When I was signed up for the Blog Class for my second semester senior spring English elective, I was not sure what to expect. Some expected it to be an easy class where we would get out of school through posting our thoughts on the Internet. Others expected a “How to” class on making blogs. I expected a class on using the greatest, most powerful tool that mankind has at their fingertips- the Internet. I expected to take the value of this tool with me beyond high school.

As the world has changed, technology has allowed us to communicate on an incredible level. This class illustrated how everyone from around the world is able to post their thoughts on absolutely anything on the Internet. The Internet is a bottomless well of knowledge, and the ability to find what you are looking for there is another skill that is becoming more and more necessary in the world today.

What amazed me was how this class focused on more than just using this tool. We focused strongly on paying attention to the thoughts of other posters on the web, communication, and research in this class. I was surprised to see our topics cover everything from marijuana and prostitution, to a strong focus on politics, which I have learned much on now and is something that affects me directly and I will be able to change directly by voting. We scanned news sources and have found that some are of poorer quality of others, focusing on bringing in an audience before focusing on delivering news. Through in class debate we learned on how to develop opinion and argument. We analyzed the Internet to refine our ability at using this tool.

Our class has developed a style of writing that is a bit different from standard essay format. Because we are generally speaking to a group of people that we do not know and whom we must expect do not know anything about what we are writing, we must focus on writing to the audience, writing on how it relates to our selves, how it relates to our community, and how it is relevant to the world. This style of writing is very personal, and tends to be very interesting because it is opinion of things that are important to us.

My post from March 30 titled “KIDS Getting SUPER WASTED in the Strangest Ways” exemplifies this style of writing. The Blog begins with me speaking on a similar context and mentioning other topics that relate. I then give a personal story to attract the reader and to show my own interest in the topic. I then bring in my primary topic, I use in-post hypertext links to bring the reader to the real story, as to not fill space reporting on what has already been reported. I researched the topic and posted what I had found, had thrown in my own opinion, and closed by telling ending the story from the beginning and bringing in a conclusion. I feel that this blog was very strong for using proper research on an interesting topic, while relating with a personal experience and also speaking briefly on another topic that we had had in class, poor news sources that are usually considered well sourced. The blog has a personal appeal, an appeal to our community, and an appeal to our society on a larger scale.

As a class, I can only give positive feedback. This class surrounds its study around something that all people who are hoping to be successful in our future society should learn to use properly. As the world evolves, the Internet will only become a more powerful tool. While the students in the class have had a tendency to succumb to senior malaise, the class itself is interesting, relative to important issues in our modern world, and offers a great opportunity to refine our skill at developing opinion. It would be wise for all students to take advantage of what this class has to offer.

Graduation is approaching. We can all feel it, and many of us are already done. Senior projects have come, gone, been presented and graded, and now we are left to stretch out the last week with some exams (if we have classes that are not APs), Prom, baccalaureate, and then… graduation. I have been here for four years, and I still have no idea how it is ending.

Graduation from high school and college is known for launching people into the lives that they create. We are all excited. We are all nervous. Some of us have very realistic ideas of who we are going to be, while others reach for the stars for their dreams, and still others wander and try to find what they should do.

I am unsure how I will feel once it is over. I have greatly anticipated leaving High school for a long time, though after speaking with several of my peers, friends, and cousins who have graduated, I know that my thoughts will change in the future. I know that some of these people have had negative experienced throughout high school, and what did they have to say? They miss it. They all miss it.

I have had some spectacular experiences in high school. I have had some spectacular experiences because of Tabor Academy. I have had some of the best nights of my life with my friends from home, who have been my friends forever and I cannot imagine life without them. There will always be experiences that I will look back on and miss, and those that I look back on and regret, yet hopefully I will only use my positive and negative experiences to direct where I lead myself in the future.

I guess what I am trying to say is that while High School should feel like the beginning of my life, all I feel is the end. The end of my youth, the end of all I know, because really I don’t know much about life in the real world. I feel that it is the greatest step into the unknown, and I can admit that I am very, very, afraid of what I do not know.

We all know that Graduation isn’t really the “end” of anything. It is only the end of a chapter of our lives, that for many of us shapes who we will become in magnificent ways. Some consider it to be the most important chapter of their lives. One can only guess what will happen in the next chapter, and what the climax of their own story will be. And all they can do to write it is to live each day, page by page.

Plymouth may be the next Hollywood.

Plymouth ROCK Studios, a new Studio coming to Plymouth, Wareham, and Boston, MA, is coming. The project will be a catalyst for the rapid development of a major new production industry in Massachusetts. Taking advantage of tax breaks for movie studios in MAssachusetts, according to SouthCoastTODAY, Plymouth ROCK will be making studios and an on site educational campus and private arts academy.

One would expect the coming of such change to be taken negatively by a community. However, polls show that 88% of Plymouth voters backed the plan for bringing the movie studio to their town.

The fate of the project would not be in the hands of the people though. The fate was in the hands of 14 precinct chairmen, and though the meeting between the chairmen and the finance committee for the industry went well, tension came when studio supporters grew impatient with questions from the precinct chairmen, the Patriot Ledger reports.

Precinct Chairman Paul Luszcz said, “There seems to be a perception that we somehow want to slow down and derail the project, but that is simply not the case. We have an obligation to determine whether we are going forward in the best manner.”

I am enthralled with the idea of a studio coming to Plymouth. Plymouth is a large town, and there is excellent opportunity for the space to be donated to something that would bring more tourists than (annoyed grunt) Plymouth Rock. Being a Plymouth resident myself, I can’t wait for the ability to be around all this action. Graduating from high school, I have been deeply considering taking up film or inter media for study, and this opens up great opportunity for me. There are people that I know who are actually apart of the project. The entire idea of being around this is very exciting.

Then there’s the negative side. Has anyone ever been to Hollywood? There are people there that are very, very strange. My aunts that live in California call it “Hollyweird.” Will changing Plymouth into the next big studio location make Plymouth a target for crime? Will people get hurt from this project? There are always down sides to change, though bringing change to Plymouth I feel should be overall positive. The campus site for the studio will be targeting independent producers, advertising agencies, brand name studios and brand name broadcast and cable operators. The facilities will be world class.

Plymouth ROCK Studios is designed to be attracted to become the nation’s most commercially attractive, LEED Silver certified and functionally competitive studio complex.

Boston is a city of college students. Imagine the opportunities these students will have working with everything the studio will allow them to.

And on top of everything else, this project will bring the business of film to stimulate the Massachusetts economy. According to a recent 2007 Motion Picture of America Association report, there were 550 motion pictures released theatrically in 2006, with an average cost of $60 million. If only 6% of these productions selected Massachusetts as a primary site, it would create over one billion dollars of annual direct economic stimulus to the Massachusetts economy.

There is an exciting near future for Plymouth, and Massachusetts as a whole.

I remember when I was very young seeing interactive video games. As a kid I loved video games, but what fascinated me even more than the time-wasting video game was the idea that the world of video games would evolve.

And they did.

Now more than ever the focus of video game developers is making video games revolutionary. You see it commonly in the new systems:
-The Wii uses motion sensors unlike ever before seen in conjunction with the game controller to make the player feel more into the game, to bring more people to play (the system Wii, appropriately originally called the Nintendo Revolution, was coined from “we,” and named so that most people could recognize the name), and to redesign the idea of the video game.

Now, nintendo is incorporating fitness into its system. The WiiFit is now allowing gamers to exercise through the system, allowing them to visually see how they are engaging their work out on screen, preventing improper exercise and injury, which is commonly seen in any gym.

Many new systems and computer games base their play around the internet. The internet has opened up many doors for the next generation of games. Think about your common video game stereotype- nerds in their basement not socializing. With new internet based play, games are centralizing around a new major theme- community.

With old systems, play was generally 1 player. It then evolved into 2, and 4. Now using networking and the internet based play they have MMOs that literally have millions of players working with, and against, each other, for the sole purpose of fun and hobby. Some are even stripping away the game aspect for the entire community purpose. Consider Second Life, while technically an internet-based virtual world, it is not the standard definition of a game. It does not have most of the standard characteristics of other games (points, scores, end game strategy, winners, losers, or levels), but rather is made for interaction, where users can do business, play, and communicate with each other.

When I was young, I remember being amazed by how video could be so interactive. In the science museum in Boston, there was an on-screen volleyball game, where you would hit the ball with your shadow that was cast onto the screen. Video games have gone from being pong, to consoles that hold many games, to portable hand-held systems, to using networks to bring gamers together, and beyond. It is unreal how such a distraction has evolved, and has produced a new type of hobbyist.

Anyone who has stopped by my site lately might have noticed that it is a little thinner than it should be. The reason? Well there are plenty of things I could blame it on. Senior-itis, writers block, other assignments getting in the way, etc. All of the above mentioned I cannot offer as excuses, but I would like to speak on a topic that affects us all.

Completing blogs is often an issue, though it really shouldn’t be- 500 words per week for a senior is NOT demanding for any class. Commenting on our class mates blogs can be tedious, though not much response is asked nor is it required. Commenting on the mother-blog is simple- pay attention in class and you already have a mouthful for the topics posted.

So why do I seem to fail at this blog class? Honestly, I feel that it is so easy to report on news reports, but I consider that near plagiarism. It’s not, because we put in our own input on important news stories, and our opinion is the entire idea behind the blog. I just find it pointless to report on something that has already been reported.

What I wait for is something that I truly have an opinion on. Every so often I feel that I have a lot to say about something, and occasionally I feel that others might be interested in what I have to say, if they choose to listen. I feel the need to write honestly, independently, and above all else interestingly. There are plenty of topics that are just too dull to discuss. How can I write about something that I know no one else will want to read, I know I will not want to write, and I know I will have little fun researching?

Also, forming an opinion is not always easy. When we read each other’s blogs, we may be interested, we may agree, but it is very difficult to say something that adds our input, because sometimes it is tough to form an opinion even on things that we are interested in. It seems that we need to be able to relate our own accounts to the blog, even when we may not have ever experienced something that really relates. Forming a real opinion comes naturally.

I suppose the most important thing is just getting it done. Do the work, write the blog, and while quality may suffer due to forced application, a mediocre report is better than a big fat 0. Unfortunately, I personally feel that this ruins the purpose of this class.
This class, while being an english elective, is about modern day communication using the greatest tool for communication that has ever existed. The internet allows people from all over the world to speak to each other, about everything and anything you can imagine. The ability to use this tool will be massively beneficial to anyone who has it. We need to know how to use it above just about anything else we learn in school.

Recently the student body was given a day of rest by our headmaster Mr. Stroud. Some of us had heard the rumors, some of us had never seen it coming, but predicted or not, the day was ours.

Mr. Stroud advised us to use the day wisely. Use the day of rest to catch up and get ahead on some work, enjoy the beautiful weather as we engaged our athletics, and, well, rest, because we NEVER have a moment to stop here at Tabor. The faculty and students maintain a tight schedule that they must adhere to always, apart from emergency and illness. We start mainly every day in routine, and when given free time, most students rarely know how they should spend it. This day was different.

The student body lifted into an uproar upon hearing the news. I don’t think I have ever heard a warmer reception to news delivered here at Tabor, and while the reason for the particular day may have been solemn, the news of the rest day had lifted the spirits of everyone in our community like never before seen.

What I saw on rest day was a community enjoying the time they had together during the time they were given. This is difficult to see anywhere. At the beach, I found groups of students from all classes together taking in the sun, braving the waters, and being happy with each other. I saw parents and teachers also enjoying the beautiful weather cheerfully with the students. It is indescribable to see a community really come together like this. It is what i feel our school is trying to achieve, and did quite successfully this day.

During the evening I took time to speak with other students on how they spent their day and what they felt they got out of their rest day. Some students said it was one of the most memorable days they had at Tabor. Others still had quite a fulfilling day, while getting some work done, and getting tan.

So what could I have done with the privilege of having time to rest? I caught an early top-notch brunch, went to the beach, submerged myself into the icy water, played some Frisbee on the sand and the grass, swung on the swing set as though I was a kid again, spun around until I was sick, spent a moment to see some parts of Marion I had never been to, spent the entire day with my friends, ended the day with grilling at Baxter dorm with more than the Baxter boys and dorm parents, thanked Mr. Stroud for the gift he had given the school, got some work done in the study hall we have each night, learned to appreciate some things that are around me everyday, and yes, got some rest.

It’s hard to imagine that so many people got so much out of one day, out of one gift to the Tabor community. Since the day I thought back to Kevin Valles’ speech about taking days off. He seemed to know at a younger age how to truly appreciate these days, while many of us at Tabor haven’t had much opportunity to.

What is inspiration? Dictionary.com defines inspiration as to fill with an animating, quickening, of exalting influence; to fill or affect with a specified feeling, thought, etc.; to guide or control by divine influence. I am trying to find inspiration. I am trying to ask myself what inspires me. Trying to create is never easy, and its difficulty seems amplified when addressed directly.
To become inspired it seems that I must search for a particular influence first, ideal or divine. How can someone directly find inspiration, when by definition inspiration can only come to them?

Particularly, I need artistic inspiration. Art is all about finding that one breath of inspiration that fuels your creation that may only come once a decade, once a lifetime, or never. It is apart of being an artist. However, we all need inspiration in our everyday life.

Many of your greatest accomplishments on the athletic fields have been inspired through the support of your teammates, the guidance of your coach and captains, and your direct love for your game. Inspiration fuels your body to push yourself further.

Also, inspiration may inspire your thirst for academic achievement. The opportunities presented to you for working now to broaden your horizons and better your future lifestyle inspire you to study, to bring you further in life.

So what can we do when we are stumped on inspiration? We can find guidance in our leaders, our teachers, and those we care for. They can remind us of the things that we are aiming to achieve. They can remind us of what we are really interested in. They can show us how to look at things in ways that we have never imagined before. Then again, inspiration can also come from what we hate. We can be inspired to stride above and apart from whatever may restrain us.

Inspiration can be supernatural. It can be divine and inexplicable. Many utilize this inspiration through their faith. Inspiration can also be brought on by psychoactives. Some of the most inspired things in our lives (music, for example) were in fact inspired by drugs. Often I have been inspired by my own dreams, which are mysterious and often difficult to relate to reality.

It is interesting to consider that inspiration can be drawn from so many places, yet still so hard to locate. When all the rest have failed us, we can still be inspired by our own lives. Where we have been, what we have seen, and everything beautiful or brilliant along the way fuel our inspiration. Maybe the hard part is just seeing this, and being able to illustrate it properly.

I’m not big on conspiracy films. They tend to make people feel strongly one way while ignoring some facts, much like propaganda influencing the opinions of people and causing their response to be emotional rather than rational. If anyone has ever seen Loose Change, a 9/11 conspiracy video, you know exactly what I’m talking about. The video covers all information, which appears to be authentic, on a 9/11 conspiracy where the attack was designed by our very own government. I have not watched that video in a couple of years, though I have heard since that it has been disproved on several accounts. I remember that, while some parts seemed to be a bit of a stretch, most of the film was interesting and brought together in a way that made it feel like a plea for truth. We can not forget that the most effective propaganda is often completely truthful.

With all of our discussion on honesty when it comes to the media and what we are told, I figured that this would be an interesting topic to discuss.

I recently watched a film called Zeitgeist. The documentary was released free on the internet for all to see, and is about Christianity, the attacks of 9/11, and the Federal Reserve Bank as well as a number of conspiracy theories related to those three main topics.

Being in the internet age, I am sure some of you have seen it, or parts, or have at least heard of it.

The first part on Christianity was particularly interesting. I have had many conversations with people on how it seems that religion is used so much as a tool now when its main resource is faith. Faith is not based around truth, and should not be considered support for anything in politics. This is not an argument that the film made, but it did present how people are fooled into imagining that one god is in control of everything by their parents and society when they are young. What I found particularly interesting was the similarities between all of the world religions displayed, and how most of these connections were astrologically based. Jesus, and many other sun gods, share the crucifixion, 3 day death, and resurrection concept. Lengthy comparisons between the Egyptian sun god Horus and Jesus, as well as several other biblical stories directly lifted from Egyptian religion, illustrate an incredible amount of plagiarism. Christian beliefs have many attributes of Egyptian ideals.

It was difficult for me to remain interested in part 2, because I had previously heard what was stated, that 9/11 may have been an attack headed by our own government. I have heard before that the Loose Change video had been disproved on several occasions, though still it doesn’t make it true either way.

Part 3 states that the american dollar is loaned at interest to US citizens, and therefore makes a debt that cannot be made up. It claims that the Federal Income tax is unconstitutional, and the tax payers money goes directly to paying up the debt, meaning that nearly all of the money goes back to the bankers.
Part 3 also mentions that the US is heading towards a border-less community, known as The North American Union. The film says that The North American Union, the African Union, the European Union, and the soon to be Asian Union, will inevitably become under the control of one government.
This is something that I have always heard of, always taken interest in, and always feared.
Though it is arguable that this is a good thing, a one world government would mean that there would be an absolute power in the world. History has taught us that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

The other night I turned on the TV to watch an episode of South Park. The episode depicted the four mischievous boys of South Park researching what they heard about a new way to get high. We have all heard stories of children searching for new ways of getting high, such as the choking game.

Ever hear of the professional wrestling move called a sleeper hold? That’s pretty much the choking game. News stations have reported that kids are doing this to get high, which wouldn’t surprise me, because it seems harmless. The “choke” cuts off oxygen to your brain, from what I understand. Or, at least thats what I think happened, when I did the same thing.

Years ago, before there were news reports of this getting you high, I was with friends and we were talking about wrestling. Some of my older friends were getting into high school wrestling, and the topic of conversation somehow led to a common professional wrestling move called the sleeper hold. They told me that it wasn’t a real wrestling move, but that it actually does work, and that it wasn’t safe.

We were all sitting around, and they were trying to describe what it was like, and eventually, I was curious enough to volunteer. My friend gently got me into position… then wrapped his hand around my neck and pushed out my back… I remember thinking ‘this is stupid,’ that I couldn’t breath easily, and it didn’t hurt, it was only annoying then…

WHOA. What’s happening… I’m falling backwards… into a closet… biting my tongue… I vaguely remembered something about a sleeper hold… that seemed like hours ago… or it was a dream that I was just waking up from?
And my friend was suddenly there, in front of me, as though he just popped into place, and he said “Mike? ARE YOU OKAY?!”

I snapped out of it. Sitting in my friend’s closet, I had obviously just lost control of my legs and the rest of my body quite suddenly. This surprised my friend performing the hold couldn’t hang onto me as I fell out of his grasp.

And I felt a rush. I couldn’t believe that had happened, all just like that, within one minute. It felt good.

My friend told me I would get bad headaches, though I never did. I really scared him. Thinking about it, I scared myself. I never have done it since, I wouldn’t exactly label it as a high even though it felt cool, and I knew that cutting off the circulation of blood to the brain couldn’t exactly be good. A few months later, I saw a news report on kids doing this to get high, and that too was a little scary.

So when I saw this I took immediate interest.

I must admit, it is beyond ridiculous, and yes, I laughed a lot at 1:40 into the video, but just because it’s ridiculous, doesn’t make it complete fabrication… I mean, it was reported on the news!

I found a vault of information on all psychoactive chemicals and plants, and searched for reports on this bizarre and revolting new idea. I was incredibly doubtful that it was actually becoming a big thing in any area. My search found that there is no “extraordinary evidence to support such an extraordinary claim.” Even the man that originally claimed to be the first to have tried it in America came back months later saying that he lied, and just didn’t want to be remembered on the internet for being the kid that had actually gone and tried this!

The episode of South Park ended with one of the town residents urging people to take personal responsibility, and he makes a point that no matter what is done, children will always find ways to get high. Kenny, who was addicted to the method of intoxication, is seen in the end off of the drug, and instead getting “super wasted” on life.

So what lessons have we learned from this? Well, obviously the news can be misleading, no matter how humorous or entertaining the reports may be. Also don’t try gross things if you hear they are “Fon to due.”

BBC news reports at least 12 people dead in Kenya due to land clashes. Some were shot, others burned alive in their homes. It is unsure what sparked the overnight restlessness, but it is believed that it was related to clashes that occurred last year, in which some 1,500 people died.

The economies are not standing for the violence. Like in many other parts of Africa, disputes over land and economy are causing serious crisis. A deal was signed last week to end the violence. Police are looking for the ones who are responsible of the deaths of last night. BBC news says that the dispute between the rival Sabaot and Soi Kalenjin communities have been going on for over a year.

Mr. Annan issued a message of hope to all Kenyans on this topic.

He wrote, “You and your country can move forward and find some solace in healing, if there are processes of justice, truth and reconciliation that will take leadership from your new government, but it will also take commitment from all of you.”

BBC news reports that former Nigerian Foreign Minister Oluyemi Adenniji is taking over as the chief mediator.
Land disputes are a major concern of the government. But now something is being done.

The opposition leader Raila Odinga is to become prime minister and to share power with President Mwai Kibaki. Parliament is convening on Thursday to discuss this. This deal was brokered by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who left Kenya on Sunday after more than a month.

The healing process of Kenya will take much more than just changes in politics and structure. Political Science professor Edmond Keller of UCLA says that Kenya’s recovery will depend on rebuilding a vibrant social order, but “amending the constitution to form a stable unity government will be the first step toward that end.”

Professor Keller also states that enacting terms of the power sharing arrangement under a transformed constitution is key to bringing what is needed for Kenya’s recovery.

Kenya’s stability is also challenged by its surroundings. Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia are also challenged by the recent crisis. Professor Keller believes that it will take the acts of all of the neighboring countries to help Kenya progress.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7274892.stm

http://www.voanews.com/english/Africa/2008-03-03-voa1.cfm