"Up" inspired home

Watching movies and TV shows, is just part of our American Culture these days. Have you ever seen something in a movie and said to yourself, “wow I want to do that?” I know I have a million times. Whether it’s playing a prank on someone, pulling off a stunt, or just simply changing yourself or something you own to look a movie, many people have had these thoughts. This is how our culture is influenced. We are influenced through things we see in movies that we want to make our reality.

Hosam Haggog and Fatima Rahman have done this as well. They have spent two years renovating their house to look like the house from the animated Disney Pixar movie, “Up.” I find this absolutely wonderful because I myself have a special appreciation for all things Disney, not to mention all things Pixar.

Their home is located in Santa Clara, California on Harrison Street. Although, I, myself, think this is an absolutely wonderful idea. Hosam Haggog and Fatima Rahman’s neighbors do not agree.

“Harrison Street is the oldest street in Santa Clara with homes more than 100 years old. Many residents take pride in preserving the original look and style of their Victorians.”

The above quote is from the following article that can be found at think link:

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/neighborhood-arms-over-movie-inspired-home-n90971

Many neighbors argued they were making the “house look like a clown”. I think this is an overreaction. Hosam Haggog and Fatima Rahman own this house. I don't think their neighbors should be angry. It is their home they should be able to do with it as they please.

In my opinion, if they are this passionate about this movie, they should express this.

I think what we can all take away from this, is that if you see something in a movie or on a TV show, that you want to do, then go for it and don’t hesitate because of what others think. Anything is possible.

How do you see it?

What is your take on policemen or the government looking through your cell phone?

What about when you get arrested, should police be able to go through your cell phone’s texts, calls and pictures without a warrant?

This is being debated in the Supreme Court on Tuesday.

“It's an important case, given that more than 90 percent of American adults now own a cell phone and 58 percent have a smart phone.” this was stated in an article on the subject.

This article can be found at the following link:

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/supreme-court-takes-police-power-search-cell-phones-n90046

The constitution prevents police for searching through personal items without a warrant for search; however an exception could be made in the near future for the use of cell phones.

You know what they say; a person’s smart phone holds all of their secrets. That’s why we all protect them like gold, right?

The Supreme Court will be faced with two cases on Tuesday. The article reads as follows, “The Supreme Court will now hear two cases on the privacy issue, both involving criminal defendants who sought to have evidence taken from their phones thrown out on the grounds that the police did not first get a warrant. Lower courts came to opposite conclusions in their cases.”

I think this is an interesting topic up for debate. It will be interesting to see what they rule.

I think my argument to this particular issue is qualifying.

I don’t think it is right for the police to look through your belongings without a search warrant. I think it is wrong and a violation of our privacy, as privacy is one of our freedoms as an American citizen. However, I can also see the other side of this.

The way I see the other side in this, is that, let’s say, you had something happen to a family member, a friend, or a loved one and the police had a suspect. What if the information needed to find this family member or to find out what happened was somehow on this suspect’s cell phone. I would want to know as soon as possible what this person knew. I wouldn’t want to wait around for a warrant.

I see both sides, how do you see it?

Prom

The buzz right now for high school students all across the United States, is prom. It is prom season, and girls are busy pinning hair ideas on Pinterest, and getting their nails painted, while guys are trying to rent tuxes for the night all high school students look forward to.

This is such an exciting time of year for students but what happens when one of your best friends or your prom date gets murdered after becoming prom queen?

I thought, this can’t be real, this sounds like a seen from a movie, but it’s real for students in Connecticut.

At Jonathan Law High School in Connecticut, a 16 year old prom queen was murdered by a classmate.

Maren Sanchez was stabbed to death Friday morning in Jonathan Law High School. According to reports she was stabbed by a classmate, (who’s name can not be released because he is a minor), because she didn’t want to go to prom with him. Or at least this is what is suspected. This kid must’ve felt pretty rejected in order to act out in this way.

This is a tragedy. People need help with their mental illnesses. We need to find ways to prevent these things from happening. Maren Sanchez or her friends or family did not deserve this.

According to an article that can be found here,

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/connecticut-town-mourns-girl-killed-prom-n90886

“The suspect is currently under psychiatric evaluation and a 15-day emergency commitment at a medical facility.”

The above quote is from the suspects attorney, Rich Meehan. According to Meehan the suspect will be charged as an adult.

Friends of the suspect say he was a great kid from a great family. The suspect is on the football team and one of the nicest kids. No one is sure why he caused this tragedy to happen, though it is suspected to have something to do with Maren Sanchez not attending prom with him as her date.

The stresses that things like prom put on high school students of my generation are absolutely ridiculous in my opinion, especially if they cause someone to be mentally ill and to commit a crime of this demeanor.

Please talk to your friends or your kids or someone you know and remind them that these events are meant to be joyful, and these times in your/their lives are supposed to be worry free. We want to prevent tragedies like this from happening. We, as a society, need to take away the stress of these things on our young adults today.

For more on prom related, visit my last blog here: http://lydiasblog0703.blogspot.com/2014/04/asking-celebrity-to-prom.html

Asking a Celebrity to Prom

Being famous would really be something now, wouldn’t it? It’s prom season, and all over social media you hear of kids asking celebrities and famous people to be their prom dates. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a celebrity actually saying yes and going with a student to their high schools prom but I do find it interesting that these students are so intrigued by someone they have never met before.

Have you ever thought about this? Why are we so intrigued by other humans who are popular in the media? This seems weird if you really think about it. It’s like you always thinking about your loved one, but when you think this way about a celebrity it’s almost creepy, because you have never met this person before in your life, yet you love them.

What about being a super model? People all over idealize about what it would be like to look like you or date you, if you were a model. None the less, being Miss America, yeah that would be pretty fabulous. People all across the country would love you.

This year’s Miss America, Nina Davuluri was visiting high schools on a tour when a young boy at a Pennsylvania high school asked her to prom. This boy wanted more than anything to go with her but unfortunately, The Miss America, Nina Davuluri, had to decline due to her busy schedule.

Even though, Miss America, Nina Davuluri was not offended by this boy’s request for a prom date, the school thought otherwise.

This school gave this student a three day in school suspension according to the following article:

http://www.today.com/style/miss-america-defends-student-suspended-asking-her-prom-1D79552132

 Miss America, herself, stuck up for the student and said he shouldn’t be in any kind of trouble for asking her. However the school released a statement about student behavior.

This statement reads, “"It is not our practice to discipline a student for asking someone - even Miss America - to a school dance," the statement said. "However, it is our practice to set expectations for student behavior, to communicate those expectations and rules to students and families and to ensure those rules are followed within our schools."”

This I can agree with, that students need to follow behavior expectations when a visitor comes, however I think he shouldn’t have been suspended.

Read the article above and tell me what you think!

Drunk Driving

So imagine this, one night you are laying in your bed thinking all those thoughts that you do before bed, like what you have to do tomorrow, when you fall asleep, and then boom a car crashes into your house and you are killed. Or imagine that of a loved one. What do you do when a tragedy like this happens?

Death is one of the worst things about being a live. But what makes it even worse is when someone dies unexpectedly because it leaves you with so many unanswered questions. It really isn’t fair, no matter who it happens to or how it happens.

The reason I’m sitting here on a Sunday afternoon blogging about death is because I came across an article talking about a drunk driver who hit a house and killed a sleeping teenager. How sad.

This article stated, “(Reuters) - A 16-year-old girl asleep in her bed was killed early Sunday when a suspected drunk driver careened into an apartment building in southern California, law enforcement officials said.”

Can you imagine how her parents felt the house shake and then came to find their daughters body torn into pieces? Yikes.

To make matters worse, the drunk driver was underage. This is why there is an age limit on this stuff people. There are reasons why people under the age of twenty one years old are not allowed to consume alcohol.

Not only was he drunk, he was driving around eighty miles an hour. By housing?! This is crazy. We need to stop people from drinking and driving. It hurts so many people today, it just isn’t right.

According to the article, the driver, Robert Rodriguez is twenty and being charged with suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol and vehicular manslaughter. Rodriguez is held on $100,000 bail.

Just because this kid wanted to drink one night, look what happened to him and the family of this young girl. Drinking and driving is bad. Life is too precious to let a little partying ruin so many things for so many people.

People need to think about what they’re doing before they do it. This is a prime example of this. Life is really too short. Even for Rodriguez who didn’t die, he now has to face a lot of jail time and his family has to suffer as well. That is so stupid.

Make good choices and make the most of life before it’s too late.

The article addressed above can be found here:

http://news.msn.com/crime-justice/sleeping-california-teen-killed-when-car-plows-into-apartment

Do you love what you do?

Do you love what you do? Is it still what you want to be doing the rest of your life? At this point in my life, I’m trying to decide what I want to major in while in college. This is hard because I don’t know what I want to do every day for the rest of my life. I want to enjoy whatever I’m doing.
"When people love what they do, they are happier and more successful. They work longer hours, make more friends at work, spend most of their time thinking about how to do things better and talk to everyone about what they do, which provides them with lots of diverse ideas on how to do their job even better. Their job becomes intertwined in their life rather than separate from it, and they excel because of it." Ray White said.

This above quote came from the following article:

http://msn.careerbuilder.com/article/msn-16-flexwork-freelance-and-pt-how-to-love-the-work-you-do/?catid=WL&SiteId=cbmsn416&sc_extcmp=JS_16_advice

That quote by Ray White really makes you think about what you want to do. It’s also basic psychology. If you love something and have a positive attitude about it you will have the desire to put in more effort and therefore you will be more successful.

Success comes from your desire and your drive to do something. If you don’t have any force behind your actions you will never be successful.

Loving your job will translate to a more successful and happy life. But, according to the article you don’t have to be completely passionate about your job in order to be successful.

This is also discussed in the article. The article states that if you love what your job benefits you to do you will be more successful, as well. For example if you love what the pay enables you to do you will be more successful.

If you don’t have any passion the article suggests you find something you’re passionate about and translate that into your job. This could have to something to do with the money you earn from your job.

If you have five or less minutes in your day today, or tomorrow or any day this week, take time to read this article and think about what you can do to make you love a small part of your job. It was worth it for me and it could make a world of difference to you or someone you know too.

Man punished by judge, stands on street corner

Looking for articles to analyze for my blog posts on this Sunday night a few hours before this is due, I am searching through articles and I came across something very interesting and intriguing.

What kinds of punishments do you think of when someone commits a crime? I think of things like jail time or community service, wouldn’t you?

 Well this is why this article shocked me.

http://news.msn.com/crime-justice/i-am-a-bully-sign-holder-calls-sentence-unfair

The blurb at the beginning of this article reads, “An Ohio man who spent hours on a street corner Sunday with a sign declaring he's a bully says that the punishment in a disorderly conduct case was unfair and that the judge who sentenced him has ruined his life.”

Sixty-two-year-old Edmond Aviv was the one behind the sign that claimed he was a bully to disabled children.

Apparently he was sentenced to this after fighting back and forth with his neighbor for the last fifteen years.

She claimed he was bullying her and her disabled daughter and he complained about just about everything he could. Their most recent debate was on her laundry smelling. I kind of think this guy deserves this after reading that. Like really, stop your complaining!

Edmond Aviv says he was not bullying but wouldn’t answer any questions. This is why the Judge made him sit on the street corner with a sign all day.

As Aviv sat there, cars drove by and honked and screamed things at him.

Do you think this is a fair punishment? Or even a morally right punishment for a judge to be giving out?

I don’t know how I feel about this. I feel like Aviv deserves a punishment, (do you?), but this almost seems childish and like this judge was abusing his/her powers in this particular situation.

This to me seems like a very unlawful punishment. It almost feels like this judge was making fun of the situation, or poking fun at it, instead of ruling a real punishment and fixing it.

What do you think? Was this judge being unfair?

Bubba Watson

What’s your favorite sport? Do you ever imagine what it would be like to win a major title while playing your sport? What if you got to win this title twice? Bubba Watson got this opportunity today.

Bubba Watson? Who’s that? Oh just the guy who won the Masters tournament two times. Bubba Watson is a golfer. He has won the Masters tournament twice now in the last three years. The Masters tournament is arguably one of the biggest tournaments in the PGA tour. And to win this title twice, is a pretty big deal.

When you win the Masters tournament you receive a green jacket. This green jacket symbolizes you as the Masters champion. Being from Cedar Rapids, Iowa the Masters and a green jacket are a pretty big deal around here because golfer, Zach Johnson from my city won the Masters a few years ago. So getting a green jacket for us is a big accomplishment, especially for someone from a small town.

 Bubba Watson’s winnings are the same way. "Small-town guy named Bubba now has two green jackets," Watson said. "It's pretty wild."

The above quote is from an article that can be found here:

http://msn.foxsports.com/golf/story/bubba-watson-wins-2014-masters-augusta-national-second-victory-041314

When Bubba Watson won the tournament two years ago his family wasn’t even there, this was unexpected for him to when.

However, this time his two year old son ran out on the 18th green, wearing his green Masters outfit to support his father in his second win of this major tournament.

This a great heart warming story. Sometimes I think as viewers of sports we don’t really realize that these people are real people too. This guy came from a small town as did Zach Johnson, and they reached their goals. Why can’t you reach yours?

 Bubba obviously has other things going on his life with a two year old son, but he still made time to achieve his goals, twice. There should be no excuses; if you want something you can achieve it.

 Do you want to know the best part of “Small Town Bubba”? He kept his poise the entire time. Even after going back this year and last year after winning this tournament once, he was not over confident of cocky. He kept his poise and pushed through and became victorious again.

Congratulations Bubba.

Everyone should be able to feel safe

Yesterday was an interesting day, but the night before yesterday was when it all started. Tuesday night, my family received a call from our principal saying, our school has received a threat and there would be extra security present for the remainder of the week. The rumor or word on the street was that a former student of Kennedy, wanted to come into the school with a gun and “shoot up the school”. Luckily for our sake this was reported by students who were with this former student and the school and police were ready to handle this situation and protect our school.

Fortunately for us, nothing happened and the school day preceded as normal, besides the fact that there were extra officers and authority figures around, as well as many students stayed home for school in fear yesterday. However, today school seems to be running as usual. There are still a few officers around but everything seems to be okay.

Unfortunately for a school in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, those students weren’t as lucky. They did not receive a call two nights ago about a threat. In this school, sixteen year old Alex Hribal was walking down the hallway at his school when he stabbed twenty one people. Can you even imagine walking down the hallway and having someone stab you out of nowhere? Especially at your school where you are supposed to be safe? This is mind blowing to think about.

How is a sixteen year old even capable of stabbing his peers? Why would he want to? Reports say that Alex Hribal was a very nice kid and had a few friends and was quiet before the incident yesterday at Franklin Regional Senior High School.

Alex Hribal is being charged with 21 counts of aggravated assault in adult court.

This is according to an article that can be found here:

http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/10/justice/pennsylvania-school-stabbing/

According this article, almost all of the wounded students from Franklin Regional Senior High School didn’t even notice someone coming at them.

But Alex Hribal was coming at them with two kitchen knives. The report states that right now the motive is unknown as well as who was targeted.

A victim of this horrific school stabbing, says he remembers a kid run past him and then he was stabbed in the back. He thought he wasn’t going to leave the school alive.

This takes me back to the threat on my own school yesterday, why do people have to ruin the safe environments of schools? Why can’t we just leave that alone, so everyone feels safe at school?

These kids that want to hurt others need to get help. Everyone should be able to feel safe.

E-Cigarette Poisoning in Children

Have you ever called the U.S. Poison control center? If so, has it even been due to E-Cigarettes? Many people are being poisoned recently by E-Cigarettes. E-Cigarettes are electronic cigarettes, that are battery powered and let people inhale the nicotine vapors.

An article can be found here:

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/e-cigarette-poisonings-skyrocket-mostly-kids-n70961?ocid=msnhp&pos=1

According to the above article, “More than half of the poisoning reports involved children age 5 and younger, including many kids drawn to the nicotine-laced liquids flavored like fruit, bubble gum and soda pop, which come in containers ranging from small vials to multi-gallon jugs that are not required to be childproof.”

Can you image your five year old self, smoking an E-Cigarette? This is ridiculous to me that kids have access to these things now days. I mean I understand that most parents wouldn’t just hand their young child a cigarette but how do they not keep them away from their children?

According to CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden, the liquid nicotine that is used within E-Cigarettes can be very hazardous. This wasn’t very surprising to me to be honest. I would think it would be just as harmful, if not more than smoking a traditional cigarette.

“Between September 2010 and February 2014, there were 2,405 calls about e-cigarettes to the nation’s 55 poison control centers, and about 16,248 calls about conventional cigarettes, the study found.”

This is crazy how hazardous these things can be to the human body. Why would anyone want to put those liquids into themselves or their children?

The article stats that just a teaspoon of these cigarettes could have the ability to kill a child, wow.

The purpose of this article was to explain to people how important it is to keep these devices out of the reach of children. I hope people do this now! That would be such a ridiculous way for your child to die, all because you were too foolish to keep a dumb E-Cigarette out of their reach.

Makers of these products may claim these are safe, but there’s no guarantee for your children! Be safe when using this product!

Cereal Box Marketing

“Apparently, Trix really are for kids after all, but not in the way you might have thought.” This quote comes from one of the opening paragraphs of an article on cereal box marketing. This article is titled, “Cereal Characters Lure Kiddies With Eye Gaze: Study”. Interesting, am I right?
Have you ever thought about what your cereal box looked like before? A lot of the cereals that are sugary and extra yummy are decided to target children. When you are walking down the cereal aisle in the grocery store have you ever noticed that they all have a character on them? If you’ve noticed that have you ever noticed where that character is looking?

 Cornell University did a study on this and they found out some pretty interesting results.

 This article can be found here:

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/cereal-characters-lure-kiddies-eye-gaze-study-n70826
The Character on that sugary cereal box has it’s eyes pointed downward to insure that kids running through the grocery store with mom or dad, will lock eyes with that “Lucky Charm’s leprechaun” and instantly beg their parents to buy it.
It is great marketing if you ask me!

According to the article, “The researchers provided two key takeaways from their findings. One, parents should think about not taking their children down the cereal aisle. Two, manufacturers of healthier cereals could consider adding a character looking downwards to the box to make their cereal more appealing to younger consumers.”

This is very true in my opinion. This could help healthier cereals draw in more children. This would be very beneficial to the health of my generation and generations after mine, as well.

This cereal box character’s gaze directly into the eyes of your children and draw them in, with a little help from your child’s imagination. So why not trick your child into being drawn in by a healthy cereal choice?

I think this could benefit parents and children by making children more excited about eating healthy cereal.

I found this article very interesting because it is like a psychological game that these marketing companies are playing on children and even some adults. I would like to look more into this and figure out what other kinds of marketing games are played on the innocent. Especially those like this that we would have never noticed before reading this article. It’s a strange world when your mind plays tricks on you!

 

 

 

It's baseball season!

This week, it officially became the best time of year. Baseball season started. Opening Day in the MLB officially started. The green grass, the ballpark ‘dogs, and the crack of the bat have all started up. Those are just some of the wonderful things that baseball brings to the world. Baseball is America’s past time. To me you aren’t American if you don’t love at least one aspect of the game!

 Do you have a favorite MLB team? Mine happens to be one of the worst teams in the league. You guessed it, the Chicago Cubs. The Cubs haven’t won the World Series in over one hundred years. That’s heartbreaking yet not surprising considering how we have played the last few seasons. The Chicago Cubs started off the season with a losing record already. This is a great way to start the season off, NOT. At this rate we might as well make it 200 years since we’ve won the World Series.

The exciting thing this year for the Chicago Cubs is that this is the 100^th birthday of the Cubs field, Wrigley field. If you’ve never been to Wrigley, I highly suggest you check it out! It is by far one of my favorite places ever. The atmosphere is just amazing. It may not be the fanciest ball park but it is by far my favorite of those that I’ve been to because of the love that Chicago Cubs fans have for their team. It’s unbelievable. Even with all the loses Chicago Cubs fans are still the most loyal fans on the planet.

The Chicago Cubs are calling this year, “The Party of the Century” according to http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com and having many great festivities and celebrations all through out this one hundredth season at Wrigley.

If you’re a baseball fan be sure to check out their website for more details and join in on the celebrations!

Happy Opening Week and Happy Baseball Season!