Assignment 15 - Duncan Wingfield

 I absolutely adore Lego. I love learning new ways of connecting things. There's so much more than people realize, you have the classic bricks on top of bricks but there's also side building and using bars and clips, technic is essentially a whole seperate system for building that just so happens to be compatible with standard bricks, with technic that opens up the whole sphere of bionicle and there's so many different ways of building in that area too. I love pushing myself to find more connections and looks and pushing lego to it's limits.

(Makeup for assignment 13)

Assignment 13: Sanat Dharwad

 Some might think that one of the most important problems today is world hunger but those people fail to see that the real problem is that some people enjoy a lavish lifestyle while others go hungry. It is the inequality that is the source of our frustration. Many people feel guilty that they have three meals on their plate everyday, while others aren’t even sure that they will have one.. If everyone were at the same level of hunger, that would be the norm, and no one would be complaining. Obviously, the easiest way to solve this problem is to make everyone starve. The United Nations could band together and enforce a starving mandate, ensuring no one doesn’t go hungry. Coincidentally, this would also solve the issue of global warming, as the CO2 emissions produced by mankind from air and land travel, and the agriculture industry would  disappear, and also solve the problem of murder, as there is no on left to be a murderer or murderee.

Assignment 14 - Duncan Wingfield

 To be honest I've never been the biggest fan of thanksgiving, I'm not the biggest fan of food either. I normally just don't enjoy eating. And on top of that since I'm a vegetarian thanksgiving offerings for me have always been fairly sub par. My grandma always does her best but like the same mac and cheese gets old and like tofurkey is vile. To me thanksgiving is really just a visit to grandma's and nothing much else. I've always been much more of a christmas guy anyway.

Assignment 13 Garrett Peavler

    In modern times there are a lot of things that could threaten the continuation of the human race, artificial intelligence, disease, global warming, but none of them pose the same threat that nuclear weapons do. Nuclear weapons can cause devastating damage and can be launched at moments notice if the proper clearances are given. As the number of nuclear weapons goes up the danger that they pose also goes up. It is no secret that something has to be done to reduce the amount of nuclear weapons being stock piled, which is why congress has recently passed the "Pretty Please Initiative". This requires that the president write a heart warming, slightly seductive letter to the heads of all major nuclear powers saying, "Please, pretty please, will you maybe just get rid of some of your nuclear weapons? It would mean the world to me...." It is unclear whether or not this strategy will be effective, but analysts predict that it will be slightly more effective than the current strategy which is to hide in a corner and hope that things work themselves out, still we will just have to wait and see.

Assignment 9- Will Stone

 Social media is ruining our country.  What started as a fun way for people to interact with each other has taken time away from in-person relationships. My parents would not allow me to get a social media account when I was younger, but I still don’t have one now because I don’t want one.  I don’t want to put things about myself out there for everyone in the world to see.

We watched The Social Dilemma one night, and it showed how much social media could run the world and change people’s feelings and beliefs. Groups can post false information, and it spreads to the population so quickly. It starts to control teenagers' minds (and adults), and they can’t live without viewing their streams and posting pictures. Many people spend so much time on their phones that they don’t get enough sleep.  Families also lose time together when everyone is on their separate devices. Something that started as a way to connect people has begun to disconnect us.

Assignment 10- Will Stone

 There are so many things in the world that can terrify a person.  Many people are afraid of spiders, snakes, ghosts, heights, and flying.  While all of these things are scary, the thing that gives me the most anxiety is timed writing. I guess you could say that I would rather face a snake in the woods than have to write a paper with a time limit.

Writing is something that I struggle with because I cannot seem to get my thoughts and ideas down on paper.  It’s like they don’t flow from my head to my hands. It takes me a lot of time to write these small prompts, so for me to have to write a paper within a short time frame is just terrifying. When a teacher announces that we have to write an essay, my heart pounds, my hands sweat, and I cannot process any normal thought. I guess I go into flight or fight mode.  That makes it worse because adrenaline keeps me from focusing, and I can’t get anything done. 

Assignment 11- Will Stone

Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear. Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair. Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn’t very fuzzy, was he? Fuzzy Wuzzy was born into a beautiful bear family, and he grew beautiful fur at a very early age. His real name was Ben, but everyone called him Fuzzy Wuzzy because of his beautiful hair. One day, Fuzzy Wuzzy was out dumpster diving, and some parasitic mites came to live in his beautiful fur. Fuzzy Wuzzy became very itchy, and soon his hair started to fall out.

Fuzzy Wuzzy was so embarrassed that he left his home and tried to live on his own. He lost weight, and he lost all of his beautiful furs. One day, a man noticed him by a dumpster and took him to a veterinarian.  This friendly doctor told him that he had mange, and he treated him with medications and skin scrapings.  Before long, Fuzzy Wuzzy was back to himself again, and he went back home to his bear family.  When he went home, he requested that everyone call him Ben because he didn’t want his identity wrapped up in his appearance. 

 

Assignment 12- Will Stone

I come from a family of introverts, so I am used to a quiet environment.  All four of my family members play instruments, so we are a very musical family.  My dad and I both play the trombone.  I spend a lot of my day playing my trombone and listening to jazz music. My favorite artists right now are Trombone Shorty and Lucky Chops. I am in the band at school, and I enjoy marching band, jazz band, and wind ensemble.

I enjoy playing soccer, and I play in a local league outside of school.  Playing soccer is a fun way for me to exercise and be around people, especially during the quarantine. I also spend a lot of time at church and with my group of friends from church. My friends from church and I like to play airsoft together, and we go hiking a lot, too. I enjoy spending time with people, but I want my time alone. I guess I need a balance of time with people and time by myself. In my free time at home, I like to play on the Xbox and watch YouTube.

Assignment 13- Will Stone

Today's culture is faced with the continually growing problem of electronics and social media. What used to be viewed as a valuable treasure is now explaining adolescent obesity, lack of concentration, ineffective conversation, and much less educated society. Cell phones, television, the web, and video games have taken over the kids within the community and corrupted them into uninspired, inexperienced, boring robots. Facebook is solely a tool to shrink teenagers' wit until they're forced to converse in instant messaging slang, LOL, OMG, TTYL. Twitter could be a device for teenagers to become recluses, living in their rooms, updating their statuses every two minutes. Video games and television suck creativity from children's minds, their eyes becoming stuck to little pixel screens, their stationary bodies molded into the couch cushions. the most effective way to stop this plague is to limit social media companies' power to prevent the spread of the brainless phone addicted youth

Assignment 14- Will Stone

When I was younger, my Thanksgiving usually involved travel, either to my Aunt and Uncle’s house in Colorado or to my grandparents’ house in Florida. It was always fun to hang out with my cousins, but it could be stressful, too.  Some holidays we would hang out around the house, but sometimes we would go places.  My favorite Thanksgiving memory was the year we went skiing in Colorado when I was eight years old. 
I don’t get to go skiing very often, so it was a treat to go with my family.  We all drove up to a ski resort and went to rent our skis.  The cousins all signed up for skiing lessons.  We met our instructors and headed out to the slopes. It was so much fun to learn how to ski, even though it was super cold and windy. When it was lunchtime, we all went inside and ate lunch with my family.  After lunch, my dad took me skiing on the big slopes, which was so much fun. 

Assignment 15- Will Stone

 I geek out about Star Wars, and I use Wookieepedia to learn about it. I used to fall into the rabbit hole of links that everyone has fallen into at one point or another. Star Wars lore is impressive, and the part I like the most is the Chiss Ascendancy and Chiss species. My favorite character in the Chiss story arcs is Mitth'raw'nuruodo, or Thrawn. I enjoy reading about the Chiss because of how different their species and culture is from anything on earth. Chiss shares many features with humans, but biologically, the most significant difference is their blue skin and red eyes. The Chiss culture is very militaristic and ruled by the Ruling Families. Each Family oversaw a specific part of everyday work. In contrast, the heads of each Family met in a council for significant decisions.  For example, the Eighth Ruling Family or the Mitth oversaw the Chiss Expansionary Defense Force. At the same time, the Family's head sat on the ruling council and influenced all matters.

Assignment 12- Ezekiel

 I am not a very organized person and any potential roommate would have to be ok with this otherwise it probably wouldn't work out very well. I don't mind at all if they are disorganized as long as they keep it in their space as I will do with my mess. I procrastinate almost everything and so if they are an anxious person that may not work out well. I am very outgoing and extroverted, so I would hope that they aren't too introverted. I have a pretty irregular sleep schedule which may be annoying to some people but I am not very loud in the middle of the night so I wouldn't wake them up or anything. I am probably willing to do anything that they suggest and so if they are full of ideas or willing to go along with my ideas then we should have a pretty exciting time.

Assignment 11: Sanat Dharwad

 Olive Garden offers an unlimited number of breadsticks, which is completely reasonable. Since there is no real way for the human brain to visually see infinity, one could take all of the breadsticks that Olive Garden has, and show them to a little kid who would believe anything. As long as for one moment the breadsticks are the only thing in the child’s field of view, you could tell them that everything behind what you show them is also breadsticks. Assuming the viewpoint that reality is subjective, this is a completely valid method of achieving infinite breadsticks.

Another way to do this would be to divide the breadstick, lengthwise, an infinite amount of times. Dividing the breadstick once would yield two skinnier breadsticks, and doing the same to those two breadsticks would yield four, even skinnier ones. When olive garden employees ever run low on breadsticks, they just perform this procedure until they have enough to satisfy their orders

Assignment 12 - Duncan WIngfield

 I think one of the most significant things about me is that I'm weird about time. I generally prefer to wake up earlier, so much so that I get a little upset if I wake up any later than 9:30. I have a pretty strict routine with myself however that routine is very flawed. Time for homework is not very well engrained in my routine and I honestly feel wrong doing anything after like 4pm. I never really grew out of the mindset of bedtime is at 7 from when I was a kid so even like 9pm still feels late to me.  I also just have the weirdest feeling still being downstairs after dinner. I'm still in the mindset of after dinner I have to shower than immediatley go to bed. 

Assignment 9- Eleanor Badgett

 One thing that king of confuses and frustrates me is how expensive college and other higher education is. In my opinion college should be easily accessible to everyone who wants a higher education. To me colleges high cost unnecessarily feeds into the the United States cyclical poverty. Most higher paying jobs in the United States require a college education. Families suffering from extreme poverty can often not afford to send their children to college, preventing them from easily getting a higher paying job, and possibly preventing their children from going to college. It goes on and on. While I understand that in our education system today, there kind of needs to be a cost for college, I believe it could easily be lowered. Many institutions provide lost of extras for their students, making their environment quite luxurious. While this can be nice, it most definitely is not necessary. When high costs are preventing people form affording an education, I think cutting out most of these luxuries is just one way we can make college more accessible for all. 

Assignment 11 - Duncan Wingfield

 I chose option 2. Everything can actually be divided by zero. I think since everything starts with zero it probably can be divided from anything. And since imaginary numbers are a thing and they square into positive numbers then 0 can definitley be divided from anything. Sure it would be like two divided by zero is some infinitley huge unkowable number that we'll never be able to comprehend, but yes I think anything can be divided by zero.

Assignment 10: Sanat Dharwad

 Zombies have invaded. First I call all of my relatives and friends to make sure they are ok, and proceed to make an alliance with them and house together. Once we all form a group, we raid any establishments that may provide weapons, such as stores that provide gardening supplies (for shovels), or just stores that sell guns. From the gardening supplies we would also take all of the seeds, basic farming equipment, and fertilizer. We would also raid grocery stores to secure non-perishable canned foods, to sustain us for a while. Once we have collected all of these things, our group will travel into rural mountainous areas and start a subsistence farm, far away from all of the zombies. In the perimeter of this farm, we will set up an elaborate tripwire system that will notify us if any zombies are close by (I definitely made this up and did not see this in a TV show/movie.) 

Assignment 9: Sanat Dharwad

 One thing that I get frustrated about is that there are people in the world that are just disgustingly rich. Jeff Bezos, currently the richest person alive, has a net worth of around 182 billion dollars. What is he going to do with that? All of this money is just sitting there, with nowhere to go. Maybe Mr. Bezos is going to give 1% of his money to some philanthropic institutions, but even then, 100 million is just spare change to him. Plus, during this time of economic recession when almost everyone’s bank accounts are taking a hit, the richest of the rich, including Bezos, are getting richer, and a rate higher than before. There is genuinely no reason I can think of for anyone to be that rich. Even if anyone had one quarter of that amount of money, it’s impossible to spend it all. That remaining three quarters could go to much better places than one person's pocket, such as humanitarian relief, or feeding the hungry. 

Assignment 13- Ezekiel

  I've always found the change of seasons to be annoying, you have to buy summer clothes, winter clothes, and then fall/spring clothes. If we didn't have seasons we would only have to spend a third of the money that we currently do on clothes. meaning that we would have to manufacture less clothes which would help deal with global warming. now the dreadful seasons are caused by the earth going around the sun. the logical solution for how to save money on clothes and help with global warming is to take the earth out of orbit. Now some people think this will cause some problems because we rely on the sun for energy or something silly like that. but when you think about it there is no logical reason that some ball of fire a long way off would be providing energy for our entire planet. I wholeheartedly believe that we would suffer no consequences from taking earth out of orbit.  

Assignment 15 - Eleanor Badgett

 I wouldn't say I really hove something that interest me to the point I loose track of time, but I think this phenomenon is similar to what I like to call my passion projects. I have quite a few passion projects but I would say one of my biggest is watching bad (or good?) reality TV shows. I know reality TV isn't quite the best thing to have a passion for as it provides very little mental stimulation or self improvement, but I really do enjoy it. I would say my main channel of choice would be TLC, not really the shows TLC is releasing now, but old TLC. For me, these shows are hard to get my hands on, but when I do, I'm not stopping until I have seen every episode. Reality TV is best binged so watching current shows just isn't appealing to me. The only show I will make this acceptation for is The Bachelor, due to its extreme relevance spoilers are inevitable, and I've found the easiest way to combat this is just watching it live. 

Assignment 14- Eleanor Badgett

 Thanksgiving is by far my favorite  holiday. I think I like it so much because it gives me a similar feeling  to the way  Christmas made me feel when I was younger without all of the work Christmas requires from me now. I love how much time I get to  spend with family over Christmas break as well as the warm fuzzy feeling that accompanies the holiday. While these seem like good things, they are, in my opinion, by the stress and business of the season. In December I sometimes feel like everything is out of control. There is always more work to be done and things going on in my family in the weeks leading up to Christmas causing me sometimes to dread the month and the holiday. With Thanksgiving I still get to spend a day or who with my family and it always seems to fall at the perfect time, when there is not too, too much going on but still serves as a nice break to look forward to in the midst of the work. Also I really do enjoy thanksgiving food, making the holiday just that much more enticing. 

Assignment 12- Eleanor Badgett

 I would say a big part of my day to day way of being is my family. While I understand most people's families play a big role in their lives, I like to think my family is something special. Especially lately, I spend almost all of my time with my family and every member of my family plays a distinct and important part in my life. I would say at this point I spend the most of my time with my older sister due to the fact our schedules are almost identical. Sometimes getting along with my younger sister is slightly difficult due to the larger age gap and differences in likes and abilities. My parents are able to teach me so in the time they spend with me. Moving away from my family for college will most definitely cause a huge change in lifestyle for me. Not always having someone around who will do what ever I want with me will definitely be weird. 

Assignment 15 - Grace Barnett

 (Makeup for blog 13)

The thing that peaks my "Geek-meter" would probably have to be either Harry Potter or just like watching movies in general. I really like Harry Potter and it is just something that I could talk about forever. I really like to watch movies too so you can imagine how much I love the Harry Potter movies, my favorite would probably have to be Half-Blood Prince but Goblet of Fire is a masterpiece as well.  I don't necessarily know why I love it so much, I know that I love fiction movies/books and I think that I just fell in love with the characters and storyline.  When I want to learn more about the series, I usually will turn to interviews and Youtube videos about the cast and behind-the-scenes just to learn more about it and I also love talking to my friends about it because a lot of my friends love Harry Potter too, we just like to collect information and share it back and forth.

Assignment 14 - Grace Barnett

I don't know if I necessarily have a specific year that comes to mind when I think about Thanksgiving,  the mental image that comes to mind for me is just hanging out with my family and just sharing stories. I love Thanksgiving because there isn't a lot of pressure on the holiday like there is on Christmas with gifts and decorations, the only pressure on Thanksgiving is cooking food. When I try to reflect on previous Thanksgivings, I think about specific moments like one time my grandmother was telling us this story about how she hit her foot when she was walking and she said "I stumped my toe..."(she meant stubbed) and my dad replied, "Did you ask it a hard question?" I thought that was so funny at the time and I still laugh when I think about it. It is little conversations and laughs like that that I remember and I always look forward to the holiday because it is a time for us to get together and just tell jokes which makes me happy.

Assignment 12 - Grace Barnett

If I am to live with someone there are a few things that need to be established for their sake. I would say that I am very much on the introvert side and I am not a huge fan of meeting new people, it causes me anxiety. Another thing, that is something that I have a problem with, I get bad anxiety and I will have panic attacks if I get too overwhelmed and stressed out. Also, I think I am a really fun person and if we live together I will probably make it my life mission to be best friends, but I am not the clingy type and won't get angry if you have other best friends. This is important though: I HATE drama. Do not try and get me involved in your/other people's drama, if you do then I will hold a grudge like nobody's business. It is also important to note that I can be fairly sarcastic, so it might come off that I am being rude but I promise I am not trying to be, and if I do please tell me. I really like honesty and I despise liars, so give me honesty and we will have a wonderful relationship. One last thing, you probably will listen to me talk about Harry Potter a lot so a roommate that likes Harry Potter would be preferred so I don't annoy them. 

Assignment 11- Eleanor Badgett

 The story of a street

When I was younger I lived in a small town called Kensington, Maryland, on its longest street Ambler Drive. I would say Ambler Drive and its memories hold one of the bigger pieces of my heart. Kensington was a small town where most people knew most people and almost every family had kids. This lead to tons and tons of friends right nearby. Right next door lived Ryan and Sean. Two doors down from them lived Miles. Beppy, Ryan, Miles, and I played outside almost every single day as long as we lived there. Some of my favorite memories with this group were: building a swing out of a single piece of rope and a towel out of the tree in the front yard, attempting to dig to China, starting a worm farm, and setting a boogie trap for the raccoons that lived unrightfully underneath out deck. We were also occasionally accompanied by the countless other kids on the street on a rotating cycle. This larger group was often found at the pool which backed un directly to out backyard fences. 

Ethan Scutchfield - Assignment 11

There is a picture my parents have in the house that is me at about 11 with my parents and sister.  We are decked out in University of Kentucky Football Gear (except my sister, who of course is wearing bright pink).  I think she had a Kentucky shirt on underneath, but she was always the odd one.  You can see on the face of all four of us the happiness of having just beaten South Carolina for the first time in a long time.  You can see the excitement for the future of Kentucky football and hope that this was not just a fluke.  My mom and dad knew the photographer, who takes pictures of UK sports, so when he was on the field that day, he offered to take our picture.  It is kind of cool that we have that moment in UK football history to look back on.

Assignments 15 - Jimmy Chen

One thing I enjoy doing that transports me to a state of Zen is watching trashy horror movies. I don't know why, but something about it can keep me entertained for hours. I have really grown to the ones on Netflix, everyone knows Netflix horror movies are especially awful, but there's something I really enjoy it. Maybe I enjoy self torture, I don't really know but I find it entertaining. Especially when you are searching for a new movie to watch, a lot of these movies have extremely good ideas and concepts. Like these are really good, and I expect a lot coming out of them, but like all Netflix horror movies they are just executed awfully. Like I don't understand how it's done in such a bad job, and I find that really entertaining. One thing I have been trying that's similar is Hulu horror movies, rather T.V. shows, I have been watching this T.V. show called the Strain where a disease turns people into reptile like animals that eat people, which sounds absurd, but they do it pretty well on the show. Unlike Netflix Horror movies it's pretty well produced and executed. I just can not stand the ads that show up, 5 per 40 minute episode is just absurd.

Assignment 11 - Grace Barnett

 Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. How many peppers did Peter Piper pick? To answer this question we need to first assess what does a peck mean, does "peck" have a quantity tied to it? The first thing that I did was looked up how much a peck was on Google, it said that about 1 U.S. peck was the equivalent of about 2 gallons. Now we need to assess how many peppers does it take to make a gallon? To help with my research I am just going to use measurements for bell peppers because they weigh almost the same as pickled peppers. I found that there are about 3 large bell peppers in a pound. 1 gallon is about 8 pounds, so all together there are about 24 large bell peppers in one gallon and 48 in two gallons. So if Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, he picked about 48 peppers. 

Assignment 11- Ezekiel

How can olive garden offer unlimited breadsticks?

Olive garden has locations in several countries of which the population adds up to around 730 million. the parent company of olive garden, Darden, makes around 7 billion annually assuming every person in the countries that olive garden they will only be able to give each person around 19 breadsticks. the breadsticks have 140 calories each which means that each person would get about 2700 calories worth of breadsticks. that means that each person would only get a day and a half of breadsticks. to be able to actually feed people unlimited breadsticks only 1 in every 240 people would be able to eat the breadsticks. they claim to give unlimited breadsticks but in reality they are financially unable to. This is false advertising and is unacceptable.  

Assignment 10 - Eleanor Badgett

 If zombies really did attack, I honestly think I would be one of the first people to die. But, in the case I was around for a little while I think I would stay in my house until the last possible second. I think that by staying in place there is a chance the zombies would completely miss me, they would be too preoccupied with other people running around the streets. In the case that the zombies get everyone on the streets and turn to me, I would have my energy saved up giving me an advantage over the zombies. I'm not sure how zombies' stamina is but I think after getting everyone on the street they would be a little tired. By staying in my house, I would have my full capabilities allowing me to out run and out smart the zombies. Hopefully, if I was able to stay ahead for long enough the zombies would either get distracted or killed by someone else. 

Assignment 14 - Jimmy Chen

My family is not the most festive family there is. You should see Christmas, I guess we are very festive with that one because our Christmas tree never goes down, it is 17 years old at this point, collecting dust. When it comes time after thanksgiving we plug in the tree. We often have very lack luster thanksgivings, usually if anything interesting happens we head over to some other Asian family's home and eat their turkey and bring something basic like mashed potatoes. Occasionally we go to my sister's boyfriend's family's thanksgiving as they actually have lots of family and that's pretty fun. This thanksgiving was pretty basic and lackluster even for my standards. We ordered from an open Chinese restaurant and made some mashed potatoes. Then we watched a movie in the living room. After that I went back to my room and carried on with my day. We really don't have that special of a thanksgiving.

Assignment 10- Ezekiel

 If zombies were to attack I truly don't think that they would pose much of a threat. they would hunt by smell, sight, and sound. meaning that you could just hide in your house, mask your smell by burning a lot of incense. the modern world is so loud that you would just have to stay mostly silent. and remain inside. also exposed to the elements zombies would likely decay in about 3 weeks which means that you could pretty easily stock up on enough food to outlast the zombies. the brain is one of the first things to decay meaning that the zombies wouldn't be able to conduct an organized search meaning they wouldn't try and get into your house unless you gave them reason to. just hang out at home for a couple months and you would be fine.

Assignment 9- Ezekiel

 I really don't have anything that I care about above all else. however at this particular moment i am unhappy that people believe gray and grey to be different colors. they both have the same definition, which is just any colors on the range of colors between black and white. if both can be any of these colors than there is no way that one can be considered darker than the other. a more acceptable question is not about which one is darker but if gray and grey refers to all colors. as the definition is any color between black and white and black is the absence of color while white is all the colors, can you pull one color out of the mix and it still be considered in-between the 2. This seems as if it would make sense meaning that everyone in the world has a rather limited sense of gray. this would also mean that grey or gray would be the color that has the most different shades replacing green. for how can green be the color with the most shades if gray contains all of the green shades and many others that cant be considered green.

Assignment 13 - Jimmy Chen

 Recently people, especially kids and teens have been on their devices all the times. This leaves these teens and kids super prone to stuff such as cyber bullying. Especially now that school is online, how are people supposed to bully now? They use cyber bullying of course! Well us scientist at Duh.CO have found a solution to this issue, just turn it off. It's that simple, it's just like the rule "If I can't see you, you can't see me!" We have implemented solution on all kinds of devices. Have a mac book? Just hit that circle with the gap and a line through it! It's extremely easy to locate, just in the top right corner. It's in the same position on a PC. But I know you tech savvy teens on your little gizmos, your little iPhones. Someone sub tweeting you on twitter? Just hit the button on the side of your new iPhone 12. If you have an iPhone 5 and below hit that top button. To do one better hold the two side buttons on your iPhone and swipe on that power button so it turns off, that'll get rid of the issue. Wait, you have a Samsung? Sorry, I can't help you with that one, that's what I call a lost cause. Just throw the whole phone away.

Assignment 9 - Jimmy Chen

One issue I have a big passion for is the effects of decolonialization in many parts of the world. After colonial nations like the British left many regions of the world, they kind of just carved it up with no regard for many ethnic, political, and religious identities of the people there. This has just created a big mess in many of the regions leaving split communities, corruption, a huge political mess, and genocide. Many of the issues we face in the modern world can stem from these events, take for example, the middle east. This is one of the heartlands of the human race, where human civilization first emerged, but in today's world, it's political mess and its issues started to spill over into other parts of the world such as the U.S. So how did it end up like this? When the British and French were splitting up the middle east, they did so looking at some ethnicity maps but really did a bad job, as you can see from all the straight lines taking no attention to detail, they made many new nations that made almost no sense. This is the cause for many regime collapses all over the world during the Arab Spring, leading to the rise of many organizations and civil war and internal and external fighting. If the colonist had spent more time and thought into creating the new nations as they left, the current state of the Middle East would not have ended up like this.

Assignment 12- Ben Belin

 When I meet new people especially when I am living with them there are a few things I want them to know. First off, I snore a good amount. Now to be fair I have never heard myself snore, but people always tell me I do. I feel like if I'm going to have a roommate I don't want them to wake up in the middle of the night wondering what that strange noise is. Another thing I would want them to know about me is that I need my sleep. When I don't get at least a solid 7-8 hours of sleep I can't focus on anything other than staying awake. Sometimes when I because extremely tired I'll fall asleep, wake up, and not realize I was ever asleep in the first place. Once my teacher came up to me and told me I needed to get more sleep. I was super confused why they told me this until my friend explained to me that I kept falling asleep in class. I didn't even realize I was doing it! When I meet people I also like to let them know that I am not good with dogs. Big dogs especially can scare me a little, and not to the point where I scream and run away just to the point where I am nervous around them. 

Assignment 15-David Butler

I know that I've already talked about film a few times in the blogs but it is definitely something that peaks my “geek-meter”. When it comes to time, I will sit down for hours and edit a video or shoot one without even thinking about it. Saying that I lose track of time is an understatement, because I have sat down and edited a video for an entire day before and it felt like an hour. Why this captivates me the way it does, I'm not sure. However, I can say that I'm interested in the overall culture surrounding film and how we use it in our everyday's lives as references, entertainment, and how it can bring to light otherwise obscure parts of society. When I try to learn more about film I usually use the internet, watch youtube videos, or even just analyze films as I watch them. However, I have also in the past been able to turn to my sister because she went to college for audio engineering and got good at film along the way.

Assignment 15- Ben Belin

 Lets see here something that makes me lose track of time when I think about it.... Oh I know! Monkeys. I think about monkeys a lot, and they seem pretty interesting. I don't know if you've heard about it, but there was a monkey who learned sign language from some scientists in a lab and I thought that was super interesting. I mean if monkeys can learn sign language does that mean they can understand us? And if they can understand us, does that mean when I was in first grade and went to a zoo and called a monkey fat it understood me? Because I'm not looking to make an enemy out of a monkey. I mean gorillas weigh 300 pounds so if they wanted to they could just sit on me and I would die. That would be a pretty horrible way to go. When I want to learn more about monkeys I usually just look them up on the internet to find interesting facts. For example did you know the smallest monkey weights between 120-130 grams?

Assignment 14- Ben Belin

 My Thanksgiving in a normal year would look like me gathering with my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins at one of their houses and shoving food into my face until I feel like a balloon. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays mostly because of the food. I consider myself a super food fan so anything involving good food I love. My family usually does a pie contest which I always lose which is fine by me because it gives me an excuse to eat other people's pies. My grandma each year will make matzah ball soup which is a jewish soup that takes incredible (I usually have 4 bowls). My strangest memory is when one year my family rented a cabin the smokey mountains for thanksgiving and we ran into a bear. I was scared at first because I had heard about bears being attracted to food and I had some cliff bars on me, but then I remembered that as long as I ran faster than the others in my family I would be fine.

Assignment 12 - Jimmy Chen

I honestly don't know what I would do to sell myself to a stranger. When I attended a summer program at the music conservatory in Cleveland I had a roommate that I didn't really get along with that well. I'm not sure what I did wrong, I honestly did not spend that much time in our dorm to be honest. He woke up early to exercise, I woke up as late as I could and grabbed food on the way to our first rehearsal of the day. We had 4 hours of practice in the practice rooms every day. We were assigned neighboring rooms but I would often go to other people's rooms and not spend that much time in my rooms. I also after all the practicing I would go out and do stuff with the group of friends I had made avoiding practice time, which I'm pretty sure he kind of looked down on. But nevertheless I just didn't spend much time around him, I never really got to know each other. I thought maybe in our performance week we would get closer but honestly, that didn't happen. We took a bus to Chicago to perform with the Chicago Symphony and they gave us metro cards, so I spend even less time in the dorms, I would often come back at one or two in the morning when he was fast asleep, I think I had 3 conversations with him that entire week. If I were to go to college I probably should spend more time in the dorm to get to know my roommate, unlike what I did at the conservatory, but maybe if we had more time and not 3 weeks it would've been better.

Assignment 14-David Butler

 

I usually have a fairly regular thanksgiving, sometimes with my mom’s side of the family, sometimes with my dad’s. But this thanksgiving was a little different which is to be expected due to Cov-idiots keeping the pandemic going. This thanksgiving my mom and I had a change of plans and decided to host thanksgiving for the first time since I was about 5. We had over my girlfriend's family and we had thanksgiving lunch/dinner together. It was a little awkward for about 10 min but quickly one of the best thanksgivings i've had. We had an absurd amount of food for only 7 people and all delved into the wide range of entrees, sides, and deserts. After we ate and talked and ate some more, Anna's family wanted to play a game they brought. Now, my mom's side of the family always plays trivia games during the holidays and we all get super competitive so I usually just step back and watch, but Anna convinced me. We played headbands and some other games. I was highly competitive but very unskilled. I obviously didn't win, not even close, but I had fun and stepped outside my comfort zone. This was a great Thanksgiving despite covid and I feel closer to Anna and her family.

Assignment 11 - Jimmy Chen

What can actually be divided by zero?

In math class we learn that nothing can be divided by Zero, some of us learn in our math class that as the denominator reaches zero the number climbs further and further and further, steeper and steeper, until it approaches infinity. But when that number is divided by zero, it doesn't exist. So what does that mean? Is this a number that so large and unfathomable that it is larger than infinity, a whole new construct that is beyond our human understanding? Or is it just a weapon of mass destruction only there to wreak havoc on your math problems, perhaps an early warning that you did the problem wrong? An optimist would like to believe the first, but I, a pessimist would like the believe the latter. I believe that dividing by zero can only lead to chaos. I believe that when you divide by zero a disaster will happen. It is like detonating an atom bomb, causes quick chain reactions causing a quick buildup to the point of no return, when divided by zero a quick and blinding blast covers the area quickly reducing it to radioactive ash.

Assignment 14 Garrett Peavler

    One of the family traditions that we have that means the most to me is our family reunion. The family reunion is with the family on my dad's mom's side of the family, and because my great grandparents had 12 kids that part of my family is like 50 or so people strong. So the reunions were always fun because everywhere you looked there was someone you knew, and there were so many kids there that you never really got bored as a kid. Most of that part of my family is from eastern Kentucky, so we always had a cornhole tournament, among other things. The family reunions were always fun and they definitely played a role in shaping the person I have become, but we recently stopped having them following some family drama. Probably for the best because a lot of that family is getting old and tired.

 

Assignment 10

If zombies Attacked I honestly would not live that long, I am not much of a fighter, I am what they call a quitter (If you get the memo). But, if I had to survive maybe to protect someone else or to save someone, or just some kind of purpose like they do in the T.V. shows my first plan of action would be to collect supplies. 1 would need lots of weapons, I presume I would be stuck in my house with not much as my parents don't own any guns. I would probably head over to some of my neighbors as I know they wield some guns and weapons, probably take a knife or a baseball bat with me while I head over there. Once I get weapons I would probably go to the nearby Kroger or some store, maybe Palomar and try to get as much food and supplies. Try to collect as much gas as I can and try to bunker down at home. This probably wouldn't last long as we have large windows and Beaumont is a pretty dense area. I probably would end up having to flee the city. I would probably flee west to the plains, somewhere where you can see far without much wooded areas hiding who knows what kinds of zombies. There I would try to find a good food and water source, maybe set up camp, and get a watch tower where I can have a good lookout for possible hordes. I might make friends along the way, maybe my family survives with me, honestly they'd all probably die, I'd probably be dead by now too, if I'm not I probably would be alone too. I would try to get more gas and supplies and head out to the rocky mountains. Hopefully I will find an area out in the Rockies or past the Rockies where there is fairly fertile, hopefully a rocky terrain and have fairly cold winters to slow down zombies. Maybe I can find a near by hydroelectric dam that can I can hook up my base of actions to create maybe electric fences and give me some of the comforts of the old world, but in all honesty I would've never made it this far. 

Assignment 11 (Essay option 1) Garrett Peavler

    I want to put you in a scene, you're at the beach. You can feel the warm sand on your feet and hear the sound of distant seagulls. You watch as the waves go back and forth along the shore. You are at peace. But then all of that comes to an end when a little girl comes up to and wrenches you out of your trance. What could this little girl want? You're slightly annoyed, but you are not going to let her know that. You ask her what she wants, and what does she tell you? Well, she is asking you if you would like to buy any of her sea shells. You are on the freaking beach! You know, the place where you find sea shells! That's like selling grass in an open field. Now, I don't know about you, but I am not buying a single sea shell from her, I don't care how young she is. This is quite obviously a scam and I am not going to fund it. Now if you haven't caught on yet, I am evaluating the tongue twister "She Sells Seashells", and I have come to the conclusion that Sally is running a scam and, assuming everyone is on the same wavelength as me, she will not be selling out of sea shells any time soon.

Assignment 10 Garrett Peavler

     Zombies are easily one of the most overused things in all of entertainment, and for whatever reason it still remains a fascinating concept. But if it happened in the real world, we would all be dead in about 5 days. I mean, think about how many people we have buried in the United states alone. The number is well into the billions. So if all of a sudden every buried dead person in every country came to life, there is no question that more people would die than would live. So I'd say that on a person to person basis, it is more a question of how long you will survive rather than if you survive. But that said, I do have a plan to prolong the inevitable, and I think that it checks out. Step one of my plan would be to get in a car with as much supplies as I can fit, and drive as fast as possible to Montana. Montana is my go-to location because there are places there where the population density is close to 1 per mile so it will probably be the safest. Step two is to find guns (which you know you'll find in Montana) and shelter. The last step of this plan is to survive as long as possible, until either you die or the government finds a solution. That is my plan to survive.

    

Assignment 9 Garrett Peavler

    The issue I care about most is probably political polarization. It is no secret that in the United States everyone is pretty much divided into two camps: the camp that believes one thing and the camp that believes the complete opposite. How dumb is that? How are people in this country supposed to express their full and complete opinion when they have to choose between two parties that don't agree on a single issue?  Sure, there are other parties like the Libertarians and some others (I don't think I can name any others, truth be told), but none of them can compare to the big name parties, and it is disheartening to vote for a party that wont even get ten percent of the vote. There is no easy solution either. The only thing that can really be done is to just stop giving support to the big parties, but everyone knows that won't happen until they mess up badly. So for now the issue sticks to this country like a leech, destroying any resemblance of unity and slowly killing our country.

Assignment 16: Annotated Bibliography

Post your Annotated Bibliography here as well!

Last blog of the Semester! Huzzah!

Full text of your Annotated Bibliography - due Sunday, December 20 at 11:59 pm.

December 15 is the last day to make up blogs 9-15

Assignment 10 - Grace Barnett

 Okay so zombies have attacked and here is my plan:

(sidenote: I honestly don't think I would survive that long)

Step 1: Debate whether or not to take my family with me because they might tie me down but I would at least bring one person with me for protection/company.

Step 2: I would definitely hideout where I am first when the apocalypse starts because I think everybody would be trying to leave at the same time and it would just be chaos so I might let it simmer down first and then assess what to do. 

Step 3: Get supplies and leave town and go somewhere remote

Step 4: Make sure I am armed, also it would be good to know how to kill a zombie

Step 5: I would probably go to like a cabin in a small town and I would make sure there is a food source and water source nearby

Step 6: Find out how to make the place that I am staying at zombie-proof so that I can sleep at night 

Step 7: At this point, I think I will probably be dead by now but if not then I would just stay in my cabin and try to stay alive.

Assignment 9 - Grace Barnett

 One topic that really gets me talking is the problems in the American foster care system. It was the topic that I chose for my Seminar paper last year and I tried to find solutions to help with the mental health problems that children have resulting from foster care. It really opened my eyes to how many kids get overmedicated and abused by medication in the system and it is something that I would love to try and help make a change in. There a lot of kids that get prescribed unnecessary medication so that the foster parents will receive more compensation and that just makes me so livid and I argued for mandatory therapy to try and prevent overmedication of kids. I think that there is not near enough light shed on the problems of the foster care system especially the mental health problems that arise that can be both short-term and long-term. 

Jake Walters Assignment 15

As you could have probably seen by my previous blog posts, one topic in particular that geeks me out is psychology. What amazes me about the topic is how universally it can be applied to almost every single profession and situation to better understand how people understand things. This for me just blows my mind. There's so many aspects of it that can be applied almost everywhere. One of my favorite topics on psychology are emotions and how they are created and shown. This has helped me better understand my own emotions and how other peoples emotions might be different from mine. psychology and its effects vary so much person to person its almost impossible to completely understand but we can still try to get a grasp of it and its concepts. Being able to be put into a situation and understand where the person might be coming from emotionally too and understanding the circuits working in their brains and outside stimuli and how it affects the brain is crazy to me. Pro tip, ask for things during a sunny day and after lunch. 

Assignment 11- Ben Belin

Im here today to answer an age old question that has plagued humanity since the planet Earth was formed... How much wood can a woodchuck actually chuck? Well I'll tell you what makes this question so difficult to solve, and that is that the question never specifies a specific king of woodchuck. If you have say an extremely obese woodchuck and a super skinny one the obese one would more likely chuck a greater amount of wood than the skinny one due to its diameter being most likely larger than the wood it is chucking and therefore being able to chuck not only more wood, but chuck it further. Of course if your looking for how much the average woodchuck could chuck its much simpler. Woodchucks have 5 toes allowing them to chuck up to 5 wood at a time although if you take into consideration that they have 4 limbs all with 5 toes then you realize that a woodchuck can chuck on average 20 wood.

Assignment 10- Ben Belin

 If zombies attack one day (which they probably will) I have already come up with a nearly perfect survival plan. The plan is to just snitch. If I tell the zombies where all the other survivors are hiding then they probably wouldn't eat me because they would end up getting more food with me alive. Also who knows maybe zombies will turn out to be cool people and I can make some friends. Know I know what your thinking, "Ben I hope you realize snitches get stitches." My response to that is zombies also get stitches and there wouldn't be anyone able to give me stitches if they were all eaten by zombies. My other plan would be to get some green paint and make me look like a zombie so that I could blend in with the crowd. The problem with this plan is that green is one of my least favorite colors and I don't want to have it on me all the time. Now by telling you all this I'm trusting you won't steal my ideas and sell me out to the zombies first, because that wouldn't be very nice.

Assignment 9- Ben Belin

Something I care about a lot would be asylum seekers who come to America looking for protection. Its pretty insane to me how difficult the our government makes it for these people to come into our country. Someone could be fleeing from a gang run all the way to the border then be told to wait outside the country for a court date. Another thing I think about is death row and how people can be killed for a crime they didn't commit. There are countless stories of people who are put on death row and then later found to be innocent when it was to late. Another similar issue I'm passionate about is prison labour and how these prisoners can be exploited for work. A good example of this was when prisoners were used to fight the California fires and then given almost no money for it. The prison labour system also creates a system were the people in charge of prisons want to keep the prisoners in it so that they have a work force.

Assignment 13- David Butler

 

Breaking news,

Only a few hours ago police stations from all across the nation were being swarmed with calls from disgruntled and startled citizens. One citizen from Nashville Tennessee called in saying “There was a huge crash downstairs, we think someone has broken in, we're scared, please have the police come and look. It looks as though there are multiple of them running around down there ''. Calls like these have been coming up all night and some have even said they heard speaking but it sounded too high pitch to discern. But the weirdest thing of all is that most of the people reported hearing bells jingling. 

We now have multiple police reports from all across the country describing the scene. The first floor was always trashed, it looks like the presents were all gone and the tree, more often than not, had been stripped of its ornaments. 

It seems as though the Elves that were once on the shelves are now on a Christmas strike due to improper labor unions and worker comp. 

Assignment 12-David Butler

 I am a very social kind of person and love to do things with friends. I am also quite into sports, doing them, not watching them. I will workout everyday and I do not say no to gym partners. I love dogs and if you don't then you will in not time *evil cackle. You could straight up lie to my face about the rules of football and I would believe you, I know nothing about that sport. I like cooking but if one of us cooks, the other one has to do the dishes that same night. I try to keep my spaces clean but it often doesn't workout that way. If you ask, I will probably do you a favor but will expect one in return.I am usually very busy but when i get breaks i love to spend them with friends. I am really into film and have played cello since 4th grade. I do practice cello every night so sorry if it gets annoying. I may occasionally ask you to be featured in or shot part of a shot for one of my short films. Again, we will have a dog, end of story. So this is a little bit about me and how i will be as a roommate, wanna bunk?

Assignment 11- David Butler

 Does Sally really sell sea shells?

Well let's find out!

Does Sally make any profit on these sea shells? How much would she have to make?

Or better yet does Sally Sell Seashells by the Sea Shore to Supplement her Salary with Selling Sea Shells at the Shack down by the SeaShore called Sally’s Seashell Shack where you can buy Seashells from Sally by the SeaShore??

Let's say Sally is selling the shells for a dollar a pop, that means that if she wanted the average american annual salary she would have to sell about 52,000 seashells a year not counting tax. That is almost 1000 shells a week which most certainly means that  Sally is probably not making much money and is for sure committing tax fraud.

Assignment 10- David Butler

 I personally love this prompt because I am a zombie fanatic. I've seen just about every zombie movie and tv show since 1950 and I've even written multiple books on the subject, in varying length. I've also made several zombie short films with my friends and am currently writing a realistic zombie novel as well. So i've thought about this a lot. 

Your best chance at survival is getting or creating a self-sustainable food and water source because without this zombies are not your biggest problem. Now, this seems complicated but it's really not, all you need is flat roof access, like an apartment building, and the materials for a garden. If you still have time before the shit hits the fan, don't go to the grocery or bank because everyone will be flocking there, prime opportunity to get trapped. Instead head to a small, local florist or gardening store(not a big one like home depot because those will be packed as well), and get lots of perennial fruits and veggies(plants that come back year after year). Also get lots of seed packets for backup or extra food. If you have time then get dirt and fertilizer but this can wait till later, it would just be more dangerous later. Now get home and get everything you need, pack as light as possible, no more than a shopping cart. Make sure to get a tarp, lots of bowls, and cups, along with one weapon. Get to the closest apartment or otherwise square roofed building and get to the roof. One you have all your stuff up there you will need to find as many things as possible around you to throw down the stairs to block it, cabinets are ideal. You will later work your way down a floor or two in this building to have a roof to live in but for now just take out all you things and start setting up your garden and lay out bowls for rain water, you can make a filter later. 

Now you're all set as long as you don't do something stupid like going exploring.

Assignment 9-David Butler

 Life. It’s like a film, composed of moments and memories, much like frames in the movie of life. Movies offer an escape from reality, somewhere you can experience otherwise unlikely situations or see something in a new light. Although movies are not inherently bound by the laws of physics or reality, they are often still relatable.

 

From a young age, this culture around film has fascinated me and i could talk for hours about the subject. 

          

Since 4th grade, I have picked apart movies and tv shows shot by shot. I’ve meticulously analyzed the camera work or behind the scenes. Then later that year, I decided it was time to put down the screen and pick up the camera myself. I started to learn from experience instead of watching what others had done. Along with this moment came a realization, if I worked at this and developed my skills then I could do this professionally. So, I worked hard and made over a hundred short films over the next few years. I made multiple YouTube channels and even shoveled driveways around my neighborhood during the winter just to invest in things like a microphone or a better camera.  

Much like good writing, your hard drive is 90% full of revisions because a director is never content with his 1st, 2nd, or even 20th edit. This dilemma becomes apparent when you have over 48 hours of unused, or unpublished footage like I do (which is nothing compared to Hollywood studios). This slow and rigorous cultivation of your final product can be exhausting. However, watching your project evolve, along with your own skills, is exhilarating and makes it all worth it in the end. 

 

Film has made me an overall more tolerant and patient person which can open a lot of doors, not only in film but in other places as well. It has also exponentially grown my skills to the point that I have begun editing videos and or short films for others (paid and unpaid). This is what I have grown to love.

 

 

Assignment 14 - Ethan Scutchfield

Thanksgiving looks the same for me every year.  I don't really care about the holiday.  We historically have gone to Louisville to spend the holiday at my grandparents.  After my Papa died in 2017, we changed the holiday a little bit for a few years.  The year he died, we went to eat at the UK Faculty Club.  There was nothing in the buffet I wanted to eat, so I just ate desserts.  My family always makes a lot of different food, and I don't like any of it.  So each year, I only eat a little turkey, Hawaiian rolls and my mom always makes macaroni and cheese just for me.  I usually say hello to family when they arrive, then go up to my room to either play video games or play on my phone.  I come down for dinner and then as soon as I am finished, I return to my room.

I wouldn't say its really strange or my favorite memory, but this year because of Covid, not all of the family came into Lexington for the holiday.  My aunt and uncle in Colorado, my aunt, uncle and cousin in Louisville and my immediate family played a game of werewolf over Zoom.  Although it was the game I wanted to play, I kept getting taken out of the game in the first play of the game.  They knew I understood the game. 

Assignment 10 - Ethan Scutchfield

 I decided to write about "Zombies (or White Walkers) HAVE ATTACKED.  In reality, my survival plan would be nearly non-existent.  I would not venture out and try not to engage any of the deadly creatures.  I would plan to stay inside a location and only leave for supplies or if danger begins to approach.  It would probably be similar to how it feels right now with COVID.  You go out once a week for supplies and worry that you are going to run into one of the infected.  I don't have any knowledge of use of guns so I wouldn't be able to protect myself in that way.  I guess I would carry a hammer or something like that while I was out of my safe location.  In all of those shoes, drama always ensues when a group of people get together to survive, so I would plan on staying isolated and therefore not ask for any power struggles.  I guess I would set up a garden so that I would have some food.

Ghazzal Hammad - Assignment 14

 Personally, I enjoy Thanksgiving. It seems like no one else does, since everyone loves Christmas, but I've always liked the holiday. For the past few years, my family and I have spent Thanksgiving with our family friends or neighbors. I have always enjoyed doing this just because of the good food and homey environment. I typically do not have much to do and I never have that many people to talk to (since everyone is either much older or much younger than I am), which is okay with me -- I just sit back and listen to everyone else chat. This year, because of the virus, we responsibly chose to have our Thanksgiving dinner at home with just the five of us. It was much different and significantly less exciting, and we all stayed in our pajamas. Therefore, I would say this year's Thanksgiving was the most unusual. Not because anything exciting happened, but because nothing really happened at all. My parents, siblings, and I just made food and then ate it. It felt like an ordinary Thursday. 

Assignment 14- Gaby Rondel

Our Thanksgiving changes yearly. When we were really young, it was just a normal day. Then as we got older- when I was in upper elementary and middle school- we would go hiking and eat turkey sandwiches. That was our thing. And we had a good five or six-year streak. But, now that we were older it became easier to travel- meaning we are now bearable on long road trips than when we were kids. A few years ago we went to Disney and had a BLAST. This year we went grocery shopping and then my mom and I cooked dinner and food for the rest of the week (which we normally do over the weekend). Thanksgiving is fine, it's not my favorite holiday but I enjoy the break from school. It's a nice breather. I don't really have any strange or wonderful memories from Thanksgiving but I really liked the hiking and, like I said, Disney was a blast. 

Assignment 14 Jake Walters

 Thanksgiving is one of those holidays for my family that we all enjoy and love but not really something we go crazy for. We have a huge feat late into the day and during the noon-covid years we would also go to my dads side of the family to celebrate and eat with them also. For thanksgiving we pretty much have the same routine every year. We are only allowed one small meal the entire day before thanksgiving in order to stretch out our stomachs but still leave plenty of room. Then mainly just waiting around all day for the sides and turkey to cook. Then we all get our plates, sit down at the table, and say what were thankful for which usually just involves everyone saying how thankful we are to have this family. Afterwards, we all take a nice long nap as we are so stuffed then we got homemade pumpkin pies which are always so delicious. 

Assignment 14-Zent

OPTION 2 

My family has many traditions when it comes to the holidays. My mom’s and my dad’s are both divorced so we have lots of family to celebrate with. One year we will do Thanksgiving with my mom’s side of the family and Christmas with my dad’s side of the family and then switch the next year. That way we get to see everyone each year. Most of my family’s traditions have to do with Christmas. The years that we are with my dad’s family are spent in Lexington. On Christmas Eve we all go to church and my grandmother makes a nice dinner. In the years spent with my mom’s family we go to my grandfather’s house in a small town in Ohio. All of my cousins come there too. We spend Christmas Eve at my great grandma’s house making cookies and watching movies. No matter where we spend Christmas, we are always together with family, that's our main tradition.

Assignment 14: Flying Turkeys - Henry Adams

 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tMx0Itim_POJ3UJ-X0GS2wa9cvrb0Qtvro1iJ-tko9w/edit

Assignment 15: Awwwwww Geek Out --to the song Freak Out (College)/ Cover Girl

This is a Make UP Blog Post NOT Extra Credit

We all have something that peaks our “Geek-meter.”  That something where time stops and transports you to a state of Zen.   Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?

Minimum of 150 words

Due Sunday, December 13 at 11:59 pm

December 13 is the last day to make up blogs 9-15

Cover Girl = Make Up
get it?
see what I did there?

Rukavina- assignment 14

 I know I’m about to make a lot of people cry when I say that I despise Thanksgiving. Maybe despise is a bit of a strong word but I have never understood why people love the holiday so much. To me it’s always seemed like a roadblock to Christmas. It also was the reason why we could never get out the Christmas tree or put up the decorations yet. I also am a really picky eater so I essentially have spent the last 17 years eating rolls and mac and cheese for Thanksgiving. Which I mean isn't a bad time but Christmas is just more fun. For my usual Thanksgiving my family celebrates with my cousins who live close to us but this year it was just my family. There also is usually a lot more food but since it was just five of us this year we cut down on all the sizes of the food. Don’t worry though even with just the five of us we found something to argue about! Mainly it was just my sister and I arguing but that besides the point. I was very happy to see the holiday come to an end and I am ready for my Christmas tree to be up!

Rukavina- Assignment 13

 Traffic! If there is one thing in this world that makes me want to scream it is being in standstill traffic while your family is screaming at you in the car! Which is why I have decided to dedicate my life to solving this problem once and for all. Now after years and years of EXTENSIVE research I think I’ve finally come to a solution! Drive! After this sentiment has been enforced to the public, I will be demolishing the fundamental rules of the road and replacing them with my own document. This document will consist of one line reading “Everyone for themselves.” Now passing people can be easily achieved as there are no roads or guidelines to follow! Has the neighbor’s yard always seemed like the easiest way to exit your driveway? Go right ahead! When it comes to the speed limit the sky's the limit. You can blast yourself right out of that standstill traffic! People are in the way? Too bad for them, this is your path now and if you envision a road in front of you then go ahead and drive right for it.

Assignment 14- Koen

    One tradition that my family has right after Thanksgiving is putting up the Christmas tree. Putting up the Christmas tree for us means well, Christmas is coming. After the big and filling dinner from Thanksgiving, my family wakes up filled with energy. We grab our Christmas tree from the garage, dragging and lifting it from the stairs in to the living room. Then, we take it out of its container and hook it  up to the tree stand(It's an artificial tree). Finally, the real tradition begins. As my brother and I hold up the tree, my dad sets up the stand so it can fit in properly. Once it is in place, our dad goes under the tree, finds the chord, and hopes for the best. Why? you may ask. Well, our real tradition is to see how much the tree has left in itself. Each year, our tree's aesthetic design gets progressively worse and worse. In its prime, the whole tree lit up with sparkle and wonder. The next few year, the top half of the tree stopped lighting up. And finally, this year, the tree gave us its last with the entire tree not lighting up. That tree spent many Christmases with the Lin family, but I think it is time to get a new one.

Assignment 13- Koen

     Thanksgiving, oh what a wonderful time. A gathering of families to enjoy each other's presence. Giving thanks and sharing food is something that we all know but what we experience during Thanksgiving is the carbo-loading and instant regret in the next morning. Eating turkey and potatoes is not bad, but waking up as a grizzly bear ready for hibernation is a side gift from Thanksgiving. You plan parties and gatherings, but you really just want to get your friends and families to hype you up to Black Friday. On top of planning these wonderful and "unified" gatherings, stress and the seasonal political arguments add a new tone to your Thanksgiving. All jokes aside, Thanksgiving is a time to appreciate each other and those you care about. The best way to show your appreciation is to be there with the people you love and to always be thankful for what you have in life.

Assignment 14 - Palmer Lee

Thanksgiving isn't exactly one of my favorite holidays. I always found it boring, and recently I've come to realize that it's America's way of covering over the fact that we've killed hundreds of thousands of Native Americans in our endless conquest of territory. But, at least I get to see some family. Every other year, we either go over to my aunt's house in Madisonville, Kentucky or go to my grandmother's house here in Lexington. At my aunt's house, it's a big family reunion with some people I honestly don't remember how I'm related to, where everyone brings one item like a potluck (we usually bring corn pudding). We went to my grandma's house this year. She always insists on making the vast majority of the food; we only ended up bringing macaroni and cheese and stuffing this year. The strangest memory I've probably had on Thanksgiving was when my uncle came over to our house and would not stop petting our dog, despite the fact that he is very opposed to having a dog at his own house.

Assignment 15- Church

 One thing that really just interests me is the school system. I wouldn't stay it puts me in a state of zen but I do find it fascinating to read about other students experiences. Whether that be in a public school, private school, religious school, home schooled, or some other sort of schooling. And whether they go to school here In the United States or somewhere else. Other questions arise to like what they want to major in, in college and if that affects how they went about their high school career. One thing that really interests me is College Board and AP classes. Do people not find it weird that students stress themselves out to the maximum state of stress to take these "college classes" that may or may not help them in college and could possibly not even count for credit at the college they are going to. Then the fact that those said AP classes are super expensive. Do you not find it crazy that to take 5 ap classes this year it cost close to 500 dollars. So what about the low socio-economic kids? Are they just expected to not take these classes? Is that a stigma our society has set up? Don't even get me started on the no child left behind act. I just can't decide if that was a good idea or a bad one. I see where it could be a good idea because then children don't get help back and it damage their emotional health, but at what expense are you going to sacrifice the other children knowledge and opportunity to learn in order to help one child so she/he doesn't get left behind. In the end though the school system really has to do with money and despite what the school board might say it comes down to money just like most things in this world.

Assignment 13- Gaby Rondel

Influencers. Vloggers. YouTubers. Whatever you want to call them. Like what on earth. What do they contribute to society? They film their unproductive lives and provide pretty useless advice and get rich off of it. When I mention this in a conversation people always say "they contribute entertainment". How are they entertaining? I don't understand how it is entertaining to watch people go about their ordinary lives. How is it entertaining to listen to people describe what clothes they bought or what makeup is sponsoring them? Why do these companies even sponsor them? (Ok, I know why they sponsor them: advertisement.) This is just so irritating to me, just get a job. Not trying to sound like a grandpa here, you can be an artist, writer, actor, whatever that doesn't technically fit the cookie-cutter mold of a 'productive job', but do something MEANINGFUL with your life. 

This is one of the many things that bugs me about our society but is probably the one I will get most passionate about. If you couldn't tell by reading this, I was screaming at you. Thank you and that was my rant. 

Assignment 13-Zent

One thing that really bothers me is people’s lack in understanding the need for a dress code at school, especially one for girls. I mean who could ever get any work done if a girl is showing her shoulder! Shoulders are by far the most distracting things in schools. Forget about cell phones, shoulders distract so many more students daily than cell phones ever could. There is just no way at all that schools that do not have dress codes that completely eliminate the exposure of shoulders have students that are productive or get any learning done. The only way to fix this major distraction in schools is to enforce a strict dress code that does not tolerate the showing of any girls’ shoulders! Who cares about whatever else they wear, but my god if girls are allowed to show their shoulders at school then schools will turn into institutions full of students who are too distracted to learn!

Assignment 14- Sara Anderlich

 (option 1)

    For me, Thanksgiving looks like 50 people crowded in my grandparent's dining room. The entire room is a table and everyone is squeezed around it with plates full of food. I would say that it pretty typical, but it's really fun because it's not just my direct family. I have my grandparent's siblings and their kids, and their kids, and their cousins. It's a lot of people and I feel like each year I meet 5 or 6 new people, especially last year. Last year was probably the biggest Thanksgiving that we had ever had. To be fair though, it was also very close to my grandparent's 50th wedding anniversary, so we had that too. 

    I really do love Thanksgiving. Even if I don't feel the closest to the unfamiliar adults in my family (especially since my aunt divorced one of my favorite Uncles... it's sad, but I understand), I LOVE seeing my cousins, and second cousins, and second cousins, once removed, and all that jazz. It's just a lot of fun. I'm pretty much the oldest in my direct family too. At least for my generation. I do have a few cousins close/slightly older than me, but everyone else is much much younger, which I really enjoy. We play hide and seek (I'm too good at this game), tickle monster, tag, dark hide and seek (I take off my glasses and try to find them in the dark), and random board games. 

    This is the only time that I get to see most of these relatives, so I try to make the most of it. As a favorite memory- and I'm not sure why this comes to mind- but I accidently slammed a chair into my grandfather's foot. This was 4 or 5 years ago, but I remember him cursing and being very scared. That was not very fun.... But, I enjoy laughing at it now. Especially good memories? Probably just playing board games with people. We'll play Dominion (which is AMAZING), Settlers of Catan, Monopoly, Chess, Boggle.. Even going into the next day. I'll sleep over for a couple nights and there's always something to do. Thanksgiving isn't just one day. It's the entire week. 

Assignment 12 - Ethan Scutchfield

Since I have attended Duke TiP Camp over the last several years, I have been asked this question multiple times.  I guess they tried to find compatible students to room together.  When I have answered this question in the past, we had multiple choice to describe ourselves which doesn't really give you an accurate picture of who you are as a human being.

The reality is I am a loner.  If someone shares the same interests as me, I can talk about those topics for hours, but otherwise, leave me alone.  I am an introvert.  I spend a lot of time watching YouTube videos regarding things I am interested in.  I am neither messy nor clean.  My room doesn't have much stuff and you can see the floor (unlike my sister's room).  I don't care what clothes I wear, so I won't have a lot of things in my closet.  I typically wear shorts (or sweatpants) and tshirts (or sweatshirts), depending on the weather.  I do spend time with my friends playing either video games or Dungeons and Dragons and all of that is virtual right now. I can be loud when I am doing either of those things.  Probably the biggest issue a room-mate would have with me is the accumulation of empty drink cans in my room.  

Assignment 12- Gaby Rondel

I can't stand smelly perfume. Perfume, lotion, body spray...I can't stand any of it. To my future roommate, I beg you, please don't spray perfume. Anywhere. I will start sneezing and I won't be able to sleep at night. This is unbearable for me and becomes REALLY annoying for those around me. Come fall, when all the leaves turn brown, crumble, and become dust, I will clean weekly. Otherwise, it becomes impossible for me to live. It is like having a cold twenty-four hours a day, every day. I am a fairly organized person so cleaning really isn't that hard for me. So I hope that my future roommate is the same. Now, I'm not saying I am always neat, I often make a mess, and I will often put off cleaning it, but it will get done sooner than later. Because like I said, otherwise my life becomes almost torturous as the dust piles up. 

Assignment 13 - Henry Adams

 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tMx0Itim_POJ3UJ-X0GS2wa9cvrb0Qtvro1iJ-tko9w/edit

Assignment 14- Church

My thanksgiving most traditionally looks like every other American family on thanksgiving. My family all gets up early and starts cooking all kinds of different foods. We have the traditional turkey, stuffing, green beans, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, deviled eggs, and probably more I can't think of. Then we end of eating at some extremely odd time to eat like 2 or 3 pm. Then before my grandparents moved I would go Black Friday shopping with my grandmother after the meal and would spend most of the night and then the next morning going shopping and that was my favorite part. Frankly I don't really care for thanksgiving food and most of my family gets on my nerves so the actual getting together and the food is probably my least favorite part. Probably my best memory of the holiday was the first year I got to go Black Friday shopping because we were out until 2 am and back out again at 4 am and I felt like such a cool person when I was running on 2 hours of sleep and got to be out and about at 2 am. 

Assignment 13- Sara Anderlich

                                                             Curing Depression

Does it hurt you to hear when your friends are sad? Do you, like so many others, just wish that you could do anything to help them? Well, understand now, that sadness and depression are some of the EASIEST things to give advice on!

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Just don't be sad. 

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Now, We're serious when we say this. If you you're feeling sad, just stop. Be happy. You are the only person who can control your emotions, and if you're feeling sad it's because you made the conscious choice to do so. 

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Assignment 13- Church

Snapchat to become the main source of communication

Snapchat has over 229 million users meaning only about 4% of the world uses snapchat. With the main amount of people coming from our very own. The United States. With some countries not even using Snapchat as it is not allowed by places government. Snapchat with the definition of a social media that almost only teens and adults use to communicate via sending photos back and forth, with the ability to call and FaceTime within the app and even see everyones locations at all time. Putting an emphasis on the fact that the majority of people using the app are teenagers and young adults. Then by the time they get into their older adulthood the use of snapchat decreases. with a turn to using normal phone calls as the older people get, the more they don't understand technology. Furthering the point that snapchat is becoming the main source of communication. Data has even shown that during the pandemic snapchat has become less popular as people turn back towards FaceTime and a state of depression and lonely hood.