a drool-inducing 100-page report about the influence and importance of the color red in modern culture is just as important and professionally and socially and psychologically and optimistically beneficial as going to McDonald's with a group of five friends from the neighborhood to reap the benefits of half-price cheeseburgers on a Sunday.

Coining The Social Requirement

Cisco, Desk’s Livelihood on Day Ten

What makes a desk?

This is unfortunately not my desk.

For me, personally, my wobbly, fake-wood, fake-metal, scratched up, mayonnaised-on desk is my livelihood!

In essence, the little corner where this and a second glass desk sit, represent my little office. “I work here,” I say, as I sit down in my trusty reclinign chair and start either working on a term paper or hooking up some Silent Hill 2 or just browsing the Internet for videos of peoples’ game rooms.

But my desk isn’t without its inconveniences. I mean, yeah, it’s a little banged up and it has to support an overly heavy Dell 17″ CRT, but there’s one thing – just one thing that really brings my chicken nuggets out to the feeding yard: IT WOBBLES. Do you understand how absolutely inconsiderate and in-respectful and in-friendly (yes, I know that’s not how you spell those words) it is for my desk to have the nerve and take the liberty – the AUDACITY – to wobble vigorously left and right when I’m viciously erasing something from my homework? Like, what happened to enterprise and customer satisfaction – what happened to love and peace?! It’s all gone! ALL of it! All because one little 20 dollar desk supporting a ridicuslosuly heavy monitor from the 1990s decides to wobble left and right when the action becomes too much to handle.

Like, are you serious? I build computers on this desk, I sign contracts at this desk! You can’t do this to me, Daphne!

But anyway, despite its misconduct towards my person, I will be rewarding the desk this summer with a phone along the lines of the Cisco IP Phone 7970.

Actually, no, I’m gonna get this phone and put it on the glass desk instead. Daphne doesn’t deserve such luxury.
Though on second thought, that’s a lie too. This Cisco IP Phone is the absolute most awesome thing I’ve ever used in my history of using telephones. It’s AMAZING! It comes decked out in exciting gray and black, with a touchscreen display (touchscreen on a phone! WOW!), customizable settings for speaker and earpiece volume – everything! And the best thing is, I haven’t even penetrated the repository of things that this phone can do. It has voicemail, internet services, a boatload of buttons. It’s powered by two ethernet cables, which is enough of a landmark in my opinion.

But perhaps the best thing is that it’s allowed me to do so much. I sit next to this phone everyday, as I attend what is one of the best experiences yet – the Miami Montage 2010 Workshop. I’ve been given the chance to practice my journalism skills, which I haven’t been able to practice before. I’ve been given the chance to combine research with interviews, to bring together technology with the ages-old art of writing. I’ve been given the chance of a lifetime, and it’s absolutely great. Now I’m off to touch this phone some more.

So why am I lying about getting this phone? Because there’s no way I’d be able to afford this beauty I have sitting right next to me. I’ll buy something similar. I want to be just like that guy in “The Insider”, who has an awesome phone too, even though it’s undeniably 90s. He has an undeniably non-wobbly desk too – what a lucky guy!

Cisco, Desk’s Livelihood on Day Ten