Busy Busy Busy

Why do teachers give out so much homework?  Why is junior year so hard?

                This year has been the busiest and craziest year of school I’ve ever had.  One thing that probably makes it worse is playing soccer again this year instead of just basketball.  All I’m doing now is homework.  It’s almost like every teacher in the school got together over the summer to discuss how much homework they would give us sport players.  My Bible teacher is big on projects, Scripture memorization, and worksheets for studying for the test.  My history teacher is new this year, and he’s really big on the whole “preparing us for college” idea.  It’s great, but it’s just so much work.  My science teacher is cool, but it’s physics, so it’s just down right awful.  My math teacher is big on just giving us A LOT of homework.  My year book class is a completely different story though.  He’s really laid back and allows us to do whatever we want.  I’m doing this blog because of this class.  My English teacher is big on giving us work and preparing us for college too.  She’s really strict in our English class.  On the other hand though, she is also my speech teacher.  She’s really laid back in that class and jokes around with us.  She has personalities with the two different classes basically.

What's the Trend??

      Blue Grass Baptist is a VERY small school, so trends of all sorts go on. Trends around here are physical appearances, such as hair styles and clothes, and social media.


Physical appearances

     Due to our ridiculous dress code rules at our school, clothing trends cannot really happen. Our dress code is not as bad as other private schools, but all we students hate it.  We have to wear a polo or a button down with khakis, navy pants, or a few other pant colors.  One clothing trend that is going on right now is sweaters.  Both guys and girls have this trend going on now.  There is also a shoe trend right now.  The trend is Sperry’s and Vans.  
      There are also the “how you look” trends like hair and make-up.  The hair trends are straightening, curling, and scrunching.  I have no idea what these styles are, but thanks to the wonderful group of girls I talked to, they say these are the trends right now.  Close to the end of last school year, the straight bangs were the trend.  The guy trend at the moment is spiking your hair in certain ways. Here are some examples: the whole top is spiked, the front is spiked (aka “the bieber”), and spiked facing the side.  There are also the make-up trends.  For your eyes there are the cat eyes.  And supposedly there is the nude lip gloss trend. 

Social Media

     We can never forget about the social media aspect of trending.  There are social media sights coming out left and right and up and down for us citizens. The three biggest social media sites are Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

     Facebook was the biggest and most popular trend for the longest time.  It’s still popular among some, but twitter is taking over rapidly.  Facebook is designed to where you add friends that you don’t even know… but really you make a status about anything you want, like or comment on statuses or pictures, or add pictures. 

      Twitter is the biggest social trend right now.  You can tweet about anything you want, add pictures, follow people, and one major difference than Facebook.  The difference is that you can retweet or people’s tweets.  This shows up on other people’s time line allowing more entertainment (for the lack of a better word). 

     Instagram’s idea is sharing photos of your daily life.  You can add captions and tag people in the photo.  You can also comment on the photos uploaded and tag people in those comments.   

     I probably have made these social sites look so boring, but they really are great and addicting. Studies have come and said that social media sights are more addicting than drugs.  So go make an account now!!!!

Why I Think...

Why I think students should be able to text and/or use their phones in school…
    
  Many schools in this day in age are starting to allow their students to use their phones under certain conditions.  Because of this, I think Blue Grass should slim back some.  I do realize some people take advantage of the system and use their phones in class, but if that happens, then just take the phone —don’t punish the whole school.

     Blue Grass’s policy right now is that we have to turn our phones in at the beginning of the day so the teachers can WRITE down who has or hasn’t turned in their phones so they can be on a look-out.  I have talked to several people from different schools, both public and Christian schools. 




Here are different rules that I’ve learned:

·         Just don’t pull your phone out, then they won’t take it

·         You can text in between classes and at lunch.

·         You can text between class and at lunch; you can even use it IN class for note taking.

·         You are to turn in your phone into a basket at the beginning of each class.

·         The Blue Grass Rule
             As seen from the list above, Blue Grass has the strictest policy.  It’s because of those few  peopl that school that we have the policy.  Yes, I dislike the policy in the first place, but I have a major problem with how it’s enforced.  From what I’ve seen and heard, teachers have the right to empty your pockets, look through a girl’s purse, or go through someone’s locker if they suspect a phone.  That is too far.

                  For now, we students must live with the policy, which we should be able to handle for a little bit more time.  Hopefully Mr. Ellis can bring up this situation to the teachers so that all may agree with me.

Photoshop Work

     Ever wondered how people make images so peculiar and unique?? Well… Here’s the secret, it's Photoshop. Thanks to our wonderful teacher Mr. Ellis , several others and I will be able to use it on the computers in our class. I will also be posting pictures up shortly of Photoshopped images to remodel my webpage and posts.

  

  Photoshop truly does change a whole image. You can Paint the picture, remove specific parts, add other parts, add effects to the picture, and much much more. Depending on the type of person you are, you could spend hours on a program like this. I barely know anything about it, but with what i do know it's already something fun to do. For example, layers can completely change the whole look of the picture. It can keep part of the picture then add a background, making it look like a normal but new picture. You can also add extra people to a picture who weren't in the original picture.

     The only downside about Photoshop for "beginners" is that some pictures tend to look more fake if you don't use tools the right way. It’s tedious work, but worth it in the end if your good. The program is cheaper than most programs like it, so I definitely encourage you to get it.

   More Photoshop posts will be coming soon!

Disney World pt. 2

         The fifth day we went to the second water park, Blizzard Beach, with my cousin and her family. Blizzard beach has some serious rides for some serious people! The biggest water slide in the United States is there. It's called Summit Plummit. It is literally straight down, 12 stories high, and you fall at a speed of 55 mph. They had several tall racing slides that my little cousinsloved to do.
         

      

 





      The sixth day we went to Hollywood Studios.   Hollywood Studios is mostly shows and museums, but the park has a couple rides.  The rides I road were Toy Story Mania, Rockin’ Rollercoaster, Tower of Terror, and this ride that took us through some of the most famous movies to be made.  The shows I went to see were Indiana Jones; Beauty and the Beast; and Lights, Camera, Action. 

    Their biggest and most famous ride is Tower of Terror.  It’s said that no two rides on this is the same.  It’s a thirteen story building.  You’re in an elevator and it will randomly drop so many floors, so you experience the feeling of no gravity in your body.  You are dropped about five different times.  Usually after each drop, the elevator will take you up to these huge windows that open up over the park

Disney World

         A week ago I went to Disney World, and again enjoyed it just like every other time. My family and I always go every three years because we love it so much. The first time I went, I went with my immediate family and my aunt and uncle and their cousins. The second and third time I went, I just went with the immediate family. The fourth time, this past week, I went my immediate family and my cousin and her family.

Going in September, you get great deals, perfect weather, and a small crowd.

           The first day we got there is was about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, so we couldn't do too much. We unpacked then headed out towards downtown Disney. In downtown Disney they have shops and restaurants. We went on to our reservation at the House of Blues, where they had any type of barbeque meat you wanted. Afterwards, we shopped until late that night.

           The second day, we went to Magic Kingdom. This was the day we were going to meet up with my cousin, her husband, and her little kids. While waiting for them, we got to see all the characters open the park up to the public. My cousin’s kids got so excited when they saw that we were in Disney World too. We rode several rides such as the Pirates of the Caribbean, Aladdin carpet ride, Snow White, Peter Pan, and many other rides. Some of the bigger rides we rode were splash mountain, Space Mountain, and the haunted house. My cousins became obsessed with Splash Mountain because of the 75 foot drop. We ate at the Crystal Palace for lunch with the Pooh characters and at night we ate at a fast food seafood place in Magic Kingdom

          The third day we went to Typhoon Lagoon which was a waterpark. This was one of the two waterparks. It's also the smallest and weakest water parks. It has several good rides though including the Slushin Gusher. The Slushin Gusher was a water slide rollercoaster. They also had a slide that went straight down six stories. We did that for half the day then came back to the hotel room to change for the afternoon and evening. That night we ate at Momma Melrose then met up with my cousin and her family to watch Fantasmic.

        The fourth day we went to Animal Kingdom. Every day we have gone to Animal Kingdom in the past, it was super hot but it was mild that day. They got two popular rides. One was Everest Expedition. This was a rollercoaster that sent you through the mountain while being chased by a Yeti. During the ride you end up stopping in the middle of the ride because the tracks are broken. The cart then started rolling backwards in the dark with great speed. The other popular ride was a dinosaur ride. In this ride you are "sent back to the past" when dinosaurs are around and you are to bring back a dinosaur. That night we went to eat with the princesses to celebrate my cousin’s daughter's birthday.

Gravity

          Lecrae is one of the most recognizable and famous rapper in the hip hop world. He's a Christian rapper who speaks the truth no matter what. Slowly but surely Lecrae, through his ability, has brought up other Christian rappers. Lecrae owns his own recording company called Reach Records. He's come out with 6 albums on his own and one mix tape. Some of the big names he has brought up is KB and Trip Lee.

          His newest album, gravity, is definitely one you should buy. The meaning behind the name of his album is the "weight" or serious of life. In this album Lecrae featured both secular and Christian artists in his music.

List of all the songs-

1. The Drop (Intro)

2. Gravity feat. J.R.

3. Walk with Me feat. Novel

4. Free From It All feat. Mathai

5. Fallin’ Down feat. Swoope and Trip Lee

6. Fakin’ feat Thi’sl

7. Violence

8. Mayday feat Big K.R.I.T. and Ashthon Jones

9. Confe$$ions

10. Buttons

11. Power Trip feat. PRo, Sho Baraka and Andy Mineo

12. Lord Have Mercy feat. Tedashii

13. I Know

14. Tell the World feat. Mali Music

15. Lucky Ones feat. Rudy Currence

             Gravity was a follow up to his mix tape Church Clothes, his album Rehab, and his album Rehab: The Overdose. Gravity reached the top five album on Billboard's top rap albums, number 1 on the top gospel, Christian, and independent albums, and number 17 album overall. Lecrae said in an interview that he started writing the album in February and finished in the middle of the year, then took a couple months to record it. A few people from the album include American Idol season 10 winner, Ashton Jones, and the Voice finalist, Mathai.

            Through this process an article came out called "Is Lecrae and T.I. similar to Kanye vs. 50 Cent?". This argument came because both Lecrae's and T.I.'s album were due to be released on the same day. Both the artists live in Tennessee and both are up close to the top as front runners for their two different ideas behind for rap.