Cell Phones

When I was growing up, maybe around the age of 6, it dawned on me that my mother worked for the cell phone company but she and my dad were the only ones in the house that had cell phones.  I surely thought I needed one to be able to talk to all my friends…that I had at the ripe old age of 6.  As you can imagine, I didn’t get one.  Neither did my older brother and sister.   My parents thought we were too young to get one.  “How many 2nd graders do you see walking around with a cell phone?” my father would say.

Then as my oldest sibling entered middle school, she asked again for a cell phone.  ALL of her friends had cell phones.  She was the only one who didn’t.  My hopes of having a cell phone maybe were going to come true!  “Cell phones are expensive toys” my father would say and my mother would chime in with all the phone calls she would have to take at work from customers who were upset because their child used their cell phone too much and now had an outrageous phone bill.  So, it wasn’t to be.  My mom used to get the latest and greatest cell phones from her company for free.  She typically was one who would test the new phones coming in and so often would change cell phones every six months or so.  We were doomed to carry around one of her old cell phones that looked cool but weren’t hooked up to service.

One day, my mom came home and asked us all to come into the living room for a quick meeting.  There it was…a brand new cell phone with all the bells and whistles!  We screamed!   FINALLY…I got my phone.  Better late than never I guess.  It was the coolest phone.  In reality, knowing that I know now…it wasn’t that cool at all, but we had a phone.   Year later was when the really cool ones came!  Games and everything! 

“Can you please put down your cell phone for five minutes!” my dad would say.  “All I ever see is you with your phone in your hand or to your ear. Maybe we should just have it surgically placed there!”  We would just laugh.  That was because the cell phones we had were cool and the one that my dad had was an older phone that had nothing on it but a send and end button.  So for years we listened to what we now know as his ‘cell phone jealousy’.  How do we know this???

Two weeks ago, we all went to the cell phone store and got my dad a new phone.  It was time to bring him into the current century!  A new phone for dad…and guess what…every time I turn around, the phone is in his hand or stuck to his ear!  What the heck! (490)

Ardeeemilla(:

What are we eating?

Hey guys!

So in my AP Lang class we watched a video on where our food comes from and how it is produced. Have you ever wondered what the food companies do to feed the world, or where your food comes from? In this movie it showed the filthy conditions that the cows, chickens and pigs are raised in and the horrible ways that they are treated before the are slaughtered. Many of the animals are injected with hormones that cause them to grow at such fast rates there bodies cant even keep up, and many of them die from this. There legs cannot keep up with their weight so many of the animals can't even take a few steps before the fall. Are these hormones good for us?

I personally don’t understand why it is necessary to torture the animals before we kill them. So what if they are going to die anyway no one and nothing deserves to be treated that way no matter how long their life will be. Here is a video showing the horrible conditions that the animals live in and ways the animals are treated. I warn you I find this video hard to watch, it is very sad. Just think, if the animals in the video were dogs or cats. Would you have a problem with it? What's the difference?

The only way that we can make a difference is if we find out were our food comes from. Eat Organic if you can. Don't buy from these companies because maybe if we stop buying from them they will have to change the way that they are making our food and improve America’s health every where.
-Ardeeemilla(:

Gardening is coming!!(:

Hello Fellow Bloggers! :)

So my mom has been driving me crazy about getting started with our flowers.  She starts ordering tons of seeds and plants and before you know it she has flower magazines all over our house. (Needless to say she is obsessed.) It happens every year. Spending tons of time shopping and money on some of the coolest flowers is a great way to spend your money and time and to also makes your yard look amazing!

 You probably have different flower beds in your yard, some in the front, some in the back and maybe on the sides. One of the things you need to remember or think about though is what colors you want where. Flowers come in many colors, but sometimes not in the colors you want for the areas you want to plant them. You also need to know what kinds of soil you have as well as how much sunlight you are going to get in that area. When finding plants usually on the back on the tags there is information on what helps the flowers to grow to its full potential and you always want to pick the flowers that’s needs best match the kind of area you are putting the flowers in. Yards that have flower beds with all different kinds of flowers and colors all mixed together are not very attractive. It's a good idea to plant the taller flowers toward the back of the bed and the shorter flowers in the front. Making one bed full of pinks and reds and maybe another full of yellows and oranges is a great idea.

After they are planted, all that's left is the water! They need to be watered every day. If you don’t like just soil around the flowers you can also add rocks to your flower bed or even wood chips. Wood chips come in a lot of different colors and you just have to choose by what looks better with your house. And voila! You have a beautiful garden for everyone to see, and your neighbors will defiantly be super jealous. (357)

-Ardeeemilla :)

Choir

Being part of the Kennedy music program gives me the opportunity to receive a monthly newsletter that is sent out by the Kennedy Choral League Board. In that newsletter, at times there is information that catches my eye. In this months newsletter, there was an article on the effects of music on the mind. My curiosity was peeked. After reading it, many things made sense. Let me share.

The article said that there is a connection between music and mental health. Music also apparently has power over healing or at least in speeding up the recovery of those who are ill. There are many things that music does for us that most of us don't think about. Here are a few of them.

Music helps to fight depression. Soothing music help to increase the brains production of Serotonin which helps to alleviate depression. It also relieves anxiety and sleeplessness. It calms the body nerves and soothes the mind. Music also helps in the secretion of endorphins that help in speeding the process of healing. It acts as a distraction from pain and suffering. Music therapy is recommended for patients of high blood pressure, heart diseases and even cancer.

Music has also been shown to improve learning abilities. It has been proven that music brings about remarkable improvements in the academic skills of students, who are made to listen to certain kinds of music while studying or working in the lab.

Apparently, lack of confidence and lack of desire to learn is most often the reason behind someone failing. It's not always inability. Students who get poor grades at school do not necessarily lack intelligence. It's their disinterest in the subjects or the lack of motivation that leads to their bad performance. Music lessons during school has been said to help the students fight their mental block. It caused them to believe in themselves and boosts their confidence.

Some look at music as a hobby; for some music is their passion, while some pursue music as their career. Music has a direct influence on your mood.So, the effects music can have on your mind or brain depend largely on the kind of music you choose to listen to. To experience the positive effects of music, you should listen to only good music. That's the magic of music.

What that means for me is that the next time my mom tell me to turn down or off the music that I have on while I'm supposed to be studying, I'm going to let her read this blog!

Ardeeemilla(:

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Ipad vs. Laptop

So I have been thinking about getting a laptop or an I pad but I couldn’t decide which would be better to get so I decided to research which would be the best to get.

I came to the conclusion that the laptop would be better.

The iPad is extremely limited to use it is basically like a huge iPod Touch. The Ipad costs a lot more than some laptops, and is slower, it doesn’t allow multitasking and doesn’t have USB ports or SD card slots. Not only does it cost more but there are tons of other things like if you want to upload pictures you have to buy a special hook up to be able to. That is not very low price friendly and it is a hastile.

You cannot multi task on it, if you want to search on the web and type a paper you cant with out exiting one or the other. It costs at LEAST $400 dollars not including all the extra things you will need to buy. you might as well get your self an ipod touch and a laptop for the same price.

It really kinda hard to type on it, either you have to lay it flat and look down at it to type or you can again go buy a connectable keyboard thing, which again adds to the price. Apple says it is great for reading books but its bright glossy LCD screen that will probably hurt your eyes...I know it does mine.

Just because they've slapped an Apple logo on it, should people suddenly want it?

I think that I am going to get a Dell lap top. They work so well, and have USB plugs, Memory card slots, and you can type on them. If you buy a laptop, You got almost everything right there. Laptops are the better choice in my opinion no matter how cool Ipads seem.

Ardeeemilla(:

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Music cures all

Being part of the Kennedy music program gives me the opportunity to receive a monthly newsletter that is sent out by the Kennedy Choral League Board. In that newsletter, at times there is information that catches my eye. In this months newsletter, there was an article on the effects of music on the mind. My curiosity was peeked. After reading it, many things made sense. Let me share.

The article said that there is a connection between music and mental health. Music also apparently has power over healing or at least in speeding up the recovery of those who are ill. There are many things that music does for us that most of us don't think about. Here are a few of them.

Music helps to fight depression. Soothing music help to increase the brains production of Serotonin which helps to alleviate depression. It also relieves anxiety and sleeplessness. It calms the body nerves and soothes the mind. Music also helps in the secretion of endorphins that help in speeding the process of healing. It acts as a distraction from pain and suffering. Music therapy is recommended for patients of high blood pressure, heart diseases and even cancer.

Music has also been shown to improve learning abilities. It has been proven that music brings about remarkable improvements in the academic skills of students, who are made to listen to certain kinds of music while studying or working in the lab.

Apparently, lack of confidence and lack of desire to learn is most often the reason behind someone failing. It's not always inability. Students who get poor grades at school do not necessarily lack intelligence. It's their disinterest in the subjects or the lack of motivation that leads to their bad performance. Music lessons during school has been said to help the students fight their mental block. It caused them to believe in themselves and boosts their confidence.

Some look at music as a hobby; for some music is their passion, while some pursue music as their career. Music has a direct influence on your mood.So, the effects music can have on your mind or brain depend largely on the kind of music you choose to listen to. To experience the positive effects of music, you should listen to only good music. That's the magic of music.

What that means for me is that the next time my mom tell me to turn down or off the music that I have on while I'm supposed to be studying, I'm going to let her read this blog!

Ardeeemilla(:

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Ex-Hero

On January 14, 2013 Lance Armstrong discussed in an interview with Oprah Winfrey the fact that when he competed in the Tour de France races illegally due to having taken performance enhancing drugs. The question now is what to do with this information. Others have been stripped of their medals for similar offenses. For years, Armstrong denied questions of being involved in this. He was adamant almost to the point of getting into fights over it. Now, years after the fact, he fesses up to his 'sins'. Will the government prosecute him for the illegal use? Or will they just strip him of his medals and move on.

I'm torn on how to respond to this news. On the one hand, it's illegal. He was in these races with the backing of several different sponsors who put not only their money but their names on the line for him and his venture. Millions of people watched their idol as he raced year after year bringing home medals, only to now find out that it was all a lie. Would he have one without the drugs? Could he have been strong enough on his own...to win maybe even just one medal? We'll never know. And what about those who came in second each year. They deserve the right to have the gold they should have rightly won. It's wrong.

But, he isn't a bad guy. Since his win he has been through several different things including cancer. He has done many many positive thing for the cancer community. Things that maybe he might not have been able to do if it were not for the fame and fortune that he received from being in and winning the races.

Now, coming out about this, I hope that any others who are out there and have done the same, come clean as well. It has to be a big lie to carry. It must be difficult to live with knowing that you have to constantly be watching what you are saying to so you don't slip up.

For me, my respect for him has dropped, even though he has done so many good things. It was wrong then, it's still wrong, he knew it at the time and he still knows it. The fact that it had to come out on Oprah Winfrey only makes it worse. It glorifies the situation even more when it should be embarrassing.

Ardeeemilla(:

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