Slowwwwlllllyyy

Long ago I talked about a strategy to pass the time while you are doing something that has no entertainment, and that is extremely boring, such as work, and especially school. 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, it is a very effective strategy that everyone should try.

(395)

Streaming Competition

Some people don't even know what Hulu is, Netflix has had control over streaming since it began, and still have it today,and the people who know what Hulu is think it is simply just a bad version of Netflix. I think that Hulu is better than Netflix. It does have ads, but it makes up for it by showing series as they come out on TV.

Hulu has less movies than Netflix, but most people can agree that most movies on netflix aren't that great, it has some, but not even close to all or most of the good movies out there in the world. Most people just watch series, most popular are Parcs and rec, the walking dead, arrow, south parc, supernatural, and others. Hulu has all of these, and they show them the day after they are showed on TV.

The main reason that Hulu is looked down on by people is that it plays ads, and if you think that this makes it worse than Netflix you are super inpatient. Hulu has adds because they have to spend more money to get the shows right when they come out. Which would you rather have, wait 30 seconds for your show to continue, just a couple of times each episode, not nearly as bad as commercials on television. Or would you rather have no 30 second commercials, and have to wait over a year to see the next season of your show.

Most people with brains could agree that it is worth the ads, and that having to wait a year for your show to come out is not worth no commercials. So open your eyes don't let Netflix have the "I phone effect" on you (its an I phone so its the best automatically), don't just assume its the best because its name is more popular. Look through the options, and you will find out that hulu is better than Netflix, and you will want to change.

(330)

How easily can we be entertained?

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. Or if we are actually entertained by staring at a screen and doing nothing. But more than all I wonder if I will look back at the games I play right now and call them just plain silly.

(353)

The Fault in Our Songs

Nowadays 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? 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 very quickly.

(444)

The Matrix is a Computer Generated Dream World Made to Control us...

As time goes by, technology gets more advanced, it gets easier and easier to do what you love, alone, by yourself. 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.

In just this short decade or two kids have become less social, and more introverted, and secluded. What will happen in the next 25 years, will technology become more advanced, will you not have to leave your room for anything, there already are online schools, and plenty of entertainment. what will come next. Or have we reached the peak, and kids are already secluded as possible. Or will we begin to correct ourselves, and become less dependent on technology, and start having more friends, and social interactions. Don’t let the matrix control you.

(566)

Procastination

I am terrible at this, I will tell myself at school, its 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. You will love yourself at 5 O'clock in the morning when you are in a deep sleep

(427)

Love in the movies

Romeo and Juliet, and more recently Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark, literature and movies love to play around with what are known as “star-crossed lovers”. What does that even mean? Star-crossed lovers are basically defined as two people who want to be together, but can’t, because of fate, or family, or disease, or whatever is pushing them apart. We just love them for some odd reason. Why is it?

  I feel like part of the reason people love the idea of star-crossed lovers is because it gives them hope that they can find their “soul mate”, the person that is fated for them. Star-crossed lovers show people this and give them they idea that can find their Romeo or Peeta and Katniss. People think that just because a few unlucky couples couldn't make it that they will be able to. Sure maybe they’re single now or in a relationship that is just “average” and isn't like what they've seen in the movies or TV shows that they love. A lot of girls what love like Romeo and Juliet. A love that would be worth risking what anyone thought about you so that you could have that wonderful movie love. Unfortunately, this does not exist.

 When I first read Romeo and Juliet in ninth grade I thought it was the stupidest thing ever. Why would two teenagers ever think that they could be together forever when they had so much life ahead of them? Now, thinking back to when I read The Fault in Our Stars in seventh grade, I thought Hazel and Augustus’s romance was riveting and perfect and that would have been together forever, even though they were also only teenagers. The difference between Romeo and Juliet and Katniss and Peeta is that they were star-crossed by something that couldn't be controlled, cancer. With Romeo and Juliet you can say that they were stupid and ignorant, but that what love does to people.

(423)

Cedar Rapids,at least we're better than Nebraska

If you are ever talking to somebody about cedar rapids, you will probabaly talk about how 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 to CR if we got some more things that people who were born and raised here as well as people who are new to enjoy.

(518)

The longest minute

In a blog a few weeks ago I talked about a strategy to pass the time while you are doing something that has no entertainment, and that is extremely boring, such as work, and especially school. 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. If you like your job I envy you, but if you don't give this a try, it will make it less painfull.
(410)

The best way to have fun with your friends

Over the years, 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. It is most definitely the most fun thing you can do.
(445)

State Championship

A couple months ago I talked about how the most fun thing you can do is get together with a couple of you friends, and go do something. This Friday night, I would suggest going to watch the Kennedy Cougars take on the Dowling Maroons in the state championship at the UNI Dome in Cedar Falls. Our Cougars have made it to the playoff games almost every year, but we have never in our history won a state championship, this would be the first state championship for our school, and if you go to it, you will be a part of it.

I myself went to the game last Friday night, and it was the best Kennedy game that I've ever been to in high school. It was insanity, I am usually not bothered by sophomores and freshmen sneaking up in the student section in front of me. But it was actually really nice to not have to worry about it because of the green gold color coding, besides that, Kennedy has gone undefeated this year, and everyone is extremely pumped to see them win, It just makes that game more enjoyable to watch when the title of undefeated was at steak, and whoever loss would lose the title. 

Now, it is the same situation, but it should be an even more difficult game for the cougars, there are rumors of how great of a football team Dowling has, I myself have heard three specific rumors. That their student section is absolutely massive, and that it has destroyed everyone in noise so far this year, I have heard that their linemen are massive, and they have been compared to the line men of a small college. And I have also heard that they have people that care so much about football, that some people live an hour or more drive away from the school, and go there just for football. 

A lot of people are scared, and are saying that we will just get stomped, but I myself and just exited to watch an excellent game, and watch the Cougars as they win their first state championship. I hope wee can get as many people into the Dome as possible to support our team, and to outshine Dowlings student section. Just remember that if you are going, drive safe. We are supposed to have a lot of snow on Friday, and there will be a lot of teenage drivers, be cautious. And Roll Cougs.

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What POV is better?

I likes to sit back after a long school week, or after a rough Monday night, and watch a football game. 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.
(402)

Spotify vs. Pandora

Pandora a few years ago defiantly dominated the online music industry. It was the first online music website and app that got huge. And people loved it, me included. You could simply put in an author or a genre and it would generate a playlist just for you. But now there is Spotify, a new music website that is different than Pandora, you can choose your own songs individually, and get rid of them as you please. In this comparison, i will only be talking about the free versions.

Spotify is better than Spotify on computer in my opinion because you can choose your songs specifically, you can skip and back up, and skip to any point in the song as you please. You would be  crazy if you thought that Pandora is better than Spotify, but that is only on the computer, what most people listen to is their phone, and Spotify on your phone is different, you can only skip a few, and you cannot skip songs like you can on the computer. You can still select your songs, but it will not pick the songs that you pick, after the first song, it starts playing random songs that you may not even like. 

Pandora is better on the phone in my opinion because it is the same on the website, you can dislike and like song so that the songs you are listening to so that it will only play the songs you like, in my personal opinion, spotify is better for me just because I listen primarily on the computer. But your favorite will almost entirely be dependent on what you listen to, Pandora of Spotify, death metal is horrible.

(302)

The Sunday struggle

Procrastination, I am terrible at this, I will tell myself at school, its 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. You will love yourself at 5 O'clock, and maybe you won't go bald as soon as J Kline.
(421)

Console vs PC

Xbox or PlayStation, there has been many discussions on which one is better. They are the same. "But the Xbox's controller is worse than the PlayStation's!" Shush your face, they are the same, just get the one your friend has so you can play together... But 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 $350, while a decent computer, with all of its accessories can range from $500, 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.

I personally like computer because its what my friends play, also, you can play far more games on the PC than on consoles because you can have over 100 key combinations, meaning more commands for in game, when in consoles, there is only a dozen at most. When it comes down to it, its really just how much money are you willing to spend, what games do you like to play, and do you want to play, and what your friends play.
(565)

If you love a song.... let it go

Have you ever loved a song so much that you just want to sit there and do nothing but listen to it on repeat all day? 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 very quickly. If you love a song, just let it go.
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The Delivery Man

The delivery man is the most overlooked man in all of entertainment, I can almost guarantee that most of you don't carry TVs to your own house, carry sofa's into the house by yourself, you need the help of the big, strong, delivery man. His big strong hands can carry things that you could not even carry in your dreams, and sometimes he even brings help with him. He is by far in my opinion the most overlooked, and most important guy in entertainment.

He brings you everything you order. He will just bring it to you, and give it to you personally, sometimes you don't even see him. Even if you order something small like a computer mouse he will bring it. I don't know much about other areas, but our delivery guy watches out for us, he will hide packages in between the pillars in our homes, so that it is not easy to see, and so that somebody doesn't come to steal it. He doesn't get paid for it, he just goes ahead and does it because he is a good person, not because he has to, but because he wants to. And that is what separates good people from great people.

Now on the internet you can order something from across the country, or across the world. Imagine traveling all of the way to Tennessee to grab your package, then drive it all the way back, or even to Europe to get it. These delivery men spend long and hard days, and nights to get you the package. I have seen some people invite delivery men into their homes to thank them personally, and I think that it needs to be a more common thing. Delivery men should be more appreciated, and more people should invite them into their homes, and thank them personally. It give you that small town feeling that I feel is missing in the modern community.

Next time you see your local delivery man, I encourage you to talk to him, and personally thank him for his services, he works long and hard days to deliver the package, he brings you your entertainment, sometimes its big, sometimes its small, but each time it fill you with joy, and you need to repay him, it doesn't have to be money, just make him feel good.
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Hulu Vs Netflix

Netflix almost had a monopoly on streaming, and chilling. Some people don't even know what Hulu is, and the people who know what Hulu is think it is simply just a bad version of Netflix. I think that Hulu is better than Netflix. It does have ads, but it makes up for it by showing series as they come out on TV.

Hulu has less movies than Netflix, but most people can agree that most movies on netflix aren't that great, it has some, but not even close to all or most of the good movies out there in the world. Most people just watch series, most popular are Parcs and rec, the walking dead, arrow, south parc, supernatural, and others. Hulu has all of these, and they show them the day after they are showed on TV.

The main reason that Hulu is looked down on by people is that it plays ads, and if you think that this makes it worse than Netflix you are super inpatient. Hulu has adds because they have to spend more money to get the shows right when they come out. Which would you rather have, wait 30 seconds for your show to continue, just a couple of times each episode, not nearly as bad as commercials on television. Or would you rather have no 30 second commercials, and have to wait over a year to see the next season of your show.

Most people with brains could agree that it is worth the ads, and that having to wait a year for your show to come out is not worth no commercials. So open your eyes don't let Netflix have the "I phone effect" on you (its an I phone so its the best automatically), don't just assume its the best because its name is more popular. Look through the options, and you will find out that hulu is better than Netflix, and you will want to change. Think it over, and choose wisely.
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Passing the Time: Updated

A few weeks ago I gave you some insight on how to pass the time, and I introduced a few strategies that involved simply tricking your mind into thinking that time is flying, or tricking you mind to not think about time at all. But now, I have experienced a all new entertainment low in my work life, and school life, and I have derived from it a brand new, revolutionary idea. You will never be bored, work and school will be far less painful, and you will be happier, and more energetic because of it.
The idea I am about to share with you is.... make friends.

I am not saying that you don't have friends, everyone has at least a few friends, somebody that they can hang out with, vent to, or simply get along with. But if those friends aren't in your everyday life, if you are bored alone, the boredom intensifies. Having somebody to entertain you can help a lot. Think about the people who hate school the most, is it the popular kids, is it the kids that have their friends in every class... no. Its the kids who don't reach out to anyone, its those of you who are too shy to talk to people, to get to know people, and to have fun with other people.

If you simply reach out and talk to people, you will like to be by them in class, you will want to work with them in class, and if you want an A in that class, you will just work with Tyler Dennis. But if you are talking to people, if you have friends in your class, you will look forward to that class, gym class is fun, but sometimes I hate it because its with people I don't know. Fun classes can be made bad if you are with the wrong people, but boring classes can be fun if you reach out and make friends with people, make school better for yourself, and make some friends.
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Smart Lunch, what should I do?

Last year Mr. Kline, the relatively new principle of our fine school, introduced a new lunch system that sounded great, and ended up even better. It was called smart lunch, smart lunch is a 1.5 hour lunch that can be used to great effect to get school work done, and make up work without having to stay after school, or go in before school. Or it can just be an extra long lunch. Either way, the love for smart lunch is almost unanimous.

I myself love smart lunch, I would like to think that I use smart lunch to great use. Even though I can leave, and I only live a few minutes drive away from school, I often resist the temptation to go home and entertain myself, I instead decide to stay at school and bore myself, and starve myself, and do as much work as I can, for an hour and a half. For 5th and 6th hour, this is awful. I am hungry, and angry. I wish I went out with my friends, had some fun, and were entertained during smart lunch. But I decided to do work, its a terrible feeling. 

But after school is over, and you get home, and you have an amazing feeling that trumps the bad feeling that you had for the past 2 hours. You get the feeling of accomplishment, you lose something that you would almost always have if we did not have smart lunch, homework! 

I cannot force myself to stay and work through both tutorials and do work every day, but I do it about twice a week, and it really helps me finish my school work. I suggest that you that you use your smart lunch wisely, and that you don't leave every day. You don't have to do homework every day by any means, but you should not leave every day, or stay in the lunch room every day for both tutorials, if you put in some time to work on your work in smart lunch, you will be much more happy at night, and your life at Kennedy will be far less stressful.

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Siblings

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to not have a brother or sister? maybe you don't 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. And I'm also not just pointlessly ranting, I have many friends with little siblings, and they can relate to me with my struggles, I just want to write something that people can look at and think "Yeah! mine do that to" and tell them that they aren't alone, and that my siblings are just as bad as they are.

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Goodies

Cooking is not something I do constantly, and 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 exiting thing to me, its not extremely entertaining. Its what you do when you are eating the food that entertains you, the rewards of cooking are delicious.

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Random phone games

What do you do when you are bored? 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. Or if we are actually entertained by staring at a screen and doing nothing. But more than all I wonder if I will look back at the games I play right now and call them stupid and pointless.

The Great Outdoors, Why?

Camping, backpacking, canoeing, kayaking. Hard work, long days, sore muscles, pointless roaming. If those are the words that you associate with camping, backpacking, and others, then you have never done them. When you try and look at it from a logical standpoint its pointless, we can just look at google images if we want to see beautiful views. Why go outside if you can simply stay inside with air conditioning, be entertained, and be productive. Why go miles away to go and walk in a big loop, when you could be at home living in luxury. But camping isn't about any of those, its about enjoying nature, actually seeing it with your own eyes, its about the time your are spending with the other person or persons, and even a little bit a feeling of simplicity, and leaving behind all modern anxieties, and just worry about the basic essentials, like food and water.

When you are in nature it's not like a picture on google images, you can actually feel the wind , and temperature, and humidity, and the sounds around you. When you are at an overlook it is like looking at a beautiful picture, but it is a whole new scenario, you are at the edge of a cliff, you can look over the edge, see the steep drop. you can use more senses than you can on google images, instead of only seeing with your eyes, you are seeing with your ears, eyes, nose, and the feeling. You have that feeling of fresh air, and the sense of accomplishment after hiking miles or paddling for miles to get to that one beautiful view that will be the highlight of your trip.

Its also about the interactions you are having with the people you are traveling with. Throughout a backpacking or canoeing trip you will get much closer with the person of persons you are going with. When you set down for camp you do everything together, go get water, eat, entertain yourselves with cards, and other simple games. Throughout the trip, as you get closer, working together may even be second nature, you will have great coordination with them, if there is a strong current one way in a river you are canoeing in, no words even will have to be exchanges, you will both just do your job, knowing what the other will do, because you have spent so much time with each other.

Lastly, the most important and overlooked, doing these things are massive stress relievers, you don't have to worry about that massive packet you have to do in math, or the 3 blogs you still haven't started this week, or any other work you may have. Its just you and the world, and it gives you this pure, simplistic feeling that is second to none.

With your friends: Prank Wars

Entertainment has progressed a lot over the years, 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. It is most definitely the most fun thing you can do, and it leaves you with amazing memories, that will last a long time.
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Tick Tock

In my last blog I talked about a strategy to pass the time while you are doing something that has no entertainment, and that is extremely boring, such as work, and especially school. 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, it is a very effective strategy that I would recommend to anyone.
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How to make the time go by

As your life goes on, and as the world progresses, you find better entertainment more suited to what you like. And I think that that can increase your boredom when you are not doing those things that you love to do. When you are at work, at school, or simply can do what you really love doing, you get bored, more bored than you could possibly get when you were little, and more bored than people could have gotten thirty years ago. When i get bored, I really get desperate, and I try and find ways to pass the time. And using just my watch, or purposely not using my watch, I have found some helpful ways to pass the time.

The first way to try and pass time, may be the hardest, it requires a lot of discipline, but it is probably the most effective way. Simply do everything in your power to not look at the clock, or at your watch. At first when you do this 10 minutes pass, and it feels like an hour, but that is because you are doing it wrong. The point of not looking at the clock is that you will forget about the time. If you are constantly thinking about the time, or if you even look once every fifteen minutes, you will just make it even worse. When this does work, you completely forget to care about what time it is, and a class that is an hour long, will feel like a breeze. This is a very effective strategy to pass the time, but if not done correctly it can also be punishing, because if you are mentally making an effort to do this you will be thinking about the time for at least a couple of minutes, and those couple of minutes feel like longer than it actually is, and if you give into the pressure, you will have to start over, and after you do that a couple of times, it has only been ten minutes, when it felt like it was thirty minutes.

So if you are willing to try, enter at your own risk, if you fail this, it will be terrible for you, an hour will feel like days, and you will never, ever want to try this again. But you just have to give it a try, it is the very best way in my opinion of entertaining yourself, when you have no entertainment available, and if it works for you, you will absolutely love it and try it every single, school, or work day.
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Seclusion

As technology gets more advanced, it gets easier and easier to do what you love, alone, by yourself. 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.

In just this short decade or two kids have become less social, and more introverted, and secluded. What will happen in the next 25 years, will technology become more advanced, will you not have to leave your room for anything, there already are online schools, and plenty of entertainment. what will come next. Or have we reached the peak, and kids are already secluded as possible. Or will we begin to correct ourselves, and become less dependent on technology, and start having more friends, and social interactions.
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Watching Vs. Playing

Everyone likes to sit back after a long work week, or after a rough Monday night, and watch a football game. 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.
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Whats The Best?

Entertainment has progressed rapidly, and has become very, well... entertaining. But what is the most entertaining thing to do on our new gadgets. I think that the most fun thing that you can do is hop online with your friends and play some video games. Before you keep reading, do know, that i am a big nerd.

Many think that television and Netflix is the most entertaining past time, but i disagree. I think that Video games are the most entertaining because they are interactive. Movies you just sit there and everything happens, and you cringe because the characters are doing the stupidest things possible. In the game, you are in control, it is your own virtual reality.

Some think the point of entertainment, and relaxing is to sit down and not have to stress themselves with decisions, and aggravations, and stress that video games have the potential to create. But those decisions, the things that make you angry in the game, and the stress that you go through doing whatever it is you have to do to progress, that is what makes it so much more better. The best memories you have in life are when you overcome those challenges, and get the feeling of completeness. When you sit down and watch something you don't remember it as fondly as you would the game. That just puts video games over the top, and what makes them the best kind of entertainment.

Playing with your friends is even better, when you play with your friends it feels like you are accomplishing things together. You go in on whatever game, work together, and accomplish things, you have to work together, and when you go through a struggle and win, you get the rush of excitement that is nearly unmatched. Video games are simply better than movies and TV shows because you get the sense of accomplishment at the end that is amazing. Maybe that is why some people are considered "addicts" to games.
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Entertainment slows us down?

Most people would agree that sitting in front of a screen is not the best way to spent you time, so why do we always want to do it instead of something productive. Deep down we know that the best thing to be doing is not to be entertaining yourself, but we do it anyways, usually because the most productive thing to do is to work on or at something, any everyone dreads working. I think that as entertainment gets better, it makes not doing anything far easier. 

I think that one thing that entertainment has provoked is the what i would call the "I deserve it effect", where you get home from school or from work and you think to yourself "I have been working, and have been exhausting myself for eight hours straight, and i deserve to sit back and relax for a little bit" I along with everyone I know does this. Most people would agree that the best way to do homework is just to get it done and out of your way right when you get home on a Friday night, so you don't have to worry about it for the rest of the weekend. But on a Friday, the "I deserve it" effect is at its strongest. New entertainment technology has made this even worse, because there is almost an infinite amount of things to do on your gadgets, and its easy to loose track of time when on them. For example there have been times when i get home, i like to have an after school snack, and watch an episode of Netflix. But sometimes, ill watch one more because i feel especially wiped out, and before i know it, its 8 O'clock, and i lost my whole entire night, and have done nothing productive.

Another thing that has been provoked by entertainment technology is procrastination. The reason I and many others end up doing homework at 10 O'clock on Sunday night every weekend. Procrastination is definitely not a new thing, but it has become so much worse because playing a game or watching something is so tempting, you want to figure what happens in a series, or your friends are wanting you to do something, and you tell yourself, i have the whole weekend to do this. And you keep wasting your time, and keep not getting anything done until it is 10 O'clock on a Sunday night. Technology provokes both of these concepts, and it is slowing us down.
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A less progressive future

Think again into the past, back when there was far less entertainment. They had far less entertainment than us, did this mean that they had less distractions, and more productivity. Think back into the early years of the Americas, and even the British colonies. They did not have near the amount of entertainment that we have today, but they also accomplished a lot more. The inventions and innovations back then were far more useful, new, and unique things, inventors were actually inventing things that were amazing pieces of technology, not to say that today we don't have amazing new technology. But think back on how many new ideas there were, electricity, automobiles, bifocals, the printing press. All of these things were ginormous leaps in technology.

Today, all the new inventions and innovations seem to be linked to mainly entertainment, like new gadgets, phone, gaming systems. Not as important things like the automobile, or electricity. Its all about entertainment now. Are we slowing down progression in actual great discoveries and inventions. Or have we already discovered everything there is in the world, have we harnessed all of the power possible in the universe, I myself don't think so, I just think that everyone is too caught up in making new innovations to their gadgets.

Another way that entertainment may make us less productive is that it is simply just a distraction. People would rather look at their monitor or their screen than go look in nature, of try to do something productive. Think back to when you were a kid, when there was far less technology. I know that I and many of my childhood friends would go and do something not in front of a screen, we would adventure in to the backyard and play in the dirt. dig holes, and get dirty, making discoveries daily.

In the past, when there were less distractions, there were great people who made great inventions, and progression was incredibly fast. Today, many people go to work or school, go home, and sit in front of a screen, not even noticing if it is raining, or lightening, because they are too distracted by it, and it is irrelevant to them. it gets worse with every generation. I went into a restaurant about a week ago and saw a kid crying, and his parents just gave him their iPad, and the child stopped, technology is being used like a pacifier for children, and now a days children are developing a addiction to technology before they even enter grade school. That is why technology and current entertainment is slowing us down, and why it is making the world a less productive place.
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The Past

Imagine how boring life must have been back in the past. Today, we have so many gadgets, activities, groups, and assignments to keep us busy. Most everyone in America in today day of age is easily entertained for a whole day or longer by just sitting in a chair, a couch, or lying in a bed with a gadget, its insane to look back at how much time we spend entertained on our devices. There is a feature that scares me sometimes. I play video games, not excessively, but regularly, and there is a feature that tells you how much time you have played that game for, and all of the games that i have played over the years i know that I definitely have spent over 1,000 hours of my life sitting in front of a screen playing those games, that's more than a month! That scares me a little bit.

Think back 200 years ago when there was no modern technology, the most advanced entertainment were books, and most people could not afford a near infinite amount of books like everyone can today. Kids only had each other to occupy themselves, tag, hide and go seek, and any other made up game that they would think of. And adults didn't have the option to sit in front of the TV like they can today. Like was super boring, at least to us now.

But was it really boring to them, we only think that it was boring for them because now we have better options for entertainment, they didn't know what they were missing out on, think of the entertainment possibilities 200 years from now, maybe they will be looking back on us and thinking "how do they even survive, how did they not die of boredom", as time progresses forward so does technology, and so does entertainment. No matter how new and exiting entertainment seems now. There will be better entertainment to outshine today's.

So back 200 years ago, was it easier get bored, were they even bored. Or did they not consider themselves as bored because they just didn't experience quality entertainment?
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