Category: Assignments

I am sure that most people out their feel very similar to the way I do about politics. It has very interesting pieces of it from debates and peoples point of views all the way to the economic side of things. Over the past few years the United States politics has been constantly on the news because of our tiny handed orange friend. Anyways he is not the star of this post, this post is about political ideologies in general. This unit we focused on what are the different sides to politics, what we believe in and where we stand on the political spectrum.

Most people are probably confused by this political spectrum, as when I entered this unit I thought it only had an x-axis, but adding a y-axis makes a lot of sense. You have your views on rights and things like that as well as the economic side of things. Our teachers decided to actually give us written tests for the first time in a long time. We were given the same short quiz pretty much every time until we all had good enough marks. The quizzes were easy for me to understand as I had taken economics the year before which prepared me very well. We also ended up taking another test, not for marks one that told us where we stood on the political spectrum. I ended up landing a little bit below the x axis and slightly right on the economic side of things. I wasn’t surprised as I new that I was more libertarian and I definitely believe in a mostly free market economy. I personally am a capitalist and when I say that people jump to the conclusion that I am hard core right wing, which is far from the truth.

I ADVISE NOT TO WATCH IF EASILY UPSET BY TV SHOWS SIMILAR TO FAMILY GUY

I believe the reason why somebody would jump to that conclusion is because of the United States. Like I have said their politics have been showcased for quite some time now and their style of democracy has made people think differently about the spectrum. I do not like their two party system because it has caused the country to be split ideologically in half. This has made people believe their is either on or the other, if you are a democrat some people will think you are a full blow communist. If you are slightly a republican, people will call you a fascist. Funny thing is that those two political ideologies are closer together than you might think.

Their are two great examples of communism and fascism and both of them were existing during WWII. Joseph Stalin is the first person I think of when somebody mentions communism. He felt very strongly about spreading communism across the world. I am sure you know that the Fascist leader I am referring to is the one, the only Adolf Hitler. Everybody knows that this psycho also wanted to take over the world and luckily he was stopped. However if you look at the political pieces of both of their governments, they were very similar. The leader decided what was going to happen with no ifs, ands, or buts. As well as many authoritarian ideas, the main difference is just where they stood economically. Hitler was more right wing where as Stalin was more left wing.

There are several versions of how the the political spectrum can look, some people believe that is just an x-axis other people think it has an x and a y-axis, there is also weird one that is in the shape of a horseshoe that oddly makes a lot of sense, and supports my opinion on fascism and communism.

I decided that I should make my own now because I feel that this will be the most accurate for me.

I believe that it is more of an oval just because you can transition from communism to fascism easily or you can become more socialist, from either of those you can transition to capitalism, and so on and so forth.

My High School life is sadly coming to an end. I am no longer going to have the same routine that I have had for the past 5 years. My life is now about to change immensely, now that I am going to be going to university next year. Before I start talking about that I should focus on how my opinions and views have changed. Several years ago I made a blog post about who my role models are and what rules or mottos do I live by. For this assignment I was told to do the same assignment as I did again just with my new worldview and state of mind.

This list is of who is at my table now, some of them were on my last table but others are newer role models for me.

Brent Grimes:

This Role Model of mine was on my last blog post because he has been really influential to me on how to keep push through adversity. Brent Grimes is a 5 feet 10 inches tall Corner Back in the NFL. The reason why I stated his height was because it was a big factor for why he inspired me and how he overcame that challenge. For the longest time he was told he was too short to play in the NFL, but he overcame that and went to the Pro Bowl 4 times after being undrafted in 2006. The next reason he inspires me is his work ethic. His work ethic showed the most when he had a massive injury when he played for the Atlanta Falcons, and then came back to the NFL and played for the Miami Dolphins because the Falcons released him. The third reason why he inspires me is because his ability is to prove people wrong. Which he showed when he was supposed to be “too short” to play and when he came back from his injury and played just as good if not better. Those are three reasons why Brent Grimes inspires me.

Muhammad Ali:

Muhammad Ali is an easy choice for me now that I have done research on him. He is most well known for being an incredible athlete as he was a heavyweight boxing champion with a 56 win record. That take drive and determination that is impressive on it’s own. The main thing that I admire him for is standing up for what he believed in. I believe that standing up for what you believe in is something everybody should do. He did what is right and that was the only thing that mattered to him. Muhammad Ali galvanized the Civil Rights Movement by appealing to people who otherwise agreed on little politically. The death of Muhammad Ali  provides us with an opportunity to reflect on his impact on the freedom struggle that has come to be known as the Civil Rights Movement. That is why he inspires me and that is why he is at my table.

 

Willie O’Ree:

If I had to bet I would say most people have not heard of this person. The only people who know how he is are people who know a lot about the NHL. Willie O’Ree was the first black hockey player. He is from eastern Canada, and he had a huge impact on the hockey world. After O’Ree’s stint in the NHL, there were no other black players in the NHL until another Canadian player, Mike Marson, was drafted by the Washington Capitals in 1974. There were 23 black players in the NHL as of the mid-2010s. Art Dorrington was the first black player to sign an NHL contract, in 1950 with the New York Rangers organization, but never played beyond the minor league level. NHL players are now required to enroll in a preseason diversity training seminar,and racially based verbal abuse is punished through suspensions and fines. From 1998 on, O’Ree has been the NHL’s Diversity Ambassador, traveling across North America to schools and hockey programs to promote messages of inclusion,dedication, and confidence.

Jackie Robinson:

This person was also on my previous list. Most People have heard of this Baseball player. Jackie Robinson was one of the first African American Baseball Players. He was well known across the USA with people who loved him and people who hated him, which is one of the reasons why he inspires me. That reason comes from him blocking out the noise from being so hated because of racism. Another reason is because he succeeded so much in the MLB. A lot of people on his team didn’t want to play with him but he still became one of the best players in the league, with being a 6 time all star. The final reason is that he did what he thought was right, and he was just an all around a good person. So much so that he got his number discontinued across the league and now there is a “Jackie Robinson Day”. That is what Jackie Robinson has inspired me.

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson:

The Rock is probably a role model to many people now that he has gained so much influence as the highest paid actor in Hollywood. He is known for wrestling, acting, and advocating for mental and physical health. He originally started out as football player. From what I know he played in the CFL for a while after playing in the NCAA. He was eventually cut by Wally Buono, the General Manager at the time. Johnson is grateful for what Buono did as it was the turning point in his life. After that point he became a successful wrestler and everything else followed. The thing I admire the most about him is his work ethic. He has pushed through adversity all through his life to become a multi-talented celebrity. He is also constantly standing up for what he believes in, speaking his mind on political and societal issues as well as standing up to people like Donald Trump.

 

Not much about me has changed over the past few years, I think my morales are still pretty much the same and the main difference is that I am more experienced and more mature than I was. The main thing I am going to live by is that I am going to do what is right every possible chance that I get. A quote that I will also like to follow is one that comes out of the Rocky Franchise:

This motto has helped me push through adversity and I believe that if I follow my morales and live by this quote, I will be able to push through anything while doing the right thing.

After watching Halloween we decided to watch another horror film, a more recent one at that. This had a very different vibe, and it struck me in a different way. This movie was Get Out.

It was very well known when it first came out a few years ago. It is a lot deeper than most horror movies especially slasher films. It touches on modern society in the United States. It can get confusing at times if you don’t pay attention as this movie has many different layers and you can lose track very easily. It has twists and turns you won’t expect, and forces you to the edge of your seat.

Get Out gains its fear factor from how much is unknown. Most of the movie the main character is in the dark and you are not sure what is really going on. You end up being confused and on the edge of your seat trying to expect what is next. It also uses classic ways of scaring the audience. They use music and audio I effects to scare you before you even see what’s going on on screen. If you watch the movie and think about what was said earlier in the movie, that also scares you as it hits you in a much different way after you know whats going on. Some other things that happen are just mess with your mind, involving hypnosis. You see the main character floating in nothingness while staring back through what his eyes are currently seeing and having no control whatsoever over there own physical actions. The movie is very well written with every piece of the movie being involved with the plot.

It was the exact opposite of a slasher film like Halloween, instead of having a unstoppable killer killing people throughout the movie, you have a messed up family that forces the protagonist to try and survive in confusing and awful circumstances. Nobody is killed until the end of the movie, after the protagonist becomes clever, he is able to outsmart the nuts family.

As I said before it comments on societal problems in the US. It touches on racism, Black Lives Matter and police brutality. The location of most of the movie is in a rural area where there is a mainly Caucasian demographic. The protagonist constantly feels out of place throughout the movie because of this especially when he runs into a cop. The family on the other hand try to seem welcoming but at the same time it is obvious they are trying, also to like they are trying to hard. It creates these awkward scenes in the movie.

You can very easily compare this to Frankenstein as it is not a slasher like Halloween and it is more of psychological horror. They both don’t have many deaths, and the whole entire movie doesn’t focus on death. Both movies also look into what is going on the world at the time. Frankenstein looks at humanity and what makes us human. It has a huge focus on wrong right and how that connects to what makes us who we are. Get Out focuses on the norms and impacts of society. It especially focuses on racism, and how it has gotten better but it still isn’t really gone from the world and probably never will be.

The movie is complex and uses many different disguises for different topics outside of the movie. It is one of my favourite horror movies and it is one of the most engaging movies I have ever watched. This movie is a great example of how horror movies can actually be something besides mindless killing and death.

This is probably the most confusing title that I have ever written but it is exactly about what I learned about. A piece of our horror unit was about Frankenstein, we read the book and watched the movie, then we moved onto a movie about the producer of the movie.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was the first created and the one that we started with. I personally was not a huge fan of the book as it left me reading pages more than once out of confusion some times. The plot was interesting but I found it hard to follow along with what was going most of the time, I don’t enjoy having to seek clarifications for a book that I am reading. The book was a lot more philosophical than I thought it would be. I originally just thought the story was about a monster named Frankenstein. In reality it’s about a man named Frankenstein who accidentally creates a monster. It then moves into what being a human truly means. When you really think about who is truly the monster between Frankenstein and his creature, you are forced to way the differences between the two. There is no easy answer to that question, the creature has the physical and stereotypical features of a monster but the original actions of Frankenstein that put the creature in that position were almost worse than anything creature did. Frankenstein created something with no knowledge of what was going on, all that the creature started to learn was how it did not fit in because of its physical appearance, this angered the creature as it could do nothing to find happiness and Frankenstein was the only one to blame.

To me the most interesting story fo the three artifacts we studied was the Gods and Monsters movie. This movie was about the man who directed the Frankenstein movie and The Bride of Frankenstein. This movie takes place in the 50’s and there are no creatures just relatively normal people. James Whale is an openly gay man and he starts to bond with his Gardner who does not think much of this at the time. The true underlying theme of this movie is harder to understand but it almost seems as if James Whale is the monster in this situation as he experiences PTSD and you see in his flash backs himself represented as the creature. Later in the story, the Gardner is seen as the monster in the flash backs. It shows progression of James Whales’s thinking through the movie. It seems as if he does not blame himself anymore and has pushed it off on to the Gardner now. This movie was very hard to understand, but it was extremely interesting, I think that if I were to intently watch it again I would gain a much greater understanding for the underlying theme.

The entire underlying message of Frankenstein in general has to do with what being human means. It breaks down into several parts, but none can be properly explained so it makes explaining what it means to be human very difficult. Everybody would have different definition.

 

 

Continue reading John Carpenters Revolutionary Masterpiece

You probably recognize the names in the title, as one of them is the name of debatably the best boxer of all time Muhammad Ali who recently passed away lately, and the other one is the name of a NFL quarter back who whose career as taken a turn for the worst but, has been making a serious impact not the world lately. The one main thing they have in common is that they both have helped with the civil rights movement. The main reason why I chose these two people was the fact that they were in the spotlight when they decided to make a difference. The fact that they were in the spotlight made them more influential.

The point of this post was not for me to tell you about some famous atheletes, it is to show you the other similarity that they have. Both of these atheletes were involved putting there foot down to fight for what they believed in. Muhammad Ali was told that he had to go fight in the Vietnam War. He was sentenced to prison for up to 5 years and a $10,000. At first he refused induction at the Armed Forces Examining and Entrance Station in Houston that spring, and refused to be inducted into the Army. He said  “I ain’t got no quarrel with them Vietcong,”(New York Times) that basically stated that because he doesn’t have an issue with the Vietcong means that he shouldn’t have to go to war with them. He did this because black people were being treated like second class citizens at the time. He condemned racial discrimination in America declaring that “no Vietcong ever called me n#$%*&”(New York Times). He put his foot down to being treated like a second class citizen.

If you don’t know who Muhammad Ali is becuase you have been living under a Rock for a very long time. He was born with the name Cassius Clay and he was mainly known for being a boxer and one of the greatest ahteletes of the 20th century or even of all time. He won an Olympic Gold Medal in 1960, he was also the world heavyweight boxing champion in 1964. He won the heavyweight title in the 1970’s twice more. Some of the more well known boxers he beat were Joe Frazier and George Foreman. His boxing record was incredible with 56 wins while 37 of those being knockouts and 5 losses before he retired when he was 39 in 1981. Shortly after that in 1984 he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Because of that he devoted a lot of his life to philanthropy which earned him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005. He recently died in 2016 at the age of 74 after being hospitalized for a respitory issue.

Colin Kaepernick became larger than football after he refused to stand during the National Anthem before NFL games were started. He did this because he wanted to fight against police brutality and racial injustice. He said “To me, this is something that has to change,” and also that he could not “show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color.” He first sat during the anthem but he later decided to kneel instead “to show more respect for men and women who fight for the country”. It was suggested for him to change by former NFL player and Green Beret Nate Boyer. This sparked a whole movement as other players were inspired to do it as well such as his teammates Eric Reid, Eli Harold, Jaquiski Tartt and Rashard Robinson. People all over the NFL started doing this from Jeremy Lane in Seattle, to Malcom Jenkins on the Philadelphia Eagles who actually raised his fist with some other people in the NFL. More people started doing it the year after in 2017. Michael Bennett of the Seattle Seahawks told reporters he couldn’t stand for the National Anthem until he saw equality and freedom. Browns tight end Seth DeValve was noticed as the first white NFL player to kneel. The NFL stated that players were encouraged to stand but did not have to. After this happened Kaepernick became a free agent and no NFL team offered him a contract. Because of that he filed a grievance against the league, accusing team owners of colluding to keep him from being signed. Kaepernicks attorney said those who protest peacefully “should not be punished,” in a statement. Players continued to kneel. Public Backlash mounted until team owners in May declared that all team personnel on the field during the anthem must “stand and show respect for the flag and the Anthem.” If any team personnel on the field knelt, the team would be fined. Punishing offending staff was put into the teams hands to decide. After this has all happened Kaepernick  has still not played in the NFL, partially because of his declining skill level but mostly because of the statement that he has made.

 

If you don’t know who Colin Kaepernick is, you have a little bit more of an excuse but then again he was all over the news this past year. He started to get some attention when he set several college football records in the University of Nevada. One of the records he set was to be the first in history of Division 1 FBS to pass for more than 10,000 yards and to rush for more than 4,000 yards. He still had a flaw in his game and it was the fact that he had issues with his throwing accuracy. He was then drafted by in 2011 by the San Francisco 49ers where he became the starting quarter back in his second year after Alex Smith got a concussion. In the NFL he broke a record when he rushed for 181 yards in a game which is the most for a quarterback. He then led the team to Super Bowl XLVII, where he lost to the Baltimore Ravens in New Orleans.

Colin Kaepernick became larger than football after he refused to stand during the National Anthem before NFL games were started. He did this because he wanted to fight against police brutality and racial injustice. He said “To me, this is something that has to change,” and also that he could not “show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color.” He first sat during the anthem but he later decided to kneel instead “to show more respect for men and women who fight for the country”. It was suggested for him to change by former NFL player and Green Beret Nate Boyer. This sparked a whole movement as other players were inspired to do it as well such as his teammates Eric Reid, Eli Harold, Jaquiski Tartt and Rashard Robinson. People all over the NFL started doing this from Jeremy Lane in Seattle, to Malcom Jenkins on the Philadelphia Eagles who actually raised his fist with some other people in the NFL. More people started doing it the year after in 2017. Michael Bennett of the Seattle Seahawks told reporters he couldn’t stand for the National Anthem until he saw equality and freedom. Browns tight end Seth DeValve was noticed as teh first white NFL player to kneel. The NFL stated that players were encouraged to stand but did not have to. After this happened Kaepernick became a free agent and no NFL team offered him a contract. Because of that he filed a grievance against the league, accusing team owners of colluding to keep him from being signed. Kaepernicks attorney said those who protest peacefully “should not be punished,” in a statement. Players continued to kneel. Public Backlash mounted until team owners in May declared that all team personnel on the field during the anthem must “stand and show respect for the flag and the Anthem.” If any team personnel on the field knelt, the team would be fined. Punishing offending staff was put into the teams hands to decide. After this has all happened Kaepernick  has still not played in the NFL, partially because of his declining skill level but mostly because of the statement that he has made.

 

That explained the more important similarities between these two atheletes. The fact that they were willing to risk everything to fight for what they believed in. They were true warriors when it came to Social Justice, and in a way they are also heroes, although Ali has a more positive reputation, as not many football fans like Kaepernick. Proof of that is when he was in a Nike ad, and almost immidieatly after people started burning their Nike apparel, people also burned their Kaepernick jerseys after his statement. They will now go down in history as atheletes who stood up for the greater good. To show this I made a photo essay, which if you didn’t know is a series of photos put together to purposely make you feel certain emotions.

This photo essay shows 3 pictures of each athlete in the same position.  The first photo is an introduction into who they are as the photo is taken of them when they are in a position they are most commonly in.  The second photo shows that they were involved the civil rights movement and the third shows them celebrating, to represent the impact that they made on the civil rights movement.

We are now about to finish the crucible as we are getting close to the end of it. Nothing is really resolving in the book right now its still in constant conflict and it seems that nothing is going to be resolved before the ending. I am realizing that this book has been relevant for a long time, and its outstanding. Only things that are very successfull stay around for as long the crucible has.

The reason why I bring that up is because I was thinking about music that has stuck around for decades, but I cant think of any music today that will actually stick around for a long period of time. It’s kind of sad as all of this music just seems like it will disappear in the next decade or so. This is unlike music from the past like the 70’s which in my opinion were the golden years of music. They had bands and artists that everybody has heard of including: Led Zepplin, Earth Wind & Fire, Beatles, Queen, Bee Gees, The Rolling Stones, Neil Young, David Bowie, Pink Floyd, Elton John, Jackson 5, Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, The Who, Barry White, Aerosmith, and many others that I dont have the time to add, but you get the point. To be fair not many other 16 year olds could name that as I generally only listen to this music, as I have what you people call an “Old Soul”.

However I may be wrong as the people who lived in the 70’s might not have thought that there music would stay around for decades. Maybe people like Bruno Mars will be icons. It’s really hard to actually predict what is going to be around in 40 years and realisticly anything can happen. Who knows if 70’s music will still be relevant, it might not be but I think that there msuic will be and it’s legacy will stay around forever.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2NzFz7JnxAo

We are still reading that play in humanities. The tension is slowly rising people are starting to go crazy in the play with constant conflict. People are constantly turning on each other as people are accused of being witches when there is little to no proof that they are a witch. Some people see it as a good thing  others are trying to rebel against it. This is creating a story with conflict that is always happening which makes it very interesting.

As you know with these posts I have to answer some sort of question, and the question I am going to answer is “Can you name a time when you have ever felt wrongly accused?”. In fact, I am able to name a time when I was wrongly accused. It wasn’t as big of a deal as a witch trial as they could end up dead or their reputation could be completely ruined. The worse thing that happened to me was that a glass table broke and my reputation was slightly dented. Now let me tell you the stupid story of the time I was wrongly accused. It was in the middle of last summer and I was about to take my dogs out for a walk. I had just placed the harnesses on the dogs and one of them got too close to a glass table and the harness then got hooked on a part of the table and he panicked and backed up and the table came falling over and it snapped a half inch thick piece of glass into 3 pieces. My mom later came home and blamed the whole thing on me even though I wasn’t involved in it, but my parents didn’t believe me. Still to this day if I bring it up they still blame me. I guess I was responsible for the dogs at the time but, I DIDN’T DO IT!

Lately in school we have been reading through a play called The Crucible. I have noticed that it hasn’t been any normal story with happyness throghout, the general mood is very grey and kind of depressing. To keep you interested there is a lot of conflict, the easiest thing to connect it to would be a soap opera.

At the begininng of the book I was pretty bored unitl I started to actually understand what was going on, like I said there is constant conflict going on. The book is about the Salem Witch Trials, and for some reason I keep connecting the play to different movies like Footloose and Meangirls, you’d have to read the book to acutally understand why. Anyways the reason why we are reading it is because in some sort of way it relates to the Cold War which is the base of our current unit. Im still trying to figure out why exactly this connects to it except for the fact the puritans way of life reminds me a lot of how I think of communism.

For this post I have decided to add another part to it where I write about what I beleive heaven and hell is. I don’t think beleive is the right word as I don’t really bleive in it I just have an opinion on what it would be like. I have gained this opinion by learning about differnet cultures and reliogions as a lot of different people believe in Heaven and Hell. I think it’s actually is a good thing, as it is a way of making people afraid doing something wrong or commiting a sin. The first idea I got hell from was christianity which is the basic one that everybody knows. The other one that has influenced me a lot aswell is the Greek Mythology side of it which is where Hadeus controls the underworold where the only one who gets to do what they want down there is him and everybody who has died and gone there is depressed and sad. Heaven is more just an area where the rest the gods live from what I have read about.

My opinon is a little different from the those ideas. I think heaven is your favourite place, with all of your favourite people around with anything you want at your beckon call, and nothing around you is depressing, that is filled with joy and happyness. Most importantly you are given freedom, as much freedom as you want.

Now onto the more sad and scary side of things. Hell in my opinion is the complete opposite, it is a dark place that is sad, depressing and filled with hate. You can’t get anything you want at anytime, you are in constant pain and distress. The worst part in my opinion about this is the fact that you have no opinion and you are stuck doing an awful job forever.

Now on that sad and scary note, I am going to finish the blog post and return later talking about The Crucible again.

In Math Class, we ended up starting a unit on system of equations. Our teacher explained to us that systems of equations can be used in many different ways and still involve somebody’s regular life. For example we decided to focus on phone plans. We used the prices of each phone plans to decide what is the cheapest phone plan over time. We got paired up with a partner based on how many gigabytes of data you use every month.

My partner Robbie and I decided to compare three different phone plans, Virgin Mobile, Virgin Mobile Costco, and Koodo. All of the plans had a minimum of 8GB of data. We decided to choose 8GB of data becuase we generally use a lot of data, and its nice not having to worry about going over your limit.

Because we had to incoraporate math into this project we created a linear graph including each phone company. This way it easily showed what is the best choice for us.

It very clearly shows what the difference in price is for each plan, which is exactly what we wanted to help us make our choice.

In conclusion we chose Virgin Mobile, as we though that was the most accommodating to our needs and wants. Now that I look back at this project I think that it was really useful as it shows how you can use math in everyday life. The project was a lot of fun and was very eye opening, and I believe I will use system of equation later on in my life.