I still cringe whenever I remember those hot summer days when I wore bright green sunglasses with huge square frames and bright pink sides. I was so young, naive, and fashionably ignorant. Looking back, that was not the style that I should have gone for. I have somewhat of an angular face, so those square frames did nothing to soften the sharpness or balance the angels. Instead, it just made me look like a pointy-headed freak to be honest. Now, I know that I needed rounder frames with a smaller rim, in order to counteract my “strong” features. Well knowing this now does not fix the past unfortunately. What would have helped me and had me avoid the embarrassment I now feel for my younger self, is my new app idea called Which Sunglasses Should I Buy?
Yeah, I know, the name is about equivalent to the Flavored Ice from the last post. Well I’m still working on it, but if you have any suggestions please help a girl out.
Anywho, this app combines photo technology and the latest fashion trends to help YOU find your soulmate pair of sunglasses. How it works, is you would take a picture of your face. The app would then analyze the picture and would be able to tell you what face shape you have. You would then input your hair and skin color and then VOILA! You now have a personally picked pair of sunglasses that won’t leave you kicking yourself in the future. If this app conglomerated with some actual stores, then I would even make it so that there is an option to buy it right through the app. Stores would all want to be a part of it so they could get some advertising, and then my app would claim maybe .5% of the profits, or something like that.
Another feature I would have on it, is the ability to try on the glasses. So once the app shows you a pair of glasses that would look good on you, you would then be able to put the glasses on the picture of your face that you took before. If you don’t like how they look on you, try on another pair! The options would be limitless.
So before you go and get the first pair that you see, use my app first and find out what would be the best personal pick for you.
Hot New Hip Hop is notorious for having hilarious and generally very uncivil comments. So when I clicked on the number one song on the site right now, About Mine by Kid Ink featuring Trey Songz, I was not surprised to see profanity being used as often as the song’s name. The reason that music sites have such ridiculous comments is because everyone’s taste in music is different and not one taste is necessarily “right.” Generally the people who go onto sites such as hot new hip hop consider themselves to be music connoisseurs; thus generally each person thinks he or she has a “better” taste than someone else. This of course leads to very vocalized opinions on the comment sections that never fail to make me laugh.
So while scrolling down these comments I was not surprised to see very differing opinions. While user OxyRap quite simply puts it as “Complete trash,” while user TrillKingJames lets everyone know “I fux wit it…”
Now these comments aren’t all just how each listener feels about the song, there are actually a lot of other reasons for posting them. For example, some give out information that might now have been known before. User BigE310 angrily asks “REALLY??? you going to take a line from SUGA FREE and sound like a straight BITCH when doing it???/ WEAK!!!” A lot of people may not have known that Kid Ink took a line from another rapper, and after learning that he did, it may change their opinions on his song. There are also comments that say an opinion but also have an added comedic element. User GarbageMan says “I’m here to pick this up,” implying as OxyRap said before, that the song is trash.
Despite the reasons for the comments, it is unfortunate to say that they are overall highly un-deliberative. While user AntonioBrown voices his opinion and says “Album was so watered down and awful I can’t believe it. Unfortunately I don’t think we’ll ever see classic kid ink again, just this bullshit pop rap,” user TeamSESHBones resorts to uncalled for insults when he says “Fuck you and fuck kid ink with his generic ass name, will never take him seriously or listen based on his rap name alone.”
Although it seems as though there is almost no respectful deliberation in the entire forum, I almost shed a tear of happiness when I read one particular exchange of words. It all starts when user KidInktheBest says “this is one of his best projects imo…shit goes fucking hard can’t deny that.” The conversation even starts off strong since he says imo which is short for in my opinion. He acknowledges that his comment is his opinion and not fact. User TupacShakur replies “Oh you’re fucking tripping . This album is trash. Trashier than my own lane.” KidInktheBest replies “people keep complaining they want the old ink but artists change up to keep it fresh i honestly like this album yal dont have to agree.” Wow, even after being completely called out he still chooses to take the high road and be respectful and remind people that they don’t have to agree. TDEn-gga then interjects “but the old kid ink kept it fresh and had different sounds on his tape. this album it sounds like the same trash coming out of everyone else.” KidInktheBest replies “i agree that his old shit was his best shit but you just gotta accept hes not going back to that style and just appreciate the music he’s putting out now.” Now if that’s not an example of clear and respectful deliberation, then I don’t know what is!
Alright, let me tell you about a common but horrible experience that happens to me on occasion. So I don’t drink soda that much anymore since I’m trying to be healthy, so when I do I try to really enjoy it and make the most out of it. So I’ll be in a restaurant just sipping on my delicious coke, enjoying myself, before my food arrives. But I don’t want to drink it all before I get to my main course! So I lay off on drinking and wait until my food gets there. When my food arrives I usually get overexcited because, well, I’m obsessed with food. So after that first delectable bite, all I need is a swig of delightful coke to wash it all down. I take my glass, bring it to my mouth, and that’s when the tragedy begins…
Watered down coke….is that not the worst thing ever?!
I have soda so infrequently and now the entire coke drinking experience has been completely ruined by melted ice. Not only that, but how am I supposed to enjoy the rest of my meal after my whole drink experience has been ruined?! I may sound like I’m exaggerating, but this is probably one of the worst things to happen ever.
After having this happen to me many a time, I realized the time is now to end this melted ice tyranny. And that is where my newest invention comes in. So far I don’t have a creative name in place for it, so here’s its placeholder until I think of one: flavored ice. (Maybe Crazy Cubes? Cooling Flavor Blasters? I don’t know, it’s still in the workshop)
Think about it, a world where you don’t have to choose between watered down or lukewarm drinks. With flavored ice, when it melts you’ll be left with an explosion of flavor. For example, next time I drink soda I’ll put in some cherry ice cubes. Then, when they melt, it’ll be like I traded my coke for an even better cherry coke!
I know, it seems like a simple idea. Still, it solves a major inconvenience that everybody has unfortunately gone through, so I’m proud of it. It could come in all different flavors and would be sold in bags just like how ice is normally sold. Not only would it add a burst of flavor, but it would also fulfill its original job of keeping my drink at an optimal temperature. Amazing, I know.
So next time you drink your cold but watered down drink, just think of all the possibilities of flavored ice.
Last Tuesday, South Carolina House Speaker Jay Lucas announced that a task force would be formed in order to directly study education reform. Since the Supreme Court has directed the Legislature to come up with ideas for ways to improve poor rural schools, there will be a lot that needs to be discussed.
One of the most important decisions that have to be made is if the state superintendent of education should be appointed by the governor or not. If the outcome of this vote is that the governor should, then this recognizes that education is a strictly state responsibility and that the governor has executive authority over matters concerning it. If the superintendent were part of the governor’s Cabinet, this would establish education as a higher priority than it had been before. Public schools would then be put higher on any governor’s agenda.
In South Carolina specifically, education is an issue in desperate need for reform. There is a lot of evidence showing that the schooling system is struggling significantly. So far, citizens of South Carolina have acknowledged this problem and have shown that they do endorse rational proposals for government restructuring. For example they endorse having the party candidates for governor and lieutenant governor run on a ticket, and even more recently, making the state’s popularly elected adjutant general a gubernatorial appointee in 2019.
It seems as though the next step for the Legislature to restructure, should be putting up a referendum on the 2016 general election. The choice would be to make the superintendent of education appointive effective in 2019 or not. At the moment, about half of the entire state’s budget is used for education. However, the governor has no direct budgetary responsibility over how the money is going to be spent or whether there is enough. If the agency was under the power of the governor, then this would make policy making and the allocation of resources a more effective and efficient process. This is because the governor would have the authority and the responsibility of bettering the public education in South Carolina, and it would not just get pushed further down the agenda.
A question that arises however, is if the governor would have too much power. Perhaps, but the citizens of South Carolina do need change. In my opinion, it would be better to take a risk and give a trusted official a lot of power, rather than watch as the public education system further deteriorates.
Either way, putting public education under the governor’s authority would be a huge step. It would allow the voters to decide if education really is a main concern of theirs, and if they want someone who is truly committed to address this ongoing issue. It would also establish a precedent for future governors, in that they would need to continue making sure that the public education system is functioning at its best. Although one vote, it could really change how public education reform is treated for years to come.
For more information pertaining to this topic, read this article:
Continuing on the nature related apps path, I have come up with another app idea that could be life-changing for anyone with an iPhone. Let’s pretend you are the hiker from last week. You’re in your sleeping bag ready to finally slumber after a strenuous day of walking, climbing, and foraging for food (which is made easier using the app Can I Touch It?). You’re drifting away into dreamland until all of a sudden- ARW-WOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
What was that?! A fox? A wolf? A dinosaur??? Unfortunately, there is no way to know. So you’re only options are to stay in your tent and possibly get eaten while you sleep or try to go outside and fight the beast. Both of those choices seem quite unappealing.
Luckily, my invention can eliminate (somewhat) this entire dilemma! It is called Shazanimals and it is very similar to the now popular app Shazam. When a song plays that you like but do not know the name of, you put on Shazam. It then is able to find the name of the song just by listening to it. Shazanimals would do the same exact thing, except that it would tell you the name of the animal from the noise that it makes!
So now, when you’re in your tent and you hear that terrifying noise, just put on Shazanimals! If it tells you it’s a harmless owl, you can go to bed peacefully and without fear. If it tells you it’s a rabid hungry wolf, well, at least now you know that you’re in horrible danger.
Again, this idea is not perfect. Like the app from last week, the main problem would be that one does not usually have internet access when hiking. However, I would combat this by having a database in each state of the most common maybe 500 animal noises. This way the internet would not even be needed.
I am an avid user of Shazam and I know that a lot of other people are as well. Therefore, I think Shazanimals could really blow up with avid hikers and people who occasionally get lost in forests. It could even be an expansion pack to the original Shazam. Either way, you have to agree that the name is fantastic.
Summer is not just a warm season of relaxation and getting away from responsibilities, but a time for adventure. Doing reckless activities with my friends on those hot endless days was always something I looked forward to all throughout the school year. Yet going into these days was also sometimes nerve-wracking. While I consider myself to be moderately brave, I always felt as though my friends were completely fearless. I had to face many things I was scared of and pretend to feel the same courage my friends showed that I so desperately wanted. From my experiences, however, I believe that these testing moments of courage are what really make life so special.
I specifically remember an extra hot July morning, where we decided to go cliff jumping at the nearby woods. It was scorching out so we all were ecstatic when we heard the rushing water of the nearby falls. I threw my shoes off and rushed to the edge of the rock only to realize that I was completely terrified. There was no way people jumped off here and survived, much less did it for fun.
Then plop, plop. Five seconds later my two friends had bounded into the water with no hesitation.
I quickly looked at them, closed my eyes, refused to think, and jumped.
I survived. Clearly. I had done what I had been horrified to do just seconds before. Not only did I survive, but I enjoyed myself as well. That adrenaline rush felt euphoric. The coolness of the water, the smell of pure air, the laughter of my friends; even now, I truly can’t even imagine a time that could be more blissful than this.
But yet, that moment almost never happened. I almost let my fear control me. I almost let my own apprehension keep me from having a memory that will last a lifetime. If I had not jumped I would have remembered that experience as the time that I did not have the guts to do something that would be so much fun. But now I know it as another summer memory that shaped my adolescence.
And I still recall even now, that absolute joy and pride that I felt for conquering my fears. Maybe it’s from the spirituality of being so intimate with nature, but a sort of epiphany hit me as I hit the water. It is from this experience that I realized that the ability to conquer fears is such a vital strength to have. Not even in the danger sense, but from anything that causes fear. Quitting a job, entering a relationship, or even something as seemingly simple as striking up a conversation with a total stranger all can cause extreme distress. Yet, a majority of the time this is an imagined fear that has no rational basis. That is why it essential to take these jumps, make these risks, and live life to its fullest capacity. I believe that by demonstrating the courage to do what scares me most, I am truly living.
With the start of the New Year, there has already been tons of debate on the future of public schooling for high schools and how it should be reformed. More specifically, Governor Cuomo of New York has proposed some radical education reforms. He wants to impose stricter teacher evaluations, extend the period of time to earn tenure, expand charter schools and boost state oversight of failing schools. He also called for an education tax credit for donations to public schools or scholarship funds that aid students in parochial schools.
Many teachers are not for this movement, as they would have to pass even more tests that would show that they are competent. In order for Cuomo to get them on his side however, he has offered an incentive. He said he would boost school funding by $1.1 billion, a resounding 4.8%, if the Legislature approves all of these new school policies. However, if nothing is changed then the education budget would only go up the planned $377 million.
Under Cuomo’s new accountability measures, half of teachers’ evaluation ratings would be on how well their students perform on state standardized exams, while the other half would be made from classroom observations by school officials.
Now this brings a huge question, are the test scores of students directly tied to how competent their teacher is? From personal experience, I know that some students are un-teachable. After all, a teacher cannot teach unless a student is willing to want to learn. It is very hard to change the stubborn mind of an adolescent who wants to seem cool or just is too lazy to do schoolwork. Some may argue that it’s a teacher’s job to make these kids want to learn- but is that true? This is where the whole definition of a teacher comes into play. Are teachers supposed to force kids to learn, or is it merely their job to teach and it’s up to the students to allow themselves to learn? I am split on this issue because I believe that it is not the teacher’s responsibility to make kids want to learn. They should just be a master in their subject and then be able to articulately educate and explain thoroughly to students. If a student does not want to learn, then that is his or her own fault. On the contrary, however, high school students may be too young to be given the responsibility to make these choices. Although I highly respect the value of personal freedom, if given the choice I am sure that many students would choose not to learn. They may not understand that the repercussions of their actions can have lasting effects on their entire life.
Either way, this is just a small portion of the governor’s plan. He had announced, “We need to do a much better job on public-school education. I think the cap we have now is sufficient.” Whether or not you agree with his plan or not, it is true that we need to do a better job on public-school education. At least we are now making power moves and only their implementation will tell us if they will be successful or not.
Alright, how many times has this happened to you? You’re in the woods for a life-changing hiking experience. You’re dirty, sweaty, tired, but happy being one with nature. What you aren’t happy about though, is your stomach which is grumbling so loudly it’s scaring all the animals. You’re starved. Now, you’re an experienced hiker, so you know a lot about what plants are edible and which ones will wind you up in the hospital. You’re ecstatic to see a leaf that you clearly remember is extremely delicious….or was it poisonous? With your hungriness so intense that it’s making you faint, it’s hard to remember if that plant is edible or not. What do you do?
Well, fear no more! This situation never has to happen to you if this new app I thought of became a reality. It’s called “Can I Touch It?” and it’s every hiker’s dream come true. How it works is you take a picture of the questionable specimen and using photo recognition technology it will tell you if it’s poisonous, edible, or neither. Just think of how useful something like that could be, especially to the less experienced hiker!
Of course with every amazing idea, comes a couple of faults. The main reason that Can I Touch It? isn’t already installed on millions of iPhones around the world, is because I have come to realize that hikers generally don’t bring phones with them when they are hiking. Or maybe they do? I’m not really sure, I’m not much of a hiking connoisseur myself. Not to mention, there’s probably not going to be any service where people are hiking so that can also cause some complications…
Either way, it’s an amazing app with a catchy name so it’s doubtful that it could fail. There would be other uses for it too. For example, I have a very wooded backyard with a lot of trees. When I was younger I loved climbing them and would do so constantly. But one day I guess I climbed on a tree that had poison ivy on it, and I can adamantly say that the rash that I endured for about a week was one of the most miserable experiences-ever. Well tree climbers, fear no more, just snap a picture of that tree beforehand and you’ll be smooth sailing.
Clearly, this is an app that could make hiking, tree-climbing, and other plant-oriented activities much safer and risk-free. Sure there are some faults, but what app is perfect? (Besides flappy bird, obviously)
The goal is simple. We want the children of our nation to get an education. After all, in a couple of years they will be our inventors, engineers, and overall world leaders. Obviously their education is of utmost importance if we want our country to continue to be a world power.
While the goal is simple, the means to achieve it is highly controversial. The role of the public education system in America has been a highly contested topic for decades now. Why is it becoming increasingly more expensive? What does the fact that public universities are receiving significant less funds from the state mean, and how will this affect future students? How does our public education compare to those of different countries? Every person has his or her own answer to these questions, many drastically different from each other.
It is important that we come to a conclusion and make decisions on how to further remedy and improve the public education system. This topic has personal significance to me, since I am a student at Penn State, one of the most expensive public schools in the nation. Fortunately, I am lucky enough to be able to afford this amazing school. However, I do have friends who are smarter than me who did not even consider Penn State because it was simply out of their budget. It is not fair that so many opportunities are lost for such intelligent and deserving people, just because they cannot afford the astronomically high prices.
As of now there seem to be three options for creating funds for public education. We could cut costs of schools by getting rid of clubs, activities, and administration that is not really necessary. Or we could increase the tax rate which would clearly cause some people to not be happy. Finally we could re-amortize our debt to make more money available at this time.
No matter what choice is made, the road to public education reformation will surely take along time. With so many people having differing opinions on ways to change it or what missions it should fulfill, we have been struggling in a gridlock.
Another highly controversial issue regarding public education revolves around what the point of it actually is. Are we in school to learn? Or to prepare for a career? To learn about ourselves? After all, is it truly necessary for a person who is a talented mathematician to take a history course? For some this seems like a waste of resources. He’s wasting time and energy for something he is not interested in, and does not want to pursue. Who is benefitting from this?
Overall there are a lot of dysfunctions with our public education system. However, it is also something to be proud. Some of the world’s top thinkers have been sculpted from it. While it is nowhere near perfection, with time and reform it may come closer.
The goal is simple. We want the children of our nation to get an education. After all, in a couple of years they will be our inventors, engineers, and overall world leaders. Obviously their education is of utmost importance if we want our country to continue to be a world power.
While the goal is simple, the means to achieve it is highly controversial. The role of the public education system in America has been a highly contested topic for decades now. Why is it becoming increasingly more expensive? What does the fact that public universities are receiving significant less funds from the state mean, and how will this affect future students? How does our public education compare to those of different countries? Every person has his or her own answer to these questions, many drastically different from each other.
It is important that we come to a conclusion and make decisions on how to further remedy and improve the public education system. This topic has personal significance to me, since I am a student at Penn State, one of the most expensive public schools in the nation. Fortunately, I am lucky enough to be able to afford this amazing school. However, I do have friends who are smarter than me who did not even consider Penn State because it was simply out of their budget. It is not fair that so many opportunities are lost for such intelligent and deserving people, just because they cannot afford the astronomically high prices.
As of now there seem to be three options for creating funds for public education. We could cut costs of schools by getting rid of clubs, activities, and administration that is not really necessary. Or we could increase the tax rate which would clearly cause some people to not be happy. Finally we could re-amortize our debt to make more money available at this time.
No matter what choice is made, the road to public education reformation will surely take along time. With so many people having differing opinions on ways to change it or what missions it should fulfill, we have been struggling in a gridlock.
Another highly controversial issue regarding public education revolves around what the point of it actually is. Are we in school to learn? Or to prepare for a career? To learn about ourselves? After all, is it truly necessary for a person who is a talented mathematician to take a history course? For some this seems like a waste of resources. He’s wasting time and energy for something he is not interested in, and does not want to pursue. Who is benefitting from this?
Overall there are a lot of dysfunctions with our public education system. However, it is also something to be proud. Some of the world’s top thinkers have been sculpted from it. While it is nowhere near perfection, with time and reform it may come closer.