Fear No More

Around this time a year ago I talked about how I was a coulrophobic: a person who has a fear of clowns. I hated how they looked, the painted face, the big red nose, the baggy clothes, the big shoes and the crazy hair. I really hated the idea of how “happy” they are because there is no person in this world who wants to make people laugh that much. I feared clowns despite the obvious fact that they are normal people dressed in a costume, with makeup on and a wig. 

That fear originated after I watched “It”, the movie, when I was six. I remember being at the neighbor boy’s house sitting in the floor watching the beginning of the movie. I barely got passed the first part before I ran home crying. For eleven years after that day, the sight of a clown left me crying and shaking in my boots. Also what heightened my fear was learned about the notorious serial killer John Wayne Gacy dubbed the “Killer Clown”. This, in my mind, proved that clowns were bad people. 

Lucky for me I recently faced my fear at the state fair when I took a picture with one of the many clowns that were freely walking around. I always wanted to get over my fear of clowns but, what made me want to get over it was putting it on my bucketlist. I think by naming what you are going to do makes it more likely for yourself to do it. By making this a goal I wanted to prove to everyone and myself that it was possible. Don’t get me wrong though, I still find clowns to be creepy but now I can look at a picture of one without crying like a baby.

The Book Was Better Than The Movie

Fans of a book always wish their new favorite book could come to life on the big screen. This is not always a good thing when the reader has such high expectations for the movie to be almost exactly like the book. The Divergent fans had their wish granted on March 21, 2014. People who read this book and saw the movie could easily detect the scenes that were cut, the changes and the similarities.

The first change I noticed in the movie was when a Dauntless initiate didn’t fall to her death. In the book, all the Dauntless initiates are on a train and are required to jump off the train onto a roof. One initiate did not make it onto the roof and instead she fell to her death. I felt this scene in the book was important because it shows how dangerous the initiation process is and how daring the Dauntless are.

The second change I noticed was the capture the flag scene. In the movie the groups were to use darts. These darts would give people the same pain as a bullet without the damage. Also in the movie Tris was the one who captured the flag. In the book, the darts were paintballs and Christina was the one who captured the flag. The paintball change isn’t something to fuss about. In fact, I enjoy that change because it is more hardcore than a paintball. The change for Tris capturing the flag was different from the book probably because she is the leading lady and she deserves all the attention. While I do understand why they made it to where Tris captured the flag, I do not like this change simply because that is not how it happened in the book.

The showdown change downright made me angry. Instead of Tris looking Four in the eyes and bringing him back to reality to help her save everyone, Tris reveals the truth to Jeanine that she is Divergent and uses the serum against Jeanine to force her to end the mind control program. There is a romance between Four and Tris and I feel like the movie almost ignored the romance between them. The last showdown scene in the book shows how they care about each other.

Other than the noticeable changes the movie followed the book well. However, there were some scenes that readers of the book would have liked to have seen such as, the initiate falling to her death and Peter stabbing Edward in the eye.

When a book comes to life the movie should be almost exactly like the book to please those who actually took the time to read it. Although little changes can be accepted, the major changes are hard to accept. People who have not read the book can be more accepting.  If a movie cannot be a video copy of a book then there should not be a movie made. 

Research Proposal. First Paragraph.

When we think of cancer we usually imagine an adult above the age of 40. Hardly do we ever think of a child having cancer because cancer in children is rare. While the amount of cancers differ for adults, there are twelve major types of cancers that affect children. Three of these major types of cancer are Leukemia, brain cancer and cancer in the central nervous system. These can be found in over half of children diagnosed with cancer. Nowadays, it seems that just about everything can cause cancer or can increase a person’s chance of getting cancer.

 

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Watching The Secrets Unfold

Illuminati. For those of you who know what this word means you probably just shuddered. How can you not when the Illuminati is, supposedly, a secret organization that is believed to want to create a new world order. Many people have different ideas on what the Illuminati consists of. In The Secret Empire Of The New World Order (Illuminati New World Order Documentary, tells how the top leaders in the government are the people trying to create a new world order.

Jason Bermas, the narrator of the documentary, exposes, in detail, how the government has a secret agenda. That secret agenda is to gain as much power as possible to control people. The government controls its people through drug trafficking, staged terror attacks, propaganda through the media, money laundering, debt, dealing arms and micro-chipping children at birth. Those who can in the way of the people in the government doing what they wanted would then be killed.

There are many officials in the government who are each apart of different secret organization. The government scares its people by making them think that there are dangers for them to fear such as terror attacks. However, there is evidence that certain events that happened show that the government created invisible terrors for the people to fear in order to go to war. There is evidence that drug trafficking in the United States is being run by officials in the government. For example, Bill Clinton was believed to have been one of those officials. George Bush, senior, is thought to be one of the main people who really tried for a new world order. He repeatedly said it himself, that he wanted to create a new world order. During the time when he would say that, the people who talk about how that idea scared them. People who tried to expose or were seen as a threat were killed in order to be stopped. John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King are believed to be two of many people who were killed by the CIA by the orders of people in the government. The government claims that after 9/11 that they wanted to keep us safe, so they took away certain civil liberties. Evidence shows that the government was behind the 9/11 disaster because they wanted to create a reason to control the people more.

This documentary was interesting. The details and evidence it showed really made me question the activities our government is doing. I question how the government could let such things, such as drug trafficking, happen but then, I came to the conclusion that they are only doing it to benefit themselves. The government wants more power. While this documentary allows me to open my eyes a little and question what I thought I knew the whole point of it is to persuade and inform me. It is said that we are the land of the free but could it be possible that we are not?

 The government is behind something. The people in the government keep specific details away from the people. They do this on purpose in order to benefit themselves. The government is trying to create a new world order. The people who notice such thing that the government does are trying to expose the truth because we, the people, need to know it. 

Watch the video here. 

Leave It To The Pros or To The 15 Year Old?

Jack Andraka a 15 year old high school student constructed a new way to detect pancreatic cancer. Andraka invented a device using inexpensive strips of filter paper, carbon nanotubes and antibodies sensitive to mesothelin. Mesothelin is a type of protein and people who have pancreatic cancer have a high amount of that protein. The best part about this new invention is it is much more cheaper then the 60 year old way that professionals used. Not only that but, it is also showing a 100%  success rate.

My question is, how is it a 15 year old easily figured out a way to detect such a thing that professionals with degrees could not? My theory is they didn’t want to. Think about it people probably have to spend thousands of dollars for the original test and not just the test, the people would then spend thousands of more dollars to find a way to save their lives.The professionals did not want to think of a cheaper way just so they could line their pockets full of money. Trust me, I know my theory sounds awful but it is plausible.

Flames

Night by Elie Wiesel is a book with a collection of his memories and his experiences in the several concentration camps he was in during the time of the Holocaust. This book is narrated by Eliezer who represents Wiesel. This work, in detail, talks about a few of the many experiences Wiesel went through, such as being forced to move out of his only home, being beaten and tortured by the leaders on the camps, and the death of his family. In 1986 Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for giving his powerful message to people all over.

“Not far from us, flames, huge flames, were rising from the ditch. Something was being burned there. A truck drew close and unloaded its hold: small children. Babies! Yes, I did see this, with my own eyes… children thrown into the flames” (Wiesel 32). This quote is from the book. The babies were burned to death because they would be a burden to the ones who would have to take care of them. They thought that it would be better to kill them than to do anything that kept them alive. This quote shows that there was no mercy, not even for the innocent. When I read this, I was angered because, as I stated, children are innocent. Those children did not deserve to be treated like unworthy animals. Eliezer even stated how he couldn’t understand how the world let them burn people alive. “How was it possible that men, women and children were being burned and that the world kept silent?”

Distracted Driving

At the beginning of the school year my teacher put together groups of students in the class. Each group had a mission to create a magazine to bring awareness to distracted driving. Each magazine had to have a survey and two essays. In my group, we assigned each other to certain areas of the magazine. One person did the essays, one person did the back and front cover, research, and pictures, and one person worked on the inside of the magazine.

 

 

Teachers Teach. Students Learn.

According to the Merriam Webster’s website, the word teach means to cause or help (someone) learn about a subject by giving lessons. To learn means to gain knowledge or skill by studying, practicing, being taught, or experiencing something. I learn best when I am sitting in a classroom with a teacher, a person or thing that teaches something whose job is to teach students about certain subjects, who teaches me a subject by giving me notes and pointers to follow for when I am assigned an assignment or essay to do. I feel like a teacher’s job is to teach a subject by laying out what a student should be learning but, it is a student’s job to study or learn about that subject.

As much as I have tried in the classes I am or I have been in, I cannot be handed something new about a subject and just teach it to myself. I need a teacher to outline the important points of a subject and then I can go in and fill in the blanks. When I am expected to teach myself, I am unsure about the important points of the subject I am supposed to learn. When a teacher outlines what he or she needs me to learn I feel better about learning that subject.

I also learn better when its just me. To elaborate on this, I do not like to do group work and by like I mean hate. When I do group work, I do not trust other people to help me get the job done. I would much rather do everything myself that way I know it gets done and that way I know it will be how I like it. When I work with a group I get stressed out and if my grade depends on the amount of work I do and what my group members do then I feel doomed. I feel like group work its not a very effective strategy to learn.

The way I see it, there would be no teachers if students could teach themselves. A teacher’s responsibility is to teach the subject. A student’s responsibility is to learn what they are being taught.

To Be, or Not To Be

For as long as anyone could remember, women had expectations and men had expectations. Little boys were expected to play with trucks and action figures and little girls were expected to play with Barbie dolls and baby dolls. Men were expected to be the protectors and the ones who make the money while women are expected to be the care takers of the children and house. In today’s time, these expectations have switched places. It is no longer absolutely unacceptable for a little boy to pick up a baby doll and pretend to be a daddy or for a father to be the stay at home parent.

However, there are still people who scold their children for messing up the expectations. There are still men who insist on being the money maker leaving the mother of his children to do all the house work and tend to the children. These people believe that it is better to have these expectations because it helps in the shaping of these people. It’s not just people who influence these expectations. Television has a huge impact on the gender-stereotypic ways. Males are more than likely portrayed as strong, aggressive, and powerful leaders. Women are portrayed as the ones who take care of the children and housework.

 There is a problem with these expectations. Are children really learning who they are if the adults push them to do certain things? Children are pressured to “belong” in today’s society. Society has formed a stereotype of the “perfect woman” and the “perfect man” should be. If men and women do not follow these expectations they are shunned or feel as if they are not socially acceptable. How is that any better? Society should not judge these men, women, and children. Society should accept them for who and how they are.

Infuriating Problems With Scary Movies

 

It’s that time again for costumes, haunted houses, tricks, candies and other treats. Oh and we certainly cannot forget scaaaaaary moooooovies. Ah, yes, scary movies. The films we all love and enjoy throughout the entire year but enjoy more during the month of October.  Serial killers, monsters, aliens and ghost all haunt and stalk our televisions. While I do enjoy a good horror film I cannot help but to notice all the problems with a scary movie.

I have found myself many times watching a scary movie and yelling out “Why would you hide there! Run! Don’t hide!” or “Just go out the front door!” Think about it. The killer just casually walks and the prey of the killer is running…RUNNING! How can the killer catch up so fast!? Then the prey hides behind a tree…really? A tree? JUST KEEP RUNNING!

Something else that really irritates me is that the prey is in the living room when the killer shows up and instead of running out the front door, they run upstairs or hide in a room. Why? Just why? Or how about when the characters say “Lets split up.” Why in the world would they split up at a time like that? The greater the numbers of a group, the greater their chance of living. Just saying.

The one thing that really gets me is when I am watching movies such as Children of the Corn. The people run into the corn field and take turns left and right. Why not just run straight? They will eventually make it out if they run straight. Making turns get them nowhere.

Towards the end when the prey finally gets the upper hand they always fail to make sure they killed the killer. One shot to the chest will not kill the killer. It’s a fact. They have to keep trying just to make sure they’re dead. Otherwise, they’ll be the dead ones.

So let us go over the lessons I have learned from scary movies

1. Never, ever, ever, eeeeeever leave the group

Leaving the group means you are just asking to die. Stay with the group and when the killer shows up everyone should bust out their super awesome kills and kick butt

2. Keep driving

If you’re on a road trip with your best girl and guy friends and you suddenly see a bloody girl or hitchhiker on the side…as much as I hate to say this, don’t stop…keep going. Don’t stop at some random house for directions, you never know, there could be a family full of serial killers behind that door.

3. If you have the kill shot, go for it.

Don’t waste your time thinking about the best place to go in for the kill! If you have the opportunity do it or suffer the consequences.

4. Don’t trust a gun, if the killer is a zombie.

The gun could have the safety on, no bullets or the chamber could jam. Heck, you could just have really bad aim! Use a different weapon.

5. If you are by a front door, use it.

This one is pretty self-explanatory