Formspring casualty...

My mom asked me the other day if I knew of an application that runs through Facebook that allows people to ask questions about another person anonymously. At first I had no idea what she was talking about, but then as I began to think about what this application could be, it led me to the thing that I have labeled "stupid". Yes, it's Formspring. 


From the very beginning I thought it was the stupidest thing ever. Why on earth would someone ever want to answer such revealing questions about themselves? Did the inventors really think that people were going to ask each other what their favorite color was or what their favorite flower was or something innocent like that? You would think with the adolescent minds of today's era that questions would escalate beyond that. To my knowledge they have. People are asking questions like, "why would you have sex with this person", "why did you break up with so and so", "you looked fat in the outfit you wore today", etc.


What really gets me is how degrading and vindictive people can be. For people who think that Formspring is a good way for people to get to know them, I laugh at them. I laugh because that is the stupidest thing that I have ever heard. Formspring is an excellent way of someone finding out your deepest darkest secret or an excellent way of being bullied by someone that the users don't even know. Yes, I am fully aware of the fact that people can choose what questions to answer and what questions to post, however why do that anyway? The person being questioned still is conscious of the fact that people are asking such questions about them. 


Formspring has not been limited to just questions, it has been opened to making public statements. Anybody can post anything to someone's page. Even if someone were to state: "how was sleeping with so and so" and the user were to even reply "nothing I don't know what you're talking about" it would be posted onto their public page leaving it open and vulnerable to interpretation. Why Formspring has allowed anonymous users to post questions is beyond me. People who live all the way in Europe could be asking such slanderous questions. 


This is a huge step for cyber bullying, Formspring has taken it to a new level. People's reputations have been injured by this, girls are taking comments about appearance to heart, boys are getting trashed and thrown around about why the dated so and so and why they cheated/ or treated some girl badly. In an article that I read online from the New York Times, a user stopped wearing a her favorite leg warmers because she saw a statement show up in her Formspring box that bothered her. Sure that's nothing harmful, but what happens if it does? I turn back to that article where it explains the death of a 17-year old girl this past March. After receiving so many nasty statements and questions in her Formspring message box, she finally decided to take matters into her own hands and committed suicide. Click on this link for the full story. New York Times, Formspring


I just do not understand what this world is coming to. If it wasn't as if Facebook and Myspace weren't enough. Heck, even if bullying at school weren't enough for some kids. Formspring is on the fast track to becoming a problem for a lot of people. Some of my very close friends have Formspring and yes I do visit the site from time to time, but I never ever engage in anything. I am appalled at the things that I read people posting on their sites and even the questions that they choose to answer. My friends are good people and it hurts me to see the things that people post about them and even the questions that they ask. Some of them are smart and choose to give blatant answers, but still that leaves the door wide open for interpretation. 


If bullying, hazing, and harassment were the main leaders of teen suicide, Formspring will sooner or later be right up there with them.

Pain...

"Pain is just weakness leaving the body."

What is pain? Is pain a just a feeling? Is it an emotion? It is this "something" that is a cause of effect of certain physical activity or emotional activity? Why does pain cause the body hurt? Why can't it cause the body strength...or does it?


According to thefreedictionary.com, pain is a noun that causes "unpleasant sensation occurring in varying degrees of severity as a consequence of injury, disease, or emotional disorder." So in other words, pain is a sensation. I find this definition hard to believe because anyone can feel pain whether they have an injury, disease, or an emotional disorder or not. I don't need to be sick and dying or laying up in a hospital bed in order to feel pain. 


Pain to my knowledge is a cause and effect feeling of both physical and emotional activity. After a hard work out an athlete is going to feel the pain and tiredness of what practice does to his or her muscles. After a terrible break up the young girl is going to feel the pain that something very important in her life has just been ripped away. After the death of a loved one, the family is going to feel the pain of losing someone so close to them. It is outside sources that cause these feeling to arise within the human body, and the effect of it all is pain itself. 


Pain is just weakness leaving the body... I find this statement to be a little contradictory. If pain is just weakness leaving the body then shouldn't  football players, gymnast, wrestler, or what have you, be out of pain for the rest of their life? Or do they still have a lot of weakness stored up inside of them? I would think that trained professionals would be done with having the sensation of pain after every workout. They are experts at it, so shouldn't they not be weak anymore? However, this statement holds true because you cannot get rid of weakness without being in pain.


At the same time I think this statement should read something like, "Pain is just improvement building in the body." That makes more sense doesn't it? Throughout our whole lives we are going to be weak. Whether it be when were young, middle aged or old. It's always going to be present. No amount of pain is going to vanish weakness from our bodies. But if pain is the result of improving our bodies, well then we can all use a little bit of pain if you catch my drift. Emotional pain allows us to heal in a different way and allows us to see how to behave, how to be strong, and how to deal with different situations at hand. It allows our bodies to improve our relationships so that we can have the best lives we possibly can. Physical pain improves our bodies so that we can stay physically fit and to be able to perform our best when it comes to the sports we play or the various rolls that we have to take on throughout our life. 


Pain is just improvement building in the body. 

Talents oh talents...

So many of us have our special talents right? For example: sports, photography, creative writing, martial arts, drawing, painting, repairing cars, etc. I want to take a time out from what I normally write about and give recognition to a few guys that I went to school with. They are amazing hip hop dancers and this video that I am going to link you all too is simply awesome. It's fun and creative and the boys did such great job choreographing it! :) I hope that you enjoy the video as much as I have.

Know yourself...

"As human beings we are constantly changing. Knowing yourself is therefore an on-going, never ending process."

There have been countless of times where I wonder who the heck I am. Am I the person who likes to drink and party? Am I the person who likeds to get busted by her parents for doing something stupid? Am I the person who listens to people's stories and tries to help them the best that I can? Am I the person who puts her heart and soul into whatever she is trying to strive for? Am I the person who likes to quit on things at the last minute?

Times are a changing. I think anyone with a brain can tell that they are. For example: the new president has surly issued some changes. Health Care reform, the increased Border Patrol, or delving the economy into a bigger and deeper hole than in was in the first place. Those who come from the younger generation, myself included, are now at the brunt of all the previous government mishaps and mistakes. We are struggling to find jobs just like the older generation before us. Sometimes I think that while we are out searching for jobs, the companies somehow give the older people our jobs because they have "more experience" and deserve it. Well sure....but how are we supposed to pay off student loans if we actually want to spend and live our lives not freaking out if we are going to go bankrupt or not? We need jobs too right? I guess if you can't find a job now then its better that you do something important like volunteer for something that you enjoy or hang out with the people that you love.

Many of us may feel that we know ourselves to the fullest extent. However, something suddenly comes up and we begin to really wonder who we really are. Sometimes people put labels on us that we just do not understand and therefore we begin to search and think about the person that we truly are. Are they wrong? Or have the hit everything right on the nail? If they are wrong, then how do you prove it to them?

Growing up our bodies constantly change, therefore our appearance inner and outer changes as well. For some, we decide to stay a certain way the whole way through life and never really get a wake up call. For this I would like to refer to an example. On the TV show Make It Or Break It, one of the gymnasts, Lauren Tanner, is stuck up and uses her daddy's money to get everything that she wants. She doesn't have respect for any of her teammates and treats them all like crap. In some instances it appears that she is trying to be genuinely nice, but really its just another one of her facades. I can't help but think that there are tons of people out there who act like her and never really take the time to grow up.

Looking back I can safely say that I know who I am now. I know where I belong and I know what type of person that I am. I know that these next few years are going to be tough, but the fact that I know who I am I can help guide myself onto the path of success and to stay on that path and to not fall off. Having an idea of who I am, doesn't not mean that I have casted myself into stone. There is always room for growth, more maturity, kicking bad habits, and forming new connections. 

Times are a changing. Hold onto what you love. Let go of regrets and of the things that hurt. Welcome kind changes. Think of what's best. Love with all your heart. 

A Strangers Footsteps...

"But if you walk the footsteps of a stranger, you'll learn things you never knew, never knew." 

~ Pocahontas, Colors of the Wind

Many times we often judge people by their looks. If someone's appearance looks scary, don't we try to stay far away from them? With the appearance of being scary isn't there an inkling that the person is a bad person or has a troubled life. How do we know what that person is going through or why they dress the way that they do? For all that we know a normal dressed person could be going through tougher things than a person who's appearance is scary. Growing up we have always heard the term "stranger danger". Of course that is referencing young children to not talk to adults that they do not know. But don't we carry that sense of "stranger danger" when we meet new people? Do we not guard and protect ourselves from people we do not know, and then only slowly do we begin to reveal parts of ourselves to them? But then again Strangers can becomes our greatest Friends. 


In the Disney movie Pocahontas, John Smith is a stranger. He has come from some unknown land and to the Native Americans he is dangerous. The chief warns Pocahontas to stay away from him. But their was something about this stranger that attracted Pocahontas to him. As she began to hang out with John she began to teach him her culture and her likes and dislikes, and in return John began to teach her new things too. Suddenly the tide turns and Pocahontas' dad finds out about their secret meetings and wants start a war between the Native American's and John's people. It was only by walking through John's footsteps for a few days that she began to realize that he really wasn't a stranger at all, he was a friend.


I have this one friend who is definitely out of this world. His views on life simply blow my mind and I really honestly have no idea where the heck he gets the ideas that he puts in his head. Of course by going to a private school nobody can really look scary, because we all look the same. I remember girls complaining about that because there is no way that they could express themselves. Anyway, this one friend in particular scared me. It wasn't by the way that he dressed or by the way that he walked, it was merely by the way that he talked and expressed his views and ideas. I was one of the upper class-men that lead peer discussions with the freshman. During those sessions I would be afraid to call on him because I was worried he was going to say something that I could not handle. I would simply just say, "Hmm interesting, alright now moving on." With that being said, I would avoid calling on him all together. 


About two years later, he and I wound up on a Kairos experience together. And it wasn't until then did the lyrics of "Colors of the Wind" really kick in. There were underlying reasons that caused this person to be the way that he is. Reasons that made him a stranger to me and reasons that I did not know until I walked in his footsteps through listening to him talk about all the things that conflicted inside of him. Now, I'm not so scared anymore. 


If you walk the footsteps of a stranger, you will learn things that you never knew. You will learn things to help you understand a person and will learn things that wil lead you to become a better friend. Take a chance to walk in the footsteps of a person whom you don't know or maybe walk in someone's footsteps to help you get to know them better. 

Inception for those who've seen it...

Okay, I will admit it. When I first saw Inception I was confused within the first couple of scenes. I guess I'm just one of those people who understands things when I talk out loud to someone about the thoughts racing through my head. However, as the film continued on I began to understand it. I think I more began to understand what all was happening as Cobb was explaining the whole dream thing to Elle Page's character, Ariadne. Maybe that was Nolan's idea of trying to get the confused people to understand. I don't know. 


But what about the last scene with the top? I don't know about you but I sat in my seat and thought, "Seriously, you're going to end the movie like that!?". If I was confused before the movie then I sure as hell was confused now, is Cobb still dreaming or did he actually make it back to reality. Thinking back. It did show Cobb waking up on the plane with everyone else, it showed Saito making the phone call to allow Cobb to come back into the country, and it showed Cobb successfully passing through security and meeting back up with his father. All of these things led me to believe that Inception ended with a happy ending. 


I didn't really pay all the much attention to whether or not the top was wobbling, to me it looked like it was spinning smoothly but the film ended before there was any indication that it could have wobbled. So, walking out of the movie I was thinking, "Well was he in a dream or was he not in a dream? How the hell did it end?" After seeing many pictures, like the one above, it certainly shows that there is a slight a wobble in the top, so Cobb was back in reality. Then a week later I stumbled across a post that one of my friends put up on Facebook. It led me to this link: Inception Spoiler. Go ahead read it. You will soon understand that it all makes sense.


After reading the article, I went back through all the scenes of  the movie. If the ring really is Cobb's totem, like I believe it is, then the movie ended with a success in inception and a happy ending for Cobb. Having the ring be Cobb's totem makes perfect sense to me. Did he not tell Ariadne when she first began the dreaming that she needed a totem that was unique to her and different from everyone else's? Therefore I believe that the spinning top was just someway of Cobb holding onto Mal. I don't think that he would have been allowed to use Mal's totem because it wasn't his to begin with. I think that at the end when he spins the top on the table before he goes out to see his kids he just spins it as a way of saying "the job is done". 


So there you have it. That's my take on it. Without having read that spoiler, I probably would want to see the movie again to fully understand it. But I decided to save myself some money. 


Thanks for reading. 

Twinkle Twinkle...

Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are. 

Up above the world so high, Like a diamond in the sky.

Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are.

How true is this lullaby? I have wondered what stars have been my whole life. Even science class has confused me on what the heck they are. Are they giants, dwarfs, exploding pieces of dust? What are you?! A friend once asked me what stars were. I think I came up with some bogus answer that was science based. Basically I told him what I knew from science class. I knew that some stars in some way shape or form were giants, red dwarfs, white dwarfs, and that when they become too hot they just explode. It is due to their explosions that we can see them in the night sky.

But now as I sit outside underneath this overcast sky, I wonder what stars really are and what their purpose is. I know I can't see the stars right now, and maybe that's why I am wondering about where the heck these stars came from. When I was kid and I was up at a YMCA camp they told us a campfire story that the stars were the cause of the hummingbird poking holes through the sky. When God created the night sky it was just a blanket of darkness over the Earth. He began to realize that the night was too dark for the animals to roam around the Earth with, they needed some kind of light. So God created the Hummingbird to poke holes in the night sky. Their beaks were so tiny that they created the right amount of light to supply the light given by the moon he soon created.

Well...for now that seems like a legit enough answer. I am going to give myself a headache trying to figure out how star produce the immense amount of light that they let out.

Man In The Mirror...

"Man In The Mirror"

I'm Gonna Make A Change,

For Once In My Life

It's Gonna Feel Real Good,

Gonna Make A Difference

Gonna Make It Right . . .

As I, Turn Up The Collar On My

Favourite Winter Coat

This Wind Is Blowin' My Mind

I See The Kids In The Street,

With Not Enough To Eat

Who Am I, To Be Blind?

Pretending Not To See

Their Needs

A Summer's Disregard,

A Broken Bottle Top

And A One Man's Soul

They Follow Each Other On

The Wind Ya' Know

'Cause They Got Nowhere

To Go

That's Why I Want You To

Know

I'm Starting With The Man In

The Mirror

I'm Asking Him To Change

His Ways

And No Message Could Have

Been Any Clearer

If You Wanna Make The World

A Better Place

(If You Wanna Make The

World A Better Place)

Take A Look At Yourself, And

Then Make A Change

(Take A Look At Yourself, And

Then Make A Change)

(Na Na Na, Na Na Na, Na Na,

Na Nah)

AZ Lyrics

I was just chillin on my bed a few minute ago messin around on Facebook and suddenly the song "Man in the Mirror" came on. I thought to myself, "wow this is such a great motivational song." Then it led me to think back to my Kairos time and when I heard this talk given by one of my really amazing awesome friends. For those reading who don't know what Kairos is, I'm sorry, because it is one of the best things that I have attended in my life. If you want to know more about it...Google it :P. It's an amazing experience.

Michael Jackson is a man that comes with many different labels. Some of them being: pervert, baby dangler, amazing dancer, gerat songwriter, Neverland, and Jackson 5. Having that been said, how many labels do you have on yourself? Honestly, think about it. I know I have plenty. Athlete, sister, friend, writer, brunette, etc. We all have our labels and many of us have labels that we wish we didn't have. Maybe alcoholic, drug abuser, law breaker, cheater, etc. This song reaches out to those who need to make a change in their life, but they just aren't sure how to do it. 

As Jackson says, "I'm starting with the man in the mirror". I believe that our own reflection is our worst critic. I mean we hear all the things that people say about us and choose not either believe them or not, but when it comes down to it and we look in the mirror can we really begin to see all the things that the people say. Or maybe we begin to see things that we dislike. For example how many young girls have looked into the mirror and have seen: A) Overweight. B) Acne. C) Not beautiful. Plenty. They think that this change that has to occur is becoming anorexic or taking a knife to their wrists. But is that really the "change" that Jackson presents in his song? No. The change that comes with the song is much more then just a "quick fix". 

"I'm gonna make a change for once in my life. It's gonna feel real good, it's gonna make a difference, gonna make it right." These lines allude to the fact that a person should look deep into themselves and make their bodies realize that what they are doing is just not right. Maybe a troubled teenage boy knows that he's not doing the right thing taking drugs or drinking because he knows deep down that it could mess up his life and screw up his dreams. This change is going to make him a better person and is going to make his life right. Same thing goes with a young girl who is struggling with her image. She needs to learn to accept herself and to love the person that she is. Or maybe this person looking in the mirror is a cheating husband, and he knows that he loves his wife with all of his heart and that he needs to change the way he is dealing with his life. 

If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make that change.

Eye to Eye...

"A beautiful eye makes silence eloquent, a kind eye makes contradiction an assent, an enraged eye makes beauty deformed. This little member gives life to every other part about us; and I believe the story of Argus implies no more than that the eye is in every part; that is to say, every other part would be mutilated were not its force represented more by the eye than even by itself." 

~Joseph Addison 

Look around you...what do you see? How's the sun today? Is it making you happy? How are your eyes? Are they ready to take in the day? Do they hurt? How's your mood? Are you angry, happy, or sad? 

Believe it or not, but the eyes have a lot to do with how you take in your surroundings. If you are happy then anything you see, like a bird or a person, will make you feel joy and will make you smile. If you are angry then your eyes are going to see that bird and person in a much different image. You will have negative energy building up and you will simply not want to be around anything or anyone. 

Let's refer to the quote above. "A beautiful eye makes silence eloquent." Silence is golden am I right? You can learn many a thing from the noises of silence. Take for example a couple looking into each others eyes. Everything is still and silent. When that man looks into the woman's eyes, the silence suddenly becomes more than just silence. She's beautiful, and her eyes simply sparkle. At the same time how ever, "an enraged eye makes beauty deformed". How many times have we been upset and our favorite things suddenly become our worst enemy? Take an athlete for example and how much they love their sport. They think the mere image of a football or a baseball is simply beautiful because it is what makes them happy. But what happens when they suddenly become enraged, their eyes perceive them differently. The ball is suddenly a thing they hate and they begin to hit the crap out of it and beat it up until it is no longer something that they love. 

The eye loves to play tricks on the body. Believe it or not, it's true. "A kind eye makes contradiction an assent". You know all of those famous Optical Illusions? Where there ya have it. We perceive things that aren't really there, it's just your eye contradicting itself. Your eye even allows the body to believe a certain image to believe that it is something that it's not. How many times have we done that to ourselves? I know that I have done it. 

Many of us do not see eye to eye... Now I think that I know why. I think that it is because of the state that our bodies are in. If I am happy and another person is not as happy, then we may or may not view things in the same way. Maybe it doesn't all depend on mood, perhaps its just the way we perceive things. Like in the court system. Many legislators read words differently and attach different meanings to words. Life presents itself to us in many different forms....