The Technological Trap

. Today, kids look less forward to getting together with their friends, and more towards getting together with their phone, TV, or computers. Its now really easy to just sit at home and play games, or watch movies for eight hours. You don't have to go outside anymore and see the beauty of nature, you can simply look up beautiful nature on your phone and find really pretty views around the world.

More and more kids are having less and less friends, and now, they don't even need them. Some kids literally don't have any friends, and don't even realize what they are missing, because all the social interaction they need is the television screen, and seeing the main characters of a show have a relationship. Some shows even make people not want to have friends, and human interactions because of how crazy and stupid people are (Jersey Shore). Some people just don't want anything to do with that part of life, so they would rather just watch crazy things happen to other people, or other people do daring things, and not risk anything themselves, they would rather just let other people do it and watch, while they laugh at, or with the characters of the show, or game.

Another thing that has come out of new technology is relationships and friendships online. People who play online may talk to other people playing the same game as them, find out they have some things in common, and end up becoming friends, or even in a relationship. Even if you have known somebody for a year, do you really known them. It is not the same as a long distance relationship because you have never seen them before. I'm not saying this because I'm a shallow person, and saying "what if they were ugly the whole time, and you didn't even know". A lot of you men and woman have been abducted, or murdered because they had online friend ships of relationships, and when they finally went to meet up, one of them was not who they said they were, and on of them never comes back home. Or even on a less dramatic scale, what if somebody is completely nice over the screen, or letter, and then you see them in person and they are a complete slob, and you are a clean freak. It will hinder how well you will get along with each other. Body language can go a long way too, what if they were ignoring you the whole time online, and you couldn't notice because you couldn't see if they were doing something else while you were talking to them, maybe they don't know as much about you as you know about them.

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Dumming Down

We dumbed down the the simplest, stupidest games ever created, why? When you have nothing to do, when youre in between assignments. Most would check social media like twitter, instagram, reddit, etc. But there is a limited amount to see on these. one you have seen everything new since the last time you checked, there is not much to do. So what do you do once you have seen all of the content on social media? You look for fun and random phone games to play.

It is suprising looking back on my two years of high school how simple, stupid, and silly the games I have played on my phone are. But it's just not me being an oddball of society, being an introverted freak staring into my phone screen throughout the day, It's everyone. Some games are understandable, like angry birds, a game that tests your knowledge of phisics. But some are just plain stupid, like cookie clickers, and angry bird and crossy road.

I look back and wonder, how in the heck was everyone so intreagued by this simplistic, elementary game. For example, in cookie clicker all you do is endlessly tap a screen, just so that you can get enough upgrades to tap the screen for more imaginary currency. And once you reach the highest level of the game. It taps the screen for you just so you can get the imaginary currency to upgrade further and have it tap the screen for you for even more! And you repeat this process until the game dies out of popularity, and another game like flappy bird becomes the most popular game in the school.

I wonder what makes us want to play these games. Weather we just have to get to the top of the mountain because we have nothing better to do. Or if we just want to be able to show it to people to show them how great you are. 

(347)

Hulu, so Unappreciated

People don’t even consider Hulu, thinking it’s just a worse version of Netflix, or don’t even know what it is. I think that Hulu should be thought of as equal to Netflix. Each have their own advantages and disadvantages, and that the two are complimentary to each other.

          

 Neither Netflix of Hulu have great movie selection, but that is not what most people look for when streaming, most people who stream watch series, such as Parks and Rec, The Walking Dead, Supernatural, and many other popular shows. Netflix, has all of these, and all of the past seasons, but they do not show the most recent episodes, if you want to watch the latest episodes, and not rely on the specific time that it gives you on cable T.V., you need Hulu. For some shows Hulu does not show all of the episodes or every season, but they show the newest episodes the night they appear on television, so you can keep up with everyone else watching on television.

           

Perhaps the biggest reason Hulu is looked down upon is that it plays ads, a huge reason people prefer to stream shows instead of watch Cable is that it doesn’t play ads, and that is why it costs $8 a month to now show them. Hulu is the same price, so people think it’s silly that it still plays ads, but if it didn’t play ads, the monthly cost would shoot through the roof. It costs more to get episodes right as they come out, so Hulu has to play ads to keep their prices low. It’s a small price to pay, think about what you would rather have. Would you rather sit through a few minutes of ads every episode? Or would you rather wait over a year for the new season to come out on Netflix.

           

I am not arguing that Hulu should be picked over Netflix 100% of the time. But Hulu should be considered by everyone who loves streaming. Many people who watch Netflix have finished many series… or so they think. On Hulu, Parks and Rec, Arrow, The flash, are all a season ahead of Netflix, if you were to get Hulu, you could get an extra season of many of your favorite shows. Netflix should not be considered superior to Hulu, but equal. Both should be considered, and I would personally suggest getting both. 

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The Reason cramming all my work right now

I'll just do it right when I get home, it sounds like a good plan, but then when I get home I feel like I deserve some rest after a long day of school. I've been sitting in a chair doing work for 8 hours, I owe it to myself to relax, I work a long, hard, day, and I deserve this. Then after its about 8 O'clock already because I have wasted my night eating, playing games, and watching TV. And I procrastinate more, and most can probably relate with the Sunday struggle. But I take it even further, I love smart lunch, and I talked in a blog a few weeks ago about how I utilize smart lunch, and how I utilize it very well, and how everyone should. And I do utilize it, but I don't work on tonight homework, I work on yesterdays homework, in fact, that's what i'm doing right now, writing this blog.

I know its hard, but if you can, just try not to be like me, don't get behind, If i simply sat down for one night and just do work for one or two hours instead of procrastinating, I would no longer be behind, I would be able to eat at smart lunch, and I would not have as much anxiety about getting done my school work, just do your homework right when you get home, I myself don't do it very often, and I am trying to get better at it, even though I probably won't do it tonight even though I am telling myself right now to do it. But if you are better than me, if you have the self discipline to force yourself to just do it. You will love yourself, you will have a less stressful life, and you will be a happier person, not to mention you will have far better grades, and probably be smarter than me.

Don't let this happen to you, because it escalates, it gets worse and worse, and your grades will suffer as mine have. It is a terrible habit, and if you can break, it. You will be far better in school, and you will be more responsible as you enter senior year, college, and even your future job.

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Rito Games, Pls Halp

League is looked down upon because of its incredibly hard and long learning curve. It takes so long to even be good enough to not die every 5 seconds, it is a very hard game to learn, and it is a huge turn off. There is little to no "noob friendly" gameplay. You simply have to go through the grind, and deal with adversity, until you are eventually good enough to compete. Once you go through that adversity, everything become easy, and you start having fun games all the time.

There are over 100 different champions and many abilities and different builds for each champion. There is a lot of knowledge about the game that you need in able to be good, and able to adapt in different situations. This is all a part of the learning curve.

Remember, everyone wants to be great, but they don't do what they need to do in order to do to be great. If you want to have fun, put in a little bit of work, and it will be the funnest game that you have ever played. League of Legends is one of the biggest games on the internet, and is still growing at record rates, its not growing for now reason at all. It is because it is a great game, and not to mention. 

Riot has done little to help out its new people. Riot needs to integrate some sort of new user friendly game. They are growing at a very fast rate, but I know of many people who have simply given up on the game because it is simply to hard. If they put in a noob friendly game mode, or matched new players with new players. They would definately have a much higher growth rate, and would be more profitable for them. But they also need to push the fact that their game is free. that is something that almost nobody knows about league. But its one of the most important parts of the game, and easiest way to convince people to get it.

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Why ADC is the most fun Roll

Yet another League of Legends roll, to set it up for those of you who don't understand the game. There are 5 positions, there is top lane, witch is usually a tank of some sorts, sits in the lane all game, playing farming simulator, these people are usually chronically depressed and bored. There is the jungle, where you kill neutral monster camps and attempt to aid your lanes, and get them ahead. Mid lane is the roll where most people love to go because mages usually have many skillshots, and when you make good plays, you are praised by your team. Support helps the ADC and the Team throughout the game. Then there is the best roll ADC of attack damage carry.

ADC's are very squishy and are easy to kill, but they also deal massive amounts of damage, and have the potential to carry games extremely hard. The reason  the role is so fun is that it is simply a very exiting game all throughout. In the beginnign of the game in all other lanes it is a boring farm simulator that gets very boring, and very repetitive. In bot lane, it is a constant 2v2, and you are constantly clashing with the other side. That combined with cs'sing provides a unique challenge that no other lane has. ADC's are also very easy to kill. So you must always be playing smart. You must have knowledge of all enemy champions locations, gap closing abilities, and be able to predict when it is safe to go in, or when you need to run. You are constantly the target of the fight. And it requires a massive amount of mechanical ability to be able to stay alive, as well as pumping out damage throughout the fight.

ADC's are late game monsters, and have an all around exiting game, making them the best role to play in league of legends in my opinion, it can be frustrating, and is very hard to master, but like all other things in league of legends, once you master it. It is extremely fun to play.
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Super Fun, or Perhaps Annoying

Friends can be bad influences, but they can also be hilarious, fun, and very encouraging at the same time. Nobody is perfect, but that is what makes people people. and that is what makes us all love each other. Friends understand that a simple pranks are just for fun, not targeting or picking on each other

Prank wars are fun to do with your friends, but should not be taken too far, doing anything that would cause actual damage to property should never be attempted, only harmless, and maybe annoying things, such as tee-peeing, saran wrapping your friends car, and forking their yard.

For those of you who don't know a whole lot about pranking, tee-peeing is when you get a whole bunch of toilet paper, and throw it all over their yard, and maybe house, get it tangled in their tree, this is probably the most severe prank you can do without damaging physical property, saran wrapping somebody's car is simple, you get a couple hundred feet of saran wrap, wrap it around their car, over the windshield, door handle, side mirrors, all over the place so it is just really hard, and annoying to take off, and if you friend is silly enough to leave their car doors unlocked, take a bottle of perfume or axe deodorant with you, and spray it all over the inside of their car, to make it smell terrible. Saran wrapping is my personal favorite prank. The third, and least common is forking, It has to be around this time of year (10/4/2015) because the forks that you stick into the ground have to get stuck. What you do for forking is get a whole bunch of plastic party forks, and simply stick them all over in the ground, when they wake up in the morning, then will not be able to pull them up, and there will be a bunch of forks, and broken forks sticking out of their lawn.

All three of these are very fun to do. Although they may seem mean, you are supposed to do them to you friends, with your Friends, you should not do this to random people, and especially not to teachers. and also remember that all of these are harmless, no physical damage should be done, and it should only be done if you do something wrong.
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One reason pandora may be better

Pandora forces you to mix all the songs in a certain genre you like. In spotify, you have more direct acces to the certain song or songs that you like. This is putting you in their trap. Not only will you have it stuck in your head, you will not want to have it stuck in your head. If you listen to a song on repeat if wears out quickly, it gets only exponentially quicker, and you will never want to listen to it again.

This problem has been more and more problematic for me in today day in age where radio is obsolete, almost all cars have AUX cords, and if it doesn't, you probably have a CD player that you use in it. And also there are all these new music apps and websites like Pandora, spottily, and YouTube Repeat, so if you want to listen to a song over and over again, you easily can. This may not be true for everyone, but for me, I don't like the songs today on the radio, or the songs in the past couple of year's, because I have listened to them far too many times, I love the music from the early to mid 2,000's. When I was in elementary school, and maybe early middle school. I didn't have a smart phone, I did not have the option to listen to a song on repeat, the only time I even listened to music was when I was in the back seat of my parents car. The songs that were on the radio back then are the songs that I really like now, because when I used to hear them it was a treat.

I don't like them because they reminded me of my early childhood, and no, I didn't have a terrible childhood, I still like them because they were not played on repeat, and they did not get old to me. They were a treat, and now when I hear them, they are vaguely familiar, and I still like them 5,6, or even 7 years later.

My suggestion to you is that if you like a song, don't put it on repeat, and don't put it on a short playlist, playlists should be a medium length, somewhere between 10-20 songs, if you have too many, there will be some that you simply just don't want to hear, and then you will spend half the time skipping songs, and not actually enjoying them. 

(422)

Time Flies when you ARENT having fun

After having a job for 20 hours a week and being a full time student, I can now call myself an expert on spacing out, and passing time. I still believe that not looking at the clock is a very... VERY good way of passing the time. But it can be extremely punishing if done incorrectly, if you don't trust yourself, or if you tried the other method, and it failed, and you never want to try it again because yesterday just felt like a month. Then try these two new methods.

The first is intervals, you take your shift, or school day, and split it into time segments. Say you are working a 5 hour shift later today, you will split it into segments between 30 minutes, and an hour. Say we choose 30 minutes for this shift. It is split into 10 different segments. Just in case you have to work late, or just for a extra bonus to feel good at the end of the shift, add another hour, or segment onto yours. So for my example I am working a 5 hour shift, that is split into 12 thirty minute segments. At the start of your shift you can look at your watch. But it works best if you try and predict what time it is. So whenever you feel like it has been 30 minutes, look down, and check your watch. If you are doing something boring, it may feel slow at times, but if you feel bored, a lot of the times (at least for me) I look down after what has seemed like a long 30 minutes, and it has turned out to be 45 minutes. When you are at your half way mark, you are actually past the half way mark in your shift, that is if you can trick yourself into thinking that your shift is longer than it actually is.

I really think this can genuinely help you get through the day quicker, with less boredom, and you will feel better afterwards, I still don't think that it is as good as the other method. But if you have the self discipline to look down at your watch whenever it feels like its been 30 minutes instead of every 5 minutes.
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One is gone, the other can't leave soon enough

Brothers, and sisters… Maybe you don't have any and simply don't know what its like to have one. Well personally I think that life would be better if I didn't have any siblings. I myself have both a brother and a sister, and I am not withing that they were dead, i just think that I would enjoy not having a brother and a sister. I know how it can be possibly be good to have them around, and how irritating it is most of the time. I see siblings that have great relationships, mostly twins here at Kennedy that get along well and even share the same friends. I wish I had that relationship with my brother, but we are literally opposites, and get along terribly. He is short, stocky, and i am tall and skinny, he has brown hair and eyes, I have blond hair and blue eyes, he has a fat face, and I have a narrow one. Besides these physical differences, we have differences, and tons of different lifestyles and habits, and his really get on my nerves.

The worst thing he does is eat all of the food, the second there is good food in the house, such as chips, ice cream, you name it, name any food a normal human being would like it, its gone in minutes. His personal record is two bags of lays potato chips in 15 minutes. And now that I work, I have even less of an opportunity to eat any food that I like, I have evolved into a monster that now actually enjoys health food primarily because I never have a chance to eat junk food.

Another thing is bathroom time, I am a normal guy, so I don't need much time in the bathroom to prep for school, I just need to take a shower and be on my way, but my sister, well.... is a girl. so naturally she spends up to an hour a day prepping for class, and my brother is almost worst, caking his face with pounds of chemicals, and coating his hair with what seems like chicken fat, to try (and fail) to look good for the ladies.

Now again, I am not wishing that my siblings dropped dead, they bug me, but I still love them. And I am probably selfish for saying I would rather have no siblings, because some people don't have siblings, they they would say "I have always wished to have a little baby brother to play with", to you I would say, a baby brother is only fun to play with until it hits kindergarten, then you life will be a living hell. Sometimes I wish I was an only child, but at the end of the day, I love them

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Again with the console discussion

I keep getting roasted for supporting Pc, so here i will explain to those of you who are "Console Master Race", why Pc is better. Consoles have slightly more reliability, more family friendly games, and are cheaper. But PC's are far more customization, they update frequently, you don't have to re-buy all your games when a new system comes out, and you can play a much wider variety of games.

Consoles are better for families, you can play split screen games, and party games that you just can't play on the computer, a computer has one keyboard, and one mouse, and is only supposed to be for one person, but a console has four controllers, and can sometimes even hold more. If you are a more social  gamer, then a console is right for you.

Consoles are cheaper, and you don't have to worry about them as much, a typical console is about $400, while a decent computer, with all of its accessories can range from $800, to $2000, some can even be more. But with consoles everyone has the same, and you don't have to worry about any processors, video cards, fps, and in my own experience, you don't have to worry about latency as much. While with a PC, you do have to worry about fps, because if you have bad equipment you will have a bad gaming experience, and in my own experience you have to worry about latency, because those with lower latency will have a better experience. But since it costs more, it is far more customizable , you can build you own PC, and you can pick and choose the different parts that you want, so that you will love it. You have a bad computer that holds you back in your ability, or you can have a great computer that pushes you forward to the top.

PC's do cost more, but if you take care of it, and it doesn't break for a long time, then it is not as bad as it seems, consoles every so often, just two years ago the new systems of the Xbox One, and the PlayStation 4 came out. When new consoles come out, they make the old consoles obsolete, and basically force you to buy the new consoles, then once you have the new console, you will have to buy a new controller, the games for it. This can add up very quickly, when you have to replace a new computer, you will still have all of your games, and unless you want to get an upgrade, you will still have your mice, headset, and keyboard.
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Its Weird, But i love it...

Believe it or not, I love to cook, I don't find the actual process of cooking extremely exiting, but it is very rewarding once you are done. I am young, still in high school, and have a family that will gobble up all the goodies I make as soon as they come out of the oven, if i make brownies, I have to cut myself a few pieces before they are set up, because my brother and dad will devour them like crack. I end up hiding with a heap of randomness downstairs, but that is still okay with me. It tastes so good who cares if they are perfect. Honestly the best feeling I have is sitting down with some great food, a good show of Netflix or Hulu, and knowing that you don't have any work to do for a while, no worries in the world, it is just a tranquility that I enjoy massively.

This is even better when I am home alone, my little brother is a great basketball player, so during winter and summer he and my parents will leave me home alone for a whole weekend, and I have the freedom to do whatever I want. Some might invite tons of people over and have a party, I prefer to stay alone, isolated, and "nerd out" on my favorite shows, but even better than those, all of the food that I cook will last throughout the weekend, I will go out and buy some candy, drinks, and it will all last for more than a couple of hours. It actually concerns me a little bit because I'm exited to be all alone and single in  my own house.

Cooking is not the most exciting thing to me, it’s not extremely entertaining. Its what you do when you are eating the food that entertains you, the rewards of cooking are delicious. And the more you do it, the better and better it gets. I would seriously encourage that all of you go out and cook yourself a meal from scratch, its an amazing life skill, and you get rewarded every time you do it

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League of Legends... Stay patient

League of Legends is a very popular game, and has been my favorite game for a very long time now. i usually don't blog specifically about games, but this is a game that I love, and a game that people usually don't open up to. I know many people who do play League, but many people just don't open up their minds to games like this. They reject it because they don't know much about it. Most people just like to stick to their first person shooters and RPG's. So let me explain it to you, and show you why it is a great game that you should try.

League is looked down upon because of its incredibly hard and long learning curve. It takes so long to even be good enough to not die every 5 seconds, it is a very hard game to learn, and it is a huge turn off. There is little to no "noob friendly" gameplay. You simply have to go through the grind, and deal with adversity, until you are eventually good enough to compete. Once you go through that adversity, everything become easy, and you start having fun games all the time. As Malcom X once said "There is no better than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance the next time." You must go through the adversity before you can succeed. But once you succeed in league, you will have a great time.

There are over 100 different champions and many abilities and different builds for each champion. There is a lot of knowledge about the game that you need in able to be good, and able to adapt in different situations. This is all a part of the learning curve. It takes a long time, and if you want to learn it quickly you may need to study. I know, studying for a game? Thats no fun. But you must put in the time to be good

Remember, everyone wants to be great, but they don't do what they need to do in order to do to be great. If you want to have fun, put in a little bit of work, and it will be the funnest game that you have ever played. League of Legends is one of the biggest games on the internet, and is still growing at record rates, its not growing for now reason at all. It is because it is a great game, and not to mention. IT IS FREE.
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Do it yourself

Even though I love to sit down, relax, and watch a football game myself, i would much rather get some friends, and go play the game myself.

There is no doubt that it is better for your health to be out playing a sport, rather than inside watching it on the TV. And secondly, playing sports is better than watching for the same reason I believe playing video games is better than watching TV or Netflix. Because it is interactive. While watching the game you get to know the players (if you watch it enough), and you get to see the struggles, the bad calls, and all the really great stuff that people talk about when they talk about football, like interceptions, and touchdowns. but when you are playing the game for yourself, in real life. All of those troubles, and all of the experiences are your experiences. The week after you get back from playing an actual game you will be talking about how I did in the game, the plays i made. Not how the packers did, or how Iowa did.

Also you don't have to sit there are be annoyed or aggravated by the decisions made. The ref has all the authority and there is no arguing that. But you don't have to sit there and ask "What the heck was that throw?!" or "Why didn't he go for the first down". Because you are making the decisions. You have only yourself, and maybe your teammates to be angry at. And when you do something rewarding, the feeling is much better than watching somebody that you have never even met before do it.

And the last reason it is way better to play a game instead of watch it is because it is social. You can sit on your couch and watch a game, and it will be entertaining. But if you are out there playing it, you are having social interactions, and having those fond memories or playing with your acquaintances. People walk around with jerseys of players names, and I really don't think it matters. I think the only reason you should have a name on the back of your jersey is if it is yours, or somebody you actually know. It is much more fun, and healthier for you.
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Mo Powa Mo Problems

Not only will you have it stuck in your head, you will not want to have it stuck in your head. If you listen to a song on repeat if wears out quickly, it gets only exponentially quicker, and you will never want to listen to it again.

This problem has been more and more problematic for me in today day in age where radio is obsolete, almost all cars have AUX cords, and if it doesn't, you probably have a CD player that you use in it. And also there are all these new music apps and websites like Pandora, spottily, and YouTube Repeat, so if you want to listen to a song over and over again, you easily can. This may not be true for everyone, but for me, I don't like the songs today on the radio, or the songs in the past couple of year's, because I have listened to them far too many times, I love the music from the early to mid 2,000's. When I was in elementary school, and maybe early middle school. I didn't have a smart phone, I did not have the option to listen to a song on repeat, the only time I even listened to music was when I was in the back seat of my parents car. The songs that were on the radio back then are the songs that I really like now, because when I used to hear them it was a treat. 

I don't like them because they reminded me of my early childhood, and no, I didn't have a terrible childhood, I still like them because they were not played on repeat, and they did not get old to me. They were a treat, and now when I hear them, they are vaguely familiar, and I still like them 5,6, or even 7 years later.

My suggestion to you is that if you like a song, don't put it on repeat, and don't put it on a short playlist, playlists should be a medium length, somewhere between 10-20 songs, if you have too many, there will be some that you simply just don't want to hear, and then you will spend half the time skipping songs, and not actually enjoying them. And if they are too short you will hate it soon because it will get old very quickly.
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Its Getting Worse!

It's not that bad, just a little bit of homework, I'll just do it right when I get home, it sounds like a good plan, but then when I get home I feel like I deserve some rest after a long day of school. I've been sitting in a chair doing work for 8 hours, I owe it to myself to relax, I work a long, hard, day, and I deserve this. Then after its about 8 O'clock already because I have wasted my night eating, playing games, and watching TV. And I procrastinate more, and most can probably relate with the Sunday struggle. But I take it even further, I love smart lunch, and I talked in a blog a few weeks ago about how I utilize smart lunch, and how I utilize it very well, and how everyone should. And I do utilize it, but I don't work on tonight homework, I work on yesterdays homework, in fact, that's what i'm doing right now, writing this blog.

I know its hard, but if you can, just try not to be like me, don't get behind, If i simply sat down for one night and just do work for one or two hours instead of procrastinating, I would no longer be behind, I would be able to eat at smart lunch, and I would not have as much anxiety about getting done my school work, just do your homework right when you get home, I myself don't do it very often, and I am trying to get better at it, even though I probably won't do it tonight even though I am telling myself right now to do it. But if you are better than me, if you have the self discipline to force yourself to just do it. You will love yourself, you will have a less stressful life, and you will be a happier person, not to mention you will have far better grades, and probably be smarter than me.

Don't let the Sunday struggle happen to you, be strong, and do your work on Friday night, or better yet, get it done during smart lunch, work on tomorrows homework in smart lunch instead of yesterdays homework, I know I've said it a bunch, but when you get home tonight you will not want to, JUST DO IT. 

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PC Master Race

Consoles vs PC has been discussed a lot, and I myself sometimes get in arguments with friends about which is better. Consoles have slightly more reliability, more family friendly games, and are cheaper. But PC's are far more customization, they update frequently, you don't have to re-buy all your games when a new system comes out, and you can play a much wider variety of games.

Consoles are better for families, you can play split screen games, and party games that you just can't play on the computer, a computer has one keyboard, and one mouse, and is only supposed to be for one person, but a console has four controllers, and can sometimes even hold more. If you are a more social  gamer, then a console is right for you.

Consoles are cheaper, and you don't have to worry about them as much, a typical console is about $400, while a decent computer, with all of its accessories can range from $800, to $2000, some can even be more. But with consoles everyone has the same, and you don't have to worry about any processors, video cards, fps, and in my own experience, you don't have to worry about latency as much. While with a PC, you do have to worry about fps, because if you have bad equipment you will have a bad gaming experience, and in my own experience you have to worry about latency, because those with lower latency will have a better experience. But since it costs more, it is far more customizable , you can build you own PC, and you can pick and choose the different parts that you want, so that you will love it. You have a bad computer that holds you back in your ability, or you can have a great computer that pushes you forward to the top.

PC's do cost more, but if you take care of it, and it doesn't break for a long time, then it is not as bad as it seems, consoles every so often, just two years ago the new systems of the Xbox One, and the PlayStation 4 came out. When new consoles come out, they make the old consoles obsolete, and basically force you to buy the new consoles, then once you have the new console, you will have to buy a new controller, the games for it. This can add up very quickly, when you have to replace a new computer, you will still have all of your games, and unless you want to get an upgrade, you will still have your mice, headset, and keyboard.
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Fun with Friends

There are a lot better ways of having fun, more video related entertainment, using your gadgets. But I think that the best entertainment is still most definitely with your friends, in real life, and not over some screen. And I think that the most fun, and the most memorable thing to do with your friends, is to go and mess with them. Go prank them, stay to see their reactions, and the adrenaline rush you get from not getting caught, or getting caught.

Prank wars are fun to do with your friends, but should not be taken too far, doing anything that would cause actual damage to property should never be attempted, only harmless, and maybe annoying things, such as tee-peeing, saran wrapping your friends car, and forking their yard.

For those of you who don't know a whole lot about pranking, tee-peeing is when you get a whole bunch of toilet paper, and throw it all over their yard, and maybe house, get it tangled in their tree, this is probably the most severe prank you can do without damaging physical property, saran wrapping somebody's car is simple, you get a couple hundred feet of saran wrap, wrap it around their car, over the windshield, door handle, side mirrors, all over the place so it is just really hard, and annoying to take off, and if you friend is silly enough to leave their car doors unlocked, take a bottle of perfume or axe deodorant with you, and spray it all over the inside of their car, to make it smell terrible. Saran wrapping is my personal favorite prank. The third, and least common is forking, It has to be around this time of year (10/4/2015) because the forks that you stick into the ground have to get stuck. What you do for forking is get a whole bunch of plastic party forks, and simply stick them all over in the ground, when they wake up in the morning, then will not be able to pull them up, and there will be a bunch of forks, and broken forks sticking out of their lawn.

All three of these are very fun to do. Although they may seem mean, you are supposed to do them to you friends, with your Friends, you should not do this to random people, and especially not to teachers. and also remember that all of these are harmless, no physical damage should be done, and it should only be done if you do something wrong. Having a prank war with your friends is so fun because you get to see the reaction of your friends, and you will always have to keep on your toes because you could be next.
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Repeat Syndrome

Everyone is guilty of loving a song so much that you just want to sit there and do nothing but listen to it on repeat all day? Just stop… you will drive yourself crazy. Not only will you have it stuck in your head, you will not want to have it stuck in your head. If you listen to a song on repeat if wears out quickly, it gets only exponentially quicker, and you will never want to listen to it again.

This problem has been more and more problematic for me in today day in age where radio is obsolete, almost all cars have AUX cords, and if it doesn't, you probably have a CD player that you use in it. And also there are all these new music apps and websites like Pandora, spottily, and YouTube Repeat, so if you want to listen to a song over and over again, you easily can. This may not be true for everyone, but for me, I don't like the songs today on the radio, or the songs in the past couple of year's, because I have listened to them far too many times, I love the music from the early to mid 2,000's. When I was in elementary school, and maybe early middle school. I didn't have a smart phone, I did not have the option to listen to a song on repeat, the only time I even listened to music was when I was in the back seat of my parents car. The songs that were on the radio back then are the songs that I really like now, because when I used to hear them it was a treat.

I don't like them because they reminded me of my early childhood, and no, I didn't have a terrible childhood, I still like them because they were not played on repeat, and they did not get old to me. They were a treat, and now when I hear them, they are vaguely familiar, and I still like them 5,6, or even 7 years later.

My suggestion to you is that if you like a song, don't put it on repeat, and don't put it on a short playlist, playlists should be a medium length, somewhere between 10-20 songs, if you have too many, there will be some that you simply just don't want to hear, and then you will spend half the time skipping songs, and not actually enjoying them. And if they are too short you will hate it soon because it will get old soon.

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Cooking

Believe it or not, I love to cook, I don't find the actual process of cooking extremely exiting, but it is very rewarding once you are done. I am young, still in high school, and have a family that will gobble up all the goodies I make as soon as they come out of the oven, if i make brownies, I have to cut myself a few pieces before they are set up, because my brother and dad will devour them like crack. I end up hiding with a heap of randomness downstairs, but that is still okay with me. It tastes so good who cares if they are perfect. Honestly the best feeling I have is sitting down with some great food, a good show of Netflix or Hulu, and knowing that you don't have any work to do for a while, no worries in the world, it is just a tranquility that I enjoy massively.

This is even better when I am home alone, my little brother is a great basketball player, so during winter and summer he and my parents will leave me home alone for a whole weekend, and I have the freedom to do whatever I want. Some might invite tons of people over and have a party, I prefer to stay alone, isolated, and "nerd out" on my favorite shows, but even better than those, all of the food that I cook will last throughout the weekend, I will go out and buy some candy, drinks, and it will all last for more than a couple of hours. It actually concerns me a little bit because I'm exited to be all alone and single in  my own house.

Cooking is not the most exciting thing to me, it’s not extremely entertaining. Its what you do when you are eating the food that entertains you, the rewards of cooking are delicious. And the more you do it, the better and better it gets.

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Twerps

Brothers, and sisters… Maybe you don't have any and simply don't know what its like to have one. Well personally I think that life would be better if I didn't have any siblings. I myself have both a brother and a sister, and I am not withing that they were dead, i just think that I would enjoy not having a brother and a sister. I know how it can be possibly be good to have them around, and how irritating it is most of the time. I see siblings that have great relationships, mostly twins here at Kennedy that get along well and even share the same friends. I wish I had that relationship with my brother, but we are literally opposites, and get along terribly. He is short, stocky, and i am tall and skinny, he has brown hair and eyes, I have blond hair and blue eyes, he has a fat face, and I have a narrow one. Besides these physical differences, we have differences, and tons of different lifestyles and habits, and his really get on my nerves.

The worst thing he does is eat all of the food, the second there is good food in the house, such as chips, ice cream, you name it, name any food a normal human being would like it, its gone in minutes. His personal record is two bags of lays potato chips in 15 minutes. And now that I work, I have even less of an opportunity to eat any food that I like, I have evolved into a monster that now actually enjoys health food primarily because I never have a chance to eat junk food.

Another thing is bathroom time, I am a normal guy, so I don't need much time in the bathroom to prep for school, I just need to take a shower and be on my way, but my sister, well.... is a girl. so naturally she spends up to an hour a day prepping for class, and my brother is almost worst, caking his face with pounds of chemicals, and coating his hair with what seems like chicken fat, to try (and fail) to look good for the ladies.

Now again, I am not wishing that my siblings dropped dead, they bug me, but I still love them. And I am probably selfish for saying I would rather have no siblings, because some people don't have siblings, they they would say "I have always wished to have a little baby brother to play with", to you I would say, a baby brother is only fun to play with until it hits kindergarten, then you life will be a living hell.

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Cedar Rapids, not a complete wasteland

Cedar rapids, there is nothing to do here, and most of the time, I would have to agree. Most people who weren't born here don't have as tight of a connection to the city as those who do. People with family here often love it, as it is a nice city, and they have people who they know and like. People like my family though have found their way here through various means, don't know much about here or the people, and one thing I've noticed is not many people go out of their way to greet or get to know people who aren't from around Iowa. One of the things I feel like would make this city better is if there were more things for people to do with their spare time. I would love to go on bike ride. Around the city I can get place to place with the bike lane, but I mean I want to go somewhere and see something, not just use my bike to travel between work and home. I know lots of people use the bike lanes and I'm not saying they are bad, but what I am getting at is that I have very limited options of where to bike where it is safe. Yes there is a trail or two around here, but one brings you right along the river, which usually smells pungent and gross, and gives you a nice view of mount trash-more. Now I do not intend to be very harsh to the people who like the city just the way it is, I as well like Cedar Rapids, but I feel like there is a lot of room for improvement. One thing that I feel would be really nice here would be a water park, like we almost got not too many years ago. I feel like there would be more than enough people who want one to be able to go there and make use of it, but also I feel like that could be a source for tourism, which there is not much of in Cedar Rapids. Another thing I feel like would be great would be a football team that was in Cedar Rapids, which I don't see happening since everyone here already goes to the Hawkeye games every Saturday they play. Something else I feel like would give people more to do is just to have more off-leash dog parks, because this would be great for new people to the area to be able to meet people who are like themselves (enjoy outdoors/ dogs etc.). The dog park would be best if it was in a centralized location, and have different areas depending on dog size to prevent some of the bigger dogs from hurting the others. Overall, I do think there is a lack of things to do here, and that there could be improvement.
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